The Ending Of The Legend Of Vox Machina Season 1 Explained
The "Dungeons & Dragons" live-play group "Critical Role" brings a rowdy band of heroes from the character sheets to the screen in "The Legend of Vox Machina." The animated series gives shape and color to the dungeons, dragons, stories, and characters that previously existed only in the imaginations of a group of nerdy voice actors and their thousands of viewers on Twitch. It will be a truly epic tale, but when we first meet the adventuring party known as Vox Machina, they're little more than a group of drunken mercenaries who barely trust each other.
The ranger and rogue twins, Vex'ahlia (Laura Bailey) and Vax'ildan (Liam O'Brien), are hesitant to let anyone else in, while goliath barbarian Grog Strongjaw (Travis Willingham) simply wants to stick his ax in as many people as he can. Half-elf druid Keyleth (Marisha Ray) has yet to grow into her nature powers, gnome cleric Pike Trickfoot (Ashley Johnson) is wavering in her faith, and gnome bard Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegel) is just trying to have a good time.
Then there's Percy. He thinks of himself as prim and proper, but Percival de Rolo (Taliesin Jaffe) loses his cool when he shares a dinner table with the couple who killed his whole family, the vampire Sylas (Matthew Mercer) and necromancer Delilah (Grey Griffin) Briarwood. Thus begins a quest for vengeance — with a side of revolution — that becomes crucial to saving the world. It all comes to a final battle beneath Percy's home, Whitestone, where Sylas is burnt to a crisp and Delilah tries a last-ditch effort to complete her terrifying, god-summoning ritual.
Delilah fails to summon The Whispered One
Although it gets dicey there, with an acid trap, betrayal, and mind control, Vox Machina defeats both Sylas and Delilah in a fight that becomes about far more than just revenge. The whole world of Exandria is in peril because of Delilah's spooky ritual: Ever since she received help from The Whispered One in turning the terminally ill Sylas into a vampire, she's been working to unleash the dark god on Exandria. Our heroes don't know it now, but The Whispered One is an evil lich god capable of untold horrors, who goes by the name Vecna in Dungeons & Dragons.
So, it's a good thing Percy's thirst for revenge leads Vox Machina to Whitestone because their attack forces Delilah to begin the ritual too early. Her summoning fails, creating only a spinning black orb of danger and antimagic. However, after the Briarwoods' plot is foiled, there are a few loose threads left hanging: Grog picks up Sylas' blood-eating sword named Craven Edge, Dr. Anna Ripley (Kelly Hu) escapes, and that mysterious black orb absorbs a person. Rest assured, these will all come back into play in future seasons if "The Legend of Vox Machina" continues to follow the original campaign of "Critical Role."
Percy overcomes his inner demon
The true final battle of Season 1 is not with the Briarwoods but is between Percy and himself — or, rather, the demon that's been possessing him this whole time. Meet Orthax: The smokey, birdlike demon who helped Percy create Exandria's first gun in his quest for a weapon powerful enough to kill the Briarwoods. Unknowingly, Percy made a deal with Orthax and in exchange, Orthax has been claiming the souls of everyone Percy kills. Hence, Percy's freaky exclamation of "your soul is forfeit," when he shot the carriage driver back in Episode 3.
Percy's inner demon has been manifesting since then as smoke billowing out of him and a pair of orange eyes, but it's only become more of an issue as he crosses names off his list. In the last few episodes of the season, Percy is fighting the demon for control: Fueled by rage and pain, he can barely hold it back when it wants him to shoot his sister Cassandra (Esme Creed-Miles) and Vex. However, it becomes clear that if Percy lets himself be consumed by his lust for vengeance and kills every person whose name is inscribed on the barrel of his gun, he'll forfeit his own soul to the demon.
So Vox Machina buys him time, keeping Delilah away from him while Orthax messes with Percy's mind, showing him images of his dead family and the villains who murdered them. Once Percy lets go of his burning desire for vengeance, shooting himself (in the hand) rather than Delilah, he wins against Orthax. All that's left to do is chuck the cursed gun in the vat of acid. Percy then leaves Cassandra in charge of rebuilding the city, intending to work on himself before getting involved in governing.
The Chroma Conclave has arrived
Warning: Contains potential spoilers for Season 2
After defeating the horrors of Whitestone, Vox Machina enjoys a brief respite back home in Emon. They're settling into their keep, repairing the damage, and building replacement guns when they get a summons to attend a big announcement in the Cloudtop District: Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II (Khary Payton) is ditching the monarchy rule of Tal'Dorei in favor of governing via a council. Any average day in Emon, that would be the biggest news, but then we see four dragons approach from the distance.
These are no friendly dragons. They're The Chroma Conclave, an alliance between five Chromatic dragons, made up of one of each color in "Dungeons & Dragons" — red, black, green, white, and blue. As long as "The Legend of Vox Machina" continues to follow the original campaign, they're the new foes that Vox Machina has to face off against. Only, our newly bonded heroes will have little chance of defeating them right now.
Vox Machina doesn't know it at this point, but they met — and killed — a member of the Conclave earlier: The blue dragon, Brimscythe, who was masquerading around as General Krieg (David Tennant). When they investigate his house and lair in Episode 2, there are several hints to the Conclave, including a rug depicting the five dragons and gemstones in which Keyleth sees a dragon eye. They barely made it out of his lair alive, so defeating four dragons will be no easy task, but that's a problem for "The Legend of Vox Machina" Season 2.