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C1 Ep. 34 Eberron Reviewed Seven
416 Plays7 years ago
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We have another Reviewed Episode for all of you! Jeff, Eric, and Philip take a deep dive into the previous arc and breakdown everything that happened. Join us for the inside look into the characters time in Khyber!
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Transcript
Introduction to Eberron Renewed
00:00:09
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is rolled.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hey everybody and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play D&D 5th edition podcast.
Reflection on Last Arc
00:00:33
Speaker
Today we're going to be doing our Eberron Reviewed episode where we look back over the last arc and talk kind of with Eric about what he was thinking as he was leading us through it. Philip is here again for this one to talk to us about his new character, Drakir, and we're recording this
00:00:52
Speaker
after the last episode of the arc has already dropped, and boy, people had opinions on this one, didn't they? And I don't blame them, because I'm still not sure what all happened, and I've listened to it a couple of times now.
Beric's Death and Resurrection Plans
00:01:06
Speaker
But let's just start at the beginning. We began with a dead compatriot. Yeah, Beric is dead, and we are, Saradac and I have decided to give him an honorable burial, even though,
00:01:23
Speaker
I don't know why I decided that we needed to do that. Dex thought that was important other than. Honestly, just keeping the body intact in case Eric and Philip had decided to bring back the life seemed important to have him near us, so I was kind of a contrivance on my part. But, yeah, so.
Drakir's Actions and Motivations
00:01:45
Speaker
I mean, the important thing that happens is is is when Philip's character starts to play along with us, so we get to a cave
00:01:53
Speaker
And then crazy things start happening. Honestly, Phillip, I thought we were never going to catch you. It's actually not the first thing Dracure does. Oh, what am I, what am I? Oh yeah. You're not forgetting anything. Phillip texted me something under the table that never came up in session. I was texting Eric Dracure's actions until you guys were more aware of him. Okay.
00:02:19
Speaker
So the first thing you actually does is go back along your back trail and kill that cleric you guys left behind. Is that why you brought him up several times? Yeah, I was really hoping you guys would figure out that it would find out that that had done. I wanted that to sort of be the. The thing that sort of gave an indication of Drake here's alignment. Sure, but.
00:02:46
Speaker
Well, I think obviously we figured that out anyway. Yeah. His words took care of that. Um, okay. So here, tell us a little bit about, about, I mean, obviously we've, we've gotten to know him pretty well through the show, but I mean, I don't, I don't necessarily, unless they're well versed in what spells go with what class and things like that, the average listener might not know who he is, what he is, things like that. Uh, so, okay. So by the time I built here, Eric had, uh, convinced me.
Character Dynamics and Development
00:03:16
Speaker
to allow Berwick's resurrection quite quickly after Berwick's death. Eric and I went to dinner after Berwick's death and basically talked it out and I agreed to have Berwick come back. I think we were walking across the parking lot and I turned to you and said, I think I have a plan. So and then
00:03:44
Speaker
In the meantime, of course, needed something to play. And so it made sense since we'd introduced a, an NPC who, as it turned out was important, uh, at the last minute. So I decided to take over him. So building trickier was kind of with the assumption of him being temporary. Um, we're obviously not rid of him yet at the point that we stopped. So we'll have to kind of see where that goes. Sure.
00:04:14
Speaker
But so I decided to just build something that I thought would be fun and something that I hadn't gotten to try out. So me and Eric made much of the Unearthed Arcana monster slayer subclass for the ranger and how crazy it was. So I decided to build one of those. I also convinced Eric to let me have the shadow blades, which was something that one of my former characters from another campaign
00:04:44
Speaker
had used for a while and I thought they were very, very thematic for the Umbridge and Drow. And so I convinced Eric to let me have those as an item and then built him that way. He has some extra magic because Drow just gets some spells so Drow can all cast darkness and dancing lights and I took a feat
00:05:09
Speaker
at fourth level with him that was drow high magic that got him some extra spells. That's why he was able to do things like levitate. I was going to say I am because I'm, I'm playing in another campaign. I'm playing a ranger that has gotten to third level and, or we started at third level. He hasn't gotten anything. And yeah, I was like, I can't levitate things. Yeah. So the only, actually all of the ranger spells that I used were other than Hunter's Mark or spent on the Hawk.
00:05:39
Speaker
I wanted a, I wanted a familiar, but I didn't want to beat into it or anything like that. So I just used a combination of animal friendship, beast bond, and beast sense to do all of the things that a familiar can do with a random Hawk. Um, and made up the name Stratos literally on the fly. Nice. Good one. Yeah, it worked.
00:06:08
Speaker
So yeah, he was a ranger, but feeted into some of the specialized drow stuff so that he had some extra spells, and most of the spells that he used in his attempted Necrolarceny. I was going between that and Grand Theft Corpse, Grand Theft Cadaver. There we go. Yeah, I think you made the right choice. Necrolarceny.
00:06:34
Speaker
Those were all drow spells. And so I liked that. I liked the idea of having him have a good deal of shadowy magic just to cause the ranger doesn't get a lot of that. You can flavor some of the ranger stuff to be shadowy, but it's not innately, but the drow stuff is.
Combat Encounters and Strategies
00:06:52
Speaker
And as far as the supposed designing who he was, I just, I went back and read Keith Baker's article on the Umbrigen from a previous dragon magazine back in 3.5.
00:07:02
Speaker
and decided to just build Drakir as a very, very prototypical Umbrigen. And so he was going to tend towards an evil alignment. He was going to think of himself as a predator and everything else, either as allies in a hunt or as prey. And he was going to have a very insularly tribal focus
00:07:29
Speaker
where whatever was useful and beneficial to his tribe, that stuff he's gonna go for and allow anything that's useless to his tribe is unimportant to him. And anything that's dangerous to his tribe, he wants to kill. And he definitely does not suffer fools. We learned that pretty quickly. I mean, very quickly. Yeah, I mean, he's a great character. He's a lot of fun to play off of.
00:07:57
Speaker
I'll say this, I was from the moment, uh, the moment Barrick died, I was telling Eric, do what it takes to convince Philip to bring Barrick back. He's important to, to Dex, but also, I mean, for me, it's really fun to have Dex and Barrick play off each other because they are so different in the way that they think, but have a grudging respect and I think genuine.
00:08:22
Speaker
affinity for each other that it's a lot of fun to play. Yeah. Um, if I could jump in here real quick, um, like Philip was talking about me trying to convince him to let Barrett come back and it was one of those situations where things just kind of worked out. Like if I hadn't rolled on that random table for Drake here to show up as Barrick is walking through the woods.
00:08:47
Speaker
I probably would have wanted Beric to come back, but I wouldn't have been able to, 15 minutes after the session, tell Philip, I have a plan for this. Things just kind of worked out in such a way to where, like, I don't want people to think that if another character dies, I'm going to beg for their resurrection. Like, things worked out to where it could have been an interesting story for Beric to come back, as I hope it was.
00:09:12
Speaker
Based on the reaction it seems like it was but Yeah, it was weird how well things worked out as soon as I gave it a second to think how can we bring barrack back? How many elements were already there and ready to go? So yeah, just just wanted to put that out there Yeah, there was definitely some some kismet I mean with with how terrible the random tables went up to that point having something that would lead into this Show up there at the end was nice
00:09:38
Speaker
because, boy, those random tables sure did Tinkus, right? Right in the doink there for a while. So, yeah, so you're, I mean, Drakir's plan was just to get the sword when he realized the body needed to come with it. He was like, fine, whatever, basically. Yeah. Okay. And, man, I really, I thought he's going to get away with Beric and I don't know what we're going to do because I'm asleep and Theradak keeps missing perception checks and
00:10:04
Speaker
this body is going to float away. Yeah, I was honestly a little concerned about how successful I was being. Well, I intended this to be just an amusing way to introduce the character. For people that don't listen to the knowledge check, Philip, share what you talked about on our Evil Character episode about the legitimate actions that Drakir could have taken in trying to get Barak's body. Yeah, I mean, if I played him
00:10:32
Speaker
as evil as I could have played him, the really logical thing would have just been to cut Dex's throat while he was asleep. That is certainly true. Kill Dex and Sam while they're asleep and then probably sneak up behind Theradak and kill him. I feel like I could have taken Theradak with the element of surprise. Now go listen to the knowledge check to find out why that would have been a horrible thing to do. Yeah.
00:11:02
Speaker
Yeah, obviously that wouldn't have served the story in any way. So I decided to just do the absurd thing and try to steal his body out from under you. No, it was good and it led to, I mean, it was a good first encounter when it finally came to an encounter between your party and Drakir. Like it showed that Drakir had restraint a bit. I mean, cause yeah, he could, when Dex runs up and the shadow blade is at his throat, that could have been
00:11:32
Speaker
Well, I've had enough of this. So that was good. Um, and did you play Drake here knowing the whole time that Eric was his brother? Yes. Okay. I wasn't sure. Eric told me, I suspected as soon as he showed
The Sword and Tribal Redemption
00:11:50
Speaker
up. Uh, but Eric told me straight away that, um, that this was, uh, this was Rick, this was Eric's half brother.
00:12:01
Speaker
Right, I guess I don't mean Philip, I mean Drakir. Like, did Drakir know? Sorry. Yes. Because yeah, as soon as he said there was a drow in the jungle, the last arc, I was like, that's gonna end up being the half-brother, isn't it? Yeah. But so Drakir knew who Beric was. Yes. Because of the sword, I guess. Yeah. Okay, cool. I'm trying to think... We talk, we convince you to let us rest and go with you to try to separate the sword from the body.
00:12:32
Speaker
And then do we go right into the mind flayer? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, we walk a while across a glacier. Yeah. Boring the mind flayer. Boring stuff. Yeah. OK, Eric. How many of the aberrations that you put in front of us in this arc were supposed to kill us? None of them were supposed to kill you. There was the mind flayer and then the beholder.
00:12:58
Speaker
Um, I mean, I just, I'm, I'm still trying to, you all as a party are really hard to figure out what is dangerous without being deadly. Um, because like, obviously the werebore fight went poorly. Um, not from a story perspective, but from a mechanical standpoint, things could have gone better.
00:13:23
Speaker
But yeah, I threw the mind flayer at you guys as kind of a test, because mind flayers aren't super high CR, but the things they can do can be devastating. And when you all just wipe the floor with that, that kind of flipped a switch in my brain of going, okay.
00:13:40
Speaker
I can throw the beholder at them and it will at least be a difficult encounter. You all proved that that's not true. So yeah, I mean it sounds from an outsider when like I say that the beholder is CR 13 and you all are a party of three level five characters. It sounds like I'm trying to kill you.
00:14:03
Speaker
I'm not, I promise. I'm just trying to make you all sweat a little bit in combat. So yeah, all of them had the potential to kill you easily. I mean, going back to...
00:14:18
Speaker
the beholder fight, what I should have done is had the beholder almost exclusively target Dex with his eye rays because Dex had gotten that level of exhaustion so had disadvantage on all ability checks and saving throws. So that would have made it more dangerous instead of disintegrating the bridge trying to disintegrate one of you all. I mean, there were things I could have done to make it a lot worse.
00:14:46
Speaker
But and we'll get into this later on when we talk about the beholder fight, but just Yeah, I'm trying to get things to be dangerous without just throwing a CR 21 ancient dragon at you all and just laughing And then being really sad when you all wipe the floor with it Yeah, we do appreciate that Yeah, I mean we'll get to it again. But with the beholder, it was just the dice went our way. Yeah but uh yeah, so we find this mind flayer and this is another thing where
00:15:16
Speaker
I mean, granted, Jeff doesn't know a lot of, especially aberrations. Like I read up on a lot of Eberron, but I guess surface level, like I had no idea what a mind flayer was. I had no idea what a, what was the other one we met a long time ago, gibbering mother didn't know what that was. So hearing Phillip across the table, just going, Oh no. Or across the interwebs.
00:15:41
Speaker
going, oh, no, oh, no. I was like, oh, what? What's going to happen? Which I guess works because Dex doesn't know these things either. Like Dex had no idea that this was a face hugger that could get inside of his brain and whatever. So. But. But it was a cool fight. It was a good fight. Yeah. No, I mean, I I think that fight was
00:16:08
Speaker
from a flavor standpoint fun and interesting having the the thralls with the metal claws and Dex's brief journey to the astral plane as the mind flayer tried to get away so yeah I thought that was a really fun fight that you all had a very easy time navigating or actually rather Dex had an easy time navigating yeah Strick here and there that got taken out like second round or something like that something like that yeah
00:16:34
Speaker
Well, if I hadn't had that attack of opportunity when he tried to get away and I happened to crit on it, he would have been a whole different story. Yeah. Is that okay? Is that going to come back? The fact that Dex went
00:16:46
Speaker
On a on a plane or cruise for a second there. Is that just a thing? You're not gonna tell me so I don't know why I mean Okay, I will give you enough to say that I would like it to but I don't know how as of right now So it's not some it's not part of the grand plan. So yeah I mean if you would like to you know Make it to where a brief trip to the astral plane gave decks some sort of amazing power maybe flight
00:17:13
Speaker
I don't know. I think you're powerful enough already, Werebear. And then, Philip, you have Drakir do just some gross things to dead bodies. And that's part of that tribalism. Well, the mind flayer, too. Oh, well, yeah. Yeah, well, and I didn't honestly remember this about mind flayers feeding on the brains of dead mind flayers or feeding them to their elder brain.
00:17:43
Speaker
Drakir knows Drakir understands. I don't even know if Drakir knows that. But Drakir understands enough about how the mind flayer is to know that he wants the brain dead. Yeah. He doesn't want the brain recoverable, and he just hates mind flayers, mind flayers. I think, you know, there's there's more dangerous aberrations. I just don't think there's any more any aberration that that seems more overtly evil than the mind flayer and more frightening.
00:18:13
Speaker
just due to the ability to enthrall things. And so cutting its head off, hanging it up as a trophy, that was just a statement as much as anything else, but fixing, cutting the extra claws out of the drow and dragging him off to the side. I was trying to think about how a really, really utilitarianist
00:18:41
Speaker
tribe would deal with the dead. And so I just kind of went with a sort of half measure of leaving it because there's no reasonable time for us to sit here and dig graves. But not leaving it in the form that the mind flayer made it. Right. And also just dealing with the, what's the word I'm looking for?
00:19:12
Speaker
Oh, I mean modification is what he did to the drow, but there's a word for it. The perversion of a drow's body kind of taking care of that just by ripping them out of it. Yeah. Or it did it. Like you said, utilitarian. So yeah, so we take it out and we continue on our journey and we end that episode by, I mean, we go through the storm rings and
00:19:39
Speaker
My poor rolling got me hurt a little bit, but not too bad. And we see a giant dragon shard, right, as we go down into the where the Umbrigen live. We didn't go that far down, right? Like not too terribly far near the surface. Yeah. You're not even properly in what's known as Kyber in
Elodrin and Drakir's Relationship
00:20:02
Speaker
that city. You're still in Eberron, so.
00:20:06
Speaker
And we meet Elodrin? Yes. The lovable Elodrin that everybody thought was very kind and nice. And at the end of the episode when we figure out or Dex, and I assume Theradak figured out, this is Barak's brother, this is Barak's father. Yeah. I think I say figured out, I think it may have been pretty explicitly said out loud by Elodrin, my son. Yeah.
00:20:33
Speaker
But sometimes that's what it takes for me to figure things out. Um, and so that's where we pick up with the next episode and I'm going to let you two talk about the Drake here. Elodrin dynamic. Uh, I want to say something here. I have just the best parents. They're both alive. They're going on 40 years of marriage.
00:21:01
Speaker
They're outstanding and supportive. And I have a wonderful relationship with both of them. None of this is me me projecting anything about my real life in the because I just realized this arc was really heavy in me role playing Eric with Eric playing one of my parents. Yeah. And lots of issues. So anyway.
00:21:30
Speaker
Well, in Philip and I, I kind of talked to Philip about the nature of the relationship being contentious and that
00:21:43
Speaker
The family that Elegrin had in the Umbridge culture was more out of duty, whereas Barrick was a creation of love and during Elegrin's time outside of that culture and outside of those expectations. And I really wanted that to come across in their relationship that
00:22:10
Speaker
he, Elodrin loves Drakir, but it offers no evidence of that. Yeah. Um, well, and it's like, I, I don't go, you talk for a bit, Phillip. I kind of imagined that Elodrin's disappearance onto the surface is, uh, a fair with a, an outsider and
00:22:40
Speaker
all of this, just his disappearance from his tribe for so long, was in some manner a mark of shame on him. And that that was probably something that Drakir has been dealing with for his entire life. I think also it was pretty obvious, considering, I mean, I tried to imagine what it would be like, because you talked to me about
00:23:10
Speaker
him having this likeness of Yorick on his work desk. I tried to imagine what that would do to a kid growing up with dad has this picture of this other woman on his, on his workspace. Um, and so it struck me that it was probably kind of a somewhat messed up childhood as far as his relationship to his dad. And so,
00:23:39
Speaker
Trachere was going to be, at some point, Trachere made the decision to be just as Umbrigen as anyone could possibly be, and prove himself to be better than his father, who's a dick. Easy. Now I have to use the bleep button on you, Philip. Come on, you're better than that.
00:24:05
Speaker
No, because Philip and I talked about like, Drow aging process and things like that because I had always envisioned it as being, Elodrin didn't go off and he had this family back in the umbraging culture and he was hooking up with a woman on the side and started a family elsewhere. It was that Jerkir is actually younger than Beric.
00:24:32
Speaker
Um, by maybe a year or two. Um, but that the, the family that he started was post the Yurik stuff. Um, and it's just a situation where Eldrin, once he got word of Yurik's death,
00:24:53
Speaker
it devastated him and that's when he really became wholly engrossed in the work that he was doing when you all came upon him and found this goblin that was well versed in the plains and that could assist him so brought this goblin in to help and that's where the the distance came from and I think the way that Eligin tried to show his love for J'Kyr in a very
00:25:22
Speaker
bad way was by by Drake here perceiving it as holding him back requesting that he be working directly for Eladrin not fighting aberrations going on these missions to just collect supplies for this spell that further feeds into the fact that your
00:25:45
Speaker
Drakir's not only having to see a picture of the woman that his father clearly loves more than his mother, but also working on a spell engineered towards that life. Not the umbrage in life, but his life outside of that culture. And so, I think, I mean, I wanted to play Elodrin as pretty tragic, like this guy that
00:26:14
Speaker
just doesn't know how to process anything going on around him is a stranger in his homeland. His children or his child hates him. His wife probably hates him. And he is wholly devoted to his work because it represents something in his past that actually brought him a certain level of joy. So. So how much of Drake here here's motivation
00:26:44
Speaker
with a lot of this was actually jealousy toward Eric. Or was it just, it was, it really pure, just neutral, get the job done. We need to sort stuff. I think I don't think it's specific. I mean, there's probably something of that. I think you would have to have something of that subconsciously. Um, I don't think it's consciously I'm going to, I'm going to prove to dad that I'm the better son. Uh, because while I think, I mean,
00:27:15
Speaker
I think on some primal level, all sons want their father's approvals. I think that's inescapable. And so certainly, Drakir would experience that just like anyone else. But I think it's much more, here is this weapon. I've been hearing about this great weapon. This was the thing that pulled my father away. This is the thing that I
00:27:39
Speaker
that supposedly the thing he went to find, but he didn't come back with it. So one of the only reasons that Umbrageen come to the surface is to look for weapons to aid them in their battle to save their people from the Delkir. And so this is the weapon that Eladrin found and abandoned on the surface. And so finding the sword and taking the sword to fight
00:28:09
Speaker
the aberrations with and save his people with is kind of a way to undo the, the, the shame of his father. Cool. I mean, that's good stuff. Um, so, so we start that second episode with, um, I mean, essentially we told you and what happened to Barrick.
Beholder Encounter and Party Dynamics
00:28:38
Speaker
And then it rolls right into him saying, I think there's something we can do about this basically, right? I mean, there is definitely some, yeah, there's some trickier Elodrin back and forth. Your son was weak and Dex just starts to see the whole time. Um, but so we're told, get a dragon shard, go, go deeper, get a dragon shard and bring it back. And there's something I think I can do to bring Beric back. Yeah.
00:29:07
Speaker
And that's where we meet the boulder. Yes. And that was another situation where you said something about one big eye and Philip goes, oh, no. I was like, what now? I mean, it's the thing on the cover of The Monster Man. Yeah. Oh, is it OK? Yeah, it's it's the for those for those of you that aren't gigantic nerds and don't know your meta D&D history.
00:29:33
Speaker
The beholder is like the one creature that is holy Dungeons and Dragons. Like everything else is pulled from fantasy, sci-fi, horror, just various different. They're inspired by different things, whereas the beholder was just out of the brain of Gary Gygax. And so this is like the definitive D&D monster. Maybe the owl bear? Maybe. I'll have you all fight one of those next time.
00:30:01
Speaker
aware out there. Jesus. No, I just I realized when I was looking through aberrations because I knew that I was going to push you all to go deeper into Kyber.
00:30:16
Speaker
I realized when I came across a beholder that I had never run a session with a beholder as the enemy. And I've never fought a beholder. So that's something I wanted to check off my bucket list. So I did it. And it was not as satisfying as I hoped it would be. I mean, it really was a matter of the dice going our way because I think we mentioned in an episode only one of us
00:30:45
Speaker
actually took a hit from the role holder and it was me and it was for half of my hit points. Yeah, he hit you real good. Yeah, nearly half. I think I have 49 and he took me for 24 points. It was a rough night for Dex. Yeah. So it really was, I mean we just got lucky and lucky and lucky. But we did end up killing, and of course because it was a monster played by Eric, he was very smug.
00:31:14
Speaker
I'm sure they are
00:31:32
Speaker
The spoilers for the next episode that we're going to be talking about, if you really listen to these in thirds and then listen to the episode, please post on the Facebook group and explain your reasons. But the fight didn't go, it wasn't as difficult as it potentially could have been because I was intentionally targeting Theradac.
00:31:55
Speaker
throughout a lot of that fight because Randy had messaged me literally earlier in the day before we recorded these episodes to let me know that he was kind of done with Theradac and he wanted to try something new and
00:32:13
Speaker
I told him, I have an idea. I have a plan. Um, I just, anytime I give you the opportunity to use your Sybaris mark, I need you to do it and to kind of, cause it hadn't been utilized in a while. And the big moments that he did utilize it were in the lost episode. So I wanted to establish in cannon, the mark working as it did to set up the later payoff. So that's why the beholder,
00:32:40
Speaker
Targeted there that quite a few times and it triggered his mark was to set up that moment later on. So sure a little a little bit of me altering the fight to service the story. You also allowed us to cut off I stocks. Yeah, I think also made a difference. I actually thought of that as you were doing that it occurred to me, you know, that would be a really
00:33:06
Speaker
easy way to level down a powerful monster is to allow for that kind of allow for the characters to have a way of disabling some of its more devastating things. Oh, yeah. I don't know if that was what you were thinking when you did that. But it's just what it jumped into my head when I when you allowed there it act to cut off the disintegration I stock.
00:33:27
Speaker
It was Randy, Randy in the moment saying, I want to try to cut off one of the eye stocks and in my head going, OK, we'll just say if they hit it, they can hit the eye stock and we'll give them HP of X. And so if they do that much damage, they cut it off. I'm probably thinking back on it should have had him like roll with disadvantage since he was targeting a smaller portion of the creature.
00:33:55
Speaker
But yeah, I mean that that was a good tactic and I agree with you. That's a good way to To weaken a monster. It honestly ended up not coming up like that. I stock was never rolled again But that was one of the more devastating I stocks the disintegration rate so Yeah, but I enjoyed the beholder fight. I think it was a Good fight to both
00:34:22
Speaker
set up the Theradek stuff, and also we got some good stuff with Dex and Drakir in that fight also, I think. I'm listening to it. I have to say, I'm disappointed in myself as far as the way that I described Drakir in that fight because I don't know what was... I mean, obviously, I got people who live in my house, so I think I must have been distracted or something because I was not at all describing Drakir's actions. It was just roll and hit.
00:34:49
Speaker
I really feel like I really missed the opportunity to describe the very acrobatic way that I imagined Riqueur fighting because of this situation you gave us was one that would have served that well. I don't think it was a good moment for Riqueur, but I'll appreciate the pity comment anyway.
00:35:10
Speaker
And I, I feel the same way. I was given an opportunity to have a cool one liner and I just beefed it. That's true. Uh, so yeah, we fight the beholder, we beat the beholder, but then this thing shows up and this is the thing that I need to hear about. I don't know. Is this Philip, are you familiar with what this bony multiple eye flesh creating monster is?
Delkir's Introduction and Significance
00:35:36
Speaker
only because I know Eric, I think. It's an Eberron thing called Adelkir. They're creatures from the plane of Zorat, which is the realm of madness. And there's a handful of them around Eberron, but they're mostly sealed away in Kyber or else in Zorat. And I don't think I would have known immediately what it was, except that I know Eric loves them.
00:36:08
Speaker
They're Eric's favorite Eberron villain. Yeah, I enjoy him quite a bit. Well, and actually just fun fact about the reason that I had this particular one show up is he's the one that created the beholders. And so it was a nice tie-in thing, having all the eyes after you all just fought this thing.
00:36:29
Speaker
And my favorite thing about Delkir is because Keith Baker at one point talked about them being extremely meta when it comes to being monsters. Because they are from the realm of madness and they
00:36:44
Speaker
break the universe a little bit by being on Eberron. So having them break the fourth wall by knowing the abilities that your characters have and the name of them and stuff like knowing the mechanics of the game that they are in. I didn't want to go that far with it. But the comment of, I feel like this is an arc in a much bigger story and I'm far too much of a challenge for you all. Just things like that. They're a lot of fun to play with.
00:37:13
Speaker
And I took him at his word on that. Yeah, I think I got my first bleep on the podcast when Philip asked me what vulnerabilities and resistances and was like, well, I don't know. I didn't pull up a monster card. You are not going to fight it. So I mean, to cure was not going to fight that given the option. I mean, yeah, to cure is a pragmatist, not a not a hero.
00:37:39
Speaker
But he would definitely have done that so that he could begin thinking, okay.
00:37:44
Speaker
How do I hurt this thing as badly as I can before it kills me? Yeah. Um, and, and that's, I mean, the, the delk here are, I wanted to play up kind of almost a sympathetic ankle angle for them in that they, they invaded Eberron. They, they were the ones that fought the hobgoblins and then the orcs came in and saved the day and sealed off their plane from Eberron.
00:38:15
Speaker
to stop the invasion, but inversely stop their ability to go home. And so I wanted to play up kind of that idea of the aberrations are
00:38:26
Speaker
literally stuck here, whether or not they want to be. They are not an invading force. They're very angry, aggressive refugees kind of thing. Like they're stuck here. And so it's an interesting thing that I wanted to play up because I figured one of you would ask, well, are you going to let us go? So I had that little speech of his in my back pocket.
00:38:50
Speaker
And I used him, I mean, anybody listening to the conversation between him, obviously he was hinting at some bigger stuff going on in the story and I wanted to start establishing some of that fiction. So if you want to go back and re-listen to the Delcure conversation, there's some Easter eggs in there about what's to come. Well, and he did the whole, yeah, you changeling, we'll see you again in those. Come on, guys.
00:39:11
Speaker
Why do all the big bad guys have a hard on for Dex? That's because I knew that Theraduk was going to die at the end of the session and that Philip was playing a temporary character. Well you got me there. But the Lich has been evilion Dex from day one.
00:39:31
Speaker
For it's almost as if there's a reason I know I like to think that it means I'm not gonna have to kill off my character Yeah, I like when you know, he made this creepy flesh bridge which is gross and yeah
00:39:51
Speaker
And then I say, I crossed the bridge like after him like, no, cause it's the way out. Well, it was just like, as soon as I described him turning around and starting to walk away, you were like, I crossed the bridge and I was like, whoa, whoa, you're going like it just the speed with which you said it is what I was concerned about. So.
00:40:08
Speaker
I wanted out. It was a bad place to be. It was bad with bad people. I love the fact that Drakir levitated over the river of lava instead of walking. I spent a second level spell slot to do that. I mean, maybe if Dex gets to fly, he would have done something similar. Okay, so I'm assuming we go back, we give the dragon shard. I'm assuming
00:40:35
Speaker
And this is the episode that just came out and I've only had an opportunity to listen to it once from this point on. So if I make mistakes or if I leave things out, you guys just tell me I'm an idiot or jump in and fix things. Um, don't tell me I'm an idiot. I'm, I'm, I'm fragile. Too late. I would never do that to you, Jeff. You're never critical of what I do on this podcast. So yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll spare your feelings. Thanks. Um, so.
Elodrin's Sacrifice and Resurrection Cost
00:41:05
Speaker
I'm assuming you knew from the beginning that Elodran was going to sacrifice himself to bring Beric back. Like that was just part of the plan of bringing Beric back the whole time. Yeah, and I had just mentioned in passing to Philip once we had established who Jerkir was.
00:41:21
Speaker
really leaving it up to the session and to Phillip, there was the potential there that somebody could have stepped in and taken Elidrin's place if it came across that Elidrin's function to the drow was greater than what it ended up being projected as. And obviously the relationship between him and Drakir went really sour pretty much in the first conversation. So after that conversation, I knew like, okay, Elidrin's definitely dead.
00:41:51
Speaker
The relationship, honestly, I went into that not entirely sure how you were going to play Elodrin, and it was the moment where you said, you're late, boy. I was like, okay, that's how this is going to be. Done.
00:42:08
Speaker
I thought it was narratively satisfying to have a big part of Beric's arc being the questions about his father and the sword and finding his father so he could get these answers and his father being all of those answers that Beric was seeking had to die to bring Beric back to life. I thought that was an interesting narrative thing. So I genuinely considered
00:42:36
Speaker
Making the switch. I mean, in the moment, I couldn't actually leading up to that at the moment. I couldn't think of any way that it would have made any narrative sense for your care to suddenly decide he wanted to be in on this. I would have been shocked if you if I honestly, by the end of the first night of us playing this, I liked your way too much. And I didn't want him to be dead at the end of this session. Yeah. But yeah, I had.
00:43:04
Speaker
kind of come up with the life for a life thing and wanted to establish that kind of fiction because I am a big proponent of resurrection needing to cost something and having it cost a life and the reasoning behind Elodran pouring so much experimentation into this ritual being
00:43:26
Speaker
trying to find a way around that cost, trying to circumvent it, but the situation requiring him to not reach that final step, like, well, this needs to be done, so I'm going to pay that price, because he would never ask anybody else to, so. Except for maybe Booza. Also, when you were talking about the death of a character, on the Knowledge Check, which I guess is some other podcast you guys do,
00:43:56
Speaker
I wouldn't know personally. Yeah. I try not to listen to you. But yeah, you mentioned that like if you're going to bring a character back, there better be a price somewhere. So it turns out
00:44:08
Speaker
The price was a character none of us were particularly invested in? Okay. You know, like I said, from a narrative standpoint, it was an important thing. I like to think it might not have come across that way. Well, no, no, no. I think that it will matter going forward to both Beric and Drakir and that that's what it took.
Character Transitions and New Dynamics
00:44:30
Speaker
I'm sure. Yeah. I guess that would be up to fill up really. But and then that lets shows back up.
00:44:38
Speaker
Yep. Am I missing? Oh, we meet Booyah. Well, you met Booyah when you first got there, but yeah. Yeah, but I conveniently I'd forgotten. I mean, it's no secret that Randy plays Booyah now and we have completed the next arc of the campaign. Booyah is actually a whole lot of fun. Like in this arc, we were talking about this dumb little goblin with a stupid name.
00:45:06
Speaker
He's a fun little character and it's gonna be a lot of fun to play alongside of him. So I'm excited. As soon as the Lich picks up Theradak and you start describing things in a way that makes me think, oh, we're in a cut scene now. That's when the coin dropped with me and I was like, Booyah is Randy's character. Eric would never give a goblin that name. That's a Randy Lauderdale name. That's Randy's character.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah, I thought the name might give it away, at least to Philip. But yeah, it had been a while since we had seen the Lich, you know. And obviously he has an important role to play. And it's just been, this isn't a spoiler or a reveal for you all or the listeners, just go back and listen to the episodes and you'll see.
00:45:58
Speaker
that anytime you all have been around instances of like really intense magic on a fairly large scale, he's shown up. And so I felt like the resurrection spell would be another opportunity for that to occur. So yeah, yeah, no, that totally tracks.
00:46:18
Speaker
And obviously, Randy wanting an out for Theradac, I figured why not have the Lich be the one to do that to continue to build his cache. But I wanted Randy to have a, I wanted Theradac to have a good out. And the nature of his mark just made it too perfect like this,
00:46:42
Speaker
plane of utter darkness opens up and Randy can reflect the opposing type of magic. So it just worked out perfectly. Yeah, it was a really it was a really good moment. And yeah, I would love it if Randy could have been on here or maybe you guys can do a thing where he just kind of explains why he felt like he'd done all he could do with their deck and was ready to move on.
00:47:09
Speaker
I don't want to say I'm glad he did, there deck was a fun character too, but Booyah definitely, I'll say this, from a different standpoint than we typically talk about, I know that I am bad about dominating the air time that we have. I talk as decks a lot, and a lot of times, Barak and decks have conversations, and then we turn and go, there deck? Booyah didn't let that happen, Booyah jumped in. And so I think this is a character that Randy
00:47:38
Speaker
that gives Randy the license to jump in more often. And he's very funny and a very good player. So it's going to work out a lot, not a lot better. It's going to work out very well going forward to have this guy. So it's exciting. Um, well, do you want to briefly switch over to the Eberron reduced that just dropped and Jeff can get insight into that. Yeah. Why don't you guys talk about that? I'm just going to listen. I haven't heard it yet either.
00:48:04
Speaker
Um, can't promise I'll listen to it ever. So I guess you guys can talk about that. So as you all know, the everyone reduced was covering barracks time in the afterlife, um, picking up literally with the, the moment that he wakes up in the afterlife.
Beric's Journey in the Afterlife
00:48:23
Speaker
Um, so I guess Phillip, did you, what expectations did you have? Cause you knew that's what we were recording. Obviously you would know that going into it, but,
00:48:32
Speaker
Like, you know, that's what we're recording, but I knew you had very clearly say that you knew what you were doing. You know what you wanted to do and that it wasn't going to be the sort of thing. It wasn't going to be the sort of thing where we sat and talked it out because we've, so some of the past ever unproduced episodes have been not in my opinion, great radio. They've been useful narratively, but they haven't been great radio. And after I think the second one, Eric and I had a conversation that went something like, you know, it would be smart.
00:49:02
Speaker
if you and I just sort of talked through this conversation that we're about to have between Berwick and Kurt Springer, and that way the listeners don't have to listen to me sitting there thinking about how I'm gonna, about the next question I'm gonna ask, or you sitting there thinking about how Kurt Springer would respond. And then as we got ready for this one, you very clearly said we weren't gonna do that, and we were just gonna go. So I didn't really know. I didn't really know what you were gonna do. I didn't exactly know where I was gonna be. I know that Doeller is the
00:49:32
Speaker
plane of the dead, and theoretically, Berwick should be there, but I wasn't entirely sure. We talked through a number of things about how to bring about Berwick's resurrection in an interesting way, and what Berwick's experienced, and we talked through a couple ideas and rejected them, and then you came up with this, I guess, just between those conversations, and told me later
00:49:58
Speaker
I know you're gonna I'm gonna do just go with it and I trust you so did I had pretty unclear expectations I don't I really didn't expect what you did well so you you surprised me with bringing in the Raven Queen that kind of thing I
00:50:18
Speaker
Yeah, I did not expect you to do what you did. I think something to acknowledge, the reason that Philip and I had so many conversations is twofold because A, followers of the silver flame, their souls are said to join with the flame after they die. And so their soul is no longer this individual entity as part of a larger whole. And then also resurrection magic only works with a willing soul. And so if a soul does not want to be brat,
00:50:46
Speaker
If a soul does not want to be brought back, it will not be brought back. So it was how do we keep Beric from joining with the Silver Flame and how do we make it to where he wants to return? And so obviously... He's willing to return. Yes, yes. Beric was given a choice, to be fair. I know. But anyway, you wake up and you find that Cursebringer has
00:51:14
Speaker
detached himself from you. He is his own entity. Yeah, sort of standing next to me. That was weird. Although I appreciated a voice change. And no longer raspy. Yeah, no longer raspy. And it was probably the most uncertain moment. It was one of the most uncertain moments for me because you just sort of left me. We were just standing there in a forest and
00:51:43
Speaker
go somewhere. Yeah. The best thing. It was fun to get to play Beric the way I got to play him in Dolar because I got to play Beric as just really cheeky. Yeah. As just essentially, I mean, I'm dead. So what can the further consequences of my attitude be at this point? Yeah.
00:52:14
Speaker
So I'm no longer taking it from Kurt Springer. Kurt Springer's best idea for getting back to the world of the living was to go back to Stormreach and find a haunted house that we could maybe cross over through. It was exceedingly scornful of this idea, but it didn't have anything better. So he just kept making fun of the idea while we walked towards Stormreach.
00:52:38
Speaker
But then the creepy demon showed up and I made what is possibly the most sonically displeasing noise I've ever made on a podcast. I can't imagine it gets worse. Really? Yeah, it was a weird like guttural back of my throat growl thing. I was going for the creepy things in the descent, but probably sounded a lot worse than that.
00:53:04
Speaker
So yeah, you all start getting chased by demons. There's a wonderful moment where you try to summon Cursebringer as the sword. That does not work. Cursebringer tries to make some grand statements about his power and cast some magic. That doesn't work and so you all take off running and you all are saved by a knight with a raven helmet covering their face.
00:53:31
Speaker
At which point I knew we were doing the Raven Queen. Well, yeah, duh. I just wanted you to, in fiction, have Beric react to the fact that another person in a bird mask was coming to talk to you. That was really funny, yes. But yet another person shows up in a bird mask, pursuing me into death.
00:53:49
Speaker
And yeah, as soon as you talk to this person, they refer to you by name and then they take off their helmet and it's your mom. So that hit me way harder than I thought it was going to. This episode was a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be going into it. Like I.
00:54:13
Speaker
Um, I, I did not expect what this episode ended up being, which is good. Like I, I enjoyed being kept on my toes to a certain extent, but yeah, you, you bear kind of lost it as soon as mom showed up, rightfully so. But, um, yeah. Uh, yeah, I, I don't know how to talk about this part. Um, yeah, it, it,
00:54:42
Speaker
I have over the years of role-playing, I feel like I have tended to get more genuinely in the mindset of my character when playing most of the time, that I have become more, I don't know, method in my role-playing or something. And so, and I feel like I really understand who Barak is. And so I feel like I really am able to get into his head
00:55:12
Speaker
Um, whereas wild recur is a whole lot of fun to role play. Um, I'm not yet to the point of being able to, to step into him the way I can Eric. Uh, and so, um, I think a lot of what it was is I, I'd really put a lot of thought into the fact that barracks, barracks whole adult life has been studying your external studying this book.
00:55:42
Speaker
in which she wrote and everything you can find about her in an attempt to connect with someone who was due to her experience in the war, either absent for a good deal of his childhood and somewhat of a distant person due to the trauma of the war. And so to suddenly have her just there in front of him really
00:56:12
Speaker
like hit me emotionally more than I thought it would. So.
00:56:18
Speaker
That kind of set the tone for what we were going to do. Yeah. And so she explains that her soul and all of the souls of everybody that's ever been attached to curse bringer and whatever the greater entity that fuels this pact is, all of their souls are bound to dollar and unable to pass on to eternal peace. They are.
00:56:44
Speaker
Stuck here and they found a purpose of defending lost souls from the demons But oh, well
Cleric's Resolution and Beric's Realizations
00:56:54
Speaker
before that happened. Sorry rewind you you see the cleric the the where the wereboard cleric. Yes We do see the wereboard cleric that trick here kills. Oh, he has a happy ending that yeah We get to see him join with the flame, which is a real bummer project for Barrett. Yeah
00:57:11
Speaker
That's why I included it because I didn't want there to be any confusion on Beric or the listeners part that, oh, maybe it'll just take some time for his soul to join. Like that dude was in Dolar for maybe five minutes before he went on and Beric was very upset. Um, at least it seemed that way. Yeah, he was. Um, because I, again, I think up to that point, it hadn't entirely clicked with Beric that he was
00:57:42
Speaker
genuinely cut off from the center of his worldview. Yeah. So yeah, she explains that ancient Draconic has a word for what they are, which is Shaddar-Kai, which was a fun little, that's a race in previous editions of D&D, of the servants of the Raven Queen.
00:58:11
Speaker
but yeah she takes you to meet the Raven Queen and people the Raven well yes the Raven who is Queen of Dolar but just goes by the Raven got a little deconstructionist with it
00:58:27
Speaker
Yeah, people that play D&D and have listened to other actual play podcasts that feature the Raven Queen or watch Critical Role and watch that version of the Raven Queen, I tried to make a pretty different version of the Raven Queen here. A, she's not a sendent. She is not a god. She is just a soul that is stuck like Yurik and now Beric.
00:58:57
Speaker
but also explaining to Beric that the reason that Cursebringer is with him is because he is the... there's nobody that can... Beric has not established a relationship by which Cursebringer can pass on. And she is the only other person in Dolor that was under that same
00:59:19
Speaker
Circumstances when they died and that's what gives her the power to be the queen here. So kind of establishing if barracks days He can be a very powerful entity on this side of death Yeah, I enjoyed that. We got to do this. I as anyone who's listened to the knowledge check will know I really like the Raven Queen as a D&D entity, so it was really fun to see Eric's
00:59:48
Speaker
sort of demi-god version of her. But I think the most interesting thing for me, and the thing that was the most unexpected, was to present her as another Hexblade, as another person with a pact that binds her to this powerful magical weapon. And the information that there are others, that there are others with this pact out there, and that
01:00:15
Speaker
the pacts can be joined together because that's essentially the plan that she proposes is to join their pacts so that Beric can carry them both back into the real world or into the material plane and carry on the fight so as to try and free the souls trapped in Dullar
01:00:40
Speaker
And that was really interesting to me. This is Eric's attempt at listening to both fellow podcaster and listener feedback about Curspringer's voice and thinking of an in-fiction way to make his voice less grating. And I figured if his voice being raspy and on the cusp of death is because of how weak Curspringer has become,
01:01:06
Speaker
And joining him with other packs will restore his vitality and make his voice less. Less like Sal Carrera. Yes. Jeff doesn't get that reference. I know. I just I just enjoy making Star Wars references at this point. It's my way of shaming Jeff. If you think that causes me any shame, you have not spent enough time with me. You don't have to feel the shame to be shamed, I think.
01:01:35
Speaker
I'm shaming you before the nerd community. OK, fine. But yeah, so that was that was a really cool thing that. I think one of the things I was concerned about.
Beric's Mission and Return
01:01:53
Speaker
As we prepared to do, this is the the death of Elodrin really. Kind of shuts off
01:02:04
Speaker
a significant part of Barak's whole motivation in tolerating the way that Cursebringer is, which is often just the worst. And this news that there are more, that there are other Hexblades out there, that there are other packs that can be joined to his in order to empower it and make it ready for whatever the last battle is.
01:02:33
Speaker
something Chris Springer has told you, by the way. You just didn't want to buy into it, I guess. He didn't tell me I could join them. Well, no. He said there were others. He just told me there were others. But he didn't know anything about them. That was the other thing. It was like, there are others, but I have no useful information on that topic for now. Like everything else that I asked him about. The most meta thing that happened in this whole session is I kept
01:03:03
Speaker
trying to get Eric to tell me who the bigger entity was. Yes, you were unsuccessful. So yeah, you, you, you are given the choice to stand older and fight alongside your mom and save lost souls or to go back with the mission of completing whatever this original deal was with the pact.
01:03:32
Speaker
Which I still don't know. Yeah. And upon completion will free all of these souls to reach their final resting place. Barak chooses to return with the Holy Quest. And yeah, the Raven joins, doesn't give her pact over to Barak, but it's a joining kind of thing. And Barak is told that
01:04:02
Speaker
the packs can be the packs are transferable by two willing parties. And yeah, and then though, frankly, Philip really didn't want to have to roleplay it.
01:04:17
Speaker
Uh, it made no sense whatsoever that we go without saying goodbye to Eurek. Yeah. Um, so, so that was, that was sort of the climax of Philip getting way, way more emotional than I, than expected in this more emotional than I think I have gotten in a D and D session. It's, it's intense to listen to. I think like when I was editing it, it was just like, oh my God, like it, it's good, but yeah, I was not expecting that either.
01:04:47
Speaker
I mean, we had to do this scene. It had to be done. There's no way that Barak goes out of dollar and doesn't say goodbye to his mother. And the only way that I know how to make something, if I just do this in my regular old, you know, all right, bye mom. I'm really glad I got to meet you. That's stupid and not good.
01:05:16
Speaker
narrative or good radio or any of these things. So the only way for me to do this was for me to actually try to think about this. In a meta standpoint of what? You know. What do you say to your mom? Knowing you'll never see her again. Yeah, something to that effect is just sure. God. Hmm.
01:05:46
Speaker
Um, but yeah, and then the, the joining of the packs kind of fueled the magic on the Dolar side of things in combination with Eladrin's magic to where Barak's soul returned to his body. It actually occurred to me that there's an interpretation of this event that poor Eladrin is really, really tragic.
01:06:06
Speaker
because it's not actually his ritual that brings Beric back, but rather the raven kicks him out of duller. Yeah. I don't want to go all authorial intent on everyone, but that's not my interpretation. I'll just put it that way. It's not that sad. So that was ever unreduced. Cool.
Audience Feedback and Audio Quality
01:06:27
Speaker
Um, so I will say you've probably noticed a suffering of audio quality over the last arc and then also
01:06:36
Speaker
I'm going to assume, despite our best efforts, this renewed will probably be in a similar vein. We have been having to record remotely away from each other over Skype, but the next arc that I guess will be up in what, two weeks from when you hear this, will we were all- A week from when you hear this. Sorry, a week from when you hear this. Two weeks from when we're recording this. Right.
01:07:01
Speaker
Um, we were all sitting at the table together. Um, the, it will be the audio quality you've come to expect from us, which we've learned is actually a really big deal to a lot of listeners is the fact that we do sound good most of the time. So, uh, just let you know that will be, uh, fixed.
01:07:17
Speaker
Take just a second to thank everybody. Like I said, we've gotten a lot of opinions and a lot of feedback about this arc on the Facebook page, and we love it. We do have some questions from the community, Jeff. Chris asks, are you effing kidding me? Chris, great question. Yeah, no, we're not. David, why is everyone freaking out? I don't know. I really don't, David. But thanks for the questions, guys.
01:07:46
Speaker
If you're listening to this, I'm going to declare the statute of limitations on spoilers over. Please tell us what it was that sparked this because everybody was being super vague on the Facebook group because they don't want to spoil anything for anyone, which is great. Yeah. Thank you for not doing that.
01:08:04
Speaker
but it's now two weeks since that happened. I'm declaring the statute of limitations reached. Please tell us what we did that made you react. Is it coming back? Is it Elidrin's death? Is it Theradac's death? What is it? Because I can't tell you if we're effing kidding you, if I don't know what you think we might be kidding you about. But having just put two Facebook members on blast, I will say that we do love that you guys are involved. Yes, please don't take anything negative out of that.
01:08:35
Speaker
We just want to know what the thing was. Yeah, no, I love it. I was not putting anybody on blast. No, I know. Please continue to get involved with us. Tell us what you like. Tell us what you don't like. I've said before, we are doing this as a podcast because we want to entertain people. We want to make sure that we're doing things that are making you guys happy and that make you guys want to come back and listen. We would do this if there were no listeners because despite Eric's best efforts, we do enjoy doing it.
01:09:11
Speaker
No, we have a blast playing so we do it anyway But we've we've recorded it and put it out there because we want to entertain people with it So let us know what you're liking what you're not liking and whether or not you think we're kidding you Which I assure you I'm not smart enough or good enough at this to try to kid any of you So I'm playing it
01:09:29
Speaker
as straight as I possibly can. Final session. You all are just going to wake up back in this much. I'm thinking the whole time there's actually a real jerk. No. So yeah, keep coming back to the Facebook page. Let us know what you think. We are just the mind boggles that people enjoy this and want to listen to us. You know, Philip and I have actually had conversations about that. Just like people, people look forward to hearing our podcast and it's neat and weird, but awesome.
01:09:59
Speaker
Um, anyway, that's enough of me rambling. Uh, it's late and I'm going to sleep. So thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoy the next arc. We had a lot of time 30 grandpa. It's been a long weekend. Um, no, we hope, we hope you guys enjoy the next arc. Um, we had a lot of fun making it and yeah. So I'm Jeff. I'm Eric. Take a run at that. Who's going first guys. I'll go. All right.
01:10:29
Speaker
So I'm Jeff. I'm Philo. And I'm Eric. Thanks a lot for listening, guys. Bye. Bye. I talked last.