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C1 Ep. 148 Eberron Reviewed 23
277 Plays5 years ago
The Grand Reviewed is here! Join Eric, Philip, and Jeff as they answer all of your pressing questions now that the conclusion of the campaign has come!
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Darrin Katzska, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Charles Compton, Richard Cree, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Rebekah Miller, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, and Dustin Troupe.
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Transcript
Introduction and Donor Acknowledgments
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by the generous donations of Elizabeth Clark, Darryl Delaney, Ryan Royce, Darren Katska, Irene Villarito, Laura Pickron, Devious Poptart, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family, Charles Compton, Dustin Troop, Rebecca Miller, Edvard Arnoff, Michael Clark, and David Scrams, along with all of our generous patrons.
00:00:32
Speaker
D20 radio, your gamer's role.
Special Review Episode: Introduction to Eberron Renewed
00:00:50
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play 5th edition D&D podcast set in the Eberron campaign setting. I'm Jeff. I'm Philip. And I'm Eric. And as you can tell from me introducing the show that today is an Eberron reviewed, and it's not just any Eberron reviewed. So it's actually the last Eberron reviewed for Barak, Booyah, Theradak, Dax, Drakonos, and the crew that played with them.
00:01:16
Speaker
Normally in these episodes, we will go through the arc beat by beat that we remember, but we have so many questions because this review has to cover both the last arc and the campaign as a whole. We have so many questions that we are just going to start answering questions. So really what you're going to be hearing is a lot of Eric. Also, are any of us really emotionally prepared to go back through the last arc beat by beat?
00:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, no. I mean, no, I don't want to. I don't want to. I haven't listened to it either. Well, actually that's true. I listened to the first episode and I was like, well, that's enough. I watched the two first episodes of the live stream and that's about as deep as I got into it. I played in it. Yeah.
00:02:03
Speaker
I was absolutely there the whole time. Okay, so we are, we're just gonna get into it.
Listener Questions and Campaign Reflection
00:02:10
Speaker
So I'm just gonna go down the order of the Discord list, partially because there are so many questions. So these may not be in chronological order of the arc. We may get an overarching question and then go back to a question about, I don't know, the machine or something. Just bear with us. If you have no idea what some question is referencing, I'm talking to the listener.
00:02:30
Speaker
We do have a wiki that we don't talk about nearly often enough that is curated predominantly by Laura, who we mention often on this show, especially on the reviews. And we'll mention often tonight. Yes, certainly. But that is at, if you search Eberron accrued, it will likely be the first, I want to say it's like Eberron accrued dot fandom or dot wiki. I can't remember exactly which one it is and I apologize.
00:02:59
Speaker
But if you Google Eberron accrued, it's very reviewed. It's like the third link that pops up. It's high up there. Just so many ways to get to it, guys. Check it out if you don't know something. You can pause. Check it out. You can check it out later. I'm not your dad. You do what you want. Honestly, most of you are adults. If I was your dad, you'd still probably be able to do what you want.
00:03:19
Speaker
So here we go. The first question comes from Irene. Oh, no, it doesn't. That was a joke question that got answered later in the arc. Okay, so the real first question is from Darren. Darren asks, did you pick the Astral Dreadnought? This is the giant that we fought. I know you know this. The giant we fought between the dreamscapes. Did you pick the Astral Dreadnought solely because it has claws in the art? Or was that a happy coincidence?
00:03:45
Speaker
The instant the Astral Dreadnought got released, I instantly thought Giant Quarry. As soon as I saw that part, I was like, especially since it got released while this campaign was going on, I knew I was gonna use the Astral Dreadnought once you all made it to Dal Kor. I was there. Yeah. That's exactly how it happened. I think I said something to Philip of like, oh, this is gonna happen. So yeah, I mean, it's super cool.
00:04:12
Speaker
go ahead, I will say when you guys describe when you described it, just the sheer immensity of it, the fact that it was like this thing sent to be protecting against specifically us. I thought this was going to be our like Tarask fight and.
00:04:27
Speaker
It was not. You guys are all really smart when it comes to the way that you play, in spite of your best efforts, Jeff. When it comes to the way we play, I follow Phillip, which is smart. And Randy.
00:04:45
Speaker
It certainly could have been a much tougher fight if you all would have fought it where it could have gotten to you. But you all being on its back, I kind of respected that strategy. And so a lot of its abilities like it couldn't bite you and it has an ability where it could try to teleport you into its stomach without having to swallow you.
00:05:08
Speaker
But it just I mean, it didn't come up in a way that seemed organic. And I'm pretty sure I forget what save is required. But it was one where I was like, well, none of them are going to realistically fail that because the DC was super low. So so, yeah, the fight could have been tougher, but I tried to reward you all for strategizing.
00:05:33
Speaker
Okay cool well thanks. I think also I'm caught up now but I was a few weeks behind like several months behind it on Critical Role and they had just had an episode where they're like oh god no don't go into the dreadnoughts room don't go and I was like why don't we.
00:05:47
Speaker
What are we doing? Because you did tell us that the creature you were using was Astral Dreadnought. Yeah. And they know what they're doing. And so I was like, well, it must be scary. And there's like 30 of them. And there's just four of them. OK. Also from Darren, the next one. Did you generally feel that 5E made it difficult to challenge high level PCs in this campaign?
00:06:11
Speaker
What would you well, I didn't feel that way. What would you do differently next time during set piece battles?
Challenges in High-Level D&D Campaigns
00:06:18
Speaker
I asked Philip before we started recording in regards to Darren's question here. If for the first half I could scream yes into the microphone. Yeah, like that's I gave him permission.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, I just didn't want to disturb my dog. I rescind it. That's the biggest criticism with this system, isn't it? Once you get past level eight, it just becomes god fight after god fight.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if you were to calculate the CR of the fight for the last two episodes, it would have been like way higher than 17, which was your level to even make a fight that was threatening. I mean, we go back to when you all were first entering Kyber, the the skittering horror things. You all were what, level 13 at that point. And that was a CR 30 fight, I think like they were both CR 15 creatures.
00:07:15
Speaker
In fairness, that fight messed us up. Yeah, but I mean... Yeah, that was the steam tunnels thing, right? It was like, yeah, that really rocked us good. But it didn't wipe you. We survived. And those CRs are built for parties of four. And I think at that point it was just three of you. So I think there are some...
00:07:34
Speaker
It is my own fault. I gave you all some homebrew stuff and you all once again being smart people figured out how to synergize those things to be really powerful. And that's what I was going to ask. I've obviously never played any of the earlier editions, but isn't there always the risk
00:07:50
Speaker
the players pick up on where things are headed and start taking feats instead of points that will make things easier down the road or pick spells that they like. That's a very common pitfall of all these systems, right? Yeah, you'll always have players or entire parties that are trying to get ahead of the campaign and and do that whole thing. I don't think you all ever did that.
00:08:14
Speaker
You just played it intelligently to where it made like early on you all were fighting shadows a lot so Philip taking abilities that gave him radiant damage just that makes sense from a character standpoint. So, so yeah. I think yeah five E makes it very difficult to challenge high level PCs.
00:08:36
Speaker
in a campaign, especially post, a lot of people say after level eight, I would say especially if you ever hit past level 15, the game just breaks. Like you have to think on the fly a lot to keep encounters either that sweet spot between challenging and not unfair TPK. Like where you're throwing three Vecna's at the party.
00:09:03
Speaker
So, and what would you do differently next time during set piece battles?
00:09:09
Speaker
I don't like, I like, I know a lot of people enjoy for like the big set piece battles like going back to the Raven showdown with the Thrashing at Rares I think was the name of that arc. I know a lot of people that would really like to have like dice rolls for the different armies that are fighting to show the ebb and flow of the battle.
00:09:30
Speaker
I tend to treat that stuff like environmental hazards and narrow down into the the fight that's happening at the parties level. So I that's just my personal style. Also, it lessens my bookkeeping. So I don't know if I do a whole lot differently during set piece battles, honestly. So, yeah, that's that's my answer.
00:09:55
Speaker
OK, next is a question from Ryan, who he says, finally, he may not have asked many questions.
Lessons Learned in Storytelling and Character Development
00:10:02
Speaker
I've been a Discord member for a long time. Ryan asks, and this is for all three of us, what lessons have you learned from this campaign that you'll carry into the next campaign? Well, when Eric says I promise not to torture you, if you just let me decide on your patron, he's lying. That's what I've learned. Eric's lying. He will.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah. I learned how to play Dungeons and Dragons. I learned how to play a role-playing game, and I think I'll be carrying that forward. No, I think the thing that I learned, because somebody else asked a similar question later, so I was actually thinking about it today. I think one of the things that I learned is that you can't
00:10:44
Speaker
make a wrong choice you can make a bad choice and you can make a choice that leads to more difficult outcomes or has a bad but if the goal is tell a good story you can't make a bad choice because the recovery or the wrong choice because recovery from a bad choice is compelling and we did some stupid stuff that led to some really cool things so i think the biggest thing for me
00:11:08
Speaker
When it comes to the important stuff, decision making stuff, I obviously had no problem saying whatever was on the top of my mind when we were quipping around or having conversations. But when it came to like, where do we go next? What do we do next? How do we need to do this? I deferred a lot to the more experienced players. Sometimes I think making it incumbent upon them to choose things that they didn't really want to. And that was a big nod. And so I think
00:11:35
Speaker
I think I am going to take a little bit more of that responsibility on myself to not be so timid with the decisions of the major things, or at least my input with them.
00:11:45
Speaker
Also, I still don't want to do magic. I learned that by playing Thorin for 30 seconds. One of the big lessons that I took, it relates more to creating D&D for an audience more than a home game because I think this strategy works really well for a home game.
00:12:08
Speaker
of as a DM and a storyteller in home games, I tend to have the throw in spaghetti methodology of just throwing plot lines and hooks and things at players and at parties and seeing what sticks, like what they latch onto, what they find interesting.
00:12:25
Speaker
When you're creating that for an audience, it creates a lot of unanswered questions of like, hey, you mentioned this thing, especially when we have listeners as engaged as ours, where it's like, hey, 60 episodes ago, you mentioned this thing. What does that mean? It's like, I don't know. It was just a plot hook that nobody cared about.
00:12:47
Speaker
I don't know. But what did that piece of paper Dex found say? What piece of paper? Who's even Dex? And that isn't to make fun of the listeners that pick up on that stuff. That's remarkable. We were just unprepared for it. I was unprepared for people to care as much about this as they did. It's extremely gratifying and flattering in a lot of ways, but it was intimidating in a lot of ways as well to have people
00:13:17
Speaker
uh, respond to our characters and our decisions as strongly and meaningfully as they did. Um, so I, I will also say one thing I learned that I was really concerned, uh, when we started doing this, that there was going to be a whole lot of second guessing what our characters did or calling out, well, you know, you should have had this extra spell slaughter. You used that spell wrong.
00:13:46
Speaker
It really hasn't been much of that little bits, but not for the most part. And I was just very, very pleased with that. And it's almost never questioning a decision or a rules call or a reading of a rule, almost never. It's like, God, I wish Barrick would have just blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Because I'm part of some other, let's say,
00:14:07
Speaker
How can I describe them? They're Discord servers for giving to a Patreon for a podcast. Does that make sense? And every time a new episode comes out, there's four or five people in the Discord being like, oh man, they totally missed a chance to make this joke, or they totally did this.
00:14:23
Speaker
and we don't have, I was gonna say we don't have that fan group, they don't have that fan group, we don't have those people. We have an amazing, what I've learned to this campaign is that our listeners who decided to give to the Patreon and join the Discord are some of the kindest, coolest, funniest, and very much forgiving people.
00:14:44
Speaker
people. Yeah. And we're extremely lucky. And that goes double for everyone who engages on the Facebook group. It isn't part of the Discord. We just, there's just not nearly as much engagement. The Discord is going 24 hours a day. Yeah. You know, so. I would say the other thing I learned from a more mechanical level is I learned how to play a caster.
00:15:02
Speaker
I had really never played someone who did a lot of spellcasting before Beric. I had avoided it quite strenuously. I didn't like spellcasters. Closest thing I ever did was like a ranger. And I think in Unfinished Wars I even talked Eric into letting me ditch all the spells for something else. I just didn't want to keep track of them.
00:15:24
Speaker
And admittedly, I played the least strenuous casting class in fifth edition in terms of what you have to keep track of. But I really enjoyed having all the the magical options. And I what I have in mind for the next campaign is also spell cast. So.
00:15:40
Speaker
I will just outside looking in also never played a caster later um it felt maybe less strenuous as far as what you do with the amount of freedom that the hex blade has is wild like you really you didn't have a lot to remember or a lot to memorize or a lot to keep track of but the breadth of possibility yeah was ridiculous
00:16:07
Speaker
And that was impressive to watch you navigate. I will kind of echo what Philip said. Like I learned how to properly run spellcasters. Like I, for the longest time, approached it with resource management in mind of like, well, I don't want to use this seventh little spell slot yet. And I just kind of learned that first round, you just need to start blasting your cannons as a spellcaster, especially going up against a party that can devastate as hard as this group can. But
00:16:40
Speaker
The storytelling lessons that I'm going to take away from this campaign, we're already spending a lot of time on this one question and I don't want to belabor the point too much because it would take too long for me to elucidate the amount of storytelling lessons I've taken away from this campaign.
00:16:56
Speaker
uh in terms of effective storytelling at a table and how to engage players and a big one is how to spread out the punishment like we had about a third of the way through the campaign when i finally realized like oh
00:17:12
Speaker
Beric's the only character that I'm dumping on like I was I was I was I don't think I was doling out Too much narrative punishment on the party. It was just it was just focused on a single character. I should have been dunking on Theradak and Dex and then Booyah the person whose brothers were the villains of the campaign and
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Details. Anyway, next question. So, Cali asked, if you had to do the campaign over again, would you have made some of the same choices like Dex giving up his like and throw up ability, giving up feels strong, Barrett cutting off all of his hair during his sad bath, or multi-classing the same way you
Critical Character Choices and Alternate Outcomes
00:17:55
Speaker
did? What would you, what would we have changed? Poof.
00:17:59
Speaker
I feel like the subject of that first question is wrong. It's like, Barrick taking away Dex's long interpability. Barrick feels no regret about that. I think about it sometimes, the swashbuckler thing
00:18:17
Speaker
Getting sneak attack every time ruled. I mean, it just did. But if I'd gone assassin instead of swashbuckler, I could have hit three times or, you know, and possibly, you know, crit when I had advantage or whatever it is, I don't remember. The swashbuckler, as I progressed, building the character as we leveled up, didn't add anything new as we kept going, really. Except for that initial, you always get to start your sneak attack, which was awesome. But,
00:18:47
Speaker
I don't know, I may have looked a little harder knowing what I know now. As far as story wise, every time I got done having a conversation with one of Dex's brothers, I was like, I could have done that so much better. Everything about that could have been better. I could have hit harder. I could have found something more important every single time.
00:19:10
Speaker
In terms of building, I think my only, like, if I could go back and do it, I mean, this is, if we were starting the campaign over with foreknowledge of what's going to happen, sure, I would have built Geric Beric differently. I would have probably built him as a celestial-packed Warlock instead of the Hexblade, which was his original idea. The original idea was
00:19:33
Speaker
the Silver Flame, and then all of the dark powers that the Warlock gets, that's whenever he's giving in to the Shadow, which would have been interesting. And Celestial Warlock's really cool, I like it a lot. So, you know, that's not to say I regret playing Hexblade, but you know, if I was just starting over. And in terms of story, I have actually quite a big one in terms of story. If I could do it over,
00:20:02
Speaker
I would have let Beric die the second time and lobbied for Drakir to get the pact. By that point Drakir was much more interesting to me and a lot more fun to play to me. So that would have been monumentally different story we would have told. But so, you know, there's that. But just
00:20:27
Speaker
If there's any kind of like, I wish I could have. Yeah. Playing through here full time would have been, I think, fun for the last half of the campaign. Cool. I mean, once again, incalculable. Sure. The amount of choices I would make differently as a dungeon master. Like, honestly, it's funny that you say you would have let Beric die the second time. I probably would have let Beric die the first time if I could go back and do it over again.
00:20:56
Speaker
Well, you talked me out of it. So I know just because that that would have been such a satisfying. Moving of the spotlight over to Dex, because it was a. I mean, it was a fascinating movement of the lycanthrope arc and like and that theme in the campaign. And I feel like examining the fallout of Dex of his.
00:21:23
Speaker
potentially at that point, best friend dying from the thing that like gives him power and he kind of caused. The adventure would have changed. Yeah. Dramatic. Dramatically. Yeah. I mean, if with no Beric and no Draconos and then no Theradac.
00:21:47
Speaker
Shortly after that, it would have been. I mean, if I had stayed playing Dex, who knows what would have happened, but it certainly would have been the campaign that we got. Yeah, because there's no reason for Dex to keep going on trying to save the world. Well, and it's a sliding doors thing where would Randy have felt comfortable asking to play a different character so shortly after another player or character dying? Like, sure. But yeah, I mean, I was it was my own misgivings as a dungeon master of thinking, like, I don't know what to do if
00:22:15
Speaker
this story goes off the rails and I don't want it like and so I think now with the the level of confidence I've gained as a dungeon master from this campaign I would have just let it happen let my random tables be the be my own undoing so
00:22:33
Speaker
Yeah. Jess asks, did you guys have fun? I did. Most of the time. Yeah, that's most of the time is my answer. Like there was I think it's like an inverse parabola, like would be my level of fun of like the beginning. The middle was kind of rough and then we ended strong. So yeah.
00:22:54
Speaker
I don't know man I had fun the whole time because even when things were going bad I was like this is so interesting we're making something interesting yeah we're making something cool or something sad or something stupid and I was having fun the entire time I am over it now so next time I don't know but Irene asked so where did Booyah end up did anyone find his poor little canned body and what happened to Booyah's son
00:23:20
Speaker
Um, so to address the second question, cause it's far easier and one I have a legitimate answer for, uh, I mean, doula was killed by the orc raid that, that killed Booyah's tribe. I mean, um, it, it was just one of those things where, um,
00:23:38
Speaker
I felt like giving the the hints and the illusion as to what happened was more interesting from a storytelling standpoint. And then if if Randy as Booyah wanted to dig deeper into that aspect of his character, we could have. But but yeah, so I mean, he he just got killed and that's a bummer. So but have you met me?
00:24:01
Speaker
Uh, in terms of the first question, he ended up somewhere on the material plane. Um, I joked with Philip that maybe at the bottom of the ocean, maybe in the faded forest, uh, maybe in the center of this column of the silver flame. Um, it honestly, um,
00:24:22
Speaker
I don't have a good answer, and I don't know if it's going to have much consequence on the end story, like who ends up with that armor and all that kind of stuff. So sorry to give a not the most satisfying answer, but I don't know as well. I'll take a stab at it. OK, go for it, Jeff.
00:24:45
Speaker
I think Booyah landed somewhere with a population. His body was found. That magical armor is spectacular and unique word spread. Someone has heard about us by this point. Booyah's body at bare minimum has been reunited with someone that he knows. Okay. Take Jeff's answer. I like it. My answer is I don't know if it's good, but it's not a f***ing bummer. Is that?
00:25:15
Speaker
and I think she wanted to not bummer, so I'm gonna give her one, because Irene deserves it. Rickard found it and gave it a proper burial. There we go. And the forest has injured. Okay, Callie again.
Skipped Side Threads and Player Choices
00:25:28
Speaker
For Eric, what side thread did they skip? Like the giant's political drama, the bird masks, the pyramid that told them where to find the relics. What are some things that we skipped that you wish we'd explored more? I know one that you've mentioned to me a couple of times. Go for it.
00:25:42
Speaker
It's when we used all of our evasion tactics to get through, to get through the city on the way to the, the, the slods had taken over. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
00:25:55
Speaker
Um, you had a lot of stuff planned for us in there. That was probably the most prepped I did for a session in this entire campaign was that city. And after that, I was like, never again. Like I can show you like the the page in one note for that session.
00:26:12
Speaker
takes like 30 seconds to load with like all the graphics and links and everything like. That was more of just like, oh, oh, these fragile minutes that I'll never get back that have been lost. But and there was a ton of loot. All three that Callie mentioned in her question, the giant political drama, the bird mask, the pyramid, all those were things that, yeah, I.
00:26:40
Speaker
I really enjoyed the giant political drama is kind of two prime because there was a lot more going on with the fire giants that could have been explored and the cloud giants that just got skipped entirely that had them all.
00:26:55
Speaker
in the interest of brutal honesty, I do not remember a seed being planted for giant political energy. I gotta be honest, I don't either at all. You all just witnessed the execution of like the lead fire giant and like stuff like, so I mean. Yes, we did do that. That's right. We killed that guy, so I kind of thought.
00:27:14
Speaker
I feel like we explore bird masks plenty. There was so much more. There was so much more down that road. There was so much bird mask. I know. I know, and nobody cared. I feared a lot. Two of your characters ended up with bird-esque masks by the end of the string. Two of your players. There was nothing bird-esque about Beric's mask. I don't understand why you keep saying that.
00:27:41
Speaker
I don't keep saying it, this is the first time I've said it. From whence it came was a bird mask. Yeah, but he melted it, so it wouldn't be a bird mask anymore. What's happening with Jeff?
00:27:58
Speaker
What? I don't... Telling you you're wrong. But he did. Oh, he did melt it down. Still came from a burn mask. Next question is... I'm just getting good, Eric. One arc that I don't feel like ever got a payoff that I'm bummed and I just could never, ever, no matter how many times I tried to shove that square peg into a circle hole,
00:28:21
Speaker
could not find a way to bring back the celestials. I really wanted Gabe to show up. Thank God. Because nobody asked a question about this because nobody cares about what I do here. Not talking to listeners, that's directed to the two other people on this call. Oh, well, in that case, the the celestial writing on the front of Dex's cloak that was described when it was first found
00:28:50
Speaker
I know about this. Yeah, I told Philip about this. Designated whose owner it was and it was Gabriel's cloak. And so I kept trying to find a way to have Gabe show up and just get like raging mad. Yeah. And get raging mad that this butthole that like came into his home also stole his favorite cloak. So but I never could find a way to fit it in. So.
00:29:17
Speaker
Maybe if we ever need to do like a one shot or something to bring the characters back, maybe we can do an interstitial story where Gabe shows up to reclaim his cloak. I think Gabe was probably Dex's most hated rival that even kind of earned it. Like, you know, the guy that Drakir killed in
00:29:39
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Rowat. Rowat. Rowat. I was like, Kingtown. The wine cellar. That was all I... The wine cellar on the wine cellar. Right. That was always a joke that I hated the guy from the road. But yeah, Gabe earned some ire, I think. I know.
00:29:54
Speaker
Dex doesn't act rashly, so. Next question. Okay, so Tango, they ask, this is for Eric, I'm curious about how you set up, what are the mics, which there is a video for that on the Facebook page, right? So they can check that out. Mics interface software, what's our audio set up? I know you just did the Facebook video about the mics. It was a Patreon video. I just posted a preview to it on the Facebook group.
00:30:22
Speaker
Um, but we just, yeah, the mics that we were using, um, are, were Exelvan BM-8000s that are no longer manufactured or available. So, um, they look really neat though. Um, we have a Behringer UMC 1820, uh, audio interface that everything gets hooked up into.
00:30:43
Speaker
And then it all gets pumped into Adobe Audition. So yeah, that's kind of the audio setup. And then I have some post-processing things that I might do a walkthrough sometime on all the different post-processes that we do for the audio and everything that might be fun. But yeah, we just upgraded the microphones though.
00:31:06
Speaker
So that's exciting to bear in your mics. So they match our interface. I don't think that makes a difference, like the fact that they match. But so, yeah, that's that's kind of our audio setup. But, yeah, Tango, since you're on the Patreon page, if you go check out that video, which I think you asked this before I posted that video, so.
00:31:33
Speaker
if you have more questions go to patreon.com slash the geek pantheon and uh the video there kind of goes into our old mic setup and why the new mics are uh better for our particular setup so yeah all right steve asks one that i don't know if we'll get an answer to is arabesque actually belch allure so we've gotten
00:31:56
Speaker
A lot of questions. We'll acknowledge everybody that asked some variation on this question. As we scroll down. Yeah. We're not going to divulge that. Well, I guess we say we I.
00:32:13
Speaker
It's it's an interesting cliffhanger because obviously Berwick had one set of beliefs about the nature of Erebus. Erebus made claims to the contrary. And then there were also other people around making not very clear allusions to the nature of Erebus. Erebus. And I think it's an interesting mystery to maintain, especially like I. Yeah. So I want it.
00:32:43
Speaker
I mean, the big thing of Eric's ending is that you don't know if he was right. Yeah. And I don't want to know. And I don't want you to know, because he's my character. So there. Well, I guess I'll take a stab at this one, too. No. I can let you know sometime, Jeff. No. Oh, I don't. I don't even know who Erebus is. It's fine. I know. So I'm just kidding. Who's Erebus is?
00:33:12
Speaker
He's that guy that had that terrible voice till he got something, till he cleared his throat one day. I've mentioned that Eric and I are real genuine friends before, right? It has been mentioned. It comes up, okay. Irene with another question. Tango reiterated Steve's question as well, so just to give credit. Yeah, fair enough. Irene asked another time, was there any scenario where the whole group lived happily ever after? I have a feeling, I have a thought.
00:33:41
Speaker
I mean, I can give the answer or you can give your thought. My thought is that no, because Philip was not going to let Berwick leave that plane. I mean, if I had gotten myself banished, you would have died by yourself. That's likely if we could have done it in a way that we could have gotten back to that. Berwick was willing to leave the plane. Berwick did not go in there looking to die. Yeah.
00:34:06
Speaker
I don't mean for that to sound like I'm saying you were trying to do a story beat. I think that you had decided Barrick was ready willing to sacrifice himself and it had come to that. The encounter that I threw at the party was extremely difficult.
00:34:23
Speaker
and punishing because it's the last fight and I wanted it to have stakes and feel dangerous. But there was certainly a scenario where that encounter went the way of the players. Just the dice roll were
00:34:43
Speaker
I mean, they went the way they went. And with this game, there's always the possibility where the dice rolls go another way to where you all are complaining that that final combat was very unsatisfying because they sleptwalked their way through it. So, you know, I mean, I would say the answer to this is simply no, because there was I mean, from about.
Campaign Endings and Player Influence
00:35:08
Speaker
I don't know what level somewhere in the aftermath of Zindrick.
00:35:13
Speaker
there was no scenario where Barrick ends up happy. Yeah, I guess the happily ever after tag, like his wasn't in the cards. Cause even if, even if everything from that point, you know, even if he and Orianna were able to, and, and even Paolo, if that was something they were all able to start a family together, all this stuff, he still has Erebus forever. And that is always going to be a constant source, right? Yeah. Well, uh,
00:35:38
Speaker
Once he'd figured out who Erebus was, he had decided that he couldn't have a family. He had to carry this because if he had a family, then that passes it on. But no, it's the resurrection of Paolo. It's the aftermath of the resurrection of Paolo. That is the moment from which it was not going to be possible that Beric ended up happy.
00:35:58
Speaker
I don't, I don't know that Dex, I mean, it's funny because it was asked of Dex multiple times by different characters. Gerald asked. I want to say one of my brothers asked at some point. Dex would have never, ever felt fulfilled with anything he got to do for the rest of his life after this, if he had survived it, especially if he had survived it and Barrick had died. Yeah. He would have been antsy, restless, you know,
00:36:25
Speaker
I don't think he would have done it again, done anything of that scope or scale again, which would, for self-preservation, like, and not, like, surviving, like, emotionally couldn't have handled doing something like that again. But anything he ended up doing would have felt so mundane and crappy.
00:36:41
Speaker
He's Dex, so he'd have a good day, right? Like he'd surround himself with people that he liked, but that would have been an unfulfilling life for the remainder of it. Leopard2ace comes in with a couple of questions. This first one's addressed to Eric, but I'm gonna take a swing at it. What was the most disappointing arc of the campaign that you would want to go back and redo if you could? So there was this dead dragon. And it had a...
00:37:10
Speaker
that had a den of riches and secrets and wonder and majesty. And we were explicitly told, take nothing, touch nothing. And so we didn't, and we got kicked in the balls for it. That's accurate. Okay, Eric, now you can answer the question. Most disappointing arc of the campaign that you go back and redo. Man, I- I mean, is it the Slod City?
00:37:35
Speaker
No, because that that's not something that I could go back and read you like that. That was like you all using your tools efficiently and just getting around stuff I had done. I'm going to say, honestly, probably the.
00:37:54
Speaker
When you all first made contact with the Cabalreen Drow and Drakirs and like Elodrin and going down, fighting the beholder, I wish that arc would have been more. Like going back and listening to it again, it was just a very...
00:38:13
Speaker
For lack of a better term, a mundane fetch quest. And I wish I could have given it more scope and scale to really hammer home the the nature of. The nature of Drakir's people and their plight against the the aberration, because I don't feel like I gave that its due. So, yeah. All right.
00:38:38
Speaker
Who was, I'm going to say this now. I'm going to answer some of these questions, but I'm also going to put some thoughts out on the Facebook page of stuff that, because I have something I want to say for one of these questions and we just simply can't. Yeah. So like some stuff like I'll put on the Facebook page, I'll put, you know, an archive wish that we'd leaned a little harder into.
00:38:59
Speaker
Who is your favorite NPC to play? And they ask, besides Bela Shira, have you said somewhere that was your favorite or is that just a projection? Either I have said it or they can just tell through my voice that I immensely enjoy portraying Bela Shira just because it's a fun character to be.
00:39:17
Speaker
Um, my other favorite NPC to portray, probably the Raven, just because I got to show a character's evolution from, uh, I mean, from a, a being with, I mean without getting into too much of like behind her motivations and everything.
00:39:37
Speaker
a being with very noble intentions and whose power continues to grow and grow to where eventually they begin to lose sight of why they wanted the power to begin with. So so that's that's probably the Raven. Yeah. And that's that's another arc that I would probably go back and give more to is the ending of of the Ravens arc. But that's yeah. All right.
00:40:08
Speaker
And good to be I literally just answered with which NBC do you think you could have portrayed differently to make them better? The end of the Ravens arc. I it's it's the same one, but honestly, in terms of one that's not the same one that I just answered.
00:40:29
Speaker
Paolo, like I think Paolo is a very interesting and fascinating character in Eberron lore and just didn't get enough time with her, didn't do enough with her. So yeah, that's one that I wish I could go back.
00:40:47
Speaker
All right, and then the last, nope, not the last one, nearly the last one. These are all from Leppard until I say otherwise. Could other things have been done in the campaign to influence the epilogue? It felt very mass effect, like where if you do all the things, you get a better outcome. I think that's a very arrogant way to describe it. That's exactly the way it is. Yes. I was taking notes the entire campaign on influences and, I mean, just for one example without going too deep into it,
00:41:16
Speaker
Um, if the black dog in storyline would have been explored more and Sigur would have been found and like people would have been United, then Trana probably wouldn't have died in the streets of Fairhaven, but she was on her own trying to do that. So she got overwhelmed and killed. Like that's just one example. So.
00:41:35
Speaker
Okay, and then what region of Eberron would you have liked the party to have explored that they didn't? And what region was your favorite to build an arc for? Let's just roll those together. 4A is Karnath. I really like the idea of going to Karnath, granted not many
00:41:51
Speaker
Not many plot hooks led there, so that's just a region that I've never really gotten a chance to explore a lot in a campaign that I really, the idea of it is intriguing to me. Favorite region to build an arc for? Before the session, the Slod City.
00:42:11
Speaker
No, the gloaming with Farlin and the Druids and the aforementioned Dead Dragon. That was probably my favorite arc to build. Just because that one was so steeped in Eberron lore without a whole lot of baggage to dictate what the story looked like, if that makes sense. So I had a lot of toys to play with and not a whole lot of rules of how I could play with them.
00:42:37
Speaker
Okay. And then last for Phillip and I, what's the, with the hindsight of the campaign, what changes were you made to your character? Uh, more AOE ability, more healing, more range capabilities. I don't know what AOE is. Oh, I mean, no, I liked decks a lot as far as mechanically. I think I already talked about maybe doing something early that would have let me take more action, take more attacks and maybe not at the expense of the sneak attack every time, but
00:43:06
Speaker
No, I don't think I liked that Dex had to get down, get up close, and get dirty with it. Like I said, the Celestial Warlock, I probably would have gone back and rebuilt him that way.
00:43:19
Speaker
Liz asks, so Jeff, are you going to be playing a full caster this time? I am not. I am. I am. I'm not even going to play a partial caster. I don't think, um, I, I like that Eric gives me a thing that can do a spell or two on its own, um, so that I can have some of that stuff. Uh, I appreciate it. He did that for me this time, but I'm just, I'm still, I'm not, I'm not playing magic yet.
00:43:45
Speaker
Uh, Liz also asked whether we were more live stream sessioned or is there a plan to make that a more regular thing? We're definitely in those talks. Um, we've definitely thrown around the idea of live streaming reviews, um, for sure as far as sessions.
Potential for Live Streaming Sessions
00:44:00
Speaker
Just it's tricky just because of distance. Well, and the nature of the way that we do this of recording multiple episodes in one shot and then cutting them up and releasing it, we would create basically two audiences, those who watch the live stream once a month and those who listen. It's the conundrum we set ourselves up with with the finale. Like half of you cannot or most of you cannot engage in the conversation until three weeks after people had already had it.
00:44:25
Speaker
Right. And that's the thing. I mean, it sounds silly, but that is a real thing that I've run into with Critical Role. I listen to the podcast. My friend, Lauren, watches it live or the next day on YouTube. And then I just have to deal with exclamation points. And have you watched it yet? Questions until I finally get a chance to listen to it and we can talk about it. Yeah. But Joe asks what barracks favorite ice cream color flavor is. I mean, every ice cream that Barak eats turns the same color.
00:44:54
Speaker
I don't know. Is there ice cream in everyone? I have, I have never thought about that. So I assume there's ice methods. You could probably make an ice cream maker. Strawberry. Cool. A good choice for each host. What was your favorite moment of the campaign? Boy, that's a big one. I have two. I've thought about this one a lot. I have two. I think the best moment of the campaign was at the only reason that I would say, I wish I'm glad Eric didn't.
00:45:21
Speaker
kill Beric the first time is because we got to have the afterlife scene between Beric and his mom. And I think that was some of the best role playing that Eric and I did. My favorite moment, as in I just think that was absolutely the arc of assassinating the fake Boranell.
00:45:39
Speaker
Just hands down, no question. That was my favorite moment. Yeah, that was a blast. And that's I think one of my favorite moments was, and it's evident when you listen that I enjoyed it, the return of Drakir in Ikletharn's labyrinthine dungeon. I was I mean, I was so frustrated, not genuinely frustrated, but just so tired of dungeon crawling and making turns and fighting whatever. And then when Philip.
00:46:06
Speaker
said, what are you doing here? Or whatever it was. It was just like, aha, aha, yay. I also really enjoyed the, I mean, the caper arc that went with Thorin Krasendrick here. That was a lot of fun. Every time that Thorin came back, I never would have pitched to bring him back for anything. But every time I got to play him, because he's just so silly, it was a lot of fun.
00:46:34
Speaker
I don't know, there was some good, there was just really good stuff all throughout. There's so many individual little lines and drop-ins. Oh, oh, I think I've laughed, the thing I laughed the hardest at, and that's a big, big claim. I think the thing I laughed the hardest at was when, when Barak and Dex had gotten arrested, and Booyah is talking to the couple in the street, and he's just talking, and finally Eric goes, do we have to be here for this? I just,
00:47:01
Speaker
Oh, it really tickled me in that thing that I said one time on a review that all of you said I was dumb for. Yeah, that's a tough question and I should have done my due diligence like Philip and thought about this more leading into recording this. Should have listened to all of them again and ranked every moment.
00:47:22
Speaker
We'll do a top 10 list later. Top 10 Eberron renewed moment. That is not canon. Do not expect that. I like. Barracks first death, just the the narrative satisfaction of the the arc of lycanthropy that fell into our laps there was great.
00:47:47
Speaker
I agree with Phillip, the first Barrick year conversation was really good. But honestly, I spent a lot of time before this campaign started, and I have a one note with all of my campaign ideas, and just highlighting the ones that I wanted to do, and just the creation of this story.
00:48:15
Speaker
I would say my favorite moment from the campaign is session one because it was new and seeing. Trevor Jeff and Philip just jumping on the story and running with it and engaging with the world and engaging with the goblins and.
00:48:34
Speaker
killing that poor bear and. But no, it was great in it. It. It eased a lot of my tension and anxiety going into the campaign about what it was going to be like, because it was clear that we had a good group and then Randy was able to jump in and hit the ground running as well. So. Yep.
00:48:57
Speaker
Man, it's so wild when you look back at the actual timing of it and how little time we had with Draconos and how little time we had with Theradac. And I think, I'm trying to remember, I think Booyah just squeaked into being on 100 episodes of the whole thing. Like, it's wild. Okay, Eric, I think we've covered this one. JP, what was a rumor or plot thread that you wanted to explore? I feel like we've,
00:49:24
Speaker
dance around that one enough that I think we're okay. Kevin asked for me, I know you weren't terribly familiar with Eberron as a setting when the campaign began. What's your favorite thing you learned about the setting along the way? Probably the fire safety policies.
00:49:45
Speaker
No, here's the truth about that is I don't read or watch enough fantasy stuff to be able to separate what makes Eberron unique from other fantasy settings. So I feel like if I were to answer that, which is like the magic or the different, you know, the different races and their certain abilities and how everyone according to their ability, you know, but I feel like that's fairly general fantasy stuff.
00:50:15
Speaker
So I think the thing about Eberron that I like that I know is quite different from at least other or earlier D&D settings is
00:50:28
Speaker
As far as your personality, the circumstances of your birth don't have anything to do with it. Now, there's still class that is different about the circumstances of your birth, things like that, but not all orcs are bad, not all goblins are sneaky, not all elves are noble, whatever, whatever, whatever.
00:50:46
Speaker
which is I mean it's even in the first episode somebody says something about an orc and I was like oh no and you were like well no not here and I was like okay um yeah and so I think and while I bet that's getting even less and less common in even personal home games you know around people's tabletop just as people become more you know
00:51:07
Speaker
Inclusive in their personal their real lives. They're the society does a long way to go still but as society does then that sort of stuff But I know that this that was that was novel in the 90s when Eberron first became a going concern. So I think that's very cool Also halfling riding dinosaurs
00:51:31
Speaker
Laura asks, can we know more of Leliana's backstory? You think that's something we could write out? Can we? Or also, can we know more? I know it. Just very high level broad strokes. Before she came into Barak's very brief possession and then Dex's full time possession.
00:51:52
Speaker
I mean, long time ago she belonged to an assassin of House Flarn, was used to assassinate a member of the royal family, but the assassin died in the process, left the dagger behind.
00:52:09
Speaker
And in terms of her like sentience, she's a sentient magic weapon. So when she was created, the magic used to create her manifest in the form of sentience. So she is a magic dagger, but been passed down through generations in House Velarn.
00:52:28
Speaker
I had never figured out the Dex wasn't an elf, so that's good. Another one from Steve. Eric, when did you know the quarry were the big bad? Was it from the beginning? Was it based on plot threads? Was it based on the fact that you had somebody from them that decided to be from Sarlona? That's my addendum. But when did you decide the quarry? Because I'll be honest, it felt like to me, and I have to assume to Philip, that the big bad was going to be
00:52:58
Speaker
something from the the plane of darkness or the or the decor. Yeah. So, yeah, my bar was the initial red herring, but during my pre campaign planning, the quarry were always and the forces of decor were always the big bads.
00:53:19
Speaker
Now. Dex's backstory played into that choice because I feel Jeff was kind enough to send me a one pager of his backstory before the campaign started. So so yeah, I took that and created. Started creating the campaign and yeah, the quarry were always I wanted to set up the rebar forces as the big bad and then have the the the twist where it's the quarry trying to bridge through another plane.
00:53:52
Speaker
Okay, next question is from someone who has not introduced themselves by their given name, but their Discord handle is one of my favorites. It's Devious Pop Tart.
00:54:05
Speaker
And Devious Pop-Tart, they ask, Eric, when Beric first died, Erebus was in the afterlife with him. Did Erebus have some sort of control that he or the Raven Queen could exert to stay with Beric instead of migrating to Vore at that time? Yeah, it was it was the fact that the Raven had a part of the pact in in Doleur and that that's what caused the
00:54:30
Speaker
the migration, and the Raven was playing a part in that whole thing. So without the Raven there to exert that level of control over the packs, that's why it was different the other time. Okay, Liz has asked, Krast and Gerald in the epilogue are living together. Are they a couple?
00:54:51
Speaker
I love them together with Gerald's Child demeanor keeping Krast grounded and present. If they are, it's the best gift I never knew I wanted. At least we can have one romantic relationship workout." Yes. To answer the question, Krast and Gerald, that is the Wote Hightower home. Charlie and Cassian live there. And Orianna.
00:55:13
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, it informs the decisions that they both made throughout the campaign. Gerald's explosion on the party about Crass missing whereabouts, Gerald deciding not to continue on with the party after the incidents in Roat and the assassination of the fake King Borenel. That's just kind of what was grounding the two of them throughout the campaign.
00:55:39
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's I that never entered my mind while we were playing. But in the epilogue, as soon as you said the Krasst Hightower home, I was like, or the Wode Hightower home, I was like, oh, yeah, sure. Makes a lot of sense. Why did I think of that? Of course, of course they were upset about both of them disappearing at different times.
00:56:00
Speaker
Very cool. Okay. Here is a litany of questions from Laura. Many of them are deep lore. Let's see how quickly we can do this. Lightning, Laura lightning round. Go. Laura's Laura lightning round. Okay. When they went to flame, keep Borenel apologize to Graham for what happened back then. What happened back then? Uh, Graham was keeper of the flame, uh, during Borenel's like younger days. And I just envisioned, um, a scenario where, um,
00:56:32
Speaker
Boreno got up into something he should not have at some kind of like event in Thrain. And it was honestly pulling back the curtain fully. It was a one liner I threw in to indicate they had history together. Like I didn't think of the story, but something funny.
00:56:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I just assumed, you know, obviously Graham was no longer the speed keeper of the flame by the time of the last war, but all the things precursoring it that Borenel's family would have been a part of and
00:57:07
Speaker
or not precursoring the last war necessarily, but any conflict between these two nations would have very much involved Graham and Borden.
00:57:25
Speaker
Well, I used the wrong word. I didn't mean, I didn't, I really didn't mean precursor. I meant things that happened before between the two nations. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what led the last war. I haven't read things about this. It's a hundred year long war, so Graham wasn't alive when it started. Okay. Yeah. I genuinely, the words last war came to me a millisecond before I said it out loud. I was going to say the thing, the thing that did the big thing.
00:57:51
Speaker
Okay, that was not quick. Let's see how we do the rest of these. What would have happened if they asked for Draconos and Veraxleir? They would have gotten Draconos. I don't know why you brought up Veraxleir. You're dead to me. What happened to Sigur? Sigur? I killed Trena, so I want to come up with a happy ending for Sigur. He managed to fight things off and lived happily till the end of his days.
00:58:11
Speaker
As he said, stay bare, as a werebear. He went home. He went back to his home plane. He was like, there are scorpion things in the streets. I'm done. I'm over this. Bye. Back to. I mean, actually, that's not true. That was his like mission in life was to kill these things. So, yeah. But he was based out of Breeland. The attack wasn't as bad there. He killed some inspired and is happy. Where did the Greyhawk moniker come from?
00:58:37
Speaker
She earned it in the war. Cool. Because of her mask. Yeah, I mean, it's a nickname that was given to her once at some point. We have nicknames for Eric. That's where it came from. I don't know. One of us said it. I mean, if if Berwick would have explored it more, it would have been like the whole like Batman Begins, like a symbol is greater than the person under it kind of thing. And so. But anyway, if you hadn't built up a hatred of bird masks,
00:59:04
Speaker
might have explored it. Okay, Philip, this one is for you. Please. Can we know some of what Drakir and Beric discussed when they went off on their own to talk? And she later clarified that this was after the, we saved Orgev and Borneo in the giant rooms, right? Yeah. And well, it happened twice, once right after Beric's resurrection. The first time Beric got resurrected, they would often talked about, hi, who are you? Because that's the first time they met.
00:59:31
Speaker
Also, Beric genuinely tried very hard to give him the pact. That was what they talked about the first time. The second time, after the giant ruins, Beric tried to talk him into coming with them. And failed. And I did those off-scene because I was just not prepared to have a conversation with myself at that moment.
00:59:52
Speaker
Absolutely not. Never good radio. Um, just, no, nevermind. Um, Barrick wasn't sure where the pact would end up. Did you consider giving it to Drakir or it says we're Orianna. Um, I feel like Drakir would have been a much more likely than Orianna. Uh, Elodrin gave the pact to Yurik. So it was Yurik's bloodline that was attached to the pact. So that's why it went to war. There we go.
01:00:19
Speaker
Okay, it seemed to me like Jayala was telling Barak to trust Erebus during their last conversation, but he evidently didn't take it that way. What was she trying to convey? Did I feel like we can't? Yeah, I can't get too deep into it. I will speak very briefly on why Barak reacted the way he reacted to it. Just so there's some answer to this. I asked that question.
01:00:45
Speaker
because I was trying to decide exactly how fatalistic Beric was going to be going into the final arc in Dal Kor. And so this was one last desperate plea to get some kind of answer or meaning from the only person that he believed could speak honestly to him about the Flame. And he got a vague religious platitude.
01:01:10
Speaker
And so he just kind of decided, fine, I'm just gonna solve it my way.
01:01:18
Speaker
All right. What are some things you had planned for Dex's brothers that you didn't get to happen because all of them died so more quickly than intended? God. Was there anything that could have been done to save them? I actually do want to know that. Was there anything that could have been done? I mean, obviously, we were able to knock the quarry out of Booyah a few times, but they weren't there willingly or they weren't willing hosts. So I mean, one of the the answer to the last question is going to be like,
01:01:47
Speaker
a bummer because you all had a chance like wish spell would have done it. So. Also, Rex layer. Rex layer would have done it. Booyah's genie would have done it in Iqul Tarn's dungeon.
01:02:02
Speaker
Um, so I mean, the wish spell is pretty much the only way you can undo that. And it gets into an interesting like, I really tried to play up the grayness of Cory quote unquote possession and portraying it much more as
01:02:24
Speaker
For them, it's just an education. They learned it, they believe it, it's not an external possession. Some things that I had, playing for Dexter's Brothers, a whole lot, a lot of things. Chance was meant to be around a whole lot longer than he was. Connor, his fake born-el was meant to be around a lot longer.
01:02:47
Speaker
Honestly, I had planned on them being there for the final fight, at least one of them, but didn't happen. Well, they were reprehensible. I'll say this, knowing that the genie could have done that, I think even if Dex had known that before he had died, he would have felt very justified in using his wish spell to restore Barak than to pull a quarry out of one of his brothers that didn't want it pulled out of him.
01:03:15
Speaker
And who could have just turned around and be like, no, come back. Go first. I need an obelisk. What's Orgab's real name? The dragon that went, that stole Orgab's identity. Was that an actual dragon? Do you have a name for it? It's not an Incannon dragon. His name is Viraxis.
01:03:31
Speaker
Okay. Um, it just, it like, yeah. So he's not a, a cannon, a cannon. His name's Bahamut. Um, is Barash okay. And also what happened with Katakist?
01:03:47
Speaker
I mean, Katakus is dead. And I mean, not to get super bummer about it, but Brash is dead too. That's why Orgev came in. That is a super bummer. Yeah. That's the one of the two that I actually kind of liked. That's why people in Stormreach describe the growling that Orgev was making as he destroyed the boats as cries because he had just lost his best friend and wanted to burn everybody.
01:04:15
Speaker
Now, I really do hope that Drakir goes and poisons him. Why? Because I hate Auragov. But why is that the tipping point for you? It's not. I already felt that way. Sorry, everybody.
01:04:31
Speaker
Okay, this is one that I've been wondering for a long time too. And again, I have my theories, but I'm not even gonna... What is Krasst's beef with swords of liberty and then parenthetically, you promised you would tell me, and then still parenthetically, but also bolded in in italics. Eric!
01:04:51
Speaker
Swords of Liberty killed his wife and kids. Yeah. It was collateral damage. They didn't target his family, but it was just one of their demonstrative attacks, explosion, killed them.
01:05:05
Speaker
OK, so it wasn't like in Gladiator or in Red Dead Revolver. I mean Red Dead Redemption where. No, it wasn't a target like we're coming after you. Gotcha. Yeah. Still, that's enough. We don't care if we kill civilians thing. Yeah.
01:05:22
Speaker
Why does Baricav the Raven figurine parenthetically, you also promised you would tell me this, closed parenthetically, open parenthetically, and specified there was an interesting backstory, closed parentheses, open parentheses, and I would get to know it, closed parentheses, open parentheses, I can pull up a timestamp if you want.
01:05:43
Speaker
Thank you for the question, Laura. I think there were some questions Laura wanted to know the answers to more than others. The Raven figure was something that Barry Caddon's possession from jump was a trinket that he had from Yurik. The implication of it as the campaign unfolded, I felt like it was interesting to try and imply that maybe Yurik had had some form of contact with the Raven before.
01:06:10
Speaker
being a war general, maybe she died and the Raven head pushed her back, kind of mirroring Barrett's story in a way. And ultimately with the way the campaign ended, perfectly mirroring, giving her life for a greater cause, trying to do good and ultimately getting stuck in the plane of death. Happy. And leaving behind her loved ones to suffer, just like Barrett. Yep.
01:06:36
Speaker
Yeah, if you guys were expecting the retrospective of this campaign to be a real pick-me-up, I got news. The problem is, all of the really funny things that happened were not germane to the story. So if we're recapping the story, it's all kind of a bummer.
01:06:52
Speaker
Um, okay. Next up is, uh, Joe DK username only. They ask, is there any chance for a book to be written about the NPCs after the heroes saved the world? I need a novel. Well, I'm not writing it. What do you think? Yes. As soon as he writes it. I mean, yep. There's only one of us on this show that has written a novel before. So if it's going to happen, it's going to be Phillip. So that's not going to be Phillip. Oh, you guys, you guys don't know about my novel. Oh, no, I do not.
01:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, about seven of them. I wrote under a pin name. It's about a boy wizarding.
01:07:31
Speaker
But yeah, it might be interesting to examine the NPCs like X number of years. Honestly, the more interesting thing and what I would love to see, I kind of said this, I think, in the spoiler chat after the campaign ended. I left a lot of this stuff open in for a reason. And if I were to hear that somebody was picking up the story and continuing it on in their home game with the NPCs,
01:07:55
Speaker
I don't know if I could handle how tickled pink I would be by that. So if you want to know the story, go make the story. I am exceedingly interested to find out or would have loved to have seen, and this is silly to say,
01:08:14
Speaker
who Orianna and Cassian grew up to become. Orianna's old enough that it feels pretty set. She's gonna be the person that she was heading towards under Barak, but also the trauma of losing Barak could totally set that off, obviously, not yet, because she wants the pack. And then Cassian is a child, I mean, almost, what's worth looking for?
01:08:41
Speaker
wrapped with trauma. Yeah. Over and over and over again. So, I mean, obviously, at one point, there was a mother who was no longer there and then lost his father, but on a boat with some idiots who killed things all the time. Lost all concept of what money was because he was able to just pull it out of walls. And I love that he and Charlie ended up because obviously one of the things that Dex explicitly did was make sure to set up Cassie and Charlie in addition to whatever funds they still had.
01:09:11
Speaker
to live comfortably however they wanted. And how they wanted was with people that they'd grown a family with on that boat. And I was talking to somebody about it. I don't remember even who, but like, oh, you know, Charlie could have raised Cassie on his own. They didn't need to be there.
01:09:27
Speaker
Charlie could keep a house. That doesn't mean he is equipped or desirous of raising a child. So I think find the people who make the family you need to raise this kid, right? I think that rules. Yeah. Well, and that just to touch on that question, that was something that I grappled with a lot with writing the epilogue was how far to go, like how far down the line because I also wanted to explore, especially who Cassian became because that was the interesting story.
01:09:59
Speaker
Yeah because I mean ultimately he'd been failed by Dex too there at the end. Way to go bud. So yeah I get that. Becca asks whatever happened to Booyah's baby mama. I assume the same thing that happened to Booyah's baby. I mean yeah she just died earlier. That's back when Booyah was chaotic evil so you know people died. His tribe got attacked a lot especially by people so she died.
01:10:27
Speaker
Leopard asks what happened to Drakir's Ghost Tiger, did it die in the Iberation attack? Oh boy. No. Go ahead. Because that's too sad. You just, I forgot to put him in the epilogue. Wow. That's surprising. That is not the answer I would give because it's a Stratos and there's a purpose for a Stratos. I know. But okay. We'll see it. But I will allow it because it was so very sad.
01:10:51
Speaker
Let's double down, let's satisfy both then. He didn't die in the attack because he wasn't there because Drakir was like, kind of over tigers now. No, the happy ending for the listeners is that they're, you know, it's just such an awesome stratus that it never gets killed. Despite Drakir frequently sending it into suicidal situations.
01:11:15
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Leppard also asked where'd Booyah's body end up with the next characters somewhere across the suit of armor or the dead goblin side. I guess. We'll find out. Tango asks, does Beric regret not taking armor of hexes? That wasn't a Beric decision. Beric was unaware of that power. Philip made that decision because I think it's a boring ability and I still think that.
01:11:39
Speaker
There you go. Will asks, I assume Eric, although Philip and I could also both speak to this. Do you regret letting Randy take the sharpshooter? Can I scream into the mic now? No, I mean, regret is a I didn't let Randy take the sharpshooter feet. The sharpshooter feet is a like choice in the player's handbook for a player to take. And honestly, Randy didn't run it by me because why would he think he would need to?
01:12:06
Speaker
So is it an incredibly overpowered ability that caused Booyah to be just an agent of chaos in damage? And there's an obvious reason why I always chose to possess him. Like.
01:12:21
Speaker
Um, I, the sharpshooter feet is very overpowered. Phillip doesn't allow it at his table. Um, and I do not think that's an unwise choice. So that's, that's as far, uh, it's just, yeah, I didn't let Randy take the sharpshooter feet. Randy took the sharpshooter feet because I didn't express to Randy, Hey, don't take this. So it's wild. Yeah.
01:12:40
Speaker
Okay, Steve asked again, wanted to make sure we got it in there, if Erebus was the Shadow in the Flame. And what would have happened if Barak had used Erebus to fix Nalkor? I feel like that's one that needs to stay. Something else, maybe. Oh well, certainly something else. A different outcome, for sure.
01:13:01
Speaker
Okay, Tango is asking me, what have you learned during this long campaign that would help you for your next one? Tango, I wish I ever learned anything. If it's one thing that I have proven, it is that I am incapable of taking experiences and turning them into lessons.
01:13:20
Speaker
No, I mean, I know I mentioned I mentioned it earlier. I think that what I need to do is allow myself to be a little and not like start making decisions, but I don't think I ever told Booyah or Beric no, if they wanted to do something. And sometimes you have to do that as a character. I would never question either Philip or Randy's, you know, choices in gameplay. But there are times Dex would have pushed back and I didn't because I was like,
01:13:50
Speaker
Okay, but they probably know what they're doing. I just need to go with where this is heading. Fooled you. And yeah, boy oh boy. And also just like it's a lot of fun and I wanna do it forever. I learned that this campaign, I'll carry that with me going forward. And our last question we got there and I think we might be under an hour. No, not even close. Last question, feels fitting, it's Laura.
01:14:19
Speaker
also feels fitting. It's about Drakir. Are Drakir and Venera an item and did he ever learn how to play the loot? I think this deserves, I mean, can I do this? Yeah, go for it. I think this deserves a bittersweet answer because of the nature of the ending. The answer to the first one is yes.
01:14:43
Speaker
I don't know if the Ombrejain marry exactly, but mate at least become life partners, I suppose. But the answer to the second is no, because he said that was what he would want to do if he was able to live in peace and he was not. And Doran's fine. Thanks for freaking asking.
01:15:10
Speaker
I can't believe we didn't get a single Vore Lore question. So heavily featured in the epilogue. He was, that's true. I give you all what you want and you don't ask. Vore does not exist in the canon of the new campaign. Did I not tell you Randy messaged me? He wants to play Vore for the next campaign. Randy would play it the way I have described Vore and that would be hilarious.
01:15:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:43
Speaker
because I haven't listened and I might never to the epilogue since it happened. I don't know what happened to Thorin. That's a question for me because I forgot. OK. Yeah. I mean, he showed up at the he was at the funeral or the wake or whatever. Good. I assumed he would be. He told the story of when he first met the group on the weirdest day of his life. Yes. So so no. Yeah. Thorin's doing good. He's excelling in his position. So under Bala's strong leadership. So yeah.
01:16:13
Speaker
All right. You know, one like we talked about in the in the Patreon hangout and nobody asked about him. And it kind of like there's one character that I realized after recording that the lightbulb came out. I was like, I forgot. I forgot to mention this character and what happened. And I I can't believe it. Does either of you want to take a stab at what character was politically left out of the epilogue? I haven't really listened, so I don't think I could make any reasonable guess.
01:16:43
Speaker
Give me 30 seconds. I'm gonna put a marker then. It won't be 30 seconds for the listeners, don't worry. No, no, no. I'm just, I'm running through characters. Did, oh gosh, what's his name? The white bird. Did he die at the end of the green dragon fight? No, he escaped, the white raven.
01:17:07
Speaker
Uh, is it Jace? Did Jace appear? Yeah. Jace flew everybody in. Okay. Um, okay. It's not the White Raven. Is it, um, Draconos? Graham was there. Graham was there. Okay. Uh, Daedric. That's his name. I could not remember it. Um, I'm trying to reach back. Farlin.
01:17:37
Speaker
No, Farlin was there. He talked about the train fight with Orgev. Yeah, that's true. And the sheriff kid, the Air Clarnboi, Elbin. Yeah, he was there. The Air Clarnboi. Oh, OK. I'm going to rant. Jacob. Jacob. Wow.
01:17:58
Speaker
The boy that started it all, totally beefed it, forgot to mention him being there. Somebody had to stay behind. He's a cop now in this march, so somebody had to stay behind. So here's what's up. This episode is dropping on opening night of the play that I've been working on.
01:18:15
Speaker
which means that I have not done hardly any prep for the one shot for almost a month now. So we will be silent for probably a couple of weeks. Okay, because it's one, I've got to finish getting it ready. And two, we've got to find time to get together to record hours of content.
01:18:34
Speaker
So we will be quiet for a couple of weeks, but we are going to be playing a one shot that has nothing to do with Eberron because it just felt better. I know what Earth is. Specifically, I know what like suburban America is and it's been 36, seven years perfecting my knowledge of it. So we're going to be doing a game system that some of you have probably heard of called Kids on Bikes. Kids on Bikes is what it sounds like. All of the players are going to be
01:19:01
Speaker
teens, pre-teens, maybe a kid or two in the mix. Goonies, Stranger Things, Monster Squad, that's the idea. Set back before the days of cell phones to make things a little less convenient for everybody. I'm really excited to do it. It's a supernatural, it's less fantasy and more, I guess it's Monster Squad or Stranger Things.
01:19:28
Speaker
I will promise you this right now because I think that this is something I should get out in front of.
01:19:34
Speaker
there will be themes of children in danger, if that makes you uncomfortable, you may want to skip this one shot. However, I will never put them in mortal peril. I couldn't do that as Jeff. But it's kids on bikes, it's gonna be a blast. I have no idea how many episodes it's gonna be, but if you'll give us a couple of weeks of silence, I'd say silence if Trevor, or Trevor, no.
01:19:59
Speaker
If Eric wants to put something out or Philip wants to put something out, there may be something. Yeah, we might. We might produce some content, but we'll see. So yeah, a couple of weeks. The first one will drop.
Dice Giveaway Announcement and Details
01:20:10
Speaker
Check it out. And then I don't know what's happening after that, but eventually we're going to play another campaign and everyone. Let's do this. All right. So it is time for the great dice giveaway. So me and Jeff and Randy did agree to this, right?
01:20:25
Speaker
Yes, Randy. Me and Jeff and Randy are going to each giveaway a pair of d20s that we used during the campaign. Jeff's giving away the first d20 he had and the first after the reveal of Dex is a changeling. So it's the the Lyle and the first Dex die.
01:20:46
Speaker
I'm giving away the pair of d20s that I bought for Barak initially And then I don't know remember which ones Randy is giving away Randy's giving away a couple d20s I think Booyog Randy's giving away his scary red sharpshooter die and Okay, so I have created in honor of Eric a random table of everyone on the patron discord
01:21:10
Speaker
And it is almost a perfect table, but I've got the numbers worked out. So we're going to roll some D100s and see who gets these dice. And we'll allow Eric to roll for Randy, since Randy was not able to join us. So Jeff, you want to go first? Yeah, sure. So the lucky person getting the Dex dice is number.
01:21:36
Speaker
Yes. Are we doing one die for each person or are we just giving away in pairs? I guess we can do one for each person, that'd be more winners. Okay, then I am going to decide, since I still don't know who it was, the first one, we'll just do an order. The first one would be the gray Lyle dice that is the only D20 that I rolled in every single episode of the show. Awesome. And that is going to number 81. 81.
01:22:06
Speaker
goes to Rin. Hey. Hey, Rin, congratulations. Shall I do both of mine or shall we go around? We can go around. We say congratulations. We assume you want these things, you know. Yeah. If you don't, don't tell us, please. Yeah, just shoot us a message with your address on the Discord or on the Patreon, whichever you prefer. Yeah, and I will post the winners in the Discord just to...
01:22:34
Speaker
Let everyone know. All right, I will go. And both of the two dice I'm giving away are identical. I bought them as a pair so that I could roll it with advantage. And they were also rolled in every episode. So first of Barracks two main D20s is going to number... Of course I would roll one of the only numbers that I didn't make it up to because it's an almost perked table. So I rolled a 97 and I don't have a 97.
01:23:04
Speaker
All right, this one I got. 92 is going to WafWrap, one of our international patrons, whose name I don't have, but he was with us on the livestream and he's posted some into this cord, so congratulations, WafWrap. All right, Eric, roll for the first of Randy's dies. Is this the red scary sharpshooter die?
01:23:30
Speaker
Let's save that one for last. Okay. This is Randy's other die. Okay. Whichever one that was. 78. We're rolling high. We are rolling high tonight. 78 is Richard Cree. Richard Cree. Yeah. Yeah. Great. He played in the RVG game, the X-Men game last year at Gamer Nation Con. Oh, yes, he did.
01:23:56
Speaker
Awesome. All right, back around to Dex, the sparkly blue. Here we go. So this is the translucent, kind of turquoise-y one that I slammed on the table and made Trevor like, I don't know, you made a noise. That's right. That was so exciting. I loved that. OK, 48. 48 goes to Darren. Hey. Hey, cool.
01:24:24
Speaker
I mean, all of them were cool. Yeah. All right. The other Drakir die. 28 goes to Becca, the Duck Empress, which is one of my favorite handles on the game. Because I want to know about the domain of the Duck Empress. Eric, the sharpshooter die. Six. Oh.
01:24:52
Speaker
Goes to Darryl! Darryl! Great.
Hosts' Reflections and Farewell
01:24:55
Speaker
Awesome. Alright. Oh man, Darryl plays in the Patreon campaign. He's gonna have that die now.
01:25:03
Speaker
Well, that was that was riveting radio. Yes. So as this is likely the last broadcast, we will do pertaining to campaign one besides illusions and jokes. Thank you all so much for sticking with it. Those of you that did those of you that came late and actually took the time to power through hundreds of people who caught up for the finale. Good grief. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. We are so, so sorry that
01:25:33
Speaker
spend that much of a chunk of your time with us. I'm with me all day. So thank you guys so much. Thank you all so much for listening, for interacting on Facebook, on the Discord.
01:25:51
Speaker
There's no point in doing a podcast without an audience. I think we got to a point where we would have kept playing this game, but we wouldn't have been doing this. And this is the reason we were able to stay consistent with this game, because it's important to us to get it out to you guys, which means we get to play. So thank you so much.
01:26:08
Speaker
for listening, for asking questions, for laughing at our jokes and calling us out when we make mistakes. Both gameplay and just sometimes we make mistakes and need to be called out. So thank you so much for all of that. I've got enough to say, you guys? Thanks. Yep. Thank you. Okay. In that case, we will see you in a few weeks. This has been Eberron Reviewed. I'm Jeff. I'm Phillip. And I'm Eric. Catch you on the flip flop.
01:26:43
Speaker
Oh man, we're awful.