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C1 Ep. 80 Eberron Reviewed 13
332 Plays6 years ago
This week the whole gang is here to talk about the last arc and answer all of the burning questions left lingering.
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Jessica Smith, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrin Katzska, Darrell DeLaney, Jon Cary, Charles Compton, Nikko Batson, Matt Lewis, The Kamm Family, and David Scrams.
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgements
00:00:01
Speaker
This show is brought to you by the generous donations of our show sponsors, Matt Lewis, Laura Pickron, Irene Villarito, Daryl Delaney, Nico Batson, Darren Katska, Ryan Royce, John Kerry, Jessica Smith, The Cam Family, Charles Compton, and David Scrams, as well as all of our generous patrons.
Hosts Recap Recent Episodes
00:00:50
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to Everon Renewed, an actual play 5th edition D&D podcast. My name is Jeff.
00:00:57
Speaker
I'm Eric. I'm Randy. And I'm Phillip. And today, at long last, we are going to be doing another Eberron reviewed episode where we look back at the last three episodes, except this time 12.
00:01:11
Speaker
11. Oh no, 11 is twice. It's 12 episodes. You have chapter 11 twice. Definitely 12 episodes. You sure did trick yourself. Yes, so we have questions from our patrons.
00:01:29
Speaker
um off of the discord and then of course we're going to go hit the main beats of the episodes um to be perfectly honest i can't sit in this room uh for three hours to go through everything luckily i refuse to talk about the first episode of this arc where some wild monster stole barrick and i ran the other direction for 60 minutes
Clarifying Episode Dates
00:01:56
Speaker
The only part, oh my gosh, was that this arc? That was this arc. That was this arc. It was episode one. The only thing I want to talk about from that episode was when Eric tried to make us choose between surging on and moving forward. Fun fact, that episode aired on July 19th. Wait, that can't be right. Wow.
00:02:15
Speaker
realist job episode 68 chapter one July 19th 2018 that I can barely remember tomorrow exactly yeah boy oh boy that oh man remember those days when I wasn't having to go to work summer time
00:02:35
Speaker
Ah summer. All right so um yeah ultimately that thing is defeated a Boranell runs around like a ding dong like he does and uh king ding dong
Raven Queen and the Red Owl
00:02:55
Speaker
but we make it back to borrowed time in great and decide that our next step for sure is going to be to get oh because you ping
00:03:11
Speaker
Uh, you, you, you summon the, yeah, you summon the Raven queen summit. That's right. You commune with the Raven queen. Yeah. And, um, we find out that the next pack bearer is the red owl herself hated your window.
00:03:27
Speaker
which brings us to our first listener question. Thank you. I was hoping there would be some sort of fanfare. Yes. Just big thank you to all of our patrons for submitting questions via our Discord for this episode. And a big thank you to Irene for going back through four months worth of just inane Discord chatter and finding all of the questions that were asked. And a second big thank you to Irene for sending us cookies that we're enjoying while we record this episode. I was going to say the first... You know what? Shut up.
Cookie Banter and Audio Quality
00:03:57
Speaker
Philip is remotely Skyping in or discording in with us Yeah, the the first and most important question was Irene asked Did Eric save cookies for the rest of you and the answer is yes, he did and they're delicious. Thank you And I that really good. I'm part of rest of you. So the answer is no Man I'll tell you what what people are gonna really love is the sound of both of you chewing into the microphone right now and
PAX Questions and Berwick's Story
00:04:26
Speaker
I really feel like people need to know that Eric fondled his stomach while eating that cookie. He rubbed his tummy like some sort of poo bear while he was eating this cookie. They're yummy cookies and I wanted to be mean to Philip. Are you guys familiar with misophonia? No. It's like the opposite of ASMR and that's what you're giving people right now. I am a solid eight inches back away from my mind.
00:04:50
Speaker
Okay, anyway, so since we've brought up PAX, these are all questions from Laura on the Discord. Laura, who is also our documentary keeper of records. Yeah, she runs the wiki. I think it might be soul contributor. She works really hard on that thing.
00:05:08
Speaker
If people would like to help her, I'm sure she'd appreciate it anyway. So it's, was Hadith always a packed holder? Has that always been a part of your thing? And was it always planned from the beginning of this that there were going to be multiple packs? That's a very good question.
00:05:27
Speaker
I will say that the exact nature of the multiple packs storyline definitely was born out of the narrative developing in the early stages. When Philip and I first spoke about Berwick's backstory and the pact,
00:05:45
Speaker
There was never a part of our conversation that there were multiple packs out there and things
Narrative Planning and Gala Scheme
00:05:50
Speaker
like that. So that was definitely something that was born out of play and me what I really didn't start planning the I had the overarching narrative like the big story beats planned going into session one.
00:06:04
Speaker
But the actual how we're going to get there and how those story beats manifest themselves, I tend to come up with after the first few sessions, once I have a good feel for the characters and how their backstories are actually going to interact with my story. And so the multiple packs as they ended up being definitely developed over time and hated being a pack wielder is definitely something that developed.
00:06:32
Speaker
It developed well into the campaign, I would say. OK, cool. But so we know now that the Red Owl herself is a pact holder. Yes. Based on her movements, we believe that she will also be present at the gala that strength will be at. So we think, well, hey, why not? Let's go there.
00:06:56
Speaker
And we do a lot of planning that ultimately is unnecessary because nothing says D&D like the best laid plans. Or however well laid our plans were, they weren't the best. But yes, so we find out that there is a little gnomish fellow by the name of Gumflaps Darkiflarts.
00:07:26
Speaker
I've heard it both ways. Who... It's really a regional pronunciation thing. You know how we say it in three-edra. Mmm. In sharn, we fly to sharn. Back to sharn, we go. And thus begins the most trying experience. Well, before you all leave, Booyah finished his book. Oh, right. And Randy's with us. We didn't make him... Yes. This is like the second review he's been a part of. Yes. Yeah, and I came ready to play, because I didn't know this was a review.
Booyah's Abilities and Dungeon Challenges
00:07:56
Speaker
I got dice. I got the character sheet. I'm ready to go. Especially since I missed last time.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yep. Well, apologies, Randy, for that's OK. All right. So Randy finished Booyah finished the book. Finally. Yes. A lot of things. Yeah. Quite a quite a bit of cool stuff. He can now like a light switch flip on and off a halo around his little head and got some cool stuff with that.
00:08:27
Speaker
Now he can cast shield of faith. He is now proficient in religion. And if the halo is up, he cannot be stunned, petrified or blinded. And he has, that's just if the halo is up, that's up. The halo was up. This was my understanding. I'll look into that and double check for you. And let's see undeads and fiends have disadvantage on attacks against him. Yep.
00:08:52
Speaker
What else? Let's see. Oh, he's cast one level higher. Yeah, that one's. I like that one. And then the other one that was a big deal. The heel. Heel. Spell. Yeah. 60 foot heel spell restores 70 hit points. And that doesn't cost you a spell slot or it does. It's just now you can do it once per long rest. Yeah. Okay. Well, I actually have to roll a dice. I have to roll a die. Oh, if I roll a six, I keep it one to five. I need to need to long rest it.
00:09:23
Speaker
and I'm here 70 hit hands blindness deafness that was adding diseases look before Booyah started taking levels in cleric because my thinking was you all have zero magical healing in the party and so the idea was to give you all something that can just be a
00:09:43
Speaker
a bomb of hit points in a dire situation since you didn't have a consistent form of healing. Now that you guys become a cleric as well, you know, I probably wouldn't have included that spell, but I wasn't going to go back on it once I had it on paper. We're good on you for that. Um, but yeah, so we fly to Sharn and thankfully we don't tell Borenel our plan so he can't demand. No, don't go.
Journey to Sharn and Dungeon Crawl
00:10:09
Speaker
Don't we? He demands to know the plan. Yeah.
00:10:13
Speaker
Somehow we're able to talk King B out of coming with us. And just the three of us go into a dungeon that was never taxing. That was long and occasionally dangerous.
00:10:36
Speaker
Not really ever in job. I'm just kidding. Hateful. Just hateful. No, it was fun. There was lots of trap checking, which led to more than one natural one rolled by myself. But the biggest thing when we go into the dungeon and it's I've been in two dungeon crawls in my life. Well, three because we did two because we did two in this arc.
00:11:00
Speaker
And it's just pretty typical stuff. You check for traps. You might find something that wants to hurt you. You try to hurt it first and you move on until the tired of trying to track the map and you just start flipping coin to decide left or right. Absolutely happened. We did run across the genie. That is next. That's what I'm getting to get before the genie. I say it's the end of the third episode.
00:11:22
Speaker
where an old friend shows up and Drakir re-joins, well, doesn't rejoin, re- encounters the party. I think he joins later, clearly, but re-encounters the party. And I didn't know that it was coming. And then when I listened back to the episode, Philip starts giggling about 45 seconds before
00:11:48
Speaker
I listened to that and I have no idea why.
00:11:54
Speaker
Well, it started because. So good. No, I know at the timing, but I have no idea why I started what I was actually giggling about because I knew it was coming. But I have no idea what made me giggle right before it. Well, did you know that you that you were going to be presented as standing atop a freshly slain dragon? I did not know that. So maybe that's what it was because he's like there's a dead dragon and standing on top of it. And then you hear.
00:12:22
Speaker
Well, that must be what it is. Yeah. And then you say your line and I scream out loud because Drakir is back. Which leads to another question also from Laura. Is Drakir back? We're good. I don't think we can answer that even if we wanted to. No, I don't think we can. I don't think we can give an answer to that. I mean, we all know.
00:12:44
Speaker
Who we all know the answer Laura once right with regard to trick here, but Yeah, cuz actually she doesn't ask you to trick here back for good. Her exact question is Drake here is back for good, right? Honestly Eric and I have not had that conversation I got a Sierra and I have not had the conversation about about Drake here's exit or lack thereof and Neither one of the mask have asked
Genie Encounter and Wish Debate
00:13:11
Speaker
Randy or I how we feel now well, right?
00:13:17
Speaker
And honestly in terms of in terms of a character trick here
00:13:28
Speaker
Drakiri is concerned about what's happening to Beric, as has been expressed in the episodes, and right now that's the reason that he hasn't already split. He kind of wants to see how that plays out to a degree.
00:13:48
Speaker
As far as his motivations, it was all about that orb. So he's not like shown up and I've decided to be a truly heroic person and I'm going to join you in your noble quest. It was convenient that we crossed paths in time for you to help Drakir.
00:14:09
Speaker
get what he wanted. Especially after that dragon killed those guys he hired on the surface. That dwarf and that other thing. That is an interesting question though. His concern for Barak, is it for Barak or for what this could mean for what we're trying to do that Drakir does believe is important? That's been established, right? Drakir believes that our mission is important. He just doesn't want a part of it because his personal one is greater to him.
00:14:39
Speaker
I think it is actually somewhat for Beric. I think that Drakir is concerned that Beric is turning into something that he wasn't. Drakir is not
00:14:59
Speaker
Drakir has a pact now with the Umbra, and so Drakir has essentially sold his soul, but Barak's different. Drakir knows that about Barak, from the experience of his experience with y'all in the jungles of Zendrik.
00:15:21
Speaker
So I think seeing, seeing what's happening to Eric and to a lesser extent to y'all as a group, I think that there's, I now, if Dex asked Dracure that question. Sure. No. Yeah, no, of course. No, it's all, it's all practical consideration. But I think Dracure is a little bit genuinely concerned.
00:15:46
Speaker
Okay. So yes, then the next thing that does happen while Dex and Drakir are talking, Booyah looks around the room and rubs on a genie lamp. Yes, he did. There are two questions that I want to ask. One, Randy,
00:16:10
Speaker
how much thought did you put into, this might be the only wish we get, this might be, or at least you know what I'm talking about. I have, how much thought you put into that question before you? Because I have the lamp now, and I've had it for three weeks, and I think regularly about how I can word my question.
00:16:26
Speaker
so if i even get to ask one yeah well first of all i have to think is what would booyah do with this thing before the genie ever appeared and i said well you know he's curious about things so the inevitable happened genie now a wish and
00:16:48
Speaker
I mean, I didn't want to just sit there and think and think and think. So I just went to the general, what could help the group maybe the most. So I went kind of broad, you know, help us in our, our quest essentially. Right. You know, help us with something that can benefit us. Do you say protect, protect our world or save or protect the world? Protect the world. Yeah. So.
00:17:13
Speaker
Which, I mean, it's a perfectly fair thing to ask for. Which leads me to my second question, which is for Eric. And you may, I don't know how, if at all, you want to answer this. So it's established that later, because I really wasn't 100% sure, what this genie does is casts the wish spell on behalf of somebody else, essentially. Essentially, yes. Grants the wish.
00:17:42
Speaker
How? So and he asked for something to protect the world and you gave us this vial of poison. So exactly like how monkeys paw. Do you think the wish spell should be played?
00:17:53
Speaker
I speak with a lot of specificity because I have the length. I mean, I think that is just the nature of the Wish spell, especially when the Wish spell has been acquired by means of convenience rather than effort. Like if you all had, if we had been spending six months because you all needed the Wish spell and so you were on this epic quest to attain the Wish spell,
00:18:17
Speaker
I'm going to be far less inclined to pull a monkey's paw type thing in that situation unless you all just completely beef up the execution of how you word it. Like you speak in a metaphor or something, then I'm just going to shove my head at you and be like, well, you should just know better.
00:18:36
Speaker
You have to say grease my palm and all of a sudden it's really oily. There's a book that I read in elementary school that was based around this whole concept. And I remember it was the Bible, a girl that was very lovelorn for a boy in her town who was about to move away. And she said, I wish he would just plant roots down here. And he turned into a tree. So that will forever be my motivation or my inspiration for the Wish Bell.
00:19:05
Speaker
No, I think in situations where you stumble across a genie's lamp, I think there's a fair amount of, especially, I mean, Randy was fairly vague in what he said. So in that instance, I just think, okay, it has been left up to this genie's interpretation. Yeah, totally. What you mean by protect the world because he knows nothing about your experiences. So it's like, well,
00:19:32
Speaker
Okay, here's a bunch of poison. So yeah, I think especially in a context like that where it's not even you casting the spell. You have to be very specific and that's how I would play it as a vengeance master. Sure thing. And boy that poison though is potent.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yes. Okay, so we get here into our crew again. So it's Randy, Jeff, Phillip,
Exploring the Dungeon and Gala Infiltration
00:20:05
Speaker
Phillip and Phillip traveling through this vault.
00:20:12
Speaker
And I mean, once we have Drakir, it's not much, there's the mirror of great insult or whatever, but there's not like a lot more. The snake lady was before we met Drakir, right? The snake monster. In my head, it was a, not a Gorgon, but a female. I don't think we ever have to establish for sure. Yeah, anyway, we find Gar-na-thick-le-tarn. You're welcome.
00:20:40
Speaker
And I will say this, I have noticed as I listen back that Jeff is dumb and says dumb things that come true. Jeff once made a joke about can't Barrick just turn into a bat. Barrick turned into bats later. Made a joke about can't Drakir just turn into Shadow and sleep out of here. Not much longer after that, that's what things Drakir did. I said, how can we be sure it's not just Garnoth, Ikyltarn, and a mech suit.
00:21:06
Speaker
the first time we saw those automata on the first day in the dungeon. And then three episodes later, four, five, four episodes later, Garnoth Ickletar, sure enough. Sure did get it right. In a mech suit. He was dead the whole time. So, anyway, we meet Garnoth. Is that just an excuse for you to brag about your prediction ability? I just like to think, I inspire you guys as well.
00:21:32
Speaker
I'm just writing this thing unwillingly. No, but Garnoth is a really fun character. Very funny.
00:21:41
Speaker
very helpful it was worth the dungeon crawl for the things he was able to do for us yep um and he's not smug that's true now he's also would not against us it's smug enemies not smug allies that's true um but we uh although he is dense in a in a in a physics sort of way no like
00:22:10
Speaker
Well, I don't know. I just figure anyone who comes to see me needs to go through this dungeon of doom that kills everyone. Right, because only the worthy may meet me. He does kind of have that going for him. Yeah. So what all do we get from Gornoth? We get a map of the vault. We get a map of the vault that we are able to save into a magical USB drive. We get the password.
00:22:38
Speaker
dorjana we get we get a bunch of potions and booyah drinks most of them yes yes that did happen right before we take a rest we got eight potions and booyah chugged four of them and then said there's two for each of you that ain't how numbers work it's booyah
00:22:58
Speaker
And then we take a rest. But also, we are able to get more people into the party because he is able to forge very realistic invitations to the gala. And I will say this, that was the last episode that I listened to today. So from here on out, who knows what's going to happen? I believe at some point there was a party and an elevator.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yes, that is correct. OK, so yeah, that we get you all take along Paolo and craft to the party. Well, let's not forget because I had almost forgotten that I need to remember the next time we record. I I skinned a dragon. Yes, because I want that armor and I want for you to figure out what that armor does for the next time, because we haven't left sharn. Boy, if we had left sharn in a rush after that party and I had just left that silver dragon high, I'd have been like, we're going back.
00:23:58
Speaker
We're finding a reason to get back to Sharn. I don't care if it's the end of the adventure after we're at level 20 and we've saved the world from certain destruction. What do you want to do now? I want to go to Sharn and I want to get that armor. And it's just been sitting there waiting for Dex.
00:24:17
Speaker
Anyway, uh, yes. So the, the, the group that goes to the party is, um, it's, it's Dex and Booyah together. Um, Dex is in disguise as irreverent. So I'm not really disguised, disguised, but, uh, and then did you change yourself into a halfling or did you just go goblin? Cause there are goblins in shard. I can't remember. I think I think I was just goblin. That was just him.
00:24:39
Speaker
OK. Drakir and Beric, neither in any sort of disguise together. And then Paola and Krast, who we decided later, would definitely have been in a disguise. We just didn't say at the time. Yeah. And we go to the party and we start just, you know, clocking things. We find fake Borneau. We see fairly certain a strength. We see three.
00:25:05
Speaker
Well, I mean, three, you, you all see three. Yeah. We talked to three afterwards, but he's in there in the party with everybody else.
00:25:15
Speaker
And I can't remember if we see Hadeth here when Arne at the first. I believe we did spot Hadeth. Because that was the moment when you all went back and said, well, Krasse would have disguised himself because she saw Krasse. Yes, that's right. Well, really go down the elevator. Yeah, I roll a 20. I use that to get a safe passage into the elevator and we go down. Dinner service was
Vault Exploration and Combat
00:25:37
Speaker
beginning.
00:25:37
Speaker
And there Dex has a conversation with Lelyanna. I finally get to spend time so that I can start using the thing this dagger can do. I also said this dagger can do. The dagger, what it do. And so that was good. And then Philip gives me crap for it.
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah, we take the elevator down, we open it up, no big surprise. There's a couple of warforged at the very front of the vault guarding it. Get past them, because Barak disguises himself to look like Barak's. Then I say the magic word. He hadn't changed his password. We find out that among the four of us, I'm the only one that takes security seriously in real life. And then,
00:26:30
Speaker
everything falls apart because the second war for the third warforged that we see does not buy any of our disguises well you stepped on let's not split hairs as now
00:26:44
Speaker
You know, I did a few things incorrectly. You guys did a few things incorrectly. Who can tell? There was an explosion. Who can say who did this one wrong? Yeah, but the Wolf Horse realizes that we're not who we say we are. There's a fight and we beat him. But boy, we leave a mark. I mean, it's kind of like follow the House of Usher implosion style thing, basically, right? Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:08
Speaker
And then apparently we decide, well, that having done, let's just leave marks everywhere. I don't see how you can fault my logic. They're going to know something happened. Let's leave a trail. Let's leave a literal trail. If you remember correctly, I left a literal trail in false directions as well.
00:27:26
Speaker
So zip it. Uh-huh. Thank you. You know, you make all these great decisions. Then you do one dumb thing because you like platinum pieces. All of a sudden, Philip's not your friend anymore.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah, further down, further in. Yeah, further down, further in. Mind flayers. Yeah, yeah. And the brain dogs, I had forgotten about those. That sucked. Man, you were like, there's these two mind flayers. And we were like, oh no. And I made the joke that Dex really isn't that scared of mind flayers because he really messed him up yet. And honestly, he walked away from that encounter.
00:28:12
Speaker
scared of those brain dogs, not the mind players. And you were like, there's four of these. And I was like, oh, okay, there's four of them. So they're like the cobalt, cobalt is to mind flare, or cobalt is to dragon is, this is to mind flare, or whatever. And then it's like, one of them latches on to, was it Drakir or Beric? I think it was Drakir. I don't remember. Regardless, Eric's like, you know, if they, if you fail to save, they get to drink your brain. I was like, oh, that's scarier than cobalt. Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:43
Speaker
What are they called again in real life? They're not brain dogs. Intellect devourers. Oh, it's right there on the tin, what they do. Okay. That is accurate. But yeah, so the... But we win and we find a... A thing. Yeah, what are they called? A something in a jar. Oh no, I wasn't even speaking to that yet.
00:29:08
Speaker
but the thing in the room next door you slid it into the altar everything was schema schema thank you oh it's a thing that jeff didn't know what it was but apparently everybody in it broad does so when i said what is that thing you're like get the schema it's like okay fine i'll read later f me and we and and and my characters put it back because we're still following the let's not leave a trail plan
00:29:36
Speaker
I don't know why. We're clearly leaving trails. You can do what you want, but it's ill-advised at this point. Take the things you like.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah, I'm thinking back as we're going through this arc, did you all hold up your end of the bargain with Gurnath Ikyltarn at all? Yeah, we swiped a bunch of Warforged parts. In the flaming skull room, I put a lot of... Oh, at some point I found a bag of holding that was full of grain. And dumped a whole lot of grain in that big closet, poured out a good amount, realized what was happening, stopped.
00:30:10
Speaker
It just be due to the magic of editing. After they found that bag, Jeff or somebody went to the bathroom.
00:30:19
Speaker
And Phil- Well, yeah, probably Jeff. Let's just be real. Because Philip and I sat here while Jeff was in the bathroom and did the math for exactly how many cubic feet of grain would be contained within a bag of holding, just so we can know how high, like if you dumped it all out, how high the grain would go in the room. And you guys were like, well, you dumped it out and it's seven feet high and it's seven inches high. And I'm like, well, no, it doesn't. Because Derek has agency and would have stopped.
00:30:48
Speaker
When it got to a point, you'd be like, okay, well, that's enough. I can fit things in here. And then you swept it into a corner and called it good. Well, I wasn't going to put it back in the bag and it was leaving it in the middle of the floor. I don't understand what you're coming at me with this stuff. I was making all the right moves. Anywho, but yes, I did at some point in there find a bag of holding because to answer your question, we did all the war horse parts in the flaming skull room.
00:31:17
Speaker
It was Booyah like almost disappeared into it or something or. Oh yeah, you you just went. Yes, that's how we dive headfirst into it. That's how we knew what it was. And thankfully you didn't go all the way through it, because isn't that like a bad thing to put a living being into a bag of holding there for a little while? There's no oxygen in a bag of holding. That's the biggest thing. So you could dive in and climb out. But OK. I did. I know we'll say a bag of devouring on the other hand or a tent of devourer.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah, no coming back from that. Anyway, so we do, we meet a
00:31:55
Speaker
Okay, when it was first described, I was thinking Tinkerbell in a jar, but this is more like, I think I may have said this during the episode, Mr. Burns radioactively growing in the woods. It's a full-sized creature in a giant glass case, not a Tinkerbell in a jar situation. Correct. I really wasn't thinking that until... Medium-sized human. I think until they touched hands. I was like, oh, he's a big boy. Yeah.
00:32:20
Speaker
I really want to know how many people were helped by your very, very old Simpsons reference. I can guarantee you that at least 25 people who listen to this episode can leave a review on iTunes and say, I got Jeff Simpson's reference. And they can send us a screenshot of their review and be entered into the drawing for a commissioned mini. Yes. You know, that wasn't planned and now I feel dirty. I just did that.
00:32:50
Speaker
I just think, how can they write it and let us know? I know, leave a review. Here's what I know for sure. If you leave a review, Philip will see it. Because he has to see the names for the mini contest. Eric will see it because he gets emailed to the Geek Pantheon's email and Eric manages that. That's fair. I can't guarantee Philip would see how right I was if you just put it in the Facebook group or in the Discord. I will probably not since I'll just know the name.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So here's the Philip had to step away from the microphone for a second, but we're trying to it's late in the evening. We're trying to maximize recording time. So we're going to take a couple of questions off the list before we get back into the swing of things. So.
00:33:32
Speaker
We already talked about that Haedith was always a pack holder, didn't we? Or did we just answer it? We talked about it in the planning of the campaign, but I think this is more of an in-universe. Got you. How did Haedith become a pack holder, Eric? I mean, it's the same way Beric did. It's a family thing. And while it is clear that the packs are all elf in origin with the Cabal Reem,
00:33:59
Speaker
There's plenty of recorded marriages between races and it was actually a conversation that had Philip a long time ago just kind of postulating like at what point do does like half elf and human pairings eventually do you eliminate the elf gene like you just get back to humans because like go
00:34:29
Speaker
Because half-elfs are their own race, but you can produce a half-elf with a human and an elf, so they are literally half-elf in blood. Right. So then that would also lead you to believe that if a half-elf and a human, that would be quarter-elf
Character Motivations and Dynamics
00:34:41
Speaker
blood? I mean, honestly, to put it in terms that I've grown up with my whole life, being Native American, there's a blood quantum thing. Yeah. And, you know, like my son, I am the blood quantum that I am. I am 1.8. My son is 1.16.
00:34:56
Speaker
Granted, we won't get into the politics of the fact that who knows what we really are because people told us how much Indian we were in my great-grandmother's generation. Anyway, but I understand what you're saying. Yes. Yeah. So while we've established that all the pact holders originally were ELF, doesn't mean that they can't be other races now and still have it be a bloodline thing rather than a taking of the pact, which is also possible. But that's how I've envisioned, like, hate it, it's a genetic thing.
00:35:25
Speaker
So I want to say I misspoke. I know exactly how far back generations to go to find, you know, full blooded. This is the same week as Columbus Day. So my indigenous people's ire has been high for a few days now. So I'm speaking a little off the hip with that one.
00:35:44
Speaker
which this year was the first year Oklahoma City was officially Indigenous Peoples Day. I was really proud of them. Anyway, you can answer this one. It's about Arabists and such, but Darren wants to know how much of Arabist does fill up control and how much do you do you control any of Arabists at this point? In actuality,
00:36:04
Speaker
No, in terms of at the table. Philip and I have pretty frequent conversations in regards to the nature of Erebus and things like that. So Philip is an informed participant when it comes to my input on Erebus. And there's only a handful of things that I can think of to where I would feel compelled to step in and say, OK, hold on.
00:36:31
Speaker
we need to have a conversation. But for the most part, at the table, Philip has control of Erebus. Okay. Philip's back. Go ahead. Have I ever done anything to surprise you? No. We'll get into it later on in the discussion of the episodes. Ask me the same question.
00:36:52
Speaker
Have I ever done anything to surprise you with Erebus? Nah. Pretty much have seen it all coming. The smoke and the clouds and the walking down the wall. That is the way that Dex has reacted to everything happening to Beric. No, he's constantly surprised. He just doesn't know how to process it.
00:37:11
Speaker
Okay, and there's one question I should have asked earlier before we get back to the blue guy. And I did say, Dex asked in the episode, how'd you get here? And you said Kyber goes everywhere. But Irene asked, how did Drakir get to Sean? Is there anything more? Did you think more about a backstory of what he did to get there? How he, because clearly he went to the service to recruit people at some point. I think
00:37:38
Speaker
that I think that the umbrigen have
00:37:43
Speaker
people on the surface, keeping tabs on what's going on on the surface. I think that of the Drow cultures, the Umbrashen are probably the best informed of what's going on on the surface because the Blocoridal, who live in the jungle, they're very tribal and not very interested in outsiders. The Sulatar are obsessed with the giants and they're still sort of maintaining pieces of the old giant empire.
00:38:09
Speaker
And so I think the, whereas the Immergen are constantly looking for new weapons for their war against the Aberrations that are destroying them. And so I think that something like the Caneth Gala, where he's going to be showing off all of his stuff, which it occurs to me, we never like took the time to look at any of the cool stuff he must have been showing off, which is kind of a bummer. Yeah. Because in all the chaos of our exit, there probably would have been an opportunity for some great larceny.
00:38:38
Speaker
Um, but I will take that. That was, that's a, that's a Dex's bad thing. I should have been thinking about that. I didn't think of it either. We got, we got focused pretty fast. I didn't think of it anything either during the exit. I mean, come on, right? Nope.
00:38:54
Speaker
Anyway, so i think something something big and advertised like that would be on on their radar and so i think that especially since. The vault had broken into kyber i think that secure was aware of the vault.
00:39:10
Speaker
and would know enough about House Canis to know that there must be powerful things in there. How exactly he found out about the orb of dragonkind we never really established, but I just assumed through rumor and gathering intelligence.
00:39:27
Speaker
As to how he got to Sharni, he was honest. He literally traveled there through Khyber, which would run under the ocean as well as under all the land. So he traveled there through passages in Khyber and obviously didn't come out in the vault, but came out at another exit near or in Sharn.
00:39:48
Speaker
Right. So it's the lower levels of Sharan reach almost down into Kyber. And we can assume there were a couple of things he had to fight and defeat along the way because... Oh sure, I mean it would probably be a dangerous journey. Although I imagine that the Umbrigen maintain kind of passageways to and from where the places they frequent.
00:40:12
Speaker
But yeah, I'm sure that was dangerous. I mean, as far as the question of what he's been doing since we saw him last, that's a different thing, because obviously it didn't take him all of that time to get to Sharn. But essentially in the interim, it's been making his way back into the good graces of his tribe, because he was very much on the outs by getting you guys loose.
00:40:40
Speaker
And so, it's been a matter of hunting things in Kyber, doing field research to find out about items that might be of use, and then planning his own heist. I don't know what he would have done if he'd gotten to Gurnas Ikyltarn's first. He probably wouldn't. What? Probably killed him, I mean. After he got what he wanted. Well, yeah. Obviously. Sure. Sure.
00:41:09
Speaker
Okay, so jumping back into the story as we go. Blue guy in a glass jar. Mind melds with Beric. Everybody learns a lot about each other. Well, that's not true. Those two learn a lot about each other. While Booyah and Dex loot the room.
00:41:28
Speaker
We take a bunch of warforged stuff and I picked up a thing. I didn't know what it was at the time. And when I picked it up, flaming skulls. The magic guy can absorb magic. He can! The magic thing can dispel the magic of the skulls.
00:41:43
Speaker
but it seems to hurt him. It seems to hurt him. And he's just a wee baby. So I felt kind of bad. Just a wee blue bag. Just a wee burn. But so we keep talking about how are we going to get this guy out of here? And then it turns out he can fly and phase through walls. We're like, I don't know, just go up. So I have a question about him, Eric. Sure. To the degree that you're willing to answer, is he a physical manifestation of Merix's Dragon Mark?
00:42:13
Speaker
He was stolen whole cloth from a plane shift art thing that Wizards of the Coast did for I forget which Magic the Gathering setting it was, but they have this concept of a race called the Aetherborn.
00:42:31
Speaker
which are living creatures that are born of great magic. They're magical runoff, essentially, that gain sentience. I figured something like a creation forge would probably produce enough magic to where it's possible for something like this to happen.
00:42:57
Speaker
So I wanted to introduce them into my eberron because I think they're really, really cool. And the culture around them, they only live two years, so they are very impulsive and like live for the moment. And all those platitudes at the musical Rent Spouts, they abide by that. So, so, yeah.
00:43:18
Speaker
I really like them, and so I stole it and stuck it in here. But moments of great magic have the possibility of essentially birthing these things. These people. All right.
00:43:31
Speaker
And we ended up with a Dragon Shard as well. And we each got a magic thing. The thing I picked up turned out to be an Iyune Stone, which is a spell buffer. It's really cool. The only reason I'm downplaying it is because I can't remember exactly. It's like up to
00:43:50
Speaker
half the level or something, it can defend against a spell up to half the level that it currently has, right? And after it expands 26 levels or whatever. Yeah, I believe so. But it also circles around my head. And at first, I was very concerned that that was permanent. Turns out it's not, which is nice. I'm able to just like, you know, put it in my pocket. So I got that. Drakir got a Doss Loot.
00:44:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm and a Vorpal sword. Yeah, so Vorpal sword snake or snack and what have you? Mm-hmm instant death on a 20, right Yeah, decapitation or if it is in if it's unaffected by decapitation 68 damage, I think yeah, I believe so and so decapitation effects is
00:44:44
Speaker
Most almost any corporeal creature with a head, right? So a verbal sword could one hit a dragon. Yes. Wow. Man, I wish I could get a cool weapon. You suck. Uh, and then the das loot was, I honestly don't recall. I remember saying, it casts some spells, um, mostly regarding animals. You can use it to cast like animal friendship and some other things like that. So it's, it's a neat little utility utility item. Sure.
00:45:13
Speaker
And Booyah got a deck of illusions that we were all very- Boy, that was terrifying. We were all very concerned.
Dungeon Twists and Character Growth
00:45:21
Speaker
Booyah wasn't concerned at all. Booyah doesn't find himself concerned about- Was Randy concerned? Of course. I get a testament to Randy not metagaming in his own head. If you had to dex that thing, I'd have been like, well, that's neat and put it in my pocket forever.
00:45:37
Speaker
Even though decks would absolutely pull the card. That's why it's kind of fun to play characters like that because you get that inner struggle a lot. Yeah. It's like, Oh, what should I do? I don't want to do this. And yet you do it. Yeah. Phillip was so angry at me when I walked in here with a deck of cards. Oh, he and I both.
00:45:58
Speaker
It's because Eric has frequently said that he would never do that to his game. Yeah, and I didn't. I know. Sometimes you're getting drunk on the podcast fumes and you're like, you know, drunk on fumes like you do. And you were like, you're like, did the listener love it? We didn't know. You've changed. Okay. Yeah.
00:46:20
Speaker
And Barak turned up with what? You know, I don't actually think Barak got something. I think Barak spent his time talking with the... I think you're right. That's the magic beam. That's what I... Yeah. You did get... I mean, Dragon Shard. You hold on to that. I mean, yeah. I did get that Dragon Shard. Boy did he. He didn't let it go. Okay. So then there's an elevator shaft.
00:46:44
Speaker
Yeah, and we can pass forward to that part too. Dex is getting increasingly insecure about, I mean, uneasy in one sense and insecure in another. And this leads to a question as well, about the things that Booyah and Beric are able, especially through Erebus, are able to do.
00:47:09
Speaker
What's a player to do when all the cool stuff their care can do is made redundant by the rest of the party? Exactly! The guy named Jeff wrote a question and it was, what gives guys what happens when a changeling rogue is not the best disguiser or sneaker?
00:47:25
Speaker
No, I mean, we played it for laughs when it was, when we were with Bornella in the town, his name I can't remember, and you both shapeshifted. One actually changed, and one was an illusion, if I remember correctly. You actually, Booyah actually changed his shape, and Barracks was an illusion. And like I think I just said, I just sat down on the concrete, had a sad...
00:47:50
Speaker
But I think there is a... I haven't played with it much because Dex recognizes his own utility. He can still hit very hard and he's relatively intelligent. He can't pick a lot for crap. So it's not a huge deal to him, but yeah. I don't think any of us are sneakier than Dex.
00:48:12
Speaker
I mean, you can become Shadow. Yeah. Dex still has to physically exist in the world. No. What Dex knows he's the best at now, and the reason is that he knows for a fact that he can recognize a trap better than anybody else. He knows that he can catch things that other people can't see. Yeah.
00:48:34
Speaker
You also always go first. And I also always fight first. I'm fast and fearless. Except for all those times I run always scared.
00:48:50
Speaker
Spoiler alert, Barrick gets another pact. He gets the pact from hated, non-violently. But anyway, and Glenn asks, Eric, how are you handling party balance? He did not say party balance. Well, I think that he might, okay, he might- I think we took this question two different ways. I think there might be two different questions then, because Glenn did not say party balance. You're right. But the person who said, yeah, I was wondering that too, it was a
00:49:19
Speaker
Oh, it didn't. It's not on my thing. But here's Glyn's exact question. Eric, you might've talked about it before, but how's balance working with the bonus from each pack? Barak keeps getting boosts inherent to his character, the others or not. So it was just him that asked. He mentioned the other characters. And I don't think he's talking about- I took the others as to mean the other packed holders once Barak comes up against them. But we can talk about both. I read it, man. I don't know what this says about me, but I read it.
00:49:48
Speaker
I read it as the characters at the table. I read it as the player characters too. Well, how is the balance working with the boons from each pack?
00:50:00
Speaker
I mean, here's the thing, like Booyah got that book which gave him a pretty big spike where his barracks is more spread out over time. In terms of Dexalicious, please don't ever call him that. Gonna be constant now. That's not your full name? First t-shirt, Dexalicious. That's a pretty solid t-shirt. You know what, I don't hate it.
00:50:30
Speaker
No, I think that's something we need to take a look at. No, my full name is Dexterity. That is something that to take a look at, I feel like and it's been something that's been lingering in the back of my mind is
00:50:46
Speaker
Dex's utility at the table when put up against everybody else at the table. I don't think that Dex is underpowered. I think that Dex doesn't have as many toys. Well, that that's what I mean by utility. I mean, just I mean.
00:51:04
Speaker
We'll take a look at it. I want to be clear that I'm not complaining, but I'm also not saying I wouldn't like more toys. Yeah. I mean, we played this game because we like doing dope things. But that being said, there is a very good chance that all of Barrick's toys may disappear in due time. I don't know what you're talking about. Really? Yeah.
00:51:35
Speaker
May as well just say, and again, we're going out of order, not by much, but by a bit out of order. Well, really, I don't know if this might be about the time that Drakir and Dex have that conversation. No, they had that conversation back on the boat, didn't they? No. They had the conversation when Beric is stuck in the room and Drakir isn't. That's right. So we're almost there. But I'll just say, Glenn, in the same line, had another question saying, hey, Jeff, going forward or looking ahead,
00:52:04
Speaker
Which I'll be honest, I'm really hesitant to answer any question that says looking ahead, both because I don't want to give things away if you like to show it to. I don't know what in the world Eric is going to do between now and when I decide to use the lamp. But his question was what would have to happen for Dex to use the lamp to remove Barracks Pact or save Barrack. Save Barrack is all it says. Save Barrack, save the world.
00:52:28
Speaker
or alternatively say or doom doom the world exactly and that's and that's the thing like it is not nearly as black and white for Dex as it feels for Drakir because Dex understands
00:52:41
Speaker
that this Erebus thing has a lot of utility in the mission they're trying to do. I mean, you know, if I say my wish is remove Beric's pact. Well, Beric explicitly said, I have a pact with Erebus, Erebus is in a separate time. This wasn't one sentence. He said Erebus is keeping me alive.
00:53:05
Speaker
Now, whether Barak is right about that or not, Dex is going to take him at his word for it. So if I if I say I'd really like to remove, I don't want my buddy to get possessed anymore, remove the pact, he could drop dead. If I say restore, you know, Barak to real life, the pact could leave and then one, we would lose a lot of.
00:53:25
Speaker
ability to Barrick might be pissed because that's his whole deal is this Pax now. So it's not that Dex isn't planning on doing it. Dex and by extension Jeff, but I'm trying to keep it in character. Like when I think about it thinking about how Dex would is trying to figure out what can I say that gives the best chance of Barrick surviving and not losing everything he's fought so hard for.
00:53:56
Speaker
And I haven't sussed it out yet. I really think it's going to happen is at some point, it's just going to come out of it. He's just going to say something out of impulse or fear or anger because of something that had just happened in an interaction with either with or against Beric or Erebus for that matter. And well, at this point, you may not be able to tell because Erebus can sound and look exactly like Beric. Yeah, boy.
00:54:20
Speaker
That was a real mind. We're getting way ahead of ourselves at this point. Yeah, let's go back. So we have this one Dragon Shard and we're walking around. Down the elevator shaft. Well, yes, walking slash climbing down the elevator shaft. And there's like a fungus. We avoid it. Mind players. There's mind players. Elder brain pool that would be poisoned. Yeah, we got it. I mean, good thing we had that poison, right? Yep. And then Eric's favorite NPC returns.
00:54:52
Speaker
Bellashara. Bellashira. Eberron Q. Eberron Q. It really is Eberron Q. I hate Q. Covered in mouths or whatnot. Eyes. Eyes. Both. Why not? No, but we have Father Thing covered in mouths. Yes. I didn't like him either.
00:55:10
Speaker
Just wait till we find a thing covered in mouths, each mouth containing an eye. Oh gosh. Better than something covered in feet. Fastest creature in Eberron. It just tramples you. This game's so dumb. So yes, Belashira returns to the delight of everyone around the table. I mean, I don't hate Belashira. I really don't. I know Drakir does.
00:55:41
Speaker
And I think Philip does, but no, yeah, and we know that the thing that Drakira wants is just on the other side of the door that is just on the other side of Belashira. And it's at this point that the patrons betrayed us.
00:56:02
Speaker
Well, OK, so Drakir makes a wish to get in there and gets in there, and the door shuts behind them, correct? Well, but only because we were suddenly faced with a door and a riddle combined. Eric said, and the patrons as well. A door, a riddle, and a puzzle, just to be clear. They were like, these guys, man, they've been slogging through these dungeons. They really don't love dungeons. We really need, let's do something to make it fun for them.
00:56:26
Speaker
And then they were like, but we don't know them at all in the 74 episodes of this we've listened to. We've not picked up on anything about these guys. So I think that we should give them a riddle and a puzzle and on a door and a door. And you know, we'll make them dungeon crawl for the pieces. Yeah. And you know, I understand.
00:56:51
Speaker
that I don't know anything about Everon. Let's talk about this door, this puzzle, this riddle. Oh no, we're talking about it. I'm talking about it. I'm kidding there. Let me speak from an informed position about the door. Oh, I'm going to speak from an opinionated position.
00:57:08
Speaker
Here's what I will say. I could tell from the structure of it that it was a very well-written, clever riddle. It just meant nothing to me, because I don't know enough about the point. No, the function of it was not to be... I mean, obviously you want it to be clever and mean something. But the function was that... I mean, you all explored, I would say around 40% of the dungeon. And there was a lot of really cool stuff.
00:57:36
Speaker
in that unexamined 60%. And this was what I thought would be a creative and interesting way to allow you all to experience the entirety of the dungeon that I had worked so hard on. What? Yeah, he did say allow, didn't he? I wanted to give you guys the opportunity to explore my creation.
00:57:59
Speaker
I feel like there was a lot of cool stuff and I spent quite a bit of time working on it. I have no doubt. And I wanted the audience to get to experience it also. I have no doubt you feel that way. I have no doubt it's true. So when Drakir pulled out that lamp, I got a real feel of the sad. Well, here's what was about to happen. Let me explain that for Makira. I totally understand your side of it.
00:58:22
Speaker
There was a bit of a player to this of, we are so done with dungeon crawling. I mean, can you imagine how long this arc would have been if we had gone back and searched for each one of those? Each one of those would have been an episode. That's true. We'd be doing a 16 episode arc instead of a 12 episode arc. And that's assuming we got each of them per episode. Yeah. Anyway, let me explain it from Drakir's perspective.
00:58:49
Speaker
What was about to happen to Drakir's mind is these three people that some little part of him in the back of his head likes and the rest of his head finds convenient are about to make a deal with what is to him Satan. And he's going to be bound by everything he believes in to try to kill them.
00:59:20
Speaker
So to first stall that, he uses his wish to solve the door. Sort of. Single serve solve. Yeah. In haste he does not word his wish carefully.
00:59:35
Speaker
But it was a hasty wish to avoid having to try to kill you all. I will say an uncharacteristic episode in that both of Philip's characters did something hasty that didn't super pan out. Yes. So yeah, so Philip finds himself in a room with a dragon. That ain't great. No, but you know.
01:00:07
Speaker
Room of the Dragon is just where Drakir shines, apparently. Evidently. Well, he's got to have it with a dragon and a couple pieces of fodder. Dragon and some lackeys. Right. And sadly, you all were left outside. Do anything you want to them, just don't hurt me. And so, Bella Shira, I mean, you came up with this pretty quick on the flyer. Did you have a plan B if something crazy had happened? Oh, no, it was straight out of my keister.
01:00:31
Speaker
Okay, so that the zombie thing. Okay, the the mind flayer giant hybrid thing was plant that was in the dungeon for you
Strategic Battles and Teamwork
01:00:40
Speaker
all to fight to be one of the things to get Bella Shira interceding and saying, Okay, go fight this thing. And you could have the other four shards was me trying to conceive of a way to not make this a hyper
01:00:51
Speaker
boring, drawn out episode of you all, like, because what was going to happen is we were going to cut back between Drakir, one on one fighting a dragon for four to five rounds. And you all backtracking through the dungeon, frantically trying to find the other pieces. And that just wouldn't have played. Drakir would have died. Drakir would have died and it would have been bad radio storytelling. I mean,
01:01:18
Speaker
It was the moment his dungeon. What? I had plans. I had plans. I had spell slots left. My next move was to go invisible and drink some healing potions. Okay.
01:01:33
Speaker
Then it would have been a 15 round fight where Drakir inevitably wins a war of attrition. Which is exactly the way that Drakir wins wars. Appearic victory is still a victory, I believe. Slowly and painfully. So it was a moment as a dungeon master where if
01:01:56
Speaker
If I'm just running a game at a table and we're not putting it on the internet for other people to enjoy, probably just let things play out the way they played out because Drakir made a bad call on how he worded his wish, and there are consequences to that. I didn't want to do that in the context of a show, so. So Dedex takes off running to this mind flayer giant. He doesn't know it's a mind flayer giant. He just knows there's something that's
01:02:25
Speaker
gonna be no fun uh takes off running gets there first because he's the fastest and kind of gets the crap kicked out of him gets picked gets hugged he gets yeah gets it gets a warm embrace but i did face hugged i did get to finally use
01:02:43
Speaker
one of the powers of the knife. And I've had that dagger at this point. You've used that against the, no, you used it against the two mind flayers. You shot a fireball at them. That's right. Okay, so this is the second time. I'll say it is just the same. That was what, one week earlier? Yep. I'd had this knife for two months now, more than, and not got a chance to use it, knowing the whole time that I got to drop 12d6 when I do. So we can also say I do have that.
01:03:10
Speaker
I was going to say, that does even some of the Dex Firepower questions. But the other thing, I only get to do each one once, or one three times. I get three, and I might not get three the next day. If I expend them, I roll to see if I get them back, and I might only get one of them back.
01:03:30
Speaker
Which I think is balance because that's a heck of a weapon. I think that's fine. Yeah The third thing it can do that I haven't got to do yet is I I cast invisibility on myself I can't cast it on anybody else. I don't think it's just on me. Yeah, you got an intelligence boost I got it. I got it. I got an intelligent boost and I can't be stunned or frightened anymore. Yeah, you have glorious four-foot hair and I have four foot long hair
01:03:52
Speaker
But the other things, the hair and the intelligence we'd already talked about, I hadn't gotten to do the attack that it can do. And 12d6 can be, I mean, a total game changer. That was awesome, yeah. I was excited to finally do it.
01:04:07
Speaker
The trick being one of them is Fireball, so I can't do it if anybody's engaged with anybody I'm friends with. Well, and since we're pulling back the curtain of the previous arc, as soon as they got down into Gunthar, Inkletarn's dungeon, Dex attempted to use it to cast Fireball. His name's Garnath. Garnath. Get it right, please. Attempted to use it. Shot a Fireball at the two... No, it wasn't the Fireball. It was the Lightning Ball because it was a straight line, because they were in line with you. Okay. One of them.
01:04:34
Speaker
Eric says I'm just gonna tell you right now save that spell because the two things they happen to be immune to were fire and lightning yep and so Jeff might have yelled Jeff made me cut him attempting to use it which is why if you go back and listen to that episode him announcing his attack of I'm gonna hit him with my stick has just a twinge of spite in it yeah
01:04:56
Speaker
The reason I had it cut isn't because any other reason than I couldn't remember for sure if we had said the sort of things this knife can do and I wanted it to be fun narratively for the listener when I finally was able to do it. I would be like, he casts light. He does this awesome thing where he casts lightning bolt out of his thing. And you hear the thunderous clattering of 12d6 and then Eric goes, actually they're immune to lightning. So I was like, can we just cut it, please? Let's just cut that because it'll be so much cooler when I'm able to actually do it.
01:05:24
Speaker
Also cracked. But yeah, so we go, there's the mind player giant Erebus and Booyah catch up and we all fight him and we win and we get the four remaining dragon shards. Dex grabs them. And Booyah takes off with them.
01:05:44
Speaker
No, Dex takes them, Booyah takes them from Dex. No, Booyah picked them up, ran off with them, then Dex had to chase down Booyah and get them. Because you were so much faster that even though Booyah had a full turn on you, you passed him. Did you make me use like a bonus action to take them from him? There was something where it just was really inconvenient that... Totally in character for Booyah to grab and take off. But Erebus has a different idea.
01:06:12
Speaker
So I remembered at this moment that I can cast Dimension Door. And honestly, this could have solved a lot of problems earlier, but I remembered it now. And so, knowing as we did that Drakir was in some state of trouble, Erebus, Dimension Door is into the room and joins the battle for the dragon. Unfortunately, this used my last spell slot.
01:06:40
Speaker
which meant that I was stuck in the room with one of the dragon shards we needed to go on the outside of the door. Guys, if you can believe this, I might have yelled a word that we don't say on this podcast. It doesn't get believed, it just gets wholly cut because it was like a silence when I yelled, oh, pause.
01:07:04
Speaker
Word pod, Barak's got a shard. And that's when Phillip informed the rest of the table that Barak couldn't do that again. And then Eric laughed for about 30 seconds. And that was the last game of that session. So it was...
01:07:28
Speaker
Three weeks yeah as we all and we don't do a lot of talking outside of when we're playing with each other playing the game Unless we're saying no the 20th didn't any good for me. Can we try the 21st? The only thing that happened during the interim on my end was I spent some time solving the riddle
01:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, you sure did. I didn't bother. But yeah, like that's the I and I say that that's the group text. I know that Philip and Eric do a little bit of talking because there's stuff that Philip needs Eric to know about what he's thinking with his character because there's just so much there. Yeah. Dex is just a really surface. Hey, pretty guy. If you all wanted to call and talk about your characters, I'd talk to you too. No, we have. We have talked. I just messed around. Randy.
01:08:16
Speaker
What? Clearly you two have talked because Booyah has a son all of a sudden. That's not, anyway, the three of us players do not met a game or whatever it's considered to talk between sessions at all because
01:08:33
Speaker
while that's really fun in a home game to have like messages you send back and forth either in character or out of character if we did that we would be robbing listeners who have who care about the story of things because it'd be so boring be like okay so between sessions philip and i were DMing uh back and forth and we decided this no we save it in our heads and we spring it on each other
01:08:57
Speaker
during the game. So for three weeks, the three of us individually were like, how's this gonna work out? How's this gonna work out? And like, my only thought was we're going to lose the chance to get strength and potentially hate it here with Narn because we're going to be waiting for long rest for Barret to dimension door back out of here.
01:09:21
Speaker
Either that, or I'm going to see exactly how many times an iron door that's been chanting you here with Rivenwee before finally gives up. Like, those were the options in my head. None of them were good. Luckily, Drakir can cast Gastias Form. And so I cleared it with Erik that due to all the earthquake-ing that took place as part of the dragon fight,
01:09:50
Speaker
that there would be some cracks sufficient for someone in Gassia's form to slip out. So Drakir turns himself into Shadow just for Jeff. You're welcome for that idea.
01:10:08
Speaker
clawed his way out through a crack in the wall. And the earthquake damage thing is like, I mean, it is very much in the wheel. Eric likes destroying structures during fights. So it only makes sense. I mean, we've taken down two houses and we destroyed one part of the vault already with the automata or whatever they were. Hey, dynamic environments. They make encounters better. So it totally makes sense.
01:10:37
Speaker
But yeah, so Drakir comes out with the shadow, and that's when Drakir and Dex have the conversation about Barak. Yes. Drakir clearly concerned about what's happening to Barak. Dex also concerned, but... But not clearly. The thing about Dex is
01:11:01
Speaker
It's the same thing with the lycanthrope, honestly, or the lycanthropy that he had. There is utility in this, and I've not seen a major downside yet.
01:11:12
Speaker
And that's, now, eventually Dex did see a major downside and he said, all right, fine, we'll look for a cure. And then he got cured and then he was sad, but that's not the case. No, it's just, it's like, if I saw one of my closest friends get possessed by a thing, I mean, that's a downside for me, I would say. Dex saw a bunch of his closest friends get possessed by an evil thing. This is possessed by a thing that appears to be good. Possession is not terrifying to Dex. That's it.
01:11:42
Speaker
Does it appear to be good? He's fighting on his side. He appears to be fighting on his side. Dex is fighting on his side. You guys can question me about Dex's motivations, but I'll tell you who's going to be right about Dex's motivations every time. It's the guy who's in Dex's head. Am I saying Dex is correct? I don't know. Am I saying this is what Dex thinks? Yes.
01:12:06
Speaker
And there are some things that I know Dex is wrong, but that's what Dex thinks. I think that I'm pretty sure that Dex has several of his theories about the inspired wrong, but it's what Dex thinks, so that's how I play it.
01:12:19
Speaker
This is the same sort of thing. Like, Beric's back. This thing's fighting alongside me. I don't like it. It is more disconcerting, and it's, you know, what Jerkir said made sense to Dex, and I've already said on this episode, or this might go two episodes, who knows, I've already said, you know, Dex's goal is to use the genie to get rid of
01:12:44
Speaker
as many of the bad things happening to Beric as possible in whatever way he can. So. Yeah. So it's not that it doesn't concern him. It's that Dex doesn't see a point beyond staying.
Significant Interactions and Alliances
01:13:00
Speaker
It doesn't see a point telling Beric this concerns me. Mm hmm. Because it's not going to change Beric and it's not going to change Eric.
01:13:09
Speaker
Okay, we know, okay, we know we're pushing in on a long episode. So let's, let's get we solve the riddle. Well, the riddle gets solved. Phillip in real life had solved the riddle and we go back up.
01:13:25
Speaker
We get back up, we go into the party. Important things that we need to talk about. Barak's Conversation with Three, the Hate of the Erwin Arne encounter, and what we've learned about glitches and strength and decks and stuff. So you want to talk about the first two and then I'll talk about the third one.
01:13:49
Speaker
I love the character of 3. There's a really interesting backstory to him in the Eberron books. As soon as it was clear that he was there, I knew I wanted to talk to him, and also it occurred to me. It has bothered Barak. I understand it, but it has bothered Barak that no one has noticed that the king has been swapped. Borin-El is enough of a character that Barak is troubled that no one has noticed.
01:14:18
Speaker
So I figured if anyone would notice, maybe it's three, and three is the person who was available. So that was kind of my motivation there as I figured I could get three on our side. I have no idea what I want to do with that if it succeeds. Obviously, we haven't recorded the meeting at the church that's upcoming. So I have no idea where that will go.
01:14:43
Speaker
But once I saw through, I just knew I wanted to try and win him over. And it was really fun. It was really, really fun little conversation. As to Hadith, I knew that Erebus was going to want the Pact. I knew that Erebus was going to want to get the Pact. And Eric and I haven't really established a mechanic for Erebus' seizing control.
01:15:08
Speaker
Um, but it seemed like it fit the moment. So while that was going on, uh, once things started to really happen, I just had barracks start rolling charisma checks, um, every, I dunno, 10 minutes outside the game or something like that. And when he failed one, I had Erebus take over and that's when he went after haters. Um, like he promised he wouldn't, he's promised that he wouldn't
01:15:35
Speaker
He wouldn't start a fight. He wouldn't start a fight. Basically what he said was all he said was the odds of that working are slim. That's really all he said. Which Dex in his white stupid cloak was like, yeah, you said it. So, yeah. As to I know there was a. I think there was a question about. Killing or not killing her. Yeah, I'm scrolling right now, actually, because I was trying to find that as well.
01:16:05
Speaker
It's from Laura. I think the assumption is that Barak wanted to kill Hadith because of the corruption of Erebus. And I'm curious if that's true. He did promise to kill her way back. Yeah, no, that is not the reason that Barak promised to kill Hadith. Barak promised to kill Hadith because he hates her. She said bad things about his mom was probably the straw part of it, at least. That was definitely that was definitely a push in the moment. But she's also a terrorist.
01:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's mainly what it is, is that she is exactly what he is terrified to become as a believer in the Silver Flame. And the idea of her passing off as this loyal
01:16:57
Speaker
ally of the king and all this stuff while also undermining him. The whole thing. Beric is against what Beric believes in. She's probably the only person that we have encountered that Beric truly hates. I don't think any of the other bad guys we've encountered Beric has this level of feeling about.
01:17:20
Speaker
So no, Barak wants to kill her because Barak is human and he has flaws and he's not really handling his emotions about her well. Erebus, however, being in control is much more practical and if he can get the pact without a fight, he's perfectly happy to take it.
01:17:35
Speaker
Um, so actually the corruption of Erebus saved Hadith's life. Yes. Actually Erebus is the reason Hadith didn't get killed. Which you do say when we're in the car later, I'm like, Hey, yeah. And you're like, I want it. I would have killed her. Um, yeah. Okay. Uh, so the, the lich and the strength of it all, uh,
01:17:56
Speaker
The Lich and the Shadows show up as soon as Dex makes himself known with the Ribbon Weave, the Lich says, that's him, get him. We do well enough in the fight that they retreat. We also, in the meantime, are able to drug-strain. We'll talk about that in a minute. The Lich says, you killed him, I'll kill you. Later, under the influence of Zona Truth,
01:18:22
Speaker
Strendt admits that the Lich this time was Connor as a changelike. I will say this about the conversation that Strendt and Dex had. Dex no longer considers anything from Sarlona important or part of his life.
01:18:49
Speaker
Wow. He could not bring himself to kill strength that time. If they are seen in battle again, he does not care. He will kill either of them to protect Booyah, Beric, or even Charlie. And I hope that's not saying too much, but that you killed him, I'll kill you is where Dex has done.
Debates on Spells and Moral Dilemmas
01:19:18
Speaker
Uh, and I felt that at the moment too, honestly, like Jeff said, okay. As soon as he said Connor was the one that said that Jeff said, all right, if they're looking to kill me, then I'm looking to kill them first. Not actively seeking it out. See, I think it's interesting that you're conflating Connor and strength as being of one mind because strength made the opposite very clear from his end. And he said that Connor was just speaking out of emotion because chance is freshly dead. That was on a failed check. I think I remember correctly.
01:19:49
Speaker
I mean, either way. If I'm wrong, I'll reevaluate it. But I feel like that was one of the failed checks where he said, no, Connor was just talking out of emotion. We don't really want you dead.
01:19:59
Speaker
Which leads to a question about the mechanics of Zone of Truth. Actually, it was asked by Patricia and David. The only experience I have with Zone of Truth is from the Adventure Zone podcast where they only have to cast it one time. Or they only have to fail or succeed on one check. You had it where every question they got to try. What's the rule that's written? And if it's the other way, why do you like it this way?
01:20:28
Speaker
The rule is written is vague in my opinion. Okay. I checked afterwards after the question got asked because I was satisfied with how it went. I didn't have a problem with it. I didn't think it made the spell. Yeah, I liked the point. It was kind of fun. Yeah, I didn't think made the spell useless, but I checked with Jeremy Crawford's sage advice feed.
01:20:47
Speaker
and his reading of it is that it is one save. So by his reading we did it wrong. I don't think that affected anything in the story and I don't think it under made the spell useless. The verbiage for me that throws a wrench in that for me personally is saying a creature that enters the spells area for this first time on a turn or starts its turn there. Because then if we are in structured encountered combat
01:21:13
Speaker
Every round they're getting to make that check which means every Six ish seconds or more if you're doing more near base combat. So no, I totally get your reading I'm just saying yeah, no The great Jeremy Crawford has spoken So if for your home games we did that
01:21:35
Speaker
Incorrectly according to Wizards of the coast, but I don't think it I don't think it badly nerfed the spell And I think in that in that context honestly where you have a prisoner that is restrained and can't move out of the zone if given like
01:21:54
Speaker
that they have zero agency in whether or not they are under the effective zone of truth. You don't like the idea of an all-powerful truth serum. You like the idea of them having a will save to try to not do it. I think that makes sense. I think that the balance of the spell comes in the fact that it doesn't compel you to give an answer. Yeah. Like you can evade.
01:22:14
Speaker
Uh, because you know, the spell is active. So I think that's, I think that's where the balance comes in is that characters have the option to evade, uh, evade telling, evade answering the question. Yeah. Um, so Laura mentioned in the discord that she thought that Dex put Beric in a very unfair and uncomfortable situation. And I'm like, yeah, he did, but he didn't care. I was going to say, you know, who else thinks that? Beric.
01:22:40
Speaker
Oh, I'm sure he does. You know who at the moment didn't care? The guy who just heard his brother say he wanted him dead. And so Dex is hurt and angry and confused and scared and knows that it is not safe for Trent to be on the boat and probably not safe for Trent to be alive, but he'll be darned if he's the one that's going to do it. Here's my friend, Farak, who I've done things for.
01:23:15
Speaker
Take care of it. You were the one there. You already didn't get to kill someone you wanted dead. I didn't know. I just made that up at the moment.
01:23:31
Speaker
He throws him off the boat but in a safe way and lets him float down to assuming the cogs I've I've thought of about 16 better ways. I could have done that in terms of Trying to deceive him into really thinking he was about to die Because my my whole thought process was in panic this thing inside him will come out and show itself right and either He was just entirely unfazed by falling several thousand feet
01:24:00
Speaker
or he's not possessed, which is what he said. And in fairness, he did say that under a failed save in the zone of truth. But it would also be possible for him to say that if he simply believed it. Yeah, he speaks to his belief. Exactly. But anyway, that was the idea. Barak performed an experiment to find out if he could force the thing out because that's something Barak's very interested in. Was it morally questionable? Boy, yes.
01:24:30
Speaker
Yeah. And I'll say this in my head while the Barrick index were talking, I was like, honestly, I know that I could walk down the stairs again and say, Drakir, kill him and he'd be dead. Yep. I didn't want to. I thought I wanted to see which I wanted to see what Barrick would do. I wanted to put Barrick through that. I wanted to see.
01:24:51
Speaker
What happened? I don't know. If only Booyah were there. Booyah was on the boat, but I didn't want to... If Dex would have said I want to go to Booyah and ask him to off this brother also, I would not have wanted to make that call for Booyah. I need Booyah to be Dex's designated fratricider.
01:25:15
Speaker
But I don't know, you know, but yeah, may, may not have that same kind of mindset at this point. Absolutely. No. And it's also absolutely a completely different context for, yeah, like exactly. Exactly. Um, anyway, uh, we did learn with Barrick and,
01:25:36
Speaker
Was it Berwick or Erebus at that point? I don't know. That talked with- Berwick. Okay. That's what I thought. Berwick and Strint had a conversation and we learned from Strint- Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Erebus talked to Strint. Okay.
01:25:48
Speaker
Erebus and Strint had a conversation and yes, in fact, they are kidnapping children and doing forced reeducation on them. They're making them touch the, as far as the best, I guess that wasn't, Strint didn't own up to that, did he? No, we didn't clarify that specifically. You never asked how they performed the education. It's fast enough that it almost has to be. Right, with how quickly it happens.
01:26:15
Speaker
Regardless, it is confirmed that they're doing a re-education thing with the children that they kidnapped.
01:26:31
Speaker
Do we? Couple questions. One that you need to answer, Philip, because it was asked and you said, that sounds like an ever-unreviewed question. So if we don't answer. I said that two or three times, mostly to Laura. So sorry, Laura, if you felt picked on. This is one of Laura's. She wants to know if Stratos is a hawk that you would normally use or was it just some random bird? Those who don't recall Stratos is a Dracarys hawk. Right. Theoretically, potentially Dracarys hawk.
01:26:59
Speaker
Stratos is the word in Undercommon for utility animal.
01:27:11
Speaker
Stratos was obtained using animal friendship in exactly the same way that he seized those tigers and was used to spy on you guys. So Stratos is not a pet. Drakir does not keep pets and he does not care what happened to Stratos after he let him loose.
01:27:30
Speaker
somewhere outside the ring of storms. Stratos was a tool. He was a Stratos. That is a common noun, not a proper noun. It is a utility animal that serves a purpose.
01:27:48
Speaker
You know, now that Strint has been on the boat and Dex believes that things likely connected to Connor, how is Dex fighting through the paranoia that anyone on the ship could be his brother wanting to get their revenge? Jeff has said that Dex used to think anybody could be a changing was cool and now it terrifies.
01:28:07
Speaker
I think what Dex is doing is relying on the fact that his door locks, the odds of one of his brothers taking him out in one blow is small, and if there's two brothers pretending to be people on the boat, there are six allies on the boat that he can yell for. That's what's keeping Dex from being completely paranoid. That's how Dex is able to keep functioning, basically.
01:28:31
Speaker
is he knows he's hardy enough that unless they come up behind him and slit his throat and he's got pretty good passive perception. I mean, honestly, that's why I'm able to still play the game without being jumpy around every corner. And I know that's important because Jeff startles easily.
01:28:51
Speaker
Um, so I mentioned in the discord, somebody asked about Dex's voice and I said, you know, actually, uh, it was Kevin. He asked what part of Texas I'm in.
Character Evolution and Future Plans
01:29:00
Speaker
And I said, actually, I'm in Oklahoma. I have family in Southern Oklahoma. That's where the voice comes from. And I just said in passing, it's like the third or fourth voice that I have come up with to try for Dex. And he said he wanted to hear the other ones.
01:29:10
Speaker
So the first one, my favorite accent that is not offensive to for a white person to try to do, I mean, speaking perfectly honestly, is the West Country accent of England. And it's just it, but like with a gruff voice, so it was going to be something like, you know,
01:29:31
Speaker
you know, when Barak and I were in the water, I guess, you know, he had a vision of his mother and then they came down below and pulled us back. That's really solid. Yeah, it's not bad, right? But it is also unsustainable for the 80 episodes we've done. No, I can totally see how that would be really hard to keep up. Yeah, I can do it in short bursts. There's a lot of tightening of the throat going on in that. And a lot of just like,
01:29:57
Speaker
Okay, so as much as we talk about how I hated the singing on the podcast, I'm actually a trained singer. And so like mouth shapes and like, you know, phrases like, you know, voiceless, labial, fricative, like those are things that mean stuff to me. And some of the mouth shapes are really difficult to do with regularity. Like when I said mother, like that, oh, it's really a person. Anyway, so I knew it was unsustainable as much as I liked it.
01:30:23
Speaker
And then I was like, you know, they don't have to be European. So one of my a show I did a long time ago, I got to play somebody who was from Virginia. And so kind of that genteel, you know, southeastern southern.
01:30:38
Speaker
accent and I did that and I was like, no, I don't want to do this either. And then I just thought about I got four uncles. I got Danny, Sonny, James and David, and they sound like decks. And, you know, I can recall it easily. It's not hard to do. And it's distinctive from the other characters. So that's who Dex is. Well, it's just, I mean, a country accent in general is fairly unique in D&D. So, yeah.
01:31:04
Speaker
Uh, there was one that was asked a while back, like back in August, uh, that was directed at me that I wanted to answer very quickly. Um, and I apologize because I don't know everybody's given name on the discord. Uh, so this is from PCG 24 90. That's Patricia. Yeah. Patricia asked how would Eric feel about the fact that according to the Gallifar code of justice, he now has no rights and is not recognized under the law.
01:31:32
Speaker
and cites her source, Sean, City of Towers, page 126. Which is appreciated with a podcast full, three-fourths of educators. Yes, I came across this while doing research for my upcoming at Brown campaign, I was curious. I mean, I don't mean to be, I don't mean this to be sarcastic at all. The last 50 episodes are how Beric feels about that.
01:32:02
Speaker
the unraveling of the psyche, the drinking binge, the deep level of depression, the suicidally reckless behavior.
01:32:13
Speaker
The gradual, gradually more content with slaughtering things. That's how Beric is crushed. Beric is crushed by this. I did want to address the Uric questions that were thrown out. Yeah, that was Laura, right? Laura and then Nico also said, Jess told me that Laura wants to know. Right. Yeah. So.
01:32:43
Speaker
laura just said why about the raven figure though and then nico relayed or just relayed to nico that laura is curious um and bobby told shelly if you're new or was maybe working with the raven queen prior to her rapid health decline
01:33:02
Speaker
I wanted to address these to say there are story beats closely attached to that so stay tuned for more info on those things because they
01:33:18
Speaker
No spoilers on everyone. The future spoilers. So many spoilers if you're starting with this episode. What's wrong with you? Sorry. There are notes upon notes upon notes discussing with myself in my head about what you're asking about, Laura. So know that
01:33:46
Speaker
answers will come maybe if the players go and if the opportunity presents itself to convey that information because there's plenty of information that has not been conveyed yet that I thought would be.
01:33:59
Speaker
Okay, so we're gonna wrap up. I want to let you guys know, just because of some scheduling issues, we will not have an episode next week. We will start up with a new arc the week after that, drop on late Thursday night, early Friday, just like it does. We apologize.
01:34:18
Speaker
That there's just no avoiding at this time I'm sorry honestly we didn't even really realize until we right before we sat down to do this that that scheduling Stuff had happened. So oh my gosh. I just realized yeah When we were scheduling we did bad math and now schedules are full and so yeah
01:34:38
Speaker
So we are sorry and we'll be right back to next week and we'll try to have another good 60 some odd episode streak without breaking a week. We'll do our best. Thank you guys so much for listening. We appreciate it so much. We really do have a blast playing it and we just think that the fact that you guys like hearing it is
01:35:00
Speaker
Just an added bonus. Streets ahead. And it's so much fun interacting with everybody between the Facebook group and the patrons discord. I got it. So anyway, I'm Jeff. I'm Eric. Randy. Philip. And we'll see you next time. See you in two weeks.