That’s the thing about dungeon delving — life still goes on while you’re underground.

This week we take a look at the fifth episode of NADDPOD’s Eldermourne campaign titled The Baroness (wonder who that could be?), wrap things up in the crypts, and rediscover one dearly beloved blade.

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

There’s a lot to unpack here, so I say we follow Fia’s lead and dive right in!

Recap

Having freed Sadie’s spirit and banished Sebastian’s, the New Crew loads up her bones on a Fia-conjured Tenser’s floating Disk (AKA the Bone Barge) and head up to the surface, stopping for just a few hours to put all the deaminated skeletons back into their proper burial places.

Murph also explains what happens if the crew fails to hold up their sprite-bonded promise, stating that a larger fairy would come and mess with them, or as Zirk put it: “Okay so if we fuck this up Spritle is going to call his big brother to beat us up with a hammer.”

Once out of the crypts they see that night has fallen, so they take Sadie’s bones to a nearby graveyard and bury her atop a hill where she can see the sunset. Fia digs a hole in no time (“This is how we play, we dig holes” – Bukvar) and when the gang heads into the town centre they see that there are a bunch of knights wearing the Jackalope sigil of the petty king Thirston Birghtleap, who lords over Outerburrow and answers to the High Queen in the Capitol.

Inside the Copper Dagger, they learn from now-ex-Inspector Marcy that she lost her job to Fergus Whitlocke after Madame Whitlocke was crowned Baroness by royal decree. She says that this must be the result of the Petty King owing the Rooks a favor.

She also gives them some info about the jailhouse, revealing a hidden entrance through an unused jail cell, giving the gang the key.

Fia escorts Marcy home, and Murph explains that it’s pretty clear that foul play is at work, as the reason for removing Swastian’s title — that his father denounced him on his death bed — would have been brought up years ago if it were true.

Henry is the only one of the three with any link to the Capitol, through his ex-wife’s new husband, but he firmly refuses to write to her. They decided to instead write her as if the letter is coming from Swastian himself, though will need a stamp with his official seal, which is back at the Baron’s old keep.

They head there,with the guards stopping them given that Madame Whitlocke is now the Baroness of the keep. Henry states that they have business with her and are expected, and that he is hoping to pick up some possessions from his pool house, namely his “bindle” and a few hotplates.

Unfortunately, only one hotplate appears to have survived the transfer of power.

Fia sends an unseen servant to go fetch the seal while the party meets with Madame Whitlocke. Before they enter the room, however, Henry’s high perception roll allows him to hear her talking with a man named Jack. She asks what “they” could have wanted with a man named Penly, who was apparently a Blade. Jack says that the king’s new advisor is a sorceress, and a scale-tipper at that, and that the king has become religious in his old age, with “no love for blades, at least not the ones who haven’t turned already.”

As Jack leaves the room, Fia notices that he is wearing none other than Batilda’s blade at his side. She manages to contain herself, instead sending Bukvar to follow him as he leaves.

Madame Whitlocke has Zirk drink truth serum to confirm that they managed to get rid of the banshee, though he states out loud that Fergus had killed Sadie (something that Madame Whitlocke had clearly covered up all those years ago).

She gives the party a map of the Queen’s River, with an X marked where it flows south into the Scaletip Valley before reaching the towns of Innerborough. She says that this is where Dr. Nebil had been heading.

They begin to leave the keep, Fia anxious to retrieve the Blade and telling herself that it must have been stolen from Batilda, who she’s sure is very much alive still.

She asks the party for help, leading to a revelation from Henry: “You guys helped me retrieve the one thing in the world that I wanted to hold onto, this here hotplate. I lost my son, this is all I have left.”

The rest of the party, up to that point, had no idea that Henry has a son.

They then enlist shadow Hank (Shank) to help with stealing back the sword. After some seriously fortunate rolls and some disturbed bowels, Shank manages to switch it out while Petty Jack is squatting in the woods.

Sword secured, the gang heads back to Fia’s traincar to eat some potato skins and to sleep for the night, but not before writing a letter to Henry’s ex from Swastian’s pen asking for help.

They decide to speak to Syb (figuring they’re a decent person given that they’ returned the ruby necklace to Sadie’s grave) the following morning, and find them at Blackthorn Hall.

Fia shows Syb the necklace and tells them that she knows what happened that night, and that the party means to take on Fergus to avenge her.

Syb says that the Rooks didn’t always use to be this way, killing innocents and playing as nobles, and that “if you’ve got a problem with Fergus, it might so happen that our interests align. What do you say we get this fucker.”

Commentary

It is honestly amazing how much managed to happen in under two hours of in-game time. I know that Murph edits the episodes to cut out bathroom breaks, and math, and rule lookups and all that, but still — to have managed that many RP interactions in one session is no small feat.

I suppose it helps that all participants are aware that this is, in fact, a podcasted campaign, so they can’t very well take an hour to decide on a single course of action (like my own party probably would).

Murph does a great job of moving things along, though. When the party figured that they’d want to speak to Syb, he simply whisked them from the train car directly to Blackthorn Hall. I know that most DMs would frown on taking such liberties by moving the party from place to place without much discussion on the matter, but, really, those strolls through town are (in my opinion) usually unnecessary fluff.

It may rob the Bard from a chance to make some coppers in the town square, or the Ranger from stopping at the shop to fill up on arrows, but when you’ve got a big party that’s anxious to get the story moving forward (or thousands of listeners), it kind of makes sense to simply speed things along.

I also enjoy the fact that things actually happened in the rest of the world while the party was in a dungeon. I find too often that D&D parties return to a town or outpost or what have you that has essentially frozen in time while the party was away, which is a little too video-gamey for my liking.

Events occurring in the party’s absence is what makes a D&D world feel real, as well as puts some serious pressure on players to make quicker decisions and not take that extra long rest just to get a few spell slots back.

We also got our first glimpse into the goings on in the wider world this episode, with some info about the High Queen in the Capital, the Petty King potentially being manipulated by religious advisors, and Henry’s ex wife’s new husband having some royal connections.

I expect that these people and places will play larger roles later on in the campaign, and I very much look forward to it.

I don’t have much else to say other than that I’m glad that Syb is slowly but surely transitioning from one of the baddies to a full fledged friend of the party, though more on that specific dynamic is coming up in episode 6, if I remember correctly, so we’ll just have to leave it at that!

Roses: 

• Henry’s (and Shank’s) constant lower back problems
• Fia being jealous of how good of a grave she dug for Sadie’s bones “This is a grave that anyone would envy.”
• How Fia’s tears and sweat come out of Bukvar instead of herself as an emotional support familiar
• Zirk being far too truthful while under Zone of Truth
• Marcy being so drunk that having a few beers will help “sober her up” (been there).
• Henry and his sole surviving hotplate
• The fact that Fia gets -1 to deception checks
• Fia’s penny farthing

Thorns:

• It always feels a little strange to have D&D sessions with zero combat, I know it shouldn’t but it does.

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 4: Ghosts of Thornkirk | Episode 6, The Rook’s Gambit