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C1 Ep 21 Eberron Reviewed Chapter Five
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On the latest Eberron Reviewed Jeff, Eric, and Philip discuss the divisive ending to “Into the Gloaming”, along with Dex’s new abilities, the Druids of the Eldeen Reaches, and what in the world that thing was with all of the mouths. Come join us for another episode of Eberron Reviewed.
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Transcript
00:00:09
Speaker
D20
Introduction to Eberron Renewed Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
radio, your game is roll.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play 5th edition D&D podcast set in the Eberron setting. If you listen as we put things out, you know that last week we completed an ARC. And so as per usual, it is time for us to satisfy our narcissistic tendencies and just talk about what we did that was great.
00:00:44
Speaker
So
Meet the Players and Dungeon Master
00:00:45
Speaker
my name is Jeff. I'm one of the players. I'm Eric, your dungeon master. And I'm Phillip, another one of the players. We are joined by Phillip today to talk about the last arc because a lot of things happened that he wanted to talk about. Mainly,
Eric and Phillip's Arc Discussion
00:00:58
Speaker
I think, yell at Eric.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah, this is mostly the players versus Eric at the prep run review. OK, so let's get started.
Into the Gloaming: The Forbidden Forest Adventure
00:01:06
Speaker
So beginning of the first episode, this was called Into the Gloaming, and that's what we did. We went into the Forbidden Forest. I didn't say I was creative with the titles of these arcs. Fair enough. And we try to be as wary as we can of all the sorts of possible things that might happen to us in the forest. We've been in forests and we've been attacked in forests.
00:01:29
Speaker
I don't think any of us saw this one coming. No, this was crazy. So we get confronted by what looked to us like bears that had been corrupted in the same way the goblins had been corrupted way back in the first arc.
00:01:48
Speaker
And so we start fighting them because that's what we had to do. Really cool imagery on Eric's part when the bear's rushing and I slice it open and the shadow comes out and keeps pace and it was creepy and good. And I honestly can't remember. I've listened to the episode of Thin the Last Day, but was there a curse bringer drama during this battle?
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, mostly just Beric and Cursebringer being kind of catty with each other, frankly. No, I do remember that argument because Beric got snooty and was just like, is it okay if I kill these things? And Cursebringer was just like, well, obviously, these guys are agents of the darkness. Of course you can kill them. Yeah, that was a fun conversation. Right. So, but yeah, so we're fighting these bears and then, I mean,
00:02:38
Speaker
Obviously, it was the biggest thing to me, but I feel like the biggest consequence of this battle in general, because it affects Barret's character as well, is that Dex got bitten, and I had no idea what was happening. Black stuff was coursing through my veins, and Philip was looking more and more concerned, and I thought, I didn't know what had happened to my character. I thought maybe that was the end.
00:03:04
Speaker
But then it turns out that I I got contracted you contract it. I was infected with Yeah disease. I mean I was blessed with Infected with yeah Okay lycanthropy and so now Dex has the ability to become a bear and my stat sheet is is is just bonkers now and
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, like I mean really the only the only stat that changed was my strength, but it was my weakest I went from a negative one to a plus four modifier in my strength next time that we get to level up and choose Statistical boosts I could theoretically become 20 strength and 20 dexterity with my character, which will be Fun but um, but yeah, so Eric why
00:03:59
Speaker
Okay, two things. One, why did you decide that that was a thing that you were like, no, I'll just make them like and throws. And two, did you expect that one of us would this would happen to one of us?
Exploring Lycanthropy in D&D
00:04:09
Speaker
It was a moment of just on the fly thinking on my part because I wanted corrupted bears that were more dangerous than your average bear. And so I pulled up the stat block for
00:04:21
Speaker
were bears just to use, but the flavor of them were just going to be these corrupted bears that lived in the forest. And as the fight progressed and when Theradak got bit, I just decided I'll have him roll for like some form of the corruption to
00:04:58
Speaker
Constitution save and never has the term failing upwards been more applicable Then I I decided to just stick with lycanthropy and make these corrupted lycanthropes and that that's just kind of where it built over the course of the encounter for me because I I like consequences and I look forward to
00:05:02
Speaker
affect him in some way.
00:05:22
Speaker
The less favorable favorable things about lycanthropy to catch up with decks from time to time Well, and that's what I was gonna ask is like on the surface from me from a
00:05:32
Speaker
From a story standpoint, there are downsides built in because of Barrick's allegiances, and that's good from the flavor standpoint, the role-playing standpoint. From the mechanical standpoint, specifically in battle, and also the other thing was I get advantage on basically all perception checks now, unless you specifically tell me sense of smell will not help you. Did you know, like as you looked enough at the werebear to see
00:06:01
Speaker
No, there's really not a downside here. I had heard complaints about the lack of a downside to lycanthropy in fifth edition, but I had not, the complaints I heard didn't illustrate the benefits.
00:06:17
Speaker
And so I didn't realize how good it was going to be for you. I just knew that there wasn't a whole lot of got it bite to it. Well, especially with it being a bear, because, you know, each of them, there's there's what there's bear, rat, wolf, tiger, boar, and boar, boar.
00:06:34
Speaker
and some of those have negative something like like the were rat is is uh evil aligned i think or at least neutral aligned and the were boar i think is the one that is like striving to grow his population yeah and then the bear's like good align doesn't even even as the bear if i didn't have control the first inclination is not to bite they don't want to turn people necessarily yeah so like there's not
00:07:03
Speaker
Mistakes were made. Well, one thing that with Eberron, and we haven't messed with this very much, but one thing with Eberron is a lot of the rules of certain things are a certain alignment.
00:07:18
Speaker
don't usually apply. Yeah, sure. Well, and that's been born out just in our thing with our own characters alignments. Sure. I mean, they're very nebulous. You know, I mean, we've made explicit comment on these reviewed shows that Dex, my plan was to play him as neutral, but clearly he'd become a
00:07:42
Speaker
I don't even know about chaotic good. He's like neutral good. Well, you're officially neutral good now after the were-bearing stance. Stupid bear. And Barrick going from, would you consider yourself originally as lawful good or maybe lawful neutral? No, I think that Barrick's inclination is toward
00:08:04
Speaker
Well, I think Barak is kind of constantly in this internal battle between the fact that his religious upbringing is lawful good. I mean, the silver flame is lawful good, but his impatience tends him towards chaotic. And so Barak is, as most religious people do, is in a bit of a struggle between his
00:08:34
Speaker
his own behavior and once, and the code that his faith would have him uphold.
00:08:43
Speaker
Gotcha. But yeah, so and I don't want to dwell on it much longer,
The Mysterious Bird Follower
00:08:48
Speaker
because other things happened in this arc. But so you've already made plans, you're going to figure out ways to make it as much a stumbling block as a bit to balance and not nerve, because it's really just balancing this character. No, I'm not going to take any of the mechanical benefits away from you. I'm just going to incorporate other
00:09:07
Speaker
mechanical things that maybe wouldn't be classified as a benefit. Sure. Okay, so one of you two might have to jog my memory. I did listen to all three episodes last night, but I was also very tired and drinking.
00:09:25
Speaker
The rest of this episode was us just getting deeper into the woods. We realized that we were being followed by something that we all assumed was probably a wild-shaped druid or a trained, what do they call them? Not familiar. Bird. It was a bird. Yeah. What do they call them? They call them birds. Thanks. You always have an inciting action that you end on, and I don't recall what that was.
00:09:53
Speaker
Um, I'm trying to remember I think it was spotting the bird and like that realization that you were being followed Oh, that's where we ended the episode. I think that's right. I don't think it wasn't a big cliffhanger this time around because it ended before the encounter with the The gibbering out there. Yeah. Yeah So anything anything from the first episode that you guys want to talk about that I've missed because I guarantee you I missed things Um, I mean
00:10:20
Speaker
very early on in the first episode, you all did start off in Miss Marsh with the official departure of the Red Owl and Krast leaving you and stuff like that. Oh, yeah. You mean Zandra? Yeah, Zandra. Just more of the, are you sure you're going to... Are you sure? Yeah. Are you certain that you're going to be able to get the Red Owl where she's going? Yes. And all that stuff. That's right.
00:10:43
Speaker
Um, but we pretty quickly said, we need to get to the druids. Yeah. Yeah. It was not a whole lot happened, but that just was there. Right. Right. I guess the, I guess the, the part of the, the end of the episode between the fight and where we actually ended was mostly just, uh, holy crap. What just happened to Dex? Yeah.
00:11:04
Speaker
Right, and we talked about how we off mic, because you guys had to explain to me off mic, and I had to read in the, was it the player's handbook, or is it in the monster manual? Monster manual. What I was dealing with now. Because you're a monster. Right. And so that's how we said it on the show, too, was like, and as they walk, they have this conversation. Right. And also constantly say, oh, and we feel fair at that game while we're walking on this thing that just came up that he has no idea.
00:11:34
Speaker
But yeah, so second episode, we're walking along the path, minding our own business, when all of a sudden... Mouthes. Everywhere, mouths. Yeah, so you said there's mud in the forest and it's dry everywhere else. Yeah, there's a mud puddle. And we like started... We tried things, like we tried to detect traps and you did... Did you detect magic or so far? Yeah, I did. I could see that it was magical, but we weren't able to get a handle on what that meant.
00:12:01
Speaker
Right and then I love the thing that you said something about You know, I don't know why but I feel like we need to go around this mud But yeah, so the thing
00:12:19
Speaker
Okay, so explain to me because I don't know and I don't know. I mean, I don't know who our listeners are. So I don't know what they know. What is an aberration? I mean, what what does that mean? Obviously, it's a I mean, is it equivalent equivalent to an alien species basically? Or like, how do you how would you? Well, I would say that an aberration is
00:12:41
Speaker
Aberration is kind of a catch-all term for monsters that don't make any sense. I mean, this is basically a big pile of ooze that's full of mouths. So alien in the sense of entirely other, like an orc has a recognizable human shape. So does a werewolf or a dragon even is recognizable as a creature that makes some sense.
00:13:10
Speaker
Aberrations don't. And in Eberron lore, they originate either from deep underground in Kyber or from a different plane called Zorat. The Realm of Madness. The Realm of Madness, yes.
00:13:31
Speaker
Okay, so they aren't, because I remember somebody saying it was from another plane, this one particularly, but that's not all things that might be considered aberrations. There are those that are native to Eberron, but just rarely seen or... Yeah, kind of mutant creatures are sometimes referred to as aberrations. Chuds. Yeah.
00:13:51
Speaker
All right. So I'm trying to remember, it attacks first, and it hits Beric misses Theradac, misses B. It mouths me pretty good. While you're blind, so just all of a sudden after blinding me. Because it launched a Lugi, right? Yeah. Yeah. It shot a spit wad and hit Beric and he was blind and he got gummed.
00:14:16
Speaker
Well, not gum. We should have posted a picture on somewhere the Facebook group or the website or something of this thing because it really is like Gross. Yeah Okay, so what what can it what could it do because it it blinded barrack it made? Theredac loses faculties and run Away, which is not something that theredac would do like that's of the three of us
00:14:43
Speaker
That was the most counter-character for Theradact to be the one that runs, because he's equal parts headstrong and well, just plain strong. But if it hit Dex and Dex had dipped out, they would be like, well, I guess that tracks.
00:15:02
Speaker
Well, the gibbering mother comes from Zorat, the realm of madness. And so that mechanic represents the gibbering, like it's an incomprehensible language that doesn't make any sense, that breaks your mind for a certain amount of time. So if you fail your saving throw against it, there's a table that you roll on.
00:15:23
Speaker
and running away, attacking an ally, dropping everything. There's a bunch of different things that can happen. And so, Theradak running away is honestly probably best case scenario for you guys if I roll on that table.
00:15:37
Speaker
So explain a little bit, I don't think we've actually really talked about them. Just for those who haven't played with a DM that uses them, the idea of the random outcome table, because you use them a lot. We've used them for, well, episodes that haven't been released yet. Your crit table is a random outcome table. This was a random outcome table. I feel like we've used them several times other than that as well.
00:16:01
Speaker
Well, something's in D&D there, but like the gibbering mouth or that's built into the monster card. If you use a gibbering mouth or that's that's what you're signing up for. I mean, I just Philip and I talked about this on Knowledge Check a few times. I love me a random table just because it alleviates some of the burden off my shoulders of coming up with something neat and real quick. What's
Knowledge Check Podcast Mention
00:16:22
Speaker
the Knowledge Check?
00:16:24
Speaker
It's another podcast that Philip and I do on the Geek Pantheon Network and also on D20 Radio. That sounds nerdy. Releases on Tuesday nights sometimes. Anyway, I'm sorry, my dumb joke. So, yeah, I mean, I just I really like Random Encounters and because they
00:16:45
Speaker
They reflect a certain level of reality and D&D and that it's not all not everything that happens is in service to a narrative like sometimes you just run into a bear and so So that's why I like them
00:17:00
Speaker
If you go onto dmsguild.com, which is a Wizard of the Coast digital marketplace, there's a document on there that is pay what you like, including free, if you want, called Zerothal's Dungeon Master's Toolkit. And that's just full of a bunch of random tables. So if you're looking for something like that, you can go pick it up there for free and roll to your heart's content.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, I found one in a... I think it was just somebody posted it on the Reddit, like, here's my thing I use, and it was, you roll the percentile dice, so they had a hundred different items of potions with random, it was like, this is the color, this is the taste, this is the smell, and this is the outcome.
00:17:47
Speaker
And so the one time I've ever DM'd something, I had them walk into a room that the walls were just stocked with potions. I was like, you each get to pick one, roll. And it led to some, there was some fun stuff. One of them got an instakill potion that tastes like strawberries. Like, that's going to be pretty easy to use one day. But anyway.
00:18:05
Speaker
And there's what's the it's a it's a it's a player class. It might be unearthed arcana, but I don't think it is. It's like the magical character that doesn't have complete control of their abilities. And there's like a misfire sorcerer. Yeah, the wild the wild magic sorcerer was a random table.
00:18:25
Speaker
For and there's like every time they cast a spell basically right sometimes it's like the spell works But also your robe catches fire like they're silly ones and then there's also really dire ones well and in the dungeon masters guide there's rules for Drinking another potion before The duration of the previous potion is run out like because you're mixing chemicals. Yeah, you don't want you don't want to mix medicine and so
00:18:49
Speaker
Horrible things can happen to you if you drink a healing potion and then something else and those ingredients mix in your body. So okay Anyway enough about that so But they are fun to play with if you're a DM and you haven't utilized them yet Outside of the ones we were explicitly told to in the next arc Y'all will see how much fun random tables can be when they go in the players favor
00:19:12
Speaker
I say random how much fun they can be for me Philip and Randy not as much fun for Eric. Anyway
Druidic Encounter and Healing Mystery
00:19:18
Speaker
so but we end up I mean we end up beating and I got to use bear fighting tactics for the first time because you know even though I guess I could have used them during that first battle I didn't know what was happening so I didn't do it but once they explained to me also you can turn into a bear and I was like I got these claws and I slash slash.
00:19:39
Speaker
You did not bite it though. I didn't, I didn't bite it. But so we, and we got healed, right? Like, during one of those two encounters, we knew there was somebody out there
00:19:54
Speaker
uh protecting us because we we were mechanically healed and you told us our characters felt something happening and could even hear maybe yeah you you heard a faint voice on the wind okay um so we knew there was somebody out there that was at the very least not entirely hating and wanting us to die right
00:20:14
Speaker
And do we call out? I know I rolled the perception check and you said that I smell Farland, which was pretty funny. Yes, you called him out. Yeah. And he comes out as a bear. And I love your description. He does like a sad bear, comes out.
00:20:32
Speaker
And so we have the conversation where we find out that he is not just, we knew he wasn't just a brewer because we saw him, we saw him, you know, bear fight in the crazy druid things he could do on the train. But he comes out and basically explains that, you know, we knew something was up because he was interested again, back on the train fight in everything that we could tell him about when Jacob got abducted.
00:20:55
Speaker
But it turns out he's like deep into this druid coalition, right? Yeah. And did you make up that whole thing or is that a... It's all Eberron Cannon. Okay. Explain it a little bit. I mean, I just... Well, it's not until the next episode that you all get the title of his organization, the Gatekeepers. Right. But they're like the OG original druids that are tasked with
00:21:23
Speaker
keeping. It's in the Eberron source material, it's specifically aberrations, right, Philip? Yeah, they keep the wards that seal away the stuff from the realm of Zorat.
00:21:38
Speaker
Um, and so I just kind of, I modified their mission a little bit to just be the bad planes, um, just to bring them into the narrative a little bit cleaner. Um, and so, yeah, that's, that's their deal. They, they were the ones that learned the original druidic magic and this, it's this true tradition that is carried on for over a thousand years in Eberron. Um, originally they were all orcs.
00:22:08
Speaker
So, but we have to convince Farland that it's better if we don't abort and let him and his group handle it. Like, not saying they couldn't, just saying, you know, we're useful and strong and really, really wanna. So, and what was the name of the shifter?
00:22:31
Speaker
that Shayla Shayla and she it seems like she out ranks Farley or but maybe or maybe it could just be there they're the same and he needed someone from his group to say yes this is a good idea I was just trying to to play with they're they're both like gatekeepers like same rank
00:22:51
Speaker
But Farlin was clearly letting his emotional state get in the way of good decision making, and she stepped in as a non-biased third party and was like, no, these guys can be useful. Come on, let's go. Well, is there a hierarchy or is it just there's grow? And then there's the rest of them. There's grow and then everyone else. So why do all the random NPCs have temper issues, Eric?
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah, Eric. What? None? What? So yeah, even the good guys are just crotchety a-holes.
00:23:24
Speaker
Bala isn't. That's true. That's true. And the red owl kept her cool all the time. She was the worst person. So they they they blind us and walk us around. We agree to be blinded and because we kind of had to take you on a very circuitous path through the woods. Right.
00:23:47
Speaker
And so right before the episode ends, they unblind us and we just see just a Congress of Druids. How many did you say? Just hundreds? Hundreds, if not, I mean, it is the gathering of Druids. It's not just the gatekeepers. It's the Wardens of the Woods, all the other Druid factions out there that don't have names in Eberron Cannon.
00:24:09
Speaker
All the Druids have gathered at Greenheart to try and figure out what's going on with my bar. And there's a big old tree and then you win the episode. Yep. And then we went outside, took a break, talked about things. All the players were still happy speaking to me. And then the third episode happened. This was before the dark times. Okay.
00:24:35
Speaker
So let's just gloss over. Let's do it chronologically. That's what I'm saying, but we're gonna do it quickly. We
Planar Division and Shadow Threat
00:24:43
Speaker
were told there was a dragon that has- Okay, so Grow, your stupid name. I didn't think about Grow, honestly. Stupid, stupid name. Is that actually the name of the head of the gatekeepers, or did you just make that up? I made that up, yeah.
00:24:59
Speaker
What is it? Keith Baker is far more creative than I am. Grow Taran, I think was his name? Grow Terra? Something like that. Is Terra something? Grow Strong Branch was in my head, but I think that was a joke that we made. So Grow explains to us, basically, it really just clarifies what we already either knew or assumed.
00:25:22
Speaker
that something some planar division was breaking down and the shadows really wanted to get into our plane and wreck shop. Well he talked about the fact that it's not just a planar division like based on tracking the planes and the way they they come into relation with Eberron the material plane this shouldn't ever really happen. Mabard never gets this
00:25:50
Speaker
This overlapped with the material plane and so something's happening and they're trying to figure it out. Okay, so So they explain, you know, we need to complete this one gate. The keystone is missing a dragon took it Go get it and you did you explain the dragon is gone. Yeah, I think I was a bit more eloquent than your recap No, it's pretty much how I remember it. Well, and it's an important
00:26:16
Speaker
dragon for Eberron history because Virak is the first dragon to teach the druidic magic, right? This is the originator of druids in Eberron.
00:26:29
Speaker
And so they basically said you need to go find the Dragon's Horde, enter it, get the Keystone, and come back. And if I remember correctly, Grow explicitly said, this is a 100% fact. There is no way around this. If you touch anything besides the Keystone, everything will die. It was something to that effect. That's what I remember. No, no. He said, this place is sacred to us.
00:26:53
Speaker
And we would ask you to not take anything other than the Keystone. That is what he said. Yeah. There was no doom and gloom about it. And then, and then I made some comment about how I was this one. We wouldn't get any loot. And you said, well, you can. Yeah, exactly. I did. I did. Yes. You laughed exactly like that. I listened to it last night. You laughed in exactly that way.
00:27:21
Speaker
That's how I remember it. Hey. I mean, I wish there was some record. I wish we could, I wish we could throw into it somehow, but you know, it's lost to the winds of time. Stands of time? It's lost? No wind. Time has sand and wind, you know? Okay. On our way, uh, Barrick tries to find out how to cure lycanthropy. Yep.
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah, he does. And Groll promised to put together a list for you. Yes. Oh, I just remembered the thing out of the second episode when we were talking when Farland calls me Lyle and Dak gets confused and almost ruins the...
00:28:02
Speaker
The ruse and like I explained to him in character and he said I need to roll for In insight check. No, it's all true. That's the thing though. I think truth words. I think he was taking the term insight and a plot like would Theradac be able to Process every right I think is right, but we got that cleared up too. It was a big deal but
00:28:25
Speaker
on the way he talks about lycanthropy and how to cure it and because it's bad because he has a prejudicial view of lycanthropy look within like I mean this is this is two or three hundred years ago there's this zombie apocalypse plague of lycanthropy
00:28:50
Speaker
Right. And I get that. It's like five generations after the zombie apocalypse, you get bit by a zombie and try to convince me, no, no, no, no. It's cool. It's cool. I got this. Totally okay. Not interested in eating anyone's brains. Right. But that is true. I mean, Barak's whole life, he has grown up with the stories of the scourge of lycanthropy. So I get it, I guess.
00:29:20
Speaker
But anyway, we had to give the dragon something worthy. Well, you touched a tree and spoke to Olang. Yeah, I got to talk to the big druid. The big pine tree. Which I don't feel like we took enough advantage of. No, you did not. We could have done a lot of touching trees and finding things out. Yeah, yeah.
00:29:46
Speaker
If we had any reason at all to doubt the authority of Grow, I guess we could have consulted Grow on whether or not we were really allowed to take anything. But I feel like it was made so clear that Grow's authority in this matter was absolute that there was really no reason to have that conversation. I agree. I agree. I think that's – yeah. That is unassailable logic.
00:30:08
Speaker
Um, so we touched the tree. The tree says you have to make an offering. I love this bit. This was such a great moment. It really was. It was there. And I took his favorite rock, put it on the ground and it worked. And I wonder like.
00:30:24
Speaker
Would you, if we had made, I mean, if, if we had made an unworthy offering, you'd have been like, try again. Nothing would have happened. Right. So let me ask this. Did you allow that to be the thing because of the quality of the rock or because the dragon or the spirit or whatever could tell of the personal sacrifice?
Sacrifice and Gatekeeper Understanding
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's sacrificed. Yeah, that's what was involved. Sure. So.
00:30:48
Speaker
Well, the specific requirements was that it had to demonstrate that we understood the heart of the gatekeepers. And so, this thing where Theradak finds these beautiful little bits of nature and collects them, it just made such a good, clever thing to catch for Randy. Yeah, yeah, it really was. He was on the spot with that and it was really good. And, you know, Theradak
00:31:15
Speaker
in a lot of ways is the completion of our group in the sense of the sweetness, like the sweet personality of our group that Dracono's had in a different package, but there's still very much this, you know, I don't think either Dex or Barak have
00:31:37
Speaker
like emotional attachments to the things that they have that would be considered a sacrifice outside of, well, if I give it my weapon, it's a sacrifice, but it's not an emotional one. Well, and I just want to let all the players know, because obviously this is a podcast, some editing goes into it. We just talked about how the lycanthropy thing there was 15 minutes of dead air cut out while we figured out what just happened. Well, I did a lot of giggling. It wasn't just dead air.
00:32:05
Speaker
But the the theredac thinking to sacrifice his favorite stone was there was no editing. He just did it. So it was really, really good on Randy. So the ground opens up and we are able to enter the hoard or at least the the cavern, the mound on the ground that is round. Yeah. All right. So, yeah.
00:32:33
Speaker
So we go down and we see, first off, you try to detect magic and apparently just the whole thing.
Navigating Verac's Hoard
00:32:41
Speaker
Everything's magic. Right. So we see food and we knew immediately all of this is illusory. Everything is magic or everything is imbued with magic. Everything was imbued with magic, but we verified that it was not illusory because we were able to touch everything.
00:32:58
Speaker
Right, sure. I guess when I say illusory, I don't mean non-corporeal. I just mean it was, it was, yeah, fine. Everything was imbued with magic. And since we knew that up front and we had been told, it's very important that you don't touch anything. Hey guys, would you do me a solid and not take anything that is safe to my people? That is so not how it was expressed. That's how he said it. No, he didn't.
00:33:22
Speaker
He says this is sacred to us. So we, the thousand druids and the big giant tree standing around here. Ask you to not take anything. Yeah. That's sort of kind of the thing that you say when you're being polite and implying and will like nuke you if you don't, if you do. Well, it'd be a shame if anything happened to the place.
00:33:47
Speaker
I mean, it would have been theft. Like, that's what they were trying to convey. You're dealing with the law enforcement of the land. Like, hey, you're about to walk into the Smithsonian. Don't take the Declaration of Independence, please. Except as it turns out.
00:34:02
Speaker
It would not have been. Well, no, but I'm just talking about their warning. Let's not get too terribly ahead of ourselves. So we- For those of you listening to this episode that haven't listened to- Yeah. Why? Why would you do that? Stop now. Solid point. Go listen to the podcast.
00:34:19
Speaker
So, but we know everything is imbued with magic. We know that that and a powerful one. So when we're offered a thing, we have to think, don't touch the thing, don't eat the thing. And I think at this point, the nature of the trap wasn't quite evident to us because while we know that Theradek really likes food,
00:34:43
Speaker
an offer of food would be reasonable to all of us. Right. It is nothing on par to the next two rooms as far as, but it was an escalation. Sure. Sure. And a gift of food made. I mean, it's what the voice of Iraq said to you. You are travelers. You must have traveled a long way to get here. Please have some food. I'm sure it's been a hard journey.
00:35:07
Speaker
But instead we didn't do that. We did the reasonable thing and listened to the all authoritative druid who had advised us against it. The instead of the dragon. The leader of the army. Okay now hold on a minute. You say instead of the dragon. Tell me why we knew that was the dragon. They told you that the the horde was immune with the spirit of Varak. I specifically asked is this the voice of Varak and got silenced.
00:35:33
Speaker
Well, you wouldn't. Yeah, we asked lots of questions. I'm not gonna do the math for you. Like, we asked lots of questions. Uh huh. And got no answers. So anyway, so we go, we bypass the food. Now, you have you, you have said, if we had, if we had taken the, the voice up on any of its offers, there would have been no repercussions.
00:35:58
Speaker
Or that we would have gotten what we were trying to do. We could have eaten the food. We could have read the books. We could have saved people from the water and still could have gone to the hoard, gotten the piece, and left. And then, just to twist the knife further, you said, and for all you know, the food could have made you stronger and bigger and more attractive. Were you really going to do that? Did I put it that way? It was something. It sounds like something that shows up in your spam folder.
00:36:28
Speaker
um is that true yeah it was true what was it i don't tell me we just started talking again before this episode started i don't want to okay that is not true we did none none of us stopped talking to eric don't break kayfabe i mean we didn't want to talk to eric but we had to yeah but no what what would have happened if if let's say let's say we all sat down and ate
00:36:54
Speaker
you would have basically, and I don't know if this would have been impactful to any of you. Well, I mean, first off, you would have gained a level. Come on.
00:37:11
Speaker
And you would have had the opportunity for a full respect. Like if you wanted to switch class, if you wanted to shift stats around, um, Verac would have imbued you with the ability to make yourself whatever you felt was needed for the fight ahead. So, so if we'd eaten the food, well, and you may not have done this yet.
00:37:36
Speaker
This, uh, it was getting there. Oh man. I mean, it, like my, my logic, it wasn't just a hardy, hard, hard, I'm going to screw everyone over because I know what they're going to think. Like.
00:37:51
Speaker
I genuinely expected, I was fearful to a certain extent that Philip was going to be the one to like crack the code because it's Verac's horde. I did drop that Verac's spirit is imbued there and Verac is unequivocally a benevolent spirit in Eberron. Like she did nothing but good for the quote unquote lesser races of Eberron and so
00:38:19
Speaker
a lot like in the context of the world, I feel like it all makes sense. It's not a swerve for the sake of a swerve.
00:38:29
Speaker
Now, if Philip wants to say, no, I'm wrong, that's fine. Philip does want to say that. Well, do you actually believe that? Philip wants to scream that. I didn't know that Iraq was pure benevolence. I mean, I didn't. I know that there are good dragons and evil dragons and everything, but I didn't trust that that was the voice of Iraq. I felt like every, every logical reaction based on what we had been told says this is a test we were supposed to.
00:38:59
Speaker
An important thing that we leave out of the conditions was if you prove yourself worthy, you'll be allowed to take the item from the Horde.
00:39:09
Speaker
That was definitely said by the tree, I think. You may be by the tree. Yes, it was because we asked what the dangers were in the horde. Theradac did. Theradac asked O'Lane what the dangers were in the horde and he said that if we proved ourselves worthy or something to that effect or pure of heart, I don't remember exactly.
00:39:33
Speaker
I'm not trying to refute Ural's points, but I feel the need to defend my story to a certain extent. We don't think you were actually trying to screw with us. I know, but... You just did end up screwing with us unintentionally. I get that the context of O'Lane makes it seem more non-biased than Grow, but O'Lane is a druid with the same feelings about this place that Grow has. I mean...
00:40:03
Speaker
It's just that Olay may have known Verac. I'm just saying we were set up to expect a test. Absolutely. Okay. So that's what this seemed to be. Okay.
00:40:15
Speaker
And also, it's not like you've really thrown a lot of good at us, Eric. Try to help you guys out. The very first arc, we ended up getting some sweet magical items. But in the 17 sessions we've played since then, or whatever it's been, it's not like we've just stumbled upon riches.
00:40:38
Speaker
So we go into the second room. The second room. Let's talk the second room. Am I incorrect? Like obviously all three rooms would have been... There was benefit to taking up the offer in all three rooms for all three of us. But did you design... It just seems like the book room was very much for Barak. I included some stuff to try and tempt you a little bit also. I mean, honestly, Theradak just has a pretty
00:41:08
Speaker
airtight, chill, simple backstory to where there's not a whole lot to...
00:41:14
Speaker
to poke and prod at him with. But yeah, I mean, I tried to incorporate some elements of the book room to intrigue you as well. Right. And I don't want to say that the third room was necessarily for Dex because that's such a huge, broad thing that all three of us were going for everybody. Yeah. But it seemed like the middle room and it may have just been because of the book, of the things you said, you said there's the history of Eberron and here's something about
00:41:42
Speaker
You may have said it as a joke, your family specifically, but I feel like you said something about the history of the Great Families. The Great Families, that's what it was. And because you also said the thing about the quarry and the, you know, which was where Dex is from. But yeah, this is when things started to get contentious.
00:42:08
Speaker
And we were still operating under the guys, or under the thought that this was all a test to make sure that we were going to be worthy to take the, uh, the Keystone. So I don't think, okay, Phillip, was there a point where you Phillip was like, let's just see what happens. Or was it the whole time when you were doing the internal struggle thing? Was that just for character and role-playing? No, I mean, it was.
00:42:31
Speaker
Essentially, I thought that it would actually be possible to take and read the books, and that the consequence of that might be we fail to get the Keystone. And I was trying to decide whether Barak was focused enough on the task to
00:42:58
Speaker
to care more about the Keystone than about all of the things that he could potentially get out of an hour in this room. But logically and from a reasonable perspective, Dex intervened to prevent him from having to make that choice entirely by finishing opening the door.
00:43:23
Speaker
Right? And I was trying to think how would Dex do this, see this, and being somebody who has spent his whole life with deceitful people, the first thing that I thought was this is a test. I was still operating under that condition.
00:43:45
Speaker
Who's to say when you were saying like, but reading a book's not taking a book? Yeah, but touching a book could be enough for us to fail this test, and then it all disappears anyway. There's no guarantee that you'd be able to sit down and read. These are book spines. There's no guarantee. We ought not judge these books by their covers. Because yeah, it was tempting-ish for Dex, but it was obviously very tempting for Berwick.
00:44:12
Speaker
And I think the fact that everything was magical helped Beric to perceive it, to see it as a danger because if everything just reeks of magic, if this is a room with actually physical old books, it would have been, I think, harder for him to move on because, well, if I grab a book, it's not immediately going to just vanish and crumble to dust and I'm going to hear the, you know,
00:44:42
Speaker
Right. Mocking laughter of this disembodied voice and then monsters attack us out of the walls or something. Right. The room starts filling with hot oil. Right.
00:44:59
Speaker
OK, Eric, did you let us suppose that we took advantage of this one? I mean, I don't have to ask what would happen because we would gain the knowledge of the thing that we read. Like, that's the reward. Yeah. But did you have like, let's say. Let's say Philip pulled down a book about his dad.
00:45:19
Speaker
And I'm correct in that, Philip, you didn't, you're not controlling the backstory of your father, Eric is, right? Yeah, I don't know. Um, yeah, I don't know anything about him. Did you have stuff ready to go? Yeah, I, I have his dad's whole backstory already written. Okay. So, and you would have just dropped it on him. We'd take, we'd have taken a recording break and you'd have dropped some info on him. Cool.
00:45:47
Speaker
I like all of the stuff that I tease you guys with like the the father the the patron like the the gaps in your backstories that you intentionally left in there like the stuff with your backstory. I have all that stuff written out in case something happens like a magical bookstore. Yeah. So.
00:46:25
Speaker
glowing with blue light. Right. And the voice explains to us that we can see in this water, anyone that is, did they have to be alive?
00:46:37
Speaker
And
Magic Water Basin and Missed Opportunities
00:46:39
Speaker
No, it just told you if you approach the water and speak their name or their title or their relationship to you, their meaning to you,
00:46:39
Speaker
so we go into the third room and it's a basin full of water on a pedestal.
00:46:49
Speaker
You will see them and they will be cured of all ills. And brought to you. And extracted and brought to us. So theoretically, we could have saved Jacob. Saved Draconis. Saved Draconis. Seen where the red owl was. Brought the red owl back to you. Rescued whatever is up with your family. And potentially brought your mother back from the dead.
00:47:18
Speaker
Sure. I mean, would Barak have wanted to do that? Is that something? No. I have thought about that since then, and I don't know that I obviously hadn't come up in Barak's life, and so probably he would not have considered this question beforehand. But the whole idea of the silver flame is that when you die, your spirit becomes a part of the flame, and so the flame is strengthened by
00:47:46
Speaker
by the souls of those who have followed it. And so resurrecting someone would be too weak in the flame. So it would be a heavier thing than it might otherwise in a magical world. Yeah. But I guess you could have walked up and said, my father and seen exactly. Sure. I don't know that he's dead. Right. Exactly. No, granted, it may have. I do. I know. I know. So does the stupid sword.
00:48:17
Speaker
you remarkable dick. But, but yeah, and that's, you know, that was I decided to make that the hard room for decks, just simply because that makes sense. I mean, I mean, it's hard room for everybody. But that was the one that I was like, all right, I can't, I can't boldly walk through this next door. I can't walk past this pedestal, basically.
00:48:41
Speaker
Well, and except for Theradac, because that just reinforced to me that Randy doesn't really have a whole lot of hardship in his life because he just walked past it was like, nope, let's go. It was like, well, okay, there's nobody that you'd want to bring back. Well, I mean, he did talk while we were walking. This may be in the next talk, but I don't think it is. He did talk while we were walking about
00:49:00
Speaker
not getting to see battle and, but, but people that he trained with dying in the war. So he could have had that, but I think he's also a pragmatist about the horrors of war. Yeah. And it was like, you know, they died honorably and, but yeah, no, he doesn't have, cause he didn't, he wasn't there at the beginning with Jacob. He didn't see Jacob get abducted like we did. He never met Draconos. So I think, I think he has a very down to earth idea of the danger of extraordinarily powerful magic. Yeah, sure.
00:49:31
Speaker
So we go through the door and we enter the hoard. Well, I guess, sorry, just touching on that. I guess that's a, that's a point to his character of being a, a soldier in the last work. Cause he's the only one amongst you that was that he probably has a very different point of view on the morning. Like in that level of magic, just being dropped on the world. Sure. Like that could have been him if he was stationed in, in Kire. So yeah, that makes sense.
00:50:00
Speaker
So, but we go through the door and we enter the hoard and at what point, Eric, did you say the thing that made us all despise you? As soon as you got in there, as soon as you looked at the hoard, the voice told you, you have rejected my gifts, take what you came for and go. And there was a lot of angry silence that got cut out.
00:50:22
Speaker
There was a lot of just all of us staring at each other, open mouthed, and then side-eyeing Eric, and then kind of going, are you, are you, seriously, all of that was gonna, you, so, a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I love you all. I mean, obviously the anger that you hear in our voices as we're playing our characters. Is real. No, it was.
00:50:46
Speaker
editing that I was just like, oh my God, I didn't even pick up on half of this when I was at the moment at the table. It was relive. This is awful. It was acting, but it was a very easy well to draw from at the time. I mean, because, uh, you know, obviously Beric was angry that he'd been talked out of reading these books and, and Dex was angry that he had
00:51:11
Speaker
Let, I don't know how to say it. Passed up the Godwell. Say what? Passed up the Godwell. Yeah, like that he, you know, he's still, he's still getting used to this whole benevolence and rule following and stuff. And this is the first time that it has backfired on him. This is the first time that following the rules hasn't worked for Dex. And so, you know, in my head, um,
00:51:37
Speaker
I was honestly like, what's Dex gonna take from this besides maybe it'd be better if I started doing my own thing, not doing my own thing, like leaving the party, wandering off but doing my own thing like I need to stop letting this morality that suddenly is in me guide me.
00:51:57
Speaker
Yeah, which obviously I didn't if you when you listen to the next arc, I mean he's still back He's still kind of a jerk, but he's not gone rogue yet Yeah, I know it's just it's the right term. But anyway, so that anger that you hear in our voices is It is us manifesting our disappointment in the choices that we made as players into anger as characters and
00:52:23
Speaker
So we take the stupid rock and we go back to the... Or it's wood, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And we go back to grow and have a conversation with him. Yeah, and I don't even remember that conversation right now. This episode seriously dropped yesterday. It started with him asking how did it go. Yeah, yeah. And Barak just sees, like Barak didn't really say much for a while, I think, right? Yeah, eventually he started trying to like...
00:52:53
Speaker
He just started talking about it more like we expressed our frustration and he's like well I'm sorry, but and then it then it sort of turned into like like Eric's defense of his of his behavior Yeah, and so was the mouthpiece for Eric it was It was either hand him the piece of wood and start the ritual or punch him and Beric went with hand him the piece of wood to start the ritual, right?
00:53:19
Speaker
So yeah, so let's get to the end because I have some questions about that and it won't just be us recapping the episode, which while it's fun for us, I don't know how fun it is, let's do. So the ritual starts and they are able to keep the bad guys
00:53:35
Speaker
from crossing over, right? Like the Lich doesn't come out or anything. The only thing that comes out of the gate is Jacob. Well, a person that we didn't immediately know was Jacob.
00:53:52
Speaker
So here's, and of course he's wearing the lock and he says we have to go find Graham, or Graham, Graham? Graham. Graham. Oh yeah. It's an M as in Marvin, not an N as in Narvin. So, Nancy, not Nancy. So we, my question is,
Time Flow and Jacob's Return
00:54:17
Speaker
At what point did you decide this is how Jacob was gonna come back? Oh, very early on. I throw some hard to deal with stuff at you all, but child murder is not something that I'm real keen on putting on this podcast that's supposed to be fun for everybody.
00:54:37
Speaker
with three parents that you're playing with. So, yeah, I mean, I decided really early on that I decided both that Jake was coming back and this whole scene has been in my head since we started the campaign.
00:54:54
Speaker
Okay, and that's what I was wondering. You never intended for the three of us or whoever we're playing at the time to go to Jacob to get him. I guess you could have been planning for that contingency, but that was never
00:55:11
Speaker
That was never the plan. That's good to know because that guy could beat the tar out of us. Whatever he wants to. I don't care about bears and cursed swords and any of that stuff. That guy was wrong. Do you have anything, Phillip? Riveting stuff, guys.
00:55:32
Speaker
I still, you're still on the, on the, you're toeing the line here. I'm still in the doghouse. As it were. Yeah. If you have more questions about the Jacob stuff than what we address here, tune in for the next episode of a Broadway new conversation with Jacob. Yes. Yes. And we do do what he says and we go and find Graham and she gives us some spoilers.
00:55:56
Speaker
Yeah, this arc and the next one are more directly connected than previous ones have been. Like previously, there's been a little more of a self-contained episodic nature to the arc. Yeah. Yeah, it's been kind of Monster of the Week, and now it's narratively – I mean, they've all been vaguely tied together somehow, but this is very much – Yeah, moments later.
00:56:22
Speaker
Is that the plan from now on? Are we are we getting into? No, I still want to have kind of those. It's really important to me to have things for you all to do that aren't directly connected to the narrative, because both for you as players and you all the listeners, I don't want you to burn out on the story and just be like, we're still going, we're still going, we're still going. I want to have those breaks of like.
00:56:44
Speaker
This other thing is going on. So go deal with that. Like, sure. Go deal with these terrorists that are holed up in a town outside of the woods and stuff like that. So. OK, so OK, here's here's here's the thing. Now, you made Jacob 15 years older and we get into it more in the next episode. But I mean, you do explicitly say that he's 15 years older. So clearly time works very differently in these other planes.
00:57:14
Speaker
And he, we discussed this, he'd been gone for a couple of weeks. Is that what we kind of decided? Yeah, we worked out a couple of weeks. Yeah. I think, I think the way it actually ended up breaking down when we did the math after we recorded, it was like a year a day around there. Like one day here is a year there. So we have
00:57:35
Speaker
We are on a deadline to find Draconis because Tieflings have humanoid lifespans, right? Yeah. And he was already in his 20s. Three years out from on his side of the of the veil, I guess.
00:57:52
Speaker
Well, that's another crazy thing. If we had looked into this well and been like, we need Draconos back, God, we'd have to Skype in Trevor for every episode. Hey, guys. Oh, man. That's probably a good thing that we didn't do that. Not that I wouldn't love to play with Trevor again. The ending was straightforward. Yeah. It turns out that, yes, there is given sufficient combined power, in this case, all of the druids magic, there is a way to- All of the druids everywhere.
00:58:21
Speaker
and we don't know that it's so screwed we don't we don't know this was specifically like i i did describe this it was like 50 druids came with you oh okay magic to open this up okay the rest stayed back to continue the conference and and we don't know for sure that it took all 50 it could have been overwhelming force they could have done it with 25 of them the the three of us have got it
00:58:43
Speaker
But what we know is with sufficient power, specifically magical, sufficient responsibility. Well, this is this is just something that I struck me as almost kind of shocking on this side of the table as the DM. This is a little bit spoiler for the top of the next arc. But it's understandable. Like you got Jacob back. Jacob said, let's go find Graham. So you did that thing.
Druidic Ritual Reflections
00:59:11
Speaker
You all never.
00:59:12
Speaker
Like all the Druids did was open a doorway to my bar and something almost came through. You all never asked what they were attempting to accomplish.
00:59:22
Speaker
with that. And so- That is certainly true. That just struck me as odd that nobody went, hey, guys, that seemed like it was going to be real bad. What did you do there? Well, we weren't in the best headspace. No, and I get that. We'll see Farley again. We'll ask him. Oh, will you? I guess that's up to you. It's going to be a while before there's friendly conversation with Druids. Yeah.
00:59:47
Speaker
Yeah, we weren't going to have, we weren't going to sit down and have coffee with grow. Uh, but so we know that, we know that there is a way to, at the very least, prevent things from coming through the gate. But obviously we can't just send out a missive stationing 50 druids at every gate for perpetuity. Right. I mean, I guess we could. Really. Um, but.
01:00:14
Speaker
I mean, I think the message here is we need to retire because the gatekeepers have got this. Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me. I'm just gonna go turn into a bear and live in the woods. And poop there is what I'm told. That bears do in fact poop in the woods.
01:00:31
Speaker
So here's the thing, we have a lot of other stuff that we want to talk about, but there's just zero way we can talk about it without spoiling, if not the next whole arc, at least the next episode. And I feel like we certainly tried and I feel like we've done a good job of not getting ahead of ourselves on these renewed or these reviewed podcast episodes.
01:00:49
Speaker
So we are going to end the episode here. Anyway, thank you guys for listening. Really, really, really though. The next arc, the next episode is a, I mean, it's just a, an info dump of like, we learned so much, both the players and the characters. And so will you. And then, and then just some fun episodes. The next arc's great. I think I'm the most proud of it, of any that we've done personally. I'm not going to speak for the other guys.
01:01:18
Speaker
But thank you for listening. As
Acknowledgments and Listener Engagement
01:01:22
Speaker
always, we want to turn your attention to the music that we use in the podcast, and that is done by Kevin McLeod. You can find all of his music two places. One is freepd.com, and that's all of his public domain stuff that you can just use. The other is Incompetech.
01:01:42
Speaker
and that is Creative Commons. So if you use it, you do have to give him credit somewhere either on your website, in your podcast, provided you're publishing it. You can do whatever you want around the table. You can play Leonard Scanard around your table. Nobody's going to know.
01:01:56
Speaker
But I mean on it like the the ambiance style music Kevin McLeod does like it I would recommend using it even around your private table like it's it's high enough quality to where put that on a loop and it does good things yeah we don't actually we don't we don't do that in real time like when we're recording the episodes we don't hear the music but I can imagine if we did how much like maybe we should do something where we can pipe something into into the headphone headsets when we're playing because it
01:02:23
Speaker
It would heighten everything, I think. It definitely makes it fun to listen to. Even though I know what's going to happen, there's still some tension and stuff because of the music that's playing. Anyway, so that's him, Kevin MacLeod, and he's great. Thanks to the D20 Radio Network for letting us represent D&D 5E in their stable of podcasts.
01:02:42
Speaker
I'm still amazed that they, before we even released the first episode, they were like, yes, we'll have you on and you can do this. They show a lot of faith. Well, that Eric had earned through the other podcast for sure. But it's a good network to be a part of. There are a lot of great podcasts on there. Please go check them out. And that
01:03:03
Speaker
Maybe reach out to us on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Everything is just at the Geek Pantheon. And that's it. Hope you guys have a wonderful week, and we will catch you next Friday with the first episode of The Next Arc, which probably has a very elementary title, but I don't know it yet. Hey. Out of the globe. Anyway, thanks for listening. I'm Jeff. I'm Eric. That went well.
01:03:31
Speaker
let's try again uh so thanks for listening uh i'm jeff i'm eric and i'm phillim bye see you