Episode Transcript
[00:00:30] Speaker A: All right, so, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to do a recap. This is the level one to 20 recap, and then I have some questions for our players, and that is what we're going to do. So this first part is obviously scripted, so bear with me here, folks. Our heroes are hired by Grimble Tanglebeard, the recently promoted provincial governor of old Fenrir, a dwarven architect and cleric of divine Hammer, the God of crafting. Empirical rule of the Providence has stretched the ostragarian empire beyond its tolerance. As the fairy cursebased environmental disaster nears its 100th year, Tanglebeard has a new plan to get better political results by hiring adventurers to deal with thorny political conflicts.
Sensing an opening to bring about change in the theocracy, journalist Samu Eliard, priest of the mask, God of youth and change, is hoping this new policy will let the real juicy gossip escape the government and the army. The two of them, Tanglebird and Eliard, form the church powers of Tuscan, representing conservative and liberal factions of the church on the border between the empire and the province. Enter our heroes. Tanglebeard hires the dark arbiters and the sharp edge of the pub, two competing venturing parties of which our listeners will hopefully be rooting for the dark arbiters. Our heroes are Boline Kulima, priestess of the silent judge, goddess of death and the journey of souls. Creedon Brightwind, a failed priest of divine mercy, the goddess of love, marriage, and emotion, turned warlock of some yet undiscovered patron, and Xeris, zealot of sister truth, goddess of law and civilization. They are certainly better than those sharp edge of the pub folks. Max the Gregarius Dredd, the emo, and chastity, the self righteous priest of brother ambition, God of strength and war. Who even knows their agenda? Their work seems a little suspect and a little sloppy. Let's check in on the story so far.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: The dark arbiters take two of the jobs offered and head to the idyllic town of Palmville to retrieve a holy relic from the tomb of St. Astra XIV, famous for removing the undead scourge from the town nearly a century ago. Unfortunately, the fabled rod of Astra proves to be instrumental in containing a powerful and evil force known as Vecna, and the Soley is writing Amaranth Strain, the necromancing priest of the silent judge who created the undead scourge 100 years ago. It turns out the legend of St. Astra is not as pristine or clear as history remembers, and the wronged party of Amarant strain and his family sought out dark powers when their goddess, the silent judge, didn't answer their prayers. When the party removes the fabled rod of Astra, all hell breaks loose in Palmville, and the city is overrun by a zombie horde of apocalyptic levels. Gathering a few allies from town, the team marches back and seals Amarant Strain's wandering soul in a magic circle before exorcising him from this world, apparently freeing Vecna, an extinct vestige death God from 500 years ago.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Our heroes then head on to Hilock, a town known for its great feat of engineering, a lock and channel system for boats that form as a hub where river and land trade meet. The mayor, Chester Tanglebeard, a charismatic paladin of brother ambition who has ruled this town on behalf of the church for a hundred years, has a little labor dispute on his hands. Someone is raiding the boats in the trade riverway. Despite the fact that the lock operators Guild have successfully ensured this sort of thing wouldn't happen for over a century, the mayor voices a suspicion that some kind of union conflict is to blame. It turns out that the locke operators Guild is a thieves guild, running an extortion and protection racket, charging exorbitant fees to not steal from the merchants, and bribing Chester to keep the system in place. The river raiders are led by one like frikers, an armed revolutionary attempting to expose the corruption of the system and to end the rule of the church in favor of the monarchy, which his family line once belonged to.
A local detective in the guard, another cleric of brother ambition, Khan Bardish, has been trying to bring down this corruption, earning a name for himself and possibly promotion. Our heroes, the dark arbiters, side with Khan Bardish against everyone, toppling the raiders, the thieves Guild, and Chester, the corrupt mayor with a whirlwind tour of violence and investigations, but choose not to get invested in the swamp politics of lizardmen, dragons, Hydra, and giant crocodiles, at least for now.
[00:05:12] Speaker D: The dark arbiters then head to the town of Northbank, infamous for being a place of sickness and famine on the edge of a dried up lake of mud. Northbank is ruled by the famed arch Sage Mason, a nearly millennium old wizard with a mysterious history. The sharp edge of the pub had been here, and they discovered the arch sage's missing apprentice had admitted a new type of undead, a ghost that keeps its spellcasting ability. He has since been on a personal mission to convert the local spellcasters into ghosts. The pub seemed to have killed the apprentice, but missed one of the ghosts. The arch Sage asks our heroes to investigate another vestigial God of disease headed in the town's muddy lake banks, and to check up on the work left undone by the sharp edge of the pub. After a quick investigation, our heroes run into a cult dedicated to the pox, whose leader had been converted into a ghost mage. Two nearly disastrous fights later, the singular ghost is destroyed and the epox is vanquished. The arch stage gifts our heroes some magic items and leaves town to hunt Vecna. The next vest is God on his list. Our heroes leave Northbank, not realizing that they are missing a few days of time from their memories.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Our heroes march onward towards Sternheim, where the sharp edge of the pub had apparently thwarted a war between a nomadic tribe of centaurs and the local town. A werewolf asks our hero for help curing her father from Lycanthropy, which they do. However, it turns out the werewolves have been ensnaring travelers for food for years, so this does not end well. In the wake of that encounter, the dark arbiters begin investigating why the mayor has gone missing, why the aggressive centaurs are back, and the circumstances of two similar murders of Sternheim citizens. The investigation takes the party out of town to a lost ruin inside the thorns through a secret tunnel where fairies hold the mayor prisoner and are in a deep underground conflict with some thieves guild members who tunneled out from Fenrir.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: This is all just the plot so far, but there are also character stories. Xeris is a lawful evil church lawyer powered by the divine outrage of broken laws and disorderly conduct. While he hasn't learned much new about himself yet, he has put his destructive urges to good use, leading the party in joining a secret faction known as the Silver Thread, which exists to hunt and exterminate heretical vestige gods who trespass on the mortal realm. Xeris is not without his allies, having befriended Owen the shield, an ex military officer and descendant of St. Astra XIV in Palmville, and Detective Khan Bardish, a town guard militia member of Hilock. Zerus is, however, quick to make enemies, at least if they survive his acts, like frikers, the armed revolutionary, and Chester Tanglebeard, the corrupt mayor, are amongst those ranks. We catch up with Zerus as he works to bring justice to Sternheim by force.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Boulain, a drought cleric of the silent judge, gains an ally in Palmville in the form of Sadie. Once an apprentice of the silent judge, Sadie retired to be a humble baker after the debacle with St. Astra XIV. She dies of old age in the fight to save Palmville. But her prayer for a little more time is answered, and Sadie is transformed into a raven familiar who is never far from Boulain. We have learned that Boulain is hunted by bounty hunters and had to flee the port city of Turtle Bay, her home of over 60 years. She also has mysterious elvish tattoos on her back that she takes pains to hide from everyone, the party included. We catch up with Boulain as she seeks to prevent untimely deaths in the town of Sternheim.
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Creden, the goth warlock of love, remains torn between her desire to succeed in the church of love and her need to walk her own life path. We discover that her mysterious warlock patron appears to target people who are not chosen by their gods with divine power, on the promise that this creature is giving them a chance to catch their God's eye. It is discovered that Credence patron has another supplicant in the form of like frikers, the armed revolutionary struggling to gain the attention of his desired God. The mask God of youth and change. The patron pit the two against each other, and Creden emerged victorious, claiming the mystical bow her patron had gifted her rival. Numerous near death experiences have brought Creden to the edge of her emotional skills as a young woman. And today we find her stressed out but persevering.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: All right, that catches us up. So I got a couple questions here for all of us to just have a conversation about. There's about five of them. First question, what is the funniest or funnest thing that has happened in the campaign so far?
[00:09:47] Speaker D: Can I go?
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Go. Take it away, Claire.
[00:09:50] Speaker D: Boy, I did not mean to seduce that giant alligator, but when I did that, that really got me.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: I was going to second.
[00:09:59] Speaker D: The love potion in the river was a bad move.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: The old father growing amorous of the canoe is probably the funniest thing.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: All that giant alligator stuff.
The scene killing the giant alligator was fun. The scene running from the amorous alligator was fun.
So just more giant alligators.
[00:10:23] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Fight with was. That was a good fight.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: That was a good fight.
It was a shit show, but it was a good fight.
[00:10:30] Speaker D: It seems to be our brand.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: That was chaos.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: I want to say I'm also reflecting a lot on the fact that we do work well as a team together, but the roles just keep betraying us.
So these fights always become near death experiences.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Who is your favorite NPC?
[00:10:56] Speaker D: I want to know more about her, but I'm very interested in Bella, who I've described as the B-E-A-R. Barefoot painted Jezebel.
We didn't get much time with her, but I like her. And I'm also hoping that I can have a new favorite NPC when we one day meet this pirate queen.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: I don't know that she survives that, but we'll see.
[00:11:23] Speaker D: Oh, God. I didn't think about that. Well, maybe not.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: The mask is yours. They serve the mask.
[00:11:29] Speaker D: We can still kill her and I can still like her as an true.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: That's true. And anyway, just because a character dies doesn't mean they're gone.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: Also true.
[00:11:37] Speaker D: They'll always live on a.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: Maybe there's a shift. Who knows? I liked what's her name? I forgot the werewolf. I forgot the werewolf's name.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Saripa.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: Yes.
I like when a little NPC, a seemingly throwaway interaction, ends up becoming much larger.
It paints a world with things happening outside of. Outside of it. I don't know if it was clear, but it seemed like pre planned. That's always fun when it's like, oh, all right. That past action makes a lot of sense now with this new information.
And I just like the full story in the arc up to when we beheaded her or whatever. That was good.
[00:12:28] Speaker D: I mean, you snuffed out what a great story she had.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Brief story she had.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: I was there at the end. I remember.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: I'm having a hard time picking between Kaima and like frikers.
[00:12:46] Speaker D: Oh, I loved was my. He was my second.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: I just. I really enjoyed the sort of moral conundrum surrounding, you know, he was trying to do a good thing through bad, but like Boulain was pretty sure he wasn't a bad person necessarily, but know about to get the book thrown at him. So consequences of his own actions kind of thing. But I thought he was a really nice, I guess, complex on the moral scale character that was fun to pick apart.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: You said that and it made me want my axe to look like a book.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: I also think like, tying him to Xeris's story is also interesting because I think we're going to run into him. Yeah, I think I'm looking forward to that.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:32] Speaker D: I thought it was cool that he's entwined in your backstory and also was like kind of a foil of mine by sharing my patron. And I just thought that was very interesting.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Let's see who's my favorite NPC?
[00:13:44] Speaker D: The one we killed.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: We kill them all.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: But let's see who did I enjoy playing the most. So the easy answer is arch Sage Mason, who is integral to the plot, like the overarching plot. So there's a lot going on there that nobody knows yet. But I think Khanbardish might have been my favorite so far who isn't inherently linked to the overarching plot. Like, he's a fixture of a town right now. But I think he's my favorite because his whole thing was like he's trying to play these three sides against each other, looking for an opportunity to take them all down and just sucks at it.
And I enjoyed that, but he's going.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: To take all the credit for it when we.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, you guys did him so many favors.
[00:14:32] Speaker D: Khan seemed like a pretty cool dude.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: He seemed all right for who he was. I also liked the merchant we ran out of town. I like that guy birdie.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah, the one who was telling all the stolen trinkets.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Where do you think each character story is going? Like, where do you think your character stories are headed?
[00:14:56] Speaker B: You mean like individually or as a group?
[00:14:59] Speaker A: I don't care.
[00:15:01] Speaker C: Yes, to.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: I think. I think Xeris is going to have a reckoning with both Creedon and Boulain at some.
[00:15:12] Speaker C: Interested.
I'm interested to see that. I don't know.
[00:15:16] Speaker D: I've got ideas for Creighton. I mean, Creighton is incredibly naive and I feel like part of this adventuring journey for her is to kind of slap that naivety out of her a little bit. And I feel know growing up in the church of divine mercy, it also makes sense that you might leave a little naive, but I think that dealing with like and seeing how our patron pitted us against each other, it was kind of the first time, I feel like Creedon was like I made the right choice becoming hoborlach. This was great. I'm the smart one here. And then for the first time she was probably kind of like, uh oh. I might be dealing with things that I'm not totally ready to be dealing with and that could maybe totally ruin my life because it just happened to that guy.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: She's waiting for the next warlock to.
[00:16:03] Speaker D: Come along, kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop a little bit. And so I think she's kind of starting to question her choices here and I think Creedon wants to be good. I kind of don't know if I actually want her to end up staying in the church of divine mercy or not. I don't really know where I want that to go, but I do think that part of her arc will probably end up being trying to get out of her pact somehow.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Well, I can't help it. Like in the episode, in the summary, the recap, there's this phrase in there that the promise is that you will get Divine Mercy's attention. There is no promise that that's going to be good attention.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Maybe Zerus, I think, either brings the world to heal.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Or the world brings.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: Him to heal or dies trying. Like right now.
That's where I see him at. It's a lot of his way of the highway. He is making concessions for credent and bulain, but that is limited in both scope, meaning like it's only to them and also limited to them in a way that there are lines. If they cross, they'll be more, well, more so belain than Creden.
Mommy dearest protects you. I'm sorry.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Creedon's got a powerful mom. Yeah, exactly. True.
[00:17:33] Speaker D: But you don't know the extent of my sins.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: Also true.
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Most likely he dies trying to.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Trying to save the world from itself.
[00:17:47] Speaker D: I can see that.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Or he learns and learns to adapt and tolerate.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: Maybe he learns a different way.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: I think Delane's past is going to catch up with her in a big way, and it's going to be interesting to see how the party responds to that.
[00:18:07] Speaker D: I cannot wait to learn your secrets.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: I also love that Boulain's getting tied up with the Vecna thing and she has a big old fucking like that just seems really think. I think the whole thing, she's been on the move because she knows bounty hunters are after her and at some point that's going to blow up in her face and that's going to be great.
[00:18:34] Speaker C: Man, this whole recap thing has been so surprising for me.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: It's because you take off your headset.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: If the listeners don't know playing who I play, I'm trying to remove all the information that the audience gets that Zerus wouldn't have. And so there's a lot I'm learning today, let's just put it that way.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: So that brings me to question four here, which is so it isn't every podcast that has someone purposefully playing an evil concept. So how's everyone handling having a lawful evil concept?
[00:19:08] Speaker D: I found it was kind of interesting because originally I also kind of wanted to play into that a little bit with Creedon, make her more morally gray. And this is the thing that happens to me every time I try to play someone not good, is that I eventually just fall into being good. I always play good characters and then as soon as I'm like, this time I'm going to be an evil one. Something melts their heart, they become good.
It's so hard to be bad for me.
[00:19:36] Speaker C: I'm sorry if I stole your thunder.
[00:19:39] Speaker D: No, but I like that conflict and that energy. I kind of like the need to watch what I do to a certain degree and also to just be exposed to a character that does things that makes me uncomfortable, makes Creedon uncomfortable.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: Good. Good.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Okay, so, I mean, both of these things in a good way, but I find Xeris is both challenging and vexing to play alongside. And a lot of it is I recognize as me as a player, getting appalled at things in each to.
I sometimes have a hard time separating how I feel as a player. Know, my know, trying to keep that, you know, Boulaine is supposed to be fairly neutral. And I wonder if I was perfect at separating my own feelings from my characters, if she would mind as much things that Cirrus does, because she's more like, I mean, especially given that she has secrets and she's laying low and she's on the move because she's trying to not have somebody catch up with her. She doesn't splash much.
She's a little bit like, go with the flow of whatever's going on because she doesn't want to call attention to herself. But at the same time, she does have some convictions about things that don't match Ziris. And she has a hard time being willing to speak up about it because she doesn't want to estrange the only people she calls friends.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: If there's too much bleed, of course, please let me know. Let's talk about.
But I don't hear that in what you're saying.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: I'm just saying mean. It's just sort of the recoil. Know when he burned all the books, right.
I had this gut sink at that moment. I was like, oh, fuck.
[00:21:34] Speaker D: I was, oh. But then Creighton grew up in the church and there are forbidden texts. That's a normal thing. That shouldn't be completely wild.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: You all are too liberal.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: We're too liberal. We're too liberal.
[00:21:50] Speaker D: Meet the player. I was like, well, this is a Portland, Oregon podcast.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Books are holy.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: There are no modern.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: All books are holy.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: I'm also a very liberal.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, I think that needs to be stated.
Robert and Ziris are very much not the same person.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Robert would not burn books.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Part of the challenge, though, is also trying to get into the mindset of living in a world where, yes, we are lawfully bound to do things like burn forbidden books. And it's hard to get into that mindset because it's just so repulsive.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: It's difficult, like, I walk a tightrope playing Xeris as well. Right. And it's a challenge that I knew when I designed characters like this or when I get into it. But I have to pick the moments to be evil that will drive a narrative rather than bring it screeching to a halt and. And play nice with other characters while still trying to hold true to that core of, like, it's my way most of the time and finding that balance. It's difficult on this side as well sometimes to grip my teeth and let you take a book or whatever. Go ahead, Nate.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: I was going to say you still have to have the yes and component of telling a story with people, and you have to walk a tightrope because you have a character who will say no. And so how do you. Yes. And for the story, while saying no for the character, I think you've done.
[00:23:41] Speaker D: A pretty good job with it because, I mean, there's definitely been times where Creden has been like, this is not what I want to do as a character, but serious is scary, and I'm just going to go with. But, like, that doesn't happen frequently enough that I feel like you're controlling. Our party's.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Actually, like, I was, I would say even sometimes Zuris takes the backseat and lets credence took the lead. Like, in the high lock confrontation with Kaima and Mary.
Well, until Zerus locked the door and Drew's axe.
[00:24:20] Speaker D: Sometimes if it drags on too long, you need somebody to.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Just somebody to start the that. But there's been times he's let know, do the talking and take charge and make a plan. And so I think you've actually been remarkably, I guess, egalitarian in terms of, like, I don't feel like Xeris is leading the party because he's insisting on taking charge.
[00:24:44] Speaker C: Right. And I try to be more reactive evil than, like, proactive evil.
And that's one of the things I wanted Xeris to be, like, likable and gregarious if everyone's doing the right thing.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: I think one of the challenges when you're dealing with somebody who's in the evil category is that there is nobody who's evil who thinks of themselves as evil. And that's a challenge. That's where it gets challenging, is because you have to be in a mindset where you're like, I'm doing the right thing. And everybody else looking at you is like, wow, that's evil as fuck.
But you have to be convinced that you're doing the right thing at all times because otherwise you wouldn't do it.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: Thankfully, a zealot, a faithful individual at know this particular type of faith is very easy to slide into that, like justifying what I do with the will of the gods. Thanks to the way that Nate has written the written setting. The setting, yeah. Has made that very easy.
Just be like, nope, the gods let me do it. So clearly it was meant to happen.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Well. And also his allegiance changes depending on his needs. Like, he's very deft and jumping from God to God to justify whatever he needs.
[00:26:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:10] Speaker D: I love Xeris as a character.
You're also just so scary when you have the big smile on your face and you're just like, I'm going to cut you in half. And I love that we get to see you do those faces because in my mind, Zerus is you. He has your face.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Last question to wrap this bad boy up. What's been your favorite town so far?
[00:26:36] Speaker D: Hilock. I liked the intrigue and going around and questioning everybody. I thought that was fun.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it was fun. Doing the investigation for Hilock was the.
[00:26:44] Speaker C: Most fun to interact with. Yeah. Just say there were a lot of interactions and moving pieces to pick apart. In Hilock, it stands out as a.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Highlight of towns and very dynamic characters. Like, I think all of the favorites that we've named have been were the Hilock characters. I had a soft spot for Palmville, but that's because it all surrounded the silent judge, which was my character's patron God.
But yeah, I think Hilock was definitely probably the most fun little heist. Buster.
[00:27:14] Speaker D: I liked Palmerville as well. I think it's a little harder because I was still figuring out who my character is then. It was so early in the campaign that we didn't have our dynamic yet. Yeah, we weren't quite as fondly.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah, we were still feeling each other out as players and feeling our characters out. And it was early.
It was also a very simple, fairly simple little plot, too. So there wasn't a ton to figure out there. Which town has been your favorite, nate?
[00:27:45] Speaker C: My favorite.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: I think the party did.
I think the party did the best hero work in Hilock, solved all of the problems that they could solve, threw themselves at danger for the betterment of a whole city. Right. So I think with that's. That's where the characters were the most heroic. I think I kind of have a soft spot for North bank.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: So.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: North bank, of course, is a diseased, horrible place.
[00:28:17] Speaker D: Not going to be anyone's favorite.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: That smells like moldy sewage, mud and fish.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Yeah, North bank was an o factory delight.
Now, what I liked about it is that was the first time that you had run into a mystery half solved because the pub had been there. And so it wasn't you trying to piece together the mystery, it was you trying to piece together the mystery after someone had already messed with it and burnt down one of the major buildings and destroyed several key ghosts and found their horcruxes and broke them and then fled the art sage mason for lack of trust. Right.
You all showed up and you were like, well, this is messed up. This is a mess. And so we have to figure out what happened after somebody else has already tried to figure out what happened and also tried to solve problems. North bank was a tough investigation.
[00:29:25] Speaker D: It was challenging. I remember feeling really confused a lot.
[00:29:29] Speaker B: And honestly, I don't think we walked away. I don't think I, as a player, totally understood the situation until we discussed it later.
I didn't understand how the ghost and the cult were connected. I never pieced that one together.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Well, and unfortunately, Max, Dredd and chastity are the ones who knew that information, and they weren't there anymore.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: And similarly, when you go into Sternheim, it's a half solved problem.
Also, not to be too mean to sharp edge of the pub, Palmville was a half solved problem for them.
They have no idea what happened in that graveyard.
They're still trying to figure out how to clean the undead out of the forest.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Well, we didn't know there were undead animals to deal with.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: Right?
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Like, that's what they're dealing with, right? Is all these undead animals, they didn't.
[00:30:27] Speaker D: Know that there was an extra ghost.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: The stuff that wasn't in the graveyard.
[00:30:32] Speaker C: Whoops.
Actually, I wanted to reflect one of the other. How's it been as a DM of an evil character? Does that change anything for you?
[00:30:42] Speaker A: It doesn't so much, because I'll tell you, no story I have ever made has ever survived players, even when they're all good, aligned, even when they want to be heroes.
I have never once in 22, 23 years of playing dungeons and dragons, successfully anticipated what my players were going to do.
So to me, it's almost like a non issue. Right? Because an evil character would throw me a curveball if I wasn't already expecting that every ball would be a curveball.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: Okay, sure. Yeah. Good.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: I also don't tend to invite players who are just going to follow my plotlines.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: You vex yourself with the players you pick.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to. Yes, and. And I want to collectively storytell. And so the evil concepts, or even if the whole party was kind of evil, it wouldn't bug me too much if we got cartruitous. I would probably do a lot of fade to blacks. And I don't generally invite people who take us that far, but I'm pretty happy with it. And I think there's a certain maturity that's happening here, too, which is like, Xeris is going to be a heart. Like, I can't preserve the hard no. Of the character of Xeris. And still. Yes. And. And so Xeris is going on a know, and I think we've been pretty good about making sure that Xeris isn't the.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:12] Speaker D: We're doing pretty well at maintaining a healthy party dynamic, I think, of just.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: Not saying certain things to each.
[00:32:23] Speaker C: I was going to say, that's the way it is, right. You have to not communicate about certain things. Just keep them quiet. They'll never come up. Not a problem. Okay. Thank you. I just was curious about your take.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:35] Speaker D: Now I want Creedon get closer to Boulain so that she can have a confidant because.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: Well, I mean, Creedon's so upset about the near death experience, and that's true. I've already bonded with, you know, Boulain is a death priest o.
