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C2 Ep. 139 Eberron Reviewed 25
351 Plays2 years ago
We take a look back on the past arc and answer your questions.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsors
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by Mark Stanley, Philip Newman, Shelby Johnson, Jerry Thunes, Andy Dossett, Eric Whitman, Edvard Arnoff, Natasha Rallerson, Deavius Poptart, Rebecca Gowman, Elizabeth Clark, David Scrams, Charles Compton, Darryl Delaney, Ryan Royce, Darren Katska, Irene Villarito, and Laura Pickron, as well as all of our generous patrons.
00:00:37
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
Podcast and Host Introductions
00:01:17
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play TTRPG podcast where we play the TTRPGs and it's in shorn and we use Genesis. And that's a lot of that's changing before too long. Here we go. I'm Jeff. I'm Randy. And I'm Eric.
00:01:37
Speaker
And that's it. The local climate decided storm season should start a couple months early. Unfortunately, Phillip is out due to storms. And any of us might be at any moment. I've had consistent rolling thunder for about a half hour. So let's see what happens. Yeah. Same here. But this is, of course, because I won't shut up.
Episode Review and GM Insights
00:01:55
Speaker
Everyone reviewed, which is where we get together and we talk about the last, in this case, four episodes and what went down and what we were feeling. And Eric, of course, provides some wonderful GM insight.
00:02:07
Speaker
So this never gets defensive about his story or anything. Yeah, he certainly he certainly never gets defensive. None of us do. So this arc was mentioned the the term five footer before where we spend a lot of time traveling about five feet. And that's exactly what this was. We start the first episode. The first episode starts with Trevor. And unfortunately, he's not here to talk about his meeting with the Baron or subsequent meeting with his father. But the important things that happened were
00:02:36
Speaker
Essentially, the Baron, who is the matriarch, the head, the big top honcho of Fjord, yes? Yes. Yes. And she told Calvert, stop working with Simon Calvert. And Calvert didn't like that. And so he told Raynard, go kill that lady. Exact quote. Yep. It's the echo. He said, hey, go kill that lady. And Raynard went to his brother and was like, I don't want to. And he was like, maybe you don't have to. And that was the whole scene. Yes.
Recap: Trevor, Baron, and Father
00:03:03
Speaker
OK. Without being specific, that was the job.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, he did keep from Alastair what the job was. That's right. Dad's acting crazy. And then we get together. All four of us reconvene to talk about the four meetings we had just spent the last two episodes having. And I don't know why we ended up at Lucas Yara's house for this. It made no sense other than we didn't think we could go back to the places we always go. And that's a place that we had been before, is the extent of how that makes sense to me. And then we just kind of spilled it. Hobb talked about his meeting with, oh my goodness,
00:03:36
Speaker
Faroo's new, or Faroo's old partner. De Orla. De Orla, thank you. Milo talked about his meeting, Eris talked about hers, and all of the stuff that came with it. And then
00:03:48
Speaker
Just when we thought we knew, based on those three retellings, kind of some things we were gonna do, some stuff we were thinking, some ways to go.
Raynard's Moral Dilemma
00:03:55
Speaker
Raynard's, oh, and also, my dad, he wants me to kill his boss. And Eric ended the episode. Do you guys have any? It was a retelling episode, unfortunately, so there's not a lot of new stuff that, it's over what Trevor can speak to, but if you guys remember anything that we need to talk about, I listened to it today and it really felt like a lot of retelling.
00:04:16
Speaker
I like I would the only thing that surprised me about that whole interaction of this episode was I thought and this might speak to the growth that Trevor has injected into Rainard.
00:04:29
Speaker
I expected there to be a lot more hum and high over the sum of money that Calvary was just willing to throw at you all. I don't know if I really expected like Milo Haben-Aris to hum and ha about it, but I expected there to be more of a pitch, I guess, from Rainard. It's a lot. It's a lot of money. Like it's more money than like most people ever have in a few generations. So unbelievable amount of money. Absolutely.
00:04:56
Speaker
And for somebody who's so cavalier about murderous, ha, but it's not. He's not cavalier, but he's cavalier about righteous. We've all done it. And those righteous murders are the ones he wants to do. I wonder, I wish he was here to speak to it. I wonder if part of that was Trevor just knowing we weren't going to go for it as players or as characters and just being like, look, guys, it's Ting Rand? No? Yeah, I figured. Especially since we all said out of character during that scene, we're like, we're not doing that. That's not happening.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah. Nothing really comes with the Luca Sierra house of it all, except we make some jokes about how a celebrity is waiting on us. Um, cause I didn't expect it. Like I wasn't ready for that to be the solution. So I was like, okay. Yeah. That was not a, that was not a, why didn't you have something for that? No, I know. Cause it was a dumb decision that I said in passing that we did.
00:05:45
Speaker
The next episode is more of the same until we get a message from, I like to think it was Farlin, and that's from
Sigil's Call to Action
00:05:53
Speaker
campaign one. Why is Ulfin with me in names today? Ulfin, saying that Sigil is at the bar and they want our help. And Hob elucidated like the one promise we've ever made is that when Sigil says go, we're gonna go. Oh, you know what? I do wanna go back. I just thought of this. Randy, you didn't really,
00:06:14
Speaker
make much of the fact that Eris, in the episode, Milo didn't make much of the fact that part of Eris's list of demands was since the Boromars obviously aren't going to do it anymore, the state is going to reopen keg bottoms for you. How does that- Yeah, I don't know if I want to say.
00:06:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Sure, then. Be a little cheeky. Milo's got a lot of, yeah, a lot of thoughts going on in his. I guess it doesn't matter. Eric may have an idea of what I'm thinking. Keep your secrets if you want to, but yeah, absolutely. Want to.
00:06:51
Speaker
Milo had a lot going on. Yeah, he had a lot going on. So you're just talking about he didn't really react like, oh wow, the city's, the state's going to rebuild my bar, yeehaw. Yeah, we didn't really react to a lot of it, but I just, I thought, because you had basically just been told you were going to get your bar back and then, hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Milo doesn't think the boar marks are no longer, maybe Milo thinks the boar marks are still going to make good on his bar. I don't know. Or Milo could
Mission to Stop the Engine
00:07:17
Speaker
be thinking,
00:07:19
Speaker
other things. Okay, I do. I don't need Randy to figure out more clever ways to evade things. So we're just gonna move on. But we go to the for sales and we meet with sigil and they tell us it's go time like the thing we kept telling them when they're ready for our help, we'll be there to help them. And they called it up. It was time and
00:07:40
Speaker
what it is that they want us to first they just tell us let's go down to the cogs and you can meet the rest of my friends my crew's revolutionaries no just some just some buddies hanging out yep and you did eric i like that you like you made it clear i saw it as no i may be wrong
00:08:01
Speaker
the when sigil opens the doors and we go in with them and everybody gets I read that as deference to sigil and not weird outsider showing up but maybe I'm wrong was it that was it both was it
Trust Issues Among Crews
00:08:16
Speaker
I feel like I conveyed it with the way Spruce interacted. It was very much primarily a deference to Sigil and the understanding being that I wonder why they would bring these people here, but they must have a good reason for it. So that's why there wasn't a whole lot of leering at you all, but more just a quiet hush falls over the room.
00:08:35
Speaker
Okay, yeah, Spruce definitely, obviously acted with deference later on. Speaking of Spruce, let's just go ahead. So Spruce and Leatherneck and Twig, if you have not listened to campaign one, this is within the first nine or 10 episodes. So I think it's okay if we go ahead and talk a bit about it. Yeah, they're also canonical Eberron characters, like they were written by Keith Baker. Oh, are they? Okay, did I know that. But you used them in the first campaign. I changed their names because at that point I,
00:09:05
Speaker
I still had this I want to be original like kind of thing. So those characters exist in an adventure written by Keith Baker. I just filed the serial numbers off. But yeah, OK. But yeah, go ahead. Yeah, they show up in the second. No, third arc. The teacher, the third. Yes. Yeah. I want to say it's episodes, including reviews like eight, nine and ten. Maybe. Yeah. Or nine, ten and eleven. Anyway, what?
00:09:35
Speaker
Where are we at timeline wise? Or are these, okay, campaign one and campaign two are now connected because of Cassian. Yeah. Yeah. In a multiversal sense. Absolutely. Yeah. But we are in, we have a simplicity of establishing a different universe. Yes. We could be anywhere in the timeline of campaign one.
00:09:57
Speaker
on the like. No, we are definitively because campaign one and campaign two started on the same day because I started both campaigns on the date with which Keith Baker says is the first day of Eberron, essentially. So we are actually second anniversary of the morning. No fourth anniversary anyway. So we're much farther in the timeline.
00:10:20
Speaker
now than when we met Spruce and the crew. Yes. Good for them. I guess this universe didn't have to deal with all that nastiness from campaign one. Which Randy was not around for. I don't know. I assume he did. No, this was pre- That's pre-me. Yep. The pre-Lauterdale era of. This was a different Trevor. Yes. Was a part of that one. We learn, and please, obviously, Randy, jump in whenever you want. Eric, correct me if I'm wrong. The thing that Sigil has been warning us that they believe is going to happen is moving forward.
00:10:50
Speaker
One of the machines, is there a better word? Eldritch engine, I think is the term that I used. The Eldritch engine that powers such a travesty is in the building above where we're hanging out. And the warforged are magically warded off from it. So they want to know if we would go take care of it.
00:11:14
Speaker
I just watched both of you guys look up. A bit of thunder just started rolling over our town. So they asked us to go and get it. And it was like, is that something you guys would be up for? And we're like, yeah, that sounds great. Can we please go do that? That sounds awesome. That sounds so much better than some of the things we've been dealing with. We would love to just steal something from a rich guy. And they have blueprints of the facility, which is great. But outside of that, we can make heads nor tails of what's going on because they've not been able to do any scouting.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yep. We did skip
Comparing Sigil's and Ash's Tactics
00:11:45
Speaker
over. You all did also learn about a rival social club. Yes. Ash and his minions with the cool hair. I know they don't. Well, Ash has the cool hair. Yeah, that's not a couple of them. I thought a couple of them did. Yeah. So Ash is another warforged who is a follower of the Lord of Blades, which is another canon Eberron thing. He lives in the mornland and is trying to start a society of warforged there. That's simplistic. Yes.
00:12:10
Speaker
Yes. And this is just deep cut for the wiki. Ash was my first ever D&D character's name and he was a warforged bard. So that this is my first D&D character inserted into the campaign. So there you go. Oh, we have to kill him, Randy. So you were reading my mind. I put into this once and for all. Dare you all.
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, then we're gonna go to Wisconsin and find that cage you played and kids on bikes and show him the what for. Dozier, something Dozier. Anyway, yeah, so he is an acolyte of the Lord of Blades. And they also want to stop this stuff from happening, but they're just gonna shock and all. Yeah. Cidual would like for us to- They're ready to just roll in. Right. Cidual would like for us to sabotage and learn.
00:12:59
Speaker
and Ash just wants to raise everything, up to and including anyone that's not a warforged, is a part of the heiress took particular umbrage with, and I don't blame her. And we're racing against them, essentially, right? We have to beat them to it. And they may still burn the whole thing to the ground, but if we wanna learn anything, we gotta get there first, basically. And we learned it'd be very easy to burn it to the ground and everyone in it because it only has one entrance and exit. No ocean, no ocean, Eberron. Yeah, Eberron's fire safety is just absolutely jacked.
00:13:28
Speaker
which is wild considering so many of the spells that we see are fire based and only to create water, shave water. We don't know anything. We need to learn more about this facility.
00:13:43
Speaker
And even though we have blueprints, the blueprints are like not the greatest blueprints either. And I am nowhere near the thief that our players are. One time I forgot to check something out at the self checkout and I went back. I'm not the thief that Hob is, but I still think that if you showed me some blueprints and we're like, I need you to steal something from this place, is this enough? I'd be like, it's not enough.
Blueprints and Scouting Needs
00:14:08
Speaker
I know what shape the place is.
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's the thing I tried to to convey is like the these are the blueprints that were submitted to the city planner when the it was being bit like it's the walls and a basic floor plan, but if they've added anything, it's not going to be on this blueprint. Oh, I meant to ask earlier when the okay, so the warding the line that keeps the warforged out at the Gura. In fact, was that a decision of yours to keep
00:14:36
Speaker
any of them from being able to go with us or to keep them from being able to scout it so we'd have to find a new way to learn stuff or both. The condition was always like Sigil and their their friends they want to be a self-sufficient budge they like warforged or trying to make their own way in this world and things like that and so I wanted to come up with a sound justification as to why they would need to reach out to non-warforged
00:15:01
Speaker
to your help and so thinking about it and thinking like I wanted it to be something that wasn't implicitly saying that like you all were more capable than war for it because I wanted it to be a really robust like they have thieves they have people that can do subterfuge as part of this and if they could go 40 of them going would be better than the four of us of course so correct and so I wanted to come up with a justification why they were not able to take care of this problem themselves
00:15:27
Speaker
And Sigil would go, oh, I know some people that can help with this. Unfortunately, we don't have any players playing a warforged. Otherwise, that would ruin all of this. Jill said, I know some people who said they'll help with this. I have no idea if they'll be helpful. These guys are really hit and miss in the efficacy department. Back when Sigil would go do jobs with you all, it was primarily heisting jobs. So Sigil's fairly confident in your all's ability. A little bit shaken after the whole Gallad gig. That first job you all did went off without a hitch. So.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, they should have stopped hanging out with us after the galloping. They did? I appreciate it, kindly. Say what? I said they did. Fair enough. They should have, they would have been right to fully cut ties with us after the galloping. But because we know nothing, and because we can't really figure it out, you give us an option of a lifeline in Aransas, or Posey, as we have come to call her. We fully just cold shouldered that one, ultimately.
00:16:29
Speaker
Do you want to speak on why you said she would be good? Did you want her to be a part of this? Did you? No, we haven't. Here, just for the listener, we are recording the next episodes on Saturdays, the day after you hear this. So, Eric may not want to tell us anything about why he thought our answers would be good because it may be a surprise for the thing. But what you can tell us, or if you want to tell us, please. No, I mean, it was purely like getting into the headspace of Sigil and the information that they have, just thinking back to, okay, last time,
00:16:59
Speaker
we work together to steal something or do something. Aransas was there. She has ties to the house. So she was willing to work with the party before. Probably she could be an asset again. So it was a very surface level superficial. We worked with this person before she is she would have an intimate knowledge of this. So she might be a good resource. But you're all instincts were also totally valid. She was helping in a very specific circumstance that time. And this is not the same. Yeah, like.
00:17:29
Speaker
Verla and us have a contentious but helpful relationship. Well, we keep trying to help her because we don't want her to come after us. I don't know that she's done a ton of helping for us except for the whole not coming after us part and being willing to listen, which is huge. We do not have that with Aransas. We have this one time we hit her with a boat and she does not seem to like us a lot. But what we do decide to do,
00:17:59
Speaker
is reach out to Jerome, Olive's brother, who none of us could remember how we actually knew or when we met. We all got that one wrong, but we did know we'd met him and we knew what he did. And you played that one really fun, Eric. You played a really good, felt very true to like,
00:18:18
Speaker
I don't necessarily like this, but I absolutely cannot. One, jeopardize my job. Sorry, I'm just speaking as Jerome. I realize you got that. Oh, okay. I thought you were saying that you didn't like something as Jeff, my friend. I don't really like that I'm paying you a compliment right now, but... The last thing I wanna do is make you feel good about yourself for a thing that you've done. I know. But the patrons demand it. No, Jerome was kinda like, I don't like this thing they're doing.
00:18:43
Speaker
but I do believe in what Kenneth is doing. I don't trust you guys. I trust Olive's assessment of you.
Crucial Intel from Jerome
00:18:53
Speaker
Anyone my sister would choose to continue to be around can't be as bad as my impression of you is, basically. And the only way we got any really good information out of them was we...
00:19:03
Speaker
finagled it out of a triumph. Like it was really good stuff. And so condescending. That's not true. It wasn't as condescending. I don't feel like he was condescending. He did straight up be like, can't believe I'm talking to criminals, which is factual, but also...
00:19:16
Speaker
don't have to say it. It was it was more of because a lot of times when my NPCs are condescending, it's very hypocritical in that you're you're here alongside us doing this. Whereas with Jerome, it was like his dining room. It was like my sister just brought like a heist team into my home. What is happening? Oh, yeah. No, sure. The thing.
00:19:36
Speaker
Among the things that we learn are, one, there's a lot of these eldritch engines, so destroying this one ain't gonna fix anything. We also learn some things about some of the security, but the big thing is from that triumph, which I'm assuming is a thing you just made up on the fly.
00:19:51
Speaker
I think Phillip, Phillip actually came up with that, like he, there was a slip of the tongue that he was going to- Oh no, sorry, yes. The slip of the tongue thing was Phillip's idea, but what it was, you just go outside like, I don't know, this one spell can unlock something permanently. It was that, which is good, which is helpful because two of the four party members have, know how to do that spell. So.
00:20:12
Speaker
It worked out great. Now we've talked to Jerome and we're ready to, we think we're ready to go on the heist, but before we get to the absolute roadblock that happens next, let's take a moment and talk about this week's sponsors of our episode.
00:20:25
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:23:44
Speaker
And trim your pits, it's great. There we go. Okay, let's talk about what happened next, Randy. We spent a lot of time deciding how we should go invisible, what we should do to be invisible. A certain member of our party who's not here, so I will not give Trevor too hard of a time, but forgot that he has this knife that can just turn him invisible and we wouldn't have had to worry
Invisible Mishap and Mind Flayer Attack
00:24:05
Speaker
about him. Maybe not upgrade the difficulty of Randy's check so many times, but we did do that.
00:24:11
Speaker
I'm not trying to insinuate that this was any fault of Randy's, but Randy, what did you do? I decided to try to make us all invisible. And you know what? I believe it was Eric's fault because he was like, you could make it more realistic, but it's going to have to upgrade the difficulty.
00:24:30
Speaker
hold on so so it's all of these things having to make Trevor invisible Randy doing the more real those add purples don't add reds that just makes it more difficult but a despair is not on the table until a red gets added now yes I'm the one that flipped the story point to add the red but that's not clear nor there
00:24:49
Speaker
So it's no it's exactly here and there is the red in the mix and look what that red got you something you've been rubbing your hands together for who knows how long yes how long since the zodiac reveal have you known that randy's first magic despair was going to lead to a portal rending open i've wrote it in my notes like next magic despair
00:25:13
Speaker
mind flayer comes after Randy and the next note might be the next magic despair another mind knows no yeah did the second that initial because all of this started with a magic despair from Randy Randy rolled a despair and I was like oh
00:25:28
Speaker
during the Corruptor notices Milo using the Zoriat magic done here. Perfect. And so then I was like, yeah, like as soon as another Despair gets rolled, Mind Flayer comes after him. So yeah, long time coming. And it did. And it started to take Crandy away. And you said end of episode. So much for our somewhat well-laid plans of infiltration.
00:25:54
Speaker
So now not only are we not surreptitiously getting into the facility, but we're not doing it for an hour of playtime because we have to fight these jack wagons. Yeah, Milo's kind of beat up at this point. Yeah, so do we really want to go in there now? Ultimately, it ended up with the mind flayer, a couple of minion groups of dole grims and two dole gaunts.
00:26:22
Speaker
after the despair. It was a hard fight. Like, mind flayers are tough and we are not where we were. Not where we were is not a fair way to say it. This level in Genesis did not equip us to fight a mind flayer the way this level in D&D would, is a better way to say that.
Battle Highlights: Protecting the Group
00:26:40
Speaker
I will air my personal grievance.
00:26:43
Speaker
that Hobb did three super cool things in a row. And then Eric just, I'm gonna do this again then. And there was no way I was passing that check twice to be...
00:26:54
Speaker
rooted to the ground. Like there was no chance I was passing that check twice because it was very lucky to pass it once. And I cannot tell you how cool it felt to pass that check, bodyguard Milo, absorb Milo's wounds and not actually show any physical wound manifesting on myself. I was like, this mindflayer is going to be going back to Zoria asking, what was that thing?
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, but that mind flayer immediately went, I need to deal with that thing right now. And so Eric took my phone away for the rest of the game. And you got to take out every minion in the encounter. I don't want to hear it. I feel like I was forced that my hand was just just because you don't appreciate the cool toys you have doesn't mean they're any less cool. Jeff, I very much appreciate the cool toys I have. I was looking forward to using some new ones, but I couldn't move. Milo, please tell me, Milo.
00:27:48
Speaker
Randy, you did some great things during this fight. I really enjoy that Milo's first thing he wants to do in some fights now is just try to scare people away. Just do the scariest thing you can think of to try to scare someone to run off. And it worked. Is that a function of the spell or can you do whatever you want and you just keep having Milo choose to frighten? That just is the, that's in source old.
00:28:15
Speaker
Consortaled Supreme, it just happens. Don't have to roll for it, it just occurs. But is it like in the language of the thing Arrogate uses specifically about frightening or is that? No, it doesn't really have any flavor text. It just says that they once per session, you may use this talent to force all enemies to do this.
00:28:39
Speaker
And I thought, that's boring. So I just flavor it with Milo conjures up, whatever, to just try to scare stuff away. In that case, permit me to ask, why you make Milo so scary all the time? I think if I wouldn't have, how could Eric have come up with the Zoriad idea? That's true. Eric can't come up with anything on his own. Big old dummy, this guy. The only reason I didn't in...
00:29:07
Speaker
set out to intentionally do that. I initially came up with the thought that Milo has acquired these new powers because of a fire and fire their smoke. He gets hit on the head. He retrieves a piece of a stool his wife used to sit on. It's the only memory he has of her, the only
00:29:34
Speaker
thing left of her and then the smoke was the manifestation of the fire. So I did not intentionally set out to make him scary, but it just evolved in that direction. And also, I was trying to play it with Milo doesn't know what his magic is going to do.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah. It wasn't like he's been able to train under somebody and learn how to cast things correctly and make sure you do things right. It's just, I hope this works. What's this going to do? I think this is going to work. And for the most part, it does. But then every now and then. Yeah. Milo is a very effective spellcaster. Like it's just the effects sometimes are. Yes. And now that he has the knowledge that he now knows
00:30:26
Speaker
of where this is coming from. I don't know if it's really come across very well, at least yet, but Milo has tried to pull back on
00:30:39
Speaker
casting things that are more difficult in his mind. He's trying to keep things more simple, but he has not considered the fact that, Hey, he's just thinking in his head, the things that are going to hurt things. He's not thinking, Oh, I'm just going to, I'm helping my allies. I'm going to turn us invisible. Right. So now Milo's really, Oh my gosh. What did I just do now? This is, this, this is not supposed to be hard.
00:31:09
Speaker
And all of a sudden, here comes a nightmare. I don't want to ask this for a future. Like, how is this going to affect Milo's spell casting gung-hoedness? But I think in a couple of reviews, I will definitely be asking to look back and see, hey, Milo, it's just a change in how quickly you cast spells.
00:31:31
Speaker
Um, so Eric, is that thing just the way the fight ends ultimately with Milo hitting a quadruple critical. And I think you roll a one 24 where this mind flayer just could no longer take actions. Yep. So he ran off. Yep.
00:31:50
Speaker
Is the Mind Flayer in Sharn? Is the Mind Flayer gonna stay in Sharn? Is it trying to get back? You gotta tell me this. You gotta tell me this. Did the Mind Flayer take off into Sharn or did the Mind Flayer run down towards the cogs trying to get somewhere? I heard into Sharn as well. That's what I'm thinking. I heard. That's what was said, yes. It took off down the other way of the alley, away from you all and rounded a corner.
00:32:15
Speaker
And yeah, you can't do anything until it gets that critical injury healed. But who's going to who's going to heal mind flayers, critical injury.
00:32:27
Speaker
When a mind flayer walks up and says, I can't possess people until you fix me, the good doctor's gonna be like, check, got it, goodbye. It's gonna go down deep, deep, deep down and find his way home. Just question how much money that mind flayer has on it. He'd go pay for healthcare. Just ain't that the truth. Anything else from the fight that you guys want to address? It was pretty boilerplate.
Mind Flayer's Retreat
00:32:52
Speaker
We did fun things.
00:32:54
Speaker
But by large, it was just we rolled and we succeeded or failed and took some hits and made some hits. And I was OK. These things go a little faster with just three of us.
00:33:05
Speaker
Let's get to questions.
Joining the Community
00:33:08
Speaker
As always, if you have any questions you would like to ask anyone in the cast, you can do so on our Discord, which I'll do the rest of the plugs later. But if you want to find our Discord, easiest way to do it is check our Facebook page, which is Facebook slash the Geek Pantheon, facebook.com slash Geek Pantheon. There's also links in our Twitter, Instagram and TikTok profiles. All of those are slash the Geek Pantheon.
00:33:28
Speaker
So if you wanna get to the Discord, there's how you do it. So let's start with a handful of questions from Laura. They wanna know, Eric, you have said that you have Tasha's desire, fear, strength and flaws written down. What are they? Sounds like a great question for the final review and that doesn't matter anymore.
00:33:50
Speaker
I'll never tell, we'll tell eventually, but not right now. I assume he would rather not, he would be quicker to tell you than he is to tell us, I bet. Okay, so again, this was written about Philip, but it's for everyone. So Philip's talked about not liking how many things are dependent on having specific ability scores in D&D. And I wonder how Genesis compared. That's for anyone to comment on. They've just mostly heard it from Philip. I don't...
00:34:13
Speaker
see a market difference between ability scores and whatever they call them in Genesis, my brawl score is four, brawn score, pardon me is four. And that allows me to do some things and precludes me from doing other things. I don't see a huge difference. I also do not play
00:34:30
Speaker
the depth of my character sheet the way that Philip does in both of these games. I think the biggest thing that I can think of that is truly prohibitive when it comes to your ability scores in D&D is something like multi-classing. If like, for example, Hob being a monk, like that's how you pitched Hob initially.
00:34:48
Speaker
But then you took the Templar talent, which in actuality I think is meant to evoke a Paladin. Like it's that very limited ability to cast divine spells for somebody that that's not their primary focus. In D&D, you'd have to have a certain strength and charisma score in order to be able to do a dip into Paladin to get a little bit of that flavor that you'd like. Whereas in something like Genesis, you don't. You can just take the talent and move on with your day. Yeah. I barely multi-classed. So yeah, that didn't occur to me. That makes a lot of sense.
00:35:17
Speaker
Now, as far as how Genesis compares, go ahead, please, please, please. In terms of the flexibility that Genesis forgy versus the clear definitions that are provided by D&D, I think it's there are certain circumstances where I love the flexibility of Genesis, both as a player and as a GM. And I think it allows for some really cool things. And also with the advantage and threats, triumph, despair, you all being to have such a
00:35:46
Speaker
A strong hand on the wheel of the story is really cool. At the same time, there are a lot of times where I want my bad guys to cast a spell and I can name you what the spell is in D&D. I could tell you what the checks are, all that kind of stuff. And I dang it. I just wish there was a spell that I could. Genesis, it's great how flexible it is that you can build any spell you want. But sometimes you just want a ding, ding, dong spell.
00:36:11
Speaker
that's listed that you can and I know that Randy has found or constructed his own spell list for Milo that just Randy, I don't think you you ever look at like the build your own spells aspect of Genesis. Do you just have your spells you want to cast? Yeah, sure.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah, and you asked us, obviously, it's no secret we're looking at other systems for the next campaign. You asked us what kind of magic system we wanted, and I was like, I want spells to choose from. I'm playing a magic user. My first time to play a magic user. I don't want to have to get creative. I want to have to pick the best option. The road, I may change my mind. Philip and Randy, having played for as long as they do, come up with great spell ideas. I just know my skill set, and it ain't there. But what I will say about Genesis, the crit table makes me want to crap my pants in anger. I'm so over the crit table.
00:36:58
Speaker
Oh, that's all this one just like that. Okay, Eric, Laura wants to know if seeking the answers is a reference to the previously mentioned seeking the teacher arc from campaign one with the same Warforged NPCs appeared in. Yep.
00:37:13
Speaker
There you go. There you go. In campaign three we're going to be in the underbelly of shard seeking the toilet and that'll be a fun one. A lot of times I come up with these arc titles for the show after the fact and so I knew that the warforged were going to be showing up and so that just seemed like a fun callback. The worst, this hasn't happened maybe once in campaign two but it's fairly regular in campaign one that Eric would have to come up with a title before the arc was over
00:37:38
Speaker
And sometimes he would title an arc based on what he was planning and not what we had done. And it always felt very ominous to be like, what do you mean the death below? We've been in Miss March for two episodes. So that's always fun. How much involvement does Esther have in House Fiarlin? Does she have some other job? It just feels weird that she's never around.
00:38:00
Speaker
Yeah, she's just not involved with Vare's sphere of what Calvair handles. Esther is very involved. Furelin is also known for its...
00:38:10
Speaker
entertainment slash spy work that they do outside of thieving and that's where i see ester being a bigger influence is in the managing all of the different performance halls and theaters and those type of facilities that exist in sharn that fierlund runs and has people in that report
00:38:32
Speaker
all of the things they hear people say when they're drunk. So that's what Esther's up to, whereas Calvary is much more of the thieving, stealing, that aspect of Fierling. Okay. Continuing questions from Laura for Eric. Alistair, Basil, Calvair, Drannier, Esther, is this pattern on purpose? Hand to God. The pattern is, those names are alphabetical.
00:38:57
Speaker
No, not at all on purpose. I swear. There you go. That's very funny. But I realized I've been jamming my game now for it'll be a year tomorrow. And the absolute hardest part of being a dungeon master is coming up with NPC names bar none.
00:39:17
Speaker
The hardest part is striking the balance between Dan and Clothnostenmaier, the destroyer. And sometimes you end up with Alistair Basil, Calvary Dranier, and Esther, and there's nothing you can do about it. And I thought back, like, how did that happen? And yeah, it purely was happenstance because we had Reynard. And then I came up with Basil and Alistair. I think I came up with Alistair and Trevor came up with Basil. And they're both just good posh names. Yeah. They may not be actually posh names.
00:39:44
Speaker
And after those names were come up with is when we decided to do the flip around so we didn't even have a D in the mix until we did we reversed Raynard's name into drain year and then Calvary and Esther was a last minute name.
00:40:02
Speaker
because I had written down a name for Raynard's mom. And when it came time to record, I wasn't happy with it. I never was happy with it. I was like, I don't even remember what it was. But it was like, it didn't roll up the tongue. It was a hard name to say. And so I just scratched it out and was like, name Esther. Yep. Esther's her name. Yeah. So
00:40:20
Speaker
It was, it's a mistake slash a fun thing that happened. Speaking of hard things to say, Laura, the next question is for Phillip. You said some of the names you considered for Tasha were rejected because they were too hard to pronounce. What were they? I know Phillip listened to this. So I would like for Phillip to write them in the Discord. And then I want for Laura to come to us at Gamer Nation Con and tell us what they think they sound like, that the names are. And then Phillip can tell them in person what they actually are. And we can all have a good laugh about how difficult these names are.
00:40:50
Speaker
That's what I'm putting out there. And anybody else who's listening who comes to Gamer Nation Con, we'll put that up to Laura. I'll let them decide how public this could be. Anyway, now I'm messing with listeners as much as I am with the host, and that's fun. Laura continues, and I'd like to know this one. What did Faroo say to Drawther that he'll never forget that got Kath so angry? I don't know whether or not I want to say it yet, because Drawther and Kath are still in the show. These are all going concerns.
00:41:20
Speaker
I have a feeling cats is going to become a greater going concern as it goes on, too. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like their story is not done yet. So I'm reluctant to reveal secrets at this point. So mark that down for the grand reviewed. OK. Irene would like to know, will there be a live finale again? And that has on the discord three emojis of that finger pointing up. Yeah. What about it? We haven't had any discussions.
00:41:47
Speaker
in that vein, but I don't see why we couldn't, but just logistically we need to hammer those things out. Recording in person has gotten more difficult again recently.
00:42:02
Speaker
My guess, just put it out there, it really depends on what time of year the finale is. And maybe even if you guys would be willing, you listeners would be willing to wait a couple of weeks for a live finale if that's what it took. Like it wouldn't be. We could always also, compared to the end of campaign one, we all have better online setups now. So we could do it like.
00:42:22
Speaker
online with face cams on all of us and not in person. I know we would rather be in person for the finale, but that's always an option. Absolutely. I don't need everybody seeing my whimsically painted former baby nursery that I record this podcast in. Okay. And our last couple of questions are from Shelby. Okay. Shelby asks a bit of backstory in the Discord we were talking about. This last recording that we did, we were all over our remote recording software and
00:42:48
Speaker
Trevor the whole time was bedazzling an outfit, taking one little diamond rhinestone thing and putting it on the whole time. And we were talking about it in the Discord. So Shelby would like to know, what is Trevor's favorite piece of bedazzled clothing? I bet if we ask him to, I'll post a picture of it in the Discord. And then Mark expounded upon that by saying, I want to know everyone's favorite piece of Trevor's bedazzled clothing. So does anybody have a favorite piece of Trevor's bedazzled clothing? I don't know that I've seen a piece of Trevor's bedazzled clothing
00:43:18
Speaker
But knowing Trevor, he's going to look amazing regardless. And he makes this stuff and he makes it, right? Amazing. All of it. So, hey, to me, that's amazing in and of itself.
00:43:33
Speaker
A few weeks ago, actually after we all recorded live, we all got to go and watch Trevor perform. For those of you unaware, Trevor performs in a fantastic type of art style that is currently under a lot of persecution in America for stupid reasons. But what he does is amazing.
00:43:54
Speaker
And my favorite costume from the night was a quick change transition thing that turned from like a regular dress to a big long floofy dress. And it was really like, it was like magic. I, it was one of those things like we'd watched him dancing around in it for 20 minutes and I had no idea that it was about to happen. It didn't cheat the reveal at all. And he made it himself. I believe he had to certainly had a hand in making it. And also it was hilarious and he's tall. Just put that out there.
00:44:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's the same piece that yeah, because he didn't have any grand costume changes during the show. Yeah, it was a golden green piece that was like a one shoulder strap came across the front and there was some bedazzled work on the upper part of the dress. Yeah.
00:44:33
Speaker
Looks good. Looks so fun. Trevor sows and does these amazing performances, and Randy's got his magic, and Philip's got his fencing, and Eric's got his YouTube presence, and I have dogs. So that's what's up with us lately in our free time. And then Shelby also has a technical question about how we record. We do sessions, break them into episodes, but he was curious how long we record and how much usable, I'd argue very little of it's usable, but we put it out anyway, how much usable audio you get over our recording sessions.
00:45:03
Speaker
So generally speaking sitting down at the table until getting up like having finished everything typically about four and a half to five hours I would guess of total time and we typically get three hour ish long episodes out of that recording session.
00:45:20
Speaker
Now granted, we are taking breaks between episodes, going to the bathroom, getting a drink, chit-chatting, because this is oftentimes like the one time a month that all of us like get together and see each other. So there's a lot of non-podcast related tomfoolery going on. So yeah, but typically it's about a four and a half to five hour block of time that we are together recording. Yeah. The first, if we're remote, the first half hour is always just catching up because we are genuine friends who really like each other and invest in each other's lives.
00:45:50
Speaker
might be the only time I talked to Philip that month outside of text messages. So that sort of stuff. Yeah. We are much more efficient in person. We can knock out three episodes in just over three hours in person. We typically do more than three or take longer breaks and enjoy each other's company because of that. When we're in person, it's a different story. But we also go to lunch before we start recording when we're in person. Oh, absolutely. And somebody's got to make coffee at some point in the middle. Yeah.
00:46:17
Speaker
This is true. Not anymore, because this Saturday is when we're all getting our magic mind from Eric. So maybe we won't have coffee. Take a shot and move on. I am excited to try. That's the last of the questions. Is there anything either of you feel the people need to know? The dark confessions you need to make. Randy, about that time you killed that guy.
00:46:34
Speaker
Which guy, which one? Oh, okay. All right. Wonderful. We really appreciate you guys sticking with us. Any questions that were for Phillip or Trevor specifically, we'll make sure they address. Okay. We have to make sure there are people who like to give you guys what you want. They will address them in the, or on the next review, we'll go back and catch them. And next week, we'll be back with a fingers crossed in-person recorded episode.
00:46:57
Speaker
of Eberron Renude, where fingers crossed we finally start to get a mission inside this facility.
Conclusion and Social Media Push
00:47:03
Speaker
Until that point, please check us out on all the socials. I gave the links earlier, but it's whatever your favorite social media platform slash the Geek Pantheon. Eric does his GMing videos at YouTube search for the Geek Pantheon. The Kyber Shards other actual play is also on YouTube if you search for the Laughing Tree.
00:47:21
Speaker
And I believe right now, that's all that we have to plug. Our merch store, thegeekpantheon.com. Please check out the merch store. I almost forgot about that. And once again, to reiterate, Manscaped and Magic Mind were our sponsors this week. And the codes for both of those are renewed 20.
00:47:40
Speaker
No, Magic Mind is renewed 20, Manscaped is just renewed. There you go. Magic Mind renewed 20, Manscaped is just renewed. We appreciate that some of you guys have been checking those products out to help support us. It's a really wonderful thing, so thank you very much. And until next week, I am Jeff. I'm Randy. And I'm Eric. Have a great length of time until the next time.