What happened to all the people left on Esca Island? Should we google every name that Eric comes up with? And is Umbi Dr. Radish Radish? All that and more on the Afterparty!
Share the C3 Sea Shanty!!
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Dive into the classes from Mage Hand Press, the countries of Verda Stello, the Traditions mechanics, and other changes we’ve made for C3 HERE!
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, Hi, Hello, and welcome to our Afterparty on the high seas. Campaign 3, it's Verda Stello, we're in the story, baby!
Julia: Arghhh, avast!
Brandon: Weeee! Is that pirate-y?
Julia: Yes. All pirates say “Weee”.
Eric: I'm trying to remember that one disease and—and Julia and Brandon don't tell me because let me finish the joke first before I say it.
Brandon: Okay, okay.
Eric: I was like what is that disease that pirates get—
Brandon: Gonorrhea.
Eric: And I literally thought Gonorrhea, and I thought Lupus, and I'm like, no, that's the one from House.
Julia: Hmm, It's never Lupus.
Eric: It's never Lupus.
Amanda: Canonically.
Eric: But no, I have Scurvy in honor of Campaign 3.
Amanda: I know.
Brandon: Eric, I know you’re method, but that might be too far.
Amanda: You took on a— you took on some seawater into the lungs, and it's just stayed there.
Eric: How also am I gonna get an Emmy for this? I'm not really sure.
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: It's that what we would qualify for as a podcast?
Eric: Yeah, Em—Emmy's.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Well—all the other awards are scams.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: So I'm going for the Emmy instead.
Amanda: Well, in lieu of scams, we want new listeners to the podcast. We have a little-- a couple items of housekeeping here people before we get started. It's our— it's like our ship meeting. Right as pirates you've ship meeting?
Eric: Yargh! Swabbing the deck.
Amanda: Exactly. First—
Eric: The poop deck.
Amanda: Oh, no. I hope there's no poop decks at PAX East where we're going to be later this week in Boston.
Julia: Yay!
Amanda: All four of us—
Eric: Hooray!
Amanda: —reunited for the first time, since those precious few moments before lockdown. I am excited to be in the same room with all of you.
Julia: We were at your wedding.
Amanda: You were at our wedding, that's right.
Eric: I was— I still—
Amanda: It is…
Eric: —don't believe Brandon's real, so I need double confirmation.
Amanda: It is the first not my wedding occasion that we all get together for since a lockdown. Wow Julia, I completely deleted that memory from my brain.
Julia: I'm so sorry.
Amanda: So that's great.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: It's really funny.
Amanda: Thank you. Secondly, uhhhh sick sea shanty bro, we're gonna get into it in just a moment. But we made—Roux made, and Eric helped design, and Brandon scored, and Julia sang and we have these beautiful videos of the sea shanty theme song on all of our socials, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for you to send to a friend and be like hey, nobody goes harder than this podcast. Listen to it and listen to Campaign 3, okay? It is your sacred duty. If everybody listening, text that one person, we would be able to solve world hunger. Okay?
Eric: Kony 2012
Brandon: [sings] On the arms of an angel.
Julia: Brandon, I was about to do that.
Amanda: [sings] Far away.
Eric: For just five cents a day and sharing your video, this Dungeons and Dragons podcast can grow.
Amanda: Do you know how many times I say my— spell my name to somebody on the phone and they say oh, like Sarah McLaughlin, and I'm like, let's move on. A lot, so she owes me this.
Julia: She does. She does.
Eric: Yeah. You can find all the links in the episode description. Please share it with someone else, please. I know that we— hey, it's Eric Silver, as I turn my chair around--
Amanda: Turns hat around, sits down backward on chair, looking at you eye level.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Like a peer.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Hey, I know I play a popular podcaster on TV, but Join the Party, as you might know, not a lot of people know about it outside of this—this wonderful community that we have.
Brandon: Out of us four, no one knows about it.
Eric: Outside of us four.
Amanda: And they should.
Eric: And you the person listening, that's five people.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: So we'd love it if you share. We definitely want the show to grow, especially as we're fucking excited about Campaign 3. So post the video on your TikTok, share it to a friend. Seriously, do it. And if you—you can take screenshots of you doing it and send it to us on your social media of choice, and I'll say something nice about you.
Amanda: Ohhh.
Eric: Seriously. This is a great opportunity for you to grow your favorite podcast that definitely needs a little bit more love.
Julia: Don't you want to talk to your friends about your favorite podcast? Do it.
Eric: Yeah. Also, to this, put it on the internet.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: So, do you want to talk to strangers about it and say that we're better than everyone else?
Julia: Don't you want to make friends who listen to Join the Party and bond over that? Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Incredible. Your Discords, your group chats, it's only once every couple years we start a new campaign and there's truly no better time to get new listeners into the show. And no better person to get new listeners into the show, than you, a person who knows people. I take recommendations when Julia, Brandon, or Eric text me like when Brandon says, oh Amanda you should listen to this album, or Eric puts a song on a playlist, those are the only reasons I ever listen to new music because I just like don't really need it in my life, and that is your sacred duty to convince people that they need this specific podcast in their life. They do, you know they do.
Brandon: Amanda, never change.
Amanda: That's me.
Eric: For example, do you know T-Pain just released an album just of covers today?
Brandon: No.
Julia: What? Really?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: No.
Eric: Yeah, it's fucking tight.
Amanda: I didn't know that Hosier released an EP on St. Patrick's Day which feels too on-brand even for Hosier.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: But yes, that's only thing I knew that.
Julia: I saw a post on Instagram today where it was like yeah, I want to go see a band play at a bar, and then they brought Hosier up to just play acoustic. I was like what?!
Amanda: Damn, dude.
Eric: He’s just around.
Amanda: But we also had a number of questions about this wonderful sea shanty theme song. Eric, Brandon, I wonder if you guys could like take a little over an hour to talk in-depth, including screen shares of the actual like music file in Pro Tools to tell people kind of all about your inspirations, and the process, and who sang on it. Like how that went. Just see if you could do it in your spare time.
Julia: But Amanda, that's asking too much of these two, they have so much to do. Too much.
Brandon: That sounds good, but yeah, I don't really want to, so.
Eric: Brandon, what if we talked about the blues and jazz while we do it?
Brandon: Ohhh, okay.
Eric: Let's do that. Let's talk about the Lomax instead. Yeah, we already did this on Party Planning party.
Amanda: What?!
Eric: The Party Planning from last time. So the one that just came out was Julia and I doing another creation lab. But the one right before it, was Brandon and I breaking down the theme song.
Amanda: Yeah, from March 3rd, 2023. And if you're a patron at any level, you can listen to it. Patrons at $10 and above can watch and see the actual incredibly colorful session of many, many, many, many tracks.
Eric: And well categorized, I would like to say. That's gonna keep Brandon going for at least a month.
Brandon: Yes. My session organization is my only skill set.
Amanda: Incredible. Well, here's a little preview, Rayven Eyed wanted to know generally, how did the amazing theme song come about? And how long did it take to make to get the lyrics and the music figured out?
Brandon: It came about by—we needed a theme song.
Julia: That's true, we did need one.
Brandon: And we were thinking of what the genre, like the sort of hook would be. We were like Shanty, definitely that came pretty easy. And then at some point, during a fever dream, I turned to Eric digitally and said Eric, lyrics?
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: I like that you added digitally like, you didn't just turn over in bed, and say to Eric who was also in the same bed as you.
Brandon: Eric, Eric, baby. Baby, baby, baby, lyrics.
Julia: Baby, baby, lyrics.
Eric: Baby, baby, lyrics. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. We've been thinking about this theme song since before Campaign 2. And when we were thinking out what the Camp-paign was going to be. The pirate stuff was always on the table, so you know, those two genres kind of fit together. And then Brandon sent me a bunch of videos about how shanties are supposed to work in October of 2022, which is wild, and uh, here we are.
Brandon: After you asked for them, I didn't just send them to you.
Eric: He turned over in bed, he brought up a big iPad and showed it to me.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: And Julia was like oh, I already had this playlist of sea shanties for thots, do you want these?
Brandon: Oh yeah, that was great
Julia: I've had this playlist for eight years, would you like this? Would this be good for you?
Brandon: Ge—genuinely was like the most helpful thing.
Julia: Aww! Thank you. I should say it's not my playlist, it's one I found online but I have it saved in my favorites for nigh on almost a decade.
Eric: Julia, are you gonna steal the credit, it's fine.
Julia: No, I feel bad.
Eric: No—no one's checking.
Julia: Someone worked hard on that.
Amanda: So from there, we also had the task of like putting together I say, we like it was my job— Brandon had the task of putting together Eric's excellent lyrics that are in real sea shanty form, which is not just like any spooky song about the sea, but like an actual musical form that like has, you know, lyrics that are supposed to be on a specified way. And combining that somehow with our existing theme song, and one of the lovely moments for me of watching people react to the theme song, was identifying the Join the Party melody in the music. So Brandon, again, I know you go into this really in-depth. But generally, ASDJKatie wanted to know, how was it? Were you inspired by the original theme? Or was it totally new? And how did you kind of like, I'm putting my hands together, like overlaying my fingies, like I'm making a weave. How did you— how did you weave those two together?
Brandon: [laughing] Sorry, I just–
Amanda: Is that not good podcasting when I made a basket out of my fingies?
Brandon: No, it's perfect. I was just thinking in my brain the like, the church steeple thing that you do as a play.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: So I always tried to put the JTP melody that doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, and every theme song somehow. I think up till now, it's been very obvious.
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: But sea shanties and sort of like pirate-y vibe music, has like a very specific tonality, I guess you would call it. It's like the Mixolydian mode if anyone out there as a music person.
Amanda: No.
Brandon: But uh—so that doesn't always like— it didn't translate exactly, because that's in a major key.
Eric: And the Mixolydian mode is when it sounds like Baby Got Back, right?
Brandon: Yeah. And so I had to sort of like find a place to get it. So I saw an opportunity when Eric sent me-- So Eric sent me a voice memo. He turned over to me in bed at 3 AM and said here’s a voice memo I made--
Julia: I’m so sorry I started this joke.
Eric: And then I gave him a little kiss then I went back to bed.
Amanda: You say it like Eric wasn't up late last night preparing for the episode we're recording today, and it had to be like, ashh-shh-shhh ahh-shhshh.
Brandon: Um, but he sent me this voice memo with like the lyrics sort of sang out in a melody that was in his head.
Eric: Right. Because to that point to make this easier, I think like we were balancing the sea shanty that was originally used for as work songs, you know when you were pulling a rope or having to paddle, that's why you would sing the sea shanty, and then with like the Tiktokification of the sea shanty, the sea shanty as performative, so it's like we're balancing this thing in between of a theme song and a work song at the same time.
Brandon: Totally.
Eric: So that's where the spa— I think that's where the space came from for you to put in a chorus. Because you can hear in the beginning, it feels, what I— what I kept describing was like, in the beginning, you're paddling a canoe, and the second half is a Mountain Goats song.
Amanda: Exactly, right.
Brandon: Yeah, there was a spot in the refrain when the like group of people responds, so it's a call and response, right? So like the first person sings, and then the group of people respond. And in the respond, Eric's voice memo was sort of flushed like a basic, just like what you'd expect from a response, like sort of like a note or two, just like basic like words. I was like, oh, that's interesting. Maybe I can make that the melody. And so I tried it and it worked, and I did it. And then everyone who tried to sing it was like, what the fuck is this interval?
Amanda: Speaking of which, Milkycross95 wants to know, who provided the voices for that killer song?
Brandon: That. Was. Me. Julia, Amanda, Eric, Lauren Shippen, Roux Bedrosian, and Tyler, Eric's twin brother.
Julia: Also Silver.
Eric: Also Silver.
Brandon: Silver.
Amanda: Same birthday.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Same birthday.
Eric: Same guy. Same guy. We’re the same. Yeah, no, it was very fun. We talked about this more, but my twin brother, Tyler who works in finance, but has a long history of being in acapella groups.
Amanda: He’s Nega Eric. Opposite Eric in every way.
Eric: Nega Scott! Yeah, he came and it was funny. He just ca—because you know, he's a— he's a bass and also did like professional beatboxing too, but, you know, he's very different. So getting him to like perform in this way, it was kind of fun, bringing him to the Multitude Studio which was great.
Brandon: I hope he enjoyed it. I hope he had a good time.
Eric: I think so, he said he enjoyed it.
Amanda: He does. He brought us pizza. Yeah.
Eric: He didn't post about it because he only posted about like the sushi restaurants he goes to on his Instagram, but—
Brandon: He has to keep his grid clean on Instagram.
Eric: I think he wa—
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Eric: —like truly, yes the answer is yes.
Brandon: In order, though it was me, then Lauren, then Julia, then Roux.
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: That's our kind of featured players and then you can hear me, Eric and Tyler who were in the studio going ha!—
Eric: Ha!
Amanda: That was the most fun part of the whole shanty for me. When Brandon like hey, just for funsies, just like pretend you're like pulling a rope. It was so great, it was so fun. And finally here in—in shanty corner from Skrokengen says, “You guys keep killing it with a theme. I'm writing my master's thesis in musicology about adapting theme songs.”
Brandon: Cool.
Amanda: “And you will be my primary case with your permission, of course”
Julia: Woaaah.
Brandon: Oh, that's awesome. No, definitely please do if you want to and can, when you finally finish your thesis or whatever the final thing is, I want to read it.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: I would love to.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Brandon, I did offer that this person could reach out to the Join the Party email and ask you questions if he want.
Brandon: Yeah, I am absolutely down. I have a music degree.
Eric: Okay, good because I already promised that on Instagram.
Brandon: Good, good, good.
Amanda: Good, good, good. Good, good, good.
Brandon: One Lauren Shippen also has a music degree and oh, fuck wasn't theory but like sort of adjacent like theory musicology thing on musicals, so—
Julia: Hell yeah.
Brandon: It's in the family, baby.
Eric: Ohhh.
Amanda: Yay. And finally, here at our staff meeting, and then I promise we can all get out to the sailing and pillaging, and stealing and pirating that we've promised.
Eric: And sharing the theme song and sharing the podcast with other people. Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Exactly. That's—that's the— it's like reverse pillaging, Eric, it's when you sneak into somebody's text messages and you leave them a wonderful present of many, many days worth of lovely inclusive content, that welcomes you into a world that you will find really creative and great. But has historically excluded you because you might be slightly different from the cishet Christian Boomer men of kind of the Star Wars era in the past.
Brandon: Pirate Santa.
Julia: Aww, aww.
Eric: Oh, reverse pillaging? Got it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Beautiful. Well, that is our staff meeting. Okay, as usual. We're gonna put our hands in. Okay, come on, put your hands in.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Alright. And we're gonna say on three, we're gonna say go, Harold, ready? Alright, 123
All: Go, Harold!
Amanda: Amazing. So just in case anybody has forgotten. Let's do a quick summary of the first legend here in Campaign Three: The Legend of Esca Island.
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: Oooh! I was there, that was fun.
Brandon: What do you think Esca means? We shouldn't look it up.
Julia: We definitely shouldn’t Google anything in the future.
Amanda: Oh my god. Yeah. Let—let's start here. Esca is the name of the thing that dangles from an anglerfish. Eric, how dare you?
Eric: that—fair. Good point.
Julia: And now we look this up. It's really, really silly of us honestly.
Eric: Sorry I gotta put by my—my heel—
Julia: Oh, what's going on.
Eric: —best GM in podcasting glove on. It's on, there it is.
Brandon: When you take that on, it can't come off, Eric, that's the thing.
Eric: Yeah Brandon, I know. We all know the monkey's paw. I know.
Amanda: Yeah, Eric's The Mask. I know he hasn't said it, but it—it's true.
Eric: Hey, can somebody stop me, please?
Julia: No.
Amanda: Oh, no. So before we realize that the treasure we're chasing is in fact the esca of an anglerfish. We opened episode one at the Sitting Spot, where we played drink the drink, where we met some of the townspeople of Esca Island including sweet Hondo, the stick bug, with incredible fan art by the way. That tweet was off the chain.
Brandon: Did you just call him sweet?
Julia: Not sweet.
Eric: He was not sweet.
Amanda: That's true, that's true. I fucked up.
Eric: That's why you're susceptible to tricks.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: We all fucked up until Episode 3. So like, it's all good, Amanda—
Brandon: Yes, it's true.
Julia: —not just you.
Amanda: You know, I think if you asked Troy about that guy, Hondo, he'd be like, “Oh, my man!” And you’d be like, “Troy, no!”
Julia: He was distinctly not our man.
Eric: The guy let us sleep in his house? I freaking love that guy.
Amanda: Yeah, what a bruv, yeah. In Episode 2 we began to see Devil's Trials. Where— I mean, it seems clear—Eric, you knew they were going to turn us the whole time, right? The whole town?
Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.
Julia: Since minute one.
Amanda: Brutal.
Brandon: Did you know like literally from Episode 1 or was that an Episode 2 thing?
Eric: I did, yes, I did. I would love to tell you all this. What I want to say, first of all, is the whole point is you three get tricked, right?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Like this, it's nothing wrong with the fact that I—
Julia: Oh yeah.
Eric: —layered all these things in, Well, I'm—I'm saying to the audience— to my players for indulging me as I tell this story, and everyone listening. Like the point is they get tricked, and this only looks interesting in retrospect, but I would like to point out some of the stuff that he did in Episode 1 and 2, to—to lay this out.
Julia: Show us your seeds.
Amanda: Yeah, show us your foreshadowing baby.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. So the first thing was, I don't know if you remember, but everyone was super keyed up when you were playing drink the drink. I think I actually said that explicitly, then like the audience was very fucking hype, that drink the drink was on.
Amanda: That's not because Troy Riptide was visiting, no?
Eric: No. Well, I would like to say something about, Amanda, tell me about this game that Troy knows how to play.
Amanda: One Card Manny.
Eric: One Card Manny.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Amanda, that was the funniest thing I've heard in a decade.
Amanda: Well, Brandon when I said it, all of you I think were just dumbfounded. And so I was just like, oh maybe I didn't go over well, but like one of my traits as a Mariner which is my—my background is that you know a card game and—listen, I mean, cards aren't easy to come by and also wet in the Crags, and so we have One Card Manny. Well, it came to me in the moment, first thought, best thought. And what can I say? One Card Manny.
Brandon: It's because— it's because you said it was such confidence and I was like, oh shit did I missed something? Is this record for something that I?
Julia: Should we know One Card Manny?
Amanda: No.
Eric: I thought—isn't one of the things about the Crags is that you know one game really well too?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: So that's what I was trying not to negate.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: So that's why I'm like, oh, we—I'm like, no one knows this game outside of like your friends in—who grew up in the Crags.
Amanda: No, you're right, I was mistaken. It is—it is my Crags, it is my Crags-like feature.
Eric: Yeah. So like you said it, I'm like, oh, what the fuck is that? And in my head, Hondo was like, I'm so flummoxed by this person who was going to be bait coming up to be suggesting a different game. I'm just gonna say no, we're playing my game.
Julia: Fair enough. Fair enough.
Eric: Now, I'm gonna do that. Um, also—
Amanda: One card says Manny, one card says no—nothing. I don’t know, what do you want me to say?
Julia: What's so confusing about the game?
Amanda: What's so confusing?
Brandon: Still funny.
Eric: So funny. From there, Hondo was going to let you win the whole time. The— I don't know if you remember, it was Brandon specifically. But Umbi realized that the poison had a very, very distinctive acrid smell. So it was really easy for you to decide what the drink was. It was ri—it was rigged in somewhat like, you know, we'll see what happens. Maybe Hondo would have stopped you if you got it wrong or something. But that's the way that— that's the way that it shook out. Also, necessarily, you didn't—you wouldn't have shook out this way. There were like other NPCs you could have interacted with other than Hondo, but it kind of just went from like Jammy to Hondo was kind of the most straightforward path that you ended up following.
Julia: Who do we miss out on Eric? Give us a name.
Eric: Oh, God, I don't have their name. I don't know if I had their name written down. I might have used like, oh, there was like a moth guy that was going to be around.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: Who would have been like hey, Hondo, take it easy? Watch these new people who just coming to our town.
Julia: Cute.
Brandon: Guys during the mid-roll, I want to tell you something I learned about the class of insects and moths, and butterflies when they do metamorphosis, I want to tell you some shit that I learned.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: I'm very excited to know.
Amanda: Oh, sure. Okay.
Eric: Is it a secret? Is it during the mid-roll that no one else will know? So like, the audience is not going to know. Okay.
Amanda: Oh damn.
Eric: And then of course there was the whole thing about the sungulls of course.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Fucking sungulls.
Amanda: Very fun. Sorry Cammie, very fun. Troy has no problem sleeping. what are you talking about?
Eric: That was so funny. I can't believe that just the dice rolls led us there. And of course the three of you in like a three-person—
Julia: Bunk bed, yeah.
Eric: —bunk bed. It was absolutely dumb.
Julia: You said, there's bunk beds, and then also separate beds. And we're like, obviously, we have the bunk beds, what else would we do? Why would we take any other option?
Brandon: There— I didn't even think about it, they're off. There's no other option.
Julia: You said three, you said triple-decker bunk bed and we jumped.
Amanda: Yeah. But Eric, what I want to know is like, depending on the impression we made, are there any variables that would have changed? Like, did they assess us in any way? Do they tailor the challenge to us in any way? Would it have made a difference if we slept on the ship as opposed to at Hondo's?
Eric: Yeah, I think that Hondo kept an eye on you for sure. That's why he wanted you to just sleep in his house. So the thing about like, Troy shooting sungull out of the air freaked him out. And also the whole thing about Cammie's magic—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —freaked them out. That was the big thing, and I think that like when Julia was like, oh, can I just erase my—
Julia: Exhaustion, yeah
Eric: —my disadvantage, my exhaustion with this, my disadvantage with this? I'm like, yeah, sure, because you're gonna have to do something really weird in front of Hondo.
Julia: Yeah, listening back to the transcript while I was doing that, I was like, Eric is really quiet, and I was like, obviously, I'm going to do magic. Why would it be weird if I did magic? I'm a magic class and you're like, okay, like if you want to.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Okay, you're gonna have to do it in front of Hondo. I'm like, okay fine.
Eric: I just didn't know you were keeping close to your chest and knees, and the answer is no for sure.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: But here's the thing, then you all beefed it so hard during the trial—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —that Honda was like, nah, these guys get thrown to the bo— to the sea devil, it's fine.
Julia: We did beef it pretty hard though. I’m not gonna lie. It's pretty bad.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: What are you talking about? I didn't throw a bomb up and then hit me in the face.
Julia: You mean several times?
Brandon: Several times.
Amanda: Brandon you made to see a specialist for this because the question surgeon, Michelle Spurgeon does suggest, do you think we could have Brandon roll two D10s, instead of a D20, so he can sneak up on the big zombies?
Brandon: That's a good idea. What do you think, Eric?
Julia: That just means that Brandon can never roll a Nat 1 though.
Brandon: What do you—what— Eric, what do you think when I get a 99?
Julia: We didn't say percentile dice, we said two D10s.
Eric: Yeah, Brandon can-- because Brandon's rolls are so bad, he rolls from 1 to 100, just to make it even for him. No, we're not doing that, but Jesus Christ I think you need to like sage your—your dice or something right on—
Brandon: It's not just me, everyone rolled poorly. Everyone rolled hot and cold I should say on this episode.
Eric: That's true, that's a very good point. I just use the two Nat 1s in a row or like, a 2 and a 1, that shit was crazy.
Brandon: I think the first roll— I think the first roll was on Amanda's Nat 1.
Amanda: Yeah—
Eric: Yeah, I think so.
Amanda: —I've been rolling like absolute crap.
Eric: Yeah, we just don't remember it, because Troy has the ability to bounce arrows off of things. So—so it always makes up for it.
Amanda: Eric, it's almost like I strategically chose a subclass that gives me some buffs when I miss.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Good point, good point.
Brandon: Well Umbi has the ability to bounce inert bombs off his head, is that a thing?
Eric: He does that as a party trick, this is for fun.
Julia: Yeah. There's no actual benefit to it.
Eric: That's like when he's—when he's dropping smaller tinctures into larger tinctures, he like heads it to other people.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: But this was such a fun challenge. Eric, how did you go about designing this?
Eric: Oh, it's a good question. You know, I think challenges are always just more fun. I realized, like, all action is kind of like has to be structured in do— in Dungeons and Dragons. But then in response, I feel like the structure should reflect the thing, which is why like climbing up an aggro Crag, felt really fun for me. Is like, okay, you guys need a—if the climbing is the main thing, but then you need to deal with the stuff happening, and you need to make sure that your successes and the climbs let you move up there. And of course, like you know, having a teleportation mob is exactly the thing you should do. It's just, it didn't work, and or you're destroying the glue, SAP that was going down you. It was like, well, I don't know what you're supposed to do with that. And then, of course, throwing the zombies in there as well.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Just made it all more complicated. And Hondo truly had no idea what was going on, which was wild.
Amanda: Yeah, it should have sort of triggered more alarm bells, that Hondo was very surprised by the presence of the zombies. And I love that as a little layer of like, oh, something else is going on, but I'm too you know, wrapped up in the challenge that I'm trying to get through alive right now, to sort of clock that. But I mean, narratively great, great stuff.
Brandon: I just—yeah, I just didn't know whether or not like, you know for some reason this island had a wild zombie horde, you know?
Julia: Ohh, I put two and two together right away.
Amanda: Really Julia, is that because Audrey the Rotten Queen was involved?
Julia: Yes, exactly. I knew what it was.
Amanda: Exactly.
Eric: TM Julia Schifini TM.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And of course, that segues us into Episode 3. Where A.) I mean, what a cinematic end to Episode 2, with the Anglerfish waking up the Esca. Yes, we should have seen it. Yes, probably, I would not have walked right up to it. Had I known what that word means, but here we are.
Julia: We all didn't know Amanda, it's okay.
Amanda: It's fine. I'm just—I'm glad that Umbi had enough just empty jars like Amanda in her kitchen to—
Eric: So funny.
Amanda: —to be able to fill it.
Eric: I feel like I've returned to a few like real classic Dungeons and Dragons tropes in this one. I'm like, so you walk up to the treasure chest, huh?
Julia: Uh-huh, so you do that, and we're just like, yeah?
Amanda: You don't want to roll anything? Right?
Brandon: Definitely not a mimic.
Eric: Sounds good. Well— listen, I am not mean enough to make it a mimic. It is definite— it is part of a big anglerfish loads that there was just so something so funny about imagining like a treasure chest at the end of an anglerfish is little dangle.
Amanda: It's so good, it's perfect.
Julia: It was very smart.
Eric: Yeah. and of course, I gotta throw my Moby Dick. The Moby Dick shit in there. It's like, no, it's ambergris, that's what it is here.
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: We should say no whales were harmed in the making of JTP.
Julia: Yes, that's right.
Eric: No, no, it's not ambergris, it's ambergrease. Actually—
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: That's what it is, it's different.
Julia: If you check the transcripts, they're spelling it the same though, so don't worry about that.
Amanda: But I loved the fact that we have Dr. Radish Radish's guide to protecting yourself [mumbles] as are sort of—
Eric: I asked someone to give me the name!
Julia: I haven't been able to do the transcript yet for that one. It'll—I'll have it this weekend.
Eric: Okay. Okay. Because I—I—I wrote down in the beginning, I wrote down Dr. Radish, Radish, and then I forgot to write down the full name. So like I need the full name.
Brandon: You fucking made it up off the top of your head, Eric.
Eric: No, I know. But like, then I told myself, I need to write down the full name of what the thing is because I like it.
Amanda: Yeah, I wasn't writing fast enough to capture it. But point being I thought that was such an inventive and interesting way to kind of get out of that encounter. What were the other options for us, Eric? Like, I didn't ex— I didn't think you expected us to, like stab the anglerfish, but— I mean what—what was in your brain?
Eric: I mean, I had a bunch of ideas.
Julia: He—he was basically just like, good luck, motherfuckers.
Amanda: No.
Brandon: In the past, you've told us that you've like don't—
Julia: Write stuff down. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, you told us you don't make any notes.
Eric: I don’t— I don’t write notes. No, I definitely wrote notes for this one. Because if the idea actually like—
Brandon: That what I was gonna say.
Eric: I never— I never write notes. Or I do write notes all the time, whatever makes me--
Brandon: Whatever makes you look better.
Eric: Whatever makes you look better.
Brandon: I was gonna say you—in past you said you don't like write solutions for puzzles—
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: —for us. Is that still the case?
Eric: Oh, 100%. I feel like that's such a waste of your time as a GM, for any game. But like I would say the least so of Dungeons and Dragons, you can really—a lot of people really push people towards like fighting or certain mechanics in Dungeons—DMing which I don't think you should do. You shouldn't write down a solution. So I had a few ideas. I wrote down stat blocks for everyone in case a fight broke out. I wrote so for like the zombies, I had a stat block and for all the cultists I have a stat block which—but I di—I got to reveal it in a different way because Julia rolled so well that I brought up the pamphlet instead. So it's like I kind of did it in reverse. Like, I always knew that they had the ability to do shape water, but you wouldn't have figured that out unless you had seen the pamphlet.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: You know what I mean?
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Eric: Like you would have seen all the Culti— here's the thing, I'll reveal this. A thing that would have happened. The anglerfish had barnacles all over it, remember? A thing that would have happened is that a— is that all of the cultists would have moved the anglerfish, and if you got hit by the anglerfish, it would have been slashing damage.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It wouldn't have just been like being hit by a giant monster, you would have been like cut up by that thing.
Amanda: And probably like a nasty infection, because like those things never bathe.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Like I'm sorry to start a rumor but they just—an anglerfish has never taken a shower.
Brandon: That's true.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: They haven’t.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: Can I say my favorite part about the introduction of Dr. Radish Radish and his cool pamphlet?
Eric: Sure.
Julia: It is the journey that Umbi is going to go on to discover whether or not he is in fact Dr. Radish Radish.
Amanda: I wrote that part down. Yeah.
Julia: Brandon, plea—I—I don't want to make character choices for you but—
Brandon: But?
Julia: —I need Umbi to discover definitively if he is Dr. Radish Radish.
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: I just love that ultimately, chi—chuck out. We still don't know if Umbi was Doctor—
Julia: We'll never know.
Eric: —Radish Radish, we don't know.
Julia: I think that'll be the end of Campaign reveal. Whether or not Umbi's Dr. Radish Radish.
Brandon: And as we close the book, we zoom in on the author's photo of Dr. Radish Radish.
Amanda: A Pawpaw? Not bruised.
Eric: But no, it was jus— it was funny. So yeah, no, I just had a lot of steps. I didn't know what you were gonna do. The thing that I was not necessarily prepared was you all having a good enough idea. It was a very sticky situation that you were all in, and you all got out of it very quickly. So I wasn't necessarily prepared for that, but then it kind of played out—played out in a—in a different way which was kind of cool.
Julia: Yeah, and we got an even stickier situation later on in the episode.
Amanda: Exactly.
Julia: Where we're all covered in sap.
Eric: So—oh my god, so funny. Can I tell you? I was not prepared for this, but it was so funny.
Amanda: I was gonna say we got out of the conflict pretty quickly, but not the island. Because we're like you know what a great idea, checks watch. Let's extensively loot the Sitting Spot.
Eric: Let’s steal some shit.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly. I mean, to my mind, of course, we would, like that's what we're here for. We're pirates like, we gotta.
Julia: I want to give my flowers quickly to Brandon who's like, I'm going to use a bomb to open up this thing and me just dying in the background, just like you're just gonna— it's gonna make a mess.
Brandon: No, but it's—
Julia: It's not a delicate bomb.
Brandon: Julia, you still understand, it's a very precise bomb.
Julia: I was like oh, god.
Eric: We've— Brandon and I already talked about this extensively about like, because of the Mad Bombers subclass, all bombs that Umbi has does double damage to structures. So we've already talked about like Umbi throwing this on a ship. A ship is a structure I checked with Mage Hand Mike, of Mage Hand of Valdas. And he said that that's the case. And also everyone should pick up Valdas, there's the Valdas plug that we're doing in the episode, everyone, go pick up Valdas.
Amanda: Great shit there.
Eric: So like I know we've our —I have and we're going by the letter of the law as written in Mage Hand here Because like we're doing something different, I'm going by rules as written here. The smallest explosion a bomb can make is 5x5. So it's not that you can't do it, it's just so funny.
Brandon: Would you rather me waste time trying to pick a lock, Julia?
Julia: Brandon, I would never tell you what to do.
Eric: So—it was— it—it was great. I loved it. I loved it deeply.
Amanda: Finn in Discord pointed out something that I also share, which is not really a question, but god, the lack of pursuers during the bar smash and grab was so creepy. No one coming and Julia rolling good perception checks, Eric saying, “Nah, you're good, bro.” It created, Finn says an amazing precedent/reputation for Audrey the Rotten Queen who I'm sure we’ll meet again in the future.
Julia: My best friend, my new best friend.
Brandon: Did we—did we officially solve why they weren't pursuing us? I don't think we did. No.
Julia: We just saw Audrey in the distance as we were leaving on the ship.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, so we a—we still don't know exactly why they weren't pursuing us.
Amanda: And Magdalena, also, Amanda would like to know what happened to the townspeople, Eric? Why were you rolling those dice?
Brandon: Eric's giving us a cheeky grin right now.
Amanda: Eric’s giving us a coy face.
Eric: I'll never tell.
Amanda: I knew you would say that. Ugh!
Julia: You know what the problem is going to be? Eric, take your— take your headphones off.
Eric: Okay, I'll take my headphones off, here. Yeah.
Julia: You know what the problem is going to be?
Brandon: Yes.
Julia: Audrey the Rotten Queen, full of zombies.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And now what's going to happen is there's going to be a Sea Devil zombie next time we run into Audrey the Rotten Queen.
Amanda: You're absolutely right.
Julia: Now, I don't want to give Eric that idea in case it hasn't struck him yet.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: But that is going to be a problem.
Brandon: I mean, she—she almost certainly like just converted all those towns' cultists to her.
Amanda and Julia: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Julia: But I'm worried about the Sea Devil in particular. Anyway, Eric can put his headphones back on now, Amanda.
Amanda: Alright, you're good.
Brandon: Then I said, Eric, how—oh, sorry.
Eric: Oh, we're talking about how Brandon smells? I'm glad we’re talking about it.
Amanda: Ohh, no.
Julia: Brandon, much like the Sea Devil has never showered.
Brandon: And then Eric turned over to me in bed and said–
Eric: Babe, baby, baby, baby, you stank.
Amanda: Well, that was the shape of our first three episodes, our first arc here. And I for one think it's really exciting that we're going to Legends of the Hidden Temple our way through these adventures on the high seas.
Julia: Woo!
Eric: How does—how do the three of you feel about where this kind of kicked off. I've been thinking a lot about, like starting all of our episodes off with a bang. Also, because like, I feel like Campaign 1 starts off super slow, which I did, almost intentionally in the— in the way that I wanted to, like, you know, in a video game, you start with a tutorial level, then it opens up. And Campaign 2 started individually. And then the Camp Paign, started with the Steven reveal at the end of the first episode, like how do we feel about the kickoff of—of getting going?
Julia: I love it. I loved that we started in media res and we were able to find our dynamic really quickly. And I think that kind of throwing us into pirate shenanigans right off the bat, allowed us to be like, this is what our life is like, and that was really, really nice.
Brandon: Yeah, I agree. I always feel like I get more character out of like, watching TV show or whatever—a movie whatever it is I get more character. I get more personality from a character, whether they're in media res as opposed to like being spoon-fed, like, oh, here's their— how they were born and all their traumas and that's how you should inform your character. Like it's much better to just like see it develop in action I think.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Eric: I'm glad we cut all the exposition of everyone's sitting around a fire, sharing their trauma from the first episode.
Amanda: Yeah, and Crow.in.a.human.suit, great username, also said that they liked this and asked, did you talk about the interpersonal dynamics between the PCs before recording, such as Cammie taking Umbi to the side and being like, there, there, Grandpa and smoothly stepping in, or are you making them up as you go?
Brandon: That was just Julia, doing that to Brandon, so.
Amanda: Julia's good at roleplaying.
Julia: Yeah, no, we didn't really discuss what our dynamic was going to be at all. And I think we discovered it through play, which is beautiful and organic in my opinion at least.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. I think because we've been playing together for so long now, like, it doesn't take us as long to get that. So I think we sort of just have the trust that we'll find it and we're all actively trying to find it through play. So I think it's, you know, it's a byproduct of us working together for so long. And especially, you know, what—two of us are married, and two of us have known each other since fifth grade, second grade? First grade?
Amanda: Guess who’s who!
Julia: Since we were five.
Eric: Brandon, I share a bed, so we're married.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah. True.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Speaking of which, Brandon's secrets I am dying to know about these moths. So why don't we take a break? I'm going to run to the kitchen, refill our chip and dips, and then we'll come back for some more questions.
Julia: Woo!
Brandon: Chip and dips.
Julia: Let's do it.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. Something happens right at the kind of middle stage of March that we're in now, here in New York City, where it still feels like winter most days. But the difference is that I look down into the soil around trees, like that little, you know, square of sidewalk that's been carved out for the tree, and I see little buds poking up. And I know that pretty soon that's going to be a Tulip, or Daffodil, or a little like Lilac Bloom, and it makes me so excited for spring. So hey, welcome to the mid-roll. I got you this bunch of flowers. Thank you so much to our newest patrons. Helen, Mia, and A, you have made a very smart decision to join our monthly crew. You can enjoy party planning, including that one we were talking about from March 3rd all about the sea shanty, and so much more. Best of all, in my mind is that you know you're helping make this podcast a reality. We could not do this without you, there would be no Join the Party without your support on Patreon. And if you too want to have us read your name, and thank you, and tell you how important you are, you should join us. You get bloopers for every single episode of the show we've ever made. Yes, all three campaigns worth, approaching 200 episodes actually, it's nuts. As well as ad-free episodes, if you don't want to spend this extra time with me in the mid-roll, which you know, I get it. I'll take it in exchange for your $8 a month, and a full length Patreon only bonus episodes. Eric played a whole campaign with Mischa and friends of the show Marquez and Josh all in the Clear Eyes / Full Hearts game that he made. It was so much fun had so many feelings. And if you want to listen to the winner of the One Shot Derby, the Battle of the Bronte's, which we will be playing very soon, you gotta join the Patreon. That's it patreon.com/jointhepartypod. If Join the Party Tuesdays are you know, a special part of your week, but by the time Friday comes around, you're like, oh, I lost all my podcasts, like what am I going to do? God, you know, still commute on the Friday, or like do my chores on a Saturday and I want someone to accompany me. You gotta listen to Games and Feelings, dude. This is an advice podcast all about games, where gamemaster Eric becomes question keeper Eric, where he has a revolving cast of guests along with permanent guest Jasper Cartwright, the actor, D&D player, and host of Three Black Halflings. The show is absolutely delightful, and their most recent episode on this past Friday, March 17, was all about how reality TV is also a game, and getting into the like politics and money, and structure of how reality TV shows and competition shows, make us you know, such a huge part of TV culture, both in the UK and the US. It's really, really fascinating, and not just because Eric touches on the things I have yelled at him about when it comes to Canadian Big Brother, which is you know if you know, you know, it's— it's a hoo boy, it's a whole thing right now. So listen, you gotta listen to Games and Feelings. It is a weekly podcast, including not just advice about games and the feelings that those games give us. But things like Eric's 2020 hit show, What's Your Favorite Pokemon, And then I say something nice about you, or WYFPATISSNAY for short, where Eric interviews people about their favorite Pokemon, and then says something nice about them. And me and him answering advice questions from old columns, advice questions of your, and getting them better answers than like, Dear Abby could in the 70s. So if you like all of this stuff, look up Games and Feelings in your podcast app, and subscribe for new episodes every Friday. As promised, we are sponsored this week by D & Tea, where code Join the Party will get you 10% off free shipping, and an exclusive Cammie's sticker. You cannot get this Cammie's sticker anywhere else. If that's not enough for you, D & Tea is a values-driven company focused on selling the highest quality tea with exceptional customer service to the most awesome nerds in the world. They were created in 2019 and have gone from scooping tea and putting them into paper bags at conventions, to now having like a full business infrastructure of tumblers. They sell like a beautiful like tea tumbler, a wonderful metal strainer with a D20 on it. Barcodes like real branding and packaging, it's amazing and their tea is so delicious. So seriously, you're gonna want to get one of their tea blends, they have a decaf, they have caffeinated, they have herbal, they have black, all kinds of incredible teas and such pretty accessories. Plus, you know, the Cammie's sticker, come on people. go to dandtea.com and use code Join the Party for 10% off, free shipping, and a Cammie sticker. We are so excited to be able to partner with fellow small businesses like D & Tea, so show them your support, show them with your dollars that you think this is cool. Also go to dandTEA.com. We are also sponsored Twenty Sided Store. One of the small businesses that we admire and it's our friendly local game store. They can also be your friendly local game store by the way through the power of shipping. And I went to their website earlier today as I was preparing these notes for this mid-roll, to you know refresh the copy, make sure I'm telling you something interesting, keeping it cool as you listen to this ad, which I greatly appreciate. And I noticed that they have a top 20 list of their best-selling board games on their website. So I want to make this interactive gamify a little bit if you will and ask you to guess two of the games, the board games on their top 20 best-selling list. Alright, you know I'm gonna wait a second, you're gonna think about board games, you're gonna think about what you think the best-selling board games of this Williamsburg Brooklyn game store might be. But hey, listen, I'm not going to tell you what they are, because you have to go to twentysidedstore.com and click top 20 to see if you're right. And oops while you're there, you might as well use code PIRATE for 20% off your order online. Or of course, if you visit them in-store, just mentioned Join the Party to get that 20% discount. All of that and more and finding out if you were right and you could guess those games at twentysidedstore, spell out all those words.com The show is finally sponsored by BetterHelp. And you don't have to take to the open seas to know that there is a lot more of the world out there to discover, and a lot more in the—and stay with me with this metaphor. The great uncharted open waters of like your mind, you know, to find out. I sometimes feel like my brain is a pirate map, where you know here be Dragons is like scrawled over most of the surface. And then a small part of it is plants, and a small part of it is sleeping. And the rest of it, uh good luck to me and the rest of us, as we try to figure out how to navigate ourselves as we grow and change over time. And therapy is the main way that I navigate through the uncharted waters of living in my particular brain. And I know that when I was looking for therapists, and I couldn't find anybody who is near me, who is taking new patients, who is remotely affordable, BetterHelp was a crucial tool that let me keep accessing therapy, even though I couldn't find someone perfect near me. So all you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched to the licensed therapist and crucially like I did several times, you can switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Discover your potential with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/jointheparty today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterHELP.com/jointheparty. And now back to the Afterparty.
[theme]
Eric: Well, Brandon, I'm never staying in a room alone with a monarch butterfly ever again after what you told me.
Brandon: As you should.
Eric: You should have told me.
Amanda: Oh, what did I miss when I was in the kitchen?
Eric: Oh, Brandon told me a fact about butterflies and I don't want to be around them anymore.
Brandon: They’re perverts.
Amanda: Uh-oh.
Julia: All butterflies are pervs!
Amanda: Brandon, this feels more suitable to our business meetings that we have than on mic, but okay. [Eric laughs] That really got, Eric.
Julia: Oh, jeez.
Eric: No, no, a—ABAP. All Butterflies are perverts!
Amanda: Yeah, you're right, that’s hilarious.
Brandon: That's just true.
Eric: That's just true.
Amanda: Oh, no. Guys!
Eric: They have a proboscis, what did they do with that thing?
Amanda: Oh, oh boy.
Brandon: What did they do with it?
Eric: What did they do with it? ABAP.
Amanda: It's a—is this a good time to get into really thoughtful world-building for Verda Stello.
Julia: Anything to get us away from this, please.
Amanda: Good. Well, okay, here's a question from Matleena, which is very suitable. They say, “Why so chaotic? I mean, I love it, but I wonder where it stems from this time.” I guess regarding our behavior in Episodes 1-3.
Brandon: What do you mean?!
Julia: We're pirates!
Eric: I included this one specifically, I just thought this would be an interesting time to reflect on our plan. How just like everyone's play from Campaign 3 to previous things. Like I also don't know necessarily, specifically what chaotic means. Because it means so many different things when people say on the internet. It can just be good. It can mean, I enjoy—
Amanda: Eventful, yeah.
Eric: — it can mean eventful, it can mean I enjoyed it. So I'm not—I'm not exactly sure. But like, do you think that—I definitely think that we're more free, but I think it's the thing that Brandon said that like we're more experienced. I feel like I've set us up to hit the ground running the most, that we have in any beginning of campaigns.
Amanda: Yeah, I agree and we're also like this, you know, a world totally unlike our own and particularly compared to Campaign Two, where, you know, it's a—it's a near future, it's a near you know reality. All of our characters had everything to lose, and you know, we're just getting to know each other, you know, their powers, protecting their identities. All of that means that I think we were a little more reserved, and really felt the weight of consequences, at least speaking for me as a player a lot more. And in this one, like we are doing this kind of stuff regularly. And that was not true in Campaign Two whatsoever. We were regular people thrust into an unusual situation, and here, this is our bread and butter. And so I think the you know, the pacing, the characters, the freeness with which we—you know, are ready to like jump in and play, all of that leads to what I think might come off as eventful, which is what I'm guessing they mean here by chaotic.
Julia: Amanda, I think you hit the nail on the head because I absolutely agree in terms of Campaign Two. And I think with the Camp Paign, we were also slightly more reserved because we're playing Monster the Week, which is a much more deadly game, I guess in terms of the— the life or death consequences of what can happen to us in the sort of setting that we were in. So I think—
Amanda: And the children in our care.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: That as well.
Julia: Yeah. I think part of it, too, was like, oh, we have to take care of the children. But I think because we're pirates because that is the genre, and also, we're in a kind of magical mystical world for the first time in a couple of campaigns, that we can take bigger swings and bigger risks because they are on brand for who our characters already are.
Amanda: Totally.
Brandon: I agree with all that. I think that we've just um—we develop the shorthand in our play, and in our work, and in our friendships that like we know where the sandbox lines are. And we know— we—we just understand each other, like without having to like, figure it out at this point. So I think that's just what you're sort of seeing which sees feels like there's no rails, but like there certainly are rails that we've worked out in the past, you know?
Amanda: We did a lot of designing the kind of campaign and the vibe, and the feel and how we were gonna structure things to make it feel really effortless on mic, and I—I hope it does come off that way.
Eric: I've been thinking about like different types of games. I always do This during After parties, but like the different types of games that I'm inspired by, they can be applied to role-playing games. And I feel like the one that I've been thinking about more so is like point and click adventure games. Like the ones where it's like, you combine items together, and then you put them somewhere, and then you see if they work or not. And like the— then like Indiana Jones, or Sam, the dog who looks like a detective will say, that doesn't work man. It's like, tabletop role-playing games, or like you in— infinite number of items can be combined with an infinite number of items. And then you can put them and try to apply them wherever. And that either the job of the GM to say, that doesn't work there, or it does, but here's what happens next. And I think that like, knowing that this doesn't work because it's not going to create a good story, or it's like not narratively satisfying, I think is worthwhile to say, and that's the stuff. Like all the machinery behind your favorite— their favorite amusement park ride.
Julia: Yeah, I was actually thinking about amusement park rides when Brandon says it seems like it doesn't have rails, but it does. Like when you're on a waterpark ride or if you're on the new tracklist rides that Disney has that sort of thing.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Wish I was on recently. They're so weird and cool.
Julia: They're. They're weird and cool.
Eric: Brandon, did he—did you have the new dole whip trio combos?
Brandon: Trio combos?
Eric: There's like two other flavors now.
Brandon: I don't think you can get all three of them at once though, can you?
Julia: They have a flight that they do at Disney Springs, I can't remember which restaurant it is. But there's a like Dole Whip flight that you can get.
Brandon: I did not get that.
Amanda: Oh damn.
Brandon: I did get the— I mean we always get Dole Whips, and I've had a lot of them, I got like lemon one and they had lat— a couple years ago, they had like a bullet festival and they got a bunch of.
Julia: Nice.
Brandon: But this time I did get—at Magic Kingdom at the Dole Whip Stand, I got— they had coconut soft-serve with pineapple Dole Whip. In a swirl.
Julia: They put it together and it’s mad good.
Brandon: And it is—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Like not just good for Disney World, it is incredible.
Julia: In general, very good.
Eric: That is tight. Listen, you two no more. I just saw one post on Instagram, and I said, oh, this is cool. And then from there, it like came out like on a little like painter's palette, it was in there like—
Amanda: Oh that's cool.
Eric: —three little doohickies, and they're all different colors, which is why I knew there were different flavors.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. We still have a lot of really good questions to go, guys. So let's uh—
Eric: No, let’s talk about Dole Whip instead.
Julia: Dole whip!
Amanda: —alright. Let's try to get to it, so Sebolicious had a great detailed question about the dried carvings, they said, “Is the full text carved into each of the 13 carvings like a picturing stone in my head, and mentioned that Eric said that they're like hunger stones? Or is the tech separated into 13 pieces spread over 13 carvings? If so, did people have to gather all the pieces together?” And then Marina chimed in to say that they imagined it like a 10 commandments type deal, where the contents are generally known, and the real carvings might not be that relevant to the conversation, like stored somewhere important, but everyone kind of knows the gist and knows the deal.
Julia: Interesting.
Amanda: So Eric, what were you picturing?
Eric: Ooohh, that's cool. I think it's the most straightforward of them, is that there's 13 different ones. I think there's an idea that like The hunger stones were carved into like the riverbed by proto civilizations that like, hey, people in the future, if the water goes below this line, we're all dead.
Amanda: Probably. Yeah.
Eric: Just so you know, we—we've experienced this, and we don't want you to go through it again, or wa— we want you to prepare once this happens. And I think that that's what I'm trying to—we're kind of getting at. Is like once the waterline of the Cascade basin went below a certain level, it's like, oh, this is bad. Who made it and how they got them there is up for debate. Definitely, something to be explored. But I definitely wanted like someone, they were all the same, and they were arranged kind of like 13 spokes on a wheel.
Julia: Gotcha.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: In the water— in the water basin.
Amanda: Speaking of a wheel, amnotagoldfish asks a geography question. It says, is Verda Stello the cut surface of a bagel, or is it a donut? If not a donut, is there an upside down? Is it Discworld? Also for the waterfall, is it a single sheet along the border of the hole, or like a solid column of water?
Eric: Ooh, that's a good question.
Brandon: I think we ta—I think we talked about this in the—
Julia: Worldbuilding.
Brandon: Building stuff. I think—tell me if I'm wrong Eric, but I believe we decided on Bialy with a column of water in the middle.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: That's right. We decided on Bialy because there is not a hole. We thought it was a doughnut, but it is a Bialy and that there is no hole, then we just thought it was a hole. Yes, it is a single sheet of water which a lay—it's not a column because it doesn't fill it all the way through because that's where the— the Great Salt Sea is.
Brandon: But it's a— it's a—it's a hollow column right? Like it's a circle, not a flat plane.
Eric: It's a hollow column, yes, correct. I had to explain this to Moiya, I went on to Exolore to explore— explain Verda Stello. And truly I had to explain this to her for 10 minutes because she was so hung up on the Cascade, and being like, how does it work? Where does it come from? Like we don't know, it's just there and then inside is pirates, that's where it is. It's Pirates in there.
Amanda: You should all listen to the episode, it was really, really, good.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Which—and I—I also have the—I made like a rudimentary map at some point, which is like on our socials, and I think it's in the Verda Stello page, which you can click on, it's in the link in every single episode. You can see that there as well.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: Hell yeah. TJ rolls Nat20s for hugs would like to know, do different species in Verda Stello have symbiotic relationships like in our world? For example, do bees help pollinate flowers, and what are the social ramifications?
Julia: Ooh, that's an interesting question that I think I might, spoily corner, address in a future episode.
Amanda: Ooh, I leave it then, I love that.
Eric: Yeah, we'll see, we'll see. I definitely think it's a little more complex. They are not straight-up plants and Vera—Greenfolk don't do this.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: I would say because like they're not plants and bugs, right?
Amanda: They're not animals, right. They're not like— they don't serve that function directly.
Brandon: The bee-like Greenfolk though, do you have a very cool dance to tell each other, wear good shit is though.
Julia: Famous dancers, the bee folk.
Eric: It's the Hamster Dance. Dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, doo. Yeah. So then the—the answer is no because we have those—that because we have animals and plants in Verda Stello. But the relationship between those two are de— certainly complicated.
Julia: Yeah. I think in general nature has symbiotic relationships, whether it's Verda Stello or it's the planet Earth.
Eric: Damn. Damn, dude.
Amanda: Too true.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: John also asks, are there grape guys that are bunches as well as singular grape people?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: The answer to me was obvious, but I want to know what everyone thinks.
Julia: Yes, of course.
Brandon: I think yes too, but Eric, you tell us.
Eric: Yeah, nothing's funnier than having—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: — having both singular group things, that's very funny.
Julia: I really like the idea of like, some people are the actual fruit itself, and then some people are like, the bush on which the fruit grows.
Eric: Yeah. For sure.
Amanda: Yep. I thought baby, single grape. Adult, bunch of grapes, that's just me.
Eric: Papa, papa, my other grapes coming in.
Julia: Oh my god. Imagine like, it's like a bunch of grapes that are born, and then as they get older, they all split off. And now you have—
Eric: Jesus christ.
Julia: Oh, twelve children instead of one.
Brandon: Oh, that's cute.
Amanda: That's—I mean—
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: —handy for wrangling infants, I gotta say.
Brandon: I don't love young people say my grapes came in.
Julia: Ohh. No…
Amanda: That’s true. Brae wants to know what the Greenfolk call their birthdays. And I see we have some suggestions gathered here from chat Eric, would you take us through?
Eric: Yes. I said Growdays, and then other people said, Sproutdays. I wrote Hatdays. I don't remember why.
Julia: Hat day!
Eric: I think--
Julia: The day you wear the hat. The birthday hat!
Eric: I think that was a miscopy.
Amanda: It's illegal to wear a hat before that.
Eric: I think I miscopied something, and then other people suggested Emergence, Germaversary, and Germday.
Amanda: It's funny.
Julia: I like Emergence. You know what you probably meant, writing that Eric Hatchday for the bugs.
Eric: Maybe, yeah they would hatch, yeah.
Julia: Cute.
Amanda: Yeah, it's a little bit— it's a little bit dependent on species, so I would probably say I like Emergence as well because that's true, whether it's, you know, an egg, a sprout, a fruit.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yep.
Amanda: Very cool. And Julia, this one was coming in hot under the wire, I saw it last night, but just missed my train, ironically says, when we mentioned Cammie having a teacup on her belt, just wanted to ask, is the teacup a teacup holster and just missed my train included a picture of a leather teacup and teapot holster.
Brandon: Which is very cool.
Amanda: Very cool. Or is the teacup just tied to their belt?
Julia: While I love that, I do just picture kind of just looped onto their belt.
Brandon: You gotta get easy, you got to get easy access.
Julia: Easy access.
Amanda: Easy access, yeah.
Julia: You know, a holsters is a difficult thing to pull out sometimes, and Cammie's not an incredible sharpshooter like Troy is.
Amanda: True.
Eric: Cammie can only—can sharp shoot but only throwing tea out of a teapot.
Julia: Only a tea saucer.
Eric: That's a—that's pretty good.
Brandon: Cammie can do some cool pouring tricks though.
Julia: That is true. That's where her talent lies.
Eric: I will say as a final point as we move on to the next section is that I have seen equal amounts of people squeezing about each individual PC. Each individual was like I would die for Troy, Umbi is my dad now. Can I—Cammie's we're best friends. I've seen equal amounts of that, which I think is pretty cool.
Julia: Yes, we love that.
Eric: Good job, everybody.
Julia: Good job loving everyone.
Eric: Good job audience, good job players. And if you want to say who your favorite PC is text 1255544 for Cammie. Text. 225544 for Ruben Studdard.
Brandon: And if you want to vote for who your favorite GM is, text Eric's real-life number which is [bleeep] Redacted.
Eric: 555444. Oh, I want you to text me about Ruben Studdard.
Amanda: Oh, got it, got it, got it. Just the number two over and over again.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Amazing. Yeah, it's been so cool to see fan art come in and people are beginning to talk about their cosplays. And God I just— it's— it's the absolute coolest and more evidence why be like, hey, people have fan art of this campaign, and there's three episodes in, you gotta listen to Join the Party baby.
Julia: Yeah, boy.
Brandon: Boy!
Julia: Hoy.
Amanda: Alright, now let's have some podcasting and IRL questions. I couldnt Kelp myself whose name is a pun so you've got a yellow card, you're on notice, I couldnt Kelp myself.
Julia: Dangle a joken’ over their head.
Amanda: Yeah. So they asked, does Brandon have a cap on plant puns per episode? Hakuna was like, maybe should Brandon have a cap on the plant puns per episode?
Brandon: Oh, no.
Amanda: And then Paul was like, no, no, does he have a minimum?
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: So Brandon, what's the—what's the deal?
Eric: Just like a cop giving out speeding tickets, Brandon has to do--
Brandon: I have to do a quota.
Eric: He has to do a quota.
Amanda: Exactly.
Brandon: So I have a pun plant-based pun quota per episode that Eric has put upon me, and if I don't reach it, I owe him $2,000.
Julia: That's true.
Eric: Yeah. Just like the police.
Brandon: Just like the police.
Amanda: Similar note, but @VerboseBorbage, wants to know how many more Billy Joel references can we expect. The more the better as far as they're concerned. And then also asked, what other musicians are there plants/bug versions of? Is there “Weird Al” Yanko Stick Beetle? I'll see myself out.
Brandon: Woof.
Eric: Red card, red card.
Brandon: Red card, red card.
Eric: Get out of here. I don't know, we'll figure it out. I just thought it'd be funny to have a blueberry because it was Billy Joe— Joel.
Brandon: Eric, there was nothing funnier in that moment you could have said.
Amanda: Truly, truly.
Julia: That’s true.
Eric: I was trying to kick it off from the beginning. I'm just like, yeah, these—there's a piano man in the corner, abso-fucking-lutely. Yeah, I don't know. It just—it just for funsies you know, it's just for fun.
Brandon: I don't know if anyone notice, but in Episode 3 when we came back to rob, I mean pillage, I mean, gracefully take away money–
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: –from the tavern.
Amanda: Yeah, what we’re owed.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did find a pia— I think it was a piano man, It was some— the Nor’easter, whatever the fuck it’s called--
Amanda: The Downeaster 'Alexa'
Eric: The Downeaster 'Alexa'
Brandon: Yeah, that one. I caught a MIDI file and then put it on the player piano.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: It was so funny.
Julia: Right around “they're taking our jobs.”
Amanda: Yeah. If we had all seen each other mere four months ago at Eric's and my wedding, you would have known that our first dance was in New York State of Mind. Billy Joel household. Hakuna asked, Eric, where do you get your inspiration for naming things, people, and places? I just realized Esca sounds a little bit like escargot and I swear if this temple is a snail thing, I'll scream. That was in episode—that was in Episode 1 I think.
Brandon: One, yeah.
Amanda: So Hakuna was really, yeah on it.
Eric: Hakuna did think that names mean things. Yeah, names mean things. I usually like translating things into Esperanto because it sounds great.
Amanda: Sure. As yeah, Verda Stello, it's of—of a piece. And Eric, is there something I know you have been working on, but only the best boy wants to know how easy do you find it to come up with the somehow perfect NPC voices every time?
Eric: Oh, stop.
Brandon: I feel like you've been working on your— have you— it feels like you've been like trying to expand your NPC voices now.
Eric: Yeah, there was a thing when I was doing the voice for Boo, I was realizing that like voices in NPCs—I got thi in my head about this because I think that like the first wave of actual play stuff is like yeah, do three voices it's fine. Griffin McElroy admitted that like, yeah, I only know how to do three voices and it's fine. And I'm like, oh, okay, I'll just do whatever. Like it used to be person voices, but like realizing it. I actually when I got— I watched all of Barry, and then I was watching a ton of Bill Hader impressions, and I was like, oh, he's just doing—he's very good at like—this is gonna sound so stupid but like, do you know how like on SNL there's always like an impressions guy, or impressions person, or like even—even in your friend group, like people is like, oh, they're good in impressions, they're good at doing a voice that is exactly what the other per—what if celebrity is. And then they're gonna do it back, give it back to it. But I realized it's just a voice which makes the joke you want to sound, sound funnier. And it's like when I was watching these Bill Hader clips, it was like, it sounds so silly, but it's like, oh, have I been gatekeeping impressions for myself? Like, they don't have to be perfect, they can just be what it is. So when I realized that like, when I was doing the voice for Boo, and I was like, oh Boo can just sound like a South Park character, and that's funny, as a joke, like, I should just do that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And I realized I can just do those things. So to answer that you have a very nice, not actually a question, it's a compliment, but treating like an extra question. I do it in reverse, right? Like I just tried to give them a funny voice, that would be fun to do that would— that you three will enjoy, that make sense for their personality. I always go voice last. And sometimes I surprise myself and do voices on the fly and I don't come up with one. So I've really been trying to push myself to just kind of come up with other stuff. I've been trying to come up with that to you know, make everything flow a little bit better.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: It's important for being identifiable on microphone too. We don't have like nice lower thirds describing who the, you know DM is playing in podcast form. So I think it's—it really only been a handful of times over the course of the podcast, and it's usually me, we'd like mistaking a voice Eric's doing for a different NPC. So it's— it's wonderful and not just for jokes, but for you know, being—being clear and good here on the podcast.
Brandon: That's also just because Eric is a good writer, he knows when to add the descriptive verb, words when he needs to you know.
Eric: Oh, thank you.
Brandon: He's all the things—he's good at all of them. Oh, no, he's too good. Take off the podcast.
Eric: Just tell everyone, I'm the best GM in podcasting on a very good show when you recommend the show, using the videos. No, I think it's also because like, I feel a little bit more free to do silly voices. Now that we're not doing real people like we were in Campaign Two and the Camp Paign.
Amanda: Eric and I were on a road trip recently, and we were playing a playlist he made for me for my birthday, which is very cute and sweet. And I love live versions of songs just because I find it like the energy is fun, and like I enjoy hearing most of all the musician's stage banter, as they– you know, talk back to the crowd, the way that's captured on the live recording. And we heard a line that made Eric laugh and laugh and laugh that he's been repeating to himself over and over this week.
Eric: Because you're laughing about it.
Amanda: It's incredibly funny. And my first thought was, that's an NPC voice right there. I wonder who that NPC is going to be. I can't wait to meet them.
Eric: I'm just going to tell it to you because it's not going to show up for a few episodes, even if I end up doing it. So The Avett Brothers, their fourth live album was at Red Rocks and they were recording, it was on December 31st. So they sang—when it became New Year’s they sang Auld Lang Syne, which was really cool. And then the next— the first song that they did after that—
Brandon: Can you do an impression of their Auld Lang Syne?
Eric: It was really wa—it was—
Amanda: The crowd was singing, it was very straightforward.
Brandon: [sings loudly] AULD LANG SYNE!
Eric: To that point, Brandon, they were—this was at the end of a full Avett Brothers concert. Where they are running around the stage, playing ban— seven banjos at once, screaming at the top of their lungs atonally, which is incredible. And then the last song that they did was the Boys Are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy. And truly it was the most tired Boys Are Back in Town I've ever heard. But—
Amanda: Like 3 AM at the karaoke bar, there's four people left, like that's the vibe.
Eric: Yeah, because they were just so tired from doing the whole thing, and they had to do it because this was like their New Year's thing. And of course, you know the— the narrator of the Boys Are Back in Town are like—are so worried about the boys coming back, guess who's back and they're going to do all the boys things. Not the b— not the person who sings The Boys Are Back in Town, but in the verses, the narrator is like—so the character voice I've been working on is like, if the boys are gonna fight, you betta let ‘em! They're like on the brink of tears because they don't know— they don't want to deal with it. Like, they were so hot, they were steamin’!
Brandon: That's just Travolta, and I love it.
Amanda: I know, I know it's so good.
Eric: But it's like even more—it's like— is —he's like-- they're like upset like I don't know what to do with the boy— the boys are overpowering. Our Town was so—was so bucolic before, but now the boys are back.
Amanda: What’s making me laugh is not just that it's a funny voice, but it is such a so evocative of the track, so we'll—we'll include that in the description as well so people can enjoy that.
Julia: Alright, incredible.
Amanda: Alright, before we get into our spoily corner, and I reveal the name of this Spoily Corner.
Eric: Driving all the old man crazy!
Amanda: [laughing] Ma, they took over Main Street! We have Brandon a dinosaur valley update. So this is from christianthejustok who wanted to say, it's mind-blowing to me that Brandon also went to Dinosaur Valley as a kid. Thought you might want to know that Dinosaur Valley recently found more dyno footprints. That's the good news, because of a major drop, that's the sad news.
Brandon: Yeah, I did. I didn't know that. I saw that. Thank you for the update, but yeah, it's cool shit.
Amanda: Very cool.
Brandon: The only good thing about Texas, the dyno fossils. And the breakfast tacos.
Julia: I was gonna say, tacos.
Amanda: Eric, is there another relevant line here as we segue into spoily corner?
Eric: They were down to Dino's Bar Grill. You can’t stop, ‘em! She was so red hot, she was steamin’!
Amanda: Great. So we are here of course, in Spoil the Plank, where we go over all of the spoily questions that we cannot answer because they may or may not come up in a future ep.
Brandon: Now is that a pun on something, or is that just a play on walk the plank? Am I missing the pun, or is that just a play on the pun? A fun pun.
Amanda: Play on walk the plank, like the end of the episode.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: But we also wanted to give a shout-out to Claire the bean counter who's just had soiled the corner, which was very close, Claire, very close.
Brandon: That was not a critique, I love it. I was just making sure I didn't miss the—the pun.
Amanda: Yes. Mage Silverleaf wants to know, were all the cultists eaten by their god, or are we to assume that Audrey got to them and they become part of her undead fleet?
Julia: Who can say? Eric, very quick question. Did you pick Audrey for, Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors, or just because you liked the name?
Eric: No, just because I like the name. The name you came up with was so good. I had to come up with a—with a different one.
Julia: Becca, Queen of the Damned.
Eric: Becca, Queen of the Damned, just such a good name, I cou— I was scrambling to come up with a different one that wasn't just Becca. And I'm like Rachel? No, I can't just do that.
Julia: Thank you, you did great.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: What's the name of the musical? The desert one?
Julia: Priscilla?
Eric: Oh, Priscilla?
Julia: Priscilla.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Very good.
Eric: But Becca was a perfect name for a possessed 12-year- old and I didn't know what else to do.
Julia: Thank you.
Brandon: I love it.
Amanda: Sneaky sloths asks if Aubergine has a French accent, does that mean France is in Verda Stello?
Julia: Ohh.
Eric: Who can say?
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say?
Amanda: Mell118, Eric, why the hell are you rolling those dice at the end?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say?
Amanda: Michel Spurgeon, if your characters actually find the Salmon, are they going to wish for the waterfall to return or something else?
Julia: Hmmm.
Eric: Interesting question.
Julia: Who can saaay?
Eric: You know, that's funny. I don't know if anyone would— that it's an option. Because the point of the Infinite Lake also is that there's another infinite freshwater source, so.
Julia: It might not need the Cascade.
Brandon: Who asked this question again, Amanda?
Amanda: Michelle Spurgeon, the question surgeon.
Brandon: Well, Michelle—
Julia: Dr. Spurgeon, please.
Brandon: Dr. Spurgeon. Sorry.
Eric: She didn't go to four years of question college for you to call her Michelle.
Brandon: Well, Dr.—Dr. Spurgeon, if you got one wish from a genie, would you wish for climate change to be fixed? Or would you wish for infinite wishes? Answer your question, and then find out what the answer is, you know.
Amanda: Look within.
Julia: Well, once I got infinite wishes, then yes, I would wish for climate change to not be a problem anymore.
Eric: It is an interesting question though, because, though Infinite Lake has— is another infinite freshwater source. So would you just try to figure out a way to use the Infinite Lake to fix everything? Or would you just use the wish to put it back the way that it was?
Brandon: But Eric—
Eric: And then also, there's this Infinite Lake.
Brandon: The Infinite Lake, is not infinite, and that's impossible. It's clearly not actually infinite. It just looks infinite, that's why it's named that.
Julia: Yeah, we don't exist in a magical world or anything, Brandon.
Brandon: Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Eric: Yeah, it's one of those glass-bottom boats actually. It's like look, it's so shallow because you can see the bottom.
Amanda: And it finally Mage Silverleaf wants to know who is in and who is out in the Crags at the moment? Who's making power grabs and what are their latest scandals? I can't wait to hopefully meet some disgraced family members up on the high seas and learn that political team.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Roger.
Julia: Roger is in charge right now.
Eric: Yeah, Roger, Roger is in charge of the Crags right now.
Amanda: Damn.
Eric: Listen, it's totally open. Much like European history, you got to just say whatever you want it it definitely happened at some point.
Brandon: Much like European history if you just say a James, a Philip—
Julia: It's probably true. Yeah.
Brandon: —you probably get arrested.
Eric: Yeah. And like anything, James and Philip did anything you can think of because they were king, and they could do whatever. It was actually— I've been considering this quite a lot because I was when I was doing the Vexillology of all the flags. So I wrote there's actually some of that in—
Amanda: Yeah, the Verda Stello landing page on the Join the Party website, which is in the link of every Verda Stello episode.
Eric: Yeah. So I can actually—actually I want to bring it up because it's very funny. So it's like you can tell me what's going o—what are the—what's the wildest thing that happened in— in Crags history?
Amanda: Well, maybe I will Eric, hat's why it seems as well the point.
Eric: Though, you're allowed. Amanda, you're allowed certainly but everyone else can tell me too.
Amanda: Maybe I did next episode.
Julia: Ooohhh.
Brandon: Maybe.
Julia: May have.
Brandon: My favorite part about Crags histories when they— it's called the great schism and the great—what do you call it when you fix a hole at a rock?
Eric: It's like that thing where you put like gold in Japanese ceramic, yeah.
Brandon: Sookie, I think or something called that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. When they fix the fissure between the big ruling parties and then yeah, yeah, some build rocks, you know? The welding, the cementing— the cementing!
Julia: Ohh. Yeah, there it is.
Eric: The cementing. Now that's in there, I also made up like a version of the Magna Carta in Crags history, which was funny. It was the Crag—
Brandon: Cragna Carta.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, Queen Opaline V, was slain by her three sisters, 10 days after it was cite.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: Gonna say shit, you can just make shit up. It's fine.
Amanda: It just happens.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It just happens. Yeah.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: So who can say, but will everyone can say it's for fun?
Amanda: Well, folks, that brings us to the end of another jam-packed Afterparty.
Julia: Please Amanda, Jammy Packs.
Amanda: Oh. Fuck. Fuck.
Brandon: Pleased Amanda, Dr. Jammy Fact.
Amanda: Cut that, cut that. Fuck.
Eric (as Jammy): Excuse me I'm gonna practice merely episode, if you know, let me know.
Amanda (as Troy): But Jammy, won't you get what you get squished, you're so old.
Eric (as Jammy): I'm so squished anyway.
Julia: I was gonna say, already squi—already squished.
Eric (as Jammy): Because I'm already squished.
Amanda: Folks, we will see you next week with another brand-new episode of Campaign Three. Please share it to your friends, send them that shanty, send them the landing page to Verda Stello. Convinced them to take this plunge with us, because it's gonna be really good, it's only getting better from here.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Ahoy!
Eric (as Jammy): I'm—I'm a tomato.
Julia: Avast!
Amanda: And may your roles turn upward.
Brandon: May your tides trend—may your tides rollin—
Julia: Always rise.
Brandon: May your dice roll like the tides
Amanda: You want them to be like predictably up and down though. Roll, tide, dice, Bama!
Julia and Amanda: Byee!
[theme]
Brandon: Hey, pause-- Or, I'm gonna mute for one second, but keep going.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: I can jus—we can just wait for you.
Julia: Was Brandon getting coffee? What's happening here?
Eric: Oh, he’s getting something.
Julia: Coffee ghost, bring him coffee?
Amanda: Oh, coffee ghosts won't cross the thresholds? Is it a coffee vampire?
Julia: No, yeah.
Amanda: Brandon, you have to invite in the coffee vampire.
Julia: Well you know the thing is like about ghosts is they don't know where doors are.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I had my headphones on, y’all.
Eric: No, we know.
Amanda: I know, I know, I know.
Eric: Believe me, the next thing I was gonna say was hey, does everyone know how much Brandon smells?
Julia: No, because I only saw him once since lockdown.
Eric: I saw him zero times. So that's pretty crazy.
Transcriptionist: KA
Editor: KM