Andrew: 1:14

Welcome back to now, season two of Legends, loot and Lore for 2024. We are back and we are ready to talk all things Dungeons, dragons. We are going to start off every month now with an episode of actual play. We are going to be playing Fan Delver and below, the Shattered Obelisk, exactly. Very exciting With me today are two of the players. We're kind of doing a session, zero sort of, in preparation for this we will. Next episode will be the actual play with our third person, james. You'll be joining us, yes, and so today I want to talk about kind of the setup for Fan Delver and below. I'll give a little bit of the backstory. We are using the official. This is my first time DMing a full campaign. This is also my first time doing like a full in person campaign. So this is very exciting for me as a D&D player. We I kind of Christmas myself the legendary addition from Beetle and Grimm's. I am so excited.

Andrew: 2:45

This is the most incredible box set ever of items for Fan Delver and below. So it's a little pricey. It's like 350 bucks, but I got to tell you a little pricey, just a little, just a little, just a tad bit pricey. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the goodies that they give you. They give you all of the encounter cards. So for all of the, all the different monsters that you encounter throughout the campaign, they give you the cards. So you have all the stat blocks and all of those readily available. They give some great maps. They give some handouts. So the players are going to be getting a bunch of different handouts throughout the game to kind of add some flavor to that. So I'm looking forward to that.

Andrew: 3:28

There's some, there's some other items, some other not magical items, but there are some other physical items in the box that can be handed out. So there's, there's all sorts of cool things. I am, I am super psyched. I've got my, my DM screen up here. I've got a laptop. I've got so much equipment around me, but anyway, very excited. So today we've got Catherine and Fable here with us.

Catherine: 3:56

Dynamic duo.

Andrew: 3:58

Are you the dynamic?

Catherine: 3:59

You're, we are a dynamic duo. A dynamic duo? Absolutely Not the dynamic duo, but a dynamic duo.

Andrew: 4:06

Excellent. I am very excited.

Catherine: 4:08

So probably a little bit of trouble, definitely trouble.

Andrew: 4:12

The two of you are definitely troubled together. So we are going to talk about each of your characters and we'll dive into your, your back stories, a little bit. We'll talk about the characters themselves. Here we. These are the character that Catherine is playing. You're playing Zan Rose Bumblebumble, which was, if you recall, which is one of the characters we created, which is a monk.

Catherine: 4:38

Yes, correct, yes.

Andrew: 4:40

And what A rock gnome. A rock gnome, a rock gnome monk. Yes, so this was one of the. This is one of the. This is the melee character that we built in an earlier episode of last season, so so Catherine will be playing that fable. What's the name of your character fable?

Fable: 4:57

Dahl.

Andrew: 4:58

Dahl Dahl. Yes, so Dahl is a tiefling surprise, surprise, so shocking, right, a tiefling cleric. So we'll talk about your character as well. I'm going to give some background into Van Delver and below to to give everybody a little bit of history as to what the story is If you're not familiar. Really, the first half of Van Delver and below is the starting pack of what was the lost minds of Van Delver. So the first half of the, this overarching campaign, is really kind of a reimagining of I don't even remember where I was. That's all right. So, as I was saying, oh, you too, I'm going to regret this.

Catherine: 5:54

So you've been saying that for almost 18 years. I know. We've been together 21 years I know, I'm just saying since we got married.

Andrew: 6:03

Oh, I was going to say I didn't regret the first three years. Something at some point made me regret this entirely. No, not at all. So yes, so the first half of Van Delver, and below is, is a reimagining of the lost minds of Van Delver. So it really takes all that content and kind of weaves it into a larger story which is about the shattered obelisk and and all that fun stuff. So that's, that's part two of of the campaign. So really, chapters one through four are the lost minds of Van Delver, and then we get into the second half, which is really talking about the shattered obelisk and what, what that means and and and what they have to do to try to to beat the, the big bad evil guy.

Andrew: 6:55

All right, so let's dive into. I want to get a little bit into the Background here, so. So this takes place on the sword coast. So if you're familiar at all with D&D, settings is on the sword coast, Just a little bit south of these two are not familiar at all with the sword coast, which is fine, you don't? You don't do homebrew.

Andrew: 7:21

That's fine, I'm just saying just here for snacks.

Andrew: 7:26

You're here for the snacks. That's right, right on. So Takes place on the sword coast. Fandolin or Fandolin, depending on how you like to pronounce it. I've heard it. I've heard it both ways. Fandolin is just a little bit south of Neverwinter. There is the the high road. The high road leads south from neverwinter, and then there's the tri-bore trail, which heads east off of the high road, and then, after you're on the tri-bore trail for a little bit, you see, you Go south and you head toward Fandolin, and that's that's where this adventure is.

Andrew: 8:06

So, nestled on the northern sword coast, between neverwinter wood and the sword mountains, is the town of Fandolin. Centuries ago, fandolin was a thriving settlement with deep ties to its neighboring communities, but then bandits overran the town and Fandolin lay abandoned for centuries. Only in the past few years have settlers built a new village on the ruins of the old. These towns, folk hope to grow Fandolin through hard work, camaraderie and the shared purpose of building a lasting home. Threatening their efforts and their survival are bandits and monsters. Ooh, bandits and monsters, goblins, ne'er-do-wells, yes, ne-er-do-wells. When do they do? Well, ne'er, exactly.

Fable: 9:06

I've never heard of those.

Andrew: 9:08

You've never heard of Ne'er-du-wells. No, well see people who Ne'er-do-well they just Ne'er-do-well. See, some people do well, they Ne'er-do-well.

Catherine: 9:19

Got it, we're going straight. Gary Gulman right now.

Andrew: 9:21

Love you, gary. All right, so let's, let's talk a little bit about so, so what? What is happening is our three adventurers are Somehow some way in there in their own, their own storyline, leaving Neverwinter and heading down to Fandolin. So, fable, let's start with you. So let's, let's talk about your character a little bit first. So, dow, dow, solace. So Tell us your, your feeling for who Dow is, what's what, what prompted you I tell me again, because our listeners may not know what prompted you to make this character and tell us a little bit about their, their background and how they, and let's figure out how they got to Neverwinter.

Fable: 10:13

Well, I'm made Dal because I want to make a tea from cleric, and I think that's all that needs saying. But I theme them after the moon because they worship the I'm not gonna say the name, right the moon maiden the moon maiden Okay and they're a bit reserved. I'm gonna work on the personality a bit, but they're kind of they're off by themselves, they're hermit, they're kind of Doing their own thing.

Andrew: 10:41

That's right, never winter. So you chose the hermit background for for now and so down normally lives In never in the neverwinter woods, got it? So what is so? I know you've been working on this, so tell us a little bit about Dow's living situation in the neverwinter woods.

Fable: 11:03

Are you gonna post the picture of the house?

Andrew: 11:05

I will post. I will post a picture of the house, absolutely.

Fable: 11:09

I drew an adorable little house and they're kind of living, would we say, where that stream is the river, it's kind of circled by the water.

Andrew: 11:21

Yeah, so there are several, I don't say tributaries, but there are several branches of the river that that flow Flow out to the sea, through, through neverwinter Coming coming out of the mountains are these rivers, but there's kind of a a when where the rivers start to meet. There there's kind of a almost almost an island.

Andrew: 11:43

Yeah, in the middle sides it's covered by a peninsula, peninsula, sure, but Anyway, there there's kind of a, an isolated, I Sort of island in the middle, yeah, and that's where down is Reside, as as that's there, where does a hermit live?

Fable: 12:05

a hermitage.

Andrew: 12:06

That's right. So that's where doll lives. That's very, that's very exciting. So so what? What is dowels? Relationship to neverwinter.

Fable: 12:21

Well, I think they were Living there when they were younger but, Something happened and they decided they wanted to get out of the city and live in solitude.

Andrew: 12:32

I say okay, Do you know yet what happened? What that is that happened to them? Where's that to be determined?

Fable: 12:39

Started writing, didn't finish it. Probably gonna change it.

Andrew: 12:42

So got it, okay. So something happened. So so dowel was a city dweller of neverwinter, and something caused them to Leave the city, abandon the city and and take up residence in the neverwinter wood building their hermitage Mm-hmm, excellent. So Does does dowel still go back into the city like what's what? What does dowel do now?

Fable: 13:10

They occasionally go back into the city when they need like essential supplies and also to hear what's going on, like the gossip, like.

Andrew: 13:19

So dowels into the hot goss. She, she, she wants to know what's what's what.

Fable: 13:23

Occasionally interesting.

Andrew: 13:25

We would. Is dowel someone who watch like reality TV?

Fable: 13:29

No no more stuff pertaining to information.

Andrew: 13:33

She reads like a magazine, no.

Catherine: 13:37

Sounds a little bit more like an intelligence agent to me.

Andrew: 13:40

Ah, it's it. Oh, I see. So it's not. It's not a story gossip, it's, it's in for it's like information. That way, I see, okay, that makes a lot more sense a little gossip is fun to a little gossip is always fun.

Catherine: 13:55

Do they get us weekly and fanpillant I?

Andrew: 14:02

Don't, I don't know.

Catherine: 14:03

I mean, you brought it up, so I was just, I was something and and no in the neverwinter and neverwinter.

Andrew: 14:09

Maybe there is a version of of us fortnightly, I don't, I I.

Catherine: 14:15

I don't know, I know fortnight not a fortnight and instead of people, it's creatures.

Andrew: 14:24

It could be well. There's humans, there's a lot of humans in neverwinter.

Catherine: 14:28

I know, but do you want to exclude everyone else? No, that's us. Us is everyone. I'm not excluding anyone but people and us both exist. So like there can't be two magazines, there's just the one there could be people.

Andrew: 14:42

So you have a creature magazine, yeah, and that's, that's a, that's a sincere possibility. Okay, monster, monster monthly, I mean. I like that right, monster monthly get what's good. What's going on? Absolutely. What's going on with the, the red brands? What's going on with the crag maw goblins? We want to know, we need some information.

Catherine: 15:06

Apparently need information about all of those, because I don't know what any of them are you'll find out.

Andrew: 15:12

That's why, cool I'm just. I'm just dropping hints as to what you're, what you can expect In the in the upcoming weeks and months when we're, when we're playing this game.

Catherine: 15:22

I better tell James to listen to this podcast.

Andrew: 15:24

Yes, james, hello James, so okay. So so Dallas and an information seeker, mm-hmm slash partial gossip. Totally cool. So and what else is Dow doing in, in, in never winter?

Fable: 15:44

Well, some supplies you can't some supplies, okay, you gotta go to the city got it.

Andrew: 15:49

Okay, what type of supplies I Know, say I'm really, I'm really quizzing you. Now I want to get deep on this. Character textiles Okay, that makes sense, like curtains for the windows, or or, or bedding, or, or, what about? Well, cuz I mean parchment paper, bandages, yeah, medical supplies, medical supplies, because Dow is a. Healer she is a healer and Dow is a she. Yeah, that's their pronouns. I want to make sure I get this right, okay.

Fable: 16:25

Well, followers of the moon maiden are basically their whole things like be nice to people. I'm ever. Someone needs help. You have to help them. It's like obligation.

Andrew: 16:35

Interesting that that could, that could be very interesting. So what Will so if you're, if you have an encounter and you're fighting creatures and and one of them is not yet dead but partially like hurt, what would Dow help them as well?

Fable: 16:55

It depends.

Andrew: 16:57

Do they have to ask for help like what's, what's Like how? How committed is Dow to, to being a healer?

Fable: 17:04

Well, it's like help people, but if they're gonna hurt you, like protect yourself. I guess, so you gotta protect maybe they put them out of their misery.

Andrew: 17:15

Well, that escalated quickly. Wow, just putting them down like Fables Ruthless.

Catherine: 17:23

Really Wow, yikes.

Andrew: 17:26

All right, okay, so. So Dow goes into Neverwinter and Picking up supplies, gathering information, what, what has? Let's go back to some of the basics, though. So what does Dal look like?

Fable: 17:49

They are entirely purple.

Andrew: 17:52

Entirely One shade or multi-shade.

Fable: 17:56

Well, they're like a dusty purple, are we talking?

Andrew: 17:58

like grimace purple, or like we talking a nice.

Fable: 18:01

No, it's grimace purple.

Andrew: 18:05

Google grimace.

Fable: 18:07

Oh wait, I think I know what he looks like. There's a tick-trock trend of him killing people.

Catherine: 18:11

That's the grimace shake, the grimace shake. We're cool, we're hip.

Fable: 18:17

No, it's not grimace color.

Andrew: 18:20

So Dal does not look like grimace color-wise at least no, they don't. Okay, we've established that.

Fable: 18:27

They have long like darker purple horns, like a brightish purple. I'm like periwinkle. Is that what I said, periwinkle?

Andrew: 18:39

Yeah, I think you said periwinkle.

Fable: 18:40

They're like braids that kind of fade down into a bit of a darker purple. Cool, and they're tall.

Andrew: 18:48

How tall is Dal? Remind me, without the horns, how tall is Dal?

Fable: 18:52

Without the horns. Did you say 5'11". No, I think it was like I have it in here 6'5" 6'5".

Andrew: 19:03

With the horns or without the horns?

Fable: 19:04

Without the horns I mean, it was in math and it was like 7'2" Wow.

Andrew: 19:15

I can double check. That is going to. This is I have to See, I have to remember these things because this is going to be interesting when I'll write it in the notes. Yeah, when Dal walks into town. Dal is hard to mess round to begin with, and then a seven foot something bright, purple bright purple Tiefling is is going to to gather some gain some attention from from people.

Fable: 19:49

I think that's why they live in the middle of nowhere Okay.

Andrew: 19:51

Well, that's a that makes. That makes perfect sense. All right, excellent. So we know, we know what Dow looks like. We know kind of we have the background on who Dow is, so tell us why. What is, what happened to make Dow want to go to Fandolin?

Fable: 20:15

Well they, on one of their trips into Neverwinter they heard something about sister. What's her name? Sister G is what I wrote down.

Andrew: 20:31

Oh, I have to look it up. Hang on, keep going, keep going. I'll look it up.

Fable: 20:38

I swear I wrote down, I'll find it somewhere. But they heard that she has some information pertaining the moon maiden, which is her deity, perhaps an artifact or a text. She doesn't quite know yet and she wants to go and check it out. So, and that's her reason for going to Fandelver or Fandolin.

Andrew: 21:06

All right, I want to see. Oh, sister Garriel, Sister Garriel. So sister Garriel, let's see. Oh, is an elf cleric. So sister Garriel is an elf cleric of Timora and a Harper agent. And you're looking for what?

Fable: 21:31

Information on the moon maiden.

Andrew: 21:34

Information on the moon maiden. Okay, this is going to be very interesting. I'm looking at you, catherine, why You're up next, excellent, so. So Dow is going to be heading to heading to Fandolin to try to meet up with sister Garriel and figure out what's what's going on. See, that's see. That's really good Cause. See you, you like to gather information. See, that's you. You fit in really well with the Harper's. Just keep that in mind. Just saying, catherine.

Catherine: 22:14

Andrew.

Andrew: 22:15

Yes.

Catherine: 22:15

What's up?

Andrew: 22:16

What is up, that's the sky Fables. Thank you, Fable Fable has the answer to what is up here at the ceiling.

Fable: 22:26

There it is, the sky is above the ceiling. We just can't see it.

Andrew: 22:29

That's right Somewhere up there. So tell us about cause you don't you? You you kind of got thrust into being Zan Rose. Bumblebumble Sure did so. So what do you know about Zan Rose? Let me, I'm going to bring up the character sheet over here, so I can, so I can see it as well. Let's see where is Zan Rose. Zan Rose.

Catherine: 22:51

What do I know about Zan Rose Bumblebumble, female rock gnome.

Andrew: 22:56

Yes, monk, a monk martial artist. That's good, that's going to be fun.

Catherine: 23:02

Of noble birth.

Andrew: 23:03

Yes.

Catherine: 23:05

So welcome in high society, but also apparently tend to stick my foot in my mouth because there's something in my backstory that says by my words and actions I often bring shame to my family.

Andrew: 23:18

That is correct.

Andrew: 23:21

I know so. If you, if you take a look at your, your stats, your abilities, at the top of your character sheet, you'll notice that your charisma score is an eight, yes, which is very low, which is which is not very low, it's below average Figure 10 is 10 is average charisma. So you, you have a slight disadvantage on on your charisma. So you do, you tend to, you tend to stick your foot in your mouth when, when saying things so, so, things like um, I'm trying to say intimidation, you're, you're not very intimidating.

Catherine: 24:01

No, well, I'm three foot five Very true.

Andrew: 24:05

So even even height wise, you're not intimidating. Yeah, I've known some. I've known some intimidating rock gnomes in my life.

Catherine: 24:11

I weigh 29 pounds. How intimidating can I be?

Fable: 24:14

I can throw you at people. I mean yeah flying rock gnome attack Nice. That'll have them scared.

Andrew: 24:19

Oh yeah.

Fable: 24:20

Like I was thinking like a spinning fling, Like a spinning fling. Yeah, wind up in like a wind up.

Andrew: 24:31

Maybe, maybe, maybe tie like a rope around the feet and then and then swing and then just like head head first yeah, that's not good, I can just it'll be loose Like, like a lasso, not like grab her by the leg.

Fable: 24:46

She's 29 pounds.

Andrew: 24:46

It's a slipknot, it's easy to get out of.

Fable: 24:48

I love that band.

Andrew: 24:53

What's that?

Fable: 24:54

Slipknot.

Andrew: 24:55

Oh, yes, slipknot, yeah, you do. Oh, that's, great.

Catherine: 24:59

Okay, well, I mean and honestly, dow flinging me wouldn't be the worst thing, because I have like a plus six in acrobatics.

Fable: 25:08

Here we go. We can make this work. We can make this a move.

Catherine: 25:12

There's going to be like some flips and some twists and I'm just, I'm um wait. Does never winter have Olympics.

Fable: 25:21

You should join the Olympics.

Andrew: 25:22

There's. There's going to be no gnome throwing in the Olympics.

Catherine: 25:27

I was thinking more about my floor routine.

Andrew: 25:28

Your floor routine Rhythmic gymnastics.

Catherine: 25:34

I mean, I don't really think that a gnome has the appropriate look for rhythm, for rhythmic gymnastics, but I feel like I could bang out a bad ass floor routine. I bet you could. I think you could.

Andrew: 25:47

I would like to see that happen. I will, I will. I will make sure that happens in some way, shape or form Awesome.

Fable: 25:52

I want to see it.

Andrew: 25:53

There, there is going to be like a challenge instead of. You can either battle this monster or compete, nice Compete in an Olympic style. Challenge against, against a monster to do a a gymnastic floor routine.

Catherine: 26:12

It's it's the gymnastic version of a dance off Like I think of this like, like.

Andrew: 26:16

I think of this more, like, like Bill and Ted's, you know when they, when they play yeah, battleship with the, with the grim reaper, yeah, you sank my battle ship. Yep, so it's going to be like maybe it's going to be like maybe it's going to be like maybe that'll be the ultimate battle, like the end, like the ultimate to win, like to defeat the, the, the really big bad guy. You're going to have to do a gymnastic routine to save the whole party.

Catherine: 26:46

Are we allowed to know who the big bad guy is?

Andrew: 26:48

No.

Catherine: 26:50

See, that might be the one thing I like about strud is. You just know it's strud from the very beginning it's strud. Who's the bad guy, strud?

Andrew: 27:01

Yes, cool Strud is the bad guy.

Catherine: 27:05

Um, what else should we talk about with my character?

Andrew: 27:08

So, so what? So a couple of things about your, your character. So let me go back into this and figure out remember what what we were talking about. So, yeah, so you, you've got the noble background, which is, which is great. Um, oh, I love the thing about we put in the personality trait. So we picked the personality, we didn't pick it, but I mean the whole thing about no one could doubt, by looking at your regal bearing, that you are a cut above the unwashed masses.

Catherine: 27:39

So this is why I'm putting my foot in my mouth. The unwashed masses.

Andrew: 27:44

You dress really well and I love this whole thing. If you do me an injury, I will crush you, ruin your name and salt your fields Again. You hold nothing back Right, which is amazing.

Catherine: 28:01

Except a grudge. I do hold a grudge.

Andrew: 28:03

You do hold a grudge, but that's great, because if someone crosses you, you are not to be trifled with. So remember that when you're playing your character.

Catherine: 28:18

Yep.

Andrew: 28:19

So if somebody does something to you to like offend you, you take no prisoners.

Fable: 28:25

You can cut a bitch up, that's right.

Andrew: 28:28

Yeah, exactly. Thank you, fable. Yes, but remember your ideals. You're very independent, so remember that again when you're interacting with the other people in your party. You're a very independent person, so let's see how that plays into it. So you're gonna have to work together with your party to help defeat to, you know, in encounters, helping defeat enemies and things like that. But you're also very independent. So do you wanna be the leader or do you wanna just Leroy Jenkins it and run right into run right into battle without consulting your, your adventuring party about what to do? So think about how, think about how that independence plays into Xanarosa's actions when, when you're playing, I mean, I feel like I could hold you back.

Fable: 29:22

Do you like the size of Perida?

Catherine: 29:23

Yeah, exactly, hold me back, hold me back.

Andrew: 29:28

That's right and, interestingly enough, bonds. Nothing is more important than the other members of your family, right? So maybe this is your chosen family, so maybe you're fiercely independent but also very protective of those. So so maybe that comes into play, not necessarily to begin with, so that could be a nice really character arc for you, that to begin with you're very independent and not necessarily play nicely with others, but but as you, as this party kind of gels together, maybe they become your family because you're, you're out on your own now. So this is now your, your new family and with Vin Diesel family.

Catherine: 30:08

No see, I was going. Guardians of the Galaxy.

Andrew: 30:10

Guardians of the Galaxy, because I feel like I'm maybe a little like Drax.

Catherine: 30:14

Ah, like Drax Interesting, you know like he's kind of sticks his foot in his mouth cause he doesn't really get it, but like very loyal to the other Guardians. But he'll put his life on the line for them. So I feel like maybe that's Zen Rose.

Andrew: 30:28

I like that. I like that. That works out well.

Catherine: 30:32

Zen Rose.

Andrew: 30:33

Zen Rose.

Catherine: 30:34

I have to practice for the first time. I have to yell Zen Rose, Battle Bumble.

Andrew: 30:39

It's a lot.

Catherine: 30:40

Yeah, it is. It's a long name.

Andrew: 30:42

You're going to get clocked in the head before you even get that out.

Fable: 30:46

It's like Zen Rose Bumble whack. Zen Rose Bumble blah.

Andrew: 30:56

You gotta, you gotta come up with like a, like a nickname or something.

Catherine: 30:59

I'm Z-Dog Z-Bem.

Andrew: 31:01

Z-Bem, z-bem, z-bem out and just like, just go, go at it, just something You're gonna. You're gonna have to come up with something shorter than Bumble Bumble, cause that's just a mouthful. I love Bumble.

Fable: 31:12

Bumble, you go and bam Pleasure.

Andrew: 31:15

There you go, Something like that, you got it. You got a. I'll workshop, Workshop, that workshop that you got. You got a. You got a week before we record the next episode, so you're good. Okay, Other other things on here. Let's say yeah, and, like you said, the flaw is, you know, by my words and actions I often bring shame to my family, Right?

Catherine: 31:34

So In the same way that Drax embarrasses the Guardians Right.

Andrew: 31:38

Absolutely, and he, he says a lot of things that get people into trouble and I like that. I like that a lot, awesome. So so have you thought anything about what your character is doing in Never winter?

Catherine: 31:57

So I think what we had talked about is that, because she comes from a noble family, yes that the family has property in Fandolin.

Andrew: 32:07

Oh, that's right.

Catherine: 32:08

I think we did talk about that and she has to go and I don't know, check in on the property for some reason. So that's how she ends up there.

Andrew: 32:19

Yeah, I'm trying to remember, let's see.

Catherine: 32:23

No, that's she has to go to Bumble Bumble Estate in the Fandolin region the Bumble Bumble Estate.

Andrew: 32:30

Yeah, interesting.

Catherine: 32:32

Yeah, purveyors of fine something.

Andrew: 32:35

Let's see. So you're the. You are the noble, yeah, so, yeah, so we talked about this. Yeah, in the in the book says your family is based in Neverwinter. Yeah, but owns property throughout the Sword Coast region, obviously, obviously, you recently inherited a cottage in Fandolin and must inspect the place before you decide to keep or sell it.

Catherine: 32:57

Okay.

Andrew: 32:58

I'm not sure. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Catherine: 33:04

So you don't know how you feel about the Bumble, bumble, b&b I.

Fable: 33:08

Love that. You should do that.

Andrew: 33:11

Bumble, bumble, b&b. Yeah, excellent, love it. Write that down.

Catherine: 33:15

I won't forget that alliteration Bumble, bumble.

Andrew: 33:19

B&B. Love the enthusiasm.

Catherine: 33:21

Here's he loves the enthusiasm, but not the idea.

Andrew: 33:27

I love. I love everything about it. I'm just the lead up to it. Yeah, because remember there was an established town here before. So Does does the Bumble Bumble family have previous claim to some of the land? So maybe maybe you found out that someone is trying to build on the land that belong to your family, because they figured that, because this is a new settlement. This is a new settlement, that is that's kind of being built here.

Catherine: 34:03

Yeah so.

Andrew: 34:04

So maybe you're going down to try to Straighten out whoever is on the land, to let them know that it's really your family's land and and you intend to build on it.

Catherine: 34:15

Right, the Bumble Bumble B&B because that plays back into my fiercely independent nature.

Fable: 34:21

Right where.

Catherine: 34:21

I've decided that I want to kind of strike out on my own family and open a B&B, because who wants I mean who doesn't want a three-foot five twenty nine pound rock gnome as their proprietress?

Andrew: 34:35

Absolutely, I completely agree, I think. I think it's a great story.

Catherine: 34:40

I mean she's, how long do rock gnomes live?

Fable: 34:43

Because she's 55 350 to 500 years.

Catherine: 34:46

Yeah, see, so she's 55. She's a young woman, wow.

Andrew: 34:50

Wow.

Catherine: 34:51

Thank you, fable.

Andrew: 34:55

She is.

Catherine: 34:56

Fable is very proud of himself.

Andrew: 34:58

That was impressive, like I think you're lying, but I think I feel like you said it. I feel like you said it was such confidence, oh, no, no, no, I feel like it's. I feel like it's just a person that was like that says something like so confidently. I believe you like, but I'm saying like you just came off like, like this is what it is slam.

Catherine: 35:20

Fanny made Fable leave Wow.

Fable: 35:28

I can't work under these conditions. That's gonna be you screaming after I Do. I do a pimple, bam, and I walk away.

Catherine: 35:51

I'm out of here. After you pimple pop, you're gonna pimple bounce.

Fable: 36:05

We're gonna be a great deal Uh-huh.

Andrew: 36:09

This is, this is a nightmare. I am, I am, I can't wait. I can't wait to see the chaos that ensues.

Catherine: 36:16

I'm gonna play my character straight, like oh.

Andrew: 36:19

Oh no, I, I know you. You're a Thespian, you are. I am not a thespian you are, you, you're very good. You see, you say you're not, but, like I know, you are never been, you've never been, but but you have the ability.

Catherine: 36:35

I suppose, and Fable I mean Fable has a few really key roles in the SpongeBob musical.

Fable: 36:42

So yes, I, why'd you get a?

Catherine: 36:46

bring that up because it's very important to your acting ability.

Fable: 36:50

I'm a cowboy fish, yeah, and I'm gonna be holding a Umbrella that looks like a jellyfish.

Catherine: 36:56

I don't think that's key key and you get to sing some of my favorite songs.

Andrew: 37:00

So so you're, you're gonna be a cowboy fish.

Fable: 37:03

I'm gonna be a cowboy fish and a jellyfish.

Andrew: 37:06

So what is your cowboy fish? Is backstory? Does a cowboy fish have a family?

Fable: 37:11

there's squirrel from Texas.

Andrew: 37:14

Your cowboy fish is a squirrel from Texas.

Fable: 37:16

That's. They're technically squirrels.

Andrew: 37:18

They're technically so in the script.

Fable: 37:20

They're squirrels okay up Sandy in her rubber excellent but I mean, we can't really take off the fish Clothes which are just basically swimwear. So right, slap some cowboy boots on and yee-haw nice.

Andrew: 37:35

So you're? You're an underwater squirrel, so what so I?

Catherine: 37:41

Mean.

Andrew: 37:41

You've seen Sandy cheeks right, I know Sandy cheeks I'm very familiar with, with SpongeBob.

Catherine: 37:45

You sound like you don't know what it is, and I'm confused.

Andrew: 37:47

No, I'm just. But I don't know what the cowboy squirrels, cowboy fish are, so I'm trying to understand this. So so, are you a family Of Underwater squirrels, like what's the?

Fable: 38:01

I have no clue.

Catherine: 38:02

We are making fable decidedly uncomfortable right now.

Fable: 38:09

I want a bimple bounce please.

Andrew: 38:13

So let's go back, let's go back to your character, so, so you're gonna, you're gonna head, so so let's, let's, let's, let's play around with this a little bit, so, so, so, ultimately, what is gonna be the like, what's your, what's gonna drive you to? Because it's your decision. I'm just, I'm just throwing out some suggestions.

Catherine: 38:31

So, I feel like it's your character. Perhaps my family heard that someone was trying to develop on our land, but they don't care because they own property everywhere and this right. Is this far away?

Andrew: 38:44

It's, it's like a day's journey. Okay, it's not terribly far, but but Fandolin isn't like a big bustling town, it's not.

Catherine: 38:53

So it's far enough that they're like me. We don't really care, right, and I, xanrho's Bumble Bumble, care very much because I'm like oh you know, this is my opportunity to make something of myself, to separate myself a Little bit from my family and and go out of my own right. So I feel like perhaps the dream of opening the B&B. She's going to make sure that she exerts her claim on the land right and then, you know, starts thinking about building her B&B and then Perhaps decides that traveling with this unlikely troop of yes.

Catherine: 39:39

Yeah, will motley crew help her meet some additional.

Andrew: 39:46

I mean there's no slipknot, but come stay at her B&B.

Catherine: 39:49

Mm-hmm you know a range of people that you would not have met otherwise because this could be. This could be a way of getting Getting treasure as a reward for for helping and yeah, because maybe she wants to build everything on her own rather than using her family's fortune to do so.

Andrew: 40:10

Because there there will be Just a heads up there there will be a Threat to fandal in itself, to the town and the people of fandalin, okay, so.

Catherine: 40:26

And that threatens the Bumble bumble.

Andrew: 40:29

B&B that could. That could certainly threaten the Bumble bumble B&B. The.

Catherine: 40:32

BB, b&b. You can't stand for that. No, can't stand for that.

Andrew: 40:36

The BB, b&b the BB B&B. That's a lot of bees. See what I did there numerous bees.

Andrew: 40:48

Excellent. So, okay, that's great. So we we've got your stories as to what's gonna happen to the, how you're getting from never winter to Fandalin, so this is really exciting. So there's gonna be. This is this is really helpful to me because because, knowing your back stories, knowing what you want to work on this, this will help me craft and Incorporate your characters and your back stories into the, the story itself. So this is this is very exciting for me. Yeah, I gotta figure out. I gotta figure out how to how to work in the B&B. I have an idea. I have a very, very strong idea for For the B&B well then yes, yes, yes.

Andrew: 41:39

So because in I want to look up the map for Fandalin actually pretty excited about the Bumble, bumble B&B as you should be.

Fable: 41:54

I think it's awesome.

Andrew: 41:55

Oh, here, wait, where's the map? Oh?

Catherine: 42:00

maybe I will need plans for the B&B.

Fable: 42:04

I can do a mad floor plan Nice. That's what I'm doing.

Andrew: 42:10

Is it really? I want to see. I'm trying to bring up the map of Fandalin so I can see. I got the map of the whole, like the whole area, the sort coast. But okay, here's the map. So I have. Yeah, I've got a really good idea for this. Do you remember, did you play now, you didn't play minds of Fandelver with us, did you?

Andrew: 42:35

Okay, so in in Fandelver is the Tresender or Tresender Manor already, and it says more a castle than a house. Tresender manor stands at the east edge of town, on a low hillside amid woods and thickets. The ancient manor has long been abandoned but its sellers have been converted into a red brand stronghold. If the characters investigate this place, you may find some interesting things going on there. So maybe you heard that the red brands had been. Maybe this tracender manner is what was in your family's possession, that property and you've heard that the red brands are someone has taken, someone has kind of squatted there and you want to clear them out and convert the manner into a, b and B. Yeah, clearly, maybe that would be a good tie into the story I like it.

Andrew: 43:53

Okay, so we'll play it that way. You have to talk to Kat, cause I think Kat inherited a tracender manner when we played Minds of Van Delver, if I recall correctly. But anyway, so maybe that will be your, maybe that's how old that, maybe that'll be the hook into the rest of the story. So anyway, on the map I have laid out, they gave a nice with the Beetle and Grimm's Van Delver box. There's a nice like canvas printed map. It's beautiful. Yeah, it is nice, but this will show you a lot of the locations where you're going to end up over the course of the campaign. Hi, deedee, one of the things that I noticed on the map is Icepire Peak, cause we played with Joe. We played Dragon of Icepire Peak.

Catherine: 44:58

That's northeast of the S word mountains.

Andrew: 45:02

S words.

Andrew: 45:04

S words For 600, alex, but anyway, yeah. So initially what's going to happen is your characters will leave. Some will work it to get all your characters together and your characters will leave never winter, so yeah, so your characters will somehow probably in a tavern. So typical, probably in a tavern your characters will come together and make your way to Vandalin and from there, you know, hijinks will ensue. I'm very excited.

Andrew: 45:53

So I don't know if I officially told both of you so. So I was a little concerned. I was a little concerned with the campaign that there was only three people in the party. So, oh, I think you told me. Yeah, I think I did. I think I mentioned but I haven't mentioned anybody on the podcast. So I was, I was trying to get a little bit of, a little bit of. I was trying to come up with a way of of kind of beefing up the party a little bit, without having to always like dumb down the, the encounters for you, like Reduce the amount of enemies you're fighting, so to try to make it more interesting that way.

Andrew: 46:32

There are, I think, in Tasha's Cauldron of everything. There are rules for creating and having a side kick kick, and I sort of follow those rules. But I kind of homebrewed a side kick because James, as Catherine knows I think Fable, you've seen James's dog, callie, the beautiful German shepherd so I homebrewed a dire wolf character that will be James's Iquium. Iquium is his character, the what is that? A warlock, a human warlock? I believe Iquium is a human warlock, so 20 years old, 20 year old, human warlock, thank you. So, james, james character Iquium is going to have a dire wolf sidekick, slash, pet slash companion named Callie, who eerily looks like his German shepherd. So this will this will help the party out greatly in your your encounters, when you're encountering the goblins and other things along the way.

Catherine: 47:48

Is the dog going to eat me? I'm very small.

Fable: 47:52

I can bite him off Maybe.

Andrew: 47:57

The dog is at least twice your size.

Catherine: 48:00

Is the dog going to eat me? I'm very small.

Andrew: 48:03

The dog is not, I will hang on. Well, you don't have your dice, do you?

Catherine: 48:12

They're in the living room, let me get them.

Andrew: 48:15

Yeah, get your dice. Yeah, no, don't, don't do it, I'm I'm going to give you some dice.

Catherine: 48:20

Fable, would you grab my dice there on? There's two boxes on the coffee table in the living room.

Andrew: 48:25

Thank you, there are many boxes on the coffee table.

Catherine: 48:27

There's two boxes that are mine on the coffee table.

Andrew: 48:31

I say All right, so let's see. So where's Zen Rose?

Catherine: 48:38

Okay, One of my rolling.

Andrew: 48:45

So you need your d 20 for this. Let's do an animal handling check.

Catherine: 48:49

Okay.

Andrew: 48:51

See, if the dog eats you, the dire wolf eats you 12. But you get a plus one.

Catherine: 48:56

So 13.

Andrew: 48:57

And I'm going to use some new dice to roll. I'm going to roll for Callie the Direwolf Hang on. I think the dog might eat you. Hang on. I got to get to extras, callie, okay, so, oh, oh. Well, that's so. What is that? Wisdom? Only plus one. That's a plus one. So All right, so I'm going to roll against. So you have a 13?.

Catherine: 49:40

Yes.

Andrew: 49:41

Well, Callie rolled a nat one.

Fable: 49:45

Oh so.

Catherine: 49:49

The dog's not going to eat me. The dog's not going to eat me.

Andrew: 49:53

The dog kind of unwittingly puts its mouth like on the top of your head and doesn't eat you, just kind of slobbers all over you. But the dog is very happy to meet you. So Excellent, the Direwolf will not eat you and besides the Callie is lawful good. So so Callie is not an, not an enemy. This is the first time you're meeting Callie, so Interesting, I want to see. They don't have like a description of. They say it's a large, it's a first level large beast.

Catherine: 50:49

By the way.

Andrew: 50:50

Yes.

Catherine: 50:51

So I believe Fable was 100% correct on the average lifespan of a rock gnome.

Andrew: 50:56

I believed Fable. I was just saying, I was just saying it, just. It just reminded me of somebody that says, like, with such confidence that like has no idea what they're talking about. But I know Fable does. So that's, I trust Fable, all right, so we've, we've established two of our characters, which is great. We'll, we'll, we'll, have James do a little bit of an introduction next week Before we do the actual play. Get to know, get to know Iquium, iquium for a dream, and and then we'll, we'll, go into the actual, the actual play. So, do you have, do you two have any questions or anything before before we kick off next week? No, you feel you feel good about your characters. Catherine, I'm more concerned about you because, yeah, because you don't, you don't, you're not, you're not really a D&D player, so you've played some one shots and things like that. So, yeah, you don't know what you don't know, but you've got me, you've got James.

Catherine: 51:58

This podcast is for beginners. I'm a beginner.

Andrew: 52:01

You are a beginner, you, you are the like, the perfect person for this podcast, because I'm the perfect guinea pig. I was going to say lab rat.

Andrew: 52:11

Lab rat, guinea pig, you name it. Yeah, That'll be you. It'll be fun. Yeah, it'll be an adventure. Speaking of an adventure, I'll talk more about it next week, but I am, I am super excited. So when I was, when we were at PAX Unplugged, I stumbled upon there's an there's a company out there that develops an app called Pocket Bard, and Pocket Bard is absolutely fantastic. It's a great tool for adding environmental sounds, music to to your campaign. And there's there's all sorts of settings town cities, dark streets, forests, ancient groves, dungeons, the dungeon layer, mountains, swamps, maelstroms, merchants Like it's just really cool. So like, let's look at the merchant setting, let's let's go into a shop and what's the oh cool, and you can. You can add things like little tension, maybe it's a little rainy outside.

Catherine: 53:32

And here's a blowing fables find.

Fable: 53:35

So cool.

Andrew: 53:39

And then, and then.

Fable: 53:44

I'm going to do that to me.

Andrew: 53:47

Jump scare. It worked, didn't it? But then you can add, then they've got. They've got music you can add over, and you can change the intensity of all these sounds, so, but then you can add the music over it. It's an amazing app, and so you can just have this kind of playing in the background as you go along.

Catherine: 54:19

Did they have music for my floor routine?

Fable: 54:21

Yes.

Andrew: 54:24

That would, that would be.

Catherine: 54:29

Yeah, exactly.

Andrew: 54:34

If you could only see the floor, it's amazing. It's an amazing floor floor routine. We've got like synchronized floor routines on both sides of the table here. This is amazing.

Catherine: 54:44

I think how cool we would look. We'd look so cool, dallas, six foot five. I'm three foot five. We're side by side.

Andrew: 54:52

Yes, tumbling, yes, totally. Oh, you know what would be really cool. I'm just thinking about this Dow, you've got horns, you got a piece of elastic.

Fable: 55:06

Oh my God, built in slingshot, slingshot slingshot Zan Rose.

Catherine: 55:13

Yes. That would be, that would be tremendous, and we will practice to see how many flips I can do.

Fable: 55:21

You can get some good airtime.

Andrew: 55:22

That'll be the acrobatics check Exactly. We'll fling you, fling you right into battle.

Catherine: 55:28

Nice, oh, that'll be fun.

Fable: 55:30

We're gonna have a great time, oh yeah.

Andrew: 55:34

Absolutely, I'm tremendously excited. So, anyway, very excited about are you two excited for next week? Like to actually, like, I know you're super excited because you've been itching to play some more D&D, so now, so you're your, your typical, your usual D&D group plays it pretty fast and loose with the rules. So yeah, so you're getting more of a traditional D&D campaign.

Fable: 56:04

Nervous.

Andrew: 56:04

Nervous.

Fable: 56:05

Probably gonna screw up because we very loosely, I don't know anything. So you'll be yeah.

Andrew: 56:12

So this is this is gonna be. This is gonna be a big adventure for everybody.

Fable: 56:14

We also only play like three times a year for 10 hours straight, so there's some differences.

Andrew: 56:19

Yes, very true. So yeah, we'll probably play for like five or six hours on Saturday.

Catherine: 56:26

Are you serious?

Fable: 56:29

I was ready.

Andrew: 56:30

I know Fable's like yes, yeah, there's like what the hell?

Catherine: 56:35

I married into this.

Andrew: 56:37

For better or for worse. Oh my god.

Catherine: 56:40

Okay, no, I mean I'm excited, I think it'll be fun.

Andrew: 56:44

I mean.

Catherine: 56:45

Fable and James are two of my favorite people, so, yeah, it works out well.

Andrew: 56:49

I think it's gonna be a lot, of, a lot of fun. I hope so. I am. I am going to do my best as a DM oh, so cute. I will do my absolute best as a DM to to make this fun for you guys. I want you to have your Bumble Bumble B and B and I want you to find Fable. Whatever you're looking for, whatever this is for your, your moon goddess. So I hope you accomplish all of your goals.

Andrew: 57:21

I hope so and remind me when we get there, when, when, when you eventually get your B and B.

Catherine: 57:30

Yeah.

Andrew: 57:31

So just just remind me of that fact, because if you do establish the B and B, yeah, hopefully we will probably roll to see, like how successful it is. So I want, I want to like incorporate all that into the game. So how many guests you have at any given time because you're not gonna, you're not gonna be there.

Catherine: 57:51

I'm gonna need to find somebody to run it.

Andrew: 57:54

So you're definitely gonna have to there. There's all sorts of NPCs in the town and I may I may create one specifically for you to to hire. I may find it find an NPC for you so you can hire them and employ them. So you're gonna have to pay salary to them and then and get the income. So hopefully that'll help fund some of your adventuring.

Catherine: 58:18

Can you also make sure that that NPC is really good at cooking and likes to clean and is pleasant? Because I'm not gonna be so pleasant, so I need someone pleasant in the B and B.

Andrew: 58:27

Why won't you be pleasant?

Catherine: 58:28

because, like my, personality is very straightforward and I'm gonna say stupid stuff.

Andrew: 58:32

Yeah.

Catherine: 58:33

Potentially offend people.

Andrew: 58:34

Excellent. So, everybody, please listen in next week when we when we launch the actual play of this. So what we'll do is we'll play through a bunch of the adventure next week. The following week we are going to maybe Fable will come back, I think the following week is when we're going to talk about what happened. We'll do kind of a debrief and analysis of a debrief and analysis of what happened, and then we'll also be cooking.

Andrew: 59:07

So there we will have our food segment. So we have we have the heroes feast cookbook. So if you, if you've watched the D&D TV channel now they they have a show called Heroes Feast where they they cook recipes from there. But we're gonna use that book. We're gonna use what's the other one, recipes from the multiverse or something about that. We also have the one you got me, the critical role, the critical role cookbook. So we've got three different cookbooks we can choose from. So we're gonna have to figure out. Maybe we'll make one or two things from from all those and then and try them out, and so we'll we'll eat some food and talk to you and have have a good time. Excellent, thank you both so much for being here today. This was, this was lovely, lovely to have you here.

Catherine: 59:54

Thank you for having us. I live here.

Andrew: 59:56

You live here, so it's kind of like so disfable mostly yeah usually.

Catherine: 1:00:00

I was here, you were just here.

Andrew: 1:00:03

So it's like why come on the podcast? So anyway, all right. So next week, yes, actual play will dive into Fandelaver and below the shattered obelisk. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Bye.

Fable: 1:00:18

Bye.

Andrew: 1:00:19

Bye.

Fable: 1:00:21

Bye.

Andrew: 1:00:21

Bye.

Fable: 1:00:22

Bye.

Andrew: 1:00:22

Bye.

Catherine: 1:00:23

Goodbye, goodbye, that was definitive.

Andrew: 1:00:26

What was that? Goodbye, yeah, excellent.