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C1 Ep. 60 Eberron Reviewed 11
341 Plays7 years ago
This week Eric, Jeff, Philip, and Randy all sit down to discuss the Dawn of Mourning arc and give you an inside look behind the screen of Eberron Renewed!
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Jessica Smith, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrin Katzska, Darrell DeLaney, Jon Cary, Charles Compton, Nikko Batson, Matt Lewis, and The Kamm Family.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of Matt Lewis, Daryl Delaney, Darren Katska, Ryan Royce, Jessica Smith, Laura Pickron, Irene Villarito, Nico Batson, John Kerry, The Cam Family, and Charles Compton, as well as many others.
00:00:27
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
Eberron Segment Introduction
00:00:44
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play D&D 5th edition podcast. I am Jeff. I'm Eric. I'm Randy. And I'm Phillip. And today is Eberron Reviewed, where we go over the last arc and talk about things and try to make Eric slip up and tell us secrets. I can understand why you might be confused though, because for the first time on an Eberron Reviewed episode, we're joined by Randy.
00:01:09
Speaker
He's excited. Okay, so I say we just jump right in. We do have a bunch of listener questions that we will get to. We may sprinkle them throughout, but we'll definitely get to as many of them as we can by the end of the episode.
00:01:24
Speaker
so let's start up top with the first episode of this arc and i'm having to pull up my notes and by notes i mean the show descriptions from the podcast client right so we begin okay i believe that the beginning of this arc was the day after you killed amantu that's what i thought
Aftermath of Amantu's Death
00:01:45
Speaker
Yes picked up with the with the discovery essentially with the discovery of the fact that we had killed also his butler Yes, we found out that there was some collateral damage, um, which Did not sit well with any of the party. I I think right randy. Yeah, but certainly Oh, yeah, I was happy he had a party later Booyah is a wild card. I mean, that's no that's true
00:02:10
Speaker
So, Barak obviously was the most disgusted by what had happened. Yeah. Which makes sense. It confirmed in Barak's mind that it was right, that we should not have done what we did. The whole thing was botched in some capacity. Sure. And you had a guy
Story Planning and Importance of Second Floor
00:02:28
Speaker
in there the whole time. That was always part of the plan. As soon as the house was obviously going to be destroyed, you were going to have collateral damage, right?
00:02:35
Speaker
I actually once during the scouting portion when you were the halfling boy, you made some kind of comment about the second floor not being important. And so you weren't going to investigate it at all. And so before we actually got into the Amantu mission, I thought, OK, well, then obviously there needs to be a reason why the second floor is important. And so there was a reason the second floor was important.
00:03:01
Speaker
Sure. And you know, I mean, I don't, I didn't think this, but I wouldn't, even if I had thought that's the live in staffs quarters, we had the thing with the party at Lady
Moral Dilemmas and Actions
00:03:12
Speaker
Omeran. Oh yeah. We just assumed that nobody was going to be there because as Jeff said about, you know, there was the party going on and we just assumed that, oh, well, nobody's there. And we didn't take any effort to confirm that fact.
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah. Oops. And so, yeah. So it turned out that, oh, what was her name? Dristan. Ms. Dristan. It was her. Ms. Dristan. It was her husband that perished in the fire. And I didn't say it at that point, but at that moment was when I knew that I was going to make that Dex's choice was going to be to give all of the the money for the murder for the execution to Ms. Dristan's family through some channel.
00:03:51
Speaker
Much good it has done her now. He's a significant figure. You could use the word assassination, I feel like. You all were hired assassins, not just murderers. Give yourself some credit. I think execution is even more above reproach, because assassins can be hired for bad things. Executioners are carrying out justice. It implies some state legitimacy. You know, we don't have to get into this. I'll stand where I stand, and you stand where you stand. And I'll stand in the middle.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah, we find that out and we go separate ways at that point.
Character Development and Mentorship
00:04:26
Speaker
Barrick and Booyah, do you guys go immediately to start the restoration process? No. Or do you go? Barrick went to drink and then made his way to the Black Freighter. That's right. Where he had just sort of a brief conversation with Daedric Benar, one of his fencing teachers, his mentor in the ways of the Kensei. Right. His magic monk.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, but we do, we do start the restoration thing. Barrick assures that it happens by giving away all of his 10,000 gold to the church. What do you mean? That at the end of the previous episode. Oh, that's right. That's right. I apologize. Barrick never wanted it.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Um, and so the restoration thing turns out to not be the scariest, like it wasn't a lot to do. Just show up for a while. Right. Just show up.
Booyah's Curiosity and Conversations
00:05:19
Speaker
There was conversation, you know, between Booyah and the cleric, you know, some, cause Booyah is interested in all sorts of things. So it's a curious little goblin. So he is that, um, I really do apologize. I'm going to need you guys to help out with the chronology. I mean, this episode culminated in the talk with Gerald.
00:05:40
Speaker
Right, right Boy, we all showed up at the same time though. Where would we all or did we just kind of randomly end up you at the same place? so the the sequence of events is that We found out about the the dead butler. Mm-hmm You went to talk to Varan right and delivered the money while I talked to Banar and then we returned to the ship and
00:06:05
Speaker
Where we had our blow-up with Gerald right which it was a thing man, and it got a lot of reaction of you It was a thing yeah Yeah, Booyah was blameless
00:06:18
Speaker
As in all things. Yes, as somehow off it is. By virtue of having just now arrived, Booyah has not accrued any bling yet. That's right. Give it time. Eric, why don't you give us some of the impetus for why Gerald needed to air these grievances?
NPC Agency and Complexity
00:06:36
Speaker
Well, I just I kind of had when I was planning out the next session, because those of you that have been behind the curtain enough know that first episode of an arc is the first hour of us playing together after a month of not playing. And so planning out the session, I just I.
00:06:54
Speaker
kind of started getting into the headspace of the NPCs that had been around you all for a while and affected by you all for a while and what kind of headspace they would begin to be in. Just given the party's actions, just trying to... I will be the first to admit as a dungeon master that I sometimes am lacking on the agency of my NPCs and really...
00:07:20
Speaker
speaking for them in all moments because I'm focused on running the game obviously. But once I started thinking about Gerald, I just kind of had this realization that he would probably be pretty dejected and feel like he had been cast aside, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it.
Lich Revealed as Dex's Brother
00:07:40
Speaker
And so, yeah, that that's really where that was born out of, because all of the just going into the full arc before we get into further episodes, all of the reveals that happened over the course of this arc, because I'm just now realizing that we're looking at this arc is one thing. There was a lot of a lot of bombs dropped in this arc.
00:08:00
Speaker
And unlike a lot of the things that have occurred in the campaign before, every single one of the reveals in this section of episodes had been planned out from the beginning. Nothing had been conjured up for the sake of drama.
00:08:16
Speaker
Okay, that is actually one of the questions, so let's just, I'll just ask it. It was, I believe, was it Irene? Oh no, it was Laura. Laura asked, did you decide from the beginning that the Lich would be Dex's brother, or was it originally just a generic big bad? And it was also asked, why was he so... But we'll get to that part. Yeah, we'll get into the Lich stuff, but just broad strokes. Was it always my brother?
00:08:41
Speaker
specifically speaking about all the stuff that Gerald said about him and Krast having a relationship prior to the party coming into their lives was canon from the moment that you met Krast, essentially, and from the moment that you met Gerald. It's easy and tempting for me sometimes to conjure up these things just to be dramatic or have these cathartic moments, but this was
00:09:05
Speaker
Honestly, me looking at Gerald's situation and speaking from a place of what I felt like would be truth for him. And also getting into Krasst's headspace before you actually found him, realized how awful Krasst's life was getting in. Yeah, it was important. It did color a lot.
00:09:24
Speaker
I do not begrudge Gerald for stating his needs. But I think that there were good points made all around on the way to Dex winning the argument.
00:09:43
Speaker
Well and I have to say I think one of the things that I think Eric commented on it as we were going out to a break after that episode that we had one of the moments in this game where the fact that it's radio lost something because Eric obviously stormed out before the conversation was quite over and
00:10:07
Speaker
And Gerald had this nice cutting Parthian shot at Eric's back. And I just flipped Eric off as I was metaphorically leaving the conversation. And it cracked Eric up, but there was no, obviously it wasn't something we could really communicate properly. Right. And it was a moment of me as the Dungeon Master having to
00:10:36
Speaker
censor myself because, um, not, not in a censor, like I'm going to have to bleep myself out, but just like players have to separate character knowledge and player knowledge, I have to separate my knowledge from the NPCs. And so, especially when Dex started talking about the importance of communication to Gerald in my head, I was going, yes, because you all are just bastions of speaking your truths when they come up, except for Booyah, Booyah is good. Um,
Booyah's Flashback and Growth
00:11:05
Speaker
so.
00:11:07
Speaker
knowing when not to speak is also an important part of emotional intelligence and communication skills. That's an important time for Booyah as well because that's when he first has the flashes of memory of his home life and his son. And so when he comes out of that, he can kind of relate to Gerald having
00:11:34
Speaker
feel this sense of loss and not being able to quite comprehend and understand his son, you know, being the way his son is and was. And Booyah kind of has that need now to try to be better, be better for his son. I have two questions about the son. First is, which
00:11:53
Speaker
Versus what was his name? Dula. Dula, that's right. Um, Lusaw was what was in my head. Um, which not even, not even a little bit, which one of, which one of you two came up with that idea? Well, it was, I think I saw that I kind of look at the discord every now and then, even though I'm kind of clueless on that stuff. Uh, for listeners, I'm the old guy.
00:12:18
Speaker
technologically challenged usually. And a lot of Booyah's backstory is pretty basic. And then I tell Eric, and Eric gets a ton of credit because he says, well, what about this? I want to run this bike. And I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. Let's go with that.
00:12:38
Speaker
You know, I was like, you know, as far as what happened in camp, that was a Booyah that I had come up with. But Eric kind of added some flavor. You know, yeah, I had a kid. He asked me that. And, you know, he actually named the kid for me. He came up with the name. Your son, Dool. I was like, oh, that's his name. Cool.
00:12:57
Speaker
But yeah, so that was pretty, pretty, pretty big for, for Booyata to reveal to everybody that he does have these memories and there is, there is something to his past. Well, and I guess this is the opportunity to address a listener question because Joe asked, did you know Randy was so good at the long game in parentheticals backstory when you brought him into the group?
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's the question I was referring to is like, you know, I come up with some basic stuff and sometimes I think I come up with really good things and other times I think, okay, this is a good basic thing. But then, you know, I run that by and even fill it before and I was like, Hey, what about, you know, here's what I'm looking at. What do you think? And then you guys come up with some really cool stuff.
00:13:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I will say those of you that listen to the knowledge check the three year campaign that Philip and I talked about, Randy was a player in that and Randy as a player, and I know it's going to be weird talking about you in the third person with your sitting right here, you as a player like you have such a great sense of.
00:14:03
Speaker
when to shine and when to flow with it. Like a lot of players out there will vie for the spotlight every second, third and table and really try to have every moment be a moment for them. And you're really great about finding your moments to really shine, which I think
Character Interaction and Collaboration
00:14:21
Speaker
make those moments a lot more impactful. Like everybody reacted so much to the first Booyah flashback because that was the
00:14:28
Speaker
First time we really had something like that and so and a lot of that I like to kind of leave My backstory a little not so complex Because it leaves you room. Yeah come up with stuff. Yeah, and and then it's a surprise to me too and I like that That's interesting part
00:14:48
Speaker
Um, well, and I will say given the flashback and Booyock walking up to Gerald short right before the explosion, I realized about 30 minutes after we finished playing that I had played the Gerald moment wrong, that I had just given the context because I kind of decided that Gerald was angry.
00:15:07
Speaker
But the moment that Booyah had and how, how much kindness you showed walking up and saying Booyah help, I really wish I would have had Gerald break down instead of blow up. And that was just a moment of realization for me of like, wish I could have that moment back, but I can't. So I think it definitely would have gotten a different response from, yeah, from Barrick and Dex if it had gone that way, but
00:15:29
Speaker
So, okay.
Group Dynamics and Challenges
00:15:30
Speaker
And we keep saying flashback and things like that. I need to know. And I really didn't even think about this until just a minute ago. That's not a recovered memory. Booyah has known this whole time. Like remembers Dua knows he has a son, but okay. It wasn't a flash recovery memory thing. Cause that's very much a thing that happens in D&D. So he was reading in the, in the book that he has that just kind of triggered reminded him, reminded him, made him think back.
00:15:53
Speaker
All right, cool. Because that would have been a whole different ballgame if it was like, we've got to go on the search for who wiped Booyah's mind. Side quests go well for us. So yeah, and then and Barak leaves and and honestly, there was a part of me that was going to have Dex go after Barak. But I realized the utter hypocrisy of saying Crass is a grown man and he wanted to leave. We don't have to go search for him. And then I really run off to make sure Barak's OK. So I was like, I'm just going to go to my room.
00:16:26
Speaker
And that's where the episode ends and We pick back up the next morning. I Don't recall bear. He did you you didn't stay on the you didn't come back to the boat, correct? You were out that hole I had called back and basically said just give me the night, right? Right, and so he didn't come back to the boat. I Don't know where he went
00:16:49
Speaker
I do. Nope. No, you don't. I do. Dex doesn't. Dex has a feeling. Anyway, you can cut all that. Gentlemen never tell. But what about Barrick though? We get up the next morning and Booyah and Dex, well Booyah needs to go to his restoration thing.
00:17:10
Speaker
Right. And so since that's happening, Dex decides to go with him. Since it's a silver flame, he assumes they may have seen Kras, something, something, something. We start the search for Kras. Well, before the restoration thing, the episode kicked off with Beric on his way to his training pre Don and some people tried to steal things from him. Oh, that was before. I'm sorry. That was before. Indeed they did.
00:17:32
Speaker
How'd that go? Not well. It depends on who you ask. I was going to say, nothing was successfully stolen from me, which is nice. Just your heart. Yeah, Eric tried really hard to get the amulet away. Won't be the first, won't be the last time pickpockets try to come after that amulet.
00:17:54
Speaker
very soon you'll just kill him he doesn't throw a lot of his pickpockets yep Berrigan's gonna start preemptively striking sneaky looking people y'all get it you'll get attacked by major detrimental quality
00:18:07
Speaker
pickpockets are psychically drawn to it. You all get attacked by wolves in the woods and they're going to be jumping up at Barrick's neck trying to grab the handle off it. So, yes. Some pickpockets tried to sneak up on me. Didn't work, although they did the little clever girl raptor thing where three of them were decoys and then the big one grabbed the necklace, which is pretty impressive.
Trust Issues and Confrontations
00:18:29
Speaker
I mean, snaking a necklace off of somebody's neck is pretty skillful pickpocketing. Yeah.
00:18:35
Speaker
I rolled a natural 20 on the check. But Eric retrieved it from a group of little kids. Basically the oldest one I think we established was what did you say, 12 or 13? 13, 14. And Eric gave them some money and sent them on their way. They lived happily ever after for the rest of their days.
00:19:01
Speaker
I mean that's not, we don't, we don't, that's not untrue, we don't know when their days ended. Uh, oh yeah, this is gonna come up later, I'm not gonna say it yet. Uh, that's right, that did happen, but then so Booyan and I go to the church and it just happens to coincide with, uh, Barak's time at the church and that's where we all come together again and, uh,
00:19:23
Speaker
some dumb little jokes about, you know, standing in the flame and sitting on the chair and beyond not modulating his volume to be respectful in a church. Trying really hard to meditate. Mm hmm. Because that's what he's got. Yes. The ritual, but you and the ritual.
00:19:41
Speaker
we find out that Kras had been there, no longer is coming in, had been showing up drunk to the church, right? Like it wasn't like... Towards the end, yeah. And they gave us the wandering toad. Yes. Yeah. So we go to the wandering toad, which has been taken over by Barak's favorite people.
Duel and Legal Challenges
00:20:02
Speaker
So Barak fortifies himself and then has an entirely civil conversation with some swords of liberty.
00:20:10
Speaker
It really was. Barak shows the most restraint he's shown in the campaign thus far. Barak gets himself a little buzzed and then has a civil conversation with the sword of liberty. He was as fortified as the wine he had been drinking. We find out that Kras has gotten into a fight, a duel, with one of the swords of liberty killed him and has thus been picked up by the cops.
00:20:33
Speaker
What was his name? It wasn't Tiny. Junior? Junior. And then we had one of those moments that we have at least once a session, if not once an episode where Eric says a thing and Philip does a thing that makes me know that I should read more about Eberron because
00:20:50
Speaker
Eric said something about, we handed over to Lady Shell's Audra. Oh, the red ring, yeah. And then Beric says, does that mean he's in the red ring? And he said, yes. And Beric said, I roll or gasp or something and Dex is just going with the... I'm going to wait for one of them to tell me what that means. Which isn't unfair, because Dex wouldn't know either, but it would be nice if I did.
00:21:15
Speaker
Well, we can't inject knowledge into your brain space. Read a book. And Randy, I mean, you've played Eberron, but you haven't done the deep dive of these guys, right? No, but I knew. You knew that one? The Red Ring. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like it's a big deal in Zindrick,
Realization and Next Steps
00:21:33
Speaker
Stormreach. Stormreach. Yeah. So, so anyway. And so we, we just go straight there, right? Like, all right. Lovely part two.
00:21:41
Speaker
And then we have another common occurrence on the show of someone shows up and splits the party.
00:21:49
Speaker
Now, to be fair, you split the party. Lady Omerun was very clear that we could come with you. Right, but Barak doesn't trust anyone. Not to say you guys, he doesn't trust anyone outside of you guys. And so if this is yet another, yet another person who's either going to betray Barak or have a condescending conversation about how Barak's morals are outdated, doesn't want to drag you guys.
00:22:14
Speaker
That has not happened in quite some time, thank you. You just don't want us to be there when you get condescended to. It's okay buddy, I'm almost immune to it at this point. I think it's because the next person that does it is going to be stabbed. Noted. Anywho.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, we're on our way there and I both Jeff and decks are starting to put together both what has happened and what needs to be done. We can't we one way or another. We have to buy crafts back. We're not gonna be able to reason to get him back. We're not gonna be able to fight for him back. We have we're gonna have to either buy him back or promise something or whatever.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, I was actually thinking that somehow we were we were going to end up in the red ring in some way. I I was I was under that impression for a while as well. But but so as as always happens, you guys who listen, which would be you guys.
00:23:04
Speaker
The specific ones of you that are listening right now, those who listen. Yeah, of the subset. To be fair, there was somebody who started out just listening to the reviews and went back and started listening to the episode. But you hear me say very often, what do you think, Barrick? Or I defer to Barrick on a lot of things.
00:23:23
Speaker
It's for two reasons. One, Barrick is, I don't know who's smarter are the three of us, three characters. They all have their definite strong points. But when it comes to social grace and how to move in society and stuff, that's Barrick's jam. That is not Dex and Booyah. Oh yeah, definitely not Booyah.
00:23:39
Speaker
So while Dex is a good talker in a bar, or you know, if we meet somebody on the road and need to get something, convince them of something or get some information out of them, Dex can do that. But if we're talking to a storm lord trying to get a human being that he can seek it as property. Social graces. That's Barrick's jam. So wouldn't you know, Eric says, I think we're going to take Barrick out of this situation.
00:24:06
Speaker
and I was seriously like that was the last hour that we played that session we got together again later to finish the arc and like at the end of it I was just like well I don't know like it wasn't quite as as sinking feeling as when I attacked a guy that was pretty I was pretty sure was gonna kill us in the next episode
00:24:23
Speaker
Um, but it was like, all right, well, Barracks gone, Booyah and Dex gonna have to fumble their way through this. Let's see what happens. Because, you know, Jeff doesn't know, therefore Dex doesn't know, uh, so it works, what he's not supposed to say, what things need to be kept secret and what things don't. Like, obviously there are some things, but like, I don't know. I said the thing about Gerald having a special power, you know, just threw that out there. Apparently not supposed to do that.
00:24:50
Speaker
learn that one. I think that same episode, I feel like Gerald made that really clear. Yeah. Gerald did make it very clear during that conversation. Yes. I get it. The radio listeners can see it, but Booyah's eyes got big when you pop that out and you're, and you're looking at Phillip and I'm over here going,
00:25:09
Speaker
Well, Philip's the one that said something. I'm pretty sure Philip just made a noise. He just went, bah. No, he goes, he goes, no, no. I forgot I wasn't there for a minute.
00:25:22
Speaker
tried to intervene yeah what we're saying is I'm an idiot I'm a big dumb idiot who unfortunately knows how to speak but negotiations with Lady Seljandra did go very well well luckily she didn't want she didn't ask much of us like honestly that's what it comes down to is the ask was small yeah we'll do that and then we'll do the bear can
00:25:44
Speaker
Yes. So, so anyway, so the next episode starts up and Beric is gone now. And so Booyandex are going to try to see what they can do. Get in, sit down, ladies shall soldiers. Right. Do we ask that we have to speak to her, right? No, she shows up. She shows up. Yeah. OK.
00:26:02
Speaker
Oh right, because she had met us at the party. You all had made some bets on a minotaur versus dire tigers and Jesus. Boo-ya won. 5,000 gold, I believe is what it was, right? 2,000 gold? It was something you said a lot of money. Yeah. Eric, I mean, you said no. Because Eric doesn't like us to have fun.
00:26:21
Speaker
I think I think we were seated. I think she just came and sat by you. Yeah, that's what it was That's right. And so we begin the conversation ask about krast and he just happens to come out We talked for a little bit and I think a minotaur kills some dire wolves our Tigers our Tigers And then krast comes out in his fancy new bear her armor.
Negotiations and Political Dynamics
00:26:42
Speaker
It's
00:26:44
Speaker
I'm going to think he was inspired by his friend. Shadow bear. Shadow bear. Right. I think he was inspired. I mean, I'll just I'll just go ahead and confirm theories here inspired by his friends. Yeah, the shadow and the bear. I like it. Oh, I assumed it's because he's a king's shadow and the royal crest of Breland is a bear. No.
00:27:05
Speaker
That's what a clever deal would have been. That works too, though. I just thought he was a big fan of Farlin. I guess he never saw a Farlin beach shape, did he? Nope. Okay, well. Tell you, those shadow bears really messed up our lives for a little while. Yes. I was fine.
00:27:26
Speaker
Until you weren't. No, I was still fine. The third act was, was a little worse for her. Um, anyway. Uh, and so it turns out that all she wants from us is for us to deliver a message to very last site. That message being that she knows, and now by extension, we know that he is a member of the, essentially it's the, it's the brother's secret service or like an upper echelon of the CIA. Something like that. Yeah. Like deep, deep.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's bigger than just being a lion turd. I mean, yes. What? I heard you say it's just bigger than being a lion turd. Yeah. A lantern. A lantern. No, you never heard of a lion turd? They got like a CR 16. I was so genuinely so confused. No, is it a division of the lanterns? No, it is a separate thing. Separate things. His spot's bigger.
00:28:23
Speaker
Black Ops. Sure. Okay. And so, yeah, it turns out that he is early. She says that he is one of those. And so, I mean, Dex is on board for it immediately to do it. Wanted to try to get Beric first, the as previously stated, but and then Booyah is down because Booyah is just ride or die.
00:28:43
Speaker
Uh, so we get crass. He's not really happy to see. Well, he was fine to see me. We're not happy to hear me. Uh, because he recognized my voice despite looking different. Um, and you really didn't think when you said you had a half-orc and a tiefling carrying him out in chains. Honestly. Nope. Nope. It was perfect. It was just, just my brain being terrible to one of my characters. It was too good. Um,
00:29:08
Speaker
But but also we did have crafts like I wanted Beric there to talk to last site if it came to honestly to insight on last night You would have the knowledge history to do that and the that I wouldn't But because he I assumed he would he would deny if it was true and if it was false He would obviously say I'm not Also to fight if he came to it because if he is as far as Dex and Booyah know he's working for the guy that wants at least Dex dead if not Booyah now also since he knows the running buddy, so
00:29:38
Speaker
And we skipped over it at some point during this discussion because I know we're past it now, but Booyah did have another flashback also. Yes, that's right. That's the one where it was a brief one. It was just where the Ranger arrived. The Ranger arrived. We're doing some trading. And then the next thing is the Ranger saying, come on, we got to go. Let's go. Let's get out of here.
00:30:00
Speaker
and your village is on fire. Yeah, the village is burning. So I just didn't want to skip over that. So what could be next?
King Boranel's Plight
00:30:08
Speaker
Well, then we cut to Beric in the safe house and Palatox and then introduces a shadowy figure from the corner and it's Chris Evans. King Boranell. Who? King Boranell.
00:30:22
Speaker
Not coming to him, not coming to mind. Yes, it's King Boranell. And then it was the end of the episode. But we're going to jump ahead and have the conversation. Yes. So Boranell basically tells Beric, and a very valid question was asked, whether we're sure we have the real Boranell.
00:30:39
Speaker
And the answer is, nope. Barak's insight check, which wouldn't spot a changeling or anything. So anyway, essentially the story that Voronel tells Barak is that he was overthrown and replaced. That a look-alike, presumably a changeling, is
00:31:00
Speaker
standing in for him and that this coincided with the arrival of some Rehedrin diplomats, who presumably weren't actually diplomats. And so he was asking for Barak's help. He fled to Stormreach because he knew Paolo from way back and had been hiding at her estate and then found out about Barak from her and set up the meeting to ask for Barak's help.
00:31:29
Speaker
Well, last night was the one that got him out of Breeland and got him to Stormreach. Yeah. And that's the nature of the help has not really been defined because other things started happening pretty quickly at this point.
00:31:41
Speaker
Uh, but I want to go back and reiterate what we talked about earlier. That's another thing that's been from the beginning, right? Yeah. Or at least from when King Bornell started to try to claim martial law, it was actually, well, we're assuming a changeling. It was, it was the other Bornell, not the one that storm reach from, from the moment I made the decision that Breland was going to turn essentially
00:32:03
Speaker
That that's been what's been going on. And so I've kind of been mentally tracking Borenel's progress from session to session and kind of figuring out where he's at at any given moment. And so when when last night was out of town on Stormlord business, I knew like the reason he was out of town on Stormlord business. So it wasn't just me pulling it out of my butt to have a time jump. But he didn't smoke with Borenel back. Yeah. Oh, he did. OK, he did a smuggling back to wasn't just a planning sesh.
00:32:31
Speaker
And then Bornell talked a little bit about Barak's mother and said a bunch of emotional, sad things about his regrets regarding what became of her, essentially.
00:32:47
Speaker
and then gives Beric her helmet, because apparently his mother adopted a colored bird nom-de-gare of the Grey Hawk. Of course. Yep. Which, if any of you listeners missed it, please go back to this episode spoiler discussion and look at all the awesome pictures of Grey Hawks that GM Chris from Order 66 posted in the comments section.
00:33:11
Speaker
There were a lot. There were a lot. Real character, that GM Chris. So yeah, any thoughts on the Greyhawk or? I mean, the just because it's my initial reaction was to laugh because it has been a running gag throughout, I think accidental at first, but a perpetual running gag that all of our nemeses are colored birds. So.
00:33:40
Speaker
I mean, I don't at this point see Beric taking up a Vigillante, a masked Vigillante name for any particular reason. So I think it's unlikely that Beric would dawn the mantle of the Greyhawk. When Beric does take on a masked Vigillante name, do I get any input on what it is?
00:34:01
Speaker
absolutely no input on what he's saving that for me Booyah will be the costume designer because when I presented you with a list of Elden names you picked Vern yeah but now I have parameters color bird I'll make it work
00:34:18
Speaker
The other option is you start going by a color bird name and I will introduce myself. We're running out of birds and colors, frankly. Have you not seen Dreamcoat? There are a lot of names for colors. We can figure it out. Or you can figure it out. I don't know. I mean, Barak hasn't had an opportunity to process that bequest that he was given because immediately upon that,
00:34:43
Speaker
uh... curt uh... arabic springs to life in his hand and in says that they're here presumably meaning the shadows
00:34:50
Speaker
that they're here. Okay. I'll say that you said that you needed to have a conversation with somebody before you gave Bornell any answers. And you know, my thought was maybe lady over him, but she's right there. I don't know why he would need to talk to me first. And then you walked out there and said, Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. He's our conversation with his sword. Okay. That's cool. I get it now. Um, so yes, I know I, I intended still kind of intend.
00:35:16
Speaker
I don't know when the time will come, but to have a conversation with Erebus regarding the weird feeling I had that something had gone on with the pact, basically that someone had claimed a pact, and also to just try and verify some things before making a decision about what Varric's going to do. But that was forestalled by the arrival of danger. And that was kind of where the episode ended, was with the arrival of the shadows. Right. But before it ended, we did go confront Varric.
00:35:44
Speaker
Yes, you went to confront Baron. Yes, we did confront him. And I don't remember if, did he admit he was? Almost immediately. And then I think I didn't think about it until listening back. I assume he felt much more comfortable. This is this is making two assumptions on my part. I assume that most of the dark shadows know at least some of the other dark shadows, if not shadows, King shadows, pardon me, if not many of them.
00:36:13
Speaker
So a craft being in the room probably emboldened him to be able to, I could be totally wrong, but that's how I read it. Yeah. And kind of gave us a feeling that maybe he was going to tell us a little more, give us some more info. And then all of a sudden he slumps onto the table with the bolt in his back. Yep. Yep. And Booyah went to commoners are just so squishy. Yeah.
00:36:37
Speaker
One crossbow bolt. Booyah went to assist, but he was gone. But he had some last words, which would really hit Booyah, protect my son, protect my kid.
00:36:52
Speaker
I was going to say Eric does have an ace in the hole whenever he needs to bend the party to his will if he needs to and that is bring a child into it. Especially for Booyah. Because both character wise between Booyah's son and what Beric and Dex saw Jacob endure
00:37:12
Speaker
And player wise, with the fact that all three of us are fathers, it's yeah, it's kind of like, well, Eric said kid, so, you know, he knows what we're going to do. But yeah, I know that definitely would have hit Booyah very hard. So immediately went because we saw through the window. We saw the kid out there, I guess, with the wooden sword. Right. And I assumed the Butler Charlie is. Yeah, I was there with him and I just immediately took off that way. Right.
00:37:41
Speaker
And I want to say, because it did come up in the in the discord discussion, somebody kind of asked, why didn't Randy try to heal? And it behind the curtain, he was basically waved off from it. Yeah, I told him no. The story was I went up to I went up to him to heal him. And I kind of I looked over at Eric and Eric just gave me the no, he's gone because mechanically enough damage was done like.
00:38:08
Speaker
Last night was dead, dead, dead. But I wanted to have the moment of him speaking his final words, his final piece. So, yeah. So just I guess I could have narrated it that Booyah is attempting to heal him and realizes that he's gone. Right. I mean, I could have done any number of things of introducing a poison that stops that negates cure. I could have done anything, but it was just easier to just go. No, he's gone. My point is I just Randy played it smart. Eric waved him off.
00:38:35
Speaker
I was trying to save Randy from wasting one of his precious spell slots before we went into the boss fight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We appreciate it. Um, so, so yeah, so we both run down and you know, take advantage of the fact that Charlie knows us well enough to know that if we say grab this kid and go hide, we're not playing a game. Oh, are you going to come seek us? Count to 10.
00:39:04
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's how you think seek Say what you know a horror clown? Yeah, so we don't we just catch a glimpse of the guy who did it again, but then he's gone and we give up Yeah, and we were like about to leave and ice and I had to kind of stop Dex and say no He said protect this kid. We got to go. We got to go get them right to take them back and then do we
00:39:31
Speaker
somebody does something on a stone, right? Because we start running and we didn't have a lot of impetus to run the borrowed time. Barrett called, said the shadows. And so we start running and we do this thing where Barrett comes out of one alley and we're on, we're coming out of the other alley and we meet up and just like, what, seven people running together? Six.
00:39:48
Speaker
Something like that. Yeah, because there's there's Bordeaux, Omerun, the three of us, Charlie and Cassian. Cassian and Cassian. And we go straight into the waves. Yes. Yeah, we we we point Crass to the boat. You take them. No, not Crass. We point Charlie to the boat. So you take them and we just dive in the water in full armor and clothing. And my speaking stone hasn't worked right since.
00:40:14
Speaker
The grass apparently being suicidal comes with us. Yeah. And I really wanted to have an underwater encounter. I thought that would have been cool, but my own phobias and proclivities prevented me from doing so. So moving on.
00:40:29
Speaker
Nothing cool about underwater encounters. Yeah Yeah, I just listened to another show do what and it was just huh? Weird so much I feel like underwater encounters the DM really has to do some serious bending to not make everybody die Like that's that is once you've got some serious magic and none of us had anything to repair us to breathe underwater So yeah, these were all like level 15 characters. Yeah underwater fighting a kraken and
00:40:58
Speaker
So we dive in, that's where the episode ends. It picks up again with us coming out of the water in an underground cave. Sewer system. Oh. I never knew that. I read it as a cave the whole time. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like a cave that had been retrofitted into some sort of dwelling, but cave. Okay, sewer system. Anyway, an underwater chamber of the sewer-ish variety. And we had immediately to fight some shadows while the water also started to rise.
00:41:25
Speaker
thanks to the first of an insane number of natural ones. Yeah, boy, Krass really showed how he'd won all those fights in the Red Ring.
00:41:35
Speaker
Apparently he apparently he made people pity him to death. He's sober now. That's the problem Fair enough, but yeah, so Yeah, we we start fighting we fight some shadows. I use daylight that helps us except for crass to go temporarily blind Booyah has to save him. Yeah. Yeah, and then I mean the next big moment is the return of Everybody's favorite cleric. Yeah
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah. What was his name? Yes, Akko appears. Akko Mills comes back. Wait, what was the last name?
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, that one I knew. I honestly didn't know he had a last name. His name is Aco Mills, I knew that one. It's a fantasy setting, people have only one name, that's a thing. Dex only has one name, totally, absolutely. Booyah, well, is Booyah Grigal one name? Yes. That's what I thought. Booyah Grigal only has one name, it's a long one, we shortened it. Well, guess who doesn't only have one name, Aco Mills. Okay.
00:42:33
Speaker
Yes. I have absolutely no memory of Akko's last name ever being mentioned. I bet it was only said once. It was the very first time when he introduced him and promptly forgot him. Yeah, so we had a fight with something wearing
Confrontation with the Lich
00:42:47
Speaker
Akko's body. That we can certainly say was not the same thing but of the same nature. It was another big purple scorpion thing.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, I had the same visual had the same visual appearance. Well, the thing in your common that that arrived during the fight. That wasn't there at the beginning of the fight. All right. Just to clarify, I thought I assumed that.
00:43:12
Speaker
I assumed that it was the same thing as a Montu where it was in there and it showed itself when it had to. No, because when you all started fighting Montu, his eyes were glowing and the scorpion thing was coming out. When you first encountered Eiko, he looked like Eiko normalizing all and then his eyes started glowing and his voice kind of changed. And then the scorpion thing came out. OK, so yes.
00:43:32
Speaker
Then I guess the question would be, since everybody who's listening already knows that the Lich is where this ends, did the Lich reanimate Aiko? How did you justify Aiko being... No, because Aiko wasn't undead. What was he? That's true. I mean... Something? I mean, we don't know. I mean, he's gone and we burned him this time. So I feel like it's okay for you to say... He destroyed his body, but we don't know what happened to him in Mabar. Did he go to Mabar? I thought he just got his neck snapped.
00:43:58
Speaker
No, he was pulled through the... A spell was cast on him and he withered and fell to the ground. Uh-huh. And then you all took off after the Lich crushed the stone. And that was the last we saw of Akko was on the ground as you all took off. Okay. I can't get too much into the how of Akko, unfortunately, without revealing too much. But, I mean, like I said in the episode we're recording, he is not undead and the purple scorpion thing showed up during the fight. He wasn't there the whole time.
00:44:26
Speaker
Okay. Did you consider using Draconis? Yes and no. I mean, Draconis left things on such an open-ended note, and also, more importantly, Draconis, especially in an auditory, if this was our home game, I probably would have used Draconis, but being an auditory medium, and not only you all, but all the listeners, Draconis has a voice, and it is not a voice that I can replicate well.
00:44:53
Speaker
It's also not menacing. Yeah, I didn't want my poor attempt at doing the awesome voice that Trevor had for Draconos be distracting from the moment. I wanted to allow the jokes that you all were making about Echo talking too much to distract away from the moment. It would have been kind of great though. Oh, hey, bud. Mace to the face.
00:45:16
Speaker
Hello. So, yeah. It was an interesting thought to use Draconos, but I never entertained it seriously. So, yeah, we never gave Echo a funeral. He was very salty about it. He hit me several times, really hard, in the face.
00:45:31
Speaker
And he also didn't seem very impressed that Beric had learned Goblin. No. Well, I don't think Beric ever... I don't think Beric exchanged many words with Aco during the fight. Philip... Either Beric or Philip said I know Goblin. I said that to... Philip said that to Eric. Okay. Eric asked. Okay. That's right. I don't think Beric in the middle of fighting a bunch of Shadowmasters went, I know Goblin. Well, I mean, you never know what we're gonna do, what we're gonna say in the middle of a battle.
00:45:57
Speaker
We've done, we've said dumber. Philip has, Barric hasn't. Fair enough. Dex has. Yes. I believe.
00:46:06
Speaker
So, um, but we defeated, we defeated echo. We defeated echo. We continue going up and there we see your friend, your friend and mine, the Litch, everybody's favorite skull face. And as a result of a, another natural one being rolled. Um, can't even keep track of how many, um, but that's not a feature of our Wiki yet. We don't have fans tracking our stats yet.
00:46:34
Speaker
Um, but the three pick pockets, the three younger pick pockets were being carried through the, you all saw them being carried through the portal as you all rounded the corner. Um, and Oriana, their older sister being thrown across the room. Yes. At which point we rolled a natural 20 on initiative and you allowed me to basically say that she stabilized so that it wasn't so that we didn't have to worry about getting to her prior to her bleeding out.
00:47:05
Speaker
Alright for some reason when you said natural 20 on initiative. No I'm just already thinking about because he rolled a natural 20 he also got to go first and all the things he did on his turn. Oh it was amazing. Yeah it was a wonderful turn. It was awesome turn. It was so good. Had you had you already had in your mind next time we see the portal I'm going to try to dispel magic on or did this all just come?
00:47:26
Speaker
the dispel actually uh... it all had to happen sequentially i was looking for what is the thing i can use to get across the room fastest and i remember there could give me a apparently now they're eric and i have reconsidered it a badly designed homebrew of victor's dark transport which allows you to do a whole lot of damage for a bonus action
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's when you said that was a bonus action Eric's face. It's an action now just for everybody And that's the one you and that's the one you pulled from the black book, right? Yes. Yeah, so Yeah, I think I'm that's pretty darn awesome Yeah, no it was it's too much for bonus action so in the in the future we'll we're gonna rule that spell a an action but Berwick used that to blaze across the chamber and
00:48:12
Speaker
destroying a bunch of shadows, injuring the lich, and arriving between the lich and the portal. And since I don't usually play a spellcaster, I totally forgot the limitations on bonus action spells, on casting two spells in a turn, which is one of them has to be a cantrip. And so in that moment I realized,
00:48:32
Speaker
I might possibly be able to cut off his escape. I didn't actually know whether it would work. Um, I just thought I would try it. And it was awesome. So I, yes, no, it was an Eric, let it go through for that reason. It's such a good line too. Would you say, uh, I may not leave here, but neither are you.
00:48:49
Speaker
Pretty good. You can tell that Philip is a teacher because he doesn't just tell Eric, this is poorly designed and overpowered. He gives him an object lesson to really make sure the point gets driven home. He deals a bajillion points of radiant damage and then says, we probably should change this weapon.
00:49:07
Speaker
And then he bats around and just wrecks an encounter and says, this might be a little too strong. Oh, man. Well, both at the time, like the the the amulet thing that that also it was just in the moment, I realized I could do it. And then as I did it, I realized, no, this is too much.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I was a little concerned when you got between him and the portal thinking, I hope he's got something else because he's right there at the portal. I really thought it was possible that Barak would not make it out. I was okay with it. Barak was okay with it once the portal shut down.
00:49:45
Speaker
And we can get into it either now or later on as we discuss this fight. But Philip and I had a conversation after that session where if it went one more round, Berwick was not walking away from that fight. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. I was sitting here. Like I said, I was I was concerned. Yeah. Basically, Eric has learned that you don't with that with with players with Claire characters as powerful as us.
00:50:08
Speaker
Uh, you just don't, you don't ramp up what your caster is, what your spell casting bad guy is using. You start at the, you start at the top of that, of that list. Yeah. Uh, which I should have done. And I was about to do on the very next turn.
00:50:23
Speaker
But then I think Dex hit him to get him down to one hit point and I was like, well, decisions have to be made because one player has now cut off the escape route and I'm not ready for this villain to die yet. And so I tried to teleport away and that stupid I create my own demons because that bag came into play.
00:50:48
Speaker
Um, yeah, I like the look on your face when I said, I had honestly forgotten about the bag. I have not thought about that bag in three months before that moment. Um, and that's kind of on purpose because I don't want to seem like, I don't want it to be like abused. Yeah. And I want it, I want it to be like maybe a really, you know, like this is a situation where this probably can really matter to us. Yeah. And so it's a thing, you know,
00:51:16
Speaker
Just for those of you curious, I mean, we alluded to it and we're about to get past it with the end of the the Lich fight, but he was about to cast Power Word Kill on Beric, which is a spell where he literally just says the power word and any creature that has less than 100 hit points that's targeted by it is dead. Yep. There's no save. There's just it happens.
00:51:37
Speaker
So, um, that, that's where he got to and in his emotional state. Um, and where I kind of got to in my emotional state, but I was concerned that Philip's character, Eric might be somehow pushed through that portal. Yeah. That's what my concern was.
00:51:53
Speaker
Yeah, that also flashed through my head in the brief fleeting seconds of Beric being in between the Lich and the Portal, and then the Portal no longer being there. And Booyah was laying down some pretty good damage. I kept rolling really well, and that put a lot of hurt on him. You don't have to roll really well. You have insane damage modifiers. Yeah, your modifiers are ridiculous.
00:52:17
Speaker
I make them up as I go along.
00:52:36
Speaker
Don't expect a lot and i've always wondered because it seems like every time the with the lich He's going after dex. He's he's popping off at dex and I was like, man. What is the deal here? What is behind something's up with that? He focuses on dex verbally for now. Well now we know why yeah, it turns out humbly Um, so when the magic is dispelled it is revealed that the lich this whole time has just been The altered form of dex's brother youngest brother chance. Yep, uh and
00:53:05
Speaker
I was so struck by it that I did not play it very well. Honestly, you know, I have a younger brother who has also turned evil. And so it really hit home.
00:53:17
Speaker
No, I have a younger brother who's a much better person than I am. But so I know I say this all the time. So, yeah, I say this all the time. Dex doesn't think his brothers are in there anymore. I think I equated it. I don't know if it was on the show or just in person. Some people for Dex, it's basically zombie ism.
00:53:38
Speaker
The person is gone, the body moves on, in this case with a different soul in it. So Dex, Dex didn't mourn that this thing's life force was taken away, but he couldn't do it to something that looked like his own brother. And he did mourn over again the same tragedy that he's mourned dozens of times, which is my brothers are gone. Not now my brother is gone, it's my brothers have been gone.
00:54:07
Speaker
for a long time. Which is why, when he was unconscious, even though he knew it wasn't possible, the first thing he said was, we gotta get it out of him. If he could have saved his brother's life, and it'd actually be his brother coming back or something, you know, but of course, it's not possible. Barak let him know that. Dex walks away, let's boo yah.
00:54:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Just went ahead and, and really, I think in Booyah's head had just was like this, this got to go, you know, one way or another, we've got to dispose of this thing. And it was really no, like, what's the word I'm looking for? There was like no waiting, no hesitation. There you go. He just went out and just did it. Let's get this over with and let's get out of here. Sure. Um, and then who notices that we can get out another way? Barrick. Barrick. Okay. Of course. Uh, he was over there.
00:54:53
Speaker
and not weeping on the ground. He was picking up Orianna, who was on the ground. Oh, that's right. So now, Krast, Orianna, Uya, Beric, Dex, and Dex be labored with his brother's body over his shoulders, gets up onto the streets of Stormreach, and what do we see?
Escape from Stormreach
00:55:14
Speaker
War zone the the the sacking of storm reach it is done though, and there's nothing we can do about it So we run to the boat we get everybody on to the boat another guy shows up at the boat a new random guy yes, which I Don't think we did anything out of line with new random guy No, it's like I said I said I elucidated it did the idea that anybody could be a changeling had always been a fun thing for decks now it's the most terrifying thing you could think of and
00:55:41
Speaker
especially with the realization that the Boranell that wants him dead is probably, at least in his mind is definitely, because he likes to deal in absolutes, is definitely a changeling. And so now everybody is suspect, unless he's had eyes on him. You know, he's never going to make Phil Barak prove he's Barak, probably, unless there's a reason. Right.
00:56:06
Speaker
But some dude shows up and says, can I get on your boat? You can, but we're not going to make it fun for you at first. And right. So that's, that's, that's where he was at. Yeah. I think Booyah would have, Booyah would have been fine without tying him up, I think. Um, but he wasn't going to question Dex's need to do that. Um, I think Booyah might be a little concerned with, okay, now how is this guy going to relate to us? At least for a while.
00:56:36
Speaker
But this guy is a hitchhiker So I know that that Barak is concerned about how he's going to relate to us I don't think Barak views it as we picked up a new member of the team. Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely not I think the way he's gonna relate to us is we're the guys that didn't leave him to die in storm reach And if he wants and if he doesn't know why we don't trust him He was not paying attention to what was happening around him. Yeah, I just keep seeing these looks on Eric's face like
00:57:04
Speaker
I don't know what you're talking about. That's just, that's just, that's just baseline here. No. Uh, and that's fine. And if he doesn't like us because we tied them up when he first got on the boat, then he can get off the boat and draw him and go find his own damn way. Yeah. I don't really care one way or another. And it definitely didn't bother him that, that, you know, that.
00:57:24
Speaker
Cause I think it was Dex that was like, we're tying you up. Yeah, no, there was no, it was immediate. I was cool with that. Like, yeah, we don't know who this guy is. Unless this guy is a level 21 cleric or something. It would probably be a ranger, huh? He was a ranger. I think, I think he told us it was a ranger.
00:57:41
Speaker
Well, he had a bow and arrow on his chest. But that's a... Unless he's the most... He would become the most powerful member of our party. I'm not gonna cry if he doesn't want to hang out with us and draw him. And it's gonna take a lot for him to become the most powerful member of our party because Booyah and Barak are in our party. Anyway, so... Secure him. Barak takes Orianna down to his chamber because she's still unconscious.
00:58:06
Speaker
and leaves her with Paolo because Dex starts calling on Beric because once again Beric needs to make decisions.
00:58:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna deny that. And again, that's Jeff needing Philip to provide insight to what these places are. I'm not gonna make, from both the standpoint of wanting to have fun playing the game, wanting the game to be, wanting the game to be, not just kick our a** one day, and wanting it to be fun to listen to for other people, I'm not just gonna blindly pick from three things that I don't know what any of them are.
00:58:44
Speaker
I can't do that, so Dex asks Beric. No, if it was like, you know, more trivial choices, I wouldn't have yelled for Beric, I'd let him do his thing. But anyway, and so we decided, and I really don't know, all I know that this means is that Eric was not upset. Eric has to work now, because this is the one thing he hadn't planned for. But we decided to go to, what, Joam, the city of monsters, is my understanding?
Journey to Graywall
00:59:09
Speaker
Graywall, a city in the country of Drowan. I'm never going to get it right. Graywall, it's in English. Well, yeah, but it's a word I have to remember. Graywall in Drowan. Yes, which is a country ruled by monstrous races. Yeah. And you said that the mayor of Graywall is not a beholder of mind flayer. Mind flayer.
00:59:30
Speaker
I did confirm with Eric though that, because I was like, oh shoot, aren't mind flayers hive minds? And I killed one. He said the odds of this mind flayer being connected to the same mother brain as the one I killed are pretty slim. So I think I'm okay. Not impossible. And assuming my, you know, I don't have any idea what the case is with the mayor of Graywall, but, um,
00:59:50
Speaker
If mind flayers are far enough away from an elder brain for a long time, they become independent. Okay. Well, cool. So, um, so yeah, so now it's Gerald, Kras, Booyah, Barrett, Dex, Omerun, Orianna, Rickard, and a dead body.
01:00:11
Speaker
Flying in a boat to the city, huh? At least we upgraded the size of our ship on the way to storm reach the lost episode. That's true We did and we are going to the city that is in the country is the it's the only open city Oh, I don't know. Okay, exactly. That's the case So it's it's not like the storm reach where it's like one of the only couple of places that you can really go No, there's there's several cities. This is just the one where there's as far as I understand where there's the most
01:00:38
Speaker
contact with the outside world. Gotcha. And we're going there. And that was where the final episode ended. And also we leveled up, which we're not going to talk about that now. We'll talk about the next episode properly. I haven't done it yet. I haven't either. I know what I'm doing as far as between the two classes. I mean, I know what I'm doing mainly just because there's not a black dog on the boat. So I don't have a lot of choices.
01:01:04
Speaker
uh haven't you haven't renamed the boats uh cantina the black dog of the borrowed time okay so let's uh throw down on some questions i know we don't have a lot of time we'll burn through the ones we can um we already covered that one
01:01:19
Speaker
Okay, did we already stop and say yes the whole time the Lich was chanced, the chance was the Lich? Yes, that was from the get-go. And it was asked, and I can't find it, but it was asked at one point, how has the Lich been so powerful since the beginning if it's just a changeling and disguise? And that's just because he worked harder and ground death. He's a changeling wizard. He did better at school, he paid attention to his teachers. He went out into the forest and ground points, he killed a bunch of rabbits.
01:01:49
Speaker
I've tried to make it pretty clear through the NPCs. The majority of the NPCs are squishy. I mean, you all bonked Trant on the head with a cane and he got knocked out. But it's, I mean... I mean, he was using, everything he was using was from the PHB. Wizard spell book. The player's handbook, the wizard spell book that any player character could use if they got to that level. So you weren't, he wasn't necessarily, I mean, he was more powerful than us, especially at the beginning, but it was all stuff that was in the realm of possibility for a player character wizard.
01:02:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. No problem. I'm assuming you can't go into too much about how he's able to survive in Mubarak and things like that. Like I'm assuming that there are there are reasons that you can't reveal yet. Yeah, I would I would love to get into more details now that we have this channel on the the discord. We can I can earmark some of them to come back to in however many months once the campaign is done and address them then.
01:02:48
Speaker
Okay, one of the questions Laura asked how long Dex had been in Corvair before the campaign started. Dex, Corvair is the comment, right? Yes. Dex has been in Corvair for six or seven years. He was in that Thieves Guild in, pardon me, in Thrain for a good hot minute, long enough to rise through the ranks, become a kind of second tier leader.
01:03:12
Speaker
of it before they kicked him out. So he came to Corvair young. In my head Dex is late 20s, let's just say 28, 29, and he came to Corvair as a young, as an older teenager, a 19, 20 years old.
01:03:27
Speaker
So he's been there for a while. And he also did everything. You know, he didn't have a he didn't have a boat. He didn't have he had what he could steal or convince somebody to talk somebody out of. So we would hitch rides. I'm sure at one point he stole a horse, but he came all the way from the far northwest corner of the continent all the way down to Mistmarch, essentially on foot, including lengthy stop offs in Thrain and other parts of Breeland.
01:03:55
Speaker
So he's actually been there for a long time. I'm only going to say this because one of our nerd listeners, one of our more thoroughly eberron nerd listeners will point it out. I think you mean Northeast because the far northwest corner is a place called the Demon Wastes. Oh no, you're absolutely right. I got him backwards. I thought that Demon Waste was Northeast and the one with the wild halflings and stuff was Northwest. It's the other way around? Yep. Okay. Cool. Now I know. I wasn't entirely sure, but I was like,
01:04:23
Speaker
Okay, what's the wild halfling place called to linta plane linta planes? Thank you. Yeah. So anyway starting the total into planes came down into the domesticated links everywhere else The wild halfling there's they're like tribal ride dinosaur wild halflings Description it just no stick. I get it. I get it. I'm with you Okay Has Barrick started growing his mohawk yet
01:04:51
Speaker
You know, I'm not sure what barracks hair looks like exactly. I don't picture that part of Berwick very often. Um, if Berwick grows a mohawk, I will disappoint everyone by saying it will not be particularly tall. Um, it will just be a matter of cropping the hair around it a little bit shorter. So, um, it will never be, um, Berwick will never have a punk rock mohawk or anything like that. It's also not taking up motorcycle riding, um, or the guitar.
01:05:21
Speaker
Laura also wants to know what happened to the quotes at the beginning of the episode. I want to know what happened to the quotes at the beginning. I like that too. I know what happened to the quotes at the beginning of the episode. I know what happened to the quotes at the beginning too, Eric. Eric's got a lot to do. And looking up a quote was the easiest thing to go, you know, it's okay without this. Yeah. The more quotes I went through, the harder good quotes were to come by. I feel like you should outsource that. Yeah. If you all want to start posting quotes on the Facebook group, start DMing quotes to Eric directly. No, please don't.
01:05:50
Speaker
I don't need your inspiration. Yeah, if you all want to start sending me quotes, go buck wild. I would be happy to use those because recording them takes me all of 30 seconds. Finding them has started taking me 30 minutes. So yeah. Oh, here's one that came in earlier. Do you have a sense, Eric, of how long this campaign is going to last? I assume till it's over is kind of what that's what I was thinking it was going to be.
01:06:15
Speaker
Um, somebody's getting tired of it already. And also asking, well, cause the question is, you know, stuff ramping up. Are we entering the midpoint? Are we this, the, the intention behind the culmination of your all's time in storm reach was to be very much, uh, to use a reference that Jeff won't understand the empire strikes back of the campaign. Um, so, I mean, I understand the words, um, just not what they mean.
01:06:45
Speaker
yeah nearing the end of act two just the the dark twist kind of the the heavy burden on the heroes um will they be able to bounce back even though it that doesn't ring exactly true when you kill darth vader in empire strikes back spoilers um um so uh tonally it's it it's a little all over the place but
01:07:09
Speaker
I would say yes, at least nearing the midpoint. Things are happening obviously quicker now. I would say given the brash actions that we saw at the end of this arc, some of the villainous factions that Barak has highlighted on his murder board are starting to kick things up into high gear, so to speak. So yeah.
01:07:34
Speaker
Um, things are definitely ramping up and things are going to move at a quicker clip. I don't want to say that we're definitely at the halfway point. I don't want to make the declarative statement that this campaign will be 120 episodes, but whoa, that seemed like a lot of episodes. Um, but, um,
01:07:52
Speaker
I would I mean if I had just guessed I would have said we were more than halfway through. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's I don't want to make a declarative statement that it's it's going to be more or less or what like right.
Campaign Progression and Future
01:08:02
Speaker
We're going to tell the story that I have in mind and that they the players influence and change against my will and we'll see when it ends kind of thing.
01:08:14
Speaker
Sure. But the more important question that Darren asked. What? The last part of that? Yeah. Have you started thinking about... I can answer this one. Yeah. He started thinking about it because we forced him to. We threw him a curve ball. No, you have an end point. Like you... No, I thought he was referencing what happens after the campaign. That's what I took it as to. Oh. Oh, so I know what happens after the campaign.
01:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to DM the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic role-playing game is going to be where it changes. I'll be retiring. We're going to change the name of the show. We'll be spitting off a show. So Jeff will go do that. We'll bring in another player to play in our Eberron space. No, I'll also be in Eberron. I'll just be Rainbow Sparkle, Rainbow Dash. Anyway, my new character is going to kill Rainbow Dash in the first session.
01:08:55
Speaker
To definitively answer your question, Darren, not really. Not a whole lot of thought has been given to what happens after this campaign. I would really love to play in a magnificent campaign, but we'll see how well that works out for me. All I can promise you is that I will not actually be DMing. I'm nowhere near ready to do something like that.
01:09:18
Speaker
Um, it's one of those things that you just got to do it. Like you're never going to feel like you're ready. I am going to, I mean, I'm going to DM DM some one shots at gamer nation con next year. I'm going to try my hand at it, but I'm not ready to ride a campaign. If you guys, I'm going to, I'm going to DM I really going to DM next February. I'm going to do more to prepare for that.
01:09:35
Speaker
That was what I was saying. I'm going to start DMing so that I'm ready for February. I was going to say something and it's very much gone now. If you guys wanted to do a published adventure that you were unfamiliar with, I would be willing to try DMing that, but I'm not going to come up with a campaign like this.
01:09:58
Speaker
I've been scrolling through just looking for question marks. One of the questions is, is Philip going to be on this episode of Eberron Reviewed? I'll field that one. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it. Well, I could. Oh, it was Irene that asked, how is he surviving? How's Chance, how did Chance survive in Mubarak? Well, and we have established in fiction. I think the first part of that question is a little more interesting, though. She asks, how is Chance such a big deal in the shadow war, according to Erebus?
01:10:28
Speaker
Yes, that is actually that is actually the end of her people who kind of asked why why did air basically this came up in several forms? Why did Erebus call chance the great agent of the shadow? I don't remember the exact words. He said the comma one of the great agents Mabar's great agents particularly it was the right. Yeah. Well, he didn't really how did Erebus read that?
01:10:50
Speaker
Um, I mean, it's, it's merely, um, just the, the fact that the Erebus knows what you all know essentially. And this, this is the Litch. This is the Litch that killed ACO, presumably killed Draconos, killed Theradac, kidnapped children. Like he needs to die. He sounds like a really bad guy when you just say it that way.
01:11:15
Speaker
Um, and so I, I don't think in the moment and I haven't gone back to listen to it. I don't think Arab is said Mebar's greatest agent or anything like that. It was just, uh, one of the age of the enemy of the enemy. Okay. Um, and something to keep in mind and listen, if you go back and listen from the beginning back through, um, curse bringer slash Arab is because there was a name change in there.
01:11:39
Speaker
Um, the verbiage that he is used to define the enemy has changed over the course of the campaign. So be cognizant of that because as the pact collects itself, as Barak gathers more elements of the pact, uh, Erebus's knowledge grows. So just something, I'm not going to get any further into it, but something to listen for.
01:12:02
Speaker
And then can humanoids live in those planes they can it's not fun Jacob aged what we it was like 15 years in the two weeks He was in there or something. It was ridiculous.
Discussion on Eric Touch's Ability
01:12:11
Speaker
Yeah a year a day. Uh-huh So and there's a I mean, there's a good chance change things have humanish lifespans So he couldn't have been and there's I mean there's chance he's not living in my bar He pops into my bar come and then pops it back out where we are bringing some shadows with him He could be living on Sarlona, you know, we don't know that
01:12:32
Speaker
But but it would be it would be it is something that he's able to come and go at will From the bar when clearly many others aren't and it hasn't been chance the whole time Yes from the first time we saw chance or the first time we saw the Lich it was sexist brother Yeah, is very still turning stuff black all the time. That's actually a good question
Clarification on Erebus' Appearance
01:12:50
Speaker
Yes, he's different now Eric touch does still turn things black He mostly as we lived in storm reach for a while. He mostly wears his gloves Out of courtesy to the various bars that he frequented Would it would it affect areas? Unless there's a size. Wait, what did you ask? Well you finish and all that
01:13:08
Speaker
Unless there's a sizable store of alcohol on the ship, Eric may have a problem because he's been drinking quite heavily our entire time in the bar. Uh, no, I would, would the blackening affect Erebus when you are, if you were to wield him bare handed, would he stay shiny metal? Erebus isn't shiny metal. Erebus is black. Oh, I didn't realize that. I thought that, I thought that the new Erebus or the Erebus is black with silver runes.
01:13:33
Speaker
Silver runes, that's what it was. Okay. Okay. Well, there you go.
Exploring Shadow Magic
01:13:37
Speaker
And did Barak ever discover what it was he was looking for in the Faded Forest? No, much like Bono, Barak has still never found what he's looking for. There wasn't a specific thing. It was just a general interest in the forest, right? Yeah, he was interested in Mubarak because he noticed that the magic that he was able to do all sort of centered around shadow. Yeah. And that being the plane of shadow and night and the Fading Forest being a manifest zone.
01:14:02
Speaker
It seemed a place to find answers. Yeah. Turned out that was not the case. It was a place to find lots of things that weren't answers. Yeah. And we did the first two, maybe three episodes. We played up barracks interest in the forest more than it needed to be, just because we were still, we didn't even know our own characters, let alone each other's. And that was a thing that we could crack a little wise on. I think there were several things like that in the first few episodes that
01:14:26
Speaker
seemed like they might become big deals that did not.
Dex's Reaction to Brother's Death
01:14:29
Speaker
Do, do, do, did anybody give Jeff a hug after the last episode? No. No. I mean, to be perfectly honest, that death didn't hit me hard because it didn't hit Dex hard. Any harder than it has any other time he thinks about his brothers being gone. That thing looked like his brother was not his brother. Again, this is two Dex. That is not the way the inspired actually work. We are playing in a character space when I say stuff like that.
01:14:54
Speaker
Uh, Dex doesn't know how they work. Yeah, I think that's what was part of a Booyah's problem too is like, cause I think we ended with Booyah coming up to Dex and looking at him like he wanted to say something, but then just kind of hangs his head and walks away. Right. Cause he's not sure how Dex is feeling like, you know, how he's not being, he's not able to read. Right. Dex's feelings on this. He's like, I'll just not say anything.
01:15:17
Speaker
And it may have seemed bigger. I mean, it was a big deal. I said he fell to the ground and he wept. And it was Randy too, not wondering, you know, like, how's Jeff feeling about this character? And it was, I mean, it was a big deal. He really did fall down and he really did weep for his brother, but it wasn't the first time he'd done that. And the reason that he wanted to save the body is the same reason that we human earthlings
01:15:43
Speaker
tend to save the body after the soul or life force or whatever leaves it to show respect to the person that inhabited it. He wasn't going to let it. The first person who inhabited it. Yes. Fair enough. Exactly. And so I have a thought for what I want to do with that. And that's actually a question. Are we still going to get those reduced episodes on borrowed time? I think at this point, I think the answer is no.
01:16:09
Speaker
Well, I assume at this point they're going to become it's Wednesday evening. We are recording the first episode or the first several episodes of the next arc on Saturday morning. I assume those things will be in the first episode, maybe a slightly more truncated than they would have been otherwise. So I mean, they're going to come up. Some of those things are going to come up because they have to live.
Impact of Teaching and Family Obligations
01:16:28
Speaker
Life has interfered in that way that life tends to and prevented us from being able to get together and do some of the things we kind of wanted to do with the end of the episode. So we'll.
01:16:37
Speaker
Right. I mean, just to put it really plainly, when you are both a teacher, which three of us are and have children, which the same three of us do the end of the school year could not be busier between true, between your teacher obligations of awards, assemblies, all that stuff, and your parental obligations of the other school that your kid goes to awards, assemblies, your secondary job obligations.
01:16:58
Speaker
Right. Cause you're a teacher in Oklahoma. So your secondary job applications. Uh, anyway, so we did fair, uh, you know, Jeff has, Jeff has given me a lot of slack to be fair. I've been out of school for two weeks now. And I'm painting minis.
01:17:14
Speaker
I, you know, I'm jealous. I thought I was like, it's like 1230 and Phillips posting pictures of the minis. He just finished painting. Does he not have school in the morning? Turns out he does now. No, he doesn't. Uh, okay. And then the other half of, and then the last question that's on here is has crass actually fallen? I assume that's interesting, but it is an interesting question. I'm wondering if that's going to be able. Let's find out what kind of thing.
01:17:39
Speaker
Um, I mean the, kind of like what I was saying about all the questions about the Lich living in my bar and all that stuff, like all of the, the answers you see caught in the podcast. Um, I mean, he, he no longer shows any kind of, uh, indication that he has a follower of the silver flame externally.
Crass's Connection with the Silver Flame
01:17:57
Speaker
Um, he's obviously in a really bad place.
01:18:01
Speaker
So I'm not going to say definitively he is a fallen paladin because that carries with it a lot of connotations that I don't want to get into. But he he is a changed person because of the things that have happened to him and the things he has done during his time in storm reach. So which we will likely learn about.
01:18:22
Speaker
Okay, thank you everyone who did send in a question. Again, being able to ask a question that's addressed on the actual podcast is a patron reward.
Patron Questions and Rewards
01:18:34
Speaker
So if you have questions and you're on the Facebook group, we're not going to go silent. We will type something up and post it alongside.
01:18:45
Speaker
To get the three to four of us really analyzing a question that is a that is a patron tier so Head us up on Facebook. We check it. Yeah, we like still being active on the Facebook because we're not gonna deny anybody Because they aren't able to give us or willing to give us money I totally get it if you're like I could give them five bucks, but it's just not I'm not gonna
01:19:06
Speaker
Okay, I did that for years with every podcast I listened to I get it any who Yeah, thank you for
Gratitude to Listeners
01:19:15
Speaker
your questions. Those of you that sent them in I apologize if I didn't recognize you by name with your question We kind of started rapid-firing them and I can't promise every time you ask a question It'll get on the show if they if if this is any indication There's gonna be a lot of questions for reviewed and as things get bigger and deeper and heavier We're just not gonna have time to answer them all
01:19:32
Speaker
So we'll have to curate a little bit. Anyway, thank you for listening. You guys were wonderful. Thanks for giving us the reason to keep doing this because it's fun. And my name is Jeff. I'm Eric. Randy. Hello. Something about social media that I forgot to say earlier and good night. We'll see you next time.