Afterparty: Hunting Party VIII

Rebuilding Alabaster, finding new artificer stats and Brandon rolling better. This is the Afterparty, where we sit down after every episode to break down our game and answer your questions about how to play at home.

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- music: brandongrugle.bandcamp.com

Cast & Crew

- Dungeon Master: Eric Silver

- TR8c (Tracey): Brandon Grugle

- Kohl: Julia Schifini

- Inara Harthorn: Amanda McLoughlin

- Creative Contributors: Connor McLoughlin, Heddy Hunt, Julia Schifini, Mischa Stanton

- Multitude: multitude.productions

About Us

Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast. That means friends creating a story together, chapter by chapter, that everyone from seasoned players to true beginners can enjoy. Where else can you get adventure, intrigue, magic, drama, and lots of high fives all in one place? Right here.

After each episode we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games at home. We also have the Punchbowl, an interview series with people pushing D&D forward creatively, communally and socially. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.


Transcript

[theme music]

Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Afterparty.

Brandon: [yelling} MY BOY!!

Julia: [sadly] Oh my son.

Amanda: Oh, I know. Everyone at this table is really sad cuz you know, Alabaster hit the deck and everyone's upset.

Julia: No, the problem is that he didn't hit the deck so many times.

[All laughing]

Amanda: That's true. That's true. And apparently Eric said as soon as we turned off the mics “I really wanted to win”. Eric, what the hell?!

Eric: Okay, we play Dungeons and Dragons on a podcast so…

Brandon: We’ve been recording this?!

Eric: Yeah, we’ve been recording this whole time.

Amanda: Wait! What if I said piss or other bad words?

Eric: Then we bleep them!

Brandon: I think it's illegal, I think we all want to go to jail!

Amanda: Oh no. I don’t want the government after me.

Eric: Who would listen to a Dungeons and Dragons podcast? It’s beyond me.

Amanda: I don't know. They don't even know us. Is that where all of those cookies came from?

Eric: Yeah, it is.

Amanda: Oh….

Eric: Thanks fans.

So, although I have thrown challenges at you, and puzzles, and problems, your actions would always kind of dictate what happened. Like the dice rolls, there's always a certain amount of destiny. And if you fail so many times you will lose.

But there, I guess, like the plot will always kind of go in a way. Like losing a fight will not necessarily totally derail the entire plot. You know what I'm saying?

Amanda: Like it might be circuitous, but we'll make it to our destination.

Eric: Exactly.

Brandon: Like on Episode 10, just kill us all off.

Eric: Yeah, like total party kill. Game over. The podcast is done.

Brandon: Right.

Eric: In this situation, this is the first time, although I was DMing and doing a lot of stuff at the same time, that I was trying actively to win. And like if I won, it was okay. And if I lost it was okay. Like there was very much a diverting path here of where the podcast could go.

Brandon: It sucks that we're incapable of losing now. How do you feel about that?

Eric: Well, listen. [chuckling] You guys lost quite a lot of things.

[Brandon joins in laughing]

And there were repercussions about how close you actually were to not winning.

Brandon: Let's talk about it then! This is the Afterparty, where you tell me all the secrets, ERIC!

Eric: Okay.

Amanda: Everything is not a secret anymore. No secrets exist in Afterparties.

Brandon: That’s true.

Eric: Yeah. Okay.

Julia: I want to hear what happened if we lost.

Eric: Well, here's the way - I'm not going to tell you…

Julia: Oh, dang!

Eric: But I can tell you the win conditions for both parties here. So, the win condition obviously for you was to hit Alonzo with the neutralizer 3 times.

Amanda: A sick name that I made up on the fly. Ya welcome!

Eric: [chuckling] Thank you. What did Franny call it?

Eric (as Franny): The Super Soaker?? I don't know what’s happening here.

Amanda: I just invented how it looked. I don't know what she called…I think just the secret weapon.

Eric: I don't know…

Julia: She had a long name for it. And then I…don’t know.

Brandon: I mostly I tune out Franny at this point, so…

Eric: You're hurtful and you say hurtful things to me on the regular.

So, Alonzo/ The Council of Bright’s win condition was to have both of his hands on the barrel until it became Alonzo's initiative again.

[everyone Hmmms]

Brandon: So, we were really close.

Eric: You guys were so close! Basically, if you have not found a way to get Alonzo’s hands off of the barrel, then you would have lost. Then Alonzo would have won and things would have been totally different.

Amanda: I hate it.

Eric: I don't hate it. I think this was really interesting. And I was excited to kind of go all out to try to stop everything.

Brandon: So, it's much easier for Alonzo to win then for us to win. Because we had to hit them 3 times versus their one round of handheld…

Eric: [clarifying]: All the way around. I mean, Alonzo and the titans had initiative very close to each other, which was detrimental to them in the long run. So, it did need to go Tracey, Alabaster, dog, Kohl, Inara before Alonzo went all the way around. I mean, Alonzo can’t pick up the barrel, which was also the other thing. When I was making DC 20 strength checks to try to pick this thing up. So, it was difficult. I mean, these guys are strong, the grappler is stronger than the other two. But…it was still kind of a big roll every time. I got kind of lucky and I rolled a 20 or above a bunch of times in a row there. But every time the grappler went down, it dropped the barrel, so I had to keep doing it.

Julia: So, what was the deal with them being able to revive themselves?

Eric: [with a knowing tone] Well, I'm so glad that you asked.

Brandon: [robotically] Yes, I'm so glad that you asked Julia.

[Amanda chuckles]

Eric: Well, Tracey and Kohl both knew that they were battery-powered in that way. And Alabaster did try to pull the battery out of one of them. They didn't die unless you pull the battery out.

Brandon: Yeah, I got that.

Eric: Then why didn’t you guys do it!?

Brandon: Okay, so the first time it happened I was gonna pull it out anyway because I knew if I get 5 batteries, something cool happens. Eric has told me. So, I have 3 in my possession, so I was in my head. I was like I'm going to knock them down and then grab the battery.

Amanda: Are you sure that cool doesn't mean like total world annihilation?

Brandon: I’d still say pretty cool.

[All chuckle]

Eric: Even though they were alive you could still grab the battery.

Brandon: Well yeah, the last turn I was just going to like grab it, but then it was either grab it from the titan, or tackle Alonzo.

Eric: Sure.

Julia: Yeah, my goal ended up being trying to destroy the batteries, rather than pulling them out. Which I think in - in hindsight, probably could have been easier to just pull them out.

Eric: Yeah, I mean, they have a relatively low AC, so like, it wasn't that unheard of. I mean you did get it that one time. The pick your spot rule of attacks has always been more difficult than just like kind of doing damage. Which has been around since the first edition of D&D. I don't actually remember how it goes? So, I kind of bullshitted the double or nothing rule, which I think is fine, you know, honestly.

Amanda: I mean, it's true. It's like - if you know that you can get a medium outcome, but you want to try for a higher one, like that seems fair to me.

Eric: I think if you had killed it while you had fired at the battery though it would have exploded.

Amanda: Yeah.

Eric: And it would have been dead-dead.

Julia: I'm just mad at myself now.

Eric: You're okay. Listen! It all kind of worked out there at the end.

Amanda: I'm also mad I miss my frickin shot like, 4 times in a row. I was getting so frustrated and bored.

[Eric & Brandon laughing]

It was like, I shoot again, nope. [chuckles] Okay. Not anyone's fault. It's just how it worked out. I chose to wield that weapon because I had fewer options, I think than everybody else in terms of ways to deal damage or you know, influence a scenario. And I'm glad I got there in the end but I was really frickin worried til like the last minute possible.

Brandon: I just thought you were the best suited to handle that weapon because you have the most Stealth and like you're the quickest and your function is to move fast and attack stealthily and get away.

Amanda: Yeah.

Brandon: Meanwhile, Tracey’s is to hit hard and Kohl’s is to cry. A lot.

Julia: Yep, that’s me.

Amanda: [energetically] And to do some sick wrestling moves!!

Julia: Yes, well Alabaster was doing the sick wrestling moves. I was just shooting a gun.

Amanda: Tell us about your turret friend.

Julia: Oh, yeah.

Amanda: Your little fire boy.

Julia: So, we were told by Eric to prep something as part of this siege. And during that period of time, D&D released new unearthed arcana for the artificer. And Eric said I could use it, so long as he didn't have to read it.

Eric: Because I invested so much time into helping Tracey figure this out! That I just don’t want to read anything else!

Brandon: Yeah, I'm also not going to read it.

Eric: I was also mad because this is exactly what happened with Johnny as the warlock. And like the new Undying Light one came out and he was just like a warlock who was a cleric…

Amanda: And more, a bunch more rogue archetypes came out just after we started the show, which would have been much better than assassin.

Eric: That would have been better for you. I think it's more like the archetypes would have helped Inara really flesh out her character a little bit more.

Amanda: Yeah, yeah.

Eric: I think it's the opposite for artificer and this warlock. The thing that they originally released was, like very essential to both Johnny and Tracey. He's a gunsmith. He's mega man. That's the kind of person that we've created. And the Undying Light warlock, like the original one, could deal so much light damage, like we don't need a cleric. I'll just be a cleric.

Julia: Yeah.

Eric: Ugh. Grah.

Julia: Anyway, I kind of look at it as more archetypes for artificer, rather than we're eliminating what previous unearthed arcana we had and so giving more options.

Brandon: Very generous of you.

Julia: I do my best.

Eric: I just think they're not compatible anymore. So, it's just difficult.

Julia: Okay, that's fair.

[Brandon & Eric laughing]

Amanda: Julia just walked into a family dinner where we're all like, [teeth gritted] “Everything's fine”

[all chuckle]

Julia: I was like, okay, I liked it. Sebastian was really cool. I like a turret they can walk around like a crab.

Eric: It was very cool.

Brandon: What were some of the cool features of the new unearthed?

Julia: So, for the turrets specifically, you can choose an option so it can be the flame thrower, which is what I chose.

Brandon: Neat.

Julia: There is like a ranged attack that has really high damage and really far range which feels better for something like Inara was doing where it's sniping from a distance. And then there's also one that can give like buffs to your fellow people. So, if everyone's within like, 10 feet of it, they get like, plus a certain amount of health.

Brandon: That’s cool, I like that.

Julia: Yeah. It seemed very cool.

Brandon: Interesting.

Julia: I just really loved Torbjorn in Overwatch. I was like, I want that!

Eric: I'm glad we all stopped to play 20 hours of Overwatch before we started recording the game.

Brandon: I'm still bad at it.

Eric: Yeah, me too.

Brandon: Very importantly, is Al dead?

Julia: So, with the mechanical servant in the artificer, I can either use a spell like Revivify on him. I can heal him up to one hit point after a long rest. Or I can if he was like, extremely damaged…I don't know, we haven't really talked about it. But if he's extremely damaged, I have to take a 40 hour workweek and rebuild him completely.

Eric: [singing] Working nine to five. What a way to…build a robot. Br-br-brr.

[Julia laughing]

Julia: That’s very good.

[Eric singing in background]

Amanda: I think it unknown fact is that Eric loves Dolly Parton more than most people.

Eric: I do love Dolly Parton. She's very good.

So Amanda you were talking about how hard it was to hit Alonzo. Well, I was working on his stat block. I originally had a player character sheet for him, which I realized gave him too much power in a way? Like he was the 10th level fighter. I mean I just realized it didn't make any sense if we were actually going to get into a real battle.

So, I went on the internet and I found that someone made a NPC compendium of all of the classes/subclasses. So, I went and I use the arcane archer, which was renamed the elite elven archer…

[Julia & Amanda laugh]

I think it was supposed to be like elven magic runs through you, but like, don’t worry about it.

Julia: I like arcane archer better.

Eric: Oh yeah, I like arcane archer as well. And I used that as his stat block. So that was actually really fun. So you can use all of these things that your characters are.

Brandon: So it's like a monster manual for NPCs basically?

Eric: It's a monster manual for classes/subclasses, yeah. Which is super cool. I can send - I'll send this to anyone. I found this on /r/Dnd, which is like a very nice place on the internet. As like Reddit and also the internet and gaming goes like,

Julia: That’s nice to hear.

Eric: It’s very nice.

Brandon: I’m glad. Yeah.

Amanda: Well, I thought it was extremely frustrating, but also suitable that Alonzo was so hard to beat. I mean, not Alonzo, right. Like - like the Council of Bright in Alonzo’s body. It's not our friend. It's - the some kind of, you know, otherworldly unearthly power that is occupying him.

So that was my first like, you know, when we first kind of saw Alonzo, in like under possession, he was so much more powerful than we realized. And like, he's hit me now with arrows 3 times. But it made sense, in that it's not him powering himself. So he didn't like, you know, get these abilities out of nowhere, you know, it's some intervention happening.

I mean, we still don't know, you know, the actual details of like, what the Council of Bright is and how it can be contained or - or beaten. First time going off of whatever information we have from Franny. And trying to just contain the threat.

Brandon: Yeah. I would say we didn't really even beat them…

Amanda: No.

Brandon: Necessarily. We just sort of like, fixed a situation with our friend.

Amanda: We like diffused this one bomb, but there are there's a potential for many more.

Eric: Mhm.

Brandon: Yeah, I mean, the - I don't know. I mean, we've haven't been outside yet. But the necklace was spinning so I don't know what your choice for the stars is right now.

Eric: I can't say necessarily. I think that nothing particularly earth-shattering has happened yet. So that's better than nothing. I guess? Normal is better than bad.

Brandon: Yeah. Now, here's an idea. Once we let them out of the crystalline structure, the Council of Bright…

Amanda: The metapod chrysalis.

Brandon: Yes, the metapod chrysalis. The Council of Bright inhabits our deceased badger friend.

Amanda: Yeah.

Brandon: And then we have a Council of Bright badger.

Amanda: But then I have to watch the badger die again!

[Eric giggles]

Every time I use this damn thing, I have to steal my heart against the fact that I'm going to get a new perfect companion and then see them…

Brandon: And they're all badgers.

Amanda: Unspool. Everything’s a badger!

Eric: Apparently, they’re all badgers.

Brandon: What are some of the other options?

Eric: I love the bag of tricks. It's one of my favorite items. I think it's really funny that you can just kind of like give yourself an animal companion. It only exists for 24 hours, so it's very limited in that way.

Julia: Or until you murder it.

Brandon: It's for people who want pets, but don't want responsibility.

Eric: They go away after 24 hours! Uh, Amanda is pulling from the gray bag of tricks which you can - I'm not going to tell you. You can research on your own time. But there are two other flavors of bag of tricks. So I can tell you the animals in that?

Brandon: Free college!

Julia: Traffic!

Amanda: Coin machine!

Eric: Okay…

Amanda: That's a Naked smoothie flavor.

Brandon: Arctic Breeeze.

[Julia chuckling]

Amanda: Flavor blasted! I think we’re done.

Brandon: Flaming hot.

Eric: Alright, there it is. So the rust bag of tricks has a rat, an owl, a mastiff, so a doge. A goat, a giant goat!

[Amanda & Eric laugh]

Brandon: An even GIANTER goat!

Eric: A giant bore, a lion, and a brown bear.

Brandon: [impressed] Ohhh…

Julia: Alright.

Amanda: And I really rolled badger twice.

Eric: Yeah!

Amanda: But like if my table was the same size. I'm amazed that I have rolled badger both times.

Eric: Yeah, these are totally separate entities. So the badger is one number. And then the giant badger is six which, you just rolled.

Julia: Much like goat and GIANT goat.

Brandon: I like to think canonically, it was like the deceased soul of the first badger came back even better than before.

Julia: Aww…

Amanda: Back with a vengeance.

Brandon: Yeah.

Eric: You know, it's funny. I did use a table like this for the live show. When you guys were looking around for animals to ride on into battle. And I remember someone got goat and then Amanda got giant goat.

Amanda: Yep.

Eric: And I'm like, this is what happens!! I can’t control it! It’s Dungeons & Dragons!

I'm actually super excited about my scrap titans. Those were really cool.

Brandon: Tell us more about them!

Amanda: Yeah, please tell me. How did The Council activate those?

Eric: I was talking with Connor, Connor McLoughlin, you might know him from being related to Amanda. And also being one of our creative consultants here at Join the Party. We’ve been kicking around this idea. And as we've got closer and closer through Hunting Party, to having the showdown in the arena, we've been trying to figure out how to make – how to spice this up. As you know, I take fights extremely seriously. Make sure their action packed. And I really wanted to make this interesting in all these type of ways.

So Connor was like, ”Well, the Council of Bright is going to be unveiled after the last episode, you should really have the Council flex its power”. And I’m like “Oh, that's really interesting”. And he's like “You should put a sculpture garden outside of the arena because there is a sculpture garden. And if the Council is related to The Centering in this way, there will be like artifacts scattered around. Like I really wanted to put in the idea that there were some artifacts that people do not remember.
Because again, we've talked about this so many times, as Amanda said a few episodes ago, everyone just talks about The Centering and then stops!

[Amanda laughs]

And it’s because people don't really know about it.

Amanda: Yeah

Eric: They think the name is like powerful enough. And then they can't really say anything more.

Amanda: Yeah.

Brandon: Now is there a reality in which the sculpture garden outside of Jersey Mike's Arena was just sandwiches? And then we fought sandwiches.

Amanda: Or sandwich parts? Dancing tomato. Dancing lettuce. Dancing cheese, dancing bread.

Brandon: Oh, we did fight the cheese.

Amanda: That is true, we did fight the cheese.

Eric: There is an alternate universe, yes. But it is not this universe in which we are living.

Brandon: In my head, it’s that one.

Eric: That's fine.

Brandon: Cool.

Eric: That's the universe, the one in your brain.

Brandon: Good one.

Eric: Ha! I also want to point out a few days ago, Multitude was having a meeting. And Julia was preparing for this recording session. And she came up to me and she's like, “Hey, whatever happened to that giant dog? And I was…

Julia: Just gone huh?

Eric: It just left. And I'm like, “Who can say?”

[Amanda laughing]

Julia: I think you gave me a look…And I’m like “Oh…”.

Amanda: Did you already have the idea to bring it back?

Eric: I did. I was - there are a few Dungeons & Dragons podcasts that I'm actually very inspired by Taz, who we've talked about a lot. One that's recently on the scene is Not Another D&D Podcast, made by the people from College Humor. Brian Murphy, Emily Axford, Caldwell Tanner, who does a lot of art on Drawfee and Jake Hurwtiz from College Humor and Headgum.

Brian Murphy has been playing D&D for such a long time. He's really innovative, and they have a ton of fights, but he really spices up to make it interesting for his players. So he did a similar thing. They were fighting in this cave, and there was like an epic worm that they had talked about for the entire session. It was like these monsters had done like blood sacrifices because it like lures by the blood lust of the purple worm. And he used the - the initiative counter for the randomization. But nothing happened, it didn't land on - on any sort of number.

So I'm just like, this dog is extremely destructive. It is not malicious in any sort of way.

Amanda: Right.

Eric: And it really, truly needs to be random and does not know that it is creating problems unless you do something about it. So I really wanted to put all of that stuff together and make this more interesting for you.

Amanda: I really liked the mechanics of it because I thought early on, you know, oh! Should my first act be to throw the stick so that the dog is distracted and goes somewhere else? But then I realized like the odds that it would hit one of our allies versus one of our enemies is roughly equal.

If I counted the players, right, the three of us now versus the three titans and Alonzo. So I figured it was worth the risk. Like I’d rather neutralize the Council of Bright earlier than get the dog out of the way.

Eric: Mhm, I like that. And I knew that someone would want to interact with the dog and I kind of wanted you to make that your choice. I also like Alonzo/The Council of Bright didn't have HP because the intent was to goop him. So I had to figure out different ways to put conditions on how to make your life easier.

Amanda: Mhm. So I was curious about how the titans were activated. I guess the Council just like has that mojo and power to be able to you know stick a battery on it and sort of harness that primordial energy in a new way?

Eric: Yes, exactly. So it - once it came back, it really just brought the proto-warforged in a way…I don't want to say robot because robot implies this like very carefully put together thing. Alabaster in my head is a robot.

Amanda: They’re - like they're animated.

Eric: Yeah, they're like animated golems, yeah.

Amanda: Actually, I was going to ask you. Is there a glowing market any of their foreheads?

Eric: I was wondering about that.

Amanda: And then I thought that would probably be too simple so I didn't do it.

Eric: I thought about that for a second. Yeah. These are more like metal golems. I actually reskinned them from flesh golem. Flesh golem is…

Julia: [disturbed] That’s a horrible phrase that you just said there.

Eric: It really is! These things are disgusting. It's one of the golems within the monster manual. So I reskinned it. There are a lot of things about it, which didn't really work. Like they have an aversion of fire. They have lightning absorption like very Frankenstein-esque. So if you hit it with thunder damage, [chuckles] they actually gain points.

Amanda: Oh, good.

Eric: Which is wild. They also a magical resistance to everything and like they don't get hurt if you don't hit them with a magic weapon. I was just like, that didn't really work. If I was going to do metal instead of like this magical Frankenstein's monster sort of thing. I kept this thing that they have called Berserk. So if they go below half their hit points, they do like a rage, like Tracey does. And they go berserk.

So as I did, I rolled d6s. So they go berserk. They basically just attack the nearest creature that they can see and the golems’ creator, if they're within 60 feet, [giggling] can try to comment by speaking firmly and persuasively.

[Amanda & Julia laugh]

Amanda: Nooo…

Eric: That is literally in there, which I thought it was very funny. So you have to make a DC 15 Charisma…

Brandon: [sternly] Titan!! Titan.

Eric: Grappler!

Brandon: Grappler!!

Amanda: We talked about this!

And if you haven't heard Eric's appearance on episode 11 of Spirits, on the Golem, you should! It's really really good. Before he was a podcaster, a full year before JTP, he came over and talked about golems, it was great! Actually, you’re on Spirits today, talking about Passover!

Eric: I am! That’s me!

Amanda: Triple feature of Eric Silver!

Brandon: Before we move on to questions, I just want to acknowledge that I'm a new man.

Eric: [chuckling] What does that…

[Eric continues laughing]

Go on.

Amanda: You’ve taken all of my mojo, as yours.

Brandon: I’ve adjusted everyone's mojo's and now my rolls are going to be good.

Amanda: You were just like a long, proved bread.

Julia: [laughing] Aw…

Amanda: You had to marinate under saran wrap in a low oven for a bit. And now you're ready to go!

Brandon: I am!

Amanda: You're yeasty and ready to party!

[Amanda laughs heartily]

Julia: Gross!

Eric: Brandon Grougle. Yeasty and ready to party!

Eric: You know what’s funny, we have these ideas of like the rolls being good or bad and I did assume that like Tracey would not be as much of a factor here.

Brandon: Wow, rude!!

Eric: Just because your rolls are bad! So I thought that I might be able to get - grapple my way.

Brandon: Just because you’re bad at the things you do!

Eric: Brandon is not bad at  Dungeons & Dragons. It's like you have this idea that the rolls will continually be negative. Of course I got fucked by it because my grappler kept losing to Tracey as he did tons of damage and then got knocked out.

And I more often do things that I am proficient at, but shooting this gun was not a thing. I tried to do a flip before I shot it, but it didn't work. I feel like it's sort of reversed, where like I would often, I feel like normally I would do okay at the thing that I tried to do and then just like change tactics a bunch of times,

Whereas Tracey is more like hammering over and over again, like get the thing done that he wants to get done. Anyway, I feel like we were able to show a kind of more versatile fighting style, where you know, Tracey and Kohl work really well together to handle the same foes. and I was kind of like a side solo mission, you know, to like, you know, hammer that nail until we were able to neutralize them.

Brandon: Yeah.

Eric: I would like to say I think Brandon is very good at Dungeons & Dragons. [whispers] I wanted to get that on tape.

Brandon: And I think you're pretty good.

Eric: Just pretty good.

Brandon: Nah, very good.

Eric: Okay, thank you. I appreciate that.

Brandon: We’ll talk about that more later.

Amanda: Well hey, so is Julia. Good monologue yo!

Eric: Julia is very good.

Amanda: I really enjoyed that! Just like walking into a dark stadium, a creepy projector is going, creepy projector noises, people hiding in the shadows. And then a good good monologue.

Julia: Well, I have to practice my promo cuts. I'm now actually professional wrestling. So that's cool.

Eric: Yeah, it was it's really fun to give your villain people to bounce off of. I didn't think that I would have the Council of Bright fully fleshed out in this way of being able to bounce off of Kohl and Inara like he's…the Council of Bright is super vain and into himself. And that doesn't surprise me. I mean, I guess I always had that. But it was nice to like really sort of flesh that out.

This was also the first time that Alonzo, the body, was taken over by the Council of Bright. And I'm very excited to see what happens especially now that there are two bodies! Two Alonzos!

Amanda: Yeah! What’s that about?

Brandon: Two times the trouble. Two times the fun.

Amanda: No, no hints?  

Brandon: That's the next arc.

Eric: Yeah. Trouble party.

[Brandon chuckling

Amanda: Double Party.

Eric: Double Trouble Party.

Brandon: Oh!!

Eric: No hints. You guys need to deal with what's happening here and we'll figure it out. I think that some people will want to get in there and figure out what's going on but the will of the players will dictate. We'll see what happens.

Amanda: And we got a big problem on our hands which is a chrysalis filled with two Alonzos.

Amanda: And the medallion! No, we save our friend. We care about him.

Brandon: Ugh, Tracey wouldn’t.

We want to bring him back. We’re friends with Greg now.

Brandon: [chuckles] That’s true. Greg is fine.

Eric: Uh, how about the fact that Inara found a Rust potion in her bag from arc one?

Julia: Wild!

[Amanda imitates airhorn]

Absolutely wild.

Eric: Insane.

Amanda: Eric’s like, “Do you remember your items?”...Yeah, Eric, I remember my items.

Eric: I didn’t even say that today!

[Amanda laughing]

Julia: Perfect moment for it too.

Amanda: Thank you! I figured you know part of my mind was I know that they’re rusty already, it’s how they were described. But the other one was like if they’re metal and sorting through metal and maybe it'll help.

The person as we discussed on Spirits before where I like to hoard everything and not use it until the perfect time. Whether that thing is like nice olive oil, or nice soaps or items in D&D. And I am trying to use everything I've got. And if I run out, we'll figure out, what's next. I'm not pulling punches anymore.

Julia: Mm.

Brandon: Somewhere Tammy and Taylor smiling down.

Amanda: Tammy and Taylor are probably 14 by now.

[Eric laughing]

Eric: They’ve gone through dragon puberty.

Amanda and Brandon: Oh no!!

Brandon: Now they’re 20 feet tall!

Julia: I don’t like how that was said, [deep voice] Dragon puberty.

Eric: Alright, I didn’t say it like that.

[Julia & Amanda laughing]

Brandon: That was a perfect impression. I thought that was Eric.

Amanda: Thank you Julia for fighting by our side. Being are steadfast companion always. And joining us for another episode of Join the Party.

Julia: Of course

Amanda: Remind the people where they can find you.

Julia: You can find me on my website and juliaschifini.com or on my Twitter juliaschifini. Amanda: Damn you and your distinctive name.

Julia: Aha! There's another Julia Schifini but she's Julia_Schifini and she could die. All of tweets, because I follow them, all of her tweets are just like Happy Birthday to my really good friend. But like every two weeks.

Brandon: You know, every time it’s Julia Schifini, it’s adding you and you're like, Wait, hold up.

[Brandon chuckling]

Amanda: I really admire people who don't need Twitter. You know?

[Julia & Eric laughing]

Julia: Yep.

Amanda: That's on me. That sounds nice.

Eric: I mean, she has the drawback that her middle name is underscore. So…

Amanda: That must be tough on government farms.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: Dumb. Julia, why don’t you head out before we punch Eric for his dumb jokes.

Eric: [high pitched] No!!!

Brandon: Hold on, I’ll give you a hug.

Amanda: I’ll give you a hug so strong, and I assure you on it.

[Eric chuckling]

Eric: I will want it.

Amanda: Thank you for joining us for another Afterparty. We're stoked to see what happens next. So we'll just be staying in plot cliffhanger limbo until the. So join us! Let us know what you thought of the episode. If you want to sketch out a diagram of what happened in this fight, please do, because there was just so much happening.

We're at jointhepartypod on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook. And of course, the party is hopping all day every day in our patron-only discord. You can pledge to support during the party at just a couple of bucks per month at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.

Brandon: Make the badger really big on the diagram.

Amanda: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eric: It’s very large. It’s like human sized.

Amanda: Oh yeah. It’s like bigger than Inara, for sure.

Brandon: Absolutely. Yeah,

Amanda: I know. We never named them. RIP

Eric: Giant badger. RIP.

Amanda: And with that, I'll see you next time.

Brandon: Bye, guys.

Eric: You don't have go home, but you can't stay here.

Brandon: [distantly] Where do I go?

Eric: Go, get out of here! There’s no more drinks, we cut you off!

Brandon: [high-pitched yell] Oh no!!!

[theme music]