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C3 Episode 54 Reviewed Five
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Transcript
Introduction to Special Review Episode
00:00:00
Speaker
D20 Radio, at your
00:00:14
Speaker
radio
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to Eberron Renewed. It's a podcast where we play a game, but not today. Today we are doing Eberron Reviewed, which is where I lead one to four of my co-podcasters in a ah game of dueling recriminations where we talk about what we've done and how much we didn't like what the other ones did. yeah I'm Jeff.
00:00:47
Speaker
I'm Nia. And I'm Phillip. And I like everything they do. I am not being serious. I think that's a lie. yeah In the podcast. I have some real issues with... Anyway, welcome to the podcast.
00:01:01
Speaker
We are going to talk about the last arc. or Actually, we're in the middle of an arc. We're to talk about the last six episodes. um It starts at the end of the
Character Motivations and Ethical Dilemmas
00:01:11
Speaker
Pella's Watch mission. We are back and we have a fake Barnaby to deal with. That's true.
00:01:18
Speaker
I have realized this is the first time I've played a character who is pretty different from me as far as their like motivations and ideals. Because Jeff would have been like yeah, chop him up. and What do I care? He's not real.
00:01:31
Speaker
Which was the nix of it all. yeah em Mia? if What is Valk's whole deal? That's a loaded question. Whole deal? I can't give you the character Bible. Eric has the character Bible.
00:01:46
Speaker
no I just... i I thought you went in under an hour. quite a Fair enough. Well, it started in my youth. As it pertains to like the Bardaby stuff, like I just need to follow this around and make and watch it all and see how it goes down. Is that just Valk naturally curious, or was Valk really interested in Bardaby? I guess is kind of my question. And you don't have to explain motivations, really. I don't want to unlock things before you're ready.
00:02:10
Speaker
No, I mean, it's been built up to more of like the spur of the moment because I didn't know what to like talents to actually give him. So Eric was like, just make him a paranormal investigator. I was like, oh, yeah, we can do that. So now, I mean, it was something that was weird and unusual. um Sure.
00:02:28
Speaker
And he was genuinely interested, but not for like the mechanics. More of like the, this is something... It's not unintentional that he just starts taking stuff, right?
00:02:42
Speaker
Sure. Everywhere he's gone, he's been like, this is weird. I'm taking this. it's It's in a similar vein to that, but it's like, i so I guess, no, because I did i kind of mentioned it. Yeah, I did mention it.
00:02:54
Speaker
Whenever he said, well, I should give this to my former employer. I'm going to give this um to Zarya. That was kind of his job as the investigator is to find the weird things and pass them along.
00:03:07
Speaker
Okay. So it was a weird thing. Yeah. You definitely wanted to claim it. So yeah you definitely mentioned like she's a collector of things. So I think of stuff and things.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. No junk. Just stuff. Yeah. No job. That's just that's just about. Okay. So but that was that was part of our previous life. I get that. Yeah. But yeah, we decide we're like, okay, we obviously can't have this thing around.
Upgrading the Manor and Supernatural Mysteries
00:03:33
Speaker
So we de decommission the Barnaby clone after we take the real Barnaby's money that the Barnaby clone brought with him.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yes. No qualms, no problems. 100% fine with that. I don't know why it had to be in that order. like but why we needed to get payment from the machine while it was still functional. Why couldn't we have just killed him and taken his wallet?
00:03:57
Speaker
At what point did they become ill-gotten gains? or didic like I think it's an extension of consent, right? So like we're not going to rob you when you're dead.
00:04:08
Speaker
We're going to make sure you say it's okay to give us what we're owed and then unfortunately we have to tell you you no longer live. Javier said, these are things you possess, freely given.
00:04:22
Speaker
And I don't need to know anything from before that point. But if I kill you and take it then I have grave robbed. Yes. Sure. We finish out the first episode.
00:04:35
Speaker
Well, we continue the first episode by upgrading the manor some more, adding some... I don't know the bastion mechanics that Eric is using. I don't know if it... i I assume it does encourage you to make character-specific spaces.
00:04:49
Speaker
I love the ones he's coming up with for us. I'm excited to have mine down the road because I think we have everybody's butt mind now, right? I think that's right. That's right. We don't have a box either. Oh, that's right. No, we have some stuff that...
00:05:02
Speaker
I have a garden space, but do not have... right As the groundskeeper, but not your thing. Right, right, right. Yeah, I'm excited for the the... down the road to get mine, but Kaz needs to really learn some charisma before before he starts writing advanced missives to the places we're going.
00:05:22
Speaker
but So we continue to build out the manor, and then... We start talking about this ghost that we've that must be in the in the place because they've been moving books and sleeping in Kaz's a room or going to Kaz's room and we don't love it.
00:05:39
Speaker
Kaz finds books. we yes Oh, we? Yes. Some people are fine with it. But as it stands at the end of this suppose episode, it was just Aurora and Selina talking about missing books and they happened to end up in Kaz's possession unbeknownst to him.
00:05:56
Speaker
And then according to the chapter breakdown, the next bit is thanks for listening. So we're going to on to chapter two. And this is where we learned that the third the second floor of the house is inhabitable, uninhabitable because of severe light.
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, winding. Oppressive sunlight. um which if there's one thing that I love, it's when Philip takes something Eric said in passing and completely misrepresents it, willfully misrepresents it to be something terrible or, or silly.
00:06:26
Speaker
I mean, it's like, we've got this creepy Butler and he says, oh you don't want to stay on the second floor.
00:06:41
Speaker
How are we supposed to assume that this guy is ever just saying the aesthetics are a little off or the light comes through those windows and we couldn't possibly put up some curtains?
00:06:53
Speaker
i we are Drapes are expensive. We are broke. So sleep on the other facing side of the of the of the building. but And that's why I'm convinced that every room has but it's a train car. It has east facing windows. It's like a train car. Exactly.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah. And there's nothing we can do about it. But somehow the third floor, that angle. Here's my thing, though. Yeah, it doesn't work on the third or the second floor. I don't know how Eberron works.
00:07:18
Speaker
I assume. Is Eberron spherical? And does it does it circle a sun so that at some points, like the angle of the sun changes over the course of the year? It's got rings and a dozen moons.
00:07:29
Speaker
That's what I know. So good. Interpretation. Well, then I guess in this case, the sun, the angles stay constant. So it's just the second floor assaulted constantly.
00:07:41
Speaker
Year out. It might be cursed. Who knows? It might be. But I decide I want to move. Kaz decides he wants to move to the third floor, goes to third floor, gets hit in the head with a book, falls down the stairs, and everyone laughs at him about it.
00:07:55
Speaker
Every once
Character Reflections and Evolutions
00:07:56
Speaker
in a while. Eric will give us just a weird little guy in these campaigns. In the past, we've had a gnome named Garnath Iccletarn, and we had a whatever the heck he was that was the King of Sharn. What was the King of Sharn?
00:08:11
Speaker
Kobold. Kobold, yes, thank you. And now we have a goblin ghost whose name I did not write down if we got it. We we did not. Didn't think so. We did not. but I didn't think so.
00:08:22
Speaker
we were talking Anyway, Eric did his best... remembrance of middle English verb cases. And i mean, we did, we did learn.
00:08:34
Speaker
I loved, I loved that he had a problem with Valk's plants. Like the thing Valk has been doing to make it nice around here. And he's like, I don't like these. I don't know if it's making it nicer. Those are probably classified as illegal experimentation. and so oh I just have to i thought they were nice. We said hydrangea at one point. Those are just nice. Well, I think the goblin was like eating those because were also freakish Zoriad plants.
00:09:01
Speaker
but it those are illegal my my petunias are us none of us know you're doing that right like none of us know valka is growing plants via zoriat no one has gone outside to check i don't know if i would say he's hiding anything sure I think in the moment that it there was a weird plan, he just isolated it and he It's not like he actually hiding it.
00:09:35
Speaker
i mean it was put away in the shed, but it's not like... mean, if somebody goes out there and they see it, you can... It's there. Yeah, nobody's asked.
00:09:46
Speaker
He does his own thing because he's weird. And it mean he scares people. problem Well, they're scared and then it just kind of puts off. the The phrase was scares.
00:09:58
Speaker
Fair. Nyx doesn't pry. ah But the ghost also did reveal that there was, he died in a conflict that happened on what is now Athelhampton Manor grounds.
00:10:12
Speaker
um two plants, two animated plants from something. Did we get more than that? he It was ah some lady that was involved with Zoria. Okay, it was Zoria. Did he say something about the twister of roots or something like that? I can't remember.
00:10:33
Speaker
was a real fancy name. Yeah. Yes. So that is another... We are still early. I mean, we are... I say we're still early. We're episode 50 or somewhere in there.
00:10:49
Speaker
And so it's early for us to still be putting new threads in for us to investigate. And this is another one. And then i believe this is when Nyx really starts be not being concerned by any means, looking around more.
00:11:03
Speaker
The whole time that Nyx has been sleeping in the chapel, yes, staying in the chapel, someone has been... defacing it with... we so that It's the names of the... It's icons of the Dark Six. The bad part of the Sovereign Host. The bad well analog.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean... Whatever the word I'm looking for. It's a relative perspective. I'm speaking from... Yeah. Yeah, the the chapel has the...
00:11:37
Speaker
the more generally positively viewed members of the sovereign host represented. And someone has been filling in those icons with icons of the dark six of the other part.
00:11:49
Speaker
And they are, Apparently a strange figure in a hood and hooded cloak. you and And isn't either isn't a ghost or isn't a goblin.
00:12:02
Speaker
We're not sure which just not part. Not one of my kind is all we got. Right. That's all we heard. And apparently kind. Unbelievably stealthy to be able to get around while Nix is in the room or in the building. Yeah.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah. That's really the thing that Nix is bothered by. It's not really the vandalism. Right. Nyx who famously sleeps outside of, of to, to be awakened to when things disturb the space that her party is in.
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Was there anything more in that section with Nyx and the, that I'm not thinking of? I mean, we set up the, we set up the forge, but that was about the only other Nyx centric thing is we hauled, we set up a forge in the undercroft of the chapel.
00:12:43
Speaker
Right. It was a weird place for a forge, but it, you know, whatever. i'm still worried about like the ventilation and all of that. So I assume that you can do forging by like heat metal spells instead of eating an actual charcoal fire or something. So, you know, it's magic.
00:13:01
Speaker
it's all It's all friction welding. There's no... No, I mean, what it is is Nyx put a whole bunch of weird and probably diabolical runes under the anvil, and that's why it works. just, you know, nobody knows that because, you know, Nyx doesn't pry for a reason.
00:13:18
Speaker
yeah We have our spaces. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, okay, Kaz does not know what it means to be the Shadowmaker still. He's still trying to figure things out.
00:13:31
Speaker
at her It's true. It's wonderful. That is not a too far off extension of the person playing him this time. Sometimes Jeff acts dumb as Kaz.
00:13:41
Speaker
Sometimes Jeff's as confused as Kaz. And in this case, it is the latter.
00:13:48
Speaker
I am equally as unsure as Kaz as how secretive we're supposed to be about what it is that we do. So it is difficult right now for me to think too deeply on running into town and finding people to help us with stuff. Or when we go to a new town, finding a stranger that I can trust with this stuff.
00:14:08
Speaker
you know In fairness, we really haven't been given parameters of how much of this stuff is top secret. Have we even technically been told our date? I don't think so. I don't think so.
00:14:23
Speaker
I don't think so. Yeah, I'm not sure. That would be wild. I'm pretty sure it happened. Because I'm pretty sure Kaz has used it. So I hope we have. Well, it's canon that Kaz is going to name the organization, apparently.
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah, maybe Kaz coined it. He's got to do something right. But... so When I'm told I have to go find people to help us find information, the first thing he thinks is, how about this person who's given me all this information up to this point?
00:14:50
Speaker
And he goes... cool And recruits Renee. And we do find out about the... Some of the previous stuff that's happened in Kalazart, the Silver Flame and the, was it a host of Celestials came down and wrecked shop? Is that, do I remember that right?
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, I wrote it. Yeah, apparently occupied the town, dug up a bunch of scrolls and books and then left. And there is a fella in town that I'm supposed to talk to, a Warforged, I believe. I wrote his name down. I don't have my notes in front of me. i don't have those notes in front of me.
00:15:27
Speaker
that I will talk to at some point. But then... So you've been invited to go be beat eaten by a dragon. Yeah, as I was going to say. But then, in a bit of maybe fan service, but also just kind of cementing this wackadoo timeline that we're playing in,
00:15:43
Speaker
We meet a young Bimani. For those of you that haven't listened to Campaign 1, I will try to avoid too many spoilers, but Bimani is in the latter part of Campaign 1 and is an extremely competent, very lethal, whole lot of Kalishtar and is very helpful to us in a crucial moment of the campaign.
00:16:06
Speaker
I believe that what you're saying is true, but I have to be completely honest with My memory of the money is that we had a conversation with her.
00:16:18
Speaker
Like I'm certain that I'm wrong because of the way that everyone reacted to her, to her showing up and the way that Eric clearly wanted us to react to her showing up and the way that some of the fans on the discord have reacted.
00:16:29
Speaker
I genuinely it's so long ago and that campaign was so long and so tangled by the latter part of it yeah that I only vaguely remember this person showing up.
00:16:45
Speaker
I remember one pivotal battle that she was a part of and helpful in that when we don't have to make Eric edit around it, I will remind you of, or someone will DM you in the, or put it in the discord and spoiler bar. Someone will call it out. Yeah.
00:17:02
Speaker
To help remind you, but yeah, but Mimani shows up and yes, I was invited to join it. Actually we were all invited. I just haven't pushed, relayed the invitation yet to go get eaten by a dragon.
00:17:14
Speaker
Hard pass. Which I guess, you know. One of the things about this is that, like, we've said Bamati shows up in campaign one, which takes place after campaign three, so she doesn't get eaten by a dragon.
00:17:26
Speaker
But it could be because of all the fodder she brought with her. She's also definitely alone when we meet her, though. Yeah. oh A solid point. Well made.
00:17:38
Speaker
But that is pretty much where episode two ends. Episode three. I said we were going to spend a ton of time on the recap, and yet here we are.
00:17:46
Speaker
It begins with Selina and Nyx working on new sword mage stuff. ah Madison is not joining us tonight. There is a question for her, and so I will turn around and yell, hey, Madison, and ask that question later. But we will save the talking about ah most of the sword mage things for when she is with us.
00:18:05
Speaker
But then, because the previous episode was... embarrassingly Kaz-centric between the ghost beating him up and all of the Renee stuff. There's a lot of Valk in this episode, finding new swords and everything. So was that something you knew was coming,
Class Mechanics and Game System Comparisons
00:18:24
Speaker
Mia? Or did he surprise you with all that?
00:18:26
Speaker
Okay. Okay. No, i I have no idea what's happening at all times. Okay. ah At all times. I'm here for vibes. No, i quite literally. i have I have no world context.
00:18:38
Speaker
I have no... I only have my little character Bible that I just gave Eric access to. Sorry, Eric. um But... But yeah, I had no idea and I also i had no idea what... I mean, technically, I still don't.
00:18:55
Speaker
know what it is? Sure. So... I mean, it kind of... The way that that played out... o was genuinely frustrating for Valk.
00:19:10
Speaker
Oh, for Valk. Okay. My heart not richard returns to standard beats. No. He's very respectful of the dead for very personal reasons.
00:19:22
Speaker
So removing anything that is in their area is kind of like that. That is something that belongs to them. And that was something that is like the last thing that they can really own and take with them to a next life or wherever they they so choose to believe in their personal beliefs, regardless of the actual it is and how that works.
00:19:42
Speaker
um So ah finding... A very useful and very aesthetic and very cool sword.
00:19:53
Speaker
Amongst the graveyard. Personal conflict. I mean, obviously... Obviously, it's being borrowed. Because we don't really know who it belonged to.
00:20:04
Speaker
Technically, it was just so by a tree. yeah do buy It by a tree. It's true. Adjacent, potentially, to different tombstones. But, you know.
00:20:18
Speaker
It belongs to nature, so we're just borrowing it. I mean, if it's laying by a tree, it's really unlikely that was buried in one of those graves. It seems really unlikely that the sword just worked its way back up through the soil.
00:20:32
Speaker
it was it was It was laying by a tree after Valk had done some tilling and cultivating. Maybe he he kicked it up and didn't realize at the time. I did clean the tombstones and then turned around and was like, oh, what's this? What?
00:20:50
Speaker
Those graves have been dug up. That's a fair point. they Yes, they were also dug up. Oh, Arumi did. yes right Yeah, that's right. That's a fair point. Unceremoniously.
00:21:02
Speaker
Which is why I was in the first place. I'm sure everything was put back. And this is around the same time, wasn't it this episode around this time where you buried or where you planted the Zoria plants the big old acorn. The giant acorn, yeah. Yeah, i gravely I don't know why I gravely underestimated the size of that acorn, and but...
00:21:23
Speaker
It's there now. i thought it was going to be like a cute little pit in the back. Because we were apparently able to carry it out easily, so it can't... It's not like the size of giant cooler. No one ever asked, hey, what's with that big angle? It just seemed to grow into describing...
00:21:42
Speaker
Everyone's just so used to it now. It's like, what is Valk hearing? Just don't ask. I definitely had the impression of like, you know, maybe like an acorn the size of an owl or something. Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm like, it's fine.
00:21:54
Speaker
Here comes Valk in his car-sized acorn. Very strong, by the way. Apparently. your mossset up I'm excited to see what becomes of it.
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah, I was not thinking of consequences when I... It was a plant. I didn't want it to go bad back in the ground. Nyx does some divining to learn about the blade and its previous owner.
00:22:19
Speaker
Or not previous owner, but its previous situations. Wielder? Yeah, wielder. And then this ends with doc the introduction of Dr. Varesch. I guess somewhere between...
00:22:33
Speaker
or
00:22:35
Speaker
I feel like we're all concerned that she's going to try to to analyze us in a psycho psychotherapeutic way, but it really could be much more just physiological.
00:22:48
Speaker
it's She is interested in how plane-touched people are affected by their exposure to other planes. And since we are all heavily plane-touched people,
00:22:59
Speaker
to in various in various ways, too. She's really interested in us, and Nyx is not interested in that. Nyx has reasons.
00:23:10
Speaker
I have no doubt Nyx has reasons.
00:23:14
Speaker
Phillip's characters always have reasons, and they're always they always make a lot of sense to Phillip's characters. She was at Relicor. but this one yeah No, this one I this one i get.
00:23:26
Speaker
I am excited to see how that plays out. And this ties into the next episode that we're about to start to Eric, Eric likes to flesh out the crew in PCs in really interesting. I mean, in campaign one, it was the, you know, the borrowed time crew and kind of, who we kind of slowly collected.
00:23:45
Speaker
And then campaign two, it was a group, a crew we'd been running with for a while and like kind of had to learn about very quickly. And, With this group, he's been using these holidays, which is what the next episode is, as ways to kind of flesh them out. And I thought, and especially given the focus of this organization, finding out so much about all of these NPCs in a festival or a ceremony focused on mourning seemed like a really, really cool way to do it.
00:24:17
Speaker
I thought that was really dope on Eric's part. He doesn't listen to these, so I feel comfortable praising him. Sure. Yeah, he'll never <unk> never know about the positive feedback. Nobody tell him.
00:24:29
Speaker
Clipping. mean, we got to learn a whole lot about all three of our bosses, colleagues, boss colleagues, are our immediate superior. Boss.
00:24:40
Speaker
Boss leagues. Our direct supervisors. They're a one-up on the org chart. Yeah, it feels feels like feels like only Javier is, strictly speaking, an authority who can tell us what to do.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yes. I think Hiddix wouldn't take orders from Aurora or, or oh my gosh, Hendrik. Hendrik. Hendrik. was going to say Heinrich. I'm like, it's not Heinrich. brooklyn yeah Yeah, Aurora and Hendrik currently have the benefit of seniority, but once we start getting the lay of the land better, I think it's going to become very much more of a, there's the six of us who answer to, I mean, seven when you count V. There's the seven of us that answer to Javier, I think. Okay.
00:25:23
Speaker
But no, I mean, just really like wonderful stories. Aurora's story was great. Hendrik shared his past. Do you think Hendrik's story, and of course you didn't hear nearly, we didn't hear as much as Selina and Valk did,
00:25:37
Speaker
ah will soften Nix to him individually, even if she still has a serious problem with lycanthropy. ka she So yeah go here's here's a thing that didn't happen because Kaz stopped Nix to talk.
00:25:55
Speaker
Nyx was going to go hang out outside the workshop because Nyx doesn't think it's a good idea to go into a room with an emotionally unstable lycanthrope.
00:26:05
Speaker
And so Nyx was going to go hang out. Nyx is confident that Hendrik is a decent guy, but he's a decent guy who's a time bomb. Okay. And sure, that makes sense.
00:26:18
Speaker
so And there's one thing Nyx knows about, it's time bombs because she keeps summoning them into our realm. I know what talking about. It's never gone wrong at all. Yeah, sure, sure.
00:26:29
Speaker
The train doesn't count. and never It never happened. We erased we erased the occurrence. Did it never happen or did it happen several times? No, it never happened. I think that occurrence wasn't the wasn't the canon one.
00:26:43
Speaker
Kaz recalls it, but that's that you know what that shows your... your ah generosity as a player that you stopped to have a conversation with my, that I wanted to initiate instead of doing what Nick's, honestly, if we're, if if we're playing, ah you know, Nick's be like, okay, we can talk later. got to go.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. No, I liked the conversation that, that we had. Um, so I, I mean, I enjoyed it. I feel like, I feel like our characters get a couple of decent real talks per campaign.
00:27:18
Speaker
I'm liking playing the one that gets to be a little erratic this time. Yeah. Yeah. Barrick's life was falling apart and Aris was like, had done, Aris was trying to put her life back together and was still a child or a very compared to Hob very young.
00:27:34
Speaker
Certainly. So now I get to be the one that's like, I need some i an adult to tell me what's going on in my life. This is a very, this is very fun as a, there's a sort of inversion of the the Hob and Aris dynamic from campaign to Nick.
00:27:49
Speaker
Kaz is not as lucky in his older sibling figure ah as heiress was, but, but yeah, I I'm enjoying that at that dynamic.
00:28:00
Speaker
I think Kaz though. Aeris was jaded, yeah rightfully so, like did not to cast any judgment on it. Aeris was jaded, Aeris was world-weary, and so having a calm person who was ultimately an optimist was probably good.
00:28:18
Speaker
Kaz is scared, and Nyx is like strong and battle-hardened, and so that is kind of what he needs, too. And you know Valk, obviously, but with with his experiences, and even Selina, having been through it, she's been like...
00:28:30
Speaker
Kaz has something to learn from everyone, and he just needs to realize that and start utilizing it. Nyx is at least theoretically more frightening than the things that Kaz is afraid of.
New Mission and Personal Challenges
00:28:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Definitely more of a protector in the and a natural. yeah Yeah. Kaz's dread is existential. His fear is very concrete after what we've been through the last few years. sure.
00:28:54
Speaker
With good reason. Right. He's died a couple times. Yeah, I'm pretty close. But no, I really enjoyed i enjoyed that conversation. It was a good jumping off point. um it It does...
00:29:07
Speaker
satisfy my own personal one of my things about this campaign was like i need to follow up on stuff everything was so go go go ian in in sharn that like there's so many things emotional things that i didn't follow up on like i wished i had and so i'm trying to do better about that with this campaign and so that also satisfied that a bit i think the nature of our down times is making that a lot more a lot more there's a lot more time for those kinds of relationships to breathe and for for us to get get a feel because you know it's it's obviously not a near not and it's not simply a different dynamic of characters although this is a very different group of characters than than our past campaigns it's also of course a different dynamic because we've got a different lineup of hook players and so i'm i'm enjoying the down times being
00:29:56
Speaker
We are genuinely safe. There were several downtimes, quote unquote, in campaign two where somebody kicked down the door and tried to kill us. Right, right.
00:30:09
Speaker
So I'm i'm liking and liking this mode of downtime where there's there's really time to let something breathe. and Yeah. And it it's, I'm looking forward to more, a lot of, a lot of downtime has been us interacting with an NPC or interacting with an NPC.
00:30:26
Speaker
I think as we get. not just more comfortable playing with each other, but more comfortable in our own characters. Like if Valk came to Kaz and asked questions about the stuff that interests Valk, I'd be like, I have no idea what to say because Kaz has not thought about these things.
00:30:38
Speaker
And so Jeff doesn't know. um But as we get to know the characters better, I think we'll all be able to kind of have more of those conversations too, which is exciting.
00:30:49
Speaker
And, you know, Eric being present for them and a good DM knows how to weave those things into can pay those ah conversations off later in really cool ways, which I think is exciting.
00:31:03
Speaker
yeah And then yeah the next episode is where we start the mission, finally. We meet a pirate who's going to, now, okay. The pirate with whom we are traveling is not the person that has hired us.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yes, she is an Uber driver. Yes. yes She is our fairy person, ferrying us to the place. And the issue is that there is a race of insect people that have found weapons that are becoming sentient and also, if I'm not mistaken, also fusing with them in some cases. Yes? li Lizard people. Lizard. You're right. Sorry. Lizard people.
00:31:45
Speaker
Not insect people. That's ridiculous. Yeah. Lizard people who have... who who Yeah, their weapons are talking to them. Their weapons are fusing with them, becoming parts of their anatomy. And that speaks a lot to Zoria and therefore Valk.
00:32:01
Speaker
Yep. How's Valk feeling about this mission before we get on the boat and we get you so rudely sidetracked? Not great.
00:32:12
Speaker
I think a lot of... personal and past trauma has immediately resurfaced which is i that was also something that was the hinted at i didn't realize that that my plane was going to be selected.
00:32:31
Speaker
But he does not have, ah I mean, as most people, do not have a great doesn't have a great connection to his plane. I think all of the circumstances that have surrounded it has ultimately led to him leaving where he was.
00:32:46
Speaker
So now having that kind of like moral thing of, well, I'm with this group, and now i have to now go towards something that I very intentionally wanted walked away from is not it's not good on the inside. So very much distracting himself by like watching other people and staying away. It's kind of trying to mind his own.
00:33:11
Speaker
We don't know a lot about the nature of Valk's connection to Zoriad right now, right? Like we haven't talked, we know Kaz lived in Thelanus, we know Salenus' thing with the pacemaker.
00:33:23
Speaker
ah We know, if if if you know about kind of the Silver Flame and Relicor and things, you know some of Nyx's stuff but we know very fair enough when everything is new we know very little about valk's relation to zori at all i i think the the dinner was really the first time we'd gotten any kind of any kind of sort of direct reference to this job where something went very wrong
00:33:55
Speaker
you I think think that's as close as as much as Valk has opened up about that. if Other than that, it seems to have mostly been references to that to ah his old employer. Yeah.
00:34:07
Speaker
Right. and but Oh yeah, Valk's candles, of course. Half candle. That's right, sorry. Smallest one, please. I remembered it was small. I couldn't hear if it was, in my memory was more than one. but Yes.
00:34:18
Speaker
We forgot about airships for a minute because it's a new concept to all of us. The one thing that you you guys don't know more about than Kaz, which is nice. And we climb up and we meet the crew and we set sail.
00:34:30
Speaker
End of episode. Next episode. ah And we get the beginnings of an attack. We roll initiative. End of episode. Next episode, a battle. We've been going for a bit and battle episodes really kind of, you know,
00:34:44
Speaker
Talk about themselves. There's not a lot to it. I am not... We win. We win real hard. We win. but I'm not sure that Nyx can't do too much.
Character Class Roles and Adaptations
00:34:55
Speaker
it is i It is ridiculous.
00:34:58
Speaker
was going to say, do we win or does Nyx win? Kaz one-shots the crew. builds their brains.
00:35:10
Speaker
so yeah the the the tricky thing The reason that I don't usually, that thought I don't generally summon more than one thing, other than i don't want to track more than one thing, but the reason I usually summon more than one thing is the more things that I summon, the harder the check I have to make to keep control of them is.
00:35:28
Speaker
Exactly. um You can absolutely build a demonologist around around summoning lots of monsters. You can make it a pet class. and I made it the dark paladin equivalent instead.
00:35:42
Speaker
And, uh, that, that locks out a lot of the talents and feats and abilities that would, make Nix better at controlling and and holding on to control of the of the monsters that she summons.
00:35:58
Speaker
um So on this occasion, you know, there were, to mix it to Nix's mind, very low, it was a very low risk proposition to throw everything at them.
00:36:12
Speaker
We were in the air. i will say that. So if there was a loss of control, we are also in the air. Yeah, but they were on a different ship. Put them over there. Yeah. Oh, there was something... I was going to confess something during this review where we talked about the fight.
00:36:25
Speaker
My confession is I could have controlled my flight the whole time. that Anytime I go into flight, I could have absolutely had control over it. but That's really funny. But we were like in rooms most of the times or... like And Kaz wouldn't know what to do if he suddenly started flying.
00:36:42
Speaker
yeah So i didn't I didn't want to play it that way, but starting now, I'm going to. So what you're saying is we need to practice when we get onto the ground. we need to We need to practice being able to do it on purpose yeah so that when when you gain flight, you don't just float.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah, during the next downtime, I'm going to have, ka without putting too much into it, going to have Kaz spend time in the danger room just trying to make magical attacks so he accidentally flies so he can learn how to maneuver in it.
00:37:09
Speaker
But yeah, the the the wording of the of the attack warp, which is what makes me fly unexpectedly, is you gain flight, which according to Eric's ruling means I could control it. But it just makes it was way more fun for him to just like slam into the ceiling and fall to the floor and stuff.
00:37:23
Speaker
It has been hilarious. Yeah. But I think this is going to be Kaz's wake-up call that if it happens that often, he really needs to learn how to put the brakes on it. Yeah.
00:37:35
Speaker
Because, yes, I do fly. And so much of Kaz's survival depended on everybody else in the party, which is a also a very new thing for me who normally plays like big, high AC, high hit point kind of guys.
00:37:48
Speaker
oh So that was humbling. Yeah. And being being tanky is not my usual thing either. And so i'm i'm I'm enjoying being kind of, you know, up in the front and kind of, well, not actually invincible, but certainly able to take it yeah yeah it's fun and i think i think mia i think one day you're just going to like you and eric need to sit down and have a guided conversation about what the heck your character class is and how it works because so so so i can understand it other people may really get it but i am yeah that has been ah
00:38:30
Speaker
growing gripe that I've been walking with because from what I've been seeing is that there's really only two ways like in the version that we have because it hasn't been this class has have been reworked there's only really two ways to play it and I'm not at the stage to choose either yet so that's why I was like i like when I'm on the ship I'm like I can't do anything because I re-kitted myself to be able to support everyone else and then everyone else changed their stuff was being the So I could, I literally could not do anything. So
00:39:03
Speaker
a I see why there is a lot of custom content. Level one. I think it's really interesting, but yeah, I i do agree. I probably need to be the one that initiates grabbing Eric and being like, we need to sit down. Yes.
00:39:19
Speaker
and And make our own mini class book on and what this is. Because there's also other things about Valk that, like, mechanically, we kind of figured out on the fly. um Because, like, he has stress points.
00:39:35
Speaker
And that's a percentage of his health when that gets triggered. So there's that mechanic. There's all the stuff with um Zoriette, with the magic, with the occultist class. So...
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah, we're we're all figuring it out at the same time. um But I also think that really makes it fun. and i think there's a lot that can be done. I also think I might need to be just a wee bit more selfish. I like playing support characters, and I think Valk is very much a support and, like,
00:40:12
Speaker
i I am the person that you need me in a time of need and only in a time of need. um So whenever it is time for panic or whenever something's going wrong, then he can snap him as a leader.
00:40:28
Speaker
And I think to do that, I might need to change to a spell or two to fix it. But... yeah Yeah, there's really two-play styles from what I've seen for this class. I don't like being locked into two-play styles.
00:40:44
Speaker
I understand that. Yeah, that you know and I've talked about this before with because I was thinking about The Nyx's class, Demonologist, yes?
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah. Seems very wide open. And the wizard that Selina plays seems very wide open. And yeah, I think our two classes are a little different. Mine is just an exercise of helplessness.
00:41:07
Speaker
In a lot of ways. i think part of good no good I think part of the thing is I fell in love with this character and this style of character before we chose this system.
00:41:19
Speaker
And i was like, well, I love this idea. I can't abandon it, even though I do not know how I'm going to do this random dice thing. but But yeah, what were going to say, Philip? ah I think the thing with the demonologist that is is strange, and I'm i not yet experienced enough with the system to assess whether I think it's strange in a good way or a bad way from from a system perspective.
00:41:43
Speaker
Unlike every other class, I picked all my talents at level one. Like, I will get no additional talents as we progress. I picked all of them at level one. And they determined a bunch of things about what I had access to.
00:41:58
Speaker
Yeah. And so you you have to lock in the way you're going to play this class when you choose your level one options. And then as you get up, you you get access to more spells and you get access to feats and everything else. But the the talent part of it, where you kind of pick your class mechanics...
00:42:15
Speaker
All of that is at, is at, at level one. And so that, that probably makes it my guess would be that makes it a very powerful class of early levels.
00:42:26
Speaker
But it also means you've locked in what you're doing from a very early level. I, and I I decide what I think about that. I think there are a lot of things as I learn more about 13th age that make me very sympathetic towards Madison for it being her first RPG system to play.
00:42:45
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I feel like you need a kind of a working knowledge of the way the games are before you can really. And that's why I think Eric was, you know, kind of showed her the spell sword and said, Hey, do you want to try swapping some stuff out?
00:42:57
Speaker
Cause you yeah think you really need a little bit of vocabulary to build a character in this system. And. I certainly wasn't very helpful to her in building it when she was putting it together.
00:43:08
Speaker
so Well, it's a bunch of game designers taking their favorite things out of a few different editions of D&D and Frankensteining them into a system. And so that's great.
Future Missions and Character Dynamics
00:43:19
Speaker
yes None of this is criticism, to be clear. Like, we're having a great time playing 13th. Or I having a great time. I want to be heard. but that Yeah, that does that does mean, I think you're right. I think there is a learning curve that's a little probably a little higher than with a lot of other systems.
00:43:32
Speaker
I think you need you you need a vocabulary or a GM who's willing to help everyone build their character for the first time. ah Yeah. And explain what it means. like Like you said, hey, this seems really great right now, but you're done after this.
00:43:45
Speaker
like You need to know that. You're not going to grow while the other characters grow. And we win the fight. and then And then Eric blows up the ship next to us. The ship that Philip spent a decent amount of time trying to talk me into jumping on.
00:43:57
Speaker
like well let's go take the ship be awesome we're gonna have one of the three airships in illicit use it'd be so useful to us which is why eric had a bomb on board it i just kiss because he knew he knew he's been doing this long enough he knew if he put an airship in front of us we're gonna we're gonna take it all right let's get into some questions if you would like to ask any questions about the game the arc uh us that we are willing to share, you can do that on our discord. the Easiest way to find the discord is through our, our socials or the geek pantheon YouTube page. You can find all of our socials at, at the social media sites where we still maintain them.
00:44:38
Speaker
which I can never remember off the top of my head, but go to your favorite social and then search for the geek pantheon and you will likely find it there. ah The accounts are all still there. I'm right. And in those bios, you will find a link to our Discord, and we would love to have you there.
00:44:53
Speaker
um Let's just get started. These are a handful of messages from ah questions from Kevin until I tell you otherwise. First one, how drastic a difference does the power jump at level three in 13th age feel as a player?
00:45:06
Speaker
I didn't get to do enough yet. Yeah. but And that's not that's not a complaint. I chose a spell that sits out sits out the first round, and then we wrecked shop pretty effectively. so i i But I did also do 33 points of damage to five different people in one turn. So it's big.
00:45:23
Speaker
It's a jump. Yeah, I got i got some new spells that are pretty impressive. And I think the biggest thing for me, and I don't know how this looks like for y'all, but as a, as a martial character, just the fact that I roll another damage die every level just makes the the scale. Now I will say there's a negative scale ah for the demonologist.
00:45:47
Speaker
The number of dice I roll to reduce the hit points of my summonings every round also jumps up a whole lot. Like, so at the end of every round, i so I roll some dice and and take that much damage and and deal that much damage to, to the thing I summon.
00:46:03
Speaker
And in ah first level, everything I could summon, I was rolling one die. But ah now i'm I'm rolling, depending on which one I've summoned, I'm rolling three or four dice for the the degradation of my control over this thing.
00:46:21
Speaker
there's a, there's two, two way street on that.
00:46:25
Speaker
I'm to find an example. The biggest thing, besides a couple of new spells in the icon spells list for a Chaos Mage, but the biggest thing is just the the number of damage die.
00:46:37
Speaker
For example, just... Let just find a good one. um My Chaos Ray. First level, if I hit, it's 1d8 plus Charisma. At third level, it's forty six wow
00:46:51
Speaker
and and if i miss it's the 1d10 like it just ramps up damage ramps up with with with this with this weirdo so what changes in a support class character when you get to third level anything yeah yeah you oh anything particular i just got access to a different set of spells um I think there was like an additional so three youme I could have chosen from outside of just upgrading the spells that I already had. i
00:47:24
Speaker
If I'm being honest, looking at the spells that were available and then also understanding the dynamic of the team that we had at the time, i was like, these are not... Like, I can't really do anything.
00:47:37
Speaker
Like, a lot of... I really wanted to... try and diversify who I was able to support. So a lot of them were very much like, yeah, you're just going to be like backpacking Nyx from the fight.
00:47:51
Speaker
But I really wanted to choose a couple that were... different so i i really wanted to um so sorry cas cas goes down lot so i did choose like i i so i specifically specifically like i was like i let me grab something to where if something happens and to our squishies that i can at least like try and help with the buffer it's been
00:48:17
Speaker
I'm not sure if our squishies are that squishy anymore. um so Oh, I still have like three hit points. So yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
So I think the the spells are cool. I think it's it's really this time period is a ramp up ah to, I think it's like, I think it's like level five where you really get like your next big talent. And like, that's when it's like, okay,
00:48:43
Speaker
Now everything that you are building up for spell-wise is now being attached to and actual, like, a larger ability. um So it's a lot of prep. But I, again, I enjoy it because it forces me to sit back and actually pay attention.
00:48:57
Speaker
um Something I'm very notorious of not doing any other time in any other games that I've played. So... I like it. I think... i just think I'm not really used to not being able to smack things right away.
00:49:13
Speaker
and Yeah. I think even in the fight on the airship, I was immediately thrown off that Madison was able to interrupt. And I was like, I was going to do that.
00:49:24
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm like, oh, now I now i was like, ah okay, well... I'm like, now I need to learn how many or who can do what and what to do where. Because I think especially for this class, it's a delicate balance of letting your party members still be able to do what they do and have their shine without you quite literally taking it away from Yeah.
00:49:49
Speaker
yeah So it's interesting. But yeah, there's lot cool spells. There's a lot cool spells coming up that I'm excited for. i just need i just mean Eric to let me level up at random, just be ahead of the group.
00:50:05
Speaker
It's okay. No big no deal. Hey, I'm fine with it. Kevin continues, our Spellsword and Demonologist, or whatever Nyx is, new in second edition. I guess ah he was looking for them in the SRD.
00:50:17
Speaker
ah Chaos Mage and Occultist are both in the SRD, but those are not... Nyx is a tiefling. Just, you know, that's whatever Nyx is. Demonologist is a first edition class that's never been updated to the second edition, and it is on the SRD. It's right under Commander. They're in alphabetical order.
00:50:34
Speaker
Plan made for Venus. It's always there. i don't know. A spell blade is ah is a third party class. Yeah. Spell blade. That's what it's called. Thank you. It is on the SRD, but it's have to go, you have to go down and open up the little column of the the third party classes at the very bottom.
00:50:49
Speaker
And that's where you will find, oh, sword mage, not spell blade. In fact, Madison's original build was the only build that came from second, fully, fully from second edition.
00:51:01
Speaker
So we're doing great in that regard. Jeff, how much of your time is spent thinking about what could go wrong due to Kaz being Kaz? Thinking about tying himself to the airship when spontaneous flight is apparently likely was a good call. Thank you.
00:51:13
Speaker
Many would have overlooked. ah That was fully metagaming from playing a full campaign on airship. um And just like, that was the first thing I thought of was like, one of us is going to fall off of this thing and I catch i catch flight. as far as As far as other stuff I think about...
00:51:31
Speaker
I occasionally like to remind the the listenership of that I am a high school teacher. And so I'm trying my best to play this like a true 16 year old, which means I am not considering consequences or or things like that um any more than I have to to make it a reasonable game to play with my friends.
00:51:52
Speaker
Yeah. its It is a lot of fun to think of how Kaz would get out of crap in the moment. And a lot of times it is screaming for one of his more capable coworkers to come and help him. Or not screaming for them and just trusting that they will. so But as far as the tying myself to the airship thing, that was legitimately just like, oh, remember when I spent five years playing a character who lived on an airship and falling off of it was a big bad thing that happened sometimes and we had to figure out how to deal with that?
00:52:20
Speaker
So... That was what that was. I do think about how often Kaz goes down and that the other players sometimes have to blow full turns fixing that. And I don't love it. A question for Eric about the holidays that I'll ask him. If if we don't see it of the Discord, I'll mark it to ask next time he's on a review ah because I do believe the holidays thing will be evergreen and continuing. So that question can stand.
00:52:43
Speaker
Philip, was it satisfying to cut loose in the airship fight? Nick seems to have a fascinating balance between protector and professional killer. Was that planned or is it developing as part of the story? First question, yes, absolutely. i'm I'm very, like, as a player, i don't usually like...
00:53:01
Speaker
make I don't know how Jeff likes the idea of playing a chaos mage. Like that sounds awful to me, just the loss of control and the the the number of the amount of things that you don't get control over.
00:53:11
Speaker
I dislike random tables deeply as, as I've said, but so I, I'm generally pretty careful about when I decide to make use of Nix's ability to summon a monster into the battlefield.
00:53:26
Speaker
um And so having a a circumstance where i'm like where I could see a reasonable likelihood that I could be completely consequence free and still do this.
00:53:39
Speaker
That was a lot of fun. And also just imagining how, what a terrible surprise it would be to be try and pirate a ship. And then the rest of your crew is suddenly attacked by monsters.
00:53:50
Speaker
Like that's just, yeah, i I enjoyed that a lot. Second part of the question, Nix is, Nix's inspiration is two fictional characters.
00:54:03
Speaker
One is magic from X-Men was the the initial concept of the split soul and that I was...
00:54:15
Speaker
I was trying to get to somewhere and then that occurred to me and and that's where I landed. Um, and the, the other ah is Asajj Ventress from Star Wars, Clone Wars.
00:54:26
Speaker
And so, yeah, I mean that to a degree that was planned. I didn't necessarily, i didn't, when I, when I made Nix, I didn't yet have a full picture of what the group would be.
00:54:39
Speaker
And I, I think the protector thing I think Nix has enough experience of war, but not on the battlefield. nix is very much Nix's experience of war has definitely been very much either on the civilian end or on the the the criminal exploiting the chaos of war end.
00:55:02
Speaker
That Nix doesn't have any any kind of illusions about war, about the the nobility of war. And so I i think Nix tends to, guess a little chauvinistic, look at people and divide them into, into whether or not they're civilians.
00:55:24
Speaker
And so I think her initial read on both Kaz and Selena was as civilians. Kaz is young, clearly has not. Well, at least that he remembers been in life threatening danger and I think Nix's read on Selena, i I knew this going in, but I think Nix's initial read on Selena was wrong and that she's gradually adjusting it.
00:55:50
Speaker
Because I think she initially read Selena as a soft aristocracy. ah hopeful and she's She's a rich girl. And Nix...
00:56:01
Speaker
not being one made some made some assumptions that are are being challenged, especially in the airship battle that as it as it happened. So, yes, and Nix is trying right now to be a better person than she thinks she probably is.
00:56:18
Speaker
And so one way of doing that is putting herself between those people and and danger. Vow.
00:56:27
Speaker
I haven't quite worked out. Well, no one has quite worked out. but Yeah, haven't quite worked out. haven't quite worked out what Nyx thinks of Valk. I i know that Nyx doesn't see Valk as someone that needs her protection. She sees Valk as a lot more self-sufficient, whether that's accurate or not.
00:56:52
Speaker
And she also sees Valk, I think it's more as more veteran of this kind of thing. Like Vought, Vought clearly has a better head of what we're actually going to, what we're actually in for when we go on a mission than, than Nyx thinks the other two. i don't actually know if that's true of Selena. It does seem to be actually true of Kaz.
00:57:16
Speaker
Yes. but And then as for the professional killer, that, That's not even actually what Nyx has been. Nyx isn't actually a professional killer.
00:57:27
Speaker
She is preternaturally good at killing. And so whereas Eris in a Campaign 2 was kind of oppositional defiant towards what her past wanted her to be and was was just desperately going to be something different from what her past wanted her to be,
00:57:49
Speaker
Nyx has kind of resigned to what she is and is is going to is going to do it. Nyx knows what she is and she's going to do it. And if she can, and at this current moment... She's not as interested in doing it for personal profit as she has up to this point been and is trying to do something reasonably good with it.
00:58:11
Speaker
And she's still holding out judgment as to whether or not what Javier wants us to do is qualifies as that. Keeping the others alive is good. yeah whether the Whether the lighthouse is, Nix doesn't know.
00:58:25
Speaker
Nix likes, she just can't admit it. Nix doesn't want you to die. Which is a step in the right direction. I'll take it. Any theories from the players about the ramifications with the new NPCs, parenthetically, Goblin Ghost, Hooded Graffiti Artist, Therapist, et etc., on the organization or the manor?
00:58:45
Speaker
I think the Goblin Ghost is going to be really funny. I'm really worried that the hooded figure is the Traveler, but I don't think it is. That's that's the obvious answer, and Eric usually isn't doing the obvious answer.
00:58:57
Speaker
I mean, it's obviously not the obvious answer for our characters, but for Eberron nerds, it's like, ooh, Traveler. But I'm worried that it's the Traveler, and I don't know why it would be the Traveler. ah So i'm I'm very concerned about that and what that is going to mean.
00:59:12
Speaker
And the i assume the ramifications of the therapist is that Nyx will be in a worse than usual mood when we're back at the manor, and she's forced to interact with her.
00:59:24
Speaker
It's always fun to play opposite Philip when these characters are in a worse than usual mood. It makes it really clear that she is not willingly going to was to report to this person.
00:59:35
Speaker
yeah i I agree the Goblin Ghost will be a little guy. We may learn more about the history of the place from him, but I think he's going to be a little guy that Eric throws to. My little guy. ah that eric Until it's suddenly really sad when he needs when he needs some levity either for himself or for the narrative or for the listening audience and suddenly the Goblin Ghost will show up, cause some mischief, have a scene with us and then traipse off for a while again.
Community Engagement and Listener Questions
01:00:04
Speaker
And I can't say I'm ah anything but overjoyed about it. Yeah, be delightful. As far as some of the other like guys have been around for a little while, like I think Arumi will start becoming a bigger part of the crew while we're at home, which is exciting.
01:00:19
Speaker
um As as we learn more about trusting a warforged as people in the middle of the war type chronologically. And as he learns more, because I mean, he went from As far as we know, he went from weapon to outsider to like almost chosen outsider, like helpful, helping the town, but staying isolated like on his own.
01:00:46
Speaker
So I think there's going to be some interesting stuff to go there. I have no thoughts about the hooded graffiti artist. I also was thinking traveler, which I think would be pretty dope, but we'll see. Yeah, I think personally I don't i don't have too much stake in like the NPCs. i I definitely know, and there has been multiple times where Valk is almost straight up just staked outside of the church.
01:01:16
Speaker
um And is just willing to not go to sleep. I think especially after seeing that that has like having something or someone appear in Nyx's space and seeing how unnerved that made her. And there's been multiple times where I'm like, i'm he's just going to stay outside the entire night to figure out what's going on.
01:01:36
Speaker
Of course, nothing would happen. So yeah no he doesn't. But I think it's and he's interesting. I think especially with like the goblin, I don't fully think Valk was prepared. So number one, Valk was there.
01:01:53
Speaker
Everyone was just having really great interactions with each other. So I didn't want to interrupt, which is very much a Valk moment. but But I know, i I think it was a little off-putting to, number one, actually have to deal with, like, a normal ghost.
01:02:11
Speaker
But then also a ghost that is very much like, hey, you're doing something that is making me, like, remember how I died. And I think that was, ah like, kind of like a pang of of guilt of, like, okay, now I need to start taking what I'm doing and trying to put it somewhere that's, like, not...
01:02:30
Speaker
potentially not disturbing anyone or anything, um especially having the graveyard so vaguely close. There is that. But I think Evauk is just a weird person.
01:02:45
Speaker
So interacting with NPCs is usually not the thing that you will choose to do because it's not going to go well. and think even the conversation with like Hendrick whenever he found the sword, which is like, i I don't actually want to talk to you right now, but I know you want to talk to me. so i i just I'm going to leave in the middle of our conversation because I don't want to be here.
01:03:09
Speaker
So yeah. We'll see how he grows with speaking to people. but I also anticipate that regularly conversing and attempting to help this group will be bad for the mental health of the therapist.
01:03:23
Speaker
Oh, yes. Good point. Valk is very much open having her dig around because he physically cannot. Yeah.
01:03:35
Speaker
Go for it. I don't know. If you get hurt, that's on you. but like Right. I don't know what's going on in this. Kevin continues. Mia, what can you tell us about how you played Valk finding the drow obsidian sword and interacting with the other characters? Is there any more you want to expound upon that or did you kind of i think i cover I think I covered it.
01:03:55
Speaker
Didn't realize it was a drow sword. Still didn't. It's just a scimitar. might no But yeah, that I think the summary of that is, as everybody knows, Valk is just weird.
01:04:06
Speaker
i Yeah. So. Kevin did ask Madison how she's enjoying her new class. I did ask her that one earlier, and she said that she will have an answer after she gets another battle or two under her belt, um which I think is is fair.
01:04:20
Speaker
And then finally, Kevin asked, where's Trevor? We need some chaos. You mean you need some chaos? The order that we have been playing under so far. ah I would like just assume we all hallucinated V.
01:04:34
Speaker
Yeah. ah Trevor has been extremely busy and I would love for him to come play with us again sometime soon. And he knows that he is welcome. I believe he's still in the group chat when we schedule sessions.
01:04:46
Speaker
So but he may have muted it. That's a good point. All right. Moving forward. Liz asks. What special... Oh my goodness. Don't worry about it. I keep dropping things. Got it.
01:04:56
Speaker
ah Liz asks, what special dice, if any, do you have for your characters? Bonus points for pictures in the Discord. I was unaware we've been scoring points during the reviews, but I have to imagine I'm in the lead because I'm the only one that's in all of them.
01:05:11
Speaker
By pure volume, I think I might be in the lead. Mia has points for volume. Well, then I would definitely be in the lead. Oh yeah. Uncontested. Special. You just speak wire. Mia has gorgeous dice. i don't know if they are specific to Valk or if they're just the dice that she plays with, but they are beautiful.
01:05:28
Speaker
They are. Valk has two sets of dice in case one goes bad mid-game. omans So one is a, oh, and I happen to wrap up with one is a purple liquid core set.
01:05:40
Speaker
yeah That's purple glitter around on on it, in it. That's the one I end up messing with, and then I keep dropping them. um I'll just shake it and then in everything that drops in the background. Yeah, that's my dice hitting the floor or table because I keep shaking them to watch the sparkles and the glitter. um And then the other set is kind of like the like a purple when gold and white foil set.
01:06:08
Speaker
I have pictures and and I'll post the post the pictures after we record this. But it's a really nice, it's just a really nice, it's a simpler set out. But i think they really embody his like his color palette the most.
01:06:22
Speaker
When we get to play in person, Mia distracts me by shaking. tweet We sit next to each other and she shakes that liquid core one and I just stare like a cat at a laser. If everyone's at die, you can take the die to shake.
01:06:33
Speaker
There's dice they don't use. I do. I just need to take d12. They are amazing. I have three sets for Nyx. I bought metal dice for Nyx. I don't usually do metal dice.
01:06:45
Speaker
bought metal dice for Nyx. and a felt lined tray to roll them in so that it's not cacophonously loud. Lethal. but but They're very heavy. One is a kind of, i don't know, tarnished bronze brown set that in that the little framed areas for the windows, there's kind of a blackish scale pattern ah to them.
01:07:11
Speaker
One is powder coated in black. with the numbers in red and there are swords and knives and things like that around the numbers. And then the other is a really simple, just steel colored set, but it looks like it's kind of cracked and yeah weathered and nicked up and everything like that.
01:07:34
Speaker
I like that one probably the best, but it's numbers have the lowest contrast on it. So it's a little hard to read than the other two, unfortunately. like And I've at level three, I'm still rolling all three of my D 10s when I have to roll damage. So I'm going to have to collect some more D 10s or something because it's, it's bonkers. But yes, I also will post the pictures on the discord before we're done.
01:07:56
Speaker
And I'll post mine as well. So my dice this time that I bought for this character, the gimmick of the character is that I have to have six items, to two of three different colors in a bag that I draw to know what I do. So I thought I may as well just get some D20s and roll what I draw.
01:08:14
Speaker
So I have three different colored. I had to buy six of them, so i just went with Chessex because, come on. um In a... And I've got like an acid green color for when I attack a purple color for defense and these very cotton candy pink and blue ones for when I get get an icon roll. Nice. So I'll also take a picture of those.
01:08:34
Speaker
Liz continues, what sort of... We've we've got to speed up. What sort of investigation are you most interested in for character reasons? Is it something specific you're playing? Maybe a different style of story? Maybe a noir detective story of spurned love?
01:08:47
Speaker
So what are you most interested in for character reasons? What sort of investigation? Pardon me. like I guess which... What kind of mission would you like to go on for character reasons? I am not a game designer, so I...
01:09:01
Speaker
don't quite know famously if i I draw pictures. So having to use my brain is usually not the way to go ah So I tried to avoid any puzzles or math. that um We're famously bad at publicism riddles.
01:09:18
Speaker
Yeah. But I'm great at pattern of recognition, which therefore means Vauk is great at pattern recognition.
01:09:28
Speaker
But yeah, i but I think for the character, I'm more interested in maybe more of like the role play elements. Anything that's a little more like narrative heavy and trying to speak as we are. our group is famously bad at speaking two people to try in and solve problems. i'm I mean, obviously, from a mechanic standpoint, Nyx is really good at fighting, so combat missions are nice in that sense. But i i also tend to enjoy the narrative-heavy ones.
01:09:59
Speaker
For character style, think it's going to be really interesting when the plane we draw is Shavaroth. Um, but I'm also really worried about it because it feels like that's going to be just really lethal. Like there's just going to be a lot of potential lethality.
01:10:19
Speaker
And also what I have kind of told Eric about my understanding of, of the character, it could be really bad. Like it could go, there's just the potential of going really bad and that's fun, but you know, we'll see.
01:10:33
Speaker
But yeah, we, we haven't yet, I mean, when Eric threw in another reliquor tiefling in the first mission, that was the first time I realized, oh, there are other reliquor tieflings out. Of course, there are other reliquor tieflings out here who are still paladins and and whatnot.
01:10:51
Speaker
and So that was really intriguing to me because it wasn't something ah that I'd worked out and I i didn't know several things about Nyx that I worked out through that conversation, and including the accent that their accent's fake. Uh,
01:11:03
Speaker
And so so that would be cool to to have that show up again and to get a chance to investigate that further as well. Nyx has probably got a spurned love somewhere back there in her checkered past.
01:11:20
Speaker
Mine is ah ending up in Rowat. From a character standpoint, I would love to put Kaz in a situation where he might or does run into people that would and especially user he may not recognize them and they would probably be like you look exactly like this kid I'd yeah would be so fun because part of Part of that is I think that would be a real opportunity for Kaz to prove himself if the rest of the team was around in how to stay cool.
01:11:51
Speaker
I do actually have really high charisma. That is what my like by ah modifiers are. So I just haven't really gotten to show it so much because I've tried to be a really emotional 16-year-old.
01:12:03
Speaker
Yeah. I think... I've tried to make Kaz very good. This is a little off the question, but I've tried to make Kaz very good at that teenager thing where every once a while just say the thing that needs to get said.
01:12:14
Speaker
and I think that would be one of those situations where that would actually be really helpful and dangerous at the same time. So I would love to end up in Roat for Kaz's character development. Nathan wants to know from each of us how we would have responded if one of the party had been on the ship when it exploded the helm exploded and started to go down.
01:12:33
Speaker
Nyx was thoroughly ready to jump off the ship and try to catch somebody if it came to that. I don't know that I could do anything helpful there, but that's that's what Nyx would do. She'd then try to figure it out. I got no flight. I got no teleportation. So I'm i'm not umm not well equipped to survive falling from the sky. but i say I feel like there are two options. One of which semi happened, which I'm very grateful that Eric even allowed to freestyle.
01:13:03
Speaker
a spell number one to try to grab Kaz in some way. But I think if it was the Dedman switch and like we saw another person blow up, I do think Valk absolutely would have turned to Kaz and like you now have to face consequences for what he's done.
01:13:23
Speaker
Like, it's one of those, like, there is a level of responsibility. And by now, like, you should be somewhat aware. And now someone is gone.
01:13:33
Speaker
And now there's consequences. Kind of thing. I don't know how that would have ended, depending on who was on the ship that might have blown up. But... right i think for anyone if anyone was in a scenario where it's like you have directly caused and someone who has trusted you to die moving there is there will have to be consequences that's just what it is i don't think that's unfair i'm trying to find the spell that i was under when we were playing this game because
01:14:11
Speaker
One thing I didn't really get a chance to say is the spell I cast in the first round allowed me to fly every other route. ah Okay. Yeah. You were actually in the best position to survive such a situation. And I would have been on the boat. Now, I may have exploded. i don't know how bad how big the explosion was.
01:14:29
Speaker
But it would have been one those things where we'd had to like kind of do math and see yeah I could have... yeah I couldn't have caught up with the ship, but if the ship stopped... sure I would have flown for a round, fallen for a round, flown for a round, fallen for a round, and just seen where I ended up.
01:14:43
Speaker
At the very least, you wouldn't fall to your death. Right. But also, it is it is dependent on the escalation dice. It's it's not every other
Game System Constraints and Comparisons
01:14:52
Speaker
round. It's if the escalation dice is odd or even, and the escalation dice tops out at six. That's funny. so yeah really That's what it depends on. is if it was If I could fly on even, I'm fine. If I could fly on odd, I'm in trouble.
01:15:04
Speaker
And I cannot find the spell right now to answer that question. And if Nix was blown up on the ship, my only response would be that I'm not resurrecting her. Okay. Until the end of the battle, you have to fly while the escalation die is even. So I could have... Okay, so if you get to six, you you got it.
01:15:20
Speaker
If we make it to six rounds, essentially like I can fly for as long as I need to. Which is... Although... Until the battle ends. Until the end of the battle, and... Especially speaking, when the ship blew up, there were no longer any threats.
01:15:33
Speaker
I feel like, yeah, no, you're certainly right. I feel like we could have talked Eric into letting us still be in initiative ah you still like yeah until I was either dead or safe. but Yeah.
01:15:44
Speaker
that's That's reasonable. But yeah, so thats that that' that's immediately what I thought about this. If it had been someone else on the boat when it went down, I mean, Kaz would have immediately done anything he could, which is very little, save screaming for someone else to help him.
01:15:59
Speaker
Right. Okay. Okay. okay
01:16:04
Speaker
Hexdoctorn has a couple of questions. Mostly for Jeff and Phillip. Mia, if you've played through Genesis, feel free to chime in. 13th Age feels more rule-bound compared to the less rigid rule set in Genesis. Do you feel the stricter rule set limits you as players, or does it make you more creative?
01:16:19
Speaker
Thinking mostly about things like powers, spells, and then triumphs and despairs. I do miss the triumphs and despairs. I think some of the more delightful twists in that story came from that, so I will admit to missing that.
01:16:32
Speaker
As far as my character 13 days definitely asks you to lean into some kind of trope. Like to, to lean into a lane, which Genesis definitely did not require. don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, especially when you have a large group, but it, it is more limiting, not necessarily in a bad way, but it certainly is.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yes. I mean, I'll say I i felt that my... One aspect of my character was limited to the point that I am taking a new talent that allows me a little bit more melee agency because there are times where I draw a defense die and it's like, well, no one's been hurt yet, so I can blow this turn or I can do 1d4 damage with my dagger.
01:17:11
Speaker
so like But there are there are things you can do, especially if you have a GM that's... kind enough to let you kind of switch around talents at various points, and ah that you can overcome it.
01:17:26
Speaker
the The rigidity, I think, but still, it will never be as free-flowing as Genesis. Genesis is Calvin Ball, and that's what I loved and hated about it. It's fun. I loved triumphs from a narrative. I hated triumphs from a, I gotta come up with something cool now standpoint.
01:17:42
Speaker
Fair enough. I haven't played it. I mean, I'm sure technically I have played and Eric will be like, actually, we did that one time. But I think in terms of just creativity and as a player, because I come from system.
01:17:57
Speaker
I think 13th age in that sense is more restrictive. I think especially for spellcasters because there's no utility magic.
01:18:11
Speaker
So it's always weird, especially like having Valku is someone. And again, this is probably like, I just need to sit down with Eric. But like... off like right off the cuff from just the the materials having to i don't think it's the best to have your players be like i need to ask can i do this and it feels like with the magic system it's very much like can i do this am i allowed to do this is this technically going to burn like ah spell i think that really restricts
01:18:47
Speaker
the way that a spellcaster can interact with the world, unless you're a wizard, because I guess they do get utility magic, but... Right. Like, even seeing, like, Nyx interact with things, being like, yeah, I do sword and and demon. I can just do this.
01:19:03
Speaker
And it's like, i i think right now I just have to be a guy. thank you Because i'm not I'm not sure what is and isn't allowed... in the setup.
01:19:15
Speaker
Yeah, we're thwarted by a door because no one has the knock spell because it's just not a thing in this system kind thing. Yeah. Yeah. Even just being able to be like, like, what is Valk doing? Valk's just doing magic. It's like, I'm not sure what I, ah what I'm bound to and like, what sort of consequences happen. there's like natural consequences of using Mastin.
01:19:34
Speaker
He used magic, but like, it feels like i need to ask permission to do things. Mm-hmm. Which is limiting, but it is interesting.
01:19:47
Speaker
I think that's a great point.
Bunker Storyline and Character Comparisons
01:19:48
Speaker
um Xdoctor has another question. We'll come back to it because it's the least on topic. Flame wants to know where we think the bunker stuff is heading.
01:19:58
Speaker
And if there's one thing I can say for certain with Eric is I have no idea and not sure I could even hazard a guess. Oh no. Oh no. I'm, I'm certain where it's heading straight back to Bella Shira.
01:20:12
Speaker
Oh, okay. Well it also knowing Eric, yes, it's headed to Bella Shira. What I, what I do know, and I camera' remember if he said this or not. I do know that they've all been recorded now. All of our, all of our bunker messages are in the can.
01:20:26
Speaker
So whatever it's still heading to, he knows exactly what it does. Yeah. And at what rate he plans to meet it out, I think, as well.
01:20:37
Speaker
So... Yeah, i didn't, of course, of course, Belashira, yes, will be involved. Belashira is like, it it in in the podcast, i don't I don't know what you know about Belashira, generally, Mia, but Belashira is like some sort of some sort of evil Deadpool.
01:20:52
Speaker
ah He's like a meta guy who hates us and our characters somehow throughout campaigns. so Across worlds. ah Across worlds. yeah He's shan he's eric he' Eric's omniscient smug NPC.
01:21:05
Speaker
Oh, if it's self-insert. I understand. Bellashira may hate Jeff and Phillip, honestly, for all I know. That's quite possible, yeah. As I said before, I'm here on vibes, so I promise you, I am i am
Cultural Celebrations and Discussions
01:21:18
Speaker
a baby. I do nothing.
01:21:22
Speaker
We are closing in on 90 minutes, so let's get this last question out of the way. I'm sorry, Mia, did you have anything to say about the bunkers? No. Okay. No. Hexduckthorn's last question is, Saturday is Cinnamon Bun Day.
01:21:38
Speaker
which I believe is day after tomorrow. Yeah. So for us, so tomorrow, tomorrow right now, it's tomorrow when you're listening tomorrow, as we'll see that' time it's it's cinnamon bun day, at least in Sweden.
01:21:50
Speaker
And as far as I'm concerned now in my home now as well, in my heart, in my heart, certainly. How do y'all plan on celebrating this major event? Surely there's only one appropriate way to celebrate that kind of holiday, which is by eating cinnamon buns.
01:22:04
Speaker
Is there another way to celebrate? Is this like this like like depressing Christmas where it it seems like this is going to be a a happy holiday and then it's really, really, really not? got to to the gym.
01:22:15
Speaker
Not based on the picture that he put in the disc that they put in the Discord. That's true. Amazing. this looks like real good With all those calories, you're going live in the gym. They also look like they're covered in pretzel salt, which is interesting. It does look like it's powdered sugar.
01:22:30
Speaker
maybe Well, don't know. I don't know. ah hello Maybe a cinnamon bun is very different in Sweden from what a cinnamon roll is here. I'll be eating a cinnamon roll now. That is for sure. I'll be making. Sure. My kid loves cinnamon rolls. Vast loves cinnamon rolls. going to make cinnamon rolls.
01:22:47
Speaker
Deal. That's what we're going to do. And also maybe those orange glazed ones because I like those. And they're in the state they're right next to each other in the supermarket. And i I don't have time to make homemade ones. So they will be from our friend
Social Media and Project Promotions
01:22:58
Speaker
the Doughboy.
01:22:58
Speaker
Doughman. Doughboy? Doughboy. oh boy don't man you got you bun day plans no honestly i think i was going to chilies that day and i they don't they don't have cinnamon buns so i mean i i had no idea i know plans i should though If Princess Leia hair and fashion, your homage to cinnamon buns in honor of cinnamon. that day Those are so painful to do. I fully believe it. All right.
01:23:33
Speaker
I think that's the best place we can possibly call it. Thank you so much for listening. Once again, if you want to follow us on any of the socials, we are at the geek pantheon. If you want to join the discord, that's where you'll find the link. Also, ah you'll find a link to our Patreon. If you like what we're doing and would like to support it,
01:23:48
Speaker
Or if you don't like what we're doing, we like support it. We'll also accept that. It's true. You find at patreon.com slash the geek pantheon. We have multiple tiers with multiple rewards. Please go check it out.
01:23:59
Speaker
Philip, would you like to plug your thing? Oh, yeah. On YouTube and Spotify, you can find Tales from the Laughing Tree, where we have another actual play. Currently, it's the Queen's Blades, although we're about to return to Blades and Banners.
01:24:12
Speaker
ah Eric's player. I'm GM. I've heard it's Pirates. it has It's currently Musketeers. Right, sorry. It's generally swashbuckling, though. Blades and Banners is... is pirate that one That one's pirates.
01:24:25
Speaker
Yep. All right, well, thank you again for listening. I've been Jeff. I'm Nia. And I'm Phillip. Have a great sentiment, bud.