Speaker 1: Our cat was screaming so loud to get our attention
that our next door neighbor asked about it. Oh my god,
really mm hmm.
Speaker 2: I was loving the cat sounds. There was one part.
I don't remember what we were doing, but I could
hear her, and I was like, don't make it stop, Chris,
don't make it stop. I love the cat sounds. I
can hear it. Don't stop it.
Speaker 1: Welcome back everybody to the Day's End after show for
our first official side quest. We are joined. I'm just
gonna run down the list by Mika, John, Mattie, and
Marissa as well as me C d Corgan. Hi, how
you doing? So that was something there was. Let's do
a little little roundtable discussion here, lightning quick. First of all,
we went we met some all new characters, all level six.
Marissa and Maddie actually took and modified two of our
starter pre made characters from the website. Laura Lai and
Victoria are available as level ones from our downloads page.
Speaker 2: They should do them. It's fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh, we leveled everyone up to six for
this adventure because we thought we might get into some
crazy shenanigans and everything. So you've seen one version of
what Laura Lai might look like. Yours doesn't have to
be that scary Marsel. What the fuck? Why not? But
why not those?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I think it's pretty great accurate spider lore.
Speaker 1: Big Spider Lady go munch.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah, we went to break Bow, we
delved into the Big Tree, and then we woke up
a God, which I was not expecting. I've got to
plan some lore stuff.
Speaker 2: I love when you have to do war on the spot.
It's just so exciting for me to watch it pour out,
to like know that you've got all these caverns of
like reference points behind you, and you're like, Okay, what
am I going to do?
Speaker 1: Yeah? None of this lines up with what I planned. Yeah,
y'all got at it. I was like, yes, so we
have pretty simple dungeon run. I'm gonna put the thing
in the bottom. Here's what I thought was gonna happen.
Our main characters in the main arc of the show
are dealing with a lot of cold shit. They're in
a cold place. Everything's cold. There's some freezing or there's
like a frozen army, there's like uh an artifact. It's
all cold stuff. And I was like, I know, side quest,
I'll have them go get a fire thing. The fire
thing will be a powerful artifact and that can probably
be useful later. Because Lady Sive and Roland hired, both
groups probably picked up on that from context clues, right, guys, Yeah, yeah, great.
I didn't expect the chaos, Cobald, because here's the thing.
I've established some pretty firm rules around like how gods
and deities work in the world. And I was like, yeah,
it'll be like a dead temple.
Speaker 2: It was dead until we got there.
Speaker 1: That happens, Oh, Biscuits, Now, like all of you are
like the most wanted people on the planet for a
couple of very specific groups, so like for different reasons,
some of them not good, and like it.
Speaker 2: Must be so clear that I'm willing to learn. Was
like a throwaway line. Oh yeah, it was absolutely a
throwaway line.
Speaker 1: It's like Fay rules though, like there are some things
you cannot and like here's the deal. It would have
been a throwaway line. And this actually roses right off
the bat for the whole group here. That would have
been a throwaway line. If Biscuit had failed a thirty
will power check, I would have just done something horrible
to him and then the encounter would have happened. Y'all
got your shit together.
Speaker 3: I've got those fake points would come in handy.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was crazy. I want to go
around so we do typically like roses or thorns or
like what was exciting. I also want to you know,
ping you guys.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: Mika is one of the few other people that I
know of who has GMed a long running Relic show.
Curious to see your outlook on everything? And John, I
think this is your You've delved into Relict a bit,
but I think this is your first time playing it.
If I'm not mistaken, Yes, that is correct. How are
we feeling, gentlemen? I can start with either one of you.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Meka.
Speaker 3: It was weird. I have this problem with D and
D like I'm so. It was weird being in the
player spot. Yes, I'd having to go through like the
character creation everything.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: A pain to have to narrow down what I wanted
to do, but.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do everything. It was really.
Speaker 3: Something I like about the system is that, like if
you cast spells, you have access to everything right away.
It's just a matter of if you've got this Stamna
or Manda for it, which is something I really enjoy.
And it's like, on the one hand, it's like, oh,
I'm sad, like I can't be any of these classes
and get access to the spell. But it's nice having
things that are very like specified to you.
Speaker 1: M Yeah, beautiful stuff. And I gotta say, first time
I've run a Marksman at my table. That was fun.
Don't know, I'm curious how it felt for you.
Speaker 3: I'm glad I took Marksmen because.
Speaker 1: Like my.
Speaker 3: I mean great, this is my first time playing either
of these. But it felt like Dyna Matter could have
use like just one like longer range skill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was definitely I thought this was going to
be a much more melee intensive close quarters encounter. World
didn't happen. That's okay, because.
Speaker 3: I loved the Marksmen. Yeah, like I made that my
second class. It was I liked the double shot. I think,
especially at higher levels, this has got to be.
Speaker 4: A really.
Speaker 3: Well, my words are not forming correctly.
Speaker 1: It is late. We have played for a while, you have.
Speaker 2: Been playing for many many hours.
Speaker 3: Like I've always wanted to play. I think I mentioned
this too when we were talking about character creation a
few days ago. I've always wanted to play a sniper character, yeah,
and so this was my first taste of getting to
do that, and I very much enjoyed it. Like the
double shot just became my best friends. Getting to impale
a spider it's so fun.
Speaker 1: I so I I'm not trying to toot my horn
about the system here, just as a GM running that encounter.
It was very fun because there were a couple of
moments where I was like, uh, you know, like I
want my players to do kick ass stuff, and there
were a couple of moments where I was like, oh,
you didn't do a ton of damage, all right, And
then I was like, oh, wait, you did impale the
spider in place, though, like that's a whole thing, like
like that spider doesn't have enough health to move now,
Like that's a situation it's in.
Speaker 2: So speaking of speaking of that that spider, I was
kind of hoping that when Maddy sent that whatever it
was that you pierce a spider with, I was kind
of hoping that it would go into the like the
big giant abdomen and just like crack it in half
and have everything split like slow, open, growdy.
Speaker 1: John, let's cut over to you for a second here.
First time at that with what the fuck Biscuit? I
loved old man Biscuit. I gotta be real with you.
That was hilarious to me.
Speaker 4: So I when I was designing this, like you and
I were working together, and I was like, you know,
I want to I want to go full bore into
something like it's fine to have my secondary abilities, and
I did build those up a little bit, but I
I just dove right into all fortitude for the most part.
So like I'm sitting here with a nineteen capacity of
mana into region of eleven, whoa no stamina, literally like
blast cannon built. So when I popped off.
Speaker 3: To my I was kind of the opposite ideah sixteen
stamping it out with the region of eleven.
Speaker 1: I'm really enjoying the head cannon of Lemon, Whisker and Biscuit,
having like been working together for a while, because you
did build very like inverted characters and they're just a
they're a trip. Anyways, go on one of.
Speaker 4: The things that I was like, it's it's the You
mentioned the whole thing about the gravity magic and stuff
and how that needed a long range spell if we
hadn't taken out that spider at that last moment, my
next action was going to be running up to you
building a momentum counter using I think it was going
to use kinetic blitz at the same time to open
a portal directly in front of you so you could
use your gravity magic to slam the spider into the ground.
I was I had like this. I was like, oh, man, blink,
mages are just so they're so good you can literally
just be like it's fine. It doesn't matter how far
it is. I got you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that tunnel spell because it literally the tunnel
just makes it so any two points you pick are adjacent.
Just like, oh yeah, the spider on the ceiling, well
he adjacent to me right now, Like that's what's happening.
It's you realize.
Speaker 3: I think there is a spell I could have used.
All I would have done was give me like one
D four additional damage. Yeah, gravitic blow. Yes, it doesn't
specify if it's melee or range, just says when you
yield damage for the weapon attack. You can act by
this ability to be of the strike with gravitational manipulation
and one D four kinetic damage. And I realize now
after the fact, I could have done that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: It's okay. It's so that's kind of like there is
an element of this class system that we have in Relict,
where like traditional not even traditional, there's a lot of
different games, but a very common game design philosophy is
like at level one, your character only has one ability
or two abilities or whatever. At level two you get
another one. So like as you play, you learn to
like build the character, like gameplay loop. We did something
different with Relict. There's pros and cons to that. It
is more upfront complexity, but what we find is like
giving people access to all of the spells and abilities,
you don't have to use them all. You don't have
to learn them all. It's fine to play like Lemon whisker,
kick ass that whole encounter. Yeah, I've shot.
Speaker 3: That's all I needed.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like, so, like we've had people who run like
two skills for their first couple of games, and then
the next you know, in between sessions, they're like I
realized I could stack rayphtic blow on top of that,
and I can do kinetic sync when he hits me,
and so like you start to like build your own
little loops of like abilities you like, and so it
kind of works works that way either way. What I
like about that is that people come up with different
combos that if I, as the designer, had picked you
do one and then two and then three, because I,
for the life of me, never thought of using tunnel
to stack up next to your Dynamancer buddy after kinetic blitz,
which gets you a free tunnel, which is insane. Yeah,
the tunnel to death Spider Hole is wild, Like that's
I'm like, there was a moment of like, I did
not intend that to work that way, and at one
hundred percent should like that's it should Uh.
Speaker 4: What are you doing? You're going in my bag?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it only works because it was a tiny,
whoozy little creature and you were like, you couldn't have
done that to the big spider you don't have the
resources for it. But the little guy you to be like, yeah,
good bye.
Speaker 4: Actually I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I might fight me. Yeah, Ladies roses Thorn's excitement, you
had some easter eggs in here that I don't think
the gentleman would have been privy to.
Speaker 5: I think I had even more.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so Roland inscive up to some other stuff.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I love seeing that again. I was so happy when
we started with Roland. I was just like, we're at home,
home with the big guy.
Speaker 5: You know those n PCs that a group of players
will adopt, Roland is one of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they adopted Roland. He was the barkeeper for a
minute and it was like, nope, he's a retired super adventurer,
Like that's what he is. Yep, he's limping because they
blew up his bar like that was a thing. We
didn't do it.
Speaker 2: Hey, yeah, hey, we were We just were there. We
were there, we were there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say I had a lot of fun
playing a martial class for the first time. Yeah, I'm
always something else. It's like a necromancer, a shadow mage, elementalist,
like it's all very man a heavy. So to play
someone that's like, no, I have weapons, and also I'm
not like three feet tall and gonna fall over if
someone blows at me.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was very exciting to play a character that was
just like, yeah, I'm just gonna go for the big
spider right away immediately and not worry about it. I'll
come back, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Report to sticking on the wall with spider climb is
absolutely terrifying. Just it's wild. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, it's just me but bigger, it's
just it's just you know, it's.
Speaker 1: Just my kind. Yeah. Obviously Maddy Victoria delightful. Uh huh,
just yeah. I really enjoyed her character. How are you
liking the Paladin stuff? I love it.
Speaker 5: This is the first time playing Paladin in reliced some
roses for me. Using obviously strike down is super useful.
It's like the first ability for Paladins. But Paragons area
I wanted to use the whole time, and I was like,
I don't think I'm gonna have ability, Like, there's not
gonna be an opportunity to use it. There's not gonna
be a will part trek.
Speaker 1: And then there was.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh my god, that also so I wasn't all
that helpful, but it's still cool.
Speaker 4: That was before that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my god. The freaking the way that last like
check came together, I was like, no freaking way, Like,
there's just what we got to. The road's not traveled.
Let's let's talk for a brief second here. Yeah, because
there was.
Speaker 2: A world where even all three of the D sixes
could have been really low.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I want to be clear the you. There
was supposed to be a fight that's I got. I
got GM shanked on this and I'm so happy about it. Uh.
It was supposed to be Mika, you're familiar with the
death Mage. Uh. That priest was going to rise up
as a pumped up fire themed death mage. Yeah. He
I like doubled his health. I gave him some burning
damage stuff, and he was going to start resurrecting pyro blights,
which I believe you've also used in your shifts.
Speaker 3: They after they killed it, Lulu took the head and
then cast revived as something I need toated to speak
to talk more.
Speaker 1: Right, right right?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was gonna be like the last priest
of the dead god was gonna be like sitting at
the end of this thing ready to like throw down
for this magical super mcguffin. The biscuit was like, I'm
gonna learn and uh, here's the thing. When gods live
and die on having followers. The last priest of a
god who has fallen from the world and he is
now just standing eternal vigil over the gravestone is gonna
listen when someone says they want to learn mm hm,
oh my lord, there were there was like a parallel
like path not traveled in terms of there were other
people looking for this place because it was just revealed
and whatnot. The two figures that were trapped in the
pillars eternally burning were grave robbers who had gone ahead
of you, and like there was a world where you
fought them, like if you maybe you know, outside of games,
spent less time in town. If we needed another like
secondary antagonist. They were kind of in the cards like
a thing that could have happened. Oh, but that's not
what happened. We got to Oh my god, how are
we feeling about freaking out ladys ive kids? Uh?
Speaker 2: I mean it must be bad. If she's worried, it
must be real bad.
Speaker 1: She was.
Speaker 3: I didn't. I don't know why. I didn't think it
was gonna be that bad, like Limino screws, just very
much like, oh, okay, I guess we did this. That's fine.
I don't know why. I wasn't expecting like people to
be angry and put us on a wanted list and
shush us out because people will be after us now. Yeah,
don't know why I didn't think that would be a
big deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did not expect to be put on a
hit list, but I did think that, like, oh, this
god is reawakened. Is the volcano gonna explode? Like how
fast do we need to get out before all of
this is activated? Because right now the obsidian is inert.
But this could become real dangerous, real fast. That's what
I was thinking.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you I haven't decided some of these things yet.
A break Bow just went from being a really pristine, docile,
pretty tree city to being a real flash flash point
in the world of like there are very powerful organizations
and faiths and entities and whatever that are very keen
on tipping this balance one way or the other. We'll see.
Speaker 3: We'll see Huens maybe season two, Well this might be
of TTNS. Well we'll take place at break Bow.
Speaker 1: That would be fun, Maddie.
Speaker 5: I was just saying, if break gets destroyed, that's gonna
be a thorn for all of Neck's archives.
Speaker 1: I love that city.
Speaker 5: I have encountered it before playing with the our Nieces,
which I think Crystal, you guys already so I already
liked this city.
Speaker 2: Or I mean like it might still be a city.
It'll just be like a hell city. I don't know,
but I don't want that.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty trees I like. Right, yeah, man, it
seems like.
Speaker 2: Tree city just like crawling with little hell demons.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, it seems like someone could write
a whole adventure about the city. Oh my word. Okay yeah. Also,
uh signs the Dragon. That's fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, now we do, Now we don't.
That was not gonna be a reveal today. That was
not a thing. Sive was not going to appear appear
today until John completely through e wrecked my shit.
Speaker 2: Just I was like, there's not I'll play any game
with you any day. That's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So normally, normally Sive's whole deal is she sits
in command and control and just dispatches people and like
Roland goes out sometimes to like make sure stuff's going right,
like lieutenants and whatever. You woke up a god an accident.
She was like all of her master plans just went folded,
just like a house of cards, Like uh uh uh there, yeah,
there's I was like, there's no way she is not
popping every break glass in case of emergency to come
check this out immediately. Yeah, that's what happens. That's crazy. Uh,
I'm my mind is blown a little bit.
Speaker 2: Oh, I want to get a canonical spelling of Helsey
on I have. I wrote it down two ways on
my piece of paper because I didn't know where to
go it'll be, and then John wrote it a third way.
Speaker 1: I think I wrote it a different way. Yeah, so
here's the deal Helsey. Yeah, okay, so here's the deal.
John gets to decide that, because that's what happens when
you add a god to my pantheon.
Speaker 5: So watching this unfold as Chris's wife, who has like
more exposure via living with the game designer and writer,
it was very very fun for me. A major rose
to no like wait on baited breath when John said
I'm willing to learn and knowing like having read Tattered
Ponds because the novel that Chris wrote goes into the
theology that the game has.
Speaker 1: I like, I didn't know.
Speaker 5: Exactly where Chris was gonna go with it, but I
was like, oh, oh no, oh.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah. Because in the the Nie game, the kids, uh,
you guys got the very like tourist friendly version of
the Trees legends and I wasn't sure if we were
gonna go there or not, but yep.
Speaker 5: And tatter Fonds goes into the like gods only survive
if they have followers. So like I was like, I
feel like I know where this is going. This is gonnah,
it's gonna hit the fan, and it was just really
fun for me.
Speaker 1: You probably also saw when my whole mental train just derailed,
like oh ohunning a.
Speaker 5: Little bit of the backstory, I'm like, oh, here here goes.
Speaker 1: Not how I thought that one was gonna end. Fun.
Speaker 2: Oh do you think that your character is up to this?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah? I mean I literally like I was sitting there,
I was looking when I was because I've been doing
research for real, because I was like, I can either
make adventures for it, or I can do other stuff
as a writer that can help, like kind of increase
my brand awareness and doing stuff like that, which is awesome.
But then I was looking through and I was like,
what in the hell, why is there no cobalt cobalds
are public domain in Dame? So I am going to
make one. So I did, and I sent it to
Chris and I was like, here, you go have fun.
With it, and then I was talking to him, I
was like, hey, can I build a cobalt ye, And
it's so funny, so funny because their little like tagline
is their lizard people with something to prove.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So whenever this episode, possibly two episodes, because we
did go along today, I appreciate everyone's patience with me here.
When this episode releases, I think we're gonna time that, John,
if it's good with you, We're going to time that
for the release of the bolt on the site. It'll
be like it'll come out in conjunction with the side quest,
because I think that'll be a lot of fun, beautiful.
All Right, guys, it is getting late. Anyone want to
touch on any last points, things, things are stuck out,
things you next time, whatever. I don't know, I can't
words anymore.
Speaker 2: I also just I just want to have a moment
of appreciation for Lemon Whiskers, like need for everything to
be so above board and buy the books. Really really
loved that.
Speaker 3: He's just you know, he's middle age. He's seen enough
things to know like is this.
Speaker 1: Like, I just I.
Speaker 3: Just want security. So once he gets to biscuits age,
then he'll be cooky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to say I really appreciated everyone's like
character and voice work this one. I think all of
you were just like you came to fucking party. Pardon
my French, but yeah, you like just Victoria was the delightful,
naive Victoria that I love love.
Speaker 2: A skittish horse, you know, not not a like big just.
Speaker 5: Like I was trying to play a different kind of
centaur than what you love it.
Speaker 1: Next, Yeah, yeah, the LORELEI delightful, the terrifying Southern bell
what the fuck? And I'm sorry, I loved it. Yeah,
And Biscuit and Lemon whisk are just absolutely snaps bravo
like fan. As soon as Mika you opened your mouth,
just like wow, I was like, oh, I love him.
And then of course Biscuit, Oh my god, Biscuit. Biscuit
has radically altered the course of the world. I just
it's now there are there are four fire apostles loose
in the world, and whether you guys split off or
stick together.
Speaker 5: I would like to point out that I Victoria is
a paladin. I played a paladin and is now an
acolyte of a fire god. I do like have this
like I don't know if it's gonna happen, but we'll
find out potentially if she like that becomes her patron.
Speaker 1: So here's the really interesting thing to me, and I'll
plant the seed just for the next time we get
these characters together or they appear somewhere in the future.
One of the things that Tater Ponds gets into and
that is baked into the cosmology cosmology of like the
relict and Rubica Relic system Rubica world. You know, you
could do something else if you wanted to, but here's
how it works. In my worlds. God's kind of shape
and are of their domain, but are also shaped by them.
So if there's a joke in Tattered Pawns where like
a god was campaigning for all of their followers to
see them as like really ripped and jacked because he
was very vain. So if he can convince everyone like
this is the image that you should have of me,
then he actually becomes like more of a thing. With
only four followers or potentially adversaries, but four people who
are aware of and perceive and can have an impression
of a new God. Helcion is going to basically in
like a larval state at this stage will be heavily
influenced by the decisions, actions, and perceptions, both conscious and
unconscious of these characters. I love this, So a god
somewhere between let's be clear here, a senile Cobalt, a young,
starry eyed idealist paladinin.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I follow the creedive balance.
Speaker 1: The assassin who eats all of their romantic parts partners,
and the Osha inspector.
Speaker 4: Ye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a fire god coming out of that. And
I don't know what that means yet.
Speaker 5: I envision this like entity that is like almost glitching,
like a computer program that has a virus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like between different Yeah. Like it's so it can
either be very volatile. It can be some like comfortable
middle ground. It can be a matter of like if
y'all characters split up and started like preaching different sects
of this who wins, like who gets more like that's
a thing. Or you can like come together and like
come together like to an agreement through discussion and philosophy
on like what it actually is, and that was solidified.
Like there's a lot of ways that could go. But
right now it's very chaotic and fluid and it's like
oh oh no, oh no, and it runs a volcano.
Speaker 2: I also just have to make two literary points about
John's character, because there's this poem by Ursula kay Le
Gwynn from one of her last books of poetry, called Ancestry,
that really reminded me. It's a feminine version of what
I feel like your character is doing. I'm just gonna
read it to you. It's real short. It's called Ancestry,
says I am such a long way from my ancestors now,
in my extreme old age, that I feel more one
of them than their descendant. Time comes around in a
bodily way. I do not understand. Age undoes itself and
plays the oraboris. I am the only daughter, and I
have always been one of the tiny grandmothers, laughing at
everything uncomprehending incomprehensible. And that last set laughing at everything
comprehending incomprehensible. It was like what I was feeling from
you the whole time.
Speaker 1: I did not know. Or Slakeila Gwynn wrote about Copoldsau specifically.
Speaker 3: So one of my things that pops up sometimes, erotic
nome poetry popped up until Chris's Stride campaign. There are
seven volumes, and I've brought it up a few different places.
Speaker 1: Go on poms.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's great fun. Yeah, what's what's surprisingly tame?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's really fun about that is that in Rubica,
gnomes are metallic, So that'll put a little twist on
that lovely. Well, unless someone has something else to add,
I can't think of a better note to go out
on than erotic nome poetry. Guys, thank you so much
for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1: Good lord. I'm not in control of this show. It's
just it's got a life of its own and I
just try and keep it. I don't know what I
do here. I'm helping.
Speaker 2: This always happens when you play with us.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know, and I keep inviting
more people than it just it it gets.
Speaker 2: Better, Yeah, better every time.
Speaker 1: Which, speaking of thank you guys so much for coming
and joining us for the show here. I hope we
can have both of you back on as Biscuit and
Lemon Whisker or whatever other chaos you can bring to
the table. It is always welcome anytime. We would love
to have you back. Final thoughts from anybody, or should
we call it? We can call.
Speaker 4: It New Cannon for biscuit.
Speaker 1: I am the avatarre fire, Sarah, is that you made
your swarm? Yes, okay, well that's that wherever you are.
Speaker 2: Yeah. On that note, Long live healthy.
Speaker 3: On, long live oh night.
Speaker 1: Now help me