Tales from the Stinky Dragon - C02 - Grotethe Campaign Wrap Up

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Join the whole crew - Gus, Barbara, Blaine, Jon, Chris, Micah, & Ben as they talk about campaign 02 - the Grotethe Finale and the future of Grotethe, favorite moments and characters, and a hint at what characters you'll see in campaign 03. Support us directly on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/stinkydragon - get access to ad-free episodes, bonus content like Stinky Dragon Adventures & Second Wind, our patreon-exclusive discord, and more! Follow us on our socials at https://linktr.ee/TalesFromTheStinkyDragon Go to http://HeroForge.com and use code STINKY to get 5% off all orders of physical miniatures. Go to http://shopify.com/dragon to sign up for a $1-per-month trial period. Go to http://mistymountaingaming.com and use code STINKY to get 10% off your order. Listen and subscribe to Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance on August 29 - available to listen wherever you get podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does possible sound like for your business? It's more cash on hand to grow with up to 55 interest-free days. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash Business Platinum. Hello everyone, welcome to a very long special bonus episode. We haven't even started and you just said long.

I'm predicting it. They are long. Long, long man. We have a lot to talk about. Gus is going to filibuster to make sure it's long. Yeah, Gus, why is your chair turned around? I don't understand. Ladies and gentlemen, allowing me to address,

um, we're gonna be doing a discussion about campaign two, the Grow Teth campaign as a whole. Before we get started, I'm gonna hit everyone here with an arrow. What? No, uh, What? What? What?

Can everyone just go around the table and introduce themselves? Should we go counterclockwise or clockwise? I'm Chris Damaris, and I play Barney Farney. He decided it for you. I'm Barbara Dunkleman and I play Elga von Breth. And I'm Mike Reisinger, the writer, editor and composer. I'm John Reisinger and I play Meti Conficis. Counterclockwise. Just go.

I'm Blaine Gibson. I play Chip Haney. And who are you? Oh, and I'm Gustavo Sarola, the Dungeon Master. And I think we have someone on Mike back over there too Yeah, I'm Ben and I play Dr. Frankenstein and I also play Sticks of butter in your tongue growing three times in size

David Sanya on the ones and twos. Our spherat. But I do want to say Ben is also our producer. He doesn't just do those two voices. Yeah, many hats. He produces VO for us. I know that. So we want to talk in general about campaign two and maybe talk about some questions the

players may have. I want to start with my own questions first. I have a question. No, no. So we're recording this and all the episodes have not come out yet. So the players here have not seen audience feedback about some of the last several episodes. So I want to start off by asking the audience, does anyone remember who Sadate Tempura is? Us?

Yes. You just said ask the audience. Ask the players. I'm sorry. Who Sadate Tempura was. Well, I feel like that name sounded familiar when you said it. And I think I had mentioned that. Yes.

And obviously she's in sheath and she was Elga's fake mom during that time. But I feel like we met her in carcassook or like heard about her in carcassook maybe, but I don't remember. Anybody else? Um, is she from campaign two or she from campaign one? Is she from campaign one? Now you're asking the right questions. Because I thought we had met her in campaign one, but I wasn't sure. I don't think you ever met her. I mean, there was a story sense. Didn't we die at one point and someone said, no, no, no, they're not ready or something.

That was campaign to those campaign to was that them though? Sadat and this dragon person who, by the way, I think I know who that is. Well, we'll know that. Here's the, here's the thing. The audience will know by the voice if it's somebody we know. So say it now, if it is because the audience knows this I'm gonna defer to Micah I'll say Yeah, you you definitely heard the name Sadati tempur and campaign one in deja or bloom that arc Do you remember hearing that name in deja or blue?

Yes, would have been the the city that we went around in time a bunch of times Kiborg met his good buddy. I forgot that one. Now I'm trying to think of any place we would have... Was that... It wasn't like Hugh Manor's wife? Ding ding ding. Whoa!

Chris! You know, I had half as dumb as you looked! There's reference and it's one of the things I was always curious about, you know, obviously Micah you do all the writing. It was one of the things I had always I was always curious about you know obviously Micah you do all the writing was one of the things I was always curious about it was it was a left open hook at the end of campaign one was meld was going to leave to look for her mother yeah and it was just like never it was never addressed directly yeah so even when I got the module from

Micah with the name Sadati to pour in it for the first time I looked at it I probably the same reaction you did Barbara where. I was like, where have I seen that before? I had to like look through your Rolodex. And it's so funny because even those episodes haven't come out by the time we're recording this. And I'm sure there's going to be so many people in our audience who know it's from campaign one because a lot of people have like relistened to the first campaign. That's why I was kind of excited that we were finishing off

this campaign without the episodes having aired yet and without you guys having. Yeah, it's like, oh, we have a real opportunity here to like lean into and kind of have fun with it without any people like you said who've listened to the story many times chiming in with comments about it. Just in case people haven't listened to the first campaign and they've only since the second campaign This is we're not talking about any major spoilers, right? They can they don't have to feel like they Know it's like Nick Fury at the end of the Iron Man. It's just like who's that?

Here's at the end of Iron Man. You didn't watch the credits. That's like a thing I do think though like even the I think connections that there are to campaign one doesn't spoil Even though, like, even the, I think, connections that there are to Campaign 1 doesn't spoil Campaign 1 as a whole. Like, I think you could still go back and listen to it and not have anything ruined for you. Unless I mentioned, beep! I know sometimes when I listen to stuff, I'm like, oh wait, is there a spoiler? And I'll turn it off. So I wanted to, like, just... Did I unknowingly give Mom a really important role? Well, she did birth two of you. I wanted to go with that.

So it was like a thing that like you had been had brought up and I was like, yeah, that's who I want to play this. But it was it was something I pulled. I was like, yeah, mom makes sense for, you know, Elga's mother. I was like, good idea, John. A little behind the scenes, right? So his dad, the dragonborn? I'm gonna go in right there and say no.

Yeah, I was gonna say. I love you, dad. I got a role for you coming up, though. Gus really likes to not read too far ahead in modules, so as to not accidentally spoil something for players. I'm terrible about that. Yeah, you've done that before, too. Yeah, I'm so bad about it.

But Micah and I have talked at length at times about just kind of pacing and where the story's headed and kind of like wrapping my head around, you know, what his thoughts are for the story. And I think Micah told me about Sadatay months ago, kind of when we were talking about, okay, where is Groteth headed? What's going to happen? And so when we finally had the episode where her name was dropped, I'm really glad I'm sitting behind a screen because I just kind of like held my breath.

I was waiting to see if anyone picked up on it. Oh, Hugh Manor's wife. Wait, so was Sadatetumperb, we often name characters after community members who have interacted with us on social media. Was that, no, just a random name. Because you can kind of get a clue from it from everybody else's name in the family.

So, like, she doesn't share, obviously, the same last name. But Meld is, like, mild. Said Sadat El-Sedet. So it's always, like, this juxtaposition of Hugh Manor and, like, these people. Mm. And obviously, this will be more obvious when the episode comes out and we have all the like voice actors doing the parts.

But was the Dragonborn person Dr. Ahem? I don't know. Yeah, it's gonna be my voice actor. I was gonna say, like, you can tell us, because the audience knows at this point. Oh, well, I can't say that because it's a spoiler for season one, but interesting interesting So we'd heaven well, but you're not dead my I'll catch the limbo. We have to go back to an island. Okay

sounds like hell How I interpreted the ending was it was kind of like giving the stakes of the big story because it's like again when you talked about It was a hubris Consuming worlds and it's like that was the example of a world getting consumed You saw my like where you were or like grotesque like was that? or like grotesque, like was that? Like what the question you're asking. I'm not getting anything. I'm talking about,

I think your answer is just going to be okay. This is how I interpreted it. As in like, he's telling you a statement and all you have to do is say, okay. Good question. How do you feel about that? The hubris was like, is consuming worlds or like consuming growing and eating.

And the grotesque world was almost like getting consumed. What was being, I know there's like the earthquakes and all the things like falling apart, that kind of aspect to it. Are you talking about? Yeah, well, and then it literally kind of like, we came out of a mouth and it was kind of like the great mom, but like kind of eaten and consumed out of a mouth and it was kind of like the Great Ma But like kind of eaten and consumed and like I don't know like everything was falling apart Like the world was being consumed by the hubris, which is like the big big bad. I think you're on to something I'm not gonna give you a definitive because I think that would influence future decisions

But I think it's an excellent theory and I think it has traction for in some ways So I have to ask yeah So obviously the ending of this campaign is very different than the ending of the first campaign but the first campaign felt like He got kind of closure on a lot of things and answers to a lot of questions and this one obviously There's a lot still up in the air and a lot of questions. And this one, obviously, there's a lot still up in the air, and a lot of, I think, loose ends that maybe some people assumed might be tied up that weren't. Is there... Is this the end of the story? This is not the end of the story of Groteth.

Yeah, I can see how people will assume that, and I kind of did that intentionally in a lot of ways. But, yeah, clearly, there is some sort of interconnectedness with your last scene that we kind of heard with Sadati and that other person. And the doctor. I didn't say that. No, we don't have the rights to the doctor.

Yeah, that's true. That's a different time traveling doctor. Who? Yeah. But yeah, so there is a... If everybody here here I'm allowed to slap you Actually, we're all no longer employees so yeah, we can having a slap fight. It's B. It's B.

Did that actually answer the question? I don't know. Yeah, pretty much. Did Blaine and me having a slap fight answer your question? Definitely not. It just caused more questions. I think ultimately wanting to know if we'll ever see these characters again and learn more about things.

If this was a visual medium, it would be the end of Avengers. It says the grotesque detectives will return. And I guess like, and you don't have to answer this too, but obviously doing the show, we plan on doing more campaigns as in a third campaign coming up next. Would that be involved in that? Or do you think that's like a later on kind of thing? I think you stab at the answer. Are you going to stab him?

Put that knife away, John. John's got a gun! I don't think I've at the answer. Are you gonna stab him? Put that knife away, John. You want a knife, John? John's got a gun! I don't think I've ever stabbed you. I've done a lot of things to you as a big brother. I don't think I've ever stabbed you. Probably was like a fake lightsaber. I think an easy answer, and it is an answer from you

because I know he can't directly address this kind of stuff, is that the can of worms has been opened of this addition to our stinky verse, and the can of worms is open now. So now it's not like he's gonna put a cap on it, and it's not gonna be a part of what's going on. But to reveal how it's gonna incorporate the rest of stuff would be giving away story.

That makes sense. That's a good way of putting it. I'll also say, you know, Micah and I have talked a lot about Dungeons and Dragons story pacing and how stories go. And my interpretation of this, separate from anything like Micah has, so please don't read into this as something like Micah knows or I'm giving you hints on. Take notes everyone.

Infinite's told the story of the Infinite interns and we got a compelling end with like information and conclusion there, right? Groteth, it told the story of the Groteth detectives in trying to figure out who the murderer was and you guys got the resolution there, right? Like what is happening with you all being framed as murderers. So Carol was the big baddie. I leave that up to the interpretation of the audience. Carol was the murderer all along. That was our whole mission in the beginning was who killed the person we were framed for. I guess technically you guys are the murderers.

So that way anyone can listen to the different campaigns and get a story in its conclusion but there are still these little bits and pieces that are cool if you've listened to both campaigns and you're following along there. Fair, fair, fair. Which one of the guys in the jail cell, the first episode are going to end up being deities in campaign four. Do you remember how we ever talked about this from that episode pilot when you're in the jail cell? Yeah, you guys were leaving the for the jail cell you were like starting in like the holding cell

Yeah And you kind of started going down a hallway and there were several like cells on either side of you and you kind of I Think Gus had mentioned some Prisoners and in passing you made a description. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, and Do you want to hop in there? was it the prisoners along both the walls? They're talking about the one when they made the turn to the south. There was a person who was in gray clothing that was asleep.

Oh, right. Yeah. And you walked right past him. And I think I don't think anybody interacted with them. Because the alchemist. It was the alchemist. Yeah. Oh. He later gets blasters out of there. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. I've yeah. I caught on that. I remember in that episode, I was wondering what the pacing would be like. And as always, it was one of those things where you all went totally in a different direction than I was expecting, where you spent more time than I was expecting in the first holding area,

with the two gnomes who had the one of them had the tattoo. The map on the stomach. And then when it came time to walk down the hallway, you all just kind of blew past it. And I was trying to like, wait, wait, wait, there's this and there's this. And you're like, no, no, no, we're going down the window. We're getting out of here.

We're going, oh, okay. I still, so I recently re-listened to the first two episodes, cause I was like, I remember hearing something that I wanted to ask about when the campaign finished. During the time when like Chip and Elga were in the bakery with Mateed and they had just met at that peace parade,

there was like, I want to say it was like a gnome or a dwarf or someone making comments or being like, oh, sorry, didn't mean to get in your way. They popped up, I think, later and I was just like, I'm clocking this. Like really stealing or something? No, just like they seemed like they were watching us or something or like following us.

I don't know what it was, but. I know exactly what you're talking about. So it happened first when you were in line with Chip. Yes. And then later on, something, I think someone similar came by. I think when we were outside with Barney, maybe. You walked outside, exactly, from the bakery

and you literally ran into Barney. And that was initially supposed to be like a pivotal NPC character and it never panned out. Oh, really? Yeah, I was like, nope, this doesn't go anywhere. That doesn't make sense. So it's fine. That happens in stories all the time though.

You're just a gunshot. Something I am- But maybe they'll be in campaign for free. There's no chance they won't come back. Something I am disappointed that we didn't happen in the final episode. I was really hoping that at one point we'd all be in trouble and then out of the distance, a goat comes running in.

Ah, Hooper! No, the goat that we saved in the cave. Hooper's dead. That goat. I don't care a lot about that goat. Well, we made a joke at the time when we saved it from having its life. We did, we did.

And we're just like, that goat is gonna show up next arc and save us from something. That goat started eating and hasn't stopped. And now it's the size of a mountain. My god. What have we done? So, are there any things that kind of flew over our head? Are there any huge things that you just kind of

had been keeping from us and you were like dying to elaborate on or tell us about? It's always when something is going to be revealed, how to reveal it. Uh-huh. Right. You know, cause I don't want it to be always forced on you and you have to. Shoe horned.

Yeah. So I think it's things like that. Like how to lead you in the direction that the alchemist also has alternate personality and that Henry has that connection, but not to like wave it in front of you all and be like, look at this, look at this, look at this. So things like that. And like, I even gave minor, minor, minor clues to things like that. Maybe the audience can clue in on that kind of thing. I like to leave a little Easter eggs for people. Like what? For instance, I clocked Henry. Do any of you know who the writer, the author of the story, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. High, the strange case of?

Robert Louis Esteban? Stevenson? Robert Louis Stevenson. So Robert Esteban. Yeah. Lewis is his alternate. And then do you know the first names of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Yeah, that's the...

Is it Henry? Henry? Yeah. And? Eddie? Edward. Edward. Yeah, Edward.

Edward, uh... It's not scissors or hands. No. Is it he's Hyde? Hyde, yeah. Yeah, Edward Hyde, yeah. Robert Stevenson's wife in real life is Fanny Stevenson Francesca. Oh nerd So there's things like that. I love names. I love words. So that's that's some stuff. I just do mostly for me

One more question. Sorry, I take up time For a long time. A long time. A long time. Fuck me. access to our Patreon-only Discord server, events, and livestreams. You can enjoy ad-free episodes for the main show and all our bonus content no matter where you listen to it. You'll also get access to Second Wind, our fortnightly show between the players and Dungeon Masters talking through the latest episode. You should also check out behind the screen our monthly show that deep dives into D&D how-tos like how to make an adventure module, how to be a dungeon master, or how stinky dragon is made. All of that and bonus audio content such as live shows, one shots, mini series, and more.

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We at one point, I think it was in Carcassouk, it was like outside of a library. We looked down and we're all like handcuffed to the table. Yeah, so much time. Someone slipped me a note and I was like, was that Carol? And then like, you know, obviously with the haglings and stuff like that, had we encountered Carol

at any other point in the story? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely had interactions like spy interaction kind of stuff. Really? Can you tell me more? Well, that's one. Yeah. All the time I head I'm

sure there were but yeah you've received you've received several notes and shadows in the background like I've described figures in the writing before that we didn't go back to the train mission impossible style time yeah man takes off the mask a question I guess similar in that kind of same vein. Was there any point in time we were discussing something or like someone mentioned something where you're like, oh, they know.

Oh yeah, definitely. Henry. Henry was one. We grilled Henry. From the beginning. And we did not trust that kid. And then we grilled the alchemist. Because that would be nervous,

but this party doesn't trust any NPC. Who was the voice of Henry? Ash Hildreth. Oh, okay. They're awesome. Incredible job. Yeah. It also just makes me hate them more

because it's like, it's such a innocent little boy voice and I'm like, Henry! What are you talking about? One of the other things, that's not a character per se, but I saw someone ask this, I've seen several people ask this online in the past about dragons.

Why are there no dragons in this world? Dragons. Dragons. Everything's kind are there no dragons in this world? Dragons. Everything's kind of a little off in this world. Were those the big bones? Those are the big bones. That's what I thought. I thought the big bones were dragons. Yeah, and so there's kind of this, were they there at one point? What's their involvement?

And there's kind of remnants. We see Barney comes across a way to summon one. And there's also the cave you guys went into that was kind of remnants of a dragon that eventually was Skelligon and then Draghast. So like there's that kind of stuff too. One thing that I wanted to bring up that far forget, this is a music thing for Eddie and Alchemist

and Henry and Francesca, all of their motifs, like musical motifs share the same three notes in different combinations. Yeah, it's just done. Done done. Thank you for ruining that nice moment. I'm here to do baby brother. Eddie uses I kind of mentioned this in another second, but Eddie uses a famous like kind of demonic motif that you hear in movies and stuff all the time. Bum bum bum bum. I think it's the DSI Ray is what it's called.

Bum bum bum bum. It's just combinations of that and then Alchemist is da da da da so it's the same thing but just like kind of backwards. What was your favorite part of the entire campaign when we pulled out the little piano on my phone and had Blaine sight read? That was a highlight. I felt like he played right into that trap. Well, yeah, I guess from a DM and writer perspective, do you guys have a favorite moment from all the different arcs during this campaign? I have mine.

Oh, you do? Oh, I know what yours is. Do you? I'm gonna guess it's the hemo pieces, the blood bank. No, that was good though. That was very good. I, that was good, though. That was very good. I think that's my favorite.

That was very good. Just like Matide going around trying to scam every single person. Like in a situation where you should be stealthy and fearful, Matide just leaned into it. That whole fake it, like act like you belong. And it's really like leaning into that. Yeah. I'm heading to the chapel. You want to give me some hemophobe?

Like every time you did that, I was like, okay, John is fully realized, Matide and you know what they are. It just took me five arcs. My favorite part of the entire campaign was I think a frustration for everybody involved, including you guys, because of a sandbagging moments, is when we were talking to the wall that mumbled. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was in a carcassouche.

I loved that. It was very much the lady in the inkwell kind of situation where it's like, but you kind of set this up to be something to stall us. The description of the module just had this walled mumbles. That's all it was. Before I forget, on that same vein there when I was making this last module where you guys kind of making their way chasing after

Hugo and stuff and you're going these different weird rooms. I you know the one practice you do in D&D is obviously put treasure in certain places and like if you find it you find it and just over overwhelmingly do that and then like they'll only find certain things. I don't always do that because you guys have really powerful stuff but I thought about oh yeah I could just put in like artifacts to really distract the park. No I shouldn't do that and then like they'll only find certain things. I don't always do that because you guys have really powerful stuff. But I thought about, oh yeah, I could just put in like artifacts to really distract the park. No, I shouldn't do that. I need a whole extra episode. You saying that remind there was another favorite moment.

You know, you mentioned Matisse conning people out of hemo pieces. Another favorite moment, this is all later was Barney perfectly falling into the trap of the vampire also in the vampire Barney asked like is there a place I could rest for just a minute and did not get it all suspicious when I named it where I perfectly described a spot where he could do it. And he's like, yeah, that's great. I was like, oh, OK, we're doing it. It's Barney's literal hell. She's surrounded by vampires.

You see, he's an old man in a loud techno rave. There was a fun moment. I forget which arc it was in, but we were like going through this place where we were going through walls or like going through into different rooms. And I went ahead first. And so you guys had taken your headphones off because we were recording that one remotely. Seeing how you guys approached the situation

after I had done it, it was just a really entertaining mechanic, I think. I think that was right by the mumbling wall. I think that was, it was that same episode. I remember finishing recording that and being like, that was a fun episode. It was really fun. There's a lot of that that I would like to pursue

as we get more familiar with D&D and kind of like get out of our rookie stages. We're still pretty new. When exactly when are they gonna learn what a modifier is? As we get out of that you know and I'm not a DM so you could take this or leave it but like messing with the meta of it You know, there's times where it's like oh Mateed finds this Bible that says this highly specific thing and then we all suddenly know about it even though like the characters don't That lack of information but also like I think you'd tried this at one point in a past campaign Gus how you like stole from the party

Long or short rests and then it was like this thing that you'd worked out with the DM. Yeah, I highly discourage anyone from ever doing that because it created a lot of problems. But in one campaign with some friends, I was playing a rogue, but I told everyone I was a fighter. And at night I would make checks to steal stuff from the party that they had that I wanted. And then in combat, people would be like, I pull out my so and so to use it.

And the deal would be like, yeah, you can't find it. That's so funny. I do not want to do that. Do not do that, do not do that. I will say, I hate that. And I love it more the way we have done it, where I heard that you two, Barbara and Blaine found treasure, but because Matthe didn't roll a check,

I went, okay, Matthe doesn't know, and I think that's funnier, because then you can actually play with it, it's everyone playing in the space. John knows, but Matthe doesn't. Yeah, yeah, I like that better, because we're supposed to be collaborative and be yes-anding each other,

and when we are not telling each other what's going on, that's kind of a bummer. One of my favorite moments are when a motif for one of your characters, like the player characters, comes into my head. So, for instance, the first one, I think, was probably when you went into the Dragon Cave, and you guys had... I think Matide was, splashing Barney with like that,

that purple stuff. And you started having dreams and visions like that. And, um, chip had a vision of Carol and, uh, of a, of a person that was like crying or something like that. And it was clearly Carol. And I just came up with a motif for you right then. That's what the chip and Carol motif was from that beginning. So that from that image, just piano. That's all it was. And then later on, Barney was singing to creature. You sing to be said, go to sleep, go to sleep little doggy. Don't be mean. I'm a froggy. It was something like that.

Sounds like Chris. Yeah. Yeah. A work. It was maybe it was the war. Little doggy. And that became your motif. Like Barney's motif. That's interesting how you, because that's not the first time you've pulled motifs or musical things from little ditties that we sing.

And we're not musically inclined like you. The Gum Gum Wake Up Bye song was like a huge kind of recurring motif in the And that was even the first time that made it so ironic that you sang basically a lullaby again. And I was like, I got to use that. Yeah. I got to use it. Interesting. For Matide, it was when you're on the train for the first time, the Groteth Express, and you start doing your forms and dance. And then you have that vision of someone that's an Eric Cochran, which we learned is Jacques.

And you start you saying something in that episode, and I thought, I'm gonna use that. That's funny, because as rice singers, we never do that. No. Let's watch Elga's motif! Yours was the theme song of the whole show. I thought that was the case. Part of the theme song.

So I used different parts of the theme song for different characters in your family. Yeah, when we were in the Vanspire, I noticed a lot of like that coming through in a lot of moments. And I was like, this is cool. You can argue that Elga is the main character. Real main character syndrome.

What do you mean? Nobody's arguing that. When I was actually writing the theme song for the show, we kind of went back and forth on some iterations of it with like, I think, Sean, I think you were involved in that. I can't remember who else was, maybe Ben. I chipped into. It was Blaine and Chris and then I came in to translate. You came in to translate.

One of the things was, we kind of rearranged the order of the sections of the song. And one of the things that I kind of pulled out from that was a little ditty that I ended up putting that the way I originally wrote the song in the second episode when you, Lorenzo Wolfman's giving her speech, like, at the peace parade. And so, like, you'll hear Elga's theme right then, I think is the first time.

Now I gotta go back and listen to the whole campaign. Yeah. You mentioned something, Micah, that made me remember something else. You mentioned Jacques appearing to Matide on the Grotesque Express. Which makes me think back to the first time that Matide encountered that cat in the sewers in arc one. And the description in the modules, it was just supposed to be a cat that was there.

And- You know what I'm doing. Well, I've made that up on the fly. He made that up. Oh. Because I think I thought about pets who have little tags that are like, leave me alone, I know what I'm doing, I know where I'm going. Uh-huh.

So it was like kind of like a subtle way to be like, leave the cat alone. It's fine. It's okay here. I thought it was a plant all along for John. Oh, no. I knew it wasn't super important because of its placement. It wasn't along a path that we had to take. We were going to see it. You're going out of your way to film and explore. In fact, we made it to an advancement point me and Barney but only because I left Barney there and then went and re-looked into places to find the cat we were like at

that point we could have advanced and never have met Jacques you guys were off stealing stuff yeah but Blaine and Barbara yeah but if you're gonna put a cat in my path that's the kitten distribution system. That's all you ever want is a crazy cat person. The cat did have one spell it could use, and I think it only ever used it once in the entire campaign. Oh, the claw? It was in Met Mascot.

No, no, no. It was in Outro City. It was in the very end. You went into the office of the Alchemist. And then I think Weezer was in there Yeah And like instinctually there was like this spectral claw that came out and I got confused because I didn't realize that was the cat Doing it. I thought it was like something else. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, whoa

I can't remember what I thought it was but it was the cat did alchemist. What did the alchemist know about Henry? Did how much does he so I I wrote it as Francesca and Robert. Francesca particularly knew something was up with Henry, but didn't know what it was and was very protective of Henry. So therefore didn't ever bring it up. Alchemist was too busy, much too busy to notice that and just thought like his condition that he had was just him. But we met Eddie in the university.

Yeah. Which is where we met Henry. First time you fought him was in the apothecary, not the apothecary, the their asylum. That's right. There was someone else who we chased out the window like the- You were looking for the professor. Yeah, it was the professor there. He was like the pig man or something like that.

Yeah, I couldn't remember where Eddie first killed Chip. Did we have, so in campaign one, this isn't a huge spoiler, we got into a fight and it turns out that the key to the fight was breaking this one mirror all along. You remember, Ben? Was there a mirror that we didn't break for campaign two? I don't know that there was a mirror that they didn't break, but there were definitely lots of times where there was a mirror that they didn't break, but there were definitely lots of times where there was a lack of investigation or something gets glossed over and missed. That could definitely really aid the party. I felt like that was a common occurrence.

Good example of that that happened recent was you all came into this last temple where like you kind of ended up meeting Nessie, right? And there were some bones on the wall, on the wall like shelves, or sorry, boxes on the shelves and around you and no one looked at them. And so later on we discovered the temple falls down on you guys when you're diving in. And I planted that box there.

I'll give them a bone literally, like it was a box of bones and like it had a scroll in it that I never use. I think you had a comment about that like the party was still hoarding items at the very end of the story and using when it's a very specific item that could help them in the exact niche situation that they're in. I think I threw that in slack I was like it's the typical video game syndrome we're at the final boss fight we have this whole stash of items we've been collecting in the entire journey. I used a lot of my inventory This is a brownie Also, we thought Hugo was the final boss and then he wasn't so I remember I was like

I wouldn't have used my poison and this and that but isn't that the way of adventure like real adventures though? That's true. You think, you don't think, this is the big boss, you know? Yeah, no one's met a game in life. I tried to use my thing that let me eat metal. To eat the bell? Yeah, it had a rhyme written in everything. Yeah, unfortunately you failed that check.

I'm sure it would have been special, Chris. Why don't you eat his bell? Yeah, Hugo had an ability, I forget what it was called, silver tongued or something that kind of like charms you and enraptures you to eat his bell. Yeah, Hugo had an ability, I forget what it was called, silver tongued or something, that kind of like charms you and enraptures you to listen to him. That's what he was doing when he was giving those speeches at the end. That's what led to the checks and, you know, seeing how he would react. Yeah, and that's the other thing with like, I try to give clues of like who Hugo actually is.

His clothing is very similar to what the first campaign is like. And connections to Sadate Tempor had the same kind of dress and garb as meld. But interesting. So is he really listening to get those? I feel like I need to go back and listen to the first campaign. And, you know, again, our audience should might spoil a little bit, but like, obviously Hugh Manor was not a good person in the first campaign. I misunderstood.

I might spoil a little bit, but like obviously Hugh Manor was not a good person in the first campaign. I misunderstood. Debatable. But I don't remember anything about Sadate, if she was like good or evil or role she. Yeah, very unclear because she was mentioned. I think the one thing that you might have learned, I don't know, should I talk about campaign one or no? We can, I don't see the harm in it. Okay, it doesn't spoil much.

Yeah. She said she was looking for her mother and didn't know where she went. Right. I do remember that. She just vanished. Yeah. There was a moment at the vampspire where it was the guy from Glurb, the mummy and, oh God, what was her name?

Francesca? Francesca. Were like outside protesting stuff. I assume that they were like a part of a greater plot, maybe like in Sheath or anything. Was there anything to that? Not Sheath, not Sheath in particular, no. They, I like to think that,

I think the way I wrote it was like, they all had lost something and they found camaraderie amongst each other and wanted to basically help along in this quest. It almost seemed like we were encountering another adventuring party. Exactly. That's exactly right. What a weird group of people, you know? Yeah, that's exactly right.

Because I mean, like I said, I think I said this in another second before, like, the world is alive. It's not like when you guys go to sleep, the world stops. There are things that are always operating. It's one of my favorite running jokes in Shaun of the Dead is they keep running into that other party. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, you don't know what they're doing,

but it's like they keep intersecting. It's like, oh yeah, it's these other people who are also out and surviving in the world. And it's like, there's weird connections between them. I actually have a question for everybody based on that. I want to know what everyone's favorite running bit was through the campaign. Like for instance, mine was what Blaine was just saying about any time referencing Francesca

saying Frank Eska. That was my least favorite. But then my other favorite was any time we kind of got away from it toward the end, but I'm alive. It's alive. It's alive. That was fun. This thing of Stanstorms. That was fun. So dumb.

I like how you have dumb references like that is fun. I don't know. I just had so much fun playing Elga. I like making names for all your axes. Yeah. I was like, how can I do a pun for this one? That was always fun. It didn't last very long, but I liked Scamsylvania. Sounds nice.

I also just like the running bit of like, if you guys ever want a fun character to play in D&D, play a little kid, because you could get away with so much stuff. Yeah. Like even when you're in the dragon stomach, like, be like, I lost my ball! Like, do do do! And like, Barney's like the, you know, old man grandpa. I forgot about that.

I liked fooling the Sforatu into playing hide and go seek. That was funny. And every time you're like, oh god, he ran away! It was funny how that, those characters really evolved're like, oh god, he ran away. It was funny how those characters really evolved. Yeah, they were really mean and scary. Yeah, if you meet them in the very beginning of the well, and they're like, really foreboding and mysterious,

and then they end up being just goofballs that are trying to patrol the tower. In my mind, they have to be more stern outside of the vamp spire, right? These are gatekeepers trying to dissuade people from coming in, whereas once you get the Vamspire, right? Like these are like gatekeepers, you know, trying to dissuade people from coming in. Whereas, you know, once you get into the Vamspire, and especially if they recognize Elga.

The belts like loosen up. It's like, all right, yeah. We go into the break room, they're cracking a cold one. Yeah, we can be a little looser. I like Frank Gaskin, I liked, I feel like there's a running thing with Chip writing overly long letters, and then rating it to the rest of the gang.

I always enjoyed those moments. That time that John, as Mateed, was doing the sending stone or whatever it was. And you're like, how are you? I'm good. Thank you for having me. And we're just like, good job. There's the car just there, yeah, right at the end. Yeah, that's the one.

There's a point in every campaign that we've done so far where John just, like, stakes couldn't be lower. And there was like mud happened I think during like the Babayu part and stuff where you're just like, and say, lovey, you know. Yeah. That reminds me of another favorite part of this campaign of mine was the damaging yourselves for him. Oh, yeah. The Barney healing you and then just like really leaning into it like, all right,

more money. Let's go. Let's roll those dice I don't I don't this is gonna sound really like mean But in my head, but I mean this is actually a compliment to your intelligence Chris When you were doing that The thought the way burners like he can't be this dumb Well, cuz I thought like he's clearly playing into the bit and you weren't. I really wasn't. The reaction was so genuine.

It was so upset. Especially when you're playing a healing character, it's like you take it upon yourself to be the responsible one of like making sure people have HP. Well, it made sense cause like Barney was like on high alert cause we're in the vamps part, like the heart of darkness for Barney, you know, like this place that he hates. Yeah, he's like trying to heal and make sure everyone's good for the mission.

Mm hmm. I mean, I made a joke. I think I can't remember if it was on Mike or not on Mike, but I think there's a point in this campaign that you can clock where I got on anti-anxiety meds. I think so, too, because to be clear at the beginning of this GrowTeth episode, this was like from there to about halfway through the campaign, it was the peak of my anxiety getting so bad. It was when I was starting to have conversations with my girlfriend, where she's like, I think you need to get on medication. And I was like, I think you're right.

And then when I got it, I was like, this is fantastic. This podcast got a ton medicated. I have a quick question that I just lost in my brain. Oh, yes. Did you, Micah and Gus, know from the very beginning that Barney was a ghost? Because he introduced him as a human cleric every time. Or did you know right off the bat?

I knew. He talked to me about it. I talked to both of them about it. I figured you did. I had to create his character sheet. Right. Which I assume you guys knew. I knew, it was curious.

I tried to... I didn't do him any favors, like trying to distract away from it. But there were definitely some moments where he maybe towed the line. He was like, alright, where's this going? Or I'd have to have a side slack conversation with him. Like, what's going on here? Or what's the play at this point? There were a couple of things, because I did have abilities on my sheet

that were giveaway stuff. Like flying speed probably? Well, things like Matthe would do like possession. Yeah. Or going through walls. Yeah, or death saves was one. Death saves, yeah. Because I had advantage on death saves.

Gotcha. But I couldn't, I didn't want to roll those publicly. Oh, that was it. So yeah, you would have a second secret roll. Yeah. Gotcha. But I couldn't. I didn't want to roll those publicly. Oh, that was it. So yeah, you would have a second secret roll. Yeah. Gotcha. Just a guess. I think when I made your homebrew race,

I called it Variant Human 2.0. Yeah. Yeah. We've done a couple of live things where we switched character sheets. And I would always get really nervous that you'd read too much into it. You told me you found out because of that one time

Yeah Yeah, what I saw your character sheet at one point when I don't remember It was during the fundraiser the extra life extra life was it during that yeah Yeah, because you guys were switching characters and stuff Yeah, one moment during that extra life thing where you guys were trading sheets and I was like, oh, thank god Blaine is blindfolded right now Because I can't see what's on the sheet. A ghost! I don't look that far into it.

You're really good, Chris, at like, constructing a character in a way where like, we don't know a lot about you. Was there anything else that you were keeping from us that you were hoping would be found out that we never got to? I mean, no. No? Okay. I wanted my idea for Barney and then, but like how it played out was up to Mike You know like Micah and then there's stuff that's like I didn't come, you know, that's just Micah. Yeah Yeah, I think I give Chris a heads up like the week before you all found the body

Yeah, I was like hey this is coming just so you're thinking about it, you know What you want to do at that time? Chris also like you played the character so well that even now, audience still has, like, theories on what Barney actually is. My favorite running one is that Barney is a revenant, which is a D&D creature that basically is, it's the soul of a mortal who met a cruel

and undeserving fate. It crawls its way back into the world to seek revenge against the one who wronged it. The revenant reclaimed its mortal body and superficially resembles a zombie. So like, really close to me. I thought a Vano was gonna be a zombie or something else, or like a werewolf or something.

You told me something interesting about your name selection. I don't know that anyone ever talked about it or it never really ever came up, but I thought it was a cool nod. So when I was creating Elga, I knew she wanted to be a twin, because I was curious to see how we would go with the mechanics of like,

Elga, who's a vampire who doesn't age, having a twin sister, and like what would happen there. But when I was making the name, Elga and Evanna was supposed to be heaven and hell. Oh! So like, Helga and heaven. Oh! But then I just took off the Hs and... Yeah, just like Matide took off the H's.

And put an A at the end. Hello. That was another favorite running bit. Ugo. Ugo. Whenever creating characters, I think we'd gone back and forth on whether Barney was a ghost or a zombie.

Yeah, the first initial thing I came up with was that you, because Matide was ghost, I don't know if that would play too much into the same thing So I said like well you could be like a zombie of sorts or something. Yeah at that point I was the I'd already settled into the cleric Twilight cleric and I was like, oh, I feel like the ghost works Well with that because of the abilities that they get Do you guys have any favorite like encounters or boss fights or things that you came across like that that were battle or combat driven? I have my favorite.

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In the, in carcassouk, I think it's carcassuke where it was like anytime would be loud. It would spit blood at us. I thought that was such a fun mechanic and also like I loved the running bit I had with Elga where she sometimes did not know how to control the volume or care to control her volume. And so that was just a fun mechanic for me to play with. But just the idea of like people getting stuck to the wall and these like giant blood globs. I don't know. It was really fun. I don't think we ever touched on it. In the VAM Spire, I wrote, I think it was when you

guys were on the last, not the last level, the not the Fang Pick, but the what's the second level? The not the Tales of the Dock, the Fang Pick and the Sepulcher? No, no. Clostrid? Clostrid, yeah. Thank you, David. David's got a great Yeah, Clostrid.

Thank you, David. David's got a great memory, by the way. I have a terrible memory. That's why I write everything down. But yeah, in the Clostrid, there was actually a chance for you to re-encounter the demon copy. Oh, really? I wanted to talk about that.

I'm sorry to interrupt your question for a second, but that's one of the things I wanted to talk about was in the chaos of the Vamps fire There was so much that overwhelmed the players, but there was so much also they didn't see yeah, including the hemo goblin There was the chance that they could have run into the mold and discovered that the mold was there Aspect of that area where they kept talking about how they had gems right and the mood shows up at the end to kind of like save you guys from stuff that's falling and it's like there were all these Possibilities my feet you wrote so many possibilities in the Vanspire. There were so many There was so much dice rolling behind those scenes like what's gonna happen? Are they gonna run into this? They get into that. I think my favorite was like the bat rat races. Yeah

We just got confused trying to remember which direction was what and like where we've been already We're like where a dead end has happened and like going backtracking as anything to like each level of the van spire mechanically played differently. So the bottom level that you guys started in was a mapped out dungeon that had rooms and had, you know, people moving in and out and all that kind of stuff. And it functioned in a certain way. And then you move to the second level and the second level was virtually endless. You could have kept finding places if we'd been playing the game. Mm-hmm.

Wow. And that's what you're talking about, I guess, is there's just tons of possibilities. Which is funny because it feels like we exhausted the options. So that's the spiral. That's the spiral. Yeah, it was the spiral. I know it might feel that way as a player, but you really didn't.

It's like you kind of honed in. Everyone wanted to find Elga's home. Yeah. Then it was like, what's going on with Count Vixi then it was like oh, we found this other room There's a point in that that episode where I made a joke or like I'm gonna go down every door You said that's gonna take a while But do you guys have favorite encounters I just say the mold But it was mostly because of Gus's portrayal of it.

Yeah. I love giving Gus a monster to play. He's very incredible Hulk. I liked all the Glurb stuff. Not as an encounter, but just like that world, like a moving mountain that's made of snail. I thought that that was such a cool, beautiful visual. But my favorite encounter would be,

it wasn't even real combat. It was just you guys gassing up ship, because I'd been encounter would be, it wasn't even real combat, it was just you guys gassing up Chip because I'd been eating butt all, like every combat scenario I was terrible. And then you guys gave me a dagger character to interact with. And he gassed me up and he was like, Chip, hey, yeah.

And then I started assassinating dudes on towers and I was like, yes, I'm doing it, I'm roguing. I'm voguing. I think that's hard about rogue, is that you don't get an extra attack, but you have all this extra damage. If you do get a hit, then it lines up. But yeah, it can be rough sometimes. Yeah, I need to research those classes for next campaign

and see what's. I might dodge roguie for a while. Yeah, I think you've had your fill of rogue. Yeah. I think you also enjoyed all the gem pronunciation. Yeah, yeah. Everyone was like, are we hearing it wrong? fill of rogue. Yeah. I think you also enjoyed all the gym pronunciation. Everyone was like, are we hearing it wrong? Is gas being leaked?

The fight we also had with those like they weren't Phoenix's, but like the cat things in the fire birdies, fiery cats with the tiny hut. Yeah, yeah, that was a fun one. Just Levons. Just anytime there's like weird mechanics of like everyone's like trying to carry each other and...

We get through it in like a very non-typical way. We were talking earlier in the episode 50 about like words that we only read and then like the pronunciation. I've always pronounced it Leomons. Leomons tiny hut. Not LeMons? Leomons. Because it's L-E-O-M-U-N I think. I also say Leomans. Leomans, tiny hut. Not Lamans. Because it's L-E-O-M-U-N, I think. I also say Leomans.

But that's just the thing. It's like it's always written down. You don't really hear it. Plus, it's a name on top of that. It can sometimes throw the rules out the window. Leomans. Speaking of name, I remembered something that I could actually talk about now. Oh, yes. Do you want to know where Mateed came from?

Where? They're actually based off of somebody. Oh, I described Mateide as non-binary binary femme presenting and I was like I wanted to find A woman from history from French history. That was like a bad bad gal almost almost swore there. This is Matide Carre born 30th of june 1908 in France died in 2007. So wow. Wow. Check out this known as the chat the cat which is why I named the bakery after that. And funny enough was a French resistant agent during World War Two who betrayed the Franco Polish resistance organization interally and as a double agent was responsible for the arrest of dozens of inter ala operatives

of the German occupiers of France. Wow. He, she became an agent of, for the British at one point and at one point she arrived in Britain. She was in interrogated in prison for the remainder of the war. After the war, she was deported to France and convicted of treason and sentenced to death. The sentence was later reduced and she was released from prison in 1954. The double agent for, she was was released from prison. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait Mike Haney was like my basically my uncle. He's a coach that my dad coached with for like years. And I knew this guy my entire life and I just loved Haney. And he had this sick, sick mustache. And I was like, well, I don't want to do Mike Haney.

So like Chip just seemed like a fun chipper name. So like Chip Haney. It's funny you mentioned that, John, about like the whole background of Matide. When you brought up Carol Blaine, and like that you were both assassins and that kind of thing, I think you'd mentioned that in your backstory, right? And I was like, well, what would be funny?

Because like, you got a double agent, and those things are fun to do, but what about a triple agent? So I was like, let's put her in every single organization. Yeah. Some of the interesting doing these types of campaigns is obviously like when we work on the characters and develop like some backstory and stuff like that. And when we get asked questions throughout the campaign, we just answer them based on like what we think is the case.

And I think someone had mentioned this that on an early episode, I think I had mentioned my sister, I thought she was dead or something like that, or like wasn't alive anymore. I have to go back and see what it actually was but like I'm sure at the time we didn't really know the plan for things and like I you write as you go to you know clearly for something shock Things are figured out as we go a little bit It's just funny because like there's some things where I'm like I don't know if I should answer this or not if it's it's going to ruin some like big plan that you have brewing. I think that's something I learned about the arrows as well. Like what kind of arrows we

want to fire at you all because yeah, you don't want to box yourself in either. You don't want to give off too much things that like it's it's set in stone forever. It's more like it should be fun for you guys to warm up for one and to get to know each other. And I think I'd mentioned in a previous second one, maybe the last one, that like I have another mechanic that I want to try for this third campaign that I think will be fun as well. That'll kind of be in that same vein. I think something lovely about this podcast is we're all very production oriented and

all of our input is valid. And I feel like it's a safe space to like give feedback and criticisms. And early on when we started introducing arrows, I was like totally against it because I was like, no, we got to get right into the action. And then arrows I was like totally against it because I was like no we got to get Right into the action and then arrows ended up like I loved arrows like answering arrows is so much fun I I like when we did you love arrows blame. Did you love it? I hadn't noticed by the end You reciting entire monologues to answer. I love the Bradley monologue I was like this at one point or like I've got an idea for for an arrow

Yeah, Bradley in the stolen piggy bank. But no, I thought it was a good mechanic, this campaign doing like the character introductions, the arrows, having like a little bit of time before getting into it, because I was relisting some of the infinite campaign, and we don't do that. And I was like, I kind of wish we like revisited

who we are and what classes and races we are. I think if we had done that in the first campaign, this is, I'll speak for me. OK, I would have been terrible at it. I think I learned so much how to play a character in the infinites. And I think even on top of that, I

learned even more this campaign on how to play a character. I feel like that contributed so much to like the character development, though, like Kyborg was unsufferable and awful. And then at the end, he was still in some of ended campaign one. But it was still like fun and I was like I feel like that learning process I'm glad that's

captured. Yeah that's what I'm saying. The way that we did campaign one worked out because we found all the characters as we did but I think adding the arrows in campaign two was its own like addition that was good and it was like that was the time to add it. So you talked, Michael, you talked about potentially like a new mechanic in Campaign 3. And Barbara, you talked about like world building and doing all of that. And I don't want to get spoilery here, but looking ahead and thinking about Campaign 3 and the types of characters you all may want to play

without saying anything too specific about the characters, I just want to ask, do you all have voices in your head planned for those characters yet? I do. I don't know if I'm ready to commit to it. A hundred percent. You can test it here. This will put a big asterisk, not may not be final product. So the character I want to play is inspired by a character I used to play in a different production named Gambo. Everyone knows him. Everyone loves him. He just talks like this.

You know, he does nothing a whole lot special to him, but, you know, he's a special guy. So we'll see. Guy. We'll see. I don't know how to describe that voice. I was trying to figure out how do you describe the way Gumbo talks? Gambo. Gambo.

Sorry. Which is another thing where I'm like, I don't know if I should. Gumbo is mine. Gumbo is yours, which is why I think like I might have to like rethink who the character is. The voice though, I was like, I was just trying to figure out, because it's such like, where do I land that type of talking in the world? It's a little bit like like like bronxy, like old timey gangster. There's definitely like a bit of a speech impediment as well. I was thinking like someone from Maine,

like that weird Maine accent that they have. Is this what it makes me think of? Well, then it must be like a Maine mobster. Cause I hear- With a speech impediment? Yeah, I hear a little bit of like a seedy underworld, but like from the 1960s kind of thing. It's fantastic.

Interesting. It's fantastic. Thank you for your input, John. I will take it to heart. Thank you. The first thing I think of when I hear voices like that is I go to what would be the most insufferable one shot we could do with characters that are like, okay, Gambo, Captain Kirk, Quifley, and I don't know,

a fourth character right now. Wait, are you saying this is an annoying voice? I don't know. I think we can do this. I'm here. Let's boldly go. Where no man has

gone before. I think we all feel like the voices we start off with in each campaign evolve as we get more familiar and comfortable doing it. And with the character? I feel like no one sounds the same at the beginning and the end. I feel like when you start the voice,

you have this idea for it, but then it becomes impractical. You can't maintain it, so you have to make some compromises to make it sustainable. Except you, Barbara, you actually, you're consistently- Yeah, I feel like you're pretty consistent. I don't know, I feel like there's subtle differences. I think Elga got much higher pitch throughout the season.

I'm curious to some subtlety, I'd say, with like, at least I'll just speak for me, wild differences. Like I think Elga got much higher pitch throughout the season. I think we asked her some subtlety. Yeah. I'd say with like, at least I'll just speak for me, wild differences. I feel like you were the most consistent this season. That's funny. I think both of my voices changed drastically throughout the campaigns. Did Mud? Yeah, Mud was much, was supposed to remember, like I've said, Mud was supposed to be a dumb, slow, deep voiced, like almost like a kid was supposed to be a dumb, slow, deep-voiced, almost like a kid. In order to keep up with the character,

my speech got faster, and therefore his voice got a little higher so I could talk a little faster. And then now, with Stinky Dragon Adventures, because we were doing lines and pickups and stuff, and I was doing that so much, I've turned Mud into something that I can pull out. It's like you almost make Mud easier to do in order for me to just be able to do him whenever I need.

It has to be easy to do. If you're talking a lot or like, and having to role play in that voice and act in that voice. We just did something today where I had to switch from Mud to Mateed and I think I had a heart attack. I've shown examples before of like other D&D shows where when they're starting off their new season

and a player brings a new Voice to the table. Yeah, and sometimes they'll stop down be like, are you sure? You're gonna do this for maybe a 50 to 100 episodes or more, you know This could be the next two years Chips like started out difficult because it was an accent that I wasn't familiar with but like now I feel like I've like got a Grasp on of course when we're done. I'm like, you know no I can whip it out and it's easy and fun well and I come back yeah that's true I do have my next campaign character like pretty flushed out I don't want to reveal the voice because like I am deathly afraid and

will take all criticisms on like the subreddit so if I see anything negative it'll make me say guess it. They're super supportive. I know I know but I got I got in. Just between us, we won't share this with anyone. Shush. I've been talking to the mic. I've gotten some feedback on Chip that made me really not believe in my Wisconsin-y, northern accent. The only hint I'll give is there's a character in Venture Brothers that heavily inspired the character that I want to play, or at least the voice.

And I'm very excited about that. Just take a page from my book. If anybody ever commented how I didn't do a good Scottish accent, I'd say he's not doing a Scottish Talking like a bramble crack. Where are they from? That's a bye bye time I would have to do Weezer I'd have to go back and listen myself What was his name from the Andy Dick show? Andy Griffith.

Andy Griffith. Wow, could not be more different. No, yeah, this Andy Griffith. What was the dumb, I'm putting to Gus. Gomer. It's very British Gomer. Gomer Pile, yeah. Hi.

Yeah, it's very British Gomer Pile. Yeah. It was funny to see, like, anytime we would put up shorts and stuff like that from the Grotev campaign, the amount of comments are just like, is that the person who voices Little Misfortune? Because I have never heard of this game or played it. But after we were doing Grotev for a while and I saw a comment about it, I looked it up and she sounds exactly like this.

The same kind of tone, the same like little accent. And I was like, it's called Little Misfortune. Oh, Little Misfortune. Yeah. I think a tiny Tina. I think a tiny Tina. I get that with my regular speaking voice. People ask, do you narrate, there's some YouTube channel,

like do you narrate the videos on this YouTube channel? I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you Simmons? Yeah, I like the ones that are like, oh, that sounds just like Simmons from Red Vs. Blue. Wow. Do the other two of you have voices

you're willing to share yet? I'm Chris, do you? I don't because I'm still, Chris is fiddling. Full secrets. No, no, I'm just fiddling. I'm not committed to the character yet. I'm still like, thinking. I wanted to also say that I'm not super committed

to this one quite yet. That's just what I'm thinking right now. I'm 100% locked on what I wanna do. Which is correct. What you described, Barbara, I really want. That's just what I'm thinking right now. I'm 100% locked on what I want to do. Which is correct. I am so stoked. What you described, Barbara, I really want. Yes. What you described when we were talking about our characters,

and I'm not going to spoil it, I thought that was so funny. Yeah, I just need to, I think, look at the class a little bit more, because it's something I'm the most unfamiliar with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that I need to flesh out. But I think the character itself is fun. It's fantastic. You don't have anything, John?

I'll say that I have an idea for a voice, but the one reason why I don't want to commit to it is because I like to challenge my voices and make them something hard to do. And this is an easier one. And so I'm still trying to figure out a way where I could take it somewhere difficult. There's nothing wrong with Daisy. where I could take it somewhere difficult. So it's probably gonna change. No, there isn't, there isn't. And I might just default there because like her voice plays into like who she is. So in order to change your voice, I gotta change who she is. And I don't think I will because I really want to play this character.

So if I say it right now, I have to kind of commit to it. If I don't, I don't. But I have a little bit of a voice. But I've alluded believe what she is right do y'all practice on by yourself yes on the drive to work I would stop listening to the music or I would sing along to the music and chip voice because I don't wait what music I just be listening to like like any song oh that's funny your chip thing, can we like a chip album? He's just singing Taylor Swift and chips You are working as a waitress

Love it I am here for it. I 100% had to try to work on doing something even remotely close to a French accent. I watched so many videos. That is probably, I think it might be the hardest accent to try to do. Because it could so easily go into German or like. It can travel around Europe easily. Yeah. When they are doing this it could sound like many things.

And with any accent, same as like the Scottish of mud, there is no Scottish accent. There is no French accent. There is like, hey, what part of that place are you from? That kind of thing. I am from Paris. I didn't want to admit it, but I do the same thing with Sleek and Quifly. I sing along with songs in the car. Wow! It's nice.

It's an easy mechanic to get into it. That's a pro tip. I's an easy way to start getting into it. And we had to find it. That's a pro tip. I think we learned something here. I will say. You were trouble when you walked in. The thing I'm excited the most. Bart's easy because he got sang all the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, you did sing a lot as Bart. I'm excited about campaign three because I think something that I noticed with campaign two is Depending on your characters attitude and kind of like what their characters like I feel like I adopt that as a mindset So Kai Borg I was like really cocky and you know shooting little quips and then with chip I was chipper and happy and so, you know, and I feel like it bleeds into real life and my next guy I'm like, I'm excited to see what that does for blame into real life. And my next guy, I'm like, I'm excited to see what that does for Blaine. Oh, no. No, I don't think so.

And the other thing, too, and this is like any advice for people that are listening and you get into the role play of it, it's like, try to have a fun character that's like enjoyable to be around. Don't be a jerk, because then you you're you're fun to be around. Yeah. You want people to enjoy also interacting with you and playing with you in the world, in the space. I wanna make an exclusive reveal here that the Campaign 3 narrator will be Captain Kirk. No!

I quit, I quit. Patreon's done. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I knew that would get a rise out of blame. But I'm happy we are at the point we are, just having wrapped up Campaign 2, looking forward to what we're gonna do with campaign three because I feel like lots of times And I think this was maybe in the back of all of our heads or in the pit of our stomachs but campaign one was such a

Well accepted huge success. It's always a little scary to try to follow that up. It's like what is your next thing? It's not just D&D thing like any band releases a huge album. It's like, oh, what's your next one or, you know, film or anything like that? It's like you're comparing it to when people found it and like fell in love with it. So their expectations are high. It's actually a question I wanted to ask everybody was, you know, like we had some trepidation leaving the campaign one characters to go on campaign two because like in production, right, like when you have a good hit or something that's working, it's scary to go away from it, and typically you don't want to.

A lot of people tend to just stay with it until maybe people kind of get tired of it sometimes. And in the nature of Dungeons and Dragons, like eventually you hit a point where the campaign, your max level, you can't really do anything else unless you're fighting gods, and so you gotta like wind down and start a new character.

And so I was kind of wanting to ask everybody, like how are you feeling now, now that you've gotten two campaigns under your belt, how do you feel going into campaign three now that we have one and two done, and how is it different from going from, now that you've gotten two campaigns under your belt, how do you feel going into campaign three now that we have one and two done? And how is it different from going from campaign one to campaign two? Big shoes to fill is what I'll say.

But I have the utmost confidence in Micah and the whole team to do an incredible job. Cause I think like, I personally, I loved campaign one. I had a lot of fun with campaign two. And I thought a lot of the like discoveries and twists and turns were like really interesting to me. And I, I, I would say I almost liked it better than campaign one personally. I'll probably like campaign three even better. Cause it's like, it's these things that we keep having more experience doing and get

comfortable doing and know how to build the space more and more. We're only going to have more fun with future campaigns. I think you said something important there, which is like your, your familiarity and your comfort with the material. You're not so preoccupied with the rules and the mechanics necessarily. It frees up brain power to explore the creativity and like the fun side. Like what are the moments we're going to lean into? You're not so like focused on looking at a sheet of paper or like some rules in front

of you. Like, what does this all mean? It's like, you've partially, you know, you've learned the material and partially you've learned it's not that important. We're just going to have fun. Now with the state of Stinky Dragon and us doing this ourselves, I think a lot of us are also going to be a lot more invested in everything to do with stinky dragon and like not having to work on any other projects or like do anything else for our Previous job that maybe was distracting or like took away from us being able to like dive full into something like this So I think it's gonna be even better. My calendar will be freed up from meetings that I'm like, why am I here? I'm gonna start why am I here? I could be in this one. I could be in this one. I promise you all, I'm going to start committing to this show.

God, thanks, Mike. Finally. I'm going to wear a fourth hat, if that's OK. No, you out of everybody has been wildly dedicated to this since the very beginning. I think that the timing is fortuitous, too, because it's like, you know, we're winding down campaign two. And as we start this new journey, we're also starting a new campaign. So it's just like it obviously wasn't a perfect situation, but I feel like we're making, making the best case scenario out of a worst case scenario. Yeah. You know, so I'm excited.

Absolutely. I'm very, I'm very much in the same vein as you Barbara, where I feel like I keep getting better at this as it goes on. I'm very glad we got the second campaign jitters out of the way now, because that was a concern. And between that and I got to DM my first mini campaign, I'm fully addicted to new worlds, new characters, which I know is a very common trope with D&D players, where they just want to keep making their new character. They're excited about it.

And so I'm all for that and excited to do that. And so, yeah, I'm and I'm also excited to see what's it like to do an entire campaign medicated. I also say we have talked about came through a little bit and I'm really excited for it because it, Micah, you seem really excited for it. Like, it's something that excites you as a writer. So I think, like like in my mind, that's when I'm the most excited to play in a space that someone who's created it is really amped about.

Well, I fall into that trope as well of like, it's a new thing. Yeah. It was exciting. As soon as we finished recording my mini campaign, like I was sad. I was like, and right before the campaign, I was freaked out. Cause I'm like, and I've listened to a few episodes and it's like, oh man, I was sad. I was like, and right before the campaign, I was freaked

out. Cause I'm like, and I've listened to a few episodes and it's like, Oh man, I was terrible at DMing. But I'm great. But more so I'll phrase it like, Oh, I could have done this better. Oh, this could have been, I, Oh, this is why I shouldn't do that. I, you know, I learned a lot and I love learning more and more about D and D even like you guys saw at the end of this campaign that I fell in love with rolling real dice. and I started memorizing my modifiers and my stuff. Like I really wasn't even looking at my, my D and D beyond a ton near the end of it. And that was really fun. Just this week started listening to funny enough. I started listening to the adventure zone fights Dracula, which I think is so funny that they released that like halfway through and to listen to it it's very much like wow these are touching on similar things

like they have a Frankenstein character like that but but I love listening to other people play D&D because Ben got me listening to Dimension 20 and that kind of stuff but I love the best parts is they don't dwell on figuring out which spell to do. It's all about improv and playing with each other and having fun jokes and getting to do those silly moments. You know and I I look forward to that for the next campaign is like those are my favorite moments. Yeah. Making Gus do improv. I think that I've been unlocked the door.

I want to say a big thank you to anyone who's listening to this. We've poured a lot of energy and a lot of our hearts into campaign one and campaign two and we're glad that people really enjoy it. And as Blaine was talking about, we're at an inflection point with the stories and with what we're going to do. And we're really more than ever reliant on the listeners. People who consume the show, people who tell their friends about it, people

who subscribe on patreon.com slash stinky dragon. It's all needed. It's all necessary to help support us and to help us continue having these adventures. So thank you so much. Share the podcast with your friends. Please do tell people about it. I think a lot of these podcasts really succeed

from word of mouth and like talking to your friends and people who also like D&D or just general fantasy adventure kind of stuff. So yeah, if you have a friend you think might like the show, please do tell them. Send them a puppet video or an animation. It's like a little teaser. Be like, there's a whole podcast you can listen to with this.

It's pretty heartwarming going onto the Reddit and being like, yeah, my friend turned me on to this. He said, you know, I was getting into D&D and so on and so forth. And it's like, this is a person that would have never in a million years have encountered Rooster Teeth or any of us. Our family, Mike and I, like our parents and our sister, like they are not D&D people. Did you guys know they don't play D&D?

They know nothing about it. And they've also, to be fair, I've been an employee making content for the past like 10, 11 years. They don't watch any of it. I will give someone credit that Heather, actually when I started, when we started, Is that your sister?

Yeah, sorry, Heather is my sister. John's sister as well, it's really weird. And she, oh my sister first. Why'd she choose my sister first. I mean, debatable. When I was starting the Pius Pass, like that first arc in Infinites, I did a test run with her and some other people,

and she was one person that jumped in. That's right. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so it's very, they, I joke, my family did watch some of her stuff, like, and no stuff. But adamantly, this is the first thing they are, they are fans are fans and they are D and D fans and she's so funny. Oh yeah every single week they listen. It is.

The rising are so been a crucial part. Anytime I came to my FaceTime with them like I watched the episode. Yeah. But I don't know it is a very interesting. It. My mom just texted me. If you're listening, thank you for... But really, it's only possible because people support, really, if you're enjoying something.

Thank you. Yeah, it's especially like... I think there's been a very huge shift in online entertainment where a lot of people are used to YouTube and having like free access to content But to have like a sustainable show like stinky dragon that has so many people involved in it And there's so much that goes into creating it if you like something supporting It really is yeah way to keep having it happen. Yeah, and the stinky dragon audience just like has been such a joy They're amazing. They've been just even from I'm really active on like Reddit and Discord

and like talking in the YouTube comments with everybody. But like I've even had moments where I'm trying to get the episode out and it's 2 a.m. and it's like almost done rendering. And I just hop into Discord and chat with people and they help me get to the point where I can get the episode uploaded. Very best. So if you're listening to this and want to be part of the best community ever, join. Join the party. We can't do this about you.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Until next time. Did you know you can directly support the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com slash stinky dragon? Become a patron and you can get your name shouted out just like Clarkinator720, Craig Belpedio, Mark aka Destro981, Candranos, and Duskippy.

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