The Chaser: Dead Men Tell No Tall Tales

Yo ho yo ho a pirate chaser for you. Guest DM Becca Essig joins us to break down the behind the scenes and talk about favorite moments for Dead Men Tell No Tall Tales.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the tall tale Tavern the monthly sorry mouth is
really dry let me take a sip of this rum is.
That a bit. Oh, I liked it.
A little pirate rum. Much better.
Welcome to the Tall Tale Tavern,the monthly one shot adventure
TTRPG podcast. I am your Tavern master and host

(00:22):
Kyle, Captain Kyle and I am joined by Are there any Pirates
here? No, Captain Kyle, what's the
name of your ship? Tell us more about your pirate
life. Please.
The beauty booty is my ship, of course.
Jesus A. Wonderful.
Vessel, we're here for the Chaser episode for dead men tell

(00:49):
no tall tales and we're here with I'm I'm my throat might
actually die. I don't know.
Don't do that to yourself. Maybe I currently have strep
throat and maybe that was not a great idea, but pirate voices
are too fun. So I'm here with Scott and our
DM back up for the adventure. Welcome guys.
Woo. Hoo, I yeah, that's great.

(01:13):
Pirate voices are fun and almostnobody did pirate voices during
this entire set of episodes really, except for me.
I feel like so kind. Of well, that's The funny thing
that you you requested that we do pirates just so that you
could do a pirate voice. And then you were like, but I'm
not going to play, so dip out. I know.
Yeah. Not not my smartest thinking for

(01:37):
somebody who really wants to play a pirate adventure, but
it's Women's History Month and so, you know, I step aside.
I'm a noble. I'm a noble.
And just to quote Scott in our text with the three of us, it's
time for the men to talk now, because the.
Girls have their I'll let you guys take it away so.
Finally, the. Yeah, I guess so.

(01:57):
My idea for a pirate one shot Kyle first.
I think it first came up, oh, probably in the first year of
this podcast. I suggested we should do some
sort of, we could do a pirate one shot because it meant that
the characters could not necessarily be heroic, but they
could maybe be muting against the worst captain is what I
suggested. Because that way you can have

(02:18):
antihero characters. And then you didn't ever do that
and we never did it. And then Becca wanted to DM
another one. I said you have to do a pirate 1
and we made her do that and now Becca, could you please
elaborate further? I like this how you act like I
was like guys let me DM please dear Lord give me a story to

(02:39):
write you I don't know. I was supposed to interpret the
like 6 crying voicemails that you left me.
In the. Fire voice too.
Yeah, yeah, in a. Pirate.
Oh God, I want to do a pirate 1 and you won't let me.
Of Jamaican pirated sounds. Like we got all the islands, all
the islands coming up. I'm going to have an Aruba one

(03:01):
down. I'm going to have an Aruba one
down really well because I'm I'mabout to go to Aruba for the
first spring break. So that the whole point of the
trip is so that I can nail an Aruban.
Pirate. Accent.
Pirate accent So. Aruba, Jamaica.
Who you want to take? Yeah, I understand.
That's how you could do a tax write off right for the podcast
like I'm just going to do Aruba.The whole trip's a tax write off

(03:24):
for the podcast because I'm doing a character study for.
For doing that. And then then, you know, we also
get paid for this according to that random person, you know, I
get all that sweet, sweet pay. So that's why we have to put up
with the the podcast. The one comment, maybe one of my
favorite comments ever on on on on of our post.

(03:46):
It was one of my tik toks, I think right, yeah, he said yeah,
he said he said don't be a liberal without telling me
you're a liberal. And then I forget what the other
half said, but it was it was. Like that we had, it's a good
thing. Oh, we're, we put up with it
because we're getting paid. I'm like, right, Yeah.
So apparently the players are all getting paid and and I mean

(04:07):
if. Anybody out there is willing to
pay me to play D&D or to do. And honestly, if you want to
take over this show, you can be in charge of this whole show for
like $10 a month. I will like get Kyle out and you
can now run it and you can run it like that's all it would
take. That extra 10, that $10 a month
would be nice. It would be.

(04:28):
It'd be good. Far more than we've ever.
Made that we've ever made zero anyways.
Dead men tell no tall tales. That's right.
Focus on what A. Fun.
What a fun adventure. Another one where I was able to
go in blind and just listen and enjoy, enjoy the story and enjoy

(04:48):
people playing DND and going in blind without knowing anything.
It's very, it's a unique situation that I don't get to
be, that doesn't get to happen for me very often.
So it's a very fun for me. Becca, I am interested in your
inspiration for this one shot and what you know, what your

(05:10):
thought process was. Would you?
How'd you start coming up with the adventure?
Just give us everything. Give us everything.
Yeah, yeah. So I wasn't actually kidding.
It is. It was Scott's themed idea.
I said that I would DM again, but I was panicking about coming
up with the theme. And so I threw a bunch of themes
at Scott and he was like, no, those are shit.

(05:31):
We're doing pirates. Yes, those are shit.
Pirates. So, time for pirates.
So yeah, he, he proposed the idea of like morally Gray
pirates, I think is how you put it, right, Scott.
And I immediately was like panicked.
And I was like, I don't think I'm the right person to tell a

(05:52):
story like and I. Don't do morally Gray.
I only do sweethearts. That's the only way it works.
Did you say morally Gray or physically Gray because Celia's
character was a skeleton? A Barnacle covered skeleton.
Yeah, yeah. So originally we were actually
going to go with like a Babes with Blades kind of vibe for it.

(06:14):
That's right. And I was mulling over like
ideas for that because I wanted to truly do it justice if we
were going to do go down that path and and not accidentally
fall into like tropes in a non fun way.
And then during that I. Told you, let me write it.
Trust me. I understand babes, but you
just. Wouldn't listen, especially when
they have plays. I said it's going to be just

(06:36):
like American Gladiator. It's going to be awesome, and
it's going to be. Perfect truly represents.
But then I watched Muppets Treasure Island and I just
remembered that like that shit is just so fun and like such a
fun way to like look at the pirate adventures.
So I started thinking I was like, OK, if I do this, I don't

(06:58):
know if I can truly pull off Morley Gray, but like, if I did
pirates, what could I do? And I think I think of these
things like backwards from what I'm supposed I know I do, just
like I think of them backwards. And I was like, well, who would
be telling the story? Like who would actually be in
the Tavern telling the story? Because that can kind of set the
tone or give you a direction forit.

(07:19):
And I thought since this would be a bonus episode worked in
during Expedition Untold, it'd be kind of fun if it was like
pulled in something from that. I felt icky messing with MTRO or
namby. So that kind of left Hugh.
Hugh doesn't tell stories, but his sister did.
And thinking of like River telling the story as a bedtime

(07:42):
story really freed me up to add in kind of some like more.
I don't I don't want to say unrealistic because obviously
it's all make believe, but like some more like flavor that would
only be flavored into a bedtime story versus like a book that we
would necessarily read. So yeah, that was kind of how it
all all built out of is wanting.To.

(08:05):
Give opportunities. Oh good, that was great.
It was I think you had mentionedit before, so it wasn't a
surprise when I listened to it. It was something I think you're
just in passing said like, oh, he was the storyteller.
So I just thought that was so cool.
I love that and I love that I didn't know that River was the
storyteller that he was just remembering a story from River
and that was perfect. I thought that was that was

(08:27):
excellent. What were some of the things in
the story that specific things that were like bedtime story to
esque elements of the story thatyou mentioned?
Some of them were. There were some moments like
that in there. Yeah, so the one of the big ones
is like, I tend to not gravitatetowards like the classic like

(08:48):
evil guy for the sake of being evil.
So the whole development of Von Holtz and like just putting in
all the punchable traits. A classic bedtime story villain
that he's based on, of course. Of course.
Yeah, he wasn't originally. I just want to put that out up
there. Originally when I created them
and I was like, Oh my gosh, thisis my opportunity to create the

(09:09):
most ridiculous villain, right? Like somebody that would just
like, you know, if you were like, we're reading it like this
is unbelievable kind of situation.
And so I just put on all of these traits, especially.
I feel like I read about a guy like that almost.
Every. Day where I think that it's
crazy. It's weird how writing this six

(09:30):
months ago felt very different than playing it.
Yeah. So that was one of the big ones
is I don't usually do in my stories like a big bad evil guy.
It's usually like life circumstances that they're
navigating and life kind of sucks sometimes.
But that that was one of them. The like entire narrative of the

(09:53):
happy ending with like the foundfamily being the the true take
away of of the story. I thought that that would be
something that would be really important for like not River and
Hue aren't found family, but like the importance of family
woven throughout it and the fantastical like adventures on
the seas and things like that would be definitely something
that would have interest River. So yeah, just kind of out the

(10:16):
other one too. I usually when I try to make
puzzles or traps or any kind of those encounters, I try to make
them grounded in something that would be like makes sense to be
physically present in that circumstance because my personal
brain as an engineer, I'm like, but why would that be there?
Like, why would someone ever have just put this thing here?

(10:37):
And I didn't have to care about that with a bedtime story
because the crazier the better when you're trying to get your
younger sibling to sleep. So yeah.
Just the whole concept of like adragon pirate captain sounds
like something from a kids book really in general, the fact that
it's like a dragon pirate captain who likes to collect

(10:59):
lost souls, you know, like, is in a very uplifting way, sort of
it. Sounds like literal.
Here's what it sounds like to me.
It's it's me starting a story. So there was this pirate captain
and then one of the kids saying and he was a dragon.
Yes, he was a dragon. And then, you know, like.
Having and the characters are very outrageous, even the

(11:22):
characters that all the girls made fit, like children's story
sort of outrageous, fantastical characters like a living
skeleton, a a parrot, like a humanoid parrot that can't
speak, a minotaur, and then of course, sweet little Daisy.
It was a little Daisy. Yeah, the Princess Daisy.
Yeah, it was really cool becauseone of my core memories growing

(11:44):
up as I have an older sister that's nine years older than me.
And she used to tell us bedtime stories when we would do like
sleepovers pretty regularly downin the family room or like out
on our back deck. And they were sometimes just
like derived to like embarrass or get a rise out of like 9 year
old Becca. But some of those stories we

(12:04):
like now tell to our nieces and our nephews during sleepovers.
And so it was just a really fun mechanic to work in the wild,
crazy stories that my sister like those elements used to tell
us and that vibe into the story.Yeah, it was just fun.
It was a little bit of nostalgiafor me in that way.

(12:24):
It was, yeah, it was. Loved the storytelling aspect.
You mentioned the characters, the the character introductions.
I really enjoyed. I really liked the the character
and introductions and something with this podcast for these one
shots where you feel like you have limited time.
I was glad that you took the time to do these little intros

(12:45):
for the characters. Did you come up with those kind
of with the characters a little bit with the some of the
players? Was it more more something that
you had written out and and kindof got the OK from or what was
the process like for that? So they, when we originally were
starting the brainstorming and they were developing their
characters, I asked them to, in addition to coming up with the

(13:11):
character idea itself, come up with the story behind how they
met Bronze Beard or how they joined the crew and they had
full control over that. I was just like, here's Bronze
Beard, here's his character, andhere's his kind of whole vibe.
How like now you guys get to choose.
How did you guys meet him? What were those circumstances?

(13:31):
What was your relationship with him?
And then I also had them send me.
I can't remember it was either three to five.
Just memories of like times where they were together on the
ship. Yeah. 3 feels more right feel. 5
feels excessive for like the length of this campaign.
I think you asked for three and I know that I helped Celia write
hers and I wrote at least like 8things then she's.

(13:53):
Well, yeah, that is why like everyone went above and beyond.
Brooks everybody wrote way more pages.
I think everybody handed you in like multiple sheets of paper on
their character. They.
Fully wrote out like a full thing of like the connections
and like their whole thing. And it was so helpful and it was
exactly what I wanted to do because I have them, I have my
home campaigns do these kind of things a lot too, because it

(14:15):
it's a really easy way to get characters invested or excuse
me, players invested in their characters really fast.
And it also helps them feel grounded in the world a lot
faster. And like in this podcast, you
have five to six hours to tell acomplete story and help the
players get grounded in the story and care about the story

(14:36):
and like care about where it goes, as well as five to six
hours to get all of the listeners to do the same.
So I was really glad that they jumped in on that fully.
And all of those intros. What I did is I I used that
information of they didn't go into as write out the whole

(14:56):
scene, but they would gave me information about kind of how
they stumbled upon bronze beard or how he he found them.
And then I did not tell them anydetails about what their intros
would be. All I told them was you are each
going to have an individual intro.
I'm going to start with Brooke because Brooke has done this
with me before. So then that way the other
players would have a chance to watch how it is and hopefully be

(15:18):
a little less nervous, yeah. It's my excuse for throwing
random stuff at Scott all the time, so.
Yeah, exactly. He's a pro and plus it's like as
you've said before. I'm a pro, I am being paid.
You are being paid $10 a month from whoever is taking over this
podcast. So whoever, dibs smash.
You got 10 extra dollars a month?
You want to DM someone shots. The the first you met, so the

(15:47):
the back, the the back story, the memories thing.
The the first time I did that for a group was for our campaign
that we're in, you know, expedition, I'm told where I had
you guys give me some memories. Now I had a very pointed reason
to ask for memories for this forthat campaign, but that was that
was the first time I really asked anything for for back

(16:07):
story for characters. Usually I'm like, hey, up to
you. If you want to fully fledge out
some back story, let's do that. Or if you are someone who just
wants to like jump in and and kind of make up back story as
you go, if it comes up, then that's cool too.
But that was my first time doingfor the campaign and the
memories thing specifically turned out to be like really

(16:28):
powerful right off the bat, likefor you players and also for me
to to to get to know your players, like wow, these are
your some of like your, you know, and that campaign was like
your core memories, essentially a very good idea and something
that I plan to carry forward. Doing one shots is like, Hey, I

(16:48):
want you to flush out a little bit more and, and if the players
jump in and do that, then great.I think it's really helpful and
cool. I think when you guys work in to
the to the character intros or into the campaign itself with
those memories especially, it makes you feel like you're more
a part of the world as a player.Like you said, you get invested

(17:09):
right away when you're like OK well I know that I've been part
of his crew for like 2 years now, ever since he found me in
this big battlefield or whatever.
You know, like that happened andit is acknowledged in the world.
It's not just some vague thing that I wrote and an unfinished
sentence on on my character sheet anymore.
You know, it's part of the storybecause I'm someone who does

(17:30):
tend to write out a lot of random back story stuff for his
character, whether or not it comes up at all.
And I'll say the ones where it does come up, it does make the
character feel more meaningful or impactful.
So good job you guys. Yeah, I think it like I'm right
there with you, Scott. Like I write out I, I guess I
don't write out like a necessarily full back story for

(17:50):
mine, but I tend to think through like common situations
that will come up and they're like, well, how would my
character like how would they feel about that and why?
And that's kind of how I think you.
And that's just because I don't feel like I'm a very strong role
player. And so that helps me get
grounded in the character a lot faster and like make those split
decisions that can come up during a game a little bit

(18:12):
easier. Speaking of that, here's a
thought that I had while listening to the episode, and I
wanted to ask you guys, how do you think?
I guess we could say Hugh would react if they were speaking to
L7 and we're told that they needed to reveal a secret.
I was. What Hugh would say to L. 7 To
reveal a secret. How would you, I want to put it,
put you in the spot of the players.
Yeah. What would you say you have?

(18:34):
To answer that for him too. Yeah.
So you're going to have to answer that for him, too.
It's a little. Unfair that I've thought about
ahead of time because I think Imtera, I think Imtera would
easily, I mean, it'd be easy forhim to reveal that he burned
down like to his friends, it's asecret to them that he burned

(18:54):
down his family library and like, you know, heartbreak at
his mother's death. That's something he could reveal
very easily or even a, a, a secret he could reveal be like,
I'm not always positive we're going to win, you know, like.
Trying to think of what what is a Ben Biofuel got a secret

(19:15):
there. That man is a car.
What his man is Vin Diesel. I've really got nothing for what
his secret could be. It would.
Be like his one. Time I burned diesel like, you
know, like something. Like that.
Like. Diesel cars.
Well, he's well, I think maybe he would.
I don't know if this is necessarily a secret to for him,

(19:36):
but his back story is that his dad was in an electric car in a
in an electric car race and another racer activated some
diesel fuel said to get some extra edge, ramming his car into
the side, exploding both cars. His dad died in that, very much
like Vin Diesel's story. It sounded a little familiar.

(19:59):
Very. Familiar.
The whole character is that way.It's a subtle reference to Vin.
So maybe you would he would he, he would share that story or
something, which is a cop out because I didn't write it and
it's but. I think it's fine.
I mean, that's, but that's the thing, I was like thinking about
that for the players. I was like, it is hard to on the

(20:21):
spot think what is a secret for my character if I've never put
that much thought into their back story before, right.
Which is I did. Celia did have the grace of
maybe me ahead of time saying, hey, I'm going to ask you for a
secret from your character. Because I knew, Yeah.
That was nice of you, yeah. I knew that would give the other

(20:42):
players some time to think as well, if there was one person
who's already prepared to go. Smart.
We're still waiting for Hugh's secret.
So there's two the the one that I think like that he would
probably default to that's a little bit on like the sillier 1
is I think he would open up his journal and show the picture of
Diandra with the little hearts around it.

(21:03):
Oh yeah. And blushing blue the entire
time and like trying to block itwith his body from his friends.
Seeing only showing L7. Yeah, only showing L7 and not
saying words. And then there is another one,
but it hasn't come up in the show.
It's the reason why suddenly Hugh joined the book club after

(21:29):
not joining it for a little while.
And I I meet Becca. I don't think I'm not going to
reveal it yet. If it comes up on EU, awesome.
If it doesn't, maybe on the final chaser I will.
Expedition Untold Chapter 15 Weekend So, Hugh Guenard, why
did you join the book club? Yeah.
So like there, there is a very there is.

(21:52):
He did not necessarily join it for himself so but I think if if
that had come up already, maybe that would have been a secret to
to L7. Cool.
Well, we'll find out. Don't worry everybody, I will
ask that question now. Worst case, it'll come up on the
chaser. Speaking of L7, one of my
favorite things from the episodewas El Siete L7.

(22:15):
I love the idea of all these. What are they?
Are they folio robots or what? What do we call the automatons
that are L10 and? Forged Omnipotence Learning
project is what you can. I love that this is a thing in
the In the Tall Tale universe itmakes.
Me. So happy L units out there that

(22:39):
are that have been spread acrossthe universe to to find
information, to learn information.
And you've got different flavorsof them too.
You know, obviously L7 was damaged, but looking for
secrets, right? Yeah, that's the wanting to
learn secrets. And L10 was, I think just
straight information. L10, very information focused.

(23:01):
Yeah, I'll, I'll speak to L7, which is that Becca and I had
already talked about the the L units or whatever at a different
point in time. I was telling her about how I in
my head have this vision of likehundreds of them spread
throughout the multiverse or theuniverse, just living their
little lives, all collecting information for their original

(23:24):
maker who just builds them all and tells them to gather
information, basically. And for L7, I didn't make the
sheet. I should have just made a
character sheet because it did come up in the episode.
He was like, we needed to roll something.
I was like, oh, I didn't make a thing.
That's a problem. But with L10 with his back story
made it so he was right away like knowledge domain cleric and

(23:45):
then a druid and then a wizard. Very, he's like very curious
about the world around him and information in that way.
And I was like, what's a different kind of information?
Secrets are like a thing and whynot make it at the College of
Lore Bard? Whatever you know, for El Siete
is how I imagine they are. And that's just happens to be

(24:06):
like the first person they ever met when they were woken up in
some Spanish equivalent seaport for to get the name.
El Siete was some Bard that tookthem under their wing and taught
them to just trade and information in that way I guess.
I love it. I also love that Brooke just was
like, well maybe we just kill itlike.

(24:28):
They turned on El Siente so quickly.
I want something. They want something.
Let's just. You're like, you get together,
you get together with a group and you're like, OK, it's the
all, it's the all women adventure.
They're going to be like, you know, they'll solve problems
really magnanimously or something, you know?
And instead it's like, oh, Elsiante's a little annoying.

(24:49):
Can we Thunderbolt this thing? Can we watch it off the Cliff
like? Does it take double damage?
I want it to take double damage from like lightning or
something. I just want it to be gone.
It's so funny. I loved those reactions and I
like Brooke as Ren cracked me upso many times.
I know she was like a little nervous about playing like a

(25:13):
straight man kind of like stoic character.
She's so good at it, so funny. All of the characters were so
well done and like they they were just so good at staying in
character regardless of the situation.
It cracked me up like because Brooke is like a oh like oh it's

(25:34):
so cute kind of a person and herreactions as Ren to L7
hysterical like the exact opposite.
And they're just like instant annoyance of like I have no
tolerance for any shenanigans. What is this?
It truly felt jarring to have Brooke 0 patience for me as a as

(25:54):
an entertaining presence I'm notused to receiving, just like
from her, it did not feel right.It was so funny.
I loved it. I loved her commitment to Ren
Brooke, I know you're going to listen eventually.
You rule at doing the stoic straight man character, and
they're always needed. And straight woman characters
and the party, they're needed. I agree that she did great and I

(26:19):
thought especially that secret scene, she did a great job of
having like a character She had like a a secret built into the
character. Almost right that she never
reveals her last name really. So it it I don't know.
It worked out perfectly to have somebody who was there to give a
more serious answer among the sort of joke answers from Celia

(26:41):
and Daisy, and then cop out answer built in for a Ringo.
It was perfect to have one person with a with a real thing.
And thank you, Becca, for just letting me be Elsie at day was.
So good. Suggest that bit, yeah.
You could just like I was relisting to it the other day
because I was like, oh, you know, I have to be able to talk

(27:01):
about these and like depth. And I just kept hearing my
laughter in the background of how delighted I was listening to
the ladies deal with you and like and like you're shenanigans
with them. I adored it.
I will gladly just sit back and listen to you as any of the L
units. Yeah, you're like a proud mom
for the L units. Always.
You're always just like, yeah, go get them, sweetie.

(27:22):
No matter what they're doing, itfeels like.
True. It's like, yeah, a median.
So I was like, so betrayed when Kyle dared touch L10.
I was like, I will cut you guys my babies. 4L10 four L 10 Let's
let's let's let's bring it back to the first episode.

(27:45):
We're talking about loving all of the characters, all the
player characters. So I want to know, Becca, what
was your inspiration to murder all of the characters in the
1st? Fights.
No. My goodness did I get sweaty
coming up with that plan becauseI knew it could go bad so fast.
I my personal enjoyment for thiswas in our campaigns that you

(28:09):
play in with me, all you ever dois roll Nat 20s against me and
just decimate my, my people. And so when it started happening
to the players from as, as you were rolling against them, my
heart was just filled with joy. I was like, yes.
It wasn't just you. Finally other people can
experience this and you started taking them down.

(28:32):
I felt bad for I was like I think did I think Natalie was
the 1st to go down maybe or one of the 1st?
And I'm like, she has such bad luck in some of these one one
shots where she is like the first to just go down.
I felt. Bad.
When it ended up Celia last, I was like, oh God, she's probably

(28:53):
like so stressed out as the person with the least experience
now the only person alive in this battle at D&D.
But it was awesome. I mean I was I was watching with
raft attention in the other roomlike oh shit this sucks for
them. Yeah, yeah.
OK. So I will say Matt was like,

(29:16):
man, you're like such a hardcoremean DM.
There was a plan, you guys, there was a reason for this.
So it kind of goes back to what we already talked about with the
like you have to really be deliberate.
I think to get a full-fledged and like buy into the
full-fledged story in five to six hours.

(29:36):
Like that is quick turn around. And so I wanted something this
to create instant hatred for vonHoltz and like the stakes.
And so I very purposely designeda really overly intense fight

(29:57):
with the idea, and I kind of grounded it in reality with the
idea that, like, Von Holtz actually started this fight two
weeks prior by planting that cursed Trident with the intent
of taking out he, I mean, he removed half of the crew plus
their main captain. So if they had all been up, the
fight would have been very easy and he would have been killed
very, very quickly. But yeah, so I had to go in.

(30:21):
It's very against my DM nature to wail on my players.
But I had to go ahead. And I was just so sweaty about
it. I was like, they're, oh, I could
lose them. I could lose them so hard.
If this does not go well, like, or does not go very, very
deliberately. And so then I, yeah, I was very,
very set out to kill all of themin that fight right off the bat.

(30:45):
But Mav asked But one of the questions Mav asked what?
How certain were you of the TPK before you started?
Was the dose X Magnus planned ordid you have to figure out how
not to kill the whole party in the first encounter?
Deus X Magnus. What is it, Deus Deus?

(31:07):
What did I say? Like.
You said. Dose dose ex I.
Use Ex Machina I believe is the what?
He's referring to. I've never heard it spoken out
loud. I've only heard it.
I've only. Seen it like red.
Maybe I'm, you know what I'm noteven going to say.
Maybe I'm wrong because just like probably green, I core.
I was 100% right and I said against myself, no, I core.
Is not right. It's got to be I core is

(31:28):
correct. Yeah, I was, I mean, I I made an
unfair fight with that. I am.
So I was pretty confident. But also like dice can fuck you
over in any moment. So like I knew that there was a
chance that they would be able to take out if yeah, if they had

(31:50):
been able to focus and then on the sailors and getting all of
those like the number of action economy down on that site, there
was a chance that they could have won it.
It was. It was very against them.
If they would have just been able to get rid of that fucking
spellcaster. Yeah, the mage, yeah, I think
that would have. And she was deliberately
designed to just piss them off. Like that was like, I was

(32:12):
basically when I was creating that stat block, I was like what
as a player would fucking enrageme if Adm pulled And I was like,
put it all into her. I love that counterspell on the
mass healing word. Was just, it was so fun to like
kind of pull out those things and just like really, I mean,
that's like the the coolness of a bedtime story, right?

(32:34):
Is like it can get really, really extreme in a bedtime
story. And yeah, so it was deliberate.
Magnus having healing potions and being instructed during any
encounters to go and hide the five year old little dozy boy
like that was that was part of it.

(32:54):
However, just so it doesn't sound like I was totally
railroading the situation, what they were actually trying to
accomplish. And that is they were in that
fight determining who they were going to fight in the final
battle. So they were whittling away.
If they had not taken anyone out, they would have seen that
exact fight again, in addition to the dragon and the final

(33:16):
encounter. But everyone that they limited.
So basically they were trying like without knowing it, they
were setting up a much easier encounter for themselves in the
end in the in the final battle. So I wasn't just being a total
asshole, but like I was, admittedly.
What if they had gotten destroyed in the fight by Von
Von Holtz's gang right away in the beginning and then would

(33:39):
they have all just died at the end of this episode fighting
them again plus a dragon at the end of Part 2?
I don't know the dice would havetold the story.
That would have been a much different bleaker ending.
To this. I would have liked to have seen
Von Holtz's reaction to winning and opening up the treasure
hoard just to find it was a bunch of like fucking notes.

(34:01):
And. Yeah.
But yeah, so that fight, oh man,it it really went against my
natural inclinations as Adm, butit was also kind of fun to just
be like, no, I can be AI can pull out all the stuff that they
talk about on Reddit as being like the the real jerk moves and
it's a OK. Yeah, it was great.

(34:24):
Yeah, it was it was it was fun to see you be a the villain for
them. And pulling up that counter
spelling that mass healing word was just like, you know,
something that it's like, I don't know if I'd have had the
stones to do that unless I was like planning for it
specifically, you know, like it was it was it was pretty cool.
It was it was great and and created a good villain there.

(34:48):
Right, right, right. In the beginning to just have
them have them fail. And then, you know, you did a
lot of people like, yeah, a lot of encounters end up with like,
people going down and like, it'sa threat of death.
And it was nice that like, for this one, they all woke up and
it wasn't like they were dead. And I was like, is this where
this is going? Like dead men tell no tall
tales. Like they're all going to be

(35:09):
dead again. I would have been pretty sick
because. They were like in the afterlife,
like ghost ship ghost pirates. Yeah, like they're all going to
be Davy Jones. Like is going to pick him up
and. Dude, we should do A1.
Shot avenge thing. Let's cut this out.
We should do a one shot where you only reveal like halfway
through that they're ghosts. Like they don't know they died
earlier in the one shot. Yeah, no, it, it was, it was, it

(35:34):
was the best way I could think of to really instill like fear
and hatred right off the bat. You gave him the Kobayashi Maru.
You fucking hit him with the oldunwinnable situation, Star Trek
style. Yeah.
It was great. Yeah, yeah, but I'm glad you
guys liked it because I did likepanic after we recorded the
episode and and message to Scottthat I had like yeah, I know me

(35:56):
overthink what it. Never happens.
My voice is so cool and collected after these
recordings. Excellent.
One of the questions that Brookeasked was what things did we
skip on the map due to knowing how to copy it?
Did we get the easy fight with the skellies because of knowing
the map? Yeah, so the the island itself,

(36:21):
there were at each of those forks completely different
encounters that they would have had depending on what they
chose. They blew my mind.
I will just say I need to shout out Tiddly is one of the
smartest players I have ever encountered and let alone DM D
and there were multiple times where she was just like yeah and

(36:43):
then I neutralized the bad guy'sship before I die and I was like
oh fuck. That was.
Awesome. I meant to ask you about that.
If you were, if you had always planned knowing she was going to
anchor their ship. All right.
Sure did not. How bad was?
It that. How bad were you wanting to to
be like, Oh, this is awesome. They can try and go steal that

(37:04):
map back. Like we can totally do a left
turn with this like, but we don't.
But we just like, but knowing that you like really just
couldn't with the amount of timeyou were given like to be able
to do that. How?
Because in my mind I was like, oh man, I would have.
That would have been a struggle to be like, oh, sorry, you
can't. You can't do that.

(37:24):
Because we just don't have time for that.
But. Like I know if I had had like a
full campaign, like if it was a normal campaign, I think I would
have just had them woken up and then decide what they want to
do. If they want to like go and
steal the map back because that is something that like was
created by their friend and slash family member.

(37:45):
So I could understand wanting toget it back or did they want to
just rely on their memory and try to beat him to it kind of
situation. But yeah, that threw at me for a
total loop when she was just like, yeah, oh, by the way, it
just it can't move until he touches it with again and and
he'll never do that. So that shit was just there now.
I was like, Oh my gosh, she. Does stuff like that when

(38:08):
she'll. Imagine von Holtz got to that
island then, because that's whatI'm curious about.
A fishermanship, Yeah. Because like, they're like, off
a bunch of islands. Yeah.
So this is actually related to the map on there.
Each of those paths, each of thechoices that they were like they
rolled for would take them on a different path.
And there was an instance if they had rolled or chosen to go

(38:30):
towards that weird forked tree, that after L7 instead of towards
the waterfall, they would have actually seen the fisherman's
boat. And that's the path that von
Holtz went up the side of the mountain and why he fell into
through the other door. So yeah, but it's, I'm not going
to lie, took me some mental gymnastics to fix my story

(38:53):
again. And I'm like, well, I guess.
You felt like when we were recording in the moment, I could
feel that energy when tiddly. When Tiddly thought I was like,
oh, I bet she didn't expect thatTilly was going to lock this out
down. Sure did not.
I loved it but I was like holy fuck.
That was that's my exact nightmare, my exact nightmare.

(39:14):
If when people suggest the emming is something like that
happening and I and not being able to think of how to deal
with it, I obviously you did andI knew you would anyway, but I
was like, I can tell she's like calculating in her head,
recalculating. Recalculating.
Yeah, And like it, like Kyle andI were saying, like, it's very
different if you have a full campaign to, like, screw around
with. But I was like, Oh my gosh, Like

(39:35):
I already have a lot of the second episode roughly mapped
out. I had not had it written yet,
but I was like, what am I going to do?
Yeah. So that and then I did not pay
attention to the fact I was the one that encouraged her to play
a Kanku because I just think they're super cool.
Did not realize that they have like the duplication feature and
can just like remember everything.

(39:57):
I was like, well there goes the mechanic of having them roll
history checks and why they did that.
Investigation. I remember all of that.
Yeah. Like.
I just want to have perfect duplication and like I was like,
oh crap. Like I was, I was OK they're.
Too, I had to mind out. But they're too perfect for.
The situation. I know, and it's so funny
because this is the first time that I haven't like, really

(40:19):
combed people's character sheets.
And like, I make like, oh, we should highlight these skills
and these skills and then I accidentally put them in
situations that perfectly aligned with these crazy species
traits that they had. So yeah, tiddly, you are a mad
genius. I loved DM ING you but Dang girl
did you break my brain a couple times.

(40:40):
It's so funny how she'll how shedoes like raise it to she'll be
like, so because this is this then and I have this ability,
I'm going to do this and you're like, yeah, that makes sense.
Crap. Yeah, I can't put calls in that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was brilliant.
They they, they navigated that really well.
And it was very cool how they kind of worked together to piece

(41:01):
all of those like get get an actual like working version of
the map on there. Yeah, it was very cool.
I forgot the actual question. Kyle.
What? What did Brooke ask?
Oh, the old. Things you skipped on the map
because of? Yeah, 10 minutes later.
We'll. Get to maybe with.
The skellies. Easy fighting, skellies or not?

(41:23):
So the things that they skipped,basically, if they chose quote
UN quote like the correct or theeasier path, if they remembered
the map correctly, they were able to avoid like all
encounters at the decision points.
So like, initially they chose the whalebone and that took them
to like that lagoon with the ashthat like no one evidently was

(41:46):
curious about after listening toit.
They're like, yeah, cool lagoon with ash.
But then the other direction, they were going to have to swing
over a pit of crocodiles successfully.
And if they didn't, I would liketo we're going to have to get
over a pit of crocodiles. And that was my little homage to
EU with Namby Hugh talking aboutNamby swinging over a pit of

(42:12):
crocodiles. But we we avoided that one so
they didn't have to navigate or potentially fight any
crocodiles. We got a crocodile later though,
so it was all OK. It's true.
I forgot, Tim. They turned into a crocodile.
Yeah. We got, we got there in the end,
so it's all good. And then the other thing that
they avoided was at like L7 whenthey chose to go towards the

(42:32):
waterfall. If they'd gone towards the tree
that was, oh, what is the term for those?
The, the animated trees, like the alive trees, basically, And
they would have gotten Awakens. There was shrub Awakens tree.
Yeah. Yep.
Thank you. And it would have like basically
attacked them until they noticeda little inscription from bronze

(42:55):
beard and its base that basically said if you give it a
piece of food, it'll it'll chillout.
And so like if they just given them any piece of like rash and
it would have immediately stopped wailing on them.
So very cool. The skeleton fight was not.
I mean that was kind of just like a midpoint.
They just did a really good job with it.
Tiddly's fog cloud like that took an entire turn of the

(43:19):
skeletons so they weren't able to do very much damage and the
rest did it like really quick work of it.
So I did not make that fight easier for them based off of
their map bad badassery it would.
They just wailed on them so and I loved cows.
Little like family comments towards the skeletons and the

(43:40):
finishing move of you make a mockery of me.
I think of Celia saying that regularly.
I love that you made them a skeletons and gave me the easy
bit of thinking that Celia was one of the skeletons attacking
every time that they showed up for L7.
Speaking of Celia, Vanilla had agreat question.

(44:01):
Do you think Scott doesn't let Celia on the podcast more often
because he's afraid everyone will like her more than him?
That is the implies question. That's true. 100% Yep true.
That's exactly what it is. I know everybody likes her more
and I and I want to and I want to fucking punish you by not
letting you get to spend time through.
You have to. Speak.

(44:22):
You don't get more Celia. Bucks yeah, my favorite, one of
my favorite things was you were a you were like she's a skelly
or something in the second episode and she's like, no,
yeah, I don't, No, I'm not. I don't think so.
That's our relationship in a nutshell, I think right there.
Here's a fun fact about Cal thatI that I I asked Kyle.

(44:44):
I told Kyle. I don't know if I asked you,
Becca. Do you know why Cal's name is
Cal? For calcium and bones.
Correct, but it's because Cal does the the lookout tower
because if there's enemies calcium.
Call them like. You see them if there's anyone
coming so. Cute I didn't see.

(45:05):
I didn't put that one. I think you guys did send that
in the chat but I did not hear it.
And cute. I love that.
And that's that's my biggest contribution to the character of
Cow is the name for that joke. So I needed it to be out there.
It was for Cow's creation. I can say Celia and I talked
about it together because originally this wasn't going to

(45:26):
be an all women's one shot. Becca really fought against it.
I forced it on her. She said women can't play D&D.
They don't know what they're. Doing, yeah.
She said girls can't do Macy Rocks.
Come on. And then girls.
Can't roll dice. But when when it was going to be
me playing, I was going to, I was like, I want to do a

(45:47):
skeleton thing. And Celia was like, I want to be
like, when we switched over, shewas like, I want to be like a
rogue, like Indigo Montoya or something.
And I was like, I could do that and you could be a skeleton.
And so that's the creation of Cal in a nutshell.
I was briefly devastated for like the 24 hours that I thought

(46:07):
that I wasn't going to get a cool animated skeleton character
that's. True, because I had already
talked to you about how. I was going to ask, you fell in
love with this character. I think it's so much better.
I love how it worked out though because I would have made them
like a sorcerer and I really didn't have a good idea for
them. But I loved even just the flavor
of it. Being like a woman with a

(46:28):
seaweed wig is enough for me to enjoy the.
Skeleton, all of it is so good. Yeah, I love.
All these characters. I loved immediately.
One of your ideas was the mage hand that is just a reflavored
like the skeleton hand coming off of the.
Wrist. That would have been cool.
We just need a whole skeleton. We need a whole skeleton class

(46:49):
specifically dedicated, not justthis reborn nonsense.
Make it, make that homebrew. We'll review it on the podcast.
That's what we we famously review homebrew on the.
Homebrew. It's our thing.
It's our. That could be more bonus
content. Yeah, There you go.
We'll review my Kangoo species when I finish making it.

(47:10):
Yeah, the Kangoo, Yes, the. Kangaroo.
Species that allows you to put characters in your pocket.
Or whatever. I really like the way I really
like the interdimensional version that Clay was pitching
in the Discord where they have like some sort of diminished
version of like a haversack or like a bag of holding for their
pouch, like an interdimensional space.
I think that. I like that a lot more than the

(47:32):
the gooey internals. And like, I think both should
exist as they should both exist as offshoots of the same race.
There's a there's a zipper. There's a zipper in the pocket
where you can have the fleshy interior or the OR the OR the
interdimensional pocket. Better put your.
Baby in the Fleshy 1 You better put your Joey in the right one

(47:53):
or else it's it's going to have a bad time.
Oh, that's a good idea. All of them should have like Joe
in their name. All Kangoos somehow have it in
there. Because when they're kids,
that's their name is Joey, and they grow up and have to work
Joe in there somewhere. This is great.
Yeah, let's just the rest of this episode, let's come up with
this. Well, I told Becca we're not

(48:14):
actually going to do a chaser, we're going to do some improv
D&D because she was feeling. I need it, Yeah, speaking.
Of roll for initiative guys though.
I got four sets of dice directlynext to me I've.
Only got 3 D 20s. Of course, Becca has more.
I have 10 D 20s within. Well, I have I have the three
sets for Q of. Course the three sets for Q.
Of course, we all need 3. 12 people keep getting them for

(48:36):
gifts. I've got the Tavern roll ones
next to me which are 5D white D 20s and five black D 20s, and so
those are the ones that I boughtthem specifically because
they'll show up on the camera better than on the other ones
for the. Tavern trash.
Look at this guy, he knows. What he says he's a pro.
I got high con +5 to contrast sothis.

(49:00):
Podcast. Sucks.
Boo. Somebody take over $10 a month,
he needs it. He needs the money.
I need a new hobby. For real.
So what other questions we got in there, guys?
I love the I love the dragon powers where you were like, hey,

(49:23):
those were all like those were all like the dragon gifts I
think are draconic. Like I don't know if it's
draconic sorcerer gifts or or whatever.
Is they're just called draconic gifts yeah I actually throughout
this I read the fizz bands really heavily when for
preparing for this and it's likestuff in there especially

(49:47):
related to the bronze Dragons isflavored throughout the entire
story and those all of. Those gifts did you guys?
Did you guys hear that they're going to make carbonated drinks
illegal? It's going to be a fizz band.
Oh gosh. Oh damn, that's OK.
You're going to look. Podcast is on again, baby.

(50:08):
We were lost, but we're found. Someone was sliding that $10
across the table to you and thenlike.
Oh. Because I'm worth 20?
Because I did such a good job. I'm sorry.
Yeah. Someone interrupted you.
What were you saying? I.
Don't know what were we talking about?
Draconic powers. Yeah, you were being a nerd.
You read some dragon books. I did I heavily read it and I

(50:31):
made my heart, my nerd heart happy when clay on the discord
like honed in on it immediately.All of the nerd stuff that I had
peppered throughout the entire campaign, like the fact that
their their boat is called Oceans Call that is one of the
the names of the environmental effects of bronze Dragons.

(50:51):
Like his appearance and his eyes.
And those gifts that they got are all from Fizz bands has like
a couple pages of draconic gifts.
Clay did not miss a detail. There he was.
He was so impressed. All that.
That was pretty. Cool.
Yeah. It was crazy.
And he doesn't even have the book.
So I like the fact that he was just, like, pulling all of that.

(51:11):
He's like, oh, yeah, and this and this.
And I was like, yeah, someone noticed.
Someone noticed my little weird little Easter eggs because I put
them in there thinking like, no one's going to actually notice
this, but I'll get to like kind of point them out in hindsight
and then pieces will click together along it.
But the draconic gifts were really fun.
I did have to be pretty strategic of which ones I picked

(51:33):
though, just because some of them were like very obviously
draconic gifts and I wanted themto not like one of them is like
you gain the ability to speak and read draconic.
And I was like, well, OK, I could have worked that into the
island, but that might have beenlike, oh, it was bronze beard, a
dragon like right off the bat. So I had to choose kind of

(51:56):
strategically. And there's there's not it's not
a super long list, but it's justbased off of like what the age
of the dragon who is giving the gifts.
But I kind of went rogue and just chose the ones that I
thought were cool and also didn't give away the surprise
right off the bat. But it was really fun to like
give them. I loved that Daisy got the like

(52:19):
the demon form and the demon form, basically sweet little
Daisy. It was so funny, such a fun
combination, especially after like Natalie being in her intro
of, oh, there's someone with a really big sword in this dark
alley. I step closer.
I love Natalie. In this episode in particular, I

(52:40):
love Natalie. She's one of my very dear
friends. I think she's everyone.
Loves Natalie. She's of course amazing.
But she'll even tell you, like, Lizzie Mcphire isn't her best
character, her best role play opportunities.
And that's really the only time that she's gotten a chance to be
on the podcast because obviouslyin the gladiator tournament,
even though I think Natalie had one of the like top three most

(53:02):
interesting seeming characters in the gladiator tournament only
to fucking die immediately at that point, we just haven't
gotten a chance for some real good role play out of her.
And I thought she did a great job with Bronze Beard and Uncle
Bronzy. And just yeah.
I, I, I really love Daisy. And hopefully someday we'll get

(53:22):
Natalie to bust out Simon on this podcast.
Yes, Simon, it's a weird rabbit.I love your character.
Love that character, Yeah. I like math question, let math
question about the dragon effects.
Could the four have combined their powers into some super
dragon attack? Like Captain Planet but a
dragon. I say yes, that sounds awesome.

(53:44):
So. And that's fair.
You would have left that had. Been.
Right, like they would have beenable to summon a dragon attack
or something, you know? That would have been awesome if
I was that creative. Yes, that.
Yes, I would have put that in there.
Never crossed my mind, but I love it.
Yeah, I would have 100% allowed it, yeah.

(54:07):
I loved I loved the story designof them having to having to
encounter the ghost dragon at the end and figure that out, you
know, and and have Von Holtz there just a great design for a
one shot, just a great, great little encounter at the end to
go through and a ghost dragon super cool.
So I just like, you know, Dragons are awesome and.

(54:31):
It took Scott. Scott and IA long time to
actually encounter a dragon in Dungeons and Dragons.
Like years of playing, I think before we had a dragon encounter
and it was me running one and the Christmas one and we ended
up having to do that twice because it was because it was
like nuts. It was the first time around
like. Had we technically run into a

(54:52):
dragon in Ryan's? We maybe had, maybe had.
Yeah, and killing time. Maybe.
No, in our IRL game. Weird.
There's like a. Dragon protecting some.
Lost gold or whatever, you know,you know what Dragons are into
that shit you. Know Dragons?
But it does seem like they don'tcome up necessarily as often as

(55:13):
you think. When you're like, if you've
never played Dungeons and Dragons and you hear.
Oh, it's called dungeons and. Fucking Dragons.
I'm going to fight a dragon every other time or something.
Or I'm going to go into a dungeon which that also took
forever to. Actually, it doesn't happen
depending on how you define a dungeon.
Yeah, it's not really a frequentthing.
But then it's like, no, Dragons are really, really powerful,

(55:34):
actually. So they don't come up unless
it's like, oh, hey, a really friendly one happens to be the
captain of your ship. You know, you have to find
creative ways to work them in ifyou're not going to have people
trying to fight them. And I love any fight ever in DND
that ends with like creative solutions to the combat rather
than just we got their damage down to 0 you know, and instead

(55:57):
making them do emotional damage to reach his soft core.
Marshmallow Core, yeah, they didsuch a good job with that.
I was really impressed with thatwhole fight.
They like they navigated it so well.
I laugh regularly thinking of like the lightning bolt coming

(56:19):
out of the parrot's tummy and then as they then transform into
a crocodile and like the bodyguard just being like, hell
no, not worth this and dipping out the window.
Like I every time I think of that mental image, I kind of
giggle to myself. I just like peek DND right
there. Yeah, they did a such a good job

(56:39):
with like basically calming downthe ghost dragon in the end.
And and like I really liked Brooke's solution of like, I'm
not going to plead for it emotionally.
I'm going to challenge it and threaten to beat it up if it if
it doesn't stop. And I just.
I thought that was really good as well that it it was a way to

(57:02):
do what we're doing. The best way to reach bronze
Beard is to remind him of who you are, but to keep it very
true to the character and still make it, you know, standard
combat. I loved that from Brooke.
I think Daisy was the only one who had like a bad role where
they did it get to reach them unfortunately.
Dice fucked her over on that it was and I felt so bad because

(57:22):
this is like her uncle which like Natalie was the one that
came up with that whole relationship and I loved it.
I was not expecting it at all when she sent the back story and
I adored how they like had been inseparable since she was like 3
and then the dice just. Didn't let her, just didn't let
her do. It Yeah, but yeah, good.

(57:45):
I'm glad you guys liked it was really fun to like run and
design that encounter and kind of think to give cathartic
whaling potential when it comes to von Holtz and removing him
from the picture, but also like tying together their their
buddy, their buddy that they missed.
Yeah, I think I've gotten through basically all of my

(58:07):
favorite things from the episode.
Any other things for you? 2 on favorite moments, favorite
things about the episode Becca? Any favorite things as the D
from the DM side that happened? I think we've covered most of
the ones that I was just glancing down at my notes.
I think most of like my favoritemoments are covered.

(58:28):
I think this campaign was just so fun to run.
I even messaged all the players after the fact and it was just
like thanked them for being partof it.
And it because it was something that I didn't know I really
needed until we we did it and itjust, it felt so good.
It's rare that you come in with like, I didn't know I I, I know

(58:51):
of tiddly, but I had not really worked with her at all or, or
talked with her at all. Obviously I know Brooke.
I've met her once or twice. But like the, the group dynamic,
you know, we don't super like work together that often or, or
play games together that often. And it just like fits so well
and it was so refreshing and so like unusual to have like the

(59:13):
whole group of ladies. It was just really nice.
Yeah. The whole thing was just like a
warm fuzzy feeling after even though I told party killed them,
they came back so it was fine. It was so well produced, this
group, let me tell you, I agree.They just snapped together
perfectly. It's like.
Almost like someone played to give you any credit.

(59:34):
Yeah, we did together, Scott. I have one other favorite moment
to shout out that's largely edited out of the episode.
Maybe edited out entirely, whichis when Tiddly first came out of
alligator form as Ringo and started talking and Becca made
the joke that she had been wanting to say like that Ringo

(59:56):
would be like oh you have something in your teeth?
And Tiddly in earnest for like aminute thought so there she was,
actually being told there was something stuck in her teeth and
trying to pick it out. I think I cut it out of the
episode because it. Was you did.
Really. Yeah, it's a very funny moment.
Yeah, we definitely like had a misunderstanding.
Over there was like everyone kind of talking over each other

(01:00:17):
back and forth and nobody reallyunderstand that tiddly.
Just thought there was somethingin her teeth because of the gel,
Yeah. He left the joke in, but then we
also like at least he. Couldn't cut over that one bit,
but because she was so mean to me and bullied me so much, I
think anyone who listens to thischaser deserves to know.
We didn't even talk about that. That was probably my favorite is

(01:00:38):
watching the bullying of Scott with this like collective group
of women just being like this ishappening.
That's so good. Mansplained.
This was already the most nervous I've probably been for
any one shot that we've done. Just like not having any form of
like control as things are going, it's very hard to just

(01:01:01):
sit back and like. Oh, that's true.
I guess you played in Lament of the Void.
So I've played in everything except for Sorcerer's Appendix
and this. And with Sorcerer's Appendix, at
least I'm like, well, Kyle's, it's his.
I made the show with him, so, you know, he's the DM, but
that's whatever. And it's not like I thought you
would do a bad job or anything, but it just feels like, yeah.
It's probably just weird if. I don't get to play, I don't get

(01:01:23):
to influence it. You know, it's very nervous,
especially having kind of being the the one man in the group,
the energy being very not on my side and having to do like just
the intro and leave. I was very nervous for these
episodes. That's why I forgot to record
the video for the 1st 15 minutesof the episode.
I was just all off my game and then sitting there listening to

(01:01:47):
you guys play it and I was like,I didn't forget.
There's no way for like 5 minutes before I finally, I
think interrupted and had to come check.
Yeah. Well, thank you for trusting me
to not drive your podcast into the ground.
Not. My podcast anymore it's whoever
has $10 podcast. Yeah, and well, they've extended

(01:02:07):
it after your last puns. $10 a month.
But Kyle, has it been weird likewith these bonus episodes?
Like I know you are saying it was refreshing listening, but is
it like odd a little bit like this is yours and Scott's baby
and like. I'd say no.
I. Know you can't say it does.
Not it is not odd because I think I.
Prefer to think of Cruise as Kyle and my baby.

(01:02:35):
I would say no the when I was nervous about that was after the
first 3 episodes of the of of the podcast.
The first 3 episode the, the thefirst 3 adventures were the ones
that I DM D and then like Bones came in to do the 4th 1:00 and
when there was like Ryan and Mav, you know that moment where

(01:02:59):
I was like, OK, the first 3 was like a test.
This is going to be fun and good.
Oh yes, it is. It's very fun.
It's very good. And then it was like, OK, what
if I instructed DM and say, Hey,can you do this and can you do
it in two episodes? I think it's kind of a hard task
to do that. I was very nervous about that,

(01:03:20):
even though, you know, Scott andI were both players in that
Bones is the incredible DM and so I didn't have any, you know,
like I didn't have any reservations on that because
Scott had played with him beforeand knew how adept he is at
being Adm ING and just DND in general.
So I wasn't worried about that. But that was probably the once I

(01:03:43):
got over that hurdle, letting people take over who I trust.
And if it was some random or something, D Ming or something,
then yeah. But but no, not anymore.
I don't have any reservations. If I do, it's, you know, it's
something silly. But but yeah, it's great because
it means that I can, you know, focus on the campaign that's

(01:04:04):
going on, which is which is great because it's a lot of
prep. It's a lot of very fun prep.
But it was something where I wasvery jealous to not being part
of a pirate campaign because it's like I've wanted to play or
DMA pirate thing for so long. And so so it was like, oh man,

(01:04:25):
but that's great. So I was I was excited to listen
to it and yeah, I don't I was not nervous at all for this.
I Becca is you're you're an incredible DM Mothership was was
amazing. I was so excited for this one.
So yeah, so I will stop talking about all that because that was

(01:04:46):
like 5 minutes of rambling, but.Thank you for the very kind
compliment. Say it all again, but in the
pirate voice. That'll be good for your throat.
Yeah, do that. But yeah, excellent.
One of the final questions, maybe the last one that I had
written down was Mav. If the Oblix had happened to

(01:05:07):
appear in this story, who do youthink it would have possessed?
I'm obsessed with the idea of anOblix controlled L7 subtly
manipulating, manipulating everyone.
I like that idea. I think that's a funny one
because because L7 would be ableto just a insane character would
be very easily manipulated by the by the Oblix.
But one thing with these storiesis like it is fun to think

(01:05:31):
about. Like, OK, if if there was one
moment, if I could go into one character's back story or
history and change one moment that could affect the outcome
drastically, what would it be? Maybe a better question for
Becca. Honestly, if you and this is not
an easy question. This is something where I have,

(01:05:53):
you know, an entire Google document of all of the
adventures that we've done and possibilities for their until I
that was part of the process of narrowing down figuring out
which which adventures were going to make sense for the
campaign. But so I don't really have an
answer on which one the Oblix would go for.

(01:06:13):
You know, easy targets would be I would be the the, the pirate
captain, the the evil captain. You know, I could see the Oblix
count, like manipulating him to maybe be part of the group and
come across as like an ally until the very end and then

(01:06:33):
trying to stab them in the back,you know, things like that.
That's immediately where my mindgoes to.
But do you guys have any thoughts on that where anything
that could change for an evil? Somehow make it so Ren
Leaderhart won her rebellion andis now like some sort of warlord
or something and. Of her own fleet bring Yeah, she

(01:06:56):
has to come in. And yeah, I like that the
skeleton character avoids death,you know?
So like Cal just avoids becominga skeleton.
I mean, yeah, it would be Cal taking out the Necromancer,
basically winning that fight. Yeah, that would be very cool.

(01:07:16):
Lots of options. Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I mean, the the easiest thing would be just to
if you removed Magnus from the situation, right?
That's true. Ben von Holtz just wins.
That that, that would be like the like the end of that Daisy.
Leans into her bad boy side and meets Von Holtz at a young age

(01:07:40):
and starts and now Daisy is married to Von Holtz in this
side of the story and has legal claim to to bronze beards like
willed items after bronze Veer dies now Oh.
No, I like that. That's great.
That one grosses me out so hard on Natalie's behalf.

(01:08:01):
Sorry Natalie, you got to hook up with Legally Distinct.
Natalie has to make out with VonHolt.
Poor Natalie. Now we're really going to see if
she listens to this chaser. We will.
Know any any final thoughts? Any final thoughts about those?
No, I think my main final thought is a podcast host

(01:08:24):
shouldn't put ice in their mouthbefore they.
I know, idiot, idiot. The ice is so small.
By the way, I'm drinking. I'm drinking grog right now.
Yeah, I recently learned on via TikTok why pirates are always
drunk and it's because they had to.

(01:08:45):
If you try and take wooden barrels of water on a ship,
turns out gets moldy and gross and so you add some alcohol to
it and make it so it's sterile. And so pirates were always
drinking rum. It was watered down and you put
a lime in it so you don't get scurvy.
That's your grog, so. Is that what grog is like?
Or is grog a broader category? But like that specifically is

(01:09:07):
what grog is? Yeah, Grog is water and rum a
little, a little bit of rum and lime is basically the the
cocktail there. So I think when I thought grog
was a was like a something to hold, but I know that that's a
no it. Just sounds like it should be
the name of an orc. Like it doesn't sound like it's

(01:09:29):
a drink. Grog.
Or like, I don't know, I'm imagining like a really weird
beer, like a like a really gnarly beer that you'd get at a
gross ass Tavern. That's what I imagined with
Grog. I think grog is gross.
Like it's like moldy water rum with a lime squirt, you know,
squeezed in it. Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Get nice and chunky. So what I'm hearing is that this
is like doctor certified to curestrep throat.

(01:09:51):
Should I try this next time I get strep?
Strep throat. I've got it.
Scurvy. Yeah.
My doctor said I'm dehydrated soI've been drinking a lot of grog
lately. Keeps my water pure.
Keeps it from getting moldy in my body.
Is this a are we done? I think we've, I think we've
officially. I think we're done.
I think that's. Nice waters, what do you got?

(01:10:12):
I just want to say real fast thank you guys for letting me do
this and for trusting me to do this.
I appreciate it even though I ama nervous wreck.
What? No, nothing said.
You're fired. What you at the end?
Said you're fired. Sorry.
It's not him, it's the new owner, the $10 a month owner.
That's fair. Makes all the decisions now.

(01:10:32):
Does that mean he's like, just dead now?
He he's gone too? Oh.
No, he can't die. A few dies then if he's.
Dead. I will flip my desk a few times.
We'll never see Becca again. Oh my gosh if he dies in a lame
way. Hope you failed Dexterity.
Check you you fell into. See, we're the opposite.

(01:10:54):
I'm so much, I'm like, I would love it if Ventiro died suddenly
in a lame way, because then I don't have to like try to sell
the moment as a player, you know, if it's like, oh, if
you're just like tripped in his head, fell into a bear trap and
he's dead right away, it's OK. See, that would like enrage me.
I'd be like my poor, my beautiful boy, my beautiful baby

(01:11:16):
boy. He's just dead in the lamest way
possible. It'll never happen to you, don't
worry. Namby would never let you stay
dead. Neither will I.
And because if you're gone, truly, we're all dead.
You do all the damage. That's just that's.
True he does all the heavy lifting and which makes sense is
1/2 troll but like. Also, he literally lifts the
heavy things. Yeah.

(01:11:38):
Yeah, so that's that's the that's the end of the Chaser.
We can tease a little bit more of what's happening in the
campaign. I think this is going to come
out and be after the the episodethat's actually dropping
tonight, which is M Tiro's that sounds right here, returning to
see what's been going on in his story that he's caught up in in

(01:12:00):
his past. And then the and so we've got
emptiero story. What's happening with Namby?
What's happening with you? It's all to come in expedition
untold. And so thank you to Becca for
doing this adventure. Thank you so much.
Thanks Scott for producing it and putting in all the effort to

(01:12:21):
get this group together so that I didn't have to worry about a
single thing for this for this episode.
Follow us at Tall Tale Tavern podcast, join our discord and
give us one of those good five star reviews on on Apple on
Apple podcasts and Spotify. I think you can rate US on
Spotify. I actually don't know because

(01:12:42):
you. Can, because we've got at least
nine ratings last time I looked.So if you have got a Spotify
account and you listen to this and you haven't rated us, you're
a piece of shit. I have no idea how to do that.
I'm a piece of shit. Well, I would like to tell you
the. Piece of shit right in.
Front of me, it's me. Thank you to Zazar for artwork.

(01:13:04):
Thank you to Tyler Adelsperger for intro music.
And with that, we'll see you next time at the Tall Tale
Tavern. Yoho.