How much does initiative change the fight? How much did Amanda know about Danny before the episode? And how much cheese is too much cheese in a burrito? All those answers and more in the Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast, powered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that takes us beyond the tabletop to parts unknown. In the first campaign, we explored fantasy adventure, intrigue, magic, and drama. In the newest story, we tackle science, superpowers, a better future, and the responsibility to help others.
Every month, we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play D&D and other roleplaying games at home. We also have segments at the beginning of each campaign to teach people how to play the game themselves. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the after party episodes 21 and 22, how's everybody doing?
Julia: Great!
Brandon: Hello!!!
Eric: Oh, I'm ninety percent GameStop now.
Amanda: Oh no!
Eric: Is that bad?
Amanda: Stay till the end of the episode. If you don't know what everyone's talking about and you want an extended D&D metaphor to explain the stock market. Now you have to listen to our ads, HAHA!
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: I'm also ninety percent GameStop, but I'm ten percent notes I did for the two episodes that just came out.
Amanda: Well, good, because I have a bunch of questions from our lovely audience, from Instagram, Twitter, email and discord to ask. So, hey, let's start with our first section. Let's talk about the last two eps and first question being Julia. Are you finally coming down off of all your stress?
Julia: No.
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: I'm still stressed out all the time. All the time. Forever.
Amanda: And hey, let's talk a little bit. PCs did we know what would happen? Fucking no,
Julia: Nope. No.
Brandon: No. Not even a little bit.
Amanda: Not even a little bit. It was so stressful and wonderful. And at the end, we ended our session at the cliffhanger of, you know, the end of episode twenty one, and we were all just like, "fuck,"
Eric: I do appreciate, I think my favorite part was even though there were both cliffhangers in that one, we got to redo you going through the window at the end of that episode. And then we redid it in the second one, it's like truly if it was like a comic book and then you did another comic book and they're like, "no, no, no, we have to do it. We have to do this again."
Amanda: You have to fall through the window once more to put you where you're going to be.
Eric: Exactly.
Brandon: I wasn't sure if you were, like, making a joke at the beginning of the episode Eric, but it was too funny to not include. So I had to keep it in.
Eric: I was making a joke! Like everyone knows I'm the worst at starting episodes. So I'm just like, you know what? We're going to do the same thing that we did on the end, which just a little bit different. That was also I think that was me mainlining Teen Titans and like on the off chance that it would have like one episode and then the next episode and a part one and part two. Like it's it feels like it's supposed to be the same because it's like they drew it and wrote it like that. So I want to do something like that, which I just thought was silly.
Brandon: It was very smart. I like that.
Amanda: Speaking of your episode prep, I heard a rumor this is the most you prepared for a fight ever, including the finale of Campaign one. So Eric, tell us a little bit about how you prep for this.
Eric: Oh, correct. Here's the fun thing that we do now because we were so far ahead, is that I need to tell you guys all the things I want to talk about in the Afterparty. So I remember me saying this like immediately after I finished. I'm like, "ugggh I prepped too much"
Brandon: You said this at the beginning of the episode, sir.
Julia: You did.
Eric: I said it - I said it a lot of times. I said it many times.
Julia: You're very proud and you should be. It was a great fight and a great episode.
Eric: Thank you. I want to start with this because I just talked to Brandon about this before. Initiative frustrates me. This is something just as podcasters is like initiative is like the exact opposite of what we do in audio, in that like we take things that might be slow and we make it faster and we make it feel very smooth. But initiative like since one round is six, six seconds, I personally I'm like, oh, I wish we could move faster, but inherently we're not moving faster. It's like we're in slow mo intentionally so that we can have all these different moves. And like I know that we do it better, that nearly everyone else, because Brandon edits it so seamlessly and takes out all of our dumb questions and does bits and boobs and sound design.
Brandon: Did you just say bits and boobs?
Eric: Yeah, I was. Yeah.
Amanda: Oh no.
Eric: That's how good it is. I'm fine.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: But like it's still I only run initiative when we need it and like this needed it because there was a lot happening. But also like maybe this is just my own fault. I'm just like "ugh initiative uggh." But I guess it was really tension filled and it's, it is so complicated to me. And what I see as someone who consumes so much D&D media and as a DM and want to entertain you and the audience, that it's like you need to make initiative so complicated that it is entertaining and stressful and there's tension. But that requires me to run ten NPCs at the same time. And like that is just like that's the real tension that I have here now that it's not good, but like I feel a type of way while running it. I don't know if that matters or or whatever that means while we do it.
Julia: It also has the benefit of it gives each of us something different to do in each fight rather than just being like, oh, there's one bad guy. Okay, I guess we're all fighting this one bad guy and we're just going to take turns hitting this dude. But I liked that we each had like a different mission in this fight. It felt like really tangible and also kind of highlighted the fact that Val was separate from Preserver and Kilonova.
Brandon: Yeah, I still think, like, I wonder if because you have so much stuff to do in your head Eric if it feels so much faster to you while you're playing and then you listen to it and you're like, oh, wait-
Eric: Yeah, 5000 percent. It is the combination of me running the game and then also wanting to say funny things at the same time. And I feel myself saying it out loud when I'm switching in between, like I can hear myself looking at my notes and then hearing like when one of you say something and I'm like, "oh wonderful, nice, I love it." And then I'm looking back at my notes. Yeah. And I'm just like, yes, that is 100 percent what it is.
Amanda: That's a great observation because for me listening, I'm like, I don't you know, in the moment it can sometimes feel if initiative is not that dynamic, that you're kind of waiting for your turn or if everybody like a dynamic's poke battle is like there's four people just hitting the same baddie. And like not a lot of changing, you can feel like you're just waiting for your turn to happen, but during these initial like I'm listening to you guys, like what you do change is what I will do, what the NPCs do change is what I'm going to do. So it really is like very in the moment and very tension filled the experience of playing. And I think that is more similar to the experience of listening than Eric you running it and being like, okay, like I am. I am going through all my steps and, you know, I have to I have to move everybody and then I can move them again.
Eric: Yes. I think that's just how I feel. And I'm so happy that you heard all of that yet. Also, when we do big fights like this, there are objectives that are almost never kill this person because like especially in the modern world and especially in superhero stuff, like making someone go down to 0 HP is never the goal. I thought this was really fun because seeing how everything moved and you all did really interesting stuff that I was not anticipating, like I think this was Brandon the stuff that you did was really like supporting it was a Brandon Rand support, like he did Aggie shit and pulled focus and Aggie tricking Aunt Min I 5000 percent didn't see coming. And Val Val incredible rolling and dealing with the YouTube stars were also like with something again, I didn't think would happen. And even under the influence of the painting was just very interesting.
Amanda: Eric you know what I didn't see coming? Uhhhh the fucking painting.
Brandon: Yeah!
Amanda: I didn't see that coming. Oh, and this is a very good follow up question. How did initiative like influence how things went? Like did the order of initiative change the way you thought the fight was going to go? This is from Burne Carender on Insta.
Eric: Sure. Here's a thing, Milo. If you did not go first, you would have gotten gangland style destroyed what you said at the end of 21 when we were done, you're like, "well, I hope they don't kill me like mobsters." And I'm like, "oh, they should kill you like mobsters." Literally so what I did my initiative like I did before I rolled ahead of time to give everybody, like, intention things they will do in the first round and then I can adapt as it goes. So the first thing that I wrote down was for the YouTube's: if they go first before shit happens, they'll be live streaming everything and the mobsters in the People's River will not like that, so that came into play after that. I had and then Aunt Min was going to make everyone look at the painting, The People's River, they were going to just bail like they did. If any of the mobsters, Aunt Min, Salimony, or the crowd of mobsters went before Milo they were going to get an assassinate, like a like a rogue style assassinate on you and get advantage because you're grabbled. And they would get like I think I have the actual amount written down, but like 60 10 straight up.
Amanda: Oh my God.
Eric: Just on you.
Amanda: With your reduced HP, that would have been very bad.
Julia: Yeah, you probably would have died.
Brandon: It would have been neat, though, to be a literal ghost in this campaign from then forward.
Eric: Oh, here we go. Yeah, I have 60 10 lightning damage if they're persuaded to take out Milo, and that would have been either the mobsters, or the People's River if they were persuaded by Aunt Min, they would have done something different instead of just bailing. They would have done it to you. So either the People's River or the mobsters would have taken Milo out. But Brandon rolled a nat 20 and I guess there goes all of my plans.
Julia: You know what, usually I am pro "hey roll low in the initiative because then you can see what's going to happen." But in that case, that was the best nat 20 you probably could have rolled Brandon.
Amanda: Yeah, my first reaction was like Brandon you wasted a roll like this on initiative?!
Julia: You did say that in the episode.
Amanda: It worked out, yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I think I even said that too I was like, Brandon, you're wasting it on this.
Eric: I heard myself go HEH HEH HEH! Well, good roll, Brandon!
Brandon: Alright guys, I get six natural 20's a year and I don't get to play when they happen so.
Julia: One every two months.
Amanda: By the way, we've all been rolling particularly well since we started using new dice. And I just wonder if anybody attending the live show tomorrow will we'll hear anything about that. Join the party pod . com /live
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: Who knows!
Eric: Mhm! It's interesting.
Amanda: Eric WizzleSheCan on Insta would like to know how did you work the mechanics of a swarm of mobsters. You love you love a swarm of people.
Eric: I do love a swarm. I do love swarm. What I did, I took something from Kobold Press. They have incredible, incredible third party monster stuff and really try to do interesting things with game mechanics. So I heard on Not Another D&D podcast, they used something called a bar brawl where it was literally like it's a place for you to put like an ambient fight somewhere else that maybe your characters will get pulled into. But I thought it was interesting. It's like a swarm of people and that was something I really wanted to use. So the bar brawl there, basically it's a swarm of people and they get like two multi attacks. So I use that for the mobsters. Here's the thing. And this is what happened when with the thing at the end where all the hands pulled all the mobsters in, they're vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.
Brandon: tkThat's why you said that!
Eric: Yeah, that's why they got cleared out so quickly. I like to imagine that they were worried about going to Christian Hell. So just how I worked it. But that's why you you just cleared it out so quickly. I thought it was also really interesting using the Knight of Mirrors, because the Knight of Mirrors is an adapted version of a fighter cavalier and like running a motorcycle through a crowd is a very interesting prospect. So that's why they jumped out of the way and then they separated. And the Knight of Mirrors had advantage on running over Salimony because Salimony was not prepared for seeing the Knight of Mirrors run through. So that was like those are really interesting tension of me running against myself. But yeah, I think that there's always a capacity to reskin things like a bar brawl is kind of like for a classic like fantasy tavern and you can just use it. It's a swarm of people like just use it. And they also have some really interesting stuff, like we didn't get a chance to do it. But if they have a move called Liquid Courage, where as a bonus action, the brawl can drink alcohol and get more HP. And I was going to use that, they were going to grab some spaghetti and eat it. But I didn't get a chance to use it because they got they got confused.
Brandon: That is the most fictional thing I've ever heard of any D&D campaign. Everyone knows that you lose HP when you drink alcohol.
Eric: You got to make a con save and then you and then you get drunk and then you had to use your drunk voice.
Amanda: The Question Surgeon Michelle Spurgen and has some great questions about Aunt Min. Does Aunt Min have powers to all? I assume so based on at the end.
Julia: The sight.
Eric: YEAH! Oh she very she very much does. Aunt Min is actually the diviner, which is a monster, which is I think just in the regular monster manual. But you can just find it. She's very powerful. But something that we realized is like Aunt Min doesn't love getting her hands dirty. So she using a lot of divination powers, which is what she did to Salimony, which is that she can change a role to something better. So that's why she gave Salimony that 16 and that's why she had talking to people in their heads power. But like, you know, she has all the regular wizard spells. She just chose not to do it. And she instead used divine stuff instead.
Amanda: Does Min, know that the LT3 are working with Dr. Morrow or does she think they are freelance like the Upcountry Keepers players? Players do we have any any theories on this before Eric answers?
Julia: I think that Aunt Min might know because I think that Eric you either implied or said explicitly at some point that Val was being followed and that's how they knew that Val was Vulcani, and that they were associated with Preserver and Kilonova. So it's very possible that they are like, hey, why is this person continually going to the mayor's house all the time?
Eric: Right.
Brandon: I have no idea, I. I like to think no, that's my hope, but she also can control people with her mind.
Amanda: Yeah,
Brandon: So who can say?
Julia: Control? Not really.
Eric: She can just see what you're thinking. That's you. You confused Aunt Min with Kilonova.
Amanda: I think that even absent of any powers, Aunt Min can can sense when there is a organization or a powerful woman behind a group. And I feel like that is why I think she probably knows.
Julia: It's that girl boss energy that Aunt Min's got.
Amanda: In all of the good and bad ways. And finally, question Sergeant Michelle Spurgeon. Dr. Spurgeon says the mushrooms glow the same purple that had been on Tuna and now Val is like kryptonite? Who. Can. Say.
Eric: Hmm. That's interesting. Oh, we get into it a little bit, but I think that yeah, we let's talk about all the times that you've encountered it. I'm not going to say anything, but I'm just going to remind you of it is that Tuna got turned purple and you all got turned purple in that first episode and now Val got purple again when the like the potato gun went off and both those were the potato gun. And also the mushrooms have like this weird aura around it as well. Here's the other thing. I kept rolling really bad natural 1s. And you guys haven't really interacted with what the potato gun does. Like you weren't in the fray in the first episode and then there was a natural 1 and it exploded. It hasn't happened. So I can only say I can only say so much that storytelling for you, like there are things that you guys don't explore and what the dice doesn't see, like we still don't know what's going on with that hockey guy. Like what what Sharon Redwine doing like it just you know that the dice doesn't doesn't do what it does.
Brandon: We know what Sharon's doing.
Julia: It's Shannon.
Amanda: Shannon,
Eric: Shannon!
Amanda: It's Shannone, people! Like a sea shanty!
Julia: As Irish as possible.
Eric: We have not interacted with her since like episode five. You know, like I don't even remember her name.
Julia: I have it written down. That's the only reason why I know.
Brandon: My assumption is that the cloud, the purple cloud dust is like I don't know how it functions, but it just like it's the spores. The mushroom spores somehow seek out power to individuals and highlight them. I don't know if it does anything to us in particular like the dust itself, but I don't want to be, you know, highlighted.
Eric: Sure. No for sure. Yeah, I think that was also really interesting of how I put together the YouTube's so like Bones Body also shout out to who is the namesake is Mark Body BOTTI. I know you all thought I was saying body.
Amanda: I didn't know that.
Eric: Botti. B O T T I.
Amanda: I didn't know that until we posted this episode and I read the description. I was like, huh?
Eric: Shout out Mark Botti, who's also a contributor to the Multicrew, and he's on the plaque in our in our office. So, yeah, Bones was the one who had active actions. But I actually put a lot of reactions on Jacked O'Lantern and Brett, which was why, like the the that happened kind of out of initiative because they were prepared to do things well. And I said to Julia as she was trying to do stuff, was that Jacked O'Lantern is like the bodyguard. So like, you're going to have to go through him to get to Bones. And that's what I meant, was like he's going to get bonuses or whatever as a reaction, a reactionary sort of character.
Julia: Luckily, Val is stronger than Bones Botti.
Eric: Yeah. Luckily, you roll incredibly well.
Amanda: Bwah bwah bwah!
Julia: I just get, like, real big bonuses on my strength checks, too, so that really helps and I roll with advantage when I'm raging, so it's easy to roll easy.
Brandon: Julia so strong.
Amanda: So strong!
Eric: Ooo Julia with good dice what's that like?
Amanda: Onto, by the way, Eric gathers the questions for the afterparty because we both do like I do the email and look at discord. Eric looks at social cause he runs social and Eric likes to throw in fun little subject headers, little little section headers for me. So this one's called "Art, I like it! (Danny and painting)
Eric: One of my favorite jokes for the episode was Milo getting affected by the painting and Milo is just like, "yeah, I love art."
Julia: Art fuckin' rocks.
Brandon: Art is good.
Amanda: Okay Al Blizzard Wizard would like to know from me. Did I know the painting was a Danny O'Hare. Did Eric give you some warning? And then a few more questions about kind of like what Aggie thinks of the painting. So I'm happy just kind of like go through where my head's at right now.
Julia: Do it up.
Amanda: No, I did not know that this was going to happen, I was shocked, appalled and excited. I just heard the word painting and put two and two together, having just introduced Danny and kind of alluding to the fact of his power Eric and I talked to in advance, I think it said on the last afterparty about Danny having some kind of power. It's related to his work, like some kind of influence over people or helping them feel something extra when they look at his painting. So I was super surprised. I just kind of assumed and it was it was thrilling and I felt shame like my own sibling had done something wrong. And then excitement to explore this in the space. Jamie asks if Danny knows or cares if when his paintings fall into the wrong hands, are we kind of a family super fight? Do the critics and public actually like his work or is he influencing them? And I don't know, I, I think they're actually good. And then people see him in person and it's like there's something special about it, man. And just like it adds to the mystique in the way that people are like, I saw the water lilies and I cried. And it's just like it's different than seeing it on a screen, which I think is true of all art. And yeah, I, I sure hope that Danny doesn't know it fell into the wrong hands. I sure hope, as Amanda Mass asked on Insta that it wasn't commissioned and that he did not like actively take a job from the mob. But I think that's Aggie worst fear. And so this is definitely something that she's going to have to follow through on and kind of track down.
Eric: #WhoCanSay?
Brandon: Can I just say Eric, how fucking brilliant that that idea for that power Danny's power is. It's so it's so good.
Eric: Thank you. Honestly, there's we haven't even uncovered half of it. So there's like more to more to figure out. I was very surprised at the moment with what happened on tape is what happened was that Amanda and I talked about it and then the Knight of Mirrors said, hey, this painting has powers. And then Amanda just said, oh, is that an O'Hare? And I said, yes. And then we had to do it. Like that's what happened during play, which was incredible. Brandon of I remember you were like, "WHAAT?!"
[Everyone laughing]
Julia: Excuse me?!
Brandon: How dare you play tape of me back to me?
Eric: Hold on, let me hit play, "WHAT?!" But no, that that's I want to like the magic of storytelling is that sometimes it happens. So like for all you DM's out there, there's nothing wrong with prepping with your players earlier because then it comes out in ways later. So it's like you're not going to lose anything by the surprise. So I'm really happy that we were able to do that.
Amanda: And KKBug, Mel118, Dr. Spurgeon and J's Yow, Jaz Yao on Insta are all kind of asking a little bit about how the painting interacts with the mob. So, you know, is Aunt Min under its influence? Could Val potentially become under the influence of the painting and become the big bad, you know, is Danny and part of or support of the People's River maybe. And I'll say, like we don't know, I think because it's a fairly recent acquisition from the mob. I don't think it has. It had an effect on its existing power structure. But that's just my assumption. Like, I don't know.
Julia: I mean, Val didn't pass their wisdom check when they saw the painting. And Eric was very clear, I don't know how clear it ended up being in the episode, but Eric was very clear with me at least, that when Val failed that wisdom check that it was not mind control. So the painting isn't mind control. And I kind of had to approach the rest of that episode and the fight with the idea of, okay, how influenced is Val by this painting and how is that going to impact their actions?
Eric: Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. I have some mechanical stuff right here. So the dc check was 17 and pretty high for a magical item. Also, when you tried to dispel when Aggie tried to dispel it also, it's a powerful item. Going to be difficult to do.
Amanda: I tried. I tried.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I can say that Val is the big bad though.
Eric: No Brandon! I told you not to! Nooo!
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Mechanically. The mob had advantage on your characters, which I don't know if it's something that got expressed explicitly and like they didn't - Salimony the mob and Aunt Min didn't attack a lot of you directly, but like that was why I gave them advantage on the confusion roll Brandon that you did on on the group. But Val removed themselves from the situation. But if they had gotten their hands on you, they would have had advantage on those attacks, an advantage on damage rolls. But that's just what is mechanically and the fact that it made Val and I don't know if it if it did anything for you, Brando, but like, if it made you think about your choices in fiction, did a job that you think they're like, maybe we shouldn't disband the mob, maybe we need a healthy organized crime community in Lake Town City.
Brandon: Yeah, I, I think because the episode is cut so quick and it's a fight like you might miss the thing here are there but yeah. Like those, all those details are in their Eric does explain that it's not mind control and there's a couple, at least one where you say you have an advantage on a role against me or Val.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: And I kind of took the opposite approach from Julia because I imagine that Milo would be fighting it. And so like I'm going to try to do my thing knowing that mechanically I have a disadvantage of it. So that was the like the mindset I was going on, you know.
Eric: Cool.
Amanda: That's really cool. And I think that's another important part about prepping in advance or communicating with your DM like you don't get spoiled by talking about what you want to happen or like an idea you think is cool and, you know, letting the DM kind of bring it in whenever they want to. And for me, it was really important to say, like I get like icked out by mind control in fiction. And it was important to me, I think I said this at the beginning when we were doing our characters that like this is just not a thing that I want represented in the campaign or in the podcast. So in talking to Eric, I'm like, yeah, like I think it's like these are this is what I think I think is explicitly not mind control, like, you know, we can talk about or you can decide kind of what the actual mechanical impact of that is.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: To me, it's very much like influence, like making somebody give consideration to an idea that they wouldn't otherwise or, you know, take a second look or a second thought about something that they had dismissed. So players, you can do that like you. You can participate in your campaign. I think if you'd surprise me with that mechanic, I would be like, what does this mean? Is it's mind control. And it would have had, you know, distracted me or maybe uncomfortable during a session. But instead we got to, you know, air out and make sure it was all good beforehand.
Eric: I think the conversation we had was you saying things you didn't want it to be and then me asking you what would Aggie think this is.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: You have to like you only think about it within your own fiction. And then I will do maybe do something else about the truth of it and you might find it later. So again, more questions. You can ask your players to make sure that they stay in the fiction and they can still be surprised by things they thought of.
Amanda: Yeah, I mean, I don't think Aggie like many Catholic families of Irish descent, they probably not talked about the fundamental problems that keep them alienated or tied closely to each other. So I don't think that Aggie is ever like done, you know, X-Men style evaluations of the Xavier's Academy. You know, like what what is happening here and what specifically the powers are. It's more like here is how you stay safe, Quinn. Do not climb that high or here is how you, you know, make sure that other people don't learn about this. So I don't think she knows.
Brandon: It's also fun for the other players, too, when you guys, like, do some small collabs because Julia and I didn't know anything about it, so.
Eric: Yes, I always feel a little weird about that. It's like, oh, I'm keeping a secret from you, but then I'm going to surprise you. So it's I'm happy about it. So I'm glad you're happy about it.
Julia: Yeah. I love a good reveal.
Brandon: It's like a gift. It's a small wrapped present that you give me, give us.
Amanda: It's a present reason kind of secret.
Brandon: Exactly!
Eric: That's only fair.
Amanda: Well I for one have run out of delicious natural sugar fruit punch, so I'm going to run back to the kitchen and get us a little more.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: Oh no!
Amanda: Be right back!
[Transition note]
Eric: Hey, it's Eric, I know not everyone loves the cold, but one of my favorite moments is when I finally can pull out my hat, gloves and scarf. It feels like a real welcoming of the season. It's been unseasonably warm here in New York City where if I wear beanie, sometimes I even get a little too sweaty and I'm wearing like my not heaviest coat. But now yesterday it was so cold and I had my gloves on and I'm like, "Ahh! I'm fighting the cold. Human ingenuity is going to take over the weather! Ahh!" And the other makes me a little worried on some level. But deep down inside, I'm like, you know what, man? Whatever. I got it. I'm out and about. It's fine. Welcome to the midroll, I got you this scarf. It has your face on it. It's very warm. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our supporters on Patreon and the people who joined this week, Alma, Michelle, Martian, Mari, Marissa, Stephanie, and Ross. We depend on your support to keep making the show. And we're so grateful to everyone who makes it a priority each and every month to support creators. If you want to be a part of our Patreon family, we're always looking for more people to come in. You're going to Discord, you get NPC back stories, you get exclusive games that we play with our friends and all the other stuff that we've been making for four years. So if you're able please do and join for as little as five dollars a month at Patreon . com / join the party pod. And if you haven't checked your Patreon in a while, make sure you do some of you many of you are still in the old tiers and you don't get any rewards! So switch it, please! I don't know if you heard, but if you're listening today or tomorrow, then you can come and join our live show! We're doing a live show, our first live show of campaign two we are doing a one shot set in the world of Lake Town City featuring our lovely PCs, February 3rd at 8:00 p.m. I've gotten very, very into streaming over the last few months. And I want to show you all the little dips and dupes that I've been working on. And we have some pretty exciting things that we're going to share, maybe some merch, some new merch that you all have been waiting for, some exclusive or just for of you who knows? Your ticket also includes a VOD copy of the show. So if you're listening to this on, say, February 4th, you can still go back and buy the buy the thing or you can buy it now and then watch later. That's how VOD works. It is on demand truly. So come on, buy your ticket today and join the party podcast / live, February 3rd, 8:00 p.m. or afterwards with that VOD, join the party pod . com / live. Do it.
This episode is brought to you by Magic Spoon. I am something of what you would call a cereal enthusiast. I follow r/cereal the cereal subreddit. I listen to the Empty Bowl, the wonderful show that Justin McElroy and Dan Goubert co-host all about cereal and emotion. Because I really like cereal as breakfast food. I love breakfast food. But the fact that cereal is very diverse and unique and flexible as a food that you can eat it at, say, 8:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. is what I like so much about it. And Magic Spoon is going to help you if you want something that's a little healthier than your chocolate bunches of oats sugar bombs that has like a badger holding a hockey stick on the front, and his name is Chunky. Magic Spoon is a keto friendly, gluten free, grain free, soy free, low carb and GMO free cereal. It tastes real good and each serving has zero grams of sugar, eleven grams of protein and three net grams of carbs. And you can choose between these wonderful flavors: cocoa, fruity, frosted and blueberry. I've tried the cocoa incredibly good. I'm a chocolate person. This is giving me that chocolate. So go to Magic Spoon . com / join the party to grab a variety pack and try today! And be sure to use our promo code, join the party at checkout to get free shipping and Magic Spoon is so confident in their product they know it's going to be good. They know it's going to be delicious. It's backed with a hundred percent happiness guaranteed. So if you're not happy for any reason, they'll refund your money! Actually, if you're not happy related to the cereal related things, like if you're not happy for other reasons, they can't help you. But if you're not happy with the cereal, they will refund you no questions asked. So that's Magic Spoon . com / join the party and use code join the party for free shipping.
Finally, we are sponsored this week by Better Help, a secure online counseling service and, you know, listen, I've said a lot of stuff about Better Help on these. And I listen, I'm sure that there's not going to be any -
[Eric screaming being muffled]
Eric (as Bone Witch): Oh, hello, it's me, the Bone Witch! I'm here, you haven't been using the things that I want. But I could tell you about, you know, your therapy. I could just give you bones instead of roll them. Let me roll one right now! Shaka-shaka-shaka [bones rattling] Oh! This bone says you have problems with your dad. How do you feel about that? Okay, see you later!
[Poof noise]
Eric: Huh? Oh, my God, what happened? It's midnight, I started recording this at 2:00 p.m. What happened? Oh, God. Oh, God, I'm never messing with the Bone Witch again. But good thing I have better help, which connects me with licensed counselors through the secure app. Letting your message with your therapist and schedule live or video sessions. Anyone else see that? I got attacked by a bone witch she hit me with a large bone like she was Cubone! From the Pokémon series. Yo man, I need to talk about this with someone and even and what if it's not at a good time? Because now it's midnight after I got attacked by the bone witch. I can just message my counselor at any time. If you're worried about something or you think of a topic that you want to cover in your next call, because Better Help wants you to find the best therapeutic match possible. Instead of attacking you with a giant bone and then predicting it with bone magic. It's free and easy to switch counselors if you need to, like if you get matched up with a bone witch, that would be bad and Better help is more affordable in the traditional counseling, with financial aid also available. This podcast is sponsored by Better Help and not by the Bone Witch and we appreciate you Join the Party. Listeners can get 10 percent off their first month at better help . com / join the party. That is better H E L P . com / join the party for 10% off your first month. I need to go home. What where am I? Let's go back to the show.
[Transition note]
Amanda: Guys I'm back and to the I think the the cane sugar super good, what about you?
Eric: Oh, good. I thought it was going to be fruit sugar, and that would have been that would have been tough.
Amanda: No, it's like natural fruit juice and a lot of garnishes and a bunch of mint on top. Like a bush.
Eric: Oh, a bush.
Brandon: An entire bush.
Julia: The whole bush of mind.
Amanda: And yes,
Eric: That's how I measure my mint too, like give me a fucking bush.
Amanda: I regret my choice of words now. And I'm going to move on to the next question section, which is titled "The Internet is a series of questions (media and stuff) EdenFromSweden. Great username asks on Insta. Has the Knight of Mirrors drawn much attention from the media? Any news reports or fan pages made for them?
Eric: Okay, so this is something that we started diving into in this arc here. I think that the answer is no. This is very much like the Batman that exists in Gotham, but not the Batman that we understand as people reading Batman comics. Like I think that there's a fear of Batman and people don't know who he is, but there's a lot of like keeping it under wraps. The idea, I think, that maybe he wants to project as happens in the city and that's how I feel about the Knight of Mirrors and Knight of Mirrors just drives around. Does it for for the for the I don't want to say the love of the game, but just like does it because they're compelled to do it. Question Surgeon Michelle Spurgeon said that the Upcountry Keepers are freelance, which is 100% how I view them in my head. They just have like really lucrative contracts and like have worked with the city, which I really liked, but something that we're talking about here. And I think that you guys are exploring a little bit as the LT3 trying to figure out your social media biz, is that like you do need to put yourself out there. And if you don't put yourself out there, it's kind of like, well, that's some weird shit happening in the city. But what I whatever, I guess I don't know.
Amanda: Speaking of which, MiaSchloss on Insta asks something that I have forgotten to ask you, Eric. How did the Knight of Mirrors get those photos?
Eric: You know, Hard-Boiled detective work.
Julia: Of course obviously.
Eric: Rubber to the road.
Amanda: Well, then maybe you can also tell us, Mia's second question. How does Bones know exactly where to see powered stuff happening? That's a great question.
Eric: Well, he's an important NPC in this arc. So, so and so. Eric the DM slips him a piece of paper to show up to these places. In my head he's such like a striver that like, how do ghost hunters figure out where to go? Like, do they do research the people, tell them where the old asylums are, where the haunted houses are. And like if they're doing a tour of Lake Town City, they're going to check out the weird shit. I will say. Yes, it was very serendipitous. This all happened at the same time, but it was pretty cool that like ten people fought each other.
Julia: We're telling a story. It's fine.
Eric: It's it's a story.
Brandon: It's just a function of being a protagonist. Because you see this story from our point of view, you don't see all the hundreds of places that Bone's Botti goes to on the off day.
Eric: Exactly. That is also something I'm really enjoying doing with this campaign. Speaking of, Brandon, is that I really trying to just tell the story from your three perspective. And I love doing shit that you guys don't see and that only come up like ten, fifteen, twenty episodes later. So just so that's that's 5000% true too.
Brandon: Tuna's going to be the big bad isn't he.
Eric: Yes.
Julia: Got it.
Amanda: A couple of questions for you, Julia. So Chrissy Mackle asked on Insta. What causes do Bones' his former followers donate to after Val's apology? Also important to note that Chrissy submitted this from her dogs Insta, which is Bourbon and Frankie, and they're adorable dogs. So please go follow Bourbon and Frankie.
Julia: Well, Val wouldn't know, but I would hope that they would maybe donate to their local mutual aid fund, stuff like that, maybe maybe some some bail funds around town as well, that kind of thing.
Brandon: Local food banks.
Julia: Food banks, also good.
Amanda: Love it. Stock those fridges.
Julia: That was produced solely in the moment that I was just like, I don't know any like every story I like cause or charity just flew out of my head in the moment while I was writing that note.
Amanda: You were stressed.
Brandon: It was the funniest thing, though.
Eric: What was so funny for, like this guy who has so many Instagram followers is the throw in his story, "donate to causes" and then delete his account! That was so funny!
Julia: That was honestly, my favorite roll of the entire season was that roll.
Eric: Relistening to it and hearing you getting the nat 20 and then me saying like "yeah do whatever the fuck you want to his phone!" Was - it was such a fun moment for me. I'm so glad that you did that.
Julia: It was very good.
Amanda: And Yose asks by the way a follow up. Is Val worried anyone saw that Instagram post before they deleted it? Any number of the half million followers could have seen a powered Val and connected it to Vulani spooky stuff.
Eric: Mhm.
Julia: Yeah, I think that's part of the reason why I had Val put on the Vulani glasses, like before the fight really started because at least that would obscure their identity a little bit, and it seemed like the camera work that was happening by a blinded Bones Botti also kind of helped in their favor. But, yeah, I think it's a concern that Val has.
Amanda: I was worried about it in the moment. I was, like, terrified for you.
Julia: That's why Val wanted to destroy the camera and get that phone deleted immediately, like that was the game plan.
Brandon: If Clark Kent can get away with just putting on glasses than Val, as well.
Julia: Its fair and valid.
Amanda: We got a little bit of handwaving superhero identities, but, you know, it's a powered universe.
Brandon: Fair and Val-id?
Amanda: Ooh!
Eric: That's very good. We'll see what happens. I mean, Val rolled a nat 20, so that's what he does as it does. But we'll see how it all shakes out.
Amanda: Here is one question in a section of its own titled In All Caps. ARE WE LIVING IN A SIMULATION?!
Julia: No.
Amanda: From Max Neville on Insta, in the episode Kilonova says this is a simulation. Can we truly believe this is not a simulation with this much evidence?
Julia: It is not a simulation.
Amanda: It's not a simulation. But that's a very funny question.
Eric: It was a good joke.
Brandon: Here's the deal-
Eric: I was more underlining the joke that Brandon made.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I think that some of you are not taking it the way that it is.
Eric: Yes, it was 100% a joke. Personally Brandon me, the person thinks that the idea and the question of are we living in a simulation is so meaningless and irrelevant to society because there's no way to know. And if we even if it was true, it doesn't affect anything anyway. That is funny to me that people care about it. So that that was my joke, that it's a silly concept.
Eric: The fact that you said it to the People's River, though, was very funny. Like they have such weird, like the dichotomy between them being like big old neo hippies, but also technologically fluent is 100% - like that's the fucking Venn diagram circle of people who believe it's a simulation.
Julia: Yes 1005.
Brandon: Yeah. It's like Elon Musk, who is a vegan.
Eric: So if you combine Grimes and Elon Musk, you get the People's River.
Julia: There it is.
Eric: Yeah. I also would say it is not a simulation. I wish I had thought that the entire blizzard arc was a simulation. But at this point, how much would you guys hate it? If I was like it's episode 52 and it's like "and then you guys wake up outside of the danger room" like, how much would you fucking hate that?
Julia: I would suck it, cause it takes away the value of the storytelling because there's no stakes now to everything we did. There was no stakes.
Eric: Listen, we didn't make Julia anxious for two months for no reason.
Julia: Yes, precisely. Exactly.
Eric: I was thinking just for that beginning question, I was just like, I'm so glad the Julia can finally let go in. These next episodes are good for Val. I'm like, "oh, no, Val still in peril!"
Julia: No, just totally always in peril. All the time. I've done this to myself. I know it's my fault, but still.
Amanda: Alright, here are some game and character questions. Brandon Hakuna Your Tatas asks With Milo being so jumpy, how many times has he nearely used the anti supernova balls and turned incorporeal when he hears, like, I don't know, a door slam?
Brandon: I mean, yeah, I don't I don't think it's nearly I think he has used them on multiple occasions. Luckily, none of them have been in public or like if they have been they've been, you know, behind a wall or something.
Amanda: Right.
Brandon: Yeah, he's a he's a scared boy.
Julia: What happens when you give someone with anxiety a power like that.
Amanda: Truly.
Eric: Alright. Let's do a quick scene now. I think maybe you're at Thornhill Coffee. It's like 8:00 in the morning. You're trying to get out before work and you're like standing. Maybe you're sitting down and you're holding a coffee in your hand and then like the espresso machine, like pops or like makes a big sound. And then what what is Milo do?
Brandon: He goes "BAH!" And reaches in his hands for the supernova balls and just like lightly touches them, so his hand starts to go incorporeal and the coffee falls from his hand and shatters. But then he releases a so everyone just thinks he he drops his coffee.
Amanda: I think you tipped the barista's 100% every time because this happens a lot.
Eric: "Hey, there's that jumpy guy who tips really well."
Brandon: He tips really well because he once - he was under the impression that if he tips really well, he's getting a better deal, you know, but because he'll get a free coffee every now and again. But ultimately, it just evens out anyway.
Eric: Milo gets like an old espresso. It's like, "do you want this? We made it two hours ago." And he's like, NICE!
Amanda: Thing is, I remember every time that's ever happened to me.
Eric: That's true. That's totally true.
Amanda: Jenna B asks, What is your favorite spirit surge outcomes/consequence. No one was specified. So everybody can I can jump in here.
Brandon: Like that's been shown, I assume?
Eric: Yes! I like I like number two, we haven't rolled a 2.
[Everyone laughs]
Julia: I like the one where Milo lights on fire and all of his clothes burn away.
Amanda: That was very funny. Yeah!
Brandon: I like all of them. I don't know, like I like the one that happens next. That's my answer.
Amanda: I think if the Panther hadn't happened in episode one and that just like happened during a fight, I would scream. I think that would be so funny. [laughs]
Eric: I think my favorite is the Panther as well, because that one, I think, had the most complicated spell casting involved because it was a polymorph spell and it got cast on you, but then you resisted it. So then it bounced to Tuna and Tuna failed. And that's why Tuna turned into a panther, and that's why the panther ran around the city. And that's why people are like, there's some weird shit happening in Lake Town City. So that one is kind of like the most like dominoes falling. Like we had that meme of like the small domino to the big domino. It's like Brandon wanting a spirit surge table to anti-superhero sentiment in Lake Town City.
Julia: Oh, no.
Brandon: [Laughs] Just for everyone who didn't hear them. Eric did say Tuna accidentally resisted the that Tuna definitely didn't want to be a panther.
Eric: Tuna's deepest desire was becoming a panther. So it acts of something deep inside Tuna.
Brandon: Mhm.
Eric: Here's the thing. I think Brandon does think Tuna is the big bad.
Brandon: They are the big bad to Milo for sure.
Julia: 100%
Amanda: LuckTara on Twitter asks, I know Val might have issues picking just one, but I'm curious what dishes top the lists for everyone. Dr. Mayor Morrow and January included.
Julia: Just solely Italian dishes, or just dishes in general?
Amanda: I think just dishes in general. Like I think Aggie is a soft spot for Irish soda bread, even though it is too crumbly and she does not understand why it is the thing.
Julia: You're supposed to eat coffee.
Amanda: And it was made when there was no yeast or little fat available in Ireland. So it's like it is a function of itself. But that's why you smother in butter.
Eric: I hate it when there's no yeast or fat on my island, it's such a bummer for me.
Brandon: I think Milo is really into chilaquiles. He likes nachos for breakfast for sure.
Eric: Hell yeah dog!
Julia: Lasagna. I don't know if this -
[Amanda and Brandon laughing]
Eric: Oh well Dez likes whatever Dez eats once a day. That's his favorite food.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Dez loves Soyland. That's his favorite.
Julia: Oh no, Dez!
Eric: And January of course loves carrot related flavours and foods. Carrot cake, carrot juice, just a little carrot nibbens.
Brandon: Baked carrots.
Eric: Glazed carrots.
Brandon: Glazed carrots, baby carrots, carrot dip,
Eric: Long carrots, which is the adult carrots, opposite of baby carrots.
Brandon: Carrot top pesto.
Julia: Oh my god.
Amanda: Love it, what is each of our ideal burrito? GiantsAxe would love to know.
Julia: Our characters or personals?
Brandon: I have immediately an answer for this.
Amanda: You're welcome to opine on burritos if you want to, but our characters was the question.
Julia: Oh! Okay.
Brandon: Burritos are a perfect food. If we - and there's no one answer because they are regional. But if you if you want a perfect burrito in Brandon land, you get rice, refried beans, some kind of cheese that is like mild, so like Chihuahua or Monterey Jack, you get something braised, whether that's barbacoa and or carnitas. I prefer carnitas, pico, salsa Verde, and queso, if you want it, but also if you get chips and queso on the side, then that's fine.
Eric: Mhm. Yeah.
Amanda: Yum.
Julia: Val goes for whatever the abuelita who is running the place suggests and just gets extra spicy whatever it is.
Eric: That's fair, is Val - Val'sthe kind of person to put like ten dollars on the counter and say "fuck me up"
Julia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty much.
Amanda: I don't know, I feel like Aggie - Aggie probably really likes mountain lobster burritos guys. I think there is a real there's a real delicacy. She probably hasn't had many burritos before and I think that mountain lobster is what she goes for when she goes for it.
Julia: I'm picturing it as kind of like a lobster roll. But in burrito form?
Amanda: I think that's the like that's the gambit.
Julia: Okay!
Eric: I love that.
Amanda: Yeah. Maybe it's cold! I don't know.
Brandon: Can fuck up some like fish tacos but with mountain lobster.
Eric: Oh my God. Shrimp tacos or something like that. Ohhhhh. Give me a breakfast - this is Eric. I want a breakfast burrito at all times. But fucking -
Brandon: What's on it?
Eric: Oh sausage. Sausage over bacon. I like American or cheddar if it's going to be a breakfast burrito. And then I would go with either guac or salsa I think or sour cream. I feel like too much wet because eggs are already kind of inherently wet. If they're hot and if they're cooked well, they're already kind of wet, so just don't put too much wet on it. But like put in as many potatoes as you can physically shove into that thing.
Brandon: Correct. These are all correct choices and Eric. I've never been I've never felt more connected.
Eric: Listen, I'm like so into Texas food now, like after going there officially. So many - like a few times now I'm like, good Texas barbecue. Check. Breakfast burritos. Check. That thing that Mike thought a Kennish was but a kolache. Those are fucking tight! They're also great. Like I'm totally I'm totally there for it.
Amanda: All my friends, and you're welcome.
Brandon: You put some you put some like shredded barbecue beef and or pork in that breakfast burrito.
Julia: Fuck me up.
Amanda: Yeah, pulled pork and eggs is like my my thing.
Eric: I'm still like such a sausage person because I never grew up eating pork. So like the taste of pork is still strange. I would just say strange. It's still like not a comforting taste to me. I know it's delicious, but I would much rather have beef and sausage to me. Is the closest thing to beef because it's like hearty in that way. So that's why I always get sausage, egg and cheeses like out of my bodega here. Like I'm just not I'm like not a bacon person. I'm not a pulled pork person because I like that taste in the crunch. I'd rather get from something else. Like that's not what I want for my meat.
Brandon: I respect it. I respect it.
Amanda: Let us now extend our opinions to pasta JessV877 says if the PCs were to pick a pasta dish for their last meal or just favorite dish, I would say, what would it be? Val manicotti with a traditional red sauce? Chicken piccata, one giant ravioli, and then the exact same phrasing as the previous question from Loctera, coincidentally, I know Val might have issues picking just one, but I'm curious what dish has topped the list for everyone as well as Dr. Mayor Morrow and January?
Julia: It is their grandma's lasagna. That's it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, that's real.
Brandon: I saw a video, you know, the egg yolk ravioli.
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Brandon: Where you just put a single egg yolk in ravioli. I saw a video I think maybe in Bone Appetit where they did it with a ostrich egg yolk.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: That's what Milo would want.
Amanda: So big, it's kind of disgusting.
Eric: Milo is like, what if big egg?
Julia: Val Slaps it out of hand like NO!
Amanda: I think Aggie finds gnocci magical, like it's potato?? Like it surprises her every time.
Eric: I feel like Dr. Morrow like is a pesto stan, like she like in 1985, she's like, "I hate tomatoes. Give me something else!"
Amanda: Adirondack rams.
Eric: Yeah. And like she makes pesto out of all types of shit. So she likes pesto on whatever, like she'll order something but say like instead of red sauce, make it pesto, whatever you have.
Brandon: Is that because Dr. Morrow couldn't like come up with a tomato alternative or something, she just like had a grudge - forever grudge against tomatoes.
Eric: Yeah. She works, she, she did a lot of food science and she's like what. But tomatoes, there's too acidic and there's too many seeds. Ugh! Fine.
Amanda: And then finally, a podcasting question. This from Carmen Osborn. You guys, I talked about My Hero Academia a few time listening to Aggie and Val talk about their new level features and some of the attributes of their costumes. I wondered if whether either of the players noticed the similarities to Deku and Bakugo - is that how you say it?
Julia: Bakugo, yeah.
Amanda: Bakugo, coming to the conclusion while I was driving, I was almost literally vibrating, waiting to get home and ask you guys are great.
Julia: Not until you pointed it out, to be quite honest.
Eric: I did not know until you pointed it out and then I was like, "hey, yeah, wait. second!" I just think that the reason why My Hero Academia works is that they really take a part in it as quickly as possible, use archetypes, superhero archetypes as fast and as furious as possible. So the fact that we're mirroring some of that is entirely true is that Val is the angry fire person and Aggie is like a secret, strange power that we don't really know about who has come into their own and feels like they have a responsibility in that way. And since they're not set up against each other, it's kind of interesting.
Julia: Aggie cries less, too.
Eric: Yes, very much so. But no, I think it's it's that's actually really interesting. Thank you for sending that question.
Amanda: And now we reach Spoiley Corner where we're starting Eric here with a PSA. You wanted to say something?
Eric: Yeah. Hey, I can't tell you who the Knight of Mirrors is. I just can't. I'm sorry. I know if you can guess it's Dez. You can guess it's Hitomi. You can guess it's January to guess all you want. I can tell you who the Knight of Mirrors is. I'm so sorry to tell you.
Amanda: I mean, we don't even know of the Knight of Mirrors has an identity. We've met besides the Knight of Mirrors.
Eric: Exactly. You know, the Knight of Mirrors might be a robot that goes bee[ boop. Like, who knows.
Julia: I've seen a couple of theories out there that I agree with, so I'm excited to hopefully eventually find out. We've talked about on the show before, but someone else I saw mentioned that they think that the Knight of Mirrors might be a wheelchair user or disabled because of the fact that they didn't get off the bike Milo when you heated the metal. And I think that would be really cool and really interesting if that ends up being the case. And I'm excited to see if we find out.
Eric: I can't tell you. I know. It's fine. It's fine. I can't say.
Julia: I want to be revealed in the story. In the fiction.
Eric: Yeah. Listen, keep guessing, y'all, but I'm just not going to tell you.
Brandon: I bet it's not someone we've met yet. I bet it's an entirely. That's my bet.
Julia: I agree.
Amanda: Meixell91 Insta asks whatever happened to the giant mountain lobster? Who can say?
Brandon and Eric: Who can say!
Amanda: Pearl Wisdom asks are Monty said giant mountain lobster and champ which is the Lake Champlain locness style monster friends?
Julia: Awww!
Eric: I can definitively I can say yes.
Brandon: Maybe they're dating. Do you think they're dating.
Amanda: I don't know Brandon, maybe!
Julia: Maybe.
Eric: Someone writes some AO3 fanfic about
Amanda: Monty/Champ dating please.
Eric: Enemies, the lovers, slow burn 500K.
[Brandon and Julia laugh
Amanda: Jo- You say that like I haven't read fics like that before.
[Julia laughs]
Eric: I know it's not a joke! It's a thing I'm saying!
Amanda: True. Well, Joe Enoki here has this spoily corner question just for Eric. Uhh, what the fuck, man?
[Brandon laughing]
Julia: Valid.
Eric: Truly, who can say. And uh hold- hold on to your butts. Say, what the fuck now.
Brandon: At the end of the last episode that we recorded, I asked that same exact question.
Julia: I literally screamed at Eric at the last recording that we did.
Amanda: I screamed, How dare you? That was episode 27.
Julia: You lied to us.
Amanda: Hold onto your butts, people.
Eric: Yeah, that's true. I'm a liar. I'm a bad boy. And who can say why.
Amanda: Violet Weasley asks, Is Tuna changing? Ever since they got caught and rescued, Milo picked them up in this episode in Tuna, quote, felt different. Could this be Tuna moving on or coming back to life?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say!
Brandon: Who can say? But I hope it's not Tuna moving on because I would be very sad.
Julia: Brandon would be Milo ehh.
Brandon: No, Milo would also be very look, Milo in Tuna have a contentious relationship, but they love each other. Well, I don't know about Tuna, but Milo loves Tuna.
Amanda: And we are closing here with a spoily corner within the spoily corner. So if you don't want to be spoiled dear listener for Kiki's Delivery Service, please skip forward thirty seconds. If Eric pulls some Kiki's Delivery service losing your connection with your special cat stuff, I'm going to lose it.
Eric: I'm sorry, Sid, who can say.
Amanda: Who can say.
Brandon: I have no idea what any of those words meant.
Amanda: Who can say.
Julia: Who can say.
Eric: Brandon go watch Kiki's Delivery Service.
Julia: It's really good and it's on HBO Max.
Eric: It's a it's a Miyazaki film where a small child -
Julia: Becomes a delivery person.
Amanda: Yeah!
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Amanda: We had it on as a kid and it had had strong queer vibes, which I appreciate.
Eric: It's incredible. It's one of the best Miyazaki films.
Amanda: So welcome back. Kiki's Delivery Service Spoily Avoidies. You should go ahead and watch it. It's really fun. But that brings us to the end of this afterparty.
Eric: Well, I want to ask all three of you. We're kind of in a contentious place here and we've played a few episodes ahead. So, like, looking back at this, how do you all feel like? What do you think what do you think's going to happen next? Like, what's up?
Amanda: Our problems used to be so small. That's what I have to say.
[Eric and Brandon laughing]
Julia: I'm still so nervous, still full of anxiety.
Amanda: It's extremely exciting, I love it so much.
Eric: I'm very happy. Honestly, I think that I'm really proud of the stuff that we've done on this arc and and then going into the next one, it's it's all we're going to keep going. So thank you, everybody, for hanging out and for being nice and for listening. And everyone come to our live show, which is coming out, which is tomorrow.
Brandon: Yeah. Come watch us. It's going to be fuuuun!
Eric: We're doing a one shot. That's about things that happened before. Join the Channel. So Val is only like moderately worried and not extremely worried.
Julia: Mhm mhm mhm!
Brandon: I'm going to cosplay like Milo some.
Julia: Oh yeah, me too.
Brandon: Which means I'm probably going to dress normally.
Eric: So you're going to - so Milo is going to wear his reg - Brandon going to wear his regular clothes and Val is going to find a leather jacket and put it on.
Julia: Like I need to find a leather jacket okay.
Julia: Val has geocached them all over the city in case they ever need one. And hey, if it's the future, you can still go to join the party pod . com / live and buy a copy of the recording of the show. That way you can enjoy it as well. But thank you everybody who's going to attend and we really look forward to doing it.
Eric: Um, oh, there's one last thing I remember. I didn't include you all. Finding the different items was totally random. I actually made a table for that.
Amanda: Oh, really?
Eric: It's something that we weren't able to do. Here's the thing, I want to clarify something, because Aggie rolled in a nat 20. I said, Milo, don't worry about it. It's fine because Milo didn't have to interact with the items. But I was going to give you two items on a nat 20. But then whatever you guys end up doing with the mushroom test tubes, like I was like, hey, maybe she'll give it to Milo and be Milo item and you guys didn't do that. So that's why - so I just want to clarify. That's what I was saying. But yes, those were totally random. I had a whole I had a whole like a detent table for them. So that's why you got the the Ducci suit, the Michael Jorban's and the stuff that was in the in the test tube.
Brandon: I shortened it a bunch. But the most painful thing to ever happen to me and so far as me realizing that Eric was trying to politely nudge me to take an item and I was like,
Julia: Nahh I'm good!
Eric: I was like "hey, Brandon do you want to look through?" And you're like, no, Milo would have gone by then.
Amanda: I sleepy.
Eric: Like okay!
Julia: there goes your free item, bud alright!
Brandon: I know. I know. Alright. Well, that that brings us to the end. Yes. There are still five minutes left in this episode. It's all about stonks. But in the meantime, guys, may your rolls trend ever upward.
Julia and Eric: Bye!
Brandon: Bye, guys! What's a stonk?
Eric: Come to our live show. Come!
Amanda: A stonk is what Twitter is calling stocks.
Julia: Yes.
[Theme music]
Eric: Alright, so here's what happened. Yeah, I had heard about the GameStop thing, it was already cresting at that point. The stock price was already at 250. And I'm like, all that's probably done. I poked around in there and they were making a bunch of, like, oblique references to going to the movies. So there I dug around in and next thing they were doing was AMC. This was third was two nights ago at like midnight. AMC was at $8 dollars. I'm like, great, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to buy like a hundred dollars worth of stock, whatever. Yeah, I'm putting a hundred dollars up, whatever. I assume that is going through Robinhood, which is the easiest, easiest and fastest way. And I'm putting quotes around it because it's easiest and fastest.
Amanda: I said Eric, if you're going to do this, let me just buy it on Vangard like I have a brokerage account and I'll just do it.
Eric: And I didn't want you to put yourself involved in it because it was this dumb shit, right? I put it in, I thought, okay, I'm going to buy one hundred dollars worth of stock. Is that eight dollars. So I and it was after hours I knew. So I'm like, oh, the call goes in at eight dollars, whatever. I wake up and it's I wake up and AMC's at eighteen and I'm like, fuck yeah dude I made a financial decision. I look at it and Robin Hood's like, oh actually we're buying this at nine thirty. And I'm like, what, why?
Amanda: When the market opens, that's how it works!
Eric: Which is bullshit. Okay, fine, I guess that's fine. And you'll buy it right. Nine thirty rolls around. I check it, it's still at eighteen. I assume it's going to go up. They cancel my they cancel my buys and I'm like why. And they're like too volatile. Sorry. I'm like I'm sorry. I didn't know you were my fucking mom telling me to invest in Apple instead.
Julia: You can't name yourself Robin Hood and then pull shit like that!
Eric: Exactly. So then I'm like, fuck you. Alright, fine. I guess I'm going to have to buy things again and it's going to have to buy it at eighteen. I assume it's going to go up. I put in a hundred dollars at 10 a.m. and then they canceled it. And I'm like, just fuck you guys. I guess I'm not doing this. I checked it. AMC is up was up 300% yesterday and I'm just like, oh, so the thing that I. Yeah, great, because apparently I'm a small person and I have to be a giant financial institution in order to participate in this incredibly stupid fucking betting game. We call the stock market. Literally my mom has been telling me about this since I was seven, making my dad uncomfortable in front of her. And then they got divorced. And I still thought that, well, my brother now works at a goddamn hedge fund. So it's just like, what the fuck are we doing? Who who is more prepared to do this other than me and Amanda? And they won't even let me do it. They won't even let me do it.
Amanda: I tried. I tried for you, honey.
Eric: It's bull. I know - I didn't want you to get involved.
Julia: This is gonna be a great post credits, rant.
Eric: Fucking bullshit.
Amanda: Would anyone like a D&D metaphor for what's happening with the stock market right now?
Brandon: Yes please.
Julia: Are we are we putting this at the beginning of the episode or the end of the episode? Just so I know.
Amanda: We decide at the end. Yeah.
Julia: Alright cool.
Amanda: Yeah. But I'm just saying what I like one.
Eric: I do because the shorting still doesn't really make sense to me.
Amanda: Okay, so this is what happens. So there's like a bunch of adventurer's that are hanging out at an inn and they're all like available to you to rent for your adventure. Right. Hire that's the word you use for people and some jerk, some drunk in the back of the bar is like, you fucking know what? These adventurers, they're so many of them, they're so bad at their jobs, they are going to have to charge less and less and less to get hired. I bet the price just going to keep going down. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to sell some tourist the right to hire those adventurers next week for like five gold. Like, I just know it. It's going to go down so far. And he hadn't actually reserved the adventurers yet. He's just selling someone else the contract and signing a contract and saying, like, yeah, give me a little money now. I'll give you the right to buy these guys at 5 gold. And he's betting that the price is going to be like two gold. So he, the person, will never use the contract. They can just buy him cheaper and he'll just make that little bit of money that he made on signing the contract next week rolls around. And so in the meantime, adventurers are like, hey, I fucking heard that that someone is is betting against us. That's fucking rude. And I fucking hate that. And so a bunch of townspeople and the adventurers like, you know what, we're just going to like, let's just hire each other and like not do anything! Like let's just hire each other and just sit here and drink and we're going to hire each other. And because so many people want to hire you, you can raise your price and the price going to go up and up and up. And so by the time next week rolls around, it costs like fifty gold to hire an adventurer for the day. And so the guy in the back corner, it's like fucked because now if you sign a piece of paper saying I can buy an adventure for five gold, of course you will, because the price is so much higher. But because the drunk in the corner is a terrible person and runs a hedge fund he doesn't own, he doesn't own, he didn't buy him yet. So he has to go to the adventurers, book them for fifty gold and then turn around and sell them for five gold to somebody else. So instead of making a little bit of money on an empty contract no one's ever going to use because we make up financial instruments to sell to each other to just make money on the stock market, he loses forty five gold per adventurer only he did this for like millions and millions and millions of them.
Julia: Good, good he should lose money.
Amanda: And then and then the owner, the town mayor or whatever is like, I think you guys did fraud. And then all the townspeople are like, um, actually we're just all hiring each other, and we're like, we're not doing anything wrong and go fuck yourself. And then a bunch of them go to the neighboring town, do it again.
Eric: And then the camera pans out and the inn is called Reddit.
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: Are some of those townspeople jerks? Absolutely. Some of them support Trump probably. But is this is the whole fucking system of financial instruments that allow people to make money for literally no value and exclude retail investors from the market and and trick you into thinking that you have to pay somebody else to buy and trade things for you. And in fact, you just put your money in a fucking savings account, is that correct? Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. That was actually really good. Good job Amanda!
Amanda: Thank you.
Julia: [Singing] Fantasy stocks! Fantasy stocks.
Eric: It's all made up. So there might be a dragon.
Brandon: Oh, I smell a season three.
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: Okay I think that's enough!
Eric: I smell a new podcast called Fantasy Stocks!