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C1 Ep. 114 Eberron Reviewed 18
278 Plays5 years ago
This week Jeff, Randy, Philip, and Eric sit down to discuss the Rising Tides arc and answer all of your pressing questions from the latest arc of Eberron Renewed!
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Jessica Smith, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Jon Cary, Nikko Batson, Charles Compton, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Emily Estella Scott, and Michael Clark.
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Transcript
Patron Acknowledgments and Audio Apology
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of John Kerry, Laura Pickron, Nico Batson, Elizabeth Clark, Darryl Delaney, Ryan Royce, Irene Villarito, The Cam Family, Charles Compton, Emily Estella Scott, Michael Clark, and David Scrams, as well as all of our generous patrons.
00:00:30
Speaker
D20 radio, your gamer's role.
00:00:48
Speaker
What is up, everybody? Welcome to the latest episode of Eberron Renewed. It's actually never been reviewed. I just wanted to record a quick disclaimer at the top of the episode to apologize to you all. Phillip had to call in for this episode.
00:01:03
Speaker
And when I went back to edit it, kind of realized that his audio quality is certainly not up to our normal standards. And unfortunately, at this point, there's not a whole lot to be done about it. Obviously, it's not terrible. It is listenable or else we would have rerecorded.
00:01:21
Speaker
Um, but I just wanted to put a quick disclaimer that we know, uh, it could have been better in the future. We're going to find some better solutions for when, uh, one of us has to call in for an episode. Um, so thank you for bearing with us through this episode and I hope you enjoy it. What's
Eberron Renewed Arc Completion
00:01:37
Speaker
up everybody. Welcome to another episode of ever on renewed and actual play fifth edition D and D podcast here on the geek Pantheon stable of podcasts.
00:01:45
Speaker
you're doing great yeah uh but today it's ever on reviewed because we have finished an arc uh i know it didn't feel necessarily climactic or but we did it
00:02:02
Speaker
We've got five full episodes and reduced to get through and it's 9 30.
Rune Discussion and Jace's Return
00:02:07
Speaker
So I actually took notes to facilitate blazing through this thing. So it is our first breathing moments in shorn after getting out of Kyber and losing trick here.
00:02:26
Speaker
And the first major thing that happens is Barak and Erebus have a talk about a new rune, a dead pact and a new rune showing up. That's good to know. Yeah, Randy's here everybody. Hello. Oh yeah, I'm Jeff. I'm Eric. I'm Randy. I'm Philip.
00:02:51
Speaker
We like to play fast and loose on reviewed episodes because I don't pay attention to the normal format. Yeah, so the new rune and we don't know what it means yet, but Beric does let everybody know that it's there. And in that same conversation, we all decide, you know what? I'm kind of done hanging out with Bela Shira. And we decide to have Jace come back instead, which gives us
00:03:14
Speaker
somewhere between two and four days, depending on which time we're asked how much time is left, uh, to mess around and sharn and do some things.
Booyah and the Silver Flame
00:03:26
Speaker
Uh, the first of those things in this episode is Booyah goes to church. Yes, he does. Wants to learn more about the silver flame. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. What was the plan with this little girl? Was it just show Booyah's childlike?
00:03:45
Speaker
Um, not necessarily just wanting to maybe fit in cause he doesn't feel like he really fits in. That makes total sense. You know, I mean, he's kind of an oddity and he just really knows the guys he hangs out with and you know, that those are his friends and that's pretty much it. So, and you know, just trying to like say fit in and just be more acceptable.
00:04:12
Speaker
to whoever's around him. I think that was mostly it. Okay. And, and also, you know, he has his book with him and he loves those stories and he wants to share them. He wants to, you know, he'll probably sit down and read them to anybody that will listen or cite some of them by heart at this point.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. And I said the childlike part, but I guess a good equally in equal measure have been a parental draw to speak to a kid. Yeah.
Booyah's Backstory and Loss
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah. I forget sometimes that Booyah is a grownup that had a child, like had a kiddo and the kiddo is more than likely dead, but we don't know for sure. But, you know, Booyah has kind of accepted the fact that he thinks his child is, is, is long gone.
00:04:55
Speaker
Has come to terms with that certainly. Yes. So, you know, that may have been part of the draw. There's a child, he had a kid, maybe he wants to, you know, connect with a kid if he can.
00:05:06
Speaker
But then you do end up having that little conversation with the priest and it really kind of sets off a lot of stuff for Booyah for the rest of the arc as far as leaning more into the flame and trying to reconcile what this priest says versus what his old ranger buddy and Rickard have said.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yes. We've got to figure out the name of that old ranger buddy at some point. Record. No, the old ranger buddy. Oh, the old ranger buddy. If only there was record, maybe some sort of audio medium. Yep. Where those sorts of things are preserved. No, I'm honestly just waiting for Laura to catch up to that episode so she can put it on the wiki. No pressure, Laura. Was the name not in the flashback?
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, we said the name in the flashback way back when. Oh, we just haven't gone back and looked. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I thought we were saying we had never named him. No, no, no. You know, I actually probably have that written down on a character sheet that's from back then. I mean, assuredly, because you told me what his name was once upon a time. Yes. But so after Booyah, we cut to Dex going to the Black Dog, beginning his
Dex's Lycanthrope Training
00:06:15
Speaker
Well, there's a really short little thing where Barrick and Dex talk, but going to begin, or I guess continue, his very scant amount of lycanthrope training. And discover Sharn's newest, hottest cocktail. See, you know what? I actually didn't write anything down about the white whale or wine ale. Either one. But you're right. The thicken gross. Yep.
00:06:42
Speaker
But we meet Solana who, and we'll get to it later, has just a wild transformed look aesthetic to her. But we learned that no one has heard from Sigur or the other three, plus however many, but the three that we know about lycanthropes that were in Stormreach.
00:07:06
Speaker
But basically, it comes down to Dex learns how to do a double tap with his ribbon weave and then goes back later and we'll deal with it then goes back later and learns more about just what it means to be a lycanthrope in a lot of different or this this version of a lycanthrope.
00:07:28
Speaker
And then it cuts to Beric, who's at the monastery. And what I have written down is Beric has a shadow friend expound. Uh, yeah, Beric tries out the new rune and it summons a rather befuddled spirit from Dolar, uh, who is apparently some degree of uncle to Beric. So apparently what it does is it yanks one of his ancestors out of Dolar.
00:07:57
Speaker
presumably willing to fight for him, but unclear based on the brief interaction, because Barrick almost immediately sent it back. You know, it's funny, I didn't catch it when we did it. I didn't catch it the first time I listened, but when I was re-listening for these notes, you make a fire and summon him into the fire, and Eric elucidates he pats himself off. So he was extra rude awakening in that regard. Yes, that's also true.
00:08:25
Speaker
I am interested to see how that ability plays out when we need it. Let's see. I mean, yeah, if you decide to do it or if Barak decides to use it ever, if so, I'm just interested to see the mechanics of that thing. I mean, this is the result of the Raven Queen growing stronger, so Barak is going to be pretty hesitant to draw aside that veil. No, that makes total sense too.
00:08:55
Speaker
Uh, and then lastly, I know we are, I'm sure we'll have more to talk about other stuff, but lastly is the teaser for the next episode where some drunk guy runs into decks and then it ends, right? Yep. That's it. Yeah. Oh no, wait, he dies. Some drunk guy runs into decks and tells him that lady shell saw sell shodra. I can't ever, I will never first one sh or second one sh sell shodra. Sell shodra.
00:09:23
Speaker
It's funny as I wrote it down, right? I should have just stressed to myself, but then why start now? Uh, but Lady Celshadra wants to meet, uh, he assumes with the three of us. Um, and that's where it ends. So.
00:09:42
Speaker
Not a lot of curveballs, really, in this episode. I mean, the packed ability is the only real new amazing thing, because anybody who'd been paying attention knew that Dex was following fighter path with this lycanthrope thing, so when I got a chance to level up, what my new thing was going to be.
00:10:03
Speaker
Which takes us into the next episode. The first thing I think that is worth mentioning on the second episode of the arc is that Eric has discovered a voice modulation software.
00:10:17
Speaker
I don't know about anybody else, but I was very thrown for a moment when this thing started talking to me up top. And also, I guess you've taken now to writing your own... Yeah. I mean, they're good, they're fun, and they're topical to what's about to happen, which is great.
00:10:35
Speaker
Just using the in-world quotes was remarkably easy when I had the source material to like use, but the Sharn source book doesn't have the fun little quotes at the beginning of each section like the Zendrik book does. So yeah, I had to start writing my own. But yeah, the voice, I mean, it like really threw me for a second. I was like, oh, are we doing this now?
00:11:05
Speaker
And we have the sell shodra meeting where, and correct me if I get this wrong, it's likely we, um, she tells us she's found another inspired, which Dex is immediately. You know, ears perk up. I don't know how Barak or Booyah felt with the first, I know, you know, Barak is distrusting in the first place. So I don't know, but it's very true.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm at Booyad. Booyad's trying hard to be more trusting of things in general. But yeah, with her, it's based on what we've already been through with her. Difficult for him. Sure. I mean, she's never lied to you. True. Well, Booyad had just finally locked down whether he was going to sit or stand.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I'll tell you and maybe we'll get to that you know when it comes up about Barrick and when Booyah goes to Like sword fight with him. Oh sure. Yeah, that's coming up Yeah, well and there's a lot of that like, you know, it's kind of an interesting
00:12:06
Speaker
in the us playing it much like I think people would be if this were in the real world not obviously a magical blindness but somebody suddenly stricken with a disability like yeah you would have a growing pains of like the fact that I just left Barrick at the front door instead of walking him and of course Barrick had also done his best to be independent from the jump and I didn't think of that
00:12:32
Speaker
Uh, right. So that made me think less about how much more he would need guidance once we got to see him. Booyah doesn't know how to deal with it. Right. That's Booyah's issue. How does he deal with, with what has happened to a companion? You know, so he's kind of protective. He kind of wants to help. Not sure what he can do to help. Well, I think an interesting part of Booyah's backstory is every time that something tragic has happened,
00:12:59
Speaker
Uh, the circumstances of that tragedy facilitates that Booyah runs like Booyah has never had to stick around in the midst of a tragedy, I guess. And help is what his son was always doing. Right. So Booyah wants to now he's trying to learn to
00:13:16
Speaker
Help and here's a friend who's went through something completely awful and Booyah wants to help but he's really at a loss to how if he can do anything what he should do and If he can even do it appropriately Yeah without making barrack feel You know like the sword fight, you know, I'm sure that did not make barrack feel great that here's a little goblin. Come on. Let's fight. I
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and, you know, and then the little things, and this is jumping ahead too, but like, you know, uh, in the last episode of the arc, you tell Barricade read this. Was that you forgetting temporary? The Phillips character was lying? I just totally forgot. Yeah, that was not on purpose. But that's the thing, like.
00:13:57
Speaker
That is something you would say offhand to somebody. Like I could see myself, if a friend of mine was suddenly stricken blind, I guarantee you for months I was still being, hey look at that, and then have to remind myself that that is no longer an option for them and eventually will seem deeply insensitive on my part if I don't start fixing my language. So yeah, I did not do it to be funny or as a joke, I just, booyah and me, we literally forgot.
00:14:26
Speaker
But so we're at the meeting with Seljandra and the gist of it is she tells us there's another inspired in Sharn and it just so happens that they are the in the same business that she was in in Zindrik and so we are immediately distrustful and decide that well we don't decide but it's clear that we're gonna find if we deal with it at all alternative means we are not going to this Duthouse and screwing up his obelisk and
00:14:56
Speaker
trying to kill another inspired host. No matter if my question for you is this character was always gonna also be involved in intelligence or was that something as we started hinting towards it you were like oh yeah definitely this dude's also involved. No that was something that I had I mean uh Selsadra is nothing if not self-serving and so
00:15:18
Speaker
When coming up with this kind of hook idea, I knew in order to stay true to her character, this individual would have to be somebody that she would benefit from them. Sure. No longer being around. Sure. And it makes sense. She would find out they were inspired by running recon on them anyway. Yeah, sure. Now, you say that Celshadra is self-serving?
00:15:41
Speaker
Yes. Will you say it nine times fast? I cannot. I will say, though, with the obelisk that Booyah.
00:15:51
Speaker
while willing, part of him wants to go do it because he knows what it does. And, you know, he's in that needing to help prevent that. But then part of him is like scared to death of the thing. Sure. Absolutely. Cause even though he knows how to do it, that doesn't mean he will be able to do it. So, you know, that's just kind of another little struggle he had at that point.
00:16:17
Speaker
So we have this, I mean, it's a pretty cool scene, you know, a powerful villain seems like a strong word, but definitely antagonistic entity from our past is now back and offering us this thing. And there's, you know, like double crossing and spy and all this stuff. And so what I have, I only have one note after that ends for the entire rest of the episode. And it says slapstick bull crap.
00:16:44
Speaker
It doesn't say crap, but we're a family show. Because the rest of the episode was slapstick bull crap. It was fun, and it was funny, and it had some great moments. I think you and I had fun. I'm not so sure about if Philip was having a lot of fun. I had fun. Philip laughed quite a bit. I thought maybe I'm thinking of something wrong.
00:17:02
Speaker
No, I do. I know as I was re-listening today, Philip did not think all of our talk about picnic tables was very funny. Maybe that's what it was. There was something there. It was just like, come on. But yeah, so we decided to check to see if we're being followed. Turns out we are being followed. Barak was a whole person. Was that what you? No, that was Barak's first use of his ability to cast telekinesis, which is a Kinsai thing he has now.
00:17:31
Speaker
Oh, so telekinesis allowed you to paralyze or hold him as well. I picked him up. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And he started screaming. Um, now, now the fact that I know you actually listed them off the ground changes my original thesis that we had in the discord of, so I guess if you're in an argument with somebody, you can just start screaming. They're using magic to hold you and the cops will come and break it up and take everybody to jail. But if you actually had them off the ground, then it's a little easier to believe. Uh, I mean,
00:17:56
Speaker
If we were better criminals the logic would be yes, I should just drop him and we pretend we don't know what he's talking about because I was there as much.
00:18:09
Speaker
Sure. I think that's probably true. Um, but instead, and of course we always joke about, you know, who do these, who these authorities quote unquote think they are against us. The fact is these police officers were doing their job and the right thing. And sure. So we went along doing their due diligence. Sure. Certainly. And barracks arts flexing with name dropping. And it was so funny. He goes, uh, um, uh, uh, did Borenel ear when Narn, I think, if you give him a call.
00:18:41
Speaker
Uh, but Booyah is out of it all. Yes. Booyah is just kind of lurking in the shadows, just waiting to see if you guys get locked up, what's going to happen. I don't know. I'm, I'm thinking that you're probably not, but you know, Booyah is probably just going to lay back and wait and just see what happens and then decide what to do based on that. Sure. And he didn't have to decide anything. So well, and you know, you,
00:19:10
Speaker
It's one of the things that we've done to ourselves.
00:19:14
Speaker
by having, you know, like the sending stones. Booyah says, I'm waiting about a half hour that I'm going to start to cause a ruckus. Well, then Beric just goes, hey, Booyah, we're going to be out of here soon, you know, over the sending stones. And it's what would happen because we have the ability to, of course. But then you kind of think, oh, man, but what if we didn't? What would Booyah have done in that half hour if we hadn't gotten in touch with Thorin? Right. Yeah. What Booyah does do is have the weirdest conversation with some randos on the street.
00:19:44
Speaker
an older couple as I recall.
00:20:01
Speaker
But so they call Thorin and Thorin, you know, ding dongs around like a ding dong. And, but ends up bringing, getting them to be escorted his way. Uh, whereupon Booyah jumps in front of a police officer. And what's, what did you, what did you decide the police officer needed to do, Eric?
00:20:19
Speaker
I mean, he jumped out in front of him so he kicked. I will say there was a lot of discussion in the Discord. That one action in our Patreon Discord caused a very long, but I think really cool discussion. There was the point made, especially the people who know more about Eberron Lore.
00:20:39
Speaker
If he really thought it was a warforged that jumped out, people are still conditioned to be scared of warforged for better or worse, not for better, certainly. But they're still conditioned to be untrustworthy of or scared of, considering the fact that they were created simply to be weapons.
00:20:58
Speaker
And so a knee-jerk fright reaction in that regard makes sense. Now granted, knee-jerk fright reaction wouldn't be aggressive for me if it was something I was conditioned to be scared of, but that's just your old boy Jeff. Well, and something I brought up in the conversation in the Discord also is, I mean, these two police officers were also, I mean,
00:21:18
Speaker
They were being called by superior officers from a branch of the Citadel. You two are clearly very capable, if not very self-assured individuals. They were on edge.
00:21:35
Speaker
Tensions were high and then Booyah jumping out in front of them like it was not lethal force Like he just did something to keep distance between himself and this tiny warforged. He just reacted. Yeah, so and then Booyah just reacted by reaching for his weapon Yeah, so but um
00:21:58
Speaker
We get to Thorin, Thorin jokes, or Thorin's a... I like playing Thorin. I do. But because he, I don't think, is probably ever going to be a character of consequence like Drakir was, I got no problem being joke machine Thorin. And it's fun and it's silly and it moves things along.
00:22:21
Speaker
But essentially the, I guess if you wanted to put it in a way that would make it like the police did the full extent of their due diligence, they left us in Thorin's custody and were able to go back. Not just like they're like, all right, I guess no harm, no foul. And then we get the chance to have the talk Thorin. We tell him about the potential, um,
00:22:49
Speaker
quarry person and let it be his problem. And we say, hey, by the way, we know how to destroy one of these obelisks if you have an artificer that could help. And I was the only one in the room that didn't say, that didn't think of Gurnathical Tarnum, apparently. Were you already thinking of them or did it happen when they both said it? It didn't happen in the moment. Yeah. Cause I think, I think
00:23:15
Speaker
I think Randy said it first. Yeah, it was Randy. There are two things that occurred to everybody else during this arc that just shot past me at 100 miles an hour and that was one of them. So introducing Gurnath. I think my reaction was, oh no.
00:23:36
Speaker
That was Dex's reaction. Jeff's reaction was, ha ha, cool. This'll be good. Dex's reaction was that. And that's where the episode ends, is with, I think we talked to Thor in a little bit about our past with Gurnath and then, does he even make it in yet? Is he introduced yet or is it not till the beginning of the next one?
00:23:56
Speaker
Uh, I think it's the next one that we really get a lot of Gurnath. Okay. Um, anyway, that's the next thing that happens wherever the episode break is. Fair enough. Fair enough. So the next thing is that Gurnath comes in and, um, Booyah with a language assist from Parake explains the situation and Gurnath takes it seriously, which is good. Um.
00:24:27
Speaker
And then Dex makes sure that he and Gurnath will see each other again. So Dex might be able to get some swag, uh, for himself or the party. And then we leave Thorin's and here, uh, you guys, um, uh, Phillip and Randy talk for a little bit about the sparring scene. That's the next thing that happens is Booyah has decided that he is going to take his armor off and kind of watch Beric.
00:24:54
Speaker
Practice a bit actually goes and stays, stays at the place. Just keeping an eye on his bud, you know, just making sure everything's okay. And, you know, again, at a loss of what can he really do? And then he gets the bright idea that, you know, he sees Berwick practicing and he's like, well, that's something I can help with. So he goes and tries to talk to Berwick into sparring with him.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah. And they do with fairly predictable results in the given circumstance. Honestly, I was having a hard time getting a bead on how Barrick felt about the whole thing. I mean, I'll let him tell his, I mean, I have my thoughts about that, but it's his character.
00:25:53
Speaker
I think it was the sort of thing where, I mean, very clearly, I think Barak did not want to do that. I think Barak recognized the intention behind what Booyah was offering, which is probably why Barak agreed to do it at all. And so I don't know, it's getting into the headspace of it
00:26:26
Speaker
I was trying to think of the idea of essentially just... I mean, Booyah is a naturally dexterous character so he can use his sword, but it's not what he does. It's not what he is good at. And so here's someone who is significantly shorter than Beric, which is a disadvantage in a fencing match, who is not
00:26:52
Speaker
at least so far as we have a especially trained swordsman and he of course because of Barak's circumstance he can dance around Barak and hit Barak and show Barak up so most of that's just hugely embarrassing.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, that I mean, that that just makes sense, too. Like I can see how they would say this is no test of how good I am at this moment. Like you and me doing this is no test. Well, but Booyah didn't wasn't really wanting to test how good he was. He was wanting him to get practice in at a moving target, per se. Right. That was Booyah's thought. Sure. And I think
00:27:47
Speaker
I mean, I've prepared the whole point of going to the monastery was here's a place where no one whose opinion I value will watch me make a fool of myself while I learn to sword fight. And here he has discovered that has followed him to the monastery to watch him make a fool of himself. I say that's that's what Randy was thinking. That was my thought. Yeah, that's fair to you. And then
00:28:19
Speaker
Oh, and then you decide. I don't recall what it was that made you decide it was time to, but you reach out to Daedric at this point. Because apparently Booyah is a better swordsman than Beric now. That's, that's what it was is. Oh, cool. Obviously things cannot get worse. Fair. Yep.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah, because it was kind of like, Booyah, you know a message? Because I'm suddenly needing to reach out to somebody. But yeah, so basically the messaging back and forth is, hey, I got to go back to, and correct me if I get this wrong, I've got to go back to Stormreach, but also I need your help with some more training. And he's like, why are you going to Stormreach? And you're like, I'll tell you when you get here, if you can get here, but please come get here because I really need to learn some stuff.
00:29:10
Speaker
and you did right did you mention that you were blind in the messages i don't i don't remember now i don't think he did i don't think i don't think so i don't think that came in until the reduced yeah um any more you guys have on that exchange between the two of them i don't think so
00:29:34
Speaker
Alright, and then the next note is Dex gets boots. Dex got boots. The only thing I want to know is, did you roll something to see what items he had? Or did you just decide that you were going to give Dex the opportunity to get faster? I looked at a list and thought that would be... Grabbed a couple. Sure. Yeah.
00:29:51
Speaker
So it was funny I the day that episode dropped Ruby shortly after that episode dropped I'm you know made a joke in the discord about like Dex being stupid fast and somebody who was like oh I listen to another podcast where somebody can run a thousand feet in my turn I was like well fine whatever
00:30:12
Speaker
I mean, I, at a certain point, like, obviously, there's situations where Dex being super fast on his own would have some utility. But I mean, I could give you boots that give you a run speed of 1500 feet, you still got to wait for these two fools to keep up. So I mean, that's, that's kind of the balance.
00:30:30
Speaker
I could just hitch a ride. That's true. I took the boots because they were right there in front of me. How could I not? I'm not too concerned about the fact that I can go a lot faster and all of a sudden. Although it did pique my interest and I looked it up and those hyper builds that people do, I'm building for this. It was like supersonic speed.
00:30:57
Speaker
break the sound barrier speed stuff between i mean the use of magical items and taking certain feats and things like that but it was all a legal build yes wild
00:31:08
Speaker
Um, when you get certain to higher level D and D, I mean, it's, it's really a world of gods and men. Like, I mean, it's, it's just gets crazy with the, the power. Uh, and then there's also the circlet, which I passed up on one, not having any money into not imagining that either of my compatriots would have used it either. So, and I didn't think you would take an, I owe you Booyah's money is on the boat. Uh,
00:31:38
Speaker
And that's it. We reconvene and chat a bit about, I mean, nothing particularly of note. And then the next episode is our reduced episode. So take it away fellas that were involved in that one. Yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
Um, this was a idea that, uh, Phillip had to do a training session with, uh, Daedric, uh, to kind of go kind of a deep dive into that. What I really wanted was, I think I expressed this in the, expressed this in the reduce, but what I really wanted was that we're there to also be a recorded Dex training session and to montage them Rocky four style cut back and forth.
00:32:27
Speaker
I'm sorry that I don't think it, I don't know if, you know, I was going to say must've been a scheduling conflict. No, I just realized Eric never asked me if I wanted to record something. Cause I don't think he wanted something like that. It was my, it was my own scheduling conflict. Philip and I recorded on the one night I had. Yeah. Sorry buddy. Honestly, I mean that's, that's bad timing for Dex to get more training anyway. Cause I'd already covered it in, Oh, I skipped that in an earlier episode going back and with the gloves and stuff. Um, but anyway, I don't know that there was more.
00:32:58
Speaker
without you learned about her form. Yeah. Yes. Oh, no, sorry. I mean, there was more to cover after those two scenes that would have made for Oh, I see. Yeah. No, I learned about her form. And I also learned Dex learned for the first time that getting
00:33:16
Speaker
the gift as it were back, wouldn't mean that he would be what he was the first time. That's when Dex first found out he wasn't going to be as strong as he was. And he wasn't going to be as, I think that was the only one that dramatically increased. And I think I got maybe a couple more proficiencies, but that just wasn't going to happen. And that was the first Dex had heard of that. But that was it. But yeah, so sorry, the reduced.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I mean it was. So. I know we haven't been doing questions as we go, but there was a question here specifically about how much I think Darren had asked quite a long time ago, right after the reduce came out. How much of Eric's training to use the division within was planned ahead of time? So. When.
00:34:10
Speaker
You guys may not remember the first levels of Kensei that Barak took were of a different archetype, and it combined with Barak's ability to make things vulnerable to Radiant to do some pretty game-breaking amounts of damage. And so we altered what archetype he was doing. And the new archetype he went into at 6th level, you gain the ability to have a limited distance blindsight.
00:34:38
Speaker
And so when I realized that a while back, I told Eric, I don't know when we'll get to it, but that I didn't want that to be free. It seemed too cool of a thing to just come free. And that I would let Eric come up with a narratively dramatic and significant moment to create a cost for that.
00:35:05
Speaker
him telling me when that would come up. And that's where the blindness came in. I need your eyes. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:20
Speaker
Uh, but, and so that, that of course is when we, we leveled up and I took the sixth level and can say, which would give me that. Uh, but it also seems really stupid that, Oh, barracks blind. Oh, he has blind sight. That seemed right. Right. So I have, I have a question then, um, when that came up.
00:35:37
Speaker
Like that, I mean, did you really have to think about whether you were really going to do it? I really did. I hadn't 100% decided to take the level yet. I liked the trope a lot and it was something that interested me, but, uh, I didn't imagine it was something I was going to have to choose when I assumed that Eric would at some point, you know, blind me in some way. And, uh, I was.
00:36:07
Speaker
or if he didn't I would just never get to that point. I didn't exactly expect it to have to be a decide to, and also the gruesomeness of what was asked. Yes. It was totally fitting to what we have known as Bela Shira, but was also having my eyes pulled out was also something of a
00:36:31
Speaker
So I did think about it. I was inclined to do it partly because I didn't know how else we were going to find out the information we needed. Like I really, I was at a total loss there cause we killed Luke and apparently he was the one who was, who would have known these things as far as I can think of. Right. I think it was cool that, that Eric, that you gave him, that you put the onus on him to go ahead and make that choice. Yeah. Like you just didn't do it. That's cool.
00:36:57
Speaker
But then having it, I wanted, and this was, I think I said this to Eric, I wanted Barak to have to live with the blindness to a certain degree. I didn't want it to just be a fix. And so kind of what we settled on is bringing Daedric in to teach Barak how to do that. I wanted him to learn how to do it rather than just suddenly- Surprised, here I am.
00:37:22
Speaker
Uh, it's also worth noting that what the actual class gives you is just plain blindsight, which means you can see despite being blind and what Eric and I, uh, what Eric landed on with the way that, uh, Daedric's training would be is, is still more limited than that, which I like because I don't, I don't like the idea of just undoing the cost. It's just like you can see. Right. Yeah. Right. I didn't, I didn't want it to be that easy.
00:37:51
Speaker
You mentioned something. I want to say it was a pop cultural reference for how you envision what barracks vision looks like now. Was it a video game maybe? Yeah. Uh, so in, and this, this will be relevant to those of you who have played it, but, uh, in Tom, in the, uh, the division.
00:38:09
Speaker
games, the video games. There are these things that you come across that are called echoes. And basically, they're reconstructions of moments using all of the various bazillion forms of surveillance that are going on in a big city at any given time in the modern world. So you use all that, and you essentially just recreate a little hologram made up of little dots. And so what you get is a sort of vague,
00:38:36
Speaker
dot matrix shape of a person on the screen, but you wouldn't be able to read facial expressions or anything like that. So that's kind of what I imagine Barrack's view of people as, is that he can sort of see the form of the person and see them move, but he doesn't get
00:38:58
Speaker
really fine detail uh and that affects uh that affects him reading body language too I would assume sure it would affect him reading body language he still he still would not be able to read a book uh or anything like that but it's still not quite as muddled as say an infrared view right it's not it's not him old like predator style infrared right yeah it's it's better than that and it's it's far better than just being able to see magical auras because basically what we worked out in the renewed is that
00:39:28
Speaker
Banar is teaching him that all life is magic. And so he can see life, essentially. Sure. I'm looking to see, because I was going to save the questions for the end, but you're right. We should have been peppering them throughout. Normally I don't think there were many from stings before that. There really weren't. Mostly the latter half. There was another one about this.
00:39:55
Speaker
John asked what happened to the horse that Dex didn't get. And I said, Doran took it to Sean. I decided that is true. Why not? My answer is how did Rick here lure out the ghost tigers?
00:40:09
Speaker
I think you said on an episode that you didn't actually do that. You made the joke. Cali asked, the new visual of Beric being forehead all the way down to his nose was discussed. So that prompts the question, frown lines galore or secret Botox acolyte? Or is that the new secret on how Dex reads his moods is from body language expressed from the forehead?
00:40:32
Speaker
I think Dex can read his moods just as well as he's ever been able to, which is to say not at all. Here are the three moods that Dex has been for sure able to see in Beric. Awake, asleep, and drunk. Dex knows when Beric is one of those three things and that is it.
00:40:58
Speaker
I mean, is there more for the reduced? I mean, a lot. It was a fun episode. Yeah, it was a cool episode. We played with something and this is kind of an answer to a later question also from Darren, I think. Yeah. Darren and Laura basically asked the same question back to back.
00:41:23
Speaker
Yeah, Philip decided to make Exploring the Blood of Vull versus the Silver Flame part of Beric's character arc. And then Laura asks a related question about Beric's connection to the Flame. And then someone asked, maybe it wasn't Darin, I thought it was, someone asked about whether the Sith thing was planned or...
00:41:54
Speaker
but I don't remember where that is. I can't find it now. So I'll begin answering the first one, and if someone finds that, feel free. I don't think we talked about exploring the Blood of Vol versus the Silver Flame prior to this, although we knew, I don't know, had it come up on the show that Benar was a seeker earlier? No, I don't think so.
00:42:21
Speaker
Okay, I think we kind of implied it with what Barak was learning from him. Yeah. I brought out elements, I tried to bring out elements of blood magic whenever I was using the things I had learned from Benar to try and play on that because I knew that from from Eric. But as far as the dichotomy between them,
00:42:49
Speaker
For me, Eric can may have a different a different answer on this. For me, the dichotomy is interesting because a while back, so usually when we see the silver flame portrayed, it's always a very much a folk. They're sort of the Knights Templar. It's all about, you know, it's very heavy focus on the on the on Catholic imagery, essentially. A while back on the manifesto and podcast, Keith Baker compared them compared the silver flame to the force.
00:43:17
Speaker
And so the Knights of the Silver Flame to the Jedi. And that's kind of the interpretation that I've leaned into with Beric, whereas we've certainly seen the cathedrals and the priests and the more stereotypical representation. And then of course we've also seen the
00:43:39
Speaker
the a little bit odd representation from Rickard and from Booyah's old ranger pal who have their own ideas about the flame. And so when we got into the blood of Volthing, I don't remember when I started to think about it as the sip, but the dichotomy for me, and this comes up in the reduced was silver flame is this
00:44:08
Speaker
not a personal, it's not a deity, but it's this force in the universe that people can draw into themselves and wield, whereas the Blood of Vold, it's all about drawing the power out of yourself, as opposed to drawing it from somewhere without. And that kind of, I think, is what made the Jedi Sith comparison in my head. I don't know about Eric, though.
00:44:35
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for me, it was it was all about the dichotomy of relying on external forces versus relying on internal forces in terms of where where you get your power and your ability and your faith and all of that. And that very much kind of slots in easily into Star Wars, I feel like, because the Sith are very much that that internal strife breeds power kind of thing.
00:45:04
Speaker
But I mean that's just something in the lore of Eberron that you read is that the Blood of Ol isn't outright antagonistic towards faiths like the Silver Flame or the Sovereign Host or the Dark Six. They just kind of think that they're silly because they believe in these external things when they could just look inward. So yeah, that's where I was coming from with the more Sith-esque imagery.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think it worked really well and it was it was an amusing little little Easter egg as you worked in actual lines from the Knights of the Old Republic. So that was yeah, that's it was a fun thing to do. Yeah, I thought.
00:45:52
Speaker
Um, just one quick request for you guys. Um, if you could stop talking about Star Wars, you're making the podcast where people listen to us talk about the D and D cane. They listened to us play really nerdy. Anyway. Um, okay. So.
00:46:14
Speaker
Next episode, post-reduced, where it's very clear throughout this episode that neither Randy or I had a chance to listen to the reduced before we were recorded the next morning because we miss a lot of clues about Barrick's sudden new ability. We get there eventually, yeah. You do get there, you do get there eventually. But man, I really showed my butt on a few of those things.
00:46:44
Speaker
So it starts with, you know, the same, you know, where are you? What are you doing? And we decided to begin with Dex or Eric decides to begin with Dex just having a drink at the Black Dog. And this is where you begin sowing the seeds of these robberies, the White Ravens robberies. And basically, I mean, that really did set
00:47:03
Speaker
Dex off on this whole thing of just I don't know if it's his narcissism of relate filtering everything through his current world experience or his paranoia or a combination of the two but just the idea that somebody else is doing escalating old stuff robberies makes him think they must also be planning for a cataclysmic event and we need to figure out what's going on and that is that dumb yep is that where Dex's head is at right now
00:47:32
Speaker
Absolutely. We also don't know it's not true. I mean, no fair. I mean, we certainly don't. I mean, the DM thought it was interesting enough to bring it to your attention. So that's true. But so we. Dex hears that news and chats those guys up a little bit. Doesn't really learn a ton outside of the fact that what I just stated, there was a robbery. It was a Kundarak cipher, which
00:48:03
Speaker
Jeff, and this is one of the things where, like, I know just enough to know that that means they're planning a bigger robbery on a Kundraak vault. Yeah. Don't know that Dex would know that. So I had to kind of try to temper how I reacted to those words until Barak, you know, flushed it out for him a little bit. I mean, I would say that, like, um,
00:48:26
Speaker
Dex has lived in Corvair long enough. That's like somebody mentioning Fort Knox. I don't have a good grasp on exactly the inner workings of that place, but I know what it is. I think that's the one detriment. That is one of the detriment to me not really knowing as much as I probably should at this point about
00:48:49
Speaker
The missing piece of Eberron lore that I really think would benefit me playing is knowing what is common knowledge and what is not. I feel like I ask a lot, would Dex know who that is? Would Dex know what that is?
00:49:05
Speaker
when it's stuff like Corvair, not pop, Corvair culture, permeating culture. Yeah, it would've been nice to know Dex would've known what that was. I feel like at this point, if Jeff knows it, Dex has probably picked up on it in his time in Corvair.
00:49:23
Speaker
I think that's just a good guiding light and if you if you overstep that line I'll let you know. Okay that's fair. Oh you actually did that you were like does Thorin note Beric? Yeah. It's like yeah dog Thorin notes Beric. But so Dex immediately pops up and heads to find Beric at the pill or at the monastery he's not at the pill.
00:49:48
Speaker
And a handful of things happen before Booyah shows up. I start talking about the robberies. Phillip heavily hints that Barak, his vision has drastically changed. By the fact he says, I watch Dex, you look good. And then taking the thing out of my hand. But of course I'm like, oh yeah, cause I'm all magical. So he can see me standing there and this is magical dragon leather. So of course it's got an aura too. Like you would just grab something out of my hand because it was magical. Right.
00:50:19
Speaker
Regardless, uh, Jeff's dumb. Dex is not a lot when he said you look, what was it? You look good or you look well or whatever it was. I kind of looked, I looked toward you and then I kind of looked at Eric and I kind of looked at Jeff. Nobody was looking at me and I was like, okay. And I kind of looked at Jeff again as like, okay. So it was kind of fun to just see that happen. Well, I think part of it is,
00:50:46
Speaker
You look good is a common thing you would say to somebody who was practicing a skill. Like, you look good. And I still was fuzzy on the extent of what you could see. Because I'm head to toe magic clothing waving around a magical weapon. I mean, that's fair. So the odds are you could have got a pretty good beat on that anyway. Sure. But let us not forget, I am dumb. And that has a lot to do with it too. But
00:51:15
Speaker
And then we talk a little bit about seeing Garnath, or me seeing Garnath again, and I hand you the dragon leather to fester for a moment. And we holler at Booyah to come and join us. And my favorite running joke that was probably gonna go into perpetuity is every time Booyah walks into or out of a scene, somebody goes clank, clank, clank, and Randy goes, I don't clank. I don't clank.
00:51:47
Speaker
It will always be funny. But essentially, we decide that the robbery pursuit is not important enough right now to go chasing down when there are other things that need our attention. So we don't. I don't know. So we don't. Yeah.
00:52:18
Speaker
So we all of Eric's planning out the window. So we all split up again. And I think this is the second time that I've yelled, I don't have anything else to do in the interim is during this episode. Uh, but I figured something out. I go and I test the dragon leather. That was a bust. Um, try to talk to Lana about the past. See if she knows anything about the dream themes. That was a bust at a very, uh, good and productive kind of spotlight scene for decks there for about 10 minutes in the middle of the episode.
00:52:46
Speaker
but uh but then Barrick gets a turns a helmet into a mask well admissions a person to turn a helmet into a mask yeah yeah Barrick doesn't have any skills but would like actually be useful in a end of the world survival scenario so um
00:53:06
Speaker
Uh, yeah, he, he commissions a blacksmith too. Uh, this was a couple of things. One, I hadn't really thought about the Sith thing until Eric leaned on it in the, in the, uh, the, the reduced and it amused me a lot. And I kind of decided, okay, I can, I can, that's, that's something I can lean into in Eric's aesthetic.
00:53:32
Speaker
But also, I knew a long time ago that Eric wanted that helmet to be significant to Beric's character in the way that he had it presented to Beric by the king and in a variety of other ways.
00:53:56
Speaker
I also knew that I was never going to have my character walking around with a metal bird head on it. This was a way for me to find a way to use something that should be very important to Barak as a connection to his mother.
00:54:19
Speaker
while still having my character kind of look the way I had. So that was kind of what that was about, was just a way for Beric to use this thing that would have great sentimental value to him and give it a practical use.
00:54:39
Speaker
Cali does ask, it was established that Barak's Helm is not a bird. So what animal is he representing instead? Is it a narwhal? Is it a ram? What is his new animal slash color-based alias? Because Cali decided she was just gonna make you roll your eyes into space. That is well done, well played. I have now done so. The answer is none. He's the grape ape. He's not. He's a purple ape.
00:55:09
Speaker
The answer is none. Barak has neither animal avatar nor color code, nor a vigilante code name because Barak is not a masked vigilante. I mean, theoretically, or a loose sense of it, Barak is a masked vigilante. He's working outside of the strictures of
00:55:36
Speaker
codified law and he's going to be wearing a mask. Who has jurisdiction over threats to existence though? I mean, I don't know. We've already talked about I don't know the lore. We meet back up again, back at the Galanda Hall, make the official decision to ignore the robberies. And then Eric throws some monsters at us and that's how
00:56:02
Speaker
it ends is the monsters show up and uh so we go to the next episode and i'll just jump right to a question here it was irene asked so eric were you annoyed that philip totally shut down the fight with the icky things from delure on his first turn i can answer that oh i think we can all answer that
00:56:26
Speaker
I will say he was slightly more annoyed than we were the first time we fought a thing that popped into Dolar and targeted it, Barrick. So what's your answer? Oh, yeah. I was, I don't know if annoyed is the right word, just a healthy cocktail of disappointment and frustration, I guess is the best, like. They call that a white whale. I will say this. Go ahead, Philip.
00:56:52
Speaker
There was a mechanical question about whether or not anyone had to roll. Eric did make a saving throw for the creatures. He just edited the table talk element of that out of the episode. You can hear dice roll, but you never hear Eric and I make the exchange of, here's what they rolled. Oh, that doesn't beat the D. Oh, no, that's not true. He says they both rolled 12. OK. Oh, do you? OK, I just didn't hear it then.
00:57:16
Speaker
I will say this, I very much appreciated your attempt to inject a combat into what had become a long string of episodes without one.
00:57:27
Speaker
I was very surprised that I got both of them, to be honest. I thought I might get one of them, but I was very surprised to get both of them. But your character reacted in such a way as he probably would have acted based on what has already happened in the past. How would how would Barrick not immediately just try to send them back to where they came from permanently after what happened last time?
00:57:48
Speaker
Yeah, it was a very bad experience last time we fought one of these things. We almost lost the king in Delir last time. That's very true. I forgot about that part. If it weren't for the fact that at the last second I go, oh no bonus action, he can jump through. Oh man.
00:58:09
Speaker
So I do want to say if it had been literally anything else, I would have, we would have, I would have been like, Oh, come on, Phillip, don't banish him. Let us fight. But that thing I was like, yeah. Right. Move for bear. Right. Move for the party. Um, but yeah, it wasn't great radio. No, it wasn't. And, uh, combat's coming y'all. Promise.
00:58:35
Speaker
If I just have to start yelling at random things to get him to fight us, there will be combat soon. And the boat shows up.
00:58:45
Speaker
There's a banishment and we make a bunch of jokes about getting appetizers and then the boat shows up. And there's a quick Cassian and Booyah and Dex scene about how much money Booyah has on the boat, which is a question. I love that. That was adorable. It was cute. Randy, you were asked by Laura, I believe. Yes. Do you actually have any idea how much money Booyah still has?
00:59:15
Speaker
I actually do not, but I mean, it was, it was at least 10,000 gold. Yeah. And I think there's still a very healthy amount of it. I'm going to say it's at least north of 8,000. Yeah. That's kind of what I was thinking of on mine. Probably at least 8,000 still.
00:59:33
Speaker
Stashed here and there and everywhere. You probably personally haven't spent that much I'm just choosing to actually say that like I'm sure that you're paying for the ship supplies at this point Money doesn't really mean a whole lot to him Yeah, anyway, and then what a couple of cab rides a couple of messages. I think you paid for my goggles Things of that nature. Yeah, you know, you know anytime we leave anytime we leave
00:59:59
Speaker
borrowed time, you know, Booyah go make sure he's got some coins in his pocket. Mm hmm. And then Booyah proceeds to give Cassian a year's wage. Yes. He found 50 gold. You can keep that. Oh, what did you say? You buy so much candy, his foot's going to fall off. Go buy candy. Which leads to the first Barrick and Orianna encounter. Mm hmm.
01:00:26
Speaker
Uh, go ahead. I mean, talk about it. Uh, this was partly Philip wasn't sure she was still on the ship. And I wanted to know whether she was still in the ship because Berwick and Berwick would want to know. Where is she?
01:00:48
Speaker
That was the one person you didn't get to check in with after we came back, because at a certain point, you can't keep spending Booyah's money at the STIVUS message station. So I was wanting to know that she was there. So that was good to discover that she was there, because I enjoy Eric's interactions with her. And then the conversation.
01:01:18
Speaker
it was it was an interesting character moment, but I don't think it was. It didn't drop any particularly massive narrative bombs on.
01:01:32
Speaker
not having someone to punch it pays off before the episode is done next beat is Booyah and Rickard and their conversation about all that Booyah has learned of the silver flame in the ensuing or the preceding several days yeah learning more about that and more about
01:01:57
Speaker
more about the differences between, you know, what the Rangers have told him and what the priest at the church has told him. And that was pretty much it. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I never realized that what Rickard considered himself having been doing that whole time he was in Zindrick was a pilgrimage, was a religious act. Yeah. I thought it was a part of his service, but more civic than religious, I guess.
01:02:27
Speaker
And part of Booyah too was, was asking Rickard, like, you know, why are you still hanging around? Like, why haven't you decided to leave? You know, he was just curiosity. Like, why is this guy still here? And, and he had an answer. Necessity. Yeah. Well, it's funny, you know, Booyah or Randy said of Booyah earlier that he doesn't know anybody that's not on the ship and really
01:02:57
Speaker
Barrick might be the only person that still has social connections that aren't
01:03:03
Speaker
if not on that boat, spent time on that boat. I guess Dex probably has some amount of cachet with certain people in the British government now. He could probably get an audience with Commander Bala even though they don't have a relationship per se. By and large, including Rickard and Cassian and Orianna. I think Billy Barrick is the only one and his is
01:03:33
Speaker
Arguably tenuous. He's still got Gregor, Trant, Jacob. Oh, yeah, we do have to miss Marsha. Oh, geez. Graham. Graham's been on the boat, though, so. We go to bed, we wake up, we use the dice to decide that Booyah is our early riser. Because why not? For fun. There's a newspaper with two main stories. Another robbery.
01:04:00
Speaker
from a Kondorak vault and a, oh my gosh, a reedrin ambassador has fallen to his death in an apparent suicide.
01:04:20
Speaker
Booyah reads it. Charlie shows up. Dex reads it. Barrick wakes up. Dex reads it to Barrick. This would be the other fastball that just I got caught looking.
01:04:33
Speaker
It was, it was basically up until Barrick was like, Hey, Oriana, did you throw that guy off the roof? That I even entertained the notion. That's like, yeah, that was like the first thing I wanted was like, Oh, in my head, of course, boo y'all wouldn't have a clue. Cause you know, you don't know anything about the conversation, but in my head I was like, I wonder if this is Oriana maybe. And I was thinking, surely Phillip's going to ask about that. Surely Phillip's going to ask about that.
01:05:01
Speaker
Orianna never entered my mind on that. The amount of unrest, the distrust towards the Reedrons, the bajillion other possibilities that it could have been, not once was I like, that little chump snuck off the boat last night, overpowered somebody and threw them from a height to a depth, I guess.
01:05:28
Speaker
This is usually how one falls. Although, I mean, really, Tossing reedrons off of high points in shard, he is just taken after Beric. Like really, just, I had galaxy brains to that thing. I don't know. But it leads to, that revelation of the newspaper article leads to the second Beric and Orianna conversation where, I mean, really the only thing that
01:05:58
Speaker
happens as he confronts her about it and she lies. Like it's not a major story break. It was for Jeff and maybe any of the, I almost said any of the listeners who hadn't put it together yet, but I am the dumbest person involved with this podcast, including listenership. So they probably had all already put it together. So it was a character moment and it was a good one. And then Dex can't get over the robbery thing. And that was a,
01:06:26
Speaker
There was a real balance for me between Dex would pursue the robbery thing and Jeff doesn't want to talk to Thorin again, but the Dex wouldn't have let it go. So they go and they talk to Thorin again and Thorin doesn't know anything about anything because he's just a big dummy who's drinking a gross cocktail.
01:06:46
Speaker
You know what a bummer is? I bet that before I took over him, his actions in his middle age, Thor was probably a very capable man. Probably was taken seriously. I mean, he'd risen to a certain point. Falling on hard times now. He was friends with Krass, so he couldn't have been all that fun. And now he's just a doofus who, I don't know, is a doofus.
01:07:11
Speaker
I really, in the moment, when it was like, you're asking your one character, asking your other character a question that you don't know the answer to. And I was like, have I been misre... Like, am I really playing wrong right now? Because I thought that Eric would fill me in on what Thorne would know. Like, that's how this has worked in the past.
01:07:30
Speaker
Philip says, would Dracure know the word Dalcor? And Eric says, no, or Dalkeer, or yes, or whatever. So I was like, I thought I might be able to turn to Ferris? Eric, I'm so tired. I thought I might be able to turn to Eric and be like, hey, does Thorin know what happened? And you would say yes or no. When Philip was like, you don't know the answer. I was like, have I set this up all wrong? I had a real moment where I was like, can we start over?
01:08:02
Speaker
Luckily, I was right all along, but still Thorin didn't really know much. And that was it. We took off. We're going. We're on the boat. We're taking off. Get ready for another art of two weeks of boat travel. No, that's not true. We've actually already recorded the first episode of the arc and the whole thing doesn't take place on the boat. Don't worry, guys. It's true.
01:08:29
Speaker
So let's jump in to, unless anybody has anything else about the final episode or with Barrick and Orianna, we skipped over the crate thing, but it is a question, I think, so we can get to it there. I'm going to go back to the beginning of this arc. The questions asked during this arc that weren't necessarily needed to be addressed chronologically.
01:08:48
Speaker
First question was from Ryan. Was Randy fooled into thinking you were recording more actual play episodes again when we announced that you were going to be here for this? No, I was not. No character sheet, no dice are on the table. They are in my car though, just in case. Mine are still in my car the last time we played. So, okay. Liz has a question. She says totally selfish here, but did Randy like his book?
01:09:13
Speaker
Yes, of course. It is actually in a display cabinet I have with various sundry things like old Hot Wheels and old comic books and old shaving gear.
01:09:29
Speaker
That sounds like a third one. It's very eclectic, I must tell you. I will say this, Liz, to know Randy is to know that for him to put something in the same shelf as important comic books and Hot Wheels, now the shaving gear is a new one to me, but the other two, those are things that are very important to Randy, so that's actually a high compliment. And custom made shaving brushes by yours truly. Oh, okay then.
01:09:54
Speaker
This was a facet of your life I was completely I was today years old And also have any of the rest of us or Randy use them for game notes And then she went ha ha ha but I'll tell her I'm actually saving mine for the next campaign to bring a little Dex into it with me as that is going to be my campaign notebook for Eberron renewed campaign to
01:10:16
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah, I've been saving mine as well because I have a notebook that I take notes in for Eric for Eric. I'm really looking forward to not naming my next character whenever we get there. A name that rhymes with our DM. I'm naming my Derek. Is that going to be a problem? Go for it. But yeah, I haven't used mine yet. I've also been saving mine.
01:10:43
Speaker
And I am absolutely horrible at taking notes, making notes. Yeah. I just, even at work, it's just, I just am bad. I don't do it. Um, I, I actually did use mine for notes, Liz, though I am reluctant to do so moving forward because I made a, uh, a list of all the, since they weren't going to use Bella Shearer's ability to quit travel.
01:11:09
Speaker
down to Zendrik, I was like, oh, this will be an opportunity for some adventure hooks in Sharn to like show off the city. So I don't know if I'm gonna be using the notebook again. Eric's notebook might be cursed. I'll handle all of this next set of questions myself. They're from Callie. Will we have a designated Vor lore theme song? Nope. Will you recount fun facts never before known like Vor's college roommate or that he hates peas? Vor couldn't keep a college roommate for more than a week and he hates fun. I hope that has answered all of your Vor questions.
01:11:38
Speaker
Moving on. Oh, you missed a couple from Laura. Well, okay, fine. Can this be a Vore themed review? Clearly not. We are about an hour and 15 minutes past that opportunity. Did Vore and Beric ever go camping together as kids?
01:11:52
Speaker
No. Well, there you go. I mean, it's medieval setting. I don't know if you'd call it like, did they ever travel somewhere as kids like they find themselves surviving outside occasionally. Yes. Do they have their Patagonia on? No, not for fun. Right. Um, uh, uh, Callie asks what happened to the fabric of the sails where they put in the hold for keeping. Well, one of them burned smooth up. Uh, I don't know. We never talked about to chase what he did with the rest of them. Yep.
01:12:22
Speaker
I mean, canvas is useful, so I would figure it's somewhere on the shelf. Probably somewhere. Now I will say, because it has been blackened by Barrick, we do know that it is two armor class points less useful. But if you're using sails for your armor, oh boy.
01:12:43
Speaker
So here's one of the people in our discord, Joe. Yeah, it goes by the discord, the screen name, a blackened mug, and chimed in with a good joke about wanting to also understand the efficacy of what happens to things. The barrack turns black. He stuck with that as his whole joke for a while. Yep.
01:13:05
Speaker
but okay, so Ren, a new Discord member, asks, does Drakir still fit in and feel comfortable in his tribe, or does he prefer going off and hunting for artifacts, teasing his Stratos, or is he relieved to go home and be surrounded by less emotional types? There are several questions, several answers to that. One, I think Drakir probably still has the job of going and dealing with surface.
01:13:35
Speaker
maybe it depends to some degree on how successful the plan with the dragon orb was after they got back after he brought it back to his tribe and whether they've tried that yet and if they have what did it work so that's um that would be very relevant to what drake here's current job is and i realized that what i just said means absolutely nothing to anyone but eric
01:14:02
Speaker
And we'll probably never come up in the campaign if I was going to guess. But yeah, it'd be hard to answer that without knowing what's happening with Trucure right now. Trucure does not tease his Stratos. And yes, Trucure is enormously relieved to be around people who are less emotional. And then Laura has the follow-up question. Does Trucure miss his friends who betrayed his trust?
01:14:32
Speaker
I don't know. I was unaware of your head-made friends.
01:14:41
Speaker
Yeah, no, Drakir would certainly never admit to missing anyone or anything because he doesn't need people. I will say this because of what just happened there, Philip, I think it is probably incumbent upon you and Eric to write a Drakir epilogue to be released at the end of the campaign. I don't think too many people love Drakir too much that if we don't get to find out naturally,
01:15:08
Speaker
But probably I would bet that when this campaign ends, we will have an epilogue.
01:15:15
Speaker
I mean, who do you guys think is going to be the big bad evil guy of the next campaign? I mean, I would love that. That would be hilarious to me for them here to reappear and seek vengeance. Sent out an evil drow with an orb that can control dragons. I wonder how that plays out long term. To be fair, we didn't send him out. He he left and the orb thing was like, I mean, he he earned it. He earned that orb.
01:15:41
Speaker
Let's keep moving. Was Eric truly disappointed that the PCs didn't bite any of the adventure hooks he was teasing?
01:15:49
Speaker
We kind of covered that a little bit. Well, and there was a similar question on the Facebook group. Well, no, the Eberron renewed page from Matthew, who just kind of expanded on the question by saying, how is a DM do you deal with a party that doesn't follow up on the plot hooks you lay out? And I think that is very much
01:16:13
Speaker
Very much the providence of what kind of DM you you want to be like I I am very much the school of thinking of allowing the party to write their own destiny and I'm not going to force anything down the party's throat at any point if they're not picking up a hook that I want them to
01:16:35
Speaker
because it would have been very easy for me to have the inspired individual that Seljagra alluded to come after the party, or agents of his come after the party, or members of the Boromar clan come after the party that would bring them into that storyline.
01:16:51
Speaker
I could have had the agents of the White Raven have a run-in with the party just by happenstance. There's lots of ways I could have forced the issue with the hook and eventually I just ended up moving the timeline up than what I originally intended for Jace's arrival and then the departure and so we could just continue on with the main plot thread.
01:17:19
Speaker
Philip in his home game has spoken about this on the Knowledge Check when you spend a lot of time planning out encounters and building villains and all this stuff. I mean, when it just doesn't happen.
01:17:30
Speaker
There's a certain level of amount that stings, especially being cognizant that this is for popular consumption and trying to keep it interesting and moving. It was disappointing. I guess Darren used the right word, disappointed.
01:17:52
Speaker
There were definitely moments where I was very close to saying, hey, listen, I need to find out what's happening with these artifacts. Dex finally just being like, and I don't know why I chose not to other than. I mean, I mean, I'll be honest, I'm still new at this and I follow Philip's lead a lot. I think that's not to blame Philip. He was playing his character the way that he was doing what I should have been doing, which was playing really true to his character.
01:18:16
Speaker
I think some of it too is that, I mean, we have such an important main goal. I mean, our goal is so important. It's going to be hard for us to go off and do like a side mission type of a thing.
01:18:41
Speaker
Mm hmm. Well, I guess my thinking in that regard is like you all were literally going to be sitting in sharn either way. Yes. Like once you decided have Jace turn around and come back. I mean, that was just my thinking of why I came up with adventure. It's like, well, you're going to be in sharn for right. It's not like you're giving up time that could be spent right on the main quest. So that was just my thinking of coming up with these adventure. Yeah, that makes sense. Can we go back and do it now? Well, and, you know,
01:19:11
Speaker
A year ago, Barrick would have absolutely been all over that because this is wrongs to right. And that was once upon a time, Barrick. At this point, I think Barrick is entirely mission oriented, or nearly entirely. And so the reason I think from Barrick's perspective was
01:19:35
Speaker
this is not what we're trying to do anymore and you know we go on this and something goes horribly wrong and one of us gets killed where are we then um and that that sort of thing uh so i yeah that's kind of where it was um i was conflicted as philip between interested and i really like the white raven character uh and
01:20:05
Speaker
also really wanting to move forward. I'm always really ready to move forward with the story, because I love the story that Eric's come up with. So yeah, it was one of the things sometimes the players in the GM are not in sync. And ultimately, that's what happened, is we were not
01:20:28
Speaker
Yeah. And I think part of it, and this was, this was Jeff thinking about it, but trying to pretend that it was Dex thinking about it, was Bayrick gave up his eyes for the sake of this one cause. And it's very recent and very fresh. And so how dare we deviate from that right now when he's already done that. And so that was a part of where I was at with that. But regardless, sorry Eric.
01:21:02
Speaker
Okay, so a question from Chris. Does Barak see the irony of being condescending to Orianna, specifically when she breaks the crate with the spear, when he frequently comments about how much he hates being condescended to? And I've got an opinion on this one, but I'll let you take it first. So I read that question and my immediate thought was I have no idea what you're talking about. So I went back and I listened to the conversation.
01:21:29
Speaker
And I honestly don't hear condescension, and I really tried to hear it. So I mean, first off, just from an anti-caribbean perspective, absolutely not. No, absolutely, Barak is not. And even when Barak is being cast in the past, Barak does not see the irony in that at all. Barak is blind to that.
01:22:00
Speaker
Um, yeah, so if there was condescension, which I didn't intend and I don't hear it, but again, people perceive things differently. Uh, no, Barrick would not be cognizant of it. I guess when I was listening to it happen, my thought was.
01:22:22
Speaker
the authority figures that condescend to Barak are not authority figures who have his well-being in mind or have been tasked either implicitly or explicitly with raising him and teaching him lessons. With Oriana, that's Barak's job and so I didn't hear condescension. I heard
01:22:49
Speaker
a slightly exasperated, maybe a little more callous way of imparting a lesson, which is a dicey thing to do as your own children reach teenage years, as my understanding, my own is only seven right now. And it could come off as condescending, but I guess I didn't read it as condescending either because your job, the relationship you two have is mentor, mentee, a darn near parent child, and so you get to say things like that in that case, and even be a little harsher about it.
01:23:19
Speaker
And I could see myself with a different tone using the exact same words with my kid. Did you know what was in there? Well, then you probably shouldn't have stepped on it. Right, bud? It's the same sentence. Yes. And I heard exactly the same thing when I listened to it. Oh, I've totally said that to Rose. Oh, yeah. That is definitely the way that...
01:23:44
Speaker
That's the way the parenting style that works on my kid is to, is to be like, here's a question. I've trapped you now in your answer. Let me explain how. And that's when he goes, Oh, okay. Like the show's in there. No. Well, then why did you throw it across the room? I don't know. Was that smart? No. All right. Cool. Let's think about that next time, bud. All right. Um,
01:24:21
Speaker
Randy, do you have a lot of game running experience? I don't know. I'm sure we've talked about it. Game running. Yeah. Like being a DM GM. Uh, quite a bit. Not as, not hardly any with five E and not that much with four E, but yes, quite a bit. I assumed as much. Okay. So, but what Darren asks is what's your opinion on using an abstracted mechanic for downtime actions? Like something from XGE. It's going to start skied to everything. Right. Sorry. Is anther's got everything or skill challenges or do you feel it doesn't make for good radio?
01:24:32
Speaker
Moving forward, Darren asks a question that I don't understand.
Incorporating Downtime Mechanics
01:24:51
Speaker
I mean, the second half of your question is the answer to your question, in my opinion, Darren. Having people roll things and say, okay, this is what happens, it doesn't make for good radio, in my opinion. If nothing's going to happen during the downtime, let's just skip the downtime, I guess, is my thinking on it in this particular format.
01:25:20
Speaker
Some of the abstract mechanics specifically from Xanathar's guide could be used to interesting results potentially. It's just one of those things where that book came out long after this campaign had started and so trying to inject that mechanic into an established game seemed like it could potentially be dicey. So that's my take on it. But in a home game, go for it.
01:25:44
Speaker
I really like abstract downtime mechanics the 1 ring, which I have counted much on the knowledge check has a downtime system that I really love. I agree that it might be.
01:25:57
Speaker
it would have to be done very well to be done to work on our format. I think it would need to be a lot of, a lot of effort would need to go into narrow what the result of the diar roles would be other to make it not boring to listen to. Um, so I agree with Eric that it would be difficult to, to do well on a podcast. And I don't think impossible, uh, but it's not something that we
01:26:24
Speaker
Put the work in on, but it would it would need to be narrated very well, I think.
01:26:30
Speaker
And I, I'll be honest, because the only game I've ever played extensively is one where you just heard the GM say, or the DM say, I don't really do downtime mechanics. I'm not a hundred
Support Staff and Narrative Flow
01:26:40
Speaker
percent sure what that covers. But I will say one thing, you know, talking about it not being interesting radio, but it is the minutiae of different games and stuff. One thing that you've done that works really well for our campaign is you've given us essentially support staff.
01:26:57
Speaker
Like, we didn't have to explicitly say, I'm going to go buy rations for two weeks on a boat flying to Zindrick because we got Charlie and Charlie's going to take care of that. And so it's not like we're magical, you know, we're magically living through not eating. There's a story there or a story cover there for why we didn't have to do that. And I don't know if that's part of downtime mechanics or if that's like, you know, just, uh,
01:27:21
Speaker
the mundane parts of campaigns, because I've been in other campaigns where it was like, all right, I'm going to go to the market and get this, and I'm going to go make sure I've got enough arrows. Well, actually, I never had to do ammo. Or I'm going to go to the library for 30 minutes because I've got to make sure I've done this much studying before I can blah, blah, blah. And that stuff's just kind of...
01:27:43
Speaker
With exceptions, I wouldn't say we hand wave it. We've just found convenient work around the work narratively and don't break everything. Yeah. You know, I mean, obviously we made we made you. You made sure Booyah put his time in with the book incrementally for that one. But if it was just like.
01:28:01
Speaker
whatever, writing down a spell to learn it or whatever. Like we just assumed that happened. And that's fine. Cause it would have happened. We were on a boat for two weeks. I bet Barret could have learned all kinds of spells or Booyah could have. I mean, I've used those sometimes in home games, probably sparingly. And I gave some of that off of my players. You know, if they're into it and they're enjoying that kind of a thing, then I'll do it maybe a little bit more.
01:28:30
Speaker
But it's not something I use a lot of. Yep. But I do in my home game, just I think it's the format here.
01:28:40
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't think I would ever have a problem doing that stuff around a table with, with people, especially when you're playing a five, six hour session, you know, that's not made
Government Complicity and Redemption
01:28:50
Speaker
for consumption. Okay. Uh, two more questions. We're kind of up on 90 minutes. We can do this. Uh, from Darren, does Dex truly believe that anyone working for the reedron government is wholly irredeemable? I think if you were to ask Dex that.
01:29:04
Speaker
In the heavier moments of stuff, I think that he would absolutely say no one should be spared. Not that they might not be redeemable, but as far as Dex is concerned, once you are at a certain level in the government, you know what's going on. And therefore, you are complicit. And redemption, regardless, you are a threat right now and I'll do what it takes.
01:29:29
Speaker
Suppose we save the world and there are, you know, reedrin officials that are still alive. Is Dex gonna have them, somebody rounded up and executed? Well, one, no, because he doesn't have the sort of power, but two, wouldn't consider that as an option. So it's not that he necessarily feels they're wholly irredeemable. He's not considering the option of redemption right now. I think would be the best way to parse that out. And it gets more complicated when you think about the fact that Dex knows for sure
01:30:00
Speaker
Dex knows for sure, regardless of how right he is, might be the best way to say it. Dex knows for sure that they're not in control of themselves either, but
Bela Shira's Motives
01:30:10
Speaker
they willfully gave up control to a thing at varying levels of knowing how good or evil it was. And so there's, there's a lot of nuance that Dex recognizes, but right now it's, I'm not going to cry over a reedrant ambassador dying because
01:30:26
Speaker
If they're the reedrant ambassador chosen to be sent to a major city in another country, they're likely in the fold. Might be the best way to say it. They're up on the scheme. So I think that's the best way I can answer that question. Certainly the longest.
01:30:44
Speaker
And then last is for Eric from Kevin. And he says, if possible, without spoilers. I think he means if it's possible to answer without spoiling. Try to keep the spoilers out, Eric. All right. You're so bad about just throwing those things out. Bela Shira has to have some sort of ulterior motive other than being the personification of madness. Does he know about the inspired attempting to bring Dakor back into the orbit of Eberron? And how much of the bigger picture of Riedra and the inspired does he know about?
01:31:14
Speaker
out. Um, so yeah, I mean, the easiest way to avoid any kind of spoilers is to, I mean, just simply agree that yes, he does have some sort of ulterior motive other than being the personification of madness and, um, the, the potential, uh, quote unquote altruism of showing Barrick where to go get the rest of the weapons. Um,
01:31:39
Speaker
Uh, Bella Shira, I mean, Bella Shira explained that they were under the manipulation of the quarry way back in the day. And so obviously that probably would have been part of the whole thing. Uh, Bella Shira being up as high as they were. Um,
Interwoven Characters and Events
01:32:00
Speaker
I don't know.
01:32:02
Speaker
I honestly don't think Bela Shira really cares about the bigger picture of Riedra and the inspired as it pertains to the modern day because they're having to fight in a war non-stop against the Drow and also Bela Shira has a lot of other irons in the fire that they hope come to fruition very soon.
01:32:25
Speaker
So whether or not at any point Bellashear was let in on the Quarry's endgame, they've certainly not forgotten, but just kind of put that in the back of their head and said, whatever.
01:32:40
Speaker
So I hope that's a somewhat satisfactory answer without spoiling anything. Well, you kind of, you kind of scared me a little bit there when you went, you went, uh, they have a lot of other irons in the fire. They hope come to fruition. And you looked right at me and your eyes got really big. You went there, come to fruition. I was just looking at the table, paying attention to him.
01:33:02
Speaker
I mean, and I think a big thing, listening to this past arc and previous arcs, I try to pepper in the idea that there are a lot of people doing a lot of things in this world around the main storyline. I mean, like the Condorac robbery is not something that was happening in a vacuum.
01:33:23
Speaker
That is something, and that's why I included the second robbery in the newspaper. That wasn't me trying to hammer home the plot hook of like, go figure out what was doing. That was honestly like, okay, you didn't go deal with it. Here are the consequences. The kundarek vault was still like broken into and an artifact was stolen.
01:33:39
Speaker
Um, so, uh, yeah, lots of things are going on and I tried to pepper that in and Bella share as certainly one of those agents that, uh, has certainly come into contact with
Beric's Faith and Silver Flame
01:33:50
Speaker
the main storyline, but their story is not tied to the main storyline. I guess, if that makes sense. There's, um,
01:34:04
Speaker
2 questions that I want to go back and pick up 1 we read and I didn't actually answer it, which was Laura's question about Eric's current level of connection to the flame. Which was connect we connected to the whole sith Jedi thing, but I didn't actually answer that.
01:34:23
Speaker
So I have talked before about Beric losing his faith and that might be the wrong phrase because Beric knows for absolute fact that the silver flame is real and true, having both spoken to it and also the first time he was in Delure having actually seen someone taken by the flame. So it's not that Beric doubts the truth of the flame.
01:34:47
Speaker
Barak does not feel any connection to the flame. For Barak, it's not that he has lost faith in the flame and what it is. Barak has lost the sense that it's relevant in his life. He doesn't meditate on the flame anymore.
01:35:12
Speaker
I mean, it is very fair to say that Berwick has lost his faith in the sense that he's lost his personal faith. The blame is an academic reality that is good for the world, but it's no longer
Audience Engagement and Support
01:35:30
Speaker
really a part of which is part of what's kind of caused Berwick to stop
01:35:37
Speaker
being quite some gung-ho to go out and solve problems for people and save people's lives. He's kind of lost that part of himself in the process of dying several times and everything else.
01:35:54
Speaker
And then the other question, the one Vore question, which I will, which I will entertain. How do you pronounce Vore's last name? Oh, I missed that one. I'm sorry. It is. You broke up when you said it. Just perfect timing. Excellent. Just leave that and that'll be a hilarious joke. It was, it is. So what is it? Eertalon. There you go.
01:36:27
Speaker
Okay. Well, well, thank you guys for listening to us. We have hit the hour and a half mark for sure. So Safari. Um, thank you guys so much for listening to our show though. We really do appreciate it. Um, seriously, thank you for engaging on the discord and the Facebook page. You have, you know, fun, interesting questions and ideas and theories and G and general non podcast or even D and D related conversations.
01:36:56
Speaker
that are blast everytime eric tells us how many people listen to this or how many end of last month or something like that it reset my ability to deal with the fact that we have people who actually. Are interested in hearing us play dungeons of dragons what me being the.
01:37:14
Speaker
senior member by probably quite a bit it just literally blows my mind that that you guys when they listen to us play a game but it's just like wow i think i think it's awesome it's really cool
01:37:29
Speaker
It just, like I say, it just blows my old mind. And thanks for listening. Yeah. So we really do appreciate you guys. If you want to get more involved, if you want to be a part of all these things that we've mentioned throughout the episode, you can go to our Patreon. It's patreon.com slash the geek pantheon to become a patron. That's where you get access to the discord, the DM spell book.
01:37:54
Speaker
Throughout further tiers, we have a monthly one-shot that we do with a handful of patrons at a certain level. We have... Well, the campaign's going. We can't really add to that. I don't think there's no spots, right? Nah, it's full. Okay. But regardless, there's that. We also totally get it if you just want to enjoy a free podcast and don't have the ability to pay right now.
01:38:17
Speaker
Awesome, thank you for your support anyway, but please in that case check us out on Facebook follow us on Twitter It's both of those are as geek pantheon Leave us a review on iTunes or I think Spotify is the other one you can leave reviews on stitcher. I don't think you can Google play Google play, please leave us reviews Ratings are awesome reviews are what gets you noticed by people and by people I mean people who make algorithms That put our podcasts in front of other eyes. So if you
01:38:49
Speaker
We appreciate the patrons. We've had a blast with the Patreon, with the Discord and all that stuff. But honestly, the biggest thing you can do to help impact the growth of the show costs zero dollars, and that's the lever of you. So we would really appreciate it, provided you like the show. If you don't like the show, you know, kick rocks. Yep, it's late. Hey, everybody, I've been Jeff.
01:39:16
Speaker
I'm Randy. Phillip. Thanks again. Have a great night.