How are we feeling after the WILD last episodes? Who is the odds on favorite to be the Knight of Mirrors? What sandwich would we name after ourselves? All that and more on the Afterparty!
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a D&D 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. Begin with Campaign 2 (The Join Campaign) for a modern, sci-fi superhero game, or marathon all of Campaign 1 (The Party Campaign) for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, Hi, Hello and welcome to the after party. Our first after party in a world without any bad Tuesdays.
Brandon: Oh god! It's here! Help!
Amanda: Brandon, are you okay? Brandon, you had to crank out three episodes in the last three weeks, how are you feeling?
Brandon: Surprisingly, I actually uh, with more deadlines I'm editing faster and more on time.
Amanda: Oh!
Julia: Just don't burn yourself out. That's all we care about.
Brandon: No, I've-- like, I got this last episode that y'all haven't heard yet, audience, edited in like two days.
Julia: Yeah. Hot damn.
Eric: That's cool.
Amanda: Huge for us.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I do like the idea that you keep making them 69 minutes.
[Julia chuckles]
[Brandon hums in agreement]
Eric: Which I find very funny.
Amanda: Brandon does keep making the draft 69 minutes which is getting really funny because usually, a little peek behind the curtain, Brandon will edit the episode a week or so ahead of time which is awesome. We listen to it and give any notes if we have them and then a few days before the episode goes out either Eric or I will record the ad, like the midroll and ads and then, you know, the patron names and stuff like that. So, Brandon leaves a placeholder and Brandon it's in your control how long the placeholder is, so are you? I mean, are you going to change up and put in the devil's number anytime? Six minutes?
Brandon: That's honestly, I have never thought about that, Amanda.
Amanda: Think about that.
Brandon: Now I will be doing that.
Amanda: The Satanic Panic is chic.
[Brandon chuckles]
Brandon: Sadly, this last episode that-- that's-- that I just sent y'all has no place for the midroll yet because I wasn't sure where I want to put it, so it's going to change.
Amanda: Feck.
Julia: Rip.
Amanda: But we do have more content than ever to cover in a single afterparty, three episodes instead of our usual two, so I think let's arrange things by giving us all a little refresher on what happened in each episode. We'll go through it and then at the end, we'll get to some audience questions about, like, our games, characters, life, podcasting, and see how it goes.
Brandon: We'll call this Brando's memory corner.
Julia: To remind Brandon what happened because not only was he in the session, he also edited it, but he doesn't know what was happening.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: I will say that I did pay Lauren to memento you, so you have the recap. You know the recaps that I do for each episode?
Brandon: Oh shit!
Eric: They're written on your body.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: They are right there.
Julia: I hope that's Sharpie.
Brandon: Where's Campaign III gonna go?
[Brandon chuckles]
Eric: Oh no. Brandon washes them off after every one. It's-- unlike-- it's not tattooed. It's a Sharpie.
Julia: Okay, good.
Amanda: So, let's start with Episode 49, where we open with handing off the queen bee to Charlene.
[Julia hums in agreement]
Amanda: Julia and I attempting a TikTok, which is probably how it will go if we did that IRL.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And then walking into that waterfall.
Julia: A lot of people were suspicious of the bee. I was never suspicious of the bee. It's just-- she's just a lady.
Brandon: I was like, this is weird, but I was never like, this is evil or scary.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: There is a really hard division now between people who thought the queen bee was the end boss of the entire campaign. And people who need queen bee merch. Neither of which I don't know how-- I cannot help you with either of them.
Amanda: As a child, I had an imaginary friend called Buzzer Bee which was mostly-- mostly uh, Julia looks the most interesting she's ever looked at anything I've ever said.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: Um, which was a kind of anthropomorphic bee and I just felt like this was a tender little gift that Eric gave me. I loved her from the start. I wanted to help her.
Eric: I just thought she was interesting. Just like, there are– was very funny about the way that the OTA was put together was that I planned the whole thing before y'all ever walked in. So, it was just fun watching you stumble into these things, but of course, like, they don't come to life until you interact with them. So, like, Charlene was just, like, yeah, there's uh, someone at the front desk like any massive building you go into and there is the queen bee. But I guess, like, you know, they don't come to life until you've interacted with them or like oh, okay, the queen bee sounds like this. And she's very, very clingy. Go.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: There is.
[Amanda chuckles]
Eric: There is a sketch that Sara Barra did that had the bee. Like, an actual picture of a bee on the face of Multitool which I laughed and laughed and laughed because that's 100% how it felt like the queen bee was this, like, on your face the entire time.
Julia: It was incredible.
Amanda: Was the queen bee a parody of me and-- and how much I wish I could just snug closer and closer and closer?
Eric: Not-- not specifically. No, but I can see you uh, getting very close with it. That makes a lot of sense.
Brandon: Are you the bee or is Eric the bee? Are you both the bee?
Amanda: I'm the bee.
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: And I'm Multitool?
Julia: Definitively, Amanda's the bee.
[Amanda hums in agreement]
Amanda: Tag yourself.
Eric: Check yourself. Are you-- are you the Multitool in your relationship or are you the bee?
Brandon: I'm the thorax.
[Julia chickles]
Amanda: I have to say the biggest reveal of at least the first part of this episode because the second part got a little wild, was that Charlene is the inside man. Charlene!
Julia: Yes. I always knew I like Charlene.
Amanda: I knew I liked her too. Eric, when did it-- was this plan from the start? Did you know Charlene was going to be the inside man?
Brandon: No.
Amanda: You're making-- you're making your little I'm guilty smile.
Eric: I will. I'm going to say-- I'm going to confess something.
Amanda: Uh-oh.
Brandon: You had no plan. You didn't plan anything. It's all been a lie.
Eric: At the be-- yes Brandon, you nailed it. This has been off the dome the entire time. I forgot that Hank said there was an inside man.
[Amanda laughs]
Julia: And then I think we discussed it before we started rolling at the beginning of the episode and that's also when we came up with the idea of friend of Tuna as a, like, code name which people really liked.
Brandon: Yeah, which is very I do want a --
Amanda: I like it too.
Brandon: -- members only friend of Tuna's jacket real bad.
Julia: I also-- I did pick from the Tuna because I know that friend of Dorothy was code named for uh, for gay folk back in the day.
Amanda: Oh, yeah, no, it's, I mean, the Venn diagram of queer people and Join the Party fans is-- is uh, is a healthy models and diagram and I think anybody on either side of that is a free to use friend of tuna.
[Julia hums in agreement]
[Brandon chuckles]
Eric: So, I knew-- we had already, like, made Charlene fun and Nicole Byer, but I didn't know what was going to happen necessarily. And I also did not anticipate you all having so much trouble getting downstairs especially after Brandon and Lou did it immediately, so I guess it was very much, like, it's funny when you split the party is that both parts of the party need to figure it out as it happens. I will say that the exit under the waterfall was there the entire time.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Cool. That was a question from Blue Specter, so I'm glad we got to that.
Eric: Yes. So, that was there the entire time. I did not know if someone was going to direct you towards it or not. I also want to say the fact that you had the queen bee the entire time and you protected her kinda, like, was this was your reward. Charlene rewarded you by directing you towards the elevator because there was a different reward if you brought the queen bee somewhere else, so...
Amanda: Ooh, tell us.
Brandon: Was it a stinger in the-- in the arm?
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: Yes, Brandon. It was-- it was actually you writing a stinger as the seed. No, I actually-- no, I don't want to tell you. There are so many things with the OTA that we haven't touched on that, like, we-- you kind of move past, that I feel like I want to hold it. I have an idea for a party planning of doing a game show where you all figure out some of the things that you missed in the OTA.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Which could be fun. So, I kind of want to hold on to some of that stuff, so I don't want to say it's, but um, there was going to be a reward if you brought the queen bee somewhere else in the-- in the office.
Amanda: Oh my gosh, I can't wait.
Eric: So, I didn't plan it but you-- you three were so definitive on it. You're like, you got to give the people what they want. And I-- you are also Val and-- and Aggie we're having a tough time there, so I'm more. And also, someone rolled really high, so uh, on something so I'm just like, "Oh, yeah, here it is."
Julia: I think it might have been persuasion with me being like, "Are you a friend of Tuna?"
[Amanda and Eric laugh]
Eric: So, like I had to reward it but um, yes. The, I mean, I wasn't giving you anything else fun and you didn't get the other thing, so you know, sometimes you got to move your stuff around to make it fun for your players and I'm okay with that.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Blue Specter also asked, "Does Monty have access to the hopscotch level via a secret water entrance because they're secretly the head of the OTA weird stuff r&d division?"
Brandon: I can take this one. Yes.
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: Yeah, go ahead, Brandon.
Amanda: Go ahead.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Love it.
Julia: Fair enough.
Eric: No further questions.
Julia: No further comments,
Brandon: No further comments.
Eric: I put fuzzy Kuriboh in defense mode and I end my turn.
[Brandon laughs]
Brandon: I haven't thought about fuzzy Kuriboh.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: Jeff, and I say that to each other all the time.
Brandon: Oh, man. I think about Yu-Gi-Oh. I mean, I have like thoughts but definitely thought about Yu-Gi-Oh, but I haven't thought about Kuriboh man, that's good. That's good. It's early here.
[Brandon chuckles]
Eric: Whenever I get to see Jeff in person and now Jeff lives in Portland, so it's a lot less than we used to. We always play Magic Matt. Jeff loves Magic the Gathering and he always has a ton of decks on hand, so when we went there, he added some decks and we played. We-- we play as much as possible and whenever we end turns, we always say "And I put fuzzy Kuriboh in defense mode and end my turn." So it just felt like a catechism that came off of my-- came out of my tongue.
Julia: Incredible.
Brandon: Well, now you have two people on Pacific Northwest, you gotta-- you got to go to one and then travel the other ones.
Eric: Brandon I did see you.
Amanda: We just did that.
Brandon: I know. I'm saying you could do it more often.
Amanda: That's the only time we saw you after you Irish exited that's how we verified that you still had a corporeal form. Well, the other banner event of this episode 49 was of course, Milo and Lou and the fridge incident and the origin story of Milo's revenge arc.
Brandon: MiLou, MiLou, MiLou, MiLou, please don't crush me with a fridge.
Amanda: Please don't crush our teen friend with a fridge.
Eric: I was also gonna say the fridge incident sounds like a true crime podcast that is very popular right now.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: It sounds like a media investigation on fridging.
Brandon: Oh, that's actually pretty good.
Amanda: That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I would love to know how we all feel about this event. Brandon, how your thoughts were. I thought it was such a high stakes and smart way to, like, use the dice. You know, like, the events really truly went the way that dice told us it had to go, so I guess Eric and Brandon, talk us through that scene from your perspective cuz' Julia and I are just sitting here, like, sweating and gasping.
Brandon: Yeah, I mean, my initial reaction was just like, I was trying to get Lou out to safety. And there was only one way out of the elevator, so that was it. I mean, I guess I gotta pry the doors open but like, you know, that would take more time.
Amanda: You're between floors. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. And then I just rolled bad.
Julia: Well, Lou rolled bad.
Brandon: No, I rolled that, didn't I? Oh, no, no, Lou did. You're right. You're right. You're right.
Eric: That's what's hard sometimes is that like, you know, I'm rolling over here. And I don't like, I don't necessarily love rolling on behalf of NPCs because then it feels like a secret. Like, some things I do want to make a secret, like enemy roles and the way that the world works. So, it's like the fact that I had to tell you that Lou rolled a Nat 1 and this is what happened felt like I was doing it to you, so it was definitely tough, but you know, you-- you really savor the moments that you get to be super dramatic like that. So, that was also very uh, a good moment for me. But uh hey, this is why you should know what's on your character sheet. Extra points to Brandon for-- for doing that because I did not-- I didn't think of that. And that was really-- that was really really great. I think also from the Sommelier's perspective, was that this was an accident or not even an accident but it's, like, this is what happened. Like, the Sommelier was riding the-- the fridge down to get, one, get down there as fast as possible, and two, to like, fuck up the elevator. They did not think that that's what's gonna happen but what did happen was that they crushed a teenage girl with a-- with a 1950s fridge, which uh, you know, that's-- that's the way the cookie crumbles. You know what I mean?
[Julia hums]
Brandon: Thank Tuna for tuna, that's what I always say.
Eric: Yeah, right.
[Amanda chuckles]
Brandon: I do think it also is a testament to knowing and trusting your DM for a long time of, like, I understand the feeling of like, "Oh no, I don't want to feel like I'm doing this to him" but, like, I never thought that, you know?
Eric: No, I mean, that's good. I'm more like the fact that I need to reveal the roll and then show-- and then this is what happened because it happened over here as the thing but no, I think it all played out really interestingly and then of course immediately responding by trying to have the Sommelier jump through the terrible sphere of spirits where I rolled incredibly high which I-- which I cannot believe. I rolled, like, four saving throws and I think she saved on, like, three of them or four of them. So, like, she only took, like, 20-something points of damage so which and it could have been way way way higher because of how big the-- the sphere was and how she was, like, the way-- You know she was going diagonal so she jumped through that sphere like.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Three or four times so that was also the thing is, like, the Sommelier could have died there too but that's not how the die-- that's not what the die said.
Brandon: Well, fainted. I don't-- I don't think I would. I guess if she took more than double damage then she could have died, yeah you're right.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Words and Recreation on Insta wanted to know, "Could Lou have actually died?"
Eric: Oh. 100%. 100%.
Brandon: Not under my care she couldn't have.
Eric: Well, she would have went all the way down to zero damage and then we would have to look at how much damage she would have taken I think is the fair thing. She would have like-- There's gonna be a real situation.
Amanda: She could have gone down. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, Milo has healing powers and knows the god of death so...
Julia: Does he?
Eric: Actually, that's a good question. I don't know if Milo has any healing spells.
Brandon: Julia, you have never needed healing in this entire campaign.
Julia: It's just very funny to me that you're a healer after, you know, now that we have Multitool and I've never once seen you even try a healing spell. It's just very funny to me. I don't know. I know I'm personally a big beefy, beefy boy when it comes to Val but like.
Brandon: Yeah, you functionally have, like, over 200 hit points.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That's true.
Julia: Depends on the damage I'm taking but yes.
[Brandon chuckles]
Eric: It's written down in Julia's character sheet. It's 200-- it's 200 hit points. Yeah, I mean, it's the way that I think about this because it is a story, right, is like I want to do this stuff to you. Like, this would be boring if it was just, like, "Yeah, you got there and it was all fine and good, right? So, like I do want you to give it-- give it to you as a-- as a gift that, like, you're in a dramatic situation. It's kind of like, you know, something when you-- if you were in a play, you want to have interesting stuff to say you want interesting stuff to happen, so I am happy that-- I'm happy it happened. I'm happy I tried to kill people at all times. It's just great.
[Amanda and Julia laugh]
Brandon: I've been sitting here for the past, like, 15 seconds where you're talking. I'm trying to think of a way to-- to shove Eric into X Gonna Give It to Ya. The song?
Julia: Eric's gonna give it to you.
[Eric cackles]
Amanda: Eric's gonna give it to you.
Brandon: But it's too many syllables.
Eric: Eric's gonna rock! And Eric's gonna roll! Yeah, no, I got it.
Amanda: Erc's gonna give it to you.
Brandon: Erc's gonna give it to you. There it is. Yeah, nailed it.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. DMX and I were best friends.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: That checks out.
Amanda: Nipona Multiverse says, "So, our favorite ghost boy is starting to show a dark side. Does this mean Milo might be going down the path of an antihero and willing to defeat evil by giving them a one-way ticket to Anubis or St. Peter? Who can say?
Julia: St. Peter.
Brandon: I think this is important to know, like, character arcs are important, right? But like, character arcs, when they're good shouldn't ever go against the character's personality or like um, personhood, the character of the character, they should, like, test the limits of that-- of that character's character, right? It's like that's what's happening. It's not like and I think I've said this in multiple episodes like, you know, like, out of character to my fellow players here, like I was like, Milo's not actually going to kill Sommelier obviously, he's just being hyperbolic. But one, it's fun to fuck with Julia.
[Eric snorts]
Brandon: And two.
Julia: You're not fucking with me, you're fucking with Val. There's a difference.
[Brandon chuckles]
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And two, like no. I mean, of course, Milo's not gonna go like, actually literally go Batman and you know. Well, Batman doesn't kill so, you know, go even worse than Batman.
Amanda: Go Punisher.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: This actually might be a good time to delve into one of the questions we got about, like, the process of making the podcast.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: Which there are several really interesting ones for this afterparty that I'm excited about. This one comes from EMC^2 on Discord. Shout to the discord. How do you all discuss this kind of inter-party conflict out of character? Can you give us a snippet of what kind of Table Talk happened or is happening about Milo's-- Milo's Punisher turn which is where I got that from. And I mean, listen, from– from my part, like, I don't think Brandon you said that until maybe episode 51. Like, when we were playing that, because there was a time in between, like, we played a full episode where I was like, "Well, might actually kill [stutters] want to kill the Sommelier. Maybe you're a convincing role player, or maybe the bond between you and Lou was so convincing that I, I, as Multitool was concerned about that. But um, it was, at least for my part, like thrilling and interesting. And I ultimately trust it, like all four of us want to do what's best for the story. And I would never think that any of us would want to, like, take the spotlight or do something totally out of character shocking, or that would, like, surprise or betray the audience or the story. So, for me, it was-- it was kind of fertile to, like, play in that, like, character tension when we're already it's like, it's like the, you know, the tension within the heist crew as you're in the middle of the heist, like, that's the best part of the heist, because there are stakes beyond just oh, we're one big happy family trying to, like, do the mission. It makes it just even more intense.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: 100%.
Julia: And I think like, for me, at least, part of it, like, and I want to, like express this because, like one of the reasons I as a player was like, so like, please don't actually try to murder the Sommelier, we worked out a good deal with her blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, is that if Eric has taught us anything about this current campaign, it's that our actions have consequences. And I was like, I was joking, but also kind of not joking, where I'm like, I'm really excited about the next arc where we all have to go to Milo's trial and like, stuff like that so... Val is-- because Val has an extreme moral code, it's a skewed moral code, but it's very much a moral code, Val would step in between Milo and Sommelier if that happens.
Brandon: As they should.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Like, I would expect that. Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I would love to do a fucking legal drama.
Amanda: Brandon, there's a video game for that. What's it called? The lawyer one?
Eric: Oh, yeah, it would be we'd play Ace Attorney.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Ace Attorney. Yeah.
Julia: Oh, yeah, that would be funny as hell. And also, I was like, every episode where like, after you said that, and we hadn't resolved it as players yet. I was like, alright, well, this is going to be the first PvP episode of Join the Party, let's go.
Eric: Regardless of what happens in the rest of this campaign, it is my responsibility to figure out what happens, so if people want to kill other people, if people need to stop other people, if there is PvP stuff, like, I will make sure that there are lines and rules and game mechanics around that, and we'll see what happens. But we-- we talk about a lot of the stuff that doesn't end up on the microphone. And first and foremost, what I would say is, like, do we really want to do this before this ends up happening? And then the answer is yes. Like, not in a heightened state, but in like a real-- in a real state. Like, yeah, let's see what happens. It's gonna be fun. We could cut it if we really wanted to. If we think that it's boring, or we think it's weird, then we will. That's the power of editing. That's why we like doing this. And then we.
Amanda: That’s why we’re not a Twitch stream?
Eric: Yeah, that's when we get the chance to do stuff like this.
Brandon: That's true.
Amanda: And this may be a controversial statement, but it's important that we have what we do on mic, and then meetings where we talk about it afterward.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And we, you know, before every session, like Eric says, like any questions, any– anyone have anything unresolved you want to talk about? In between sessions, we want to get something done, like, we can let him know, or us three players occasionally will be like, "Oh, hey, random idea. What would you guys think if I tried this?" And that goes for the meta of the show as well, like, it's, it's not just us and what we want to do for the characters. It's also, is this right and satisfying for everybody who's listening and all of us take that responsibility really seriously.
Brandon: Totally.
Amanda: So, it's, you know, it's important.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Podcasters have meetings.
Eric: But it sure is exciting, huh?
Amanda: Sure is exciting.
Brandon: I think that is actually a nice little thing to think about for your home games too of like, yeah, because without being on tape or other people hearing your game it's easy to slip into, like, what selfish for me and but, like, thinking about, yeah, what's satisfying narratively for your other players and your DM is also a good way to, like, stay in your lane, you know?
[Julia hums in agreement]
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And like, we'll talk about the end of episode 51, but as soon as, like, that was truly role played, we did not stop in the middle to be, like, what's happening? You know, how do you guys feel about this? Like, we didn't table talk we truly role played it. And knowing that after that scene happened, when we stopped, I was like, guys, is that okay? Like, you can-- do want me to do something different? Like that. That's what I felt was right, but like, is that fine? It's knowing that we can pause and have that and either of you said, I really think that's the wrong idea then I would have said, like, "Eric, what am I allowed to redo?"
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: You know, like, we, knowing that I can have that option and hopefully you both knowing that I will always listen to your feedback in that way means that I can just, like, truly role play it the way that feels right. And then, like, well, we can have the best of both that way. We have the spontaneity but also the planning, because this is not-- this not a home game, it's-- it's a show.
Eric: You should do this more in your own home game. Like, hit the rewind button. If something doesn't feel good, then go back and redo it. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. There's no continuity you need to keep, we needed to figure that out because we have to release it and then you all hear it and then you get confused. But like, if it's you and a bunch of your friends playing, just be like, "I don't like this. Can we? Look, can I try again and do something different to begin?" Like, there's always the opportunity to do that.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, let's talk about episode 50, which was so action packed. I mean, I think the best sort of initiative that I've heard in d&d media. I'm just gonna throw that out there.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Thank you.
Amanda: I'm not saying-- I'm not saying that everyone else should also say that, like, on social media and in the discord but I, that's what I thought.
Brandon: There might be one coming up that's even more exciting!
Amanda: Who can say? But this is, of course, where we're on Human+ Resources, just such a name. I love it so much with those fantabulous posters that people can now buy, of course at jointheparty pod.com/merch. And Julia and I negotiated with the Sommelier too, which really was just satisfying and felt very fun.
Eric: There was a moment. I remember all the way back when Milo and Lou first interacted with the Sommelier and the Sommelier said out loud and said, "You don't have enough money to negotiate with me." And then Brandon was like, "I guess I don't." And then fucking left. That was-- I thought that was so so funny. And then that was, like, the exact opposite of what happened here, which is the Sommelier was like, "You can't buy me off." And then Val and Aggie were like, "Maybe we can?"
Julia: Sure we could.
Eric: And the Sommelier was like, "Oh, God, thank God, someone took-- someone try and buy me off." I fucking love it. So, I thought that was-- I thought that was really, really great. It's like, and also the fun of splitting the party is you have-- you have two groups of people doing two things differently is always just incredible.
[Julia hums in agreement]
Amanda: Yeah. Eric, how did you approach kind of playing that obstacle? And like, you know, re-- redoing the interaction with Sommelier?
Eric: It seemed like the thing about hopscotch was that the thing that I always had in my head was that regular people couldn't navigate this. Like, if you didn't have any sort of, like, if you were just like us, right? And you showed up at hopscotch, you'd be like, "Oh, I'm gonna die. I can't get through. I guess I can't."
Amanda: Yeah, 2 10-foot cubes, suspended 10-feet apart, and nothing-- and nothing this void.
Eric: Yeah, and you gotta do that, like, multiple times. So, it was very easy for everyone to navigate it because I think that was kind of the point is like, this is-- this-- this is a stepping stone that you need to demonstrate that you are a– a weird person in whatever that might be, so then it became more about the negotiation with the Sommelier and can you trust her? Could you trust her as you went on the cubes? It was also interesting, because Milo didn't touch any of the cubes, so that was the first time that we actually talked about-- navigated that --
Julia: That's true.
Eric: -- trap.
Brandon: I didn't think about that.
Eric: Yeah, so that's why when the Sommelier was like, "Yeah, you're fine." And then you had to do this dex saves not to fall into the darkness. And I was just, like, great, good, so it was-- it was funny knowing that, like, the actual trap was in the background, and the thing in the front and foreground was the Sommelier's relationship, because of what happened before. I also love dungeons and dragons because much like an episode of, like, an animated series or an anime, it really goes-- does go one after another truly. Like, because this happened, this happened, because this happened, this happened. That's why I love this stuff.
Amanda: I must say, Amanda, at the end of having recorded these episodes, looked back at Amanda in Episode 50 spending key points like they were dollar bills like oh, you sweet summer child, you had no idea what was happening.
[Brandon and Julia chuckles]
Brandon: When y'all were negotiating with the Sommelier were you ever thinking about like, "oh, fuck, this is gonna look bad to Milo," or are you just, like, let's just fix the situation as easily, as quickly as possible. I know, like, in character, your characters didn't know about that but like, I'm just curious as players.
Julia: I mean, you expressed that while we were doing the scene.
[Amanda and Eric laugh]
Julia: But like, in the moment I had to think about, okay, yes, we also have to get out of here and the Sommelier knows that we're in here. And I don't want to be black bagged by government officials later on in the campaign. So, I was like, we need to figure out what is going to solve this problem at this moment.
[Eric hums in agreement]
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. I was extremely concerned about people apprehending us because I'm like, the last thing we need after we, you know, even if we managed to get through whatever lies beneath in the Oubliette and get the item we're searching for and get back out of this place. Like, we don't need people chasing us and, like, having a hot exit, or coming to our homes, because they know our identities and where we live after that, like it felt very high stakes so it just, it felt like what was necessary and it was also delightful to negotiate. And the idea of a favor just kind of came to me and I'm very excited to see what comes to that.
Julia: I also like, I didn't want to go into whatever our next arc was as public enemy number one, if the government decides to, like, post our wanted posters in the post office or something like that.
[Amanda hums in agreement]
Julia: And especially because that's probably exactly what Gutenberg wants too you know, like, it was extremely important to me not to give Gutenberg what he wants.
Brandon: Yeah. To be clear, I know you guys know this already but like yeah, that was absolutely the right thing and I would have done the same thing.
[Amanda chuckles]
Julia: And yet.
Eric: Brandon at the time, and yet Brandon at the time was like "wow."
Brandon: Eric, you got to play the conflict with tape, Eric, you know?
Eric: No, that's fine. I really do want to-- I-- God. There's so much I want to talk about in these episodes. Here's the thing, I really, now that we've kind of revealed a little bit of this the fact that the Sommelier was the only one who figured it out. I also came from the fact that you, you had all split up and gotten down there as fast as possible. Remember the child who did the-- the teen who did the fucking fireworks.
Julia: Fireworks jubilee.
Eric: Like, everyone. Like, Juddd could have been there, Hardbody could have been there, other people, other security people could have been there, and the fact that it was Sommelier by themselves because they were the only one who noticed and then was able to be bought off like, you know, all these things are -- all of these things are causing effect, so it's funny how that all precipitated is that you have to figure that out.
Amanda: And Julia Match Coupon on insta would like to know, "What would have Val spent all that money on?”
[Eric laughs]
Julia: I'm still mad that I rolled that. There's no fucking way.
Amanda: I know.
Julia: Val's an extremely frugal person I feel like, you know? Like, goes to mom and pop shops, like, gets discount stuff like was also.
Brandon: Doesn't believe in banks, though. Definitely doesn't.
Julia: Doesn't believe in banks, was living in a discounted apartment over where they used to work, so I just-- I don't know.
Brandon: You put it on a house.
Julia: Well, no. No, no, no they moved into an apartment.
Brandon: Yeah, in New York City.
Amanda: Val's money is a little hot right now. They uh, they need to not touch it for a minute.
Eric: Val is not liquid right now, so that was the issue. I have my money tied up in futures.
Julia: I don't know. Probably like furnishing the new apartment and stuff like that to give you a real answer.
Eric: It was funny. A lot of that went into, like, setting up the nonprofit and things like that.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Which I think was very, very funny. I really enjoy that.
Julia: Big supers, little supers.
Amanda: Sometimes you have to make character choices to justify the dice rolls like that-- that is how the game is. And I think you both did a really good job at that. Well, once we made it past the Sommelier, of course, we got the very fun experience of going into a-- my-- my true dream, a wall size library catalog, and poking around all those weapons and files. I thought it was so fun. Eric, what's the inspiration? Where'd that come from?
Eric: That was where all my Control stuff really came out. I had been playing Control for a really long time, I had a really strong sense of the game and what I loved about it, which is why I made the posters too. Just the idea of it being, like, things happening not because of nefarious reasons, but because of, like, human error. Do you want to hear what was going on with the weapons? The mushroom horde itself?
Julia: Please.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: So, I don't want to touch what happened with the leak because you guys didn't end up going to that level, but there was water dripping down, right? The thing that I had and I did station this out if you-- if Lou and Milo had done different things or gotten rolled differently, the weapons were being checked out. They were, like, in Control they're called like, "altered items." As I said, they're, like, magical items in the way that there you'd call that in dungeon dragons. But they're just, like, you know, something weird is going on with them. Like, they need to be tested, they need to be figured out. Like, there might be Delt-- there's Delta radiation on them. And there's something going on with these items. Not enough for, like, adventurers to pick them up and use them, but there is something weird going on. I think a bunch of people were messing with them on Friday and didn't put them back. Like, they were-- there was a checklist somewhere and a bunch of people checked them out and didn't put them back and then the water was dripping down, which kind of connected all the weapons and then once the water was evaporated, as Milo had done, it kind of disrupted the ecosystem that was going on here. And then it came together and became the mushroom horde. So, the reason why this was happening was because a bunch of people who worked at the OTA left the weapons out.
Julia: Bad job, guys. Bad job.
Eric: Bad job.
Amanda: Bad job.
Brandon: Eric, I have a confession.
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: I need to come clean. Will you absolve me of my sins?
Eric: Oh god. What is it?
Brandon: No, it's not bad. But um.
Amanda: You google mushroom biomes for hints on how to do the fight?
[Brandon laughs]
Brandon: No. But I listened back and I did destroy the water and what I realized is that I, I think I got a UPS package and I'd take my headphones off. Or I was-- I heard something, took my headphones off, put it back on. And like, you repeat yourself, but I think I was still settling in, so I didn't, like, quite catch exactly the whole thing. I did not hear you say the word mold.
Eric: Oh.
Brandon: So, or whatever it was. So, I almost cut out the episode because I was like, "Oh, this is just me being an idiot because I didn't understand," but obviously I wanted to keep it in because it was inserted important. But like, me, creating water only happened because I did not understand that this was a mold.
Eric: Brandon, it's fine. There would have been a fight here probably no matter what you did as you guys were already fucking around.
Brandon: Right. I just look really stupid in the episode.
[Eric laughs]
Julia: I also in the moment was like, "Brandon, what?"
Amanda: Weird choice but okay.
[Amanda and Eric laugh]
Brandon: I remember that and I was like, "What do you mean, this is like a. I'm just trying to reverse it.
Amanda: It's a normal thing to do. Yeah.
Brandon: It's all in the plan.
Eric: But I think that, like, there, this was already probably inevitable from the leak coming down from the above floor plus, like, the fermentation of the Delta radiation was something that was gonna happen anyway.
Amanda: I mean, us just being powered and being in the same room suddenly could also have set it up like I see.
Brandon: Totally.
Amanda: I see a lot of justification for why that could come up.
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Brandon: I would have destroyed water regardless. Yeah.
Eric: Oh, yeah. No, that's what happened. That was you destroying the water was I think was what I used as the cause of-- of how to get the fight going. But you know, sometimes it's whatever, you know, sometimes you have notes that you want it to happen. Like, it's hard for me to reveal this but, like, I want you to have a good time. And like, you could have done a bunch of. If you walked into a room and you were poking around and there was, like, a bear hidden in the room somehow, like, magically hidden in the room. No matter what you do in the room, it's probably gonna unleash the bear.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Right? Like, in a dungeon there are so many ways to get the traps going and, like, that's how it is, but sometimes you'd like to tell a story you latch onto a thing to make it go.
Brandon: I open the picnic basket.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: You activate the bear card.
Eric: Yeah. I was really excited to fucking kill Milo and Lou but then you guys dealt with a Sommelier really quickly so you came in and you took care of that. This was based off of um, something from Valdas, which I've referenced quite a lot from Magehand Press, you should all go pick it up. It is in the NPC. Like, they have an NPC Compendium that's based off of all the stuff in Valdas but they had released this early that I'd use. This was, like, a magic elemental made out of magic items and then I messed around with it and scaled it down and up, so that's why it pulled the-- the item away from Milo but that thing was beefy. It was very beefy and you all got in at the right time and you-- you all rolled really well.
Brandon: Nice.
Julia: I think you also told us afterwards that you were, like, yeah that was supposed to be all three of you facing off of that thing, so if it had just been Milo he probably would have been fucked.
Brandon: No. I would have kicked that fucking things ass.
Julia: Yeah, you were doing great. How many hit points did you have at the end of that phase?
Brandon: Shut up, Julia.
[Brandon chuckles]
Amanda: Your-- your rolls really come through when you need them, Brandon, that's one thing I can say about your dice.
[Amanda chuckles]
Brandon: I do need to talk. I don't want you to respond, Eric, but I just need to, like, put it out there the-- the obstinance at which Lou refuses to get out of the way.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: I mean, it's a teen. When did a teen ever do what's good for them because an adult told them to?
Julia: Exactly, also last time you told her to go away she got hit by a fridge so...
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Wow! Whoo!
[Amanda laughs]
[ambulance noises]
Eric: X gonna give it to you,
Amanda: Alright, I'm gonna-- I'm gonna send everybody else to do different errands. Brandon, you can get some more ice. Eric, you harvest some mint from the garden. Julia, come-- come grab some new glasses with me because it's time over here.
Brandon: We're making juleps.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: No, we're gonna rock. DMX also wants a julep.
Amanda: Alright, I'll make five. Be right back.
[midroll sfx pings]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. And this week's midroll is brought to you by overalls. Not really. I'm not sponsored. I just-- I wear overalls, like every other day now and I incredibly love them. And if you are thinking to yourself, "Man that must be comfy and easy to wear" or "Huh, I should think I'd like sort of how I present myself to the world if I were a person that wears overalls." Hey, I recommend it, overall; very good. First and foremost, welcome to our newest patrons who joined us over at patreon.com/jointhepartypod De’Sean, GG, Brooke, Theresa, and Maiu, welcome and thank you so much for helping us get closer to our goal of 600 patrons. If we get there, if we hit 600, we'll commission a gigantic comic book cover of all the PCs and NPCs of Campaign II. That will be a free digital download for all patrons, but only once we make it to 600 patrons, and also available for anybody to purchase as a physical poster on our merch store. So, help us get there to help make this poster happen, go to patreon.com/jointhepartypod. Also, in case you missed it, the phone wallpaper versions of the posters from Human+ Resources that we talked about in this episode, are now in the merch store. Also, there are still some January dice available, so go and check it out at jointhepartypod.com/merch. Plus, if you're a $10 or above patron, you get 10% off all merch. Check your Patreon for the link and password to that special discount merch store. It's also a great day if you're caught up on Join the Party to check out some of the other shows that are part of the Multitude collective. I think you'd really like Next Stop, which is an audio sitcom that explores the time in your mid and late 20s when lots of people are changing around you, and you might worry that you may not catch up. Across the 10 episodes of its first season, Next Stop follows three roommates through work, relationships, friendships, and more. They grow together as a unit no matter what life throws at them. It's very funny. It's wholesome, it is beautifully sound designed. And if you grew up watching classic sitcoms, you know how comforting that can be. But luckily, Next Stop is a 21st century sitcom, meaning that it gives audiences something to laugh at without punching down. It was written and created by our own Eric Silver, Directed and Edited by Brandon, Assistant Directed and Cast by Julia, and Executive Produced by me, so search for Next Stop in your podcast app or go to nextstopshow.com We are sponsored this week by Inked Gaming. Everybody has that go to place where you get your mouse pads, play mats, dice bags, and other essential gaming goods and Inked Gaming is a great place to keep in mind to be your go-to shop. With such a large selection of premium gear listed on their site, they are really a one-stop shop built by and for gamers. You'll even find custom products in their collection that you can personalize with unique designs that come straight from your imagination or your home game or your favorite podcast. I don't care what you do, do it. It's so much fun. Having them as a sponsor is really, really great for us because we get to recommend a really relevant and excellent sponsor for you, and they are offering you 10% off. All you have to do is go to inkedgaming.com/jointheparty and use promo code JoinTheParty at checkout. That's inkedgaming.com/jointheparty and use promo code JoinTheParty for 10% off your order. We are also sponsored this week by Skillshare. They are one of our oldest and favorite sponsors because they are a great place to learn new skills, deepen existing passions, and get lost in creativity. There are tons of fascinating classes whether it's hobbies like painting, or origami, or growing plants, or knitting that you want to learn just for you or stuff that you want to sort of level up your personal or professional skills. I recently loved Making Your First Zine: From Idea to Illustration by Kate Bingaman-Burt, which I thought was lovely not just as a consumer of zines sort of helped me appreciate more the art that goes into them, but it's also just really soothing and interesting to watch an expert talk about something she's really good at. So, if you want to explore your creativity, go to skillshare.com/jointheparty to access your free-trial of premium membership. That's skillshare.com/jointheparty. And finally, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Relationships take a lot of work and many of us will show up for our friends whenever they need it. We'll go out of our way to treat other people well, but we don't often extend that same treatment to ourselves. And this month, BetterHelp wants to remind you to take care of your most important relationship which is the one you have with yourself. I get my therapy through better help and every week I know that for that hour it is all about me and how I can show up better for myself but also by extension the people in my life and I get to meet with my therapist easily and communicate with her really effortlessly via BetterHelp. BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don't want to see anybody on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp Online Therapy. Once more, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Join the Party listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P.com/jointheparty. And now, back to the after party.
[midroll sfx pings]
Amanda: Everybody, I'm back, you have your refills and yes that is-- that is nugget ice. I did-- I did get nugget ice for you. I harvested it.
Brandon: Oh, dang!
Julia: Amanda, did I do a good job muddling the mint?
Amanda: Incredible.
Julia: Thank you.
Amanda: Incredible.
Brandon: [in an American southern accent] I'm a southern lawyer now that I have my julep.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: Uh-oh.
Brandon: [in an American southern accent] Let's answer some more cross examination.
Julia: Brandon, I'm going to need you to commit to the bit. If you're going to do this voice you have to do it for the rest of the episode.
Brandon: [in an American southern accent] Well, Julia, how could I do anything other?
Eric: [in an American southern accent] Well, now, I'm also here. I'm Gambit. Who wants to see my card? Also, I was like E40 there. I fully went all the way to Oakland, through the bayou.
Amanda: But guys, it's such a good episode to talk about episode 51.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Real hot shit! Here's the thing, guys, every episode left in the campaign is as hot as episode 51, so just prepare yourself. I feel like there's-- there is a lot to talk about, maybe let's start. Maybe we should we start with the big moment and go backward because I feel like it's just-- it's just in in the air.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And a lot of people were obviously like, Eric, what the fuck? That was the main takeaway from the discord that day, but just a lot of questions about, like, this moment of Preserver and Multitool meeting, asking if I knew it was coming. Certainly not. Eric, did you have this planned? Were we supposed to find the mirror? If we didn't find it, what would have happened? Please tell us everything.
Brandon: I also want to ask you two because I think Julia figured out, like, 10 minutes beforehand. At what point did you realize it was the other Aggie, Amanda, because it took me until Julia was like, "Brandon."
Eric: There was a moment- There was a moment when I was describing the woman and Brandon's like, "Have we met this character before?
Julia: Like, guess.
Eric: Give me more details." And I'm like, No, Brandon, I'm not going to do that.
Brandon: I asked if you wanted to include the race because you normally have been doing that and you were like, "I don't think we need too."
Garbled chatting:
Julia: Seconds.
Amanda: This Amanda in fact, from the first half of this campaign.
[Amanda chuckles]
Amanda: No, I knew immediately from, you know, there's a-- there's a mirror in a storage unit. We have two diverting timelines here, probably that's what's happening. But I did not dare hope when there was that first roll or check of like, something is pulling you here. And I think uncharacteristically for, certainly Preserver, but I think Multitool is a little more individualistic. I was like, "Sorry, guys. Like, Brandon, you have this covered. I'm going over there. Like, I need to figure out what's here."
Julia: Yeah. I knew as soon as Eric said the pull of time. I'm like "Oop, there it is."
[Brandon chuckles]
Amanda: There it is.
Julia: And then also immediately it clicked for me Join Hands. And I was like, what? Why did Eric pick that for this one, because... yeah.
Amanda: Wait, what?
Eric: Brandon and Amanda real time just figured this out.
Amanda: Oh damn!
Brandon: I didn't even think about-- I don't-- I don't always know all the names of the arcs cuz' I just do the episode numbers, so I didn't think about it. But yeah, that makes sense.
Amanda: Oh, that's really good. Fuck. So, I mean, you planned it then?
Eric: I did. Yes, I did.
Amanda: Fuck.
Eric: I knew the entire time. In my Notion, here's a little plug for Notion, that you can put little emojis next -- as like next to your titles. When you do them, you can break things out, like, into individual, like, pages. So, I always have different emojis for each one. For arc one, it was a bank, for arc two is a little snowman, arc three was a cherry blossom, arc four was a uh, egg timer, arc five was a pencil, and arc six the entire time, it was a mirror.
[Amanda gasps]
Julia: Incredible.
Amanda: Fuck.
Eric: So, I knew the entire time. That's why I kept emphasizing to all of you that the OTA was built the entire time. And that you can just go in there. I really wanted you to know that, like, the thing that was here is what was here. And yes, it was inside that vault. There were questions about whether or not they would have found it. There, a lot of things would have had to been different for them not to have noticed the big vault and then want to go in it. The thing that changed everything was Aggie going to Danny, to prep, right? And then, I'm like, "Perfect, I have this thing that I can-- that I can do to do." Literally, I mean, I foreshadowed it. Like, I had a piece of foreshadowing that would-- that would make you-- that would give you a bonus for this, so that was inevitable, right? But if you didn't do that, and if you had decided to ignore, you would have decided to ignore the vault as well, yeah, we might not have seen it. And it was-- it was a lot. Milo and Lou fucking wrecked, looking for items, so that wasn't a problem at all.
Brandon: MiLou!
Eric: And that number was incredibly high, I just want to say, but y'all just smashed it.
Brandon: 78 I think you said it was.
Eric: So, yeah, it's so, so, sly. So, it's like Val and Aggie had a chance to go do something else. And also, it helped that Milo didn't want to interact with you two, so that-- that also --
Amanda: It worked out.
Eric: -- propelled that. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. I think it worked really nicely in the fiction, but of course if, like, we decided to, like, look like one of us would have cannot resist a giant cake on a platter across the room, you know. Like, one of us.
Eric: Exactly.
Brandon: Even Milo would have gone to check it out.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Exactly. I did want all three of you, that was the only worry that I had about all three of you splitting, about splitting the party is that I really wanted all three of you to go into the final room together, which luckily did, but I would have figured it out if that happened. Or you maybe you would have waited for each other hopefully as you walked into the treasure room, but again, I don't think it would have not happened. Like, there always would have been something that led there. Again, I intentionally put it in a vault.
Amanda: Well, I gotta say nothing about it felt inevitable or on rails, so that is, you know, incredibly well done because --
Brandon: 100%.
Amanda: -- it felt so spontaneous and maybe gave myself too much credit for-- for going into the bank vault because it was irresistible.
Brandon: I will say, you guys cracked the bank vault very easily. I was very impressed by that.
Julia: Well, it was because I was trying to literally crack the bank vault.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: And then Eric was like, "Yeah, that's not gonna fucking work, but there is a coin slot." I was like, Oh!
Amanda: Oh my god, I was so stressed. I was like, "Fuck, I used it on the bee!" But luckily, you had one.
Brandon: I love-- my favorite one in this episode was when Aggie made her ear like an elephant ear. Like, the size of an elephant ear and pressed it against the --
Julia: Incredible.
Brandon: -- bank vault door. God, that was --
Amanda: Thanks.
Brandon: -- just-- just my favorite image.
Eric: Incredible.
Amanda: Really leaning into the body horror of the character.
Eric: I was gonna say Amanda's new light body horror in Multitool was my favorite part of the campaign.
Amanda: Thank you. My favorite moment was us hugging. It felt-- it felt very true of the character. And you know, I think um, Brandon you leaning hard into this mood of Milo's, I think gave me and Julia a really nice character moment, so thank you.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Listener, the-- the eyes that Amanda gave you when she said mood was striking.
[Amanda and Eric chuckles]
Brandon: Wait, I want to know, I was gonna ask you, what were you thinking about when the hug happened?
Amanda: I think just having my back and-- and going with me and what felt like a selfish direction where Eric is, like, something about this specifically calls out to you, you know, Multitool. And I know we have a mission. And I know it's, you know, you were uncharacteristically rolling well. You and Lou had it under control. And like, I-- I don't think that Multitool in earlier episodes, and certainly not Preserver, would ever do something because it interested her. And it felt like a-- a really kind of atypical decision. And for Val to back me uncharacteristically.
[Brandon hums]
Amanda: And also just, like, the I think, combo, you know, the like, excellent combo of negotiating with the Sommelier, just like, being together for this journey, just felt really good. And I had no idea that there would be any kind of tension around the ultimate timeline talking about alternate Val. Like, we are not sure exactly what's happening, but it's clear that there is some kind of like, you know, Preserver was really surprised to hear about Milo and to see Val and whatever was going on there. That was a complete kind of coincidence, or happy accident, but I-- don't know, it just felt right.
Julia: Also, to be quite honest with you, I knew I was going to be less than useful in searching for things because my perception and investigation --
Amanda: That's fine.
Julia: -- was so fucking low. I don't know. I just-- I felt like if there was gonna be a problem, and it felt like the plot was leading to a problem inside the vault I wanted to have --
Amanda: Sure.
Julia: -- your back on that.
Brandon: Yo, I'll solve it. Check out this vault. Well, Val while warms it.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Whoever gave you those bad stats, I'm gonna go beat them.
Julia: Yeah, this is my fault. It's, you know, and I was talking about this on a Party Planning that we just recorded. It's my fault, because I know that I am a player that likes to investigate things and figure out, like, all the, like, hidden bits in the room for giving myself such bad stats on perception and investigation.
Brandon: Why did you do that?
Julia: That's on me.
Eric: I just find it-- I just find it so funny that Julia is just like, I want to investigate and then just like turns is like, "Brandon, roll an investigation."
Julia: Yeah, I do that all the time. I'm like, "Hey, someone who's better at this, do you want to do this?"
[Eric laughs]
Julia: Like, "oh, here's a cool science thing that me as a player, I want to know more about hey, Brandon."
Amanda: Hey, someone.
Eric: Brandon, roll arcana now.
Amanda: Who has arcana? Oh, right. It's Brandon.
Brandon: And then I'm like, "Oh, join hands!"
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I also want to say that people, some people have asked about how afraid I have been about splitting the party the entire time. And I've touched on it a lot, but I want to emphasize, when you're playing a game, the goal isn't to kill people, and I do want to kill people for sure. If warranted as show by the.
Brandon: Someone pun that out.
Julia: No. I wanna do it.
Eric: As warranted by the mushroom horde, you can see that I can kill people, I can definitely kill people. I do want there to be danger, but like there are opportunities, think about your favorite TV shows, where you get to split people off and have individual, like, one-on-one scenes. This is what we got here. And I'm glad that we-- that everyone was able to flourish and able to do this. And then you were able to have beautiful moments together and fun moments and for Julia and Amanda to do something by themselves. And for Brandon to figure out this-- the danger and deal with it and deal with consequences. Like, Brandon got to get closer to an NPC which is-- which is great. When you trust your players to do stuff in different pods that you all don't have to do it together, I think that there is an opportunity to make splitting the party work. Yeah. And also, you can still kill them and punish them and it's always going to be scarier because they're doing it by themselves, so you always have that. You always have that thing in your pocket.
Amanda: And of course, at the end of the episode, there was, I thought, a very well roleplayed and justified moment where Milo didn't make it into the mirror. Brandon and Eric talk us through what was happening there.
Brandon: Yeah, I'll say what I was thinking and then, Eric, I'm curious to hear what you're thinking if we were on the same --
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: -- page or not. I think the only thing that was going on in my head was, it was pretty simple calculus. It was just like, you know, this is a fuck situation. Not only am I mad at my other two colleagues, but they also didn't help me do the thing that we're here to do. So like, what the fuck? And now, because they want to take this fucking mirror out of the thing we have, we're like more encumbered. And so, like Milo's gonna go along with it, because it's a good idea to, like, get out of the room that way but, like, as soon as it's, like, touching a hot stove, you know, as soon as he started touching the hot stove, he was like, "Nope, fuck this. I can do it myself. Bye." You know?
Eric: Yeah. I think that the-- the thing where I was not worried was that Brandon responded to the fact that I took-- I gave him a ton of damage. I brought him down to 10 HP. And I think that was also, that's a warning that, like, not. Yes, not only am I having a bad time, but I'm not going to push through the pain when I'm already mad at you. And there was something going on-- something going on about why you should not have gone through the mirror. I want to say, did not think y'all were gonna go through the mirror. I think that there is.
Amanda: Really?
Eric: Yeah, I did not know because.
Amanda: Really?
Eric: I think, I mean, it was an option, I guess. I did not think that escaping-- escaping, "to an alternate timeline" is not escaping the-- escaping the building. That's what threw me off, but of course you made-- I knew that, but you didn't know that. So, I guess I didn't see that coming, but I did want to because Brandon rolled poorly and maybe some other things that we'll see in the next episode, Milo was having a bad time. And I think that using that as-- using the mechanics as a trigger to do role playing is how the game is played.
[Julia hums in agreement]
Eric: That's how you do it.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Totally.
Eric: And that's why I'm like, "Yeah, totally. That's why Milo doesn't go. And that's why Val and Aggie and Lou do." We get-- just the-- the numbers and the mechanics made sense. And then we were able to play it out. Like, that's how you-- that's how you do the game, so I thought that that was all incredible and justified and very smart.
Amanda: Well, I have one last question on this episode before we get into some final kind of game, character, and podcast questions, which is around the pizza slices as a mechanic. It felt like a metaphor we kind of happened on together, but I love it. And I just thought it was really charming and lovely and felt like there was real stakes without, like, the pressure of a literal counting clock. So, Eric, where'd you draw this from?
Brandon: I just want to say it was.
[Brandon chuckles]
Brandon: It wasn't necessarily a metaphor. What happened was Eric was like, a certain number of pie pieces. Like, you would have in Trivial Pursuit or whatever. Then Amanda was like, "Eric, can you do your Italian pizza impression for me?" It's a pizza-pizza.
Eric: It's a pizza. Yeah, I pulled this from Blades in the Dark and other games like that. We've talked about these slices before as a way to represent time going forward, so I was trying to meld that with Dungeons and Dragons, the action economy fitting into slices, if you do something, it takes time. This is also similar to what happened with Val's money is, like, you know, we don't keep track of things like that. We don't-- they're not-- it's not exactly like I have 10 gold pieces and an action takes six seconds. That's not exactly what we're doing. I also wanted to keep clear that you did not know from the -- as much as Val tried to pretend to be Juddd Judddkins and convince the director that everything was fine.
Amanda: Which was incredible by the way.
Eric: It's so funny.
Julia: Thank you.
Eric: I really wanted to keep a sense of mystery of how long it would take before something bad happened. And we still don't know. So, that's why I wanted to say like, you are using slices, there are-- you don't know how many slices are left, but if you keep pulling slices, eventually it's going to run out. And then we landed on pizza slices as a way-- as a fun way to talk about it. But no, it was really fun. I hope. I hope that that kind of ratcheted up the-- the tension. And I think that's also why people made choices as fast as they did.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: That they didn't-- they didn't necessarily stop and think about things they just kind of did, which I thought, which is why you all ended up going through the mirror in the first place.
Julia: I had a lot of anxiety about that and I was like, "the only out that I see currently is through this mirror. Let's fucking go."
[Amanda hums in agreement]
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Me too. And I think that transitions us really well into a question we got from Rhiannon on Discord, but also a couple other people in other mediums about do we ever record multiple episodes in one session? Everyone wanted to know, basically, are we also sitting in suspense in between these episodes like the audience is.
Brandon: I mean, generally speaking, yeah. I think things are shifting now that we're weekly. And we, you know, we're trying to keep episodes a little tighter to make sure that I don't die, you know, during the week.
Eric: Who? Who are we talking about?
[Amanda chuckles]
Brandon: [in an Italian accent] It's a Brandon..
Eric: Oh, I'm just a soul.
Julia: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Brandon: [in an American southern accent] I'm just a simple-- I'm just the audio editor. I can't do it. I lost it. I lost it.
Julia: Oh my god.
Amanda: Yeah, we were playing this around the time that the campaign to end bad Tuesday's was going on, so we didn't yet know what our schedule would look like. So, now newly, we are playing sometimes one episode, but sometimes two in one session. So, so far, all of the cliffhangers you're experiencing, listeners, we also experienced. And let me tell you, it's a lot. And usually, there's a week between play sessions, because we typically play on Fridays.
[Julia hums in agreement]
Brandon: You should see our slack channels whenever something like that happens. We're just like, "Eric!"
Amanda: I know.
Brandon: Come on!
Eric: Good. I need it. I need to live.
Amanda: Marked for Death would like to know, "Eric, how much of this was intended at the end of Join the Loop?"
Eric: That's a great question. A lot of it-- I do go session by session and arc by arc in terms of plotting. Overarching plots, I kind of pushed forward, but I think that the heist of the OTA only got spurred on because of Hank running for mayor and leaving the OTA.
Amanda: Because of Milo running Hank, for mayor you mean.
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: Yes, exactly. That's what I'm saying. So, I had not thought that this was going to be the next thing. I did have an idea that there needed-- I wanted to give you something that made it easier for you to see what Gutenberg was doing as we got further in this plot and we realized that people were made out of pixels. But the heist itself, no, but I knew everything that was going to happen from the beginning of Join Hands.
Amanda: Incredible. And our final question before spoil-ey corner Maya on Instagram asks, "This is kind of meta, but I'm wondering how many questions you generally get for After Parties? And do you generally answer them all or just pick your few favorites?" Eric, you are usually the one who gathers the questions, so what's your process?
Brandon: Thank you for gathering.
Amanda: Thanks for gathering.
Eric: Thank you. I want to give a special shout out to folks on Instagram that y'all have really responded well to the question doohickey that I post as our-- to Join the Party stories that has been really well, especially Michelle Spurgeon Question Surgeon who really goes ham on that stuff and also some other people have been doing that as well. So, there are-- there are three places I get them from the afterparty channel, in the discord, our Twitter, and Instagram when I asked specifically for them, or sometimes people email just ambiently. And I do look at all of them. Now as we are changing to the three episode structure, I am combining a lot of questions and adding them as we add to, like, things we already want to talk about. Especially for this one, because everyone was like, "What happened? Preserver? What?" So, sometimes I combine a lot of people's ideas and questions together, but if you have a really good specific question that I didn't think of we will read them out. Before we read a lot of them, we are getting way more questions, so we read less, but keep-- but always put that stuff in. I want as many questions so I can figure out what y'all want us to talk about. And I really do like transcribing things. And I really like-- I don't know, I don't do a lot of busy work during the day. I know that this-- this might be like a little bit of a sad problem, but I spend a lot of my time just trying to make shit. So, it's just, like, pulling, trying to pull shit out of my brain. So, the times that I get to do busy work, which is why I fell in love with podcasting in the first place is kind of fun for me, so copying down people's Instagram stuff, orienting this document and that has been really, really nice. But I do like your questions, and I see all of them.
Amanda: And occasionally, if there are really good kind of general questions about, like, our characters, or would you rather, something about the podcast in general, we may slot them in, during after parties that have less plot to talk about so that we can spend more time on a very fun question, you know, about what our characters would prefer, what they would do. But hey, guys, there's a lot to talk about today and coming up in the future.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: So, we will see.
Eric: I want to say really quickly, just so quickly, all of us, what is your favorite sandwich?
Amanda: No.
Eric: No.
Amanda: Not sandwich discord. No.
Eric: That's it. That's it.
Amanda: No.
Eric: That's it.
Amanda: Turkey Blt.
Eric: If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would it be?
Brandon: Like, me personally?
Eric: Yeah, like, if it was called the Brandon or something like it.
Brandon: Oh, my not-- my go-to is always good. Has a good bread for, like, baguette kind of thing, but, like, not as hard.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Shaved chicken, specifically.
Eric: Nice.
Brandon: Rotisserie, also acceptable. Cheddar, tomato, mayo, mustard. That's all.
Eric: That's great.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I like that.
Julia: I like a chicken banh mi.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I love a banh mi.
Amanda: I would do either-- either chicken salad or honey turkey sort of club style, so um, sourdough bread, bacon, like a gem lettuce or like a butter lettuce. Something really kind of uh, with a lot of texture. And then um, something like pickled carrots maybe.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And then if it's just honey turkey, mayo, it's chicken salad. No mayo because it's already in a chicken salad.
Brandon: I should-- I will add lettuce if it's butter lettuce with all other lettuces can go fuck themselves.
Amanda: I love iceberg lettuce. I'm Iceberg lettuce's biggest fan. Yeah.
[Brandon chuckles]
Eric: I have a sandwich that if I could get it on a-- on a sandwich shop I would do in a fucking second. It's called The Commissioner. It is uh, a chicken cutlet with also-- with American cheese unlike cheddar, lettuce, tomato, pickle. And then, like, a it's kind of like to play on reuben so it has, like, the slaw on it instead. So, depending on how pickle-y you make your– your slaw, you-- you can take out the lettuce or the pickle and then put the slaw on instead. And that's the commissioner.
Brandon: I would eat the shit out of that Eric.
Eric: I think about it all the time. It's the thing I want the most. To someone to name a sandwich after me.
Amanda: Join the Party pals who work at sandwich shops, consider.
Eric: I want to shout out the people--
Amanda: We have lattes, right?
Eric: Yeah, I want to shout out the people who've been making drinks that are based on me which is great. I've really been enjoying that.
Amanda: Oh, is that what the coffee about would you drink hot coffee? Is that what that's from?
Eric: That's because in the mid roll I did the-- I said I'm iced coffee till' I die.
Amanda: Oh, yes. That's true.
Eric: And that's why we talking about maple syrup in coffee-- in coffee as well.
Amanda: Eric will drink hot coffee at diners, right? That's usually where you get it.
Eric: Oh, of course.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. What am I gonna do? Ask someone to pour coffee into a cup and then add-- hot coffee into a cup and then add ice? Like, that's all they're doing.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: We've done it. It's not good.
Eric: I've done it before but, like, I'm gonna make you do it. That's the only time I like hot coffee is, yes, is at a diner.
Amanda: Alright, folks. You ready for spoil-ey corner?
Julia: Let's do it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, speaking of the Question Surgeon, here are some questions from Michelle Spurgeon. Do any of the LT3's friends take Vitamin M? Or have they been told not to? Who can say?
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Did Lou even have parents? It feels like she invented herself.
[Brandon and Eric laugh]
Julia: That'd be very funny, but who can say?
Amanda: Who can say?
Eric: God, the stuff about Lou that comes up feels like there needs to be an extra comic just about Lou.
Julia: Yeah, spin-off.
Amanda: That will be great.
Brandon: I would buy the fuck out of that.
Eric: Yeah, it's --
Amanda: Netflix animated series can add us.
Eric: Yeah, Lou nguyen, the smartest person in Laketown City is the name of the-- is the name of the comic.
Amanda: No notes. And finally, is the anti powered movement dead now? I'm noticing way more powered folk are making themselves known. We'll see.
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Amanda: Who can say? Why is Preserver surprised that Milo and Val are there?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: I literally cannot say that.
Amanda: Who can say, folks.
Eric: Tune in next week, y'all.
Amanda: Jet Dark Lore, In the room with the monster, was there a file on the knight of mirrors that reveals who they are under their real name?
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: From Ispep on Insta, I think it's not who can say, but why does the OTA have their grubby little government hands on this mirror in the first place?
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Who can say?
Eric: Interesting.
Amanda: Soup Dumpling in Discord. What is Milo/Brandon gonna do when the others are in this alternate timeline? Just like twiddle his thumbs in OTA jail?
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: I hope not.
Brandon: I'm just gonna sit there and twiddle my thumbs.
Eric: That's such a spoiler for the next three episodes, Brandon. Just sit there, not have his mic on, and just listen to the three of us record.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Jessvie877. How many kinds of anthropomorphized animals does the OTA have on hand? Do they have, like, a whole division dedicated to working with or awakening animals? Is that where January's from?
Julia: Who can say?
[techno beatbox]
Brandon: It's animals in a prison.
[techno beatbox]
Amanda: No!
Eric: No! No!
Amanda: First the Daisy and now this.
Eric: There aren’t animals in a prison.
[Brandon chuckles]
Eric: But they all look at you. And I do want to say that, Brandon, I gave you a chance to redeem yourself as the mushroom horde looked Val in the eyes. And you saw, and you saw it upset then it was alive.
Brandon: Yep. I know. I know what you're doing.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: After all the number of times I forced that on you I forced it on someone else.
Amanda: And Not A Goldfish on Insta. Is Hive married to Queen Bee? And I, Amanda, would like to add. Is Hive a worker bee of the queen bee?
Julia: Ooh!
Brandon: Ooh!
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: This is one of those things that I don't want to, like, tip my hand or anything but like, you could have called them I guess.
Amanda: I know. It didn't occur to me. It didn't occur to me.
Eric: Yeah, it's like just one of those things.
Amanda: MertLodge on Insta. What would have happened if the players had fallen into the void in hopscotch? I don't want to think about it. Who can say?
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: That's a good question. Who can say?
Amanda: And a late addition from the Question Surgeon. What will the OTA officials think of an antique fridge in the broken elevator shaft?
[Brandon and Eric laugh]
Julia: It's a great question. Who can say?
Brandon: What happens? Yeah, that's actually-- What happens to the things that Sommelier pulls out of her body that--
Amanda: Okay, I've been thinking about this. I think that they have, like, a 12 or 24-hour window of corporeality and then they dissolve. Like, I think with the-- with the trans, the um, transference of energy and like preservation of matter and stuff, she can't be making a whole cloth out of nowhere. And something about the, like, 12 or 24 hour cycle means that, like, she sleeps and regenerates. Like that, I don't know. That's kind of what I think.
Julia: I think they just exist forever now. That's my theory.
Eric: Julia, what is it with that with--
Julia: With Momo? It just exists now.
Eric: It just exists now?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: That's very funny.
Julia: That's why she has to eat so much is because she's, like, physically creating the objects and she has to know the, like, scientific, like, break down like, you know what I mean?
Eric: Yeah, she, like, make- literally uses, like, the carbon from her body to make it into stuff, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, so that, I mean, that's what I have it based on. I like both of your headcanons. I like both that it exists for 24 hours and I like that it exists forever.
Brandon: Schrodinger’s fridge.
[Amanda hums in agreement]
Eric: Yeah. I just want to say that's also why her-- that's also why she has the cutouts all over her outfit. It's like I know shout out to Marvel is that, like, they just fucking do that just for funsies regardless, but that is specifically why there are cutouts all over her. All over the, like, tactical suits that she wears all the time.
[Julia hums in agreement]
Amanda: And finally, the folks like to know the bookies are calling. What are the odds in the knight of mirrors now?
[Brandon chuckles]
Amanda: So this is a fun thing that has been happening in discord that I just wanted to close out the spoil-ey corner with where people who really know math are running real odds and not real betting, by the way, government. Just-- just for fun odds on who the knight of mirrors is. Let's check in on the odds, please.
Eric: Sure. I want to give a special shout out to Maureen who has been running this. I also don't, I never understood how odds worked and now I do. So, thank you so much for teaching me how that works. Kind of like on a low-- on a low level scale. So, these are from 221. This is before the last episode came out and there are, like, new odds coming together. The way Maureen does this is that, like, people need to fill it out on a Google Doc and then by comparing the number of people who thought things and then it becomes, like, statistically what is-- what are the people betting think is the most likely thing to happen. And of course, the less likely it is the more money you would make on this. So, here are the odds while we're on here. It-- three to two it's someone we haven't met yet. Lots of people think it's someone we haven't met yet the knight of mirrors.
Amanda: And this is pari mutuel betting from Maureen, a person who knows math. Thank you, Maureen.
Eric: Seven to two it's Fritz brights down.
[Amanda and Julia hums]
Eric: Seven to one, it's Dez. Eight to one, it's Lucas. Twelve to one, someone we did meet at the gala, but not kind of on this list of other people who we might have met at the gala in on this odds betting. 31 to 1 Hank Lane.
Amanda: Which means what, like, three or four people chose that.
Eric: Yeah. 42 to 1, January. Also 42 to 1, Hitomi. 64 to 1, Doctor Morrow. And 129 to 1, Al Gore.
Brandon: I mean, it's almost certainly Al Gore, so I don't know you guys are thinking
Amanda: Well, Brandon, if you were the person that voted that, in theory, on this racetrack betting, you would win big if it is Al Gore.
Julia: The person who voted that is on this call right now.
Eric: You voted Al Gore?
Julia: No, I thought you did.
Eric: No, I voted me.
Julia: Oh, okay.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Maureen removed me. I put Eric.
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: And Maureen said "Eric, I can't include you" and I'm like, "That's fine. I'm gonna keep doing it."
Julia: Never mind.
Amanda: Oh my god.
Eric: No, I didn't make it. I didn't make it out the odds, but the real odds are that the next few episodes are going to be hot fire and I'm very excited for everyone here.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: I will-- I will ask Eric Do you know who the knight of mirrors is? And if you do, when, when have you, like, since when have you known that?
Eric: I do know who the knight of mirrors is. I'm not just like, messing around. I'm not just messing around. I know who it is and I've known who it is for a little while.
Brandon: You just like, "and the knight of mirrors takes off their helmet and who do you guys think it is?"
[players laugh]
Eric: I can also say I --
Amanda: Roll a D4.
Eric: Here's another thing, I didn't change through the knight of mirrors is. That's another thing I want to say. It has been the same person the entire time. So the, you-- I've given you all the clues Batman. Riddle me this.
[Brandon chuckles]
Amanda: Amazing. What an episode, what a life, what a podcast. Thank you all for listening. Thank you players for playing. Thank you Eric for uh, for DMing. I can't wait to get to next week's episode.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Bye guys.
Julia: Later.
Eric: What do I say? I forgot what I say.
Amanda: Bye. Every time. It's just goodbye.
Eric: Bye.
Brandon: Hello? Is it hello? What do I say? Hello?
Eric: Hello, welcome to-- welcome to party planning. The only thing where you-- we have deviled eggs here at all times.
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever upward.
[Eric chuckles]
Amanda: Next season you'll do the sign off.
[Amanda and Eric laugh]
Eric: I forgot.
Amanda: Bye.
[Join the Party Theme music plays]
Brandon: Like, genuinely, oh Lauren’s grinding coffee.
[everyone laughs]
Eric: Does Lauren got any coffee? Is Lauren grinding coffee the new Julia's train?
Amanda: It is I think.
Julia: Might be.
Amanda: Hang on. Eric, what's that outside pass the window? Is that an animal parade?
[techno beatbox]
Eric: Alright, let's go-- let's go around in a circle. We'll go Amanda, Julia, Brandon, me.
Brandon: Okay.
[techno beatbox]
Amanda: Inchworm secret agent
[techno beatbox]
Julia: Caterpillar with a secret.
[techno beatbox]
Brandon: A frog with a tape machine.
[techno beatbox]
Eric: Raccoon PhD candidate.
[Amanda laughs]
Amanda: Animal parade!
Eric: It's an animal parade.
[Amanda chuckles]
Amanda: Eric and I do that, like, four or five times a week. I highly recommend it.
[siren pings]
Julia: It's the fucking siren. Hold on.
[techno beatbox]
Brandon: A dragon with a baseball card.
[techno beatbox]
Eric: Hedgehog wearing-- playing playing cards. Damn.
[Amanda and Brandon laugh]
Amanda: I like it. Then you do it to tee me up.
[techno beatbox]
Amanda: A little cat with big pizza.
[Brandon laughs]
[techno beatbox]
Julia: A bunny with Bitcoin.
Eric: Nice.
[Amanda and Brandon laugh]
Julia: Animal parade.
Eric: It's animal parade. There it is. There's the parade.
Transcribed by: John Matthew M. Sarong