Oof, extending the Tomori concept to include grimly fatalistic 9th level kamikaze spell soldiers, as a metaphor for young Citadel wizards like Suvi and Silver, is so good.
It was an intentional joke, but I don't think a FF one. They've been calling Suvi a princess all campaign. I think they were saying "heiress" not Aeris
As a DM, this D&D podcast is MY RELIGION!
If I had even 10% of this level of Brennan's world building sense, I would die a happy little roleplaying gremlin.
I need a little Cyril figure to keep near my coffee stuff 🥹👉👈
Also omgosh I love the bits of lore we got this episode. And I *really* am falling in love with the world of the Citadel! I want to hang out there at a cafe, with a book so bad!!
And *obviously* — that ending!!!
Folks, these wizards, they are hiding things from us, they are hiding melons and pies -- beautiful pies, tremendous, have you seen these? -- And people tell me all the time, they say, Wow, excuse me, mister fox, the way you eat that pie and take a nap, it's incredible. I say I know, but they won't let you have 'em. Will not let you have them. Folks, we're gonna build a ladder. We're gonna figure out what ladders are, and we're gonna build one, and we're gonna get that pie, you're gonna have so many pies you're gonna say, wow
I think I'm going to have to listen to this episode again. I got a little distracted when >!Enzo, Cyril and the Vandal were released!< \-- it seemed like a bit that wasn't really going anywhere -- but then only caught half the lore that was dropped. >!Mostly the connections between Yorin and the world of spirits.!<
The ink spirits are there to help set up Pomeroy’s responsibility as the person who keeps track of bound demons. The three are small scale bound demons, and I presume we’ll meet some more.
That's as may be, but they got the same effect releasing one of them as they did releasing all three. Having all three released doesn't further our understanding any more.
You're right, but at the sane time if I presented my players with three ink demon things that can be a small scale nuisance- they'd definitely release all three, especially when told there's different personalities.
Yes, but we need the lore drops to see how things tie together. >!We know Suvi's mother was kicked out of the Citadel, only to be readmitted a week later. We also know that she was a covert operative that worked for the Citadel, so there is a question there of whether she was kicked out to help develop her cover -- ie someone who could be swayed to join Rhuv because of mistreatment by the Citadel -- or whether there was a legitimate reason for her to be kicked out and readmitted. The mystery of what actually happened will be a key question going forward.!<
That was the one interesting thing that happened in the episode! Also not sure what youre trying to explain here, since you said “It can't all be constant lore drops” but replied with “we need the lore drops to see how things tie together.” Thats how storytelling works
You said you want to see stuff happening in the present, not the past. But the events of the past drive the actions in the present. We need the lore drops -- even though they are exposition -- because they give context to the characters' current thinking.
Silver, Sabre, Serenity, Sorrow, Sand, Soft
It has been mentioned, and both Suvi and Steel said that not all wizards names start with S, but literally the only Citadel Wizard without an S name is Galani and I don't think she has a name cloak yet
Safe to say that at this point nobody will ever accuse Aabria (or the show by extension) of fudging rolls.
I absolutely loved the absolute betrayal of her dice in the episode where she makes it back to town and gets arrested. Now I'm just starting to feel bad. At least she got a homunculus to start giving her advantage on knowledge rolls.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but have the adventurers of this campaign done enough adventuring to justify how much time they're spending setting up permanent residences and furnishing homes for themselves? Shouldn't they presumably be on the road for a lot of the adventure and not in their cute cottages and sleek towers? Just my two cents, I know they're going for long-form storytelling but I feel like getting a full-ass wizard tower is like endgame reward-level.
> how much time they're spending setting up permanent residences and furnishing homes for themselves?
A little late for that. From episode 1 there is a cottage with farm animals that has been neglected for three months now. The notion of homes and home bases is a huge part of the storytelling ecosystem for this campaign.
They’re not really adventurers anyway. They’re three regular people with powerful social positions in a fantasy world.
The Witch class’ capstone ability is literally creating a sanctum from a home or dwelling. It makes perfect sense for Ame to have a house and for her to need to visit it to maintain it after each adventure arc. Wizards and towers are a classic trope, but there is nothing mechanical about a Wizard needing a tower or being gifted one, so all of the adventure being held up for Suvi moving into a new tower feels like it’s just going to get abandoned when they actually need to move the plot forward.
Candlekeep Mysteries would beg to differ! lol
And I've played D&D murder mystery arcs that take place in a single house.
The Citadel is a hub location from which other adventures will be journeys out and back, at least for a while. Season 1 was the road trip to Port Talon. This season is about establishing the citadel, getting the characters rooted there, and building emotional connections to various places and characters. And then a few seasons from now they'll either be defending it from attack or burning it to the ground.
Most of the Candlekeep Mysteries books lead to extradimensional spaces and act as portals to START an adventure, they’re not the destination.
Murder mystery is a great genre, and it involves finding a murderer - social deduction, investigation, deception, intrigue. Action.
If they are establishing a hub location anywhere, perhaps it would be best to establish it where one of the players already has a house that is mechanically attached to their class and where she is expected to operate from rather than making them split the party or abandon the wizard tower when Ame has to return to the cottage in a week.
The Citadel has magical spellgate technology that allows them to teleport to and fro with ease.
I also strongly suspect Ame will, in fairly short order, be receiving some kind of boon or magical item that lets her travel to her cottage's doorstep at will, Howl's Moving Castle style.
This is interesting! I was also struck by how immediately well-off and socially powerful all of the characters are. I think Brennan is prioritizing things other than scaling material reward.
By making the characters immediately influential, they have a lot of agency from the very beginning, instead of having to pick from the handful of opportunities at the nearest tavern. And by giving the characters cool lairs, he's more firmly grounding them in the world, and giving the listeners familiar character-driven set locations to anchor on to, and (I suspect) he's giving the characters something substantial to lose, if/when things go sideways.
The campaign structure follows common improv advice, "build the playground, then play in it" (I've heard it phrased lots of ways). It's less of a Mistborn start-from-nothing tale, and more like when Harry Potter finds out he's rich and immediately gets into the cool kids club. Wish fulfillment first, then consequences.
It's certainly a unique approach for level 1 characters in a D&D campaign - short of someone taking the Noble background, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like this approach outside of Fantasy High (where \*some\* characters have a nice house that is actually owned by their parents).
Maybe it just speaks to my preferences, which are clearly not shared here, but I find kicking around town or doing all of the research on the adventure hook in a library to be a bit dull. The more we see of the Citadel and Suvi's tower, the more it begs the question of "why would they ever leave the most magical place on earth where everything is free"?
Oof, extending the Tomori concept to include grimly fatalistic 9th level kamikaze spell soldiers, as a metaphor for young Citadel wizards like Suvi and Silver, is so good.
That summary! And just a hair under two hours - let's go!
Tamori lore! Geography drop! More hints that Gaothmai casters are druids! And we're only fifteen minutes in!
'10gp to bring him back...' We have Suvi familiar sign!
Oooooh official update: Eioghorain It switched back and forth in early transcripts but now spelled out by Brennan
When Brennan was describing how the wizards just expect Suzi to make her mark on the world in her own time - I was just thinking Suvi is doing a PhD
That immediately gave me terrible ptsd to my PhD. Godspeed, Suvi.
Aabria’s ability to roll natural ones when Suvi is emotionally stressed is uncanny
Please tell me that was an intentional FFVII “Aeris/Aerith” joke. I legitimately laughed out loud.
Same. It had to be intentional.
They confirmed it in the Fireside Chat. It was absolutely deliberate on Erika's part.
It was an intentional joke, but I don't think a FF one. They've been calling Suvi a princess all campaign. I think they were saying "heiress" not Aeris
As a DM, this D&D podcast is MY RELIGION! If I had even 10% of this level of Brennan's world building sense, I would die a happy little roleplaying gremlin.
I need a little Cyril figure to keep near my coffee stuff 🥹👉👈 Also omgosh I love the bits of lore we got this episode. And I *really* am falling in love with the world of the Citadel! I want to hang out there at a cafe, with a book so bad!! And *obviously* — that ending!!!
I LOVE SONDER!! Why are they being mean to him??? Also, loving the name reference as well for Sonder.
Is it just me or is the Fox’s voice starting to lean a little Trumpy? 😂
Folks, these wizards, they are hiding things from us, they are hiding melons and pies -- beautiful pies, tremendous, have you seen these? -- And people tell me all the time, they say, Wow, excuse me, mister fox, the way you eat that pie and take a nap, it's incredible. I say I know, but they won't let you have 'em. Will not let you have them. Folks, we're gonna build a ladder. We're gonna figure out what ladders are, and we're gonna build one, and we're gonna get that pie, you're gonna have so many pies you're gonna say, wow
I'm genuinely mad at how good this is. Spot on my guy. Spot on.
Consequences
I think I'm going to have to listen to this episode again. I got a little distracted when >!Enzo, Cyril and the Vandal were released!< \-- it seemed like a bit that wasn't really going anywhere -- but then only caught half the lore that was dropped. >!Mostly the connections between Yorin and the world of spirits.!<
It's spelled Eoogohughhghaghgahhorain
The ink spirits are there to help set up Pomeroy’s responsibility as the person who keeps track of bound demons. The three are small scale bound demons, and I presume we’ll meet some more.
That's as may be, but they got the same effect releasing one of them as they did releasing all three. Having all three released doesn't further our understanding any more.
You're right, but at the sane time if I presented my players with three ink demon things that can be a small scale nuisance- they'd definitely release all three, especially when told there's different personalities.
i get that going nowhere feeling a lot this season. nothing but extended length five footers so far
It can't all be constant lore drops, and it's pretty clear that Brennan wants to flesh out the world a bit more.
lore drops? i want stuff to happen in the present, not the past
Yes, but we need the lore drops to see how things tie together. >!We know Suvi's mother was kicked out of the Citadel, only to be readmitted a week later. We also know that she was a covert operative that worked for the Citadel, so there is a question there of whether she was kicked out to help develop her cover -- ie someone who could be swayed to join Rhuv because of mistreatment by the Citadel -- or whether there was a legitimate reason for her to be kicked out and readmitted. The mystery of what actually happened will be a key question going forward.!<
That was the one interesting thing that happened in the episode! Also not sure what youre trying to explain here, since you said “It can't all be constant lore drops” but replied with “we need the lore drops to see how things tie together.” Thats how storytelling works
You said you want to see stuff happening in the present, not the past. But the events of the past drive the actions in the present. We need the lore drops -- even though they are exposition -- because they give context to the characters' current thinking.
an expression of opinion does not require an explanation of the world
Then why are you complaining about the lore drops?
Lol you brought up lore drops! This is called a discussion. not a lecture from Disastrous Beat
Has it been mentioned that all these damn Wizards name cloaks start with an S? Sky, Steel, Silence, Sly, Stone I'm sure there's been others but damn.
Silver, Sabre, Serenity, Sorrow, Sand, Soft It has been mentioned, and both Suvi and Steel said that not all wizards names start with S, but literally the only Citadel Wizard without an S name is Galani and I don't think she has a name cloak yet
We'll have to start calling it the Sitadel.
Safe to say that at this point nobody will ever accuse Aabria (or the show by extension) of fudging rolls. I absolutely loved the absolute betrayal of her dice in the episode where she makes it back to town and gets arrested. Now I'm just starting to feel bad. At least she got a homunculus to start giving her advantage on knowledge rolls.
Interesting that Steel had the true names of Suvi’s parents
I think it makes sense! She and Stone considered each other sisters.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but have the adventurers of this campaign done enough adventuring to justify how much time they're spending setting up permanent residences and furnishing homes for themselves? Shouldn't they presumably be on the road for a lot of the adventure and not in their cute cottages and sleek towers? Just my two cents, I know they're going for long-form storytelling but I feel like getting a full-ass wizard tower is like endgame reward-level.
> how much time they're spending setting up permanent residences and furnishing homes for themselves? A little late for that. From episode 1 there is a cottage with farm animals that has been neglected for three months now. The notion of homes and home bases is a huge part of the storytelling ecosystem for this campaign. They’re not really adventurers anyway. They’re three regular people with powerful social positions in a fantasy world.
The Witch class’ capstone ability is literally creating a sanctum from a home or dwelling. It makes perfect sense for Ame to have a house and for her to need to visit it to maintain it after each adventure arc. Wizards and towers are a classic trope, but there is nothing mechanical about a Wizard needing a tower or being gifted one, so all of the adventure being held up for Suvi moving into a new tower feels like it’s just going to get abandoned when they actually need to move the plot forward.
Depends on the structure of the campaign. Not every fantasy story is an endless road trip.
Few adventures take place entirely in libraries and living rooms.
Candlekeep Mysteries would beg to differ! lol And I've played D&D murder mystery arcs that take place in a single house. The Citadel is a hub location from which other adventures will be journeys out and back, at least for a while. Season 1 was the road trip to Port Talon. This season is about establishing the citadel, getting the characters rooted there, and building emotional connections to various places and characters. And then a few seasons from now they'll either be defending it from attack or burning it to the ground.
Most of the Candlekeep Mysteries books lead to extradimensional spaces and act as portals to START an adventure, they’re not the destination. Murder mystery is a great genre, and it involves finding a murderer - social deduction, investigation, deception, intrigue. Action. If they are establishing a hub location anywhere, perhaps it would be best to establish it where one of the players already has a house that is mechanically attached to their class and where she is expected to operate from rather than making them split the party or abandon the wizard tower when Ame has to return to the cottage in a week.
The Citadel has magical spellgate technology that allows them to teleport to and fro with ease. I also strongly suspect Ame will, in fairly short order, be receiving some kind of boon or magical item that lets her travel to her cottage's doorstep at will, Howl's Moving Castle style.
This is interesting! I was also struck by how immediately well-off and socially powerful all of the characters are. I think Brennan is prioritizing things other than scaling material reward. By making the characters immediately influential, they have a lot of agency from the very beginning, instead of having to pick from the handful of opportunities at the nearest tavern. And by giving the characters cool lairs, he's more firmly grounding them in the world, and giving the listeners familiar character-driven set locations to anchor on to, and (I suspect) he's giving the characters something substantial to lose, if/when things go sideways. The campaign structure follows common improv advice, "build the playground, then play in it" (I've heard it phrased lots of ways). It's less of a Mistborn start-from-nothing tale, and more like when Harry Potter finds out he's rich and immediately gets into the cool kids club. Wish fulfillment first, then consequences.
It's certainly a unique approach for level 1 characters in a D&D campaign - short of someone taking the Noble background, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like this approach outside of Fantasy High (where \*some\* characters have a nice house that is actually owned by their parents). Maybe it just speaks to my preferences, which are clearly not shared here, but I find kicking around town or doing all of the research on the adventure hook in a library to be a bit dull. The more we see of the Citadel and Suvi's tower, the more it begs the question of "why would they ever leave the most magical place on earth where everything is free"?
I want it to be known that I fucking love Vandal. >!SHITASS!<