How long have Eric & Amanda been planning that reveal? What does Umbi think of his new acolyte Archimedes? And how did Julia feel when Cammie’s side quest went sideways? All that and more on this Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Afterparty. I'm Amanda McLoughlin and I hereby deny responsibility for any claims to car crashes, broken glasses, sore throats, yelling, breaking your phone because you text message too many exclamation points.
Eric: You texted to hard.
Amanda: Et cetera.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I— I pressed too hard on my Galaxy 4 and then it broke in half.
Julia: Well, you don't have to call Jake out right now.
Amanda: As a result of the reveal of my big secret, thank you for coming. An ASL interpretation is available via text message.
Brandon: Let's look to the judges. Oh, 0's out of 10's, unfortunately.
Julia: 0's out of 10's on everything. Yeah. I think you owe Brandon and I an apology for the—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —emotional distress and shock that we went through.
Eric: Hey, Amanda, can I talk to you over here for a second?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah. What's up?
Eric: Hey, hey, you don't have to tell them shit. They're fucking break it out of a cup. You get a big straw and you slurp it up. That's—that's what keeps us young. We were taking children—we were taking the—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —blood of Christian children before, but now, it is what the fucks from actual play.
Amanda: Now, it's WTFs.
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: Yeah. You know, Eric, I wondered why I woke up this morning and my back wasn't sore, and my skin was clear, and the cut I got on my thumb had healed automatically. And it's— it's your WTFs.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: It's delicious.
Eric: I bet you could sleep on the floor at Bonnaroo.
Amanda: I think you're right. I sleep standing up next to the porta potties and be like, "I'm fresh. I'm ready to go."
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: Hey, Julia, Julia, come here for a second. Come over here over for a second.
Julia: Yeah. Hey, hey, Brandon, what's up?
Brandon: Julia, we could just go on strike, if you want.
Julia: We could.
Brandon: Do you want to unionize?
Julia: Solidarity.
Amanda: Okay, guys, seriously. I have something very important to reveal to you, which is yes, this was a secret from Julia and Brandon. You heard them in real time put this together and it was delicious.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But, secondly, while I appreciated, your Amanda WTFs really need to be Eric WTFs, because this is how the secret came about.
Brandon: [sings This is How We Do It] This is how we do it.
Eric: [sings This is How We Do it] This is how we made it.
Amanda: I'm just picturing a butterfly, like—kind of, like, dancing in the club, and it was great.
Julia: That's adorable.
Eric: What was—this was like—what was that—Amanda, what was that children's show you watched all the time? Was it Zoom?
Amanda: It was Zoom, yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I feel like there was, like, 15 seconds of, like, badly animated—
Amanda: 12-year-olds like tap dancing.
Eric: —12-year-olds dancing around. Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. And Cyberchase is—is the one that we watched recently.
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: Anyway, Troy Riptide's name did come to me fully formed whole-cloth in Julia's kitchen.
Julia: It's true.
Amanda: I talked to myself, Troy—Troy Riptide first thought, best thought, love it. And Butterfly Gunslinger—
Julia: Many truly said that to me.
Amanda: Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Butterfly Gunslinger, Troy Riptide. And then the next day at work, Eric and I were, you know, talking. I was like, "Hey, you know, this is the gunslinger, let me go through the class, make sure I know what it's all about." And, Eric, to my memory, you asked me about Troy's backstory and I was like, "Oh, God, I don't know." And you said, "Well, do you want him to be part of the royal family?" And I was like, "Oh, I don't know. That seems kind of like odd." And then you go, "What about if he's secretly a royal one?" And I said, "Ink it, baby."
Julia: Jot it down. It's happening.
Eric: Secret prince, write it down.
Julia: Oh, my God.
Amanda: So that's the origin story. I am not solely responsible. I've had so much fun keeping a secret from you guys. I'm so sorry, I feel lightful. But I—I do—this is—this is a co-creation Eric WTF as played by me, and I very much enjoyed it.
Eric: A WTF collabo, yeah.
Julia: I'm almost a little disappointed because we had a conversation after this episode finished. And it was just a truly buck wild, and we'll get to the reasons why 18 felt so buck wild in terms of all of these reveals, and stuff like that.
Eric: True.
Julia: But Amanda, like, at one point, we were talking about it and I was like, "Oh, you—you knew this the whole time?" And Amanda was like, "Yeah." And I was like—and, Eric, you pointed out to me—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —that you're like, "Julia, you guessed this," and we had to, like, reel it back in because we didn't want the reveal to happen too early. And I pulled up in the transcript, episode 14, where Troy goes, "Yeah, no, this is my crew now, and me, Troy Riptide, a normal guy from the Crags is best friends with these crewmates. They are my crew, and anything about what's happening in the Crags isn't super relevant to me anymore, because I'm just normal here on a ship with my bruvs." And then—
Brandon: Oh, my God.
Julia: —and then I as an aside went, "Hey, Umbi, why did Troy say he was normal like 5 times?" And then Brandon said, "7 times." I don't know. I said, "Yeah, it's weird." And then I say, "Do you think Troy is royalty? Oh, my gosh." Brandon goes, "Oh, shit." And I said, "Troy might be secret royalty." And then I forgot that.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: Fully forgot it.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: Just flew out of my brain after I made that quote-unquote "joke".
Brandon: Because I thought you were making a genuine, just like, "Wouldn't it be funny if ha, ha, ha, there's no way."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And like the blood drained from my face in that moment, I was like, "Oh, man, like—"
Julia: And I—Amanda, I didn't notice. I didn't fucking notice at all.
Eric: After that episode, I'm like, "Amanda, ease up."
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Like, Threelips is like, "Yeah, I got it. Okay, it's fine."
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And then, like, I'm going back—again, going through transcripts, I'm like, "Why the fuck did Lily Rose, a person you grew up with, not know your last name?"
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Oh, Jesus. Like, the clues are all there.
Amanda: But, Julia, that moment was really, for me, like when I started thinking about when this reveal was going to happen. And so, here's— here's the thing. So when Troy unfurls his wings for dramatic effects in the second round to—to help win, Eric kind of gave me a look in that moment, like, you know, "Are you sure?" And I said, "I want to do this." And then after the session, he's like, "You know that, like, everyone—like you—you are related to the Breakstones, right? And, like, all the guards from the Crags are going to know who you are." And I'm like, "Yeah, no, cat's out of the bag, I—I know it. We all know it. Crags people are here, like, Troy is ready." And it was very exciting. Like, Eric and I didn't rehearse that that conversation was going to go that way. I had no idea the reveal was going to happen with Threelips in that moment. It was—it—it really hit home for me, like so much role-playing. I feel like I am getting some kind of, you know, free therapy through—through this podcast. But it—it was truly amazing. And, Eric, I think you played it incredibly well.
Eric: Yeah. I was thinking about revealing the wings in 17 during round—during the—the slam dunk round as I like to call it. It's like, did you read a bunch of the articles surrounding, like, the royal weddings? And then, of course, like the new coronations, of like when Princess, the old queen who died when she was, like, wearing different jewelry, and how—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —different jewelry means different things, it's like—
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: —"Oh, I—when I wore—when I wore this, it symbolizes this because it's related to this political thing, or I got this from this person, so that's what it's—a metaphorical for." I was thinking it's like—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —that's how I feel about Troy's wings. It's like when people see Troy's wings, it's like, "Oh, you're a Habsburg?" Like, I know, I—you are Breakstone, you have the same pattering as everyone else in the current royal family at the Crags if you know what you're looking for.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And I felt that's why it was so important and why the Crags guards all were like, "Yeah, okay. I—we're all like, hmm, I thought that was the prince, but now I know. Okay."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: And do I know my headcanon for why Troy's wings are clipped? Again, we decided this because Eric said, "You could be any creature you like, but no one can fly, because that will fuck up my mechanics." And I said, "Fair." My headcanon is that the non-firstborn of every would-be royal family has their wings clipped, as a kind of insurance against, like, fratricide.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And sort of interacting within the family.
Julia: Usurping the throne.
Eric: That's incredible.
Brandon: I love it. I mean, I hate it, but I love it.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: That's incredible. Michelle had the same idea. Michelle literally hit that on the head.
Amanda: Oh, yeah?
Eric: Michelle Spurgeon said, "Are Troy's wings clipped as a message to his brother that he won't challenge the throne?"
Amanda: Not self-clipped, but like a thing that parents who are, you know, royally ascendant do, and probably some do it to their sons as well, because they don't want to pass on the line. But that's—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —that's what I've been thinking from the beginning about his—his wings. So he can't fly. I don't think there will be a way for him to fly in the campaign just like, you know—
Julia: And for magical means.
Amanda: Exactly, like permanently. But, man, that magical moment, Cammie assisted, it was incredible.
Julia: That was fun. And I didn't even know what I was doing. I was like, "What if Troy flew?"
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Do you have—do either of y'all have an idea of what the Breakstone wing pattern looks like?
Eric: Yeah. It—it's a specific type of butterfly. I think Amanda had said it in the—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —in the first episode and it's the pattern from the character arc.
Brandon: Oh, okay. Cool.
Amanda: Yes. Okay. So the—the first three things I wrote down about Troy are, one, I found this butterfly which has a very cool, like, racing, like, check, like racing flag, yellow and black pattern with a gray, like, stained glass on the bottom half of the wings and the top half of the wings are black with, like, gray feathers. It looks very beautiful. The scientific name of this butterfly is Troides Hypolitus. And so then I wrote down Troides Hyperion Breakstone cover Troy Riptide.
Brandon: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.
Julia: Oh, my God. Amanda.
Brandon: I was wondering where we got Troy from.
Julia: Troy.
Eric: Troy.
Julia: You ever think about—
Brandon: Troy.
Amanda: Troy.
Julia: —what my name would be if it was Trey?
Brandon: Right.
Julia: Like another great line from that episode.
Amanda: Exactly. So, yeah, I mean, I—there are several questions here that, Eric, you've gathered from the Discord. Here's one from Kelli Griffis who said, "How does this fit in with the earlier Troy backstory?" And then Malignant Sloth really built on that by saying, you know, "Did I know that Troy was related to Hyperion, even the Legends of the Past episode?" And the answer is like, yes, absolutely, the entire time. They continue, Troy even made the pact with Threelips and Rob that he was going to go be a pirate and bring back something for them. Fuck the Royals. Was that something that changed before he actually left? So in my head, everything Troy said to the crew, and in the first you know, what, 15 episodes, was true. Where he—he was an unimportant, like seventh or eighth son, nothing common to him, you know, via the royal line. He did go into the army because like, what do you do with your superfluous sons if you are a, you know, a royal family? You—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —you know, send them into the army. And I think he realized there that he—you know, if he wanted to make a name for himself outside of his brother's shadow, and if his brother is gonna get, you know, killed one of these days, like all the rest of the Royals in the Crags, then, you know, what can he do except try to, like, sort of win and get glory another way? So, I think that—that mission is becoming more complex for him as he realizes, truly in this conversation with Threelips, that his actions have consequences on other people, which is a very young himbo man thing to realize.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Too late when you're already grown. And kind of thinking like, "I don't know what Troy would ask for if he found the salmon right now." And that's been a very fun journey to, like, think about as we've been playing.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: I love that.
Eric: Yeah. That episode—I—I do urge everyone to go back to that episode, the flashback episode.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And re-listen to it now. Because, like, I was looking—I was like, Amanda, you can—I intentionally did not say the species of Hyperion the Haggard.
Julia: I noticed that now.
Eric: That was very important to— that was very important to me that I did not say because Hyperion is also—is also a butterfly, exactly the same like Troy.
Amanda: Yes. That was the one thing that I slipped up on. And if you recall, listeners, we recorded all those separately. And so when Eric and I were recording the Troy one, I had some— he asked me like, "Oh, who is the king right now?" And I said, "Oh, Hyperion is a butterfly." And then, Eric, we stopped the tape. And Eric was like, "I—I think that's too much." And I was like, "Oh, no, no, no. You're right, you're right." So, we, like, went back and retook that, but—
Eric: Yeah. I cut it—I had to cut it out. I cut it out and I bounced it—
Julia: Oh, my God, I was about to ask Brandon if he had heard that.
Amanda: No.
Eric: I cut—
Brandon: You son of a bitch.
Eric: I cut it out—
Julia: Son of a bitch.
Eric: —from the DAW and I bounced the new file when we sent the audio to Brandon.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: That episode was such a nightmare to try to sync up, and now I'm realizing why.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah, that explains it.
Eric: That's why.
Julia: That explains it. Wow.
Eric: I—I'm a spy, I did it.
Julia: You put the glove on before editing the DAW.
Brandon: You bastard.
Eric: You—you're right. I—that's why it was out of sync, Brandon, because I had a big glove on while I was trying to do it.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. So here's a question for everyone from Threesthecharm. They say, "Asking for myself, as someone playing 16 secrets stacked in a trench coat, is this how I imagined Troy being royalty coming to light? And for everyone, how do you handle your characters' secrets? Eric, do you know everybody's secrets?
Julia: I think that's a good question to start. Eric, do you know everyone's secrets?
Eric: Ooh. That's a good question. I—hmm, I think it might be different for all three of my players.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Hold on a second. Is this question—Julia, are you implying that you have secrets?
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: Julia, if you have secrets that are going to be revealed, and I'm the only one left—
Amanda: Keep them to yourself, it's no fun to reveal.
Brandon: —with no secrets.
Julia: I—I revealed one in this episode, which is how Cammie became a pirate—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —which was she straight up got kidnapped?
Brandon: Yeah, that's a sad secret though.
Amanda: That was a big deal, too.
Brandon: I don't like sad secrets.
Julia: Yeah, no. But it wasn't like a bad kidnapping. It was just like, "Oh, you're lucky. Let me take you." And then Cammie was like, "I like this life."
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I think I know all of Amanda's secrets, because for—for example.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I think I would have started to know Julia's secrets, but Julia might have a secret she reveals to me. Brandon might have secrets from himself that he forgot himself.
Julia: Listen, sometimes you come up with secrets on the fly, and there's nothing wrong with that. Like, I didn't really have the—when I created Cammie, I did not have the Baba Rutabaga stuff in my head.
Eric: Hmm. No.
Julia: That was a kind of collaboration between Eric and I, so—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —I feel that, I get it.
Eric: If there was someone to keep a secret from me, it would be Julia. But Brandon has secrets from everyone, including himself.
Julia: Yup. Yup.
Brandon: I don't think Umbi as a character, like, has secrets in that—like, he just kind of lives his life boldly, like, without hiding anything, like he's got—he has everything on his sleeves.
Julia: Right. Like Dominic Toretto.
Brandon: Dominic Toretto, yeah. Because, you know, it's like—you know, he's been a senator his whole life and he's old. And when you're a person of renown—of some renowned and you age into your age, like you just kind of, like, lose the shame that comes with, like, having holding secrets, you know?
Eric: I was more talking about like the do I know you mechanic and things like that.
Julia: Ah.
Eric: They would think though—
Brandon: Oh, I see, I see. Yeah.
Eric: The—the way that Brandon rolls, it's, like, tables and randomness loves him, so we keep finding new things that—
Julia: That's true.
Eric: —that are not planned and then turned into other things.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah. Like you tried to force adultery on me.
Eric: I—
Amanda: Brandon, this is what happens. You say something wild, Eric says, "Okay." And then you say, "Why did you do this to me?" And, Eric is, "You just said it."
Eric: Yeah. Exact—100%.
Brandon: No, excuse—well, that may be true, Amanda. But in this case, Eric made that joke and I was like, "That's a hilarious ass joke”
Eric: You weren't in the room! That happened—like you—you—like you intentionally were not in the room.
Amanda: You were lost. You were lost.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Oh, that was good. No, that was tight. I lo—I missed that avocado man who's dead, and so were all of his family.
Amanda: I know. Sorry. Oh, like, he was in the spiderwebs, he could still be alive.
Eric: That's true. Um—
Brandon: No, I think he was a smear on the wall.
Eric: He was a smear on the wall—
Amanda: Oh, yeah. No, you're right, you're right. You're right.
Eric: —all of his—all of his lineage were in the spiderwebs.
Julia: He deffo died.
Eric: He deffo died.
Amanda: Bummer. Anyway—
Eric: See, characters died in this campaign, folks.
Julia: It's true.
Eric: It's true.
Julia: It is true.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: It happens.
Brandon: Sometimes—in dark ways, sometimes by being hilariously falling down a long flight of stairs
Eric: The longest flight of the stairs ever—ever existed.
Brandon: Longest flight of stairs and croquet balls.
Julia: We ha—we have to wait to get to that. We have to wait to get to that.
Eric: It was falling so much stuff.
Amanda: It was. I know. Here—
Julia: Alright. Let's—let's start from the beginning.
Amanda: Let's run it back. So in–in Episode 16, we meet the other competitors, we bond with the pirates around this—the bonfire, talking about what the salmon is, which is an incredible conversation. And I was just like, "Hmm, what do you guys think?" And we were all like, "Oh, my gosh, philosophical meditation," like just coming up with it on the fly.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Umbi tries to sabo Archimedes, but Archimedes loves you. And we see—
Julia: Just obsessed.
Amanda: —Threelips is sort of spiraling, you know, sort of into the confrontation we ended up seeing in 18.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: So players, any feelings, any questions, anything that you loved or stands out to you from that episode?
Julia: Eric, I'm really glad that you worked with me to kind of come up with a mechanic for the on-the-fly tea readings.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: And that was really—
Amanda: So fun.
Julia: —really fun, very cool. Love just trying to be able to, like, kind of parse your idea of what these readings could be. And in particular, really liked the kind of, like, way that I could manipulate—
Eric: Oh, sure.
Julia: —Threelips with that. And also, like, the mystery of Radbert, who seems like just a dude right now—
Eric: Just a dude.
Julia: —had a really weird reading, so I was like, "Hmm, interesting."
Eric: Yeah. It was kind of actually the reverse of how we did your premonitions in the beginning of Monster of the Week—
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —the Monster of the Week game. So, I thought that the— I felt like I was doing—yeah, we were looking through it, like, the other way of the kaleidoscope, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So that was real—that's where–where I pulled from, but it's like—
Julia: I just love premonitions in tabletop RPGs, man. I think—just think they're fun.
Eric: True. And, uh—
Amanda: It's so fun.
Eric: And it turns out they're relevant. I mean, like, here's the thing about tea readings. If you're actually someone who could see the future a little bit, who has an ability called Tasseogeography, what am I supposed to do?
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: I would have loved if you had read Troy's tea leaves, and it'd been like, "Oh, you're a royal?"
Eric: I 100% would have done that. Yeah. 5,000%—
Julia: Yup.
Eric: —I would have— it would have been like, "I don't know the tarot—"
Julia: What would have been?
Eric: "—I don't know the Tarot deck well enough, but it would have been—"
Julia: Just mix things up, it's fine.
Eric: It would have been like the tower and as in that—like—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —it stands tall, and it's important, and people look at it, and blah, blah, blah. I would a 100% would have done something like that.
Julia: Yeah. It would have been like the Emperor.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: You'd be like, "Huh, weird."
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Amazing. Well, let's get into some audience questions. This is from J_powers_ very important. What does Smelly Hayes's body smell and taste like?
Julia: Well, it smells like, as we've established, rotten cat food, or old cum, or—
Amanda: Those pear trees.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: Well, that's what those pear trees smell like.
Julia: Yeah, that's what those pear trees smell like, Bradford pear.
Brandon: I just wanted listeners to know that Julia is not, like, making this up from experience. Like it says on the Wikipedia page, smells like old semen.
Julia: Does it really?
Brandon: Yes.
Julia: Oh, my God. Okay. So it wasn't just me.
Brandon: No.
Julia: That is definitely the vibe.
Eric: Shout out to your nasty, nasty girl, Mother Nature.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Shout out to—
Eric: Ju—Julia made the most ridiculous face. Like, yeah, I'm gonna roast, Julia's like, "Nope, that is Mother Gaia. Thank you very much."
Julia: Yup.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: It ain't me, her. Yeah. And then what does she taste like?
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: I don't know, she's a tree. She tastes like wood, I guess.
Amanda: You can—you can decline and just say that's a rude question.
Julia: Well— so, no, they're probably asking because we said she was a Bradford Pear.
Eric: Oh.
Julia: Bradford Pears are flowering, but their—they don't have, like, edible fruit. They have these like little, tiny—
Amanda: Nasty berries.
Julia: —berries. Nasty berries. But they don't—you can't eat them.
Eric: I'm writing down that NPC name, Nasty Berries.
Brandon: Oh, you could, it's supposed to be good.
Julia: Nasty Berries.
Brandon: I know. I was about to say that's what they call me in college, Eric.
Eric: They still did call you that in college.
Amanda: Here's one from Savedman97. "I'm sure others will ask too, but can we hear more about the meeting people chart? I assume it was a duel chart, hence the two D10s—"
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: "—with one being the type of person and one being the circumstance or something to that effect."
Julia: This was very good and I didn't realize at the time like, one, you hear me in the episode be like, "Eric, why did I just get a woman who confessed a murder to me then walked away and Troy got, like, a person that he knew from his past?"
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And you're like, "Because it's randomized, Julia. I'll send you the chart." And I was like, "Okay, okay. Fair enough." I hope I see that old lady again.
Eric: Hopefully.
Julia: Me, too.
Eric: Yeah. I—I like—
Brandon: She's living her best life, so—
Eric: I really like the experience of just everyone being led out from a big stadium. I have that experience—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —a lot when I go to basketball games, especially Madison Square Garden because there's like only one entrance and exit really there. So, it's like—
Amanda: Seems safe.
Eric: —everyone leaves at the same time.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And it's underground.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That's the extra fun part. You're going from very far above ground—
Amanda: Seems safe.
Eric: —and then to underground. So, I—I just kind of like that experience and give it— letting you bump into people as well. And then I just—I just wanted to see what would happen, and some things I wanted to be plot-relevant, and other things weren't. And I think it ended up being up to you. What—what was that? The one that I did to Julia specifically, just so happened to be very funny.
Julia: Yes. Especially to start it off.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. So let me read out explicitly what I have written for all of your pairings, and then we can go further into the table. Because again, hey, folks, this was just two sets of 10 things that I paired together. The first one were types of people and the second thing were wants, and what they—what they want from you.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So the first pairing was Julia one which is a—an incredibly old person wants to tell you a secret.
Brandon: Oh, so you—
Julia: And the secret was murder.
Brandon: I love it.
Amanda: So good.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: You have kind eyes.
Eric: The second one, I think, was Amanda one, which was someone unexpected from your past wants to get something valuable from you. And that was Lily-Rose—
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: —trying to figure out what Troy's doing, and that was valuable.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: The one from Brandon was, oh, teens who are rapscallions want to know why you're here.
Amanda: Just, guys, the dice don't lie.
Julia: Yup.
Amanda: They don't lie.
Brandon: Dice don't lie.
Julia: The dice love to fuck with Brandon.
Eric: They do.
Brandon: They do. They do.
Julia: That's what I learned.
Eric: I want—I want everyone to know. That could have been anyone. Anyone could have done—
Julia: That could have been—
Eric: —an updog or a mind goblin. But it just so happened, it happened to the old man.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: And then we had Amanda two, Amanda two was the mayor. The mayor wanted to know why you're here, so it ended up being kind of glad-handing session. Julia two was someone unexpected from your past—
Julia: Smelly Hayes.
Eric: —who wants to offer to help you. Bing, bang, boom.
Julia: Oh. That's nice.
Eric: And then—and then the Brandon two was a co-worker on the sea wants to teach you about Dr. Radish.
Julia: Ah, okay.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: I didn't know it was specifically a Dr. Radish Radish thing, but there you are.
Eric: Yeah. So, that—and that was perfect.
Brandon: I love that book.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Love it.
Eric: Yeah. So—and then some other ones. I mean, there were some other fun pairings.
Amanda: Yeah. Eric, Savedman wanted to know if there was a combo you really wanted to see.
Eric: Yeah. I wanted to reveal their—at number five was a friend of yours, so an NPC we knew. Number four was a family member or a wi—or a wife of a very powerful person that I thought would be fun.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: And then number 10—
Julia: That’s pretty cool.
Eric: —was the literal spirit of competition.
Julia: Oh, but we ended up seeing him anyway, so that's—
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was there. That was definitely there two episodes earlier. And then some wants—oh, number five was invite you to their secret club.
Julia: Oh. What—
Brandon: Oh, that would have been tight.
Julia: Yeah. I want to hear, like, ideas of what that would have been.
Eric: Yeah. I wrote down, "Oh, we're not like any old sea monster cult. We're a cool sea monster cult. "
Julia: Oh, classic.
Eric: Number six was to announce that you're blessed/incredible. I had read on Twitter recently that Mother Teresa like go— to go around and just say that random children were going to be, like, the coming of Christ, and she did it a lot, apparently.
Julia: That's—that's wild.
Eric: And I—and I thought it was just really wild, so I included that.
Brandon: She's just giving kids like young people confidence, you know?
Eric: Or—or like—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Or like intentionally fading them, you know?
Brandon: One of the other.
Eric: Yeah, one of the other.
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: And then—and then number one was get closer to Troy, which I thought would have been interesting depending on who—who got that one.
Julia: Yeah, definitely would have been like Lucky Edie or something like that.
Eric: Yeah, Lucky Edie, I—because we—she said that she was probably gonna go, so I was ready for her to show up if need—for her to show up again if needed, from the NPC you know one.
Julia: Good.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Fucking Lucky Edie.
Eric: Yeah, I know. She's okay. She's the best. I love—I just love dropping her in when I want to cause conflict now.
Julia: Damn you—damn you and your love of conflict.
Brandon: Every time she comes up, I'm just—I just want to, like, say the most neutral statement that is possible. Just like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —"Hello, I acknowledge your presence."
Julia: And it's just so funny for me because Cammie feels like a character who does not dislike people very much.
Eric: For sure.
Julia: And so when you're like, "'Yeah, you don't like this person." I'm like—
Julia (as Cammie): Okay. Well, how do I express that?
Eric: Yeah. I was also wondering if you were going to run into Orello earlier as well, as another person—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —who I said it was going to be there, but later on. So that would have been another place for you to run into—run into random people.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: But then I ended up just, like, having him show up anyway.
Julia: Yes. Instead, he was just drunk at a party with us.
Eric: Classic Orello. Orello was just Orello-ing it up.
Brandon: That's just Orello, baby.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Just Orello-ing it up.
Brandon: I assumed incorrectly, I guess, that the spirit of competition was sort of, like, a genie in the lamp situation. He couldn't leave his castle, but I guess not.
Julia: Nope. Apparently not. Apparently not. Apparently, he's just a dick.
Brandon: A murdering dick.
Julia: Don't look coquettishly at me when I say that.
Eric: Ooh, ahh. Ooh, ahh. Ooh.
Julia: Damn you.
Amanda: And now, we have a corner that I think, Eric, you've been working on names. We'll close with—with the name. So just, folks, keep a pin in this one. But this is, what I'm just gonna call for the moment, a series of great questions for Malignant Sloth.
Eric: Yes. I think that we're getting to the point where Malignant Sloth has—could Malignant Sloth has asked question—plenty of questions before—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —on recent Afterparties. But Malignant Sloth gave so many good questions from—in this particular series of episodes, that I feel like that they're getting up there with The Question Surgeon about nicknames for them.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I have some that I want to float to you right now.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Oh, great. Thank you.
Eric: The first is Nasty Berries.
Brandon: I'm gonna veto that one.
Julia: Yeah, I'm gonna say no on that one.
Eric: Okay, that's fine. Alright. Hey, first thought, best thought. That's fine.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Alright. So I have—so we can do one that's like a motto, so slow and steady—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —Malignant Sloth.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: But then I'm also looking for some—some rhymes here and it turns out—and trying to rhyme with the word sloth is really fun. So, I have—I have some questions, quote the sloth. That's a verse—that's slant rhyme. It's next to each other.
Julia: Aw. Okay.
Amanda: Cute.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: It's question broth from Malignant Sloth.
Julia: Ooh. Making that soup.
Eric: And then it's so frothy—it's so frothy from the question slothy.
Julia: I think I like—
Amanda: Eric, they're all incredible.
Julia: I think I like the broth one the best.
Eric: That one's the most, like, very similar to—The Question Surgeon wanted definitely the most, like pattery, pithy.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I think it's like—I think you have to be like, "Alright, it's time to get into the soup with the"—whatever the fuck you said, the—the question broth.
Eric: Get into the question broth. Let's—let's—
Amanda: Uh-huh. Here we go. Here we go. Are you guys ready?
Eric: Let's slide into the warm soup.
Amanda: Guys, guys, guys, I'm gonna do some live sound design. Alright.
Brandon: Do it, do it.
Amanda: Okay. Brandon, you need to take some notes here.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Time for question broth from Malignant Sloth.
Julia: Great.
Brandon: Yeah, perfect, no notes.
Amanda: Nailed it. That's it. That's it.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: Alright. Yeah.
Amanda: Thank you.
Julia: We got it.
Amanda: Thank you, Eric. Malignant Sloth, you will find your official scepter of naming in the mail. And by the way, I've been—I've been—I've been cooking on Librarychick. I think Librarychick deserves a moniker for all the Australian goods.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Perhaps the postmaster, that's what I've been thinking about. They're like—
Brandon: Ooh, that's nice.
Eric: I actually haven't been able to tell you, Librarychick sent us more stuff, because there's even more needlework that got lost in the mail, and so there's more stuff. And there's—there's prezzies for all of us.
Brandon: Oh, my God.
Amanda: Oh, the postmaster.
Julia: I'm so excited.
Amanda: Well, the postmaster is getting the joken hot and fresh off the presses, folks. But we'll—we'll tell you about that in the mid-roll, alright?
Julia: Just by the way, postmaster, the pork belly potato chips that you sent me are perhaps the best potato chips I've ever eaten. And I'm not gonna ask you for more, but I'm just saying, I like weird potato chips, so—
Eric: The potato chips from that one Tasmanian company are crazy good. The Finger—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —Lime one was also really good.
Amanda: And the chicken.
Eric: Yeah, the chicken.
Julia: The Lemon Chicken was out of this world. I didn't try the Finger Lime one, so I'll have to try those next time.
Eric: It was like—
Amanda: It was really good.
Eric: It was like a—a twist on salt and vinegar—
Amanda: Like salt and vinegar, right?
Eric: —but it was like—
Julia: Nice.
Eric: —even more acidic, yeah.
Amanda: Oh, so good.
Eric: Because Librarychick is from Tasmania, from that area of Australia.
Julia: Fuck yeah.
Eric: And they have this one—this one company makes the craziest flavors of chips that are like Tasmanian-inspired.
Brandon: Inspired, yeah.
Eric: They're inspired by that—by the local flora and fauna.
Julia: Very cool.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: So good.
Julia: Love it.
Amanda: Alright, folks. Let's all take a nice warm cup of question broth from Malignant Sloth.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Yup.
Amanda: How does Umbi feel about Archimedes being his little follower? I know you mentioned he's loving it, but how does he feel about it as an outcome of having poisoned him? Does he hope to help shape his potential future builder ship? Or is he just no thoughts, head empty having fun? Brandon, this might be a secret to yourself, but let's uncover it together.
Brandon: No, I don't think it—I—I was actually gonna say earlier one of my favorite things about that episode, Eric, was the—I—listening back—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —or remembering how doomy, and like spooky, and imposing—
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: —you made Archimedes sound in the beginning. And then just switching them on a dime to a little, like, Golden Retriever puppy. It was so good.
Eric: I—I distinctly remember because I knew I had planned ahead of time that that's how Archimedes was going to respond. And I remember you going, "Oh, no. The consequences of my actions."
Julia: Oh, no. Not again.
Brandon: No, I love it. I mean, like I—yeah. I—I—not head empty, like full-on, head full, let's go, I love this.
Julia: Head full, loving it.
Amanda: That's commitment—commitment to the myth.
Brandon: Yeah. Commitment, baby.
Julia: I also—my favorite first line from Archimedes was, "I don't have availability for that," which is just hilarious.
Amanda: Eric, it's—it's—you—like, you are playing, like, 5 to 10 characters per episode, and each of them is so distinct.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Like, if— if occasionally we'd asked you like, "Oh, who's that? Or, like, "Which is that?" Like, when you were playing 20 superheroes and, like, near the denouement of Campaign Two.
Eric: Right.
Amanda: It would be like, "Oh, which one was that?" That has not happened at all, because I think your voices and your cadence, and just the—the word choice that each of these characters has is, like, exceptional.
Eric: Stop.
Julia: It also helps that they're all like bugs and plants, so we can be like, "Oh, yeah, the—the dung beetle person. Sure. Great."
Eric: Honestly, that's—that's really helping me. It's—that—they—
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: —they feel more distinct in my head because I can make them different speech.
Julia: Not people.
Eric: Not people, yeah, exactly.
Amanda: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Instead of just like, "You're the one—oh, you're the smart girl with the mushroom man. Duh."
Julia: The smart teen.
Eric: "You're the smart teen, oh, God."
Julia: Sure.
Eric: So, it's—yeah, it's— it's helping. You know, it's fun. I mean, I feel like I'm just pulling from, like, good character tropes, but it's nice being able—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —to, like lean on that stuff, because it—being able to bring, like, the standards of fiction, I guess, to improvisational storytelling is just like—yes, it makes me feel like I'm doing a little bit of flourish. Because like, you know, I'm a ve—I imagine a lot of this stuff happening in One Piece and, you know, I've been imposing character getting owned, and then flipping it around, and being like, "I love it when you owned me,” because it feels very pat to me. But I'm glad that I can like-
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Then it's like—here's this regu— here's this basketball, Brandon, even though it's a basketball—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —and you can buy 100 of them at the store, I have given you a present. And I think that that's—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —a nice way to think about, like, storytelling. It can be basic, but it's still—it is what it is.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Eric, did you buy me a basketball?
Julia: Did you get Brandon a basketball?
Brandon: Did you get me a basketball?
Eric: I'll never tell.
Julia: Is it that cool '90s blue and purple and black one?
Eric: I'll never tell.
Amanda: Our—our first holiday as a couple, my dad did buy Eric a basketball from Costco as part of his present, and just said--
Eric: It was good.
Julia: Nice.
Eric: It was funny.
Julia: I don't know.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Alright. Here's some broth for Julia. How is Cammie feeling about running into Alicia? I know Julia said she didn't have a name for the character yet. How much about their relationship did you know at that time?
Eric: Shout out to your boy, Fantasy Name Generator.com
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I love you.
Julia: Yeah. I knew—like we talked about earlier this episode, I knew that Cammie had been kidnapped. I knew the kind of person that had kidnapped Cammie. And, like, again, we're talk— I say kidnapped, it was just like a, "Hey, you're coming with me." And Cammie was like, "Oh, okay." But, yeah, like I—I knew what the relationship was kind of like and, like, what motivated this person for taking Cammie. But I didn't know, like, who they were precisely. It wasn't as clear as a, like, Baba Rutabaga situation, but I did know, like, the relationship to a certain extent.
Amanda: Extremely cool.
Eric: I'm imagining the inventory system from Resident Evil and from Dredge where—where Smelly Hayes is like–
Eric (as Smelly Hayes): I got an 11-year-old space in my cargo. I think you would fit right there.
Julia: You only take two pieces.
Eric (as Smelly Hayes): You take two squares worth.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: Yeah, so Cammie, was like the—the ship witch for a little while before she ended up at the Hold.
Brandon: Delicious. A ship witch.
Amanda: Incredible. Love this for you Julia.
Julia: A ship witch. I love a ship witch and I love a chip witch.
Amanda: That's true. How is Cammie feeling about having to reveal some of her past to Havana in order to get him away from Continuous Thankful?
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Does she feel like maybe they can steer him on a slightly less scary version of the path?
Julia: Yeah. I think that since we made that decision—
Eric: Who is—who is this we fellow—
Julia: —Cammie has been nervous.
Eric: —I've heard so much about? Who's that?
Julia: I don't know.
Amanda: I was on board. I was on board. I—I co-signed.
Julia: Right.
Amanda: I do take liability for that decision.
Julia: I think—yes. I think that was a very difficult decision for Cammie to make, and it was a difficult decision for Julia to make because I was a little concerned that this was, like, going to reveal something that would turn Continuous Thankful against her. And that—like, in revealing that, that she might end up like, I don't know, persecuted in some way. But at the same time, I think that Cammie's motivation for telling Havana about their background was very much like, "Okay, I don't want you to fall down the path of the people who persecuted me in the past. And, like, I think you can be even more and better than these people and make your own informed decisions." And so I think that was the choice that Cammie made in telling Havana about who they used to be.
Amanda: Right on.
Eric: Totally. There are a lot of—a lot of people in this episode wa—were asking validation from another person. And whether that validation is true, or where that comes from, or with the person asking for it had gotten a lot—everyone asking for validation had not had it. And as soon as they found a place where they could get it, they immediately ran towards it. And Archimedes got it, and Havana got it once he opened his eyes a little bit, and Threelips didn't. And that's kind of why Threelips started to spiral.
Julia: RIP. RIP Troy and Threelips.
Amanda: RIP to them. However, I did make mini chip witches, so I'm going to pop into the kitchen and grab that, and I'll be right back.
Brandon: Amanda!
Julia: Amanda, thank you.
Amanda: They're vegan.
Julia: Whoa.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda, and I need to remind you that Eric and I are going to the UK. On August 19th, we are doing a live show with Jasper Cartwright and a special guest in Manchester, England. We are so excited. You should come if you live in the UK, or in Western Europe, or you just want to visit people in Manchester, come on through. We'll be playing games, answering advice questions and more. Get tickets at gamesandfeelings.com/live. Link is also in the description. We really want to see you there. And hey, I know we updated you on the RSS feed here on the podcast yesterday, but we made jokens. These are joke tokens that you can give to your friends when they are being particularly funny or keep to yourself. I keep one on my desk and it's a really great, like, fidget toy to have on hand. They are a satisfying incredible size and shape and weight are made of metal. They're very hefty, and it's very exciting. And one in every 33 orders of jokens will also receive a coveted black pearl joken. So not just the gold jokens that you are actually ordering, but also a bonus additional black pearl joken, just because we think it's fun, and it reminds us of Researchers Delight. So you got to go check out the joken, go to join thepartypod.com/merch to check them out now. And hey, remember if you are a patron at the $10 level or above, you get 10% off our entire merch store. So check your Patreon messages where you can get your custom link and password to that special discounted merch store. Check them out, y'all. We're so excited. Jokens are available for preorder at jointhepartypod.com/merch. Welcome to our newest patrons, Ellen, Jess, and Grace. We are only able to make the show with all of the time and love and energy that we do because of your support on Patreon. And by the way, there's a little bit of an issue with billing on Patreon recently, so if you did not see any charges go through for the previous month, just go ahead and take a look and shoot us a message if you have any problems at all. Because you know that being a patron gives you access to our patron-only Discord, our party planning bi-weekly podcast, and all kinds of other amazing benefits. Join us at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. And shout out especially to our Early Access crew, you get access to every episode of the show a whole day before everybody else. And it is so cool to drop that episode and watch your reaction start to come in on Mondays. Not even Tuesdays, y'all. Join us at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. This week at Multitude, we have been doing so much cool stuff over on Head Heart Gut. By which I mean Eric has introduced a very interesting new twist and change to the way that we structure our survey episodes of Head Heart Gut. You're gonna have to listen to hear exactly what I'm talking about. But trust me, there is so much great stuff coming down the pike. This is, of course, our weekly debate show, where we talk about the best three things, try to figure out the best of a set of three items from pop culture or the world we live in. That has included stuff like best arcade game, best primary color, best thing to do at an amusement park, and all kinds of very fun stuff coming up. Now, you have to join the Multi-Crew to get access to Head Heart Gut. It is one of the ways that we sustain our business in a very, you know, turbulent and, like, strange time to be making a living in digital media. We're only able to do this because of your support in the Multi-Crew. So if you want another weekly Multitude show, if you want to hear us debate all kinds of low-stakes but high-intensity stuff, you've got to join the Multi-Crew. Go to multicrew.club to join today and get access to year's worth of Head Heart Gut. We are sponsored this week by Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzles. Now, I am particularly excited about this sponsor because I already own a ton of Ravensburger Puzzles. My grandma and I have a puzzle swap where we send each other puzzles that we have already finished, so that the other person can enjoy them. And Ravensburger truly you can see the difference in the quality of their puzzles. They have huge attention to detail and really give you an amazing puzzling experience. They actually date back to 1883, and I know all kinds of people and families, including my own who have had Ravensburger Puzzles as a, like, intergenerational, you know, through line and activity for decades. So whether you are doing kind of, like, a mindful activity for yourself or you are doing an activity with somebody older, or younger, or friend, or family time, you got to check out what Ravensburger makes. Whether you are going for, again, something that's doable in a little bit of time, maybe with a younger family member, or a puzzle that goes all the way up to 40,000 pieces. I have to see it to believe it, that thing is massive. Go shop Ravensburger today. Go to your local game store or you can even get them on Amazon. Again, that's Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzles. Finally, the show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Now, sometimes in life, we are faced with tough choices where the path forward isn't always clear. I find this happens to me a lot, actually, and I get overwhelmed with the things that are in front of me, or I kind of stick to a comfortable default, because I'm worried about what might happen if something new were to go on. And whether I'm dealing with big choices that I want to talk through with someone who is, you know, removed from the situation and trying to help me advocate for what will be best for me, or I'm trying to talk about small things in the day-to-day, and say like, "Hey, how—what are some strategies? How can I get less overwhelmed with the stuff that's on my plate?" That is something that I go to therapy for. And when I could not find a therapist that took my insurance, or was affordable, or was accepting new patients, or was remotely, like, commutable from my house, I use BetterHelp, which is an entirely online way to access therapy. It's designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. So let therapy be your map with BetterHelp. Visit betterhealth.com/jointheparty today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, .com/jointheparty. And now, let's get back to the Afterparty.
[theme]
Amanda: Alright, folks. We are back and I hope you enjoy your chip witches.
Julia: I am!
Brandon: [mouthful] They're so good. Oh, my God.
Eric: Mine taste like Cammie.
Amanda: Yum.
Julia: Eww.
Amanda: Eww.
Julia: Yeah, chamomile.
Eric: Oh, it chamomile. I don't like it, it's flowery.
Julia: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Let's get into Episode 17, where we had our big nerd walking tour.
Julia: Yay!
Amanda: Greenfolk-sonas for me, and a past secret for Brandon, round two of the Bullseye Games, and, of course, Troy unfurling his wings at the end.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And for me, the—the favorite collaboration that us players have done as we sort of colluded behind the scenes to figure out what our duo-paired session tricks would be—
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: —before revealing it to Eric in the moment.
Julia: Uh-hmm. It was very fun. I think someone asked a question about how we went about doing that. Do we want to talk about that?
Amanda: Yeah, that's from SneakySloths. Ooh, they're sneaking in.
Julia: A second sloth.
Amanda: A second sloth.
Eric: There are multiple sloths. This is a—
Julia: Okay.
Eric: We have a Malignant Sloth and a Sneaky Sloth.
Julia: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Incredible.
Julia: Alright.
Brandon: I think all sloths are sneaky, because they're so slow, right? Or they're not sneaky 'cause they're so slow.
Julia: They're not sneaky.
Eric: You can't see them coming.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Amanda: So they say, "Did Amanda, Julia, and Brandon come up with their performances independently and then come prepped with a surprise for Eric for this arc?"
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: "Did they get time during the session to come up with it or did they prep prior to the session? Well—
Julia: We prep prior.
Amanda: —Eric's very magnanimous and said, "Hey, this is gonna happen next time. So over the next week, talk to each other, figure out what to do."
Julia: And we did.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda and Julia: And we did.
Eric: As related to how I've been calling this the slam dunk contest, it's related to the—all of the thing that they do in the NBA All-Star game where, you know, people prepare slam dunks that they have—but then they have to execute it, right? So, it's like you can prepare to do whatever you want, but I am going to call for rolls to see how it all comes together.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: But don't tell me what it i—don't tell me what it is, I want to be surprised. Then—that's wha—that's what happened.
Amanda: And can I say? I'm so glad that the format of the games, Eric, that you have prepared for us, involve all of us. Because I was so worried at first that it would just be like, "Alright. Troy shoots many arrows over and over." And, like, one, that's boring. Two, that's a lot of pressure on me. And three, it means that I would feel like I was hogging airspace and, like, not letting, you know, my crewmates and my, you know, friends and colleagues on the podcast, like, have some time. So, I'm really glad we all got to have a hand on the ball and none more so than in round two.
Julia: Amanda, in our group chat, you literally said, "Every time Troy has a character moment, I'm like, 'Oh, no, I hope Brandon and Julia don't think I'm hogging the spotlight.'"
Brandon: I know.
Julia: To which both of us were like, "What are you talking about?" We love it so much.
Amanda: Thank you.
Brandon: Yeah, I—there's no better feeling than hearing a Troy reveal.
Amanda: Oh, thank you.
Eric: Hey, is there—is there a player's group chat and doesn't have a name?
Julia: It doesn't currently have a name, but it could.
Amanda: It could.
Brandon: I mean, there's just—yeah, it's just a DM. Yeah.
Julia: I think it's Troy in the Riptide is what our crew channel is.
Amanda: But specifically, I love that Cammie and Umbi both got to use proficiencies of theirs. Like—and Julia and Brandon as people in our roundup celebrity, which is incredible, and the highest my adrenaline has been in more than a year. But in—in this contest, specifically, I think each of us kind of came to the table with, like, stuff we think is cool that we would like to do. And then we tried to figure out how to, like, fit all those things together in two separate rounds.
Julia: Yeah, yeah. I—I think I ended up telling you that I had a spell that we didn't end up using, which was a spell called psychedelics–
Brandon: Woah.
Julia: —which is original to Valdas Spire of Secrets, which is, for a moment, the colors around you shift in a rainbow swirl before coming to rest far from their original hues. The colors of all creatures and objects you choose within range change randomly and remain brightly and unnaturally colored for the duration.
Brandon: Yo.
Amanda: So good.
Julia: Which is kind of fun.
Amanda: So good.
Julia: And then Amanda was like—Amanda gave me, like, some suggestions based off of stuff that I sent her. And then she said, "This one's extremely funny." And then I said, "I pick spells for shenanigans." Which is true, which is true.
Amanda: Eric, Helen | bookqueen101, wants to know, "How did the scoring work for the second round both in terms of the crew's performance and also the other competitors? And did you know the scores of the other competitors before the PCs performed?"
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, I'm curious about that too.
Eric: I had percentages in my head much, like, round one. I think it was also relative to how you all did. I think, you know—
Brandon: Right.
Eric: —you can think about this in any sort of like—hey, so imagine you're doing Wii bowling, right? It's like—
Julia: Okay.
Eric: It's like—
Julia: Interesting.
Amanda: Oh, hang on, Eric, let me put on my safety strap. Excuse me.
Eric: Yeah, put on your safety strap of your WII. It's like, you know, I have an idea of what the hardness level is, and how well certain characters will do. Like, hey, Radbert isn't actually that good at any of the stuff that's happening, right? And neither is Threelips.
Julia: Interesting, interesting.
Brandon: How dare you? Rude boy.
Eric: And—and then I did some—I did some charisma rolls on behalf of—a lot of the other people as well. I thought that this was definitely the one that was the most open. If you all did something that was truly incredible, then you probably would have taken first as is what happened.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Because, you know, I didn't have any, like, straight-up bards for this one. Which is certainly like a—a way I could have taken as one of the characters, but I didn't because, uh—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: You fucking hate bards.
Eric: I didn't say that. Julia said that. So, uh, so—
Julia: It was an accusation.
Eric: Yeah. And, like, you know, I—I think I also rolled for Continuous Thankful specifically who really beefed it, and especially because Cammie's was messing with them. So, that was also part of it.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: So that one specifically, I thought Continuous might pull it out. But—but he's confidence was incredibly shaken.
Julia: Yeah, that was one of the hexes that I pulled specifically for shenanigans. Like, I got to learn a new hex when I leveled up last time, and I was like, "Oh, I can, you know, do another debuff. I could do something"—I'm like, "Oh, Scurry."
Eric: Scurry's incredible.
Amanda: Scurry.
Julia: "Scurry."
Eric: Scurry's incredible. Scurry's absolutely incredible.
Amanda: So every time you use it, Julia, it just, like, warms my heart.
Julia: It's so good. I love it so much.
Eric: Yeah. So, yeah, I just— just vibes, and also I rolled some dice and—but you— you dese—you deserve the number one spot, truly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I love the idea that it's possible that we had—in Eric's opinion, it would have been like, "Oh, that shit both of y'all did was really boring. You got last place."
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: It—it was the rolls, though. Like if—if—
Brandon: No, I know.
Eric: If someone would have choked—I mean, that's what happened with Continuous Thankful, right? It's like you have multiple tries, but—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —it's certainly less impressive, the number of times you do it. Similar to the NBA All-Star game and the dunk contest.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yes. True facts.
Amanda: Barbellsforbarbie, incredible username.
Julia: Great name.
Amanda: Wants to know, "What would Umbi have done if someone else had gotten the truth serum? Or if he had by mistake?
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: Yeah. Let's go back there. Here's—here's the thing that Brandon does. Sometimes Brandon says, "Hey, I'm stealing your camera. It's mine now." And then Brandon just starts taking some footage of a book.
Brandon: And I'mma pawn it for cash.
Eric: He goes out and starts shooting skate videos, and I'm like, "Where—I need my camera back!"
Julia: Uh-hmm. Nobody gave us, like, the great opportunity to finally, like, learn more about Kid Cervantes who, like, admittedly is the most mysterious of the competitors at the moment.
Eric: I just want to say I had no idea any of that was coming. Not even ink—
Julia: Yup.
Eric: Not even an inkling, no way.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I mean, I didn't either. I kind of made it up on the spot while we were figuring out what to do. But that's why it wasn't very—a very fleshed-out game.
Julia: It's just like, "I'm pouring stuff into potions, drink one."
Brandon: But, yeah, I mean, like there's definitely a opportunity, I guess, for Eric to be like—Kid Cervantes doesn't want to play a game with you, and I would have been like, "Okay."
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: "Not fair, but do that. But, um—"
Eric: Fro—from the—from the classic podcast improv school of no-
Brandon: No, but—yeah.
Eric: —shut the fuck up, you're dumb."
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: But, no, I—I would have answered the questions that Eric asked me. I don't know.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Like, I think it was a genuine—just like, "Let's see what happens, and it'll be funny, one way or the other."
Eric: True—truly.
Julia: I'm glad I've got to participate in that, and that it worked out so great.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: Did I know that Kid Cervantes didn't have a mouth the whole time? No. Did I know that Kid Cervantes has never spoken before, before I said it? No.
Julia: I said that out loud. I was like, "Kid Cervantes hasn't spoken yet." And you're like--
Eric: No, no. I knew he—he does not speak—he has not spoken, I knew that.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: But did he—
Julia: Okay.
Eric: —did he not have a mouth the whole time? Not sure. I'm certainly not sure about that.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So—yeah. And then when I said that, and Julia was like, "That's so wild." I'm like, "Nice. Okay, I'm gonna—I'm just gonna pursue that."
Julia: That's fucked up.
Eric: "That's gonna be cool."
Julia: I love it. I love a fucked-up thing, as we know very well.
Eric: Yeah. I think I also just wanted to establish that he has been out and about for a long time. They—I know that, like, immediately, Troy was like, "I'm the best sharpshooter in the Great Salt Sea." It's like, "Okay. Sure. Sure, Troy." But, like—
Julia: "Sure, but you're not, bro”
Eric: —you who might be, Kid Cervantes, like, right?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —like, notably. And so, I really wanted to take that opportunity to establish from him that like they've been—or that they've been around.
Julia: He's been here before. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: The fact that he's won 7 out of 10 of the last Bullseye Games is wild.
Eric: Yeah. And especially because they're never—as we said, they're non-sequential, so it could have been over any amount of time.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. The listeners want to know, and so do I, how do you not die those three times?
Brandon: Because he won, what do you mean?
Julia: No, no, no. He won 7 out of 10 times, so—
Brandon: Oh, oh, oh, oh, those three times. I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Well, I guess we're gonna have to see how the duels go, huh?
Julia: Well–right.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: And also, as Threelips said, he's like, "Most of the time they don't die."
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But, you know, 10% of the time, that—that would count.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I mean, maybe he's also the fastest dodger in the West or something.
Amanda: That's possible.
Julia: Potentially.
Amanda: Queenvenea wanted to know, "Was Kid's mouth sewed shut like Hocus Pocus or did he just not have one before?
Eric: I included that for the Hocus Pocus reference. No, he was not sewed shut like—like—
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Like that—
Julia: Like Billy Bones—
Eric: Like Billy Bones, thank you. Yeah.
Julia: —or whatever the fuck his name is.
Eric: He just did—Cervante—Kid Cervantes just didn't have one.
Amanda: Speaking of grabbing the camera, Tattooed-N-Tall wants to know, "I'm picturing the day 2 text on the black screen with sound and effect, ala The Hunt for Red October. Can you please confirm and deny? Sub-question from Amanda. "What?"
Eric: It's just like—just like really—
Julia: It's a movie.
Eric: —really dramatic, like, text coming up. And there's a meme that goes around, it's like 70—72 hours until the end. Any sort of text—
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Okay.
Eric: —that pops up, I have the dumb Marvel text in my head, that's like "Milan."
Julia: Great, great.
Eric: So you could've done that for day—for day 2, any of that—any of that stuff.
Amanda: Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Unprecedented Tides. Great names, folks.
Julia: Great.
Amanda: You’re coming through today. It says, "If Amanda is a russet potato with glasses on all the eyes—"
Eric: Hilarious.
Amanda: —"Brandon is a slightly wilty bunch of celery, and Eric has a lumpy heirloom tomato, what kind of Greenfolk is Julia?"
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Oh, interesting. What am I? I think I'm like a stout rosemary bush.
Brandon: Oh, I like that.
Amanda: That's cute.
Eric: I like that.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Cute. Maureen, Davy Jones' stalker wants to know, "Does Verda Stello have a witness protection program? And if so, will Troy be entering it now?"
Eric: Aaaah.
Julia: Hmm. Interesting, interesting.
Amanda: And Kazy, 3 kobolds in a trenchcoat says, "How did Troy feel both during and after flying? Was it like a part of you returning? Was it bitter when it ended?" And so I know we talked a little bit about this before, but Troy has never experienced that before. It's not a thing he ever thought he would experience. I think the Royals in the Crags don't fly very often, because it does make you a bigger target.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And like that is real and that is why he wears his wings closed, because it's genuinely—
Eric: Sorry, let me look at the big book of royal people. Let me just take that off the shelf.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Hold on. Sorry, I did moisten my—my pointer figure.
Amanda: Sure, Eric.
Eric: I mean, I'm sure that there was like a luna moth who—who wanted to show the— show their prowess in battle.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And then, like, got shot down by a 1,000 arrows.
Amanda: They're like, "Thank you, you're glowing and it's nighttime. Great."
Eric: Love that. Love that.
Julia: The dream.
Amanda: Love that for us.
Brandon: Eric, how do you feel like—do you like Chardlemagne?
Eric: Any—yeah. Like, they— that's what they—
Brandon: Like, rainbow shark, you mean?
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: I mean, that's what they call—called him after he got shot down by a 1,000 arrows.
Julia: Wow. Wow.
Amanda: More like shot-lamagne, am I right?
Eric: There it is.
Amanda: Out of a local bar.
Eric: That one, actually, Brandon, he—the—the king's name was Waterloo because it was his waterloo when he got shot down by a 1,000 arrows.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: So, folks, let's get now to some game character, you know, world and podcast questions. Mell118 wants to know, "Who is your favorite NPC and why is it Framboise?"
Julia: She's pretty great. I like her a lot.
Eric: Do we have a fave now? Do we—how are you—how are you feeling? Is there an emerging personal fave?
Amanda: It's so hard.
Brandon: An actual fave?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: A little hard to say.
Eric: Or personal, who do—who do you pe—who do people like?
Brandon: I mean, I like them all.
Amanda: I don't know.
Brandon: It's like I don't pick, but—
Amanda: Harold is my busty queen, I love him.
Julia: Hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Fair, fair, fair.
Brandon: I mean, I love Aubergine.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I love Aubergine, like that's—that's a classic, but I genuinely like them all. I think they're all very distinct and very good, and fun to be—be around.
Julia: I—I am definitely loving Framboise this arc in particular, and I also— I liked Archimedes' turn to like, "Ha-ha!" That's been very good for me.
Eric: Yeah. I think I have a—I'm enjoying Archimedes and Framboise the most, considering how it's from things that you all did and said.
Julia and Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Remember, Framboise didn't exist until we decided that there is a—there is a French-speaking separatist colony in the Crags.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: Yes. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I'm sure that will not affect the plot at all.
Eric: No. No.
Julia: Not at all. Why would it?
Eric: Yeah. So, yeah, Framboise, I'm enjoying, and Archimedes, for sure. I'm also really enjoying Lucky Edie, I just like—I said it before, Amanda, but I just like dropping Lucky Edie in to make people mad.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Incredible.
Eric: The—Lucky Edie is the—you know, when a season of a television show eventually becomes about Hollywood. That's my version of that.
Julia: Yeah. Lucky Edie is the real Emily Slaughter of this campaign.
Eric: True. True, true.
Amanda: The postmaster, Librarychick wants to know—
Brandon: Aye.
Amanda: —"Now that we've been introduced to 3-card manny, how do we play it and how does it differ from 1-card manny?" Here's the answer postmaster.
Amanda: I forgot what it was called, and I said three when I meant one.
Julia: Yup.
Amanda: So, I think 3-card manny is when three players of 1-card manny get together, and you play like—what is the thing I'm thinking of, Eric? Where, like, you go all around in a circle? Where—where like you challenge the person to your right, and the person to your right challenges the person to their right? I don't know. I guess just you go around the circle and you each play 1-card manny, but there's three of you.
Eric: Oh, sure. I like the—I like the idea that 1-card many is played between two people, but 3-card manny—
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: —is for three people, and it grows exponentially.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Interesting, interesting.
Eric: I like that.
Julia: I like that vibe.
Amanda: Kiru, cheshire kiwicat says, "Some world-building questions. What is the clockwise order of nations on Verda Stello?"
Eric: Oh.
Julia: That's a good question.
Amanda: I think the reason they wanted to know is because they asked as well, "Do the non-bordering nations have any relations at all?"
Eric: That's a good question. I don't want us—in my head, the Crags are in the east, and Overstock is in the north.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And the fields are in the West.
Julia: Which means Hothouse is in the South.
Eric: Which means Hothouse is in the South.
Amanda: Make sense.
Julia: Make sense.
Eric: I just kind of—that's just my vibe, in that like my math folder—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —is red. You know what I mean?
Julia: Gotcha. It should be blue, but okay.
Eric: I mean, I don't know why I said that. My math—
Brandon: No, math is definitely—
Eric: Engli— English is red.
Amanda: English is red. English is red. Okay.
Eric: English is red, I don't know why I said—
Julia: English is red.
Amanda: Alright, alright.
Julia: Or yellow.
Eric: Social Studies is yellow, Julia, come on.
Julia: No, Social Studies is purple.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: You want purple?
Julia: Yeah. Well—
Eric: Wow, must be nice.
Julia: —I want purple.
Eric: So that's just vibes. But I think that the second question on non-boarding nations, yes, I think that there is some sort of council meeting between representatives of all of the countries that meets in a—one of the cities, in one of the countries that are kind of—that are on a rotating pattern. There's probably like a parliamentarian similar to the way that the speaker worked in Campaign One. Just to, like talk about it.
Julia: I think that's also like, you know, non-bordering countries can still trade and stuff like that. So I imagine that trade is still important to—like, the Crags and Open Fields probably have a trade relationship of something.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, Julia, a great segue. Thank you. Because Kiru's next question is, "What was the primary form of international travel before the cascade dried up?"
Eric: I mean, there's stuff. You know, there's plenty of stuff.
Julia: Ca—caravans?
Eric: Yeah, you can get an—you can get in a truck.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, Eric, yeah, it totally feels like there would have been, you know, protected trade routes or something, or even if people weren't gallivanting all over, you know, the world with no respect for national borders, they still had, you know, like, very established ways that you could get between places.
Eric: That's interesting.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, I'm wondering if like, a la the silk road, if everyone goes back and remembers world history.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I wonder if there's like a big ring road that you can take, that it's supposed to be like a protected trade route—
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Eric: —like the Golden—it may be called the Golden Circle or something.
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Especially because the people in Overstock need to get it to places, so that's 100% true. And there's probably some weird tech that comes out of the various places. You know, we have all these different energy sources and things. It's like—you know, I mentioned having a truck in Dr. Radish Radish's thing. So it's like—you know, I don't—you know, similar in One Piece, right, is, like, there are these big ships and there are cannons. And there is mass media, but the way—instead of a telephone, there are big snails. And it's like—it's weird—
Julia: Sure.
Eric: —and there's not the internet, but there probably is whatever stuff you need to get around for quote-unquote "modern society." It exists.
Julia: Yeah, that makes sense.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: That's what I was imagining too, the whole time was, yeah, sort of a silk road type thing.
Eric: That'd be fun. Yeah, I like—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It—it's like a golden or maybe it's—I don't know. We'll have to think about what exactly the thing is, because the—the people for—it's about what the people say about the pe—the merchants from Overstock, like what are they mainly trading, right?
Brandon: Right, yeah.
Julia: Right.
Eric: It's like—yeah.
Julia: Interesting.
Amanda: Speaking of history, you guys are nailing it today. Is there any history of great wars between nations that Greenfolk kids learn about in school?
Brandon: Whoa. Whoa.
Julia: Oh, there's gotta be.
Eric: Oh, for sure.
Amanda: Definitely, yeah.
Eric: There has to be some—some general weirdness about both the Crags and Open Fields.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: About, like, being—being very nervous about going in there. Yeah, just—I think that both of them have stories about the other—about the weirdness going on. And a lot of it is true, but a lot of it is blown up. I was thinking about—I mean, this is going up. I keep thinking about the—us talking to Claire Aubin, who is a Nazi historian. And as the interview is gonna be on Spirits and Game—and Games and Feelings. And she was just say—talking about all the weird stuff that—all the weird stuff that the Nazis really did, and the main thing that the American government came out as propaganda is like, "They love demons. They're trying— Hitler's possessed by a demon." It's like you could have said all of the real weird things, but you chose that one instead.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: They really thought they were descendants of Atlantis, like come on.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: They were really trying to bring back extinct animals, that's wild. And, like, I think that—
Julia: That's true.
Eric: It's probably like that—something that's sanitized, that makes them weird, except for the real weird things going on there.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yes, 100%.
Brandon: There are companies trying to make—bring back extinct animals now. We're gonna get sued for libel.
Amanda: No, Dr. Aubin was like, "In itself, not a bad thing, but they were really committed to it."
Brandon: That's so funny.
Julia: They were like—they wanted to bring back, like, weird horses from—
Amanda: That's from Germany. Yeah.
Brandon: That's so funny. I had no idea.
Julia: German horses.
Amanda: German animals. Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Extinct German horses, that was their vibe.
Eric: Megafauna that only existed in the Black Forest.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Eric, Arian animals.
Brandon: So weird.
Amanda: Anyway—
Julia: Eric, save that for LeMans.
Eric: It's in my—it's in my brain, don't worry.
Amanda: And Kirus' final question, "Does the crew know who previously owned the Sea Whip?" That's a great question.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I mean, we probably know who we stole it from, right?
Brandon: I don't know. I saw this question too, and I was like, "Do we?" I don't know.
Julia: I think character-wise we do. Player-wise, we don't.
Amanda: Yes. Our—our characters know. I'm imagining a real kind of, like, forced retirement situation, like we stole it from some lovely, like, old, you know, merchant or pirate who was like near retirement.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And they were like, "Great. That hunk of junk is off my hands." And you know, then we get to sail away with it and it went really great. Nobody cares about this guy, you know—
Julia: Who cares?
Amanda: —or—or person. Like nobody, you know, is going to want them and the person gets to cash in their insurance money or whatever.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Well, I mean, there's also the option where we just, like, you know, we're at a dock or, like, at a—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: —marina and there was a bunch of boats, so we just like—we're like, "Well, that one looks like no one is paying attention to it. Let's take that one."
Eric: I—I kind of agree with Brandon.
Julia: But I mean, there's, like, definitely paperwork or ownership paper on the ship.
Eric: We—I have to push back and say specifically, you have all three said you have intentionally not looked at the paperwork to keep—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —plausible deniability.
Julia: Oh, yeah, that is true.
Amanda: Yeah. Okay.
Brandon: There’s a ghost in that room, Julia.
Eric: And you even said that it's haunted to make sure don't what goes in there.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I don't know if we believe that it's haunted, but that's what we tell people—
Amanda: Troy does.
Julia: —so they don't go in. Yeah, of course, Troy does.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Troy's like—Troy's like, "I am afraid of some ghost. Absolutely."
Amanda: But, Brandon, I can definitely see us, like, taking the hunk of junk and leaving, like, several crates of oranges or some other, like, valuable just—a thing that a person might not need 100 of them, but we're like, "This is fair."
Brandon: You know, totally, but I gotta sa—I gotta put my foot down and say, "We're pirates, y'all."
Amanda: Brandon loves reminding us that we're pirates.
Brandon: At some point, we gotta pirate.
Julia: Stealing is fine. Stealing is fine when it benefits other people.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: And that other—those people in—include you.
Eric: As the person watching you all like little ants moving a big leaf, I would say—I think that what Brandon saying is probably the most true, like—if—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —if someone asks you, "Hey, where'd you get the ship?" You could all remember the story of it. I remember when we—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —got it, but I don't think you know who it is. Especially, because if—
Julia: Okay.
Eric: You—you intentionally avoided looking at—that feels like an ol— that feels like a first edition manual, how to be a pirate thing. It's like a—a trick of the trade, being like—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: "—Then the police when they ask you what happened." You're like, "I don't know."
Julia: When they give you—
Amanda: Uh-hmm
Julia: —the truth serum, you're like, "I don't know who owned this. We own it now."
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
Brandon: And also like is Eric so—so fun if he ever wants to play with that, you know?
Amanda: Uh-hmm
Julia: True. True facts.
Brandon: There's some room there.
Eric: Achoo! Sorry, I sneezed— I sneezed.
Brandon: Achoo! Sorry.
Eric: I wasn't paying attention.
Amanda: Here's a question that I've been saving for when we have some time to talk about it, but also The Question Surgeon reminded me to do it. So—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —Michelle's question is, "This is the first campaign with a belief system. What aspects of religion are you wanting to explore? Do you think your personal positions on faith will influence your characters?" And the question I've been waiting for is from Elissa Frankel early in the campaign, who wants to know everything about Judaism in Verda Stello. "Does the theology of the Planter, the puritanical faith of Open Fields fit into an underlying majority Jewish NPC community? What does it mean that an Israeli folk song is part of the mythos at Crimson's Exchange? What kind of Greenfolk was Moses?
Brandon: What kind of Greenfolk is Moses?
Julia: Right.
Amanda: We know—we know Moses was a big bunch of weeds that you used to make the pirates out of. You know what I mean?
Brandon: Right, right, right, right. Yeah.
Julia: Gotcha.
Eric: But imagine—imagine going down to the river, and opening up a baby basket, and there's a beet in it.
Amanda: Okay, no. Beet, much more Jewish, yes.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: So—
Julia: Red cabbage.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Don't look at me, Julia.
Eric: So from a world-building perspective, to answer Michelle's question to me, and therefore the references I've been making that Elissa is picking up on. Like, I'm trying to make a fantasy world that isn't made by a Christian person. Like, that's inherently what I'm trying to do. It's like I'm really trying to use reference points that are not the same reference points for fantasy, which is lapsed Catholic. If you are a lapsed Catholic, all modern stories are for you.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Especially ones where people will make the world—make the worlds to start with. And I—I talked to Moiya to make sure that, like, the path was not just reskinned Catholicism, you know? I wanted it to be karmic. And, you know, other places, other religions are incredibly strict to other than Christianity, right? And I'm really trying to keep the path away from that stuff, even if Continuous Thankful is a big dweeb like a youth minister, right?
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: In reference to the world-building, I think that, like, I'm not trying to put in Jewish stuff necessarily. I'm just trying not to use Catholicism as the reference point. Yeah. So then to the—and—
Julia: Gotcha.
Eric: So that's—that's to answer Michelle's question.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Elissa's question is different, right? And I'm just pulling—I'm now just trying to pull from my reference points. It's like, you know, I thought that the—that the folk song was interesting, and using it instead of like, you know, psalm readings or songs where you replace the word Jesus with the name of your deity, you know what I mean? Like, that's just what—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That's more what I'm trying—that's more what I'm trying to do. And also, yeah, the—the puritanical faith of the Open Fields, I think, is more, like, lots of religions are super strict, not just the one that we come upon a lot in American life.
Julia: Right.
Amanda: 100%.
Eric: Yeah. And, like, you know, the theology of the Planter, I've been listening to Spirits Podcast for over 300 episodes.
Julia: What?
Eric: There are so many great creation myths out there that are all—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —very similar, where one big—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —thing, or dude, or person, or woman, or whatever, spirit, makes the world through some sort of divine idea.
Amanda: Julia, Brandon, do you guys have any aspects of, like, belief, faith, ethics that you're thinking about or drawing on as you approach your characters and how they interact with people—with other beliefs?
Julia: Yeah. I think that for Cammie at least, Cammie, you know, being someone who kind of grew up in—like we said, we're not reskinning Christianity or Catholicism, but at the same time, like, I am kind of approaching Cammie's background as being like almost from a sort of, like, shaker, quaker background.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And I think that because of the experience that Cammie, had Cammie very much approaches religion and her personal beliefs as a thing that is like, "Well, yes, a book does say that, but at the same time, like, clearly something is amiss here with the way that I was raised and the way that people are following that supposed teaching." And so I am going to try to approach everyone and everything in a way that is, one, true to my beliefs, but also understanding that other people have other experiences. Radical kindness is how Cammie approaches everything and everyone.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Except for Lucky Edie.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Well, you know, understanding when we go a certain way—
Brandon: I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
Julia: —Brandon.
Eric: I think that's good. I—I kind of like that—I want you to, like, run down Continuous Faithful as someone who is like unshakable, as opposed to someone who's like, "Well, I've been out here in the world, and that's not how anyone should do anything." Anything that like—you know, I'm just gonna say that like, "Hey, you're not gonna go fight the pontifex eventually, you know? It's like—
Julia: Damn.
Eric: —that's not the kind of story I want to tell. I—I just want to know.
Amanda: Good news if you want to. There's a lot of options for you out there.
Eric: A lot of those exist. They certainly do, you know?
Brandon: I as—just a human and—and I'm pretty against religion, in general. So, I was like—the only thing that really came up to me, religion-wise, was like, when we were planting—or sorry, when we were creating our characters, I wanted to choose the background that had the most interest to me, and that was sort of the theological approach that Overstock had. So, I've been sort of envisioning Umbi and the Overstock folks as sort of like theologians that are like literal, like—like, masters and PhD people who are studying it from, like, a historical and, like, language perspective. And, like, yeah, they believe it, like the people at Overstock believe it, Umbi believes it. But, like, it's an approach that, like, most devout—or devotees, like, don't approach it that way. Because I find that stuff interesting. Like, I always find, like, the study of the Bible is fascinating, or the study of any religious texts is very fascinating. But, like, I don't—I don't actually care what it tells me to think, you know?
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Fair, fair.
Amanda: And I'm in my religious euphoria era, and caring very deeply about, like, what the Torah wants me to think. And so, the—the questions that Troy is grappling with about, like, personal responsibility and like, when you—when you wronged somebody, you know, it's—in Judaism, it's not about them forgiving you or you—you know, you're not, like, owed forgiveness. It's, like, up to the person who did something wrong to, like, fix the rift in the universe that they caused by doing that. And so, you know, I think Troy is doing a lot of growing up and, you know, in parallel with the stuff that I'm like, you know, reading and thinking about, saying, you know, "What is my responsibility here and how do I— how do I do right? How do I define what I want and what success for me? And, you know, what I owe the people around me and just what I owe the world as, like, being part of it." And all of that is really fascinating and I'm loving—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —you know, working some of it out in the avatar of a himbo butterfly gunslinger. Alright, folks, are we ready? Here to spoil the plank.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: Yar!
Julia: Avast.
Eric: Sorry, wait. Ho—
Julia: We didn't talk at all about Smelly Hayes dying, and now I feel a little bit bad about that. But that was truly, like, one of the most buck wild things that I had to, like, emotionally react to, but also thought was fucking hilarious.
Brandon: I mean, it's all on the tape, baby.
Julia: Yeah, it's—it's all there.
Amanda: I would love to talk about it in the next Afterparty, because–
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: —you know, something's going to happen next and—
Julia: Right, right.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. That's true.
Amanda: —it would be good to see how it closes.
Eric: It was really—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: The only thing I'll say there is that it was really fun putting an old-fashioned trap into my Dungeons and Dragons game.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. He was like, "Surprise. Dungeon traps in your Dungeons and Dragons."
Amanda: We were like, "Wait. Consequences for our actions, what?!"
Eric: I rolled so many dice.
Brandon: I know.
Eric: I think I rolled 20—
Amanda: That's genuinely a fair amount.
Eric: I think I—did I say it's like 16 D6s or something like that?
Brandon: Something like that, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. More than a handful.
Eric: It’s because—so the way that that trap work, just really quickly, is that, if—as you fell—and this happened to Cammie. Cammie, you just—just—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —bucked it immediately. Every time I said—it's like it got harder and harder to stop falling.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it just kept happening. And then bing, bang—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —boom, your head's—your head's backwards.
Amanda: Brutal.
Eric: That's what happened.
Brandon: Yeah, there was a point you said--
Julia: That's pretty bad.
Brandon: —on tape where there was no way that she could have actually succeeded on the roll, so it worked out fine and then that's why—
Julia: Yeah. The GC increased by 2 every time and she got up to 21. She simply couldn't roll.
Eric: Yeah. After fail—yeah, after failing, it's like, "I'm just trying to get Nat 20s, and then I couldn't."
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then so there—there I am.
Julia: Yup. Yup.
Brandon: It's so funny to me—
Julia: It sure happened.
Brandon: —because you've trained us as players to not stress about—like to not be, like, the timid D&D player that's like, you know, worried about like, "Oh, is this pebble—"
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: "—in front of me going to explode into a giant monster and kill us all?" And then you got us!
Julia: You got—you got me, specifically.
Eric: Hey, this was also up to Cammie to do—to take only an NPC with her. So, that was also interesting. It's like a lot of this stuff—
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: —is not up to me, you know?
Brandon: Totally.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: There are a lot of threads here, and I will tell you one of the questions was like, how far in advance do we record? The answer is usually four or five episodes at a time, we record one each session, but we're typically about a month ahead of the release schedule. And, guys, shit happens, don't worry. There's gonna be a lot—a lot of the spoil—the plank questions. I have answers coming up very soon.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: So, let's run through it. Zrocha says, "Is the Warforged salmon from Campaign One the wish-granting salmon?" That's what I've been picturing in my head the whole time.
Julia: I'm gonna say probably not, but who can say?
Brandon: I—I do mean to say—
Amanda: There is no— there's no plot through line through our—our campaigns, so that if you don't listen to one, you can listen to the other, but headcanon accepted.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Who can say?
Amanda: The Question Surgeon, "How old was Cammie when she was first kidnapped/invited onto the open seas?"
Julia: Probably like 15 or 16, I'd say.
Eric: Good. That's in—okay. It's less—it's less kidnapping if she's that age. I thought she was, like, 12.
Julia: Well, I mean, she was 12 when she left Open Fields.
Eric: Oh, that's right. That's right.
Julia: I think that by the time that they got kidnapped, it was a different like—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: They had been working in a tavern, doing tea reading and cleaning up for room and board for—
Brandon: Hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: —maybe a couple of years at that point.
Eric: Yeah. There was a lot of renditions of Master of the House that were sung in—in the original.
Julia: Correct.
Amanda: Yeah, don't get Nonny started with—with that soundtrack. Kazy says, "Will there be guest players at any point in this campaign? I'd love to hear Jasper play a Greenfolk and get his take on this fantastic world."
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Eric: Seems good. Seems like we should do that. I feel like we should do that.
Julia: It seems like a great idea.
Amanda: Seems good. Seems like a good idea. Seems good.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Tessmyers wants to know, "Did the Crags sent Threelips specifically to fuck with Troy? And as him being royal have some effect on how he can perform in the games?"
Julia: Hmm. Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Westie. impostor | Jess says, "A key to end your days or something along those lines would finish the key rhyme, and I don't like that at all."
Julia: Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
Brandon: Uh-oh.
Julia: Don't give him ideas.
Amanda: A through Z says, "Why does Troy accepts Threelips talking to him that way? Threelips has been giving him nothing, and why can't he stand up for himself?" This is really interesting to me.
Julia: It's his bro.
Eric: A lot of people wrote in and said, "Why would Threelips betray Troy like that?" And I think that's an interesting reading to the sit—to the sit—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —to what happened, and we'll see what happens after this.
Julia: I don't think it's a betrayal, but what do I know?
Brandon: It's just a complicated emotional—yeah, like they—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, they have— they have feelings and everyone has selfish feelings, and selfless feelings, and it's about the battle between those two, yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. And finally, what I want you guys to picture is, like, you're being sent to walk the plank. Okay, terrifying.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: But we're pirates with the pirate code, so we do offer you one final little, like, fortifying meal before you do—
Julia: Hmm. Okay.
Amanda: —go off the edge.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: —and it's a little cup of question broth from Malignant Sloth.
Brandon: Oh. Delicious.
Amanda: "Does Troy regret saving Threelips from the shipwreck now?"
Julia: Does he?
Amanda: No, but who can say? Who can say?
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: "And what does Cammie think she saw in Radbert's tea leaves? I know they were deceiving him, but I'd love to know what she actually thinks. What about him smelling like resurrection magic was something else underneath? How about Threelips' mission, was his mission to expose Troy? Make Troy confront his destiny. What's Radbert doing?
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: I—I can't.
Eric: I—I don't know.
Julia: I know that I've said it on microphone in future episodes. I'll say that much.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm. Hmm.
Julia: Weee. Weee.
Amanda: And now, we all take a beautiful swan dive off the Spoil the Plank.
Brandon: Weee.
Amanda: And that’s it for this Afterparty.
Julia: Yay! Splash.
Brandon: Splash.
Amanda: Cute. Thank you so much for your questions. Guys, shit is popping off. If you thought these episodes were eventful, you don't know the half of it. It is a great time to be a Join the Party listener and a great time to invite your friends on this journey. We're only 18 episodes in, folks, and it's about to get wild, so let's get choppy on the seas.
Brandon: It's about to get choppy on the seas, Amanda.
Julia: Let's go.
Eric: Get choppy on the seas.
Julia: Weee.
Amanda: Amazing. Well, until next time.
Brandon: Bye, guys.
Julia: Later.
Eric: Buy a joken, do it. Buy a joken.
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: Buy a joken.
Julia: Avast Ye!
Amanda: And may your rolls trend ever upward.