How necessary was the Beach Episode? What do the players talk about when Eric has his headphones off? And why do we keep hearing Roiling Beef? All that and more on the Afterparty!
Dive into our ship combat mechanics, classes from Mage Hand Press, the countries of Verda Stello, and other changes we’ve made for C3 HERE!
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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 After Party, where we are all set to talk about not just The Beach Beach episode, but also the beginning of the Boiling Reef arc. Which I hope the other arcs aren't sad, but this is definitely my favorite arc title of all time, so—
Julia: The Boiling Reef. I love it.
Brandon: But before you came on, Amanda, I was like, "The boiling beef. We're— we're the bear now. What up?"
Julia: Yup, yup.
Eric: Brandon, can I tell you? We got a lot of messages from people who have dyslexia saying, "The Boiling Beef? Nice."
Julia: Nice.
Eric: "The Roiling Beef, absolutely. Great title."
Julia: I also love stew, so—
Brandon: That's really funny.
Julia: — boiling beef sounds great.
Amanda: It has been an eventful month on the podcast, and for Join the Party, ourselves. So, guys, let's hop right into it. We got a lot of great questions from the listeners. Let's begin with, of course, Episode 22, this is our Skill Tree Episode. But unlike the previous two, this third one took place adjacent to the hold at the special beach. So, Eric, I know you said you were repairing the vibes of the crew and the podcast, frankly, which I, for one, really appreciate it. Not that— there's anything wrong, it was just a very serious Episode 21.
Brandon: It was sad, yeah.
Amanda: So, where did the— where did the inspo come from for this beach episode? And Patrick specifically asks, Eric, "Hard Mode, if you can't say One Piece, what is your favorite beach episode of other media that's been in your head as you plan this?
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: I just like the concept of a beach episode, I think it's so funny. In the episode description, I just copied and pasted the first sentence of TV Tropes for beach episode. So, I was like reading it and it's like this is fan service, so that everyone can see the characters in swimsuits, and I'm like, "Yeah, you're right. That's what I did."
Julia: Yeah. Right.
Amanda: Fair, fair.
Brandon: Everyone wants to see Umbi in his old-time bathing costume.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. So why did I do it? Well, the vibes were bad.
Julia: The vibes were bad.
Eric: Harold was me, and that's— that was me doing this. I think the reason I've been thinking about this is that we kind of let stuff sit in Campaign Two for too long, which never really got resolved, which I think makes more sense in a superhero thing with, like, real people. But since like this in my head is like an anime, I feel like there needs to be an episode where people cry loudly and just get it out of the way.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Sure, sure.
Eric: Which would have been addressed sooner. So I was kind of thinking about that. I'm like, "You know what? Let's do this." It was— this is already going to happen because we're going to do a Skill Tree episode, so I thought it was perfect. And I thought it was really funny putting Lucky Edie in a bikini top and cargo shorts.
Julia: It was very good. It was very—
Brandon: It was.
Julia: —2000s of you.
Brandon: You're correct.
Amanda: And specifically Ganesh.hannah wanted to know, Eric, "Did you plan to give us a beach day, or did you have to come up with that after Small Key Island because we needed cheering up?"
Eric: No, it was after Small Key Island, for sure.
Julia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I was like, "Regardless, the vibes are gonna be rancid, we're doing this anyway." And you're like, "No, we just like really came together. We saved everyone. I don't know why you would say that."
Julia: "No, we— we did it. We did the best we could do. It's fine."
Eric: It's like, "We crushed it."
Amanda: Fully weeping. "Everything's fine."
Eric: "I— I reunited with my— the person who saved me and she didn't die at all, so I don't know what you’re talking about.”
Amanda: Didn't die at all.
Julia: Didn't die at all.
Amanda: Julia, SavedMan wants to know, "How much more invested were you in the beach scene that— the last one in the episode than all the rest of us? I picture in the interaction being the beginning of Lucky Edie's villain arc against you."
Julia: I didn't— like— okay. So it was the scene that Eric chose for me, so it wasn't like, you know, like I was invested in having a confrontation with Lucky Edie. It just like had to happen. And the fact that I quote-unquote, “won that confrontation” I think made me feel as though Cammie had more permission to say the things that have been on their mind, as opposed to keeping it inside, and— and letting it fester and stuff like that. So I— I didn't— I don't think of this as like, "Oh, this is the villain arc. That is the start of Lucky Edie." You know what I mean? Like, I don't think it is, but now Eric's laughing at me. So God knows what this is gonna end up being. But, like, you know, hasn't everyone wanted to, like, say that to the person who's, like, so full of themselves to be like, "Hey, maybe stop using our relationship as something that's transactional."
Eric: For sure.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: 100%.
Eric: Just to do like the zoom in on— you know, the meme, the domino meme where you're like, if someone pushes over one thing, and then it's a big thing?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like, this only happened because of the way that everyone rolled all the way back where we met Lucky Edie in the first place, and then Brandon thought I was talking about an ice weapon instead of something else. Or I was—
Julia: Yup. That happened.
Eric: —talking about an ice weapon and Brandon thought that he personally was cold and he put on a sweatshirt.
Brandon: Yeah, I thought the environment was cold.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then Umbi put on a sweatshirt. Like, the only reason why this happened, the reason why I wanted to do a game in this way is that I didn't want to choose this necessarily. This only happened because Julia ended up last, and she defaulted to it being me to having an NPC interaction. So, like— and I'm like, "Oh, okay, Julia, you got the last one. You got something with me. I'm gonna give you a reward because I have an idea for you." If you wanted to do something else, but I didn't want to put that pressure on you to be like, "Oh, no, I gotta— I have to do this, and I have to DM all of a sudden for a game that Eric made up." It was more like— that's just the way the game plays, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like, the— think about the series of rolls that got us to this interaction and, like, if it— this becomes Lucky Edie's villain arc, like think about the series of rolls that took us there. If you really zoom in on it, it's sort of actually really crazy.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And let's zoom in on those mechanics a little bit to continue with the zooming metaphor. Malignant Sloth who has served up the hottest, freshest question broth, says, "Eric, where did the escalation—"
Eric: I forgot— I forgot about that.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: In— in the Discord last night, Malignant Sloth was like, "Ooh, this is some good soup," and I'm like, "What are you talking about?"
Amanda: You forgot about the broth?
Julia: It's the broth.
Amanda: It is only our— our third After Party with this moniker, so we're— we're getting used to it.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: It's no— the question surgeon, Michelle Spurgeon has been going on for, you know, more than a year now.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: She— I— she has a doctorate, it took five years.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: That's true, that's true. Alright. So Malignant Sloth, Question Broth. "Eric, where did the escalation mechanic come from? It seems like there were more ties than expected. Laughing crying emoji. I do love it though when your mechanics pull in the players who aren't active in the scene." And I gotta say, same.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Thank you. Yes. So as I said, this was inspired by this dueling game that was put together by Boy Problems, so you might know from the Lasers and Feelings hacks, re Carly Rae Jepsen. I'd seen this for a really long time, it was coin flipping, but I kind of like— this rock, paper, scissors mechanic is something that I've been really experimenting with, and something we've been doing with Campaign Three. The mechanics are super simple. It's— you play rock, paper, scissors, you got to win two out of three. And if there's a tie, there needs to be an escalation. And then in the moment, when— I think it was in the first one when I was doing it, it was with me and Amanda. I was like, "Oh, Julia and Brandon are just sitting there. We should have someone else escalate." And I think that ended up working out really well. Yes, I was not expecting these many ties. That's why we got to put a cap on three escalations.
Julia: Yes. Yeah.
Brandon: That's probably— probably more— even more ties with coin flipping, so that's— yeah, that's wild.
Julia: Well, I feel like maybe— it— and correct me if I'm wrong, with the coin-flipping mechanic, it's either you pick heads or tails, right?
Eric: Yes.
Julia: And then, like, one person wins, one person doesn't, so it doesn't have a tie mechanic. So, Eric, in his brilliance, added a time mechanic in there for our rock, paper, scissors.
Eric: Yeah. In the dueling one, since, like, duels are about either you win or you get reposted. That's what it is for. You're right. So—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —I always like add all the middling stuff, and I think this is just the inspiration from running Monster of the Week.
Amanda: I was gonna say, it's been a really good like lasting consequence on all of our gameplay and certainly on— on your GM'ing, is that sort of Monster of the Week middling success, middling failure.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. So that has been really helpful. So, yeah, we added— I— I did have to add that, yeah. Just because it was different. It's like— I did want a winner but, like, I like honoring the ramping up of tension. Whenever you— think about any time you've played rock, paper, scissors, and then— and if you're not playing two out of three, then you're hurtful, and you should offer more emotion to your friends.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: But it's like the— the ramping up of tension when you tie in rock, paper, scissors is so, so hard and so, like, heart-gripping, so I wanted to kind of, like, honor that by making things even goofier in this— in this sort of situation.
Julia: Hell yeah. And it worked.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Glass Cat Owl wants to know, "Did Sil also get to go to the beach? If so, what was he doing?"
Eric: Yeah. Oh, Sil was there. I like to imagine that Sil was like in a— in sunglasses, like in a bottle.
Amanda: That's good.
Eric: Sil put himself back into a bottle, that's his comfort spot.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: For a second, I thought you meant he was like drinking too much, and you went—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: —he was literally in a bottle.
Eric: That he came from a bottle, and then he— and then he was drinking tequila.
Brandon: Oh, that's so funny.
Eric: Sil— Sil finds comfort in being in small, enclosed spaces like a cat and— just like a cat, and it was a bottle of Malibu Rum that Sil was indulging himself with.
Julia: I also really liked the idea that, like, Sil was in every scene that Harold was in, but— but was pretending to be a shadow.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Or pretending to, like, nap behind the sunglasses.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. We cut a whole scene where I was doing the Peter Pan dance, and—
Julia: That makes sense.
Eric: Watching all that happened. But it— it turns out I didn't say anything, so it didn't work out well for the podcast.
Amanda: You're like, "On reflection, not great for an audio-only medium."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Alright. Some more piping hot question broth. "It seemed like part of why Umbi left Overstalk was because he found politicians and governments to not really be actionable. What has him thinking that Troy might find a different result?"
Eric: I thought this was so interesting, that like Umbi was like, "Troy, it's okay. Let's try to use this for good. You lied, but let's do something with it."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. And I think, like, for Umbi, he left Overstalk specifically because that parliament, or government, or senate. I think it was senate.
Eric: Senate, yeah. Se— it was space senate. It was the space senate.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: The space senate. Yeah, he left Overstalk because the Senate was not actionable, or not doing anything. The juncture at which we meet Umbi is he's sort of given up on trying to fix the problem. He's sort of, like, in that phase that we've all gone through of climate change of like, "Ah, fuck it. We can't do anything anyway." So it's much easier when he's in that state to see an opportunity like someone who is not in a democracy to be like, "Oh, maybe this actually can work because you don't have to come to a consensus. You can just, like, mandate, a thing, you know?"
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Which is— we'll see how that turns out, but traditionally has not gone well.
Julia: Yeah. Umbi says, "Fuck democracy. We're going back to monarchy."
Brandon: Exactly. Exactly.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: What— what is the equivalent here of Umbi throwing bombs at everything? This is like using hairspray outside more than you need?
Brandon: Yes.
Julia: Yes. Correct.
Eric: Listen, this is not a slight for Brandon. I'm not sure how far thinking you were during this situation when you were— when Umbi was forgiving Troy, but that kind of spurred what we were doing here.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: Is like when we were trying to figure out what we were going to do next to the arc, "Hey, let's make our way towards the labyrinth, but let's see if there's something else going on." I'm like, "Oh, wouldn't it be interesting if there was a government outpost that Troy can actually use his status on?" Because it's like we suggested.
Brandon: Oh. No, I didn't think about that.
Eric: Yeah, we talked about it a little bit. I thought it was super interesting.
Brandon: Yeah. No, it was. I thought you were just, like, throwing a fun quasi-conflict obstacle thing in our path. I liked it.
Eric: It both. It both— it both things.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Julia, this one wasn't directed to you, but I think you'll want to take a crack at it. Also from Malignant Sloth. "I'm really curious about the note Aubergine got. There's another character we know named Francois. Is somebody assuming an identity? Did Aubergine get a note meant for someone else's sweetheart? What does Umbi/Brandon think about him? The others? I'm directing it to you as the keeper of the relationship with Aubergine and—
Julia: Yeah, because famously that's—
Amanda: —and the crew. Yeah.
Julia: —what happened in that episode.
Eric: And— but— I mean, we all know Umbi has been friends with Aubergine the entire time.
Amanda: Right. A long time.
Brandon: Umbi's an interloper.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: I— I don't mean to correct the— the keeper of the soup, Malignant Sloth.
Brandon: The keeper of the soup.
Julia: The keeper of the soup.
Brandon: The keeper of the soup.
Julia: They— they say there's another character named Francois, I think they're thinking of Framboise, which is—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —our— our dung beetle friend. I think they are both Craggish French. I think it's a really interesting, like, hint towards what Aubergine's past might be. I'm also very curious by, like, Aubergine's reluctant to investigate this further, because they— they're like, "I'm not Francois. I'm Aubergine." But I think that Umbi— was that a good Aubergine impression?
Eric: I'm— I'm like— we are all phoning in at a 100%, we really are.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: Julia was doing an impression of me doing a French accent, but you nailed that.
Amanda: Exactly.
Julia: Yes, correct.
Eric: You nailed that.
Julia: So, I was doing an impression of Aubergine, which is Eric doing a French accent.
Amanda: Yup, yup.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: But I— I simply can't say, because I didn't unlock that character arc, because I was too busy getting a really cool whip for my sea octopus, so—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: It's true. It's true.
Brandon: I don't think anyone who was trying to assume an identity would change their name from Framboise to Francois. It's not very clever.
Amanda: Not very far apart. That's true.
Brandon: Yeah. So, I think— I think it's just a— a— a thread we got to pull on, you know?
Julia: Yeah. The most curious thing is how this letter got to Aubergine.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: That's the— the real, like, question. Like, who knows Aubergine is here? Even if this wasn't sent to quote-unquote “Francois” who forwarded this letter maybe.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And— and knows Aubergine's past, even if Aubergine doesn't know.
Amanda: Yeah. And there is a lot of kind of unexplored tension that we have about what's happening in the separatist colony of the Crags. And we've met several people from there, there's some unresolved, you know, tensions coming from it. So I imagine we'll see much more of that throughout the campaign.
Brandon: Can I shoot a prediction out right here, right now—
Julia: Uh-hmm. Sure.
Brandon: —today on this After Party?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I think Aubergine is our Napoleon figure, and Aubergine has been exiled to the hold.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Ooh.
Julia: But forgot about it when he almost died drowning, much like Napoleon almost did.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Exactly.
Julia: But was saved by a Newfoundland dog. Thank you, sixth grade Julia, for remembering that.
Brandon: You're welcome.
Amanda: Damn.
Eric: Yeah, a haricot verts dog pulled Aubergine onto the thing. Yeah. No, it's funny.
Amanda: That— it would be one of those mop dogs, but with beans instead of little mop handles.
Brandon: Oh, that's so cute.
Julia: Yummy.
Eric: Yeah. Hell yeah, dude.
Julia: Are we talking green beans or like out-of-the-shell beans?
Amanda: Green beans.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: Haricot verts.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: Yeah, green beans.
Julia: Alright, cool.
Amanda: So cute. And finally, Malignant Sloth asked a question that we've gotten a couple of times, and I've been back and forth over whether I wanted to talk about, but I am— I mean, I'm excited to talk about it today. They asked, "One thing I really wanted to ask for all the love in my heart, and I totally get if you don't want to say, is Troy on the aro/ace spectrum? Just all my appreciation for all the LGBTQ-plus reps on the show." And, yeah, this has been my headcanon since the beginning of the campaign. I do think it's important for people to be able to, you know, make their own headcanons and conclusions from, you know, our characters and how we represent them on the show. But, yeah, that's something that I— that I built into Troy's character, and I think it's really interesting to explore. And, yeah, it's something that I'm— I'm happy to keep representing here on the podcast.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. I— it's so— it was such a good— not— not even just like for representation, but just for the character, such a good character Troy, so I love it.
Julia: Right. And I think it wasn't something that we discussed like on mic or off mic, Amanda, but it was something that I got the vibe of for a while. So I would commend you— I don't know if commend is the right word, but I really liked the way that you're approaching that in Troy. So it's— it's been very fun so far.
Amanda: You know, it's just sometimes he come out to your bruvs over and over again via vibes and not words.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And that is a very relatable queer experience.
Julia: Uh huh. That's how I do.
Amanda: Alright, folks. We got plenty to talk about as we set sail for The Boiling Reef and The Craggish Outpost. So many questions, so many of which revolve around a very symmetrical new fellow that we met. A through Z would like to know, "Eric, when the captain was a little shrub, was he also precisely square? Or did he have a rebellious round stage?"
Brandon: That's incredible. What a good question.
Julia: Ooh. Or was he a various topiary shape as well, like trying different looks, carving himself into different ways?
Amanda: Like a star.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: God, imagine your teenage rebellion was like, "Mom, dad, I look like— I'm a giraffe right now."
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That's so much more severe than purple hair.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I love that.
Eric: Yeah. No, that's tight as hell. I like that. Accepted.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Accepted. Canon accepted. We love it.
Amanda: Emperanzarr54 says, "Was Commander Vineyard bewitched by Cammie? Styled like the teenage pop group?"
Julia: I— yeah, I was really intrigued by his reaction to Cammie, and listening back to it for the transcript pretty recently, I was like, "This seems weird. I don't— I don't know." There was some, like, things— and, like, we could talk about this a little bit.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: There were a couple of things that Commander Vineyard said that, like, in the moment didn't like hit me, but now in retrospect, I'm like, "I don't— I don't know about that. I don't—some— some of the vibes were weird." And also, this is a thing— Eric, don't say anything. He said something along the lines of like, "Oh, Troy, you know the— the secret about the keys now and that they're like real and, like, physical objects, and that's like a secret that's passed down from king to king." How the fuck does this motherfucker know that?
Amanda: Very true.
Brandon: Wait, did he say that?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: He did.
Brandon: Passed down from king to king? Man, I edited this, I don't remember that.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I— I don't think it's that clandestine for this particular thing, Julia. I think it's—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —more like— the way that I'm thinking about the keys is that like, it's rumor, it's a thing.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Obviously, is the One Piece comparison how like— is the One Piece real, or is it just like an ideal for becoming the best pirate you can be?
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Or like Atlantis, you know, or a City of Gold, like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —it fuels people to go exploring, but is it actually real?
Julia: Right.
Eric: Or even the— the temple— or, like, the— what's the Jesus Chalice?
Amanda: Holy Grail?
Eric: Yeah. Like it's the Holy— imagine it like the Holy Grail.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like it— the 4.
Julia: Yeah, yeah. The Jesus Chalice.
Amanda: Yup, yup.
Eric: Yeah, the Jesus— Jesus Chalice.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, it's like the Holy Grail. And I think that— can you find it? Is it important? Does it have powers? It's interesting to think whether it does or doesn't, and knowing that the keys are real, I think is the thing that— assumed is the top-secret document for our American government equivalent.
Julia: Yeah, the folder that says, as Brandon said, whether or not aliens are real.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Just one piece of paper, yes or no.
Julia: One piece of paper, yeah.
Amanda: That's it.
Brandon: That's the only reason I want to become president, Julia.
Julia: It's because you want to know if aliens are real or not?
Brandon: Yes.
Julia: Yeah, that's fair.
Amanda: Fair.
Eric: I think we've established they are. I think the US government—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —has told us that no one cares.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: No.
Julia: No?
Brandon: That guy is a fucking liar and a shamster.
Julia: It's alright. It's alright.
Amanda: What's a shamster? Is it someone who has a lot of, like, shams?
Brandon: You know, Amanda—
Amanda: Like full of shams?
Brandon: —it's a word that I say that came out that's not a word.
Julia: Uh-hmm. It is now.
Amanda: I'm picturing like a— like a flash or opening his coat and— and the inside is a bunch of pillow shams and I'm like, "Ooh."
Julia: Sham, wow.
Amanda: Alright.
Eric: Hey, you want to come over here? You want any decorative pillowcases?
Amanda: Yes, I do.
Julia: Now I kind of do. Thank you.
Eric: I got silk, I got nylon, I got cotton. This is— this is 250,000 silk sheets.
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: You didn't even know it went up that high, but I got it on the black market.
Amanda: Here's one from Malignant Sloth. "I'm really curious what everyone thinks of Audrey right now. From Commander Vineyard, we know she's got very high body counts in order to build her army. But does the crew have any active suspicions about what she's doing? Audrey and the Crew's paths seem intertwined, even if there isn't a pattern to the map yet."
Julia: The thing about Audrey is—
Eric: She's a really good friend—
Amanda: She's a best friend.
Eric: —and she's totally fine—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —and I don't know why everyone is so mean to her.
Julia: Exactly. That's what Cammie would say. But I also want to point out like the only person we know that she has turned people into zombies, like confirmed zombie horde is, one, Radbert, who sucked. And two, the cultists who tried to kill us on Esca. We didn't see her transform anyone on Book Depository. We didn't see her necessarily turn any of the— I assume massive amount of dead people from Small Key Island into zombies. So, I don't— I don't know if I, like, necessarily— like— and this is probably just Cammie talking through Julia. I don't think she's necessarily done anything, like, super terrible in terms of killing people yet. She— and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong, but Cammie has convinced me, Julia, that like Audrey could still be good.
Brandon: I think— I— I think— the way I'm understanding that, Eric, tell me if I'm wrong, is that like even right now, like everything that would be quote-unquote "confirmed by a witness" is still very like mythical. It's like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Did that actually happen? Like, who is this person? Like, you know, there's still an air of mystery around her so, you know, it's like, what can you take as fact and what can you— what can you take as fiction, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Besides the stuff that we've seen, of course.
Eric: I will not confirm anything.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: Alright. Fair enough.
Julia: I'm gonna hold out hope. Cammie wants her best friend to be cool.
Eric: Julia, can you just, like, write down this moment and episode, just in case we need to reference it later?
Julia: No.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: I simply won't.
Eric: Okay. So—
Brandon: Julia, very important question, do you think Radbert was a dick before he was turned? Or do you think—
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: —that he was turned and then became a dick?
Julia: I think Radbert sucked before he was turned.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: Cool. Cool.
Julia: That's my hot take.
Eric: I want to, like, zoom back to where all three of you are like, "Radbert is so cool. I love that guy."
Amanda: I—
Julia: No, no, no.
Brandon: I— Eric, that never change for me.
Julia: No, no, no. From— from the beginning, I thought Radbert sucked. I just liked the fun voice you were doing for him.
Eric: Hey, DM tip out there, disguise your enemies by doing a cool voice.
Julia: Uh-hmm. That's— that's like going back to Amanda being like, "I like Hondo. He seems like a cool guy."
Amanda: Sorry.
Eric: Brandon's like, "Hell yeah, Star Wars names in this campaign. Fuck yeah."
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: "Okay, let's do it."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Here's one from Mage Silverleaf. "I want to know about when Troy was talking to Threelips and he said he was out on the sea for the Breakstones and was planning on returning after two years. But now it seems like people genuinely thought he was dead. And he's also said that since he's just out for the vibes, and just wants to be here, can you clarify a little bit from Troy's perspective?" Yeah. So Troy was simply making up an answer as he went along to Threelips.
Julia: Classic.
Amanda: He was saying to Threelips, "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm totally here with permission." Whereas in my brain, I think he probably just like left a note on Hyperion's desk, being like, "Becoming a pirate. See ya." And they simply assumed he was dead, because why would he ever go out to sea to be a pirate, that sounds like a kidnapping, ransom note excuse—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —or, you know, a murder victim excuse, and then never talked to any of his family for six months to a year.
Julia: Why would he do that?
Amanda: Why would he ever do that? Why would anyone ever do that? How did he know how to write— how to write that note? But we'll never know. So yeah, that's my headcanon here, and so it makes all the sense in the world. Why— in Troy's mind, he was like, "What? I'm being a pirate. I told them in my note, everything's fine." And then they're like, "No, no, we thought you were fully dead."
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: I love the idea of a murder victim— what did you say—what was the— what was the phrase you said?
Amanda: Murder victim excuse.
Brandon: Murder victim excuse, excuse for being murdered.
Julia: Yes. Like don't know— it's more like a, "Hey, don't like"— the murderer leaves a note being like, "Hey, don't look for me, I'm— I'm leaving town, so don't—"
Brandon: I realized what Amanda meant—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: —and it made sense. But—
Julia: Alright.
Brandon: —the literal words were very funny, Julia.
Julia: Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: Cool. Cool. Cool. Alright. Great.
Eric: It's like, oh, no, Jason didn't do it. He left a note saying, "Oops, sorry, wrong house."
Amanda: He had a conflict— yeah. Yeah. So that's my— that's my perspective there. Did that makes sense to you guys, too?
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: No, that makes a lot of sense.
Brandon: Yeah, and I don't know this to be true, but I imagine like— in a world like Verda Stello, if you just don't show up for, like, a year and a half that— you're like, "They're probably dead."
Julia: That's how most people are. Like if someone went missing for a year and a half, you would presume that they probably died.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: I think what the Crags— I think I could, like, answer four different answers for that, it's like if you're a citizen in— in four different countries and you disappeared for a year, what would they assume?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: In the Crags, they assume you were dead. In Overstalk, they assume that like God took you or you were on like a spirit walk.
Brandon: And you're still walking to town, yeah.
Eric: You're just walking— or you're just like walking around. In Hothouse, they assume you're just, "Oh, he's working on something hot right now. We can't— we can't talk to him."
Julia: Uh-hmm. He's got a project. No one talk to him.
Eric: Yeah. And I think in Open Field, it's like, "You're— you got reincarnated. Now you're a leaf that everyone poops on. Congratulations."
Brandon and Julia: Oh, no.
Brandon: The same leaf?
Eric: Yeah. It's—
Brandon: Or you were cursed by a witch, you know?
Eric: I— it's all the same— it's all the same.
Julia: Sometimes that's the thing. Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: One way or another, the path will find you again.
Julia: Hmm. You're always on the path no matter where you are.
Brandon: It's like that horror movie, It Follows.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Great. Great. Cool. Cool.
Eric: You walked into a cornfield and the corn all had faces and then ate you, so it happens.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: What are we gonna do?
Julia: Yeah, I'm gonna eat—
Amanda: Well, it happens.
Julia: I'm the popcorn this time, bitch. Sometimes words— sometimes words come out of my mouth and I'm like, "Julia, what the fuck are you saying?"
Amanda: Made sense to me.
Eric: It also made sense to me. That was good.
Brandon: I liked it.
Julia: Great.
Amanda: No, no, it's—
Eric: Yeah. You know that like— there's like a wives club that's like, "She's a popcorn now, bitch."
Amanda: That's the name of someone's group texts. Yeah, for sure.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Dominique wants to know, "On a scale of rehydrated raisin to mummified fruit, where's Havana at right now?"
Julia: Well, he's— he— he's currently in the sea, so he's probably rehydrating.
Brandon: And salty.
Amanda: That's true. By the end of Episode 24, he's fully in the water, so that—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —that will help him somewhat with his dehydration.
Julia: Yes, yes. He's fine. He's fine, though. We dropped him off in the shallows.
Brandon: You know, in the— in the cocktail bars when you get one of those dehydrated fruit slices, that's what he is, right?
Julia: Yeah, yeah. We said that—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —in a couple times at the episode too, we were just like, "He's like a cocktail orange. It's fine."
Amanda: Normally, he's normal, but—
Eric: Yeah. He's always on various scales of that because he's a soft boy, so I think— which was very funny.
Brandon: Oh, sure. Yeah.
Julia: That sweet lad.
Amanda: And, Eric, Photoprinceelliot wants to know, "What kind of animals live in the boiling reef? Isn't like a regular coral reef, but hot? Are there fish?"
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: Now, certainly Photoprinceelliot, I don't know what a fish is, so that does not exist here in Verda Stello.
Eric: I was thinking about this post— post-playing Dredge, which everyone should just goddamn play as— it's now a touchstone of this campaign. You should all go play that.
Amanda: They have passive mode for the— all the Amandas out there, so nothing is going to bite you in the dark.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: There is a volcanic terrain in Dredge where you can get volcanic fish. So it's like—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —super weird. I think it all has to do with, like, blanching. Like all the fish are, like, blanched plants and vegetables and stuff. So it's like I imagine they're like really brilliant colors but— and can survive in the plumes. And then also it's a reef for sure. I think it's like a superhot reef. It's very colorful, but also very scary. I just think that we never got to a point where this came up, since we're kind of like on the outskirts of the reef. Listen, if eventually, there will be a problem where you were in the boiling reef, there's stuff there. There's certainly stuff there. It's just right now we're— we're out here avoiding plumes of boiling hot water and no one is getting close enough in there to figure it out.
Julia: Yeah. No. And we don't want to, because that seems like a path towards death.
Eric: Seems like a big ouchie.
Julia: Seems like a big ouchie. Not a big fan of big ouchie, personally.
Eric: If we're still talking about this particular episode, I really, really liked how I was really trying to scare y'all about like if you don't move, you will die. If something needs to happen as quickly as possible.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Yes. That was really good.
Eric: Yeah. So shooting the signet ring over was really cool, but it's like—
Brandon: Yeah, really smart.
Eric: —hey, if you don't move, this thing is built on top of a geyser, so— so you should probably figure that out.
Amanda: Yeah. And Eric, if you want to just put a— put a fine point on that, A through Z asked, "Mechanics-wise, what was the steam doing in that scene?"
Eric: Yeah. No, it was just gonna burn you all up, and you're gonna have a problem.
Amanda: No. Fair, fair.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: It happens. No, it was really good. I really felt the tension escalating. It was really interesting to be like— I don't— I don't think anyone's ever questioned Troy like that. Like, even with his wings out, he's like, "What? You don't— I'm H's brother, like what do you want?" So it was really fascinating, and I really felt that urgency. But, guys, let's go on into the kitchen. I will refill our smoldering hot artichoke dip—
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: —and I'll be right back after that for more Afterparty.
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Amanda: Hello, everybody, it's Amanda coming at you from rainy New York City. Welcome to the mid-roll where we would like to thank first and foremost our newest patrons Jackson and Patrick. Welcome to both of you. We can only make the show because of our patrons, period. That's all there is to it. If you want to join and support the podcast, but also get things like our every other week podcasts party planning, audio and video versions, Julia and I just planned a bunch of haunted houses using a sort of randomized adjective generator and some cards from a trail at house on the Hill. God, it was so fun. You can get that and the 51 episodes of party planning that came before it at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. This week at Multitude, Eric is just home from a weekend at Big Bad Con, where he and his Games and Feelings co-host Jasper Cartwright, we're meeting several of you and hanging out with all kinds of game-related people. And if you would like to listen to Jasper and Eric tackle different questions about games each week, you should listen to Games and Feelings, the advice podcast about games, where Eric and a revolving cast of guests answer your questions at the intersection of fun and humanity. Since, you know, you do to play games with other people, most of the time. They have so much incredible stuff, including the 2020 hit show, What's your Favorite Pokemon? And then I Say Something Nice About You, which I love the most. New episodes come out every Friday, so subscribe to Games and Feelings wherever you get your podcasts or at gamesandfeelings.com. We are sponsored this week by Twenty Sided Store. This is of course my friendly local game store that can also be your friendly local game store if you want to order from them online. Now, I got my first ever flat in my— my bike tire the other day, and so I took it down to my bike shop, which just so happens to be a breezy walk away from Twenty Sided Store. So while they repaired my tire, I was browsing around Twenty Sided and checking out all of the incredible accessories and games that they have to offer. They are seriously so good. They're the best. If you want to get a quiet year, fiasco, dice, zines, anything you have to think about, you can get there. New cards, your favorite new releases, and your favorite classics. So if you don't have a friendly local game store near you, or you just want to support Join the Party's longest standing sponsor, you can do that by going to twentysidedstore.com, spell out that word twentysidedstore.com and use the code Pirate for 20% off your order. Or if you go in-person in Williamsburg Brooklyn, just mention Join the Party for 20% off. And finally, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are lots of times for me when racing thoughts keep me up at night. It happened to me last night at about 4:30 in the morning. Not nice, brain. And it's just like the time that my brain wakes up and it's like good to go. Let me think about every mistake we've ever made, everything we have to do, everything that I'm not proud of, and ways that I should have dealt with things in the past. And it's not helpful, it's not productive. My brain is trying to look out for me, but it's making my life harder. And so that's some of the stuff that I talk through in therapy. It is something that I rely on every week. I feel off when I don't have it. And I really, really appreciate that therapy helps me not just deal with low moments and bad times in life, but to learn kind of positive skills to get better in the future. And if you're thinking of starting therapy, you can give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. So get a break from your thoughts with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.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 show.
[theme]
Amanda: Alright, folks, we are back to talk all about Episode 24 and a bunch of really interesting game and character questions.
Eric: Amanda, did you check on my roiling beef that I had in the crock pot?
Amanda: Yeah, there was no steam escaping, that was when it burned me imminently, so I think it's good to go.
Eric: Okay. Good, good, good.
Brandon: I don't know how you got this, like— to hook up. You know that game like where you have an elephant that shoots butterflies in the air and you capture them with a net when you were a kid? Do you remember that?
Eric: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Yeah.
Brandon: I don't know how you got the artichoke dip to do that into my mouth, Amanda, but—
Julia: That's just a fountain, Brandon. Brandon, that's just a fountain.
Brandon: No, but it's a better fountain because it's an elephant.
Eric: Wait, so— so it's an elephant and also you're using a butterfly net to catch the artichoke?
Brandon: Well, the butterfly net is my mouth, but yes.
Julia: Uh-hmm. And the butterflies are chips covered in—
Brandon: Exactly.
Julia: —spinach artichoke dip. Alright, I see—
Brandon: Exactly.
Julia: —the logic now, Brandon.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Brandon, can you get Lauren on the horn just in case you choke during— in this whole thing? I feel like this is a choking hazard.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: It's worth it to die. It's fine.
Julia: That's fair. That's fair. Sometimes spinach artichoke dip, worth it to die.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: This is where Umbi is at in his journey. He's like, "I don't know. Let's eat artichoke dip, it's fine."
Julia: Love that for him.
Amanda: Alright. Lots to talk about in this episode. I think the—
Eric: Oh, before— before we move on, can we— I want to talk about something.
Julia: What's up?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. Hey, I just want everyone to know that I— in the 10 minutes before we started the episode, I ended up rewriting the entire military alphabet for Verda Stello.
Amanda: Oh, really?
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: You changed it up now?
Eric: No, I— yeah, I just did it. Yeah, it had—
Julia: Okay.
Eric: —it came up during the episode. And I don't think anyone noticed because no one knows about the military alphabet or some people said— because X-ray is the same, but it's X-ray of a plant.
Julia: Uh-huh.
Eric: Yeah, I just rewrote the entire military alphabet because I thought it would be funny for Troy and the Craggish Outposts to talk to each other like that.
Julia: Ah, yes. Yes.
Brandon: Oh, yeah, yeah, I was in there because I—
Amanda: That was in the episode. Yeah.
Brandon: I didn't even realize what you were doing because I was like— I forget the one, but I was like, "That's a silly letter for"—
Julia: Verbena.
Brandon: Yeah, verbena for fucking—
Eric: Yeah, it was V— V was verbena, and you're like, "That's a dumb one." I'm like, "I rewrote it, I’m sorry…”
Brandon: And I was like, "Oh, shit. No, that's awesome."
Julia: And we were like, "No, we thought it was real."
Eric: No, I just wanted to put a fine point on it. It's like these are the things that I do 5 minutes before we play sometimes.
Brandon: Yeah, it was brilliant.
Julia: How? How?
Amanda: So good.
Julia: I don't get it. In— in 5 minutes? Come on, man. Leave some creativity for the rest of us, bro.
Eric: I refuse, then beg.
Amanda: Alright, Eric. Well, talking about your unique brain, Only_the_best_boy wants to know, "What's the deal with them Greenhouse brains? How long has that idea been in Eric's head, and what the hell?" Awesome.
Julia: Good. Good.
Eric: This was inspired by the cranium rats, a very— a very cool monster that you might have known from the Monster Manual, or at least one of the expansions. Basically, like the plot— the stuff from the Forgotten Realms is that Mind Flayers take a bunch of rats, put cool brain powers into the rats, they have psionic powers, blah, blah, blah. They're rats, where you see their brains exposed. And I kind of wanted—
Brandon: Cool.
Eric: —like a swarm type thing on the boat. I wanted all of the sailors to be connected in this sort of way. And I kind of worked through in reverse how this makes sense in Verda Stello. How would a cranium rat exist in this way? And there we go. Yeah, brain extra powered up and exposed with the greenhouse, yeah.
Brandon: Cool.
Julia: Cool. It's cool as fuck, man.
Amanda: So fun. Kazy says, "First off, brains are just human, but green is very funny. But also, what if Greenfolk brains looked like the Pokemon Tangella?
Eric: Yeah. I— I think— I mean, it's all funny. Every single thing is funny. I do think that it's a little rude-y and— and it is like a lot going on in there, but I thought it would— like, you could go in the two different directions. It's like either like, "Yeah, it's all— it's all plants in there." But I thought it was funny. It's like, "No, they're just brains, but green." Yeah, it's fun— it's funny. And
Brandon: It is funny.
Amanda: It is, it is.
Julia: Eric, the roots are the nervous system of the body.
Eric: Sure. Yeah. We haven't talked about it, but I still have that canon all the way back from the world-building episodes where, like, you can have, like, a tea ceremony.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like the way that people eat is like a tea ceremony where they put the food and the drink on the ground, and you put your feet in it because you— that's how the roots absorb.
Julia: Yeah. We got to do that again at some point.
Amanda: Yeah. I had a sore throat all week, and so I've been honestly fantasizing about that. Here's a question from Helen about an aspect of Episode 24 that I loved. So Helen says, "I'd love to hear about how you went about constructing the heist and deciding what to show us in the audience. There was a gap after Eric took off his headphones for the gang to plan that we didn't hear. But how much was Eric looped in for having a roleplay Havana, for example? And at what point were the flashback scenes planned?"
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: This was so much fun. So take us through what happened.
Brandon: I can— I can talk about that from an editing perspective, too.
Amanda: Please.
Brandon: Because there was like, hmm, 20 minutes of audio that I didn't end up using, because—
Amanda: Show us the tapes, Brandon. Show us the cuts. Open the vault.
Julia: Show us the fuck cut, Brandon.
Brandon: We'll talk about in the moment during this session, afterwards. But I was like, "I'll maybe add this in at the end if there's anything interesting and if it's worth it." But like the episode was already at the end. I was like, "Even without it, it was already like 80-something minutes." So I decided not to do it. But from the tape— and Eric, I want to know what your thought process was.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: But from the tape, we talked through the basic stuff of the heist and how the heist as a framing device was going to be used. And then we just decided to, like, show the scenes instead of showing the planning of the scenes. And we didn't plan those flashback scenes at all, those are improv.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. What was also funny is those 20 minutes were all in character, and then I'm like, "We don't need— like, let's just do it. Let's just see what happens."
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: And we were like, "Oh, you're right. Yeah. No, that's good."
Eric: Yeah, that's very much from a Blades in the Dark thing, which, again, is a tabletop RPG specifically about running heist. And the thing that I've taken the most from that is this flashback mechanic where you're not supposed to plan the heist. You're supposed to offer up some sort of resource in exchange for doing a flashback.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: And, you know, you get some of those for free just in terms of the planning, like what would happen with Havana, is like, "Oh, yeah, you just say this, and this is what happened, and Havana is ready, blah, blah, blah." But then it's like you always have this ability to do a flashback, it's like, "Oh, I actually have this in my pocket, or this door is unlocked, because we scoped it out the day before, and I set something up."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So that's always going to be a resource and it's— it's fun taking things from other tabletop RPGs and making this stuff work, because that's why heist movies are great. And the listeners, I'm glad you felt the flow, because, again, everything about action scenes in Dungeons and Dragons, I feel it's about keeping momentum up, whether you're doing a fight, or its initiative, or doing something that's, like, not combat, necessarily, but requires a lot of rolls. So it's like, "Let's just— you know, let's do it. Let's just do it and see what happens." I'll let you do what you want to do as long as the rules fit and I think that's—that's worthwhile.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, no, I think that is a really good way of kind of approaching a— a heist in a lot of ways because like, you know, you're not going to Ocean's Eleven it planned the whole thing from the beginning with every contingency. That's just not going to work, you know?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. And even if you did that, things go wrong anyway—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —as demonstrated by Ocean's Eleven.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So— so, like, that's the whole thing. I think my favorite thing also— another thing I took from Blades in the Dark, is like— I— I can't remember what it's called, but it's like a circle where it's divided, where you— then you make pieces of a pie.
Julia: We've talked about the pie a lot, I feel like in—in us planning heists, and like—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —heist-like things. Like, we definitely did it in Campaign Two. We're doing it a lot now as well. So I— I think it's really a fun mechanic to include in your campaign, regardless of what system you're using.
Eric: Yeah. So like when Troy and Umbi were sneaking up the ship, and, like, roll middling too bad, I'm not like—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then you're dead, a gun is on your face, and you're shot. Like, you know, it's— it's— how much do people notice until it becomes, "Oh, you tripped a wire, it's over."?
Amanda: Eric, Troy almost died three episodes ago, so that would have been a little bit too soon.
Julia: A little bit hard on us, bud. A little bit hard on us.
Eric: So it's like, "Okay, you're sneaking, but also you go squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, maybe someone hears you." In my brai— even if I'm— I didn't say that, like I have a pie, and that's one slice.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Depending on how you roll.
Julia: Yeah, yeah, for sure. You guys were not rolling well in that episode. Oh, my God, were you rolling badly.
Amanda: Seriously. Someone asked in Discord, I didn't include it. But like, can we auction off our cursed dice? Guys, I wouldn't do that to you. I wouldn't send those dice into your home. Like, there's no amount of money you could pay me to make me inflict that on you.
Julia: It's also like, you know, dice reset after you play for a session. So, like, dice that were doing badly in one session might not necessarily do badly in the next section.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: It's like— it's all about the energy you're putting into them.
Brandon: None of this is true.
Julia: Brandon, shut the fuck up.
Amanda: Like a stained tablecloth, I leave them in the sun, and let them recharge and reset.
Eric: Whatever the three of you need to tell yourselves, it's fine. What— whatever it is, whatever makes you happy.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Eric, Malignant Sloth wants to know, "What goes through your head when we asked you to take off your headphones? Do you try to speculate about what we're talking about?"
Julia: Have you been liking that? I've been trying to make you do that more.
Eric: Yeah, it's fun. I make you guys do it all the time. I like it. I mean, I— the— all you want as a DM, really, is that there are scenes where you don't have to speak, and your players talk to each other about what to do, whether it's out of play or during play. And like, I'm sure that a lot of you home DMs get to enjoy this, and you could just, like, sit here and watch them do it. But it's like, I want to be surprised for tape, so that's why I take my headphones off. Like I would sit here and have my headphones on anyway and let you do it. Like, that would be so vindictive of me to like under— try to like shop-block your plans.
Brandon: Hmm
Eric: If the four of us were in a home game, I would just like sit there and listen to you, and just be like, "Yeah, that all sounds great." Or— or you could send me out of the room. I'd go hang out in the kitchen.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: You know, like it's all— it's all good. It's all good.
Julia: Well, like I— like I've said to you so many times, I asked you to take your headphones off because I don't want you counter-planning against my plan. I want you to be genuinely surprised by our plan.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I— Julia, I'm telling you, I would not counterplan. I'm telling—
Julia: I know.
Eric: You can still have my headphones off because Julia, much like a safecracker, is incredibly paranoid and doesn't want me to fuck with her. Because, listen—
Julia: Correct.
Eric: —I fuck with you when you tell me to, because you love it.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So I would never counterplan— I would never counterplan your stuff.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Consent is important in the role-playing games.
Eric: I'm like— I'm like Batman, where it's like, yeah, I do know all the ways how I would murder you if I needed to, but I don't, because you haven't turned against me, so it's fine.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Well, I think what's a— what's a fun thing for players to do, like— and we— what I talked about earlier, when we talked about mic a little bit, what we were doing is that the players were discussing multiple options that we had to do. So—
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: —Eric heard like four or five options, but Eric didn't know which option we were gonna go with.
Julia: Yup. Yeah.
Brandon: And so like, that's a fun way to include your DM, but also give that element of surprise, you know?
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, especially since Eric had to play a NPC that was part of our plan.
Brandon: Right, exactly.
Eric: Right, exactly. And I kind of liked that as like Havana only needed to know what he needed to know.
Amanda: Exactly.
Eric: I think there's a very big difference like just in terms of whether or not I would counterplan. If you said this stuff in front of an NPC who was unreliable, or who was working against you, yes, I would counterplan against you because that information would go out. If it's just out of play, I think that's out of balance. It's like—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Well, you're—that's like spying on someone's practice. You know what I mean? That feels a little—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —bit like, over the line. So I wouldn't even— I wouldn't do that.
Brandon: Yeah. Everyone's on the same team—
Julia: Alright.
Brandon: —trying to have fun, you know?
Julia: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: Except for me, I'm the Patriots.
Julia: Well, listen, you know, Eric gets to surprise us with cool plot things all the time. Sometimes I want to surprise him with fun plot things that we're doing, so—
Brandon: That's why I think it's worth it to do it, yeah.
Eric: I love it. I love being surprised. It's— it's— it's great.
Julia: I know.
Eric: That's what I'm saying is like— of course, I love it. It's great. It's great, because I also love destroying you emotionally and then building you back up with a beach episode.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And we also get surprised very often by Brandon's editing choices. And so here is another sip of question broth for you, Brandon. Malignant Sloth says, "I was wondering if Brandon wanted to say anything about the cool, creative editing choices that have been going on recently. There was Cammie in the beginning of the Skill Tree, whooshing between the scenes in Boiling Reef two, and the most haunting background version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat I've ever heard. Those are just the ones off the top of my head, but I just think the audio editing around those moments and many more recently have been so cool."
Julia: Yeah, Brandon.
Brandon: Thank you for the compliments, and I will not take credit for the whooshing thing because, one, that's just like common language, audio language, but also we talked about it in the episode. So, like, I think it was either Eric or just all four of us were like, "Let's woosh." The Cammie thing was because I wanted a cliffhanger— was tighter of the previous episode without Cammie taking a few minutes to go heal. But I obviously want to make sure the audience knows that Cammie did heal Troy.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: So that was the idea of just like, "Hey, we're reversing time here." It's like say like, "Cammie did in fact heal Troy, and now we're back in sit— a sort of like a flashback situation. That was I was hoping to do, at least.
Julia: I think it came across really cool. I thought it was a really interesting way to be like, "Hey, here's something that you might have missed in the last episode."
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: And now before we go into it, Troy's fine.
Brandon: Thank you. And anytime— I— for me at least, anytime I put music behind a thing like that, it means like— to me, it's like this is like a scene being played, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Like a—like a tape being played.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: And thank you for noticing this. I've been waiting for— to use this fucking version of Row, Row, Row your boat for 20-something episodes now.
Julia: Did you find it and you're like, "I must use it."?
Brandon: Yup. Same thing I did for season two. It began this season, I went through my resources and just pulled a bunch of music that I could use for the season. It's an acapella version basically of— or there's some music, but like basically, like, children's singing like Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
Amanda: It's like a melody. Yeah.
Brandon: And it was totally in the— in the song itself, it's totally just normal. Like it's not supposed to be creepy. But I was like, "This is the creepiest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life."
Julia: Fuck yeah, man. Fuck yeah.
Brandon: And I've been waiting for a moment where things are like normal but off, and I felt like this was like that moment of like, "What happened? Why is there no door in the back of the boat? Or why is there like—"
Eric: Oh, my God.
Brandon: "—a door to nowhere in the back of the boat? What's up with these greenhouse" brains?" Like, this is a perfect moment to be like reality is weird.
Amanda: Yeah, they were noticing Cammie and the throttle. Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Exactly. Exactly. So I'm glad it was effective.
Eric: Oh, my God. The door— the door is so funny. That was so funny,
Amanda: Don't worry, the first item in Spoil the Plank is what the fuck is happening with this door? So—
Julia: That fucking door, that fucking door. That's not a spoiler, but God, that fucking door.
Eric: Oh, my God.
Amanda: Players, Eric, anything else about these episodes before we get into some larger game and character questions about Verda Stello?
Julia: Nah, I just love the setting of the Boiling Reef, and I'm really excited that we get to explore it a little bit more, both in this little heist that we're doing and— and beyond.
Brandon: Yeah, I just want to say that yeah, this setting has been— I mean, all settings are fun, but yeah, I think this has been super imaginative and, like, really fun to— to play in.
Eric: Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
Brandon: Thanks.
Eric: Thanks.
Julia: You're welcome.
Eric: Thanks. No, I— I just really like the Boiling Reef. I'm kind of glad this is how it shook out. I didn't really know what was going to happen necessarily once we got to the outpost. This one really built itself forward because it wasn't— it— this is like almost a side quest built in to get to the Divine Labyrinth. So, I've just been kind of enjoying, seeing how this has come together a little bit. Like— and with a heist, it's— it's— it's like a dungeon, right? You set it up and then you see what happens. So, I haven't really planned that much, so a lot of this stuff is kind of on the fly based on what you do.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. It's like, oh, it's like I can only plan the setting. I don't know what's going to happen necessarily. It's like yeah, there's traps and there's enemies and there— and I know the layout of the boat, but I don't know what you're going to do and I can't, no. This arc has felt pretty loose. I'm very interested to see where it's gonna go.
Amanda: Hell yeah. Here's a question from Glass Cat Owl, "If Havana Tropicana dies, does the team get a new medic or will that just encourage them not to take care of their NPCs?"
Julia: I would never let Havana Tropicana die. I simply wouldn't. I would go on a fucking quest to bring back Havana Tropicana.
Brandon: Sometimes you throw a bomb at a ceiling, and then Havana Tropicana gets hit by a big boulder, and dies.
Julia: And then I kill Umbi for throwing bombs.
Amanda: You want us to kill more? Great. Chop, chop, chop.
Eric: No, Havana Tropicana will not do it. Havana Tropicana will die. Absolutely.
Amanda: Okay. Glass Cat Owl, Eric, would like to make a counteroffer, though, which is, "Can Havana's eventual ascension to godhood involve him being candied and enrobed in dark chocolate? Please, and thank you."
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah, that sounds tight. Yeah, yeah. For sure, yeah.
Amanda: Pretty good.
Julia: Shit, shit.
Eric: Sometimes if you ask Santa what you want, sometimes Santa gives it to you. Like, what do you— what are you gonna say?
Julia: Damn, damn Santa.
Eric: Damn, Santa.
Amanda: FredAwesome wants to know, "Will there ever be a cola-powered boat? And was the emergency move the boat button, another reference to One Piece ala Coup de Burst?" All of these words make no sense to me. Eric, you tell me.
Brandon: Same.
Eric: It's totally fine. There's a cyborg man named Frankie who, like, does work on the boat. So— and there is a burst powered by cola. The answer is no, but man, I love stealing things from other IPs and putting them into this game. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because then you'd figure it out. But like, hey, anyone who runs games out there, just steal stuff and then put it in your setting.
Julia: Yeah, why not?
Eric: Because either they'll get the reference or they won't get the reference, and then you'll look smart.
Amanda: That's fine. Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: It's not stealing, that's just how art works, baby.
Eric: That too, yeah.
Julia: That's just how art works.
Eric: Yeah, it's just art. It's just art. I went to—no— actually, go ahead, no one wants to hear about how— when I went to the museum.
Amanda: I mean, I— I would but fair enough.
Julia: Fair.
Brandon: We'll do it after the recording, maybe.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: What are you a nerd like Cammie?
Eric: Yes, the answer is yes. That was—
Julia: Okay.
Eric: That moment was so funny to me because Aurelo was like, "Why would you go there? It's like a museum, the fucking worst, because all I do is fuck." And you're like, "I like museums, shut up!" And then going forward is like, "So— so the Divine Labyrinth is a museum," and it's like, "No, it's not, I never said that!"
Julia: "You said it's like a museum."
Eric: It's like Cammie's like, "Oh, like a museum. It's— it's informative. It has a lot of stuff there." And Aurelo was like, "It's like a museum, it's boring and sucks, and nothing's there."
Julia: Damn.
Amanda: Guys, one more soup of question broth here, "What would or does Dr. Bertha Bones think of Nonny?"
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: And then they say, "Respectfully wondering we can get a “Pistons." But, Julia, I wonder what you think, because I think Dr. Bertha Bones would be like, "Especially with the whip— like without the whip, a creature, that's nice, unless you're going to lob off one of those arms, give me something to work with here. I don't know what I can do for you. With the whip, oh, baby."
Julia: I think Dr. Bertha Bones would say, "Why stop at one whip?"
Amanda: You're right.
Julia: What if all legs were whip?
Amanda: We need eight.
Julia: We need eight.
Brandon: Why not none? Why not none?
Amanda: Exactly, right. Why not none?
Julia: I miss Dr. Bertha Bones.
Eric: Let's do a round ten.
Julia: We gotta get back to that.
Eric: 10 whip legs.
Amanda: Put one on the forehead like a unicorn would get 11.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. Alright, that's— that's my answer to that question. But I was also— Eric, thank you for letting me use my abilities in such a wild way, I— I super appreciate it. I love— someone pointed out in—in chat was like, "Julia said something along the lines of"— I just know how to use the— the, like, abilities I have before me. "Getting to use them in ways that Valda's probably did not intend is my favorite fucking shit."
Eric: Can I tell you, though? I bet Valda's did in fact intend this? Like Valda's is written by Mage Hand Mike and those guys run games, like they know.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It's like part of— I think the fact that spells are so OP in fifth edition, is like if you write anything into a spell that someone's gonna use it in a weird way. Like, this is not a move from PbtA, right?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Where it's integrated to who you are. Like a spell is just like, "I'm a magic user, so I can do this and break your game."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like you're just gonna assume that that's the case. So, I— like I know that you're thankful, but I'm like, "Yeah, no, that totally made sense. You're right. Like as long as the spell does not explicitly say otherwise, like it cannot be magic items, blah, blah, blah, like that—and that— it totally made sense to me.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And I think that's like an important part of how I'm playing this campaign, is I'm specifically trying to lean as hard as possible into the Valda's abilities and new spells and stuff like that.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: I think I've taken a total of maybe three out of all the spells that I know, spells that are from, like, Vanilla D&D.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: And all the other spells that I've used have been from Valda's guide, like original Valda's guide.
Brandon: Are you telling me that Candy Blast isn't from regular D&D?
Julia: It's not. It's not, it's a Valda's original.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: Hey, remember when you candy blasted on the boat via Nonny?
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Is that like when you drink too much and— you drink too much Tiki drink, so it's really sweet, and then you vomit off a boat?
Brandon: That's what we call Candy Blast.
Julia: Yes. That's what we call it.
Eric: That's— that's Candy Blasting, yeah.
Julia: Candy Blasting. And it does create difficult terrain.
Amanda: Got to boot and rally.
Eric: Like, we— we were in Boston and Brandon and Julia candy blasted.
Julia: Whoops.
Amanda: Julia, you brought up that comment about you using what you have well, and SavedMan wants to know, "How all of us remember all of the pieces of our character, items, spells, character traits, region, dice, et cetera?" So, Julia, you talked a bit about your system, and you have there a handful of spell cards.
Julia: Uh-hmm. I do. And such a spell cards, it's all of my abilities and I— before we play, I do arrange them by, like, spells, hexes, ability— like innate abilities. I have a little like checklist for my spell count, so that I don't like use stuff that I have already used and I can keep control of those. And then I have like magical items on the side so, like, I very much think that, like, having a system that works for you, and like being able to physically see all of the stuff in front of me is something that I find really useful as a player.
Amanda: Brandon, how about you with all your bombs and reagent dice?
Brandon: I do a similar thing, but just digital. I always have my character sheet up, which has, if not the description of the things, at least like the name of the things. So everything I have is on that character sheet. And then I have a note, like a digital note that has, like, organized list of like potions and bombs and items. And then, yeah, before I play, I just re— quickly read over everything every time before we start, so I— I remember what's up. But that doesn't— you know, that doesn't mean I don't make mistakes, of course, but I think organization is key.
Amanda: And I have a very customized, like, hacked up character sheet. I— I have to pay for Adobe Acrobat, the PDF editor because of work, so I use—
Julia: Might as well use it.
Amanda: —my dark powers. And so I've like extensively edited the character sheet template. And so I have basically all of my abilities, moves, my arrows, and my ammo count, stuff like that relating to combat, all on that section of the character sheet, and then all my other, you know, features, abilities, things that I might need to reference, either going in and out of initiative and its own section, everything else in a— in a third. Just so I don't forget about things like, you know, Troy crits on a 19 or a 20, hasn't happened yet, but it's there, and it's right under my, you know, weapons info, so I never forget it.
Julia: Sometime soon. That'll happen sometime soon.
Amanda: Maybe. Better hope so.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Alright, folks. Let's close out with a few questions about the podcast, IRL, and then of course, we're gonna spoil that plank. Eric, you're standing for this recording, so it does feel like you're about to walk the plank at any given moment.
Eric: Yar!
Julia: Avast.
Amanda: Cool. Here's one from Royyi, "How do you guys roleplay so well while talking to each other on a Zoom call? It really feels like you're in the same room. I work remote and can't even have a normal human conversation sometimes about awkward interruptions." Royyi, let us assure you. It's not us, it's editing.
Brandon: That's not true.
Julia: It's editing, but it's also practice. Yeah.
Amanda: Practice and Google Meet.
Brandon: I think is a little bit like 15% editing and then 85% we've been doing this for years.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Can I say that, actually, we're all being really modest? It's a 100% Ethernet.
Brandon: Direct connection.
Julia: Don't use Wi-Fi.
Amanda: Yes. So all of our computers have ethernet cords. We have no delay, that's important. And we use Google Meet because it silences people who overtalk less. It still does, but Zoom does it a lot, and it's very frustrating. And so we use Google Meet specifically because it lets us all kind of talk at the same time, that Brandon then sorts out later, and will sometimes, you know, shift things a little bit, so like I started talking a little bit after I actually did. Because in normal conversation, you can pick that up, not a huge deal. But if you're listening in your little earbuds, in your brain that will confuse you.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Just get Ethernet. It's wild that internet is like this. Like, you got to be—
Amanda: I know. Yeah, I know.
Eric: You have to have an Ethernet and you have to stand— have your computer stand on top of your router. It's wild how like rock plus spark equals fire internet still is, in so many ways.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: May I recommend getting a gigabit.
Eric: Yeah, true.
Julia: Hmm. Hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. Christian the Just Ok says, "Can I get a list of Greenfolk for famous NBA players, given the recent Dame trade?"
Eric: Oh, do we want to do sports? Is this what we want to do?
Julia: No, I'm good, actually.
Amanda: The question is there
Eric: Hey, tweet at me, I'll give this to you.
Julia: There you go.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: Talk to me instead.
Amanda: Good. At El_Silvero his name if he was a lucha libre wrestler.
Eric: That's true.
Amanda: Zibbazette says, "I see you made it to In and Out in your trip to LA last week, Eric. Did you also go to King Taco?"
Brandon: What is King taco? I lived there. I don't know what King Taco is.
Amanda: Brandon, we all know that you lived inside the Coffee Ghost’s apartment only for two years and then moved to Seattle.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I did get to go In and Out, though. I did have In and Out.
Eric: Yeah. I did not go to King Taco. King Taco was over on the other side of the city, so I didn't get a chance to go. But I did spend time going to In and Out, because I just like— I don't even want to get into a burger wars debate. Like I like In and Out, I think In and Out is the best burger, but being from New York City, Shake Shack has the best chicken sandwiches, fries, shakes, et cetera. I think In and Out burgers, its own are good, and I like ordering the secret menu. I got it protein style for the first time because—
Julia: Cool.
Eric: —lately, I have been obsessed with lettuce wraps. There has been a sandwich place near us called Anthony and Sons if you're in New York City, it's absolutely incredible. And they literally do like half of an iceberg lettuce as the lettuce wrap.
Brandon: That's cool.
Amanda: It's like two inches of lettuce, it's incredible.
Brandon: Wow.
Eric: And— and I was like, "Oh, I wonder what In and Out does." In and Out also does a lot of lettuce, so it actually held it really, really nicely. So, I've been a little bit obsessed with that lately. So I really wanted to order a double-double protein style.
Brandon: Cool.
Eric: And, yeah, but the thing that actually— the— the LA food that I'm the most obsessed with, is this place called Magpies, which is a soft serve place. And, man, they have the wildest flavors. I got a swirl of cappuccino and chocolate chip cookie, like swirl, swirl. They had a blueberry pie soft serve. And I've been saying for years that a dark berry plus confectionery ice cream. You know, there's a marionberry cheesecake from Van Leeuwen. There's a lot of like blueberry cheesecake sort of things that are so good with like the cheesecake, like— or graham cracker chunks in it, like for hard ice cream. There was soft-serve of it and it tasted the same. You could taste the pie, the crust in the soft-serve. It was so good. I'm gonna go there again. I went with Kristen DiMercurio, a friend of the show, who— who brought me there and now I want to go— I'm gonna go to a different location today because I want to go so badly. It was so, so good.
Amanda: Oh, hell yeah, dude.
Brandon: This was incredible.
Eric: Yeah. It's like a local chain, it like— you know, it's not that like ostentatious. Like, I went to a bunch of like fancy, like, foodie-ass restaurants, but like this was just like here's a soft serve place, it was so good. I also went to a bunch of wonderful coffee places too, which I always do when I'm out here.
Julia: I love that for you.
Amanda: And then, Eric, it looks like this one came in through the Insta. Can you give us some context from Katymorris? "My friend just made me this adorable little corn guy. Can you and the crew helped me name him?"
Eric: Yeah, here is— here's a photo.
Julia: Right— right off the bat, like before I even see a photo of this one. Colonel Hominy Maize.
Amanda: That's good.
Eric: I mean, honestly, honestly though?
Julia: Yeah. If you gave him a little hat, he could be a colonel.
Amanda: Got it in one, Julia. That's it.
Brandon: Julia, how do you do this?
Amanda: That's it.
Julia: I don't know. I just thought of corn words.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Katy, good— good— good friend, good guy.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: My friend Hannah out here has a nine-month-old pug named Colonel Popcorn, and I think similar vibes, similar vibes.
Julia: Also very good.
Brandon: Hey, guys, how come corn maizes aren't called maize mazes?
Amanda: People have asked this question, Brandon. It's a missed opportunity.
Brandon: Yeah, it really is.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Yeah.
Amanda: Let's just call them mazes with an I.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Frankly.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: I think because a lot of Americans would be like, "What the fuck is a maize?"
Amanda: It's like—
Brandon: That's true.
Amanda: —the only indigenous grain to the US, fucker. Come on. Alright, get up.
Eric: I like— Amanda holding a knife up to someone's throat.
Amanda: Ask me again. Yeah. Alright, let's spoil the plank, everybody. From Dominique, are Cammie and Havana gonna try to play the 'I don't know those guys' after the ship saw Umbi and Troy jump?"
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Julia: You can't tie me to them.
Amanda: Amnotagoldfish said, "Maybe the real salmon is the rock grubs you find along the way."
Julia: That's funny.
Amanda: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Eric: I want that on a pillow. I want it on a pillow.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Eric, I'm gonna say this right now. If we get to the salmon and it's just one big rock grub, I'm quitting.
Julia: I'm gonna be so mad. I'm gonna be so mad.
Eric: Brandon, can I tell you? It won't be. It won't be.
Julia: Alright. Good, good, good.
Amanda: Mel118 said, "I don't understand that door at the back of the boat. That's what's not at the back of the boat." Same.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Who can say?
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I like that you guys jumped through it. That was my favorite part.
Julia: I get— I get the logic behind it. I— seriously, I get the logic behind it. I don't think you all were wrong to try it.
Brandon: My favorite part, is like, we talked on tape of one of us should go through the door and one of us should not.
Julia: And then you both jumped.
Brandon: And they can't—Julia was like, "Nah, I'm good." So we're like, "Alright, let's fucking both do it." And then we both got fucked. Like, we're so stupid.
Julia: Wait, I didn't—I never said, "Nah, I'm good." I wasn't with you guys. I couldn't have said, "Nah, I'm good."
Brandon: Sorry. We were like, "Should one of us go help Cammie?" And you were like, "I've got it covered."
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which you did.
Julia: Because I— I did.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I did.
Amanda: Brandon, if we had showed up, Cammie would be in danger.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: It's good we didn't go.
Julia: Uh-hmm. It was all for the best.
Eric: That was so— that was so wild. That was so great.
Amanda: And finally, Eric, this one comes in from your player, Amanda, which is, "Why is this door punishing me?"
Eric: Oh, that's incredible. How about for— how about for spoil the plank here? The three of you, I would like you each to make a prediction about what happened. And, Julia, I— you— it seems like you already did one. Turns out that Audrey is not so bad, is a good prediction that I could give that one to you.
Julia: Great.
Eric: Julia, put that on tape. Brandon, Amanda, I would like you to give me a big prediction about what you think is going to happen next.
Brandon: Well, I did predict the Aubergine thing, but that's not really plot relevant.
Eric: Oh, that's pretty good. No, that's a good one.
Amanda: Yeah, no, you should say that. Yeah.
Eric: I mean, you can do it— everyone can do another one if you want to double down on that.
Brandon: I'll double down on— on Aubergine as Napoleon.
Eric: Aubergine as Napol— okay, Aubergine as Napoleon.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Audrey's not so bad. Amanda, you're the only one who hasn't put up a big prediction on tape.
Amanda: Oh, Eric, that's because I don't like being wrong.
Brandon: Can you put a prediction on— on a character death, Amanda?
Eric: Oh, my God. You're putting— you're putting a dark— a dark cloud over a character.
Amanda: No, I don't want to predict a character death.
Brandon: Okay. That's fair.
Julia: Amanda go— Amanda goes, "Troy Riptide." And we'd be like, "No."
Amanda: I mean, yeah, it would be Troy Riptide, yeah.
Eric: This could be about the keys, this could be about the sa— salmon.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: This could be about any of the enemies who are out there. This could be about Lucky Edie.
Amanda: Okay. I think one of the keys is going to be a metaphor, or a word, or an answer.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Hmm, it's a meta— yeah.
Amanda: That's my bi— that's my big prediction.
Julia: It's a metaphor.
Brandon: I think— okay. Wait. Okay. I'm gonna add a second on that. I'm going to yes on that and say one of the keys is a metaphor, one of the keys is a musical key, and then the last key, let's see, what— like a key— what's another word for— like a key lime or something?
Eric: Wow. Dang.
Julia: One of them is a lime. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: That's good.
Eric: Yeah. That's pretty good.
Julia: And then we've seen one of them, so it can't be that one.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: That's true. Okay.
Julia: Interesting. I like interesting. Alright.
Amanda: Well, folks, that takes us to the end of another bomb Afterparty. It was at the bowling alley after the kids get kicked out, and it was bomb. It was great. Loved it.
Julia: It was the bomb.com. We love it.
Brandon: We got those little ice cream cups that the kids didn't eat.
Amanda: Hmm. Incredible.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Those clearly from frozen fried mozzarella sticks.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: My favorite childhood memory.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Oh, so good.
Amanda: Delish.
Eric: Hell yeah. Also if I saw you at Big Bad Con, you're great and I love you. And if I didn't see you at Big Bad Con, go tell a friend about the show, because we want more people to know about the show.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And, guys, I waited for the end of the episode to tell you, we got two $20 annual Multi-Crew members while we were here recording the podcast.
Eric: Wow.
Amanda: So thank you all for—
Brandon: Yay.
Amanda: —making it such a successful Multi-Crew Drive. It's been—
Brandon: Yay.
Amanda: —a marathon couple weeks and y'all really came through for us, so thank you.
Julia: We love and appreciate you all.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Yeah, we do. Alright, everybody. Until next time.
Brandon: Bye.
Eric: Bye.
Julia: Later.
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever upward.