C01 - Ep. 52.5 - Paralyte's Poison - Between The Tales
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This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

This is a Rooster Teeth production.

I think kyborgs plus his bonus to attack is so high that he automatically seems he's going to hit every time. Yeah, he doesn't miss very often. So once he drops Seeking Arrow, Micah, lots of cover.

Lots of cover. All enemies behind full cover. Like, oh, if you had a seeking arrow, this would be a no-brainer. Hey, everyone, welcome to... Oh, we starting? Yeah, Between the Tales. We got a supplemental episode of Tales of the Stinky... Tales from the Stinky Dragon here. This shouldn't be Between the Tales because we're called Stinky Dragon. It should be Between the Cheeks. It's because our words come out from between our cheeks when we talk. Yeah, what were you guys thinking? And I've got bad breath right now. I fart a lot. That's what I was thinking about. Oh.

I've got coffee breath. Uh,

we're here, we're going to be doing a recap of the story so far. And if the party has earned it, they may be entitled to level up. We'll deal with that here in just a bit. After I do our recap, I like these episodes because if someone has not been listening to the entire story so far, they want to jump in. This is a perfect time. We just wrapped up one arc. We're about to go into a new one. I would highly recommend you listen to all the old episodes. But if you want to save time and cheat a little bit, you can listen to our recap here and just jump in. At this point, oh, my voice cracked.

At this point, it's... And just listen to our new episodes from here on out. Yeah.

So the story started by our job hunting adventurers, Kyborg the Arcane Archer, Bart the Bard, Mud the Druid, and Gum Gum the Wizard Barbarian, all arrived at Boulderay where they were looking to become interns for a group of heroes known as the Infinites. Y'all remember that? That was so long ago. It was like a year ago. It was a year ago. Almost exactly. Yeah, those were the days. Are we like more powerful than the Infinites at this point? I mean, based off what's happened in the story, I would say yes. It's been that way for a while. Mm-hmm.

Well, not if they have their goodies. Yeah, but if the ones that they stole. They're just misunderstood. No, they are the Hawkeye and Iron Man, and we're like the Thors and Captain Marvels where we're like, well, except for Bowie McBowerson over here. There's some of us who like have like,

magic and superpowers without holding something. Yeah. Blaine didn't look very happy at that comment. What are you saying? I will say, Paralite was very easily handling the four of you in our last episode. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, Paralite very easily handled one individual by touching him. Two of you. Well, we'll get to it, but

Not only was Gum Gum paralyzed, but she disarmed Kyborg, his best weapon. Oh, I have a sword and a shield. I was fine. My AC was so high. I'm getting ahead of ourselves. I promised myself I wasn't going to do this. Here we are. Anyway, the story started when our job hunting adventurers arrived in Boulderay, where they met and fought, or Kyborg fought Brink Tussler, his nemesis. Preciously.

You all found yourself offered jobs as Infinite interns, and the Infinites are a group of mighty adventurers known far and wide for their feats of heroism, with one slight catch unbeknownst to the public.

They've gone missing and they were kidnapped by the mysterious Paralite, who we were just talking about. You all rescued the Infinite's brilliant gadgeteer, Dr. Ahem, from one of his own inventions. You were put to the test and guided by Sordo, the Living Sphere, training your abilities in order to help find the four Infinites, Aleve the Amender, Sleek the Symphonious, Spectral the Surreptitious, and Grizzly the Groundbreaker. You all were sent away on your first mission. You were sent to the small desert town of... Does anyone remember the name? Small desert town of...

No, I do know it. Pius Pass! There it is! Woo! Ow. Oh my god. Can we turn the mics down? Just on plain. What are you talking about? The small desert town of Pius Pass to pick up a package for Dr. M. It's Friday. Listen, I'm uncassided, alright? Uncassided? Uncassided. Uncassided.

He's got a very empty cold brew in front of him. I think he might be a little wired. When you all arrived at Pious Pass, you found yourselves tasked with helping rescue the town cleric Mother Abby from jail after being blamed for a mysterious curse spreading throughout the town and slowly killing its residents. His name is Murr. Your rock-collected stud. His name is Murr. His name is Murr. Your fearless fear boggles.

After a Bardbershop Quartet haircut, pawn shop break-in, and zombie jailbreak, the interns chase down the sheriff to reveal Mother Abby's true identity, Aleve the Amender, a brainwashed infanite turned evil and poisoning the town. Just as the interns are about to stop Aleve, Paralite arrives, takes the credit for saving the town, chased out and disgraced, the interns head back to Boulderay, one infanite in tow, but not before Mud is given a prophecy from a local about not being able to run away from his past.

I forgot about that. It's because nothing came of it. Yet. So you think. Yet. It's been a while. Have you right where I want you? Yeah, it's been a while. I feel it's a good time to mention, Micah's always here with us, the writer for Tales from the Stinky Dragon. And editor.

He normally doesn't have a microphone when we're taping Stinky Dragon, but he's here. That's him. Hello, Micah. Hello. He's also now in person with us. Before, we were all doing this remotely, and now Micah is in Austin with us. That's right. He's able to see this madness in person. John and Micah wear name tags so we can tell them apart. That's always been an issue. Because we look so much alike. Yeah, that's a good one, Micah.

For those listening, my brother is a tall, slender individual, and I'm a shorter, stockier, mustachioed man. Eh, you know. Potato, potato. All white guys look the same. We look the same. I'm just kidding. Only slightly. One of my favorite things to come out of Tales from the Stinky Dragon happened in this Pious Pass arc, which was when Blaine complained that Kyborg should be able to jump 10 feet without problems.

So we actually made Blaine attempt this. We loaded him up with 85 pounds of gear and had him try to run and jump 10 feet. And we filmed it. It's available on our TikTok and YouTube channel for Squad Team Force. If you check that out. Yeah, it's all over the socials. We also need to test the bow and arrow thing. I've gotten so many tweets about how... This is the funny thing about Stinky Dragon. I don't remember what we record.

ever. Like it, my brain is busy here. That's why we're doing a recap. Right. This is, the recaps are not only for you guys. This is mostly for us. Yeah. And so, but I love that people will send me tweets and sometimes I understand what they're agreeing with me on. Like some people, I got a lot of people saying like, I got your North reference, John. Love that Elijah Wood movie. And I'm like, thank you.

A lot of people are going at me saying that like what I was saying about holding jelly in leather was like right or something. So many tweets. I don't know what, I don't even know what they were referencing because I've forgotten what that argument is. There was a period of time where people were sending us pictures of their feet and D20s. And I was like, why am I seeing all these photos of people's feet and dice? I think I,

I think I need to, here's what's happening, is that I think it's funny to ask the audience to send us stuff or to like validate me, but then I forget these things I asked because weeks later, and then it's like, oh yeah, John asked the audience to send pictures of people rolling dice with their feet.

So speaking of audience interaction, absolutely. You should follow us at StinkyDragonPod on Twitter and Instagram. I saw an interesting tweet that was sent to us the other day specifically about the spell Thunderwave. Yeah.

Which, Bart, you've cast before, I believe. The interpretation we had, apparently one of the people who oversees Dungeons & Dragons made a tweet clarifying the text in the spell description. Okay. The way the spell description is phrased and the way we've been playing it, I interpreted it as...

It's a 15-foot cube originating from you, which is... It's like out in all directions. Right, seven and a half feet in every direction. The person at Wizards of the Coast who oversees D&D and, you know, is the arbiter of these kinds of things, says that the spell description is worded poorly. It's actually a 15-foot cube directly in front of you. That would make most sense. I have Thunder Wave as well. I haven't used it because I'm like, well, I got to be away from everybody. I also, yeah, I don't want to hurt my teammates who are usually behind me if I cast a strike. I always interpret it as like,

if you're surrounded by enemies and you want to get clear of attack opportunity. Yeah. But often, especially like Bart, isn't like in the middle of stuff ever. And neither is, like, unless I'm a beefy animal, I stay away as well. This is more of a, you're always a beefy animal, John. But if I'm a beefy animal, then I can't do the spells anyways. So for clarification, going forward, it's 15 feet from out in front of you. So it's like from you, seven and a half feet to your left, seven and a half feet to your right, but then 15 feet forward. Ah,

Excellent. That's a way better spell. Way better, yeah. Okay, cool. In my opinion, I think the AOE thing sucks, especially when you're amongst your party. But anyway, a little distracted, but please, you know, interact with us. We do read the interactions on social media. And also, one quick note too, if you guys ever hear us do something or test something in the game that you want to see us test in real life, like the 10-foot jump with 85 pounds, please tweet us. Like, we would love to film that stuff for social and make a... Write the content for us. No, just like,

Just like if something comes up. No, no, I'm fooling. Oh, no, no. Write the content for us. We're tired. We have so much to do. We're old now. So anyway, after you all failed at Pious Pass, Dr. Am split the interns up to help a leave of her ailments, finding a mix of medicine in the Elderpine Forest and her in breather at the local temple of Daya, who's the deity, deity of the realm. Deity.

After successfully stabilizing her, the interns head to their next mission, which is finding Sleek the Symphonious in the industrious city of Urbloom. See, that's where the season really fell off, and that's where the show lost. Oh my God. After arriving at a city in utter chaos, they come face to face with their rival Brink Tussler, dying with a message from the future.

find Brink in the past and work together to stop Sleek from freezing the city in time. Brink to the past. They are set back in time and begin working with past Brink in a city besieged by time, including stopping a sword-swinging wind elemental named Chanel, escaping a tyrannical cannibal named Hugh Manor and a T-Rex,

And dealing with a sexy, sexy aurochs who we'll never forget. All right, listen. Someone watched a lot of Beauty and the Beast when they were young. Leave him as the beast. Leave him as the beast. It conjured some old, long, repressed memories. No, they're not repressed. Alive and well. They're alive and well. I'm reading a Court of Thorns and Roses where there's some beast action going on in there. Fantastic.

Babe, I'm all about it. Is it a moment? Eventually, the... I have my screen. Eventually, the interns were able to successfully turn back time and take on Sleek the Infinite, but Paralite reveals herself once more to save the day, steal Sleek's magic loot, mortally wound one of the Brink Tusslers while capturing the other one and Sordo. The interns and Sleek escape at the last moment into a magical portal leading to who knows where. That's not how the Sheriff song went. Even to me.

Three weeks after the incident in Erbloom, the interns in Sleek have been surviving in a frozen tundra. They come upon a wondrous cave belonging to a seemingly long gone humanoid polar bears, the Ishbjorn, as well as saving archaeologist Archie from becoming a frozen dwarven popsicle.

I love this part.

It was fun. The Valrosian arc was really fun. Yeah, it was. But after a rescue mission puts them at odds with some ghostly-ish Bjorn and possessed Valrosians, the interns find themselves in the ethereal plane and coincidentally encounter a third infinite, spectral Laceraptitious.

Bitter and aggrieved from having his Ishbjorn soulmate taken from him, Yumi, Spectral, aka Leonard Lank, takes on the plight of the ghostly remnants of the Ishbjorn to wage a vengeful war on the invaders of the land, the Valrasian King, aka V. King Gjorn, and his people.

Ooh.

With the help of the local deity, Goddess Andi, the interns are able to end a century of war and restore peace to the land. V-King Knive offers a ship's passage. It looks like the interns, Sleek and Spectral, finally find themselves heading back to Boulderay.

This time with a mission to infiltrate Paralite's lair within the Elder Pines and rescue an imprisoned Brink and Sordo. Wait, do we also leave out the part that it was Bart's old crew? Marge. Oh, that's right. Very next line. My mama. That is coming up. Micah's like, I didn't forget the details.

Because that was the start of the next arc. Some shoddy writing, guys. Our story picked up at the docks of New Valros, where Bart is reunited with his former ship, the Jebediah, along with Captain Marge and her musically gifted crew. I have a quick question about this. Yeah. Did Micah come up with the Simpsons references or did you, Gus, come up with the Simpsons references? I asked him. I think I gave you a couple ideas. Yeah, I think Captain Marge was Micah, if I remember right. Yeah.

Then initially the ship, I think you had pitched a couple of different ideas for the ship and I came back with the Jebediah. I thought it was a funny name for the ship. It sounds very nautical as well. It does. Jebediah Springfield. Right. Or maybe you'll encounter their evil enemy ship, the Sprungfeld, the Hans Sprungfeld. Captain by sideshow boob. Anyway, the intern set sail. No, it's captain by the dreaded pirate black bob. Beard. Oh, black hair.

I was like, I don't remember the Simpsons characters. This is me trying to make Simpsons jokes, having not watched it at all. The interns set sail homebound for Boulderay, only to find it overrun by Evergards. After freeing Dr. Ahem and taking back the town, the interns then enter the memories of Sleek and Spectral using the Dreamery Experiment and becoming internites. And Fred. And Fred.

As the internites, they hunt for clues to the whereabouts of Paralite and their missing friends. After experiencing a curious cave-in, failed diplomacy with slothful and sheer lachian creatures, the interns return to a reality with a mission to infiltrate the Elder Pine Forest. With Sleek and Spectral in tow, the interns sneak into the Elderling Village, only to discover it's another trap set by Paralite, or should I say Spectralite.

This led to an infinite fight with an explosive ending resulting in freedom of friends, but the loss of two infinites. Next, the interns set sail to the port of Peskar, a land cursed by an aberrant rainfall and an ominous ziggurat called the Escalon. They raced their way to the top of the transmutative tower to find a disfigured duo-headed grizzly.

After a successful brawly bout with priests and Grizzly, the interns encountered a rare attack of opportunity on Paralight herself. The party managed to make a marring mark on the female foe and in the process catch a glimpse of her mysterious whereabouts.

The interns and Dr. Ahem finally pieced together the puzzle of Paralite, a Prattle, and the Infinites and uncovered Paralite Slayer under a frozen sheer lake. There they discovered Paralite's plan to police the world, assuage the death of Mayor Prattle, encountered an old acquaintance Archie, battled a battalion of Evergards, fought a paralyzing Paralite, and finally lowered some force shields around a Diagem core. However, in a little last minute twist, it turns out Archie was never actually

but actually a chaotic crimson cloud creature called Entropa inhabiting the body of Sordo. Now possessing one of the Diagems, Entropa escapes his corporeal prison to seek out the rest of these mystical Diagems. But who is Entropa? What are these Diagems? You'll have to find out in the next arc of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. What a great recap. Another detail that I think we should cover too is like Grizzly and what was it?

Spectralite were like transmutations combining two people. Grizzly was two people. Yeah, Spectralite was more like a mind-controlled spectral. Got it, okay. But Grizzly was actually two people. I saw someone ask this, and I had a similar question. When we were fighting Grizzly, they said they were fighting her on the Ziggurat. Paralite popped in and out, and the new episode starts with them back at Bouldery. Where did Grizzly go? We left that open to interpretation. Okay.

That's what I figured. In the document that Micah so graciously prepares, there were options for you all to have addressed that when you were on the ship, but no one brought it up. So we just kind of skipped over that. I think we figured we just kind of like, what grizzly? Yeah. There's no grizzly here. We hurt them and then ran. I was mowing my lawn and I was listening to it and I assumed that Paralite took Grizzly. Is that not the case? Well, that was up to you guys. I guess we can't.

We killed him. Well, we kind of like, as opposed to our original objective, which was definitely like gathering the infinites. I think at that point, the objective turned sharply to chase Paralite. Yes. And defeat Paralite. I think you, at that point, you're in the mode that Paralite is the actual enemy and trying to deal with Paralite.

I guess I was just curious because, like, you know, the formula has been we find the Infinite, we fight them, we free them from Paralite's grasp, and then we get to know them and stuff. So I was hoping that we'd get to know Grizzly. Did we have a voice actor or actress for them? For both. Oh, combined? Was it two? Two voices. Okay, so who's Grizzly's voice actress? One was Jessica. Yeah, that was Aleve. Oh, yeah, because Jessica was from the original, from Pious Pass. Yeah, but we didn't interact much with Grizzly.

Grizzlies. No, they're just yelling at us the whole time. I'll tell you what, we don't have the answer to that question, but we're going to go to Ben live in the field and he's going to answer this right now. Go ahead, Ben. All right, Ben. This is Ben reporting live from Disney World. I'm out in the field working on another Rooster Teeth podcast called Annual Pass. That's cross-promotion, baby. To answer your question, Grizzly is voiced by Jessica Jam Peralt, who is a bundle of chaotic goblin energy and was perfect for the role. Back to you in the studio, Gus, Micah, and Pardee.

Thank you, Ben. Back to you, Gus. I heard it. I knew it. Ben is one of our producers on the show. He's here with us just about every time he's not here this time. He's abandoned us. He just said something. He's in the field. He's out doing research for the next arc currently. At a theme park. At Disney World.

It's a fantasy theme park, isn't it? It's magical. I've said parts of it. It's the most magical place on Earth. Where else would you go to research D&D? Pius Pass. Disneyland. New Zealand. That's way better. I hear there's some wizards on the coast that know things. Which coast is it though? East coast, west coast? Coast to coast. So you guys, for completing this most recent arc, you all are ready to level up to level seven. Yay!

Do we take a long rest for that too, I imagine? Yes. We'll say yes. Okay. So as part of leveling up to level seven, everyone gets an additional hit die. Well, I guess I should ask, first of all, is everyone going to take level seven as the same class or is anyone going to multiclass? You could multiclass? You can absolutely, you can multiclass anytime. I'm going to keep on keeping on. I didn't know that. Yeah. So for example, Bart is currently a level six Bard about to advance to level seven. You could become a level six Bard slash level one, whatever. Oh.

Oh. Wait, what do I roll for more HP? It is your hit die. Hit die, 7d10. So d10? You would roll a d10. We level up so rarely that I always forget how to do it. Constitution modifier as well. Which one's the d10? It's the one with 10 sides. When you mouse over, it says d10. I don't have a mouse. I think I'm just going to level up to a level 7 bard. Okay, level 7 bard. Yeah. I would like to multiclass with GumGum at some point. I just don't know if the story has unfolded

in such a way where he's done anything but he's already a whiz barian you know what i mean like gum gums had a couple of uh encounters or brushes with magic when uh what was it you cast an ice bridge that helped you all out yeah but i just yeah i don't know if if

Is it okay if we go through these steps together to remember how to? Yeah. So you're going to roll your hit die. My hit die says 7d8. Yeah, it's 7d8. So yeah, your hit die is d8. So now that you're level 7, you have a total of 7d8 hit die. And then I add that to my rolled HP? Correct. Okay.

Oh, I'm so ready to go through all the goodies that Kaiborg's about to get. I would love to multi-class, except that I desperately want to get higher level with Druid Wild Shape. I need to fly. I need to be able to fly. But it's so far away that I still need to just do some grinding. That's the problem, and it never becomes easier. As you become a higher level in one class, taking a level one of another class seems like such a step back.

Seven. I could add rogue or barbarian, but I think I'm going to keep on keeping on as well. I don't even know canonically what would fit Mudd's character of multi-classing because he's so entwined with the druid stuff. What if it was like something weird? Ranger kind of fits with that vibe as well. Very wildlife.

but that's totally up to you. Yeah, but then you'd be like hunting the very animals. I might legitimately look into that for the next level. I think ranger is a really fun class. Ranger is the only one. I'm thinking of a multi-class for that. Especially when you can go like power ranger. Oh, God. Yeah.

I don't know, good one, John. One of them just got arrested for fraud. I'm going to go around and highlight what everyone gets here at level seven. Bart, you gain access to fourth level spells and you can swap a spell if you so want. From anything? Yeah. Okay. Do I get to add any more spell slots? Yes, you should get some. Once you up in D&D Beyond to level four, it should unlock additional spell slots for you. Okay.

you okay and for everyone following along at home you can look in the player's handbook to see the spell slots available to our various players gum gum you also of course get a more hp and you get feral instinct you have advantage on initiative roles additionally if you are surprised at the beginning of combat and aren't incapacitated you can act normally on your first turn but only if you rage immediately how does gum gum act normally though

That's actually really cool. Now Gum Gum cannot have any surprise rounds against him. He's able to act immediately. Though, on that last big boss battle, I rolled a 20 on my initiative and yet still didn't. I was frozen the entire time. I think your initiative was 22 and Paralite's was 23. Are you sure I earned this level up? On that fight, I didn't do anything. Paralite just charged you. You've been super helpful in a bunch of others.

It's about how many hugs you administer throughout the arc. From my perspective, playing the other side of that encounter, Bart was closest but invisible. And I rolled and Paralyte was unable to see Bart. So Paralyte's dealing with the three of you. And knowing what Paralyte knows, you typically tank and do the most damage. So her goal was to incapacitate you immediately, then turn around and deal with either of the two damage dealers while you were out of the fight. It worked. It worked.

It also doesn't look like I have access to fourth level spells yet. You and I both get fourth level spells. I see there's a greater invisibility spell. It's a good one. You can take actions while you're still invisible. Oh, and so it doesn't make your concentration go away? And then finally, Kyborg also, of course, gains another hit die, and you gain access to curving shot. You learn how to direct an errant arrow toward a new target. Like wanted. I'm just going to make a joke about that. It's almost like you two are related. Me, same person.

When you make an attack roll with a magic arrow and miss, you can use a bonus action to re-roll the attack roll against a different target within 60 feet of the original. So I'll never miss. Essentially. The other thing, too, was like, I get magic arrow, but is that something that I'm going to say, I cast magic arrow?

So magic arrow, you gain the ability to infuse arrows with magic. Whenever you fire a non-magical arrow from a short bow or long bow, you can make it magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage. The magic fades immediately after it hits or misses a target. It's something you don't necessarily...

have to worry about is it kind of like uh what was that thing where i just kind of hide it's just like a passive ability yeah this doesn't necessarily like increase damage or anything it's just if you encounter a creature that's resistant to non-magical attacks it overcomes that resistance you all have encountered creatures like this in the past i think sometimes you all don't realize it yeah so it's something important for me to remember more than anything to keep track of

Cool. I saw a cool spell. Wait, what's your spell? Dimension Door. You teleport yourself from your current location to any other spot within range. You arrive at exactly the spot desired. And what's the range on it?

500 feet. Yeah, that's significant. That's very significant. Bye, Bart. Bye, I'm learning that. I like that the two spells so far that you've gotten excited about are ones that will get you away. I'm a dainty little boy. I think I also get a new arcane shot. You also get an additional option on your arcane shot. You have three instead of two. I looked it up and I had a few options, but I chose Grasping Arrow, which is, well, I'll save it for later. But it's a fun one and I think it's going to piss Gus off pretty bad. Looking forward to it. Also, you know what? I decided...

I'm just going to get rid of the Lucky Feet and switch it out. I'm just kidding. What are you talking about? It's the cheatiest cheat, and I love it. It's keeping it forever. It worked so well last time. And then the last player we have is Mud, who gets an additional hit die as well as access to 4th-level spells. Dude, I'm reading through Druid 4th-level spells. Are Druids considered broken? Because 4th-levels, like...

On a DM level, the things that I can do to screw up like puzzles and instances you make, it becomes even more like the Plesiasaurus is just like tip of the iceberg at this point. So you're saying make the campaign harder? I guess. Luckily, I only have one slot, so I can only do these things once. But like, there's just so much stuff. There's a thing called Guardian of Nature, where I call upon a god to transform me basically into Captain Planet.

Like that's just one of them. That's cool. There's another one that's summon elemental. I can summon, like I can have summon elemental, summon beasts, conjure beasts, and I can cast all of those in three rounds. So what you're saying is they need to incapacitate you really early in the battle. Paralyte shouldn't have touched Gumbo. I think Gumbo is the source of your power.

So I just need to get gumbo. Oh, there's so many fun spells here. So some of these spells, there's going to be a point soon where we're going to have to start keeping track of some of these more powerful spells because some of these more powerful spells are intended to be limited by expensive material components. So that it's not just like in the past, like all the low level spells are just like whatever twigs and berries or whatever you have. Some of them now are going to have things like a gem worth a hundred gold pieces. Yeah.

pieces things like that in that nature so just be aware of any expensive material components that may be uh required for a spell because those are going to be what are intended to be limiting factors of some of these spells if they have like i'm looking at a spell right now it's charm monster the components are v and s that's just verbal and somatic so that's there is no material so so it is the ones that have m they list them in dnd beyond correct

I don't know about these. I was looking at some of your fifth level spells because I scrolled too far on my list. But for example, I think, what was it? Stone skin requires like a diamond worth 100 gold pieces. Diamond dust worth 100 gold pieces, which the spell consumes. Well, then you also need to give us more opportunities to actually be making money because we have not been doing that. Wait, do you eat the diamonds or do you... It disappears when the spell... It's diamond dust specifically. Oh. All gum gum spells require material...

Material components. But then there's like stone shape, which only requires soft clay. Hey, I'm a magic boy now. I have magic arrows. I'm one of the magic crew. Hey guys, it's Kyborg. I'm magic. Magic? Welcome. You make it dispels with us. Make it dispels. So summon elemental is expensive. It requires air, a pebble, ash, and water inside a gold inlaid vial worth at least 400 gold. Oh, you can get that HGB. Mm.

But it doesn't say I consume it, so I just need to acquire that item and I can use that. Correct. And that would have to be something that lives in your inventory. I'm also trying to find a few more spells that actually could deal some damage as I have...

very few of those and I want to be more helpful to the team. Well, bards, they're damages, but they're also like, my understanding is that they're also the buffs. And so like, I don't think that you've explored that part of a bard where you're like healing and stuff like that. Not even just healing. It's like, like remember when I was, what was my class in our last campaign? I was a warlock. Warlock.

Professor Luce. Anyways, in Druid, there's even a thing where I could give aspect of animal to someone. And so I think I gave kyborg, like reflexes and that kind of thing. So it's that kind of stuff. You can make it so someone's next move, they'll hit no matter what. So Gum Gum's coming up. He's our big damage dealer for the round. Give him something so he makes sure he hits.

or he gets bonus attack. Like even like me giving flame arrows to Kyborg. I was about to ask with flame arrows, does that take away like a spell slot? Yeah, that was a third level spell. I was going to say like, I wonder if before we go into battles and we kind of predict when it's coming, you just give me flame arrows and you're just constantly upping me for flame arrows. There's also stuff like dispel magic.

Which I think could come in handy if, like, there's an enemy that's using magic against us. I almost used that in our last episode. Oh, that was my debate. Before I went full call lightning, I was like, well, I can either do that or I could use Dispel Magic on Gum-Gum and get rid of his petrification. Mm-hmm.

and so I didn't. Paralysis. Yeah, whatever. And I don't know if the spell magic would work on that because that's like a condition. I'd have to look into that because it's like, it's not a spell. It's a physical ailment. Right. But how did Paralite cast paralysis on you? She didn't cast it. It was, yeah, the gloves. I'm going to not. So it's debatable. I felt so bad for Chris because that was just an entire episode of him struggling, like not being able to move and it's, oh, what a bummer. I remember having to hold up like,

Our old D&D campaign where I was just like episodes of me just like I'm frozen. I can't do anything She probably let it go So magic items aren't aren't considered a spell upon using them. That's gotta be a spell They are imbued with a spell we just shoot off her hands. Yeah, you might you might could use it like on the item itself Hmm, but maybe not maybe not it is it's choose one. I mean, I don't know I guess choose one creature. Okay, I don't know dispel magic and

is designed to break other spells. It has no effect, for example, on like a vampire's charm ability or other magical effects that aren't a spell. So Dispel Magic is intended specifically for spells, not for broader magic effects. It's almost like in the name. Okay, so the way around that would have been something more like a healer's spell that restores the

that removes hindrances or debuffs. Or if you had a potion that removes status effects. My warlock, because I played my warlock like a healer in our last campaign, had a move like that. I could remove blindness, paralysis, I think frozen or something like that. I think we've been in the weeds long enough on that one.

I like this part, but yes, you're right. It is fun. It's nice moving up and predicting all the ways that we're going to use this. We're also idiots with D&D, so this is us learning this kind of stuff. There's also no way of knowing there's stuff where I'm like, this is going to be the greatest thing ever, and I never use it. I know.

That's why I always like when you level up because I could go and be like, I have used a spell never. So I'm going to go and remove this. Yeah. So John was saying how, you know, mud is getting all these abilities and, you know, combat's going to be much easier. Don't forget your enemies are also scaling as well. Actually, I was probably making a comment because you can do that. It's more so there's some stuff in here that like,

For instance. No, I don't even want to tell you, but there's things in here where like, like, uh, you can get around puzzles and in unique ways. That's probably why I was saying the plesiosaurus is like tip of the iceberg. I'm just going to have to like hand you guys in a physical puzzle in real life and like fix it.

Then you will. Solve it. You want to do Q&A? Yeah. Well, no, I just want to, before we get to that, I just want to make sure, is everyone okay with their level up? Oh, yeah. Everyone? Yeah, I'm just reading through a couple more spells. I want to have more buffs in my inventory. You want more buffs? More buffs. Well, lucky for you, everyone levels up again to level eight. What? It's Christmas! Christmas!

You know what elevates the show to a whole other level? Is it the arcane items, the legendary encounters? Wrong. It's you, the listener. So thank you for listening each week. If you're not already, please follow us and interact with us on Twitter and Instagram at StinkyDragonPod. Big thanks to everyone who submitted questions on social media using hashtag StinkyDragonPod. If we didn't get to your question this episode, there's a good chance we'll get to it in the future. But please feel free to keep sending us new questions. Thanks for spreading the word about the show. We really appreciate it.

Whoa, really? Yes. So everyone now go ahead and give yourself an additional hit die in your HP. And again, just like I did last time, I'm going to go around the table and say what everyone gets here. At level eight, Bart, you get an ability score improvement. Everyone gets that generally, level eight.

You get another, another, another fourth level spell slot. And you can swap a spell as well if you want to, which I think you're already doing anyway. Gum Gum, unfortunately, all you get is a hit die and ability score improvement, but that's still pretty major. Just one ability score improvement? Correct. So with ability score improvements, what is to incentivize me at this point to not keep just making like my wisdom super high? Oh, you could absolutely do that. But instead to like try and take the long process

of getting like, say my charisma. Cause I'm my charisma seven, which means I am like negative two, but it means I'm like three ability score improvements away from even getting to zero. Yeah.

Yeah, you have to play a long game on that. It's such a long game. And you get ability score improvement every four levels. So you are correct, Chris. It's two points. So you can put two points in a single score or one point in two different scores. Or a feat, right? Or you could choose a feat. You have to. Every episode you could show feat. Kyborg, you also, of course, just get hit die as well as ability score improvement. And Mud, also hit die, ability score improvement. You also get some additional things. You get wild shape improvement.

which means you can now do CR 1 or lower creatures. But I already have Circle of the Moon, and so I'm still CR 2. I'll take it away from you then. Yeah, do it. You get another 4th level spell slot, and you can also swap a spell. I'll just take away the moon. Yeah. No more moon. What are you guys adding? What ability score? God, there's so many feats to read through. See, like, I could go one of two ways. I could either make myself... What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I'm in the middle of talking! Yeah, dude. There's a lot of feet.

That's why I'm doing ability score. No. It's like, I guess like what's a better path? Is it to improve things that are really low? Like I have a plus zero on strength and intelligence. Or like, should I improve my dexterity even more? I mean, you're asking one of the fundamental D&D questions. And I think, you know, there's no wrong way to do it. It's whatever you feel is best for the way you're playing. Do you feel like your strength rolls are keeping you held back? Maybe. It's really up to how you've perceived performance.

the previous campaigns going and what you think would be most beneficial for you. Since we have two ability scores, I am in fact going to take my intelligence score up so that I'm actually net zero on that now. So maybe if I roll for arcane, I actually might get something and I'm actually going to take my charisma up. So I'm only negative one on charisma.

Oh, look at you. You all might have the worst intelligence of any party I've ever encountered. I'm pretty not intelligent. If you average it all out, yeah. But that's my character trait that I did intentionally. In the beginning, I was like, I want my character to be dumb. Bart is the smartest with a 10. Right. I think I'm going to add to my intelligence. I have a 10 now. Well, now you're about to be smarter. I think I'm going to add both to my intelligence. Oh.

Actually, I'm actually going to add one to my constitution. So just as a reminder, your ability score. So like, for example, your intelligence is 10 currently, Barbara. If it goes up to 11, your modifier is still plus zero. Oh, it's not plus one? The modifier only goes up every even number.

So you'd have to put both into intelligence to get it to go from a plus zero to plus one. I only say that because if you put one in intelligence, it'll go to 11. And what was the other one you said? Constitution. Constitution. Okay, that'll go up to 15 and that'll still say a plus two. That would have to hit 16 for a plus three. Yeah, so far all my numbers are even. So I'd have to put two inside. All right. I think I am all finished. Yeah, I'm good too. I added another fourth level spell and yeah. Did you end up doing your skill or feats?

I did my skill because both my intelligence and charisma were only one skill point away from actually having an adjustment. And so, yeah, my intelligence is now zero and my charisma is only negative one. Technically ability. Ability score, yeah. Sorry, not skills. I should push my glasses up now. Actually. Man, this is so hard to choose. I'm going through the same thing that John's...

I went through where I don't know what feat to choose. There's so many. There's a website I can send you that prioritizes feats for particular classes. Yeah. Yeah, hit me with that. I mean, you guys remember how good in our last campaign that feat I had that I could just do anytime and give everybody like what was it, 10 temporary HP the entire party? That was pretty good. Yeah. It's especially useful at lower levels as you gain levels and get more HP. It still helps, but it's not. It's also like a freebie because feats are their own. When does...

armor class improve? Whenever you get new armor or your dexterity improves. So armor class is 10 plus your armor modifier plus your dexterity modifier. Oh, interesting. All right. Next time we level up, I'm improving my dexterity. This is like playing Elden Ring and no one puts any points into vigor. So their HP never goes up because they just want to have more attack power.

Good one. I got that reference. Anyways, this will be my thing. If you got that reference about Elden Ring, let me know on Twitter. In a couple weeks. Yeah, I'll forget. Awesome. I've also added some spells. Quick, make me roll for Arcana. Roll for Arcana to see what spells Bart added. Something I'm excited to use. I added Heat Metal to my spells. Ooh, that's a good one. Nat 20 on Arcane! Hell yeah. What does that mean? That means nothing, but it's just like...

I'm excited, but it would mean 20, not 19. You're just rolling. Yeah. Just testing out my new intelligence. No,

No, intelligence. Micah rolled a nine for you. I'm sorry. It's kind of like when you roll, you've like rolled stuff a lot where you roll like a nat 20, but you're like 19. It's like, it's nice to actually have the 20 when you're rolling. To be able to hit 20. Yeah. This one goes to 20. Yeah. Gift of the Chromatic Dragon. That just sounds cool. That sounds like- Didn't they do the theme song for Arcane? What? Imagine Dragons. I got the reference. Thank you, Micah. You're welcome.

A niche, like, nerdy music reference to a video game. That's good. Whoa. I can fuse weapons with an extra 1d4 damage of, like, fire, lightning, poison. That's cool. What's that thing called? Uh.

gift of the chromatic dragon that's like that's really goes into my cyberpunk you know fantasy stuff that i feel like i'm going for while we look through are there any q a we want to touch on is everyone happy with where they're at anyone have any more questions i'm still kind of looking through different feeds but i don't want to yeah i think i'm all set you don't have to solve that today oh by the way i asked on the seventh level on the eighth level everyone took their same class again right no one's multi-classing or anything i think so you didn't give me time to do research yeah blame it on me you've only had several months i didn't know it was an

option. I mentioned it at previous Between the Tales. Well, I forget everything you say. We have a question from social media at 1080Dragon. No confirmation whether that's a chromatic dragon or not. They say, I'm working on creating my first campaign, which is also going to have some first-time players. Got any tips to help create a campaign?

Yes, Anne. Impatience. Yes, Anne. That's definitely a Micah question, yeah. I thought you were looking at your watch, Gus. You're like, how much time do we have? Oh, no, no, no. To answer this question. I was checking something else. Micah, do you have any tips for that? Yeah, I thought of a few things. When I first started DMing, it's a very daunting task. It's very different from being a player. So I would say the few things that I can think of is have a zero session, which is like you get with your players before you actually start the campaign, go over characters, go over table rules, any concerns they have about schedules, all that kind of stuff.

And then I'll give you a break. You're never going to know all the rules as a DM. They always come up with new rules anyways. For example, dispelling Paralyte's glove. So if you're caught in the middle of the game and someone doesn't know the rule, then either look it up or just make it up on the spot and then fix it later.

Yeah, I think also one of the things that we did here with this show to help a lot of players who didn't have a ton of D&D experience was especially early on, we didn't really worry about them knowing the numbers or the roles or anything. It was a lot more, what do you want to do? And then me saying, you can do this to accomplish that goal. And then over time, you know, they start to learn what the different things are, what their move is. Even now, nowadays,

even if i know the answer of something on the player's character sheet now that we've played a bit more i'll ask what is your base movement or what is your armor class even though i have it or i could look it up real easy i want the player to start to learn to get into the habit of knowing where the stuff is on their sheet and where they can look to find these answers and then after a while they'll realize oh i know this stuff for my character yeah teachable moments i also will say like as a player who's not very skilled or like experienced in dnd i like the rules being like a

little looser like we kind of play like you guys aren't necessarily confirmed with like our carrying capacity and weight and stuff like that like if we find an object and we pick it up and like you're not like oh how much weight are you carrying now blah blah and like some things obviously sticking to the rules and whatnot but other things you guys are a little looser on which i think makes it a little more fun like we were talking about a little while ago when john was talking about his higher level spells like we never really cared about

carrying a pouch with a million material components. But when the point of the material component is to be a limiting factor in the spell, like then we have to worry about those kinds of things. I think you hit on the head, Barb, is that like,

The point of the game is to be fun. And so if you're making it like a slog for people to get through this, they're like, I hate D&D. I'm like, that's not the point. Yeah, you want it to be fun. What about, does anyone else have any thoughts from like their perspective about playing a campaign, you know, with not much D&D experience? I was talking to Ben about this, but he had this idea of the rule of cool, which is like,

And I've become very cognizant of the rules because like we post a lot of TikTok content with us doing D&D stuff. And in the comments, inevitably, there's always some guy that's like, well, actually the rule book says you can't do this. But like if you're having fun and it's like fun for the DM and it's fun for the player and like something happens that like it doesn't precisely follow the rules, but there's like some wiggle room, just go for it. You know, like have fun with it because this is all about collaborative storytelling. So yes and each other and just like do what you guys think is going to be rad.

Like jumping through a window with a Valrasian while being naked. Yeah, and like fighting a Valrasian midair while naked. Like that stuff was so rad, but if Gus and Micah and Ben were fuddy-duddies, then that would have never happened. No, jumping through the window is your move action. Yeah, but that's genuinely like when I think of peak D&D moments, that is one of the top for me. It's just like I can't believe that was such a cool cinematic moment. That's an important note, right? Like it's a

And I think Michael said to me, it's supposed to be fun. Yeah. Like try to foster that fun. We have a question from at XOE Rogers, a question for the cast asked, what is the most notable similarity between yourself and your D and D character? I think it's obvious. We're both incredibly charming. Wait a minute. What's Bart's charisma? 16. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the only similarity and that's not even a true similarity. I'm very awkward. Yeah.

I saw this question a while ago on Twitter and I thought it was really funny because it happened right after I tore my bicep. So my arm was in a metal brace and I was like, I am Kyborg because I just lost my arm. When life imitates art. Yeah, but also like on a character level, like Kyborg is just a cocky douche, but I think he's well-meaning deep inside and everyone hates on him. So cocky, but also insecure. Yes. Life imitates art. Yes.

I will say on a more serious note with me and Bart, I think I tend to play characters how I would do in real life where I like to perceive things first or like assess the situation before I go into action or to like not cause conflict if I could avoid it. So like,

If there's someone who we don't have to start a fight with and could just move on, I'd prefer to do that rather than like, oh, it's a monster. Like, let's attack it instead of just like, oh, we could quickly sneak by it and just move on. So I think that's a similar idea I share with Bart. That's a mindset that a lot of D&D players don't have. Yeah. Oh, I'm noticing. What about you, Micah? Yeah.

He's the joke. He confused me. I was like, what the hell? John turned and was like, what? What? I was not in that joke. You always liked animals. Yeah, yeah. I definitely went with druid class this time because I've always loved druid classes in all role-playing games and fantasy because they have...

you know, they can turn into animals. They have a connection with nature and animals. And I've always been a softie for that. I mean, during the pandemic is when I finally bit the bullet and started fostering kittens at home. And so I'm softie for the animals. John could actually turn into a kitten. Yeah, I did. I did in our last episode. Oh no, I'm saying in real life. Oh yeah, in real life. Yeah, not mud, John. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I guess mud is the one that makes sure things get done and we move along and keep on schedule, which is also my job here at Squad Team 4.

So maybe that's also what bleeds into the character. Or the producer of Stinky Dragon. No, Ben is actually the producer. I mean, producer of the team. Gum Gum? Yeah.

It's one for one. I mean, I think Gum-Gum, he tries. I was thinking about this for like 10 minutes and still didn't come up with a straight answer. I think Gum-Gum kind of maybe falls his heart sometimes at the detriment of what might be best for the situation.

I think I do that sometimes. We'll agree with that. Follows his gut gut? His gut gut, yeah. Chris also has friendship bracelets he likes to use. I do, but not in like a kinky way. It's a... In a judicial way? I don't think anyone was implying that. No one said that. Gum Gum doesn't use them that way. Yeah. How did that... I was trying to think, like, why would I use friendship? Way to... My man, way to give too much information for no reason there. What?

Well, no, I would say I was clarifying that it wasn't that way because I'm just going to stop talking. I think also it's I think Gum Gum and Baru's relationship is kind of similar in a way to me and Chris, where it's like I'm always looking out for Chris, make sure he doesn't hurt himself. And Chris carries me places if I'm too tired to walk.

Of course. It's funny. I posted a picture. So John and Micah's mom made these adorable character dolls for each of us. And I posted a picture of all of them on Twitter the other day from the Squad Team Force account asking like, hey, if you don't watch Stinky Dragon or listen to Stinky Dragon, just based on these characters and how they look, who do you think is whose character? Most people thought Bart was Chris and most people thought Kyborg was me. I guess because it's like an elf with long blonde hair. Yeah.

And they thought Blaine was mud and John was gum gum. That was like the most consistent guess that people had. And everyone knew Gus was Gus because it don't look like you. It's just interesting to see what people would have thought we played. Yeah, that's fun. It's been a while since I've played actually a campaign myself, but I have played many

many campaigns over the years and I feel like every time I play a character I always try to do something radically different than what I've done before and I try to do things that are usually out of character for me and I like play in the space that I normally don't experience in day-to-day life I think I've talked about this before in another episode but I one time played a rogue who told the whole party that I was a fighter and only the DM knew I was a rogue and

And then we went several sessions in before I started stealing from the party. And the party, of course, doesn't know until we're in combat. They're like, I pull out my potion of whatever. And the DM's like, oh, yeah, you look for it. It's gone. Oh, I love that. You don't have it. And then mysteriously, it's like, oh, don't worry. I've got one. And I'll take it. Yeah, I think, well, we played D&D together before with Rooster Teeth. And I think we're all playing pretty different characters this time around. Like I played an elf archer.

named Dorjan in our last movie. Ranger. Ranger. And like, John was Professor Luce. Yep. It was a warlock. It was a, uh, what's, what's the one that's like celestial? Like a healing warlock. Yeah. What's the, it's like a subclass, uh,

Warlock. I can't remember what it was. It was the kind that... Because we did the campaign and especially like early part of campaigns, like you're almost dying a lot because you got low HP and we were like, oh, we need a healer. Which is also why I was the druid this time and have like...

And then Chrysalis Lunko, who was a character who was constantly trying to steal everything. Dude, I hated Lunko. He was kind of evil in a way. I'll take Gum Gum over Lunko any day. They're very different. He was a warlock too, wasn't he? We were dual warlocking. I was a warlock who had a... Just so many Eldritch Blasts. I specialized in the familiar thing. So I had my familiar. I told everyone it was a rat. Name?

Named Stinky. Yeah, named Stinky. That's actually how the name of this podcast came about is we were trying to come up with a name for it. And we thought naming something after your rat Stinky would be fun. So Stinky Dragon. But Stinky was actually an imp and he would always go invisible and like. Fly. Yeah, he could fly and stuff. And then I liked it because I was a halfling so I could get naked and he'd carry me around. Why did you have to get naked to be carried around? Because of weight limit. Oh, yeah.

And the only way he could carry me is if I wasn't carrying anything. So I'm kidding. Yeah, I like how the party just put up with for a long time that there was a rat who could fly and go invisible. Yeah, why not? Name Stinky. And then Blaine's character, well, characters. This is Judge Bread, then Judge Fred. They were both paladins. But again, I want to go back. I hated Lunko. Because like it was, and this is something that I think we brought into with this, but like we were all so combative to each other and doing stuff that was messing up the team or like,

intentionally making character decisions which made sense for the character where it's like, I'm going to steal from this guy, bold face, right in front of him, and then that would cause so much trouble, but I feel like this group now is a lot more amicable or something. I don't know. We're just moving in the same direction. Yeah, yeah. We all have a...

Same path that we want to go down. A synergy. Yeah, and that makes it a lot more fun, I think. What other buzzwords can we throw in there? We have a question from at Talent Tardis. How different is running a campaign using a virtual setup versus in-person like other productions and the RTX episode? Do you find these tool sets make D&D more accessible to both players and the DM? So from my perspective, from just like running a game perspective, it's pretty much the same because we don't have

maps or figures or anything like I have to look at documents on my computer and it doesn't matter whether I'm doing it here or remotely at home. But that being said, it is totally different. I feel like the energy is much higher when everyone's here. Also, even no matter how good a virtual setup is, and I'm not trying to like talk bad about virtual setups, but no matter how good it is, there is an inherent amount of slight lag and delay in the communication.

which results in like awkward pauses or people talking over each other. And the beats aren't as fast for comedy. Like here, we're a lot more on top of it than we were virtually. I also really like having Micah here because he can turn and stare at me when I say something wrong. Right away. I can't ignore, I can't miss like a Discord or a Slack message. It's also great because if we're doing something, I'll just like look over to you, Gus, or you, Micah, and I'll just like look at your eyes to see like...

Is this a good idea? Sometimes I'll get like a wide-eye head shake and I'm like, uh, never mind. I just need to wear sunglasses now. Yeah. More poker faces involved. Although someone, who is it? Blaine did walk by my screen. It was John. It was John. It was John walked by my monitor a couple weeks ago. It was like, we're fighting this. I did. I did. Couldn't help it. I gotta say that. That pissed me off so hard.

That's right. It was the cloaker. I only said it because save from like, you know, which people could do just immediately Googling it. Yeah. You can name so many creatures in D&D and no one here knows what the hell they are. Yeah. Like flumph.

It's one of the most revelatory things we've ever experienced. We keep on running into flumps. We can keep spawning them. I randomly spawn them. We met a flump. It's only a one in eight chance, but I feel like half the time that you've had wild magic, a flump appears. Yeah. Pretty great. Yeah. Recording in person is superior. I was just telling the guys before we started recording today.

I had a bunch of yard work. So I was like blasting through all of our stinky dragon stuff. And then I recognized the second we went to in-person outside of us just saying, oh yeah, we're back in person. It was like, the jokes were faster. And like, we were just like really playing off each other and like being able to see John looking pissed and want me to hurry through the rest of this answer.

Tells me so much more than if I were in a screen. No, I was actually going to say I'm quite behind on this show. I haven't listened to it for a little bit, but I was talking to my mom recently who's an avid fan and she was saying like she could hear the difference. Oh, that's great. Oh, really?

Thanks, mom. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. You guys sucked before. Now it's actually. Yeah. She said that too. It was kind of harsh. On a somewhat related note, we have a, another question from at impulse rev who asks what online tools or software do you guys use for your campaign? Um,

And really it's D&D Beyond and either Discord or Slack. You know, we did Discord when we were remote. We don't really use that anymore. Then, you know, we'll do maybe Discord messages or Slack messages between me and Micah. But yeah, it's all just character sheets in D&D Beyond. Micah writes up wonderful campaign documents. Maybe one day we should put one out just so people can see all the work you put into it. I love the D&D Beyond website slash app that we use because it does everything for you. You just have to click buttons. It makes it really easy. You don't have to try to figure it out.

D&D Beyond is like great training wheels too. Like if you're going to be getting into it for the first time and not aren't super sure it does a lot of it for you. But like I feel comfortable enough now that like we could do physical character sheets and physical dice and I feel like I'd be competent. It's trained us all really well. I actually really want to do dice.

I do too. You can bring dice in if you want. I think we'll do that probably for the RTX one shot we do. Yeah. That was the question in here. It was like, what's the budget for dice? We got a ton of dice. We got some really nice dice from Chef Mike that I want to shout him out because he sent us several. He's like nice and metal. Nice, yeah. And we've had a couple fans send in some dice as well. Like we have a drawer in our office that's just full of dice. Dice at the butt.

Although if someone wants to send us in anything, send us in the biggest D20 that you can get your hands on. Well, let's not go crazy. No, no, no. I want it. He wants a specific for our D&D centric social content that we make for Squad Team Force, like Six Second Dungeon. You're thinking like an Indiana Jones style boulder coming down. Exactly. That would be so awesome.

The one that we have is like about the size of a tennis ball or a racquetball. And it's nice, but apparently it's a spiral D20, which is different from the scattered. In the end, it's still random. It doesn't matter. All right. Well, I still, again, people in the comments were like, you're using this kind of die. And I was like, it's fine.

It's still a 1 in 20 chance for any of those numbers to come up. Oh, we've learned, yes. Anyway, maybe like a bowling ball size D20. I'll take it. I want a damaged furniture with this one. I want a disco ball size one. We'll just hang it from the ceiling and it'll fall on someone. Yeah. Chris. So we have a question from a user at Armadillo Armor. And I should have been able to guess what this question was going to be based on that username alone. Armadillo Armor asks, now that Gumbo has a little chest plate, can he meet an armadillo that teaches him the art of a rolling attack? Okay.

On this tweet was the gif of Unhook when what's the character's name that rolls down the plank? I know who you're talking about. It's like Pudge, I think his name. Something like that. He's the one who gets toodles at marbles. Anyways, rolling down the gangplank.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or to make another Elden Ring reference, like the sheep. Someone did a really cool art of gumbo. Someone did gumbo art? Yeah. I didn't see it. Yeah. Yesterday. It was on Reddit. We'll say yes, but I didn't see it. You're like, yeah. Can you draw it for us, Chris? Yeah. I'll pull it up. I don't go to our Reddit. I thought that's why you were saying, I wish more people did fan art. No. I thought that's what instigated that. No. It's because I think I saw some cool Ship Hits the Fan fan art. Oh. And I was like, oh, that's so cool. Oh.

Oh, look at him. He's so cute. I love it. Drawn by Reddit user DependentUsual932. Nice. I think I would totally be using Gumbo a lot more if Gus hadn't given me this instinctual fear of him killing my pets from our last campaign. That's the point of it.

Yeah. So I don't send Gumba out into battle, like hardly at all. Like Badgers have stat sheets and he can do attacks and he's done it on occasion. I think in the wolf fight, he did some. Paralite would have one shot at him. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He has like, he has like, he has like one HP. Yeah.

And so I'm like, no, he's just going to hang out. So whenever I like transform, I usually just kind of like headcanon is that he goes with all of my items to whatever pocket dimension those things go into. Yeah, Pokeball, basically. I like to think he's like, he transforms into you kind of like a mini Voltron. Like he's your pilot. Yeah. He's inside of you. He's inside of John driving the...

Whatever animal you become. Then if Mud dies, then like he's still alive inside, suffocating inside of his Voltron. Oh, that's a lot more. That's a lot more Evangelion. Oh, yeah. He's like trying to eject the plug. Yeah. That's a real nerdy podcast. We got going here. D&D and anime. To circle back to something Micah said earlier, the question about what the dice budget is was submitted by at choir mime. I just want to give a shout out for that.

It does make a very satisfying noise when you do roll the dice on D&D Beyond. It does a little clink, clink, clink. Yeah, but you made me turn it off. So we don't hear it in the recordings. Yeah, we do. But when you have headphones on and you're listening to your own computer, you can hear it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a remote recording. Yeah. We have a question from a listener here. I believe it's at Micah Reisinger. Hmm.

What is the name and race of the bartender of the Stinky Dragon Tavern? Do you have a headcanon of that? Yeah. No, you tell us. It's your character. Yeah. I want to hear what you all think. I imagine he's a halfling. Okay. Well, the doll is not a halfling. He's like an orc. He's like an orc. Picture him right there on Chris. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's true. He's got big pointy ears and horns. He's got horns. I've always pictured him as a small little guy. Like before we got the dolls and before we had artwork done of him, I always pictured him to be like a tiny guy with like one of those aprons on, you know? Mm-hmm.

It's like big aprons. He's either like an orc or a goblin. Maybe a goblin. Can goblins have horns? Sure, why not? Yeah, goblin. And he's a little, not shorter. The doll's pretty much the same size as everybody else. But yeah, he could be a little goblin. I like these in-between arc episodes because we learn more about the bartender. Because I only learned last time or the time before that he's the narrator from the Stinky Dragon, which was like, ah. Correct. The Stinky Dragon's supposed to be a tavern and

And these are the tales from the Stinky Dragon. These are the stories being told in the tab. Right. Which makes it like Star Wars where it's like, oh, it's a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Yeah. Which is great because if and when our characters all die a horrible death and we want to make new characters, the new story could just be another tale. That was the idea from the very beginning was that if, you know, at any point we want to stop this campaign, we could and be like, that was that hero story. Now here's another tale from the Stinky Dragon, a lot more anthology based. And another jumping point for people to pop into the show. Exactly. Exactly.

The campaign that Chris will DM. Micah, do you want to read some of your ideas here on this one? Yeah. Grustavo. Wiffy Wyvern. Francid Drake. Musty Mauburn. Hodoris Worm. Those are some of mine. Hodoris Worm sounds like what's his name? The little dude that sits next to Jabba the Hutt. That's Salacious Crumb. There you go. I have noticed that in Micah's writing, you love alliteration. What? What?

Micah loves alliteration, obscure words, and German words. Yeah, dude owns a thesaurus for sure. I like puns as well. We have some bartender names that were sent in by some people on social media. At Milis Courage says, Sir Old Guzzler. At BlandLexi009 says, Yachty La Boy. Yachty La Boy.

I think it's supposed to be like Yodel. Yodel. Gary Goldtooth Draco. Amazing. Or Victor Ray Dons at JSPR draws SFW says Barley Tankardfoot.

Barley. That's a fun name. At the Cosmic Age says, Modca Vartini, which is really funny. Stir the unshakable. At Usher Adam suggests, Bezler's cousin, M. Biber. It is funny that if they're Bezler and him are related. Just cousins. At Mandy the Mammoth says, Phil Mickup.

Good one. Film a cup. At Creed Strong 1 says Gunter Draught. I like it. Gunter Draught. Jürgen Haus or Walter Stein. Speaking of German. Very German. I've always thought the way that you think the voice you do is so much like a little prospector. It's got to have a little bit of that.

The next one has that kind of vibe. Yeah. Well, the next one is Stewie Teller from At Thunder Chunky 92. Stewie. It still could be that kind of voice. You know, there is a large German population in central Texas, especially like out in Fredericksburg kind of area. West Dahlia.

Yeah, but you're not doing like that, like you're not doing a German accent. No, I'm saying that now it's a large German population who've lived here long enough where they wouldn't have a German accent. In fact, I've heard that in some pockets of central Texas, there's a dialect of German spoken that's distinct from Germanic Germany, like in Germany, that has very little crossover between actual German and Texas and German. They've incorporated the use of y'all in German, that's all. That's how I get my kolaches that I just ate this morning. Did you bring any for us?

Nope. Thanks, dude.

You bet. At Mr. Cantu says there have been other instances where the interns have potentially skipped some thought out encounters. Do you ever try to reincorporate those into later episodes or are they lost for good? Micah? They're in the playbook. I do know like I will say like in one of the very first episodes you guys went into the HQ and you went through all these different rooms and puzzles of like the Infinite's dorms basically. And there were I think one or two that you didn't go into. And I

And I held on to those. I still haven't revealed those. Wow. That's cool. I love the episodes where there's like a puzzle of some sort. Like the one where we hit the door with like the coffee cup, the door with the, yeah. That stuff is fun to me. It's interesting because you, Barbara specifically, you keep such good notes that I think

sometimes when there's callbacks, it helps the party out. Oh, for sure. Like if you're recently dealing with the glyphs. The glyphs, yeah. It's like you had the exact order written down and remembered. So like the party didn't have to go through rediscovering the wheel. Like, oh, what was the order? What do we have to do here? Like you flip, you're like, oh, here it is right in front of me. I need to like consult. My notes are just like scattered on a bunch of different notebooks and pads and stuff like that. I need to consolidate it to maybe like share with the group. So you guys have it too. Yeah. I'll share my notes with you guys. If you do my homework.

for me. I used to keep better notes and then I like, I had different docs and then they just got all scattered. Well, Barbara's now suffering from that fate where someone takes such good notes that no one else does it. She's like, oh, mmm,

she's got it covered i will say part of bart's character now i know i am well i do have the highest intelligence apparently so um i will say though that blaine is really good at remembering names of places and stuff like that like i pious pass room a few i'm like all these things i'm terrible at remembering just because i can never spell it when i write it down so it doesn't register in my head i got dumb memory for the dumbest stuff but sometimes it comes in handy so it works

We all balance each other out. It's the perfect team. Yep. And we have a question here from at lucky base cat 88.

What is the most difficult part for you, Micah, when writing all of this storyline? And what game breaking has annoyed you the most, either Gus or Micah? I don't know which one. Difficult part when writing all of this storyline? I genuinely want it to be like, I can't be original. Like there's nothing that's original under the sun, but I want it to continue to progress. And I want to dig into these characters' backstories, particularly in this latter half of this campaign.

that's something I've kept in my mind for a while. And I have a lot of, a lot of interesting ideas if I do say so, but I'm looking forward to, like I've asked you guys in the past, like what, what's the character's backstory? Give me, give me some content and stuff. And so I want to work that into this story as well. My character even has a theme song. What? Yeah. That's also been one of my favorite parts of having Micah involved with the show is we get these cool character songs that he's like written and performed and it's like incorporated into the episodes. It may, it,

elevates it so much. They're so great. Like even in an episode, I don't know if the episode will be out by now. I imagine it will be. There's like a moment where I'm doing something and Gum Gum was like sing a song and then I just like sing the song really quick and Micah added like some music and some like

I don't know if you changed my singing ability at all in it. My pitch, but it sounds great. I was never. But it's like, it really creates that, like the idea that someone's performing and all of a sudden it's like, oh wow, they're actually performing on the spot. Yeah. It adds a lot of immersion whenever we do that kind of stuff.

stuff and also like having i feel like we don't recycle too many songs because like each place is so distinct like pious past was our western and then like i guess the ethereal plane was kind of more like you know dimensional woo magic-y stuff so it's like it all kind of sounds different and fun i like that it's been really cool sitting on this side of the screen listening to all the ideas micah has about the story and like where things are going to go like knowing that

Sordo was looking for his body. And, you know, finally you all see that here at the end of the last episode. All of those things. It's been fun watching it all play out, like the long game and seeing it all come together. What's been your most frustrating moment? For me, the most frustrating thing

is John and his damn dinosaurs. Naval battle? Oh, I did bring in dinosaurs last round too. Not only the naval battle, but also like the velociraptors that eviscerated those magic users during our last combat. I thought you were going to say just like generally when it's like the solution is very easy and we just like do everything but.

do the solution. Yeah. Like sometimes I could tell Gus is like trying to move the story along in one direction and we're like doing everything we can to find a stand. Even in that last episode where it's like you all just had to step up to the alcove to start the Paralight encounter and everyone's like, what are we going to do? Let's team up. Let's get some surprise attacks. Like, oh my God, let's just, that's what I was like, Bart, you're up there. Okay, yeah, let's go. I messaged you about the whole archetype

arc name being Paralites Poison. Yes. And there was this whole scene where Prattle dies and his ring falls off and they're sangria right there. You guys never used it in the Paralites Poison arc against Paralite herself. The big bad evil. She was like owning you guys so bad. Who took the ring? Did I take the ring? We almost walked off without the ring. I was like, don't forget the ring. I think John did.

Yeah, I think you did. No, I must have it. Then I blame it on John. Hey, why are you saying granite when you can use Deinonychus to just completely break the game? Or just be invisible. Paralites Deinonychus, that's what I need to rename it. There you go. Her poison is dinosaurs. She's terribly allergic. A lot of people are allergic to dinosaurs. Can we retake that episode now, though, please?

I always feel bad because sometimes I have to take a step back and remember like there's always a gimmick, you know, like with and we always miss it. Like with sleek, there was like a mirror. You're like, look at that mirror. Oh yeah. The mirror. And then come to find out if we just destroyed the mirror, the good, the boss fight would have been done. And we're always just like,

ah, damn, what do we do? The one time we did on the first thing, it was like the altar. What do you mean? We broke the altar? I don't know if that was it. Was that the thing? The altar? No. What? The Empire's Pass? I know what you're talking about. Yeah. He was fixated on breaking the altar. I think we rewarded that, if I remember correctly. I think so, yeah. I think we did. I think you had to nudge me to use the moon amulet as well. What?

Because, again, we just don't think of using these things because we're just scrambling. It's fun. Very fun. I used little Jimmy's arrows, though. You did. I don't remember those. You still didn't find out what they do. They're fine. They're gone. You found out one of them. You found out one of them. He used all of them, though, right? He used all of them. Yeah, I only got two, I think. We could probably reveal that. Yeah. They were spell drain arrows. Mm-hmm.

So it's pretty funny. I don't think you were using it on a spellcaster. Well, you were using a spellcaster, yeah. The last one, yeah, you did on that spellcaster. First time, I don't think it was. Idiot. Got him. Yeah, I think we never had the opportunity to really sit down and identify what they were specifically. But they were useful for you in that last usage. Wait, should I use it on Spectral? Or not Spectral. No, the other one. Paralyte? Paralyte. Paralyte.

We'll go through. We'll name them all. Yeah. We need to get you guys like little paper things on popsicle sticks, like masks you can put over your face every time you VO someone. With a name. That'll help. That all gets changed or most of it gets changed in post-production. Who am I right now? A hat with a mask.

I have a question. Yeah. So Sordo is voiced by Jack. You know, he talks like kind of like this, right? And then his body was Armando voiced by Armando. And he was like, hey, you know, kind of like this. But that was the spirit, right? Yeah.

So is the spirit voiced by Armando? Well, the question is, is the voice tied to the body or tied to the spirit, though? Yes. It's got to be vocal cords. I don't know. I hope that Armando and Jack continue to get to voice people because they did a great job. My understanding is that by now, the episode...

episode has come out yeah uh and yes armando would have voiced entropa oh yeah because because sort of still stuck in sort of land okay yeah i was wondering about that when it aka disneyland right now so yeah we when we do it live we don't hear those voices so those little things sometimes well that's why it's always so funny when like someone starts speaking and we're like who is that but the audience obviously knows because like for example if it's paralite it's

Hannah speaking. And so like the audience would be like, duh, it's parallel. I'm surprised Gus hasn't done like falsetto for like higher voice people. The problem I have is there's so many characters. Even if I tried to start doing a voice, I wouldn't be able to keep track of what the voice was for each specific part.

person Scottish character I can't yeah I found that out when I did the one shot we did in the B and there were only like three characters I know imagine if it was like ten well there they'd be like oh here's a new character I tried to I wrote down different ideas for different voices and I couldn't keep up with them all yeah does anyone else have any other questions I thought we're at a good time to maybe wrap this up otherwise let's wrap it up

All right. Well, thanks everyone for listening. We'll be back here pretty soon with more Tales from the Stinky Dragon with our new level eight players starting off on their new arc. Woo-hoo. And thank everyone who's gotten our merch or who's told friends about the show or left a review or...

post it on social media. Continue to tell friends about the show. Yeah, it's really super helpful. I think also, like, if you have friends who are into D&D or even, like, don't know anything about D&D, they would still enjoy it, so. Or if you have easy access to their phone and can steal it and just subscribe to them to the podcast. They'll thank you for it. Yeah. Really. The coolest thing is, like, finding out that someone listens to Stinky Dragon and they have no idea what Rooster Teeth is. I love that. That makes me feel like, ah, we're actually, like, doing something special here. We're D&D now. We are the D&Ds. I was walking out of, uh,

the movies the other day and I had a stinky dragon shirt. I think it was like what Chris is wearing and the usher, like I was, I was leaving. It was like, Hey, nice shirt. I was like, thanks man. Did you talk to him at all? And to know, I felt awkward about it. So I was like, no, I'm sorry. We'll just have that moment. I've been like, do you know what this is? Yeah. I'm kind of involved. Do you want to take a selfie? Yeah. Funny. All right. Well, thanks everyone. We'll be back soon. Bye. Bye.