This is the D&D game that blends Pokemon concepts into D&D. I covered episodes 1 & 2 here.
I really love that this show is also in audio form. I've been listening to pieces of this episode while I am out driving or doing stuff.
I don't know anything about Pokemon, but I like this show because it is relaxed and it flows smoothly. There are almost no pauses to look up rules, each hero has a distinct persona and I just really like everyone involved.
The Party
(Logan) Standt Willow - Human Druid
(Steve) SBJ - Human Fighter
(Travis) Wendy Colecarver - Hill Dwarf Cleric
(Jeff) Emojis - Human Wizard
 |
| Standt Willow |
Last Time: The group was searching for a guy named Ephraim Oakheart. They ended up creeping around in an old dwarven fortress and they met Meepo the kobold.
We learn that Meepo is very popular among the Pokemon podcast fans. Apparently a number of people made Meepo twitter accounts.
Meepo takes the group to meet the kobold queen. It turns out that kobolds and goblins both live in different areas of this fortress and they don't get along.
 |
| A Kobold Urd |
The Queen sits on the throne - she has wings (she's an urd, I think) and she has gold and silver scales.
Her name is Queen Nikki.
Wendy sucks up to her in a one-noble-to-another kind of way. The queen asks the group to find her missing dragon. SBJ somehow sandwiches a D. Pepper reference into the conversation.
Standt asks what the sex of the dragon is because, uh, he wants to draw it. The entire group cringes and the queen has a "who farted?" look on her face. Wendy makes the save by jumping in to butter up the queen some more. The heroes learn that this mysterious missing dragon is not dangerous. Apparently it has a leash.
 |
| Meepo |
They come upon a dragon statue with a basin. They read an inscription out loud and liquid oozes out of the mouth and into the basin. It's a potion of fire breathing! What an awesome idea.
The group nabs two potions. I'm surprised that they don't load up on these. I think most groups would hoard as many potions as possible, but in this group some players just pass up on the potions entirely.
As the group messes with the statue, Wendy casually points out that she's a better person than Standt. We learn that Wendy doesn't have many friends but seems kind of oblivious as to why.
The group comes upon two sets of tracks - human-sized feet and smaller feet. The group really wishes they had asked more questions about Ephraim back at the bar. They know absolutely nothing about what he looks like or anything. SBJ can't even remember his name. He calls him "Eekram Lionheart."
The heroes ponder the idea of just ditching the dragon quest if they find Ephraim. Emojis sets them straight with some wisdom - finding the dragon will likely lead to finding Ephraim.
 |
| What's a caltrop? |
They open the door and set off some kind of bell/alarm. Beyond it is a long hallway filled with caltrops. At the end of the hallway is a makeshift barricade.
I had to look up what caltrops do. Basically, you either move through them at half speed or else you need to make a DC 15 DEX save or take 1 damage and stop moving.
Emojis has an awesome idea to use thunderwave to blow the caltrops away, but he doesn't want to waste his last spell.
Standt spots three creatures behind the barricade. Goblins!
SBJ unleashes the mighty D. Pepper, who flies over and does a "leak slash" on a goblin. Emojis decides to use a firebolt to set fire to the barricade.
A goblin gets a critical on D. Pepper. D. Pepper gets all messed up and is reduced to 0 hit points, which sends him back into SBJ's pokeball thing. D. Pepper can't be summoned again until a long rest. SBJ is devastated.
Standt advances and jumps over the barricade. He hits a goblin with his club. From there, the group is able to defeat the goblins.
They continue on, deeper into goblin country. SBJ creeps ahead, peers around a corner and spots another barricade. Standt and Wendy go to check it out. More goblins! They fire a volley of arrow at the group and Wendy is nearly killed.
Emojis kills one with a firebolt. The other two goblins try to fire arrows - both roll natural 1's. Their bow strings snap.
Wendy heals herself and the group takes down the goblins.
This group is funny. They are so new to D&D that they don't even loot the bad guys. The DM has to sort of nudge them to do it. They find a silver key and a dwarven flask.
They hear somebody whistling behind a locked door. It's a sailing song, reminding Emojis of his youth, rowing in the early morn with his quadruplet siblings.
Emojis uses the silver key on the door. In the room is a hanging cage. In the cage is a little gnome, whistling. He says, "Hello." It's Ephraim Oakheart!
The group lets him out of the cage. He's wearing a robe with a symbol that looks exactly like the mysterious tattoos that the entire party has.
That's where we stop!
Timestamps
- (36:30) How many friends does Wendy have?
- (1:11:15) D. Pepper is defeated!
- (1:17:28) Wendy has flashbacks to her tragic past.
This show is such an easy listen. It's amusing the whole way through. I'd say the first half hour is a bit slow, but once things get rolling it's a fun episode. I really like the old school vibe blended with the Pokemon concepts. This is a nice, simple, iconic dungeon location. It has a bit of a "Dragon Mountain" vibe, where low level creatures are using terrain and tactics to challenge the adventurers.
Travis is Hilarious: There were a bunch of times where something visual would happen and Travis would use a radio voice to say something like: "For the listener at home, I just gave the 'thumbs up' motion." It cracked me up every time.
Encounters to Lift for Your Home Game: I love DM Greg's ideas. I think the potion-dispensing statue is really cool and I love the caltrop hallway encounter. Nobody uses caltrops! They should. Most of the time, players buy them and then forget about them. Caltrops are very classic D&D.
5 comments:
Haha, I think that's supposed to be 'leek slash'. Putting the nerd hat on for a moment– that particular Pokémon always carries around a leek for some reason. I think it's a reference to something Japanese.
But, it all sounds cool; weird to imagine a party that forgets to loot, though!
Ooh, I know this one- I'll put my Pokémon nerd hat on as well... Farfetch'd is a duck-like Pokémon that carries around a leek, because there's a Japanese saying that's like "a duck shows up holding green onion," meaning that something good but unlikely happened. (Because you would cook and eat duck with green onions.)
Every Pokémon name is usually some kind of pun, but this is one that got lost in translation from Japanese to English.
Ashley: Ohh, ok. Yeah the bird was carrying a vegetable in the picture I saw. I was very amused by the lack of looting. I am guessing they'll start looting dead guys sooner or later.
Bariceer: Cool, thank you! I was wondering why all of the Pokemon have such weird names. Almost every one of my players knows everything about Pokemon except me. I think I was just a few years too old to experience Pokemon as a kid. I was all about GI Joe when I was little.
From the sound of it, this is the "Sunless Citadel" I believe (the original D&D 3.5 module)? I've DM'd it before. Had a few characters meet grisly ends on a few of the nastier traps, but overall was a lot of fun!
Matt: You're right! That's kind of sad I didn't recognize it. I think I'm going to read through it and then listen to the next episode. Thanks for the heads up!
Post a Comment