Is a big fog cloud the best way to sneak around? Is Lucky Edie going to get what’s coming to her? And who reads everything that you send in to our instagram? All that and more on this Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Afterparty edited by: Mischa Stanton
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Afterparty, where there's just two episodes of the Campaign Three to talk about here, but enough action that this is gonna be a jam-packed after party. Like an Afterparty, where somehow the guest list is longer than the original party, and it's like, "Oh, I see." There are people here who are invited, who are cool enough that they were only invited to the after party and not to the party, party, you know?
Brandon: That's never happened to me, Amanda.
Amanda: It's never happened to me either, Brandon.
Julia: I've simply never been invited to an after party, I guess.
Amanda: But I think the difference is that, like, you know, when you're invited to someone's wedding and you're only invited to the reception, and you're like, "Thank God, I don't have to go to the mass, y'all." It's that. It's that.
Julia: Hmm, okay. Okay.
Amanda: And the party you don't have to go to, because that's for, like, whoever. But the after party, in this fiction, is filled with cool nerds.
Eric: The service is only for Episcopalians.
Amanda: What's up, everybody? Hello. Welcome to the beginning of September. Welcome to the end of our summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. How's everyone feeling?
Julia: It's spooky season now. By the time this comes out, it is officially spooky season. That's all I care about.
Amanda: Today, a day after Labor Day.
Julia: Today is the first day of spooky season.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Is that why you're dressed up in a skeleton costume?
Julia: Famously so. I am wearing a Jurassic Park shirt, though, and that's kind of spooky.
Amanda: Yeah, skeletons.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: The spookiest thing about September now is that it doesn't actually get cold until October.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Eric, Eric—
Eric: It's— it makes me so upset. It makes me dislike September just as much as I tolerate August.
Julia: I will say, I went outside to water my plants this morning, and I had to put on a little sweatshirt because it was a little cool and a little chilly outside.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: No, this is false fall, Julia.
Brandon: It is false fall.
Eric: It's gonna be 90 degrees in, like, 10 days.
Julia: That's fine. Right now, I don't care.
Eric: That's fair.
Julia: It's nice, cool fall weather, and I'm— I'm loving it. I don't care if the weather is trying to, like, prank me. I don't care.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Well, I am home right now in Texas, and it is going to be 90 degrees today and raining, so—
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: Fun combo.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: This is just a note for Mischa, who's editing the episode, can you take all out— all the cowboys going yeehaw in the back of—
Brandon: Yeehaw!
Eric: Yeah, Mischa, take that out. Can you just put a sound filter over that?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just— Brandon, can you actually just give us a few seconds of— of the yeehaw room tone—
Brandon: Room tone, yeah.
Amanda: — just for Mischa to, like, get a— get a bit on it. Yeah.
Brandon: Everyone, be quiet. Yeehaw!
Eric: Pew, pew, pew! I'm Jerry Jones and I— the Cowboys are gonna be fine this year.
Brandon: Hilariously, when we were walking to the airport to get out to our car, Lauren looked at me and was like, "I forget how many people in Texas unironically wear cowboy hats?"
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: None of them are cowboys. I— I won't say none of them, but I will say—
Brandon: None of them, Julia.
Julia: —probably 3% are cowboys.
Brandon: None of them.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: It's pretty proportional to the number of people on Long Island that own pickup trucks and have never once put anything in the bed of that pickup truck.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: Looking at some of my family members.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: That is a one to one comparison.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Julia looking out her window, making judgments.
Amanda: Alright, folks. I think it's important we start up top with just a quick, little recap of how wild the last, let's say, three weeks have been for all of us. This is the first time that me, Eric, Brandon and Julia have all been in the office at the same time, pretty much since, like, the beginning of August. That's one.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And two, we have had a historic number of family emergencies, planned vacations, unplanned illnesses, and internet going out at the studio, such that we are here now, and we've gotten through it together, and I'm just glad to be here. So I just wanted to check in, acknowledge it, ask everyone's feeling and doing. How have your August been?
Julia: I mean, it's been good for me, for the most part. I leave tomorrow for a week-long vacation, so I'm—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: My energy is great right now.
Amanda: Love it.
Julia: I'm on island time, baby.
Eric: Julia is Indiana Jones-ing this vacation in at the last second, grabbing the vacation like her little hat as the—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —as the wall is coming down.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Pshh, pshh, pshh. Mischa, there's cowboys over here, too.
Amanda: Oh, shit.
Eric: They were using whips. Can you take— just make sure to take that out.
Amanda: Alright. I just need a couple seconds. Just room tone. Room tone for them.
Brandon: Just room tone.
Eric: Yaaah! [cowboy music]
Brandon: Julia showed up an hour late to this recording in a skeleton outfit, but with a Bahama T-shirt on and a—
Julia: A Hawaiian shirt, yeah.
Brandon: A Hawaiian, and a drink in her hand. Yep.
Eric: She's wasting away in Margaritaville, and that's okay.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Brandon, how are you doing? Lots of travel. Your sister had some babies, back to see the babies once more. How is your August?
Brandon: Yeah. Everything's been good. I mean, I think, like, unironically, the best thing is that y'all have been able to take vacations, and the office didn't, like, burn down or anything, so that's good.
Eric: No, that's good. I like that.
Amanda: Hurray.
Brandon: But, yeah, everything's been good. I'm just home right now. We're watching the dogs, because it was cheaper to fly me out from Seattle to Dallas than it was to board two dogs for four days.
Amanda: Wow.
Julia : That makes sense, that checks out.
Brandon: That's capitalism.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: That feels bad for carbon emissions, but great for us getting photos of your mom's dogs.
Brandon: Yeah. And it was also just a good excuse to see that— see the new babes again, so—
Amanda: How different are they four weeks later?
Brandon: Well, I haven't seen them yet, because I just got in last night.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: But I'm going there right after we record, so—
Julia: Amanda, they got college degrees since the last time he saw them.
Amanda: Julia, babies are, like, double in size, like every four weeks for their first few months. I'm not making that up.
Eric: There should be a pregnancy tracker— you know, like pregnancy trackers, where it shows you what—
Brandon: The fruit.
Julia: Your baby is the grape fruit now.
Eric: Yeah, the fruit thing, right. Yeah, the fruit thing or the object thing. They should do that for your babies.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Like, the baby was melon size, and now it is like— and now it is like—
Julia: A loaf of bread.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And now, it's Gila monster size.
Amanda: People do that with, like, a baby next to their, like, favorite stuffy, you know? And then, like, as the baby— or the puppy, right, as, like, gets bigger—
Eric: Oh, sure.
Amanda: —than the stuffy, which I think is super cute.
Julia: They do that with, like— there's little blankets that— that you can, like— be like, "Oh, you're this month old or this month old."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And as they get bigger, they— they grow into the blanket, so that's the thing.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. I felt the '90s era of fat shaming started early with me, because they're like, "That baby is too big." And like— they'd be like, "Your baby's wearing an 18-month-old clothes, she's eight months old. Like, what's happening?" And it's like, "I'm sorry babies grow with different rates."
Brandon: I was watching a documentary on JFK and—
Amanda: On the plane?
Eric: On the plane?
Brandon: Not on the plane, actually.
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Shocking.
Brandon: I know, about— about JFK and Sinatra, and they said Sinatra was born at— at 13 pounds.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: 13 pounds Sinatra was as a child.
Amanda: That's too much.
Julia: Brandon, I'm gonna tell you something right now, my friend just had a baby that was that big.
Brandon: That— that person, I'm surprised they're alive, that mother—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Damn.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Jesus Christ.
Eric: We— Amanda and I just had a conversation about this, because we've been jammed into both very small electric cars and— Irish cars, which are also small, but drive on the other side of the road, which is very confusing.
Julia: In a different way.
Eric: And into planes. And I was like, it's crazy that humans have become the dominant species on this planet, because, like so much of our biology sucks.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like the Squatty Potty exists because we poop wrong.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like our backs are bad. And, like, on a— on a biological level, all of the animal people in the— get in the chat, all the zoologists—
Amanda: Tell us.
Eric: —that I know you're listening—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —get in the chat, so— yeah.
Julia: Eric, I hurt my shoulder sitting on my couch this morning.
Eric: Right.
Amanda: Yes. Yes.
Eric: And that's because we have thumbs, Julia.
Julia: Fuck.
Eric: Like the fish, the fish with the weird gills as the small domino, and then Julia hurting her shoulder on the couch is the big domino.
Brandon: The couch.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I have that sweatshirt. It's good.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, I, for one, am glad that our, both planned and unplanned— oh, and then Eric and I had, like, the worst stomach flu I have ever heard of. I was, like, unable to move or drink water for, like, two days. It was— it was really bad.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like, stories your mom tells you later of some stuff you did when you were eight.
Amanda: Yeah. It was that, but I'm an adult, and I know how annoying it's gonna be to clean up the mess that I'm currently making.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: My favorite thing was that Amanda did some midrolls before they went out of town, but was still currently sick or recovering.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And so, like, halfway through, I cut it out, obviously, but Amanda stopped and was like, "Hoo. When you're sick, apparently, and doing a midroll gets you— gets you winded."
Amanda: I got out of breath—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —saying an ad.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I thought you were gonna subject Brandon to having to listen to you do a big barf.
Amanda: Certainly not. Julia, I would never barf near our audio equipment, it's way too expensive.
Eric: And if we did, that shit's going on Patreon, Julia.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: I am going to paywall that.
Amanda: That's for the people. Listen, I've said, you can pay for my feet pics, I'm very happy to accommodate. Like it's— it's for— it's just an exchange of goods and services. I think that is straightforward and right. Anyway, alright, we—
Brandon: Woopa!
Amanda: Damn it.
Eric: Get that cow— Brandon, you can't record at your mom's house if you don't get the cowboys out of the room. There's only so much post production you could do.
Amanda: I'm also glad to know that your mom is— is currently away, because I was like— I've never met her, but if and when I do, I imagine that she's like, "Yeah, my son yells weird things when he's working from the spare room."
Eric: And then— and then Lauren gives her a book that says, "Yes, Banana."
Brandon: It's worse because she's never listened to this podcast, so she has no context for what I'm doing.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. None. None.
Julia: Yeah. Brandon, famously, I never want to meet your mom, because I know she was a clown.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And that'll just haunt my vision when I try to have a conversation with her.
Eric: Oh, that's right.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: It's true. But before all of this went awry over the last few weeks, we did record, Brandon edited, and we put out two of, I'm gonna say, the most action-packed, exciting episodes that we've ever done on Join the Party.
Brandon: Hot fire.
Julia: Wait, this isn't a Conversation Pit? What's going on?
Amanda: No, no, no. Just— we're— we're— we— we sort of like— I received you in the Conversation Pit, and then we stepped out to the kitchen to, like, get our, you know, our— our hor d'oeuvres
Julia: Right, for the Afterparty. Gotcha.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Exactly.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Let's start with episode 51. So this, of course, was Legends of the Compost VII, where we did our planning for how we're going to tackle the sticky situation we find ourselves in. Rolling initiative, because things broke bad pretty immediately. We did a chase, as Julia did some extremely subtle magic. Troy got, again, extremely subtly, called out and just sort of, like, dealt with that.
Brandon: You might not have even heard of it in the podcast. It was not clear.
Amanda: No.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And that might be— so that's why I'm doing it now. You might be surprised to hear that that happened. And then, of course, the bombs being planted. So, Eric, remind me if this is wrong, but I don't think you plan on us rolling initiative in this episode. Is that true?
Eric: I— I figured something would happen, I guess. I guess I didn't think—
Julia: With us?
Eric: —the rubber would hit the road like this. So it's, like, when you say rolling initiative, it's like, "Alright, this is an action movie. Everyone needs to be allowed to do the thing that they're going to do." And it's like, "Alright, I can't think of any other way to do it, other than do the Dungeons and Dragons approved way of treating you like elementary schoolers and making you line up in a line."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Right?
Brandon: And ironically, you have three players who wanted to win the quiet game more than anything in their entire life.
Eric: Right, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Exactly.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Eric: So— because you rolled— because you did Bramble’s house last, and you kind of put together all of the secrets that I wanted you to do, which is, how are you going to do magic and Gloria in the lichenthropes that I'm like, "Alright, stuff needs to happen." And I think that because you— you took so much time, and Troy has been openly Troy out there, the— a lot of events moved quicker, especially with what happened with Di. So I'm like, "Alright, at the end of this—" because also, we've already discovered the things about the barnacles. The barnacles are getting closer, something needs to happen. I— I need to put— the heat is on you, and then the rubber hit the road.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: I want to talk about the first half of this episode, because we could talk about the second half for a long time. The first half, let's talk about the idea of putting— planning into your actual play.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: I love it. How did you all feel— and I guess Brandon editing it, and then Amanda re-listening to it, and Julia re-listening to it. How did you feel about the whole first half of this episode being you guys figuring it out? And I think nothing is stranger than hearing yourself put ideas together after having— have seen the cause and effect afterwards.
Julia: Yeah. I— I think I really summed it up at the end of the episode, where I said we had this plan, and she just tweeted it, you know?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Where it's one of those things where I genuinely think our plan was a good plan. I can see why in hindsight, my thing didn't quite work out the way that I wanted it to.
Brandon: Why was that, Julia?
Julia: Well, I don't know. I think Eric kind of summed it up really well with, "And then a giant fog appears."
Amanda: Runs away.
Eric: I always— I don't think I knew what spell you were gonna do. I was just like, "Oh, shit, Julia has access to magic again. Here we go. Especially now that she has full— full spell slots again. So I was just—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —like, "Yeah, Julia's gonna do some magic, and then things are gonna happen. What a good plan."
Julia: I wanted to really utilize the hexes still—
Eric: Sure.
Julia: —because— and I kind of explained it when I ended up using frenzy, because the action economy of hexes and spells allows you to do both in one round.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —especially if you cast one previously and then use cackle as a bonus action to continue it, which doesn't require concentration. Which is a little bit broken, but in the best possible way.
Eric: Oh, it's fair.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Like, that's the whole point of being a witch, is that, you know, you can use cantrips as bonus actions. You can only do a cantrip and a spell at the same time, you can't do two spells.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Man, the number of times I've had to ruin someone's day, Milo lane, by telling Brandon you can't—
Brandon: Who's that?
Eric: —you can't— can't do two spells at the same time. But, like, that's the whole point of doing the witch is that you got the action economy, so fair play.
Brandon: I— I just didn't— Eric, I just didn't think it was fair to make me key concentration on the spell that makes my ass a dump truck the entire game.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: That's really—
Julia: But that's why you should have done the witch class—
Brandon: That's true.
Julia: —because then you could just continually, every six seconds, laugh and, like, keeps your dump truck ass going.
Amanda: Oh, my God. Watching his ass deflate over eight— over six seconds, and then he giggles, and then the ass pops out, incredible.
Eric: I'm telling you, I was concentrating on it also. I tell you that much.
Amanda: That'd be a good drag act, actually. That'd be great. But, no, Eric, to return to your question, like Brandon does a really good job, I think, of— of selecting the bits that are decisions or options, and cutting out the parts where I'm like, "Hmm," and then stare at my character sheet for, you know, 90 seconds. So one, it— it listens a lot faster than it feels, but still listening to the episode. I was like— I don't— I don't often say like, "Is this gonna be boring for listeners?" But I was thinking to myself, like, "Is this gonna be boring? Like—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —it's all relevant, all of those choices played out. It was interesting to hear us problem solve. I think that's one of the benefits of an actual play show, and one of the things that makes it feel— like my favorite compliment, when people say it feels like my home campaign that I get to, like, be in and listen to each week. That's one of the parts that makes it— have that, like, verisimilitude to me. But I was— I'm always self-conscious when I just, like, throw out ideas that, looking back, I'm like, "Why did I think that would be a good idea?"
Brandon: I— yeah. I— I very much enjoy hearing the planning when it's like a mystery arc. Like, when we're trying to solve a mystery.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: If it's just like— in my opinion, for me, if it's just like— I'm planning how to tie a knot for 30 minutes, like, yeah, I'm gonna probably—
Eric: Oh, I hate that.
Brandon: —just do that.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: But, yeah, I think I intentionally, definitely left in a lot of the planning stuff, because when it's a mystery, you don't even know if the plan's gonna go to plan which it, you know, didn't, so—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. There's a real fine line, because of how much, like, sitting at the table and just yelling ideas out there is in a game of Dungeons and Dragons, especially when you're dealing with a puzzle, or you're dealing with like, "I'm afraid to do this thing. Let's try to figure out the way to do it so that no one gets hurt," which is impossible. Or—
Brandon: Right.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —that players are afraid, so they do that. So I agree with Brandon. It's like— it's the heist thing, right? It's like people like seeing the planning of the heist just as much as they see the execution of it. And most of the time through the magic of editing and— and creativity, sometimes you can— it's important to intertwine those two.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Like, it would have been annoying if it was one episode of planning. Like, I liked that it was kind of like first half was planning and second half, everything broke bad immediately.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Gotta have a little of both. Here's a question from Aidan, "So I may be connecting dots that can't be connected, but what would have happened had Troy looked at Di's dossiers with the magic glasses? For Amanda, is that something you considered doing?" And, yeah, that is a thousand percent why I was trying to take those dossiers from Di. I wanted to look at them and whip those glasses out of my— my pocket, put them on, and try to get inside either the, you know, architecture or map making of the facility. I think that would have been very strategically helpful.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: You know what I think would have happened, Amanda, if you looked at the dossiers with the glasses?
Amanda: What?
Julia: Brandon just would have edited in the episode of the UN that we did. Because that's probably—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —what would have happened. You just would have been transported to the meeting that, like, wrote these dossiers out or whatever.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: That's funny.
Eric: Hmm. That would have been cool. It's like, "Alright, we have to stop and let us re-listen to an episode of Join the Party.
Brandon: Podcast-ception.
Eric: Oh, God.
Amanda: Here's a question from Sebolicious, speaking of planning, "Did we ever test whether Nonny's whip works in the prison?"
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: We didn't.
Julia: I would assume so, because we have evidence that magic items worked, like—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —Captain Graft's teleportation ring. So I assume, like, it probably would have.
Eric: Yeah. It would have, prob— but it wouldn't have— you wouldn't have gotten, like, the— the water bonuses, because it's not like—
Julia: Right.
Eric: —regular— because it's not like the brine isn't regular water, I think.
Brandon: And I assume, sort of, like Troy's arrows, it would have been slightly harder to aim and stuff, but—
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm. It's a whip. You don't have to aim a whip. You just go, "Wa-chaa!"
Eric: Yeah, you just do it like this. [cowboy noises] Get out of here. Get out of here.
Julia: Get out of here, cowboys.
Eric: White Hat Jim, I told you to leave the studio.
Brandon: It's nice that Jim's a suffragette though.
Julia: That was a good joke. We can tell, because Eric just muttered, "Stupid” under his breath.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, it is. He wore― he wore the white hat at the DNC to stand— to stand alongside Kamala.
Amanda: Here is a follow-up from EepyFella, "How many possible methods of casting magic in the prison have you, Eric, cooked up for prisoners to use?"
Brandon: Were there other ways for us to solve the problem of not being able to use magic?
Eric: Well, I definitely had two, and both of them we've discovered. One of which was making your own pots with Bramble—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —on his magical kiln, which dries really quickly, even though it's in brine. And second, it was something that was inside of that cave, hidey-hole that Julia found at the end of 52.
Julia: I don't know what you mean.
Eric: So it was in there. It's in there, we'll talk about it. But basically, that's— the answer is yes. I had some other ideas that you could have figured out, but those were the two that I was seeding in particular.
Brandon: Was one of the options send $5 to Eric on Venmo?
Eric: That's always― Brandon, that's always an option for you to get a clue, for sure. I mean, I guess there's a third one. This one didn't really come out until— because I didn't think this was gonna happen, because Troy Riptide is— is wild. But, like, there's an airlock. That's a thing that we didn't figure—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —out— and we didn't figure out until later. That kind of came out into— in play. But yeah, of course— and I was like, "Oh, of course, there's an airlock. They want― they're keeping these people in brine, the Kompos facility would not want to be brined up. So, of course, there's an airlock, so that's a third.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: So it kind of depended how it happened, but I kind of― you eventually followed the clues to get the one that I was seeding the most.
Brandon: Seeding?
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Ba dom, pshh.
Eric: Again, I— I did think it was a good idea to do the fog, I did. It's just like―
Julia: Thanks, buddy.
Eric: It's just like―
Julia: It's a little obvious?
Eric: It's a little obvious. The guards are like, "Where are they? Where―" it's like probably near the thing.
Julia: "That— that one prisoner threw me under the bus, though."
Amanda: Yeah, they did.
Julia: "Fuck that dude."
Amanda: They did.
Julia: I hope he died in the turnip rising.
Eric: Yeah, probably, probably.
Amanda: Yeah. There's no place for traitors in our― in our— in our new facility.
Eric: So it's almost like everything kind of broke immediately after that plan fell apart, but Troy took control of the entire situation. There's so much― I was thinking about this a lot of, like— you know, do you ever play, like, card games or board games, but they're video game versions of them?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That, like, basically, computer does stuff all for you. It can think―
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: You know, whether you're playing like Magic: The Gathering, like a card game.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Or you're playing like a— like a board— tabletop simulator.
Julia: Online Solitaire, maybe, or something.
Eric: Online Solitaire, right.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: What I think is so funny about acting things out in tabletop RPGs. It's kind of like you have the standard interaction. The standard interaction is like, "Alright. This person meets this person. Five is bigger than four, this is what happens." And then you add so many modifiers on top of it as it goes. So― so I remember— and I think this is about the lichenthrope before, but I was just like— this came to me specifically because I was thinking about Julia booping the lichenthrope. And it's like, "Well, the lichenthrope is gonna eat you." And Julia was like, "Nope, I'm invisible. Remember from before." And I'm like, "Damn it." I like— all of the— all of the conditions need to be processed—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —so it's like, "Well, there's no plan, but Troy distracting everyone." I'm like, "Yeah, of course he is, that was the whole thing I was building towards that Troy— that everyone was focused on Troy, so therefore, that condition of you all finding a way to get past all of the guards and the melee." It's like it is what it is. I'm the one who set those conditions up, so I need to go along with it when you turn it on me, and do the thing you want it to do in the whole point. It's like all of the different conditions of the entire situation are only focused upon whatever conflict or thing you want to do. Like, you need to present or play the card that is, "I want this to happen." And then the computer, or my brain, kind of, like, tallies up— or— or conversations we have tallies up all the conditions, and then we decide, plus whatever the dice says, what happens next. I— I was thinking about that, and how interesting, like, all those are. When you gotta start—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —from a basic like, one number is bigger than another number, starting Point.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Sure.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: Eric, if you've been a little Wally Ratatouille-ing your Eric suit the whole time, you gotta tell us.
Julia: You gotta tell us. Are you a little robot who is also Ratatouille-ing?
Eric: I think our brains are all Ratatouille-ing our bodies, when you think about it.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Whoa.
Amanda: Yeah. 100%.
Eric: I watch Inside Out on the plane home, and, geez, there sure are a bunch of emotions controlling my— my body at a—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —at a control panel. Like, Damn Pixar, you snapped. Okay.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Amanda, what were you thinking— like, what was your thought process when you were basically giving Troy up to the bad guys? Like, were you― what were you expecting to happen to Troy? Were you expecting to be able to get out of it? Were you expecting to just, like, Jesus your way through it?
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: I was, for the whole arc, expecting that. At some point, Troy would have to go inside the facility, because he has a asset that no one else in the― in the prison does, which is some amount―
Brandon: His muscles.
Amanda: ―of— yeah, obviously, more muscles than anybody else, including Captain Graft, that fucking traitor. But also that he has some amount of political clout. And I— I think, you know, even Troy, sweet himbo that he is, recognizes when this is a negotiation situation and not a shoot your way out situation. And I think he's― he's also sort of losing some of the, you know, the fantasy of just being a pirate. Like he got unmasked, that happened during the campaign that, you know, we can't take that back. And I think since then, he's been kind of, like, wrestling with and figuring out, you know, "How do I use my past and whatever influence I still have to benefit the crew?" Instead of, "How do I push that stuff down, be a pirate, and not, like, embarrass my brother at the same time?" Clearly, that's not a thing that he could possibly win while being true to himself and, like, living his life. And so I think he's accepted with the way Di said it so directly to him that, you know, he's gonna embarrass, you know, sweet Hyperion, the Haggard, and that's no one's fault and no one's problem except Hyperion.
Julia: Yeah. And the interesting part, too, is you have been kind of— this didn't come out of nowhere. You've been kind of laying this out, Amanda, since the beginning of this arc, at the very least. So I think it was a correct conclusion, character-wise, to make.
Amanda: When he walked in and said, "I'm gonna get you all out." He was being serious. Like, my—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: —my plan the whole time was to infiltrate the facility in some way. So Brandon, to answer your question more specifically, I didn't think I would go into, like, a shoot 'em up situation immediately. I— I would have been fine with allowing Troy to be sort of, like, you know, subdued, or walked into a back room or something, and then, you know, start my negotiation when it happened.
Brandon: That all makes sense. And it definitely does make sense, character-wise, that's exactly what Troy would do. But was there not a part of you who had a doubt of like, "Oh, I could just be sending Troy to his death here, because no one actually cares that he was an ex-prince." You know?
Amanda: Definitely. But I— I think I had some tricks up my sleeve. I still had a few risk die, so I would definitely fight my way out if necessary. And I knew DiAnnalyse was in there somewhere. So—
Eric: True.
Amanda: —we'll get into her hilarious cut scenes in Episode 52 in just a few minutes. But there— he might have some friends on the inside.
Eric: Yeah. The thing I was trying to lay— I mean, you really picked this up, was like— the thing I was trying to lay is like none of the prisoners cared, but like everyone on the other side of the camera certainly cared.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And I think that was underscored by Di getting dropped in there in the first place. I think this is underscored as totally by your duel with Edie. It's like, yeah, the dice— or the coins in this situation, told the story where it's like, you had Edie on the ropes, and then she took you out at the last second because you couldn't deal the killing blow. I was thinking about this the entire time, and I think we will talk about this the most. But the most damage that Troy did to Edie—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —was throwing Bramble at her.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Right? And like—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —while Edie has knives everywhere and is not afraid to use them on Troy a lot. So I was thinking about this as soon as we finished recording that I'm like, "Wow. Troy didn't take the killing blow." He— he didn't. And that's why Edie escaped in the first place.
Amanda: Troy would have been happy too. Like, if that— if that coin flip went another way— you know, he— he wanted to. That wasn't a situation where I, like, you know, threw the— the toss, or even if that was an option in the dueling mechanics, or, you know, was secretly glad that it didn't work out. He would have done it. Like, he— he was serious when he said that.
Eric: But he didn't that.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That— but that's the thing, is like, but he didn't. If the dice repre―
Julia: That's alright. Edie's gonna die eventually.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: If the dice represent choices, even if it's something that you're not actively controlling, it's like, but he didn't, though.
Brandon: Yep.
Amanda: It's true.
Julia: But he didn't though.
Eric: But he didn't though.
Amanda: Fascinating. And I have a lot more to ask about those dueling mechanics and all of the action of Episode 52, but first, folks, I'm going to nip into the kitchen real quick and refill our fried cornichon.
Brandon: Oh, thank you.
Julia: Fried cornichon again? I love it.
Eric: Fried cornichon.
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Amanda: Hello, everybody. It's me, Amanda. And welcome to the midroll. I'm so glad to be back, and this was a very, very fun Afterparty to record. Welcome, first and foremost, to our newest patrons, Nick and Miriam. Thank you so, so much for supporting us. And hey, I know a lot of you have been joining us for free on Patreon, I love to see it. If you want to leave us Afterparty questions, stuff like that, it's a great place to go. But all the good stuff, like multiple bonus things per week are being posted for our paid members on Patreon. So if you've been thinking about joining, now would be a great time. You can become an annual patron, two months free, when you join for a whole year, or join at as little as five bucks a month, eight bucks a month for ad-free episodes, 10 bucks a month for video versions of Party Planning, the little preview that you get each week here in the feed. So it is so exciting. We love the Discord. We love hanging out with patrons over there. And you can join at any tier of our Patreon to get access to that Discord. Do it now at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. This week at Multitude, have you checked out Wow If True yet? This is our newest member show, and they are the one-stop internet culture shop that explains how, what's happening online shapes the real world. They are internet experts and real-life besties the tech culture journalist, Amanda Silberling, and science fiction author/attorney, yes, that's true, Isabel J. Kim, Esq. More importantly, they are the only podcast that will mention both Neopets and horizontal mergers in the same episode. Is this made for Amanda, you may ask? Yes, it absolutely is. They're so good. They ask and answer your burning questions about the internet like, for example, alright, who's Bigolas Dickolas? If I'm― if I'm afraid to ask, I ask Wow If True. Why are Silicon Valley bros biohacking their mouths? Why are YouTubers locking people in grocery stores? How many secret babies does Elon Musk have? More than one, folks. So go on ahead, check out Wow If True in your podcast app now. They have new episodes every other. We are sponsored this week by Tab for a Cause, a browser extension that lets you raise money for charity while doing your thing online. You install it into your browser, and whenever you open a new tab, you see a beautiful photo of somewhere on Earth and a small, unobtrusive, demure text ad. Now, part of that ad money goes toward a charity of your choice, part of it supports Tab for a Cause, and part of it supports us. So if you want to join team Join the Party, you can sign up at tabforacause.org/jointheparty, and join us in raising thousands and thousands of dollars a year for charity. It's amazing. And finally, we are sponsored by Volante Designs. Now, I know there have been a lot of big cons this summer, but there are lots more coming up this fall and winter. And if you are looking for gear to wear to conventions or to make you feel like you're kind of at a convention when you're just, you know, commuting to work or school, then you've gotta check out Volante Designs. They have a jacket for whatever your lifestyle needs, and tons of original collections that make you feel vaguely like cyberpunk-ish or vaguely like Nora Hawthorne and like a modern assassin. And also, no big, deal officially licensed apparel from series like Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry, and Star Trek. Okay? Like legit, they're real. They're also so kind, and have put together a 10% off code exclusively for listeners of Join the Party, called Join the Party is the code. And that'll give you 10% off your whole order. So go to volantedesign.us, and check out their truly incredibly gorgeous, badass outerwear. volantedesign.us and the code is Join the Party for 10% off your entire order. Alright, now let's get back to the show.
[theme]
Amanda: Alright, folks, we are back. I hope you enjoyed that― that homemade ranch dip. I am— I'm loving it myself.
Eric: Did someone say ranch? Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.
Amanda: Wow.
Eric: Sorry, ma'am, I'll— I'll see my way out.
Julia: I was trying to think of a cowboy name, and the only one I could think of was Steely Dan, and I was like, “Wait no, that's not— that's not it."
Eric: I was also named after the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch.
Amanda: Alright, folks, let's get back into Episode 52, Compost VIII, where we had a re-rolling of initiative because the situation changed. Those bombs went off, there was the duel. We talked to the dragon. Oh, my God. Edie, again, escaped and— and left Troy wounded with Bramble in that airlock. And Julia found the underground well portion cave. We don't know what's down there, but—
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —I bet we're gonna find out. Eric, may I start with, where did those duel mechanics come from?
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And some of you got your decision to, as usual, bring in very cool external mechanics to an episode of 5E.
Eric: So once again, that game is called swords as subtext by Colin Cummings, also known as Boy Problems. You might have seen some of his work making tabletop RPGs for Carly Rae Jepsen songs.
Julia: Wild. Love it.
Brandon: Oh, yeah, love it.
Eric: I've had this game for a while now, and I've been trying to find a place to put it. But, like, you know, duels just doesn't come up as much. But I really like a duel as a representation for people saying stuff to each other and just getting things done. And I thought that this has been a long time coming for Troy and Lucky Edie, and you really put yourself in a position. So I'm like, "Alright, this is― this is what we're gonna do." I think it was also great of you, because, you know, Troy went in there with full health and left with very little health.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's like you almost were putting your HP on the line to do a different game—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —and put yourself in a really precarious situation. Troy's not dead, but dang, dude, it's― it's— bad stuff's happening to your― to your bot at the moment.
Julia: Yeah, it really seems like everyone is real low on HP right now, except for one person.
Amanda: What's that now? Who's that?
Eric: Julia, just be friends with the dragon.
Julia: Yeah, that was my problem, was―
Eric: Get on Brandon's level, my guy.
Julia: That's my thing, is I have never been a person to be jealous of what's going on with other players and their character moments and stuff like that.
Amanda: Until recently?
Julia: I think I said on microphone, if Brandon becomes a dragon rider in this, I'm gonna be so pissed. And then, lo and behold.
Brandon: More like a dragon hanger ho― hanger honor, though.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: Hmm. Hmm. You're part of the posse of the dragon.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: You— you're on payroll, but no one's quite sure what your job is.
Brandon: Yes, exactly.
Eric: $60,000 for security.
Amanda: But no, Brandon, I give you a lot of credit for, sort of, apologizing to the dragon and talking to it. I felt horrible. Not that, you know, Troy's involved, but, like, I felt horrible when the dragon took damage. I know, Julia, you were trying your best to be like, "Can we target it between, like, the collar of the dragon?" And it was just like— that was the situation. So one, Brandon, what did you think would happen? Were you hoping that there would be some kind of, like, alliance or communication with the dragon possible? And two, Eric, how did you think about sort of allocating damage when the bombs went off after the dragon's collar had been released?
Brandon: Yeah. I think I was just trying to continue with the plan. Like, the plan was to let the dragon loose to cause chaos as a cover for us, right? So, like, it didn't quite seem like it was, like— it was a little bit of like a god looking down on us mere mortals, or, you know, or little ant people. So like, I think I was just trying to, like, steer it in the right direction without it being mortally wounded and— and us, like making it more angry. Like we didn't need it to kill everyone, we just needed to cause a distraction, so—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Which definitely is doing. Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And I think that was fair. I think that's a fair assessment of the situation and— and probably a good guess of what this thing was doing. Yeah, I mean, the whole thing with the explosion is, like— I took it and I— I am taking it into account, but that's the kind of fiddly shit that I think that ruins most Dungeons and Dragons games and why people play other games. It's like, why does everything need HP? Yeah, this bomb went off. You're― it's obviously for other intentions, and we've discussed that there is going to be consequences, because it's an explosion. We've had a mad bomber for 52 episodes by now, like we know.
Brandon: Julia.
Julia: Yeah, it's been me, me the entire time.
Amanda: Nonny.
Julia: Surprise.
Eric: So it's like, yeah, of course, but I'm not getting bogged down at keeping the number exact, as opposed to the actual effects of what this thing might ha— happened, which is that it's hurt, it's upset for various reasons— and for various reasons, not just, like, Umbi blowing up the bomb. But, you know, talking to something after you harm it is a good idea. So that's why I thought it was a good ide― that's why I was so happy of how— how that all shook out.
Brandon: That's why in war, every time like someone gets injured, they rush over and like, "Hey, man, is that― was that okay? Was that cool?"
Eric: Yeah, they run over―
Amanda: They should.
Eric: They run over to Switzerland―
Julia: Are you good?
Eric: ―and they're like, "You good, dude?"
Amanda: So much more to touch on here. So Sebolicious asks about my favorite subplot of this entire episode, which is, "Was DiAnnalyse dying to see Troy die?"
Julia: I don't know.
Eric: Oh, my God. Was that― whose idea was that? I think it was Julia's. Yeah.
Julia: I think I said it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: I said, can you like— I— because there's a— like, a little bit of a trope that Brennan Lee Mulligan uses as a DM, where in, like, final battles, he'll allow players every turn to roll to see if they get, like, a D20 for help to arrive.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And I said, "Well, DiAnnaylse is in the facility, could we potentially do that for Troy?" And Eric said, "We'll see." And then— yeah.
Eric: So funny.
Amanda: So Seb also wants to know, "What were the mechanics of her parentheses (not) interfering?"
Eric: Yeah. I rolled a D20, if it was a 20 the first time I needed to serve— for her to come help. And then a 19 and a 20, and then an 18 and 19 and 20, and so on.
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. So add— added one number each— each turn?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Lowered the difficulty every turn.
Amanda: But like Troy's feet that lets me auto crit on now 18, 19, or 20, never rolled it.
Eric: No, never came up. Never came up.
Julia: Never gonna roll a crit. And then it's gonna be, like the last roll of the game, like a real pivotal moment, and then you'll roll that 18.
Amanda: I hope, I hope.
Brandon: It's gonna be when you kill Lucky Edie, for sure.
Amanda: Hmm. Better be.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: The— the 5% chance, and then 10% chance as she continues to watch you get in an— in an incredibly action-packed duel, felt really like true to me, because it's like she's trying not to get involved. She's a government agent, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And I think that there's a lot of her liking the position that she's in, and also the fact that she already stuck her neck out for you while she was doing something for her brother, and therefore—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —the world government, that is like, "I can't go in there," especially since Lucky Edie is like their goddamn bruiser, especially now that she's been bio hacked after― after getting $6 million man’d.
Amanda: Oh, my God, yeah. Brandon, was that a prank that you were happy to see actually have an effect?
Brandon: No.
Julia: Sometimes Brandon just does shit, and it's like throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Brandon: It's like throwing a bomb in the middle of a group and just walking away.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, and being like, "Hope something happens."
Eric: You― I just― if we go back to that episode, you tell me so many times, "So she takes it and she doesn't notice. She doesn't notice. She doesn't notice. She just takes it. I give it to her, and she takes it, and she doesn't notice." And I'm like, "Uh-huh. Yeah. You're right."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Sure.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. Well, then, I— I kept thinking about it after― Brandon does this to me all the time. He's like, "I do something, and it's cool, just so you know it happens." And I just think about, "Well, what are the consequences if this actually goes down?" Theoretically, here's what I imagined happened. She got off the boat—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —and you guys were cleared, and then you got— you fell into the Kompos trap. And at some point, inside the facility, probably, or nearby, she took the potion. She went into, like, cardiac arrest and then— and then they're like, "Well, we have to rebuild her. We have the technology." And then they did. And now, she appears as a monster.
Julia: We— we have the knives.
Eric: Yeah. I thought that was going to happen. I thought she was kni― I thought she was all knived up and knives out, for that matter—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —before and— just the duel was such a good opportunity to reveal her that I was really stoked on.
Amanda: To be fair, I'm watching a ton of Paralympics coverage right now, and the runners don't not have knives for legs. Like, the— they're― they're running blades―
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: ―look like extraordinarily stylish knives. They're very cool.
Julia: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: That's cool. Yeah, I would love to see some fan art of Knives Out—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —Lucky Edie.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Is she— Eric, is she now Unlucky Edie, maybe?
Julia: No, she's still lucky.
Eric: Oh, probably.
Amanda: She's still―
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: She still pulled out some luck there.
Julia: She's still alive, so therefore, I guess, is lucky.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, her luck is gonna run out, and then she's—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —gonna just be Edie the former.
Eric: Her— her name change―
Brandon: The Artist formerly known as Edie.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, there it is.
Eric: Her name changes like in Dark Souls when they're on the second phase.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: It's like Edie the Sharpened or something.
Brandon: Oh, I like that. That's good.
Amanda: That's— that's really good. Sebolicious also asked, "Was the popcorn that Di ate from the maze key maze?"
Eric: No. But that's a― that's a funny thing to say.
Amanda: Listen, if they’re like photocopying that key essentially, because it comes up so often. I mean, someone definitely has tried to make popcorn with it.
Eric: There is probably, like— I'm sure in, like, the third book of, like, a long-running fantasy story, that it comes to a point where, like, the MacGuffin from the first book is then so casually known.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: Like, I'm thinking about, like eating a sacred cow as dinner in kind of like—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —in— within the world-building of some fantasy novel, so, like, maybe. Actually, it's kind of funny.
Amanda: That definitely happened in— in the— the Historic Materials series.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: The— the, like, dust that collected around the people that Mary talks to in the second book. I'm not going to spoil it, because you should read that series. The— the beings that she lived with, that was, like, quite commonplace by book three.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or the— yeah, when you go to The Hunger Games capital and they're just like, doing wild shit with, like, things that you couldn't dream of if you were living in the districts.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Something like that. So entirely possible actually. That's kind of funny.
Amanda: Well, talking about something that was once disruptive became common and—
Eric: Oh, goddammit. Yeah.
Amanda: —perhaps will become disruptive again. Julia, this one's from. TJ, rolls Nat 20s for hugs.
Julia: What's up, TJ?
Amanda: "When you booped the lichenthrope, and Eric described you as being like, "This thing could turn me into a boulder, I'mma boop it.' Did you feel a little bit like Steve Irwin?"
Julia: I think Cammie always feels a little bit like Steve Irwin.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Cammie sees the best in everything. Looks at a creature and says, "That's a beautiful creature, I must touch it."
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And— yeah, yeah. I would say so.
Eric: I was prepared for it. Julia, I knew you were gonna boop it. I— I did.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: After all of the times you asked if I can remove curses from various other things.
Julia: I love booping a curse.
Eric: You love booping a curse. I knew you were gonna do it. That was the thing I was talking about before. I was like, "Okay, but I get to attack you, you idiot." And you're like, "No, I'm invisible." And I'm like, "Goddammit."
Julia: I'm like, "Nah, bitch."
Eric: Goddammit.
Julia: I thought about that. I'm not just gonna go up to a werewolf and go, "Boop."
Eric: So, like, I was a 100% prepared for that. In fact, that's why— I mean, you didn't find it, but like that cave was there the entire time. I'll say this right now, that's what the blackberry wine you tasted like six episodes away was—
Julia: Oh.
Eric: That it was coming from the cave.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: I knew it was there, and I knew there was a boulder blocking it. Did I know it was a lichentrope? No, but still, I knew that when I― when I invented the lichentropes, you were gonna try to boop them, right? Which was the whole question― which was the whole thing I said, of like, "You don't notice if there are more boulders here than usual."
Julia: Fair.
Brandon: Did you have to invent the lichentrope thing because we didn't go find the warden's gold teeth and get HM five strength in order to move the boulder or—
Eric: Yeah, you guys didn't have flash, so it was— I had to get— come up with a new thing, yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Brandon, I just fucking did that in— in the ROM hack app that Mischa made all of us download, which, yes, that is― that is what happened. And then I was like, "This fucking bitch." Like without— without a guide, never in a million years would I get that done during the Safari Zone timer.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: All of my friends were telling me how they gave up on Pokemon Gold and Silver because they couldn't move the Sudowoodo. And I'm like, "Just talk— what? There's like 6 NPCs."
Julia: Talk so some NPCs.
Eric: One of them's gonna give you a water― a water again.
Julia: If you're not doing something right, and you're like, "Wow, I'm really stuck here." In any RPG, just talk to some NPCs.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Except for the fucking golden teeth. No one knows that.
Eric: No, no one would that.
Julia: That doesn't make any fucking sense.
Eric: I― basically, I knew Julia was gonna do it, but I was surprised that I got― that you were inv— I was like, "Well, I guess Cammie is walking around invisible, whatever."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then— and then it got me.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: I was so ready to attack you and being like, this is― you might turn into a monster.
Brandon: Oh, you were excited and then immediately deflated.
Julia: "I'm already a monster."
Eric: Yeah, you're right, Cammie. "Don't you just want to go apeshit?"
Julia: "Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just want to go apeshit?"
Amanda: Clip it, clip it.
Eric: Clip it.
Brandon: Clip it.
Amanda: Love it.
Julia: I like feral better than apeshit, personally.
Eric: It's fair. They're— they're the same.
Julia: Don't you just want to go feral?
Amanda: LoafOfBrett had a very interesting theory that could have gone on spoil the plank, but I— I do want us to— to talk this one over. Now, Eric told us that Kompos is not an acronym.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: However, LoafOfBrett says, "Does Kompos actually stand for Keys Open Mysterious Portal of Salmon?"
Julia: Could be.
Eric: Pretty good.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: That's a good acronym.
Eric: The thing I was trying to get across that I'll just say now, sorry, Death of the Author. I'm― I'm— let me English-- English major my own work here. I was trying to get across the idea that this was a city before, and that the Kompos facility was a facility built around this thing. And there was― and then South Kompos was like a real place that had stuff dealt and done to it.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Now that I'm seeing K-O-M-P-O-S like written out in type, it makes me think that, like— it's like a late '90s, early 2000s like Circuit— not Circuit City, but like a micro center style, like, computer place.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah, that's where Bill Gates got his 10,000 hours.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: I mean, like, I'll be honest, when you first said it to us, I— I Googled it, and, fun fact, guys, it's the Indonesian word for compost.
Eric: Yes, that was― yes.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: Yeah, it is. Yeah.
Amanda: Smart. I'm glad someone still Googling other languages.
Eric: I did look up translations, and I was just like, "I want a different word, the word compost, like, give me something."
Julia: Uh-hmm. Well, now, when you introduce a word that I don't know—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —I assume that I need to Google it.
Amanda: Yep.
Brandon: I― we were playing— me and Lauren were playing DAVE THE DIVER, and we— we saw one of those fucking fish come up and I said, "Lauren, look, it's― it's an esca." And she said, "What the fuck?"
Amanda: Yeah. On our honeymoon in Norway, the― we took in part a tour of, like, a fishing museum, and there was an extremely scary skeleton of an anglerfish, and I said, "That's an esca. That— over there, that's called an esca."
Julia: From the back of the group, "That's an esca."
Brandon: "That's an esca."
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: At the end of this campaign, we are going to take PSATs.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: You know, the only question I got wrong on my PSATs, which I took when I was, you know, whatever, 14 or something, was identifying that cadaver meant body, which I don't know how the fuck you're supposed to know when you're, you know, 13 or something. But it like— it's one of those things that haunts me to this day. And for several years, my parents were like, "Look at that cadaver, Amanda," when we watched, like, Law & Order. And I was like, "Stop it!"
Julia: Amanda, you clearly weren't watching CSI back in the day.
Amanda: No.
Julia: Back in its heyday.
Amanda: I wasn't.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: The PSATs really only existed to, like, shame you.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I know— like, we could have just done more practice tests, why did we do it in sophomore year?
Amanda: To pay.
Eric: And here— here's my― here's my story about why that is and why our family deeply believes it. My brother, his name is Tyler. His last name is Silver. You might know that from looking at my name. His name is Tyler Silver, okay?
Julia: Odd.
Eric: The PSATs, you fill everything at Scantron, including your name. So you got to fill out the little bubbles that's like, "Here, fill out up to 15 letters of your first and last name." Right? So you had to fill it in. For some reason, I don't know how if it was Scantron error or Tyler erased something, but the V in Silver got inserted into his name and he was Tylver Silver.
Brandon: That's excellent.
Eric: Now―
Julia: I— that— that sounds like a George R.R. Martin name.
Eric: Ty— yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Tylver
Eric: Ser Tylver. Here's the issue, is that because it's the PSATs, that is what all of the colleges, that does marketing, rips the names and sends you mail. So for 18 months, we got mail for Tylver Silver―
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: ―sent to my mom's house.
Julia: Yay.
Eric: And―
Brandon: That's really good.
Eric: ―that is the best nickname anyone has ever come up for with― for my brother. And I—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —think it's really funny.
Amanda: You could probably do that with, like, filling out, you know, surveys and, like, newsletters to see what companies are actually selling your data to others. Just be like—
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: —a Facebook Manda and then see if it's actually— you know, if I get weird spam, where it came from.
Eric: Hmm. Hell yeah.
Brandon: Smart, yeah.
Amanda: Alright, folks. Some great questions, including— this is Join the Party first, folks. We have a audio visual question here.
Brandon: What?
Julia: What's up?
Eric: I— I— I think we can pull over here and— and say it's here in the Afterparty. I― I see all of your social posts. Anything you messaged through the Instagram, or you tweeted us, or— or you send— you Patreon people, we― we― I see all of them. So when you send things into— for Afterparty questions or whatever, I— I see― I see them. So please―
Julia: It seems like such a warning.
Eric: No, no, no. Please continue to do it. We've been doing this podcast for seven years. Keep sending stuff in, because we will, in fact, listen to them, and sometimes we'll play them on the show. But this is the first drive— I guess, a real 2024 ass thing to do. Recorded yourself while you're driving to tell us Join the Party theories.
Amanda: So this is from AYoungPilgrim, and this is what they sent.
AYoungPilgrim: "Okay, here we go. I just started listening to the Episode 51. Just off of the recap, I think I figured it out. Alright. Eric Silver, is it the reason why Cammie cannot spell cast but can use her innate magic, and the reason why some of the bombs aren't going off, and the reason why some of the weapons aren't working because they're in water? And in water, there is a vocal component for spell casting that maybe there isn't for innate magic, so there's no sound traveling in water, therefore, she can't make spells because there's no sound of her voice. And that also makes sense if a bomb can't go off in water, it needs air or something like that in water. Maybe that's why some of the bombs can't go off, like exploding bombs. And also, when it comes to the weapons not being— performing at their best, if they did an intelligence check to see if, like, they could learn how, like, water physics works, would that work? Is that it? Is it just that they're in water? Is that it? I don't know. I'm about to listen to the rest of the episode and see if it's right."
Eric: Yeah. That's pretty―that's pretty much it. As another per― as another person who— who has a— a rudimentary understanding of science.
Brandon: But I don't know that― that― I don't know if that can be exactly it because sound travels better in― in water than--
Eric: They had it in reverse the first half.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: But the— some of the other stuff we've talked about, is the whole reason—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —why Cammie can cackle but not do spells is because sound travels better in— in brine. So you can cackle—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —but you can't do magic. It's like an anti-magic field, but you― the innate magic of cackling is literally the thing that moves― moves through the thing. And I learned that from listening to Brandon.
Julia: So all the vocal component.
Eric: But the other stuff— the stuff in the second half about some of the bombs going off—
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: —and not the natural bomb went off, which was the bramble bomb. The other ones can go off because they were explode-y and then the— that's the whole thing of how, you know, your― your visuals are different when you look through liquid. That's how light― that's how light do.
Brandon: We don't have Mage Hand Mike here on this podcast right now, But do we think the Bramble bomb was named after our Bramble?
Eric: Yeah, probably.
Julia: Huh. Hmm.
Brandon: Is Bramble a bomb that I have in my repertoire?
Amanda: I think Bramble is a great word that two like minds of Mage Hand Mike and Eric Silver, best GM podcasting, both decided to use.
Eric: No, I was just really excited about naming him Brambleghast like the Pokemon. So— and that just happened to― that just happened to sync up in the same episode.
Julia: That makes sense.
Amanda: But, yeah, AYoungPilgrim loved the theory. Thank you for sending us that video. It was crisp as hell, and we really appreciate it.
Eric: Send―
Amanda: Folks, send us videos.
Eric: Send videos to our Instagram and I— or— or anywhere, or email them to us, or send a— like a―
Amanda: TikTok, you can― you can tag Multitude Shows.
Eric: Or like a— a thumb drive of you, you can send that. You can send a VHS if you want. I'll watch them. I'll watch them.
Amanda: Oh, my God. That'd be a great way— okay, do I actually want to say this? Probably I would have an insurance problem. But if you mail the thumb drive to Multitude, 37 Greenpoint Avenue, Suite 306, Box 11, Brooklyn, New York. 11222, United States, I will put it in a offline laptop, and then in a Faraday cage, and then see what's on there. I'll do it.
Brandon: In a Faraday cage.
Amanda: I trust you guys. I'll do it.
Eric: I will expense a Faraday cage.
Amanda: Listen, I have a Chromebook from 2014 that's not doing anything, so, you know―
Julia: Yeah. That's true.
Amanda: ―we— we got it. Alright, folks. We have a few more great questions here about the world and our game and our characters. So this is from Rayne Storms, the Birch Boi. "The musical extravaganza that was the previous episode got me wondering. If your characters were to star in a musical, which would it be, and what role do you think they would have?"
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: Oh, I mean, this is obvious and easy. Umbi would play the main guy in Les Mis. What's―what's his name?
Amanda: Jean Valjean.
Eric: Jean Valjean.
Brandon: Jean Valjean. Yeah, absolutely.
Eric: No, that's real.
Amanda: That's pretty true. Yeah.
Eric: Just Umbi and Russell Crowe going at it.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Brandon: But Russell Crowe is a crow in this version.
Eric: Nice. Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Amanda: Of course, of course. I think Troy would be a really good Jack from Into the Woods.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: I think that just like absolute— you know, the himbo, not a thought to be had, climbing that beanstalk, you know, making friends with a giant test. That feels like a― like a Troy sub― subplot.
Brandon: I love that.
Julia: I think Cammie would be an absolutely unhinged Mrs. Lovett.
Amanda: Oh, that's the only right answer, Julia.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Exactly, exactly.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: And Eric, what that would you be?
Eric: I would line up all my NPCs a la the core― A Chorus Line.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: And have them all tell— do musical numbers for me and tell me their backstories.
Amanda: Great.
Brandon: Dance, my children, dance.
Amanda: Love that.
Eric: One singular sensation, I hope I don't die. Do, do, du, do, do, do.
Amanda: No notes, I love that.
Eric: I really need this job. Please do my voice on the show.
Julia: Oh god I need this job.
Amanda: By way of Afterparty follow-up, I have a— a follow-up from Dominique, who said, from the previous Afterparty, "I just heard Eric say yes to sing the birthday song when I'm 50. Muchas Gracias. I'll reach out in 16 years or so."
Eric: Great.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: Thanks, Dominique. We'll be here. Also got an extremely sweet message from Mrs. Baptista on Instagram, who wrote, "Good evening. I'm reaching out because of how many times I say out loud, 'Their voices are amazing.' I'm an elementary school music teacher and have been a voice teacher for many years. The quality of all of the voices and the timbre of Brandon's voice at the beginning of the season's shanty lead me consistently commenting about how amazing they sound. The lyrics are perfect for the show. The music is well composed, but the voices are what absolutely make this piece well done."
Brandon: Oh, that's really sweet. Thank you.
Amanda: Thank you.
Brandon: And also thank you for being an elementary music school teacher. That's not an easy job, and it's—it's great.
Eric: Thanks for teaching all of those kids how to play the recorder.
Julia: It's— it's a stressful job, I imagine.
Eric: How— how else would we learn the recorder?
Brandon: I don't know, man.
Eric: There's no other way.
Brandon: I don't know.
Eric: I don't think they are— I don't think they're allowed outside of elementary schools.
Brandon: Legally speaking.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: They're banned in all public spaces, except for elementary school.
Eric: They have to be kept in a Faraday cage before they start practicing.
Julia: That's why all children are slightly electric.
Eric: I think that's what I learned from Inside Out, that as you grow up, you learn you lose your electricity.
Amanda: And because AYoungPilgrim did send a video, I'm— I'm granting them two questions here, which is, they asked how we all met. And we may have said it on the podcast before, but happy to say it again for folks who are joining us newly for Campaign Three. What I would like to do is propose—
Brandon: Umbi strolled into a store once and met Cammie, is that what they're asking?
Amanda: Well, Brandon, I— about us, as people. And I want us to do a two truths and a lie version of how we all met.
Eric: Oh, great.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Wait, shouldn't it be one truth and two lies then?
Amanda: Well, for— there's— each of us met the other three somewhere, and so I think it should be two truths and a lie. And so you can choose which applies to whom.
Julia: Oh, no. This—
Amanda: So here are my— here are mine. Ready? I'll start.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: One, Eric and I met on Tumblr. Two, Julia and I met in first grade. Three, the first time Brandon and I hung out, he interrogated me on the subway home about my intentions toward his coworker, Eric.
Brandon: That's not what happened.
Amanda: Two truths and a lie.
Eric: That's— that's all what happened.
Julia: So Brandon saying his is a lie.
Amanda: Interrogated, I would say, lovingly prodded. Use a scalpel, use the little offsets, frosting knife to be like, "What's under there?"
Brandon: Amanda is the only person alive that I've ever talked to where I've done the Brandon thing, and immediately was like, "That's too far."
Julia: You've gone too far.
Brandon: Which is not an insult or a bad thing. It's just like my MO and Amanda was like, "No, thank you."
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Okay. The— these are all about the scenarios when I met you all for the first time.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I met Julia when recording a podcast episode. Brandon— I met Brandon when he showed me around my job for the first time. And I met Amanda at the same time as meeting her parents, at her senior year undergraduate symposium.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: Pretty good. Pretty good.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I legitimately don't remember when I first met you, Julia.
Julia: Brandon, I don't, either.
Brandon: Was it just at the bar?
Amanda: Probably. Probably.
Julia: I— I think-- See, my thing is— my memory is terrible. I'm pretty sure I met Eric and Brandon at the same time.
Amanda: I think— I think they both came to a happy hour at the Harold, RIP, at the same time.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: But see, these guys—sorry to just like, give you some notes when we're live recording— a great thing for the vibe and the recording, which is, you could have said lies instead about each other.
Julia: I could have.
Amanda: That would be a good opportunity.
Julia: But then I wouldn't know if it was a lie or the truth.
Amanda: That's fair.
Brandon: Okay. So I— here's mine. Alright. I met Eric when I was showing the new employee around the office for the first time.
Eric: Damn.
Amanda: Either they're both true or both false.
Eric: Sniped.
Brandon: I met Amanda when Eric was introducing me to his colleague at a bar, who he thought was cool and had a cool podcast. And I met Julia when our boss brought us all together to plan the heist. And Julia was the muscle and I was the face. And we got—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: —together, and then we heisted the Crown Jewels of England.
Eric: That one's a lie because Brandon was the guy in the chair.
Brandon: Yeah, true.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: He was the tech guy.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Good effort.
Julia: Yeah. See, the— the problem is we can figure out which ones are the truth and which ones are the lie by saying, like, "Well, I met this person in a different way than they just said.”
Eric: Julia, it's like one of those matrices where it's like, "John has a chicken."
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Yeah, it's a logic problem. I understand.
Eric: "Jenny's wearing a blue shirt." Yeah.
Brandon: You put the flower in the boat first, then you—
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: —send the— the fox over, whatever the fuck.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: You take the peanut butter, and you combine it with the bread in your inventory, and then you give it to the bear, and that's how Putt-Putt saves the zoo.
Amanda: The doctor was the mother. Okay? You sexist assholes.
Julia: Oh, my God, they were roommates. I don't know if that works with--
Eric: Oh yeah, they were roommates.
Brandon: —is what we're talking about.
Amanda: Alright, Julia, two truths, one lie.
Julia: I met Amanda in kindergarten, and I met Brandon and Eric at the same time.
Eric: Nice. Hell yeah.
Amanda: One more, one more.
Brandon: And it was at the heist, when we were doing the pre-planning.
Julia: Yeah. And it was at the heist that Brandon and I became best friends.
Eric: Nailed it. Alright.
Amanda: Wow.
Eric: So listeners, write in.
Amanda: Comment below.
Eric: Tell— tell us which one you think is the truth and which one is the lie.
Julia: Uh-huh.
Amanda: Love it. Thanks for going along with that, y'all.
Brandon: That was fun. Good job.
Julia: That was insane. I loved it.
Amanda: Alright. So now, we're getting into spoil the plank territory.
Julia: Avast Ye.
Amanda: A lot of very good suggestions here. And as Eric pointed out, probably the— the— I don't know how to exactly build up the metaphor here, but a unique spoil the plank, this is the freshest. I don't know if that's true. The— a unique spoil the plank where, as of right now, due to all of the— the whatnot from before, we don't know what happens next. We've not played more than you've heard, and that has never happened in the history of Join the Party. So—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —Eric, what should we do? Should we say what we think will happen?
Eric: I would like that. I think you should tell me what you think is gonna happen next.
Julia: I think I'm going to find the cure for lichenthrope and cure all of the boulders.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: Interesting.
Brandon: That's pretty tight.
Eric: Interesting. That— that would be cool.
Julia: It's wishful thinking, certainly.
Eric: That would be so cool if that was the— if that— if that happened.
Brandon: Honestly, I'm really not sure. Like, there's so many ways that this could go next. Obviously, our goals are going to be like, "Let's open the lock, but we have to get the keys— the rest of the keys first." And one of them is just a dude, so—
Julia: We got to find him at that undisclosed tavern location.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. It's funny. Yeah, yeah. The keys are interesting because it's like they're— you have two, but they're up on the ship away. Where— where's the cloud key right now?
Julia: On Kidd's person.
Eric: Oh, okay. I thought— okay, okay, So they're not next to you, and then you got to go find the dude who's the fourth one. So—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —it is interesting.
Brandon: Maybe we can just do a quick, like, NeverEnding Story montage where we ride on the back of the dragon to find the dude key.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: We really want to get the Campaign—
Julia: Easy enough.
Eric: —4, guys. We're gonna get on a weird dragon guy and go get him.
Brandon: Oh, we should do a NeverEnding Story campaign for four. Let's do that.
Amanda: That'd be cute. I think Troy is going to try to finish what he started and infiltrate the facility. If that doesn't work, I'll probably leave the airlock and reunite. But I would love, in a best-case scenario, to infiltrate the facility and broadcast a message to all pirates everywhere that we found the salmon and to bring the keys here immediately.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Smart.
Julia: I could also just contact Archimedes and be like, "Hey, dude, what's up?"
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: "Bring the key here, we found the salmon."
Eric: What I think is really funny is that Julia and Brandon were like, "Oh, wow. Yeah, I wonder— I hope this happens. I wonder—" and then Amanda's like, "This is what I'm gonna do in the next session."
Amanda: Which we, again, at Join the Party first are gonna play in about 45 minutes, so I am very excited. It's really— it's really real time here.
Eric: Amanda's prediction is, "I have self-determination, and this is what I'm going to do."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But listen, like— okay. Fair enough. I— I think though that this was the like— Edie hit the escape valve for the people manning the facility. And I imagine they are fleeing, they probably think of this as a lost cause. I don't imagine the guards want to, like, stick around with a loose dragon out there. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're all evacuating the facility as we speak. And we have some amount of ability to, you know, harness the turnip uprising, like, you know, after the fall of the Berlin Wall to, like, raid the, you know, the headquarters of the secret intelligence, you know, service and, like, learn information about why they're there, and what the diamond knot has been doing all this time.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: I can't believe we glazed over the turnip rising.
Eric: Yeah, it was pretty cool. That was cool.
Julia: Guys.
Brandon: Glazed over the turnip rising?
Amanda: What kind of glaze?
Julia: Yeah, it's like a maple glaze.
Amanda: Miso, maple?
Brandon: Ooh, tasty.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Miso, maple glaze.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: No, that was cool. I really like that. We didn't get a chance to talk about. I was just like, "Frenzy, cool. Good— good job. Good spell."
Julia: "Good spell."
Eric: "Good spell."
Julia: That was my only six level spell.
Amanda: So fun.
Julia: I gotta rest again before I use the sixth level.
Eric: That's the thing, it's like— that's what I thought you were going to do, but instead—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —you did fog— fog cloud instead.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Well, I wanted to— my thought process was if Troy didn't surrender himself, I wanted to give disadvantage to anyone who might attack us while we were in the fog cloud.
Eric: Sure, sure, sure. I'm not— also not saying it wasn't a bad idea, because all of you were obscured, which allowed Troy to step out and all of you to move. It was just really funny. I was just like, "Yeah, they're probably in the fog cloud over there."
Amanda: Alright, folks. It is time for some more spoil the plank from listeners this time, not from the players.
Julia: Arr.
Amanda: Here's Cheeky Little Goat. "Is the dragon actually the salmon? And will Umbi waste the one wish on something typically Brandon?" Thinking emoji.
Brandon: Yeah, I saw this, and I think Little Goat, you're being a little too cheeky.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: So—
Julia: Ooh, okay.
Brandon: —maybe you just take the Cheeky out of your name and just be a Little Goat from now on.
Eric: Hmm. No, I think you should be a super cheeky little goat.
Amanda: I think you should be Goat2: Even cheekier.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Too cheeky, too goat.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Savedman97 has a combined reaction and spoil the plank. "So, Eric, few things. Number one, what the fuck? Regarding Unlucky Edie."
Eric: Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.
Amanda: "Two, fuck you in regard to the locks and keys right in front of our faces for several episodes."
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.
Amanda: "Three, fantastic episode, everybody, players included. Great plot points, great reveals. Wonderful, unhinged, amazing storytelling. I can't wait to hear how this all works out." So just— just a nice thing.
Brandon: Keep that one too, Eric.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom
Julia: Ooh, too much lip smacking. Didn't like that.
Brandon: It's like we're feeding the jar of the pellets at the end of that one Jack Box game.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Give them the pellets, give them the pellets.
Amanda: From Sebolicious, "Will Kidd give the key to Troy and his crew, seeing as Troy as their captain?" Thank you, Seb, for recognizing the authority here.
Julia: Boo.
Brandon: Alright, alright.
Amanda: "With his siblings swallowed by the dragon, or will they have to save the other siblings Cervantes from the dragon's belly?"
Eric: That's a good question.
Brandon: I mean, we're gonna try to save them from the dragon's belly, regardless.
Julia: I mean, you— we could probably just make the dragon throw them up, right?
Brandon: We can't make the dragon do anything, Julia, but we can try.
Julia: I mean, I certainly can try. You could poison the dragon again, Brandon.
Brandon: Yeah, that's true.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Here's another theory, re magic from TJ, "Eric's playing the nullified spells and bombs close to the chest, but as far as I see, the only time anything has failed has been communication or damage causing effects. Eric, are spells and bombs only nullified if they can further a possible revolt, you sneaky son of a gun?" I love this theory.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: I mean, it's a pretty funny thing to say, but no, but I like that— I like that.
Brandon: That makes sense. I think it's probably a little bit of column A, mostly column B.
Eric: Yeah. It was a— I was— you managed— both of you managed to do stuff that circumvented my rules, like, immediately. So it was just kind of funny the way that it played out. It's almost like, when you do some— it's like causation and correlation not being the same.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: It's like, "Okay, there is no— well, obviously, communication is bad, but my bombs work." It's like, "Well, no, you just kind of stumbled into the— into— into one of the only used cases." So—
Brandon: Yeah, right.
Eric: —I just thought that was kind of funny.
Amanda: And finally, from Lucy the Scoot. They write, "I'm having a big gravity falls connecting the dots moment that might not exist, but here it is. Eric, have you been building some giant-ass multiverse in the— in front of us this whole time? To quote Hunting Party VII from Campaign One, as Franny explains the timeline of the centering, quote, 'Empires rise and fall, and the animals, plants, and magics came into being and then were snuffed out. The gods and religions ebbed and flowed like the tide itself. And for a while there, there was relative peace, and after a particularly nasty scourge of zombie plants, the heroes of the realm came together and became a council. Eric, what the fuck?"
Julia: Eric, fuck you.
Brandon: Hey, holy shit.
Julia: Hey, Eric, fuck that.
Brandon: Hey, holy shit.
Eric: I— I think zombie plants are cool.
Julia: And I have since the beginning.
Eric: And I've always been me. No, there's no big multiverse, but goddamn, that's— that's a awesome quote that you found.
Brandon: I mean, Lucy, don't listen to Eric. I think we—there is— there is a 100% confirmed a multiverse, a ECU in which there is average bear.
Eric: That's right.
Brandon: The company.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: So if you've listened to Next Stop, and if you haven't, you should go listen to it. Cameron and other characters do exist in Campaign Two.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: So who knows?
Amanda: Yeah, they're coworkers with Tegan, it's great. Eric, how does it feel to be faced with the fact that you've— in— that you're interested in what you're interested in. And may in fact incorporate, you know, some of those great ideas into the future campaign. But, like, damn, Lucy, what a quote. There are so— there's so much in there that totally maps against what's happening now.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: That's wild.
Amanda: Oh, no. Am I understanding conspiracy theories for the first time?
Brandon: Oh, my God, we are.
Julia: Whoa.
Amanda: Yeah. No, it's— I mean—
Julia: Oh, no, Amanda's about to become a QAnon
Amanda: No, no, no, no, no.
Eric: A QAnon
Julia: Yeah, a single QAnon
Eric: She's about to become a dracula, watch out. Oh, yeah. I was thinking about Next Stop a little bit a while ago, which is the— we, all the four of us, like, worked on a sitcom that we put out in 2020— in March 2020 so go listen to that if you want to.
Amanda: Checks watch. Uh-hmm.
Eric: But, you know, I— I remember right— there was one episode where, like, someone goes to a bar at the end, and they go to the DMV, the Department of Many Vinos. And I'm like, "That was such a sitcom-ass thing to write. Good job, Eric." Like a themed— incredibly esoteric-themed bar. Like, imagine going to a wine bar that's— that's DMV-themed, that would have been sick as hell.
Brandon: If that existed in Brooklyn—
Julia: You could still make it happen.
Brandon: Yeah. If you started that later, no one— in Brooklyn, no one would like— no one would think twice about it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: It'd be like, "Yeah, that's correct, yeah.
Amanda: Incredible. And I— I also love that there's a whole plot line centering around a life-size cutout of David Boreanaz, there's just— there's a lot there. If you like this show, you should listen to Next Stop. It's 10 perfect episodes.
Brandon: It's extremely good.
Eric: Did you know David Boreanaz is super into crystals? That's a real thing, that's a real one.
Amanda: Oh, really?
Eric: That's a real one.
Julia: Uh-hmm. That makes sense. That checks out to me.
Amanda: That feels like a— a Next Stop Season Two plot, so you got to put that in your pocket.
Eric: David Boreanaz is super into crystals.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Remember we got Justin McElroy and Brian David Gilbert on that? That was so funny.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah, just with a teaser.
Brandon: I was gonna say, didn't Justin McElroy played David Boreanaz—
Eric: He played David Boreanaz?
Amanda: He did.
Julia: We did try to get David Boreanaz and his people said that he wasn't interested.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That's right. We did get a response from David Boreanaz. That's right.
Brandon: No, no, no, no. David Boreanaz didn't respond, James Marsters responded and said no, and then—
Eric: Oh, that's right.
Brandon: —Justin McElroy did it.
Julia: That's an extremely funny anecdote. Thank you.
Eric: Oh, my God.
Amanda: I got to write the best sentence of my professional career, which is Justin McElroy as David Boreanaz.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: God, that's so funny.
Amanda: What a world. Incredible. Well, folks, we've done it. Great job to all. Great job to Mischa Stanton, audio editrix, senior audio editor here at Multitude.
Brandon: Yes, thank you.
Amanda: Thank you for taking care of this episode editing, so that Gulia can go on vacation.
Julia: Because I'm out of here, baby. Hawaiian shirt, my tie, ready to go.
Eric: Julia is wearing three Target Boys XL shirts on top of each other.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Incredible. Alright, folks. That's about it. Why don't you say goodbye to the lovely listeners?
Brandon: Bye.
Julia: Goodbye, lovely listener.
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever outward.
Eric: Pew, pew, pew. Haha! I've been here the whole time. I've just been very polite.
Amanda: White Hat Jim!
Julia: We ran into Steeley Dan again!
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