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Blam and welcome
Thomas / Guy:Blam and welcome.
Tim / GM:To People Being Other People, an actual play podcast where we pretend to be other people. Fancy that. Somehow, we have arrived at our 1 hundredth episode. Which honestly kind of snuck up on me. When I was writing my notes for this one, I was trying to figure out the exact date that we actually recorded our very first episode, and based on some pictures in my Google Photos, it looks like somewhere around November 11, 2020.
Tim / GM:That means we've been at this for 3 years, over 3 years now.
Thomas / Guy:Wow.
Tim / GM:Yeah. That's crazy. And it's it is still my favorite thing that I do. And that's because I get to share it with other people, with all the people here at this table and with the listener. That's right, our one singular listener.
Tara / Journey:They live in Brazil. My
Hannah / Eryn:mom. Yeah.
Tim / GM:We have wonderful and supportive people in our lives who listen to the show, and now we also have a good handful of folks who we've never met that know the whole story, which will never stop being the wildest feeling. So to celebrate our 100 adventures together, we've got a little bonus episode for you. With a completely bonkers mini adventure and some look backs at our favorite moments in the show so far. So thank you for listening. And here's to a 100 more.
Tim / GM:You're all aboard the Shatterhorn, your luxury airship. It's an easy Saturday evening. Doran is taking a bath in the captain's quarters. Poppy is in the kitchen doing one last batch of snickerdoodles. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Erin is in the large communal spa bath in the back of the ship.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Journey is in the it's in the lounge.
Maggie / Poppy:Journey is in the lounge.
Tim / GM:Journey is in the lounge practicing levitating with her Fey bud swarm, and Guy is in the crow's nest watching the sun disappear between the clouds.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Doran, it's just after dusk as you're sitting in the bath here. Getting darker outside, outside. You're laying in the bath, your hair is still dry, just kind of taking a relaxer at the end of the day, and then you see a flash of bright pink light outside of the giant captain's quarter windows.
Maggie / Poppy:What do
Tim / GM:you do?
John / Doran:I will, we'll get out of the bath Yep. And then, take a few steps and then realize I didn't grab my towel and just made a big mess and then quickly turn around, wipe that up, and then, look out the like, through the glass and see what, what that pink flash was.
Tim / GM:When you look out, you can see this pink light, like a second sunset is being reflected against the clouds. Something else you can kinda tell, the direction that the clouds are moving, the way your stomach is lurching, you guys are being pulled sideways. Guy, you can see it from up in the crow's nest, a gleaming pink light out in the distance. You can tell it's pulling you in like a whirlpool and it's a matter of minutes.
Thomas / Guy:What do you do? What in the? Alert. Alert. Pink alert.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you're checking the color on your snickerdoodles as they're nearing the end of their bake, and you see that same bright flash of pink light out the window. What do you do in response?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, what is Doran up to now?
Maggie / Poppy:I, like, double check the cookies, determine they're good enough, pull them out.
Tim / GM:They're actually not quite done
John / Doran:yet. Moral dilemma.
Thomas / Guy:You you
Tim / GM:have to decide.
Hannah / Eryn:This is Poppy's worst nightmare.
Thomas / Guy:Let's take a break.
Maggie / Poppy:How much time do you think I have left on them?
Tim / GM:They might need another 5 minutes.
Thomas / Guy:Damn.
Maggie / Poppy:I'll I'll leave pinch to watch them Okay. And let me know when they're done.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You take out your little, dough boy familiar, and he just puts his hands on his little dough hips and watches your cookies finish their bake. And where are you headed?
Maggie / Poppy:Up.
John / Doran:Up? Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:I guess. I don't know where he was. Yeah.
Tim / GM:So Okay. You, are passing through the main conversation pit there and you see Journey on your way. Journey. You're levitating among your Fey Buds and then suddenly your Fey Buds become empowered and you're not just levitating, you are flying around.
Tara / Journey:Maybe we should, sit, get back down. This is a little too much. Oh, hey. Hey, Bobby.
Thomas / Guy:What are you doing? I'm I'm having a little trouble controlling my levitate. I I seem to be going a little higher than I expected. I can see that. Try and
Maggie / Poppy:I'll pull some cushions over underneath where and, like, try and follow around where
Thomas / Guy:she is.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're just kinda, like, trailing behind her because she's just, like, screaming around the room and you're just trying to throw pillows where she might fall next.
Thomas / Guy:I don't know. I don't know how to help.
Tim / GM:Erin, you can hear all this from the bath. You're you're sitting in the bath trying to relax and you see that flash of pink light through the windows there.
Tara / Journey:What bath? Wait. What bath?
John / Doran:She's in the communal spot. Sorry. Oh.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, they were both bathing.
Thomas / Guy:2 baths.
Tim / GM:At the same time.
Hannah / Eryn:2 baths. Yep.
Thomas / Guy:I get out
Hannah / Eryn:of the bath after Doren.
Tim / GM:When you're leaving the bath, Erin, you turn around and hear a dripping sound, and it's the water from the bath hitting the ceiling in little rain droplets. Something is wrong. What do you do?
Hannah / Eryn:That seems weird. Oh, well. I start drying off and getting dressed, and then, I leave the communal bath, not the bath that Dorn was in.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:And I pat pat pat pat pat with my bare feet.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:And I go, up to the top deck, I think.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're kind of on your way out the hallway from the bathroom and you blink as the ship lurches, and that light flashes again, and suddenly, Aaron, you open your eyes, and you're seeing the captain's quarters, and when you look down you see Doran's hairy legs. No. As your ship pulls closer to that roiling vortex, the laws of the world around you seem to unravel. In the blink of an eye, you've all swapped bodies.
Tim / GM:Erin, you're in Doran's body. Please do your best impression of Doran from here on out, but maintain your personality. Doran, you open your eyes and you're being levitated by a cloud of Fey Buds. You'll be in Journey's body. Oh, my.
Tim / GM:Journey, you're in Aaron's body. Your hair is still wet as you're walking down the hallway looking at yourself flying on some Feybuds. Poppy, you are in Guy's body climbing down from the crow's nest. Guy, you have an inhabited poppy. You are just leaving the kitchen.
Tim / GM:You smell snickerdoodles and look behind you and see that Pinch has promptly fallen asleep. It doesn't stop there, unfortunately, the chaos. You all feel the ship lurch as it kind of pulls sideways and moves closer towards this vortex and those feybuds go from excited to aggressive. Doran, in Journey's Body, these Feybuds are swarming around you, and they're starting to peck at
John / Doran:you and bite at you. Ow. Calm down,
Thomas / Guy:little buds.
John / Doran:When the when the Sam Hill's gotten into you.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no.
John / Doran:Erin, what what in the heck is going on here?
Thomas / Guy:I I'm so confused.
John / Doran:Do you see that pink light out there? I think it's I think I reckon it's gotta be something to do with that.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Quick question. Do we know that we are ourselves in another body?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think you've all realized that by now. Okay. And that probably you swapped with everyone else here.
Thomas / Guy:So, I'm I'm Journey in here. Who who are you?
John / Doran:Oh, Journey. This is real awkward. I'm Doran.
Thomas / Guy:Okay, Dorn. Well, we I guess we have to see if this happened to everyone else too. Can you get down?
John / Doran:Who is the captain now, Dan? I don't know who's the co captain is anymore.
Thomas / Guy:I don't think it matters.
John / Doran:It matters a whole well, okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Doran bursts into the room they're in wearing only a little towel wrapped around his naked body. And he says, what the heck's going on here? I'm the co captain.
John / Doran:Poppy? Is that you?
Hannah / Eryn:Well, I mean, I'm Erin, but now I'm the co captain.
John / Doran:This is probably real normal for you, Erin.
Hannah / Eryn:My my towel falls off. No.
Thomas / Guy:Erin, I'm I'm so sorry. I'm in your body. This is Journey.
Hannah / Eryn:It's fine. Have fun with it.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, what?
Tara / Journey:I don't know how to feel.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you see the cookies in the oven. Pinch has fallen asleep. The cookies are starting to brown or is that burning? Or what is that? They're getting big.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no. This is a disaster. Guy or or I am gonna get it could kill me if I let these cookies burn. They look they look good enough. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You, you pull them out and you see that they're not burning, but they're, of course, magical, which means they're vulnerable to whatever's going on here. You see them start to kind of roll around on the sheet until they prop themselves up. The little spots of sugar in the middle of these snickerdoodles start to blink their sugary eyes. They stand up, form orderly marching rows, and this army of snickerdoodles begins its campaign on the shatter horn.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no. Pinch, wake up. Pinch, wake
Tim / GM:up. Pinch turns around and starts barking at you.
John / Doran:Oh, no.
Thomas / Guy:He is
Tim / GM:growing into a Cerberus, a 3 headed hellhound. Oh, no. Made of dough.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Well, this is a good look on you, Pinch, but, bad timing.
Tim / GM:Speaking of bad timing, Guy, you are descending the crow's nest and a strong gust of wind knocks your head off.
Thomas / Guy:Help. Help.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Your head hits the deck of the ship and starts, rolling towards the starboard side of the ship. Your body is coming the ladder still trying to chase after you. Oh,
Thomas / Guy:I'm getting, oh, I'm getting sick. Someone help me.
Tim / GM:Your head rolls to the edge of the ship and gets caught between the railing. You're kind of stuck in there looking out over the clouds and this encroaching pink vortex off in the distance.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, I'm gonna try and keep going down the ladder and pick the head up.
Tim / GM:Yeah. With your head stabilized, the body's able to catch up and pluck the head. Are you gonna try to put it back on or just carry it?
Maggie / Poppy:I I'll prop it up so that I have, like, the right perspective, but I'll hold on to it. Okay. Like shaking hands. Yeah. Like looking around.
Maggie / Poppy:Doran? Co captain Doran? Someone's calling my name.
Tim / GM:I'm gonna go.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm here.
Tara / Journey:Naked except for a towel and a lute.
Thomas / Guy:I have no lute just holding
Hannah / Eryn:it over Doran's, private The towel
Thomas / Guy:fell. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. The towel's on.
Thomas / Guy:Why why are you naked?
Maggie / Poppy:I don't know. I dropped the head.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, no. Oh, wait. I knew that that you didn't have your head attached. Sorry.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm, like, covering eyes that aren't there now.
Hannah / Eryn:Guy, it's gonna be fine. Don't worry.
Tim / GM:Right when they say it's gonna be fine, Guy, your Dullahan flames
Thomas / Guy:in your
Tim / GM:neck go out of control. Your eyes just start exploding with fire, same from out of your neck. You have become a fire hazard on the top deck of the ship here.
Thomas / Guy:Oh. Oh, no. Oh, put me out. Put me out. Turn it off.
Thomas / Guy:Ring. I don't know how to turn it off. Duster, hurry. I don't I, crumbs,
Maggie / Poppy:reaching for oh, the tea towel
John / Doran:that I Oh, yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm, like, grabbing it and patting my neck Yeah. Trying to put out the flames.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. You're fighting against the flames producing some, dark smoke and green fire. Doesn't seem to do much against the intense magic that's going on here. At the same time, Aaron, down in the belly of the ship, you reach down to grab one of those pillows, and the second you touch it, it just shape shifts.
Tim / GM:It morphs.
Tara / Journey:Oh, no. I don't know what this does. Dorn Journey?
John / Doran:You can call me Journey, I guess. Maybe that's easier. Oh gosh. And the Feybuds are out of control.
Tara / Journey:Maybe just try to kinda swat them.
John / Doran:I'm still good at persuading that thing. Hey, Feybuds. What what what's the deal?
Tim / GM:Those Feybuds, start to grow into monstrous pixies with jagged claws and fangs.
John / Doran:Oh, shucks. That's not helpful at all.
Tim / GM:Journey turns around, is now laden with 12 to 15 fairies just hanging off of him, hanging off of Journey, bleeding her. I'm so sorry, Journey.
Tara / Journey:I take the shape shifting pillow and start bopping the pixies.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It, it turns into a a baseball bat, and then it turns into a long sword, and then it turns into a tree trunk every time you hit them.
Tara / Journey:Sure. Sure. Yeah. I'm trying not to hit, Journey.
Tim / GM:Trying. Yeah. Yeah. But I think Journey's having a rough go. Journey, you're getting pummeled and bruised and pushed up against the wall.
John / Doran:Ow. Ow. I don't like this at all. Let's get everyone together. We this ain't working so well.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Let's maybe go to the top tech.
Tim / GM:You all hear a door explode from downstairs, and you see a gnashing nightmare machine of steel and steam go, Doran.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no.
Tim / GM:Sir Bo has turned into a hellish nightmare robot and is now chasing the 2 of you through the through the ship.
Tara / Journey:Oh, no. Yeah. I run upstairs.
Maggie / Poppy:K. Where I'm smacking my head. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You run upstairs, see Guy on fire. You all meet each other up there. You can see that, you can hear this commotion of something chasing them up. You guys are just moments away from impact in the middle of this vortex. You know 2 things.
Tim / GM:Magic is wacky here, and you need to get out of this death grip.
John / Doran:We we gotta put our heads together. Guy, get pick up your head, put it put it back on, bring it together here.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, guy. I've never seen the flames do that before. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know how to stop it. Poppy, help me.
John / Doran:Oh, I I know. I'm I'm gonna pick Guy up, and I gotta shoot shoot them flames at all the the naughty Faybuds and stuff.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Alright. Oh, no. Put me down here.
John / Doran:No. This is this is helping Guy. It's alright. You pick up Guy's head.
Tim / GM:You pick up Guy's head, invert his neck, and you start flame canoning all the Phabos.
John / Doran:I'm real sorry, Phabos. This feels so weird.
Tim / GM:At the same time, you all hear the marching stampede of an army of snickerdoodles coming up the stairs after you.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, dear. They weren't supposed to do that. What were they supposed to do? They were supposed to taste delicious. What do you think?
Thomas / Guy:Perhaps we can wage these 2 armies that war against each other.
Tim / GM:You see through the central doors in the middle of the top deck, they fall open and a giant snap into ahead. It's April. Dives out and starts trying to bite at anything on top. It grabs some of the snickerdoodles and pulls them down into the central room below.
Thomas / Guy:Sick Mikey on them, maybe.
Tara / Journey:I I start, kicking snickerdoodles into the turtle pit.
Tim / GM:That's perfect, Dan. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Good idea. Let me help you. And,
Hannah / Eryn:ring. You are amazing. I try to give inspiration.
Tim / GM:When Doren says that, when Doren says that, you see this pink swirl surround Doren, and suddenly, Aaron. When Doran says you become amazing, you become amazing. You grow 3 feet in height. You are outlined in gold and pink. You can levitate.
Tim / GM:You are stronger than ever. Everything Doran says comes true.
Hannah / Eryn:Man, I'm good at this stuff.
Tim / GM:Doran, you're getting better at what you're doing as you're doing it, as you say that.
Thomas / Guy:Well, someone Stop going into that vortex. I'm the co captain.
Tim / GM:Girl, let's
Thomas / Guy:Will someone please cover his thing up, please?
Hannah / Eryn:There's bigger concerns here.
Tim / GM:You see Doran kind of looking out over that pink, encroaching sunset, and you can all just see his little butt as he's got the guitar in front of him covering the front.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, god. I've never seen one before.
Tim / GM:You all see Mikey coming to the top of the stairs going, everybody, what's Rob? What's going on here?
Thomas / Guy:Mikey, why are you normal?
Tim / GM:I don't know. Why are are what's go am I normal?
Thomas / Guy:Everything else got scary, but we all switched bodies.
Tim / GM:That was so nice. No one's ever called me normal before.
Thomas / Guy:Mikey, tell us something only you would know.
Tim / GM:Oh. Oh, sure. Brightbulb soup is really good.
Thomas / Guy:Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. That's him.
Tim / GM:The last thing you hear is a voice calling from the bowels of the ship. It's tick, and all you can hear is 10, 9. Oh, that's good.
Thomas / Guy:What do you suppose happens at the end of those numbers? 7.
Hannah / Eryn:Nothing good.
Thomas / Guy:Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn
John / Doran:Dorn Dorn
Thomas / Guy:Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn Dorn.
John / Doran:Cookies are done. 6.
Thomas / Guy:6. 5.
Hannah / Eryn:It needs to be silent.
Tim / GM:Nothing.
Thomas / Guy:That doesn't mean he stopped killing. What's gonna happen? You all I
Tara / Journey:start running down the stairs.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. You
Tim / GM:wait a pregnant three seconds as Aaron runs down the stairs and all of a sudden you get these the bottom of the ship explodes as one of the engines is blown off, but you are knocked off course away from the vortex a little bit. You're getting a little bit of thrust out of this.
Tara / Journey:I wanna
Thomas / Guy:Clearly, that solution is more bombs.
Tara / Journey:I wanna run to the, navigation chamber
John / Doran:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:To see what's going on there.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Sorry. I yelled at you just now.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Yeah. No. We're all just AM. Fine.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Kesher. Kesher, are you in here?
Tim / GM:You are looking around for anyone, someone. Who's flying the ship right now? You look up in the rafters and you see 2 yellow glowing eyes, and you hear this as Kesher flies down on her glider like a dark vulture encircles you.
Thomas / Guy:Kasher. It's it's it's me, Journey. I mean, I'm kind of in Aaron's body. It doesn't matter. We have to navigate away from whatever that vortex is.
Thomas / Guy:Can you help me?
Tim / GM:Of course. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:I'm so afraid right now. Truly, Tara is so afraid right now.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Let's we gotta put all speeded away from whatever the heck that is.
Tim / GM:Sure.
John / Doran:Hey, Aaron. It's Journey. I didn't know what else to do, so I came and followed you. What's going on here?
Thomas / Guy:I'm just trying to get Kesher to steer the ship away from whatever that vortex is. Alright.
John / Doran:That'd be a real good idea.
Tim / GM:You both look up and see in the rafters. Kesher dives down, grabs Aaron, and takes off out the door with Eren holding them.
Thomas / Guy:Ah, Cashier. What the hell?
Tim / GM:I'm gonna, like, eat you or something, I think.
John / Doran:Oh god. That's not what's supposed to happen.
Thomas / Guy:Hey, what's going on down there?
John / Doran:Uh-huh.
Thomas / Guy:Well Oh, I just saw Kesher take off. Is that good?
Tim / GM:Oh, my gosh. Hold on. I'm trying to bite your neck. I don't
John / Doran:think so, Poppy.
Thomas / Guy:Come to me, Steve. Come to me, Steed. Would you have to do it? I don't know.
Tim / GM:You hear the rumbling of this of a vessel now equal sized to your ship, Steed. This magical donkey dragon Steed has somehow grown to double the size of the shatterhorn and flies up alongside you and he says,
Thomas / Guy:yes. Oh hell yeah. Steve, it's me, Guy.
Hannah / Eryn:Who can he talk to?
Tim / GM:Oh, Amplify the Magic. Everyone can hear Steve.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, perfect.
Thomas / Guy:How can I be of service? Stede, it's not technically Guy. It's Poppy. I don't know what we're doing, and we need to get away.
John / Doran:Well, then no fucking
Thomas / Guy:deal. Poppy. Well, I'm I'm actually Guy.
John / Doran:I can tell.
Thomas / Guy:The sweet sultry sound of your baritone voice. That catcher one just flew away with, Aaron or Journey or Doran. Somebody. Either way, they flew away and and we gotta get them back. And also, this vortex keeps messing us up.
John / Doran:Fair enough. If you
Thomas / Guy:had to prioritize one of
Tim / GM:those things, which would it be?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, good question, good question, good question. I think we should get away from the pink vortex. Alright. You got like a rope or something? Poppy pats her body, and no.
Thomas / Guy:She's not carrying a rope.
John / Doran:I'll have to go from the back then.
Thomas / Guy:Wait. I have an idea.
Maggie / Poppy:This might hurt. And I harpoon gun at
Hannah / Eryn:him. He just pierce his ear. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm sorry, Stede.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You just harpoon him right in the flank. He looked down at the wound, and he goes, alright.
Tim / GM:He takes off away from the vortex and you can feel the ship lurching and kind of spinning and almost dumping you off the edge as he violently drags it away. Kesher and Eren, you're still flying towards the vortex. Kesher can't fight this on her own. What do you do?
Tara / Journey:I take out a dagger and try to stab
Tim / GM:her. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Hey. That's my body. And, Doran, who is Arryn Yeah. Jumps off the ship with another glider to chase after them.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:They're naked.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Naked the
Hannah / Eryn:day he was born.
Tim / GM:Okay. Aaron, being held by the vulture, Kesher, when you grab that dagger, the second you touch it, it shape shifts into a cod, and you slap Kesher with a cod.
Tara / Journey:Great. I keep doing that.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You know, it turns into a cod, turns into a bramble, turns into a deck of cards, turns into a turkey drumstick.
Maggie / Poppy:Get off of me, you asshole. Get off.
Tim / GM:And she just goes, stop it. And then you see, out of the corner of your eye, a nude, shiny, glistening Doran on a glider catching up to you.
Hannah / Eryn:I swoop underneath.
Thomas / Guy:I can catch you. I think I'm strong in this man body.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Yeah. Give me one second. And I just drop the dagger and punch Kesha as hard as I can and then try and loosen their grip and drop down.
Tim / GM:Awesome. Dagger turns into dove, flies away. Cashier goes, ow. That was ow. And Doran grabs you.
Tara / Journey:We gotta get out of here.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm holding Aaron's body tight to me.
Tim / GM:Could you feel the slip a little bit as your wet arms kind of, this air in a little bit?
Hannah / Eryn:Hold on tight.
Tara / Journey:I got you.
Tim / GM:And you see them gliding back to the ship, now out of, escape velocity from this vortex. A naked Doran holding not air, landing safely back on the ship, and that's how you all made it to Small Castle safely. That's right.
John / Doran:I see why we
Thomas / Guy:cut that.
Tim / GM:Nope. It didn't have an impact
Thomas / Guy:on it. You said naked as the day he was born, but are we sure Dorn wasn't born wearing a gambeson.
Tara / Journey:He definitely was.
Tim / GM:For the second half of this, I thought we could talk about some of our favorite moments in the show so far. The entire show also, the all of curse breaker, all of this, up until our current episode, which I think we are about to release 33, I think. But before we get there, I wanted to give some long, long overdue shout outs to some of our listeners that have shown a lot of support over the years. First and foremost, our true OG fans out there, I would say Ali and Andrew. You know who you are.
Tim / GM:They've been huge advocates ever since we started this show. They've shared us around since the very beginning when it was not very good, and we, of course, made them into characters in Curse Breaker towards the end of the first season. Ali and Andrew j, as they were kind of rescued the main party. I also wanted to shout out my friend, Robert, a longtime listener, who listens to us on long car rides, and is always up to date on the show. And it's, means a lot to me that he's able to keep up with a very long show.
Tim / GM:My friend Anna, who helped us understand our social media situation and helped me develop some of the foundations of Cloudfall. I bounced a lot of stuff off her as, like, an outside perspective kind of thing. A friend, Zach, who had reached out to me, is, very, very kind and eloquent with his words, just about what the show meant to him and stuff. And lastly, I wanna mention Paul. Paul.
Tim / GM:I don't actually know if Paul still listens, but Paul wrote in once during Curse Breaker. We asked for, like, listener questions, and I think Paul was the only person to write in for that. And he the only person that we didn't know anyway.
Thomas / Guy:And he gave us money.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Did he? Yeah. Yeah. I just Paul to me is, like, our first fan that I didn't know and felt like a real get, like, out in the world.
Tim / GM:So Paul means a lot to me. So anybody is there anybody else, like, friends and family that you guys wanted to just say thanks for listening?
Tara / Journey:Michael and Joe, you know who you are. Thanks for listening.
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. But, Michael, please stop sharing that I have a D and D podcast that you listen to as your get to know you thing
Thomas / Guy:at work
Hannah / Eryn:because it is my get to know me thing at work.
Maggie / Poppy:Shout out my parents for listening. My mom,
Tim / GM:specifically. For sure.
Maggie / Poppy:Been keeping up with it. I don't know. Thanks for having me.
Tara / Journey:John's mom Yeah. John's mom does not listen to us, but she does tell everyone that we have a podcast, which is very sweet.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. I know my parents have listened to, like, on their walks at some point. I don't know how much they got through, but they did tell me that they listened at some point.
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm. Shout out to my grandma Judy who I forced to listen to our podcast once in a car ride.
Maggie / Poppy:Thanks, grandma. Thanks for listening without agreeing.
Hannah / Eryn:She's like, oh, that's
Maggie / Poppy:nice.
Tim / GM:Yeah. That's the that's the reaction you want. Right? Uh-huh.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. That's
Thomas / Guy:what we're going for.
Hannah / Eryn:She's like, is that you? Is that you? And it's like, Tim taught me. And she's like, is that you? Like, no.
Hannah / Eryn:Nope.
Maggie / Poppy:Still Tim.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Anybody else? I I think I covered a lot of
Thomas / Guy:them. Mhmm. Yeah.
John / Doran:I stole all the glory there.
Hannah / Eryn:No. That's fun.
John / Doran:I'd say, yeah, the only I mean, the people we don't know, like, you know, the the people that are out there trying things that have no backing and aren't IPs or famous people, you know, that you do so much work for allowing creative things to come to fruition. And, you know, it may never happen to us, but it does happen for others, and that's that's important. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Oh, I do have one more. That person that gave us a review a couple months ago. Do
Maggie / Poppy:you have that or whatever?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. That was such a killer review. It was such a, like, an emotional boost to have someone. I don't I don't remember what screening they used or whatever, but they just talked about listening to our podcast and how much they loved it, and it was just a really cool thing to read.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. I can
Hannah / Eryn:try it. D d d d d a n a d d d d d.
Tim / GM:Yeah. And they were talking about, like, listening with their kid. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:It was just so nice. It was just so nice.
John / Doran:That was cool.
Hannah / Eryn:Could be a dad or
Thomas / Guy:a mom.
Tim / GM:Yeah. That's right. We never figured that out.
Maggie / Poppy:I don't think it is a dad. Yeah? Well D
Tara / Journey:and D parent, whoever you are, you delighted us all.
Hannah / Eryn:You're doing it right.
John / Doran:They may have they may have just found that kid. You know, often true. Yeah.
Tim / GM:They just said it was theirs.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, and also also they
Tara / Journey:they said in their review that they assume that we're a group of friends. We are a group of friends.
Thomas / Guy:We've known each other for a long time, and
Tara / Journey:it was very cool to
Hannah / Eryn:have that
Tara / Journey:have that be something that really came through on
Tim / GM:the audio. Yeah.
John / Doran:That is good.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Shout out to Kenyon too, who's a big season one. Oh, Kenyon.
Tim / GM:That's right.
Thomas / Guy:Kenyon. Yeah. I don't know if you've been listening to season 2, but you should because it's good.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. And also now you're in it. So
Tim / GM:Kenny, I remember
Tara / Journey:because we said your name just now.
Tim / GM:I think we went canoeing with Kenny near something, and I was so hesitant to just bombard him with curse breaker stuff. But, like, I wanted to talk about it the entire time. But he's
John / Doran:like, you don't wanna
Tim / GM:just, like, pump people for praise or whatever. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Top ten favorite moments.
Tim / GM:Yeah. No. Just list them out, please. But, yeah. We, we appreciate the hell out of you people.
Tim / GM:Anyone who gives us their time, because that's a huge I mean, in this day and age, that's everything. Right? How do you spend your time? Yeah. We also really, really like hearing from people.
Tim / GM:It has only happened a couple times, but it's really fun. We read everything that comes through our Instagram and Facebook. We will respond to you immediately if you comment on something. We're that desperate. Trust me.
Tim / GM:You can also just email us at pbopcast@gmail.com whenever you feel like it. Yeah. We love to hear from our our people. Alright. With all of those lovely shout outs out of the way, I wanted to dive into our kind of mini retrospective here at our 100 episodes and just talk about some of our favorite shit that's happened over the last 3 years.
Tim / GM:So what I wanna start on, what was your favorite night of recording? So that can go outside the episode content, but any other, like, context you remember around the episode?
Maggie / Poppy:I can't remember the exact episode, but it was we're at Bert's parents' place, and there was, like, the labyrinth maze and Dave and Uli, and everything was just, like, so funny. And we were all just on our game the entire time. And I just remember, like and we had been recording for so long at that point and, like, fully finally feeling comfortable as Uli. Yeah. Like but I felt like we all just totally got our characters, and
Thomas / Guy:I think that was really cool.
Tim / GM:Hard agree. That's actually the first episode I had written here.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, really?
Tim / GM:It was dance at Bert's family estate. It was a thunderstorm that night that was rolling out.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah.
Tim / GM:And because of that, I just because I knew the sound would come through on the recording, I just said there was a thunderstorm in game. And that like, that whole moment, that whole feeling felt so, like, like, faded or whatever you wanna say, but it's like it worked so well. But, yeah, that was the first thing I wrote down too.
Hannah / Eryn:Is that episode pride and prestigitation?
Tim / GM:Oh, it's that one or the one after? It's right in there.
Hannah / Eryn:That's my favorite episode title. Yeah. I see.
Thomas / Guy:That's a good one.
Maggie / Poppy:I think we recorded both of those on the same night.
Tim / GM:I think we might have. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:And then split it up. Yeah. But it was just everything was just so funny. Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:It was so good. Those are some of my favorites too.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:I thought of one for this campaign. Yeah. So when we my favorite episode we recorded was when Poppy and Aaron were in the mountain cave on lore.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:And it was like horror.
Tara / Journey:That was so scary.
Thomas / Guy:So I don't know if
Hannah / Eryn:it came across to listeners, but I and Tara and maybe Maggie also, we were so afraid of what was happening of these, like we got in a dark cave and we were trapped, and there was dead bodies, we thought, from a monster that was unknown entity, like, killing things or sucking them dry of life and magic. And the cave, I could I was just so there in my mind mentally, and I think Tara was too
Tara / Journey:My heart was racing. Every single thing that happened, I was so stressed.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. Tara was on the floor. I was so yeah. Like, literally. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:And we were I was so scared, and I had never had an experience like that outside of being at, like, a haunted house hayride type thing. And I don't like being scared like that. And so Sorry.
Tara / Journey:No. No. No. It was so good, though. It was so immersive.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I had, like, chills. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. So that, I don't know if it was that scary listening back, but I was when you're playing D and D, you're at least for me, it's like when you read a book and you're creating this image in your head. So I'm, like, in this cave with these walking up with, like, a lamplight on my head, and it's like the body disintegrating in front of me. It's so horrible. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:It was very, like, visual and visceral.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:And yeah. Just Literally. So scary.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. So don't go on caves. Yeah. That's moral of my story.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Let's take a listen to some of those clips, and then I'll do that.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Let's listen to them. So we have
Thomas / Guy:a clip? Do we have a clip?
Tim / GM:As your eyes kind of adjust to the darkness, you do see the shape of a man unmistakably. Seems to be frozen in in time holding his arms up defensively as if protecting himself.
Thomas / Guy:Hey. You.
Tim / GM:No response.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm gonna poke them with the end of my crossbow,
Maggie / Poppy:which end the pointy end.
Hannah / Eryn:It's not loaded. Okay. But, yes, the pointy end.
Tim / GM:You poke him. You poke this dark figure, and thinking that maybe he was wearing clothing or armor in that spot, you find out that all of him has been turned to an ashy gray. Where you touch begins a chain reaction of disintegration, like watching a house of cards fall apart from the bottom up.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron gasps and jumps back.
Tim / GM:As you see his arms disintegrate away and his torso begins to turn to ash and dust and sand, you can see the face of Philip j Collins, except his eyes are
Thomas / Guy:missing. No. No. This fucker. No.
Hannah / Eryn:I have literal chills. I'm gonna barf. I'm gonna chill.
Thomas / Guy:Tim, you don't have to listen to Paul. Or his eyes.
John / Doran:I could say,
Thomas / Guy:or
John / Doran:can we keep adding more? Or okay. I'd say so, like, I think speaking for myself, I don't really have any experience in improv or anything like that. And, so I played d and d a lot, but, you know, when we first started curse breaker, it was kind of like a mix of interest in music and recording and just liking D and D podcasts. And, like, why don't we try to do it?
John / Doran:But for the first long while, it was, like, very uncomfortable. It was kind of like, it well, it it was scary. Yeah. It was, like, trying to learn how to do something, but every minute of that is being recorded and sent out to the to the world even though we didn't have a lot of listeners, but it's always gonna be there.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
John / Doran:I think, the country gnomes, like, joke for whatever reason, it was, like, the first time, like, I felt like we all, like, wholehearted laugh and, that anxiety of, like, what are we doing? Yeah. Like Yeah. Was kind of gone. Yeah.
John / Doran:You know, like, after that, it was, like, that that kinda, like, broke through. That was like a a a paradigm shift, I guess Yeah. For me.
Thomas / Guy:That was a landmark episode. It
Tim / GM:was. Tibio can have any of my bones that he finds.
Thomas / Guy:That is so kind of him. He was so good. Mumble.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm sure he was a shining king in his day too. Yes. I agree.
Maggie / Poppy:Count your nose. Take my bones.
John / Doran:West Virginia.
Maggie / Poppy:Awesome. Let's hear
Thomas / Guy:for some reason. D. Mountain in Dorn. Tildertown.
John / Doran:De monetized.
Tara / Journey:And I like that too because, something about us doing that is so us. Like, I know that everyone kinda does, like, yeah. You make a joke by making up lyrics to a well known song.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:But it it just felt like it was such an us moment as friends that it felt like our friendship and our humor and who we are had really become enmeshed in the show. Yeah. Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:So it was yeah. Just a comfort level.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we had a similar arc in Cloudfall too where it took me a while to, like, just chill the fuck out,
John / Doran:you know.
Tim / GM:For sure. And it's like, I think we were more polished by then anyway. But Yeah. I think we have the same kind of trajectory where at a certain point, like, how like, things were just easier to do, and it's been kinda great ever since.
Maggie / Poppy:I will say I think this campaign specifically was a lot easier going in
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Maggie / Poppy:Because we had already had so much experience before. So it was less of a learning curve.
Tim / GM:Cursebreaker was also so much, like, building as we were going, like, to a serious degree where I was so excited to get started with this. When I looked back at what I had for episode 1, like, I have a single handwritten page of, like, scribbled pen notes to start lamplight or whatever, and that was it. Mhmm. And, like, some notes about, like, the nightmare wizard or whatever. But, like, I was like, alright.
Tim / GM:Like, let's not get too deep into it. Like, I don't know if this is gonna get yeah. I don't know if this is gonna be anything. And then yeah. I so I found that picture on November 11th was all of my first day DM notes just, like, writing down character names and stuff like that.
John / Doran:Oh, wow. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Crazy. So,
Thomas / Guy:I've really gotten a kick out of any episode where Tim and I get to do some guy backstory stuff, and then I like seeing the reactions from the 4 of you because I can tell you're really interested and surprised by that stuff.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:So What
Maggie / Poppy:you mean the just sheer horror
Tara / Journey:on my face and hands on my own head, like, in shock?
Tim / GM:It feels like it's, like, moving towards, like, are we gonna have to kill God? Yeah. But regardless, Guy, wordlessly, you draw a great blade of lodam. Similar to the one you own now, but this one is carved with spiraling runes and a silvery, flowing metal inlay. Danfden sighs and looks at the frozen ground and turns away from you to look over the icy river.
Thomas / Guy:I am glad you understand the weight of what burdens us all, my friend. But soon, you will not have to. And a
Tim / GM:crisp, ringing whoosh pierces the air as you decapitate one of your best men. Jonathan was not the first, not the last, but you did what had to be done to secure the loyalty of your knights. To secure Lotum. So we mentioned some of these already, so maybe we can just kind of, nominate them again as we go through this next, category. What was the most uncomfortable, either fear, dread, or awkward that you
John / Doran:felt at the table?
Tara / Journey:Alright. Here's the thing. Oh. Here's the thing. It's not that I'm uncomfortable.
Tara / Journey:It's that romance scenes make my bones want to escape from the same space where my skin is. Sure. So I have to step away, physically step away. So the scenes with Dorn and Aaron, I love them. I think they're perfect.
Tara / Journey:I think they're incredibly well done. I think they capture Thank
Hannah / Eryn:you.
Tara / Journey:Like, John and Hannah, you guys capture that awkwardness of being a young person who doesn't know how to navigate
John / Doran:We're not acting.
Tara / Journey:Not that's news to your partners.
Thomas / Guy:You are at the table. The awkwardness is not acting.
Tim / GM:Is that
Thomas / Guy:what you're saying?
Maggie / Poppy:Not being in love for
John / Doran:a little bit. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:It's it's so good, and it's so real and it's so relatable. Mhmm. And it's also something that my feet can't not leave. Yeah. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:And my body needs to escape because it hurts me physically. So
Tim / GM:body's rejected.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. So If
Maggie / Poppy:we ever release, the phone camera footage of that episode, you will see me and Tara just, like, disappear.
Tim / GM:I got a good picture of Tara shrinking into the floor.
Tara / Journey:Off my chair. Yeah. On the floor. I couldn't do it. So that that is my that is my moment.
Hannah / Eryn:Tara's afraid of, murder in caves and dead bodies in dark places and teenage love. Yeah. I guess, young love.
Maggie / Poppy:Young love. It's the secondhand embarrassment for me. It's just, like, so
Tara / Journey:Well, and that's it's credit to you guys because you could feel it. You could really feel it in that moment that these were 2 young people that were, like, in an actual struggle to express and exist. Yeah. And it just yeah. It was really well done, and also I couldn't be there.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. And we were struggling to exist.
Tara / Journey:I was struggling to exist.
Tim / GM:Don't think. Just jump. Jump off the edge of the ship.
John / Doran:I give her a push as I stand up. Good luck.
Thomas / Guy:When Doren comes over, Guy is teaching Aaron how to tie a complicated general's knot.
Tim / GM:Oh, yes. General's. Confident general's knot.
John / Doran:So Doran, like, walks up a bit and then stops and, turns around and and looks off to the side, then glances back over and, walks over a bit further. What are we making over here?
Thomas / Guy:No. And then the bunny goes through the hole
Hannah / Eryn:and Oh, yeah. Okay. I I think I got it. Thank you so much, Guy. This was a great lesson, so I appreciate it.
Hannah / Eryn:I'll be able to tie up those rigs in no time.
Thomas / Guy:I hope your birthday is a happy one, Erin.
Hannah / Eryn:Thanks, Guy.
Thomas / Guy:I don't know why they
Hannah / Eryn:didn't make you captain, but you're great with the stuff.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, thank you. I'm sure there are reasons, but
John / Doran:Oh, Dorn.
Tim / GM:Oh, captain Dorn.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, hey, Dorn. Hey. Look what I did. And Aaron holds up their knot.
John / Doran:Nice. Why do they call it a general's knot?
Thomas / Guy:It's one of the first knots you learn. It's kind of applicable to any situation. Oh, it's a juggler. Nuts. Tom it.
Thomas / Guy:Nathan, Jane. You got it
Maggie / Poppy:so good.
John / Doran:I can't that's brilliant. So, happy birthday.
Hannah / Eryn:Thanks.
John / Doran:This really worked out nice. You know?
Tara / Journey:Was that guy wandering off?
Thomas / Guy:Yep. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Guy leaves.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. It's crazy.
Maggie / Poppy:In that same vein, the scenes with Dave and Uli, which was not my fault. Yep. Oh my gosh. I did not
Thomas / Guy:push first that on you.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:But it was beautiful, and I love it because it's just so, realistic to my life, specifically. I cannot flirt to save my life. So, the the Uly Dave scenes are really just me in real life. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:And, Tim, like, the way that you would interrupt and back off, interrupt and back off is so real and so good. It was just so cleverly done. And, yeah, just another way that those scenes felt really real.
Maggie / Poppy:Like, cutting each other off and,
Hannah / Eryn:like, just not yeah. Oh.
Tara / Journey:Yep. Oh, so good.
Maggie / Poppy:So bad. Yeah. But great. Yes.
Tim / GM:Doing Dave's voice, and I'm literally just watching watching, Maggie, like, for
Maggie / Poppy:Turn red.
Tim / GM:As soon as her mouth opens. I'm just like, what do you like? Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I burst out of the rose bushes.
Tim / GM:Kind of right before you do that, you hear this, hi there. And you hear you hear I hear
John / Doran:oh, no. I I'm I'm sorry.
Maggie / Poppy:Dave. Dave.
Thomas / Guy:What?
Maggie / Poppy:Dave.
Thomas / Guy:Uli. Why are you here? Why? Why am I here?
Tim / GM:You're here. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Shit. Why are you doing the same?
Maggie / Poppy:I go bursting out of a rose bush right into his arms.
Hannah / Eryn:He he
Tim / GM:he's like, I like hugging you, like, embracing you. And he, like, leans into it right away where he can, like, hold you tighter. He's like, hey.
Maggie / Poppy:Hey. No. I'm sorry. I tripped.
Tim / GM:Oh, and he, like, backs off. Yeah. Holds his arm arms up like a criminal. What?
Thomas / Guy:Where are we? There's a Curse Breaker episode where it ended where the spider guy Yeah.
Tim / GM:Was like
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Yeah. Had he was like, tell me a really good story or I'm gonna kill you. You.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:And then that was the and then Bert had to tell the story because he was the storyteller.
John / Doran:Yep.
Thomas / Guy:And then the episode ended. And then I think we didn't play for, like, 4 weeks or something because we kept having to delay it. Yep. For whatever reason, I felt under humongous pressure for, like, I can tell a good story.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Were you just dreading, like, coming up with that whole thing? Yeah. Yep. I remember that.
Tim / GM:That's actually not the only time we forced you to come up with a good story because I think earlier in the thing, we had you do, like, a whole thing about Fizzle or was that that?
Thomas / Guy:No. That was that.
Tim / GM:Got it. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. At one point, you wrote a poem, like, on the fly.
Tim / GM:Oh, that was really good, though.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, I kinda remember that.
Tim / GM:That was crossing the bridge,
Thomas / Guy:I think, wasn't it?
Tim / GM:Like, in the Feywild. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah. It's probably in my other book of notes.
Tara / Journey:Oh, I have another one. Yeah. Are were you done? Yep. So my other one, when Tibio sang
Tim / GM:Oh, that's Oh, yeah. I'm sure. Breaker. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:That I was shaking so bad. Yeah. I was shaking so bad, and I had to, like, take a minute to calm my breathing and stop shaking because I knew I didn't want my voice to shake.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:And I was so nervous even though, like, I sang the damn theme.
Maggie / Poppy:Sure. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:My voice was already
Hannah / Eryn:in the
Thomas / Guy:damn show.
Tim / GM:Did I spring that on you in the moment?
Thomas / Guy:I think I, like
Hannah / Eryn:No. She was prepared for
Thomas / Guy:it.
Tara / Journey:Knew that it was going to happen, but I didn't know when.
Tim / GM:That's right. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:So we had talked about me doing that, and you basically had said, hey. If I'd make this happen, will you do it? Will you be okay with it? And I was like, yes. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:But I didn't know when it was gonna happen. And then it was just kind of like it the scene started leading that way, and I was like, oh. Here we go. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Tara / Journey:It's going to happen. And then you looked at me and gave me a nod, and I was like, I need, like, 5 minutes Yeah. To breathe. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I remember hearing your voice shake like, you couldn't even breathe without Yeah. The breath stuttering in your I don't know.
Thomas / Guy:It was
Maggie / Poppy:I just felt for you. Yeah. And you did great.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. No. And I I I mean, listening back, I I think I was exactly on note or something like that. It was just like but the pressure that I put on myself to get it right, I was just
Thomas / Guy:didn't wanna get it wrong.
Tim / GM:I have one. Yeah, please.
John / Doran:Okay. So this was something we did. It was actually with the sander, the drider.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Man, he was his son. Motherfucker. Yeah.
John / Doran:That was a that was a learning moment. So, like, Tim and I kind of talked about it. It wasn't, like, script it was not close to scripted, but, like, we kinda knew that they were gonna meet. And we agreed on the backstory, and we knew it was gonna happen that episode. And then as it happened, I just felt so dirty.
John / Doran:Like, I was like, oh, we, like, planned this. And, like, just felt I don't know why it was. It just didn't it didn't come across organic, and, like, it I I just kinda crumbled with that. So now, like, I feel like when we we, like, plan things out, but it's, like, the day of we don't really know exactly what's going to happen or when characters are gonna show up, and that just makes it feel like I don't know. It just makes it feel more natural unless, I don't know, like, scripted.
Tim / GM:You know? I think we've really nailed the, like, level of reveal that we do kind of
Thomas / Guy:before
Tim / GM:all
Thomas / Guy:this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Over yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Overplanning can be the enemy of
Tim / GM:Yes.
Thomas / Guy:Good good content. Yeah. Like, I I think we like, the stuff I gave you for a guy and then letting you build on that the way you want to has worked
Tim / GM:out really well. Yeah. For sure.
Maggie / Poppy:Honorable mention then for the recent episode where we had to re replay the half hour that we lost.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Yeah. We're behind the scenes. Yeah.
Tim / GM:We lost some recording for, I think, for the first time.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. So we we, like, remembered key points and, like, tried to redo it. And there was a natural twenty that got faked, and then
John / Doran:It didn't get faked.
Maggie / Poppy:It the first one
Tim / GM:got faked,
Maggie / Poppy:and then
Thomas / Guy:I rolled again.
Tim / GM:It was play until you win. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:But I remember feeling just, like, icky about it. Yeah. Everyone felt icky,
Tim / GM:I think. Yeah. Please forgive our sins on that one. That's
Tara / Journey:a lie. Be clear, there was a natural twenty that was rolled in the minutes For real. That we lost. Yes. And it did happen for real.
Tara / Journey:So we were trying to not lose out on the effects of that natural twenty, but also having to rerecord.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Mhmm. Too good to let go.
Tara / Journey:So it was an honest twenty. It just was not honest the second time Yeah. Because it yeah.
Tim / GM:It was grandfathered in. Yeah. So
Hannah / Eryn:yeah. Exactly.
Maggie / Poppy:All of our roles
Thomas / Guy:are scripted. It was
Maggie / Poppy:the most understandable. 20. Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:Thomas, I
Tim / GM:feel like that's dangerous to say because we could be accused of it. Just how well we do sometimes. Alright. Here's a a fun category coming up next if we're through the, awkward dreadful stuff. The loudest thing
Thomas / Guy:thing that's ever happened at the table. Hannah. Well, they'll turn
John / Doran:so that
Hannah / Eryn:The day the day I was born. The loudest day.
Maggie / Poppy:There's a whole pod flipped. Every natural twenty Hannah's ever I
Tim / GM:was gonna say, I think we can all agree it's probably Hannah's natural twenties.
Hannah / Eryn:No. I got a lot of excitement in this little bod. Yeah.
Tim / GM:But also specifically, in Cursebreaker, Hannah's, witch laugh episode.
Thomas / Guy:I was trying to think of when exactly that was.
Tim / GM:It was, like, the first time that Orzo showed up and, like, directly threatened your group or said he would, like, had his eyes on you kind of thing.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. He was at the cross roads and I teleported back to that. So at that time, we were in Hog Wild and then Holly found out from Snack, I think, or somebody.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think Snack, like, knew that Toby Goshman was to blame for the sale of Viri's Kirby last time.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Because he went back. Yep. Yeah. That was a rough episode.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly was pissed and was like, I'm gonna go get snack because snack went there.
Tim / GM:Yes.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm pretty sure. And I was like, what the heck, snack? And I so I followed you back to this Crossroad Post Inn.
Tara / Journey:Oh, the cross
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. The crossroads.
Maggie / Poppy:The crossroads.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. And, a little be known to me was our endgame boss was there.
Tim / GM:Creeping out
John / Doran:of the flask. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yep. I'll say, related to the previous category, from my perspective as a GM, that was one of my most dreadful nights because that went so off the rails, like, where I didn't expect. And it was, like, end boss versus current players, and I hadn't worked out all the mechanics yet. And Snack is, like, I'm not gonna do what was planned tonight. I wanna do this.
Tim / GM:And if you stop me, it's gonna expose you as a bad DM.
Maggie / Poppy:Also, it was very, like, not out of character. I I don't wanna say, but it was because he was going to, like, kill this innocent person. That's a cool ass episode. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:It was, like, in character, but out of character growth.
Tim / GM:Yes.
Tara / Journey:And so it was a backslide that made sense, but as, like so I was mad because in character, I was mad. Yes. You know? But as as Tara, I was like, oh, that was a delicious good story choice. And also, like, who?
Tara / Journey:But Tibia was so, like Yeah. The concept of snack doing that was so, like, how dare you?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yep.
Tara / Journey:But I was like, oh, John. That was such a good choice.
Maggie / Poppy:It made for some really intriguing storytelling Yeah. That we had planned.
Tim / GM:We were
Tara / Journey:big we were big emotions about that. Yeah. I think.
Hannah / Eryn:And then on top of it, I rolled the net twenty. Yes. And I lost my shit.
Tara / Journey:Yes.
Hannah / Eryn:And that witch cackle came from my soul.
Tara / Journey:It was so good. It was so good.
Hannah / Eryn:We can play that here. Yes. Can we please turn your
Thomas / Guy:turn your volume down?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Brace your ears, folks.
Thomas / Guy:These are
Tim / GM:some of our loudest moments. And this beam, now amplified by the refraction, slams into this entity, and you can see it being torn asunder. It's It literally tears its body in half, and you just hear this, as it's being rendered in twain. It cries out at you, Holly. It says, foul witch.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly just cackles.
Maggie / Poppy:Did she clip at that one?
Tim / GM:Oh, for sure.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay.
Tim / GM:Honorable mention for loudest thing, actually. Another one that was dreadful for me that scared the shit out of me in the moment was Doran shouting, how fucking
Thomas / Guy:dare you?
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. Exhilarious hail.
Thomas / Guy:In my Goosebumps.
Tim / GM:Mind, the the table blasted backwards after I said that. Like, everyone just scooted back like, what the fuck?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. That was also another John going off the rails moment that
Tim / GM:no one
John / Doran:expected. Yeah. I did that twice. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Yeah. Stop doing that. And it's just this occasional,
Tim / GM:like, sleeping beast that is
Thomas / Guy:just, like, fuck shit up.
Hannah / Eryn:We can play John's clip here.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You see a long silvery spear that Lyrian had formed behind him while he was talking to you. He jerks his body out of the way, and it comes straight for you, and you just cock your head to the side right past you into the wall, and then you hear that same noise as as it turns back into a liquid and races back towards Lirion. What do you do?
John / Doran:How fucking dare you? And I, going to cast fire Ball. Hello? Yes.
Tim / GM:I am, of course, not innocent in this. I've had some really loud things that came across way louder than I expected them to until I heard it back later. Biggest ones for that are Tim Kreme.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Tim Kreme was so loud.
Tim / GM:Yeah. From Cream Pipes back in Farewell.
Thomas / Guy:Tim Cream.
Tim / GM:For some reason, like, I just did, like, this crumbly, like, kind of voice. When I listened back, it clipped constantly. So loud. Yeah. Danny Deeppockets in Curse Breaker Yeah.
Tim / GM:Was very loud. Danny Deeppockets.
Hannah / Eryn:Some voices you just have to go Yeah. Yeah. You just have
Tim / GM:to go loud. On that note, the last one where I went way too overboard and I think I scared Thomas a little bit, Door, yelling at Bert for giving him a tattoo.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah.
Tim / GM:Oh, no. I went I went, like, way too agro on that moment, and I screamed at him at the table. And it was like, woof, okay.
Maggie / Poppy:That's so accurate to Door's character.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. But still scared to Dor.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:That makes sense.
Maggie / Poppy:But then you guys had, like, a a little bit
Thomas / Guy:of room.
Maggie / Poppy:A little bromance. Bromance.
Tim / GM:You needed a giant axe to drag around? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I I think you guys should have ended up together.
Tim / GM:There was, also one very loud moment from Maggie, but that was just when we had a bunch of really good rolls, and then I think she rolled, like, a 5. And she just gets right up on her mic, and it's just like, I rolled a 5.
Maggie / Poppy:Of course. It's not me yelling. It's just
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just goofing it.
Hannah / Eryn:We'll play Maggie's clip right here. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Maggie's 5.
Hannah / Eryn:Just kidding.
John / Doran:Tim's gonna be busy
Tim / GM:this week. Yeah. Alright. So we're moving on to our next meta category. This is best of the best.
Tim / GM:So I'm curious for your opinions among the players. Who rolls the
Thomas / Guy:best? I
Tim / GM:think it's I think it's Hannah.
Hannah / Eryn:Hannah or John?
John / Doran:I don't think it counts for me because I have, like, that Bard College of Eloquent thing that just makes me not roll natural twenties for most of my skill checks. So I think it I don't know if that counts because, like, the roles just don't matter.
Maggie / Poppy:I might be confusing it with Tim's, like, just desperate need to give you overpowered everything.
Hannah / Eryn:My abject favoritism? Yeah. Yeah. Well, especially in curse breaker, I think snack, just killed it every time.
Tara / Journey:Snack fails forward in every moment.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. Yeah. Yep. I feel
Thomas / Guy:like you're rolling really good this game.
Hannah / Eryn:I am rolling I am rolling much better this round of everything.
Tim / GM:Do you all have a favorite die? Do you all use the same dice sets every time?
Hannah / Eryn:So my trick is this is my my method. Everyone, listeners at home Mhmm. How to win d and d. So I have all my dice set up with the highest level number facing up on the table. So all my twenties have the 20 side up.
Hannah / Eryn:So when I pick it up, it's ready to go to that 20. So I roll it, shake it in my hand, and roll it. And I feel like it's resting more in the position of being a nat 20. So that's in my mind. It's not real, but that makes me feel like it has to be.
Maggie / Poppy:To say that I also have mine set on the highest number, and I rolled the worst.
Tim / GM:So I
Thomas / Guy:don't, yeah, I don't believe in that.
Hannah / Eryn:You gotta
Tara / Journey:I also won't. You need to flip them over so that the 20's at the bottom.
Maggie / Poppy:You can't you can't set the bar too high.
Hannah / Eryn:You gotta level them.
Maggie / Poppy:Try them.
Tara / Journey:You gotta let let you gotta let shatter.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Excuse you.
Tara / Journey:You gotta let that 20 hide so that it really wants its moment to shine
Maggie / Poppy:later. It's gun shy.
John / Doran:I was gonna nominate Maggie for highest roles because every time she does roll natural 20, she says, natural twenty, bitch. Yeah. I'm like, it's like sticks in my brain.
Thomas / Guy:It's
Tim / GM:like she knows a
Thomas / Guy:lot of natural twenty.
Tim / GM:I need a 1 d6 roll from you, and, Poppy, I need a 1 d20 roll from you.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Just a straight roll?
Tim / GM:Straight roll.
Thomas / Guy:That 20, bitch.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Like, amazing.
Thomas / Guy:Nat 4.
Tim / GM:Feel like, Maggie has a really good hit rate at, like, rolling natural twenties when it counts the most. Yeah. You know? 4 natural
Thomas / Guy:ones when it counts
Tim / GM:the most.
John / Doran:That too.
Tim / GM:That too. Yeah. Natural salt. Natural something.
Tara / Journey:Maggie and I have kind of the the storytelling dice Sure. Where they're they're either high or low, and it's at a pivotal moment where it's telling it's like the dice are doing it for me Yeah. And making a decision on my behalf. That's kind of how I feel sometimes. When I roll really low and it's like, I fucking missed.
Tara / Journey:I biffed it so bad, but it feels it feels, well earned, and it feels like it's saying something about, like, what's going on Yeah. In the story.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I feel like that happened a lot for Uli Mhmm. Especially when it came to Wild Magic's surgery.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah.
Thomas / Guy:For sure.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Which I love. Yeah.
Tim / GM:I love that. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:I was gonna say, I think, across all the campaigns, though, Thomas and Tim both roll very poorly.
Tara / Journey:Bad. You guys roll
Tim / GM:bad. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not very good at it.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. If you're
Thomas / Guy:yeah. If listeners are wondering why or if it seems like we ever, you know, beat the bad guys too handily, it's because Tim
Tim / GM:is rolling very well. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I I sit next to Tim, and I can see some of the roles.
Tara / Journey:It's, like, always ones and threes.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's bad. Yeah. It's well, like, it's it's nice in that respect that a lot of your stuff works. Like, a lot of your spells go through because it's fun to see those go off.
Tim / GM:But it does feel like I'm softballing a lot of it because a lot of this shit is working and some of those spells are complete shutdowns.
Thomas / Guy:And they're just not resisting.
Tim / GM:Exactly. Yeah. And And you just gain control. It will, like, if it's a charm effect or something, like, I'm screwed. And I don't have, like, a way out of that really.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:That's why all the bad guys are famous.
John / Doran:Yeah. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Exactly. Sleep
Tim / GM:me. Yeah. On that same vein, kind of, what was your favorite encounter through all of this?
Hannah / Eryn:The octopus.
Thomas / Guy:That's a lot of people. Say octopus too.
John / Doran:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:There's probably right. That I mean, that was the first one that was just like, damn. That's a really cool I mean, it was early in the campaign. I think it was inventive, and it was
Hannah / Eryn:I named it. So I felt cool in that moment. And I also feel like we were still so early on in recording and doing this, like, type of play that we hadn't played before. And so that was the first fight where we're like, okay. This is how this is gonna work.
Hannah / Eryn:And it was just I don't know. I feel like it was really fun. So it stick it sticks out in my mind a lot because of all those things. So
Thomas / Guy:the dragon fight in Chris Breaker is memorable because, I love giving everybody else shit because it was, like, me and Emery versus a dragon and then, like, 4 people trying to unlock a door. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was
Tara / Journey:the worst the worst D and D choice I've ever made in my life was to fucking run I remember. For multiple turns.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:It was terrible. I should've been fighting.
Tim / GM:And you guys were all just trying to make it to the other end
Tara / Journey:of the bridge. So stupid.
John / Doran:What was your classic invert?
Thomas / Guy:Cleric.
John / Doran:Yeah. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. It was awful. It was so stupid. I felt so bad. Immediately, I was like, I shouldn't have done that.
Maggie / Poppy:But we all followed you.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. It was awful. It was awful.
Tim / GM:Yeah. There was the the octopus. There was the cave bone thing where mumbled I
Maggie / Poppy:was bone dragon.
Tara / Journey:I had a different bone one. The one Tibia's bone. The one where you guys were all in the Port Delaunay. Yeah. And you guys were in the bone thing fighting the bone bird, and I was on the other side fighting
Maggie / Poppy:Orzo. I know. Orzo.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Face to face.
Maggie / Poppy:I were in death.
Tara / Journey:The the back and forth on that, selfishly, the back and forth on that was so poignant Yeah. And having all of you guys fighting this, like, bone creature that you had no idea what to do with. Yeah. And I was on the other side being like, I'm doing feely magic. Right.
Tara / Journey:Yes. You're, like, I can do that. Stars and birds. And it was just it was so cool. And the the the cadence of it and going back and forth between those two encounters was really cool.
Tara / Journey:And the desperation
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:From, like, this side of things where you guys were like, Tibio's gone, and I'm on the other side, like, I'm stuck here talking with death,
Thomas / Guy:I guess. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, the the the the fight in the tower with when Bert gets his, like, rewind powers.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yes.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Oh, that was so good.
Maggie / Poppy:And it was it was, like, me and Bert were up trying to fight. I don't know what else was happening. Like, people were down.
Tim / GM:The second time you guys came back to Tildry, and Flan had been, like, freed from prison. And Yep. And, Jinx got his magic back to Polymorph. Yeah. And they, like, fought you again.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Yeah. It was just like like a desperate fight. I can picture it clearly. If if I feel like it was twilight or something
Tim / GM:That's right. That's the one where Holly had to save the tower from the meteor impact.
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. So there was, like, a meteor shower happening. Bert rewinds time, and I I owe this a lot to the editing because the music, like, rewinding was just the coolest thing. I listened to that every once in a while, and it was just, like, so good. And I got shivers.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. And so perfect.
Tim / GM:And, again, that was another thing where in in the moment of that episode, I felt really shitty about, Thomas or Bert being able to, like, completely rewrite everything. And so I suddenly gave him this, like, presented opportunity of, like, hey, do you wanna move forward with everything peachy keen and taken care of, or do you wanna live in the real world? And Bert kinda made that decision there, which echoed out to the end of the campaign where he was like, I wanna get rid of this book because nobody should have this.
Tara / Journey:Mhmm. Yeah. It was a one of those moments that you've you've given us a lot of these, Tim, where you give us a choice that impacts or says who we are as a character. Mhmm. And you handed this to Thomas, and you said, who is Bert?
Tara / Journey:Mhmm. Does truth matter? Mhmm. And I thought that was really cool, and it allowed Thomas to really, like, have that moment of thinking about the impacts of all this and then who is Bert really at his core.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:So I thought that was really cool.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I'm getting shares. They're stressful
Tara / Journey:in the moment. Those moments are so stressful.
Thomas / Guy:We have, those Tim has added out about 45 minutes of silence. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:So I
Tim / GM:think and considerate
Hannah / Eryn:this. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Agonizing over Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. We should play the clip of the time rewinding, though.
Tim / GM:For sure. Yeah. Let's do that. Bert knows that, like, bad things are afoot if the normal world goes through. He knows that he can make the safe move.
Tim / GM:He also knows at this point that he has the power to change the truth, that the things that Bert does will affect the things that are true in the future.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. No pressure, I
Thomas / Guy:guess. No pressure, I guess.
Maggie / Poppy:Butterfly effect.
Thomas / Guy:That was a stretch. It was
John / Doran:such a stretch.
Tim / GM:I didn't even know what you're going for.
Maggie / Poppy:It it makes sense. What is it? Butterfly effect.
Tim / GM:Oh, got it.
Thomas / Guy:God, I know what I have to do, but all my friends, I don't think they're gonna make it. No one should have this kind of power to change what happens. The truth shouldn't depend on me or anybody. It should be what happens is gonna happen. Uli?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:I'm so sorry.
Tim / GM:What?
John / Doran:Just as contrast, because a lot of these are from Chris Baker and pretty epic moments, but I really recent one was the battle where, Doran used, what was that spell? Sorry. It was a suggestion. Let me let me get
Tim / GM:it right.
John / Doran:On persimmon. He used suggestion on not on Persimmon, but on the, Dullahan Mhmm. Just to play cards to, like Oh,
Hannah / Eryn:that was so
Thomas / Guy:sad. That was so great.
John / Doran:And then yeah. I mean, obviously yeah. People probably have just listened to this, but, for those that haven't, yeah, used that suggestion, they sat down and started playing cards while chaos battle was ensuing around them. And then Erin used, her or their hear hearing ability. Yep.
John / Doran:No. Seeing. Seen. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yes. Certainly.
John / Doran:Take that again. Hear it. Aaron used their seeing ability and then was able to see what cards the other person had the Dullahan had, and then was able to win the hand, and then and then Tim just decided to die. Yeah. It's like it's like like so like so small scale, not important battle, but it was just, like, so, like, weird.
John / Doran:Like, I just kept getting surprised.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Like yeah.
John / Doran:It was great. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Person and flames. Forget it. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:That was
Hannah / Eryn:the best use of seeing the moves into the future because I can only use that ability in battle. It's I can't I can't use it just like when I willy nilly. It's like turn based in battle. And so, I couldn't imagine a more perfect use case of that. And it was so funny how Tim had it the guy just burst into flames from from losing cards.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. So good. Yeah. Yeah. There were a lot of, in this campaign, a lot of really good cathartic moments and fights when, like, Aaron gets to finish off Diver.
Thomas / Guy:And anytime Dorn is facing off against,
Tara / Journey:Lirion.
Tim / GM:Dude. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Hashtag divers not dead.
Thomas / Guy:That question. Connection they have. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Diver's dead for sure. But that storm facing off against Lirion in the the bar hall was one of my favorite things. Yeah. Because, like, the way that the rate the roles played out, Having him dodge that big attack from Lirion and then fire back with the fireball. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Like, I was just over the moon with that the way that played out. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:That was cool.
Tim / GM:Too happy. Still related to encounters, who in all of our campaigns has been the most effective in combat overall? Tibio or Journey. Or you just
Tara / Journey:I think Journey's getting the biggest hits this round.
Tim / GM:You think so?
Tara / Journey:I think so.
Tim / GM:Like, the biggest single damage is
Tara / Journey:I miss the worst. Yep. But when I hit, I do so much damage.
Tim / GM:Mhmm. That's true. I remember in the in this recent one, you a super crit on your fully pulled back arrow. It was, like, a 40 something 3
Maggie / Poppy:damage. The surprise round too?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. It was nuts. Yeah. It was, like, right before.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:I I don't know. I think snack
Maggie / Poppy:snack for sure
Tara / Journey:for sure has been the most damage heavy across the
Hannah / Eryn:board. And snack was what type of warlock?
John / Doran:Warlock. And, yeah, just, like, eldritch blast all day. Eldritch blast?
Tim / GM:Yes. Just Yep.
Maggie / Poppy:Because that
John / Doran:Damage. Damage.
Maggie / Poppy:Yep. Levels with you.
Tim / GM:Right? Hellish Rebuke a few times.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. You were doing also just like too. In terms of people.
John / Doran:Yeah. In terms of numbers, just sheer damage. Snack did a lot. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. 100%. Also, Snack had a couple of, like, really fun, like, endgame powers that were, like, just ludicrous as well.
Maggie / Poppy:Becoming dragon. Yeah. Yeah. Becoming a dream.
John / Doran:Yeah. Turns out dragon
Thomas / Guy:It's pretty good.
John / Doran:Do a lot of damage. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:All powerful, wish granting genie.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. And then
Tim / GM:AKA the GM.
Hannah / Eryn:I also think that Poppy's, magical treat ability, that homebrewed whole thing you and Tim came up with, Maggie, for Poppy, I'm excited to try to see more of it. Some of it is buffing, like, ahead of time. And, but I'm hopeful I know that more of it will come up as we battle more in the future with, like, those bonus effects and those different snacks. And I love, whenever a pinch, your familiar, gets involved and dies every time, in a battle. So those are all, like, really fun.
Hannah / Eryn:I feel like the flavor is always very good with with Poppy's magic, so I've enjoyed that a lot.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I'm it hasn't been very long since I've been able to, like, flash bake on the fly. So,
Hannah / Eryn:hopefully, more will come up. Yeah. More tasty treats.
John / Doran:We can kill stuff whenever we want. Yeah. So
Maggie / Poppy:Unless Pinch is delivering it, then he will die every time. Hands down.
Tara / Journey:Or Pinch. His entire existence is just torture. Oh, no. Yeah. Just every moment.
Tim / GM:I think, Bert was a very effective straight up support in the first campaign. Just like because he had the heal spell, which was, like, wild. It was Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:It's like 70 hit points. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Some Jeez.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Insane.
Tim / GM:And I think you're pretty dedicated to, like, pure support in that one. You had, like, sacred
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Yeah. And then and then when I got the axe, it kinda shifted a little bit to
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. All you
Thomas / Guy:got. Do offensively? Yeah. Mhmm. Not a lot, it turned out.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:And I feel like Doran's kinda in that support role now of just Yeah.
John / Doran:Yeah. Doran literally can't do damage. Yeah. I think he's got vicious mockery. He's the only damage spell.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
John / Doran:And level what are we? Level 7?
Tim / GM:Yeah. That sword that you had that I broke? Yep.
John / Doran:Yeah. I had a sword. Yeah. No backup now. Took that away too.
John / Doran:Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:Cool. I think Gaia is pretty strong.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Gaia is very strong.
Tim / GM:I think in a lot of ways, we haven't seen the full potential of combat and cloud fall quite yet. I think you guys are due for some big encounters like that.
Hannah / Eryn:Uh-oh. Spoilers.
Thomas / Guy:I can't wait to use spiritual weapon.
Tim / GM:I know. Me too. I'm excited. Alright. Our last category here, overall favorites.
Tim / GM:This one's a little bit more about me than you, but, what was everybody's favorite NPC so far?
Tara / Journey:Oh, good question.
Hannah / Eryn:Wait. Read us your whole list. No. I'm just kidding.
Tara / Journey:I don't need to. No. Let us think
Thomas / Guy:about it
Hannah / Eryn:without being prompted. The first one that comes to mind, which I don't know if this is really fair, is
Tara / Journey:Jeanie. Sure.
John / Doran:Genie. I think it's fair.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. He was so good, so well voiced, and he grew into such a, like, important whole story campaign, not just for snack, but for everybody. And so I think he just was just a cool character that could have been crazy OP and crate like, just I mean, there's just a lot that could have gone wrong, but it went so right. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:So I loved Genie.
Tim / GM:What is it?
Thomas / Guy:I'd like to
Tim / GM:not die. It's the middle of the night snack.
Thomas / Guy:Yes, Genie.
John / Doran:I am dying. Oh.
Tim / GM:He, like, pops his head out and he says, what happened to my baby? And he, like, turns around and looks at the rest of you. What did you do?
Hannah / Eryn:Quick, he's being paralyzed by poison. Help him.
Tim / GM:Poison. He, turns around and looks at you, Bert, and he's got one of those, like, weird circle mirrors on his head, you know, that doctors have.
Hannah / Eryn:With the little light. It's like
Tim / GM:a pizza cutter.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, I know.
Tim / GM:And he says, doctor?
Thomas / Guy:It's, poison. Mhmm.
Maggie / Poppy:The this poison.
Tim / GM:From the dagger. He, takes the poison from Iuli, and he, like, dips a pinky into the vial and
Maggie / Poppy:And Genie is frozen.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Damn.
John / Doran:Is it true we didn't plan out to have Genie be the narrator, like, for the recordings. No.
Tim / GM:We didn't. Yeah. That just kind of happened. It's something we did. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Was it just, like, hey. You kinda sound like Genie when you do this.
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think it was that I was going for, like, an announcer kind of thing. Yeah. And it was close enough to Genie where it just seemed like a good idea in the moment.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Yeah. And it's like, that's kind of the perfect, like, meta game because, like, Genie has some 4th wall knowledge, you know, or, like, extra dimensional knowledge. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:I have a category of NPCs that I like. Mhmm. Veronica Venus, Margo Bingo, Benjamin blank blank.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah.
Tara / Journey:I loved what they provided for our characters.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:They had this, like, I'm an elder mentor type thing thing without them being, like, super powerful necessarily, but they just had this fun wisdom to them.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:And I
Tara / Journey:think you played them really well in a way that made them almost parental. Sure.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:So I I really enjoyed them and I thought they were all very they filled the same role, but they were all distinct. Sure.
Tim / GM:I'm glad you like them because I feel like sometimes those are my dry ass characters because they're just info dump vessels for me.
Tara / Journey:No. I love it because I I think that they're really, they they feel like the old sage, you know, that that you you meet along your your hero's journey.
Tim / GM:The old love. Yeah. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. It's just cool. And and they got you got, like I don't know. We got glimpses into, like, what being a curse breaker meant back in the day. And I don't know.
Tara / Journey:It was just a lot of fun, and I I I find those ones very memorable.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Maggie / Poppy:I like the sad sack, like, pitiable ones.
Tim / GM:Like like bidet?
Maggie / Poppy:Like bidet or Mikey, I guess, would fit. I I feel like
Thomas / Guy:Mikey's fucking great.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I just they're so not what you expect Yeah. Like, as a tag along character, and I just it makes me want to protect them and also, like, shake them a little bit. Mikey
Hannah / Eryn:in particular.
Tim / GM:I feel like both Mikey and bidet were both very kind of, like, invented in the moment. Like, I didn't know what the flavor of that was gonna be, but it it shook out to something that felt very easy and natural.
Hannah / Eryn:Was bidet completely unplanned? Yes.
Tim / GM:Totally. I mean, that's why it was so fun. Total joke. It was like a mishear.
Thomas / Guy:Because there was something John made up. Just I wanna buy a donkey with this money. Yeah.
Tim / GM:But then, like, it was a mishear because Tibio said in French, for donkey. And he was like, you can call me bidet. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:I will call you bidet.
Tim / GM:Yeah. If we can
John / Doran:grab that clip, I think it'd be good. Absolutely. Yeah. Because because yeah. I think it was, like, I Tim was trying to say, don't buy this wagon or something like that, and then I was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna love this donkey.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Like, the oldest, most decrepit donkey on the planet. No. I want him.
Tim / GM:Even even, like, I don't even want the wagon. Just
John / Doran:Yeah. Hard to not
Thomas / Guy:say yeah.
John / Doran:I like all of those too.
Thomas / Guy:Need mansion
Maggie / Poppy:prizes for a check. Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:I instantly fell in love with Brody Tatum.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, Brodie. Oh, dude.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:He's good.
Thomas / Guy:I think a good runner-up is Timothy Matterfax.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah.
Thomas / Guy:I really think he's a successful character because you so quickly united us. It just absolutely united.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Yeah. He's this campaign's Emery, I think.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. It's it's No. I liked Emery.
Maggie / Poppy:I hated Emery
Thomas / Guy:from the beginning.
Tim / GM:But matter of fact, it's, like, it's fun to be despicable like that Yeah. And just interrupt people. And, like, comments, like, like, don't talk when I'm talking.
John / Doran:Yeah. Like, I'm too
Thomas / Guy:good for
Tim / GM:you guys. Yeah. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Roll and thunder, I feel bad for.
John / Doran:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:He's kind of the, like, sad sack character one where, like, every time he shows up, I'm like, you really you really just wanna help.
John / Doran:Yeah. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:And you're really trying to, like, be in the cool kids crew and not quite getting there, and it's not for lack of trying.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's for like, what are you doing, bud?
Hannah / Eryn:Like, oh,
Tara / Journey:come you're such a sweet. Such a sweet.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:Tim, who was your favorite MPC Yeah. This campaign?
Tim / GM:I think I liked voicing Mikey and Huber the most. Yeah. Huber is really cool too. They're like because the stuff he says is so, like, one lane that it's really easy to guess what his next words are gonna be.
Thomas / Guy:It's just
Tim / GM:like, what's the oldest stuffiest thing you can have to say? Yeah.
John / Doran:Mikey, are you an archivist too?
Tim / GM:I am. I'm I'm I'll be an archivist before long. Pay him no mind. He is shadowing me to someday become the prime archivist himself.
John / Doran:Sorry, Mikey. I gotta ignore you, I guess.
Tim / GM:He looks up at you with these huge turtle eyes and just solemnly nods his head. Mhmm. And he's like, you have the right to speak, Mikey, in due time.
Tara / Journey:The right to speak?
Tim / GM:As I was saying. But also recently, I've never done the voice that I do for Prince Volvyn before, and it's very fun to do.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah. The Hemsworth?
John / Doran:The Hemsworth. Yeah. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:And what about in,
Tim / GM:In Chris Bakers? Chris Bakers.
Tara / Journey:Danny Deepakins.
Tim / GM:Danny Deepakins is fun. I don't always have the energy to hit him right is the problem, but I I like doing the elderly voices like Veronica. What I did for Tonberry is, like, this owly, crotchety, like, and for some reason, that's one of my favorite defaults. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Oh, Ganymede.
Tim / GM:Ganymede's great too. Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:That's just like a
Tim / GM:weird Swedish chef kind
Maggie / Poppy:of. Yeah.
Tim / GM:And then I think we'll round this off with finally, generally favorite moment, but that could also be more focused towards favorite character reveal or plot surprise. But just generally, you know, things that really kinda blew your hair back playing through the whole show.
John / Doran:I still think, I don't know how I did not know this, like, or didn't see it coming, but the reveal that, Genie is a curse. Like, I was that was just, like, just like, I don't know how I didn't see it coming, but it was so cool to, like, hear that. Yeah, it works so well. Mhmm. Big one.
Tim / GM:That was very exciting. I remember, like, yeah, being, like, nauseous thing. Like, having that coming up close.
John / Doran:As far as reveals, that that's definitely up there for me.
Maggie / Poppy:I think anytime we surged accident oh, okay. No. Specifically, the one in the 3 or 4 l juice bar or whatever Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:Where Grease.
Thomas / Guy:Where Oh, that was so good. That was yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Where she the she has, like, a spell locked and loaded, accidentally surges, greases everywhere. And then instead of doing the action I had planned on doing, I decided to reduce myself and hide
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Out of shame.
Tim / GM:You hide in the corner and you go, I'm so stupid.
Thomas / Guy:I'm so yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. And I just, like that was, like, the first the first part I felt, like, really at home in Uli. Yeah. And I it was just really funny.
Tim / GM:And right after that, it's Bert's turn, and he gets affected by the Haze song. And he goes, don't worry, Oli. I'm gonna fix it. I'm gonna fix everything.
Maggie / Poppy:It's just such a good, like Mhmm. That whole few minutes.
Thomas / Guy:Was just excellent. Yeah. All the way down
Tara / Journey:to snack disintegrating Jinx. Yeah. Oh. To be fair, excellent.
Tim / GM:Yeah. All the way down to snack disintegrating Jinx.
John / Doran:Yeah. You know, to be fair, I told that was such a big, like, mess up in terms of game mechanics. Like, broke, like, a dozen rules. Like
Tim / GM:Oh, really?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
John / Doran:So amount of actions you took or what? The amount of actions Yeah. And then also misunderstanding that Hex doesn't allow them to have or disadvantage on the savings. It's only for a skill check. You caught me
Tim / GM:in that later on in life.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
John / Doran:Yeah. But, yeah, we were learn we're learning the rules this time. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:We're still learning that.
Tara / Journey:So it was that with Uli Yeah. Bert's moment and then the disintegration and then Tibio's emotional reaction to that too. Just every part of that and then having to speed along to go to the next thing right away. Mhmm. It was just like all of the characters were so well played in that moment, and you got to see kind of people at their extremes, which is really fun.
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm. And, like, we're trying to find your sister's Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Holly's sister was out
Hannah / Eryn:of town. My reveal was when in campaign 1 when, I had a chameleon familiar, we thought. And it actually was my sister the whole time
Thomas / Guy:who
Hannah / Eryn:got trans transformed into a chameleon. So I don't know if I knew about it obviously from the beginning, but I don't know if for you guys, you were like, oh, I don't know.
Tim / GM:I listened back to that. There's a very charming in that moment, John just goes, what?
Tara / Journey:Well, there was
Thomas / Guy:The fuck?
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know if
Tara / Journey:it was during the reveal to that or during the flashback scene.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Oh.
Tara / Journey:But you, Hannah, were crying Yeah. Describing it. And I, Tara, at the table was crying.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I have a real life sister, so it was very emotional. Very beautiful.
Tara / Journey:It was beautifully funny.
Thomas / Guy:She was turned into a lizard. Yeah. Yeah. That's very tragic.
Hannah / Eryn:She's not a lizard.
Maggie / Poppy:So, like, in that whole sequence, I think we're, like, bursting through cages full of animals trying to find Ivy. Everything's falling apart. There's grease everywhere. People are disintegrating. And
Hannah / Eryn:there's, banger club music popping up all the time. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. There was a couple moments with with Holly relating to that stuff. I remember too, we did this little, like, soliloquy, about, like, Holly making it in Tildry Yeah. And, like, buying her house and, like, after your parents had passed away that you, like, made it on your own
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Like, out of your own, like, bootstraps kinda thing. Mhmm. And, yeah, that, like it's sometimes hard for me to, like, understand what makes your characters tick the way that you do. And for some reason, Holly, I, like, understood that very intuitively. That was, like, a very real world kind of thing that I could relate to.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Mhmm. What? I I feel like this campaign has had a lot of really cool I don't know. Tim, your use of flashbacks on a small scale
Thomas / Guy:for
Tara / Journey:all of our characters Yeah. Has been really impactful.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:They're very much they don't they don't take up the whole episode, but they have these little moments where suddenly I get a little bit of an insight into a character. And I I feel as an as a listener, how how meaningful those little moments are. Like, there's been a couple ones with Erin where I get this feeling of, like, oh my god. This trap that they were in for so long and all of these things that they did that they in their, you know, late teens turning into an adult here, they're gonna be regretting for a long time, but they had no control.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:So it's just those little things and then all of the stuff with Guy where every every single flashback with the with Guy, I'm like, I'm I'm done. I'm fucking done. I'm scared out of my goddamn wits. Yeah. I don't know.
Tara / Journey:And just, like, yeah, the little sneak peeks we've had into Doran's past and, like, his trauma surrounding the, like, collider shit. I don't know. It's just been so cool to see those scenes or to, like, be there for those scenes because I can see them in my mind's eye, and I really feel them. Contrasting that with Poppy's stuff, which aren't usually flashbacks, but they are purely Maggie saying little one offs about her parents and making and, like, ripping my heart to shreds.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:They're usually fine. We'll My mom always said blah blah blah. I'm like, oh, no. Oh, boy. Uh-oh.
Maggie / Poppy:I think about when I'm showering, I think about the next, like, awful thing I can make coffee.
Thomas / Guy:So good. It's so good. Yeah. You're welcome.
Maggie / Poppy:I love it.
Tara / Journey:We touched
Thomas / Guy:on a lot of the really good ones, like, the top of the tower and, Snack's revenge thing. Mhmm. The very last fight in curse breaker is extremely good, because it's more than just using the battle mechanics Right. To fight them. Like, it turned into very good, like, emotional arcs somehow for every character.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Very unexpected in a lot of cases.
John / Doran:Uh-huh. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:So cool. When why do
Hannah / Eryn:I keep thinking of the eyeball reveals? There is, like, some eyeball reveals with Emery throughout.
Tara / Journey:Those are continuing to happen, and I'm frightened.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I'm We got feared.
Thomas / Guy:We got more eyeballs coming
Tim / GM:Yeah. Folks.
John / Doran:For sure.
Hannah / Eryn:There's a lot of eyeball threads. Yep. Throughout both campaigns.
Thomas / Guy:That was, like, the big
Hannah / Eryn:Is it a beholder? Is it a beholder? No.
Thomas / Guy:Fulfilled thing or whatever.
John / Doran:It is. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Or a nice instant thing from Chris Breakker.
Tara / Journey:Like, just it's a bunch of eyeballs, like, glued together.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Bunch of Google Play.
Thomas / Guy:Be that.
Tim / GM:Never mind.
Thomas / Guy:That won't.
Tim / GM:In in Cloudfall, actually, some, like, unexpectedly brilliant moments that we had. John pulled some shit at the end of lore where he had he, like, had this, like, insane heart to heart with Mikey as the island was falling and called Hubert, and I was not That was great. Yeah. Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:But that
Tim / GM:was one of my favorite, like, emotional moments. And, like, the edit came out really good on that because I found I got access to some new sounds around that time and I was really able to, like, use those in that one and, like, yeah. I love, it was episode 15, come sail a whale.
Maggie / Poppy:Come sail a whale.
Hannah / Eryn:You're welcome.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Maggie who names all the episodes now. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Current campaign, though, I think the saving scene Yeah. Like, with Sesk was really cool.
Thomas / Guy:Very good.
Maggie / Poppy:Just Journey being the best of us. Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:I was legitimately, like, tears in my eyes choked up
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:During that scene Yeah. As Journey.
Maggie / Poppy:It was really cool.
Tim / GM:I got very emotional listening back to that because I threw the theme song in, right around the time that Susque is, like, reborn or whatever. And hearing that again, like, it's such an anthem this time around, the theme song. It's like, yeah, I can I can scarcely express, like, how much I love the Cloudfall theme song Mhmm? And, like, how well it fits and how much it shapes my every thought about this campaign.
Hannah / Eryn:We've gotten some really good feedback on the Cloudfall theme being very good. Yeah. The people the people love it. Yeah. I love it too.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Cool. Alright. I feel like that's probably a really good endpoint. Yeah.
Tim / GM:We'll have another one of these big discussions at the end of Cloudfall where we get to talk about the whole adventure. But for now, I just want to say. Share the show with people you love and thanks for listening.