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C1 Ep. 45 Eberron Reviewed 8
365 Plays7 years ago
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This week we return to our reoccurring show Eberron Reviewed! Jeff and Eric sit down to discuss the Ancient Memories arc. Join us as we breakdown the massive storyline and pull back the curtain as to some of the decisions made during the arc.
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Transcript
00:00:09
Speaker
D20
Introduction to Eberron Renewed
00:00:10
Speaker
radio, your game is roll.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play, fifth edition D&D podcast where friends play pretend. And one of them, one of the friends tries to kill the other three.
Reminiscing and Arc Kickoff
00:00:41
Speaker
My name is Jeff. I'm Eric. And today we're going to be doing another episode of Eberron Reviewed. And oh boy, I think I think we started recording this arc during the Carter administration. So we've got a lot to talk about.
00:00:56
Speaker
We'll just dive in. So the whole arc began.
Revival and New Beginnings
00:01:01
Speaker
God, it was in November. It was back when I still had hope. So the arc begins right after Beric is revived and Theradak disappears and Eladrin, correct, has died.
00:01:19
Speaker
We And we get a new party member in the form of Booyah. I was getting there. Okay. So yeah, Booyah, Griggles, Griggle, Booyah, Griggle, not Booyah, Griggle's worth.
Booyah's Special Bag and Escape Plan
00:01:30
Speaker
Mr. Figgles. And we gained a party member. So we chat for a while and ultimately decide to try to escape. Drake here.
00:01:43
Speaker
Philip inexplicably decides to continue playing two characters and Drakir leaves with us. And the first major thing that happens is OK, actually, the first major thing that happens that ends up mattering is we find out that Booyah has this bag. Yep. So that's is that your creation? Is that something you came up with? No, I found a rollable table on the Internet for kind of a random bag of holding.
00:02:08
Speaker
It was an idea that I had of having this bag of holding that quote unquote always pulls out something useful, but actually have it be randomized and having to try and come up with a reason why it would be useful in that situation. And so, yeah, it was just a fun idea I had. I ran it by Randy and he seemed to really enjoy it. And then I found that table to realize my dream.
00:02:32
Speaker
Tell me more about this internet. Well, it's a series of two stupid jokes. Yeah.
Elemental Battle and Critical Hits
00:02:41
Speaker
So, okay. So we found out about the bag and the first thing he pulls out is something dealing with daylight and we're all like, no, no, no, no, no. Basically a light grenade. Yeah. So. And then we get in a fight with some elementals and.
00:02:54
Speaker
quit ourselves well and that's the first time we come across the new crit function that you gave us. I just listed like two the first two episodes last night so they're gonna be very detailed and then it's just gonna trail off to be like and what's the one guy the little one what's his name?
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, I have played a lot of fantasy flight games Star Wars role playing game and really enjoy that functionality of introducing new and exciting elements to a scenario when you crit.
00:03:26
Speaker
And honestly, I think I'm going to expand it moving forward to being anytime you roll a 20 on a check, on a saving throw, allowing you to introduce something cool or do something cool. Just the idea in my head is like, if there's a fireball and Beric and Booyah fail their saving throws, but Dex rolls a 20, you can
00:03:50
Speaker
in fiction, say that you grab them and dive out of the way with them or something, something like that, just to introduce that more cinematic feel to the campaign. OK, cool. And the other thing, I like it. It terrifies me. I haven't rolled a crit since it since it happened, which is, whoa, in nine episodes, ten episodes, I haven't rolled a crit on a hit. Anyway, it's cool because it gives us more agency in the fight. Yeah.
00:04:13
Speaker
It sucks because being creative on the fly. I don't know if you the listeners have noticed. I'm not good at it.
Gameplay Mechanics: Triumphs and Despairs
00:04:20
Speaker
So and you did say in a later episode, but you said if let's say I roll a one and so we get their triumphs and despair. Is that what it is? Yeah. And so we get a despair. Then I would say something. Right. You would introduce the bad thing. But then if let's say the next role, Drakir, or he's gone now.
00:04:41
Speaker
Barrick rolls a 20. He can't say his triumph is too offset. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's just kind of boring once it's happened. It's there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we fight the elemental and I'm pretty sure it was the first episode right right after this.
Lycanthropy Cure Misunderstanding
00:05:00
Speaker
Dex makes a statement, an uninformed statement that he is willing to, because my understanding the whole time was that lycanthropy requires like, it's a quest to get rid of, you have to find the components, you have to find a caster strong enough, blah, blah, blah. So I'm like,
00:05:23
Speaker
Dex is like you know yeah sure we can we can go looking for it you know yeah I'll still have it for a while I can still be effective in these fights but we can go over this cure and I you can't tell in when on the listen back there's one point after I say it where my voice is quiet because I was walking out of the room
00:05:41
Speaker
Um, my son was here while we were recording. I was going to check on him. And while I was out of the room is when you guys said remove curse. Yeah. So when I came and sat back down, I did not know. Yeah. Uh, I had, cause Barry could not had that or Phillip had not rolled that spell with his previous level up. So I didn't know that this was coming. And so when he says that he can do it right now, that was Jeff's genuine reaction to be like, Oh crap.
00:06:09
Speaker
But yeah, so so that happened. He's not a bear anymore. And you know, and and kind of the the reason listening back through the episodes, like the Druids talk about there needed to be this long list of components to do it.
Power Dynamics in Eberron
00:06:23
Speaker
I think I at one point said it would be kind of a quest to undo this, but something that I think gets lost in D&D, especially in Eberron, the setting is set up in such a way to where by the time you hit level three as a character,
00:06:38
Speaker
There's very few people in the world that exist at your power level. And so the fact that Barak is now a level six spellcaster, I mean, he could probably stumble into most villages and be regarded as a deity with his power level and what he's capable of doing.
00:06:56
Speaker
Sure. And so I didn't do a good job of kind of conveying the power that he was using to remove the curse. And that's why like the lycanthropic purge that we've referenced on the show happened is because nobody in the Church of the Silver Flame, unless they are an X number of levels cleric,
00:07:14
Speaker
can cast remove curse, so they have to go out and deal with it in other means. But like I said on the Facebook group, for those of you over there looking, and Jeff and I have had some conversations about the lycanthropy stuff isn't completely gone. There's still repercussions coming. There's still... Oh, great. Great. Cool. Just because I tend to agree with some of the people that said that that seemed a little lackluster. But at the same time, the lycanthropic arc
00:07:40
Speaker
I do see some of the Finality of it in it being the reason that Barrick died and all this stuff. So But there's there's still something in the works. So Yeah, and that's something that I forget when we're playing or what I'm listening to other D&D podcaster to that I listen to regularly I know you listen to some others as well is that we the player characters are a special case There's not this isn't a world full of roving adventurers
Adventurer Rarity and Unexpected Challenges
00:08:10
Speaker
uh who are of this power level yeah like you you don't think that because that's who you spend all your time with is these people and you you know but yeah i i forget that 99 of the world of eberron is carpenters and blacksmiths and and janitors yeah the whole concept of eberron is low level magic is very widespread so like those cantrips maybe a few first level spells
00:08:35
Speaker
I would say the majority of the population have access to that. But once you start getting the second and third level spells, you're starting to get more specialized and rare. And the mighty time you hit fourth and fifth level spells, you're yeah, you're regarded as something truly special. Okay. Dex is it because he doesn't do spells. You cast stuff from your from your rib. I got I got the one thing that's true. And it's a bit it's powerful. Well, I guess I have to know the ice knife. Yeah, light knife. Okay.
00:09:05
Speaker
There is no way that we could have held our own against five T-Rexes. Oh no, no. That's why I never set it up as a combat. It was a chase sequence. Like you all were meant to run through the jungle away from the T-Rexes. It just resolved a lot quicker than what I intended. But what if we, what if we beefed it? What if, I mean, what could have happened?
00:09:25
Speaker
That's the beauty of D&D is we would have had to have found out. And I mean, I we say you all couldn't have taken on five T-Rexes.
00:09:36
Speaker
I continue to marvel. I guess that's true. You've you've thrown stuff at us that we weren't supposed to be before. Yeah. Sucker. Yeah, no. Yeah. So yeah. Oh, when we saw the green claw, the emerald claw. Yep. Yep. See, this isn't a character choice where Dex Dex isn't reverent enough to remember these things. I'm dumb and I can't remember any of these people's names. I can't remember emerald claw. I just remember you said they had green hands and I'm like, you know,
00:10:04
Speaker
people the green hand folk yeah so yeah so we see them but we get to the ruins and it was pretty clear to us that they are not abandoned like I think I think we added a survival check and like there were
Ruin Exploration and Giant Strategies
00:10:23
Speaker
you know, giant footprints all over and everything. We duck into the first room we find and you spin this yarn. It could be true. It's true because you're the DM. So you said it. It's true. But about how giants will sometimes disguise the, like they'll make something look mundane. It's actually a passageway. So we spent a lot of time like knocking on walls and checking for doors and to no avail. And
00:10:50
Speaker
so we go through we see a sleeping giant and That bag oh Yeah, Booyah reaches in his bag, and he pulls out a giant sides tent yep That says do not enter devourer and all of a sudden all of us are like these harebrained schemes of like well if we started his feet we can probably get most of them devoured before before yeah
00:11:14
Speaker
before he wakes up. Instead, we just decide, I steal the keys. Rolled some good checks, got lucky on some good checks to get the keys, get in the door, and once we're inside, we find Orgev. And he tells us about how he and Barash were over here, and Barash has been taken elsewhere. Then we have the most buckwild giant fight.
00:11:41
Speaker
They come in and they see the tent, so immediately, because Booyah had set it up in the way, so immediately we're boned. And throughout the course of it, things that happen, Booyah runs away.
00:11:59
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Uh, Drakir and D-D-D-Barrick both gets thrown against, like, just slammed against walls. Um, and the tent eats a j- Booyah climbs up a giant, and just top-down, like, like, like, that Muppet that eats other Muppets, just shoomf, and, and he was gone. And I...
00:12:19
Speaker
um my ribbon weave gets caught and I get dragged around like a rag doll like it was a dumb fight like it was fun to listen to again last night and then we use the stupid tent to clean up the other dead giant um uh I mean it sounds so stupid yeah yeah but it worked it worked it was fun and then as the next thing we see the uh trying to think
00:12:46
Speaker
The next thing that happens is we go... You try to get through the door with the shackles. Oh, right, the door. Okay. The shackles thing was fun.
00:12:55
Speaker
I maintain that when I shrunk down, I should have able to slide my hand out of the shackles. Well, it's not a nor it's not a mundane shackle like well, but it can't have all eventualities built into it. It can't know. But what if they shrink? We better make they shrink too. I think that I think that I pulled one a good one over and you just you just my fiction was that it maintains contact with the skin. You're true skin.
00:13:20
Speaker
Okay, all right because because you know there are spells like in large and Sure, I don't I forget the name of the spell. That's the opposite of enlarged D in large D in large D large So I mean I feel like those eventualities in large and unlarge Those eventualities would have built into it of oh the shackles around me. I'm just gonna make myself giant and bust through it all right um
00:13:48
Speaker
And then we do eventually figure out that in order to get through the door, either a giant has to touch the giant hand or an elf has to touch the elf hand. Beric touches it. It realizes he has to cut his hand and do blood. And we get to the other side. And I made some great jokes about the back of that door that I was very proud of. And you guys just looked at me like I was an idiot. There's not a lot of times where you could say elf butts and
Sinusret's Execution and Elemental Dogs
00:14:09
Speaker
giant butts in this game. And I'm going to take advantage of them when they come.
00:14:14
Speaker
but uh and so what we see when we get now we go down the the the tunnel and uh and this whole time we've been enveloped in okay so explain to me because i'm listening back we weren't actually hidden hidden it was just it was kind of like uh we couldn't be noticed yeah like you you weren't leaving past without a trace is what booyah had cast
00:14:39
Speaker
And the way I kind of view it is it prevents you all from leaving footprints, masks your smell to a certain extent, like if we do something to draw attention to ourselves, we're going to be seen.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, because if you're just standing out in the middle of a field, obviously something can see you. It just gives you a bonus to stealth roles. So if you're actively trying to hide, it is far easier to do that. Okay. So, yeah. Gotcha. We were basically immune from being caught out of the corner of somebody's eye. Yeah, essentially. All right. See, when we first started playing, it wasn't until the giant fight that I glommed onto that. I thought we were basically
00:15:19
Speaker
covered in shadow. Yeah, something if not covered in shadow, like just rendered invisible to anybody but other people in the party or inside the 30 feet area. But so, so we stumble upon, we walk up upon a an execution. Yep. And I think I read, I think I got this right.
00:15:43
Speaker
the usurper sinusret sinusret yes um i mean it was it was just a coup right there wasn't anything really like the former giant leader was usurped i mean yeah i mean the i i have my notes right here so i can tell you the exact um so jumping ahead in the arc with lucan austereth being the vampire that lives underneath the giant ruins right and is the actual controller of all of this like he's the
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah, so Senna's threat was basically Lucan's proxy to to assume control because Kenemon Hagsbane, which was the leader of the giant you saw get executed was right antagonistic towards him because of his profane nature. So gotcha.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. And then so we, the execution happens, everybody kind of dissipates back to whatever, you know, when you say dissipates in a B&D setting, they didn't actually do that. The crowd dispersed. Yes.
00:16:45
Speaker
Into in back to wherever they from once they came and we decide that we're gonna follow the body Mm-hmm because we assume one of two things either it's going to lead us to burial ground or a tomb something where we might find the stones we're looking for yep, or alternatively, they're going to Take it to the same place. They're holding Barasha. Mm-hmm either one good for us
00:17:11
Speaker
So we follow it And then is that when we see the dogs like we're walking down the hall and we see these okay And they are elemental dogs fire
Unexplored Mysteries and Party Challenges
00:17:21
Speaker
dogs. Yep. Yep, not and I think I clarified this at one point They're not dogs on fire. No, they're dogs made of fire, right? Yeah, like how when I say on fire I mean the same way that the the Giants hair Yeah is of fire that but these are actual just they are made of fire. Yeah, right, which is baller We
00:17:43
Speaker
hide from them, behind a door, they are dogs, so they scratch at the door like dogs do, they know there's something on the other side that they want. I think this is why I stopped this, this is why I haven't gotten to the remainder of the episodes is from this. If I'm not mistaken, it rectifies itself by Beric throwing some dried meat down under the hole in the door, or under the crack in the door, and they run off.
00:18:06
Speaker
yep um and we keep going we see okay explain the significance of the headless statue it just seemed like a was it gonna go somewhere we didn't pursue it yeah okay like if if that was something that you all grabbed onto and returned up through the giant ruin there would have been a storyline of vengeance and things like that but you all didn't
00:18:30
Speaker
follow that story thread and that's fine. But yeah, that's just something that was introduced that probably will never be resolved. Sure. But what we end up doing is
00:18:45
Speaker
Smartly rare in a rare moment of clarity for our party. We decide not to just walk through the next door And the darkness right that's the exit. Yeah, so Luckily, we have two characters that have superior darkvision. I
00:19:01
Speaker
I thought just Rick here because I doubles I think okay I Guess it's a superior dark vision. He has a an invocation that allows him to see through magical darkness. Yeah But so and I can't see Jack nothing anyway, if it's if the if the lantern goes out Dex is blind Dex is useless
00:19:20
Speaker
In so is of being a human in so many ways Dex's, you know And we I said that I think my is are changing in human the only races that don't have dark vision Well the other campaign that I'm playing my online campaign. I just I decided to be a dragon one This'll be fun. I'll be a dragon. We're also no dark vision Oh, I'm the only one in the party without our vision in that one as well, and I'm the Ranger guide So it's like well guys I rolled a good survival check, but also the Sun's going down. So so good night
00:19:48
Speaker
uh yeah we're playing two of annihilation nice um and uh so we uh we figured the only way but he's in there he's ready and as far as we know he can see through his dark vision yeah here's magical darkness we don't know for sure but why would he have cast that if he was also going to be blind so um
00:20:09
Speaker
We said the only way that we can handle it is for me to use, uh, the daylight spell that my ribbon, we've cast to dispel it. And, um, we, you know, the trick here takes the precautions he needs and we light them up and inside is Sinus Rhett and
Magical Battles and Lava Dangers
00:20:29
Speaker
his two dogs. Yep.
00:20:32
Speaker
And if I'm not mistaken, the very first thing that happens, right? Booyah banishes a dog. Booyah banishes a dog. Yep. And that was great. Okay. And then Barrick rolls a 23 and it's a miss and you say end of episode. And so we spent 30 minutes just like, well,
00:20:50
Speaker
Well, crap. Yeah. So explain that. Obviously, when the other dog goes, I think we were hitting him with like 18 at that point. So explain that. Is that is that is that is that a is that an elemental thing? Is that a board thing? Is that something I made you cooked up? Yeah. Where with both dogs present, his AC was 38 with one dog present, his AC was 28 and with no dogs present, his AC was 18. So I don't think I think I think
00:21:21
Speaker
Booyah would be the only one able to hit him with one dog. Yeah. Even if I, well, I guess if I crit, I get to hit him. It doesn't matter the modifiers, but a 20 for me, I think 25, my modifier is plus five. So, I mean, it would have been impossible to even touch him if both dogs were still there. Yeah. And man, he dealt some damage. The first time he hit me and you picked up, was it 60, 68? Something like that. Yeah.
00:21:51
Speaker
cool um but yeah it because and you made mentioned when I think Booyah took out the second dog too um and you said that the aura around him dissipated as he dissipated and uh correct use of the word right and so we started being able to hit him he he got a critical fumble and we got a critical success which helped a lot yeah um
00:22:14
Speaker
Well, he got a crit too because he or somebody fumbled. I don't remember, but he smashed the floor and lava. Oh, no, he quit on me. OK, yeah, that's right. He did. And I would have been screwed if I hadn't had that uncanny dodge. Yeah. And I know is it taking twenty three points a day with Article 11? Yeah.
00:22:34
Speaker
Is that math right? Yeah. Yeah, I took 11. Otherwise, I think I would have died. I would have been unconscious, been gone to zero, not with that hip, but with the next one. Yeah. But uh,
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah. So was that in your plan from the beginning, the lava thing? No, that was just something that I kind of came up with on the fly. OK. You know, that's kind of the thing with that whole crit system is you think, well, yeah, it's a fire giant temple. Why wouldn't there be lava underneath it? Right. Sure. And how can I most quickly and efficiently kill the party? But.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah, so we end up getting the best of him. And his sword, the sword and there's the mural that we see. The sword I notice has markings like my ribbon weave and is even missing a stone where a stone should be where my ribbon weave stone is. The sword resizes because Barrett grabs it, I believe. And so,
00:23:38
Speaker
and he's, you know, looking over it. Okay. And then the mural, and this is actually, this is where I stopped listening. I was listening to this on the way over here. Okay. The mural causes Booyah because he pulls because of the scroll, right? The scroll of languages. The mural causes Booyah to have visions that basically set up
00:23:59
Speaker
the rest of this arc, honestly, I think. And I'm going to conflate them with the visions from the Five Cove hallway. So if you want to talk about the Booyah visions just real briefly, because I know there's stuff in there that will want to adapt.
00:24:23
Speaker
Um, so there was the vision of the elves standing in a circle with the red stones. Um, similar to those, which Barrick has been searching for. Um, then there was a vision of, and it's been a while since I've listened to this episode. So forgive me. Um, it's queued up. I can just play on my phone. Um,
00:24:46
Speaker
There's the vision of one elf passing off their stone to another elf. There's passing of a necklace that seems to be made out of the similar material of Beric's sword to a dragon.
Murals and Puzzles: Visions and Choices
00:25:01
Speaker
There, I think the vision of Beric Elodrin passing his gift on to Beric's mother was in there as well, if I'm remembering correctly.
00:25:09
Speaker
and i think those are the big ones uh forgive me oh and the young girl being turned into stone that's right and and the mural itself was of a giant was it a giant handing a sword to an elf or enough handing a sword to a giant or they just both had their hands on a sword
00:25:25
Speaker
They both had their hands on a sword. OK, OK. And and and that's where I've stopped listening today. So now we're really just flying by the seat of our pants. Yeah, we keep descending, right? Yeah, it's just I'm further further down. And this is where the hall with the five alcoves. Yes. And the torches, five torches above.
00:25:54
Speaker
Man, this was a fun thing that you cooked up. So the premise of it is every time one of us interacted with a button, we found through various different means. I think one was an investigation check on my part. And then when Drakir did Sense Magic,
00:26:13
Speaker
Like I noticed there was a button security sense magic and notice there was more magic on that button So we were able to find the buttons. Yeah do those two means I don't have all of them And so each of them had a mural and each of them had an object of some sort. So the first one The first mural was the 13 elves in a circle and there was portraits of Osteroth on either side the second one was Portrait of or a mural of
00:26:44
Speaker
Was that the cave? No. It was the suits of armor were the objects. I remember that. Yeah, it was the elf handing the gift to the giant. OK, that's right. The third one, the objects were trees and. That's when the that that was the cave. That was the cave. The fourth one, the object that this was the one with the little girl and the doll.
00:27:14
Speaker
yeah with the elf sneaking up on the sleeping giant um and there the the dead trees were the object for the cave one right um and then yeah there was no object on the fire on the fourth one the doll appears yeah uh and then the fifth one was the elves in the circle
00:27:30
Speaker
Um, but so each one of those had a hotspot that we pushed and as soon as we pushed it, we were zapped into the consciousness of an ancient drow. Yep. Um, well, actually at first they weren't drow, they were just elves. Um, and
00:27:47
Speaker
A bunch of questions. You had to make a decision in each of them, and you marked down something. I mean, I can't see behind your screen as much as I tried. You marked down something each time we answered, and I'm guessing it was just some sort of thumbs up, thumbs down system. Yeah, a binary, good and evil sounds too extreme, but yeah.
00:28:11
Speaker
Yeah, because and because like the first one you said, well, we were asked by the silver flame or just the entity. The entity. Yeah. We were asked, what would you do with this power? And here said he would he would kill the masters. Yeah. And I said we would free ourselves from slavery.
00:28:31
Speaker
and then the other three all said something about free my people, free my family, it's like that. And so since mine was more self-focused and Dracarys was just straight up vengeance focused, when the powers were passed out, they got something radiant looking and we got something shadowy looking.
00:28:55
Speaker
How did that affect each of those? OK, each of those decisions. There was that one. There was the do we hand the sword off to the giant? I think we all did. There was the how do we free the slaves? Yeah. Which I think three of them or two of them.
00:29:16
Speaker
said they would just be sneaky and free them. And Dex and Drakir again both said, kill and free. And then the last one was stay and fight or run and hide. That may be out of order. A little bit out of order. So for each of those, there was an answer that led one way and an answer that led another way. What were the effects of those?
00:29:38
Speaker
So obviously the final puzzle of all the elves on the door antagonistic towards each other, you all had to line up based on where your elf was standing. But then in the actual fight with Lucan, those of you that
00:29:53
Speaker
Aligned more closely with him, which would have been the darker and I actually was him in the in the visions. Yeah Or was seeing through his eyes or it's hard to explain because we did have agency. Yeah Did now did what we did if I having been Lucan or controlling Lucan seeing through his eyes, whatever if I had made more benevolent decisions would that have changed the path of
00:30:20
Speaker
of luken that that would have changed how he justified his actions so i did as luken in the visions affect change that rippled throughout the history well no you okay you were informing you were informing the history of the world essentially your choices like i was giving you all as players agency
00:30:40
Speaker
over the truth of Eberron. But you weren't changing his. Lucan's actions, regardless of what I had said, Lucan would have always become this vampire and lived this life and and yes, ate this dragon. Sure. But OK, but you said it had something to do with the the Lucan fight. Those of you that so here and decks were actually being dealt less damage.
00:31:04
Speaker
then Barak Booyah and Orgev would have taken. OK, so yeah. I like how you pretend Orgev Orgev did anything at any point. He did. He shot a long bow one time. He did you long bow one time and he shot it. He's the one that shot the portrait first. Right. And I thank you for doing that because I I mean, I was first the initial order. I was like, I hold. I don't know what the hell to do. Yeah. There's there's pictures on a wall. Yeah. And like I understand we're in a magical fantasy world, but there's pictures on the wall. Yeah.
00:31:34
Speaker
Um, um, so that, that was the, and I, I should have better done a better job of kind of evoking that through the fight, but. Well, that was the, that was the only thing the rest of it was. And we'll get back to the fights, uh, that fight. Um, so first was the pictures and Booyak throwing up on the ceiling and, and like Dex's, Dex's reaction was Jeff's reaction. Like I don't have a clue what to do. There's, I guess I could jump up and try to pull him down. I don't know. Um,
00:32:04
Speaker
And so we just moved on to the second one. You just ran to the next Alco. Ran to the next Alco, pushed the button, had another vision, and that's when we realized, okay, one at a
Impact of Vision Choices on Combat
00:32:13
Speaker
time. Yeah. No more of this. Because we had to start fighting the suits of armor while Bouillon was still up on the ceiling. And because the portrait was still active, he was able to do the Iron Crown. Yep. On Barrick. Which I thought initially when that first happened, that it was just a punishment. But listening back to it,
00:32:35
Speaker
Was he controlling Barak? Okay, so that's it wasn't the crown was a thing for I mean, it did hurt him. Yeah, but it was a mind control effect. Yeah, because he did attack, right? He attacked. Yeah, he attacked somebody. I can't recall who I can either. This was like early December. Guys give us a break. Yeah, I've been so much of it since we put these episodes.
00:33:01
Speaker
But yeah, so, but we do end up, Orgev hits the picture and Booyah drops and shoots the crossbow and picture's done. And then, and we take out the... The suits of armor. The suits of armor.
00:33:18
Speaker
The vision for that one, what we already said, touched on was basically there was a great evil and we had to decide whether we were going to keep our new super powerful weapons or give them to more powerful people. Give them to the Giants. Yeah. And we all gave. Yeah. Because and again, with boy, Dexter here had some like with similar justifications was like.
00:33:37
Speaker
Oh, I can get it back. Yeah, like if I need to I will sneak it in the night cuz cuz trachea slippery and Dex is Sneaky, I mean, he's yeah I don't do a lot of Rogi things. I really don't know but
Dex’s Rogue Limitations and Continuous Challenges
00:33:51
Speaker
I have that skill set. Yeah, like They just don't Like the one thing for instance that I really could have robed around on was sneaking around the Giants road. I
00:34:02
Speaker
But Booyah has this thing Well, yeah that we can all do because and so why not it's hard with you being a rogue because yeah your your skill set off he obviously lends itself to stealthiness and I mean you did pick pick the lock I did but You have Booyah with his pass without traceability which gives everybody amazing stealth scores and then you have Barak who can literally become one with the shadows right and so that kind of
00:34:29
Speaker
I don't know, blocks you off a bit from really shining with that particular part of being a rogue. Right. And I and I and I wasn't a like I did a charisma bill. Yeah. And we just haven't had a lot of opportunities lately. Yeah. You know, like the one the one time that we really could have done, I could have used that.
00:34:49
Speaker
It was better for Barak to talk because he spoke giant, knew the giant history. I did a lot in the beginning talking with Farah and Julian and their parents Marcus and Adar. See, I remember these names somehow.
00:35:07
Speaker
Uh, cause I read the Wiki. Thanks for the ever on a crude Wiki. Yeah. Uh, real quick mill the episode. Why not? Uh, he's mentioned it once before on the, on the latest episode, but I want to thank, uh, Laura and I probably will mispronounce your last name. I apologize. Laura Picron is how I'm going for it.
00:35:23
Speaker
uh for starting the wiki uh it's really cool that you did that i hope other people take up the mantle and help you out because it is an undertaking yeah um but but thanks it's it's neat and it really that's the only reason i remember marcus and adar because i was looking at the wiki and it had npc's and i was like who the hell is marcus i had the same thing i was looking at the list npc's from that archive i was like who is marcus and adar i have no idea
00:35:49
Speaker
So thank you, Laura. Anyway, so. But enough of that rogue rogue talk. We go to the third one. It is the the trees. The trees come to life and we.
00:36:09
Speaker
And that was, that got scary for a second. I mean, my ribbon, we've got taken, um, Barrick got taken. Well, we, we glossed over a really, I think watershed moment in this arc, um, after the giant fight was the decision to not rest, to press on.
00:36:26
Speaker
You know, and that's, that's what I was just listening to. And we say, do you guys want to take, here's the thing. I got here before I heard why we decided not to, because there's like, you guys want to take a rest? Do we want to look at this mural and then take a rest? Do we want to go back to the slave quarters at the time we thought was slave quarters where they can't possibly get in and take a rest. And we were all like, yo.
00:36:45
Speaker
Yeah. And then what didn't what what shifted was Orgev chiming up about reminding you that, hey, my best friend is like prisoner and I don't know where he is. And so if we could press on. Yeah, that would be great. Hey, my best friend, me, myself has three hit points. I'd like to digress. That is what it was. You're right. Boy, that was dumb for a major reason. We'll get to in a minute. Yeah. And that was
00:37:13
Speaker
The darkness that the giant had cast was to make my design to get rid of daylight. Nah, we should. I should have let because I think here said he could dispel because those of you. I think it's OK. We'll get there. We'll get there. Third one trees and really gets sucked into the tree. Barrick gets sucked into the tree. I think I end up getting my own route. My room without myself and maybe Barrick to with the rapier. I think.
00:37:43
Speaker
I think you cut up the roots enough to get barrick out and then we just kind of decide in fiction that well if barrick can get out then surely the ribbon weave can be pulled out too. Sure.
00:37:53
Speaker
Anyway, we take care of them. The next mural. Silly. It's the thing, the little girl with the doll and we have the vision about the slaves and whether or not to free or how to free them or whatever. And this you said the doll jumps out of the painting and runs towards. Does a creepy voice of like you didn't kill the bad man. You should have killed the bad man going after Beric and Booyah. Right, because we killed the bad. Yes.
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think you actually you always kill the bad man. Yeah, always kill the bad man. Good advice. Yeah in in D&D Not in like, you know life But uh, so Just shoot them
00:38:37
Speaker
This is when he falls dead. Cause it's doll. Did you even have a stat sheet for him? I have a pretty sizable stats sheet. That was a, a DM decision moment of, okay, they didn't take a long rest. They are on their last legs. They're about to have a boss fight.
00:38:52
Speaker
And I could kind of tell like you all were enjoying the hallway set up. But by the time we hit the fourth one, I just kind of started to get a sense of fatigue and ready to press on. And so I just decided to make it a fun moment instead of another fight.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think I think I don't think it was fatigue. I think it was routine. It was like we know the steps and get to the through the alcove. And so it was like, all right, we wish the button what happens.
Puzzle Resolution and Vampire Confrontation
00:39:20
Speaker
And unlike a lot of D&D games, we we do have time constraints on not only scheduling, but also the length of episodes and everything. So that's that's always cognizant in the back of my mind. So yeah.
00:39:30
Speaker
The I forget the name of the stat, but it's from the curse of Strahd book. It's just a creepy doll I think called mr. Pinklesworth or something. Okay That yeah is is a pretty potent magic user not devastating, but Yeah, just gonna have you all fight a creepy doll, but instead it was just like yeah move along Yeah, it was very well fought a creepy doll. It did happen. Well booyah fuck you and
00:39:55
Speaker
It was funny. You're like, well, he's a doll. You shot him in the head. It's over. Congratulations. You saw my stuffed animal puzzle. And then we figure out, I think you kind of had to lead us a little bit on standing on the sides of the doors.
00:40:11
Speaker
Oh, and at some point we did discuss that we had just gotten different things. Yeah It was after the second vision before we hit the third button. I was like you guys are seeing this too, right? Yeah And we realized that some of us got the light and so it's got the shadow and And then yeah, so we get on the door and the doors open and what did we see? Oh
00:40:36
Speaker
Barasha we saw Barasha and a strap to a table and we saw three bad guys three vampires. Yes Well, we didn't know that time. Yeah, I think we knew No, you knew I the vampire reveal wasn't until the following episode. Okay, but we we did know it was a goblin. We were pretty sure a Were creature of some sort. Yeah, and then another guy. Yeah, it was just a drow. Yeah and just
00:41:01
Speaker
pulling back the curtain a bit, we finished that, oh no, no, no, this was all in one arc, the hallway of the vampire fight were one play session, nevermind, as you were. Yeah, we started the vampire fight, because he says the thing about the dragon blood being so fulfilling, or being so potent or whatever, and that's when we knew, at least knew that Lucan was a vampire. We didn't know about the other two until later,
00:41:30
Speaker
But that's when we took a quick break for some reason. Somebody probably had Dinkle. Yeah. And Philip, Philip says, Oh, I don't know. And I said, Oh, Oh, I can guess. I can guess daylight. That's got to hurt a vampire. If it was like, I'm pretty sure it'll kill the vampire.
00:41:45
Speaker
And I said, awesome. And you said, you didn't take a rest. And I screamed a cuss word that is on recording somewhere. Just didn't make the cut. Yeah. Um, and I, I feel like that should have been, cause I try to remember as much as I can, but the, the fact that I was able to very quickly inform you like, Nope, you used that spell at this time for this reason. Like, I feel like that should have tipped the hand that like, that was intentional.
00:42:11
Speaker
Yeah, well, I just know I was giving you credit for being smart and remembering something which, you know, egg on my face. Yeah. OK, so had would that would not have killed the vampire. It does damage to the vampire. Right. And if the vampire I think the the stat sheet says if a vampire dies while in daylight, they don't get their missed form. They're just done. They're done.
00:42:36
Speaker
OK, so but it could have I mean, it also would have hurt here, but. And at the time we only we only knew that one of them was a vampire. But yeah, we also knew he's a real strong big bad guy. He's got to be. Yeah. So I think I would have been willing to. I mean, I would have yelled like, you know, your close your eyes or something. But. Yeah, I mean, it would have happened. I would have I would have done it would have been the first thing, the first thing that happened, because I tend to make sense. I tend to go first.
00:43:04
Speaker
And then yeah, it would have been great. All three of them ride in, ride in pain. And so the streak here, but he'll be fine. Um, but anyway, and so, um, we took out the goblin pretty quickly, right? Yeah. Clark, Clark, Clark. Uh, for, for, for those of you that are fans of another certain D and D podcast, the adventure zone, Clark, Clark on that one, different, different guy lasted a lot longer. Yeah. Still is like arcs over. So that is not still, but.
00:43:34
Speaker
Anyway, so, the car goes down pretty quick. But before that, we had an hour and a half of discussion between, and I don't ever
00:43:53
Speaker
I sound frustrated when you and Philip do your things. It's a joke. I want the listeners to know I enjoy listening to Philip and Eric do their back and forths. Once it goes from a back and forth to a circle, that's what I'm ready to move on. That does happen sometimes. And it did happen in this one. Like it got to, it was like, okay, this is obviously not gonna resolve. And also, and I was a part of that in the sense that Dex wasn't going to let Barrick sacrifice himself. His whole thing was like,
00:44:24
Speaker
The Barrick logic didn't make sense to Jeff or Dex of, why don't you three take out those two and I'll be here with this one. It's like, why don't we four take out these three? Well, and that was probably the first time role-playing that like, there was some genuine, like, I managed to get in the head of Lucan because Barrick was coming from such a position of strength and like, okay, if you do things like give us all these things,
00:44:50
Speaker
And I was just like, what? You just walked into my house. Like, why are you the one making demands? Like, I've made you an offer. Take it or leave it. Right. Yeah. I mean, we didn't have the chit to make that. Yeah. Pretty sure use that word, right? We're going to pretend I did. But.
00:45:09
Speaker
And what I was going to say earlier is I never want to undercut when Philip wants to do a narrative thread. Yeah. By punching a guy. Yeah. And that's why I kept saying like, can we fight now? Dex wants to fight as Dex, not Jeff saying we fight now.
00:45:28
Speaker
because I needed it to be known that Dex has given up on diplomacy. But I wasn't, and occasionally I might. Like Dex would probably occasionally, and I probably have in the past, like Beric's trying to talk somebody into something and Dex just, you know. Go for it. Yeah. But I didn't want to this time because I really felt like both Philip and Beric were having a good character moment for Beric, being like, you know, I've already died. Yeah.
00:45:58
Speaker
Let's let's let's tango But then we bear when Philip family says bear cast moonbeam on the werewolf I was just like yes And what a cool spell that is for a How about this though? Little shit. He could have cast moonbeam on on Dex if Dex was the turn He's had that spell for a very long time
00:46:21
Speaker
He could have cast not prior to the fight where I turned. I can't remember if he had it then because it does a lot of damage. That's the. Sure. OK. OK. Yeah. But what I'm saying is now does it only do damage to like and does it only affect like groups?
00:46:36
Speaker
Yeah. So I think he his whole thing was, what if I can't get to you? What if you turn and I can't touch you because you're already a bear? Well, Cas Moonbeam, do we come up, come up and lay hands? Yeah. What up? I'm 99 percent sure he had that ability when he was having that conversation with you. Oh, Philip and I got to talk. You're fired, Philip. We're going to replace you with we're going to Skype in Trevor Mastin.
00:47:05
Speaker
The crowd just rejoiced when I said we're not really going to we'd love to play with them again, but Not the concept of getting rid of Philip because Philip would be gone because they really like Trevor But yeah, so the moonbeam thing is cool and so the fight kicks off you take care of Clark
Vampire Mechanics and Expanding Storyline
00:47:29
Speaker
I got, did I get bitten? I almost got bitten. Yeah, you almost got bitten. He grappled you, but he couldn't quite sink his fingers. And the thing is, this is not a Dracula vampire situation where getting bitten turns you into a vampire. It would have to...
00:47:46
Speaker
I would have had to have been killed had my blood taken by the vampire at some point. And then they're like buried and resurrected and there's a whole thing. So there was no real danger. If you die from a vampire's bite and you're buried in the ground at the place that you were bitten 24 hours later, you will rise from the grave as a vampire. Okay. So there was no real imminent danger of any of us turning at that point. Um,
00:48:13
Speaker
Still not fun. Yeah, because vampire bites, I assume, hurt. Yeah.
00:48:21
Speaker
and are very nourishing to the vampire doing the biting. Right. Civil rain, right? Was the... No, Lucan was the one that grabbed you. No, no. Civil rain was the werebear. Yeah. And he said it was a bear, right? Yeah. A werebear vampire. Werebear vampire. That's a combo. That's two great tastes. It tastes great together. Yep. Well, a werebear vampire spawn. So he didn't have quite the smorgasbord of abilities that a true vampire does. Do they even have agency in the spawn?
00:48:48
Speaker
Yeah, they have agency. They just can't act antagonistically towards their creator. So they're not zombies. They're not like the mind flayer guys were. Yeah. OK, because that's kind of how how Barrick made it sound at one point. No, I mean, you are beholden to them. They don't control you. Right.
00:49:05
Speaker
And when Barrick is prone to exaggeration when it comes to these does he doesn't like you know yeah The big noticeable thing was I mean Lucan was in possession of a red gem that Dex has been looking for for quite some time
00:49:20
Speaker
Right, there was, I mean, the stuff in that conversation is actually really important that we glossed over. It turns out that the pact that Barak has and also the one he received from the Raven, the Raven, are in the same genre, are the same pact as both Sevelrain and Lucan have. I'm assuming Sevelrain got his
00:49:45
Speaker
like by killing somebody who had no silver in was one of the elven names. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, it's interesting choice to have made him subservient to Osteroth. I guess also was just a dick. I mean, Osteroth found out a way to make himself into a true full fledged vampire and then gave his gift to his buddy silver in and gotcha. Yeah. OK.
00:50:09
Speaker
But so we can assume that there are nine more people with pacts out there, whether they know they have them or not, whether they are pursuing them or not, because they were 13 elves, right? Yeah. And you've encountered four. And Barak has three of them. Yes. Pretty safe bet Barak has the lion's share of the pacts.
00:50:33
Speaker
Like the odds of somebody having, especially since there's probably the, well, I guess there would have been fighting among the 13. You did see one elf give over their pack to another elf in Booyah's vision. So you know that there's at least somebody out there with two packs, but Oh, we assume it was somebody who already had one that was receiving it. Okay. Um, and there really well could have been, I mean, we know that there was infighting among the 13. There very well could have been a death and that person would have received. So I take it all back.
00:51:02
Speaker
There could be several people with multiple. Well, the important thing is it's only if they don't have basically an heir to the pack. So if it's somebody who has a child out there, the pack will, unless it's Barrett specifically killing them, then they won't receive the if somebody with their own best, somebody with one, they get it. I'll understand. Yeah. But if I were to have killed several rain, the fact wouldn't have something would have happened. Yeah.
00:51:32
Speaker
Probably similar to what happened to Beric and the raven where the pack goes with silver and into the afterlife. Okay, so Gotcha And someone is actually the last the last man standing Yeah, cuz you Luke and turned into misform and took off right? I think I had stepped out of the room again at that point for a second
00:51:52
Speaker
Oh, no, it was later when he saw the mist go over the castle wall and stuff. Yeah. And, yeah, Drakirr chases the mist because he could be hoping that the his lair is nearby. Right. And and simply because he could get up there the most quickly and easily. Yeah. And we end up taking out somewhere in and, yeah, the the pact moves over to Barrick and also during
00:52:18
Speaker
Okay, also during the fight. I find a cape. Yes, and it's the silliest thing and I looked as I was re-listening to the episode that this is the one that just dropped as I was re-listening to it I pulled up other kinds of capes and cloaks that could have been and there's some I'll tell you there's some cooler ones Eric well, you know, then Then the happy fun time joy joy cake that that was that was Random rolling in the dungeon masters guide is what produced that okay, so cuz I loved the idea Yeah that this vampire would be like
00:52:46
Speaker
This just makes me feel good. I'm all on to this. Yep. And there was a cape in the two books and the books will obviously come to mean something. Is
Post-Battle Discoveries and Future Teases
00:52:55
Speaker
the white book, is it like all world knowledge? What is that?
00:52:58
Speaker
So, um, D and D fans will probably know the name, like the book of exiled deeds and the book of vile darkness were the two books that were found. And they basically contain all good and all evil, like chronicling just compendia. Yeah. Okay. Um, so they're, they're artifacts. So it takes some time to attune to them, to get any abilities out of it, but you all are in possession of them. And then,
00:53:25
Speaker
So and we really don't know what they do other than they like if there's any powers that go along with them. Yeah. Yeah. There there is no history. There's no knowledge check you can make to understand the nature of these books. They are kind of existing outside of the realm of any form of knowledge. So it's just a matter of delving in and then you can might start picking up things. Whereas the Cape, you put it on and you're happy. Yeah, I'll take it and I'll never take it off.
00:53:54
Speaker
Uh, and it never gets dirty. You never have to clean it, which is awesome. Yeah, it is good. Um, and, and, uh, uh, uh, was several rains. Stone drops, right? Yes. Now, Lucan takes his with him when he misses. Uh, so we have one, you have one stone. We have one stone. I have it actually. Cause I said, I go over, I pick it up because I'm in my, uh, theory, my happiness. And that's kind of where the episode ended. Um, we're excited to get going on the next one.
00:54:20
Speaker
We're actually gonna be starting playing in about 15 or 20 minutes. We're gonna try to knock out three or four more episodes To have for you guys starting next week So yeah, so thank you for listening to Eberron reviewed a sub podcast of Eberron renewed We are just so thankful that you guys like this and want to keep coming back and checking it out
00:54:43
Speaker
Find us on all of the media's social. We've got Facebook, we've got Google+, Twitter, Instagram, and our website itself. And it's all at the Geek Pantheon or www.thegeekpantheon.com. Our Facebook page has been really active. It's been a lot of fun. We appreciate you guys interacting with us there.
00:55:03
Speaker
Um, I like, I like being on, I like staying up, uh, keeping up with you guys. We're excited to keep going. And, um, we hope to catch up with you again next week. This has been Eberron reviewed. I'm Jeff. I'm Aaron. Thanks for listening. I said that.
00:55:31
Speaker
Are you doing the intro? Am I doing the intro? How do we do this? We're not new. Yeah, I'll do it. Okay.