When your religion includes execution by Horror, you may want to reconsider what side you’re really on.

In the penultimate episode of this very first Eldermourne arc, we see a riled up crowd, a terrifying Sarlacc Toadlamax, and a seriously twisted trial.

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

We knew that we’d have to do a deep dive into the religious structure of Eldermourne at some point, and it looks like the day is finally here.

But first, a recap!

Recap

The Choo Choo Crew is in the jailhouse, having bested Petty Jack’s cronies. They let the criminal go free, and though the injured Swastian wants to return to his keep, the gang knows that they need to go save Syb.

They find basically the whole town crowded around a pit beside the chapel. Syb is tied on one side of a set of scales, which is held over the edge of a pit containing a huge Toad/slug Horror called a Toadlamax. The other end of the scale is being supported by weights and a priest of the Reaper.

As Madame Whitlocke explains Syb’s crimes, Fia gets a flashback to when she was just 12 years old. She too was once tied and sitting on the pit side of the scales, a zombie horror clawing desperately at her. On the other side is her father in his own priestly robes.

“When I am gone, who will you have left?” young Fia begs her father to stop, but he persists in the barbaric judgement.

Fia suddenly feels an invisible hand touch her shoulder, and hears the voice of Batilda, the witch. She had met Irena on the road and been told that she could be of help here.

Fia tells her father “Perhaps the Trickster will see that which the Reaper has neglected,” before being saved by Batilda and flying off on her broom.

Back in present day, Fia casts Tenser’s Floating Disk to keep Syb’s side of the scale from dropping once the priest takes his weight off the other side.

Zirk looks around the crowd and gets his own flashback, this one to a time when his mother was teaching him about reading a crowd. “There are no individuals, just one big scared animal,” she tells him. “Are you its mama, or are you its lunch?”

In present day, Zirk reads the crowd, finding people who appear willing to put a stop to the charade if given the chance. Glass Willy, of all people, looks the most eager of all.

Zirk casts Message into three rocks, which, when dispersed throughout the crowd by Bukvar, voice dissent. Willy fully draws his sword, and as he does so Henry realizes that Willy is around the same age that his son would be now.

The crowd erupts, and though Shank notes that this is usually around when Henry would skip town, the shadow changes into the old man version of Henry, saying “I’ll do what I can to help you help us.”

The crowd seems to be split 50/50, allowing the crew to have allied actions on initiative 1. Henry uses his bone claws to slash Syb free, who promptly joins the fray, and most of the Crew try to take on Fergus together.

Henry gets stabbed by Madame Whitlocke’s parasol, which poisons him, and Zirk knocks the priest into the pit by hitting him with the scale: “Trickster for life!”

The priest gets eaten by the Horror. Henry becomes afraid of Fergus, but continues to fight, even though he’d usually turn tail in a situation like this. Fia pushes Madame Whitlocke into the pit using a clutch Chronal Shift. Swastian literally kills a man, and the allies are told to “use discretion” when it comes to deciding who to kill.

Fia gets shoved into the pit by the Rook goon who made fun of her for bringing a book to a bar.

Fergus knocks Swastian out with one hit, and the Toadlamax Horror begins eating Madame Whitlocke, giving Fia the chance to demand her to call off her fighters. Fergus doesn’t comply, but some of the guards and goons do.

Zirk brings Henry back up with a healing potion, and though Hank tries to convince Fergus to stop fighting, he’s too bloodthirsty to do so.

Fia casts guidance to help Madame Whitlocke attempt to escape the Horror’s maw. Zirk casts Spare the Dying to stabilize the death-save-throwing Swastian.

Whitlocke is swallowed by the Toadlamax. Henry gets hit by Fergus, and again enters deaths saves. Failing the first, he begins to see his life flash before his eyes; sailing the seas, marrying his wife, having his son, being a family, but also all the times he ran away from situations when things got tough.

He also sees moments that he doesn’t remember, but realizes that they are from his past lives. Shank’s voice goes “Come on Henry, you can’t die now. We were doing so good this time.”

The older version of Henry is trying to help him up, but a scythe tears the two apart. “You can’t die, this is the closest we’ve come!” “The closest to what?” “Breaking the curse!”

Fia and the book-hating goon work together to pull Madame Whitlocke out of the Horror’s mouth, succeeding with a crit.

With Henry on the ground dying, Fergus attacks Zirk, bashing him in the ribs while Syb attempts to wrestle the mountain of a man.

Zirk, spitting blood out of his mouth, taunts Fergus saying “I’ve been hurt way worse than this.”

And that’s where Murph ends the episode.

Commentary

You’ve probably realized by now that I don’t often recap combat. This usually leads to around 30 -45 minutes of in-episode time being reduced to a single sentence like: “Following a brief skirmish, the crew manages to secure the disguises with the help of Marcy,” or “The Crew and Petty Jack’s gang fight, though a smart combo of Grease and Burning Hands make short work of the goons, leaving just Petty Jack who promptly gives up.”

But this fight… well I figured this fight deserved a little color commentary.

Not just because combat takes up the bulk of the episode, but because — as I’ve mentioned before — NADDPOD does such a good job of making D&D combat so much more than just a slugfest between the party and whatever monster they’re fighting.

And while Murph plays a large role in this, his players are also experts in keeping things cinematic; Zirk using the scales to knock the priest into the pit, Fia pushing Madame Whitlocke in, and then the entire fight shifting with Fia convincing Whitlocke to call off her guards (if she lives, of course) really keeps things from getting boring.

Then there’s the whole Henry-wrestling-with-his-past-lives drama as the cherry on top.

A fundamental issue with combat in D&D is that, when it’s not their turn, a lot of players tune out by going on their phone or browsing their spell cards, and it’s hard not to. When a round lasts for 10 to 20 minutes and your part in it is spent (perhaps with the exception of a Reaction), it’s easy to stop paying attention when you know the fighter is going to swing their hammer and the rogue is going to sneak attack over and over and over again.

The onus mainly falls on the DM to shake things up when the combat gets monotonous, but as seen with this episode, the players have a creative influence over this as well. It may not be the most optimized way of using your turn to attempt to knock someone into a pit, but damn does it ever make things more interesting for the story you’re all collectively trying to tell.

Speaking of the pit… I love that Murph introduced such a barbaric trial setup, and I wonder if he was influenced by something similar in humanity’s cruel past; I wouldn’t put it past us, given how creative humans can get when it comes to causing pain and death.

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that The Reaper = Bad, and The Trickster = Good, though given the Thiala paradox from last campaign, I’m wondering just how cut and dry that theory can really be. Will we meet a lovably Reaper worshiper down the line, or perhaps a cruel follower of the Trickster?

I mentioned before my guess that the Reaper, and potentially his followers as well, may be a necessary evil to balance out the otherwise unchecked chaos of the Trickster.

This being a D&D campaign, I’m sure that the overall story will go far beyond merely dealing with some Petty King, and when it does get to the point where the party is influencing worldly (or godly) structures, I can imagine these issues arising.

But, for now, screw the Scale-Tippers, #Trickster4Life.

Okay, before we end things here, we need to talk about Henry. I find it absolutely heartbreaking that this poor man has not only been an objective failure in this life, but many more before it.

And that’s not just because he’s prone to running when the going gets tough, but because he’s literally cursed? Talk about tragedy. I think that of the three, Henry has shown the most growth over this first arc, which is honestly kind of necessary if we’re going to believe that this down-on-his-luck divorced dad is going to become a true blue adventurer.

Here’s hoping we eventually get some more info on how he was cursed in the first place, and what it’s going to take to break it.

Roses:

• Willy being the first one to draw his sword. He may sound like a Pebblepot, but he sure doesn’t act like one!
• Swastian straight up killing a dude
• The trial set up
• Fia’s relationship with that one Rook goon who made fun of her for bringing a book to the bar
• Zirk’s smart thinking by dispersing Message throughout the crowd
• Murph depicting Henry’s inner struggles during his death saves

Thorns:

• CLIFFHANGER ENDING COME ON
• Give us more Willy!

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 6, The Rook’s Gambit | Episode 8, Until We Meet Again