It’s the four…. Doors?

(Forgive me, I can’t remember what group is shouted out when someone rolls a four. First to let me know in the comments gets a big ol thumbs up).

Well actually, it’s our recap and commentary of NADDPOD’s episode 4, Ghosts of Thornkirk, which features, what do ya know, a buncha ghosts!

See also: 

• NADDPOD Listen Along: Introduction
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 1, The Reaping Season
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 2, Jabs and Hooks
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 3, Broken Heart Banshee
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 4, Ghosts of Thornkirk
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 5, The Baroness
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 6, The Rook’s Gambit
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 7, Trial By Scale
• NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 8, Until We Meet Again

This article also marks the halfway point in me catching up to real time episodes, so we’re just going to keep on trucking until we get there.

Given that, we’ll do away with all of the ados (adoes?) and get right into it!

Recap

The start of the episode finds our heroes on the other side of an iron gate, having trapped the horde of skeletons behind them and themselves deep within the crypt. They head further in so as to avoid the skeletons’ arrows, and find a diverging path in the catacombs.

Murph makes it pretty obvious that Swastian had told them that his family’s resting place is to the right, though Fia does take a moment to read a few of the names to the left.

the New Crew continues along and eventually spots some tunnels labelled “Fenrose”, finding that the family name had been “Sebastian” for six generations before becoming “Swastian” with the most recent baron.

The group detects some strong magic on the other side of the crypt’s door, and in preparation Henry drinks one of Zirk’s elixirs that gives him Wolverine-like bone claws.

(It is also revealed that the New Crew has now become Level 3.)

A voice from the other side of the door asks their business in a very ghoulish voice, and after making fun of him for sounding like he’s on the toilet, he opens the door after the party implies that they’ll get rid of Sadie’s bones and return his own to the crypt.

Once inside, the party sees three smaller crypts, belonging to Swastian and Sadie, Sebastian the sixth and his wife, and the house honor guard, the Rose’s Thorn. At this point Sebastian tries, and fails, to possess Zirk, thinking that the three are actually grave robbers.

The team enters Sadie and Swastian’s crypts only to find that the ghost of Sebastian had actually switched the placards, and that they’ve entered the now locked Rose’s Thorn crypt.

Four statues come to life and attack, though Fia manages to stab at Sebastian’s ghost through the gate and convince him to let them out. “I’m going to find your bones and I’m going to flush them down the toilet that you clogged.” How’s that for intimidation, hey.

They then enter Sadie and Swastian’s actual crypt, finding a treasure trove of rocks enchanted to light up in what Murph describes as kind of a lame lover’s gift; “the whole situation stinks of young love.” But like, in a bad way.

The bones of Sadie have the ruby necklace in her hands, and as Henry goes to gently knock on the skeleton to summon the Broken Heart Banshee, Sebastian successfully possesses him, forcing Henry to punch through the casket and break up the bones.

The banshee, Sadie, appears in her full form (the gang having not yet performed the rosewater and lover’s kiss ritual), believing that the New Crew has conspired with her killers.

She attacks by tethering herself to each of their hearts, though unlike the Rooks who Murph states are her favored enemies, “You’re not just going to get your hearts yeeted out of your body.”

While tethered, the Banshee does damage that reduces each characters Constitution score, and if it brings them all the way down to zero, they die outright.

All three characters experience flashbacks while having their hearts attacked by the Banshee.

Zirk relives a moment when he and his snake-oil saleswoman of a mother had to a flee a town after a pitchfork wielding mob got wise to her lies. One girl yelled at Zirk that the cure-all elixir that his mother sold them was killing her father.

Henry relives the moment that he said goodbye to his son outside of his ex-wife’s house. The boy, who now goes by Edgar but whose first name is Henry, begins to call Henry Dad before remembering to switch to “Uncle Henry,” noting that he likes that they have the same name.

“Edgar’s a strong name,” Henry Sr. said, “but you’ll always be my Henry.”

Fia flashes back to the moment that her best friend, Irena, is being taken away in a carriage. Fia had evidently switched places with Irena to take the blame for something, and a man dressed all in black, her father, says that she will be judged by the Reaper in Irena’s place.

Back in present day, the crew manage to perform the ritual and weaken the Banshee enough to either banish or free her. Fia elects to free her, conjuring an image of Swastian to help. Sadie tells them that she had been waiting for Swastian at the crossroads, but was instead approached by two Rooks (who we know to be Syb and Fergus).

Sebastian Sr.’s plan had been to send Sadie off with some gold so that she would never come back, but Fergus decided to kill her and keep the gold for himself.

Fia promises Sadie that they will kill Fergus to avenge her, and Spritle lights up to make it an official pact.

Sadie also asks that they bury her in a regular graveyard, somewhere in view of the sunset. When asked about the ruby necklace, she says that it was returned to her by the smaller of the two Rooks, which was done “maybe more for them than it was for me.”

With Sadie finally at rest, Sebastian’s ghost speaks up: “We did it everyone, she wants her bones gooooone!”

After a brief scuffle, the crew banishes Sebastian, with shadow Hank getting the final hit.

Now the New Crew is left to both try to get the info out of Madame Whitlocke as well as plot to murder her brother.

Commentary

Hey, remember last article when I said I’d need to keep an eye ear out for any more interesting family dynamics?

Well would you look at that.

But before we get into that, I must also note that I think this is actually the most dungeony dungeon that the NADDPOD team has ever delved. I know that the tunnels of old Cragwater felt dungeony, but as far as traps, triggers, and dangers goes, I think this was the closest Murph has come to what amounts to a classic D&D dungeon.

Not badly done, especially given that NADDPOD operates through Theatre of the Mind ergo cannot rely on a dungeon map for visuals.

Not too much in-world time passed this episode, as I expect will be the case with future recaps for other combat-heavy episodes, but a lot happened. I think it goes to show how well NADDPOD has dialed in keeping combat entertaining, and for Murph to know when to end things or introduce new dynamics lest things get boring.

I think we all know the pains of hours-long combat encounters that are simply a slog-fest of the same optimized attacks over and over and over again, and NADDPOD really manages to avoid that.

One of the ways they did so in this ep was through the use of flashbacks, and holy hell did those ever give us some character-building info to work with.

All three featured distraught familial relationships in their own ways, be it a conniving mother, an estranged son, or a overtly religious father.

I think what’s most interesting this campaign is that, instead of the usual child-parents relationships we’ve seen explored in the past Bahumia campaign, Jake gets to flip the script by playing the forgotten father.

I’m excited to see how lil Henry Edgar influences Hank Sr.’s decisions and goals throughout the coming campaign, as well as how Fia and Zirk come to terms with their less-than-loving parents.

I can’t imagine that Murph won’t use these flashbacks as jumping off points for future settings/plot hooks, be it returning to Fia’s backwater hometown or Zirk being accosted by someone that Mama Vervain had wronged in the past.

Zirk’s final flashback words were telling, as he yelled at the girl: “I’m sorry! I’ll come back!”

The ruby necklace being returned by Syb gives us a bit more of a look into their character, as well as the incredibly evil choice of Fergus Whitlocke.

I love that Spritle is around to bind the crew to their word whenever they make promises. It’s a neat DM trick I may just have to steal for some campaign down the line.

Poor Sadie. I’m glad that she said she’d been reconsidering her choice of running away with Swastian in her final moments:

“I was thinking as I was waiting out there that perhaps someone who couldn’t get out from under their parent’s thumb might not be worth waiting for.”

Still, it’s always sad to see an innocent woman killed in fiction (especially if it’s to enable to a man’s character development), though I think Fia being the one to spearhead the interactions with her — and determining what actions to take to avenge her — does at least something to dispel the cliché.

It’s not as though Swastian is the main character here, anyway.

Now, to deal with those pesky Whitlockes!

(Witlocks? WitLockes? It’s hard to know the proper spelling in an audio-based medium, okay!)

Roses: 

• Sebastian’s voice kills me
• Flashbacks during combat were oh so good
• Zirk’s flavoring during combat, ie. pulling out a flask of bile as Ray of Sickness
• Sebastian yielding more than once “Three strike rule!”
• The choice to either banish or free the banshee (just like Pokemon)

Thorns:

• It makes sense narratively for the crew to have to take on Fergus, but it was never explained why the Banshee didn’t just kill him (and Syb) in the first place. Like, they were both in Blackthorn Hall while the Banshee was there killing Rooks.
• What happened to Sebastian’s bones?
• Visualizing all the traps and different crypts was a little hard to keep track of

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

Episode 3: Broken Heart Banshee | Episode 5: The Baroness