Vex notices she has the letter and starts reading it herself
at 2:27:44. I’m not considering it part of this scene explicitly, but it’s
insightful to Vex’s character to watch her face as she reads it. Her happy
smile becoming crestfallen when she realizes what it is, and then wavering
between deep concern and a sad smile. Until the end where she tries to put her
smile back on and push her feelings away (2:29:57).
Credit to ToKe86 on Reddit for transcribing the letter
itself. https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/5588no/spoilers_e69_transcript_of_a_letter/
If you like this transcript, please consider donating to Critical Role Transcripts, @CRTranscript, to help them provide
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Transcript method notes: http://otdderamin.tumblr.com/post/153539301510/a-note-on-my-transcription-method
Scenes
1. Vex finds the letter – 1:10:13 to 1:11:06
https://youtu.be/YLcRhm8UP8g?t=4211
2. The letter is opened, read, and discussed – 2:32:53 to
2:39:42
https://youtu.be/YLcRhm8UP8g?t=9173
3. Vax stacks trays on Pike – 2:38:47 to 2:41:25
https://youtu.be/YLcRhm8UP8g?t=9527
4. The Vex sneaks into Percy’s room – 2:41:25 to 2:43:18
https://youtu.be/YLcRhm8UP8g?t=9685
5. Unbroken copy of the letter
1. Vex finds the letter
1:10:13
Laura: “Can I reach forward and look in Percy’s
coat for that whitestone, that condensed whitestone that he caries?”
Matt: “Sure. Go ahead and make an investigation
check.”
Keyleth: “Hey, Vex, will you look for that raven
skull I gave him while you’re at it?”
Vex: “Sure.”
Laura: “25.”
Matt: “25. You start rummaging through his coat,
and you find his gun, retort, you find a bunch of random bullet casings and
bullets, you find a cluster of papers and notes that are folded up in a small
book, and what appears to be a partially sealed letter with no name on it.”
Laura: “Nothing else?”
Matt: “You eventually find some of the
whitestone glass, the green glass that you guys has flashed around in
Ank’Harel.
1:11:06
2. Percy’s Death Letter
2:32:53
Marisha: “I was looking anxiously over at Vex.
And she was-”
Vex, trying to sound chipper but with undertones of
anxiety: “Oh this?”
Keyleth, looking curious and concerned: “Yes.
What’s that?”
Vex: “Oh, it was, um,” she pauses and
quietly laughs nervously
Vax cocks his head to the side curiously, reading
Vex’s nervous tone and manner.
Vex, her tone turning wry: “Well, I suppose I’m
a horrible person, so you might as well be, too”
Vax’s body language changes to surprise.
Grog: “What? You read it?”
Vex: “This?”
Grog: “Yep.”
Vex, guiltily and nervously: “Mmhm.”
Vax, arms crossed, in and interrogating tone:
“What is it?”
Vex: “It’s a letter. It’s a goodbye letter from
Percy to us.”
Vax looks very startled by this. Keyleth is more
subtly alarmed. Scanlan looks over rather knowingly.
Taliesin: “You’re terrible people.”
Grog: “A what?”
Vex: “Umm…”
Vax reaches over and wrenches the letter out of her
hands, looking very serious and sad, and hastily pulls it out of the envelope.
Keyleth moves over to join him.
Vex: “I-” laughs nervously again. “I
feel like it’s a bit of an invasion. I probably shouldn’t have just done that.
[Chatter 2:33:26 to 2:33:39]
2:22:35 Vax and Keyleth start reading the letter
themselves. Keyleth’s face quickly shows the same crestfallen look Vex’s did.
Vax is hard to read from the angle.
Grog: “Are we all reading it, or just you two
pricks?”
Vex: “If you want to.”
Matt: “Just read it out loud at that
point.”
Sam: “Yeah, I mean, I’m the only one, I
mean-”
Taliesin: “Only those of you who don’t care
about my privacy.”
Liam: “Taliesin, would you like this to be in
your voice?”
Taliesin: “No! It was never supposed to be in my
voice.”
[Vax becomes increasingly more serious and then sad as
he reads. Keyleth sadly looks at Vax, or the letter, as he reads. Scanlan looks
down in contemplation, unusually downcast. Vex looks lost in her own sad
thoughts. Grog looks thoughtful at first, but his body language becomes
increasingly nervous, and suggest he disagrees with Percy’s morbidness.]
2:33:52 Vax, reading:
“My friends,
“I have just taken an audience with the Raven Queen who
has snuffed any hope of my redemption, for which I am truly grateful. With new
clarity, I can finally see my life as a series of compounding, poor
choices.” Vax winces. “There was nothing I could’ve done to save my
family, yet I still sold my soul in search of vengeance. Later I allowed Ripley
to leave, knowing full well she was a greater threat to the world than the
Briarwoods would ever be. I traded the world’s safety for the belief that I
could murder my way to peace; that if I could be a greater horror, it would
bring my family back. And once this lie was shattered I scrambled to find a
solution, to make a deal, to undo my mistakes and balance the scales. I now
understand that there are no scales, there is no redemption, and no ledger that
judges me good or evil. I am free to simply be myself and live with the
terrible mistakes I’ve made.
2:34:54 “Tomorrow I start upon a new path beyond
the gods and demons who have tormented me, and it’s your friendship that makes
this possible. Though a shadow lingers, the need for vengeance is gone. I will
try and do my best for you all. I will strive to buy the future more time, free
of my legacy. I will stand against the children of my madness in hope, rather
than in anger.” Vax’s body language deflates. “And if you are reading
this, then my travels on this path have come to an end.” Vax’s voice
nearly breaks with grief.
2:35:27 “Scanlan,” Scanlan looks up,
startled, hearing his name, “thank you for destroying my gun. Do not let
the weight of life’s consequences crush your bravado, it is your greatest
weapon.” Scanlan smiles wishfully at the words. Then hangs his head
looking even sadder.
2:35:36 “Grog,”
Grog: “Yes?”
Vax, reading: “remember that your compassion has
brought you this far, not just strength. For the record, I would’ve wiped the
floor with you that time.” Grog is startles by the last statement, then
glares off.
2:35:49 “Vax, you often remind me of myself and
yes, I know that is a bit of an insult. Stop indulging your desire to
sacrifice, and try being the man these two women seem to think you are. They
may actually need you one day.” Vax’s tone manages to turn even grimmer at
the last line, but both Vex and Keyleth smiles at it.
2:36:06 “Vex, you often remind me of myself and
that is the highest of compliments.” Everyone smiles and laughs at the
contrast
Vax, fondly: “Oh, true to form Percival, true to
form.”
Vax, reading: “I hope you free yourself of
whatever voices haunt you. Also since I’m gone, you’re the clever one
now.”
Vax: “Still the cleaver one.”
2:36:25 Vax, reading: “Keyleth, don’t let the
world break you. Learn to forgive it for not living up to your standards.”
Vax, with a broad smile, “We promise to try harder.” Keyleth laughs
and smiles.
Keyleth: “Smartass.”
Vax: “Yeah.”
2:36:34 Vax, reading: “Pike, it is wonderful to
have you home. You bring everyone closer to their best selves, and I can only
imagine what a burden that must be.”
Vax, looking over: “Oh, she’s out.”
Everyone softly laughs.
Vax, reading: “Allow yourself some vice and
failure,”
Vax, with a laugh: “Done and done.” The
laugher grows louder.
Vax, reading as he laughs: “we’ll still love you
just the same.”
Vax: “All true.”
2:36:54 Vax, reading, his tone sobering: “As to
what must be done, I’d be content to be left in a ditch, my weapons and notes
burnt and broken.”
Vax, shaking his head, with an irritated tone:
“Fucker.”
Vax, reading: “But I imagine that would upset
Cass. If you can, take me home. If you can’t, I understand. She knows where to
find the rest of my instructions. Times being what they are, burn my work or
bring it home in the hopes of aiding in the defense of Whitestone. I leave this
judgment in your capable hands. Please find Ripley before she does too many
terrible things, and erase my legacy wherever you find it. That silence would
be the greatest eulogy I could ever hope for.”
Vax: shifting the letter with concerned exasperation:
“Oh dear.”
Vax, reading, with a heavy sigh:
“With eternal gratitude,
“Percival of Vox Machina”
Vax leans on the table, woefully holds his head in
his hand. Then stares at the letter for a while.
2:37:39 Grog, who’s been fidgeting for a while:
“I’m gonna kick his fuckin’ ass.”
Scanlan, quietly: “Why?”
Grog: “He-”
Keyleth: “He was anticipating-”
Scanlan: “He didn’t mention you, did he?”
Grog, flustered: “Yeah he did! Yeah. He said he
could’ve wiped the floor with me.”
Scanlan: “Well, I’m sure it was a joke,
friend.”
Keyleth moves back to her seat away from Vax.
Vax: “Yeah, that’s a very highbrow kind of
humor. It’s hilarious, I promise, it’s hilarious.”
Grog: “Eyebrow?”
Vex: “Really, really funny.”
Keyleth, quietly laughing: “Was it a joke?”
Vax: “Yeah. It means stuffy. Boring, boring.
Boring humor.”
Ashley: “Am I still out? I’m still out.”
Matt: “You’re still out. You’re done for the
night, Pike. Actually, you know what, roll a perception check. With
disadvantage.
Vax folds up the note, softly sighing again and
looking dejected.
Scanlan: “Well, you should not have taken that
note.”
Vex, guiltily, taking the letter from Vax:
“Well, I know. I was searching for something important.”
Ashley: “12.”
Matt: “No. You’re passed out. You don’t hear
anything.”
Vex, toying with the letter: “I just realized I
still had it, is all.”
2:38:38 Grog: “So, do we plan to act like we
didn’t read it, or are you gonna try to slip it back in his pocket without him
noticing?”
Scanlan: “Hmm. That’s a good plan.”
Vex: “What do you guys think?”
Vax: “That’s a good point, that’s a good
point.”
3. Vax stacks trays on Pike
2:38:47 Liam: “I balance a tray on top of Pike’s
prone form, and put some cups on top of it.”
Vex, earnestly: “Should I pretend I didn’t read
it? Should I pretend I didn’t take it?”
Grog: “Was it sealed or anything?”
Scanlan: “Slip it back in.”
Vex: “No, it’s just folded.”
Grog: “Yeah! Try an’ sneak it in.”
Vex: “Alright.”
Vax: “Yeah.”
Liam: “I put a tray on top of the cups, on top
of the first tray.” Vex laughs.
2:39:08 Keyleth, seriously: “But now we go
forward, just with the knowledge that we know Percy was anticipating
dying?”
Scanlan, gently: “Well, aren’t we all
anticipating dying?”
Grog, flippantly: “Yeah, kind of.”
Vax: “Yeah, and I mean-”
Vex: “Technically, we should all write these
letters.”
Vax: “I mean,”
Scanlan: “Well, some of us have.” [Only
Pike knows Scanlan has, or was likely the first to.]
Vax: “that’s Percival up and down. There’s
nothing really that surprising in the letter, really.”
Grog: “Don’t know if we all need to write.”
Vex: patting him on the shoulder: “Grog, you can
draw some pictures for us.”
Grog seems intrigued by the idea.
Vax: “MmmHmm.”
Liam: “More cups on top of the second
tray.”
2:39:33 Scanlan: “The fact is, we all might die
at any point.”
Vax, mouths: “Yeah.”
Keyleth, softly and somberly: “No, it’s
true.”
Scanlan: “And it would be terrible. And we
should enjoy every day that we have together.”
Vax: “That’s right.”
2:39:42 Liam: “Third tray.”
Matt: “Yeah, make a dexterity check, Vax.”
Liam: “No problem, 24.”
Matt: “24 – the stack is beautifully balanced.
It’s retaining a little bit.”
Vex: “You better hope she doesn’t move.”
Vax: “No, I just stand and admire my own
work.”
Scanlan: “Grog?”
Travis: “I walk up, and shove Vax into the
trays.”
Matt: “Yeah, as he’s admiring it, you get a sudden
ffwffb! push forward and Kchk! clanking. All of the trays and glasses fall and
hit the ground. You hear the metal and the brass cingcing wuwuwuwubwub wub wub
woob wooob wooob wooooob.”
Laura: “Would it have woken her up?”
Matt: “Pike stirs. You wake up, still trashed,
Pike, and still your lips numb as ever, but you’re back to consciousness now,
hearing all this clattering around you.”
Vax: “Hey!”
Pike: “Gah!”
Vax: “Hey. Did you know I’m-”
Pike, garbled: “I was tryin’t
[indistinguishable]!”
Vax: “What?”
Keyleth: “I was trying to stealth!”
Pike: “Too loud!”
Vax: “You are drunk! You are very drunk.”
Vex: “We should- We should head back to the
castle.”
Vax: “Yeah. Grog, you wanna pick up Pickle, and
let’s go get some sleep?”
Grog, accusingly: “Pike! What did you do to all
these cups and trays!”
Pike, bewildered: “Did I do that?”
Grog, sternly: “Yes.”
Pike: “Oh no!”
Grog: “I’m very disappointed. You should
apologize to the owner.”
Pike: “I’m sorry, I was-”
Matt: “The older woman in the corner who owns
the bar is like, ‘Ah, it’s fine.’”
Travis: “I flip her a gold coin.”
Matt: “She watches it hit the ground.” Matt
nods looking over his should as at the coin rolling, “’Thanks.’”
Grog: “Welcome. Alright! Let’s go home.”
Vex: “Alright.”
Travis: “I pick up Pikey.”
Matt: “Alright. You guys all find your
way-”
Pike, cheerfully slurring: “Welcome!”
4. The Vex sneaks into Percy’s room
2:41:25 Matt: You find your way back to Whitestone
Castle. To your respective rooms.“
Laura: “Oh! No! I sneak into Percy’s room.”
Matt: “Okay. Make a stealth check.”
[Chatter]
Laura: “29.”
2:41:46 Matt: “29. Uh, yeah, no. Percy does not
seem to notice you. He’s just snoring loudly, face down on the-”
Laura: “Aw, he’s face down?”
Matt: “On the still-set bed, just-” He uses
his hand to mimic having his face pressed into the bed and makes snoring
noises. “In the bed itself. The room is dark, but you can still see fine
because you’re half-elven.”
Liam: “Put it in the mail slot.”
Laura: “Can I- I’m not gonna shove in his butt.
Can I try to reach under and get it into the pocket of the coat that I-”
Liam: “Oh, that side.”
Matt: “Yeah, go ahead and make a slight of hand
check.”
Sam: “Sort of reaching around?”
Taliesin: “I love you all. So much.”
Laura: “Slight of hand?”
Matt: “Yeah.”
Laura: “7 + 15 is…”
Matt: “22. Percival, I need you to go ahead and
roll a perception check. With disadvantage.”
Sam, emphatically: “Yes.”
Taliesin: “Full disadvantage, or the new
disadvantage that-”
Sam: “You’re dead! You’re essentially a dead
person!”
Matt: “Both. You are in the sleep of the dead
right now, so you are rolling with disadvantage, and whatever you roll,
-4.”
Taliesin: “-4.”
Marisha: “Oh right, because you died.”
Taliesin: “Eh, that’s a- Perception? Um, that’s
a- 13.”
2:42:53 Matt: “For a couple moments the snoring
kind of,” stuttered snoring, “and you stop, and wait for the
breathing to continue. You find the coat pocket where you found it, gently slip
the letter in with the notes that you found it with, close it, step away…”
Laura: “I tell him,”
2:43:12 Vex: “I’m glad you’re back.”
Laura: “And I leave the room.”
Percy gives a quiet snore in response.
Matt: “Okay. You gently close the door.”
2:43:18
5. Unbroken transcript of the letter:
My friends,
I have just taken an audience with the Raven Queen who has
snuffed any hope of my redemption, for which I am truly grateful. With new
clarity, I can finally see my life as a series of compounding, poor choices.
There was nothing I could’ve done to save my family, yet I still sold my soul
in search of vengeance. Later I allowed Ripley to leave, knowing full well she
was a greater threat to the world than the Briarwoods would ever be. I traded
the world’s safety for the belief that I could murder my way to peace; that if
I could be a greater horror, it would bring my family back. And once this lie
was shattered I scrambled to find a solution, to make a deal, to undo my
mistakes and balance the scales. I now understand that there are no scales,
there is no redemption, and no ledger that judges me good or evil. I am free to
simply be myself and live with the terrible mistakes I’ve made.
Tomorrow I start upon a new path beyond the gods and demons
who have tormented me, and it’s your friendship that makes this possible.
Though a shadow lingers, the need for vengeance is gone. I will try and do my
best for you all. I will strive to buy the future more time, free of my legacy.
I will stand against the children of my madness in hope, rather than in anger.
And if you are reading this, then my travels on this path have come to an end.
Scanlan, thank you for destroying my gun. Do not let the
weight of life’s consequences crush your bravado, it is your greatest weapon.
Grog, remember that your compassion has brought you this
far, not just strength. For the record, I would’ve wiped the floor with you
that time.
Vax, you often remind me of myself and yes, I know that is a
bit of an insult. Stop indulging your desire to sacrifice, and try being the
man these two women seem to think you are. They may actually need you one day.
Vex, you often remind me of myself and that is the highest
of compliments. I hope you free yourself of whatever voices haunt you. Also
since I’m gone, you’re the clever one now.
Keyleth, don’t let the world break you. Learn to forgive it
for not living up to your standards. We promise to try harder.
Pike, it is wonderful to have you home. You bring everyone
closer to their best selves, and I can only imagine what a burden that must be.
Allow yourself some vice and failure, we’ll still love you just the same.
As to what must be done, I’d be content to be left in a
ditch, my weapons and notes burnt and broken. But I imagine that would upset
Cass. If you can, take me home. If you can’t, I understand. She knows where to
find the rest of my instructions. Times being what they are, burn my work or
bring it home in the hopes of aiding in the defense of Whitestone. I leave this
judgment in your capable hands. Please find Ripley before she does too many
terrible things, and erase my legacy wherever you find it. That silence would
be the greatest eulogy I could ever hope for.
With eternal gratitude,
Percival of Vox Machina
Critical Analysis 