Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot

The thumbnail for "**Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot**" (Sx26), featuring Grog Strongjaw, Vax'ildan, Pike Trickfoot, Scanlan Shorthalt and Vex'ahlia.

### Episode

Specials,​ Episode 26
(C1E115e)

### Game system

Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition

"**Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot**" (Sx26) is the twenty-sixth special episode of *Critical Role*. Grog plays a game of 'Bunions and Flagons' with Percy, Scanlan, Vax, and Vex.

## **Synopsis**

### **Announcements**

* All BM mistakes are the fault of Grog, announces Travis.
* Team up with Thor for prizes in Marvel PuzzleQuest! Download for free on Apple Store, Google Play, Amazon, or Steam. Sam imitates Grog as he reads the ad copy that Pike Trickfoot transcribed from Grog.
* **Merch Alert!** Vox Machina dice from the previous week and a scarf with "How do you want to do this?" emblazoned on it.
* Matthew and Marisha will attend Pax Unplugged in Philadelphia. Festival begins on Friday, November 17, 2017. Travis and Laura will attend Australian festival Supanova during that time. Some will attend BlizzCon. As such, "Gather Your Party" will be replaced by "Tales from the Loop".
* Next week, Marisha will DM a game of Honey Heist, where all characters are bears.
* Join the cast on Thursday, December 14th at the regular Thursday time slot for the upcoming "Talks Machina: Campaign Wrap-up", discussing the entire first campaign.
* Laura joined the cast of The Last of Us Part II.

### **Part I**

(Partial)

Grog assembles confused friends Vex, Vax, Scanlan, and Percy around a Bunions & Flagons table located in Scanlan's Magnificent Mansion and describes what the game is.

The session begins in a nearly deserted tavern in the wee hours of the morning. Pike has had too much to drink and vomits over everything and everyone, enraging a patron enough that a few jabs before dissipating. Grog pays for a room and chucks Pike in it. The party fetches a second round from the cellar and pig sty at the barkeep's request. During the resumed festivities, all five become woozy and fall through the floor.

They awake in a dim cavern that definitely doesn't resemble genitalia. The five and Trinket travel down a corridor and pass through a poison arrow trap. Scanlan is hit three times, including in the rear, and Vax sucks out the poison from it. Once crossed, a spectral form rushes them from behind. Succeeding in the skirmish, the party enters the next room, which certainly doesn't resemble a secondary sex characteristic.

### **Break**

* Marvel PuzzleQuest: team up with Thor and compete for prizes in lightning-rounds.
* Game Engine: Blizzard Some-Access Tour! Brandy Camel, the Associate Community Manager of Diablo, and company tour what's new in Diablo with us.
* Learn how to play Mountains of Madness, a Lovecraftian board game, from IELLOW Games with host Becca Scott.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Vox Machina**

* ~~Keyleth~~ (absent; mentioned only)
* Percival de Rolo
* Scanlan Shorthalt
* Grog Strongjaw (DM-controlled)
* Pike Trickfoot (DM-controlled)
* Trinket
* Vax'ildan
* Vex'ahlia

### **New**

* Bobaline, barkeep of the unnamed tavern
* Timothy, son of Bobaline

## **Quotations**

* Travis: (*Takes long drink from flagon*) Ahh! We're fucking doing this.
* Grog: Hey, hey. Look, I know we've got a night to ourselves. I was wondering if maybe we could all like play a game I heard about...right, so I was in the tavern the other day, right? And I heard about this game, uh, I think it's called: 'Bunions and Flagons', right? And you all are going to play little, itty-bitty, versions of yourselves. And all you have to do is use your imaginations. I'm going to tell you a story and then, like, you contribute, tell me what you want to do, and I'll draw out little maps and we'll go on an adventure.
* Grog: Pike gets up and she's like...(*drunken slurring*) you guys, I---I love being...your friends
(*Laura, Liam, Sam, and Taliesin burst into laughter*)
Taliesin: Too real
Liam: Dimensional distortion there for a second
* Grog: Make a perception check
Vex: Okay...erm, a 31
Grog: You don't see anything, unfortunately. It's just unforuntate.
(*Sam, Liam, and Taliesin roar with laughter. Laura is not amused*)
Vex: Grog, Grog! 31 is higher than 15! 31's really high. It's high!
Grog: (*Pause*) Right, so you see, uh, her geneology going back like, uh, four generations. You see...
Vex: Do you even know what geneology is?
Grog: Yeah, it's like, you know, a blue denim.
* Grog: In this game, if you notice something, call it out to each other. Because what one person sees, the other...some of you might not see. And just cause you know it at the table, doesn't mean you know it in your minds.
Vex: Wow, this game's so smart.
Vax: You made that, you just made that up.
Grog: No, that's how this goes, I promise.
Vax: Where did you learn this game?
Grog: I was in a tavern and this long-haired guy was just playing a game at a table and I thought it was fuckin' great. I watched for a while, like hours. I was hooked. I might go back next week and watch.
* Vax: But, you said that there were no points, and you got points?
Grog: No, no, they're not points. They're XP.
Scanlan: What does that stand for Grog?
Grog: Xylophone Players
(*Sam bursts into laughter*)
Percy: 300 Xylophone Players. My God, you could retire on that. In fact, you can retire quite well on that.
* Vex: Trinket what happened?!
Grog: (*doing a Trinket impression*) Well, I had the worst stomachache. Oh, I don't know...I ate that meatball from Scanlan and then I fuckin' died...
(*The cast laughs*)
...I don't want to make any assumptions, but...
(*The cast and crew of Critical Role burst out laughing*)

## **Trivia**

* The idea for Grog to run a one-shot seemed to be invented on the spot in "*Talks Machina* #7: 'Thordak'" (TMx07), ten months earlier.
* The half-orc and tiefling couple with a baby that the party meets early in their adventure is an early reference to Fjord and Jester, and to Travis and Laura's then-unborn baby. Laura's pregnancy wasn't publicly announced until a few months later.

## **References**

1. ↑ See "*Talks Machina* #7: 'Thordak'" (TMx07) at 1:10:10.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Fan art of Vox Machina playing Bunions and Flagons, by Hugo Cardenas (source). Used with permission.