WE ARE WE ARE

…back with another edition of the NADDPOD Listen Along!

Now that Caldwell is back, so too is the weekly episode schedule we all so dearly missed during that dark, dark two weeks of session-less time at the end of February *shudders*.

Check these out:

• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 15, Portrait of a Blade
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Introduction

This episode wraps things up at the spooky yet somehow still warm and cozy vampiric manor of our good pal Kenley and takes the Third Mates (as they are now officially named) into the cold and hostile landscape of the Scaletip Mountains.

The environment may be frigid, but this episode sure isn’t.

Recap

Following up on the cliffhanger revelation at the end of last session, Kenley goes into some more detail about Henry’s curse and how he and his friends can potentially fix it.

He says that Henry will need to speak with the fairy whose promise he broke, and pulls out a compendium from the bookshelf titled Greater Fairies of the Grove.

“Okay, so it’s like a fairy phonebook, huh,” asks Henry.

Kenley explains that there are different ways to summon different fairies — which are kind of like the minor deities of Eldermourne’s pantheon — there are over 100 kinds of greater fairies, separated into the four seasons.

He gives Zirk a vial of purple liquid and says that it can be combined with Henry’s shadow-essence and activated to determine if a potential greater fairy is the one that Henry had pissed off in a past life.

Fia gives Shank a sniff and tried to get a read on what kind of season he smells like, prompting this hilarious response from Murph: “That is interesting Fia… You fuck me with the weird way you think, my wife.”

Murph says that Henry’s shadow smells like a cool cellar. Fia researches Autumn fairies in the book, and discovers that Autumnal fairies bring boons of wisdom and peace, and bring banes of conflict and shadow. Autumn fairies are also linked to elders, and the strategies of war.

Spring’s boons are birth and art, its banes mischief and chaos, and is related to fertility, harvest, and drama.

Summer’s boons are passion and justice, its banes anger and wrath, and is related to love, war, justice, and revenge.

Winter’s boons are beauty and perseverance, its banes are sorrow and death.

Zirk determines through his first use of the potion that the fairy that cursed Henry was not a winter sprite.

Kenley plays the Mates a melody to help them go to sleep, and Zirk says that he could get used to the set up.

“If you ever want to come back,” says Kenley, “I’m honestly kind of bored as hell down here so if you want to be roommates that’s cool with me.”

The vampire also explains that there are predators in the mountains between the manor and the temple of the guardians (which is about 50 miles away). These predators include abominable yetis, which will generally track travellers down within three days.

He gives them a warhorn that will allow them to call on the Deepfolk of the mountains to come to their aid in a time of great need. This horn can only be honked once.

Murph gives a few more details about what’s at stake, here.

“This is about the fate of the world, the fate of magic. If the Reaper can turn a regular person into a horror, think about what he could do to the demigod, and think of what he might be able to get from the Trickster if he were to hold her daughter hostage. It could mean the end of joy itself.”

The Third Mates leave the manor and head into the mountains, with Murph explaining his mechanics for traversing the frigid terrain.

They have 50 miles to go, so every five miles Murph will call for a luck roll to see if they come up against an environmental hazard. an 8 through 20 and they’re fine, but a 1 to 7 presents some difficulties.

Exhaustion will begin to set in after 25 miles, though likely sooner if they encounter difficult terrain.

The party makes it through the first few miles alright, but then come up against a steep cliff. Zirk creates three potions of flying and they just fly right over the difficult area.

The next cliff they come to is even larger (Jake rolled a nat 1). The party breaks out the climbing gear that Kenley gave them and start working their way up the mountain. Zirk falls twice, but is saved by a rope tied to his friends. Fia casts Spider Climb on him to make sure he can make it to the top.

Once up there Zirk rests in a sleeping trench dug by Fia and Bukvar (“We’re the dead ones! We’re the dead one! Yes we are!”) to regain some HP. The party eventually continues on.

Outside a large cave, the Third Mates see a streak of blood in the snow and hear the sounds of a monster grumbling from within. They try to sneak past but fail, alerting a blood-covered — and slightly wounded — yeti of their presence, who attacks.

After a brief skirmish, the yeti is scared off by Bukvar’s dragon breath and Zirk’s magical imitation of an abominable yeti (Caldwell has come a long way since the Bullywug mating call, hey?).

Inside the cave they find a half eaten bounty hunter who has a broken pistol with the “V” of Zirk’s mother engraved into it.

“Chances are good that whatever my mom has been up to since I left, it’s not good… It’s not savory work,” Zirk says to the party. Then, as if to himself, “I just hope you’re keeping yourself safe, ma.”

The party continues along but now has to roll for exhaustion at the end of each mile. Fia struggles around mile 23, taking one level, and then Henry rolls a nat 1 at mile 24, taking an automatic two levels of exhaustion.

The party still makes it to the halfway mark (mile 25) before hunkering down for a rest with Henry keeping watch.

Zirk tries to do some more research into Henry’s curse, but fails, and Fia tries to learn a new spell (Identify) but also fails. Everyone’s pretty tired out from the day’s travels.

As the other two sleep, Henry spots some falling rocks in the distance. He wakes Fia and Zirk up, and Fia sends Bukvar to go investigate the area, the witch looking through his eyes.

“As he gets close, the moonlight hits a strand of silk in the air here, and Bukvar turns and looks into the mountain,” Murph says. “Returning his gaze are the lit up, mirror eyes of a giant spider that was preparing to attack you guys. You see the spider launch at Bukvar…. And that’s where we’ll end our session.”

Commentary

Oh, travel. You poor middle child of D&D, you.

While most D&D sessions revolve around either combat or role playing (or have a healthy dose of both, as is the case with many of not most NADDPOD episodes) the travel side of D&D isn’t one that Murph and the gang have explored all that much — pun intended.

And it makes sense. I know in my own home games I generally just tend to turn days-long travel segments into montages, allowing the players to describe what interesting things they may have done along the journey, but not really asking for any survival, nature, or perception checks along the way.

In my eyes, at least, that kind of D&D can drag on and get a little boring — but I guess so can travelling for days on end, so maybe that’s the whole point.

It’s another matter entirely when there are interesting things along the way, however, or if the party is being pursued by vengeful enemies, or, as is the case with this episode, if there are some significant obstacles standing in the way of forward progress.

I love how Murph put together the mechanics here. Laying it all out for the players like that allows them to take stock of resources, determine risk/reward, and forge ahead with an idea of how far they’d be aiming to travel on any given day.

Throw in a few obstacles and maybe a quick combat, and a full day’s hike feels more like D&D than it does Oregon Trail.

(… did…did no one else ever play Oregon Trail?)

Anyway, let’s rewind a bit and talk about the paragraph or so I made sure to transcribe about what’s at stake here. 

I remember seeing a few comments on reddit about how it doesn’t make all that much sense that this entire organization has been creating to protect one soul, and I don’t know if Murph may have seen those comments but he definitely addressed them in this episode, whether it was intentional or not.

And it makes sense, too, that this is so much more than just protecting some girl. Irena acts as a way for the Reaper to gain the upper hand over the Trickster, and I have a suspicion that Irena being free to roam Eldermourne plays a significant part in the Trickster’s ability to bring chaos and magic into the world.

Otherwise wouldn’t she just keep her daughter safe and sound in the Great Grove? Though I guess that doesn’t really seem like something the Trickster would do.

Is this NADDPOD campaign centered around contrasting parenting styles? Is the Reaper an allegory to the strict, religious, conservative father trope? Am I looking far too deeply into the storyline of an improvisational role playing game?

I’d say probably maybe to all of the above.

I also like the fact that Fia and Zirk can work together to help their friend determine what fairy cursed him. I feel like we’ve explored a lot of Fia’s backstory so far (with the Reaper’s scales, trying to find Batilda, and more information about Irena) so these hints at Henry’s past, and most recently some breadcrumbs about Zirk’s mom, make me excited for what’s in store with those two characters.

Well, I guess I know what my buds are for this episode!

Roses:

• Vampire humor canonically being “hilarious observational comedy”
• Murph constantly hyping up how good Kenley’s piano playing is (because Emily does the score for the show)
• The new information we got regarding Eldermourne’s pantheon
• Kenley explaining that they can only have fun spelunking or sounding the horn if it is also necessary
• Fia’s weird kid energy re. digging trenches for fun

Thorns:

• I wish the Third Mates would run into just one of these bounty hunters alive so that they could ask some questions about Zirk’s mom

Buds:

• Finding out what the hell Zirk’s mom is up to
• Finding out what kind of deal Henry messed up on
• You just know the description of the Guardian’s temple is going to be doooooope

That’s it for this episode! Find other NADDPOD Listen Alongs here and share your takes, predictions, roses, and thorns in the comments below.

Eldermourne Episode 15, Portrait of a Blade