Fans of Critical Role, the series of Dungeons and Dragons livestreams hosted by famed voice actor Matthew Mercer that serve as the basis for which The Legend of Vox Machina is based, will also not need to wonder at all about which direction the story will go, as the very last scene of the very last episode showed four dragons descending on the city of Emon. Fans of Critical Role will recognize these dragons as the Chroma Conclave, a quartet (formerly quintet) of ancient, powerful dragons that seek to, what else, take over the world.
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While there is little confusion as to what the future for The Legend of Vox Machina holds, there is some speculation as to how exactly this familiar story will unfold. Having been adapted from a Dungeons and Dragons game that had already been going on for quite some time before the first officially aired episode of Critical Role, the original story of Vox Machina began in medias res with the group already being established adventurers with an impressive track record, as continuing their current Dungeons and Dragons campaign was easier than starting a brand new one. Not only that, but for a period of time before the Briarwood story arc (which was adapted into the first season of The Legend of Vox Machina), the cast of Critical Role was host to an eighth character, Tiberius Stormwind, played by Orion Acaba before he was eventually kicked from the game for many, many reasons.
With all of this in mind, naturally, many changes were made to the animated series to establish the adventuring party Vox Machina as a newer group of adventurers that no one had ever heard of as well as give the story a proper beginning as opposed to starting in medias res like the original streams. It is these changes that have given rise to speculation about how the upcoming story of the Chroma Conclave could be adapted.
Same Quests, Different Order
In the original story of Vox Machina, as told in Critical Role, after the Chroma Conclave attacked Emon, and after Vox Machina had finished licking their wounds, helping survivors, and relocating their base of operations to Whitestone, the adventuring party decided that what they needed was information regarding how to defeat such ancient and powerful dragons as well as allies to help fight them. To acquire this information, the party traveled to Vasselheim, an ancient holy city across the seas, where Vox Machina met with some old contacts in order to get help, information, and direction. In the original campaign, Vasselheim and all the people residing within had already been established prior to the attack by the Chroma Conclave, so for Vox Machina, it was a simple matter of going there and talking to them. In the animated series, however, Vasselheim has never been mentioned, and Vox Machina, as a newly established adventuring party, has never been there, which means that to get the plot-critical information and help needed to fight the Chroma Conclave, they will need to go there.
While in the short term, this may seem like retreading old quests, in the long run going to Vasselheim will set up many important locations and characters for the rest of the story, as Vasselheim itself plays a crucial role in the quest that marks the end of Vox Machina’s story. It will also give the show a chance to show off some of Critical Role’s guest player characters, such as Zahra Hydris and Kashaw Vesh (voiced and played by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Will Friedle, respectively), as well as plot-critical NPC characters like Earthbreaker Groon. All of them play crucial roles in Vox Machina’s story. This is to say nothing of the character Keyleth’s aramente, one of the stops near Vasselheim, and provides some insight into the Chroma Conclave quest.
Multi-Season Main Quest
Fans of Critical Role all knew when they first saw the Chroma Conclave at the end of episode twelve that it would take more than one season to defeat them all, as killing each of them were epic quests in and of themselves. With the necessary trip to Vasselheim to acquire information and meet future allies, it is sadly unlikely that fans will get to see Vox Machina fight one of these dragons in season two.
However, the good news is that once Vasselheim is out of the way and everything there has been established, the rest of the story can proceed without a hitch. After a certain point in Vox Machina’s story, there will be little need to change anything from the original Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and most Critical Role fans will know that point as when Vox Machina sets themselves fully to stopping the Chroma Conclave and starts hunting for the vestiges of divergence, powerful, in some cases godly artifacts that have the power to defeat the ancient dragons. After that happens, there will be little need to speculate where The Legend of Vox Machina could possibly go, as the story is already neatly outlined in Critical Role, and it will be smooth sailing from there. At least until bandits attack, and everyone needs to roll for initiative.
