The Raven Queen's interest in Vax'ildan of Vox Machina began rather suddenly.

As the guardian over fate, she had long detested those who abandoned their natural deaths. More recently, the Raven Queen found her gaze drawn to a vampire and the necromancer who had been foolish enough to marry him.

Lord and Lady Briarwood were some of the most defiant abominations she had witnessed in the past few centuries. When Sylas had died naturally, as he was intended, his wife had brought him back with the assistance of Vecna.

Vecna. A much worse corruption of everything that the Raven Queen stood for than the Briarwoods, but not someone that she particularly wanted to go to war against at this moment.

So the goddess watched the pair from a distance, searching for an opportunity to remove them from the earth. She observed their takeover of Whitestone and their foul defilement of the temple beneath. As the Raven Queen watched, she pondered how she might eliminate the couple before they spat on her domain any further. Unfortunately, her followers were currently few in number, and none of them had the capacity to kill the powerful Lord and Lady Briarwood.

Despite her present inability to destroy the couple, the Raven Queen continued to watch them. This persistent observation would prove more useful than she had anticipated.
On one particularly dull day, the Raven Queen watched as Lord and Lady Briarwood attended a dinner with some rather important people before retiring to their room for the night. Just as she began to shift her gaze elsewhere, both the goddess and the couple were surprised when a newcomer entered the bedroom.

The young half-elf appeared equally stunned by the Briarwoods' presence, if his hastily-constructed and remarkably unbelievable lies were anything to go by. The lord and lady were amused and began toying with him, as they were wont to do. The Raven Queen started to lose interest; she had witnessed the couple enjoying this type of game before, and it always ended with her guiding the victim's soul to the other side. Unfortunately, all of the Briarwoods' escapades often ended with someone dead before their time—just another way that they defiled her dominion.

But the half-elf didn't die.

He remained conscious longer than the Raven Queen had anticipated, stalling with some increasingly poor lies before making a run for it. When the half-elf fell unconscious, she assumed that it was over, only to be surprised by the arrival of his friends, a group of remarkably impressive warriors.

Although a large portion of the young man's survival could be credited to his eclectic companions, the Raven Queen couldn't help but be intrigued. She had never witnessed a single person escape the clutches of Lord and Lady Briarwood after being so completely cornered.

After that incident, the Raven Queen's gaze shifted. Although she still kept an eye on the Briarwoods, her attention was more focused on the reckless half-elf. Was he simply lucky, or was he something far more interesting?

As the next several weeks progressed, the Raven Queen's interest increased dramatically. Yet another near-death experience—evaded. Yet another encounter with the Briarwoods—survived. Curiosity overcame her doubt, and the goddess finally sought out the young half-elf's golden line of fate to see if he was as unique as she suspected. And sure enough…

Fate-touched.

The Raven Queen gently ran her fingers down the glowing golden string that was much more flexible and durable than the others. As the keeper of fate, it wasn't often that she was surprised, but this moment proved to be the exception. The perfect person to help her fight against the forces that sought to pervert her domain had fallen right into her lap.

The question, now, was how to bring him into her service. Like other fate-touched people before him, the half-elf had more than one divine being interested in him. The Raven Queen sensed the gentle glow of Sarenrae on him already, and knew that the goddess of second chances would probably be her largest competitor.

The trick here was to find the right opportunity, and the Raven Queen was very patient…