The cast chats about the big moments and accomplishments of Season Five.
Join Wren, Kappa, Sebastian and Dax as they recap Season Five and talk about the latest season’s highlights, regrets, and their wishes for Season Six.
Thank you all so much for sticking with us!! We can't wait to be back early next year.
Follow Dax @GM_Dax, Kappa @TheKappaChris, Sebastian @sebastianyue and Wren @ThornyDryad
Check out Chaotic Wholesome
Transcript by Wren
Kappa and Wren a capella singing intro music ends [00:17]
Wren: [Singing to the same tune] Don't interrupt the beginning! Boo, doot doot, beep boop. This is the theme title song now! Bum bum bum..
Kappa: And then the beat drops.
[mock techno beat]
[everyone laughs]
Kappa: Hi! This is Roads Uncharted. This is not our normal content. There will be - this is a talkback episode as we’ve done in seasons previous, so there will be a lot of spoilers. So, if that’s not something you want to do, pause here, go catch up on the episodes up until the end of season five and come back! You’ll have a great time, I promise.
Wren: Okay, bye!
Soft piano music fades in [01:02]
Dax: No, not bye! Not bye! Uh, so… [laughing]
Kappa: Welcome back!
Dax: [laughing] As Kappa said, welcome back! As Kappa said, at the end of every season, well, at least for the last few, anyway, we’ve done a talkback episode where we review key moments of the show’s latest season. In some past talkback episodes we’ve done audience Q&A. Uh, you basically get to hear our thoughts on what has happened in a pretty unfiltered setting, as you can tell right now.
If you haven’t caught up on season five yet, this is your last chance. You know, if you don’t want spoilers, now is your time to duck out. Bye, we’ll see you when you’re ready! So, one thing we’re going to do a little different this year, and the players are already aware of this, is that we’re not actually doing an audience Q&A this year.
Kappa: Wait, what?
Dax: Yeah, uh, we’re not, we’re - you know, we gotta’ keep these things fresh! If we do a Q&A every time, what’s going to draw people to come in, other than the wonderful questions that we get from our audience. But, I figured this year, instead of an audience Q&A, we would literally just recap the season and we can give our reactions about what happened. Maybe if we have any things that we wish we did different we talk about those. And, you know, maybe some threads and theories that we have picked up on based on what has occurred in season five. Which, I'm going to warn you right now, has been a lot. But before we get into that, we’re just going to quickly remind the audience who we are, since this is an audio medium and you can’t see our wonderful faces.
So, I'm Dax, I use she/her pronouns. I am the game master and producer.
Kappa: Hi! This is Kappa, Christian is okay, too. And I play [in Rou’s voice] Rou! The werewolf person. [In Kappa’s normal voice] I use any pronouns and Rou uses he/him pronouns.
Sebastian: I’m Sebastian. I use they/them pronouns and I play Trix, who also uses they/them pronouns.
Wren: And hi! I’m Wren. I use they/them pronouns and I play the character Eight, who also uses they/them pronouns.
Dax: So let’s get into the highlights of season five. So, um, first of all, one of our biggest highlights is that we had our first sponsorship this year. We had a deal with Magic Mind to do some ads and, uh, we ended up coming up with a little narrative reason for those ads since they kind of had to be interjected in between the episodes where we created this special potion and we decided that because “Daxara20” was going to be the code for that, that, you know, “hey, we’ll make that the magic catchphrase!” Any thoughts? Let’s start with the sponsorship. Any thoughts or feelings on that?
Kappa: Okay. So, the sponsorship itself was pretty cool. I don’t think they expected us to go in the direction that we did.
Dax: Yeah, I’m not really sure about that either, but they got what they got and.. [laughing] I think we had fun!
Wren: They got what they approved! [laughing]
Kappa: Yeah! This episode isn’t sponsored. The product itself, I hate to say, but it did work a little bit. It might have been a placebo, but it did work a little bit and when we stopped getting the product, I was like, “Oh no! It’s harder to focus! Oh no!”
Dax: Did you see that they have gummies now?
Wren: I’m crashing!
Kappa: I didn’t see that they had gummies. That’s cool!
Dax: They have gummies, yeah.
Wren: Neat.
Dax: Once again, this episode is not sponsored. We’re just rehashing the fact that we did get product to try as part of the sponsorship. Because you don’t want your ad sponsor people to lie to the audience! So, we got to test some of that stuff out for full transparency. I thought it was pretty good.
Wren: I enjoyed it. It tasted kinda like orange juice.
Dax: Yeah, it was pretty citrusy.
Sebastian: It was nice to be reached out to by a brand. Do you know where they found us?
Dax: No clue! [laughs] No clue! But we appreciated it! I never thought in a million years when we started this podcast that we would ever be asked to do, like, any sort of sponsorship or anything like that. So, that was, for me, I was like, “Yeah, I’ve peaked! This is good. I’ve made it!”
[Kappa laughs]
Wren: As far as the content itself goes, I think we had a pretty good time just coming up with silly little ways to fit those into the episodes. For the sake of our continuity, though, everyone is going to be upset that we no longer have magic mind potion and we have not gotten refills and we have not been consuming it. It’s like we forgot that it existed!
Dax: I mean, kind of like that you forgot that you had a sending stone to Lady Benjamina in Saleen for, like, three seasons.
Wren: Hey!
[Kappa laughs]
Dax: I’m just saying. You can’t be complaining about continuity when, in character, it makes sense that you would forget some of these things.
Kappa: Dax, we didn’t rediscover it in this season. We’re not allowed to talk about it.
Wren: Yes we did.
Dax: Oh, that’s true- yeah…
Kappa: I thought it was last season?
Wren: We rediscovered it, but I also used it this season.
Kappa: Okay, okay.
Dax: That’s right! You did. You did use it when you were… not going into the outpost because, well, we’ll get to that one later. But I think I remember that, yeah. At one point, I was like “I forgot to count but I know that was more than 25 words.” [laughing]
Wren: Yeah. It was before we fell in the oubliette.
Dax: Ah, yes! Yes. More on that later. Alright, so we talked about our first sponsorship. Let’s get into actually what the content of the season was. We started off this season, y’all intercepted some guards. In fact, Trix shot one of the horses, which threw the rider and killed him. So you had your first murdered NPC, I guess, that came from your hands. We’ve already done a murder mystery in the past. Uh… [laughs]
I’m just laughing because of Sebastian’s reaction. One of the few downsides of this being an audio-only medium. Uh, you found out that they were chasing a youth named Terryn, who then revealed that he was one of the children that went missing from Saleen. And we get the first reveal of guns. Oh, and Rou got shot.
Sebastian: Wait, that was our first murder? It took us that long to kill somebody?
Wren: Mhmm. Yeah. Somebody who - I mean, I don't even want to say they don’t deserve it. So.
Kappa: We’ve defeated things in the past. But all of those seemed to be provoked.
Dax: They were provoked and I’m pretty sure none of them were humanoid.
Wren: Except for the assassin, but we dealt with some of the aftermath of that.
Dax: Yeah.
Kappa: I mean, we also dealt with the aftermath of this!
[Wren laughs]
Kappa: We currently are dealing with the aftermath!
Dax: You know, that’s a good point. You technically did kill an NPC, intentionally, when you destroyed Aerin Vess. That is a good point, so, technically this is your second.
Wren: We destroyed him!
Kappa: We annihilated him!
Dax: But I guess [sighs] I guess that maybe my brain is making the distinction that technically you were closing up a murder mystery with that one. Whereas this one is like, “I'm going to stop the guards. Oh shit! He’s dead!”
Wren: Mhmm.
Dax: You know, so, I guess we’re splitting hairs here.
Kappa: Get beefier guards!
Dax: Yeah. Yeah.
Wren: Neck-snap-proof guards!
Dax: That’s just not going to happen.
Sebastian: Well, now we do have a gun! Not that we know what to do with it yet, but we do still have it in our possession. And I think it has at least one bullet for it. Maybe two.
Dax: [laughing] At least one?
Sebastian: At least one. We’re saving it! For what, we don’t know. But we have it.
Dax: Do y’all remember how you felt when this kind of technology was introduced? Up until this point it’s been swords and sorcery.
Sebastian: Yeah, Trix felt kind of intrigued. Because this was the kind of technology that they’ve been chasing after because they thought that - you know - the cult would come here for this kind of thing. And, so, to them that was, “Okay, I’m on the right trail. Let’s see if we can follow this. Where did it come from?”
Kappa: I think being from - having a character come from Baukora, it makes sense that technology is going to advance. This technology, I think we called it “a wand” or something?
Dax: Mhmm. You called it a metal wand for a good few sessions.
Kappa: A really chunky wand, you know? That hurt people. It only knows one spell! [laughing] Something like that!
Dax: Yup.
Kappa: And that was interesting. I think that when you play around with putting technology into a fantasy setting, pretending like it’s brand new is always a fun exercise. I had an interesting time with it.
Wren: Similarly, you know, playing a character that knows jack-poop about everything, being introduced to a gun like that…I always had this vision of the law enforcement pointing the wands at Eight and saying, “Stop! Stop! Freeze! Don’t move!” And Eight just walking forward and getting shot and being like “what did you hit me with?”
Um, it just - I don’t know. That was kind of always the way I wanted to see it happen. Getting hit and being like… [whining] “Ow! That hurts! What?”
Kappa: Thank you for the metal, I guess?
[laughter]
Kappa: I now have ball bearings!
Wren: Was this a really tiny hammer? You dented my armor!
[Kappa laughs]
Wren: But, I don’t know. It was kind of interesting, but we’ve seen all sorts of weird things. So, I suppose it’s no different than being introduced to a talking skull, a government that is ruled by a tiny squirrel-queen and, you know, magical runes inscribed on weapons and things like that, so.
Dax: That’s a good, good point. And, actually, that whole - as you all mentioned - you know, you did end up having to deal with the consequences of that. Because for a while, you got away. You thought everything was going just fine and dandy and then at the Greywater Inn, the guards caught up with you.
Uh, because Eight decided to let one of the guards leave unharmed, much to Trix’s chagrin. [laughs] Which ended up resulting in a traumatic incident that triggered Eight to disappear and be replaced by Amara.
Wren: Everyone’s favorite NPC!
Kappa: That was cool! I love Amara.
Dax: Kappa loves Amara! I don’t know about Rou! I’m pretty sure that Rou hates Amara.
Kappa: As a concept, oh my god.
Sebastian: Trix and Amara got along just fine! They appreciated Amara’s pragmatism.
Wren: Right, which definitely was a fun exercise to get a feel for the difference in personalities between the two characters. So, it offered me an opportunity to explore different avenues with technically the same character. So, that was a kind of fun deal.
Kappa: I thought it was cool that you had two different character sheets, but some elements were consistent across because they did share a body. The thing that I found very, very fun about Amara was getting to explore and roleplay, in character, party conflict. And we did that in - I don’t think we recorded - we left some stuff in of the above-table discussion, right?
Wren: A little bit.
Dax: Yeah, we left, uh, particularly when it came to executing the guards and that kind of stuff. We did leave that in, because that is a very heavy topic that we did touch on this season. While we tell the audience that we have lines and veils and we employ safety tools at the table, you know, that they can’t see. Something like that is very important to showcase “Hey, we did talk about this. This is how we came to this decision.” Um, and then other things, I think, for some of the party conflict, we took that out. But we did discuss it above-table.
Wren: I think there is a very small portion of the actual discussion on what we’d do still left in the episode. But we had a pretty lengthy talk about what we wanted to see happen and how we wanted to accomplish our goals with it. We did check-ins in the middle of the conflict as well, to make sure everyone was having fun with it still.
Kappa: Yeah! That is something that I really appreciated having at this table! Bringing in Amara was a really, really, cool exercise for us.
Dax: I’m not going to lie, when Wren and I were discussing behind-the-scenes, like, how this was going to work and how we were going to accomplish this, you know, I had played Amara in an episode in Season Three when it was just Rou and Eight on their adventures. And Eight had that dream, that flashback dream. And so, when Wren was, like, I’m - you know, I want to bring out Amara and - I was like, okay, I’ll give you an opportunity to have that trigger and then you can make the decision of when that actually triggers for you.
And then they brought out this gruff character and I was just sitting there thinking about how different that was from the Amara that I had played. But, you think about it, I was playing an Amara pre all of the trauma and all of the hardships that she had. So, it would make sense that their reactions and who they are quote-unquote now would have been far different than how I would have interpreted it.
And, like, honestly, as a game master, I’m okay with that. Like, I’m going to be interpreting these NPCs different than the players will in relation to their own backstories. I’m cool with it. But it was very intriguing to go, wow! This is a completely different person from what I presented way back in Season Three! So this is great!
I did put in my notes that Amara and Rou immediately became best friends so then I had to put in there “sarcasm” in big parentheses. Especially because there ended up being that scuffle, like you said, the conflict, ending in a big old rainstorm where the party was kind of forced to set aside how much they may or may not like Amara and kind of work together to survive that. And I think that was the first natural disaster that I’ve thrown y’all into?
Kappa: Yeah, the flash flood?
Dax: Yeah. The flash flood. The deluge!
Wren: Mhmm.
Dax: That’s one of those things where, once again, you want to definitely check with your party before you throw something like that at them. Because for some people, that can be pretty traumatic. And I know we did put a content warning on that episode. Um, but that was fun. Y’all came up with some really good ideas to work through that. Sebastian, when you came up with the idea to throw the lasso and try to lasso Rou out of the water and then, like, kind of, partially not succeeding. [laughs]
Sebastian: Yeah, it was funny. I thought it would be -
Dax: It was great.
Sebastian: Yeah, but that would also just be a solution that my character would come to and also it would be something that they’d be foolish enough to attempt.
Dax: That’s a great idea, though. Really a good idea.
Sebastian: I thought there was something cinematic about it.
Dax: Yeah! Aw, I was just - especially when Wren put in the sound effects and I was picturing, like, Trix standing up on this carriage in the middle of this rainstorm with water rushing all along the sides of the carriage and, like, throwing that lasso? Aw, can we have fanart of that? Anyone listening to this, if you do fanart, can we do fanart of that?
Wren: Do we have fans that draw?
[Kappa laughing]
Dax: I’m not entirely sure, but any of you that do, like, even if it’s just stick figures, I will take it!
Sebastian: Yeah I would be so happy.
Wren: Anything! Even just crayon, you know? Whatever, it’s all good!
Sebastian: Even stick figures I would be so happy. With a little arrow pointing labeled “this one is Trix” and “this one is Rou”, thumbs up, drowning.
[Wren laughs]
Wren: That series of episodes was a lot of fun to do the audio mixing for, between the thunderstorms, the rain sound effects, the fight, the carriage and the racing horses and things like that. There was a lot of really nifty ambient noise and additional sound effects to put in that, ultimately, were approved by the producer of the show! So, I thought that was kind of cool to be able to do a little flex on some of the additional work that goes into making these episodes happen. For me! You know?
Kappa: It was great.
Dax: That hammering you did with Amara reworking the, uh, armor that Eight has, and that hammering? That was pretty good, too. When Rou and Amara were having their little -
Wren: Little heart-to-heart afterwards?
Dax: Not really, like, I don’t even know - would you two call it a heart-to-heart?
Wren: No, absolutely not.
Kappa: No.
Wren: Not really, no. Verbal spat?
Kappa: Uh, yeah.
Dax: I was thinking more the after the fight. The “we’re going to actually talk like adults instead of just be angee”.
Wren: Sometimes adults just need to punch each other.
Dax: It’s true.
[Kappa laughs]
Dax: Rou definitely needed to get out some angst on that whole situation.
Kappa: Yeah…
Dax: So, just when we thought things were starting to settle down for the party, that’s when I got to finally introduce the dragon.
Wren: Which one?
Dax: What do you mean? The big one that you fight when you met Indy and company.
Wren: Okay.
Kappa: Okay, you can say the dragon or THE dragon. Because we have multiple dragons.
Dax: Alright, fine. “Dragon fight”, that’s what I have in my notes, it’s dragon fight.
Kappa: That was cool.
Sebastian: That was so cool!
Kappa: Was that the first instance of Rou Ian Malcom-ing with the light sword, trying to draw- draw the attention?
Dax: Yes, yes it was. Mhmm
Wren: Yeah.
Dax: That’s one of my favorite decisions that you’ve made with that character. “I’m just going to run and hope that the dragon follows the bright, shiny light.”
Sebastian: It worked.
Kappa: Yeah. And then the other party - having the NPC party there, too? Having a very distinctly different skill set and personality dynamic was really cool, too.
Wren: Plus, they had a dog.
Kappa: They had a dog. They had lightning in a bottle. Literally. Like, that was cool.
Sebastian: They also had an Australian person who was really just an adventure novel enthusiast.
Dax: You know, I hesitate to call whatever voice I was using either an Aussie or a Kiwi. Because, I am so sorry, it was a bastardization of both of those. And, like, I felt so bad. [laughs]
Sebastian: It came through to me as an Australian!
[laughing]
Dax: Well, I’m sure all of the Australians that listen to this show…I’m so sorry. I was just trying to go for something different and I have a feeling that was one of the weekends where Wren, you and I had either watched Ragnarok or something. Something with content or a voice actor from that part of the pacific. And, I don't know why, but that’s what my brain went to. And… [groans] I just - I hated it. I am going to insult somebody so bad.
Like, when I do my quote-unquote “British”, like, I’m sorry, anybody from the UK is going to hear it and go “okay, we’ve got a little bit of Sussex here, a little bit of Liverpool. Maybe some London. What’s going on? This is not a standard, like, one-region dialect.”
[Kappa laughs]
Dax: I feel like as an American doing that, like, that’s kind of, like, as much as people might hate us for doing those, I guess it is in a way… I don't want to say acceptable? And I’m doing air quotes here. But, I feel like it’s a less hated bastardization than trying to imitate something - I am not making any sense right now, but I -
Sebastian: Okay, but, as a British person, you are completely fine to offend British people. And, frankly, they - we kind of deserve it! So, go ahead!
Kappa: There you go, yeah! It’s the power-dynamic thing. I totally understand. I’m not going to do a Japanese accent or any other accent from the global majority, mostly because that is cultural and we don’t want to accidentally lean into stereotypes that are rooted in racism.
Dax: Mhmm. 100%
Kappa: It’s all about punching up, right?
Sebastian: It’s true!
Kappa: So, but, yeah. I feel the same way about Rou and have felt the same way about Rou for a very - it comes and goes, these feelings about the accent. I think I said it in one of the talkbacks. I said I had wished I had used my own voice and my own accent for Rou. But, I’m also like, I really enjoy having this really fun, silly, goofy character voice. And, in a fantasy setting, we’re not saying, “This character is Australian. This character is from London.” This is a fantasy setting and the voices can be inspired by or influenced by real life areas and regions.
Dax: And I’ve mentioned in prior talkbacks, too. A lot of my location inspiration, a lot of my, not necessarily culture, because that can get tricky and I don’t want to be accidentally misappropriating anything or coming across as offensive, because I might not know 100% cultural significance for some things. But I take a lot of location inspiration for places. Real world things, because what is the best way to bring realism into your setting than to have things that actually can exist in nature or that maybe people can look up a picture and reference for their mind’s eye. And so, you know, that’s just something that, like you said, Kappa, you don’t want to be making or reinforcing negative stereotypes with choices.
So, um, I think that’s one of those things - if I did anything differently, I would change Indy’s speaking habits so that it might not be so obviously one thing that is not very good - or I’m not very good at it? It is what it is at this point and, you know, like I said, we might talk about regrets or things we wish we had done differently and there is one of mine for this season!
Wren: That’s it, Eight’s coming back with a cockney accent next season.
[Wren speaks with a bad imitation of a cockney British accent that gradually warps into a bad Australian accent]
Wren (as Eight): Hello, I’m Eight! Pleasure to meet you governor! You and I are now best friends!
[Kappa laughs]
Wren: [normal voice] That is totally Australian.
Kappa: I was like, hold on, this was leaning, again, towards Australia-New Zealand!
Sebastian: G’day, Eight!
Wren: [in a bad Australian accent] Good day, Mate! My name is Eight!
[Kappa laughs]
Dax: Oh boy.
Kappa: That was good. That’s funny.
Dax: Yeah, so…um…you all had your interaction with Indy and company. You know, the overly trusting Indy. The more or less understanding and neutral Dassana, and then you’ve got Bonebreaker who just loves everybody. Maybe is not quite sold on Rou, for reasons. And then Sierra, who doesn’t trust any of you.
Wren: But also I envision as hot.
Dax: Well, yeah, I did describe her as hot. But also, I think you have a thing for women in armor.
Wren: Who doesn’t?!
Kappa: Right??
Dax: Anywho. You all had your awkward watch parties with them, which was -
Kappa: That was fun.
Dax: I’m not going to lie, was a lot of fun to play off of. Usually, when you think of you going on watch in a tabletop roleplaying game, you think, “I’m going to use this minute to have character interaction. We’re going to grow our character’s bonds. Or we’re going to take a step back, depending on how the conversations go.” You know? We’re going to get some interaction that we don’t normally get in the day-to-day of this character’s life.
And then I throw these NPCs at you that are throwing, like, weird hints at Trix. They’re being kind of standoffish with Amara and there’s practically no conversation happening there. Uh, so that was an interesting dynamic, especially considering a lot of the NPCs that I throw at you tend to be pretty helpful or chatty. But then you all found out during that series of episodes that you were being spied on.
Wren: Mhmm. By a flying, mysterious, orb-faced bat.
Kappa: I completely forgot about that.
Sebastian: I remember my first impulse was “Oh, great, we have to paint the caravan again!”
[Dax laughs]
Dax: You and that caravan!
Wren: Always with painting the wagon!
[Kappa and Wren laughing]
Sebastian: I mean, we worked so hard to change its appearance the first time!
Wren: That’s one of my favorite running gags: “Gotta’ paint the wagon!”
Kappa: Yeah!
Sebastian: Yeah. And it will need to inevitably be repainted again because of events that happen later that we’ll get to.
Wren: Retrieved, because right now it’s currently being sand-blasted in the desert.
Sebastian: A little bit. It’s very sad. Yeah, we’re never getting that deposit back.
Wren: Oh, no.
Dax: [laughing] That was the other running gag for the season that I absolutely loved.
Sebastian: Every time something happened to the wagon it would be like, “Eh, we’re never getting the deposit back.”
Dax: Which Trix knew the deposit was never coming back.
Sebastian: We just took it fully with the intent of keeping it. It was funny, back in the days when we had money…
Dax: So, speaking of what happened to your money. So, y’all ended up finding the cult outpost -
Kappa: Yes!
Dax: At the edge of the desert which you had been working towards all season and infiltrating. So, let’s talk a little bit about that cult outpost infiltration because a lot of stuff went down during that series of episodes.
You had Trix infiltrating, getting caught by an NPC. You had the rest of the party having their moment of, “We’re going to plan xyz and we’re going to go back up Trix.” And then getting sprung and surprised and captured. And you essentially had that party split. So, let’s talk those episodes. Thoughts, feelings, you know, things that you really remember and stick out to you. Things that you wish you’d done differently.
Sebastian: My character should have wrapped the map that they made around an arrow and fired it to where the camp was. I did consider doing that.
Dax: Ah, that would have been really cool.
Sebastian: That would have been really good. It would not have stopped them from being ambushed, but it still would have been really cool.
Wren: I wish I had fought back. That’s what I wish! When we got ambushed, was that I wish that I fought. Because…fuck that! Everybody was like, “Oh, let’s give up!” And I was like “Really??? What? Really???”
Dax: I think it was more the fact that Sierra didn’t have any of her weapons, she was half out of her armor. And Dassana was like, we are surrounded. Let’s see where this goes. I’m not going to lie, Wren, I was very surprised with it. Especially with how you had been playing Amara up to that point that you didn’t fight back.
Sebastian: Oh, I read it as, like, a tactical decision because Amara, I thought, she was like I know I’m not winning this fight, so what’s the point in killing myself for it? So, it made sense as a tactical decision in a self-preservation kind of way.
Wren: Yeah, there was that consideration but there was also the thought of, “Oh great, now we’re going to be prisoner. And, no doubt, we’re going to be murdered.” So, it was, like, it was a really difficult choice. But I think, in the end, deciding not to fight was balanced by the fact that we had these NPCs that were kind of wimping out on me, so. If more people had been on board with fighting, I’d probably have sprung into it.
Kappa: Yeah.
Wren: But with half of them being like “No, don’t. Waaah!” I was like, alright, fine, gosh!
Kappa: I’m good with the decisions that I went with. We didn’t have Trix. The other party was also not ready. I think we were winding down for the night, we weren’t prepped. I mean, we should have been ready. We were at the outpost, we should be on high alert at all times.
Dax: You were getting changed into guard uniforms.
Kappa: Yeah, I think my big driving decision was, “How do we prevent the dog from dying?” You’re not going to hurt - we’ve already covered it in our lines and veils - no harm is going to come to animals. But in a setting like this, Rou doesn’t know that. Rou doesn’t know that there are lines and veils, so.
Sebastian: Bonebreaker!
Dax: Rou doesn’t realize that the dog has plot armor. It’s fine!
Kappa: Yeah!
Dax: I am not going to lie, I was really happy to be able to pull off what essentially was the “Wizard of Oz” sneak up with these guards. Like, having all of y’all just sitting there and getting changed and talking and the guards just walking up happy as you please and nobody noticed.
Kappa: Yeah, we rolled poo poo on that.
Wren: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Dax: You did! The dice were not nice to you at that moment.
Wren: To any of us, that session. At the very pivotal moment that Trix needed to not fail…head shake.
Sebastian: Yes.
[Kappa laughs]
Dax: Sebastian, you had been rolling really good up until that point.
Sebastian: Until that point, yes.
Dax: Lots of triumphs! You were doing really good and then all of a sudden the dice were just like, “Fuck you!”
Sebstian: Yeah, sometimes it happens that way and it’s actually more interesting. I like this game because failure is interesting.
Dax: Yeah, you get to fail forward, which is, which is always fun as a roleplayer.
Kappa: Yeah, hard agree.
Dax: It’s like, yeah, it’s great that my hero does cool things and I can do things I would never be able to do in reality. But sometimes it’s good to be able to choose how your failure affects you, as opposed to just having to deal with the consequences of whatever your actions were.
Wren: And at that point, it introduced the NPC that would become Faerlin. So, I suppose it is fortunate that you failed and didn’t decide to just knife them at that moment.
Kappa: Knife everyone!
Sebastian: I did not. That would have caused so many other problems.
Dax: I mean, maybe, maybe not? Who knows at this point?
Wren: It seemed like Faerlin was the only one actually checking in on anything! [laughs]
Sebastian: Yeah, I mean, Trix thought it would cause a lot of problems. There was no point in murdering this random servant who they thought they would never see again.
Dax: You had the moment where you were walking through the camp going, “Where are the red barrels, where are the yellow ledges?” You were pulling the video game search, like, that was great.
Sebastian: Yeah, what is flammable? I just remember Rou’s fixation on okay, but where’s the flammable stuff? How flammable is the camp?
Kappa: The bit that I really enjoyed that I’m really proud of this season was specifically,
Kappa (as Rou): Oh no, I’m dying of my heart condition! Come check on me!
Wren: Having a heart attack!
Kappa: That was - that was. [laughs]
Sebastian: It was a good move
Kappa: That was my favorite thing! [laughs]
Dax: It was such a good choice!
Kappa: It went so bad, but I think it was better because it went so bad.
Sebastian: But it was funny. It was entertaining.
Kappa: Yeah.
Dax: I’m not going to lie, as the GM, I was very torn because I literally had two options: I could have the guards not care; because we’re bringing you here to die anyways, so if you die of your own accord, like, I mean it’s not - who cares?
Um, or I could go with the standard, like, TV trope of like, “Oh, let’s go check on things!” and have the party ambush them. And, so I was just..[sighs].. I was like, you know, nobody ever gets to see what happens if the guards are like, “Yeah, deal with your own problems, you know?” So let’s go with that and see where that goes. And I think, like you said, that worked out much better because Rou got to try it again with a different set of guards.
[Dax and Kappa laugh]
Wren: Yeah. That set of scenes in the jail cells were certainly a fun little diversion to the overall problem that we were all experiencing.
Dax: Making fun of Anaan, the NPC that I gave you that was one of the Sultan’s spies.
Wren: Mhmm.
Kappa: Oh, right.
Dax: And basically being like, “Well, your information clearly wasn’t very good, so, you know, pah!”
Sebastian: I did try with the “Tiger has whiskers” and everyone at the camp that I met was like, “What are you talking about?” and I was like, “Nothing! Don’t worry about it! It’s fine! Sometimes, you know, how Tigers have whiskers?”
Dax: That was the other thing, too. I gave you that secret code at the end of the season and none of us wrote it down. Well, I shouldn’t say that, I wrote it down because it’s in my notes.
Sebastian: I wrote it down!
Dax: You did, okay. But that was also a thing that kept coming up during the season, was, what is it? The tiger has whiskers? The tiger has claws?
Wren: The tiger has stripes!
Kappa: The tiger has stripes.
Dax: Just having the three - The tiger has stripes! - Having the three of you going back and forth about that during the season was also really good.
Sebastian: Well, I say I wrote it down…When I say I wrote it down, I mean I remembered it eventually and used it!
Dax: It still works. It still works. It’s great. I mean, “The tiger has whiskers”.
Wren: I think that whole arc was just, uh - I think it was great for Amara as a character because it was, like, a very humbling moment for that character to just get completely, as we said before, destroyed, by our opponents. So.
Dax: But before that happened - before that happened, we got to reveal Trix’s backstory!
Wren: We did?
Sebastian: We did!
Kappa: Yes! Oh, my god, yes!
Sebastian: And nobody saw that coming, right? Right?!
Wren: No.
Kappa: No! [laughing] What?
Dax: Good. Because that was going to be one of the questions that I had written down. We had all of those theories at the end of Season Four about Trix. Um, I listened to the Season Four talkback the other day, because I was curious what kind of theories we had talked about with Trix. Um, I don’t think any of them that we discussed were about Trix being related to the bad guy.
Kappa: I knew Trix was important somehow. Didn’t realize how important!
Sebastian: Honestly, it’s kind of one of my favorite tropes when it’s like, plot twist! There is this connection and also, because I knew that I was coming in somewhat later to this story than everybody else. So, how could I make this connection established and, kind of, be integrated into the narrative at the point where I’m entering. That was kind of my thinking in crafting Trix’s back story. I did take those kind of narrative timeline moments into consideration.
Dax: That was- that was so good to be able to do that! And I know that in the way I revealed it, even left Sebastian with some questions, which is great! That are probably going to get answered in Season Six. I’m aiming to have them answered in Season Six. But it was great to see Sebastian’s responses of “Wait, how did he know who I was?”
Sebastian: Yeah.
Dax: I really liked that. I liked being able to sow a little bit of discourse with the Dragon. THE Dragon.
Kappa: Mister Dragon.
Dax: Yeah, sure. We’ll call him Mister Dragon to just differentiate.
Sebastian: Wizard.
Dax: Dragon wizard, yeah.
Sebastian: The Dragon Wizard! Yeah.
Dax: Being able to be like, so you’re the emperor’s grandchild. Great. Why should I care? And being able to wheedle that in a little bit, little bit, little bit.
Sebastian: That was kind of my one ace card, so to speak. And to have The Dragon not care at all? I’m like, alright, I need another plan. Because I was like, “Do I outrank The Dragon and can I order him around?” And you were like, “No. You cannot.” So, I was like “aw, shit.”
Kappa: Do I outrank the big bad?
Sebastian: It was funny.
Dax: Yeah, that was actually a really great question on your part was just, wait, so if I’m the grandchild of the Emperor, technically don’t I outrank them? It’s like…well, so here’s the deal. [laughs] Well, um, actually…
But I loved that. And I loved, honestly, how the three of you took that revelation. You know, Amara got to find out about it first because Amara got dragged out of the jail cell ahead of everybody else and got to have that nice little witty banter with the Emperor. Um, and we kind of got a little bit of a revelation with how Amara fits in with that whole mess.
And then we had our first character death in the podcast, was when the Emperor killed Amara. Um, once again, we had that discussion above-table, because character death is one of those things, at least for our table, it’s maybe, but first we got to talk about it first to make sure it actually has meaning and all of that.
Wren: Was that a death, though? I thought that was just being knocked unconscious.
Kappa: I read it as being ambiguous.
Dax: Okay, yes. That’s a good point. You were out of all of your Strain, right?
Wren: No, I had taken all of my Wounds and I hadn’t- I hadn’t- I didn’t roll the “You’re dead” on the critical table.
Sebastian: Ooooooh, okay.
Dax: Yes, you didn’t actually - okay! That’s a fair point. You didn’t actually die but we still talked about it.
Sebastian: It was treated as a character death in a narrative sense, because that was the trigger for the consciousness switch. No?
Wren: Yeah. Seemed like a good time to facilitate that.
Dax: Yeah. So, like, and that’s probably why in my head I was recognizing it as a character death, because there was that switch back at that point. But, also, it was one of those instances where you took a fuckton of wounds and were just down for the count!
Kappa: Yeah.
Dax: Wren, any- do you have - or anybody, wanna chime in on the whole backstory reveal and killing of Amara, quote-unquote. And that whole bit. Also, the escape from the hideout, which was, honestly, I wish we had in a cinematic, because y’all described it and decided to make a cinematic out of it with all of the explosions and everything.
Kappa: Yeah, I mean, that Amara getting deleted.
Sebastian: [laughing] Deleted!
Kappa: Yeah, Amara getting Alt F4’d. I remember that we had specifically cut to Rou and Trix and Amara so that how it happened would be that Rou would be able to witness it and have a very visceral reaction to it. I think that was the longest in game that Rou has been in his wolf form. We got to see Rou angry again. Or, like, just as primal as he’s been - as he’s ever been! So, I think that was very interesting and then we also had the aftermath of that between Trix and Rou. It was a good time, the resolution of this whole reveal, because Rou wasn’t there. Needing answers led to that moment. I think that we crafted a very - a lot of moving parts in an intricate clock. I think it worked out well.
Wren: It was definitely an interesting interaction between the two because I vaguely recall Trix being of the mind to try and explain themselves right away and Rou was like, “We don’t got time for this right now!” and just beating feet. It was definitely a tense dynamic between the characters as one definitely wants to try and reason out what’s happening and why things look the way they look and the other is just not buying into it at the moment because there were more pressing matters to look into.
Sebastian: I mean, Trix also did use that to dodge the question a few times. Um, because I do remember that I was like, I have to deal with this Eight/Amara situation, so, maybe don’t ask me questions right now. Also, I know that I tried to do some form of repair on Eight-slash-Amara. But, I was going through Eight’s toolkit being like, “I have no idea” and I don’t think I’ve seen Eight self-repair, so I’m going to try this and completely fail to do it.
Dax: It was great, though, because it showed that dedication. I might be partially responsible for this! So I want to be the one to fix this. So, I thought that was great. I also liked Trix attempting to help during the whole situation by shooting that bomb arrow and kick up dust and stuff. And more or less giving themselves away. I think, overall, that whole episode between the reveal and having to deal with the party dynamics and the escape from the hideout, I think you all contributed very convincingly to that narrative and it felt like there was actually a dynamic.
Because, let’s be honest. If you’re doing a tabletop roleplaying game for fun or you’re doing it as a performance, either way, there is some element of player versus character knowledge. And as players, we know that we have a story to tell and we’re going to be continuing to play after this. You want the characters to, kind of, work out and do what they gotta do. How do you get the characters to do that convincingly?
You know, instead of just, “Well, you totally just betrayed us, but we have a job to do, so let’s just forget that ever happened!” Well, that never actually works in real life or at a table. So, I think all of you contributed to that. Moving that piece and getting past it in a convincing way where, I’m not going to lie, if Amara ever comes back, I’d love to see how that reaction goes. As far as Amara is concerned, Trix is the bad guy!
Sebastian: Yeah.
Dax: I don’t know, we’ll see if that ever comes up!
Sebastian: I think it also helped that the cult called Trix on their bullshit and were just like, “Well, we’re going to go over here to somewhere safe and we don’t trust you” and so I was like, well, I guess I’m going this way, then!
Dax: Yeah and I felt - I'm not going to lie - I did have this pang because knowing kind of what Trix’s ultimate goal is, as a GM, I had that pang of “I’m so sorry, Sebastian, but I gotta’ have them do their grand escape!” You know, while the -
Sebastian: Yeah. And they can’t take me with them, because…
Dax: Yeah! So, like, I felt bad, but at the same time, it’s like well, it wouldn’t be very satisfying if you got to do what you wanted to do right off the bat, right?
Kappa: Yeah.
Wren: Mhmm.
Sebastian: Exactly. I also didn’t have my character try because the Emperor was surrounded by guards and also this very powerful, scary dragon-wizard man.
Wren: And none of them trusted you.
Sebastian: Yeah, no. But it was fun for me to kind of play with, briefly, an advantage and then lose it very quickly.
Dax: Which leads us into our first NPC adoption! And, yes, this actually was a first for the party. Faerlin, being introduced by a story point, watching…
Sebastian: Yeah, Kappa, that was your idea! It was good!
Kappa: Yeah, yeah.
Dax: So, as a GM, I’ve seen some of it behind the scenes, but I want to know, what are our thoughts on Faerlin right now as players, as characters, you know? What are we feeling with this NPC? Because I want to know what vibes I’ve been giving off with them. Wow, Kappa. That face…[laughs]
Kappa: I feel that Rou wants to believe the best out of Faerlin. That is his M.O. and has been his M.O. for the past five seasons…four seasons? Since Rou has been around. But spending time with Trix has opened up Rou’s considerations that people might just - aren’t - have the potential to be real shit. You know? Act nice, but have completely vile motives and goals.
Wren: Mhmm.
Kappa: And so, there is that seed in the back of Rou’s mind that maybe this person might not be all that great. I have no reason to believe otherwise, other than the fact of where we picked them up. Or, the conditions of which we brought them in, so, I have made it a point in breaks between the action, during watches, for Rou to kind of probe Faerlin to see what kind of person they are. Trying to be inconspicuous, trying to be low stakes, but searching just in case.
I don’t know if this is intentional of Rou, but part of that could be like looking for a moment to slip up, for the mask to fall down. I don’t know if Rou is that intentional about it. Maybe I’m still deciding whether or not if he’s still trying to be naïve, but…or still hopeful but less naïve about it, you know?
Sebastian: So, I as a player really enjoy having him in the party. Uh, mostly because it’s making Trix as a character very uncomfortable because Trix has tried to do a degree of similar probing and has been extremely unsuccessful because Faerlin keeps being like “No.”
Faerlin is very duty and responsibility-oriented and has this kind of cultural, long cultural history of just being involved with Trix’s family and serving Trix’s family. And Trix is like, no, wait, I’m trying to talk to you as a person and not, like, as a servant. And Faerlin is like no, to you, I am a servant. And so, we’re not really- Trix has not been able to get anywhere with that. So, It’s been interesting but also Trix is kind of surprised because Faerlin is working for them seemingly voluntarily, because Trix does not have money to pay them because we lost all of our money in the escape -
Dax: But you promised -
Sebastian: I promised! And Trix intends to fulfill this, but also, we have no money and I do want to point out that after we stole a bunch of money last season, I took a talent called “Bought Info” and it means that I can pay a dollar amount multiplied by the difficulty times fifty to automatically succeed on a knowledge check because that would represent me bribing someone to tell me shit.
Dax: Yep. Mhmm.
Sebastian: [laughing] I have not been able to use it and I don’t think I’m going to get to use it because I was like, wait, we have $16,000 each. I’m going to be able to do this! Haven’t been able to do it yet.
Dax: Especially because most of your money was paper and was destroyed in the explosion.
Kappa: It burned up!
Sebastian: Yep, it was very flammable because of our success in blowing things up! But I just want to point that out for the audience because I think that’s funny because I was like, okay, at some point I’m gonna get to bribe somebody.
Dax: I cannot wait for that to happen in Season Six, for, like, Trix to use that opportunity to bribe somebody. I cannot wait.
Sebastian: That is a wish that I have going forward. I would, in fact, like to be able to use that at least once. I want to do the slide a $20 bill across the table, perchance.
[Wren laughs]
Sebastian: Yeah, but, essentially, Trix is very surprised that Faerlin is continuing to work because to their mind, Trix is like, I wouldn’t work for that kind of deal. It’s a shit deal! How do you know that this person, who clearly has no money right now, has any means of making money? I think it will be interesting to see how that relationship evolves.
Dax: I mean, you look well-fed, so, clearly you are able to make some sort of money!
Sebastian: Yes, but Faerlin clearly doesn’t know anything about Trix as a person, other than their lineage, really. So…
Dax: That’s all they need to know.
Wren: That’s all that matters…apparently?
Sebastian: Exactly! And, like, Faerlin cut off his own finger to save Trix from having to do that and Trix is like, that’s a scary degree of loyalty! Trix is just like, “Interesting, I need to figure out what to do with this, exactly.”
Dax: So, I do enjoy that that is the line. “Oh, you cut off a small appendage. You are scarily loyal. I don’t know how to feel about that!”
Sebastian: Yeah, I mean, because Trix is not - it was interesting having Ryomasa in as a guest to talk about Trix’s loyalty issues. That was fun and I think I could tie in.
Dax: Yeah! And that was the next piece that I was going to get to. Wren, do you have any thoughts on Faerlin before we hop into Jon as a guest?
Wren: Yeah, um, so, echoing Sebastian’s comments: I do enjoy having the NPC along for the ride because it’s definitely made some entertaining interactions. Some great RP between the various other players… As a player character, Eight is indifferent to this character.
Sebastian: [quietly] Former enemy Faerlin.
Wren: As evidenced by the fact that they do, in fact, call Faerlin “Former enemy Faerlin”.
Dax: Not best friend! Very important distinction.
Sebastian: Because we’re best friend Rou and best friend Trix, right?
Wren: So, I suppose that largely that shows even though Eight’s kind of indifferent, I think Eight is leaning towards not trusting this individual. By virtue of the fact that they do not see them as a friend?
Dax: Interesting, okay.
Wren: Eight has not made an effort to speak to this character in the sessions we have had. Not to say that Eight hasn’t spoken to Faerlin, but usually when we do RP moments I’ll spring on the opportunity to talk to a character like that. But I haven’t really done it. Um, and that might be a little bit of bleed from me because, I, as a player, absolutely do not fucking trust this NPC as far as anything is concerned. I think that Faerlin is playing a long con, keeping an eye on the Emperor’s kin to make sure that there is nothing untoward going to happen to their true master.
So, I think that this pinky cutting is a little bit of a red herring, as it were, and the promise of money and, you know, loyalty to their true employer far outweighs any loyalty they might display toward Trix as a whole. So, I am very curious to see just when and how we get betrayed in the sixth season. So…
Dax: Just a very different range of emotions from all three of you. I got “does not trust as far as you could proverbially throw him” to “I am hopeful that this NPC means what they mean” and you’ve got “this whole situation makes me uncomfortable” smack dab in the middle.
[everyone laughs]
Kappa: I owe this person money.
Sebastian: Yeah…I mean, if Faerlin does betray us, Trix is going to be like, “You know, that was a good one. Like I- fair enough!” Because, ultimately, they do have this history of thief-to-thief, like, scoundrel-to-scoundrel, sure. I can respect that.
Kappa: I hate what you did, but I can respect your game.
[Wren laughing]
Dax and Sebastian: Pretty much!
Sebastian: Yeah, so that will be their reaction if that happens. And then Trix will be like, okay, first of all hurray, I love to not be in debt, like.
Wren: Yeah, right? Silver linings.
Sebastian: We’ll see what happens.
Dax: We’ll see what happens. Who knows, I have something in mind for this character. But, who knows, maybe something will happen among the interactions with the three of you that may change the course of what that plan is? We don’t know what that is yet. Nothing is set in stone. It’s all a living organism at this point. Speaking of “living organism”, we had our first cyborg guest on the show. Not as a player. Jon is 100% human.
Wren: Are we sure?
Dax: He might argue otherwise. [laughs] Yaw hee!
Kappa: I have my doubts. I saw Jon last week and I’m still unsure.
Sebastian: Yeah! [laughing]
Dax: You have your doubts?
Sebastian: There’s something uncanny about him, you know?
Dax: But, yeah. They came in as someone from Trix’s backstory and that was the whole delving into the desert. Y’all got to fight a frickin’ dropship!
Sebastian: It was great.
Dax: Your first flying thing. Giant sand scorpions. You had the sandworm that ate Trix!
Sebastian: The sandworm was so good!
Dax: You found out that there was a hit put out on you from the mayor in Sparrow’s Landing.
Sebastian: Ah, yes. The consequence of our actions -
Dax: Of your actions from Season Four!
Sebastian: Well, well, well…
Wren: Heck that guy!
Sebastian: Yeah. I really liked having Jon on the show because, thematically, it worked with some of the themes we raised last season with Sea coming on as Ari and Eight’s underlying concern that their friends are going to leave one day. And to have a character come in and be like, well, “You know that Trix is really unreliable and they’re totally going to leave you one day!” was really fun to play with.
Kappa: I thought it was a really great discussion of robotics and synthetic beings.
Dax: Isaac Asimov would not have approved of this podcast, but that’s okay.
Kappa: I feel like he would!
Sebastian: The sleep discussion was really interesting. Them trying to sleep and trying to imagine what it would be like to sleep and to understand what a dream is. That was really interesting.
Dax: Jon was killing me. I literally just flop back into the sand and I’m staring up at the sky. It’s like, I’m asleep, it’s fine. It’s like, no. No you’re not!
Wren: This is what sleeping is! Yeah, no, I love the existential questions that cyborgs and robot characters get to bring in. Those kinds of themes are always pieces of literature that I’ve enjoyed toying with in my history. So, that’s partially why I was drawn to playing Eight in the first place. Having another player to riff off of those themes was definitely a little bit of a boon.
Dax: What makes you human? What really separates human from machine.
Wren: Mhmm.
Dax: But, oh my god, watching Jon pull threads from Trix’s backstory.
Kappa: Right?
Dax: Sebastian and Jon got to work a little bit back and forth behind-the-scenes to set up, like, this is how I know you. But it’s always great as the GM to watch the guests come in and I’ve said this before in other talkbacks, but it’s great to watch them come in with this, like, tiny little thread connection to the player and watching them and the player that they’re here for to really go back and forth and add that, and make layers and layers into that story when it starts from practically nothing. That whole thing was so different. Oh, oh, and then Rou revealing that Trix is actually royalty to Jon’s character?
[Wren and Sebastian laugh]
Sebastian: Oh, that was funny! That was very funny! I said, well, I’m going to go back to sleep and then Regi was like oh no you’re not, I have questions! And I was like fuck, there’s no getting out of this one, sure.
Dax: But it was perfect because, you know, I think we mentioned it in the episodes.
Sebastian: It was ripe for it.
Dax: It was perfect because we had Eight who accidentally revealed to Trix that Rou was a werewolf. You had Rou accidentally revealing to Regi that Trix is royalty. So now it’s just a matter of -
Sebastian: We’re even now. It’s okay.
Dax: Yeah, it’s fine!
Kappa: Yeah. As a player, I completely forgot, you know? If I had remembered that, I would have - I feel like it would have been great to be like, “Oh no, I accidentally revealed a secret identity portion of…” You know? How terrible! [sarcastically] Oops. My bad.
[Wren and Sebastian laughing]
Sebastian: Well, you know, at least Trix had the decency to at least pretend to be surprised, because Eight was casually like, you know, Rou’s wolf pack!
Dax: Rou has a tail!
Sebastian: Yeah. Then Rou came back and Trix was like what you’re a werewolf? I had no idea! And instantly it was like, nah, it’s fine.
Kappa: Yeah. It was good. That was a good moment.
Dax: It was so good, yeah, I just learned that Trix is royalty. I’m sorry, what?
Sebastian: Yeah.
Dax: Oooooooh.
Sebastian: Yeah. Especially because Trix has made such a big deal out of being, like, I fell in with criminal gangs and I hate the ruling class. It’s just, yeah, interesting because I don’t think that I, as a player, have fully made the connection between this is how Trix became radicalized, essentially. I think I’m looking forward to exploring some of that as we go forward.
Dax: I just gotta find a scene that will piss you off and have that come to light in a fit of anger and rage.
Sebastian: Please, I’m so ready! I have explosive arrows. I’m so ready to blow shit up!
Dax: Then, in contrast, we immediately had Stephen, known as The BadDM, the DM of Faeforge Academy.
Sebastian: Oooh, the sweetest little Gnome!
Dax: Come in as the sweetest Gnome that’s just gotten the short end of the stick from THE Dragon. Mister Dragon. Our Dragon Wizard!
Wren: Tindal Windlewood!
Sebastian: Tindal Windlewood! I remember his name! It was so good!
Dax: Came in with the most big plot point because GM to GM, Stephen wouldn’t let me have him as a guest if he couldn’t give some sort of plot point! I love him to death, but, like, I always want my guests to come in and do their own thing. But he was like “No! I’m doing a plot point!” Stephen came in and actually had one of the Seven Swords and that was a fun, little reveal. But, uh, oh my god. Tindal was so much more than I thought Stephen was going to bring in, like, not going to lie.
Sebastian: No, he was so cute! And he had a very coherent character arc in the two sessions. I was really impressed with how Stephen handled that!
Dax: It was very sweet that Rou gave over the magic sword. Your light sword.
Sebastian: To feed him? Yeah.
Dax: Um, so, as a spoiler, which we did warn you about. So, I guess that it’s only fair that there be really spoilery spoiler thing…
Kappa: Here’s a second spoiler warning for you! Get out if you don’t want it!
Dax: If you’ve gotten this far and dealt with spoilers, you’re fine at this point. Tindal had been cursed by The Dragon to no longer be able to consume food as you and I would but is now cursed to feed off of magic. In a continent where there is very little magic to be found, you’re basically sentencing someone to death, right? A slow, agonizing death.
So, the group was able to help Tindal, who also secondarily was cursed with carrying this magic bracelet on their person, which carried the third Seven Sword that the group had been more, I guess, looking for? Not really actively searching. A lot of these things have just been thrown at you into the story.
Sebastian: Yeah, it’s been something that’s been on our radar. But without kind of clues as to where they might be, it’s not really possible for us to actively search. But I also do want to point out that the reason for the Dragon’s curse was because Tindal was working in his family’s restaurant and accidentally spilled a drink on him. The Dragon is a petty motherfucker! Like, he’s an [in nasally voice] “I want to speak to the manager!”
Dax: The Dragon is a Karen, okay?
Sebastian: Yeah.
Dax: The smallest inconvenience, I will make this hell for you! [sighs] Yeah. I 100% agree. Two episodes and Tindal had such a great effect. And maybe someday we’ll see Tindal again and be able to help out with that. Because you all were doing so good trying to help him finish his curse and inadvertently made it worse by getting the bracelet off of him.
Kappa: Mhmm.
Sebastian: Yeah, it was because he kind of thought that getting the bracelet off would end the curse and, uh…not exactly.
Dax: Didn’t quite work that way.
Wren: Who could have guessed that it was two separate curses?
Dax: Who could have known? So then we get to the end of the season and y’all finally reached the headquarters for the Order of Tannyth. You went through some - a back door, essentially - in the side of the mountain. You had to leave that poor cart out in the desert. I am pretty sure you will never see it again.
Sebastian: Oh, but the deposit!
[everyone laughs]
Dax: The deposit that you would never get anyway!
Sebastian: No, it’s okay. It’s just that, was it because of Regi shooting it that -
Dax: It’s full of bullet holes. One of the wheels has been replaced with a gear from the dropship.
Sebastian: [Sighs] Yeah, we tried so hard to fix it. Like…it was useful but now we don’t have any stuff, so I guess we don’t need it anyways? We lost -
Kappa: Where did we get it from? Was it Sparrow’s Landing?
Sebastian: It was Sparrow’s Landing, because we -
Kappa: We’re never returning to Sparrow’s Landing. That’s it!
Sebastian: I mean, they think that we’re dead because.. because Regi took the Adar-Kai finger back to them and so -
Dax: And the finger from one of his own men and Eight detached a digit. So…
Wren: [high-pitched voice] My finger!
Dax: You only have two fingers on one hand now.
Wren: [normal voice] Because I have ninja turtle hands!
Dax: Oh no, you have three because you have four fingers.
Wren: Yeah.
Kappa: You have the three and then the thumb.
Sebastian: Yeah.
Wren: Yeah. You gotta have them thumbs!
Sebastian: Yeah. Opposable thumbs are useful.
Dax: Got into the stronghold, the actual stronghold that Eight has been working to get to since Season One and Rou’s been roped into since Season Two.
Kappa: I learned what an oubliette is.
Dax: Yup, you learned what an oubliette is…
Sebastian: So, Faerlin is our guide at the moment, which is really interesting! Like, we did ask, “So what was your involvement in this dungeon?” and they were like, “Sometimes I got punished by having to feed the dragon monster, dragon-dragon.”
Dax: Yeah. The big old flying dragon. Yeah. You have this NPC that literally tells you that it’s supposed to be a back door. You get partway through the back door and you get tossed into an oubliette.
Which, for those of you who don’t know what an oubliette is, it’s a place where you put people to forget about them. And as - was very evidently the case - by all of the rotting corpses that the group found themselves in and amongst.
Wren: Yeah, we’re talking literally. Not figuratively or metaphorically or any other way.
Dax: Yeah. But y’all figured your way out! And poor Jimothy and Bessie are being dragged along, as they always are.
Wren: Well, we’re not leaving them in the oubliette!
Dax: Well, no! But I, just, it always amazes me: we’re not going to leave the horses with the carriage! We’re going to drag the horses with us.
Wren: Yeah, they can hang out at the water cooler.
Kappa: Listen, when we find a break room, we’ll put them in the break room and then we’ll come back.
Sebastian: Yeah, they can stay somewhere safe. As safe as an enemy-laden dungeon is.
Dax: The employee lounge?
Sebastian: We solved some puzzles and disarmed some traps!
Dax: Yeah, you disarmed some traps, you solved some puzzles, you skirted around the dragon’s sleeping chambers! There was a chase that ensued, because despite the stealth bubble…
Sebastian: We stealthed!
Dax: Something triggered the dragon to wake up and chase you down the hall. But you all managed to not get eaten or burned alive! And that’s kind of where we ended the season. Y’all arriving outside of where the dragon’s chambers are. Overlooking the pathway and jagged chasm that Rou and Eight had seen at the end of Season Two in Liam’s manor. No, that was Season Three! Season Three!
Sebastian: That’s a throwback!
Dax: This bright, green light suddenly shot up from the stronghold up towards the..I’m going to put sky in air quotes, because it’s not really the sky. It’s an enchanted ceiling to look and mimic the sky outside. And you saw a whole bunch of guards exiting the stronghold and that’s kind of where we left y’all off. How are we feeling about that cliffhanger?
Sebastian: Eager to get back into it!
Wren: Could be more cliff-hangery.
[Kappa laughs]
Dax: Wow, Wren.
Wren: But, yeah. Like Sebastian said, eager to get back into it.
Sebastian: Hopefully, quickly! Before the guards come back! Because, uh…
Kappa: Yeah, no, same! I don’t know if you could tell, but I’ve been watching a bunch of Lord of the Rings recently. I think it’s very- the equivalent of the first Peter Jackson movie where Sam and Frodo crest the hill and it’s the worst weather that they’re about to enter. Like, fire, brimstone, lightning and it just seems hopeless. But, knowing our group, it’s going to be such a fun re-entry into the narrative. Can’t wait to see what’s going on! I want to know what that light is…
Sebastian: I’m excited to like, maybe, unlock some doors, disarm some traps and do typical rogue shit! Yeah. “Independent contracting.” Except that I’m not being contracted because nobody’s paying me for this! Hopefully we’ll find a treasure chest in payment or something, that would be great. Find a treasure chest and then instantly hand it to Faerlin!
Dax: Yeah, but then you’ll have the dynamic of “Oh, no! I can’t accept this because this belongs to the Emperor, master!” Wouldn’t that just be a stick in your craw?
[Sebastian and Kappa laugh]
Sebastian: Yeah, well…and I…it would be so annoying and then I would be like, what happens if, in theory, the Emperor were to perish under terrible circumstances? What would happen? Like, and uh, his only other living- his immediate successors are locked away on an island somewhere and, geographically speaking, I am the closest one to him and, you know?
Dax: Purely hypothetical!
Sebastian: Theoretically.
[Kappa laughs]
Wren: Hypothetically.
Dax: Might I also play a little bit of the devil on the shoulder here that you also have thousands of children that potentially are held prisoner at this stronghold.
Kappa: Was it thousands?
Wren: Yeah.
Sebastian: Thousands?!
Dax: How are you planning on getting them home?
Kappa: I always forget just how many kids -
Wren: It’s a lot of kids.
Sebastian: Exactly, we’ll have to, kind of, commandeer the Emperor’s fleet or something, assuming that he has one.
Kappa: Yeah, because in my head it was like a few dozen.
Wren: [softly] No.
Sebastian: I thought it was like a kindergarten class! Shit!
[Kappa and Dax laughing]
Wren: It’s a lot!
Dax: Nope, it was a huge, annual festival!
Wren: With kids from all over the continent coming to the city.
Kappa: Ah!
Sebastian: Crap, okay! But, if the Emperor is to die under mysterious and tragic and purely unavoidable circumstances, we might be able to commandeer his fleet.
Dax: Once again, purely hypothetical.
Sebastian: Yes, hypothetically.
Kappa: Did you name your weapons “unfortunate circumstances”? Is that what’s going on?
[Dax laughs]
Sebastian: Yeah, I mean, but there’s a lot of hazards in this dungeon and if one of the many hazards- if I happen to be holding one of the many hazards, then who’s to say…No, I mean fully, Trix intends to kill him, so we’ll see.
Kappa: We still haven’t come up with a group name and I think “hazards” is a good contender! [laughs]
Dax: I was literally just going to ask if you were going to propose “unfortunate circumstances”?
Kappa: Yeah, we are “Hazards of Unfortunate Circumstance” and you will hear our roar!
Sebastian: We can be “Hazards of Circumstance”! That could be fun!
Kappa: Ooh.
Wren: “Occupational Hazards”
Sebastian: Yeah, here’s how we roll!
Wren: Here’s a wish: crushing the dragon with a dragon!
Dax: Do, like, a Lord Farquaad thing on him? Get the dragon to eat him?
Wren: No, just smoosh him. Smoosh him with it. Kill both and have the dragon body fall on top of him. I dunno, I just really wanna see what’s inside of his gross, yellow, bald head.
Dax: Ooh.
Wren: He’s a jerk!
Kappa: Little bit.
Sebastian: I mean, you did describe him as a very, kind of, unsettling figure.
Dax: Jaundiced with brown teeth. Very imposing. Deep voice. Creepy guy.
Wren: Like a Mr. Burns.
Sebastian: [imitating Mr. Burns from The Simpsons] Excellent.
Kappa: Like, you give Mr. Burns the teeth of Leo DiCaprio’s character from Django…
Sebastian: [normal voice] Okay, you have a very specific image in your- yeah. I was just going to say that if Mr. Burns had access to a dragon it’s “Smithers, release the dragon!”
Wren: I’m pretty sure there’s a joke from the Simpsons actually in there in that thread. [laughs]
Dax: Probably. Yeah, so there’s lots to pick up on! You’re going to be starting in on the action in Season Six. The last thing we’re going to just touch base on before we sign off from this talkback is the other big event that happened for us this year was that we got three award nominations from New Jersey Webfest this year!
Kappa: Woo! Yeah!
Sebastian: Yeah! We’re nominated! Oh my god! That means that somebody listened to our show and really liked it and thought it was deserving of consideration for an honor. I think that’s pretty cool!
Dax and Wren: Yeah!
Kappa: No, yeah! Seriously, I mean, we talked about this before we started recording, but I really wish that we could have been there to see people’s reactions or talk to folks who might have been able - or might have actually been forwarding us along in the process. Uh, advance us along in the process. Yeah, it’s such an honor and even being nominated was a triumph because as soon as I saw who else we were up against I was like, for sure, these productions are great. But to be considered among them? You know is, it’s hugely, hugely a proud moment for us!
Dax: Yeah.
Kappa: Grateful that we were considered!
Dax: And for those of you who aren’t potentially on Twitter and who might not have seen the nominations or are not aware of what New Jersey Webfest is, especially since I don’t really know how long the award nominations list is actually up on the website. We were nominated for “Best Ensemble Cast”, we were nominated for “Best GM” -
Kappa: Yeah!
Dax: And we were nominated for “Best Outstanding Fantasy AP”.
Kappa: Wow.
Dax: So, we had some pretty big nominations and, you know, I’ll second what everybody else has already said here: it was a huge thing to be nominated. While we didn’t win, I’m still floored that we got the nomination because, especially like, I’m not going to lie, from my perspective as “Best GM”, never thought that ever would have been something I’d be considered for! I’ve been doing this for a while, but I know that there are a lot better GM’s out there. I know that there are a lot of people that excel in places that I consider, like, a weakness. You know? So, for me, that was just, like, huge.
And my cast absolutely deserved that “Best Ensemble Cast” nomination. They put in a lot of work. And if you haven’t really listened to the podcast and this is your first time listening to us, go back and actually listen to the episodes! They do a great job and they’re fun to listen to! Because I have to listen to these over and over again when Wren and I are doing the editing process, so…
You know, it’s enjoyable to actually listen to and play. But that was big! That was big and I was super, super happy and grateful to be included among the great names that we were sitting up against for this year, so. This year being 2024, for those listening. Any other thoughts or other things I maybe didn’t cover during this talkback that y’all want to address?
Kappa: We hit 5,000 downloads this season and, at the last update we got, recently, was that we just surpassed 8,000?
Dax: As of the time of this recording, we are at less than 40 downloads away from hitting 8,000.
Kappa: Okay. There you go, we’re coming up fast on 8,000. Which means 10,000 is right around the corner!
Sebastian: Yeah!
Kappa: That was fast! Thank you, everyone, for listening! But, seriously. That means a lot to us!
Sebastian: Thank you!
Dax: We had 5,000 downloads in this season alone. Nearly. Like, that’s huge! That’s huge for a single season!
Wren: We’re hitting our stride!
Dax: We’re hitting our stride!
Kappa: Yeah, that’s something that we’re incredibly proud of and wanted to say thank you for listening and coming along with us!
Dax: Yeah. We hope you’re enjoying the ride as much as we are! I assume you are because you’re listening! But thank you. We certainly do not take your downloads, your streams for granted.
Wren: I suppose the only other thing we can talk about or, at least, mention, is that we appeared on Chaotic Wholesome and did a bit of a verbal, visual talkback!
Dax: Chaotic Wholesome! Yes!
Wren: Check out their backlog of what they do. They talk to a bunch of folks in the TTRPG AP space and ask questions. So, you can -
Sebastian: That was really fun!
Wren: You can see us there!
Dax: Yeah, that’s- I completely forgot about external media! Thank you so much, Wren, for bringing them up. They’re, as Wren said, the backlog has some really great people. They’re doing really great stuff over there. Go support their channel and check them out and go check out our little chat that we did with them! We talk about some good things that you don’t normally get to hear in the talkbacks that we record for ourselves, so.
Kappa: And, uh, we didn’t do audience Q&A here, but follow us on socials and chat with us there!
Sebastian: Please do. Also, ask us any questions. At any given time, I am ready to go off about my character. So, please!
Dax: Yeah! Hell, tag us on Bluesky, maybe on Twitter? We’re still there for the time being.
Sebastian: I’m cross-posting. I’m on both, yeah. Very much.
Kappa: I’m on both now! I finally understand and can do Bluesky without anxiety.
Dax: Yeah, you’ll find the links to where you can find all of us, including the podcast, in the episode notes and credits that are on Simplecast that feed into all except for Apple podcast, for some weird reason- it will feed into all of your favorite podcasting apps.
Be sure to check us out, tag us with questions, with comments. Tell us, you know, what you really thought about an episode when it goes live! We’ll respond to you, for sure! And, who knows? Maybe if we hit 10,000 downloads this upcoming season, maybe there will be a special thing that the cast will do? We will see!
Sebastian: We’ll do a special thing!
Kappa: Yeah.
Sebastian: I’m down to do a special thing!
Wren: And if you listen, give us a review. We love that!
Dax: Yeah, actually, that’s the best way to share your favorite podcasts! Give them a review, give them 5-stars. You know? Share them with your friends and family!
Kappa: It really helps us out, truly!
Wren: I know I do, but mine doesn’t listen.
Dax: Oh, hah! Your family is a different demographic than our normal audience.
Wren: I know.
[everyone laughs]
Dax: But, again. Thanks, y’all and we’ll see you very soon for Season Six!
Music fades out [01:18:20]
Dax: Thanks for listening! We hope you’ll join us next time, but in the interim, follow us on Twitter and Bluesky at RoadsUncharted.
We use the Genesys RPG system published by Fantasy Flight Games and music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
The Roads Uncharted podcast is GM’d and produced by Dax, who you can find on Twitter at GM_Dax and Blusky at GMDax.
Rou is played by Kappa and you can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at TheKappaChris.
Eight is played by Wren, who also composed the music for our opening theme. Follow them on Twitter and Bluesky at ThornyDryad.
Trix is played by Sebastian and you can follow them on Twitter and Bluesky at sebastianyue.