0:00

This week on the zone of truth griffin and

0:02

I discuss curse of the crimson thrones blood pig

0:04

minigame Revisit popular segment banger battle with paizo's monster

0:07

core and of course answer some listener questions I'm

0:09

your host Steve in the studio with your GM

0:11

and my co-host Griffin Rolla will save you're in

0:13

the zone of truth And

0:36

we're back back, baby late night sesh.

0:38

Yep listeners Gonna

0:41

be a brief one today. Just getting that out of the

0:43

way You probably saw that when you downloaded this thing. We're

0:45

gonna keep it tight 11 52 p.m. Right now start time

0:49

I started to load 52 p.m.

0:51

Woke up this morning worked a full day of work

0:54

Jove to Griff's place hopped in the

0:56

car and we had a full evening. Oh,

0:59

yeah, we get into we went

1:01

to jungle gyms Yes, and

1:04

that's a grocery store destination

1:08

in Cincinnati Mm-hmm,

1:10

only took us about two hours to drive

1:12

to after work And

1:16

then you know an hour and a half

1:18

back cuz less traffic. Yeah while

1:20

we were down there We went down with

1:22

Chris and Haley Chris is kind of from

1:24

the area. So we had to of course

1:26

get some skyline chili How's your skyline chili

1:28

experience Griff? Oh It

1:31

was dogshit like

1:34

oh, I gotta say one of the

1:36

worst Fast-food experiences

1:38

potentially of my entire life. I like

1:41

the setup. We got like real plates

1:43

and yeah metal silverware so

1:46

Like that isn't horrible like the sit-down

1:48

experience isn't like a robot delivered our

1:50

food shocking Cuz they're the help of

1:53

people working with the help of waitress,

1:55

which you don't usually get it fast-food

1:57

restaurants But god that was So

2:00

I got the Coney Bowl,

2:04

and it just, I

2:07

mean, it was like a pool of

2:09

the most liquidy chili with one

2:12

fucking hot dog in it, covered

2:14

in a pile of cheese the size of my

2:16

fest. Yeah, I don't know

2:18

how you did that. That was the

2:20

poorest looking fast food entree I maybe

2:22

have ever seen. I finished it in

2:24

like a minute and a half flat. And

2:28

then Chris and I, we both got

2:30

three cheese conies, which, calling

2:32

them Coney Dogs is a stretch because

2:35

they were almost more liquid form. Boy,

2:37

that was just a really, really unpleasant

2:39

meal, and I think we all immediately

2:42

regretted it. Yeah, I

2:44

still have yet to feel the repercussions of

2:47

it, but I know they're coming. Yeah, another

2:49

reason why this is going to be a

2:51

short episode, guys. Yeah. Yeah,

2:53

so why were we doing that? Well, we

2:55

went to Jungle Gems because we were trying

2:58

to lock down some provisions for the upcoming

3:00

Poseidon's Bounty. I'll mention at the

3:02

end of the episode exactly when that's going

3:04

to be, but we have what we need

3:06

to make it happen. Yeah, I actually got

3:08

eight tins of fish. I probably

3:10

won't bring them all to the thing, but I have

3:13

some variety to pick from. There was Jungle

3:15

Gems pivoting from that horrible

3:18

skyline experience. That was

3:20

cool as hell. Had you ever been there before? I've

3:22

never been there. Me neither. It was

3:25

amazing. It was so cool. It

3:27

was the coolest grocery shopping experience

3:29

ever. They have these lame, tacky

3:31

animatronics all over the place, but

3:34

the building itself is 50%

3:37

bigger than a Costco or

3:40

something? Yeah, and divide it

3:42

up generally into regional sections.

3:44

So I don't

3:46

know, here's three aisles that's all Japanese

3:48

food, three aisles that's all Vietnamese food,

3:50

three aisles that are all Greek food,

3:52

just like most of the

3:55

major types of food out there. Yeah,

3:57

I mean, they had every country. or

4:00

at least like a region dedicated

4:03

to it. And like they had

4:05

a whole hot sauce section. They

4:07

had a whole cheese section, which

4:09

was also labeled by country, which

4:11

is really cool. They had

4:13

like a whole jerky section. They

4:15

had a whole soda section and

4:18

we all got wack sodas. Yes.

4:20

Let's not go through everything that you got,

4:23

but like what's one crazy thing that you

4:25

picked up today? Cause I got alligator

4:27

and Dewey sausage. Oh yeah. I got

4:30

alligator jerky. And I actually had one

4:32

on the trip home because one hot

4:34

dog and a quarter inch deep bowl

4:36

of chili did not fill me up

4:39

surprisingly. So I had

4:41

a Cajun style gator jerky.

4:43

That was fantastic. I'm actually most hyped

4:46

for the tin fish. The stuff I

4:48

got is stuff that is like highly

4:51

reviewed and recommended that

4:53

I was able to find there and is

4:55

not in any other grocery store. Hell yeah.

4:58

Well, in a couple of weeks, we're going

5:00

to be trying that all out. I didn't

5:02

get any fish from jungle gyms. I had

5:04

already gotten my stuff at a Polish deli

5:06

back in Chicago, but we're

5:08

going to be trying a bunch of really cool

5:10

stuff. And I'm actually looking forward to it. I

5:12

don't think it's going to be the intense pressure

5:14

challenge that Poseidon's bounty three shrimp Ahoy was. Yeah.

5:17

I mean, it is going to be a ton of tin

5:19

fish, but it's going to be good stuff. So

5:23

is there anything else that you really wanted

5:25

to catch a listeners up on that you've

5:27

been up to lately before we get moving?

5:29

There is one game that I've been playing.

5:31

It's called Anode Heart. And it's a

5:34

it's another creature catching game, believe it

5:36

or not. But it's really cool. It's

5:38

very similar in story and kind of

5:40

set up to Digimon. And I think

5:42

it takes a lot of notes from

5:44

like the Digimon world games, but not

5:46

the ones where it's like a Tamagotchi

5:48

following you around, the ones where it's

5:50

like turn based combat. And

5:53

it's been really fun. There's one

5:56

thing that's unique about it where

5:58

the leveling is capped. So,

6:01

like, you level up to a certain point

6:03

and you can't level any further and you

6:05

have to reset your creature

6:08

and by resetting it, it gains, like,

6:10

the stats that it gained up to

6:12

that level back as what's called, like,

6:14

potential, which you can allocate to any

6:16

of its stats. So it gets stronger

6:19

every time you, like, reset it and

6:21

that's a pretty damn cool mechanic. It's pretty unique.

6:24

I mean, like, the Digimon games do it too,

6:26

but I think those are the only two

6:28

that do it, so I've been having a lot

6:30

of fun with that. Heck yeah,

6:32

man. Well, on my end, I've been

6:34

watching Solo Leveling, which is an awesome

6:37

anime that it seems like everybody's talking about

6:39

these days, but I'm just gonna

6:41

give you all the briefest hook because show

6:43

takes some twists and turns. It

6:46

feels a lot like Sword Art Online

6:48

if there was heavy gore and really

6:50

high stakes. It's awesome. It's really, really

6:53

fucking good. So check that out.

6:55

That's a big thing that's happened in my life. Also

6:57

I'm dating someone. What? Yeah, it's

6:59

true. I have a girlfriend now. Let's talk

7:01

about Blood Pig from Curse of the Crimson

7:04

Throne. Moving on. Um, blood

7:06

people mull over that. So

7:09

Blood Pig, we're gonna talk about

7:11

it for listeners who may not

7:13

be caught up on all of our shows. This

7:16

is an event that takes place in book

7:18

three of Curse of the Crimson Throne. So

7:21

if you are not caught up with Bestow

7:23

Curse, episodes 75 and 76, those

7:25

are gonna get spoiled. Just letting

7:27

you know. If you're not caught up, you maybe wanna

7:30

skip ahead or just be aware that

7:33

you might hear some stuff that

7:35

may spoil how the game's going. So

7:37

let's run through the setup of

7:40

getting to Blood Pig. This

7:43

is a game that the players

7:45

are supposed to engage

7:47

with to, I guess,

7:49

meet the Emperor of Old Corvosa.

7:52

Get an audience with him. You have

7:54

to build an eight person

7:56

roster, but most of the people

7:58

coming into this are... rockin' a traditional

8:01

four-person party. How do you do that?

8:04

We have to get creative with it. Yeah,

8:06

the adventure assumes you don't. The

8:08

adventure assumes it's four versus eight.

8:11

Really? Yeah. How

8:13

does that fare? So... Do the

8:15

turn base. They get like way more turns. They do. They

8:18

get way more turns. But you'll

8:20

notice like you listeners that have

8:22

listened to these episodes probably heard

8:24

some pretty cool abilities from the

8:26

other side that they were

8:28

using to like try and positioning

8:30

things that those characters had that

8:33

if you were playing an eight-person

8:35

group, it's like the generic Emperor's

8:38

thug. And so they don't

8:40

have any of that cool stuff and they're

8:43

a lot weaker than you. Sure. So

8:45

it evens out that way. Although the game

8:47

does assume you maybe like reach out to

8:50

somebody that you know. I think Aemon is

8:52

like an option thrown out there. So

8:55

there's a potential that you bring more

8:57

to the table than four people and

8:59

Leori is supposed to help you if

9:02

you've like accepted her help. So most

9:04

parties are bringing five. Some

9:06

will think of like Aemon or someone

9:08

and bring six. But since you guys

9:10

gathered a group of eight because you

9:12

knew about Bloodpig before you went, I

9:14

kind of tried to even the odds

9:17

a little bit better on the other

9:19

side to still make it fun. By

9:21

giving some of the opponents

9:23

like some cool abilities and stuff. Yeah,

9:25

yeah, exactly. Sure. So our

9:28

intro to this comes through NPC

9:31

Devargo. Now, a traditional

9:34

game of Curse of

9:36

Crimson Throne has him dying in book

9:38

one, right? Like he's told to be

9:40

like an antagonist to the party. You

9:43

either kill him in book one or

9:45

he dies in book two through other

9:47

circumstances. Gotcha. He's alive

9:49

in our Corvosa. So him

9:51

being the intro for our party

9:54

to this game and vicariously the

9:56

Emperor, how is this supposed to

9:58

play in the written material? then if you

10:01

don't have this in. The

10:03

written material basically assumes that

10:05

you approach the Emperor

10:07

somehow, either through his

10:10

thugs and you fight

10:12

his thugs in the streets and

10:14

maybe agree to letting them

10:17

take you back to the Emperor. There's

10:20

a mechanic where if you successfully

10:22

beat three waves of thugs, they

10:26

offer to take you back

10:28

and talk to the Emperor, and then the

10:30

Emperor won't really talk to you unless you

10:32

entertain him, and that's where Blood Pig

10:35

comes in. Most

10:37

parties end up playing Blood Pig unless

10:39

they go guns blazing into the place,

10:41

and it's just a

10:43

fight the entire time. The

10:46

first time you meet the Emperor, he

10:48

refuses to let you talk

10:50

to Scream unless you play

10:52

this game. Sure. Sure.

10:55

I think that's why you use D'Vargo because

10:58

he's there, and there's all these

11:00

hooks with D'Vargo now. I think people

11:02

that are thinking about running curse,

11:05

it might be a good idea to let

11:07

D'Vargo live and play it kind

11:10

of the way I did because I think this was

11:12

a really smooth way to get you guys there. Yeah,

11:15

it definitely is smoother than fighting three waves

11:17

of foes and they're like, hey, why don't

11:19

you come back and play a sports game

11:21

with us? Yeah, I think at some point

11:23

you're supposed to realize that like, hey, we're

11:26

going to have to fight through like a

11:28

hundred of these guys, so we

11:30

better like listen to them when they say like, we're

11:32

going to bring you back to the Emperor. Makes

11:36

sense to me. Let's change

11:38

perspectives here from a more narrative

11:40

one to a more mechanical

11:42

one. So like

11:44

everything else in Curse of the Crimson

11:46

Throne, this was written, I guess originally

11:50

for 3.5 and then eventually 1e. We're

11:53

converting this all to 2e And

11:55

we're using some game rules that were

11:57

created by somebody in the community. I

12:01

know he has their name as crowded

12:03

I'm Holly Bird, Ali Bird. All right.

12:05

So let's talk about the one he

12:07

mechanics or city we won, the two

12:10

we ones. I was transparently worried that

12:12

this was just going said bogged down

12:14

in to be just like I saw

12:16

rolling skill checks and. That

12:18

really being it, I thought the.

12:21

Gameplay. Was generally pretty smooth. We had

12:23

a couple of tweaks that maybe we

12:26

would like to see after playing a

12:28

little bit to make a go little

12:30

smoother. I really enjoyed how this game

12:32

turned. Now. You just took

12:34

it straight off of the version correct

12:36

he I want the rules are Pathfinder

12:38

and Senate and the guy that if

12:40

we did a pretty good job explaining

12:42

the rules in the episode before we

12:44

played for the to he peace and

12:46

is actually really interesting. It's it's a

12:48

very different game and Ui because as

12:50

a free action a county in as

12:53

a one game for instance like picking

12:55

up a pig is a standard action

12:57

that provokes everyone has attacks of opportunity

12:59

so oh Sarah is all harder to

13:01

like. Grabbed the pig in as a

13:03

squirming pig. Pretty much the

13:05

same, although checks are different.

13:08

Fire, they're still the like. If you

13:11

take damage, you may drop the pig.

13:13

Passing a page is a standard action

13:15

in one ear, which makes it kind

13:17

of tough now throwing a pig same

13:20

saying treats a pig as I can

13:22

improvise thrown weapons see a minus four

13:24

on your role and as it's arranging

13:27

permitted ten feet so it does it

13:29

that way. Instead of using

13:31

an athletics check. Which.

13:33

At the the the athletic check

13:36

was in worked a little better.

13:38

Intercepting a big is a combat

13:40

maneuvers instead as is stealing a

13:42

pig and that becomes difficult because

13:44

it's like is a disarm combat

13:46

maneuver which isn't compressed and morning

13:48

and like need to have like

13:51

a lot of Fisa were in,

13:53

a lot of people are prioritizing

13:55

a good rapport trip build over

13:57

the saw Her yeah like obscure

13:59

disarm. Bill than this team worse.

14:01

but that's like half a percent of

14:04

people playing one Israel so it's unlikely

14:06

the you're going to have somebody. it's

14:08

tough. a lot of things are standard

14:10

actions and or a single action in

14:13

the to he version and I think

14:15

they kind of mitigated by having like

14:17

they basically have to restrain a paid

14:19

to do a lot of the throws

14:22

daughter and I think the game was

14:24

a lot more mobile. Because. We

14:26

played it into a i think this sort of

14:28

bogged down in one he to a lot of

14:30

like I take the pig I see. You

14:33

drop it that kind of thing. I

14:35

are you trying to star me dinner

14:37

that of opportunities yeah he success disarm

14:40

but then you take damage and then

14:42

you. Drop the big

14:44

gotcha and that all tracks

14:46

considering the mechanics conversation. There

14:48

are specific ways that the

14:50

Emperor changes the games. last

14:52

the rules through the game.

14:54

Does the book offer any

14:56

suggestions to what he might

14:58

change Or is that stuff

15:00

that you did on the

15:03

fly? So the way the

15:05

book presents Blood Dig is

15:07

that it's a game that

15:09

the Emperor's like. Constantly evolving,

15:11

so even the single. Snipes

15:13

don't know the rules the

15:15

frankly because the upper keeps

15:17

changing stuff up when they

15:19

recommend that which I didn't

15:22

do because I had beefed

15:24

up their opponents with they

15:26

recommend like one somebody starts

15:28

using like natural attacks in

15:30

around. See bands that silly

15:32

He bands Clause and bite Them As

15:34

and the thing and only lets you

15:37

ponce. Also in the book is if

15:39

you remember him being like oh, this

15:41

two outta three best three out of

15:43

five one ah, if you really want

15:45

to see playing Bloods A for that

15:47

long, you can allow that. But the

15:50

book basically says if he goes to

15:52

three out of five than they say

15:54

okay, we don't have any more pics

15:56

Yeah, and that's also a nice lover

15:58

to sue either. Expand the game

16:01

if your characters blow through it really

16:03

fast or cut it off of it's

16:05

gone way too slow. Death: A We

16:07

ran out of eggs are we just

16:09

got cheapest thing Ellen I feel like

16:11

we saw a good amount of blood

16:13

tag. Six points scored across the seal

16:15

he stays and the single snipes. Did.

16:18

We miss anything. Are there any

16:20

like procedural events that happen if

16:22

the game extends for a long

16:24

period of time or things that

16:26

says foot might suggest might happen

16:28

in a given time ago. The

16:30

x amount of rounds or whatever

16:32

that we just didn't get to

16:34

know you got to and all.

16:36

they do recommend you like start

16:39

changing rules and I can. he

16:41

did when you guys figured out

16:43

a winning strategy up by it.

16:45

Beyond that he leads up to

16:47

you to choose. Rule salary was

16:49

no whatever the emperor's things would

16:51

be advantageous to. The single snipes

16:53

is like a rule you can

16:56

put an by the didn't seem

16:58

to have like a strategy that

17:00

would sas you in a certain

17:02

way. so. I didn't. Really

17:05

feel the need to throw bunch of extra

17:07

rules in there, sir? Absolutely. And all thing

17:09

said and done, It was a little bit

17:11

of a blowout. Yeah, he

17:13

single site scored a point way late

17:16

in the game and it was kind

17:18

of difficult for them to pull that

17:20

off. The final score That use that

17:22

as I expected. You guys the wind.

17:25

Definitely, they're not on par with your

17:27

level and I think part of the

17:29

balancing act is I wanted to give

17:31

them cool abilities and stuff and make

17:34

them stronger than the regular. Emperor's

17:36

guards but by doing that I really

17:38

had to kept them as a certain

17:41

point because I knew this would likely

17:43

devolved into a combat yes and so

17:45

I couldn't make them like on par

17:48

with you guys because that be a

17:50

slaughter fast in like a combat if

17:52

you have a bunch of people that

17:54

are your level and then the Emperor

17:57

and everyone else joining in on a

17:59

site. Yeah, so and that's

18:01

kind of my final question on

18:03

Blood Pigs. We. Want game?

18:06

We're supposed to get an audience

18:08

and it seems like that triggers

18:10

a slice. Now there's narrative implications

18:12

here, because vex grandfather's about to

18:15

get executed. The wouldn't

18:17

be fine. But is that

18:19

always kind of the outcome?

18:21

Whether you win or lose,

18:24

there's a way you get

18:26

a ten minute audience with

18:28

Scream Fires. Way through

18:31

in the bushes basically have to

18:33

go to s two or three

18:35

sir and then they run out

18:38

of pigs and then the emperor

18:40

for grudgingly allows you that audience

18:43

was scream by that's not really

18:45

enough or conway as you find

18:47

you probably don't want him like

18:50

still owned by the emperor. You

18:52

guys don't want the emperor like

18:54

existing disease a menace and this

18:57

is your home and so for

18:59

your party. I kind of thought

19:01

like thirty. Get him out. Either way,

19:04

yeah, so there's no reason for me

19:06

give them the audience Now, just to

19:08

belabor the point. you're dead at once.

19:11

You. Finish this fight.

19:13

The or anything said totally tracks

19:15

especially for the narrative that we're

19:17

We've been together for guy's going

19:19

down he's done some bad stuff

19:21

he notices victim years home turf

19:23

not happen in this guy's not

19:25

getting allowed to roam about right

19:27

And I said i thought like

19:29

is there were some things about

19:31

this set up such as like

19:33

you guys all have your weapons

19:36

taken away and that's and the

19:38

same led me to want to

19:40

do the Full moon. At

19:43

this point I had that in my

19:45

back pocket since book to and was

19:47

trying to think of when to do

19:49

it Initially I was gonna like while

19:51

it might have and like right when

19:53

he gets old for Vosa man it's

19:55

like they go rampaging and old are

19:57

versa. And then I was like. This

20:00

would be a pretty baller time to do

20:02

that. Yeah, you know how would you suggest

20:04

the up to my kids are heads? You

20:07

swollen up with that ego. but. Man.

20:09

Was this is what a perfect time

20:11

to drop that. I think everyone is

20:13

hyped to see what happens next because

20:15

we got a big fight with a

20:17

lot of stuff on the line and

20:20

right away. Sylvie. As

20:22

mere turn into whereas things are

20:24

getting don't know? I can't wait.

20:26

Yeah, I'm really excited by this

20:28

is gonna be a big one.

20:31

And single some put food on. We

20:33

had a record and what happened? yeah we

20:36

haven't so I don't know what happens and

20:38

seventy seven we have a got there. I

20:40

think if I were to go back to

20:42

the rules and kind of change a couple

20:44

things I think I might any family here.

20:46

This in the second episode me relaxing on

20:48

the roof like dropping a pig in the

20:51

pit. The Mechanics

20:53

of. To eat kind of

20:55

when the party to want to do

20:57

certain things like Chris mention sizes, drop

20:59

it and shove the begun to get

21:01

around this like other action have to

21:04

do. I think one thing I would

21:06

change his for the past the pig.

21:08

I would allow it to be in

21:10

action from either the passer where the

21:12

receiver sir and that as long as

21:14

the other person as a reaction exact

21:16

out really cumbersome like when you they

21:19

spent for people turns trying to take

21:21

the pigs and siggy he asked like

21:23

you're on the same teams should be

21:25

able to pass the big as long

21:27

as there's a reaction they're So I

21:29

think that's one thing I would change

21:31

and another thing I would change is

21:34

actually being able to just drop the

21:36

pig in the path. Yeah it seems

21:38

like even the city moments aside one

21:40

of our biggest hurdles was getting the

21:42

pig from our own teammates which was

21:44

proper by the mechanics that who are

21:46

put out there but logically doesn't make

21:49

a lot of sense especially when you

21:51

can drop the weapon or whatever with

21:53

free apps and and. You friend was

21:55

trying to take it from in you know now

21:57

for you to make the argument that he said

21:59

mostly wild animal with a pig in his mouth

22:01

and what want to let it go sure but

22:04

like see I would like to watch it once

22:06

him same and give somebody the fifth it right

22:08

when the terry going to go into like who

22:10

should take this because they have the lowest. We

22:13

are easy. It's like okay this as

22:15

if it's by now are like met

22:17

a gaming and mechanic of blood. Take

22:19

that just as a little cumbersome. One

22:21

thing I did want to talk about

22:23

is that I had three stop loss

22:25

for is a single snipes. The

22:28

strikers because I think we talk

22:30

about their name differently He of

22:33

the strikers add debilitating strike which

22:35

could make you guys lose. Reactions

22:37

are movement, speed, They

22:40

also had a reaction to follow

22:42

you. Like a movement

22:44

reaction than I thought would come in

22:46

handy and it didn't end up really

22:49

telling him that I used it like

22:51

twice for the midfielders were months so

22:53

had a lot a movement speed and

22:56

had that whirling throw so they can

22:58

throw you had the pig or throw

23:00

you away from their allies which I

23:02

thought was really useful in this scenario.

23:05

And then you see the strikers class.

23:07

The strikers were row rogues

23:09

gotcha for and then the

23:12

defenders were barbarians and they

23:14

add that like allies throw

23:16

ability. That was clutch to

23:18

this one. I ended up trying to

23:20

set up with like of month like

23:22

one of the midfielders getting it because

23:25

they're big movement speed and then having

23:27

the defender throw them thirty feet towards

23:29

your goal but he says use mirror

23:32

and fi so well as like a

23:34

wall around them with figures read you're

23:36

giving a reaction they're most of the

23:38

time allows you to take the pig

23:41

away before I could get to that

23:43

goal so I was just good tactics.

23:46

and pay for to have to fight

23:48

on as governor soon with the or

23:50

doesn't seventy seven but in the meantime

23:52

a stupid move in here we're bringing

23:55

back a an annotated version of a

23:57

classic segments people clamoring for it banger

23:59

battle We're doing Monster Core

24:01

today because the Monster Core was just

24:03

released. And let's

24:05

get into it here. The bus

24:07

rides again. In this segment,

24:10

Griff and I will be picking monsters

24:12

randomly from the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Monster

24:14

Core book and engage in a spirited

24:16

discussion about them, ultimately deciding whether to

24:18

bang or battle. Monster Core

24:21

is the third remaster core book packed

24:23

with over 400 individual monster write-ups, including

24:25

everything from common animals like wolves and

24:27

bears to terrifying supernatural foes, such as

24:29

the Rune Giant or the Grim Reaper.

24:32

To pick randomly, we're going to be

24:34

selecting random numbers between 8 and 357,

24:36

corresponding with

24:38

the entries on the pages of

24:40

Monster Core. The monsters are on pages 8

24:43

through 357. This

24:46

is a book that is completely

24:48

in line with all two Iirrata

24:51

so far and the remaster rule

24:53

set, so it is the most

24:55

up-to-date version of the

24:57

monsters out there. If you've got a monster that you're

24:59

playing in a game that you want to be up-to-date,

25:01

pull it from here. We are

25:03

going to hit the random number generator now,

25:06

and that is 212. What

25:09

do we have on page 212? Griff,

25:11

what you got? It's like the

25:13

Kraken. Ooh,

25:15

okay. Initial thoughts. We

25:18

got tentacles. Yeah, we got tentacles. Yeah. That's

25:21

a big plus. That's a huge plus. Huge

25:23

in all caps here because this is

25:25

a gargantuan creature. Creature 18, gargantuan size.

25:29

Yeah. Hmm, let's see what we're dealing with here. Kraken

25:32

is an enormous squid-like leviathan with

25:34

accrual intelligence. It hunts ships, whales,

25:36

and heroes alike. The hatred and

25:38

envy Kraken's hold for all gofus,

25:40

their rivals, has led many krakens

25:43

to make their lairs in sunken

25:45

cities where they can sift through

25:47

ancient lore and uncover long-lost arcane

25:49

secrets. I'll let one sift through

25:52

my sunken city to find

25:54

some arcane secrets. I think I would

25:56

as well. All right, let's

25:58

see what else we got. got here.

26:00

Kraken's have a horde of treasure.

26:02

Seems kind of like a dragon-like

26:04

thing. I think I can strict,

26:06

baby. Yeah, and I hadn't gotten

26:09

to there quite yet, but I think whenever

26:11

you get like a free grab

26:13

and some constrict, I was

26:15

just BDSM coded here. Yeah.

26:18

Oh. Definitely a dom

26:20

though. Immune to controlled and emotion effect.

26:22

Oh, sure. Yeah, absolutely. You are not

26:24

doming this creature. Ink cloud, what are

26:27

we doing with that? We can control

26:29

the weather. Turn up the

26:31

heat a little bit. Yeah, they reshape the weather

26:33

within two miles. Now

26:37

the Kraken ink does carry

26:39

a poison. Poison damage and

26:41

second, that really seems like

26:43

it. So I guess if

26:45

it inks, you might get sick, but that's not going to

26:47

kill you. It doesn't even seem to be that much

26:49

damage at the level that you would be in time. Well,

26:52

like you know, it's a good night when it does ink.

26:56

Christ. Ain't

26:58

got my chest until me that you love

27:01

me. Well,

27:04

um, it

27:06

does have a couple of innate spells. I was just about

27:08

to say. 10th level

27:10

dominate, but on animals only and everyone knows

27:12

we're animals in the sack. That's

27:15

true. So it counts. Punishing

27:17

wins as well. Resist energy.

27:20

You got a fart thing. Oh,

27:22

Kraken's right there. Right there for you. Going

27:27

through this stat block, I

27:30

know which direction I'm leaning here. And

27:32

I think a couple more

27:35

things. Tentacles

27:37

are agile. They

27:39

gotta be. It's worth pointing out here. Um,

27:43

I'm gonna have to go bang. Yeah,

27:46

Kraken's dwell in deep ocean trenches.

27:48

You know, they got a lot of experience in trenches. That's

27:51

right. They

27:54

have a high intimidation score, so. Some

27:57

people like that. Oh yeah, what are those skills

27:59

looking like? We got athletics you're

28:02

gonna want that that's at a plus 38 a plus 32 intimidation That's

28:06

the one that really gets me going plus 35 nature

28:08

plus 33 cells Where's

28:12

your head out on this you banging or

28:14

battling? Oh, I'm banging the cracking. Yeah, I

28:17

Released the cracking. Yeah into my bedroom

28:20

more like Hey,

28:22

I'll get the cracker to release me, baby. I

28:26

Don't think it's happening Well

28:30

That was the cracking it was want to

28:32

do one more of these Sure.

28:35

All right. I'm generating a new number go

28:37

to page 174 looks like

28:40

a goblin. Well, that's

28:42

an easy one Seen so

28:44

many hot goblins on the internet. I

28:46

know like that's really swaying the opinion

28:48

there Looks like there's a couple

28:50

stat blocks on here There's a gov a warrior

28:53

and a goblin commando and I definitely want that

28:55

goblin go and commando Yeah, I mean

28:57

here's the deal check it out if this

28:59

goblins go on commando It's default items

29:01

coming in with a leather armor Already

29:04

in leather nothing under

29:06

there might be some chasing

29:08

going on. That's this guy's problem. I got a

29:10

goblin scuttle That's

29:12

a reaction I'd like to see Most

29:19

shirk their responsibilities in favor of

29:21

waiting into the frame claiming more

29:23

glory from their tribe mates We

29:26

could get like a this is like the leader of

29:28

a polycule sounds like Got

29:31

the goblins saw Mmm. Sure

29:35

classic That is definitely

29:37

a classic here. Not what's

29:39

else on the step block here

29:42

low intelligence. I Mean

29:46

it's just endearing to get called a long shank

29:51

And can we let's talk about this artwork here

29:53

what's going on there's a skull over his

29:55

crotch See that? Yeah,

29:57

yeah, it's like a it's both copies Yeah.

30:00

Huh. Like a deer skull or

30:02

something. It covers the whole thing. Covers the

30:04

whole thing. Well that's the

30:06

Goblin Commando. Where are you going on that one? I

30:09

mean, bang, right? I think that's a bang.

30:11

Yeah. I'm right there with

30:13

you. They say like some goblins are

30:16

upstanding members of humanoid civilizations

30:18

but many are impetuous and

30:20

vicious creatures. The delight

30:22

and wreaking havoc. That's the kind I want.

30:24

Yeah, I like the impetuous. That's kind of

30:26

like a bratty thing. I kind of like

30:28

that. They hate livestock but...

30:31

Well I don't like really livestock either.

30:33

I don't keep livestock. Yeah, not

30:35

a problem for me. Wouldn't be a problem. Mm-hmm. I

30:38

don't have any interest in their fungal

30:40

goblin dogs. So I wouldn't

30:42

like if those were around but... Yeah, I

30:44

guess they don't like dogs but like, let's

30:46

be real. Like, you know, bringing

30:48

the dog in. No. No,

30:51

you don't have to worry about that. Hmm. I

30:53

mean, well they got horse shoppers,

30:56

dog slicers, painted knife play.

30:58

Pfft. You

31:01

can come pre-equipped with a short vote with 20

31:03

arrows. Don't know how you use that. Huh. They

31:06

definitely, I mean, they fight in large groups so... Oh

31:09

no. It's got one polycule going.

31:11

You're right, yeah. Alright, well, that

31:14

was another edition of Bangor Battle. We

31:18

did it. Unfortunately, we didn't have any

31:20

bangs to try or rather we did but they

31:22

were flavors that we've had already and it's also

31:24

now about 1230 in the morning

31:27

and I can't be taking 300

31:29

milligrams of caffeine to the dome at this hour.

31:32

Let's do a question. Sure. Alright.

31:35

Ducktron the Duck Lord asks, thoughts on

31:37

necromancy as a whole, yay or nay?

31:40

I wonder if they're talking about in real

31:42

life or in the game. Unclear.

31:44

Like using necromancy for a whole? Get

31:47

your mind out of the gutter here. Just in Bangor Battle.

31:49

That's true. Alright, let's clear the refractory

31:51

period and get our thoughts out of

31:54

the gutter here. Thoughts on

31:56

necromancy as a whole? I don't

31:58

like living corpses walking around. I'm

32:00

gonna say mostly nay. I

32:02

like it in game. I think it's fun. It was

32:05

a lot more fun and wonny. Now

32:07

aren't there a lot of spells that aren't

32:10

about controlling the dead that have the necromancy

32:12

tag though? Yeah, like a lot of the

32:14

healing spells. Like healing spells. So yeah, I

32:16

think this is a deceptively complex question. I

32:19

mean, you gotta be into the healing spells. Oh,

32:22

a big healing fan. Yeah, that's true. Necromancy

32:25

school is really good for debuffing, even if

32:27

the spells do it are kind of gross

32:29

or evil. Hmm, you got any of

32:31

that come to mind? Why do

32:34

I think like all of the like blindness deafness

32:36

stuff is all necromancy? Oh, is it really? Yeah.

32:39

Huh, I guess that makes sense. So in general,

32:41

like it's a cool school of magic. I

32:44

think it's a cool school of magic with

32:46

generally an unfortunate name because necromancy makes

32:48

you think of raising skeletons from the dead.

32:51

But that's half of what

32:53

necromancy actually covers, right? Yeah. It

32:56

probably needs a better name or a

32:59

more clear name for something. I don't

33:01

know. But yeah, I'm generally

33:03

positive on it. Kind of like the powers

33:05

of life and death. Mm hmm. Yeah. You

33:08

know, now how do you feel about necromancy in the real world?

33:11

Oh, that's something you'd be interested in? That'd

33:13

be terrible. That'd be terrible. Be awful. Yeah.

33:16

Nobody likes that. No. I

33:19

mean, because none of the stuff you

33:21

bring back is the same. Yeah.

33:23

I mean, that's always the lesson of those

33:25

stories, right? Yeah. It's like the pet cemetery

33:27

conundrum. Mm hmm. Sometimes dead

33:29

is better. Yeah.

33:31

Absolutely. So nay

33:33

in the real world. Big nay. Yeah.

33:37

I feel like that would get out of hand in

33:39

the real world too. Like, you know, you get a

33:41

necromancer raising stuff and then like they lose control of

33:43

the stuff and then it's like, okay,

33:45

well, not everybody's screwed. Thanks, dude.

33:48

Yeah. Like, okay, you

33:50

can trust maybe a

33:52

certain person to responsibly

33:54

do necromancy, but then when other people start

33:56

figuring out, you know, you're

33:58

going to get some bad people doing bad things with it.

34:01

Yeah. Oh yeah. You

34:03

know what's spread like wildfire, you know? Like, there's

34:05

gonna be some, like, basement dweller doing this. Mm-hmm.

34:08

And it's gonna be, and horribly. Yeah, it's gonna go bad.

34:10

It's gonna go real bad. Yeah. Alright,

34:13

we're gonna hit one more question before we get

34:15

out of here. This comes from Grace Silverwind. Question

34:17

for the Skull and Shackles crew. Too bad, you

34:19

just have Griffinite tonight. We the audience

34:21

are currently seeing a crew that aligns more on

34:23

the idea of a morally good pirate. What

34:25

characters would you all build, or how would you

34:28

alter your current characters for a more Captain Harrigan-style

34:30

evil pirate? So I

34:32

think, not talking mechanically

34:34

for a second, I think the easiest

34:37

way just to do a bad pirate

34:39

is just think about, there's a concept

34:41

in, like, comedy and stuff about punching

34:44

up versus punching down. It's

34:46

okay to make fun of people that are, like,

34:48

very rich. It is not okay to make fun

34:50

of people that are very poor, right? Like,

34:53

so I think kind of if you're trying to

34:55

do a morally good pirate like

34:57

we are, we can get a little Robin Hoodie

34:59

with it. We can, like, lean a little bit

35:01

more into adventure, but, like, if we wanted to

35:04

go the other way, when we

35:06

took over this Rahadoumi ship recently, we could

35:09

be, like, really shitty to the people that

35:11

we just press-ganged. That's the first thing that

35:13

I think of. Yeah, like, paying it forward

35:16

in a bad way. Yes!

35:19

Like, hey, plug and scourge, whip the shit

35:21

out of us for 10 episodes, and now

35:23

that we have new people, we're gonna take

35:25

all that aggression and shit that we built

35:27

up onto the new guy. That's

35:30

from, like, a theoretical perspective

35:33

how I would think to answer that question first.

35:36

Yeah, I mean, I think you just play

35:38

into the worst parts of

35:41

piracy. Mm-hmm. It's,

35:43

I suppose, not that hard to extrapolate

35:45

to where that leads, but, you

35:48

know, when you guys are answering questions about how

35:50

are you gonna run your ship, like, you're probably

35:52

gonna run your ship the same way this one's

35:54

running. I think

35:56

the kind of characters you can bring to that

35:58

are interesting, like, when we I played Skull

36:00

and Shackles, again this isn't 1e,

36:02

but I had a backup

36:05

character, although my character

36:07

never died, that back to the previous

36:09

question was an necromancer. And

36:12

was like definitely evil, and

36:14

was a, I think it was a juju

36:16

oracle. Ooh. Yeah,

36:18

so I was gonna do the whole juju

36:20

zombie thing, which would have been pretty fun.

36:23

But you know, those evil concepts, like

36:25

Kaya could easily be an anti-paladin. That's

36:27

right. Right, Mara, right? It's a chaotic

36:29

neutral god, so you can go either

36:31

way with it. You

36:34

could definitely have Grady instead of trying

36:36

to help other people that have less

36:38

experience at sea than him, like looking

36:40

down on them and being shitty to

36:42

them. You could have, like, Wit

36:45

has Candy, and like expresses how

36:47

much they love her, and has

36:50

a really good relationship with their

36:52

animal companion, but like, could

36:54

be like mistreating that animal, and

36:56

being like, hey, I'm commanding you in combat,

36:58

like here's like a swift kick to go

37:01

do something. Right. Could be

37:03

shitty. Wit could be poisoning the

37:05

food for everybody just to spite

37:07

a few people. Absolutely. I mean,

37:09

Atlas kind of relishes in the

37:11

pain of others a little bit,

37:13

so is maybe morally gray

37:16

already, and might fit into that

37:19

kind of party. Yeah, Atlas could

37:21

flip on either one of these

37:23

sides of the moral compass here.

37:25

Calypso similarly is like out for

37:27

revenge, so could be manifesting that

37:29

revenge in a more malicious way.

37:32

And I think when we finally

37:35

get our comeuppance on Plug and

37:37

Scourge, it's probably going

37:39

to be a put them

37:41

out of their misery type thing, but

37:44

we could repay the favor to them, right?

37:46

We could keep them alive and like whip

37:48

them and put them in the sweat box

37:50

and stuff. We're not going to do that

37:52

because we're not bad people, but like we

37:54

could do that. That's how you do

37:56

that. Yeah, I think this question is kind of getting at

37:58

like, what? Character class would

38:01

you play for that? I would argue

38:03

that everybody could play their class Yeah

38:05

But there are certainly interesting options like

38:07

somebody could be an evil

38:09

cleric of best mar if they wanted to or

38:12

or Like Calypso could be

38:14

doing dirge of doom instead of inspiring courage,

38:16

right? Well, that's probably gonna happen I mean

38:18

it's probably gonna happen but you could focus

38:20

on that instead of inspiring people at least

38:23

off the rep. Yeah I think it's interesting.

38:25

There's a lot of other Malicious

38:27

see got like you could be

38:30

a cultist of Dagon. That's true There's

38:32

certainly paths you can take to play

38:34

evil in this campaign and it's pretty

38:36

easy to do So I think

38:38

it's actually gonna be a really good

38:41

test of the party's morality

38:43

to your point Like when

38:45

plug-in scourge get there come up

38:47

and what you guys do. Yeah,

38:49

so hey grace over one Stay

38:52

tuned you're about to find out but you

38:54

know I said this was gonna be a short one

38:56

and it is I need to go home It's very

38:58

late so we're gonna do a little bit of wrap-up

39:01

and housekeeping here and the only thing that I really

39:03

have to plug is that we have

39:05

a date for the Next

39:09

installment of the science value that's beside its bounty for

39:11

what we locked in the name of fin 10-10, right?

39:14

Yeah, all right. That is going to be April's

39:17

live zone of truth You can

39:19

attend that on the discord if you

39:22

are a ten dollar enough patron is

39:24

going to be Saturday April 13th and

39:26

we're kicking that off at 4 p.m.

39:28

Eastern that will subsequently release in audio

39:31

form on the maid feed as I

39:34

believe it'll be zone of truth 135 I

39:37

think we have one more to go before that live

39:39

show and that will be on April 22nd So

39:43

that'll release to the public looking forward to this

39:45

one. It's gonna be a blast We

39:48

have all of the fish we need to

39:50

finalize what the rules and this like sub

39:52

mini tournament is gonna look like But it's

39:54

gonna be a blast. I'm looking forward to

39:56

it. I think so too. This was a

39:58

weird idea this one You're gonna

40:00

want to be there live for

40:02

the reactions, I think. This is either gonna be great

40:05

or a huge disaster and either way I think it's

40:07

gonna make great content. So in the

40:09

meantime, let's put a bow on this one. Griff,

40:11

you made it out of the zone of truth. You survived, you

40:13

will save. Anything you want to save the people at home before

40:15

we get out of here. No, just we'll

40:18

see you in two weeks. Later. Thanks

40:30

for watching. Thanks for watching. See

40:32

you next time.