How good does it feel messing with Lucky Edie? How sad will we be when Umbi inevitably dies? What would all of our stat bonuses be from living in our states? All that and more on this Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
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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 our characters are in prison, but we are free to be Join the Party hosts for you and me.
Julia: I mean, yeah, that's true.
Brandon: Fuck. Does that just come to your brain?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: That was impressive.
Amanda: Every day, Brandon, I sing little songs to Eric. And about half the time, they rhyme, and the other half, it's a big stretch. So I'm— I'm staying ready so I don't have to get ready. You know, that's the Silver-McLoughlin way.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Hi. How's everyone going?
Brandon: I'm concerned that Eric hasn't spoken yet. That's what I'm concerned about.
Eric: I'm just letting my wife cook, let my wife cook.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Thanks, honey. But not in like a— a Trad Wife way.
Brandon: I was gonna say.
Amanda: In like a— I love my content making wife way.
Eric: My wife can cook wherever she wants. The kitchen—
Brandon: Yeah. Let my wife stay in the kitchen.
Eric: —the microphone.
Brandon: Let my wife stay in the kitchen.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I did not say that. That's not what I said.
Julia: My wife is allowed to stay in the kitchen, if it's her choice. That's what feminism is.
Brandon: It's true.
Eric: My wife can cook wherever she wants, and that can be in her personal kitchen, it can be in her 1950s kitchen, it can be in front of a microphone. She can cook wherever she wants.
Amanda: Thank you so much, honey. Eric, how are you feeling about us finally being in the underwater prison, something that was teased and mentioned way back in the Bullseye Games?
Eric: Good.
Brandon: Did you—
Julia: Expand on that.
Amanda: It's tough in a relationship when only one of you cooks. The one is Eric, the one is Eric.
Brandon: Fucking got him.
Amanda: I'm joking, I'm joking.
Julia: He's got to at least do the dishes then, that's all I'm saying.
Eric: Yeah. No, I only mi—
Amanda: I do the dishes, aka spreadsheets, while Eric cooks.
Eric: I only microwave my takes.
Amanda: Oh, boy.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Back in the Bullseye Games, did you make that up on the spot? Or like— I know you don't, like, plan ahead that far, right?
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: But like, was it a thing— like a combination of words that just came to your brain, or was that combination of words, something that you were excited about previously?
Eric: Yeah, that's a good question. If I remember correctly, I do think it just kind of came to me. I did think that Kidd Cervantes had some sort of depth to him.
Brandon: Nice.
Eric: I didn't know what it was by that point. And I figured it was kind of something that would get back around to and see how it all shook out. So I'm like— well— yeah. I— I think that must have happened because I didn't think there was going to be the final duel while everything is crumbling around you, sort of thing.
Amanda: Who did?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And I had the dual mechanics together, but I also didn't think that Kidd Cervantes would win, necessarily, but then I'm like, "Oh, Kidd Cervantes is high-powered, of course he would. So I had to figure out what—
Brandon: Have you met him, Eric?
Eric: —like, what the gambit was to get for you— to get the key in the first place. So yeah, this is something that— you know, I surprise myself sometimes just as much as playing for stuff. And it's more like leaving a little treat, leaving a little coda for me to come back to.
Brandon: Yeah. That makes sense.
Julia: I think that's also really interesting, because theoretically, if Troy had won that duel, we could have had all four keys, or at least like knowing the location of all four keys by the beginning of this past arc.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. Maybe even earlier, if the key with the gaze could have intersected with your path earlier.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Entirely possible.
Julia: Wonder what he was doing before then.
Amanda: We'll never know what it's like to win, because we are all now imprisoned. There is a Blackberry dragon who comes out twice a day, and our closest ally and his siblings can't talk.
Eric: That bad.
Julia: It does make things more difficult in gaining information.
Amanda: Just a little. Just a little.
Brandon: It's rough. So really, it's our fault that we've gone, you know, 30th— like, this— you're saying that this campaign could have been, like, 12 episodes long?
Eric: Yeah. I was trying to do an anthology thing. We're doing Scooby-Doo next, so—
Amanda: Whoa.
Eric: —I don't know what took so long.
Amanda: Have you heard of Kids on Brooms?
Eric: Fuck off. Yes, I have. Yes, I have heard of it. But yeah, I— I didn't know there was going to be this kind of like World Government turn, and I'm— I'm kind of excited—
Brandon: No one expects the World Government.
Eric: —that we are able to do this after playing Model our nations. So that— that was really fun kind of in the— these episodes were the reverberations of that game with, like, the key retrieval program, the setup of what the Kompos Facility could be, the amount of power and might, and I guess money and time that's invested in such a place, and kind of came together because we established that these are projects that can be funneled from whatever government's budgets doing whatever.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Well, before we get to this labyrinthine underwater prison, some of which we haven't even seen yet, and I— I have to imagine. We did, of course, have to leave the meeting, follow Kidd's path of destruction, scoop some goop in the meantime, and—
Brandon: Scoop the goop.
Amanda: —get the keys by Lucky Edie. So many great questions. Firstly, hot and fresh from the question surgeon Michelle Spurgeon, "Is there a whale swimming around to make ambergris? Are water creatures plant or insect folks?" Well, I've never heard of a fish, so I— I don't really know where that leads.
Julia: I don't know what a fish is. I don't think they exist.
Brandon: A whale is not a fish, so—
Eric: Maybe it's like—
Brandon: Have we heard of whales?
Eric: What if it's a whale that's made out of amber with— with like, an ancient mosquito inside—
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Very possible.
Eric: —like it's Jurassic Park, mosquito inside of big whale.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Like a wasp in the figs situation?
Eric: Yes. Or—
Amanda: Like a mosquito has to die to animate the amber whale?
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Oh, yeah, I do like that. Yeah, no, they're big— they're big fig whales that has a wasp piloting the whole thing and it spoots out amber. Yeah, I like that.
Amanda: You're totally right. There's no way a creature could be as big as a whale without having a little mosquito in the— in the driver's seat piloting it like a mecha.
Eric: Yeah, a 100%.
Julia: Like Ratatouille?
Amanda: Yeah. That's exactly right, Julia. That's exactly.
Brandon: Let the whale cook.
Julia: Let the whale cook.
Eric: Pacific Rim meets Ratatouille.
Amanda: Oh. You know there's an AO3 crossover about that.
Brandon: There's two mosquitoes who are drift compatible inside this whale's brain.
Amanda: Yeah. And as long as they're in love, or maybe until they fall in love, the whale is very powerful.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: It could be any kind of love. It could be platonic love. It could be romantic love, whatever they want.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: 100%. 100%.
Eric: Charlie from Always Sunny in Philadelphia is there.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. And the half dead guy from Doctor Who. Eric, you're exactly right.
Eric: I only saw Pacific Rim 2 and Amanda tried to fill me in from all of the AO3 stories she had read about Pacific Rim 1.
Amanda: Just like Kingsman.
Eric: Yeah. So the whole—
Amanda: The exact same thing happens with Kingsman.
Eric: Yeah, the exact same thing. So the whole time Amanda's like, "That guy's important." And I'm like, "What?" And it turns out he was.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: He had a ver— Charlie had a very, very much, much larger role in the second Pacific Rim than he did in the first one. And I'm like, "Why do I care? He just seems like a bad guy."
Brandon: I want to see the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode about Charlie becoming cast in Pacific Rim.
Julia: Getting a bunch of PhDs. Yeah.
Brandon: Well, no, like he's a— he's an actor in Philly, so it's like, you know—
Julia: No, I think he should get a bunch of PhDs, Brandon.
Eric: That guy— speaking of that and Charlie, there's actually a movie that the actor made and directed and produced, that's just like a modern Hollywood remake of being there, and it's bad.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: He called it so many favors for—
Brandon: I didn't know that.
Eric: — casting and it's just like, "This mute, Flowers for Algernon man, kinda gets whipped up into Hollywood." I'm like, "That is the least interesting version of being there is him now being a Hollywood star. Like, we get it, we've— we've watched all those movies before.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I'm also disappointed to report that there are only 263 fanfics on the Ratatouille fandom on Archive of Our Own so—
Julia: That feels right.
Amanda: —I think rat hive, get— get on it.
Julia: Rat hive.
Eric: Does Gen Z know AO3 or do they write their fanfic somewhere else?
Amanda: I think they might just write it on Tumblr.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: No, I think— I don't know. Who can say?
Brandon: I don’t know, man.
Eric: It feels like AO3 is increasingly becoming, like, for elder millennials only.
Amanda: It probably is.
Brandon: What's the French version of AO3? How do you say A and O in French?
Eric: A03. Mamma Mia. Wait, hold on. Wait a second.
Brandon: That's Italian. Goddamnit.
Eric: Damn it.
Amanda: Eric, returning to business, the question surgeon would like to know, "How long do we think or know that Edie has been working with the Diamond Knot?"
Eric: Oh, that's a good question. Probably the entire time.
Julia: Yeah, I was gonna say probably from the beginning, right? Like, she's always kind of been like that. And so I imagine she's been involved for as long as we've known her as a character.
Eric: The whole time I rem— I remember— I remember writing her description, like her character description, and she led in by talking about NDAs.
Julia: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: All— like thi— this all this treasure she got, she couldn't talk about it because of NDAs. And I said something that was pirate-y no NDA stood for. So it's literally the entire time, I would say so.
Amanda: Yeah, it really explains why she was so curious and eager to know about our movements.
Julia: Uh-hmm. And then she tried to play it off like, "Oh, I was just trying to be your friend the whole time." I'm like, "Bitch, no, you weren't."
Amanda: Makes me feel great.
Eric: They were— you guys were frenemies the entire time. I didn't know she was doing this, but I— it was a real like, "I want to flex on you and the only way I can brag is if you tell me stuff too, because then it makes me look like a little bit less of a douche."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So the fact that you didn't want to talk was like, "Well, now, I'm just gonna do this anyway." And I think that— yeah, that being related to, like, her doing spying for the World Government. Hey, everyone in your life who brags about the stuff they're doing is actually working for the World Government, so you're allowed to be douches.
Brandon: That's true.
Amanda: That's a great point.
Brandon: That's true.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Dr. Spurgeon also points out inadvertently that the Diamond Knot shares initials with Donkey Kong, Eric's favorite Super Smash character and the guy he main lines in—or mains, main line? Mains in all video games.
Brandon: Main lines. Get that Donkey Kong in my veins.
Eric: I want to eat all that banana, my friend.
Amanda: Coincidence? I'll let you decide.
Julia: I mean, we pointed that out in the episode.
Brandon: Yeah, I pointed that out. Yeah.
Amanda: Oh, shit. That's right.
Julia: That's right.
Brandon: It was the DK crew.
Julia: Yeah. We're ready to go. It's the Captain—
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: The Diamond Knot Crew.
Julia: —Donkey and his first mate, Diddy.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I was too busy remembering that like, "Oh, this would be a really cool place to put the key retrieval team into it." And then Brandon's like, "What if it was Diddy— what if it was Diddy calling?
Brandon: Yeah, yeah. I was too busy—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —to think that I put DK into my campaign.
Julia: Sure.
Eric: Yeah. There was a whole rap that you guys cut that I want to put in.
Amanda: Brutal. Brutal.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Can't cut the whole rap.
Eric: I put— I spent 20 minutes working on that rap.
Amanda: Eric, if— if people sign up to the top tier of our Patreon, could they get a DK style rap from you in lieu of the custom one shot with all four of us? Are you— are you open to offering that?
Eric: For— for what? Like, for them and their friends? Or for the—
Amanda: A video we send that they will have.
Brandon: You're gonna put it on iTunes for them. Like—
Eric: Yeah, sure I'll do that.
Amanda: Hell yeah. You heard it here first, folks.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: It would have been so funny if Eric had been like, "Oh, my God. It does— it does spell DK crew. I didn't know. Hehe." And then we go on board, and it's just crazy— crazy all the bananas on the ship.
Amanda: It's not too late.
Julia: Got 'em.
Eric: For this stuff, I did use a table of stuff to see what happens.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So I didn't know necessarily that this was going to happen. Actually, no, I didn't. I didn't write it down. I'm like, "Oh, this is just— be a good opportunity for this to happen." So do you guys know what was going on during that episode? Do you have any inkling that, like, Lucky Edie was following you in any sort of capacity?
Julia: I don't think so. Not until you kind of announced it with our roles. But I—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —did get the fact that you had some sort of table—
Brandon: Event table.
Julia: —in order to create—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: —the things that we were running into while following Kidd.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. They were not all going to be amber for the taking. That's for sure.
Eric: Everything on this table was interesting/fun, but a lot of them, the idea was like, do you stop or do you not?
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And I think that's because I had a secret, Lucky Edie was following you thing going at the same time. Also, I made you roll perception checks, and you did not see that Lucky Edie was following you as well.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: So—
Brandon: Oh, yeah, you did.
Eric: So that was— that was certainly fun.
Julia: What were the other things that we could have run into besides scoop the goop and the Diamond Knot retrieval team crew?
Eric: Yeah. So, yeah, I have the— you guys rolled the first three. One was key checkpoint up on some sandbars.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That was what that last one was. Tugboats pulling wreckage have cast up on some rocks, check it out or keep going. That was the one you did. And then a lump of gray goo floats by, you've collected it. Proves to be the precious ambergris. That's— that was the first one you did.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Number four, a massive spire of stone erupts from the ocean. There appears to be someone at the top, looking down in your vessel. Stay and check it out or go.
Amanda: Wait, who would have been there?
Eric: Great question.
Amanda: No.
Julia: I want to know. Tell me.
Brandon: There is no world in which that happens, and I don't immediately want to go investigate it. That is incredible.
Eric: No, I know.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: I— it would've been like a weird hermit who would have just burned the time with you. Like just—
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: —ask you questions about what you were doing there and what your whole thing was.
Amanda: Brutal.
Julia: It'd be like, "What are we doing here? Stop it."
Brandon: There is no burning time when it's a weird hermit. You get to hang out with a weird hermit, it's the best time possible.
Eric: And Luck— Lucky Edie would have like pulled up. She would have been like, "What the fuck are you doing?"
Amanda: We would— like, "We her— recruited the hermit to our crew." Walked by down the stairs, be like, "Hey, you'll bunk in with Dr. Tropicana. Don't worry." And then Edie's there, and we're like, "Shit."
Julia: "Fuck."
Eric: "I'm not sharing a room with this smelly man, I'm not doing this."
Brandon: And then the hermit murders Edie for us.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Ideal.
Julia: Get it.
Eric: The hermit knows the five-finger strike and murders Lucky Edie.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: Number five, an old woman appears on deck. She says a toll must be paid to pass beyond this point and seems to have the power to enforce it.
Amanda: Oh, shit.
Julia: Cool.
Brandon: Oh, shit. That would've been cool.
Amanda: Oh, shit.
Julia: She would have been Cammie's new best friend.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That would have been— you would just need to figure out what—what that toll was. And then six, a flock of birds a few— appears to be circling bits of driftwood. Upon closer inspection, there's blood in the water and the birds are glowing faintly red. There might be something valuable still floating around if you're willing to risk it.
Amanda: We're always willing to risk it.
Julia: I want to know what the value would have been.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: That's dark.
Amanda: So good.
Julia: Would have been, Eric.
Eric: It would have been more goop, Julia.
Julia: Really, more goop? We have two opportunities—
Eric: Lots of goop.
Julia: —for goop?
Eric: Yeah, too goop—
Julia: Damn.
Eric: They're called goopportunities.
Julia: Goopportunities, you're right. Gwyneth Paltrow presents goopportunities.
Amanda: That's probably what they're hiring page is called. Don't— don't put that out there.
Julia: Probably.
Brandon: Yeah, don't put that out there.
Amanda: Eric, was there one that you hoped we land on? Like, you— you use tables so often to, like, help us be part of what's happening to us, which I absolutely love. But do you ever feel like, "Ah, shucks," that we either didn't get certain ones or excited that we do?
Eric: No, not necessarily. I think that the key checkpoint coming up on sandbars was kind of perfect for the way that everything was flowing.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I really disliked that, how the table kind of went along with something that was thematically cool.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I assume that one was sort of like the end goal, regardless.
Eric: No, no. It was just— it was just three events while Lucky Edie was hunting you down.
Julia: I think it just ended up being really perfect that we pulled up to that as Lucky Edie caught up with us as well, so—
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: —it— it really worked thematically.
Eric: Yeah. I'm like wondering what would have happened if like, you know, she had her grappling hook stuck in your boat, and then an old woman appears on deck with magical powers, it would've been crazy.
Julia: It would have been, like, so many things happening.
Eric: I know that would have been absolutely wild. So—
Brandon: That would've been tight.
Eric: You know, thematically, the first one was definitely the most like— made the most sense, but all the other ones could have been crazy.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Like, imagine she grapples your boat, and then a bunch of glowing bloodthirsty birds show up, like that also would've been wild.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Julia: We would have fed her to the birds.
Eric: Or the— yeah, it would have been— the bird would have feasted on all of you, for sure.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Incredible. Speaking of Lucky Edie, The Postmaster, LibraryChick would like to know, "Julia, how good did it feel to mess with Lucky Edie's memory?"
Julia: I was so nervous. Like, I don't know—I don't think it made it onto the edit. But at one point, I said, "I think you can watch my heart beating out of my chest in the video version that we released there." Like, it was— I was so anxious, because I was like, "If this fucks up, we're so screwed. It's not even funny."
Brandon: Uh-hmm. I think you said it at the end of the episode after we— after we had finished.
Julia: Yeah, I was extremely, extremely anxious. And I had two kinds of plans going into that which was like, one, if we had been checked at the checkpoint by, like, multiple people, and the other if it was just Lucky Edie, which is what ended up happening, and it was just stress.
Amanda: The dice rolled in our favor.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: They did.
Eric: I really like the moment to get Lucky Edie, like, monologuing for a second as she's, like, really feels like she has you over a barrel.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Which is the only time she would have really gotten in your face like that. And, you know, there's always the moment where the villain, like, says something and you're like, "Do they have a point? I'm not sure. Do they have a point? Do I feel bad for this out of context NPC?" Like, that kind of— wow, that— she feels really disrespected, but the fact that you guys weren't friends. Even though she has— this is so from her own twisted point of view. It— it was fun being able to do that. And being able to set the stakes of like, okay, you— this is a really good idea. You have advantage and everything. But if you fail, I got you.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like, this is what I'm telling you what's going to happen. We're not rolling for initiative, we're not fighting it out. We are jus— this is what's going to happen if you lose.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: And that was really fun to do.
Amanda: Damn, Eric, your stakes too high. Your storytelling too good. They're gonna come after you, bro.
Julia: They're gonna get your ass, bro.
Amanda: They're gonna get you.
Eric: You're DM-ing too hot. They'll kill you.
Amanda: They'll kill you, man.
Julia: How was it for you guys kind of knowing that this whole situation was down to a dice roll based on a spell that I was casting?
Amanda: I mean, that was our best shot by far. You know, like—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —I think in many other situations, we would have gone with like a less potent— like, we would have optimized for better downside, where we do the thing where if it doesn't work, we're not like totally fucked. But in this situation—
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —there was—there was no better plan. Like the other plan was Troy sits on the key mold and, like, hopes no one notices. Like, it— it's really—
Eric: Troy stretches really wide and says, "Oh, nothing back here."
Amanda: Yeah, truly. Put it in some beans and hope she doesn't like stick your hand in there because I have proficiency in barrels. So yeah, there was— there was absolutely— there's absolutely no other alternative in my mind. And like if we fail, we fail together and we figure out how to murder her, and get away.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, my whole thing is I—I like to do the most interesting, chaotic thing possible, so I was all for—
Eric: Wha— what?
Julia: What?
Eric: What?
Amanda: Are you sure? Whomst?
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Whomst?
Eric: It definitely was a Hail Mary, I guess, or at least like you need to make a bold action in order to get out of a very bad situation.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: You know, that happens in a lot of other games. You know, I'm thinking about Blades in the Dark, where it's like the situation tenor is laid out and then you want to— like, "What is the tenor of the action you're going to do?" And according to how risky everything is, it's really— it's going to be difficult but also pay off really high.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So that's kind of where I figured that out. Especially because you had it all set up, that you had advantage with that as well. But like, man, she really got you guys. Like, she was coming on your ass. She was grappled on to your ship. She led directly into a traffic stop run by the World Government that she already works for, so they all like her. So the— obviously, the— the thing that led her to downfall— well, I guess it could have been one way or another. Like, what would you have done if just some grunts got on your ship and like, "Hey— hey, where's your key? Give me your key, give me your key."
Julia: I did have a spell for that in case that was the situation, like—
Amanda: Tell us.
Julia: —if there had been a checkpoint. There's a spell called mass suggestion that is at the same level as modified memory.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: And I would have attempted that, probably.
Eric: Yeah, that would have been— that would have been tough.
Brandon: I have a spell called murder grunts and hide the bodies.
Julia: Ooh. Fun.
Eric: Men with— men with bombs, how would you have assassin style, hitman style taken out the grunts?
Julia: He has a spell called—
Brandon: This is too dark. Too dark. Never mind.
Eric: I take the bomb, I shove it in the guy's mouth, it explodes inside.
Brandon: That's what I was gonna say.
Eric: No one— and no one knows, no one sees.
Amanda: As a non-magic user, that is how it feels whenever Julia reveals a new spell. I'm like, "Oh, great. Julia has the get out of this situation spell. Yeah, yeah, yeah."
Julia: Well, that's also what I was thinking, where like if this had happened even like two or three episodes before, I would not have been able to do this because it was a spell that I got with our most recent level-up.
Amanda: And if it—
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: —happened an episode later, Troy had his two brain cells came together to— to think of the idea to make keys from the key mold that we can use as decoys, which he—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —absolutely would have done, and we could have used.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Smort, smort.
Julia: Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Brandon: Smart.
Eric: Smorsh.
Amanda: Well, we escaped the situation by the skin of our teeth and a good roll of— of Julia's dice. I'm sure it won't come back to bite us in any way.
Julia: I mean, her memory is modified, we're fine. We're good for the time being.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I did give her a poison potion, so either that's going to go super well—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: —or super bad.
Julia: Hmm, I wonder which. I wonder which it'll be.
Amanda: I'm excited. We then, of course, arrive outside, sort of outskirts of, like, the— the city surrounding the Kompos Facility. We investigate the cave and naturally, Julia, Umbi just jumps right in.
Julia: Yeah. Well, first off, Brandon really wanted to use Bartlett so badly.
Amanda: I'm really sorry. I know, it— it pained me.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: You know, it— you know, everyone has their box in which they can operate, and the— the par— parrot's box is very small.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. You also just wanted to send a letter that was, "You up?" And I was like, "Who is he gonna think this is from? What does he think is gonna happen?"
Eric: Yeah, what does Kidd— Kidd Cervantes— Kidd Cervantes says, "Yeah” back to you.
Julia: What response were you looking for?
Brandon: Well, then, you drive over to their apartment and you have a—
Julia: We don't know where his apartment is.
Brandon: —booty call.
Eric: And then you—
Brandon: Julia, Julia, a booty call because pirates. Do you get it?
Amanda: It's pretty good.
Julia: Yeah, I got it.
Amanda: It's pretty good.
Brandon: Thanks. Thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks.
Eric: Let Brandon cook.
Brandon: Let me cook.
Eric: Let Brandon cook.
Brandon: Put me in the kitchen where I belong.
Julia: The cooking has to work mechanically, though. That's all I'm saying. You can't say, "Let him cook," and the gas isn't on.
Eric: Yeah, I knew that Bra— Brandon wanted to use Bartlett. Umbi— Brandon uses Bartlett all the time, because before I kill myself, I'm gonna kill this Frankenstein parrot that I have. Yeah, I know.
Brandon: I just want to be clear, I— post the time where we split up and y'all came back in, and I was trying to talk about Bartlett, I was just trying to make good jokes.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: And Eric was not letting me make the jokes.
Eric: Because you weren't there.
Julia: Can't let you make jokes when you're not there, Brandon.
Eric: That's— that's why I kicked— that's why I kicked these two lovely ladies out of the room.
Brandon: Can't make a comedy on this comedy podcast.
Julia: No, not allowed.
Brandon: Not allowed.
Eric: Because of woke.
Amanda: Because of woke.
Eric: Because of woke.
Amanda: Yeah. No, exactly.
Brandon: Because of woke.
Julia: They banned comedy.
Eric: Back in my day, in the first campaign of the adventure zone, people were allowed to say shit when they weren't in scenes.
Amanda: Melanie wants to know, "Brandon, was there a moment when you thought the party was officially going to split? How did you feel about going forward in the cave alone?" And Eric had put the same question to you, when you realized like, "Well, one character is doing something right now and the other two have got to leave."
Brandon: I don't know if there was a moment but ,like, I will admit that I am officially shook after Eric killed Julia's best friend in a very clever ball trap.
Eric: Oh, Smell— yeah.
Julia: Yeah, bro, me too.
Eric: Shout out Smelly Haze.
Julia: That's why I was being so precious about going down in that cave.
Brandon: Right. I think that's like got us a little skittish. But pre that, I have been trained and goodly trained in a good way to just, like, sort of go forward and— and do the thing and see what happens. I think that's more fun for us and more fun for the show. So—
Eric: Brandon, here's some peanut butter, don't worry about the pill that's inside of it. Here you go.
Amanda: Lick, lick, lick.
Eric: Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick.
Brandon: Lick, lick, lick. So yeah, I mean, I was gonna— I was gonna do it, regardless.
Eric: I just— I just liked that I have this new trick in my sleeve where I can kick you out of a room if you guys were the party.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I think that just makes everything work better.
Amanda: It's fun.
Eric: Because, honestly, I think the main thing that keeps people from being this skittish and from allowing a party to be split is, one, not punishing and— I— I guess I don't have a better word than punishing, but punishing in a way that you punish someone in a fighting game when they make a mistake. Where it's like doing a punish to remind people that Dungeons and Dragons is set up as a party game, so if you have only one person by themselves, they will be overwhelmed. That is the whole point of the thing.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And the other thing is, oh, I can learn the plot and not have my character be in any danger. I can just sit there and make jokes, stick around without any skin in the game. So taking that away— I honestly would rather take that away than do a punish.
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah, I— I totally agree. It's always felt kind of unfair to me for, like, multiple people to weigh in on somebody's turn when like—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: —when in—in the fiction, especially, I think, me as somebody who, like, was the least experienced coming to the show, that I felt like I was missing things during my turn or during initiative, especially. And it's like in this situation, you know, you just go ahead and do the thing that you think is best.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And y'all are very generous about like, giving me ideas and, Eric, for letting me do that. But I always, like, held myself back, being like, "No, like, Troy's not gonna yell across the battlefield. Like, what should I do now?" And so it feels so true to life, and also exciting for us. Like, Julia and me got to listen to that part of the episode just like the rest of you, which was super exciting. So it— it really spices things up and feels truer, it feels like the stakes are higher, and I'm a huge fan of whenever that happens.
Julia: To your point though, Amanda, like if we were, like, let's say, living in the fiction there, like if Cammie saw something behind you, behind—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: —Troy that was like, "Oh, well if you pull that lever, the chandelier is gonna fall on all those enemies." Like, Cammie would point those out. So it's not like a matter of like—
Amanda: Through the spectrum, for sure.
Julia: Yeah, exactly.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. It's not like, "Oh, here are my two, you know, abilities," or like, "I have 5 key points left, and these are the things that I can spend them on." Like, what do you guys think?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: So there's— there's absolutely some— some gray zone. I did want to say just a little bit earlier and I'm jumping around a touch, but I was struck with a strong bolt of inspiration. People should ship Lucky Edie and Emily Slaughter. I think they're bringing similar energies to these campaigns. And I just think that big sword, many knives is of— a good idea.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: No, Emily Slaughter is too busy girl bossing. She's not dating anybody.
Julia: Yeah, that's fair.
Amanda: That's fair.
Eric: Except for interdimensional.
Brandon: It's a full-time job.
Eric: That's your girlfriend in Canada/campaign three.
Amanda: Yeah. Exactly. Alright. Here's a question from Collin_ray96, "How sad are the players /characters going to be with Umbi's inevitable passing? How relieved will Eric be?"
Julia: Well, like I said, where do you think our— our new companions is gonna come from? He's gonna show up on a ship? Like, that was honestly— I was so pleased with that joke. It's very silly.
Brandon: It was really funny.
Eric: I want— we're gonna keep rolling it because I like it. I hope Umbi doesn't die in his sleep.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I hope he doesn't die in his sleep. I hope he dies in a different way.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: It's a 1 in a 100 chance—
Brandon: I do.
Julia: —guys. We're good.
Amanda: Julia, he's rolled below 5 many times, which I realized statistically is not closer to 0 than any of the other rolls, but hot damn.
Julia: Hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I think it's funnier when characters like Umbi just die peacefully in their sleep. I think that's funny.
Eric: I agree. I just don't want it to be the second to last episode.
Julia: That'd be perfect closure. I don't know.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: And then the ghost of Umbi— we've reanimate zombies corpse for a short amount of time.
Brandon: I mean, what's his face? Does have— Havana has Lazarus? Oh, I think— or something like that. Whatever it is.
Eric: Havana can— Havana has that thing where you can bring somebody back from life who's, like, died for like a minute.
Julia: Revivify.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, revivify. Now, you have Lazarus Bolt. This is where you turn someone into Frankenstein's monster.
Julia: That's cool, though. I'm kind of into that.
Eric: No. I love Umbi. Umbi's my favorite NPC. I don't know what you're talking about.
Amanda: Incredible.
Julia: Can I also say? I really appreciated the yes and from that episode as well, which is like, "Oh, yeah, we have sending and it's 25 words, but it's always going to be 23 words because we have to finish with love you."
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: Like yeah, exactly.
Julia: Thank you for that.
Brandon: Can I also say? I love the— I appreciated the yes and when I was trying to tell a joke and Eric told me no.
Eric: You're not allowed to be in the scene that you're not in, Brandon.
Amanda: That was incredibly funny.
Eric: You— you push your way into scene all the time. You're like— and then Bartlett is self-aware and says [squawks]. I'm like, shut the fuck up. I'm holding my stance. I'm holding my stance on that, where I said, "Brandon, shut up."
Amanda: It's the engine that drives the podcast forward. Let's—let's not kid ourselves.
Brandon: It is, it is.
Amanda: Incredible. But, Julia, you mentioned sending, and for me, it was an incredibly chilling moment when you got the static of sending that message down. And we're still not clear on exactly what kinds of magic work and what kinds don't, why and what the limits are. Absolutely— absolutely terrifying. Eric, how dare you?
Julia: It stresses me the fuck out knowing that even— I— again, we don't know the extent in which my magic is limited, but knowing that your magic is limited as a magic user is like the most bone chilling thing that a DM can do to you.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Because you're just sitting there being like, "I planned for everything, except for the idea that my spells won't fucking work."
Eric: Yeah. It wa— it was something I was thinking about, what was going on in this town, and we'll obviously be exploring it more and more. But it's like— this is set up as a prison. There is a trick mouth that you can—there is a way for you to enter, but certainly, a hard way to get out. Maybe they didn't think of everything, but they certainly thought of everything. And it's like, alright, well, they would obviously have a way to keep magic users from using magic. They're trying to think of a way to keep people from, like, stabbing each other and from people using their powers or whatever they have down here to—on top of like, systematically making everyone's life shitty, they're thinking about it on a day-to-day basis as well. So it's like—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I don't like necessarily taking people's stuff away, just because they've leveled up high. That's not what I'm doing. It's like—
Julia: No, I didn't think so.
Eric: —this is— they're in a part— they were in like a you can't do shit situation.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And you got to make sure to honor that. Like, what, you walk into a maximum security prison, then you walk out? Like, no. Absolutely not. There was a lot of, like, action movie stuff that I was thinking about, you know, when we're talking about— I was thinking about Face Off. You know the movie where John Travolta and Nick Cage switch faces?
Amanda: Naturally.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: The whole thing in there is that, like, people are locked into, like, ankle bracers that are magnetized, and that's how they're kept in the prison. And I'm like, "Oh, that's really interesting." The prison makers are fle— yes, it's an action movie, so it's like '80s— '80s prison makers. They're flexing because they want to show how powerful they are by taking away everything from these people in the most stylish way possible. So that's like—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —if you're going to do that, why? Like, it's not enough to be like a wizard has an anti-magic shield, unless you have a really good reason why. They saw them coming, they had enough time to repair, then they step into a situation.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And like a prison is the ultimate "I have time to repair to make everyone inside miserable and powerless.
Amanda: And apparently, a shitload of money, because this person has a lot of things we don't know about, a lot of things that imperil us, and a lot that might imperil us very, very soon.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But first, players, let me just nip into the kitchen and grab some more miniature pizza rolls.
Julia: Ooh. Ooh.
Brandon: Minis. I could fit so many in my mouth.
[theme]
Amanda: Hello, hello, everybody. It's Amanda, and welcome to the mid roll. This is so much fun. I am loving this arc so far. So much is happening, and we are very, very happy to be answering your questions and talking all about it. Including, by the way, some really cool speculation about what is happening with this dragon and with this prison at the very end of this episode, so stick around. Welcome first and foremost to our newest patrons Lee, Gus, and Jessica, two-thirds of whom joined as annual patrons, which gives you a discount, and is super helpful for us as well, because we can— we have the money upfront and we can see how much we're going to get paid each month for the next 12 months. Very helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you for committing your human dollars each month or once a year to a podcast that presumably you look forward to, and makes your Tuesdays a little bit better. If you would like to join us as well, you can follow us for free on Patreon. But more importantly, if you become a paying patron, you get to join the best place on the internet, which is our patron-only Discord and you get our every other week Party Planning, which you have little excerpts previews up here on this feed, but you get the audio and even video versions of Party Planning plus ad-free episodes of Join the Party. Join today and discover it all at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. Here at Multitude, it is one of my favorite weeks of the year. It is when we launch our annual summer survey. This is where we ask for your feedback on how we can improve our shows and our community. You get to tell us what you like about the show, things that you think we could be doing better, cities you want us to visit, events you wish Multitude were at, guests you want to see. And here for Join the Party, the kind of merch that you would like to see us make. And even if you care, if we play D&D on the show or if other actual play systems and TTRPGs make it even more excited. So you can tell us now everything you've ever wanted to say about Multitude and our shows at multitude.productions/survey or click the link in the description and share your thoughts with us. It works great on mobile, it only takes about 10 minutes, and you will see some adorable photos of our pets at the end of the survey. That's multitude.productions/survey, and thank you so, so much to every single person who fills it out. It really helps us. We love it. We are sponsored this week by Shaker & Spoon, a subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make handcrafted cocktails right at home. Every box comes with all of the ingredients, like custom syrups and like little adorable spritz bottles where you can like spritz, you know, a bit of like oil or aerosol right onto your cocktail glass. Weird like in a loving way, weird spices that I would never buy for myself, and even the sort of citrus or herbs that you need to make incredible cocktails. And they help you learn to make great drinks, that is what you do. They teach you great skills, they send you great stuff, like incredible high-quality mixers, things like chocolate to grate over your drink or, I don't know, like incredible cool, dried, like, bits of persimmon. Honestly, incredible. We really love Shaker & Spoon. They're an incredible group of people. And by the way, you can even go to their website shakerandspoon.com and shop their store. You can make more if you love one of their syrups, or bitters, or extracts. You can buy it a la carte so that you have it to make on an ongoing basis. And the best part, in my opinion, is while you can make a subscription plan, you can also buy a one-off box for yourself or as a gift. They make it really, really easy to do it. So you can get 20 bucks off your first box by going to shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty. That's shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty where the team at Shaker & Spoon, a fellow local Brooklyn-based family business were kind enough to make a promo code just for you. shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty.. And now, let's get back to the show.
[theme]
Amanda: Well, folks, I hope you are enjoying this and Eric's homemade ranch ice cream.
Julia: Ranch ice cream?
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: Ranch ice cream, that's crazy.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I was nervous about it, but quite good.
Eric: I try my best. And guys, I can make ice cream now. It's pretty good.
Julia: Hell yeah dawg.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Real quick, Eric, would you— are you— do— are you sort of yay or nay on the idea of a blackberry ice cream, given recent events?
Eric: Oh, no. I love blackberries. Blackberry is great. I'm super into blackberries. I would love to do a blackberry ice cream. Though, you— we made a sorbet for you and I'm really feeling the sorbets. Because the whole thing about the ice cream maker is that it has to harden eventually. Like, you got to put it in the freezer to make it turn into, like, hard ice cream. So it has like the soft serve consistency if you use milk and cream, but for sorbet, it has like this granita consistency.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And it's fucking awesome.
Amanda: It's really good.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Just like this loose, ice-y sort of vibe, and I— I, honestly, like that so much.
Brandon: What flavor did you ge— did you make?
Eric: I use the remaining cherries for a cherry sorbet because I was using cherries for the Cherry Garcia that I made for Heddy’s birthday.
Amanda: It's honestly—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —like cherry lemon, because the le— lemon juice really came through.
Eric: Yeah, we did less—
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: We did less sugar, and Amanda's juicer is really, really good. So we—
Julia: Nice.
Eric: —got a lot of a lot of lemon juice out of the one lemon we used.
Brandon: Nice.
Amanda: Right on. Speaking of blackberries, Jaya, another doctor, who listen to Join the Party, there are lots of you. "Are there Greenfolk who are blackberries and Greenfolk who are blackberry bushes? Or are there individual blackberries as babies who grew up into full bushes? Do both exist at the same time, and it's a don't worry about a situation?"
Eric: Both exist at the same time. I think it's funny that they're— because of the striations that I've made in Greenfolk, I think it's funnier with there's produce people and then there's greenery people.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Which is infinitely funnier. Because I think greenery people—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —also are allowed to be different shapes. Like the—
Amanda: Ooh, like the big rambling strawberry guy on the beach?
Eric: Yes, exactly.
Brandon: hmm.
Eric: And were like— the tree is like Salix or the— the number of times we've had, like, yard by yard squares.
Amanda: Grass, cranberry, hedges.
Julia: Uh-hmm. The cranberry bogs, yeah.
Eric: The cranberry bog, the hedge—the hedge is the— the— the grasses, yes.
Brandon: It'd be really cool if humans could like— like, I love this idea of like, sort of not— not like body modification, but like, the same way that you get a haircut and change your hairstyle, if you could change like the shape or the— the arrangement of your body as like an expression of your fashion, you know?
Eric: That'd be cool, yeah.
Brandon: That'd be cool.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah, I like that.
Amanda: It'd be very cool.
Julia: I also think that it's kind of similar. I liked Jaya's suggestion that it's like you start as a single blackberry and then you grow into a blackberry bush. But as we establish, like, with Troy, Troy was never a caterpillar. Troy was born a butterfly.
Eric: Exactly.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. UH-hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Like there's Kakunas out there. Like Kakuna Greenfolk, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Like the Pokemon?
Brandon: Do they harden?
Eric: Yeah. Like Metapod and Kakuna one.
Amanda: So good. Why can't Kangaskhans throw Kakunas like boomerangs? They should be allowed.
Brandon: Amanda, that's a fucking good question, and I liked that idea a lot.
Amanda: Thank you.
Julia: Cool as hell.
Amanda: Y'all will hear very soon that all Multitude is into ROM hacks right now, so I'm sure there is a— a fusion—
Julia: Hand check, hand check.
Amanda: Yeah, like a fusion ROM hack, where you can in fact, have a Kangaskhan and throw a metapod.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: The Kangaskhan should be allowed to throw its baby and then have like— be like a duel— like a tool fighter—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —like the Ice Climbers, at least.
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Totally.
Brandon: Eric, don't throw babies.
Amanda: Yeah, but Cubones got that hard skull, they're okay.
Brandon: Cubones, sure.
Eric: No, the Kangaskhan babies— Kanga— it'll eventually become Cubones but out of tragedy—
Amanda: When their mother dies, yes.
Eric: But for tragedies, yeah.
Amanda: Yes. Well—
Eric: Well, you should have—then— yeah. Why aren't there combos if you use Pokemon together in double battles?
Amanda: There should be.
Eric: There should be.
Amanda: There should be.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: It's a good question.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: There should be.
Eric: Get on it, Game Freaks, And also fix your games. Make them better— make them better, please. I really liked the BlackBerry dragon, I'm really happy about it. I was really stoked to set it up, and being able to set it up in stages. Like, you guys coming from the top and then Umbi and Kidd Cervantes and the Cervantes siblings being on the bottom. I was very excited to set that up in a different way. I've been thinking about dragons in this different way because I had bought the Field Guide to Floral Dragons from Hit Point Press a little while ago.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: It was a Kickstarter for a while and they just sent me the PDF right when I was prepping for these episodes.
Julia: Perfect. Cool.
Eric: So there's a lot of really interesting stuff. It's all mostly for flowers, but just seeing like different configurations of dragons like this, I'm like, "Oh, this can work." So it's like, "Alright, the BlackBerry thing are the thorns and then the fact that it has vacuuming powers is just kind of on top of it to set the scene." So even though I think about dragons is like medium-sized to extra-large, I wanted one that was really big to feel like it was larger than life. And that was certainly like a really nice thing to help pull the whole situation together and then make the map.
Amanda: You always been quite creative in like the foes and— I don't want to call them monsters. The creatures that we encounter. Does— is something about a dragon— the titular Durblan and Durblin, like does that feel extra special? Do you feel yourself like not reaching for a dragon, because it is so like the big bad that it takes, you know, a huge party forever to defeat?
Eric: Yeah. I— I just think that there's a lot of baggage, like mythologically with the dragon that's a little— that I— can be like freed if it's something else.
Brandon: And Benedict Cumberbatch is so expensive to get to voice the dragon.
Julia: Yeah. Just so expensive.
Brandon: So it's really—you know, you have to really be judicious about when you bring them on, so—
Eric: I know. He has all the Styrofoam balls on him, and I'm like, "Benny, get out of here." Because then he always wants $1 slice from Peter Parker. But no, it's like I wanted to set this thing up as a trap, so having something very recognizably powerful is always something— like I only reach for it if it's going to be in a special situation. And again, it's like wanting it to fit in the map as it did. Yeah. So you guys are afraid of, like, my dragon and stuff?
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, bud. It's a scary dragon.
Amanda: Oh, my God. I— I was so scared. Like— like the word dragon, I don't think I've encountered a dragon in RPG since like episode five of Campaign One where there was like an ice dragon. I think in the— in the— or crystal dragon that we encountered very briefly. So, oh, my God, terrifying. It feels like a thing that's like impossible to beat. It's amazing.
Brandon: I love them. I want to be best friends. Anytime I see a dragon, I'm think— I always think like how I— how— what— in what scenario am I going to be able to get a leash— like a— a leash and— and collar on this one and— and take them for a walk, you know?
Amanda: Well, half that's been done for you. We have a collar.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: That's true. That's true.
Julia: I think too big. Yeah, Cammie's personal thought—
Amanda: It's really rich—
Julia: —too big.
Amanda: It's really rich coming from the player who was vehemently against keeping big cats for pets in last Friday's Party Planning.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Because it's bad for the cats.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Well—
Brandon: Look, if it we— if I weren't allergic and if it weren't bad for the kitties, I would love to have a tiger and if it wouldn't kill me. Yeah.
Eric: But what if you're—
Julia: That’s part of it.
Eric: Brandon, have you ever tested if you're allergic to jaguar? You should test that. To ocelots.
Brandon: I— I mean, anytime I'm close to one zoo, I get— get too itchy, so yeah.
Amanda: Oh, man.
Julia: You shouldn't be that close that you're getting itchy from a jaguar.
Eric: That's be— well, that's because— you're getting itchy because you want to jump to the enclosure.
Amanda: Yes. That's different, that's different.
Brandon: Oh. Right. Okay. You're right, you're right, you're right.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: Very nice.
Amanda: Just joking.
Eric: Boop.
Amanda: EepyFella would like to know, "Players, how do we feel about finally finding Kidd? Since if you save him, you get the key. You're likely reaching the end of the campaign. How do you feel about that?"
Brandon: Well, one, we— I think it's a who can say?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: But in terms of the end of the campaign, we don't—
Amanda: Genuinely, yeah, we don't—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: I mean, we— even if we have four keys, we still have to find the salmon and that we don't know how long it will take.
Julia: We also don't know where the key with the gaze is, so that's—
Amanda: No.
Brandon: Yeah. We really should have put a tracking device on him, huh?
Julia: It was a little bit chaotic when we last saw him, so—
Amanda: Yeah, there was a lot happening.
Eric: Yeah, then they ran away as lovers, so they were busy.
Brandon: I feel great about finding Kidd. Kidd's my favorite character.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: I want to be Kidd. I want to learn from Kidd. I want to be his sidekick, me, Brandon, I'm talking about now.
Amanda: Sure.
Brandon: And he's cool and badass.
Julia: Archie's right there, Brandon. Why would you do this to poor Archie?
Brandon: Have you met Archie? He's a little bit of a pill, you know?
Amanda: Not— not quite as fun to hang.
Julia: More like pill bug, right?
Eric: I know. No one talks about how Katniss Everdeen is kind of fucking boring.
Amanda: She is. How hard can you play, you know? Helen (Bookqueen01) wants to know, "Do any players have theories around what the Kompos facility is, as we're partway through the arc?"
Brandon: I'm gonna— here's a— I'm gonna part the curtain a little bit. We're— we're not that far ahead, but even the little bit far ahead we are, I still don't fucking know.
Amanda: Yeah. It was surprising to me that this town was not like a holding zone, but the prison itself. And so that's— that's where Amanda and Troy are coming from. It's like, "Oh, this must be the prison, huh?" And then figuring out a little bit more about what it could be powering. That's the only thing that my brain is turning over is like I understand that there— you know, Eric has been kind of dropping some breadcrumbs about like what the fluid is that we're in, how—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —it's keeping folks alive a little bit longer. Umbi saw the sign, but then Amanda and Julia got to learn about when the episode came out that, you know, it's also about composting you, about mulching you, using your bodies. And to me, that's like, what is it fertilizing? My— my gardening brain coming in. What is it producing? What is it feeling? And I don't know yet.
Brandon: Right.
Julia: I also had a thought relistening to the most recent episode for the transcript, and I'll have to share it with you guys in a private chat at some point. And then I don't know if it'll solve any of the problems that we're facing right now, but I'm like, is this anything? It's a lot of that, it's a lot of me being like, "What do I know about plants? Is this anything?"
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Good stuff.
Brandon: Well, that's what I keep going back to is like I don't know how literal I should take the word mulch, because like, on the one hand, I think the common usage of the word mulch is like not that specific, right? But then you're married to Amanda, so you know what mulch is.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I do know.
Brandon: And like, what it— what it does and what it's for. And so, like—
Amanda: I— I call him, I say, "Excuse me, Eric, I'm downstairs, two flights below our apartment, and I have a 30-pound bag of mulch. Help."
Julia: Help.
Brandon: So, like, you know, there's a couple things that mulch could do. One— the number one is like weed suppression, right? Or like— moisture retention and weed suppression. But then two, like, eventually, it does become fertilizer once you, you know, mix it into the soil and stuff.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: So like, I don't know. I don't know what it is.
Julia: And the fact that it's Kompos, but it's not compost, you know? Like the—
Brandon: Right.
Julia: I've also gotten to the point where, because of what you did to us in the first arc, anytime you introduce a word, I Google it to see if it's like anything.
Amanda: Yeah. I was— I was surprised that Kompos was not a— a acronym.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Acronym, yeah.
Amanda: Just a cool word.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. Like DK crew.
Julia: DK crew.
Eric: No.
Julia: DK crew.
Eric: No. Now, I have to do the rap.
Brandon: Well, my name is Donkey Kong, and I'm here to say.
Eric: DK, Diamond Knot. DK.
Amanda: I love bananas. They are my favorite fruit.
Eric: We conspire together to hurt people.
Julia: DK.
Eric: DK.
Amanda: I've also had this thing in the back of my mind ever since we first sailed up upon the prison, that when Eric and I were on our honeymoon in Norway, we went on a tour of the fjords, which are like a cul de sac of the ocean. They like— they're like a little bay—
Julia: That's a good description.
Amanda: —made of ocean water but like surrounded by mountains or at least land. And they were absolutely beautiful. And at one point, like near the end of the tour, they were like, "Oh, yeah. And that's the— that's the World War II submarine dock." And we were like, "Excuse me?"
Julia: Huh?
Brandon: I didn't know that. That's cool.
Amanda: And we passed by a mountain with literally just like— you know tunnels, like a railway tunnel or a car tunnel that's just like one tunnel bore into a mountain, just like a semi-circular hole?
Brandon: Yeah, like a cartoon style one?
Amanda: Exactly, yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: That's all you could see, and they're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. That." They spent millions and millions of kroner, you know making a sort of bombproof, like World War II secret underwater dock for NATO or whatever, like during the wars, and then it got decommissioned. And then someone tried to buy it, make it private, that didn't work very well. Okay.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Moving on.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: And then they showed us on the screen— like on the boat, like a— a picture of the inside of this facility and it is like— it is true horror movie shit. It is incredible. So I've been thinking about that and being like, "What the hell is inside of there?"
Brandon: That's really cool.
Eric: Yeah, it's called Olavsvern. It is a decommissioned Royal Norwegian Navy base located right outside of Tromso, which is where Amanda and I went on our honeymoon. And it's just like a tunnel and a mountain in the Arctic Circle. It is the single craziest thing. It took 4 billion kronor to burrow into this mountain just so that—
Julia: Wow.
Eric: —we could like have a base in the Arctic Circle to fight the Nazis, I guess.
Julia: Sure.
Brandon: That's awesome.
Eric: Ver— it's very cool. So, yeah, that was my inspiration for that. I've also been thinking a lot about— you know, I really like point and click adventure games, and I think that's how the best, like, self-contained arcs of Dungeons and Dragons or most tabletop RPG should be, is like focusing on a specific setting, really flesh out a few small things in this one place, and then let people, like, take objects from any information from different places and combine it together. I've also been thinking a lot about this, because Julia and I went on Escape This Pod again. The second time we've done it.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And it's a podcast where they run like a actual play style escape room for you.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: We were talking about how you can have a balance between there is no solution players can come up with whatever they own, or literally having a solution and running it like an escape room. And it can—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —be different as long as you, like, stick to your guns. Like, don't have one— don't scuttle your plans just because you like what someone else did, if you actually have plans. And don't make people figure out exactly the plan of what you're doing if you didn't do a good enough job in setting it up. Like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Let people just come up with funny shit. Like that time Amanda put boobs into a keypad— into a keypad lock.
Julia: And you said, "Yeah, that's it."
Eric: Yeah, that's it. I'm like, I didn't have— I didn't have a solution so you just did it, so congratulations.
Amanda: He said let her cook.
Eric: So it's been fun setting up like— if I'm going to like do this I'm going to make a map. I'm going to have locations, and I want you guys to dig into this area, and really kind of learn things from it, and see if you can combine stuff to figure out your ultimate goal which is, one, not get eaten by a— by the Blackberry Dragon and two, get out.
Amanda: Listen, I think if Troy got hit, he'd be like, "Good reconnaissance opportunity," up on—
Brandon: As he's dissolving in stomach acid.
Amanda: —until the moment you guys— yeah.
Julia: Oh, Troy.
Eric: Troy's like, "I bet there's a price inside." And then he dies.
Amanda: "What's in the tub?" And then that's Troy's last words. Yeah.
Brandon: Pretend I said this a few minutes ago, was the person who tried to buy it named Clark Kent?
Eric: I don't— I— Brandon, I don't understand the joke.
Julia: Brandon, what?
Brandon: The ice cave. That's his cave of wonder or whatever.
Julia: Fortress of Solitude.
Amanda: Actually, some Russian oligarchs bought it, and then Norway was uncomfortable with Russia having a base of operations that was literally a secret military base and— and kicked them out.
Julia: Ah, interesting.
Brandon: I— actually, that— that—now that I'm looking at it, that— they did that, they went to that in an episode of Top Gear, and they talked about that exactly.
Eric: Oh, yes. They did. Yeah.
Amanda: They did, they did. It's very cool.
Eric: Yeah. Here— here's a funny quote from Norwegian retired Vice Admiral Jan Reksten, former military second in command stating, "Russia is a country where the state has a say over all commercial or semi-state business. It's clear very few people knows what happens on these vessels. The sale of Olavsvern was a double loss as Norway's armed forces lost an important base and now there's Russian vessels docked there."
Julia: Woops. Uh-oh.
Eric: Woop. Oops
Brandon: Oops, oops.
Julia: Our bad.
Eric: So yeah, then they bought back—
Brandon: My bad.
Eric: —66% of the stock in the holding group that the Russian company had. They bought it back in 2019.
Julia: Business is too complicated. Can I just say that?
Brandon: I agree.
Eric: I just hate bringing business into, like, secret army base. Like, just keep it a secret army base.
Amanda: It feels like a thing that should not be privatized.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Agreed.
Brandon: What happened to good ol' "I have fur, you trade me fiat currency and that's it."
Amanda: Imperialism.
Eric: If it's not an expansion of Settlers of Catan, I'm not interested.
Julia: If I don't give sheep for wood, what are we doing here?
Amanda: I actually just read a great book set in that area of Norway, which like touches land with Russia and stuff.
Brandon: I thought you were gonna say set in Catan.
Eric: Settlers of Catan. I thought you were gonna say Catan as well.
Amanda: Oh, no, I have been craving playing Settlers of Catan, though. So—
Eric: We can play Settlers of Catan.
Amanda: That'd be great. Eric and I started playing Mario Party at home together. It's been very fun.
Julia: Good.
Amanda: But no, the— in— in the— in the book, set in like 1850s Norway and a bunch of Sami reindeer herders were like, "What do you mean this is Russia now? This is where the reindeer go. Like, you— we cannot take the reindeer there just because you say it's Russia."
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Alright. And then finally, guys, before we get into some broader podcast and game questions, we have a question in from Instagram, "Was the Tumbleweed Greenfolk always supposed to be there and they just beat you to the joke?"
Eric: Yeah. You already come up with Bramble.
Amanda: Oh, shit.
Eric: Bramble was gonna give you the map.
Julia: Fair enough.
Eric: It's just funny to have a tumbleweed tumble by.
Brandon: When you came up with Bramble, was he a tumbleweed or was he like a bramble? Like, some sort of like collection of— you know what I'm saying?
Eric: Yeah. No, he was a tumbleweed.
Brandon: Okay, okay.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Also, ironically, Bramble is another name for a Blackberry, so like—
Brandon: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, yeah.
Julia: Hmm. It's all connected, baby.
Eric: Weird. I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about.
Brandon: It's all connected.
Eric: I don't know what you mean.
Amanda: Wow.
Brandon: Wow.
Eric: Wow.
Brandon: Wow.
Amanda: Here's a question from Rayne Storms, the Birch Boi, "Given the recent revelation in regards to the giant Bialy, the salmon and the locks," like with lox and locks, both spellings, "does that make onions and capers the holiest of the Greenfolk?"
Brandon: It does.
Julia: Yeah, they're all priests.
Brandon: They're all priests.
Amanda: The closer to the bagel, the closer to God. That's what I always say.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Eric, what do you think?
Eric: Yeah, whatever you guys said. That's fine.
Amanda: Okay. This is getting a little bit outside of Verda Stello, but I do think it's still important to Join the Party, the podcast. So this came in hot and fresh this morning as of this recording from Plate, Actually A Druid. They say—
Brandon: Ooh, it's hot. Ooh, ooh. It's hot. Ooh, ooh.
Eric: Ooh.
Amanda: Oh, ah, oh. They say, "Fun fact, the state park by me has a lot of stone walls crisscrossing it. And there's one spot in particular that has old foundations, defunct post lights, chimneys, et cetera, and I always wondered what used to be there. Friends, I found out recently from one of the rangers, it's a former Jewish summer camp."
Brandon: Uh-huh. that's cool.
Amanda: "If I find even one single watermelon seedling out there I will never set foot in these woods again." Eric, do you care to comment?
Eric: Happy summer. Go listen to the campaign.
Brandon: I was literally— before you read the second part, I was like, "Oh, that? That's the entrance to the—"
Julia: Camp Die.
Brandon: "—to the, like, fantasy portal, you know? Or whatever it is."
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: That's how you get to Narnia is through the—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: James McAvoy, Mr. Tumnus will be waiting around the corner.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: I keep forgetting that James McAvoy was Mr. Tumnus. I hate that.
Amanda: I will never let you forget. I will never let you forget.
Julia: That's true friendship right there.
Eric: James McAvoy actually plays Stephen in the— in the—
Amanda: They mocap him?
Julia: That's wild.
Eric: No, it's the cartoon adaptation of ca— camp—
Julia: Ah. So he's the voice. Got it.
Eric: —of the campaign, yeah.
Brandon: Or Eric, can I pitch you? It's the cartoon adaptation but the green screen in James McAvoy in a skeleton suit in a black—like, in a black suit that just has skeleton's paint, you know, bones?
Eric: Yeah, no, actually, that's better. I like that.
Amanda: Photo realistic skeleton in Gravity Falls-esque animation.
Eric: Yes, exactly. It's transmedia, guys.
Amanda: Ooh, I love it. It's Pride Month after all.
Eric: Pri—yeah, Happy Pride.
Brandon: Happy Pride.
Amanda: Love it. Happy Pride. Eric, we also have a question—
Eric: Transmedia rights now. Okay, go ahead.
Amanda: We also had a question come in from Instagram, asking, "Can you add cooking segments like Delicious and Dungeon, please?"
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Less of a question, more of a request.
Brandon: You know what? We already have those when you let Amanda cook.
Eric: You guys should really subscribe to Party Planning, because it's pretty close.
Amanda: It is.
Eric: We just talk about food 50% of the time on our patron-only podcast.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: It's because I'm hungry all the time.
Eric: That's true.
Brandon: Do you think there are other intelligent aliens out there? They spend half their time talking about, like, how much they like their blue blorps, you know? Or—
Eric: I wonder— I wonder if the— the— I— I've thought about this recently, because there are always Tumblr posts that goes on. It's like, "An alien meets humans." And it's like, "What do you mean some of your food, you put more energons in and some of your food you take energons away? What do you mean? What do you mean?"
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: "What do you mean?" So I wonder if it has something to do with the specific chemical makeup of Earth and how our science works in terms of hei— in terms of temperature. Like, our thermodynamics, and then also how humans like hot and cold things at different times. Like, I— I don't think so. I think we're the only ones who care about cooking.
Julia: I think it depends on whether or not other aliens are carbon-based life forms or not.
Brandon: Exactly. Like if they're not carbon-based, are they equally as obsessed with food, but it's like yeah, silicon molecules or whatever you know?
Eric: No one talks about how the Goldilocks principle not only works for oxygen, but also involves whether or not you like cold pizza.
Brandon: That's true.
Amanda: Get Dr. McTier on it.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: So a few questions, folks, about like us as people here. This is a— has been in the hopper for a little while. It's been fermenting, like great sauerkraut—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —getting good.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: From ACosmoDot links to a TikTok, which I will summarize for you now. The TikTok is from Grumpygimli, posted in April 2024. And says, essentially, "I've been thinking about this one for a while and want to know what stat bonuses the state you live in can give you. For example, Florida people being innately built like a tank. And so—"
Brandon: We don't have to guess what Florida gives you, but okay.
Amanda: ACosmoDot says, based on the TikTok, "What stats do you have from the places you're from or currently live?"
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: I think New Yorkers are gonna have a plus 2 to walking speed.
Brandon: Absolutely, they are.
Julia: I was gonna say you get a plus 2 to intimidation as a New Yorker.
Amanda: That's pretty good.
Eric: I— I think that you innately have water vehicle proficiency if you're from Long Island.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I think there are places that like—
Amanda: That's good.
Eric: —you get born and then it's like, "Here's your boating license." It's like Long Island, the Outer Banks, wherever—
Amanda: Louisiana, probably. Yeah.
Eric: The Ozarks. Yeah, yeah. So I would give that, for sure, to Long Islanders. Upstate, I think that— I know where leaves are turning at any time.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: I know where fall is happening and I can— I feel like— and I have, like, a good relationship with trees. I think me and trees are— we're tight.
Brandon: Yeah. I think for Seattleites or Washing— well, Western Washington's-ites, you get like a plus 3 to waterproof.
Eric: Ooh, yeah. That's a good one.
Amanda: Yes. And then, folks, spoil the plank usually a quick one, but I actually do have two questions that I think—I'm not certain whether any of you will have answers to it. So let's put in spoil the plank. If you have answers, feel free to say them. And if not, we'll— we'll push them over— over the plank over there.
Brandon: Toight.
Amanda: From the question surgeon.
Brandon: Are we killing these questions? Are we pushing them off the plank, or they're just on the plank?
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Eric: All the questions have to walk the plank.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: They've been walking the plank the whole time.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Julia: It's not guaranteed that you die if you walk the plank.
Eric: Brandon, this is like you learn where meat comes from.
Brandon: I learned we're—
Julia: Brandon, it's a pirate campaign. We have to murder some people.
Amanda: From the question surgeon, "Was the city sunk on purpose by the Diamond Knot or was South Kompos already down there?"
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I— we don't know.
Amanda: We don't know.
Brandon: My guess is that it was flooded. That's my— that's been my assumption.
Julia: Yeah, because it's almost like—
Brandon: On purpose.
Julia: — if the hold had been taken over by the Diamond Knot and then flooded in the sense that I think the village or the town existed first and then—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: —was taken over and repurposed.
Amanda: That's also the vibe I'm getting. And again, maybe it's this Norwegian, ex-Russian, and now two-thirds of Norwegian once more naval base, but I am really wondering, like, what the purpose of this was. Is this like a dragon's lair that they somehow subdued and chained the dragon? And—
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —you know, there was just a village outside of it and then they flooded it? Was it like a mine? Was it some kind of facility? Like, the— the town around was definitely described to us as, you know, purpose built for, you know, the staff and the people who support the— the town there. But I think South Kompos was absolutely preexisting. Certainly, the Diamond Knot and probably the dragon living so close.
Brandon: I suppose it's also possible that there was a town that was existing, or a city, or whatever it is. And then this dragon showed up, and started destroying things, and so everyone left. And then they were like, "Oh, this area's just right for our taking, you know?" But—
Amanda: I just— I think the dragon has been weaponized and—
Julia: I agree.
Amanda: —would not— would not live there and try to vacuum up the people around it twice a day if it wasn't forced.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-huh.
Eric: That's a fair point, but Amanda, when you see dogs on the street, you're like, "That dog is being weaponized."
Amanda: Eric, it's—
Eric: You're alwa— your first thought of seeing animals that a do—and it is being weaponized against you.
Amanda: Yeah, it's really hard for me to see police dogs and—and put all boys are good boys with all cops are bad. It's just—it's— it's like an immovable force— or it's an unstoppable force and a movable object.
Eric: Well, A— ADAB versus ACAB is tough.
Amanda: It's tough.
Brandon: I like to think of police dogs as freelancers, so it makes it a little bit easier for me, you know?
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: It's good, it's good.
Eric: No, I was thinking about like a pug on the street, just like someone has a pug, you know?
Amanda: It is a weapon against me wherever I'm going.
Eric: Yeah, it's a weapon against you, yeah, then it's like, "Ugh. Now, I'm—now I'm gonna be late to my meeting because I have been distracted by this dog."
Amanda: Well, this is my day now.
Julia: I don't think that Amanda would be allergic to the Blackberry dragon though, so that's a win.
Eric: Well, that's because she has been bio hacked, so I'm allergic to the Blackberry dragon, but Amanda's not.
Julia: But I don't think it has dander.
Brandon: But if it were an allium—
Amanda: I'm out.
Brandon: What are—
Eric: Greek—
Brandon: What's a small dragon called? Are they just— what are the little familiar dragons called?
Julia: They're called like dra—drakelings, no.
Brandon: Doesn't matter.
Eric: Wormli— wormlings.
Julia: Worm? No.
Brandon: But if it were like a garlic dragon, then Amanda, you're fucked.
Amanda: Yeah, just—
Julia: Pseudodragon.
Amanda: Throw—throw me to them because I'm not coming back out.
Eric: Pseudodragons aren't really dragons. They look like dragons, but they're— but they're called that by wizards who are like, "Yeah. Fuck yeah. That dude is my familiar and I get to call him a dragon."
Julia: Yeah. Yes.
Eric: They're just like flying—they're just flying lizards.
Amanda: Same.
Eric: Let me come on your show, Um Actually.
Brandon: If— if you—if the dragon doesn't come from the specific region, it's just a flying—
Eric: It's a sparkling lizard. You're right.
Amanda: You're right. You're right. You're so right. Tweet two at dropoutTV and let them know that Eric should be on Um, Actually—
Julia: I want to be on, too.
Amanda: And secondly from Melanie, "Do you guys miss playing your old characters? Have you considered revisiting past campaigns? What are you feeling about one day maybe playing a new game, for example, Monster of the Week, but with your old characters?" And guys, this was a ruse. The Multitude survey is out. Go to multitude.production/survey and give us your opinions about how you like different kinds of games, what you want us to play, and where you would come to new live shows. Alright?
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I got rused.
Brandon: I always love hearing about what you all want to see from us. And this is also a ruse to say that you can also buy the VODs at jointhepartypod.com/live.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Of previous campaigns.
Eric: It wa— that was fun. Yeah, I also— just speaking of the survey, we've had the question a lot of like, would you like it if we played another game other than Dungeons Dragons? And I feel like that question is more pressing than anything as Wizards The Coast is pivoting to like D&D being fully online and being closer to League of Legends if anything else. So— and certainly— like we're probably gonna do that anyway, but I want to know what you— what you have to say about that.
Amanda: Yeah, your feedback is what had us do Camp Diogenes and the Camp-Paign because—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —you— we saw your excitement for us to try different systems and also a shorter length campaign.
Brandon: Yeah. But yes, I do miss our old characters. They're very good and fun.
Amanda: Yeah, I do. It was really fun to play them on tour. And if we do another tour and if we do go to places where other people are and new Join the Party folks can come see us in person, maybe we'll get to revisit them again.
Eric: Wow.
Brandon: Who knows?
Julia: Maybe.
Eric: Maybe.
Amanda: Maybe. Alright, everybody, we did some good work here today. We're going to put back on our diving suits, go back into the underwater prison, but this time, our bubbles are filled with little pizza bites.
Julia: I can't breathe pizza bites. No.
Eric: You can breathe in there. That was the whole thing of brea— that was the whole thing of Umbi huffing poppers. That you can breathe in there. So you can be eating pizza bites while also being in the liquid. It's fine.
Brandon: I prefer to think of it as like the— the Valhalla gold chrome spray from Mad Max>.
Eric: That's like the same thing.
Amanda: That's—that's literally a popper.
Eric: That— that's Mad Max poppers.
Brandon: Yeah, but, like, one is like cool, you know?
Eric: That's true. And the other like—
Julia: Brandon just wants his poppers to be cool, Eric.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Have you considered it?
Eric: That's true. Brandon, your poppers can be whatever you want them to be. That's fine.
Brandon: Thank you.
Amanda: Happy Pride, folks.
Brandon: Happy Pride.
Eric: Tra— transmedia rights.
Amanda: You'll love to hear it. Alright, everybody. We are so stoked to talk about this Afterparty with you on Discord, on social media. We're Join the Party Pod over there. Eric and Bran and Maddie have been working hard on all kinds of cute clips. I didn't really expect that about half of them would be Brandon shenanies, but Brandon has a very TikTok-sized shenanies. So that I'm— I've been pleasantly surprised at each week's clip. It's been a ton of fun. So go ahead and follow us there and send them to your friends.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Get them on YouTube, too.
Julia: Do it.
Amanda: Hurry. Well, we will see you next week with a brand-new episode. Bye, everybody.
Brandon: Byee.
Julia: Later.
Eric: Byee.
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever upward.
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