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C2 Ep. 80 Eberron Reviewed 15
263 Plays3 years ago
We take a look back on the past arc and answer your questions.
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Darrin Katzska, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Danielle Bramhall-Smith, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Andy Dossett, Rebekah Gowman, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Eric Witman, and Shelby Johnson.
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Transcript
Dedication to Patrons
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by the generous donations of Laura Pickron, Darryl Delaney, Darren Katska, Devious Poptart, Irene Villarito, Ryan Royce, Andy Dossett, Danielle Bramhall-Smith, Elizabeth Clark, Eric Whitman, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family,
00:00:20
Speaker
David Scrams, Dustin Troop, Edvard Arnoff, Michael Clark, Rebecca Gowman, and Shelby Johnson, as well as all of our generous patrons.
Host Introductions and Episode Overview
00:01:12
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to Everon Renew, an actual play podcast set in the Everon campaign setting using the Genesis rule set. My name is Jeff. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy. And I'm Eric.
00:01:26
Speaker
and you have probably already realized by the fact that I'm introducing this episode and the fact that we put out a call for questions that this is a reviewed episode where we are going to take about an hour and talk through the last arc. So yeah, let's just get right into it.
Character Downtime Activities
00:01:42
Speaker
So it opened up with us kind of talking about how we spent our downtime after Trev, after Raynard was kidnapped. Unbeknownst to Raynard.
00:01:55
Speaker
uh dumb jokes about knives on chains um actually that might have been the tail end of the last arc now i think about it but either way um but we're giving a job we aren't giving a job we are told that we need to go speak with tarvel um we've been tasked to talk with tarvel by our bosses but we are not working for them we are working for tarvel and it took all of us a minute to parse that
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, it was Vigo himself. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. I'm going too fast. I do want to talk about the down times because several important things happened.
00:02:29
Speaker
Or the the free time I guess as it were I definitely have Raynard buys a dagger chain in my okay, that's right about the dagger chain, okay Hobbs is quick. He just went and did more work for boom rush trying to get more recruits for the the bounty hunters but aris and
00:02:56
Speaker
Milo both had some substantial things going on. So, Aris, do you want to talk about, if you recall, what yours was during that first episode? I believe mine was working on the garage, getting doors and, you know, basic stuff like that set up. And a
00:03:20
Speaker
beginnings of a conversation about also there being other rooms, not just this one big giant workshop room. Right. Like that Futurama episode. Yeah. Yeah. And Eris is coming to terms with the idea that she doesn't have to keep all of her stuff packed on Tasha and sleep on Tasha.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah, she has a real place that is hers. And I'll be honest, I don't know the answer to this. Do Olive and Eris live there? Does Olive just work there with Eris when she's there? I don't know the answer about Olive. Eris definitely is sleeping there because it's the place to sleep. You gotta sleep somewhere. If you don't sleep there, then someone might come and mess with it. Yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
ARIS is obviously security issues, but I don't know the answer as far as I'll have.
00:04:16
Speaker
I think the implication at least was that Olive was also looking for a place to live because Norsen basically was looking for her and would know where she works and lives and all that kind of stuff. So she was also looking for a place to lay low. Okay. So her own place and a roommate for, I always thought the first time that she's shared a room, but maybe the first time she's chosen a roommate.
00:04:40
Speaker
I think it's also, and I'm trying to play it this way, and I think this was definitely in the scene,
00:04:48
Speaker
Aeris does not get the idea that this is also somehow a place that belongs to her, because obviously Olive has to have put most of the money into this. I don't know what real estate costs in high walls, but Aeris is not, you know, as it goes, horrifyingly impoverished anymore, but she's not in the
00:05:14
Speaker
buy an apartment in the crappy part of New York City area either. So I think that idea, you know, I guess it's kind of an evolution of the whole thing where Olive was where Eris was really perplexed by Olive's willingness to give her lessons without being paid. Eris is just not very comprehending of an asymmetrical generosity.
00:05:46
Speaker
All right.
Mystery and Suspicion: Milo and Jason
00:05:47
Speaker
Um, and then Milo gets suspicious and follows Jason and finds some stuff out. Miley, you want to talk about Randy, you want to talk about Milo's adventure? Yeah. Milo's paranoid. I think it's getting a little of the better of him. He thinks he's being followed. And so he decides he wants to kind of turn the tables and follow Jason and see if he can find out anything. And.
00:06:13
Speaker
tells him does not get caught and I see Jason goes down an alley as I recall and Milo kind of looks around the corner just as he basically shadowy like disappearance act so he's an elf with the mark of shadow
00:06:37
Speaker
Mm-hmm, which really made an impression on Milo throughout the rest of the arc. I mean, as it should, as it would, especially since he's already, I mean, at this point, and Randy, if you don't want to answer this, but to my reading of it, Milo has convinced himself that Jason, if not directly responsible, is a huge part of Kylie's death, yes? Yeah, I think Milo thinks that for sure.
00:07:07
Speaker
because he's noticed he's being followed. And then he sees, you know, Jason do that. And I think he's also maybe put together that when we were, was it speaking with,
00:07:31
Speaker
Reynard's cousin or something. Anyway, and there were the two elves that were there that were ninja elves. Yeah, the ninja elves that were scoping out Milo. So Milo's thinking
00:07:44
Speaker
there may be a hit on him because and now Jason's, you know, this shadow elf and yeah, I think it would hurt too much to admit that Satan did it. That's what I was going to say. Also, how much of it, though, is the selfishness of and anything that makes it not Satan? Yeah, I think is good for my love.
00:08:05
Speaker
In Milo's mind, Satan has been so good to his family through all the years that he just can't. That's that one time where he murdered his wife. Allegedly. So, yeah, there's Milo. Amazing. And presumably burned down his bar. Presumably. Yeah. All but certainly. Presumably, allegedly.
00:08:35
Speaker
Burned out. Got to keep the Boromar lawyers off our backs. That's how they do it too. They climb right up there and start beating you around the head and neck. Moving on. What? You? On our backs? I don't know what I'm saying. No, I'm with you.
00:08:53
Speaker
Anyway, so we do go see Tarvel. It took some of us me a minute to remember who Tarvel was. But, and, okay, so here's, he tells us that he, something that I have to assume is a not well kept secret, right? That he isn't really running the place, or isn't equipped to run the place, maybe not that, I can't imagine anybody knows, because you said specifically, Satan doesn't know.
00:09:21
Speaker
that it's not Anna what's his wife's name um
Exploring Magical Technology
00:09:25
Speaker
Aaron Aaron that Aaron is still running the day-to-day like specifically said Satan doesn't know that right but it's got to be something how can I say this is there a
00:09:39
Speaker
buzz that Tarvel really doesn't know what he's doing and it's kind of lucking through this stuff or does he seem pretty incompetent because he's getting his directions from Aaron still it would be more along the lines of people think that He is indecisive because when he's presented with a problem, he doesn't make a call in the moment. He's like, oh God Yeah, give me give me a day to think it over and weigh all my options and then he comes back and
00:10:05
Speaker
having made a decision because he needs to be sold with Aaron. So that's more of the vibe. He's hoping he just comes off as very measured and cautious. Yes, yes, yes. He's a very thoughtful leader. Gotcha. So. OK, so what we find out is that he has been communicating with Aaron as well as smuggling things to her through what is essentially a teleportation circle.
00:10:32
Speaker
using manufactured means I mean explain okay two-parter one is this a thing is this like an item you found is this an idea that you found somewhere else or did you come up with all this like here's this coil that does this thing and what it does is mimic a dragon mark like that's pretty cool I
00:10:52
Speaker
I will say that in this particular instance, I drummed this thing up from my brain. I cannot imagine I am the first person and I'm sure I've read something somewhere at some point that also did this or Philip and I did something in a campaign a long time ago that I pulled from. But there wasn't like a source book that I can point to and say, oh, yeah, it was in this thing and that's where I got it from. So so, yeah, just yeah.
Planning the Heist
00:11:19
Speaker
Because I'm just saying if
00:11:26
Speaker
If Miss Piggy could everybody loves Raymond there for a minute I'm saying that if Eris could figure out a way to reverse engineer this thing and we could Eris has figured out a way to reverse engineer this thing cuz I made some crazy rolls during this session Okay, if once Eris has figured out and now that Eris has figured out a way to reverse engineer it if we can also figure out how to
00:11:49
Speaker
Swap in some different dragon mark characteristics. We have a real powerful little coil Canister is what I'm saying Yeah, so Tarble tells us that he's out of juice and he's in fresh one tells us where to get it tells us who made it Like it has a decent amount of information It's just that none of it is particularly germane to making a heist go not screwy Adelaide par
00:12:16
Speaker
Yep. Correct. Adelaide Parr is the is the artificer who makes the name. Crops to our patron slash mod Liz for coming up with with that name. That's right. That's right. It's a very good name. And
00:12:33
Speaker
And that's pretty much it. It promises Eris that she can have the nearly dead or dead one if we bring a fresh one and we're off to heist playing. That's how the episode ends, I believe.
00:12:48
Speaker
and then we spend some time planning, you'll have to help me, guys, what each of your individual parts of the plan was. I know that, was it Milo went and actually looked at the physical structure to kind of see entrance and exits, or was that Raynard? I think that was me. Yeah, that was Raynard. I think you're right. Yeah, Milo went and found, he went and got info on Adelaide.
00:13:16
Speaker
Yes, that's right. From Will. From Will. Yes. Yeah. Mm hmm. Found out that she's not one to be trifled with.
00:13:27
Speaker
You know, it's back to what Trevor did. It is funny when you think like, there is zero reason that Raynard would have gone and looked at this building and come back with, it's got some doors and windows, but man, the dice just make turn people into idiots sometimes. And it's really funny.
00:13:49
Speaker
Well, there's ways to get in, there's ways to get out, walls, ceiling, like the whole deal. It's a building ass building, man. Pardon me. That sure is a building, man. What was Eris's preparation, Philip? Eris made a couple of
00:14:09
Speaker
poll generators essentially yeah we got looney tunes with it eventually uh low capacity fold space generators i guess yeah i know i didn't think about it until i was actually re-listening for this today
00:14:26
Speaker
and just the the looney tunesness of it. I bet if you were to take the time you could find a homebrew of like every funny cartoon gag, every tv show weapon item, everything is probably been made by somebody or could easily be reskinned as it and that's really fun.
00:14:43
Speaker
I mean, you know, it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been in character for Eris, but there's there would be nothing to prevent me from saying Eris pulls out this special alchemical pot of paint and paints a trap door on the floor and we can lift it, you know, temporarily. Now the trick would be coming up with something where you can paint the exit and then anybody chasing you runs into it.
00:15:09
Speaker
Meanwhile, Rainard's over in the corner sweeping, he just lifts up a corner of the wall and sweeps underneath and puts it back down. It comes up like a tent, like a circus tent. But yeah, I just, when we get to, and it's not until the next episode when you actually employ the whole, but when yours is all scientific and physics, well, fiction physics, and then Eric's like, you didn't just slap a hole on the floor? Why are we even here?
00:15:40
Speaker
And then Hob just tries to find out a little bit about what the security's like there and finds out that there's four big bad dudes that are there every night patrolling the place. Is this where you meet Gob? Yes, that is where I met Gob. A sad sack who owes money to the clan and so he answered my questions and then asked me if I wanted to stay for lunch. He's so lonely. He just wants a friend.
00:16:05
Speaker
Oh man, it was funny. Um, but yes, that is where anytime, anytime Eric meets my voice with a voice that is pretty similar to it, which I will admit I've made much more difficult for him this time just by having generic gruff voice, which is a pretty, pretty standard go-to for a big guy. You know, it was different when I was Southern, but yeah, it is very fun to mess with that. Um,
00:16:31
Speaker
that's it did we have any other information going in besides uh there's doors and windows uh we knew that there was a drainage system that you all could have used
Magic Mishap and Sky Barge Chaos
00:16:40
Speaker
for an escape if necessary yeah we did actually learn a little bit about the architecture of the building right like yeah we knew about the accountant upstairs right who doesn't believe in locks right the the and through like a series of triumphs it's like he's open from like
00:16:57
Speaker
11 to 2 in the afternoon or something. Sounds like the dream to me. We found out Adelaide would not be there, would not make an appearance. I remember that.
00:17:11
Speaker
You know, I should have gone back and because I realized it about midway through maybe the third episode of this arc, which is a five episode arc total. A suspicious number of triumphs were rolled. We rolled a crazy in this session or across these two sessions, like a lot of them. I mean, it makes sense to a certain degree that it would start to stack because our characters are. I mean, our characters have a lot of experience. You all are rolling a lot of yellows. Yes, we like.
00:17:37
Speaker
I remember what Aeris' XP total is at this point. Aeris has 340, I think. So we are we're way up there. Well, that's something just to talk a bit meta conversation about the campaign real quick. Yeah, please. That was something when I was planning this campaign before we ever got started, I think like March or April of last year.
00:18:05
Speaker
when I thought we were going to be able to hold off starting the campaign until we could play in person. I did the math on like average XP earned per session for a typical Genesis game and how many talents were in the base Genesis and the expanded players guide and realized very quickly
00:18:24
Speaker
If this campaign goes like 70% of the length of campaign one, they're just gonna be able to buy every talent. Like we're gonna run out of stuff. And so yeah, it makes sense at this point, having gone over a year at this point, well over a year, that yeah, you all have a ton of yellows because
00:18:44
Speaker
There's no cap on how powerful you can become as a Genesis character. Man, I blew so much XP on tanky stuff, like getting my toughened up so I wouldn't keep dying. Otherwise, I'd probably have some really cool tricks up my sleeve.
00:19:00
Speaker
And mistake on my part, there were a couple of instances where red should have been rolled because I think Milo and Reynard did stealth checks, which your little brooches, that's the skills that you all picked to bump up where it should have had additional reds and things like that. And the other thing is that we are frequently forgetting to upgrade ranged attacks against people who are engaged with our allies. Yeah, I keep remembering that after sessions.
00:19:29
Speaker
Um, so there's something I like about Genesis that I've discovered is, okay. All of a sudden there's an accountant, right? Eric didn't plan for an accountant, but all of a sudden there's an accountant. And then this accountant has a pin that becomes
00:19:54
Speaker
pretty darn involved in the adventure that we had just had. That would not have happened. That's because Eric has held mad sticky fingers. Eric has, and I almost said has gotten, that's not fair. It's probably more that I've noticed it more. Maybe I'm paying more attention.
00:20:14
Speaker
And I listen to a lot of actual plays and I've played for multiple other Game Masters now Eric is very good about bringing back to minutia either for for good or ill for the party Little things like that. Like I don't know if he I mean imagine like he wrote down pin He was like we're gonna do something with this because there Philip Philip had to hang a lantern on it
00:20:37
Speaker
That was pretty great. Since we've paused on the chronology of the episodes for just a second, I do want to go back and discuss the brooches that we got. I totally forgot to mention those. We received a package, anonymously, that had four, I mean, brooches is the word that Eric has used.
00:20:56
Speaker
I was surprised that only Hob and Eris were suspicious of them, to be perfectly frank, but we were. And basically, tell me if I get this wrong, we got to pick two skills and permanently upgrade them. Sorry, one skill, permanently upgrade it. Sorry, I was joking. At one point, Phillip had both of our stones that we were joking about immigrating to. That's where I got the...
00:21:19
Speaker
one skill that we could permanently upgrade, but also the difficulty was permanently upgraded as well, is that right? You permanently increase. You get to add a green, but the difficulty is upgraded. So you are mathematically much more likely to succeed with a slight bump in the chance that you'll fail, but more importantly,
Combat Mechanics in Genesis
00:21:40
Speaker
something might go wrong because the craftsmanship was bad. Despite my mangling of it just now, I promise I did do it right on my character sheet.
00:21:51
Speaker
And Milo and Raynard both took stealth as the skills, correct? Yes, yes. I think I took athletics? That can't be right. Leadership. Leadership? Yeah, I did something else with athletics with my skill by, point by. What did Eris take? I can't remember. Eris, I don't think has ever declared it.
00:22:17
Speaker
But yeah, we don't know who they came from. Jeff and Hobb equally have the thought that is somebody related to the, not Will Turner, that's Patrick the Caribbean. Billy Taylor. Billy Taylor, the Billy Taylor of it all. Someone who felt justice was served by us. And has money, that's all I got.
00:22:46
Speaker
Um, could be anybody, I guess, but yes, I was very concerned that they were, that they were cursed or booby trapped or something. So all those more than happy to let Eris tinker with it for a bit to confirm or deny first. Um, that's really all there is to it. I can't remember you, you basically, there's not really attunement, right? Like once we had them, we had, we were able to adjust our skills accordingly, right? Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:12
Speaker
So odds are pretty good that someone took advantage of their brooch during the remainder of this arc. So okay, let's get back into it. So the heist is on. We are heisting now. And yeah, we chose not to go through the sewers. I don't know why. Gives you, you're like seven feet tall. Well yeah, I mean, I didn't mean it. I had several reasons as to why. One of them certainly being the height, one of them being the growth of it all.
00:23:41
Speaker
But, so we get to the accountant, we go in, no big deal. Uh, did we even use another triumph to be like, is that where we were like, he's not big on security.
00:23:48
Speaker
Yes, that was something else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, where he hate the landlord made him put a lock on it. I believe the final, the final word was insurance would not allow him to not have a lock, but that was the extent of what he was willing to do. Um, and so, and Eris puts a hole in the floor. We dropped to the ceiling. Another triumph basically dictates that where we dropped
00:24:12
Speaker
there were these things we were looking for, right there, ready to go. Unfortunately, also ready to go. We're four guards. Well, everything was going just fine until Milo made a little bit too much noise. I made a little too much noise. I was like, okay, so Hob had hidden. Aeris was upside down on the ceiling. Raynard was in the shadows.
00:24:40
Speaker
uh milo is near hob is all i can recall for sure and at one point i was like i'm going to hide and spring and attack and milo says what if i tap him on the shoulder okay fine milo sure well let's see what happens let's distract kadoosh ka bling
00:24:59
Speaker
We did take we heiress that gets spotted. Yep. Yep. It sure was because by the way invisible Which broach by the way
00:25:11
Speaker
Invisible is... You didn't need a red on the brow for that. Right. Is nearly broken in this game. Like, holy cow, it's not concentration. Right? You just kind of... Yeah, I mean, well, you have to spend a maneuver to keep it up. It's hard to... And it's hard to get. It's a formidable check, right? Yeah, it's hard to get. Yes. And then, basically, if you need to move while invisible, you're taking two strain every time. Oh, okay. So it's... So no more free maneuvers.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, basically you have to use your free maneuver to keep um invisibility going or any any spell that requires concentration. Okay, that makes more so but so it's easier to keep it going but it's more costly. But there's not a danger of losing it. It can't let's say correct the spell in general like you can't get hit hard enough to come out of invisibility or yeah and I think the the big distinction between genesis and dnd when it comes to invisibility is the fact that you can attack
00:26:05
Speaker
and remain invisible. That's the big, the big thing that just doesn't happen with D&D, so. So he goes invisible. We dispatch two of the guards, right? Pretty easy. One of them easily, and then the thing happens. Yes, and the thing being, so precursor to this, Eris sees the pin teleport, knows what has happened.
00:26:34
Speaker
Well, Eris first grabs a rack of these, grabs a six pack of these things. Right. Yes. As we are in teleport town. Because we're in combat now and so it's there's no time to do it properly. And they're in kind of refrigerated with air quotes. Yeah. It's like the little vials of dinosaur DNA. That was a
00:26:56
Speaker
And that was a result of either threat or maybe even a despair, that extra layer of security that's physically on the virus. Something went wrong. I rolled badly in trying to get them into the bag as well. Yeah. Basically, yeah, it was the possibility of them going awry was always there. But them being innately unstable was an added wrinkle because of threat or despair or something. So
00:27:24
Speaker
So yeah, so the way this episode ends, right, is that nothing's going wrong and then all of a sudden some stuff goes wrong and a hob and two of the guards get teleported out of the building onto a barge in the sky.
00:27:42
Speaker
yeah it was i mean one of them was somebody something happened i was waiting knows what i was waiting to see who would say it first and it was not randy who who put the ascribed the proper blame yeah we can get into this once we're talking about the next episode but man aris went hard in the paint at milo
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, there was another magic user and the magic user. I mean, now, did they conjure? They tried to conjure. It was. I can't remember. That was in the next episode. They tried to
Character Development and Future Arcs
00:28:20
Speaker
fireball right before. That's right. You shot ice at them. Yeah. Well, and it was the ice and stuff happened. It was. I will say I'm so sorry. I'm yawning so much.
00:28:37
Speaker
I will say this, these episodes were recorded the same session as the last couple of episodes of the previous session. Isn't that right?
00:28:49
Speaker
Yes, it was. There was something where we, or did we? We went into the next arc at the end of this session. At the end of this next. Okay, I apologize. What I was going to get was our last arc had the couple of flashbacks, one of which was Milo.
00:29:08
Speaker
wild magicking and nearly killing Hobb. So maybe Phillip was a little primed with Eris. That was the first time Milo's magic went super rogue on him, wasn't it? Was that a flashback we did?
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. So what exactly was it that... Why did that happen? I can't remember. I failed the spell. Did I roll a despair also? I think you rolled a despair is what it was. And so basically the ambient magic just activated all of the...
00:29:46
Speaker
all of the canisters. And what was it you were trying to threat and despair, like doubled on magic. So yeah. Yeah. And this gets wacky. And this was not the one where you tried to turn Eris invisible. This was a different magic check. Milo was attacking the magic user. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So yeah, it was just an attack spell. These things are very unstable. And so and so the episode ends with
00:30:16
Speaker
that. Hob gone. Eris knows that Hob gone and that Hob not. Well, everyone knows that Hob gone. Eris knows Hob. Yeah, but Eris kind of has an ideal why Hob is gone. I don't think. Yeah. I don't think Reagan or Milo fully understand what in the world just happened. Yeah. Milo might be under the impression that he has banished Hob to hell. Like no idea when he just did.
00:30:43
Speaker
And I can't remember if we established it in the next episode or not, which I guess we'll go ahead and move to. We weren't able to speak to each other. I just want to say, Raynard just thought that something was a bit off and much later went, oh right, Hob. That's right, Hob's not here. That is what he said, yes. Who's missing?
00:31:05
Speaker
Shoot what was about to say next episode we oh we established that these are our whatever speaking stones whatever we're calling them that Eris made us mm-hmm range isn't quite good enough for them to check in on hob before hob to check back until we did get established that he was kind of this barge was getting in the same district and even moving closer to the building even yeah was kind of what we said with that triumph right but
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, and just for a sense of empathy from the audience to you all as players, that episode is where we ended the session with Hob getting teleported away. Yeah, that's where we ended things. Yeah, with Hob and knowing where Hob got teleported to as well, because like you come out on the barge and that's where we cut the episode. Yeah, the line was you hear a great you feel a great wind rushing past you as you are on a barge and Philip goes, what? End of episode.
00:31:54
Speaker
And that was the end of our session. That was the end of our session and then the next session where I had to move my whole set up and I sound like I'm 25 feet away from the microphone. It happens. I've moved my whole set up back. I don't know that I fixed the microphone issue so I guess I'll find out when this one comes out. You sound fine on the call.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yeah, so the next episode's a fight. I mean, that's all the episode three of this arc. It's all fight, and a lot of four is, too. Well, now, when it first starts, it wasn't a fight. It first starts with Aeris going off. What did you do? Okay, it starts with Aeris looking for a fight.
00:32:40
Speaker
some conversation we had recently where Milo was having a really moment, an early empathy invoking moment, and admitted that he wasn't in control of his magic or something like that, or he had no idea how his magic worked or something. And I played it as that's, Eris didn't know that. Yeah. Eris didn't know that we've been walking around with a bomb.
00:33:03
Speaker
Um, like that, that Milo is not in control of his magic. Like that, that idea is terrifying to Eris because all of her magic is in at least from her perspective, uh, entirely under control because it works on schematics and rules and things like that. And she didn't know that Milo didn't have that kind of confidence in what was going to happen when he cast the spell. Um, it's a very Eberonian conflict because like Milo is a sorcerer.
00:33:32
Speaker
And Eris is an engineer, basically, like it's all measured and yeah. Yeah. And Milo's learning, basically. I think he's confident of the things he knows how to cast, that he's learned how to cast, but still occasionally or when he tries something new, things might not go so well.
00:33:56
Speaker
And also he teleported Hob somewhere. And that enhances Eris's. Suddenly this situation became way less safe. Eris also has significant concerns about Milo being just stable in general. Eris thinks Milo is losing his mind. So does Jeff. Hob doesn't. Unfortunately.
00:34:22
Speaker
Cause you did the thing again, this session where you like, you talked to, you responded to Kylie and I saw no points flip. I know Jeff, Jeff knows and it's killing me. Cause I have to be like Hobbs like, Oh, what'd she say? Was it good? Was she, she seems so wise. And I, and I appreciate the distinction between Jeff and Hobb that you have been able to maintain Jeff. That is well done as a player. Well, it sucks.
00:34:49
Speaker
Aris doesn't, Aris has lots of reasons for that. She doesn't mind. I said one particularly good reason she doesn't mind at all that Milo talks to Miley.
Listener Q&A
00:35:00
Speaker
Kylie. She, to Kylie. Miley's a live life. She talks to, that Milo talks to Kylie. I have seen Randy talk to Miley though, just to be clear. That's fair. She's very concerned that we're all pretending that Kylie talks back.
00:35:17
Speaker
That is fair. And there's a particularly good reason that Hob is unconcerned about that, or more than willing to go, hey, it's nothing particularly salacious. He just has experience with that idea. I mean, I haven't fleshed it out with Eric yet. That's kind of something I've had in the back of my mind is,
00:35:41
Speaker
somebody at the monastery communed with spirits, essentially. So why not? Clearly it's a thing that can happen. No, it's not at all an unreasonable idea in a D&D world. Right, but that doesn't mean the heiress has to
00:35:58
Speaker
go along with it readily. Sure, of course not. Right. There are atheists in Eberron where gods demonstrably exist. Well, and it's one of those things that just because ghosts exist and people can convene with or commune with the dead does not mean that people also can't be so over stricken with grief that their coping mechanism is manufacturing a connection with a loved one. So
00:36:25
Speaker
And I think that would be more common in a world where it's, I don't want to say commonplace, but it's possible for somebody to speak to a past loved one, that that would be a readily available thing that somebody would rely on. Well, an heiress's thought is if there's a ghost hanging around us, like there's a ghost following us around and talking, we should all hear it.
00:36:48
Speaker
That's fair. I guess we just need to find Eberron's Harry Houdini and see if this is always in Milo's head. Or who's the other one? Uh, Ricky J was the guy that kind of took up the Harry Houdini mantle of debunking, debunking fabulous. Um,
00:37:06
Speaker
I'm still waiting on that call from Houdini. He said he would do it. I keep trying to commune and he just isn't talking. No, just putting it out there for the listeners. Harry Houdini was far more fascinating than just a magician and escape artist. Oh, like really, really fascinating person that is worth looking into. His dying act was to disprove this whole thing by having a specific phrase that he and his wife shared and basically said, get them to tell you what the phrase is.
00:37:36
Speaker
He told his wife, if there is a way, I will contact you. And this is what I will say. And if you never hear this, it ain't real. Pretty cool. Maybe he just didn't deserve to go and talk to, you know what, nevermind.
00:37:52
Speaker
What I was about to do was make up a really weird afterlife mythos that I was going to pretend to believe was real. But I decided there's no good reason to do that tonight. Okay, so new episode. We're hopping back and forth. Hob's on a barge. The rest of the crew is... Oh, and I did want to mention this. The entire last maybe 15 minutes of the episode before Hob gets gone
00:38:21
Speaker
He keeps saying, I move back towards Eris's hole. I'm moving towards Eris's hole. We should all go to Eris's hole. We need to get out of here. We got the things we should all go to Eris's hole and then gone. Pretty standard fight stuff. I'll be honest, this one I had to listen to today while I was cooking, so I didn't pay as close attention as I did to the other episodes. If anybody remembers a part of the fight they loved, let's just talk about it. How about that?
00:38:50
Speaker
I remember like it was just the the extensive use of triumphs and advantage exactly
00:38:56
Speaker
just demolish the people who were who you were who who hob was fighting. Yeah. Because, you know, three, three of us on one guard. That's no contest. But the all the the delightful use of advantage and threat on on the the barge fight was wonderful. I love that we're in sharn and we keep having fights on moving vehicles. That's so cool. The air is so cool. Yeah. Why else? What else are you supposed to do in sharn? Yeah.
00:39:25
Speaker
Why are you having any indoor fights? Come on. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's super, super cool.
00:39:35
Speaker
But yeah, the episode did start with Aeris got to go, and then Hob got 16 wounds in the next two turns before Soak. But that's why I took those hard... I would have been down without that. I think if I hadn't taken the third level, I would have been down. If I'd only taken two, I would have been...
00:39:57
Speaker
dead on a barge But yeah, so that's why I wasted so much XP Because I guess everybody wants to go after well fair enough. I spent so much XP pardon me I Mean it makes sense that everybody'd want to take the biggest guy out first the same way that hob wants to take magic users out first It's just you you're the only person there for them this time this time. Yes, I'm talking about the previous five fights where I went down and
00:40:22
Speaker
uh yes now this time obviously they were going to attack the guy that wasn't on their team um and yeah i sent some more people to their death falling into the cogs from who knows how high um i think there's just one person the other one didn't uh yeah but yeah someone fell to the death and then the third person was crushed to death when the barge collided with a building
00:40:51
Speaker
he was teleported into a freefall, then saved by a, by a source lead, and then conjured a source lead. That's, that's exactly, that is right. Yeah, I was gonna ask if that was this one or the last time we were fighting in the skyways of Sharn that the source lead conjuring happened. But yeah, and yeah, there were triumphs used to, to right the ship, right the boat, to slow the boat, to stop the boat, all triumphs and advantages.
00:41:23
Speaker
Cause at some point you guys pretty quickly got out and knew and were trying to find- Yeah, we murdered that guy real fast. Like one round. Well you know, that was the guy that got teleported. Like I think one of you- Oh yes, he got removed entirely. I think Raynard got a triumph and that was like, he falls back into the shelves and- Yeah. Bamps away. And you said it doesn't happen a lot, but it feels like it happens more often than you're letting on, Eric. That these accidental teleportations happened in this factory. It feels inevitable.
00:41:53
Speaker
Anytime there's a life or death combat in the factory, the incidents go up a lot. There's not fist fights happening around. I've been on Reddit long enough to know that forklift accidents are way more common than one might think. I've seen so many CCTV footage of like entire warehouses toppling over from one forklift problem. Half a sharn gets teleported if that happens in this factory.
00:42:21
Speaker
I think that was that under the dome, except for it's just a catastrophic failure of something if at least things go wrong enough. That's just horrible to think about. I agree, but I still have not heard of an Eberron Osha. So well, yeah, it's because you'd have the dragon marked houses would have to cooperate with it.
00:42:41
Speaker
Yeah, this is what I'm saying. There would have to be a centralized government powerful enough to impose its will on the Dragon Mark houses, which not so much someone someone in this country would have to care about somebody not that is not their peer in order for that to happen. And that doesn't seem to happen around here. Listen, Jeff, we're playing in a fantasy world where corporations hold most of the power and are above regulation. Just accept that. I know you have to detach yourself a bit. Move on.
00:43:11
Speaker
I think I just got sick. And we continue. The fight is over. Find our podcasts on Amazon Music. Oh, it sucks that it's true. And unavoidable. Oh, man.
00:43:35
Speaker
I was gonna say, as I speak into the microphone I bought on Amazon, but that's actually not true for the microphone. Don't ask about the other stuff on the desk. Yeah, I got it from Best Buy. A good one. Never done anything wrong. Mine's from Best Buy. Oh boy.
00:43:51
Speaker
In fairness, I don't know where Ma and Pa's electronics is that I could buy a Yeti Micro. Right. That sounds like a fun sitcom. Done. Yeah. If you know an Etsy seller that makes quality microphones, I guess, let me know and I'll try to do right by.
00:44:10
Speaker
Totally by a bespoke microphone. I guarantee there's a seller that's taken a yeti and turned it into some steampunk monstrosity That is certainly on there. Why'd you do that Jeff? Why did you introduce that to me? That idea into my head. I can't tell if you don't like it or now you have to have it. I have to have it Okay Once it precious
00:44:36
Speaker
See, this is off the rails. Um, yup. Yup. Speaking of off the rails, the, the barge goes into a building and, uh, we did, we did use a triumph to establish netting, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Yes. And then you all stopped the barge instead of letting Eris speed by at high speed and then let make hop jump for it. Yeah. What were we thinking?
00:45:04
Speaker
not about the fastness or furiousness of the situation. No, I was thinking about the highness and splattiness of home. As Benjamin Franklin said, those who sacrifice coolness for safety deserve neither. That's the dumbest thing you said, and you said so many things, Eric. I liked that. Oh, man. If you want to learn more about Benjamin Franklin,
00:45:36
Speaker
This is gonna be it. You know what, it is important to, I guess it is important to say that this is our first time to record late in like several months. And so that might be why I'm punching. It was a long day at the school factory. I just need everyone to know that it's 851 PM.
00:45:55
Speaker
And if you don't think that's late, I have no guys recording. Okay, here's where I admit that I didn't get to listen to the final episode of the arc because recording started. There's only so many hours between when work ends and when I was listening on 2.5. Anyway, don't. It's not fun.
00:46:19
Speaker
we get done we take the coil to Tarvel Tarvel he didn't plug it in while we're there like that he doesn't reestablish connection or anything while we're there which I thought yeah and immediately got a message
00:46:37
Speaker
That is right. I apologize. Uh, I miss that part because I was thinking his His inbox was overflowing errors didn't make a lot of hay about watching it activate kind of see what it was doing But aris has some now. Well, that's right, but I figured that You know turning watching someone else turn it on would be a good thing behind a wall I was worried. It was like it's like in a safe. Yeah, it's like a wall. You can't watch it right? Yeah, you definitely did try to
00:47:03
Speaker
I did try to learn the access code in the very first episode of the. Yeah, I did. But Tarvel, out of the generosity of his heart, hands over the dead one, as he promised. Not out of the generosity of his heart, because he agreed to. Yeah. In a way of honoring the agreement he made. Yes. And Eris accepts it because she definitely still needed it. Now that she has five active ones. She has five ones that work. Now, and they are all one step closer to super villainy.
00:47:31
Speaker
I'm just surprised Rainard didn't say, why do you need that one?
00:47:37
Speaker
You got a bag full? Rainard does, he's on thin ice with Aeris. Also, Rainard does a grift when he's in one. Rainard is a lot of things. This is probably the closest Rainard and Aeris have been to being entirely on the same page. I think Rainard clapped. Yeah. That's what we did in here was the conversation in Tasha on the way back. And Rainard was like, you got skill, Aeris. I don't know what to tell you. You should put away your screwdrivers and start working on the confidence game with me.
00:48:09
Speaker
And Twitch Hobb was like, we're in the boat she made. I don't know though, I think she's not killing it on this front also. And she displayed excellent detective skills in the previous arc, so she could run the grift on both sides where run set up the private investigator agency to solve the crimes that she herself commits. I'm telling you, we could go independent. I gave you all the clues, officer. We could go independent.
00:48:34
Speaker
Oh man. What a weird, dumb campaign that would be of you all committing crimes and then solving the crimes you commit. We could go independent and become a private investigative firm. Oh man. Do this for a living. There is an appeal to that as a short campaign for sure. Yes, Eris has been making the appeal of let's go private. We used homophones. We did.
00:49:08
Speaker
I just remembered a joke from another podcast that's not ours. It was funny. There's a character named Lieutenant Homophone, and that's just funny. Yeah. I learned a bunch of things in my notes about the teleportation tubes. Yes, please. I know.
00:49:26
Speaker
I know how the inscriptions inside work, I know the casing is a containment for the magic, but like all mass-produced things, it's a shoddy containment, and Eris knows how to make a better one, that would stabilize the magic and not leak any magic.
00:49:46
Speaker
And so it would work better. So like with all the things that she messes with, Aeris has learned how to make it superior, a superior teleportation cylinder.
00:49:59
Speaker
And I mean, really, Eris really is one personal tragedy or lab accident away from terrorizing Sharn. I'm excited for Philip to transition to just playing the villain at the table. Yeah, just just don't know what her villainous motive would be. Like I could totally imagine Eris abusing all of the gadgets that she has, but I just don't know what she would be trying to get in Sharn.
00:50:28
Speaker
Yeah, so Eris now knows how to make a more stable one and has five of them. But in the process of doing that, Eris accidentally teleported herself into a public park in Skyway and had to walk home. I do. Yes, I recall that happening. We all played around a little bit at the end of this arc with different things. Hobb went to Zavia's and just decided
00:50:56
Speaker
There are times where Hob thinks, I don't want to start a fight, but I certainly would feel okay ending one tonight. Um, and sometimes it's when he needs to reassure himself that he has efficacy in a fight, uh, after he's gone down. And sometimes it's just when like, I don't know. I don't know how you guys unwind, but Hob likes a good, uh, a righteous
00:51:19
Speaker
face punching or whatever it is he chooses to do, butt kicking of some sort. Bomb making. That's how bomb making. Right. That's how Eris relaxes. That's how Eris relaxes is this is bomb making. But so that I mean, and that's all that it is. We're on a list now. So.
00:51:36
Speaker
Now is there a chance that Eric is going to decide that this person I kicked out of the bar also has two vindictive sisters and a powerful dad? Who knows? Hey, hey, hey. You decided that that guy that you kicked out of the bar had a vindictive family.
00:51:54
Speaker
decided that a guy yes fair enough you know what it's semantics that literally no one cares about Trevor Randy you guys want to talk about what your characters got up to after
00:52:08
Speaker
I feel like Trevor's builds off of Randy's, so Milo should probably be the first one that we talked about. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Randy, can we have a talk about your conjuring practice? Milo hasn't really ever conjured anything, so he wants to see if he can do such a thing. And he tried to conjure a little bridge for Hob.
00:52:32
Speaker
to come across that failed, could not do it. So when he's home that evening, sitting up in the backyard, he tries to see if he can conjure a little puppy, which he could not conjure. I was unable to conjure a plane, so obviously I should move on to a living being. Exactly. That's just science.
00:53:02
Speaker
Yep, and he failed both times, so he's not sure if he can do it or if he should just stop trying. It wouldn't have been heartbreaking if it wasn't that you decided you were trying to conjure a puppy. Like, if it's just Milo sits in the backyard and tries to conjure something like a cup, it would have been nothing. But you had to go with like, he just he just he just wants a little puppy. Yeah, he just wants.
00:53:30
Speaker
Yeah, somebody, you know, another friend at home other than his mom. Some, some being in this world that will look at him the way Eris does when he screws up. I love the despair. It's, it's, he conjures the puppy, but it's, but it is exactly as judgmental as Eris. Yeah. What?
00:53:52
Speaker
I loved it. That's all. It was great. It was very good. And then Raynard comes in and decides independently that he also needs a puppy. Can I try and conjure a puppy too? Yes. And you succeeded in manifesting a puppy. Yeah, you, puppy. Through the secret. I have been neglecting the dog. It's been like three days. Three days. Three days.
00:54:21
Speaker
Right after you, we joke that he. I don't remember a puppy like Trevor, I think, said he wanted to try conjure, but verse doesn't have the conjure spell. Right. And so Raynard just tried to manifest and we said he opened his front door and a puppy was sitting there eagerly awaiting. Oh, OK. Yeah. Yeah. OK. The joke was that Milo had successfully conjured the puppy. He had just conjured it across town.
00:54:46
Speaker
Oh, okay. I do remember that. So I guess the puppy would have disappeared shortly after if it was the puppy that Milo conjured since he wasn't even concentrating. So the puppy existed for a minute. And Milo will never know. Yeah, so we have a few questions. I mean, that's the end of the arc. Here's the thing. We played this session rolling right into the next arc.
00:55:09
Speaker
So first off, sorry, you've got, I think, one more episode of me screaming from the bottom of a well. But also, the fact that we knew we were playing another episode, we didn't quite button this arc up like we normally do. So it feels like it ends a little abruptly. But here we are.
00:55:31
Speaker
It's the holidays, it's a number of games we record. Oh no, I'm stating it. Flame asks, Eric, how did you decide who among the parties slash security got teleported?
00:55:45
Speaker
Proximity, it was purely that. I had that despair in my back pocket planned out where if an attack went awry that the shelves would get jostled or something would happen and that could, but it was purely up to who was nearby. That's why you had that evil grin when I rolled that despair. Now I get it. When you're GMing Genesis, always have a couple of despairs pre-planned.
00:56:15
Speaker
That's not terrible advice for triumphs either. As soon as I find out what our job is, I jot down a couple of ideas for triumphs. And then, of course, so much unforeseen. One of my triumphs can be when I end up on this barge, I will do this. But little things like we happen to drop right amongst a field of teleportation cylinders. That's a great triumph to have in your back pocket.
00:56:45
Speaker
I think it's different. Since we're recording it, we want to be quick and pithy with them. You can take your time at the table. Well, and I will say the late in the session or even mid session triumphs, you all, when you get so many as you did in this session, it becomes cumbersome. But typically you don't have a problem with it. The issue that we typically run into is like the first roll of the session is a reception check in the four sales and it's like, you got a triumph.
00:57:10
Speaker
do something and yeah. Yeah triumphs are best if you are either in action or it is a check against someone. Yeah like a perception check triumph is kind of a bummer but an intimidation check triumph even though even if it's early in the session can be fantastic. Like this guy spills the beans to us at this point you know kind of thing.
00:57:33
Speaker
Yeah, and triumphs can play into things outside of the scope of the check. It's just oftentimes you all don't even know what that would entail. I will say this, and this carries over from last campaign when we started doing the natural 20 things as well.
00:57:54
Speaker
I am always a little scared of making a triumph based on an unknown future. Cause I feel like sometimes we do that or the first campaign we would do that and end up hamstringing ourselves like, well, I was going to, we were going to go this direction with it, but that triumph canceled out the opportunity to do that. So instead we did this. I was like, ah, that would have been fun. It's always a bummer to play the game that way too. So it's, it's, it's, it's difficult to not.
00:58:20
Speaker
My first inclination is always to make it germane to the thing I rolled it for, just simply because
00:58:26
Speaker
I'm not potentially hamstringing myself down the road with it, too, because triumphs can do that as easily as a despair can if you're not thoughtful about it. I've never been thoughtful about it. All right, Darren, question for Eric. The teleportation devices were really fun because they provided so much great despair fodder. I hope we see more dangerous technology in the future. What was your inspiration for the teleportation canisters? Gotcha, Darren. Yeah, Eric Harris is gonna provide plenty of that. So, yeah, I...
00:58:56
Speaker
The actual warehouse and the devices that you all were trying to get were like the last thing that I kind of plodded out and came up with. I came up with what the job was and then started doing the set dressing of what everything was, I think the day before we were set to record. And I like the idea of, you know, with Eberron and the nature of magic,
00:59:20
Speaker
Oftentimes we talk about the reliability of magic and how like Everbright lanterns, you know what they're going to do, you can turn them on, you're good to go. Soar sleds, airships, all these things are reliable technology, but
00:59:35
Speaker
before technology can be reliable, it has to be volatile in some aspect. And so taking something that is a quote unquote bleeding edge technology, utilizing magic in a way like harnessing a dragon mark, which not only is something that would be quote unquote brand new to the world, but also something that a lot of people are not going to be cool with. So it has to
01:00:02
Speaker
You're gonna have a hard time getting Kenneth to fund this kind of operation and give it its typical care and oversight because there's probably a lot of people within Kenneth that would hate the idea of this technology even existing. So yeah, I just kind of went down that thought process of a magical implement that was inherently volatile and subject to
01:00:25
Speaker
Not even exploding, not even going right, just going off. It's a quote unquote loaded gun with a hair trigger. It's the difference between going to an artisan burger joint at McDonald's. You have to make compromises for scale. So yeah.
01:00:52
Speaker
But that was the thought process and the idea behind it. And yeah, it's definitely fun to play with that, especially in a... That's a big thing with Genesis, is the unreliability of magic. And so taking that concept and applying it to Eberron, where magic is the complete opposite, finding ways where that logically can make sense of a despair causing some magical thing to go off the rails. So yeah.
01:01:23
Speaker
All right, and then our last, well, actually not our last question, so we got one. Laura, who I will mention again, thank you, Laura, for keeping the wiki updated. We are indebted to you forever. Laura asked. It is a valuable resource for us while we're recording oftentimes, so. Laura asks, Eric, at one point you said you didn't want to role play Kylie, and I was wondering why is that? So,
01:01:50
Speaker
Part of the reason is allowing Randy's relationship to Kylie and the Milo Kylie dynamic to be wholly
01:02:03
Speaker
Those of you that have not listened to campaign one or are working on it, no spoilers here, just referencing it. I spent a lot of time taking up real estate in Philip's character's head during that campaign. And it just became one of those things where I wanted to try something different with an entity that existed within a character's mind.
01:02:25
Speaker
and not wanting to give Kylie a distinct voice because Randy and I had kind of talked about early on the unreliability of Kylie that is really kind of ramping up that obviously the players can see when Randy doesn't flip story points. But I didn't want there to be a distinction on the audio end of, oh, Kylie's actually talking to Milo versus Milo thinks he's hearing Kylie.
01:02:56
Speaker
So that was a lot of the reasons all kind of culminating into the decision that I didn't think it was going to take anything away from Kylie as a character by just having her be
01:03:12
Speaker
having her reside solely in Milo's head and me providing the information and then just allowing Milo to interpret that through Kylie's voice internally. So I hope that answers your question. We've never really established if Kylie is actually real or is it just Milo?
01:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, or yeah, I mean, Milo could know things just because of his magic. I mean, I don't know. I kind of left that open, I guess.
01:03:51
Speaker
to insert a screwdriver into the gears. Oftentimes, Milo acknowledges, like, there's no reason why Kylie should know this information. Like, this is wild. And so, yeah, there's also the possibility that it's not Kylie, that something else is latched onto Milo and just is using a familiar voice.
01:04:10
Speaker
Okay, let's not get ridiculous. I really believe this Everybody just just all of you shut up I don't need this right now So But yeah, I mean that that's that's a lot of the a lot of different reasons for why that decision was made Laura I
01:04:34
Speaker
Okay, and then our last question is, like I said, I did get an off-topic one. This is from Sadie, not Becca. And she asks, what is the worst Christmas present you ever got?
01:04:46
Speaker
Oh, no. I'm quickly running through my head of all the people that I know that listen to this show and I'm scratching names off this real quick. The only people I know personally that listen to this show I have met through the fact they listen to this show. So I'm not really concerned about this. Other than this, I don't want to put it in my blast. I honestly can't think of any particularly bad one. I will say this, the fun Christmas opening story that I have from growing up is
01:05:16
Speaker
that I had one uncle who bought the same, my mom's side of the family is large. She has five brothers, all of whom have at least three kids. And of course they're comparable to my age, so most of us have kids now too. Huge. But so I had one uncle that just to simplify things, bought every one of his nephews the same present and every one of his nieces the same present. And we were one of those families that would go around every, it was one present and you go around the circle and say what you got.
01:05:46
Speaker
And every time if some jerk opened the present from that uncle before anybody else got to and ruined the present, like it got to the point where we had to coordinate like, oh, oh, wait, Rick's got uncle X's present. I better grab that one too so we don't ruin it for each other. And they were never bad presents. They were just always the same. It was like, oh, we all got Swiss Army knives this year kind of thing. So that's my Christmas present quirky story, I think. Then I could ask Ferris and he could tell me a present he's gotten from me that he hated, but I'm not gonna do that.
01:06:17
Speaker
I also can't think of a terrible present I want to call out, but I do have a funny Christmas story. Not actually something I did, but a story my parents used to tell. Apparently, a Christmas shortly after my parents got married, they decided they would play a Christmas prank at my dad's family Christmas.
01:06:39
Speaker
Eric has a look on his face that tells me he knows exactly how good an idea it is to play a Christmas prank Christmas Eve after everyone was asleep They went into the living room and unwrapped all the presents and then repackaged everything in the wrong boxes and wrapping paper. I Think that sounds fantastic. You know who didn't? Everyone else That's why they call it a practical joke practically everybody laughs Was done to
01:07:10
Speaker
Yeah, no one thought that was funny. Yeah. Cause that's not a good Christmas present. Don't give that to your parents. Trevor, you were going to say one.
01:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, um, last year, my dad got me a Santa on a motorcycle that played like, uh, wild things. And he genuinely. Your father. Yes, my father. I know your dad. Yeah. And this is what's really shocking. He looked at me very genuinely and said, I really thought you were going to like that.
01:07:55
Speaker
I have thought of one. There's no way this will... One year, I also have aunts and uncles who would get the same present for all the nieces and nephews. One year, quite sincerely, not a joke gift, we all received fushigi balls.
01:08:19
Speaker
Oh, that's so cool and dumb. If you know what fushigi is, just look it up and watch a video. Look it up on YouTube specifically, please. Do not Google image search this. You've got to look it up on YouTube. And it was thought that this would be really awesome. We'd all love it. We'd all spend like all afternoon learning how to do tricks with the fushigi ball.
01:08:45
Speaker
Um, and we did watch the instructional video that came with it. And it's so, it's so sincere and so earnest and so bad. So you're telling me that you didn't immediately try to get yourself Gareth level on the sushi. I did not. You want to dance magic dance? Nope. I see. I had not seen labyrinth yet. Um, so I didn't even have the reference. It was just, what is this?
01:09:16
Speaker
Randy, do you got one? I mean, I can't really think of anything that it was just an absolutely awful gift. I mean, if you want to include socks and underwear, I guess, I mean, but at least those are useful. But I will share a story to receive like Christmas underwear or something ridiculous. No, no, no, it's all normal stuff. But I will share that.
01:09:45
Speaker
every christmas okay first of all i have a brother with special needs and he's just a riot he's so much fun but every year at christmas and on his birthday the first present he gets is from me and he'll open it up and it could be a piece of cheese it could be a barbie doll it's
01:10:12
Speaker
It could be anything, a pencil. And he just hoots and hollers and gripes and complains and raises his fist like he's gonna pop me one. And he knows it's coming, but he still just goes nuts when he sees whatever dumb present his brother has given him. So he gets bad presents. But it's so much fun.
01:10:41
Speaker
So I.
01:10:43
Speaker
the worst present I've ever gotten, it was actually in a gift exchange because it was after I'd become an adult. And so in my family, once you're a grown up, you know, you get put into the adult. Well, we played Dirty Santa. And I remember it was my turn and I had one of the the later numbers. So I was in a high value spot. Yeah. And there were there were a couple of things that people had already opened that I was eyeing to take. But my mom looked at me and pointed at one of the represents said, you you want that one?
01:11:14
Speaker
And I was like, Oh, okay. Um, and I opened it up and it was a Lord of the rings backgammon set. And I was just so confused because I was like, yeah, you got half right. Um, in that I liked the theme, but.
01:11:33
Speaker
okay and like you gotta have friends to play back game right um well and this is this is pre board game boom and so like i think i i was roommates with philip at the time but neither of us had any interest in playing at least i didn't think that philip had any interest in playing you were correct
01:11:52
Speaker
But instead of the disc, they were all little gold and silver one rings with all the inscriptions. So I thought, well, this is neat if I ever have a need for them, but no, mom. And I would have taken the $80 night set that was on the table, but thanks. We could have used that. I got Lord of the Rings Pez dispensers one year. Nice. Like a whole set that's really badly crafted heads of all the actors.
01:12:22
Speaker
I also got, I won't say from who, but I also got a stormtrooper gumball machine after my 30th birthday for a Christmas present. This is how you tell me you didn't like that?
01:12:36
Speaker
We had one friend's gift exchange, and I thought I nailed it. I think I actually got, I think I got Shawn leather coasters, and I think that was about right up his alley on that one. Okay, we did actually get a question from Becca, and we're gonna get it in. I'm sure there's something worth cutting if this is long, but I can't imagine it's particularly long. Becca wants to know, what's your favorite bug? There it is. What's your favorite bug? Dragonflies. Dragonflies from Philip. Oh my gosh.
01:13:06
Speaker
There's really cool ones that we get in our backyard where I can't remember what the species subspecies is called. I have to look it up again, but the
01:13:16
Speaker
the males have phosphorescent white stripes on their wings and the, and abdomens, like their tail. I know it's not a tail, but you know what I mean. And so you can watch them move around the yard by the white, the phosphorescent stripes on their wings, like the paint on the end of a helicopter rotor. They run parallel to the body, right? Yeah. The stripes? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool.
01:13:47
Speaker
Well, if I got to pick a favorite, I was absolutely and utterly and totally fascinated as a child with roly polies Loved them. That's a good one My mom used to sing a song about roly polies to me when I was little so that is that is a good one Uh mine is
01:14:11
Speaker
I almost went with moths, like various, cause like moths are by and large drab, but the ones that aren't are some of those interesting looking creatures. But I got to say bees. Bees are so good. Everything about bees is good. Um, love, love, love them. There you go. Especially those big dumb wood bees that aren't actually good for anything except for making me laugh. Cause they look so big and dumb. Trevor.
01:14:41
Speaker
Um, you know, I guess I'll just go with ladybug. Nice. They land on you. They're lucky. Also a good game. Lucky ladies. Um, the Hercules beetle. I've always thought they look cool. The, the rhino beetle. They've got the big, yeah. Yeah. I always thought they look cool. I know nothing else about them, but yeah.
01:15:09
Speaker
Cool. Okay. If you want an example, Poodle Moth is worth a Google. It kind of looks like a Godzilla villain, but tiny and adorable. Okay. I think that's it. This was a meandere episode, but that happens sometimes and it's fine.
01:15:29
Speaker
If you guys you know what I'm just gonna put this out here to our patrons Obviously anybody who listens is welcome to get in touch with us Also, but we spend most of our time on the discord. Just be frank about it. So If there's a segment if there's a thing you would like to see incorporated into Eberron reviews besides just recaps and questions if there's something else you want to hear about and know about
01:15:51
Speaker
Hit me up, give me some ideas. I'd love to add some stuff to these besides just my own slightly bumbling recaps. So if you got an idea, if you got something you want to see here, let me know. And I will either do it or not. Those are the options.
01:16:08
Speaker
Anyway, we are excited to get back with you guys next week with a fresh arc that we have already begun. And if I remember correctly, it's fun. So we'll catch you in a week. In the meantime, you can catch us on all the social medias at the Geek Pantheon. You can find us on YouTube at the Geek Pantheon that is home to Eric's DM videos, as well as another campaign, another entire game run by Philip and played in by Eric called Kyber Shards.
01:16:37
Speaker
I believe that's everything. Check out our Discord. Easiest way to get to it is through the website. I'm sorry, a link on the Facebook group page, which is again at The Geek Pantheon. And you can always check us out on Patreon again at The Geek Pantheon. Until next week, I have been Jeff. I am Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm still Randy. I will continue to be Eric. We're trying to do something about that, guys, I promise.
01:17:07
Speaker
That's so mean. I love you, Eric. I really do. Anyway, goodbye.