Shifting Gears - Episode 7 (Campaign Wrap-up)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:11] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:12] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:12] Speaker D: Hello. Pardon our prestidigitation for the final time. Welcome to Shifting Gears 7, our campaign wrap up for Spells and whistles D&D5E actual play podcast. I should have taken a bigger breath before I started that. I have regrets. It's fine. I am Grace. I played Melon in our lovely adventure as well as several other characters in some of our various one shots. I'm going to have my fellow cast members introduce themselves one last time as we go around and then we'll get started with some questions. [00:00:48] Speaker C: I'm Anastasia. That works too. [00:00:52] Speaker D: Whoa, whoa. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Arm wrestle. [00:00:55] Speaker C: I'm the dm. I go first. [00:00:57] Speaker E: Okay. This is very GM versus player. [00:01:04] Speaker C: Really controlling if one can say damn. Well now, now Ben has to go first. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Okay. Hi, I'm Ben. I played ID and also various other characters and one shots and woes and things. [00:01:19] Speaker C: I'm Anastasia. I was the dm. [00:01:22] Speaker E: I am Jay. I played Myla and others. [00:01:26] Speaker B: And I'm Meg. I used two they pronouns. And I played Auden, which was so fun. [00:01:32] Speaker D: And some dudes I don't understand. Every time I've asked you to introduce yourselves for one of these, you've made it as awkward as humanly possible. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Need to set up an order. There's no order. It's chaos. [00:01:44] Speaker D: It's not easy. I just thought of the lack of order. [00:01:46] Speaker E: I thought we were doing call order. [00:01:48] Speaker B: You gotta do like name a fun fact about you, you know. Oh, we don't have to do that. That was a joke. [00:01:59] Speaker E: No, it's fine. It's fine. I just thought of a really good fun fact. But it's fine. [00:02:03] Speaker D: All of this is staying in. [00:02:05] Speaker C: Is it a fun fact about ourselves or a fun fact in general? [00:02:09] Speaker D: I don't. Oh, I. Oh, I do have something I could share as a fun fact actually. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Wait, now we better. I need to know. [00:02:17] Speaker C: No, I know. I actually want to know the answer to the question. Is it about ourselves or is it in general Fun fact. [00:02:22] Speaker B: Grayson J. What do you. [00:02:23] Speaker D: I was gonna do one about me because mine kind of doubles as news. I guess I'm leaving all of this in I hope you realize. Anyway, fun fact about me. I can now put that I am a two time Crit Award nominated singer songwriter on my resume because that is public now. I can talk about it for realsy. So that's. [00:02:48] Speaker A: So go vote. [00:02:49] Speaker D: I was nominated for a song called the Hearth Song. We'll put the link in the description of this episode. If you want to go vote for the Crit Awards, there's a Lot of very lovely people that have been nominated, including Morgan. Attack on Morgan and several other. And. And I think Kelly the Cow. [00:03:06] Speaker C: Kelly. [00:03:08] Speaker D: Morgan and Kelly are both nominated. Can Is Kendo Strangers in the or. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Tales Yet Told is. That's Kendo's show. [00:03:16] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, that's Kendo's show. Yeah. So several of our guests, including and. And me. I'm not a guest, but several of our guests and me are all nominated for Critter Awards. So consider voting. Voting period ends at the end of June and we find out. I don't know when the Crit Awards are this year because I don't really know what their plan is for that, but that's okay. Then go vote somebody else talk, please. [00:03:43] Speaker C: What's Jay's fun fact? [00:03:44] Speaker E: My fun fact is that I'm gonna have a Tony Award winner riding in my car tomorrow. [00:03:49] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:03:51] Speaker C: That's pretty fun, actually. [00:03:52] Speaker B: It's pretty cool, guys. [00:03:54] Speaker D: Jay is casually, like super cool and actually the coolest person here. Sorry, not even casually. [00:04:04] Speaker B: It's great. [00:04:05] Speaker A: And we're all really. [00:04:06] Speaker E: We all know lots of really cool, cool people. [00:04:08] Speaker A: What do you put through the speakers of your car when you have a Tony Award winner in your car? Like, what do you. What music do you put? [00:04:14] Speaker E: I'm actually kind of sweating about it because I normally have a playlist. I have a playlist that for my like, for my car time with like cast members. I have a playlist that's seven hours long, so it's always fresh. It's called Gays Can't Drive Yet. Here I am in a 12 person van. That is the name of it. [00:04:33] Speaker A: That's so awesome. [00:04:33] Speaker E: I feel like I can't, I can't have that play. Like, I feel like I have to like, like, do I go to her Instagram and I figure out what kind of music she likes? Like, what do I do? Like, because it's weird to play. [00:04:46] Speaker A: I hope she's never heard of it. [00:04:48] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, it'd be weird to play. [00:04:51] Speaker C: Stuff of things that she's known for. Right? Like that's. [00:04:54] Speaker E: Yes, exactly. [00:04:55] Speaker C: Like, you can't do that. [00:04:56] Speaker E: You do not play show tunes. We do not play show tunes. [00:04:59] Speaker D: There's one correct option and it's that you double the fun down on whatever you were playing. [00:05:05] Speaker C: There was one musical theater album on repeat the whole drive. [00:05:09] Speaker E: Obviously what I do is when she gets in the car, I'm listening to spells and whistles and they're like, oh, sorry, let me turn off my podcast and then I switch it to a playlist. [00:05:18] Speaker D: This is such a power mood. Especially if it's your voice coming out of the speaker. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:26] Speaker C: Especially if you're acting like shocked and shit. You're like, no way. [00:05:35] Speaker A: I have a follow up bit which is that I helped some of my friends move two summers ago and I instructed one of them to every hour on the hour add a new copy of what's New Pussycat Onto Spotify playlist. And I think it would be funny to every time you got a new person in the car, add a new copy of some stupid song onto your playlist. [00:06:00] Speaker C: I actually think we did that for a Ren Fair playlist once, except the song was Diggity Hole. [00:06:05] Speaker A: Oh, that's good. [00:06:06] Speaker C: Which is like a Minecraft parody. That one was. [00:06:08] Speaker E: Yeah, that one came up a lot of times. [00:06:12] Speaker D: That's very. I, I, I'm so delighted of this. Thank you so much. [00:06:18] Speaker B: My fun fact is not as cool. I have two fake teeth and have kissed a moose once. Unrelated. Unrelated. I didn't lose my teeth as a result of kissing a moose. [00:06:29] Speaker E: I don't know if I believe that now. [00:06:32] Speaker C: I am. [00:06:33] Speaker B: Okay, believe what you want. [00:06:34] Speaker D: I would like to know how you got out of an encounter with a megafauna where you were face to face with it alive. [00:06:41] Speaker B: So I. My grandparents lived in Alaska for a couple of years and I went to go visit them one summer with my family and we went to a reindeer farm and they had a baby moose. Well, it wasn't a baby anymore. When it was a baby, it got hit by a car and so they rehabilitated it, but it couldn't go back in the wild. So he's used to being around people. So for a dollar you could buy like a piece of lettuce or celery and you could like lady and the Tramp with the moose. So I did. [00:07:06] Speaker D: It was a really chill moose. [00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it was not a scary moose. [00:07:10] Speaker D: I'm not within like 250ft of a moose and it's fucking terrible. I know. [00:07:15] Speaker B: I always keep my pants when I think about a moose being close to me. [00:07:20] Speaker D: PSA from Spells and Whistles. If you are in like eyeshadow. Eyesight of a moose, Run. [00:07:27] Speaker C: Don't kiss. Don't kiss is number one. [00:07:28] Speaker D: The moose is not your friend. [00:07:31] Speaker E: They also want to give it a little smoosh. [00:07:34] Speaker D: The moose is not your friend. The moose can spot you and will just charge at you. I have seen it happen to another creature in the water before and it's terrifying. [00:07:48] Speaker B: All right, Anastasia or Ben, Fun fact. And then we can move On I have to know. I'm sorry. [00:07:55] Speaker A: Oh, fun fact. My fun fact is that your local library probably has a summer reading program that is almost certainly for kids, but also might have one for adults. And you should read some cool books this summer and maybe get prizes and stickers and things. [00:08:13] Speaker D: Participate in the children's summer reading infiltrate. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Get a library card. Go to the library. [00:08:23] Speaker B: You're cool. [00:08:24] Speaker C: My fun fact is that when I was a kid, my family and I used to have a really big 90s conversion van that we called the Beast. And we used to road trip in it because it was so massive. At one time, a cop in the middle of Nebraska or some shit followed us for miles because he thought we were a drug van. I don't blame him because that's. [00:08:51] Speaker D: That's what it looked like. [00:08:53] Speaker C: But actually it was the most comfortable road trip van I've ever been in ever and probably will ever be in. It had a really old CRTV that we've hooked a Wii up to and played Mario Kart in while we were driving. It was awesome. It sucked. You couldn't. Our rule was no nunchuck. So you always had to do it the, like, driveway, you know, where you, like, steer the remote. And everyone sucked at it, which made it fun because then nobody was good at it. That's my Anastasia lore, I guess. [00:09:20] Speaker D: Okay, does anybody have a question they would like to start with so we can mosey on into what we're supposed to be doing? [00:09:28] Speaker C: I. I think this one is good from Al Falcon. I feel like it's a good opener. I don't know if anyone else wants to answer that question. [00:09:35] Speaker A: Go. [00:09:36] Speaker D: Go for it. [00:09:37] Speaker C: Okay. Alfalcon on our discord asked us if we thought that 5e was a good choice by the end of the story or if we would have done it in a different system because apparently we have some. Been a bit finicky about it in the past. So I think. [00:09:56] Speaker D: I think we've said that like, 5e is a little bit finicky. And I think we've made it a point to say at some point in a shifting gears or one shot to be like, you know, 5e isn't the perfect system for everything. I think there's moments where this, you know, for this game, I know this is mostly been Anastasia. [00:10:17] Speaker C: No, go for it. [00:10:17] Speaker D: But I think for this game, I think there's a lot of moments where it works and a lot of moments where I think. I'm curious to see how it would have been different because we're a very narratively driven group and 5e having so many mechanics to it that some of which that we really didn't touch upon or use all that much. That was just the flavor of game that we were playing. I think there were some times where it could have been really interesting to use a different system. But also like I like D and. [00:10:45] Speaker A: D, so the main strength that I think fifth Edition had for us was that we were all really familiar with it and so we felt more comfortable messing with it and doing narratively driven things through it that I, I would have. I would love to try doing something in a different system too. But there comes a point where like, because we knew how 5th edition worked, we could progress a little bit quicker and figure things out sooner and be more creative with it. Whereas if I was playing a game that I didn't know as well, I'd be worried about getting bogged up in rules and mechanics more in terms of just like not knowing them rather than being annoyed at them. [00:11:28] Speaker C: Sometimes I think as a DM it helps to know it as well because then I can easily quickly make the decisions that I know aren't gonna break the game. Whereas if it's a system I haven't played or I'm not super familiar with, there's less leeway in my mind for it. Like, I'm not saying that systems don't allow for it, but knowing The D&D 5E rules decently back and front, other than like specific things, means that I don't feel bad about like doing something out of the ordinary. [00:12:03] Speaker E: I think that's something that. My point with it, I agree with Ben, I think that, and Anastasia, I think that feeling comfortable in it is the most important thing. The really good thing about 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons is that there is a lot that you can do to adjust the system to fit what you want to do and how to play and add other sort of homebrew things or other play systems that other people have come up with or that you can even come up with with. We saw that a few times in this game. One of the things I love that we did on the other hand though was bringing in other TTRPGs to help world build. And I think that that's something that a lot more people should utilize. Especially like if you're, you know, if not everyone's going to be there for your game that night, do a one shot using something else to, to build a different aspect of that. I think that just because a campaign or a long term game is set in 5th edition doesn't mean you have to first of all, stick with fifth edition in the game if it no longer works with you or even Dungeons and Dragons in general. And I don't think it means that you have to maintain that specific TTRPG system if you're doing things outside of that game in the same world, which I think is one of the really cool things that we got to do as a, as a crew. [00:13:20] Speaker B: So, final thing that I want to add in. I agree with everything that everyone already said. Duh. Well, not duh, but whatever. I was thinking too late in terms of like, as a, as a listener of AEP's Actual Place, a lot of times going into a game that you as a listener know, you're able to focus more on the story. For speaking for, like, my experience, the first ever podcast I listened to was Pathfinder, which I still don't understand to this day. And that's so fair and so, like, it's one of those things where, like, I think obviously Wizards of the Coast D&D5E is such a monolith in the industry and at many, many people's tables that I think, like, for our listeners, I imagine that that is like something. One less thing that you have to like, wrap your brain around when starting a new show. And so I think that, like, that was probably really, really good too. But if you feel differently, let us know in our discord, which is linked in the description below. [00:14:25] Speaker D: There is an accessibility with D&D 5E. It's a system that a lot of people know or have seen so. Or have seen. Likely for most people, it's mostly seen. Sorry, Meg just did something really funny on camera. It's mostly for a lot of people who in. Who are fans of TTRPGs. It's mostly seen because actually a lot of, A lot, A lot, A lot of people that really, really like TTRPGS have never played because they don't have a local game store or they haven't been able to find a group online, which is. It's hard. We're very lucky that we've been able to find not only this group, but, like, we all have our own personal home games. We all have been able to pull in so many wonderful people into this. And part of that has been, hey, we have a podcast and we had the courage to reach out and do that. But I do think that there are some times, depending on the show, the not knowing a system can work really, really well if the narration is strong enough. And I think that this show actually could have been strong enough that it wouldn't have mattered what system we did it in. [00:15:39] Speaker C: I think the other thing I want to add quickly is that a lot of other systems are very settings based. They like wrote a system for a very cool setting and I love the setting and I want to explore it and everything, but like we couldn't use lasers and feelings for this because we didn't. We. It wasn't sci fi, you know, it was like steampunk fantasy. DnD is a fantasy based game, which is where we were mostly heading. So D D made sense. Not to say there aren't other fantasy TTRPGs, but a lot of them have very specific settings and that's why they are created. I wouldn't play DND5E if I wanted to play monsters in high school. I would play Monster Hearts because that one is made for monster teens in high cool. So that's the other reason. I think it was a good choice. [00:16:28] Speaker E: Sorry. I'm gonna put in one little tiny thing and then we can move on. I think another thing that was really cool is that because of the accessibility of DnD of dungeons and Dragons and bringing people into that, it also gives us and other other ttrp. Sorry, and other actual plays a platform to then introduce indie TTRPGs to a wider audience and making those one, more well known and two, making those resources accessible for the people who are playing it. And I think that that's something that's really important too is like, like it's totally fine to just play D&D5E if that's your shtick. Absolutely. But also using that platform, you gain from that to then be able to spotlight other TTRPGs that are maybe are a little more niche but are also just as fun or might fit a certain person or group's play style better is really cool. [00:17:21] Speaker C: So it was super fun. [00:17:22] Speaker D: There is a very lovely trend, especially with companies like plus one Exp doing Zine Club and Indie Press Revolution and Pandemonium and Wedding Press, where if somebody's like, hey, I. I want to do this specific thing. It imma make a TTRPG out of it. Like I'll make a one pager or something. There is a very lovely trend that's been happening more and more people have just been kind of going like, screw it, I'm gonna do this. Oh, these people know how to publish. Cool. I'm gonna get help doing this now. It's, it's very cool to see all of those companies are companies that publish independent games, some of which we've played on this channel on this here podcast, so you should check them out. So. All right, next question. [00:18:13] Speaker B: I ask one. [00:18:15] Speaker D: Go for it. [00:18:15] Speaker B: I know that this is, like, largely, like, Q A, but I also want to bring in an element of, like, a little bit. I had so much fun in that final combat with, like, a million dudes and armies and stuff, and it was so cool and so fun, and I was. I was raging a little bit, but I was having a great time the whole time. I want that to be very clear. It was so cool. So for Anastasia is like, an actual palpable question for discussion. What was your, like, initial idea for the combat? How did you prep for it? How did it change? What were some things that you really wanted to implement and things that you felt went really well? Just tell me all the nitty gritty juicy. [00:18:57] Speaker C: Okay, well, I've been setting up for a really long time that Erendrul was going around making armies that followed him. Right? Like, that was his whole shtick. So it made sense to incorporate large masses of people in this combat, but I wasn't gonna sit there and do hordes. So I think that it made sense to have armies of people, but it felt not as cool to just do, like, a scattering of a bunch of zombies, because we already did that. So then I went to, what. How do we make, like, army mechanics that a group of six PCs can fight? Thankfully, I had watched Dimension 20 Crown of Candy, and they do that in one of the last fights, and that was great. So I used. And I think they. They're. They got their rules from Jeremy Crawford, so I use Matt. [00:19:57] Speaker A: There's. There's was also from Matt Colville. [00:20:00] Speaker C: Colville. Okay. [00:20:01] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure. [00:20:02] Speaker C: Sorry. While we were talking, one of the two guys. No, Matt Colville has rules on, like, army combats. And so I modified it slightly because those were very specific, like, armies, and I didn't need them to be that way. And I also knew that I didn't. I don't like having big stat blocks to have to read through every time because I get so focused on the combat that I don't want to, like, scan through an entire stat block very, very much. Which is also why I gave someone Ahri, because I was like, I can't read through her stat block every single time her turn comes up. So that helped a ton. Honestly, it was either that you guys were gonna kill Erendrill first, and then you'd have, like, this great, like, everybody kind of comes out of their days kind of thing. And like pretty much none of the armies would be hurt or whatever. That was an option. You guys focus on the armies, which is super fair because it made Erendrill weaker. So it was kind of a toss up, right? You could have fought Erendrill for a while and won that way or you could weaken him with the, with the armies and fight him that way. And then it was always kind of an escape plan, quote unquote to like have him cross over into this godly realm if for some reason you just bodied him immediately. I wasn't gonna have that happen, but there were enough rounds going on that I was like, he can start. [00:21:29] Speaker E: It's. [00:21:30] Speaker C: We're quote unquote halfway through the combat. I'm gonna call it here and say he's going to go towards this veil that you guys can't see sea at the moment, which is where he dashed across the entire battlefield like a turn and a half and, and yeeted out of there. So those were kind of my goals. I didn't really know what was gonna happen. I don't want to know it was gonna happen, you know, because like you had a bunch of options. Someone could have tried to follow him through. I mean you did like you can try to follow him through. You could ask Jaren for your questions or help could have prayed to any of the gods that would have might, that might have done something, could have wish spelled something, could have. You know, there's like a bunch of different options. So. Yeah. Which honestly I think is really fun and I like seeing what you guys want to do and then focusing like the goals around what you guys wanted to do. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Some, some really cool balance things happened and you can say if you intended these or not, but the, the first thing that I noticed was that the distance and the acidy rivers made it harder to get to him, especially in those like first two turns, which made our decision making way harder. And I think that was part of why we went for the armies first. I, I think if we could have gotten to him in the first turn, I think it would have been just like whale on him. But we couldn't and so we had to think of something else. And then the other thing was that I, I haven't read those. I don't know what army stat blocks you were using, but I haven't read those since like the book came out. But they, they were balanced like really well for our acs and hit points and stuff because it. There was. I don't know if the other players felt this way, but There was a point where I was like, if we don't deal with the armies, we won't be able to deal with Erendrael. Like they were flanking us. They were making our movement harder because we had to go around them or through them with different terrain. Like. Like a bunch of people were surrounded. Yeah, it was, it made thinking about the combat way harder in a way that also having like individual guys wouldn't have worked out that way either. [00:23:51] Speaker C: So it just doesn't work. [00:23:52] Speaker A: I think it was a really awesome. Yeah, yeah. I think it was a really awesome choice. [00:23:57] Speaker C: And thank you. [00:23:58] Speaker A: I think it worked out well in. [00:24:00] Speaker C: Terms of like give me like six. That's my favorite how to balance a combat. So yeah, I'm glad it worked. Someday. [00:24:08] Speaker A: And final ones are always the hardest because we're at our strongest. [00:24:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:13] Speaker D: And the enemies balancing combat is the main reason why when I was like, hey, I'll run Halloween. I specifically went, I'm going to pick the easiest fucking system. And I still ran it wrong. [00:24:25] Speaker C: No, it's genuinely one of my. I, I wish combat in D D was a little bit more streamlined. It is kind of fun to get into the nitty gritty sometimes if you want to have a fight that long. But in a podcast we've got an hour, maybe two if we really want to push it. So it was like. But I also, one of the biggest things for me was that I needed it to feel like you were fighting a lot of people. And if I, if I have one 5 foot square or even like a 10 or 15 foot square, like representing a bunch of guys, it doesn't have the same effect. A rectangle filled with people, you know where it was like, I know there was one small token in the middle, but you could kind of imagine it being filled with all those tokens in the rectangle that I had put on the screen. And I wanted it to feel like, like you were fighting a lot of people because you were. And not just like fighting one guy. Even if they represent a bunch of people, you know, it wasn't the same. So that was kind of one of my big goals actually was how do I make this feel genuinely like a large amount of people? [00:25:31] Speaker D: I mean, you did great. It was, it was a tricky combat and we, it was a lot of, a lot of brain power had to go into like the player. You couldn't see. We have. We couldn't see the player chat. The player chat was freaking the fuck out. Like halfway through we were like, what are we doing? [00:25:47] Speaker E: Who's going for who? [00:25:48] Speaker B: Where. [00:25:48] Speaker E: Where are you going? [00:25:49] Speaker B: I'm gonna do this. [00:25:50] Speaker E: This is what I'm gonna target. Where are you targeting? [00:25:52] Speaker C: I am so happy you guys liked it. I thought I had a good time, so I felt that if I had a good time, probably you guys also had a good time. Cross fingers. I'm really glad. [00:26:02] Speaker D: Love me a good combat. [00:26:04] Speaker E: Would this be a good time to just offshoot one of Maren's questions? Which is. [00:26:09] Speaker D: I was gonna say, let's. Let's do this. Marin question highlighted down here. [00:26:14] Speaker E: What did Aaron drill? So Marin, who's in the discord but is also a good friend of the pod and has been on for glitter hearts, asked. Asked us, I think, messaged Anna privately because didn't want to spoil anything, and basically asks, what did Arendell do during that combat to make the prism decide he was worthy to enter the God realm? And that's something I was wondering, too, because I was like, this bitch is just running and hitting, and we're doing the same thing. [00:26:41] Speaker D: I would like. I would like to appreciate for a moment also Merryn's full message that we put in its entirety because it is quite funny, which Marin wrote. If y' all haven't done your last shifting gears yet, I'd like to submit a question in parentheses, also sending it directly, because I don't want to spoil anyone in the server who hasn't listened to the newest combat episode in all caps, which was insane, by the way. Omg, Close parentheses. And then proceeds to actually ask the question. It's delightful. [00:27:12] Speaker C: Thank you for listening. Oh, speaking of Marin, she also said, I love Lexia. She is a wet cat, and the lesbian inside loves her. [00:27:26] Speaker A: That's the most weird thing ever. [00:27:29] Speaker D: We do love a wet cat of a character. [00:27:31] Speaker E: We love a wet. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Someone's gotta do it for the plot. [00:27:35] Speaker C: I was like, I'm so glad you feel that, because that's the energy I was trying to give off. So nailed it. No, but you know what it is, is that for the prism, people giving up their lives for a God has more moral, quote, unquote, moral weight than anything else they could do. Pretty much. So them sacrificing themselves, fighting you guys in this army and dying was, like, a huge boost in, like, I don't know, his God health bar or whatever you want. Like, whatever he's filling up to get to that certain quota. Like, you can get a bunch of people to follow you, and that's good, and that's great. Obviously, once they die, it kind of then slowly comes back down because they're not around to, like, worship you. And so then therefore, you're not, like, as well known or understood, but for a. For a little bit, a boost of, like, people dying for you is important to quote unquote, to, like, the prism, if the prism has sent, like, any sort of feeling whatsoever. But, like, that was really. It was like, if you guys had fought Erendrill specifically, he probably wouldn't have gotten there as fast because people aren't dying in his stead. Right. So it was a trade off. [00:28:58] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, damn. [00:29:00] Speaker C: Does that make sense? Does that track like, lore wise? [00:29:03] Speaker E: It makes sense. [00:29:03] Speaker C: Jay's face. [00:29:05] Speaker E: He didn't do anything. It's not his thought. He didn't do any. He didn't do nothing. [00:29:10] Speaker C: I don't disagree with you. [00:29:12] Speaker E: No, I know. That's how you know it's a good villain. Because I hate him so much. [00:29:17] Speaker C: Incredible. Love to hear it. [00:29:20] Speaker D: We love to hate him and we love how badly we've all collectively butchered his name to the point where I did not know for a while how this guy's name was actually pronounced for like, five episodes. That's funny. It's funny. I think it's funnier that we just kept saying the wrong thing. [00:29:38] Speaker E: Can we get one more for the bit? Ben? One more for the bit. Thank you. That one was especially. [00:29:46] Speaker D: That wasn't even a word. Yeah, Nasty. All right. [00:29:50] Speaker B: Pov. Your cat in the corner after eating his dinner. [00:29:56] Speaker E: That's crazy. [00:29:58] Speaker C: Good God. [00:30:00] Speaker B: I can see him doing the little, like, Bob thing. Sorry. Derailed. Putting this train back on its tracks. [00:30:08] Speaker A: That's insane. [00:30:10] Speaker E: That's insane. [00:30:11] Speaker D: Oh, man. I'm gonna say because we have a lot of questions for each other, but I also want to honor the. Some of the questions that we got from our viewers before we really start, like, yelling at each other. Lovingly, respectfully yelling at each other. So I'm going to grab this question from Alec, which is, who was everyone's favorite NPC and why? [00:30:36] Speaker B: Can I go first? [00:30:37] Speaker D: Two people immediately were like, yes, I know exactly what I want to go do it. [00:30:43] Speaker B: I know we clowned on him so hard, but Yaron has a special place in my heart. I think he's such a dweeb and I love him for that so much. [00:30:54] Speaker E: His little at the end was so funny. Re listening to that bolt on research was the funniest thing ever. [00:31:02] Speaker B: So good. I know we were so mean to him in character, but I would treasure him if he were my thing. [00:31:12] Speaker C: Jay, you had one. [00:31:14] Speaker E: Yeah. So my favorite NPCs were the. Specifically the lesbian fix it shop owners down in. Those are my favorite for forever because one, I got my guns from them. [00:31:33] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:31:33] Speaker E: And that's a sleigh. And two, I think there was a bit. Correct me if I'm wrong, I can't remember if we kept it in or not. There was a bit where I think Id didn't understand that they were lesbians. And it was like, the funniest thing. I can't remember if that was something that we kept in or not. [00:31:51] Speaker D: Id just not understanding how human beings work despite technically being one himself. [00:31:58] Speaker E: Was the best thing about their cousins or something. [00:32:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:03] Speaker E: Boy, it was my favorite thing ever. That's a. That's a Back to ARC1 shout out. ARC1. Yeah, ARC1. [00:32:11] Speaker C: I think it was two or two. [00:32:13] Speaker A: I think. [00:32:14] Speaker C: No, no, it would have been one because. Yeah, no, it was one because that's. [00:32:18] Speaker E: Before we met and we were like, oh, Oglan and Auden. But they weren't. But they were. They are mutually excited. Exclusive. It was a whole thing. [00:32:27] Speaker A: I see. My favorite NPC is actually a type of NPC that Anastasia gets into sometimes, which is frequently when we have, like, overpowered or thoroughly whomped somebody who's supposed to be cool. And Anastasia just kind of gives up and is like, yeah, man, what do you want to. What the is up here? What. What bit are we doing now? I've given up. Like, in character and out of character, I've given up. And that's. It's so funny. [00:33:01] Speaker D: It's very funny. [00:33:03] Speaker A: Like, when we leave somebody alive at the end of combat and interrogate them and honestly just like, yeah, what am I doing here asking stupid questions. [00:33:11] Speaker C: God, I really liked Olive Garden elf, and only because he was just a guy and you guys, like, ragged on him so hard because I said he brought pots instead of school. That's it. That's the only thing we know about him. [00:33:29] Speaker D: I love. I love, like, in character. We tried so hard and did so poorly at getting along with people. And then out of character, we just bullied everybody. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [00:33:41] Speaker C: Gosh. [00:33:42] Speaker A: Also, I want to shout out the barkeep who I think was in the Rogues Guild place, who was the first person to give out worm grog and was okay with giving alcohol to a child. I think, like, that was like, session three or four or something. And on stage was like, yeah, it worm grog. Go for a price. [00:34:05] Speaker C: You're great. [00:34:06] Speaker D: Which I will point. Which I will point out is right before Id does this huge lore drop of like, ah, Yes. I was an experiment. And this is all that's happening inside of ID's head right now that happens in the same episode. [00:34:21] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:34:22] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:34:23] Speaker D: I loved. [00:34:24] Speaker E: We got a shout out. [00:34:26] Speaker C: Sorry, I was just gonna say I love library turtle guy. I love. [00:34:31] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm trying to. I'm trying to find his name. [00:34:33] Speaker B: Oh. [00:34:33] Speaker E: Because he's so funny. Oh, oh, oh, oh. [00:34:37] Speaker D: I've been desperately magic for his name since we started. [00:34:40] Speaker E: He went by the. [00:34:43] Speaker A: Yeah, the grip. [00:34:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I fully heard the Brita. [00:34:47] Speaker D: I was like, no, it was the grip. Mostly because I listen, I almost said arcdob by accident. Then I remembered that arcdom was played by Bryce, so arcdom was my favorite part of arc one. I was so disappointed when I found out that Meg and I weren't gonna get to play with him. I was like, no, he's so silly. I love him. Bryce, shout out to you, man. You're fucking funny. I really liked the grip. I really liked Bahiti, who was also arc1, who is like the sage in Nemka who tried and tried so hard to teach Arknong to read with the patience of a goddamn saint and is probably still dealing with that little gremlin of a child. [00:35:33] Speaker E: Obviously. Shout out to both Jared and Bosneville. [00:35:36] Speaker C: We just need to. Oh, my God. [00:35:38] Speaker A: For sure. [00:35:41] Speaker E: Jared. [00:35:41] Speaker C: Our bow sneve count is infinite now forever and ever. [00:35:45] Speaker E: It's an infinite. [00:35:46] Speaker C: It's an infinite. [00:35:48] Speaker D: Kind of break it like 300 days in or like 150 days in. Not even 300 days in. [00:35:55] Speaker C: If I. If I picked some. Some like, long term, like long Ish term character that was fun to play. I really liked. I. I know that. I know that people did not like Amali, but I really liked Amali. Like, I thought that she was really fun. And yeah, they were sweet. They were just fun to play. Anyway. [00:36:13] Speaker E: They were really cool. [00:36:16] Speaker D: An egg Amali was really cool. Amali, we like. I think that was just fully us being in character, being, like, powerful and all knowing legit. Fucking hell. [00:36:28] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, is Ben's turn. I don't think Ben's picked question yet. [00:36:33] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. I'm gonna do a little bit of a silly, goofy one. Knowing everything that we know about the lore of the ancient fans and about this campaign. If we had to start over, what kind of character would you make? [00:36:49] Speaker E: I would make. This is just because I loved Epilean so much. I think I would make an amnesiac dragonborn that uses orange magic. Oh, I think that would be, like, awesome. [00:37:02] Speaker C: Hell yeah. [00:37:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:02] Speaker E: I don't know what class or anything, but, like, I. Yeah, that would. What. Yeah, just someone who's so dumb and doesn't know anything and, like, doesn't even know what they ate for breakfast the day of, like, the biggest amnesiac ever. And then it's like, it to the point where it'll be like, okay, maybe this is an actual problem. I love a bit that turns into trauma. [00:37:23] Speaker B: I think it would have been really cool to really lean into, like, the deity side. I mean, beginning of the game. I didn't expect it to be so heavily involved with the. The gods and stuff. So it was really cool to get to explore that from the lens of a character who also doesn't know a whole lot about the pantheon and stuff. But I think it could be really cool to do, like, a. Maybe a nature domain cleric. Maybe get to experience more from the Gonna play yarn. Well, I mean, do you get to experience the sanctuaries maybe a little more with that cleric and nature clout? I think. Could have been. Could have been really cool. I don't know. I think it'd be interesting to get that kind of perspective. Maybe get the Erendrill threads visible a little earlier. Could have been cool. I don't know. [00:38:18] Speaker D: I think either I would have done something similar and played like, a Genasi or something and really lean into. Because, like, the underwater city was really fucking cool. And I'm like, y' all could have spent another, like, eight sessions there. And I would have been delighted listening to that. It was so cool and also very sweet. There was a lot of very sweet moments that came from that, which included the moment that made me decide to make Melwyn a chef, which was realizing that none of y' all fuckers knew how to cook in your party. Or I would take a page out of Milo's book and I would play either a thief or, like, some kind of criminal or. Or an artificer and really take it, like, go full tilt of just like. I'm not gonna have. Not even play a. Like, an artificer. Play like, a fighter or something and go full tilt into. Fuck this. I don't understand magic. I'm just here to build shit. And there's magic involved sometimes. [00:39:21] Speaker B: Really lean into the steampunkiness of it. Yeah. [00:39:24] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker A: My answer is, like, knowing everything now. I think it would have been really awesome to play some sort of bard who focuses on, like, the storytelling aspect of the world. I can really dig into that kind of, like, angle. Like, it's the same kind of Angle as the deities, but coming out direction. [00:39:45] Speaker C: And yeah, hell yeah. [00:39:47] Speaker D: That would have been a really cool way to tie Wodie into the. [00:39:50] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:39:51] Speaker C: Yeah, that would have been super cool. [00:39:54] Speaker A: If only. And also that would have made a much more charis. Well, it had charisma, but a much more like able to interact with people. [00:40:05] Speaker C: Normal functional charismas. [00:40:07] Speaker A: Functional charisma, Yeah. [00:40:10] Speaker E: I think just kind of talking about IDs charisma real quick. Charisma. I think that ID's charisma comes from kind of like you. Have you ever had a. Like a boss or a manager who just like kind of scared everyone but they like just told it to you it was effective. Yeah, yeah. What, like just told it to you straight and like gained mad respect and like people, like somehow people were still able to like are able to go to them and like its charisma really reminds me of that. Of that sort of aspect of like, not necessarily like bubbly or infectious personality, but a personality that everyone respects so much that it's like, oh shit, like gotta get my shit together. [00:40:54] Speaker D: That it had that aura about him. [00:40:57] Speaker E: He had that aura about him. [00:40:59] Speaker D: I will see myself out. [00:41:01] Speaker E: Bye. Shifting gears is over. [00:41:03] Speaker C: That's it. Good. I guess we have to post the unedited version, cuz. [00:41:09] Speaker E: Oh yeah. [00:41:12] Speaker C: Well, I'd play the DM again, so. [00:41:15] Speaker A: Nice, nice. Good one. [00:41:17] Speaker B: If you could build a character to run around in this setting that you've. [00:41:20] Speaker C: Made, what character would you build out? I have no idea. [00:41:25] Speaker D: Meg really said uno reverse. [00:41:27] Speaker C: I really have to think of this one. Damn. Yeah, I mean, I think a historian would be really cool. Honestly. Probably somebody from more like southern, like southwest countries like Traila, I think would have been really fun because I think as a country they're just like so arrogant because they think they know everything and I think that would be fun to mess with. [00:41:56] Speaker E: So, Meg, I think we have something to discuss. [00:42:00] Speaker B: What would that be? [00:42:04] Speaker E: Oh, I don't know. Just some. [00:42:06] Speaker B: Just some. [00:42:07] Speaker E: Just some little, little things. So obviously you're not gonna leave it. [00:42:10] Speaker C: Open ended to the audience and they just have to imagine forever. [00:42:14] Speaker E: They just have to imagine it. No. So obviously, Meg, you and I talked a little bit, actually a lot. A bit about a lot of it. We screamed a lot. Yeah, a lot of screaming about Myla and Auden and what their friendship was starting to really mean to the both of them. And I just want to know your thoughts on Auden's perspective of that and how that started and how that was continuing and maybe sort of like end the game. How you think that ended, because it was never fully, like, disgust in character, and I'm just a nosy bitch. [00:42:57] Speaker B: And I love that about you. I think for me, so much of Arun's journey and, you know, personal goal, I guess, of the campaign was to find a sense of belonging. And as we played, that was something that was really, like. It came forward a lot with Myla, because Myla, we. We talked about this a lot. Where Myla and Auden have a lot of things in common in their personality. Like, they're just kind of the way that they interact with and perceive the world. And the. You know, both of them have been ostracized a little bit for that at some point or another in their life. And so I think that, to me, it made a lot of sense as the two interacted more as they got closer, that there was definitely, like, a deeper bond there, just because there is so much for them to relate with, I think. It wasn't something that I went into the game planning, obviously. Otherwise I would have been like, hey, Jay, you know, early on. But as it went on, I was like, I can see this. I think we talked about this a lot too, where we both were, like. I can see it, like, turning into something romantic, or I can also see it just as, like, a really deep friendship that these two have together. And I love that. Honestly, it wasn't until, like, we kind of were like, okay, well, let's just kind of see how it feels to, like, test it a little more, push it a little more towards, like, something deeper. Deeper. That I, like, was listening back to season two early, and I'm like, you can definitely read this as a gay panic happening here. Early interruptions. That was just, like, my nerves at being on the pod. But, you know, as far as kind of where they end up again, I still can see it being an either or situation, which, again, I really kind of love. I think that, like, relationships that you have with people who are really important to you can't really fit in a neat box. I don't think it's, like, one or the other. And I think that the fact that there is maybe less of a clear divide and more of an ombre, if we're getting colorful about it, I think is something that, like, makes a lot of. A lot of sense for the two of them. I think Auden knowing that Myla's a deity and will long, long outlive her would definitely affect the way that she continues in the relationship. Just the, you know, I won't be here as long. So I'm gonna make it as. As great as I can and then see ya, have fun kind of situation, you know, And I think that, like, I don't know, I would love to get your thoughts. How do you think things went? Because we didn't really settle. We did leave it and ended. [00:46:03] Speaker E: I mean, there's obviously a lot of complications with everything, but I do think that. I think that it could have been very easy for Myla, especially after her interaction with ID that first time, to just sort of like pull back and like, be like, this is mine now, and I'm just gonna sit here and I'm just gonna hold it and that's gonna be what it is. Because the reason she did the things that she did was for the safety of her friends. Now, do I actually agree that that was accurate? Maybe not, but. And I think that. How do I want to say this? I think that Myla's perspective on Auden is that her sense of survival and her natural instinct to want to get out of things on the other end reassured Myla a lot. And I don't think that that would have ended. And I think that if anything, Myla would have just reinforced that with whatever she could give to Auden to help her do that. I do like that it's open ended, and I like that it wasn't really something that was, I think, the focus of their relationship, you know, so, yeah, I. I mean, I could talk about things for forever, but I think I. [00:47:30] Speaker B: Do want to kind of sneak in one little thing. The elements of survival kind of thing. Myla sort of called it out at one point where, like, there, There was a shift and there was a change in, like, who Auden was and who the party sort of taught her to be, where it's not just about, like, you know, what is. What does survival matter if you're not with the people that you care about? And so the fact that, like, that element of survival is such a strong selling point, I guess, to Myla, but the fact that Audun was willing to throw that out the window, I think is also a really interesting dynamic that I'm gonna think about for a long, long time. [00:48:11] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, that was. That's the thing, right? Is that, like, I don't. I think that Myla. Myla's stats, her. Her wisdom isn't high. Like, she, like. But she's a very intelligent person. And I think that she takes people's actions at face value. And I don't think she recognizes the pattern Recognition that her brain might be doing. So I think that she had a gut instinct of, like, the fact. And then mention this. Had a gut instinct of the fact that, like, ID would be willing to, like, basically, like, off himself for Arundel if it meant everything was going to be fine. And I don't think that she realized that. She recognized that, but I think her brain was taking in the pattern and was processing it internally. And I think that she realized that, like, Melwen would probably be a little more removed from it, which. As she should. Right. Because that's her focus and that's her. Where her strength comes from is being more removed. And because of that, there's almost like a flightiness to it. And I don't think that Myla recognized that. Super. But I all this to say I think that she found Auden's predictability reassuring. [00:49:22] Speaker C: So, Teehee, I love them. [00:49:27] Speaker D: I don't think I've ever laughed at anything in session in this podcast, at least as hard as I laughed at. So roommate. That absolutely fucking killed me. And I was like, I will. I will quote that for the rest of my life. That was so funny. [00:49:50] Speaker B: I love these socially stunned. I have a question for our lovely host. Host Grace here. [00:50:01] Speaker D: Oh, God. Okay. [00:50:03] Speaker B: Grace was so kind to write music for all of our little dudes, which is so, like, so flattering. First of all, that, like, oh, it makes me feel so special. Thank you so much, Grace. But what was that experience like for you? What kind of informed the lyrics and the musicality of the song? As someone who is not embodying? I mean, obviously for Mellowen, you are embodying Mellowen, but for these other characters, what was the process like for you? [00:50:35] Speaker D: Uh, weird, because I. Oh, man. Describing my songwriting process is so weird because most of the time, it's kind of like throwing spaghetti at a wall and waiting to see what sticks. [00:50:49] Speaker B: Fair enough. [00:50:50] Speaker C: I feel like that's probably more common than expected. [00:50:54] Speaker D: Yeah. Like everybody, there's a lot of times where I've been asked about, like, do you have a specific process for how this happens? And I'm like, I get idea, I sit down, I write for an hour or two, and I have song. And then past that, it becomes, how do I produce this? And if I'm going to produce this, how long is it going to take? And nowadays it becomes a question of, do I have the energy to sit down it at my desk all day and record? And the answer is usually no. But some of them were easier than others. ID and Milo were definitely the easiest ID for obvious reasons. If you've listened to any of our previous Shifting Gears, you know that I adore ID and I love his character and I thought Ben did an amazing job and obviously I love all of our characters and they're all wonderful. And Ben, as much as I love you, Bryce is still the best player on this podcast, hands down. Arcadog takes the top spot, but ID was around for longer, so by default no ID and Myla. Like I also knew the most about ID and Myla going in and it's ID's song came about during when I was doing the summer, like the month long writing challenge, which I hated doing so much and I will never do again. Do not it was one thing to be writing every day was another thing to be writing and posting every day. And I was like, I want to sleep. Because I also had to like move around a little bit for summer work reasons that year I was like, I picked a hell of a summer to do this. I should have waited or just like done it in February of the next year. But at that time it was the person that we had the most information about. And then like five months later when I started writing Myla and audience, we knew a lot about Myla except for some very like deep like minute details that were very important to Myla. But as Milo's like full character, like who Myla is and how she operates, we mostly knew who she was by then. Melwyn obviously I knew who Melwyn was. Auden's was the hardest to write because we knew nothing about Auden at time of writing. And Auden's of the four that's not on you girly. That's just where we were. [00:53:22] Speaker B: There were other pressing issues at hand. [00:53:25] Speaker D: In the campaign that just happens to be where we were when I was just like, yeah, I'll write all of these. And I knew that I wanted to write something for everybody, but it was a matter of at the timing of getting it out and finishing all of the songs. If I could redo Auden's I would. I just haven't had the will to write. [00:53:46] Speaker B: I do not expect that at all. [00:53:48] Speaker D: My buddy or if I would do it again, I would have waited until we knew more about every character. But I knew that with Wodie 3 coming up and we were doing it as our anniversary episode, I wanted to do something because I hadn't really done anything for the Wodies and I went, well, I have this small handful of stuff. Meg was in call with me during a lot of the I Don't know what I'm doing. Please help me phase of it. But, yeah, a lot of it was just based off of notes or previous snippets or even for Auden and Myla specifically. It was like old songs that I had already written and pulled a couple lyrics from that because I don't throw anything away, which is good and bad when you're writing. [00:54:40] Speaker B: Neat. Thank you. [00:54:42] Speaker D: I don't know that I accidentally actually answered your question. I think I just rambled. [00:54:45] Speaker B: No, it was great. [00:54:46] Speaker D: I'm so sorry. That was cool. [00:54:50] Speaker C: I. I want to know what I know. I know this is Jay's question. If you want to ask your question, Jay, go for it. I like your question. [00:54:58] Speaker E: You ask my question for me. I believe I get the eternal care. [00:55:05] Speaker C: I also want to know as well as Jay does what one moment from the campaign. You won't forget what sticks out most. [00:55:14] Speaker D: I guess so. [00:55:15] Speaker B: Roommates, Grace, audience. I think Myla getting turned into a puppet was bonkers. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:25] Speaker B: And, like, the, like, I talk. I've talked a lot of other. Shifting gears about, like, the terror that I felt with Auden having to choose what to do in the Mind Flayer situation. And that was stressful. Just me individually, but I love the impact that that had on the group. Also, The Xander Model 2 arc makes me feel all mushy, gushy, and I'm like about it. [00:55:53] Speaker C: You know, I was actually also gonna say the, like, Mind Flayer dilemma where they had to decide if they were gonna go kill somebody semi innocent or try to get themselves out of it. And I thought that was really, like. It felt like the first time in the game where we had like, a. Like, a gravitational situation and people had to start making real, like, moral decisions. Everything up until then had been really black and white. Like. Like, oh, there's this guy who set off a gas thing in the city. We should go find him. Right. Like, there's. It was all these, like, black and white little things. And that was the first one where I was like, I need to make them actually figure out, like, who they are and not just bad guys or not just good guys. Yeah, because that's not fun. We don't want to be just good guys. [00:56:47] Speaker A: I've got two that happened in the same. The span of, like, the same two episodes back to back. Finding evidence that there is another experimented person on that was alive was crazy for me. Playing ID and then immediately after that, the entire thing collapsing. But on the way out, finding evidence that someone who, as a mentor to ID had, like, been working on something specifically for him and maybe had, like, cared about him. His well being shifted id, like, trajectory a lot. I. I think he probably would have been a lot stayed edgier if not for, like, this place that had hardened him so much, revealing itself to be a little bit softer. And then, of course, pits right after that. [00:57:37] Speaker D: I don't know. I feel like the silly, goofy, little wild magic kid that you got stuck with would have done the job eventually. Id matching Arknong's energy is up there for me still, which was episode one when you guys first met. But there's something so funny about Arknot being like, I scream. I scream back. And I was like, all right, fuck it. That's the energy we're going into this with. All right, yeah, I'll give. I have, like, a serious one. But, Jay, go before, because I've said, like, I mean, very silly ones. [00:58:08] Speaker E: I was gonna say, well, the two. There's gonna be two that come to mind. I think the easy one for me, mainly just because it caught me off guard as a. As a player, was Myla connecting to the prism. I did not expect that whole thing to be as big for her as I thought it was. But I think that the second one is actually another one back in arc one, at the end of arc one, when we were killing the Kalles and the final, Kalle basically turned to ID and was like, you're gonna kill us all. And id, instead of figuring that out, just killed him. I think that was a huge turning point for Myla and sort of re evaluating the dynamics of her part of her party and also how she viewed it, because, first of all, she had mad respect for id, not caring about what this bitch had to say. But also, she was very confused as to why. Like, why would you kill the only person alive who has the answers? Like, that was gnarly. I remember walking away from that session and being like, what the fuck just happened? Like, oh, gosh. It was crazy for. [00:59:23] Speaker D: For a more serious answer than the two that I gave, because I do remember the silly moments, because I love the silly moments. I love goofing off with my friends. But one of the most memorable moments for me is actually when you guys were in the under, like, those glass tunnels under the water, sharing a meal and building a campfire. Like, it's such a really cool imagery to me. Again, obsessed with the underwater city. [00:59:50] Speaker E: Loved it. [00:59:51] Speaker D: If it wasn't obvious from that alone. Atlantis was one of my favorite Disney movies as a kid. Like, I love that shit. So it was rad. [00:59:58] Speaker C: It was super fun. [00:59:59] Speaker D: It's so cool. And then I think, like, the other. Oh, man, there's a few. Like, it's that big description that Ben just drops in episode nine of arc one, where we get like, a actual. Like, here is ID's backstory, basically. [01:00:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, the written out thing. Yeah, I remember. [01:00:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:23] Speaker D: Oh, poor Ben did not know me very well at all at the time and got, like, a wall of text messages being like, what the. I'm so sorry. I have no way that I am. And then I think Myla turning into a doll. The puppet creature disappearing through the teleportation circle and discovering that Ari had this connection that we were not expecting her to have, and her just, like, appearing and then us. Our reaction. I don't think we got it on recording. I think we ended the episode beforehand, learning that Ari just could use wish and all of us being like, what the fuck? What do you mean? And Anastasia was just like. The clues were all there. We were like. None of us registered any of that shit. Magic's weird. [01:01:25] Speaker E: I will also say that kidnapping someone with Auden was also a core memory for me. Kidnapping someone. [01:01:32] Speaker B: The 11 and a half footsteps. I would also like to. To push forward. [01:01:35] Speaker E: The 11 and a half foot club. That's iconic. [01:01:37] Speaker D: Oh, my God. [01:01:38] Speaker C: That was good. [01:01:39] Speaker D: Normal coupley things. Kidnapping people together, dude. [01:01:43] Speaker C: I. I really also. I know it was at the very end, but I think I will think about constantly how Milo looked at Ari at the end and said, I. I want you to wish for me to go there instead of to just kill Aaron Drill. And I don't. I still don't really know why, you know, Like, I can't tell if she was. I know Jay knows, but, like, it's fun for me to think about and consider, because even I don't know. [01:02:10] Speaker D: Hear that, Jay. You can never tell her. [01:02:13] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, I guess. I guess we're not getting all the answers. [01:02:15] Speaker C: It's not gonna keep me up at night. Let me be clear, listeners at home. [01:02:20] Speaker B: Tell us what you think in our discord, which is linked in the description below. [01:02:27] Speaker E: Ben, what was your thought process with ID's reaction to Myla's godhood? And if ID could say anything else to Myla about it ahead of time, knowing what might happen, what would he say? [01:02:36] Speaker A: I think. So when we were discussing, like, what do we use this wish on? I think ID was like, whoa, that'd be really cool to, like, have someone be more powerful and have somebody up there on our side and Then when it actually happened, I think it instantly felt abandoned, like, and that was. That was like, really bad for him. He and I keep another layer of it is he had been free for less than a year. Is that right? Like, this entire campaign took place over less than a year. So I had realized that, like, yeah, he's probably still not very well emotionally regulated. So what's something that's like, reasonable to react to that in that way? Especially when Anastasia was like, okay, yeah, it's gonna be weeks until you show up again. It's gonna feel like minutes for Myla, and then it's gonna actually be weeks. I think it was like, yeah, that she's gone. [01:03:51] Speaker D: Which, by the way, none of us knew that it was gonna be that long of a period of time. You couldn't see our faces because this is an audio medium. But Anastasia was just like, it's been almost three months. And all of us went, excuse me. What? [01:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, because it was a roll. And then you turned the roll into weeks and that. Yeah. So jaw on the floor. [01:04:12] Speaker B: Floor. [01:04:13] Speaker A: He. Yeah, it was. Was really upset. I think it wasn't wrong for him to be upset. But I, I also loved throwing that curveball at Jay and I love that it was the first person that Milo went to and was like, I'm here. What's up, buddy? And it being like, off. [01:04:35] Speaker D: It was so good. [01:04:37] Speaker C: It was so. [01:04:37] Speaker E: It was so great. [01:04:40] Speaker B: So many. [01:04:42] Speaker D: I think it was Jay who edited that last episode. I'm so sorry for the sound I made when Id just turned around and clocked Myla in the face immediately. Cuz I, like, screeched into my mic. I was laughing so hard. [01:04:57] Speaker B: It was funny, but also it was sad. Like, that hurt me and I wasn't. [01:05:02] Speaker D: Puffed. [01:05:05] Speaker A: But like the. And. And also he. This is. This is not in. In the same question, but he already kind of considered Argnon leaving. Like, losing someone, even though they could have gone and like, seen him at any time and been like, hey, here's this funny book that we found. Do you want to try to read it? Whatever. But it. I don't think Id ever got as close to Auden and Melwyn as he did to Mila. [01:05:35] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely not. [01:05:36] Speaker A: And so that was like, like the person you've known for the longest leaving you and also not having good control of yourself. And yeah. [01:05:47] Speaker E: Yeah, I loved it. Damn, dude, it was so good. [01:05:52] Speaker D: So good. [01:05:52] Speaker E: Like, it was so good. You did such a good job. You. You always do such a good job with your character. But like, it was so Good. [01:06:00] Speaker B: I have a question for Jay J. The I feel like Jade, I don't know. Do you think in the. I mean Myla is a God and is living forever, but also you made the very conscious decision to have her be involved and walking around the plane and doing all that stuff. Do you think we know that Myla comes from a wealthy, fancy schmancy family? Did her family ever try and seek her out, do you think? Also Anastasia, if you want to chip in, if this is your business too, I don't know. [01:06:32] Speaker C: Ooh, Jay can decide this. [01:06:36] Speaker E: I think. I. I'll say this, I don't want to speak for the Billet family because that's. Those are Anna's people. But I, I don't think Myla would have actively sought them out. Mainly because. And there's a few reasons. She hadn't seen them since she left for the institute and she had changed a lot in the meantime. And I think that she was scared that they were still the same. Secondly, I think that she was starting to. Her family was wealthy, is wealthy and owned like the bank of the City. And I think she probably was starting to realize that a lot of the actions they were making and they were taking were probably not the best for the people around them. And I think that she had a really big problem with that. And so I don't think that she felt she owed them any answers. I mean the most she would have done is offered up maybe asking them for money. [01:07:40] Speaker D: So yeah, hold them at gunpoint. Just yoke. This is a stick up. Really unlikely one. [01:07:48] Speaker B: Crazy sweet. Thanks for asking or answering my burning question. [01:07:53] Speaker E: Of course. [01:07:56] Speaker C: I want to know what you felt like your character's best emotional turning point was like. Like where were you? Like, oh my God, they learned something new. Look at them. I'm so proud of them. [01:08:08] Speaker E: You know, the unbollification of Myla's things. I know it's kind of funny, but I think it's really big. [01:08:17] Speaker C: That's legit. [01:08:18] Speaker E: When it, when it was like I hated that thing, she was like, oh. [01:08:23] Speaker C: No, I. I think that's awesome. Yeah, that's a great. [01:08:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:08:26] Speaker E: And I think that. And I. And I. And like just it also I had fun picking the little things and like what, like why they represented things for each people. Because they did. And it made me happy. [01:08:38] Speaker A: There were a couple moments where people gave things to ID like without asking anything in return. And I think those moments I like really like every time he got something from somebody, it. He didn't give it up ever. Like, he. He became completely attached to it. And like, every time somebody did that for him, his, like, perception of them, like, skyrocketed. It's like you give him a cookie, he becomes your best friend. [01:09:14] Speaker D: Super ability points and stardew. [01:09:16] Speaker A: And so there's. Yeah, yeah, no kidding. Like, very easy to track that kind of thing with him. And he. It was. It was fun to have those moments with a bunch of different characters and, like, change and be like, oh, actually, you're cool. Okay, we're fine now. I'm not mad at you anymore. [01:09:40] Speaker D: This is tricky for Melon. She spends, like, 90% of her runtime with, like, four emotions max. [01:09:48] Speaker A: Can I propose one? [01:09:51] Speaker D: Sure. [01:09:51] Speaker A: I think I. I don't know if this is completely accurate, but I think there was a point for you as Grace the player where when we all went into the puppet diner and had. Were like, gathering all the things. And I think there was a point where Grace slash Melon was like, oh, I get help with this. I don't have to deal with this puppet thing by myself. I don't. I don't know if that's accurate. But I think Melwyn, with and without emotions, like, felt more connected to the party in. In that, like, act that we all did together. Because I think the assumption was that it was you doing the thing. Because that's what warlocks usually do is. Yeah, the warlock and their patron mess with each other and the other party members get involved a little bit. But that was a very, like, we're all doing this. [01:10:44] Speaker D: That was actually intentional because I had said, I want I. Melon's original deal with the puppet was supposed to be a bad deal. It was a very obviously a bad deal. And so from the beginning, it was supposed. I. I said to Anastasia, I want Melwyn to lose her patron pact at some point. I didn't expect it to happen as early as it did, but I also didn't expect us to go home when we did. So. And that's not a. That. It ended up working out in a really cool way because she had, like. Then it became her choice and then it ended up being like a game of, yeah, is Melwyn taking these back because people are telling her she needs to, or is Melwyn taking these back because she wants to? And for the longest time she had no clue, which is how we ended up with like, Myla yelled at her. She took back six at once and it hurt. And then she didn't take any back for a really long time. I think another big turning point for Melwyn was at the end, after she got everything back, or like, right before she got everything back, when Auden sat her down and they talked about, like, how she felt about me finally meeting her mom and getting answers. And Melon was finally, like, I don't know. [01:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:58] Speaker D: Like, I think I wanted to be mad at her because what the lady, why I liked her. I thought she was cool. Melon was just like, this. [01:12:10] Speaker E: She doesn't want. [01:12:14] Speaker D: Like, that's, like, why she took the beat to talk to her dads instead of really, like, doing anything meaningful to level up was like, I don't. I don't like this lady. I think. I think she done some bad stuff. And also, she's helpful, which is annoying. [01:12:35] Speaker B: It's the worst part about it. [01:12:37] Speaker D: Yeah. What about Auden? [01:12:39] Speaker B: I think for Auden, when we were at the Incident Institute and fighting Opal and Erendril, as we touched on this episode and previous ones, you know, Arun had a big focus on survival and do whatever it takes to keep yourself safe and you ensure that, like, you are your own priority and stuff. But in that fight, she found herself going back for Melwyn and making sure that, like, you know, she. She's. She can zoom. She could have zipped right on out of there, but she was unable to do that in clear conscience because these people were meaning a lot to her. So I think that's, like, the big, like, tangible moment for sure. [01:13:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:22] Speaker B: For her. [01:13:23] Speaker C: Amazing. [01:13:24] Speaker E: Anastasia. Hi. Your favorite nosy bestie here. So what is your. What was your favorite piece of world building that you did that we didn't get to, like, explore or that we didn't get to, like? Was there anything in particular that we didn't do that you were like, well. [01:13:43] Speaker C: This is hard because every. [01:13:45] Speaker E: Every. [01:13:46] Speaker C: Everywhere you went was because I was directing you there. So if I really wanted you to have done something, I could have directed you there. And I never found a good way to do it, so I didn't. You know what I mean? Like, obviously, you guys have free will and choice to go wherever you'd like, but eventually the story started, like, conglomerating around certain areas. Right. Whereas, like, in the beginning, I didn't really have anything in particular that I wanted you to, like, see. I just kind of wanted you to see a bunch of stuff, which I think we did and then needed to get into. Like, okay, what are we really doing here? I. I think it would have been really interesting to see more Sanctuary places because they are all so different. That. That would have been really fun. I think that would have been a good time. I also really like Nazmoor because they are just in my, in my head. I don't know if anyone's seen the Silo show, but they're kind of. They kind of just live in this like underground concrete bunker kind of thing. It's not as like, I don't. For anyone who has seen Silo, it's not as like, like vertical as it is in the show and it's like more spacious and stuff like that. But I think that would have been a really fun place to go. It honestly started falling out of the steampunk stuff a little bit more. I wish I had put a little more like steampunk towards the end. We kind of had it in the beginning and then I. We started to focus on more like magic based aspects, which is super fine and super valid. So yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of stuff. If, if I had to run another campaign in this world, I absolutely could. And they'd see a completely different set of stuff, you know, so it's not like I'm running out of content or anything. I think I tend as a dm, I tend to build more in depth once you get to those things. I've got a generic idea of how things are and if you want to go there, then we build it, you know, then we build it more in depth so that when you get there it feels fleshed out. Can't really know what I'm missing. You know what I mean? I don't have details of anything yet. We didn't need to go there. So Alec asked us on Patreon. Patreon, sorry. Alec asked us on Discord if there will be any more stories that take place in the inked expanse. Correct me if I'm wrong. Currently we are taking like an indefinite hiatus. If we're back, awesome. If we're not. We finished a campaign and I'm really proud of that. We spent three years on this thing and we did it all ourselves. So I'm like so incredibly impressed and happy that I got to do this thing in my life with a bunch of other people who also wanted to do this thing. If we come back, then we'll let you know. But for now it's just kind of a. We all need a break after three years. You know, we need to take a summer and reevaluate if this is something we still want to keep doing because we really have a passion for it or if we feel content with the amount of content that we Already made and we just kind of want to be a one and done thing. Obviously a lot of other people in here are doing other really cool things, especially Grace, Jay, Meg, they're all incredible and a lot more involved in the TTRPG space online than like Ben and I are. So go listen to shit that they do because it's, it's, it rules. [01:17:34] Speaker B: Go listen to their shit. [01:17:35] Speaker C: Go look at this shit. [01:17:36] Speaker D: Don't go listen to my shit. Go listen to Jay and Meg shit. Jay and Meg's shit is cool. I'm just a guy. [01:17:41] Speaker C: There's a lot of really cool stuff and Grace's stuff. And so many of our guests also do really cool Internet TTRPG stuff. Like go back to the episodes and go to the description and see who they are and what they're doing. And if you listen to them and you like them, go follow them. You know, we do, we have a lot of awesome people. So you should try some of the. [01:18:02] Speaker D: Systems that we've played on here because a lot of them have gotten expansions or that publisher has done other cool shit. Like Ryan lynch, who wrote Perils and Princesses, has since released at least two adventures in his world. Yeah, in his system. It's very, very cool. I got to meet him at Gen Con last year. He's very lovely and he was very delighted and that we, that we played his game. He's very excited. It was very sweet. [01:18:28] Speaker C: So yeah, that's kind of the wrap on that. We'll see if we see you. [01:18:34] Speaker D: Last but not least, our final question of our final shifting gears. Unfortunately, Al Falcon from our Discord asks what did you all as players? I'm just gonna say what did you all as a cast take away from this journey? I need to think I have an answer. [01:18:54] Speaker C: Send it. [01:18:55] Speaker B: I think for me one of the biggest takeaways is like just how important it is to like be passionate about like the things that you're doing. Like this is, as Anastasia said, this has been a three year project that we definitely could not have done if we didn't enjoy it and we didn't enjoy each other's company and telling stories together. You know, the summer stuff that was intended to be a break that turned into a whole big thing. And the side woady projects and all this stuff, it's because we loved doing it. And I think that like, you know, whether the thing you love is ttrpgs or like other nerd or whatever, like whatever you do love it fully and just enjoy the time that you get to engage with that because it's really, really special to get to have this kind of time capsule. The last two years for me, I was not, you know, just to have this little time capsule of like, you know, this stage in my life and getting to put so much into something that was just so fulfilling emotionally. So I am really, really grateful for this opportunity that I had to be a part of this. So thank you, guys. [01:20:14] Speaker D: Meg, if you cry, you're gonna start the rest of us, so don't. [01:20:18] Speaker B: I already cried today, so. [01:20:23] Speaker C: Got them all out ahead of time. [01:20:24] Speaker B: Yeah, Dehydrated. [01:20:28] Speaker A: Mine is that you're cool. I. If you're listening to this, you're cool. If you guested for us, unflexible Disney employee. [01:20:40] Speaker E: You'Re. [01:20:41] Speaker A: You're cool because you're suffering under capitalism just like us. But, but honestly, I think, I think the main thing, like, I don't know, I. I knew. I mean, I didn't really know Jay, I didn't know Grace, I didn't know Meg, I didn't know hardly any of the guests that we got to do cool, fun things with and meeting a bunch of cool people and making funny, silly, awesome game art with them was really cool. And I think that the, the cool thing about projects like this and about games that you can play collaboratively, collaboratively with other people is, is meeting new cool people. So if you're a cool person that I met, you're cool. And I hope that you get to meet cool people through your life and. [01:21:37] Speaker C: Be friends with them and be cool. [01:21:40] Speaker A: And be cool and be cool. [01:21:42] Speaker E: Piggybacking off of that. I think that a really big thing that I learned both doing this project as a person and also as of part playing Myla, is the importance of community and how supporting that community and being there for that community is one of the best things you can do with your life. Having people and protecting them because you choose each other and you care for each other is one of the most impactful and life changing things that one can do with their life. And I think that that's something we all got to really figure out is with like, making this together, making this art, supporting each other. I think it's something that we figured out with these new friends that we've made with our guests, with our, with our visual artists, with our, you know, our Discord community. And I think that it's something that was a really common theme across all of our characters, which I think is really beautiful because I think that in an, in a world like the world that we Live in now. Community is essential. So, hell yeah, that's what I learned. [01:22:59] Speaker D: I think for me, one of my biggest takeaways from this is the importance of feeling not only just like, safe at a table, but feeling creatively safe at a table. I've talked about it before and I've touched on it. There was a campaign that I was in that I dropped out of pretty early into our run on Spells and Whistles. Like, it lined up around the same time. Actually, no, it was. We were in Arken, but it was. It lined up around the same time that Melwyn seemed class change. And it was. I had a DM who basically took agency of my character away after I'd given that DM an insane amount of trust with my character, who had also just been, like, a not very safe person to be around and had, like, made me very afraid of playing spellcasters and playing full casters specifically. So there was an entire conversation behind the scenes about what Melwyn Multiclass was going to be moving forward. And we were saying, like, it makes sense for Melwyn to be a wizard. And the only reason that Melwyn wasn't a wizard was because that DM did so much damage to my confidence as a player that I didn't feel safe playing a wizard anywhere. So obviously Melwyn was part wizard, but there was a conversation of, like, is Melwyn going to be a cleric? Is Melwyn going to be something else entirely? We didn't know for a while. And because Melwyn didn't have magic for a while, we didn't really have to worry about it for a while. And I had time to think. But a lot of spells and whistles ended up just kind of being, like, healing from the impact of that. And I know for a fact it impacted, like, how I played Melwyn and how I approached playing Melwyn in a lot of scenes, which it felt nice to have something to fall back on that was consistent and steady and that, like, I understood what I was doing after. After that, like, Ben and all of these people, like, Ben had listened to a session of that game. Ben had, like, sat in as a guest at the table for a session of that game. Everybody at this table and a lot of my friends outside of this game, like, know how much I adored that game and how much I had poured my heart and soul into it and how honestly, broken I was in the aftermath of it. And it's only been in, like, the last, honestly, few weeks that I finally felt like, oh, I'm finally moving on from how much that Hurt. But all that is to say, like, if no DND is better than bad dnd, and if you are not safe at a table and if you don't feel safe being at a table and you don't even feel safe going to the DM about it, don't be at the table. It's okay. It, like it feels shitty to walk away from something like that, especially if it's something that you really love. But there will be other tables, there will be other games, and there will be people who will be there to pick up the pieces when you fall. That was really depressing note. I'm so sorry. [01:26:10] Speaker E: Love you guys. [01:26:12] Speaker D: Does somebody have a happier note to end this on? I'm so sorry. [01:26:16] Speaker C: Joke answer is that DND doesn't have to last four hours per session. Shocker. Who knew? No, I truly don't have the, like, attention span for four hours anymore. Like, I play very few 4 hour D and D games because I'm not in college and I don't have the brain power for four hour sessions. But no, the real answer is that if, if you're gonna try to do something, you just have to ask people until you get the people who are in it as much as you are and do it. Because it took us. I mean, don't get me wrong, we like, spent money doing things for this podcast. We didn't have to spend that much money doing anything for this podcast. Like, we're sitting at our computers, which is. We're all very privileged to sit here and have microphones and computers and everything to record on. But, like, it doesn't take us much to just sit and record something. We're not paying an editor. The most consistent payment we do is to host the podcast on a platform, which, honestly, you probably don't even need to do if you don't want to. But yeah, I don't know. I think it. Being able to find the right people to like, trust to be in it as much as I was hoping was really hard. Like, yeah, like, trying to start a project like this knowing it was going to be at least a year's worth of work if it like turned out properly is hard to like, go to people and say, hey, are you in for, like, are we all understanding that we're all in this together? We're all in this for the same amount of work, you know, and having people say yes is really cool. So I am excited to keep learning that you just have to ask until the things that you want start to happen. [01:28:22] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yippee. Well with that, my friends, signing off one more time with love and wormgrog. This has been Spells and Whistles. This has been Shifting gears. And if we're back, we're back. And if not, I wish you all a very good evening or time of day time zones. Have a good time zone. [01:28:45] Speaker E: Have a good time zone. [01:28:45] Speaker D: Happy time zones. Bye bye, bye, bye. [01:29:00] Speaker C: Sa.