#i know brennan explained it in the Adventuring Party

[your---dancestyle]

The craziest thing about watching Kipperlily slit her party member's throat, is that I was still hoping, after everything we've learned about her this season, still hoping that she and the Rat Grinders hadn't killed Lucy Frostblade. That it was ritual gone wrong, or Lucy was attacked by a rage crystal and they had to fight her, or it was one of the teachers' fault, or Something.

But we watched her kill her cleric, not in self-defense, not just in cold blood, but with revelry and joy for causing the bad kids what is ultimately a very minor inconvenience (knock on wood) and some stress.

[soup-child]

They never say the word aromantic but looking at his arc in s2 it is very clear he is. His entire shtick with Baron from the Baronies and his fear in the Forest of the Nightmare King of not only being alone but specifically being left behind romantically points to him being aro without him saying the word

is riz canonically aro? i have been under the general impression that aromantic riz was canon but i actually am not sure

[cloudmancy]

I have no desire to get you in trouble but I would be curious to hear your thoughts on the new episode and the preview because I also have.. thoughts and I'm interested in what other people clocked as not great or kinda.. idk. other people's concerns, because I have had a lot of them and I never see people really talk about those things

they're doing a new format this season where they film a bunch of rp episodes in a row then take a break when there's a battle so the crew can get the battleset ready, so I understand the dissonance. but the tone of this episode from the tone of last episode was SO jarring. I was ready to chew drywall at the end of episode 17 but we head into the episode 18 fight and at the end all I can say is... damn! that sure is a battle that happened. the entire fight felt really low-stakes even though objectively a few of the bad kids were in mortal danger, but the mood at the table was so relaxed and chill and there was almost no roleplay at all... which drove me so crazy

>no rp except for fun silly party stuff (no callbacks to the adaine elven oracle in a storm thing? after all the fun setup last time??)

>fought 8 different antagonists and none of them said a word

>nobody questioned why or what oisin's grandma or all those dragon were doing there they just started taking them out one by one like raid battles in world of warcraft

>cassandra/nightmare king showed up only to not make any impact or get a single word in

>dos2 lady vengeance fight did the floating boat/ballistas/dragon fight better SMH

and then after all of that we're headed straight into ANOTHER battle episode judging by the preview... and it's against the rat grinders and porter/jace! let me out I want PLOT & DIALOGUE fhjy cannot end like this (5 hours straight of battle where they just kill everyone that moves). there's 2 eps left so I really hope they do the last ep as a 4 hour long roleplay only epilogue episode because as we've all seen ending campaigns on a battle leads to frankly really rushed character and world decisions. it's ultra disappointing too because I loved this entire season so much so far. the setup and buildup and plot points and mystery of fhjy is the best they've ever done it in dimension 20 period

ep 18 fhjy battle was a letdown to me... not giving the party an rp episode after 3 hours of loredump + going straight into a final battle without being able to interact with the world after gaining info is bad. they should've had a chance to process everything they learned about house sunstone, porter's plan, the rat grinders being used as ascension fodder, whatever the whole deal behind ambrosia and lucy frostkettle and why they needed a helios cleric in buddy IN ROLEPLAY. I don't want all this stuff explained to me after the battle by brennan or in some throwaway lines in the adventuring party - I want the bad kids to talk to people! I want them to investigate! I want fig to pull some BS with porter knowing the full extent of all his plans. it really sucks for us as an audience too to be hit with all this lore and get approximately 0 time for it to sink into the implications of how the worldbuilding was shaped by it or realizations of "ohhh that's why that happened at the beginning of the season" before we go straight into killing everyone.

with the way this is going I don't have any confidence they're gonna be able to actually empathize at all with the rat grinders too before they start lopping heads off because in battle episodes everyone kind of just. becomes numbers and an objective to take out except for pet favourite npcs of the cast. and they've mostly been interacting with the rat grinders as nuisances all season 😭 I'm PRAYING to be proven wrong and the last 2 episodes of this are fantastic but it's not looking good folks

[thesezombiestastelikeashes]

Normally I post about Dimension 20 on my main blog but a thing happened on Adventuring Party and I'm gonna talk about it

So watching through the Episode 2 Adventuring Party, something really amazing happened at 2:15 ish. And now I'm gonna talk about consent and content in Tabletop and how @quiddie and Izzy (and everyone else at the table) absolutely fucking nailed it

Edited because I cannot believe I spelled Aabria wrong so many damn times in a row I'm so sorry

Specifics below the cut for spoilers and content warning: parasites and squick

The notes for DMs (and players) to take away from this:

Look for soft no's, even if you know your players. Make space for a no, even if you are excited. Once the no has been said, move on and no complaining that someone's comfort level isn't the same as yours.

So Brennan asked a question about the parasites, Chipmunks, and bear in Adventuring Party to clarify if Chipmunks and Parasite were one in the same or different entities (it was just the chipmunks being massively fucked up)

Aabria, as DMs who put their entire heart and soul into making a campaign often do, went to start explaining the basis for the parasites (link to ribbon worms, very content warn, dead dove do not eat). The table reacted. Brennan does a very physical ick response, Erika's face was very "I am listening to something gross", while the rest of the table looked interested in that way nerds do when they don't know what they're walking into. And Izzy said "I want you to stop."

Aabria just said ok, told the camera/audience to google it, and they moved on.

And I wanna talk about what a baller move that is on Aabria and Izzy's parts. (And Quiddie if you see this please tell Izzy she's an inspiration and I adore her and all of the compliments)

So first and maybe least controversial: Aabria

-While giving the explanation of the fucked up thing she slows down her talking (I'm not sure if it was intentional but it seemed it so I'm gonna talk about it) Instead of rushing through the explanation the way people excited tend to do she said everything slowly, gave lots of pauses to be interrupted, and really took the time to let the party know what she was describing was icky

-While doing the describing, she looked around the table. Not just at the person with the biggest visual reaction, but you can watch her make the rounds with her eyes to look at everyone and make sure they all know she is still engaging with them and checking in on them

-Her "ok" is so pleasant. It's not just polite, it's not just kind, it's upbeat and pleasant to listen to. There's no judgement in it, there's no "but I wanted to keep talking about this thing" its just "ok"

-And that's the fucking hard part, letting someone know you've heard them without any judgment or disappointment when they want you to stop talking about something

And now Izzy

-Most people aren't going to applaud someone for saying "I want you to stop" to a DM explaining something but I will. A+ Izzy

-She found her boundary and enforced it and felt comfortable with it

-She did it in such a specific way "want" instead of "need"; "I want" instead of "You need", not to mention the full firmness of it where it couldn't be misinterpreted (A+, hardest part)

-The flick of her eyes to the rest of the table, I can't tell if she's checking in with other people's comfort level or just watching Brennan's arm thing, but the way she looks at her fellow players is just such a Thing that I cannot Words about, whether its checking in for their comfort or looking for support for hers its an important look that I might be reading too much into.

Now some other important beats

-No one comments that Izzy made Aabria stop.

-Brennan says he can connect with Aabria later about it, without mentioning any of the content, and Siobhan and Jasper make the note of "maybe don't google it" but no one mentions the content after Izzy says it

-They just move on. Like even if it briefly sounds like they might hit back onto it (we'll never know what Erika was leading to with their "I've always been obsessed with") they just move on immediately

It's a goddamned masterclass of consent at the table. Aabria checking in and looking for soft no's and giving space for hard no's and then once a hard no was thrown immediately shifting the entire direction of the conversation was amazing.

[lowqualitycleric]

I was rewatching Wednesday's d20 ep, and I just noticed something in the preview for next week?

Brennan says "Does Fig know Bobby Dawn is working at the school?" Which I didn't fully get at first. Like why wouldn't fig know and why would it matter more for Fig than for the others? And maybe it's just a general question or maybe it's something about trusting or not trusting him.

But! I was thinking. And Bobby Dawn is Buddy's granddad, so presumably a little older than the bad kid's parents, maybe a generation. And Sandra Lynn's backstory is about her joining an established adventuring party, which included a married couple, when she graduated Aguefort. She had an affair with this older married man and he/the adventuring party completely threw her under the bus when it was found out. And I'm just saying.... that the event 'married paster/cleric takes advantage of young woman who just joined his congregation/party and then completely blames and exiles her' fits pretty closely with the rest of what we know about the church of Helio. And would explain Sandra Lynn reacting strongly to this man teaching at her daughter's school.

[verosvault]

Fantasy High Junior Year Trailer Screenshots & Theories & Random-ness (Pt. 6)

This theory post is just gonna be random cause it's the remaining screenshots I have and Idk what to do with them...🤷‍♀️

I'll probably do like a transcription of the trailer later? Cause it be late and like try to break down what's being said in the trailer? Even though it most likely won't help at all but...🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I also wanna do a countdown until episode 1!!! ;3333

I wanna post some of my favorite maybe...Fantasy High Clips? Or something... I'll think of something fun to do or something probably! ;3

Adaine is Down! 😭😱

Fig is standing.

Something is on the left and right sides. I can't tell what it is. I also can't tell whatever it is that they seem to be standing on! 🥴🥴🥴🥴 [EDIT: They MIGHT be standing on some sort of vehicle! MAYBE the Hangvan???]

What's bugging me about this shot is it seems to be taken from the perspective of inside something? Is someone spying on them? Is this the perspective of a monster's mouth coming at Fig? Is this the perspective of someone opening their eyes and seeing Fig and Adaine there?

WHY is it FURRY around the LENS and SHAPED like THAT?! HUH BRENNAN?! WHY?! What am I LOOKING at here! Care to EXPLAIN yourself?! 😭😭✋✋ What are you DOING?! 😭✋

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WHAT KINDA MONSTERS ARE- 👁️👄👁️

THese look freaking MESSED UP FR!

I feel like that big claw hand mouth thing was Brennan being like "I can do something 10 TIMES WORSE than MIMICS!" 😭✋ And Rick Perry said "-and I'll make it look like a CREEPY NIGHTMARE!" 😭✋

The red monster on the bottom left looks like he has something inside of his chest! Kinda reminds me of that Killian dude or whatever his name was in Sophomore Year where he had the gem plunged into his chest. 🥴 Do I know if that's at all related? Not in the SLIGHTEST! 🥴

And what in the WORLD is that BOTTOM RIGHT monster that looks like an upside down banana peel with ugly teeth and red eyeballs?! 😭😭✋✋ Nah FAM! Get that AWAY from me SO FAST RN! 😭✋

Brennan had NO RIGHT to call Ricky Perry NARSTY during Burrow's End if he's literally making Rick build minis like THIS! 😭😭✋✋ Like WHAT?! 😭✋

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So... there's 2 dragons???? The one on the top has 2 heads and breathes what I can ONLY ASSUME to be FIRE!

And then we have the shot of this BLUE dragon breathing LIGHTNING with 1 head and it's near a wooden pirate ship! 🥴🥴

Idk if these are flashbacks or NOT! But either way! There seems to be quite a few dragons in this one! 🥴🥴🥴🥴

Kalvaxus definitely ain't the only one! 🥴🥴✋✋

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More art of the Bad Kids from the trailer! They appear to be on top of a ton of...red skulls! 😃✋

That's definitely extremely reassuring! 😃👏🤪✌️

ALSO...WHY DOES FIG LOOK LIKE SHE'S HOLDING ONTO A STEERING WHEEL?! ARE THEY IN A CAR?! IS THIS A WINDSHIELD VIEW OF THE BAD KIDS RN?! IS FIG DRIVING THE BAD KIDS AGAIN?! WHAT 👏 IS 👏 GOING 👏 ON?! 👏

😱😱😱😱 ARE THE RED SKULLS THE DECORATIONS ON THE FRONT OF THE CAR THAT THEY'RE IN?!! 😱😱😱😱 DIDN'T JOHNNY SPELLS CAR HAVE SKULLS OR A SKULL ON IT?!

Bruh- I'M SO CONFUSED!!! 😭😭✋✋ HELP!!! 😭😭✋✋ [EDIT! This seems to be art from Episode 4 of Fantasy High S1! "Rumble Road"!]

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Getting to some of the nice cute stuff! :3

Who is that hot pink girl?! [EDIT: IT'S FIG!!!]

Who is that seemingly older woman at the bottom right?! [EDIT!! IT'S KRISTEN!! ALL THEIR HAIR COLORS ARE WHITE HERE!!]

I see Adaine..Riz...and... I'm ASSUMING that's Gorgug on the bottom left??? IDK! IDK! 😭✋ I'm doubting myself SO MUCH RN! 😭✋

EIther way! This part was cute! 😭✋

I LOVED this shot from the trailer so...:3...Here it is! Not really a theory but...🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Nice art though! ;3 :3

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Yes. I'm ending the theory posts here...FOR NOW!!! FOR NOWWWW!!! 💀✋

Brennan putting his feet up in the air for WHO EVEN KNOWS WHY! 💀💀✋✋

It's MOST LIKELY from an Adventuring Party maybe! 💀✋

Trying to show the audience that he has legs??! 💀✋😂

Idk fam 😂💀

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SIKE! I'M ACTUALLY ENDING THIS BLOG WITH THIS PICTURE OF BRENNAN!!! CAUSE... YEAH!! GORGUG ROLLED A 4 ON SOME CHECK AND BRENNAN MADE THAT FACIAL EXPRESSION!! SO...WHO EVEN KNOWS HONESTLY!!! 😭✋

I'm SO DONE!! 😭😭✋✋

AAA!! I WANT EPISODE 1 RN SO BADLY!!! 😭😭😭✋✋✋

[wilderebellion]

I'm already SO into The Ravening War series

Part of me is already crying "Justice for Lady Queen Amangeux" but that might be Anjali bias.

I love that the young woman is already a decisive spymaster and the older woman is a (seemingly) naive queen. Parentheses necessary given the hints of her secret.

Divided Loyalties, Cameos, and Impending Tragedy below the cut for further spoilers

The Divided Loyalties:

Karna between Fructera and Vegetania

Delissandro between Meat Lands and Ceresia

Colin between complicated Dairy Islands origins and a potential oath to protect Delissandro

Amangeux between queen of Vegetania and lady of Fructera

Charlrock???? TBD, possibly between The Bulb and the Hungry One?

THE CAMEOS:

holymoly I hoped for like one or two allusions and got SO MUCH more! I think Brennan explained the catalyst of the Ravening War in an Adventuring Party episode way back when, so I KNEW what was coming when Tomaté rolled up. And at least 5 named NPCs that we knew of from ACoC.

Absolutely fascinated by Pamela/Pamelia Rocks having a different take on the Bulb, and Citrina possibly making EYES at young Belizabeth? Did I imagine that?

Impending Tragedy:

I feel like Amangeux is on a path of heartbreak/betrayal by those around her. Or maybe she turns crueler and more jaded over time. Imagine if she ends up being Plumbeline's mom - like, hitches her star to Gustavo Uvano to keep power/status, or to ensure that she DOES bear an heir to an ruler, only for that dream to become thwarted by the creation of the Concord?

I'm still trying to figure out Deli's family tree, but we know he's got Ceresian and Meat Lander lineage. His chieftess mom worries about his future and who he can trust, and Delissandro is practically wrapped around Ariana's pinky. We also know that a little over two decades from now, it's not a Katzen leading the Meatlanders - it's Basha Myaso. And Princess Sapphria of House Rocks died from Carnish assassins after working on a campaign for Basha's leadership.

Bishop Charlrock could be a descent into madness, or religious fanaticism of a different nature. He seems like a devout Bulbian, but that weird little mental flash he had - I'm not sure if that's because he was seeing magic of The Hungry One in action, or if it made him flash back to a memory of his own.

The herbs the Bishop recognized are probably secret Cause of Death of Arthur Cardoon, though I did see someone else posit the possibility of sabotaging Amangeux's ability for an heir.

Are Colin and Colton family? Is Provolone even Colin's real name?

Karna has a lot of directions she could go... like, potentially could betray ONE PC in a big way, or has the potential to methodically backstab each and every one of them.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (10-16 Nov 2024)

ngl fam this again was my brain this past week

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Mossa & Pleiti #2) (Malka Ann Older, author; Lindsey Dorcus, narrator) - another lovely mystery novella with Mossa & Pleiti - I admit I sometimes find Pleiti frustrating because I'm very much a 'if I want to know what's going on with someone I ask them kind of person' so I have little patience for her dithering BUT it's only occasional, it's always mild and I love everything else SO MUCH, especially the world.

🥰 The Wonder of Stevie (Wesley Morris, author; various narrators) - an in-depth look at Stevie Wonder's 'classic period' when he was transitioning from kid entertainer to adult thru deep dives into each of the 5 albums he produced from 1972-1977; technically a podcast but the audible version packaged like a book has an extra interview with Barack Obama & Stevie Wonder

🥰 Untitled Truck Stop AU (JessRoseDraws) - reread for Stucky Book Club - really love this (almost)historical fic of truck stop sex worker Bucky & hermit mountain man Steve

😊 Possession (Leather & Chrome #4) (Kiki Clark) - look, the heart wants what the heart wants, and sometimes the heart just wants a MC daddy dom taking care of two twinks

💖���� +319K of shorter fic so shout out to these 💖💖

Where the Heart Is (Chancy_Lurking) - MCU: stucky, 12K - no powers, roommates-to-lovers/fake relationship

The Long Walk Home (Arbeds Ghost (GhostDeb)) - Stranger Things: steddie, 12K - college AU, steve has insomnia, eddie's the late-night DJ

A Really Private Person (astolat) - Person of Interest: finch/reese, 18K - an asteroid is going to annihilate earth but harold & the machine can save the day

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Abbott Elementary - s2, e9-11

Make Some Noise - s3, e11

Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: The Albatwitch

Jet Lag: The Game - Hide + Seek

Jet Lag: The Game - Arctic Escape

Seas The Day: Life Lessons From Cephalopods With Dr. Sarah McAnulty - Session 5: Teuthological Teamwork: Cephalopod symbiosis

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #13

Handsome - Nelly Furtado asks about celebrity crushes

What We Do In The Shadows - s6, e6

Brilliant Minds - s1, e7

Elementary - s3, e1-17

Doctor Odyssey - s1, e7

D20: Misfits & Magic 2 - "The Man We've Been Waiting For" (s23, e8)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Fighting For Bottom, Baby" (s18, e8)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Sul Ross Desk

Short Wave - These Drones Could Help Keep Your Lights On

⭐ Vibe Check - Democracy TBD

It's Been a Minute - Mormon Moms: Unpacking a national obsession

Switched on Pop - Still Freaky After All These Years: Gaga, Tyler, The Cure

Signal Cleveland: On Air - Moon hiking around Mentor's Nature Preserve

⭐ Lost Notes: Groupies - From the Slutmobile to the Starship

Ologies - Ergopathology (BURNOUT) with Kandi Wiens

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Malaria Bat Roosts

⭐ The Allusionist - 203. Flyting

⭐ Shedunnit - The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Green Penguin Book Club 6)

Song Exploder - Le Tigre "Deceptacon"

Short Wave - The Mystery Mollusk Roaming The Midnight Zone

⭐ Pop Culture Happy Hour - Red One And What's Making Us Happy

Dear Prudence - I Can’t Afford To Support My Girlfriend Anymore. Help!

Dear Prudence - Prudie Plus: My Life Feels Stuck.

It's Been a Minute - Why pop stars aren't having kids (and why you might not either)

The Curious History of Your Home - Gardening

⭐ Today, Explained - When docs cry

99% Invisible - The Memory Palace…Book!

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Nate DiMeo’s Personal Memory Palace

⭐ 99% Invisible - The Power Broker #11: Brennan Lee Mulligan

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Dio

"Rainbow In The Dark" [Dio] Radio

Queensrÿche

Lady Gaga

LCD Soundsystem

Prefab Sprout

Classical for Autumn

[pandomech]

Everything that was traded

Spoilers for Dimension 20 Neverafter Episode 18, The Trials of Baba Yaga. BE WARNED THIS IS BIG SPOILERS

Okie doki first this will try to cover the actual facts, what I think was traded and for what, and finally some random wants in this order.

The Facts

-Gerard goes first, in the actual episode Brian Murphy as Gerard says "I would give you my name, my humanity, for hers, for her name." then Brennan Lee Mulligan says "you have asked that Elody's story be hers." In the Adventuring Party for the episode afterward, Brennan revealed what Brian had written "My name/humanity."

-Rosamund next, again in the actual episode Brennan as Baba Yaga says "for you to end this story your own way, then give it to me, princess." Siobhan Thompson as Rosamund said, " I make the choice to be alone, if that's the choice that I get to make that is mine." A bit after Brennan says in his voice "Do you want to give up this hope that you could have this in order that this person would be let go?" to which Rosamund simply responds "-Yes." later in the Adventuring Party it was shown that Siobhan wrote "My true love,❤❤❤"

-Ylfa seems to have no specific moment of a deal but there was a deal just untold, but here are some maybe trade moments. The Baba Yaga says "a rare, rare treasure indeed." after Ylfa hugs her grandma goodbye which Brennan follows up with "- The memory of the little girl leaves.", a bit later he also says "- The memory is something you leave behind", then a bit later Emily asks "I gave away the memory of my grandma, right?" which Brennan answers "- I think you know you gave something, and you feel pain of its absence, but you don't know what it was." also in a tiny bit later Siobhan asks "- Can I give Ylfa some really deep scritches?" which Ylfa replies "- Who's Ylfa?" the Adventuring Party revealing Emily wrote "The Little Girl, so that all that's left is the wolf,' or 'Memory of my grandmother dying, so that I have to experience the loss of her all over again."

-Pinocchio then is asked by the Baba Yaga "what would you give? What would you give for a chance to write this story a different way?" and Lou for Pinocchio responds "would offer up any chance he ever had of being a boy again." A bit later Brennan says "But as the light fades, a single scrap of paper from The Lines Between comes through that portal as it vanishes, floating just in front of you with a name written on it." which Pinocchio then plucks out of the air as Brennan soon after reveals the Step Mother's name "Minerva." Lastly in the Adventuring Party Lou wrote "The chance to be a real boy again."

-Timothy following is asked by the Baba Yaga "powerful book, Mother Goose. What would you give to write in it truly?" and Mother Goose responds "I would offer you a full page." which Baba Yaga responds "That's a deal!" then in a bit she also says "For this precious thing, I think I will be coming to The Lines Between with you." and like all the others in the Adventuring Party it is said Ally wrote "A full page of the true book (the rest will possibly be shredded, disseminated to all other people of the world."

-Pib finally is asked by the Baba Yaga "What would you be willing to give to find the path through this place?" and Zac thinking for Pib says "I think he would think of his story, his book." AND SEEMINGLY SHE ONLY GIVES HIM ADVANTAGE WHAT THE F*?/<NG H\}L CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT ELSE HE GETS WHAT!!! also in Adventuring Party Zac wrote on the paper "Pib's book."

Simplifications

Here's is what I think was actually traded and for what

-Gerard traded his name (turning him into his archetype / just a frog prince) for his story to become Elodys

-Rosamund traded her connection with her true love for some freedom I guess not sure but it seems like more than just ADVANTAGE

-Ylfa traded all of her memories of her grandma which explain why so much of herself is gone including her memory of her name since she only got it because it was her grandma

-Pinnochio traded the possibility that he would ever turn into a real boy for the weakening of the Step-Mother/her name

-Timothy traded a whole page of his true book for the Baba Yaga being with them in The Lines Between

-Pib traded his book SEEMINGLY JUST FOR ADVANTAGE, I GUESS GOOD STANDING WITH THE BABA YAGA BUT TRADING ANYTHING IS CREATING GOOD STANDING WHAT THE F*CK AT LEAST MAKE IT AN AUTOMATIC SUCCESS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Anywhoo

Random Wants

I would have liked it if when Gerard's new form was shown instead of saying Prince Gerard of Greenleigh it just said

"A Frog Prince (He/Him) The Frog Prince"

since that would be such a simple change and a thousand times more devastating, how he's just a frog prince, the fact that there is a near infinite version of him that all go by he/him pronouns from the story of The Frog Prince.

A slightly harder creation is art for the rest of the player characters one that is obvious to me is art for Pinocchio where it would be him looking straight forward making the info that he is a puppet, without face muscles, pupils, an actual moving mouth, or a face that can articulate how sad and empty he feels. Mother Goose's art could be also be facing forward holding his book in his arms as his face being lit by the magic in his book as certain characters from the book are because of a lack for a better word holograming. Pib's art could be mixture of the previous arts of him being a clear feral devious cat in much more of a regal stature like him standing straight up showing his fangs with his daggers in his hands but not going to stab something.

Final want the characters being happy goddamm has these episodes been great but depressing as fuck ugh.

[the-nerds-of-light]

Last night's FFXIV D&D went great. They fought off Serpent Reavers attacking their ship on the way to Limsa, who were more intent on capturing passengers than attacking people. Matsu fucking exploded a couple of them with shooting stars (Guiding Bolt). Sayonji Catapult-ed a small cannon ball directly into the Captain's face. Barry attempted to cast spells but Grease came out instead, stymying the pirates from getting back to their boat. They completely demolished the invading force despite the fact the pirates would retreat (with hostages) at half HP.

Brennan (friendly merchant) was enamored with their efforts. He guided them to the Adventurers Guild when they landed at Limsa, and gave them maps of the city.

Baderon gave them adventuring licenses!

Anyway, as they were signing their licenses, a group of Yellowjackets bust in, led by Captain Milala, because I fucking love Milala (Rogue quests). In my campaign, she recently rose to her position as captain, taking over after someone who was much more lax and/or corrupt. She's cleaning up and taking out the trash.

And, as in the game story, she accused the party of signalling the pirates from the deck. But she was persuaded to step down in the face of the party's intellectual rebuttals and Brennan's refusal. Baderon explained the Yellowjackets were uptight because of a rash of kidnappings lately.

Matsu: Kidnappings?

Baderon: Oh no you don't! I know you adventuring types. I'm not telling you ANYTHING.

He makes a deal with them: do their first job well enough and he might give them more details to help with the kidnapping problem.

He then pointed them to Chuchuroon's Junkystop to get some maps for Middle La Noscea and sent them to Summerford Farms to help out.

(it's fun using AI to remove labels from the in-game maps and replace them with my own markers, expanding the world a bit with actual shops and landmarks)

They met Chuchuroon, whose favorite thing in the world is shinies, and also deals, and also sharing shinies with everyone! He sold them not only a map but a small cube of highly polished solid dirt. He proclaimed them to be FRIENDS (Sayonji deadpanned and Presti'd a rainbow that said BEST FRIENDS) and begged them to bring him any cool shinies they find on their travels.

We ended there. I'm gonna tell them they can explore Limsa in the time between sessions if they'd like, and we can do a little RP over telegram.

[yourfatherjustinmcelroy]

Okay I realized I should maybe have elaborated on the "she constructed her party to mirror the bad kids" thing because I forgot that was a theory I made up in my head and not objective truth lmao

I was thinking about the control that she maintains on her life and the people around her, as well as her obsession with the bad kids that extended to long before she got rage star'd. While yes, her adventuring party did form on the first day of school like everyone else- they were not always like this. Ruben used to be an indie kid. Oisin used to be like, nerdy iirc. Surface level stuff we've seen, but there's a huge jump in personality that happens from freshman year to junior year. We saw it with the bad kids even, that was a whole thing in the marketing of the new season. I can just so clearly see Kipperlily, newly full of external divine rage, seething with jealousy and hate and trying to reconstruct something similar to what the bad kids effortlessly seem to have. And then she improves upon them in the clearest ways she sees fit. It's quite easy to imagine her feeling like shes constructing all these parallels between her group and the bad kids when in reality she's just pushing at things and grasping at straws.

Like, we can kinda break it down:

Their tank is quiet and sort of hard to read? Great, we already have that in the bag. Only thing is gorgug has an unfailing niceness/politeness... we'll just get rid of that in our new and improved version. And it worked- Gorgug fuckin hates Mary Ann and she gets under his skin in a way she doesnt for anyone else.

Their bard is an alt kid with a huge influence through their music? Easy. Ruben, youre a fuckin emo kid now. Sorry! I don't make the rules! Except I do. We're gonna do it like them but do it better. We're even gonna sign with the exact same record label. You will do what she did but better and to a higher degree than she ever did. And hey- Kipperlily wouldnt know it but god damn does Fig spend a lot of downtime fucking with ruben.

Their wizard is soooo fucking important, she's the ORACLE for gods sake... well fine. Our wizard is important too. An heir to a dragon hoard. Has family ties with THE same dragon the Bad Kids once tussled with. Great- similar and nerdy enough in text, and in subtext we crank up the charisma- sorry oisin you need to get charismatic now. A growth spurt doesnt make you muscular- time and energy does. Thats intention. Similar vibe for Ivy- Fabian is popular, rich, and a big fucking deal- so you need to become the same flavour of sociable. Aloof, popular, big idgaf energy. Constructing not their mirrors but their foils, perfectly matched wielding social convention. And it worked to different degrees- Fabian feeling pressured to seem cool in front of and trying to show up for Ivy in the first half of the schhol year. Adaine kind of having a crush on Oisin the whole time up until now, distracting her from any traps laid- nobody would suspect a thing.

Buddy Dawn feels clearer than any others. He is the life kristen left. He is the height of her former potential. I can imagine kipperlily clapping her hands with glee because oh my god its soooo perfect.

I feel like I dont have to explain the link between kipperlilly and riz- brennan does a good enough job of that.

Anyway, thats a very long-winded explanation of this "theory". It doesn't really change much in the way you interpret the story, its just a little bit of possibility to insert into a hypothetical backstory. It probably wasnt all her doing, since the rest of her party does have agency and is similarly united in their cause, I can see how they would kind of start emulating the bad kids naturally. But doesn't it totally seem like some shit she'd do? Something she would try to "mastermind" under the guise of being the "group leader"?

Anyway just food for thought, obvs u dont have to agree to enjoy the original post but just thought I'd put it in writing here.

Rewatching the first few episodes of fhjy because i guess i have nothing better to do and the way you can see how kibblespilly was supposed to be a counter to riz is so fucking funny. Its all there from the very beginning- the attitude, the tactics, the way she interacts with the party and everything- this is supposed to be riz's counterpart to run against him for student body president and have a terrible battle of wits and barbs

But in a twist that is perhaps THE most befitting to her ideal story of running against the boy she chose to be her antagonist, the intrepid heroes just straight up not taking the bait resulting in her instead having to go toe to toe against her idealized perfect rival's aggressive near-flunkie unsubtle chaotic friend is SO FUNNY.

Like I know some people are disappointed we dont get the riz vs kipperlily presidential whatever, I know it doesnt make tons of sense in that specific narrative way. But the fucking hilarious meta that even this didnt go her way is so funny. Because instead of rogue sneaking and behind the shadows plays and spy vs spy shit, we have just outward schoolyard taunts and shit like kristen exploding and jumping over the school and the exact kind of play that baits kipperlily into rage every single time and its so fucking funny. Kristen runs naked through the school and does party stunts and is STILL BEATING HER. She even clearly constructed her party to mirror the bad kids perfectly and craft each of them their own nemesis/counterpart and for the most part it like kind of worked EXCEPT FOR HER.

It must drive her fucking crazy that her cute little plot of rogue vs rogue didnt pan out at fucking all despite ALL the signs pointing to that making the most sense. This was something she just couldnt predict, couldnt mastermind. She got up onto that metaphorical stage for a debate and instead was met with a clowning act. Its so funny. I love fantasy high. Nothing you could have done would have changed this, fourdogs. You never had any power at all.

[justbeingtalea]

This is just a simple and small appreciation post for Zac Oyama, because I’m talking so much about characters but never about their amazing players:

1. This man plays amazing characters in whatever campaign he is playing, that I can’t not love and absolutely adore: 

Gorgug Thistlespring, tall and strong and kind and loving half-orc, raised by two gnomes, who would do everything to protect his friends and family. 

Ricky Matsui, selfless and heroic and naive but also so much more than that, who gives up everything he loves for people that he knows, people he doesn’t know and people he will never know. 

Lapin Cadburry, smart and stoic and “boring” and suspicious, who always holds his cards close to his chest, until the time comes to save everyone except for himself. 

Cumulous Rocks, quick thinking and fast acting and unafraid, who has so much love for everything magic, but will kill you and show no mercy. 

Mavrus the Unschooled, careless and unmotivated and protective and loyal and talented, who will act like he doesn’t care for the people around him but will give his everything even for people he doesn’t even know.

2. When the DM gives him information to process as a character, or talks to him as an NPC you can see in his face and movements that he goes fully into character, processing whatever it is that he sees.

(Video of Zac Oyama as Gorgug Thistlespring in Dimension20's Fantasy High. He is imitating to play drums and looking deep in his thoughts, while Brennan Lee Mulligan is explaining in the background how Gorgug is coming to the conclusion that maybe he is his own dad. It is a scene from the 12 episode of Fantasy High)

3. He is such a smart player, finding the hints in the campaigns that he is playing and being so strategic when he can be (SPOILER WARNING! because this discusses specific moments when Zac was smart, strategic or figured out clues that they found)

Like as Gorgug when he caught the connection between the KVX bank and Kalvaxus, or was the first one to think that maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with the picture of Riz’s dad but rather with the people that look at it.

Or like Lapin when he stayed out off the tournament to stand watch, when he averted the attention off of Amethar, when he tricked Keradin in the dungeon, all the Adventuring Partys in which Zac explains what he had planned for Lapin in the cathedral fight if it had gone differently.

And even as Ricky, especially in the second season now, when he cast that “Calm Emotions” spell on the werewolf that was attacking Kingston, helping Iga to go forward with Ox, being the first one to think about protecting JJ at the tunnel fight and later in the museum and also the one to think about trying to connect with JJ after everything that happened with Tony Simos.

This is not even everything that is great about Zac as a player, and even less about Zac as a person, but the rest would mostly just be a list of moments in which Zac proved why my brain was right when it went “Hm, yes ... I wanna know what this man’s deal is” when I first saw a thumbnail for Fantasy High on Youtube.

[bigdickfartsapolka]

No. It was established that retrieving the crown of the nightmare king was worth 60% of the bad kids grade. One thing about both D&D as a platform and the Adventuring Academy as we have seen from Aguefort: one should not make assumptions or extrapolate based on information taken from one adventuring party to another. Ageufort is many things, but reliable? Consistent? Adherent to strict rules? None of those. This is a man who retroactively knocked himself unconscious to create illusions of him helping because he knew that the student who had called for his help was successfully rescued already by her adventuring party. We know from The Seven that Aguefort does not allow student government in his school because he said he would not allow his power to be usurped. Yet now here we are, with presidential candidate Kristen Chili's Applebees. So, what happened? He changed his mind, Brennan forgot that lore piece, timequangle? We don't know. But yeah, Ithink you may have gone too deep into your board on makingthe assumption that every party gets a big adventure for 60% of their grade. We know that the 7 went to the waste and were doing their mission, but we never get confirmation of what percentage of their grade it was. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Aguefprt changes the percents the same way that they grade the different levels from The Seven where a class D is worth 60%, a class A is worth an immediate graduation ceremony, the rat grinders just doing endless forest extermination quests might only be worth 10% of their grade, but they actually go to class and do their work. There is truly no way to know yet, but let's see ehat the rest of the season brings, cuz I am hopeful that The Time Quangle will explain a tooon of the stuff that seems weird this season so far.

So it was established in sophomore year that everyone has an adventure worth 60% of their grade right? If the Rat Grinders are only credited with killing rats, spiders, and twig gremlins then did they not do their sophomore year project? Is that why Lucy had to disappear or die? Am I onto something or have I gone too far into my string board conspiracies?

[xaidyl]

You could explain individual stuff! I find these explanations very fascinating, actually! OwO

okay! lets do this (this may be a very long post with lots of my random opinions but we’ll go with it) (and also please bear in mind these are jokey and in no real way a representation of these real people with real actual lives.)

***spoilers for most D20 seasons with this cast***

1.The babysitting 

Actual parent:Brennan 

From my experience DMing, you are effectively a parent to the players. He would also be an excellent dad

Wine aunt: Siobhan

Siobhan gives me vibes of someone who would take a bottle of wine to go babysit, then sit and tell the kids stuff about cults that they weren’t meant to hear. She would definitely teach the kids swear words, and they would love their cool auntie 

Great at babysitting: Lou

Part of the key to babysitting is being relatable to the kids, but also self assured enough to get them to behave. the person who holds that key is Lou Wilson. He also has played dad-energy characters, and that is the kind of vibes that you look for in a babysitter. 

Mediocre at babysitting: Murph

This scenario needs some theatre of the mind. Imagine Murph, he’s read all the babysitting books, he knows everything he could need to know, he lives with Emily Axeford. He’s more than prepared for this task. He tries so hard. The kids love him. The kids also walk all over him. They don’t get to bed in time. He wanted to do a good job. He tried so hard to do a good job. Yet somehow, luck is against him. 

The house is on fire, God is dead: Emily

Fig. Sofia. Jet. All three of these characters would set a house on fire without hesitation, and not one fears God. What does this have to do with Emily’s babysitting ability? Well, all these characters are teaching us to be chaotic beings, just like Emily. We are the children, and D20 is our babysitter. Emily would only replicate the same thing in this babysitting scenario. 

The children: Zac and Ally

I believe it was episode 9 of the unsleeping city. Neither Zac nor Ally were involved in the scene in question. Siobhan makes a reference to Eliza Doolittle, to which Zac makes a Dr Doolittle joke. Beardsley then shouts ‘I can see my dick’, a reference to a different film. This is fairly normal behaviour, and would not make either of them children in this scenario, had they not continued to hysterically laugh for the next ten minutes or so. Sat at opposite sides of the table. I think Zac starts crying at some point. They are absolute children, and also both have strong baby energy. Neither babysit, they are the ones that need babysitting. 

2. Can they be killed?

Cannot be killed: Brennan

The man is a God. Enough said. Also I’m pretty sure your body would reject your soul before it allows you to kill him. 

Can only be killed by one thing: Siobhan

You would be tricked into thinking Siobhan would be easy to kill- her constitution score is so low, after all. However, you would be wrong. The low constitution score has only made her stronger. More aware. What is the one thing that can kill her, though? Nobody knows, she’s only told those she truly trusts. It could be the most rare poison in the world. Or it could just be Mike Trapp. He (allegedly) has previous.

Can be killed but it won’t last: Emily

It is not anything to do with Emily that her death won’t last. In fact, Emily would be pretty easy to kill. However, if you kill her, Murph will do everything in his power to bring her back. He travels to the end of the earth, and then Emily Axeford is back and gets her new death date in a fancy gothic necklace.

Can be killed but at what cost?: Lou

What cost? The cost to the world. The world would be significantly worse off. You wouldn’t be able to live with yourself. It’s not worth it.

Can be killed but it’s not worth it: Murph

It’s not worth killing Murph because you would have precisely 0.7 seconds before you were killed by Emily. There is no way you can profit from this scenario, you would be dead before you even realise you’ve been successful. 

Can be killed and it would be pretty funny: Zac

I feel like we don’t discus the correlation between Zac Oyama characters and dying enough. Gorgug was the first D20 death. Lapain was the first D20 perma death. Ricky just like had a weapon that causes him to die. If you killed Zac, it would just be funny because its happened so much. Sorry Zac.

Can be killed but why would you, you monster?!?!: Ally

We’ve already discussed this. Beardsley is Baby. Leave them alone. 

Please kill them they suck: Box of Doom

I dont trust them

3. The fitness gram pacer test

this is definitely the most controversial of the charts, but there’s three of things you need to understand about my reasoning.

1. Zac is fast at running  

This has been seen a couple of times, namely: adventuring party, where Zac tried to tease Brennan about showing off how fast he his at running, but it turns out it was just Zac speaking his mind, and he is the one who always shows off at how fast he is at running. Also, the video on Siobhan’s instagram of Zac jumping over that table. 

He is also very bad a squats. Why would you be bad at squats? Bad knees. Why would you get bad knees? Running without sufficient warm up. Why would you skip warm up? Because you are very focussed on being able to run fast. 

2. Zac is willing to defend his title of running fast

The way he accused Brennan on adventuring party, he knew what he was doing. Sabotage. Brennan may also be able to run fast, but Zac would prevent him from getting a good score. How? He has his ways. Zac is a good boy, but not when it comes to running fast.

3. I felt bad

I had to give Zac at least one good one :)

Anyways onto the other choices:

Actually tried and got a low score: Brennan, Murph, Siobhan

We’ve already spoken about how Zac sabotaged Brennan to be the best at running. Murph is here because he would try really hard but something unlucky would happen. His shoelaces come untied. He accidentally gets caught in the Zac/Brennan feud. 

Siobhan started off with the intention to try, but after Lou, Emily and Ally had all done, she realised they were in fact much more interesting than the fighting going on. She walks out mid lap 

Didn’t try, got a low score, doesn’t give a shit: Lou and Emily

Its important to understand that both Lou and Emily are capable of getting a high score, they are just better than the whole thing. Why is their DnD group doing a pacer test? Why did Zac suspiciously force them to do this whole thing? 

The difference between them is Lou knows the feud is stupid and has like actual work to do? He sits and auditions for some other big film. He still watches over his laptop. 

Emily however, simply wants to watch the world burn.

Despite their different approaches to the situation, they both have a bet going on who’s going to be the fastest runner.

Ran one singular lap and finished: Ally

Ally Beardsley shows up at the track wearing a rainbow bucket hat and a tie dye shirt that is impracticable to run in. They have a llama with them. At no point do they explain this. They walk round the track once, drink their water from a plant pot, then spend the rest of the time cheering on the others with words that don’t quite make sense. 

4. Storming Area 51

They cant stop us all: Zac and Brennan

Neither mean it maliciously, but both believe entirely in what they are saying. 

Brennan is definitely the guy to go mad over a conspiracy theory. He made all the crown of candy NPCs. He is basically betraying himself. He knows not to trust anyone. He doesn’t trust area 51. The next season of dimension 20 is this as a subliminal messages all the way through. 

Zac says it accidentally. He’s making a character for the charity livestream. He’s still got a hundred hours of character making left. He’s done so many bad squats. Unintentionally, he makes a character that forces all the zesbians to storm area 51. 

Have fun getting shot, dumbasses: Lou

The rest of the cast are being weird again. Lou is equally as capable of being weird, but sometimes they need to chill. It starts with Emily talking about diner ice. It finishes with Brennan wearing a foil hat at all times. 

You guys stop, someones actually gonna do it: Murph

Murph is a good, lawful boy.

Actually shows up: Emily and Siobhan

They ride a motorcycle there together. They wouldn’t have gone alone, but as a duo they are an unstoppable pair. Emily wants to break into a government facility. Siobhan desperately want to be in the real life x-files.

One of the Aliens: Ally

Emily and Siobhan open a door at area 51. Behind it is Ally Beardsley. They are wearing a rainbow bucket hat and a tie dye shirt. They have a llama standing behind them. This is not explained at any point. They drink from a flower pot and eat a quesadilla that appears out of nowhere. 

5. Stabbing 

Would never stab anyone: Murph

Murph is a good, lawful boy

Would stab in retaliation: Lou, Murph, Zac

Lets be honest, the entirety of a crown of candy so far has been these three taking stabs (or metaphorical ‘where is your bulb now’ stabs) as retaliation for a stab another one of these three had done.

Yells “I won’t hesitate bitch” first: Ally and Siobhan

I can’t really explain this one much more other than i’m pretty sure both these people have said this phrase at least once in their life.

Would stab as a warning: Emily

This would be promptly followed by Murph getting her to stop stabbing. Or, depending on the situation, encouraging her to keep stabbing.

6. The water fountain

Fills up a bottle and drinks from it: Lou and Siobhan

This is the normal way to drink from the water fountain. They were also both very concerned at watching Beardsley’s various different drinking apparatuses in adventuring party. 

Bought 4 water bottles so this wouldn’t happen: Murph

He is prepared. Something probably still goes wrong, but at least he’s got three water bottles left. 

Drinks straight from the tap: Brennan

Brennan is a busy guy. The tap is there, it’s convenient, he needs to get back to planning. There’s so many campaigns, so many characters, so many voices. 

Dehydrates: Zac

Honestly I’m not sure if this man would drink water if nobody told him so

Drinks from a puddle: Ally

like they drink from a vase with a flower, a puddle really isn’t that much of a stretch.

Licks the tap: Emily

She just wants to see the world burn. Also, she knows Brennan drinks straight from the tap. She has to get payback somehow. 

7. A child starts crying

Makes the child laugh: Lou

We’ve already discussed how Lou has dad energy. I feel like he’s know exactly what to say and how to act to get the child to stop crying. This is less stupid than the rest of my explanations, but I always love how expressive Lou is when he plays dnd. I’m not sure whether its the way he holds himself or the way he gestures, but I’m pretty sure if I was a crying child, I would stop crying if Lou Wilson told me a joke in that very soothing point.

Tries to play with the child: Siobhan and Ally

These two kinda give me older/younger sibling vibes. As a team I recon they could create a game that would calm this child down. Also Ally knows techniques to help adults calm down, they could probably implement these ideas into a game for children.

Gives detailed instructions: Murph

His knowledge comes from the books he has read to learn how to babysit, and the one time he babysat. His explanation is rather frantic however, mostly because he is trying to defend Emily in his answer.

Cries with the child: Zac

He’s sad because all his friends are speaking to this child an nobody noticed how fast he just ran.

He’s also baby, as we’ve said previously, so he probably relates to the child somewhat

The reason the child is crying: Emily and Brennan

The child just watched episode 9 of a crown of candy. 

[jq37]

The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 9 Safe Harbor

Out at Sea

We start this week on the recently commandeered La Fondue, milk raining down on our exhausted and injured PCs who are still reeling from Stilton’s betrayal. Most of Annabelle’s crew are even more badly injured so the PCs are forced to help sail the ship in a group skill check which 4/6 of them pass for a group pass. The gang watches the surviving enemy ships sail away and Jet considers blasting them with canons but the La Fondue doesn’t have artillery. Jet also asks Annabelle if maybe, now that they’ve saved all of their lives, they can break protocol and bring them to Candia instead of the Dairy Islands, a question she doesn’t answer at the moment.

(Edit: Wait! I should have called this section Sweet Life on Deck! Dangit! They better be on a boat again so I can use it!)

Most of the group start to fall asleep, understandable considering they’re living through the longest day of their lives, but Theo takes a second to talk to Cumulous first. He asks about Cumulous’s backstory and learns that the Spinning Star monks used to be able to teleport all over the place with teleportation circles made by Lazuli but, without her around to tend to them, they’ve been breaking down and are now unstable and dangerous to use. Him using one to get to them was a big risk and he really only made it because he’s one of the strongest monks. Additionally, as alluded to before, Candia being at war with the Concord released him from certain vows which allowed him to join the fight. They also bond over being the #1 and #2 Archmage Lazuli stans (or actually maybe #2 and #3 as we’ll find out soon) and Cumulous who is either really into magical weapons in general or magical weapons made by Lazli or a little of both gets emotional over Battlepop like he did over Sourscratch a scene before. 

The next day, there’s a funeral for the one sailor Annabelle lost in the fight. Ruby ties the milk-silk handkerchief from Primsy to her collar in solidarity. Speaking of, Primsy shows up--still injured from the attempt on her life--and invites everyone not to tea, but to a parlay. Clearly affected by the recent events, she declares that she doesn’t recognize the excommunication of Amethar and questions the church’s position on witchcraft considering all the witchcraft her Candian allies used to save her. She’s also pretty chill about the whole Stilton thing considering.

Primsy says she’ll help them but first wants them to fill in the gaps in Brie’s brief letter. Amethar explains about how he was excommunicated for still officially being married to Katherine Ghee. During an aside to this conversation, he drops what I naively thought was going to be the headline news from this episode: Caramelinda was engaged to someone else before marrying Amethar--Lazuli! It was for political reasons in part but also a love match and when Lazuli died, she ended up getting married to Amethar to at least maintain the alliance. Anyway, Ruby asks if Cara knew about Ghee and Amethar says no one knew except Jack, Belford (the priest), and Ghee herself (plus his sisters but they’re all dead). Annabelle and Primsy question whether Amethar didn’t try to have the marriage annulled and he says that he did right after the war but she couldn’t be found. Annabelle says that there are a lot of little islands she could have run to in the aftermath of the war (a smart move considering the target that would be on her back) and says that Dairy ships have a better chance at finding Ghee if she’s still around so she’ll help arrange that.  

They have a little convo-detour about various plot points:

Primsy asks how the Pontifex knew to ask Jack about Ghee in the first place. Ruby and Jet suggest she used magic or maybe found something in the files Ciabatta claimed had no Candian secrets. 

Annabelle questions the fact that Plumbeline would name Ciabatta as the successor right before having to swear on the Book of Leaves. That seems to indicate that either she’s not working with the Pontifex or the Pontifex wanted to specifically and publicly rule out Ciabatta as a possible candidate. 

Also, we learn that ex-communicating Amethar doesn’t take away his right to rule as Emperor. The Pontifex doesn’t have that authority, at least not on paper. But, as Ruby points out, she effectively has the authority by power. Still, if they can get the Book of Leaves and confirm Amethar was named emperor, that’s a huge point in their favor because he obviously wouldn’t declare war on Candia as emperor so the war would be without proper authorization and a violation of the Concord pact. 

Theo and Amethar speculate that the Pontifex doesn���t actually want to name a new emperor and want to just “provisionally” (but really indefinitely) fill the power vacuum herself.  

Anyway, Primsy reaffirms that the Dairy Islands are with Candia all the way and they continue to sail. They have 18 days before they land and Jet uses that time to finally read the rest of her banned book. You’ll remember that she already read about the first thing--the Profidian Heresy--which was an old, now heretical belief of certain members of the church that the Hungry One was as strong as the Bulb. We get a little bit of new info on that: One person who believed that doctrine and was later killed for it was a Veduit Priest (fight me Brennan) named Bartholomew Brocolpatch who was a mentor to a young Belizabeth Brassica. 

Onto the second term--the Ramsian Doctrine (did not clock the Gordon Ramsay reference until it was mentioned on Adventuring Party). It is a full, end times, Revelations, Ragnarok type thing. Ruby helps with this because she speaks Bulbosi (which is like Candian Celestial or church speak). Basically what it says is that the Bulb can’t win until the Hungry One devours the world and the Hungry One won’t devour unhealthy souls (Ruby translates “healthy” from the Bulbosi phrases “farm to table” and “locally sourced”) so in order to bring about the end of days, there needs to be a destruction of all the trash people or, phrased differently because the word for people and food is the same in Bulbosi--the junk food.

Even knowing what happens later in this episode, this still might be the thing I'm most mad at Brennan about.

Cumulous later calls a meeting of all the Candians and drops a little more exposition on them. He says that the reason that Candia has magic and the other kingdoms largely don’t is because his order of monks curates and tends to the magic of the realm while other kingdoms neglect their sources of magic. He also says that the church’s power comes from others not having it. After Ruby mentions that she sees Lazuli on a semi-regular basis through her magic, Cumulous drops the bombshell that his power comes from the Hungry One--though he doesn’t worship them. It’s just like a power source. They also discuss Jet’s research on the end of days stuff and Jet thinks maybe the move is to spread as much junk food as possible to delay the apocalypse.  

Homecoming 

After a long time out at sea, the gang arrives at Port Syrup at the mouth of the Cola River. As they sail in, they see three sunk Imperial warships and that the port is heavily defended. Clearly they got the memo. And we quickly see who gave it to them when Brie and Manta Ray Jack run up to meet them! Amethar is super happy to see his friends alive and they also confirm that Cal made it out and so did basically everyone except the Swirlies (RIP). The Jawbreaker castle--Castle Many-Licks--is under siege but it’s very hard to break into and it seems like most of the rest of Candia is doing OK.

Brie thanks Ruby for her help in finding Manta Ray Jack and then confirms Amethar/Theo’s suspicions that the Pontifex is ruling in the absence of an emperor (she says that until Candia is back in the Concord, technically, there can be no emperor). He also swears to duel Liam who truly cannot stop putting his foot in his mouth (this time about the church and a *very* confusing..complement?), after the war.

Amethar and Cumulous have a quick aside where Cumulous once again says that his mission is more to protect the magic of Candia than them specifically. It just so happens that, right now, those two things are pretty aligned.

As they make their way back to Castle Candy (w/ their Dairy Island friends), the citizens are pretty stoked to see them so it seems that war with the Concord has not lessened the populace’s love for their king. They take a pit stop and get a war update. The mountains are full of Imperial soldiers and random marauders plus there are reports of “Long Live the Queen” written in Imperial soldier blood on the side of a mountain which isn’t ominous at all. Also, there’s a call for all the help they can get to defend Castle Candy because an army from Comida is coming. Ruby tries and succeeds in communing with Lazuli who sends her a vision: to help Castle Many Licks troop-wise, they’d have to leave Port Syrup defenseless basically which would be a huge strategic loss. Meanwhile, the army coming to Castle Candy is full of discord so there’s a better chance at being able to muster (not mustard) troops there and be successful. The Dairy peeps say they’ll help as well and leave for Lacramore--except for Brie who holds down the fort in Port Syrup and Jack who goes with them to Castle Candy.

They make it there, at like 4am and Carmelinda is there to meet them, full weeping in relief at her daughters’ safe return. Cal is also there (with fancy new pants) and very happy to see Amethar. Caramelinda is less happy to see Amethar and you can clearly feel the tense conversation they’re gearing up for. The girls want to stay but Cara lays down the mom hammer and starts lecturing them. They all try to stealth away (non-daughters included) but Cara goes Full Mom and hits a Nat 20 to eyes-on-the-back-of-her-head notice. She stomps her foot and traps them all in caramel, demanding they all stop messing around and go to bed. Theo Messages her to give a quick word in favor of the girls and their maturity and battle prowess which Cara acknowledges.                   

Cal gets acquainted with Cumulous while Amethar follows Cara into their chambers for a convo that had me feeling like *I* was in trouble. She’s emotionally overwhelmed in a kind of understated and detached way as she talks to Amethar--she’s again openly weeping but not really about him. She doesn’t expect much from him. Him never telling her and hoping the problem would go away like a child makes sense. But his sisters knew which means Lazuli knew and never told her which hurts a whole lot more because, “Lazuli I loved with all my heart and this is just politics.” Ow. Amethar promises he’s going to do better. She doesn’t seem convinced as she leaves the room.      

Later (Note: I’m not 100% clear on the timeline since Siobhan says when they wake up but it seems like it’s still dark in the next scene), Ruby takes the “For Candia” note from Lapin and brings the rest of the PCs to the Sugar Plum Fairy’s standing stones to have a little funeral. Liam finds a peppermint seed and puts it down for Preston. Cumulous is also there and has the urge to meditate while everyone goes back to the castle.

Rocks Fall 

Ruby and Jet see, as their mom walks out of her study, a piece of tearaway lingerie in her desk as she locks the door behind her. And it’s not Jet’s. You know the girls gotta investigate that and Ruby, of course, gets a Nat 20 to pick the lock. In fact she doesn’t have to pick it. She approaches it with an air of mischief and it yields to her, opening without her even having to break out her thieves' tools. They find a letter from Lazi Fierce (interesting name choice) of Lazi Fierce Lingerie who apparently has been spying on them for their mom since they were little (which is funny considering she seemed outraged about their buying lingerie in ep 1). The letter also cryptically refers to something she’s keeping hidden in the attic of her shop and that she needs to leave and she doesn’t know when she’ll be back so if Cara needs it, she should go get it. Much like Siobhan/Adaine stealing that book in S1 of Fantasy High, there is no way the girls were gonna get that info and *not* follow up on it. They grab Liam and go.

With a 25, Ruby easily picks the lock and...we cut to Cumulous. 

As he’s meditating, the Sugar Plum Fairy appears to him in a traditional, cutesy form. Cumulous sees through the glamour and asks what she wants. She says she wants the magic of Candia safe, same as him and says she would owe him a boon if he brought the royal family (who she needs safe) to the Great Stone Candy Mountain. She says there’s safety there for them and Candia’s magic. Maybe not in the way Lazuli planned but this is a better plan. Cumulous says he’ll think about it.

Calroy finds Amethar and takes him to the ramparts of the castle to have a guy chat and also talk strategy. As they get up there, Amethar sees that there’s a ton of soldiers in tents out in the fields. And then he feels a knife in his back. Brennan asks for 3 Con saves.

Water dagger.

He takes 34 points of damage (about half his HP) and is paralyzed as Cal starts to monologue about how he’s always hated Amethar for being so lucky. Fifth in line and somehow makes it to the throne while he’s stuck having to wheel and deal for everything he has. He reveals that he had Rococoa killed when she found out he was selling weapons to Cersians AND that the tents in the field aren’t all Candian tents. Some of them are Ceresians. He got Stilton interested in Primsy. He set up the cheese ambush. He worked with Alfredi to get the water daggers to Kerradin. He told the Pontifex about Ghee (he was in that conversation you’ll remember). He *also* says that, in her younger days, the Pontifex had Citrina (who he claims to have actually liked) killed in the street by Vegetanian knights. 

“I wonder if they’ll call you Amethar the Unfallen after this.”

Boom, Amethar is sent over the castle walls. 

Jet, Ruby, and Liam are in the attic and they see a gleam of golden light from a chest where something is clearly being held. Brennan makes everyone roll Initiative as they walk in and Liam sees four shapes in the room move, all masked, dressed in black, and holding water-steel daggers.  

Ally scrambles for combat dice--because this is a STORY episode what is HAPPENING--and attacks for, in total, 67 damage to one guy who smells of sourdough and does not drop. He hides and Ally, in a burst of realization, puts together that it must have been Ciabatta, something confirmed by Brennan’s coy smile as he rolls a million dice.

Emily and Siobhan hold hands and brace for whatever’s coming. 

Ruby is hit by a dagger and Jet, it seems, is hit by two (since she takes 6 saving throws to Ruby’s 3). Ruby takes 49 damage (down to THREE) and Jet takes 53+51, dropping her and poisoning her. She has to make a death save with disadvantage (bc of the poison) which she passes.   

Ruby wants to stay and fight but Liam and Jet insist she run so, visibly distraught, she casts Invisibility on herself and runs for Theo. Liam casts Rope Trick, grabs Jet, and brings her into a little pocket dimension with him. Ciabatta takes off his mask and tells his men to find them and they say, “Yes Imperator.” They leave. We’re out of combat.

But Jet still has death saves to make.

Nat 1.

That’s two fails.

Liam tries to make a DC 15 medicine check to stabilize her or at least give advantage but fails.

She rolls again.

Nat 1.

As she lays in the Rope Trick, bleeding out, Liam trying his best to stanch the wound, Jet feels a glow on her Locket of the Sweetest Heart. Ruby feels the glow as she sprints over the bridge back to the castle and as she reaches the other side, the glow extinguishes.    

“Tell Ruby I love her,” Jet says to Liam, not from her body, but standing above her body. “And tell her she did the right thing.”

The spirit of her aunt Rococoa shows up to ferry her to the other side.

“Good job soldier. You got her home. Ruby’s gonna be alright. Work’s not over. There’s plenty we can do from this side. You ready?” Oh, hell yeah she is.

Which brings us to Theo who is in the castle, looking for other knights, when he finds Sir Toby in his room, butchered. The door is slammed and locked shut behind him by some of Cal’s men who taunt him about eating Toby’s corpse to survive. But Theo isn’t just a brawn guy. He’s the ward of Archmage Lazuli. He casts Knock and the door flies open.                    

Cumulous hears shouting from the castle and runs towards it immediately.

And Amethar is still falling.

Brennan says he has the time to make 3 checks to come out of paralysis. He comes out of paralysis on his first turn and, as is mechanically useful and narratively appropriate, goes into a rage. As he falls he thinks about Ruby doing that slick aerial arrow shooting last ep and Jet stabbing that dude with him during the ambush. He sees a point of light across town cross the bridge and go out and he *knows* Jet is dead. If he wasn’t raging before, he’s raging now. He falls and takes 72 points of damage, halved to 36. He’s still up. Amethar the Unfallen, yet again. 

The sounds of war erupt and that’s where we end our ep.

Safe harbor my ass. 

In Memoriam

Oh, Jet.

I’ve known this was something I was going to have to write for ages now. I’m honestly only surprised this wasn’t the first one. Jet has had a date with the Grim Reaper for ages now and it was just down to confirming the date and time.

The moment she said, “I go on top of the carriage and lay myself perfectly to protect Ruby,” she might as well have started picking flowers for her grave. Her willingness to throw herself in harm’s way to protect anyone she held in any regard without the slightest hesitation was always going to be her downfall. A noble end to be sure, but still an end. And it sucks that, if she had to die, she didn’t die in a blaze of glory in battle, but she made the most of her senseless death. She died, telling Ruby to run, wishing she could have done more to save her, telling Liam to make sure she knows that she’s loved and that she didn’t abandon her, she did the right thing. Not a single thought for herself, only for her sister. 

Jet, who never wanted to be queen and now never will be.

Jet who longed for war and fell right on the cusp on the biggest one in years.

Jet who was forced by circumstances to step up and did so every time. 

I didn’t include her last exchange with Rococoa in the recap because I wanted to use those lines here. 

Her aunt says, “I have bad news. If you thought the adventure was gonna end, it’s not.”

“Well,” Jet replies with a slight smile, “if you thought the adventurer was gonna die, she definitely fucking wasn’t.”

The Bastard Jet Rocks. RIP.

1 Million Years Dungeon 

That damn cake bastard and his stupid fancy pants. I KNEW it I KNEW it I hate that I’m right but I KNEW IT.

Not that it was a crazy puzzle as a viewer. In a story like this there *has* to be a traitor to the king and for someone to be a traitor, they first have to be a friend. And Cal has been *real* friendly.  Brennan thought he could throw us off the scent by saying that Cal was is his DMNPC, as if we don’t already know he’s the enemy. That’s just more evidence for the pile baby! I SEE YOU VILLAIN. 

But damn if it didn’t still hurt when it happened. After what he’d just been through? That’s just insult to injury, or vice versa I suppose. And in a story ep???? Brennan?????

Wild that he waited 20 years to off this dude and then monologued his entire plan and didn’t wait to make sure Amethar--the famously Unfallen--was dead though.

Anyway, absolute BASTARD MAN (and not in the cool Jet way). I need him DEAD and I need that to happen ASAP.

(Also, this is more on Brennan but full-circling Lou’s “shit/piss” running joke with a MURDER ATTEMPT? That’s an extra year dungeon my guy.)

Sunnyside Up

“You’ve struck me. Why have you done this? It was wee and gentle but you've struck me nonetheless.” I love Primsy with my whole heart. 

The “slam down big style” line was, like, moderately funny when I first heard it but every repetition in and out of game made it exponentially funnier. 

“If we have to follow the rules, you have to follow the rules!” 

“Everyone needs to stop making sworn enemies. We already have enough.”

“I sentence you to death.”/“No let him do it.” and then his, “Later.” So good. 

It didn’t *end* funny but I maintain that that the, “There’s a *war* going on,” back and forth between Jet and Ruby was gold. 

This isn’t actually from the episode but everyone roasting Brennan with full lies when he gets up to use the bathroom in the Adventuring Party is one of the funniest things Dropout has ever put out. Also, Murph taking Brenna’s cookie story and Murphing it is very good. Just watch this week’s AP, even if you don’t usually. 

Things I’m Concerned About

Going into this battle ep, Ruby has THREE HP and Amethar has FIFTEEN. Like I know Rococoa said Ruby would be OK but I hope that has some mechanical effect because IDK ABOUT THAT.

Is Lady Donetta w/ Cal or was she just a pawn, like Primsy?

Also, idk if this matters but I can’t shake the thought that Cal murdered the Swirlies. Like it’s very probable that they just suck but the thought struck me. 

Don’t love that it seems like Cal is going right for Cara this ep. Hopefully Theo (who Big Brained on that clutch Knock) can help her out and, if not, it looks like she has some skills of her own. I’m pulling for her. 

How out the window is the format? Like, I’ve been concerned about a random combat ambush for a while now--partially because of the genre and partially because of how story heavy the tourney ep was. Things have been bleeding through already and now, at the halfway point, it seems like a plausible time for Brennan to fully throw the rulebook out the window and be like, “Game’s changed y’all.” They didn’t roll for initiative at the end of last ep. I wonder if that’s logistical or somehow relevant (like, are they going *right* into combat or not).

AHHHHHHH, OK, Jet’s death. As much as I felt it coming, ouch. And not just ouch for me Ouch for everyone. I am so worried about how this is going to break Ruby specifically. Like, poor Cara--she *just* got her daughter back only for her to die in her old stomping grounds because of a letter *she* had--poor Amethar--he’s outlived his firstborn who he saw safely through battle and loved more than anyone besides his other daughter, just like he outlived all his sisters--but Ruby? This is going to CRUSH her. She egged on the sneaking out. She ran instead of staying to try and help (correct move but total guilt trip). She’s never been alone before. I know we’ve all been kinda tense for whatever that, “Family is vulnerable,” line from Siobhan in the trailer is but man I’m *so* much more tense now. I wonder if she’s gonna take a class tweak like Liam did (I know he had more of a reason for it but still curious). 

(Also, Theo who’s whole purpose in life is protect the Rocks family having Jet die and Amethar almost die in one night? RIP to that dude’s mental health.)

Note: I recognize that there’s a theory floating around that Cara set up what happened as an ambush and is evil but I refuse to consider that and if that makes me boo boo the fool in two episodes, so be it.

Seriously though, Concerned about whatever that “Long Live the Queen” stuff is. Like it could be referring to Cara but it could be referring to someone else entirely. Either way, sketchy.   

Lol also the health food-pocalypse. That’s a thing. Extremely wild that that’s not even close to the headline of this episode. 

I may have trusted Lapin by the end but I do *not* trust the Sugar Plum Fairy. Whatever’s going on with her and Cumulous? Do not vibe. 

Ciabatta better be toast by the end of this show. This isn’t a concern. This is my Denny’s order. Toasted Ciabatta with a side of dice I can pour down Brennan’s throat.

Five More Things

So, Emily’s new character. I have two thoughts. One (and this was suggested to me by @buck92) is that she’s playing the Queen’s Champion--Ser Amanda Maillard who’s been mentioned twice--once in the first episode by Theo and Sir Toby and once this episode as part of the war effort (leading troops south). A named character doing important things but with no art sounds like a possible backup PC. Also, Emily getting to play this cool knight who Murph’s character is slightly jealous of would be A Dynamic. The other strong possibility is the Sugar-free chocolate warlock Brennan mentioned in episode 1 when they were on the way to Comida. I thought they were gonna get jumped by that character and they weren’t which makes me think that’s a PC too. It would also make Emily 3 for 3 on warlocks! 

RIP to all of us who made the Bread Wedding joke before the season started. We were right, but at what cost. 

Ruby talking about how it doesn’t matter what she does because she’s not next in line and then having Jet suddenly die and instantly becoming crown princess has painfully Big Amethar Energy. 

Also, a nat 20 to break in and find the letter and then two Nat 1 death saves? The dice REALLY wanted Jet dead. Addendum: Almost forgot! Liam *just* learned Twinspeak! Like, off. What a narrative hand-off having that happen right before Jet died. It was like written in the stars.

It’s just a little moment but I loved Cara including Liam in her lecture with a little, “You are included, Liam.” 

One More Thing!

This has been circulated a bunch already but I still wanted to shout out this very good video edit by @breadddie! It hit me real hard man. 

Also, I don’t think I can link this properly without tumblr getting mad at me but this animatic with Amethar’s Fall set to What’s Up Danger on Twitter is excellent!

Edit: Here’s a link to an ask where I link to the animatic! Novatank is the artist’s @ btw. 

[iceformer]

Hey what did Grissini want with the boon? (A discussion so feel free to add)

TIME TO over anylyse Brennan's portrayal of Constano Grissini.

Let's make a few assumptions first about how Calorums empire works as Caramelinda explains the Concord:

'Each kingdom would give a full half of a nations armies so that no one nation would have enough power to rise up against the others.' Now, do people get to choose where they go or do they just sign up and take a chance? Either way we know that Ceresia is struggling politically and Ceresian charecter we meet have a lot of nationalism.

That being said, let's assume people from the same kingdom are put together and follow similar rankings to their homelands (CENTURION Commander of Ceresia but of the Imperial Army)

Constano's Boon

Let's look at the other combatants of the melee:

It's never mentioned what Amethar and Jet's intentions were (maybe just to fight)

Scravoya wanted to fight for the Meat Lands (and beat up Amethar)

Keradin was there to kill Amethar

That Ceresian gladiator was being cheered on by Ciabatta

Bonathan was decribed as a Vegetanian knight

Annabelle had two wishes and chose one (for herself or the dairy islands?)

We don't know the majority of these charecters intentions and the ones we do know are related to Amethar. We do know that a majority of the fighters are connected to a powerful figure or country

Gladiator > Ciabatta

Bonathan > Vegetania

Keradin > Pontefix

Scravoya > Meat Lands

Annabelle > Dairy Island

Jet and Amethar > Candia

Now let's look at Grissini. He is the only fighter who dosent 'serve' the nation he's from (he's ceresian but he serves the imperial army and the concord). What would he want that could be granted by the emperor himself? Would he want something for himself like Annabelle? If he were to serve someone, would it be the Concord or Ceresia?

@constanogrissini had an idea where he would pawn his boon off to ciabatta for respect or something or to be dismissed as a soldier of the concord just to be a Ceresian soldier alone.

Thing is we don't know too much about Grissini and most of his screen time wws spent attackibg the party but I 've missed a few adventuring parties so if anyone would like to send in some headcanon I'm open for ideas.