Tab 1 Perpetua 00 - Character Select Transcriber: athulus [00:00:00 - 00:33:11], edits by Iris (sacredwhim) / Jay [00:33:11 onwards] Opening Narration 1 Introduction [00:02:40] 2 Game and group premise [00:08:02] 8 Character pitches [00:16:53] 13 Jack’s Pitch [00:16:58] 13 Dre’s Pitch 16 Art’s Pitch 19 Ali’s Pitch 23 Sylvi’s Pitch 27 Keith’s Pitch 30 Janine’s Pitch 35 Party Pitches 37 Character Breakdown: Caoimhe [00:58:30] 44 Character Breakdown: Brontë [01:11:26] 53 Character Breakdown: Antistrophe [01:19:25] 59 Character Breakdown: Jonathan [01:25:03] 63 Character Breakdown: Uncle Nicky [01:46:52] 79 Character Breakdown: Veile [01:54:45] 86 Character Breakdown: Elena [02:01:49] 91 Opening Narration [“Startup” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] [music ends] [“Perpetua” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] Austin: The gale of history rattles across vast Perpetua today. Skyfaring armadas glide towards battle on warm winds. Lines of succession are cynically drawn in breezy, courtly halls, while an ill, stagnant air settles onto once vibrant arcanic academies. It is the year 401 BE, just four centuries BEFORE the END. But the skies remain blue above Perpetua, and today’s wind also carries new heroes into history’s current. Heroes drawn up from across the wide world, bringing their unique knowledge, skill, experience, curiosity, passion, strength, and spirit with them. Heroes who carry the best qualities of their people—and in some cases, their most desperate hopes! After all, regardless of what the wind carries, it flows in one direction, as it always has, and—it is said—always will. Despair. Authority. Hunger. Grief. Violence. Inevitability. Malevolence. Doom. It is in the face of these that our heroes yet rise on the air. In fact, it is towards them which they fly, riding Perpetua’s cyclonic winds! Lifting up from Grand Sonnerie, from the Hundred Burroughs, from ancient Rilspur and blustery Bilough, from the simple seaside town of Salaan… and even from the dark underbelly of Calstega Bay. Drawn together by something not yet clear—freedom or fate or intervention into either—but held together by their own bonds, growing ever deeper, even as the clock ticks towards final confrontation. [music ends] Introduction [00:02:40] Austin: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I am Austin, and I’m joined today by Jack de Quidt. Jack: Hello, I’m Jack! You can get any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com. Austin: Ali Acampora. Ali: Hi, my name is Ali. You can find me on 12:30 at Mondays, usually, over on twitch.tv/friendsatthetable. Um, and I also host a show on friendsatthetable.cash. Austin: This is true. Ali: Where you can support all of us. Austin: Yeah. Janine. Janine: Hi, I'm Janine Hawkins. I’m—I sometimes also stream stuff, but I don't keep a regular schedule like Ali, because I'm not capable of it. [Jack & Ali laugh] Ali: I only barely am. Austin: You keep a regular one, and it’s on Monday afternoon, which is a wild way to… Janine: [cross] Yeah, that’s… Ali: [cross] Oh, it’s fun. Dre: Yeah. Austin: Fix your whole life, honestly. You did it, you know? Art. Art: Hey, um, I'm trying to take an internet break, so don't—don't look for me anywhere but here. Austin: Great. Congrats. [sarcastically] Something—wait, sorry, did something happen on the internet? Is something not—is the internet not—is the world not— Art: I don’t know, I’m not there. I couldn’t tell you. Austin: Huh. You couldn’t—you don’t know. I see. Sylvi: [cross] Ed, Edd, and Eddy got canceled. Ali: Wow. [Dre hums] Austin: Oh, I see. Right. Keith: Fuck! [Ali laughs followed by Sylvi] Austin: Uh, also joining us, Keith Carberry. Keith: Hi, my name is Keith Carberry. You can find me—you can find my bad posts on Twitter, and you can find my good posts on Bluesky. Bluesky doesn't deserve it, but I do. [Sylvi laughs far from the mic, Janine laughs] Keith: You can also find between 50% and 75% of us doing Media Club Plus, the podcast where we talk about Hunter x Hunter. We just recorded our seventh bonus, which is us talking about the Cell Saga of Dragon Ball Z. You'll be able to find that on friendsatthetable.cash when it's up. It'll already be up by the time—there'll probably be eight bonuses by the time this is up, I don’t know. Sylvi: Yeah!? Austin: Who knows. I don’t think—[cross] how many are we at now? Keith: [cross] I don’t know, how many—when is this coming out? Austin: Not that far off, at this point. Like… Keith: Don’t we have to do the whole other thing we recorded first? Austin: Yeah, we do. Sylvi: That’s a good point. Keith: Yeah. Sylvi: I don’t think we— Austin: You think there’ll be 8 bonuses? [Ali laughs] Keith: Maybe! Austin: How many are we at now? Keith: 7. Sylvi: Oh, I thought you meant there will be 8 more. Keith: No, no, god no. Sylvi: I was like, what are you signing us up for right now? [Ali laughs] [Dre groans] Keith: One more. Sylvi: ’Cause I don’t, like, do we—I have to move soon. [chuckles] Keith: Yeah, no, I think maybe there will be one more. Austin: Uh, next up, Sylvi. Sylvi: Hey, I’m Sylvi, you can find me everywhere, except Twitter, at @sylvibullet. Um, also check out the YouTube. youtube.com/friendsatthetable. Keith and I are playing through the Zero Escape series. We’ve already done 999, we’re—I don’t know, like 20% of the way into Virtue’s Last Reward? It's hard to tell. Keith: Yeah, maybe like 15%? Sylvi: There's—but, like, at the time of recording this, we’ve got like four parts of that done. Keith: Yeah. Although we’ve done the most tedious bits. So maybe it’s even more. Yeah. Sylvi: [laughs] Yeah. Who knows. Janine: How many of the first rewards do you got? Sylvi: They actually—they didn’t have any of those left for us. That's why it’s the last one. Keith: Yeah, I don’t feel like I’ve gotten a reward yet. Dre: Aww. Janine: [cross] Oh, you don’t—oh. Sylvi: Yeah. Janine: Damn. That sucks. Sylvi: I know, it’s a real bummer. Keith: Yeah. Austin: Also joining us— Keith: A real bun-ner. Austin: Hm. Andrew Lee Swan. Dre: Hey, you can find me on Instagram at @andrewleeswan. Austin: There you go. Dre: I’ve posted pictures of my dog 3 days in a row. Austin: That’s a compelling pitch. Dre: Yeah. Keith: Yeah. I have to cut in line again. I have to cut back in. [Austin, Dre, and Ali laugh] Keith: I have to remind people about youtube.com/RunButton. Austin: Ah, sure. Keith: I forgot to talk about it. We’re doing a whole Silent Hill thing, don’t worry about it. But go there and watch the Silent Hill 2 stuff. Art: How many pictures of Dre’s dog are over there? Keith: I actually have—I’m actually doing every picture of Dre’s dog, I’m taking it and putting it into the Let’s Play. Austin: Oh, interesting. Art: Wow. Dre: Wow. Austin: Great. Keith: Yeah. I didn’t ask, even, for starters. [group laughter] Austin: Why not? You can find me also on A More Civilized Age, a Star Wars podcast. We will have, by the time this comes out, probably have just finished, or damn near finished, the original Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn. Which is a bit of a joy. And we’ll probably be back to Rebels, and hopefully, uh, getting into some of the end of Rebels season 3. And then over on Shelved By Genre, a podcast about genre literature I do with Cameron Kunzelman and Michael Lutz, we will have finished up The Last Herald-Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, and we will be kicking off William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy. Art: Oh, fun. Ali: Ooh. Austin: We are getting into some, like, OG cyberpunk shit there. [Dre hums] So if you, for instance, like, you know, COUNTER/Weight, and are like, “Hey, what was the number one non-Gundam influence on COUNTER/Weight for Austin?” I mean, it’s Neuromancer, right? Like, come on. Uh, so go listen to us talk about that over there. Game and group premise [00:08:02] Austin: But for now, we are going to be kicking off our game of slash creating characters for Fabula Ultima: TTJRPG, a game by Emanuele Galletto. Who also sometimes on the internet goes by —oh, it’s something rooster. What is the first part? Dre: Ohh. Austin: Oh, what is it? It’s —it’s —I should have just known this, because it’s Rooster Games. Uh, I forget. I forget what the other —RoosterEma. Rooster E-M-A, RoosterEma, on the internet. For people who did not listen to our worldbuilding episode, we have built a fun tabletop —or, sorry, JRPG inspired setting. I’m looking at the map we made now. What a chaotic game this was. I know there are some people who probably won’t go back and listen to that, because they just want to focus in on the Fabula stuff. I think you should go listen to it. I think it was a blast. So, that’s me —I’m compelling you. Keith: [cross] Had a little bit of everything. Austin: A little bit —yeah, it really did. [Ali chuckles] Today we are going to talk pretty openly about what the premise of the game is. We're going to talk about what the two groups are. We’re going to go through character creation. I think everybody has, at the very least, done some of the big core stuff around levels and characters and stuff like that. Is that right? I think that that’s all —that feels right. It feels like we are all on the same page there, based on conversations throughout the day. Dre: Yeah! Austin: Alright. We also already had pretty good talks, I think, based on the fact that we already did worldbuilding around some of the sort of pre-character creation stuff around things like tones, and themes, and what type of rules do we have. I will say there are some optional rules that are in —that are throughout the game. Things like, “Hey, what if everybody started with a bond?” And we're going to start with bonds for everybody. Everybody's going to start with a bond. And there's also stuff that is, like, optional rules that are currently in playtesting, along with some other playtesting classes, and stuff like that. And we are dipping into those as we kind of see fit. So, if you hear something here that doesn't quite match up with what's in the base book, that is why, is what I would say. And who knows? We'll see how stuff goes. Maybe we'll try a playtesting rule and go, “Mm, this isn't as fun as I wanted it to be. Let's go back to the way it was in the book.” But we're kind of using a mishmash of stuff, and we'll talk about what we are using as we —I think as we use it. We've already gone through world creation, but there are a few things that are simply true about the world based on the way the gameplay rules work. Every living and unliving thing is connected by a stream of souls. The cultures of our world have not been able to unite themselves under a single banner. And I'll say, if you're coming here from our worldbuilding game, where everything is just kind of vague, we do now have, like, names for places and religions, and we have more than just the Valtese. There's, like —there's, like, stuff going on. There's, like, you know, it’s the Kingdom of Grand Sonnerie. It's the Holy Protectorate of Placidia, and the Way of Fearless Truth. Like, we have a bunch of stuff that's been —come out of that game and gotten slightly more developed based on character places, based on needing to produce enough to build characters around it. That'll come up in play, and as we —or as we go through character creation, I think, based on where characters are, and stuff like that. And then it is also a fantastical, diverse world. We are are not necessarily focused in on trying to replicate one particular vision of medieval Europe, or something like that. One of the best things about JRPGs, and also sometimes one of the most fraught things, [Art chuckles] is the degree to which everything is fair game for plumbing and inspiration. You kind of just go in there and say, “What can I take from this that seems sick?” And I think we'll be a little more careful-handed than that, [Sylvi chuckles] but we are certainly —a wide range of inspirations for these characters, as you will see as they come into shape here. And then, yeah, we answered what the game suggests are kind of the kind of starter questions for building a world. We know the shape of it. We have a map. We've talked a lot about magic and technology. We have a good sense of our kingdoms and nations now. Though, again, some of those will be new for you, the listener. We have a broad idea of the historical events of the world, and some big enigmas and mysteries. I would say, obviously, the most important enigma and mystery is, hey, it seems like the world is counting down to its destruction, and it seems like people have different opinions about that. I'd say, in some ways, that's the big unifying premise thing, the axis on which all of the different factions turn, is how do they relate to the question of Perpetua. To the question of this world cycle of destruction and rebirth. And so that is our big kind of engine. And then we know there's some threats that cast a shadow over the world. We know about the Valtese Empire. We know about some dark prophecies. We know about some scary dungeons, et cetera. So, we've done all of that work already. We don't need to go through any of the stuff in Fabula to do more of that. But we do need to think about group creation and character creation. I think it's —we're locked in on what the two groups are, broadly. Who is in the western continent group? Jack: I am in the western continent group. Dre: I am in the western continent group. [Sylvi laughs] Art: I am in the western continent group. Ali: And I am also in the west. Art: Wow. Austin: There we go, everyone is posing. And we have —this almost feels like the — Jack: We’re locking in the character —on the character —like, all the people are joining. Austin: Right, exactly, yeah yeah yeah. It’s like the character select screen. You know? [Ali laughs] You’ve dropped your little token, like, on a Smash Brothers screen. And I think, based on conversations today, you are the “brought together by fate” style of JRPG party. “You find yourselves working together because of the circumstances. Despite this being a common trope in classic fantasy tales, it's actually the most difficult to pull off, since your group will lack a precise goal.” We've kind of found our way around that, because there is a precise goal. It's just maybe not one that's shared by everybody quite yet. We'll get into that. I think we've answered these questions internally, but we’ll keep these in mind as we start doing character creation and start talking through them. “What emotional familial connections exist between your characters? Have your characters met in the past? Are there tensions or rivalries? And what do you have in common: beliefs, enemies, or past experiences?” As we develop what that group is, you know, those are the things we'll need to be able to answer in order for there to be a good sense of coherency between the characters. I think that that's right. On the other side of things, the eastern group, which I guess leaves us with… Sylvi: I am on the eastern group. Austin: Yeah! [Art cheers] [Dre & Sylvi laugh] [pause] Sylvi: Come on, guys! Janine: It’s just Sylvi. It’s just Sylvi on that one, it’s weird. Austin: It’s just Sylvi. Awww… Ali: Wow. Keith: Oh, sorry. I was muted. I said it. [Austin laughs] I said it right after Sylvi did. I am in the eastern group. Janine: I’m also there, with them. Austin: Wow. Wow, great. I think — [Sylvi laughs] Sylvi: No, that’s fine, ’cause that's how Ali did it too. Keith: [cross] Janine and Ali are like in a sitcom when the last person says, “And also Janine as in the eastern group.” Instead of just the regular. You know how it goes, you know sitcoms. Austin: I do. I do know sitcoms. Sylvi: I’m aware. Austin: I think this is seekers, of the types of groups that are presented. This book has a couple of, like —it's like revolutionaries, heroes of the resistance, guardians brought together by fate. Keith: I also think we're seekers. Sylvi: Mhm. Austin: But I think you're seekers. “You're desperately searching for someone or something, a powerful witch, an ancient relic, a legendary location, or even a long-lost technological marvel. What you seek is the world's last hope, or at least you think it is.” And then there's questions like, “What are you trying to prevent or remedy? What are you looking for? What do you know of your mission? Who gave you that information? Who doesn't want you to find what you seek? And what prompted each of you to join this mission?” There are some questions I have there that I think we can answer together that I'm not a hundred percent sure of yet, and then there are things that I definitely know. And I guess, also, thinking about it, the western group could start as brought together by fate, and then become guardians, based on the way we pitched some ideas there. Jack: Oh, yeah. Character pitches [00:16:53] Austin: All of that sounds like we're aligned. Do we want to jump into individual character creation? Do we want to talk broadly about what these groups are? Where do we want to —how do we want to structure this? [Dre hums] Do we want to go around in circles and talk about our characters' identities, themes, origins? Or do we want —what do we want to —do we want to bounce between western group and eastern group? Jack: That might get confusing. I think we should say one sentence pitches for our characters based on the sort of two separate parties. Austin: [cross] I like this. Jack: And then talk a bit about what the parties are doing with that information. And then dig in more specifically to the characters. That's my pitch. Austin: That sounds great to me. Do you want to begin, Jack, with your one sentence character pitch? Jack’s Pitch [00:16:58] Jack: Yes, I am going to be playing— Austin: Well, in a sense, there's something funny here, because your character identity is your one sentence character pitch. This game has this notion of a character identity, which is a short sentence that briefly summarizes who you are. Jack: [chuckles] Yes. My character's identity is Megadungeon Hostess. I'm going to be playing Elena Millefiori, pronouns she/her. She is a young woman who is the youngest daughter of a sort of, like, restaurateur family that maintains a restaurant/tavern/last stop at the entrance to the Rillspur megadungeon, which is a sort of water megadungeon. Keith: Like a base camp, like a Mount Everest base camp. Jack: Like a Mount Everest base camp, yeah. Austin: But it's—but, importantly, it is—you are from a sort of broader culture tied to these ancient ruins, right? Jack: Yes. Elena looks for all intents and purposes like a human, but she is actually a sort of fantasy species called Tesserae, which is a sort of mosaic person. These are constructed people, constructed a long time ago by the sort of ancient civilization that built these megadungeons. And the megadungeons... Austin: Can you spell Tesserae for us? Jack: Yes, Tesserae is spelled T-E-S-S-E-R-A-E. Austin: E-R-A-E, got it. Jack: And Tesserae are sort of primarily—the two defining things about them is first that they are—they're constructed. They are sort of like Zonai constructs in design, you know, they were—or Pala-din. They were built by a thing long ago. But they are flesh and blood. They eat, sleep, live, and die. They can, when a surface is provided, be that the smooth limestone wall of the Rillspur Mega Dungeon, or, you know, like a flat, wide, open floor, kind of move into it as a mosaic, a little bit like Link does in that Zelda game, except instead of being a mural, they then become this sort of, like, rippling pattern of tiles. Austin: Did you find a quirk for that? Is there some sort of, like, unique movement quirk that we can find? Jack: There is not a unique movement. As far as I can tell, the only true sort of, like, unique movement quirk is Flight, [Austin: Flight, yeah.] which is not what I'm doing. The quirk that I've chosen, and we can get into it later, is more about that I'm from the water megadungeon than that I am… Austin: Right, right. Yeah, I want to make sure you can do this thing—or maybe the answer is maybe you can't do this thing in most places. Jack: I think it's that. Yeah. Austin: Maybe this is a unique thing in these dungeons that you're from, or these ruins that you're from that have other Tesserae, but are not necessarily everywhere. Jack: Yeah, I never really sort of conceptualized this character as being, like, someone who can do that sort of thing in play so much as that being a sort of core part of where you come from. Austin: Right, right. Jack: You know, that that's what you're like when you're there. And when you're out and about, this isn't. So I suppose the last thing to say is that I'm out and about. I have—my two older sisters had also left the family business and gone off to see the world. And Elena is sort of thinking to herself, “All right, out I go. Lots of good stuff to see out there.” And she sets out. Austin: And that is your character. Do we want to stay on the western group and wrap them up, and then we talk about that concept, and then hop over to the eastern continent? Dre: Sure. Keith: Sure. Austin: Who is next over here in the western continent? Dre’s Pitch Dre: I can go. I'm playing Jonathan, who is an elderly Terrapine gear-head who has a double-decker magical wagon vehicle called The Little Snail. Austin: The Little Snail. Sylvi: Aww, oh my god. Jack: Not little. Austin: Now it isn't little, though, is it? Dre: No, it's not little. It is a double-decker vehicle whose bottom half is a restaurant. This is the restaurant that Art's character works at and runs. And then the upper half is Jonathan's workshop, because I have taken the quirk Traveling Workshop. Austin: Hell yeah. I love this. Which begins to build you an image, perhaps, of what this side of the game is going to be if we got a traveling workshop, and people are going to be inside of it and moving around, maybe people can start making some guesses. Though I suspect, Art, your character will give us even more clarity on that. Art: Yeah. Austin: I guess before we hop off, Dre, is there anything you want to remind people of in terms of the Terrapine or what Jonathan's particular deal is beyond that? Dre: Yeah, sure. I wasn't sure how much detail we were doing. Austin: Oh, just high level. Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the—you know, I think we've been going back and forth between calling it TerraPINE and TerraPEEN— Austin: [cross] TerraPINE? Yeah. Dre: —and I kind of like it switching back and forth between the two. Austin: Oh, okay. I mean, are you sure you don’t want me to commit to the one [Dre: Yes.] that you've been saying that I've been saying wrong? Dre: No. No, I like that. Keith: Hey! Tomato, tomato. Dre: Yeah. Austin: Tomato, tomato. Terrapine, Terrapine. Dre: Hey, Appalachian, Appalachia, you know? Austin: There you go, yeah. Dre: That’s the deal. Austin: That’s real. Dre: So the Terrapine are basically a race of big turtle people. Their kind of cultural deal is that they know that the world is going to end, and they have given up on the idea of like, “There's no way we can survive.” Like, they have just accepted that as a society. And so instead now they are trying to figure out “How can we, like, lay the next generation of Terrapine eggs to survive the apocalypse?” Whatever that looks like. Austin: Right. So even if it's not—it's not like, “We, literally, the living people, can survive,” but there—it is “Our culture or our descendants could theoretically survive whatever that [Dre: Yeah.] cosmological process is, even though we don't know what it is yet. “ Dre: Mhmm. Yep. Austin: Yeah. Okay. I love that. I think one of my favorite things while building the factions in this game was to try to figure out, what do they think about the coming apocalypse? What is their relationship to it? I did the most JRPG thing I could think of, and I just took the stages of grief and made them each a faction. [Dre laughs] I know they’re—I know that that's—the stages of grief are a hotly debated schema. I know that that’s not a widely… It's not just true, right? But it is fun. Keith: Wait ’til you hear about my love languages factions. [Dre and Art laugh] Austin: [chuckles] I mean, listen, that shit works. Janine: It was specifically developed for people with terminal illness, right? But people treat it like it's used for [Austin: Everything.] grieving other stuff. Austin: Yeah, a hundred percent. Janine: But it's specifically, like, when you are yourself facing death, [cross] these are stages that are recognized. Austin: [cross] And you know? That is the case for the people of Perpetua. Janine: Yeah. Dre: You know what, Austin? Austin: Yes. Dre: in my professional opinion, you can use the stages of grief in our game. Austin: Thank you. Thank you, Dre. I appreciate that. You heard that, everybody? I got approval. That means it’s allowed. Keith: And what about my love languages submission? Dre: No, fuck you. [Keith laughs] Ali: Wow. Dre: Sorry. Austin: And we'll—as we develop out those factions and we talk about various character relationships to them, it'll come into, maybe, more clarity as to who believes what and etc. Art, who are you playing? Art’s Pitch Art: I'm playing Uncle Nicky. Austin: Uncle Nicky. [Sylvi and Jack laugh] Dre: Not Little Nicky. Keith: Is that all it says there? Art: We'll get to it. And I have A Friends at the Table classic for a description here. Which is, “What if Gordon Ramsay used to be Luca Brasi?” [Sylvi laughs] Ali: Ok! [Jack laughs] Austin: Love it. Great. In a fantasy world, especially, yeah. Art: Yeah, I was gonna go with De Niro's character in Goodfellas, I think that's a little more right, but no one knows that character's name. Austin: What's that character's name? Jack: Luca Brasi's a fucking legend. What a guy. Art: Yeah. Uh-huh. Austin: What is De Niro's character in Goodfellas' name? Art: It's Jimmy Conway. Austin: Yeah, no one knows that. Art: If I’d said Jimmy Conway, I would've gotten no reaction. Austin: Yeah, yeah. Art: That sounds like an insurance salesman. Austin: [chuckles] Yeah. Keith: Who's Luca Brasi? Art: Oh. Jack: Uh… Dre: Hm. Sylvi: The Dallas Mavericks. Jack: He's a good dude. He's a good man. [Dre cackles] Austin: Shut the fuck up, Sylvi. [Sylvi chuckles] Jack: Art, how would you pitch Luca Brasi? Sylvi: Big mafia man. Art: Well, Luca Brasi is like the enforcer for the Corleone family. Keith: Oh, this is the Godfather. Art: This is the Godfather. Austin: This is the Godfather, yeah. Keith: Okay. Jack: And he's long-lived. Keith: Which I saw forever ago. Art: And, you know, the most famous fact about the part is that the actor got the line wrong. Jack: Oh, it's so good. [chuckles] Art: The actor was just, like, they just found, like, a guy for being huge. [Keith: Right.] And wasn't, like, a trained actor. And so the line where he's like, “And I hope your first child is a masculine child.” That's not in the script. That's not the line. [Jack laughs] Keith: What is it supposed to be? Art: I don't remember. Austin: Does he look like—is he a human? Are you playing a human? Art: I am playing a human, yeah. Austin: Okay. Art: And I'm sort of thinking it as a little bit like—a bit of a cartoon chef appearance. Austin: Now, wait a second, because—oh, I guess that's the Gordon Ramsay part. Right. Art: Yeah. they gave up their life of crime to be a chef on this traveling bus restaurant. Austin: Uh-huh. Art: Yeah. [chuckles] And so the class combination is Darkblade and Gourmet. [Jack and Keith laugh] Art: And I'm going to say Gourmand so many times. Austin: For ideological reasons, or? Art: No, it's just what I think it's called. Austin: I see. Art: That's what I think the class is called. I'm trying. Austin: Isn't a gourmand someone who eats food? Art: Yeah. Dre: Yeah. Art: No, the class is right. They’re right about what they’re doing. Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [Ali laughs] Austin: Oh, okay. I see. Okay. Art: I’m just doing a bad job. [Keith laughs] Austin: [chuckles] I see now. Great, fantastic. And our final western continent character… Ali’s Pitch Ali: Yeah, so we have a tinkerer, a hostess, and a chef. [Austin: Uh-huh.] Everyone says—this one is obvious. Say it at home with me. Chosen priestess. Austin: Chosen priestess! Right, of course. [multiple people laugh] Dre: Yayyy! Sylvi: Yeah, no, duh. Austin: Of course. Ali: Obvious, yeah. Woman of the cloth here. Woman of the… Austin: Protectorate? Keith: Which cloth? Ali: The Holy Protectorate of Placidia and the Way of the Fearless Truth. Austin: Yeah, the Way of the Fearless Truth. Dre: That cloth. Austin: Yeah, that cloth. Ali: Yeah. Keith: That cloth. That old cloth. Austin: We—these are probably the the most like, “Huh? Who? Who the fuck are you talking about?” If you listened to the worldbuilding and only the worldbuilding—not that there was anything else to listen to, I guess. But we never really got deep into the religion of the world in the worldbuilding. Outside of we knew there was, like, the dragon cult. We know that there were lots of cities where people did sports and fighting, [chuckles] for some reason. [Sylvi laughs] And we had a couple of, like, “And there's a church, and there's, like, a bunch of gods.” And so I wrote a little thing about what that religion is. And, like, the very short version is, they are the—in the schema—in the “what stage of grief are you in,” they are the acceptance stage. They have zeroed in on which of their huge pantheon of gods is at this higher cosmological tier that exists seemingly between generations of Perpetua. They're called the Ennead. They're nine, like, higher level gods than the kind of gods just of this version of Perpetua. And importantly, they're like, “The end of the world is coming. It's a few hundred years away. The best thing we can do for now is to make sure people's lives are as good as they can be.” They kind of broke off of a previous version of the faith that I think has since kind of withered on the vine as more and more people have come to accept that the world is ending at some point. And it becomes the kind of de facto biggest church in the world. Not the only one. And they're—I will say that they're like—this is probably the least Catholic religion we've done here. I’ve—I can't say I'll have ever escaped it, necessarily. [Ali chuckles] Keith: 1 to 10 how Catholic? Austin: Very low, you know? Sylvi: That's not a number. Dre: Like a 2? Austin: [cross] 2. Dre: Okay. Austin: Yeah, 2. I mean, like, I'm still going to say the word bishop, you know? Keith: Okay, so, goes to church on the holidays but also is way into, like, fortune tellers. Austin: That's like a 6 on Catholic. Honestly, Keith. Ali: Yeah. Keith: It depends where you're from. Austin: Yeah, I have—a lot of my Catholic family is the thing you just described. So. Ali: Yeah. Keith: Well, sorry, but it's not volume. It's piousness, I think, was my scale. Austin: I see. I see what you're saying. Dre: Ohhh. Keith: There may be someone who identifies strongly as a Catholic, but is not really a pious person. Austin: I see what you're saying. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the ways that they're not is like, I am—they are cheerful fatalists. They truly believe the thing. They believe there is no way to stop the end of the world. They believe that the—you should try to be godly in the sense that there are these nine visions of different types of holiness. They're not all unified, but they're all different types of virtue that you could pursue. And you know, I don't know, we haven't talked about what those gods are, but there's a range there from—in the same way that any pantheon has a big range of aspects. They see themselves as stewards of the world. I think we've talked about—there's an idea that, like—I sort of think that they've done the Salvation Army but for adventurer’s guilds. [Sylvi: God.] Where they're like, “Yeah, we're going to pay for adventurers to, like, go do adventurer’s guild shit.” That, you know, “Oh, there's, like, weird haunting in the cemetery, and the local town doesn't have the people to go investigate it? We'll pay for people to go do that, because we don't want the—we don't want people to suffer for the next few hundred years while we're waiting for the whole world to end.” They're not accelerationists, but they are, like, kind of have accepted this idea and are not doing anything to stop it. Which I think is its own—you can be critical of that pretty strongly, I think. Ali: Hey! Austin: But your character maybe has a different perspective, Ali. [Ali laughs] Ali: I mean, yeah, we’ll see how devout she ends up being in the play of it. Austin: [cross] We’ll get there. Ali: But yeah, so I am playing Veile DeLynn, she/her. I was gonna play a human, but now that Art is, I wonder if I should be an elf. Austin: Oh, you could be an elf. You could be... Ali: [chuckles] Yeah, listen to the rest of the podcast for the elf answer. Austin: Yeah. [Dre hums] Art: It's a tease. [Ali laughs] Austin: We have some other—you could be a bird person. You could be a mushroom person. Ali: I could be a bird person… Sylvi: You could be a bat. Austin: You could be a doll person. You could be a Lobble, our little rubber guys. Sylvi: Oh my god. Austin: You probably couldn’t be a little—well… Ali: There's so many things. Austin: There are many things. Ali: I will say for, like, description’s sake, I think of her as, like, a young woman with long, really dark hunter green curly hair. Austin: Perfect. Love it. Great. There's our western continent. It seems to be a traveling food truck and a priestess. A fated princess. Or priestess. Sylvi: It's Final Fantasy X, right? I think that's how that game went. Austin: Yeah, I think that’s right. Austin: So, what's happened over on the eastern continent? Who wants to go first? Sylvi? Sylvi: [laughs] We're always like this, huh? I'll go. Austin: Yeah. Sylvi’s Pitch Sylvi: So my character's name is Caoimhe Rime.[1] Caoimhe is spelled super Irish. It's C, A, O, I, M H, E. But I put the pronunciation in there for you. I was like, what's elf-y? The beautiful Irish language. Austin: I would never have gotten to this. I mean, here's what I'm saying too. And I know. I know some of these, you know, but yeah, I don't know this one. Sylvi: Anyway, she is a Disgruntled Hexcloak who has sort of one way or another figured out what is going on with the—Like, not what is going on, but that the world is ending. Austin: Right. Because we should say really quick. The elves, the uh, the Elavan League. The, the Elevant League? The League of—What are we— Sylvi: I think it's Elevana League. Janine: The League of Elvatoli. Sylvi: We're not doing that. Austin: The Elevana League, which is a collection of elvish city states. They don't believe it. They don't believe the world is ending. They believe they've been blessed by the gods to have cool elemental powers, which they have. Why would those same gods destroy the world? This is some western continent bullshit. This is some misunderstanding of what's going on. Jack: And they're wrong. We can say that outright. Austin: Well, yeah, they're wrong, 100%. I mean, we don't necessarily know all the particulars. Jack: Oh, but the world is ending. Austin: The world—I mean, here's what I'll tell you. If no one does anything, the world will end in a few hundred years. The clock is ticking down. Sylvi: But what about the show? Austin: Right, exactly. Play to find out what happens. Could past cycles have been prevented from turning over? Has it always gone the same way? No one knows these things. Is it gonna happen? Yes. Without any sort of intervention. 100%. And so they are just denialists, right? They just don't believe it. And [Sylvi: I do!] You do. And also you have seen particular efforts of the Hexcloaks to cover up or dismiss evidence to the contrary. Sylvi: Yeah. We don't need to necessarily get into the nitty gritty of it now, but I have the Repentant Enforcer quirk from the Technofantasy expansion for this game that is very much about character leaving sort of the evil organization and becoming a good guy. Austin: Love it. So have you—at this point, have you left them? Sylvi: I think I'd like to start… I almost put that she had left, but I think it is more interesting to have that be the—[Austin: In play.] In play still. I think I joked that there's kind of a Mulder vibe, but I do like that, you know, like, that it's like, yeah, there's the one crazy person in the FBI that nobody listens to. But I'm right. Damn it. Aliens are real. Except in this case, it's the world is ending. Austin: The world is ending. Yeah. These things are all connected. Keith: It's also true in the X Files. Sylvi: Yeah, I mean, [Austin: I bet.] Yeah. Probably multiple times, I imagine. Also, I'm a—If it matters, because we talked about elves being elemental, I'm a lightning elf. I thought about ways that that manifests and—Should we get into this now or should we keep it moving? Austin: I mean, you gotta tell me the answer to this. Unless, are we teasing? Sylvi: Do you know what Lichtenberg figures are? Austin: I do. Sylvi: I really like the idea of lightning elves having these Lichtenburg figure birthmarks. I'm linking an image for people in the chat. To be clear, if you Google this, you will get a lot of people with scars that are in this shape because they've been hit by lightning. Austin: I recently gave my Dragon Age character one of these, so. Sylvi: Oh, okay, sick. Yeah, I was thinking these, but they are like—I'm toying between crystalline or iridescent. You know, they look kind of like lightning-y. I don't know how else to put it. There's a charge there. Austin: Is that the common way this shows up for— Sylvi: Yeah, it's like. It's like a common way it shows up. Austin: Cool. Sylvi: It's not like a unique thing to her or anything like that. Austin: Awesome. Let's say it is iridescent. Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: If you're cool with that. Sylvi: I am totally down with that. Austin: Or maybe it, like, does—Maybe it goes from, like, a dull crystal to becoming kind of iridescent as you do power stuff. But I think maybe for some people, it has started to stop going iridescent because there was a strange entropy falling on the eastern continent. Who knows what it could be connected to? Definitely not the end of the world, say the elves. It's definitely a different unrelated thing. Sylvi: No, it's not! Austin: I mean, who knows? It could be. Sylvi: No, I'm role playing. Austin: This is the joy of this. Sylvi: Come on, man. Austin: I love it. Great. Alright, eastern character number two. I'm gonna say Keith. Keith’s Pitch Keith: Hi. Okay. I just—I always—Every year I work back—Every year—Every time we do this [Austin: Every 18 months.] The stuff that everyone else starts with is the last thing I've got. So I have such a bare bones— Austin: You have a great pitch. I love the guy. You, you have a super clean— Keith: But I don't know anything about him. Austin: You don’t know his name? Keith: I know his heart, but I don't know his life. Austin: Let's start with his heart. Tell me about his heart. Keith: I'm playing Antistrophe Landrace. He/him. Austin: Great. Keith: Antistrophe Landrace is a former wizard or mage, a magic user who's lost his—He's lost his ability to use magic. Here's my early pitch. We've talked about how he's probably from the Hundred Boroughs, but I'm willing to move to somewhere where this pitch makes more sense. Although, I'm not saying that it doesn't make sense at the Boroughs. I'm just saying I'm not—I don't know 100%. I'm thinking of him being what's called a Tenant, which is someone who is, like, contracted into—So basically renting magical equipment, like a lab. Like, basically, what was our guy from the—Presh? Harlow Presh. Austin: Yeah. Keith: What Presh was doing in the employ of an institution. This is basically the adjunct professor version of the same thing where you actually have to buy into, with the hope that you're going to make the money back on the end of your research. Austin: Yeah. Keith: When he loses his magic, he's now at the—He's now at the payback phase of a contract that he can't—Literally does not have what it takes to pay back. Austin: Literally can't do the magical research anymore. [Keith: Right, exactly.] He can do the research, but not the magic. Keith: Right, but not the magic. And so he's had to sort of, basically, well you're still, you're still under contract, you've got to finish this thing out. So he's taken up the shield to go and be basically an in the field researcher. Yeah. End of sentence. Austin: Yeah. I think there's probably ways that we could probably get really crystal clear on what you owe “blank” in a way that makes sure it's not something that we forget about because we get distracted. Do you know what I mean? It might be—It truly might be easiest to be like, you have to pay your rent for this place that you owe, instead of it being like you need to do a particular magical ritual or something. But we'll get there. I do— Keith: Or have a—Produce a work, right? Austin: Yeah, maybe you do have to produce a work. I think that's totally fine. You—I do think Hundred Boroughs make sense. The Hundred Boroughs are where Harlow Presh was from in the, the world building game. [Keith: And there's a lot of Boroughs.] There's a lot of Boroughs. The more developed version of them, remember, what we had for them before was like, they are a highly advanced society, but they're not a highly structured centralized authority society. [Keith: Right.] I think that basically the thing that's happened with them is they've had a thousand years of peace and prosperity because they became anarcho-communist wizards. Then they were like, we have a hundred different boroughs, we have a hundred communes that you can join each to taste. We have like a loose federation of them so that, you know, we all make sure we're sharing resources and stuff, we're doing all that shit. And the thing that happened is a hundred years ago, the world building game happened. And Harlow Presh came back and was like, hey, the world is ending. And they spent a hundred years trying to fix it it. And they haven't been able to fix it. They don't have a fucking clue how to fix it. And so if we have the acceptance phase in the holy protectorate of Placidia, if we have the denial phase in the Elevana League, we have, you know, depression, we have philosophical pessimism here, in—Moving through the Hundred Boroughs after a thousand years of peace, they are now going, oh my God, everything we built is worthless. We made a utopia here on Earth, and to what end? If we can't solve this thing, the most brilliant minds of any generation can't solve this thing, no one's going to be able to solve this thing. And so you have people turning towards, you know, hedonism and people turning towards a deep depressive state where they don't do anything. And it's just like a culture wracked with anxiety about having achieved so much and it now being nothing. And you're living right in the middle of it because you've lost your power as part of the strange entropy that's moving through the eastern continent. I don't know that you have an answer for that yet, but I do think that there is, that can be part of that larger question. I think it fits pretty nicely for you to be from the Boroughs. I think a human? A thing that I realized after we played that game is it felt like we were playing a halfling or a gnome or something. Even though we were just playing— Keith: We were totally playing a human. Yeah. Austin: Even though it was just Richard Kind, right? So like you're a human. Art: Who is a human. Austin: Yeah, who is a human. Sylvi: He's a bit of a gnome-y actor. He feels human. Keith: We played a human in honor of Richard Kind. Austin: We did, in honor of Richard Kind. So I don't want to retroactively say Richard Kind is a gnome. And I am, of course, famously not a big gnome guy. Sylvi: Right. Austin: But I just wanted to put it out there, was that a gnome? Art: If an attorney representing Richard Kind is listening to this, we are not saying that the real Richard Kind is a gnome. Austin and Keith: No, no, no. Janine: Why would they sue over that? Austin: You don't know what Richard Kind believes. Art: I would. Sylvi: He's tall, [crosstalk] he’s six foot— Janine: [crosstalk] No, you wouldn’t! Keith: [crosstalk] He might hate gnomes like Austin hates gnomes. Sylvi: [crosstalk] I didn't realize he was six foot. Austin: Well, it depends on what you could get. If— Keith: [interrupting] A juicy lawsuit. Janine: From a podcast? Austin: If Elon Musk said that Art—Art Martinez Tebbel's a real gnome. I think maybe you have a—You got a case. Janine: [crosstalk] That’s a money thing— Keith: [crosstalk] That's slander. Janine: You just—You're gonna lose that one, though. Austin: Yeah, you're probably gonna lose that one. He's probably got pretty good lawyers, unfortunately. Janine: Also, it's not slander or libel because it's not a credible [Austin: Gnomes suck!] No-one's like, oh, he's probably a gnome for real, because that's not how it works. Sylvi: Yeah, we don't have the UK slander laws, Keith: That's what we have to prove. You're prejudging the case. Janine: Yeah, it's like if. You know, I wouldn't be making this argument if someone—If the argument was like, what if Elon Musk called Art a murderer? Like, yeah, you could sue over that for sure. Keith: Well, let's hope you're not the judge. [laughter] Austin: Some people think gnomes are murderers, you know. Well, I think that that leads us, Janine, to your character [Janine: Yes.] Who is the last of the eastern continent characters. Janine’s Pitch Janine: I am playing Brontë Adelvys. He is the dissipated sixth scion of the first line. He is from Terroir—This is gonna fuck me up—Grande Sonnerie. I'll just say it that way. Austin: Yeah, say it the way that I'm gonna say it, woo! Janine: His theme is Scintillation. Austin: We didn't name it—Grande Sonnerie is the—That big mega city we built at the very end of world building. We didn't say that, that's what it was called at the time. So, so sorry, what was his theme? Janine: Scintillation. Austin: Scintillation. This is the first theme we've gotten—No one else named their themes. I'm glad this is the first one we've gotten. Janine: Mm-hm. And the quirk that I have chosen for him—Pronouns are he, him—is Stubborn Scion. I, I decided—I looked at all the other ones. I was like, I don't like any of these for him. He's not a robot. He's not, you know, he's a human, he's a human guy, and he has two sidekicks who appear when they're needed and otherwise are just somehow not there. Austin: Yeah. Janine: Efta and Zolfta. Austin: Efta and Zolfta. I love this. I guess quirks are, I think I should say out loud, are a thing that you don't have to play with, but I think they're great. And so, yeah, your quirk is that you got a couple of henchmen, you got a couple of bodyguards. Dre: Hell, yeah. Austin: And also you're rich. Janine: Henchmen, oh my god. They’re aides. Austin: Oh, sorry, apologies. You have two aides in Efta and Zolfta. Keith: Do they aid you in self defense? Austin: They literally do do that. Yeah. Janine: Yeah. Austin: Among other things. Keith: Let's hope I'm not the judge for Janine's case. [laughter] Austin: It strikes me that you're playing a hot, arrogant prince. Is that—? Janine: I don't know that he's arrogant. Austin: Okay. A hot, scintillating prince? [Janine: Confident.] Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. Janine: I don't think you can be the sixth in line to the throne and be arrogant. I think you have to have, like, a little bit of humbleness there. Like, you're not gonna make it. It's not gonna be you. Keith: [crosstalk] I thought that you multiple times described this guy as the worst. Austin: [crosstalk] Well, wait a second. Janine: Yeah, you can be the worst and not be arrogant. Keith: And not be arrogant. Okay. Janine: You don't have to be all things to be the worst. Austin: Now, wait a second. What was that you were saying about being sixth in line? Is—you couldn't, you wouldn't be the worst. You don't think? It says here, okay, I'm gonna be playing Clementine Kesh, a 23 year old heir to the throne of Kesh, albeit a kind of fairly limited hair. Clementine is sixth in line. I say. Well, well. Sixth in line. Yeah. Uh-huh. So very fun. You know, it rhymes. Jack: It's Stephen King and the number 19 or whatever. It's just here, sixth in line to the— Janine: It could have easily been fifth. I just went with sixth for lore reasons. Jack: Yes. Party Pitches Austin: Oh, sure, of course. Good. And so that, I guess, brings us to the concept of this eastern group. You, of course, are from Grande Sonnerie, a Western City. Do you have an idea in your head for why or where you are on the eastern continent? Janine: Diplomacy. Austin: You're here for diplomacy. Janine: And also to not cause trouble. Austin: Ah, you’re been sent— Janine: When you have a lot of heirs. You, one, you have some built in diplomats right there for you. Two, you don't want them all hanging around each other too much. Austin: Mm. This is true. They can cause trouble. They can create rivalries. You don't need that shit. Yeah, they can get ambitious. Janine: Ship that kid off. Austin: Get that kid out of here. Are you hanging out with, like, a sibling or a cousin or you—? Janine: No. Austin: You're— Janine: Well, I don't think so, but [crosstalk] it depends on our starting point. Austin: [crosstalk] Okay, but were you explicitly sent on, were you explicitly sent here as part of the request—A part of what—This, this, kind of. I almost said heist. It's not a heist even a little bit, this investigation here. Or is that something you joined after you got here because it sounded cool? Janine: I don't know. I don't know that they would send him to participate in an investigation. Austin: They really just sent him to go fuck off. Janine: He's not like a book guy. [Sylvi laughs] Austin: Okay. We're gonna figure out how he got involved in doing this particular thing. Because I think the thing over here is, as I said, the eastern continent has become. You know, we talked about some of this stuff in the character creation for the other. For the world building games where, like, you know, there's a city where the river just stopped running and seemed to, like, run out one day. We've had, you know, the people, like. Sorry, what was your character's great name, Keith? Just now— Keith: Oh, Antistrophe Landrace. Austin: Antistrophe is, you know, losing magic where some of the elves are losing their elemental connections. Jack: But it's not the end of the world, Austin: But it's not the end of the world. You know, I think there's a lot of Fall of Magic or the third? The third Earthsea book here where, like, people are losing the lyrics to their songs. You know, people are just forgetting the old songs. You know, all of the silkworms east of the mountain range died one day for some reason, no one knows why. Everyone remembers a color that they can't find anymore. You know, things are just—The world is becoming grayer somehow. And the eastern continent game is very much, hey, what's going on here? Let's investigate an example of this and try to figure out, is there a—You know, your X Files thing, Sylvi, is so structuring for me because I really love the idea of, like, coming to town, solving a fantasy mystery, fighting a boss or whatever. And then the question being, is this, is this tied to some bigger threat? Or is it sometimes a city loses all—Or, you know, a biome loses all of its silkworms all at once. Sometimes a wizard casts a forgetfulness spell and everyone forgets the lyrics. Art: [crosstalk] And then nothing’s splorange. Austin: [crosstalk] You know? Say that again, Art. Art: And then nothing’s splorange anymore. Austin: And then nothing splor—You've lost splorange. But is that—Do you lose splorange because of a greater structural or systemic problem? Or was it a particular instance that you can kind of say it was a one off and so you don't have to worry about it. You solved the case, and— Sylvi: Ed, Edd and Eddy has been off the air for years now. Austin: It has been. Exactly. Sylvi: That sort of thing, yeah. Yeah, I get it. Yes. Austin: Dre in the chat says we're losing recipes. Literally. Literally. Literally, we're losing the recipes, but also figuratively, it's both. So those are the two big groups. I guess we didn't say explicitly what the western group high premise is because, Ali, it's kind of a your character thing that we didn't just spoil outright. Is that a thing we want to talk about right now, or do we want to save that for in play? Or how do you imagine us? Ali: Yeah, we ended up like, writing like, a prequel in our group chat, basically. [laughter] Keith: Wow. Ali: Which is that in I—The reason why I am a chosen princess is that I am on— Austin: [interrupting] Priestess. Or are you back to princess? Ali: No, I, I—It's always been priestess. I just— Austin: I said princess earlier by mistake also. Ali: I know. And I heard you do it and I was like, I did that before. I'm gonna keep doing it. Art: The shadow of Clem looms large. Ali: [laughing] I know. Well, I am on a mission. I have been, I have been put to a mission base, you know, from the, the Holy Order, etc. I think I'm taking the Prophecy quirk, but I don't know the prophecy yet. So. I'm a prof—I'm not a prophet. [laughter] I'm fated in some way. I was sent on a mission and either with a different group of adventurers or on my own. And it got fucked up in some way and I was found wounded by these—I was about to say chucklefucks. [laughter] Austin: [crosstalk] I mean, I don't say that. Sylvi: [crosstalk] We've got the name for the party. The book says give your group a name. Austin: That is normally the hardest part. Sylvi: Chucklefucks on Wheels! Ali: Yeah. Art: Ellie and the Chucklefucks. [laughter] Ali: Yeah, I was found— Keith: That is like half a turn different than like a, a jokey, actual real world food truck. Austin: You're right. These days, yeah. Ali: Oh, sure. I, Yeah. I was found by very, very kind people who took me in, nursed me to health— Austin: It would be like, the Chuckle Ducks. And then it would be some sort of duck sandwich Dre: [crosstalk] Oh, I was gonna say Cluckle Trucks. Keith: [crosstalk] Some sort of duck breast sandwich. Janine: [crosstalk] No, no, no. It's the Shuckle Truck. And it's like, oysters and clams and stuff. Keith: [crosstalk] Right, oysters and— Ali: [crosstalk] Ooh. Art: [crosstalk] Chuckle fondues. Worse than all of yours. [Ali laughing] Art: But fondue from a truck would be super fun. Yeah, there's a— Ali: Well, we, you know. Austin: You don't know, we don't know. Yeah, we'll see. Art: I suspect. Dre: It's magic. Austin: It's magic. The—But that's the vibe. And I mean, I think—Should we just say the thing that—First of all, really quick shout outs to Jack, who we had this very—I think I very quickly came to understand how the eastern group could work out. And, and again, Janine, we'll have to figure out why your scintillating prince is in the mix. But easy to imagine an idol prince decides to get involved in something and no one says no. [Janine: Yeah, absolutely.] Right, but over here. Well, there's a real range of characters here. What's the vibe? And Jack, you came up with six impeccable pitches for different campaigns. Some zoomed really close in and some zoomed very far out. Jack: I realized as I was writing them that like, I was just writing campaign pitches. I was like, what the fuck are we doing here? Austin: Yeah. Jack: But I tried to do ones that were like—It's like you said, these ones are really personal. This one would have a really light tone. This one could be much darker. This could be a bunch of very serious people who are all sort of joined together. This one's more for chucklefucks. [Sylvi laughs] We sort of like melded. Austin: Yeah, exactly. We kind of did meld a few of them and I think tonally leaned towards chucklefuck. But now held together by the young priestess on an almost—What you've written here is “an almost certainly doomed quest”. Jack, do you want to read the Messenger? Jack: Yeah. Okay, so I wrote these one sentence pitches and then a little paragraph. The one sentence pitch for the Messenger is a hired party of mercenaries accompanying a young priestess on an almost certainly doomed quest. It took the Way of Fearless Truth 212 years to agree to it. And even now, as the mission begins, the Protectorate has written it off as a failure. One priestess of the Holy Way, attended by four hand picked adventurers, departs the city to seek White Lectern, a rumored shrine where one can speak directly to the second God of the Ennead and beg for clemency. Austin: What we now know is that hand group picked of four adventurers is fucking dead. Jack: And instead we have the crew of the Little Snail. Keith: And it's not even little. Austin: It's not even little. Art: No, it's huge. Austin: I have a question. Did the Little Snail used to be little? Has it gotten bigger over time? Jack: Ooh, good question. Keith: Oh, does it let us make it big? Art: No, it's got a tree in it. Did we say that already? Jack: The trees were small once. We haven't said that on mic, but it has a tree in it. Janine: It's actually really funny to think about—Like, there was originally an actual party that makes sense. Art: Yeah. Janine: And then they, like, stopped at a food truck and, like, something horrible happened. And the food truck guy was like, oh, my God. Well, we can't just leave her. Austin: That is. I mean, literally. The pitch that we then got to was Jonathan, who's the Terrapine, finds wounded priestess among scattered wreckage of her previous party. Attacked and all but killed by something literally, that was kind of fun. Art: If they stopped, had a meal, were ambushed in the middle of the meal. The ambushing party was fought off by the food truck crew. And it's like, all right, I guess it's you now. Austin: It's you now. Yeah. Brought together by fate. You could now see why I said before, brought together by fate then becoming guardians. So, yeah. Alright. I think those are the two groups. I think that that's high level, what we got—Let's talk about characters. Let's do it. Let's go through. Let's just—Should we just do a character at a time and go through each of these things, or do we want to talk about them? We were talking about identity theme and origin, and then. Do you want to split it up some way? Jack: We should just do them in a whack. Art: Splitting it up is gonna be hard. Character Breakdown: Caoimhe [00:58:30] Austin: It'll be confusing. Yeah, let's just go all the way through. Who's up? Who wants to talk to me about their identity? A short sentence that briefly summarizes who they are at the moment and then the rest of the character also. Jack: I went first last time. I'm happy to go first again, but otherwise I am gently sitting down and letting someone else go first. Sylvi: I'll go first. I think I already said my identity in the little like— Austin: You did but let me just, let me just. I want to note for the listener what identity is, because obviously it's a very big topic these days in culture. We're always talking about, you know, identity politics and things like that. [Janine booing] Sylvi: Goddamn alphabet mafia. Austin: But here in the world of Fabula, your identity is a short sentence that quickly summarizes how a character currently sees themselves. It's generally like a combination of—I guess it's worth saying, this is a game where every character is multiclass, and so you're not a Guardian or a Lore Master or a Tinkerer, even though you might have a couple of levels in those things, right? Their examples for identities are things like Royal Knight or Magitech Scientist or Former Imperial Strategist. And in fact, there is a whole act like identity creation table where you can, like, combine adjectives and details and nouns to create one. Sylvi: Yeah. Shout out to the tables in this game, honestly, they're very fun. [Austin: They’re very good.] When we first floated doing Fabula. I remember rolling through the, like, character generation stuff a couple of times and being like, okay, there's some—They're cooking here. Austin: Totally. And it's important because you can invoke your identity in order to give yourself a bonus on certain checks in play, certain dice rolls in play. So it's important to have one these that really speaks to, like, it summarizes who you are, right? And how you see yourself. So what is your identity? And again, can you repeat your character's name so we start drilling it into our heads. Sylvi: My character's name is—Just first name or full name? Austin: Full name. Sylvi: Caoimhe Rime, R, I, M, E. Austin: Caoimhe Rime. R, I, M, E. Like icy, like frost? Yeah. Sylvi: And the identity is Disgruntled Hexcloak. Or I can just make it Hexcloak, if that makes sense. Austin: No, Disgruntled Hexcloak is great. I think that's great. Yeah. Cool. Totally. Art: What if disgruntling is important? Sylvi: Exactly. Austin: That I think is really important. Yeah, totally. Sylvi: Or what if I get disqualified because I need to be gruntled for a scene and I'm just not? Austin: So true. Sylvi: Yeah. Anyway. Austin: Then each character has a theme, a strong ideal or emotion driving their actions and choices. If you had to build an entire scene around your character, their theme would be its dominant focus. There is a list of suggested themes here. And the game is like, if this is the first time you're playing this game, you should probably pick one of these. You don't have to, but these are our big suggestions. What's your theme? Sylvi: So my theme is Doubt. [Austin: Interesting.] This ties into the quirk I got. Do you want to read that now or should we save that for later? Austin: If you think it's relevant, go ahead and read it now. Sylvi: So I guess I'll just read the first paragraph here and we can see if we need more. You may acquire this quirk only if your character's theme is Doubt or Guilt. And your theme cannot be changed in any way as long as you have this quirk. When you acquire this quirk, describe the organization you worked for—The Hexcloaks—Name the villain who leads it and list their three main strategies. That organization becomes a threat for your world. Austin: Love it. I'm gonna need you to name that character at some point. We'll talk off mic and we'll— Sylvi: I'm trying to—I've got a last name. I don't have a first name. Austin: What's the last name? Sylvi: It's Commander Aegir. A, E, G, I, R. Austin: Love that. Sylvi: And the three strategies, I have destroy subversive artifacts, spread misinformation, and use excessive force. Austin: I love it. I love that these folks got introduced via their weird fake city, their fake town in the river delta in our world building. And now they've become one of our primary antagonists in the season. Big fan. So, yes, your Repentant Enforcer is the quirk that you have [Sylvi: Yes.] And that requires you to have Doubt as your current… Sylvi: Doubt felt—I was kind of flip flopping between Doubt or Guilt, but Doubt felt better for someone who's still part of the organization. Austin: Right, right, sure. Sylvi: And also kind of ties into the sort of like truth seeking stuff that we're gonna be doing. Austin: Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. Sylvi: Yeah. There's more to this, but it's group based, so I figure we'd do it later when people are like—There's an item that I get from this quirk that I'm supposed to come up with with the group. Austin: Okay, cool. Summarize it now so people can start thinking about it. Sylvi: You managed to steal something from the organization. You obtain a single rare item worth a thousand zenit or less. You may choose—which is the currency, I don't know if we've said that. Austin: The currency. Yeah. Are we gonna keep it? Do we like zenit? Sylvi: I don't know. But I'm just. I copied this from the book. Keith: I'm fine with it. I don't hate zenit, but it would be. I think we should change it. Jack: I don't think it's—Naming things is always hard, but I think naming currency is probably an easier thing to name than other stuff. Austin: We have some great currency name over in the Realis campaign we're currently recording. Jack: Oh my god, it’s so good. Austin: I agree. Mm. So yeah, we should come up with something for ourselves. But for now, a thousand zenit or less. So it's some sort of. You don't know what it is. It's something rare. Sylvi: Yeah. You may choose this item from the available list or design it along with the rest of your group at the end of each session. If you hindered one or more of the organization strategies or if you remedied some of the harm they have done, gain one Subversion Point. And then that is like a Fabula—Fabula Points are a thing we'll probably get into when we're actually playing, but Subversion Points can be used in the same way. Austin: Cool. All right, so then that is your theme. What is your origin? An origin is a place that you're from, a place that you know and can speak to. Because, like, your theme and your identity, you can invoke your origin in order to, in this case, reroll one or both dice during a check. Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: So this is like, where are you from? What's your Elven background? Sylvi: We talked a little bit… I messaged you earlier, being like, hey, do you have any major cities for the Elevana League in mind? It's broadly undefined, other than they're tied to the elements, because that is a big thing with the Elevana. And I was thinking that Caoimhe was orphaned in the air city, not necessarily the lightning one or anything, because I'm gonna have her do some air magic, and I thought that'd be fun. But also, I think that it—I don't know, it's cooler than... For some reason, I'm just like, oh, yeah, the, the air city seems cool. I'll be from there. Austin: Yeah. What is the Elvish air city like? Sylvi: Yeah, this is the thing. Austin: There's a lot of ways it could go. Big kite city, just like a big blustery canyon. Sylvi: I feel like we've talked a little. They don't have the flying capabilities that the, um… Austin: The Valtese have. Sylvi: The Valtese have. But maybe there is some sort of, like, what if it's like Venice, but updrafts instead of rivers? Keith: Ooh. Jack: Whoa. Austin: Ooh, that's fun. And so there, it's like a vertical city, and you use those updrafts to go up quickly to a higher level. [Sylvi: Yeah.] That's really fun. Art: Sinking up like Venice is sinking down. Austin: [whispering] That’s fun. Sylvi: Well, that could work with how—It depends on how the magic's fading, right? Because if it could be, it could be floating away. Austin: Yeah. What if it was? Yeah, you could imagine, it's like a piece of ground that was cursed with floating away. And then there are wards to keep it in place, but the wards are failing. You know? Sylvi: Yeah. It's like it's on a floating piece of land that wasn't made—that wasn't man made or elf made, whatever. Pick your, pick your word. That's just like Earth—like magic from the Perpetua itself. Keith: Right. Sylvi: But the magic that's been cast by people, these warding spells, that's what's deteriorating. Austin: Right, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's very fun. Well, we've now done Theme. What was next? Theme. And Origin. We did Origin. All right, classes. What are your starting classes? Sylvi: So my classes are—And there's a little asterisk next to this because of some stuff we got linked right before the recording. Austin: This is true. Sylvi: I have three points in Elementalist. My other two levels are in Weapon Master. Austin: Great. And then there is stuff as you continue doing character creation at this point that is like, determine your attribute scores. This is a game that has kind of what, three sets, three different potential distributions of your stats? There are four core stats in this game. Dexterity, Insight, Might and Willpower. Do you want to say them out loud for completenesses sake? Sylvi: Yeah, sure. So I went with one of the like sort of, you have one high stat, one low stat and then two average stats build, which is Dexterity 10, Insight 8, Might 6, Willpower 8. And just go through my weapons and spells too? Austin: Yeah, let's go through weapons and spells. We don't need to go through hit points, mind points, inventory points. Unless there's something special you want to call out there. I guess it's worth saying each class also has some free benefits for taking the class at all. So for instance, Weapon Master just straight up gave you plus 5 HP and gave you the ability to equip martial melee weapons and martial shields. And then Elementalist lets you also do—Raises your MP by 5, your mind points by 5, and lets you perform rituals whose effects fall within the Ritualism discipline. A thing we'll get to in play at some point, I'm certain. And then, yeah, what's your weapon and spell situation? Sylvi: So my weapon is a two handed sword. I took the stats in the book from the katana, but made it a flamberge which is a flame bladed two handed sword. Austin: Sure. Yep. Sylvi: Dex and Insight are the two rolls I use for that. Plus I get a plus two and HR is 10. It's cool. It's a—I just wanted to be a elf with a sword that's taller than her. So. Austin: So you did decide big ass sword instead of— Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: Yeah. Sylvi: We're in the, you know, Final Fantasy inspired space. [Austin: We sure are.] I gotta do it, right? Austin: Love it. Keith: It's fine. That works great with mine. Sylvi: I think it seemed like it just—If you're going Guardian. Keith: Yeah. I've got two shields instead of a sword. Sylvi: Hell yeah, dude. Austin: I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Sylvi: So, the first spell I took that I'm definitely keeping is Elemental Weapon. You imbue a weapon with elemental energy, choose a damage type, air bolt, earth, fire, or ice. Until this spell ends, all damage dealt by the weapon becomes of the chosen damage type. If you have that weapon equipped while you cast this spell, you may perform a free attack with it as part of the same action. This spell can only be cast on a weapon equipped by a willing creature. Which just rules to me. And then right now I have. The spell I took is Ventus, which is like, the 10 times—It's a multi target spell, up to three targets. It costs 10 MP times the number of targets. So I'd be able to cast it at level one Spellblade if I target one person. You summon the power of winds against your enemy. Each target hit by the spell suffers high roll plus 15 air damage. And each flying target hit by this spell is forced to land immediately. I might stick with that. I might not. I'm still not sure, but seems good. Austin: There will be plenty of time. I think I want to say spells can get changed out in a way that skills can be. But maybe I'm wrong. I don't quite remember, but seems like a good one, certainly. Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: Alright, cool. I think that that's a character. Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: I don't think we need to. I guess name and pronouns is, you've said already many times. [Sylvi: [crosstalk] Yeah, she/her.] And you have some amount of money left over, presumably? Sylvi: Yes, I have 150 left over. And I think we have to roll for like, savings or something. Austin: You do roll 2D6 times 10. Let's do it. Sylvi: Hell yeah. Austin: Roll 2D6. Keith: Oh, for savings? Austin: For savings. Sylvi: I got a hundred dollars. Keith: Not bad. Austin: That's not bad. You got 100 bucks. [Sylvi: Yeah.] Add it to your total. Good job. Sylvi: Yeah. Government pay. That's all right. Austin: Yeah. [Sylvi laughs] And then you will want a bond at some point. We all want to start with—Everybody should have a bond to begin with. Think about what that is. We can talk about that as a group later if you want to. Sylvi: I figured that would be a group discussion. Austin: Discussion. Yeah. As long as we have them by the first session or by the time I'm prepping for the first session. That would be great. Character Breakdown: Brontë [01:11:26] Austin: Alright, who's up? Janine: I'll go. Austin: Janine. Janine: We already went over most of this stuff for Brontë. I should say that Adelvys is not spelled like the flower. It is spelled A, D, E, L, V, Y, S. And also Brontë has two dots over the E. Like Charlotte Brontë. Austin: Right. Of course. Sylvi: Wonderful. Janine: Yes. Austin: Identity again? Janine: Dissipated sixth scion of the first line. Theme is Scintillation. Austin: That's an original theme, right? [Janine: Yes. Yeah.] That's a personally chosen theme. Janine: Yes. Austin: Okay. Janine: Origin is Terroir. Austin: Tell me about Scintillation, because I can look at a book. This book says that doubt is you live to fulfill a promise—Sorry that’s Duty. Doubt is you need to find the answer to a burning question. Duty is you live to fulfill a promise you made or obey an order you received. I think I know what you mean by Scintillation, but I'd love to hear it from your lips. What is Scintillation? Janine: My, my read or intention with Scintillation is, sort of goes hand in hand with identifying him as dissipated. Where it is—dissipation, you know, obviously like the thing of like being reduced, whatever. When you, when you refer to a noble as being dissipated, usually mean that they sort of have shirked their responsibilities. They are just kind of out there having fun being a, you know, like when you're talking about like— Austin: Indulging in their whims. Janine: Yeah. They're not, they're not really adhering to duty. They are just being a annoying rich person out there. So the theme of Scintillation to me is sort of, I don't want to say hedonism because I think hedonism paints a very stark kind of image, but it is sort of a lack of duty. It is a sort of shirking of, of duty. So not guilt about it, but [Keith: Wastrel?] I mean, kind of? Wastrel also has certain implications. Austin: And I will say, you know, there are great arguments for a certain sort of hedonism, also, I think identifying particularly that you're right, that it's about shirking duty, in his case. Janine: Yeah. It's not about eating grapes and like… Austin: Right, right. Janine: Fucking and having like big feasts and stuff. Like it's not quite that. It's not—It's not the Roman hedonism is why I said that. Yeah. So that's sort of his, his thing. Um, classes wise… Where the fuck… Here we go. So first one, Sharpshooter. He is a bowman— Austin: I'm going back to Scintillation for one second. [Janine: Yeah, okay.] Which is—Do you think the—Just because I need to know how to bounce off of it, right? Is the thing that you, you know, Duty is you live to fulfill a promise you made or obey an order you received. Character has Duty, my job is to make fulfilling that duty hard. Is to make shirking that duty seem appealing. Is to make it hard to fulfill that duty because something gets in the way or because the duty is actually something they disagree with or whatever. Janine: Take that. But the opposite. Austin: But the opposite, which is like, something is— Janine: He lives to shirk duty. Austin: Right, and, and what if something would drag you into the world of, of duty and caring about things and people and— Janine: Yes Keith: I hate to be dragged into the world of duty. Austin: Totally. I mean. Art: Thank you, Keith. Austin: But I want to make sure that's clear because there's a version of this that's like, no, I want to play a character who just doesn't give a fuck about anything, and I never want that to be challenged. I don't want to make sure that that was not—Because that would require a different theme. [Janine: No.] Well, I have to ask these questions. Janine: That would require a different everything. Austin: Well, that's—This is the first time we're talking about the character. Janine: I know, but. Austin: And maybe that's—You know, let's totally think it's possible. Janine: It's still the game we do. Austin: Yes, okay. Janine: So classes. He—Actually maybe I should start with gear. Where the fuck…? Well, he has a, he has a longbow which I—There was no longbow in the list. There's only shortbow. But I specifically wanted a bigger bow. Like a more— Austin: Yeah, I think it's good stats. Keith: There is a mechanic in the rules for that. Yeah. Janine: Well, I didn't know, I don't know. I just took the—I took pistol but made it a longbow because that's a martial ranged weapon. But this is of course two handed. It's not one handed. Austin: It's not one handed. Janine: But it just needs to be oomph-y like that. Keith: You know, if this helps anybody there Janine: Not oomph-y but like powerful. It has oomph. Keith: In the rare items creation section, there's rules for changing items—items into different items. Like taking a shortbow and making it a longbow means something. So it's like what is the difference? Does it add range? Does it add damage? Does it take up an extra hand? And that changes the cost of it. Janine: Is that a thing one would do after character creation or is that a thing you're supposed to do…? Keith: It's kind of both. The character creation tab is like, do you want to start with one of these or do you want to buy one of them like, later at a shop or something? Janine: I'll look at that— Austin: [crosstalk] We can tinker with that as we need. Janine: [crosstalk] And change a little bit. And then armor combat tunic, which leaves him with 100 left over. So actually let me do that roll real fast. Roll 2D6 plus 10. No, wait. Times 10. Austin: Times 10. 2D6 times 10. Damn. 100 again. Janine: 110. And then also because of my quirk, I get an extra thousand. Austin: Right. Which your quirk again, is something Scion, right? Janine: Stubborn Scion. Austin: Stubborn Scion. Janine: Yeah. Okay, so, right. Classes. So he's a longbowman. So first class is Sharpshooter. Second class that I picked is Rogue. And the last class that I took is Dancer. Austin: Awesome. So just a regular, you know, wastrel noble who dances and shoots a bow real good. Janine: Mm-hm. Austin: Yeah, that makes sense. Hobbies driven. Is there any other stuff here from character creation you want to shout out? Is there anything special about your inventory points or anything? I don't think so. I think this is all. Janine: I do have extra inventory points because of Rogue. Austin: Oh, sure. [Janine: I get two extra.] That's one of the free—Yeah, that's great. Inventory points for people who are new to Fabula are a lot like in Blades in the Dark, where you can kind of produce something in your inventory when you need it. And inventory points lets you do that, lets you have a little more of that, basically. So. Rad. And then you have a lot of money because of your quirk being assigned. So. Janine: Yes. And also I have those two sidekicks. Aides. Sorry. Austin: Right. Efta and…? Janine: Efta and Zolfta. Austin: Not Zoloft. Which is what I was gonna say. Janine: No. Efta and Zolfta. Austin: Did you pick extra HP or MP for Dancer? [crosstalk] You have to pick one or the other. Janine: I believe I picked MP. Austin: That sounds right. You have a lot of abilities that use MP, so. Janine: Yeah. Austin: Hell yeah. Alright. Let’s wrap up— Janine: Oh and stats wise, I also did Dex 10. Austin: Okay. Janine: And Might 6 and everything else 8. Austin: Okay. Let's— Keith: Happy to close out of the Eastern. Austin: Yeah. Character Breakdown: Antistrophe [01:19:25] Keith: Like I said, I'm playing Antistrophe Landrace. My classes, starting off with Guardian. Guardian is like a big shield guy class. And let me tell you, I'm gonna be hitting, my, my Might is D10. That is the highest it can go. Well, it's the highest base can be. It can go higher in other cases. Sylvi: I'm so glad. I was so worried. Austin: Can we zoom back out and go through identity, theme, origin before we—[Keith: Yes, we can.] Real quick. Just because that's the order they are in the book. Keith: My identity, Troubled, Eccentric, Late Career, Pathfinder. Austin: Okay. Keith: I have—Also, my theme is Doubt. Sylvi, your theme is also Doubt. This is, this is doubt in myself. Doubt in my—In the—In magic of the world. You know, like, I don't know what I'm doing. I have to—You know, I'm a wizard. And so it's just like, okay, you're a wizard. You've been stripped of your magic. Like, what can you do? I've decided I can't do the sword stuff. It's too much. But what I can do is I can hold two shields. [laughter] Austin: Hence, Guardian dual wield shields. [Keith: Yes.] And then your origin is the, the Hundred Boroughs. Keith: The Hundred Boroughs. One of the Hundred Boroughs. Austin: You know, I think we—You know, origins can get really specific, but they can also be really broad. You know, it's fine to be Grande Sonnerie, like, which is presumably what, Brontë, you’re, you’re Grande Sonnerie origin, right? Janine: Yes. Yeah. Austin: Yes. Okay. We didn't—I, I—We said it quickly. We didn't talk more about Grande Sonnerie, unlike a lot of the other places, because it's one of the ones we sort of visited in the last—in the World building. But it's worth saying really quickly that they are the sort of bargaining—They are the ones who you might remember were learning root magic, this sort of, like, magic that goes between the different eras of Perpetua or the different cycles of Perpetua. And so they're kind of like, well, maybe we'll figure it out. Maybe we can, maybe we can find a solution to save some people. Maybe we can—Can we—We'll just keep investigating it. And they're, like, committed to that, but not like they're not Valtese committed to saving the world at any cost. They are figuring out a position that is compromised or is, is—Whatever. We'll see what we can get. So that is the short version of them. Keith: My opinion is that I'm fine with the Hundred Boroughs, but if I had a good idea at some point, I would be—I would love to get specific about some random Borough. Austin: That sounds perfect. Yeah. Hit me up with ideas. Let's find you a home Borough. Keith: So that was Guardian, [Austin: Yes.] The sort of defensive mastery and dueled shield bearer that kind of feed into each other. And then I've also got Loremaster. Loremaster, let's see. Known for their insatiable curiosity and appetite for discovery. And my last one, I have one level in Tinkerer, and it just—I was trying to take stuff that makes sense for a guy who was a wizard, but isn't any longer. Austin: Right, that's. That's great. Idea that, like, you were a wizard. You still have the knowledge of wizardry, which includes doing alchemy, making potions, which is just combining stuff. You're not— Keith: It's other people's magic. It's already magic. Austin: It's not mine. You're not. Yeah, you're not. Not summoning the powers, the elemental powers directly. You're capturing the elemental powers that are in bits of, of whatever alchemical ingredients you have. Is this ingredients based? It's just inventory action based. Keith: It's inventory. Yeah. So this gets you a bonus to inventory points. And then there's another skill that I might take where you can do extra actions per… Austin: Cool. Keith: Like you do an extra inventory action per turn. Austin: There we go. What are your stats? I know the 10 in Might, but what are the other ones? Keith: 10 in Might. I took, I took this because I'm, sorry to—Oh, no, we've already done this. Dre and Janine have the same—Sorry, Sylvi and Janine have the same stats, and so I took the opposite of that. I took 10 Might, 8 Insight, 8 Willpower, and 6 Dexterity. Austin: Okay. Sylvi: That's party balance right there. [Ali laughter] Keith: Yeah. Austin: We should roll for your money. Keith: Let's roll for my money. Oh, you’ve got two good money rolls already. Art: Yeah, no pressure. Austin: 2D6. Oh, 60. Keith: 60. Austin: And still, that's right in the middle. Keith: And I have zero left over because I did take two shields, and a martial armor equals exactly 500. Jack: You can console yourself, though, Keith, because you do have more shields than all of us. Keith: Yeah, I do have the most shields that they let you take. Jack: Yeah, that's something. Keith: Yeah. Austin: I'm so glad we got a dual shield wielder. I'm so happy. Sylvi: That's cool as hell. Austin: It's so funny to me. Sylvi: Goofy could never. Keith: Yeah, this is my original, The very first idea that I had when we opened up Ultima months and months and months ago was dual shield. Austin: I mean, if it's gonna give you that option, you know. Keith: Yeah. Austin: All right. I think that's the eastern continent. Again. We don't have bonds yet, but we should end up with some. And again, those bonds can be with each other. They can be with the Hexblades. They can be—We can figure it out, but everyone should have at least one. I like them to be with each other, that's a nice thing to have, but I'm not requiring it in case you really want to represent some other sort of relationship as the key for your thing, though it seems like quirks have also filled in some of that stuff, so. Character Breakdown: Jonathan [01:25:03] Austin: Alright. Western continent. Team Little Snail. Dre: Snow crew. Austin: Snow crew. Is there snow? Dre: No, I said snail. Snail crew. Austin: I thought you said snow crew. Art and Keith: I also heard snow. Austin: Who's up over here? Dre: I can go. Austin: Let's do it. Dre: Yeah. Alright. Jonathan. He/him pronouns. His identity is an Elderly, Terrapine Gearhead. His theme is Duty. [Austin: Ooh, okay.] So one of the things we had talked about, Austin, and I guess this is probably the first time we're putting it on screen slash on recording discussion is that the Terrapine kind of have this idea of we're gonna spread out into the world. We're gonna learn as much as we can about everything as we can. And then at like, in a point in time when there's, you know, when it's 11 o' clock on the doomsday clock, all the Terrapine like come home and we turn into this insular society. Nobody comes in, nobody leaves. And that's when we figure out, okay, how do we make sure, you know, the next generation of Terrapines can survive? So the duty for Jonathan is that at some point he is going to be forced to go back home. Austin: Is the—But what's the day to day part of that, I guess is another thing. Dre: Like how does it like, motivate him and—? Austin: Yeah, because if it's—Again, if it is a—I'm gonna try to find exactly how they frame this, right? It's a strong ideal or emotion driving their actions and choices, right? [Dre: Yeah.] It's not something hanging in the sidelines. It's something that is like, like, you know, if you pick, if you, if we did one scene for your character, that's what that scene would be. It's the thing that I will—you know, I think having that big choice be a huge part of it, a huge, like hanging over you, part of it is fine. But it's—I think it's a, it's more important for there to be a thing that could show up in micro in any scene. You know what I mean? Dre: Yeah. Austin: A way of framing it maybe for everybody to think about this is you've come to a new city, driven by your theme, you decide to do blank. And if you can't answer that, then the theme is probably not driving your action enough. Dre: Yeah, I think in this case that action would be like—The first thought is like finding like, something that is unique or some sort of like, skill, knowledge, cultural, whatever that is like, unique to that town. But I think in gameplay what that would look like and where conflict could arise would be that like, Jonathan doesn't know when to stop asking questions or maybe doesn't care about like, like they, like—He will be very headstrong and he will stick his nose where it doesn't belong. Austin: Interesting. So is that, so is that actually Duty or is that something else? Is that Curiosity? [Dre: Yeah, maybe.] Or is that like—Because, is the duty—The duty there is like learning about the world to try to bring something back to the Terrapine. But it actually doesn't sound like—Unless that was the promise. You know what I mean? [Dre: Sure.] The promise— Dre: No, I think you're right. Austin: And again, we can make our own here. We don't have to pick. Dre: Yeah, yeah. Austin: Ambition, Anger, Belonging, Doubt, etc. Dre: I think Curiosity is probably a good placeholder here. Austin: Yeah, let's write it down. Dre: Okay. Austin: And then we'll, we'll wrap back around if it feels wrong between now and our first session. But [Dre: Yeah.] you know, if you're someone who's like, oh, what's going on here? What are the—What's the situation here? Like, what's—What do y' all do around here? Like, yeah, that sounds like curiosity. And that sounds like a thing I can get you into trouble with, you know? [Dre: Yeah.] By pursuing it. All right, that's identity. That’s theme… Dre and Austin: Origin. Dre: The name of the—So I think the Terrapine as a people—Like, I think there are probably some cities that are, like, mostly Terrapine, and I think there's probably also, they're just spread all over the place. Jonathan is from a Terrapine city in the mountains. I don't know where it is on the map. Do you want me to put it on the map? [Austin: Yeah, put it on the map.] Called Clay Ridge. Austin: If it's on this western continent, at least. Dre: Yes, it is. Austin: Yeah. Dre: Okay. Austin: Clay Ridge. Love that. Is it in that big mountain range that we have? Dre: Is the big mountain range the one that's like going crisscross through here? Austin: Sorry, let me get back over to that tab. And not the book. Yeah, that's the big one. Yes. Dre: Okay. Yeah. Austin: Or is it in the—Another place it could be is. I was thinking about this, you know that big thing that is out in the water? The big—It looks like a waffle right now. You know what I'm talking about? You know this thing in the middle here. Dre: Yeah, I forget what that is. Austin: Well, we didn't zoom in a lot on it, but I was thinking that could be the big place where the eggs are gonna go eventually. The sort of, like, walled in mega structure that y'all are building to try to survive the apocalypse. So maybe you could be from this mountain range near Spillway. Maybe there's like a little village up in one of these mountains somewhere, you know? Unless there's somewhere else you'd like to be from, which is fine. Dre: No, I think that I like that. I like that idea. Austin: Alright. I love that. And then, and then again, more broadly, you're from the Terrapine culture. That's the culture that, when we want to invoke it, that's, that's how it'll go. [Dre: Yeah]. Cool. Alright. Dre: Classes. Austin: After identity is classes. Yes. Dre: Alright. I've picked two classes. The first one is Tinkerer. And I have put all of my three levels in Tinkerer into the Magitech Gadgets tree. Austin: Which is about like, constructs. [Dre: Sort of.] And that's the first level. What's the—Oh, the other one's like, you can make a gun. Dre: Uh huh. And then the third one is, you can make a magic spear that will cast a spell for you. Austin: Cool. Yeah. Great. And this comes from, the Terrapine are tinkerers in this way? This is a thing that's like you were taught to do from that background. Dre: Yes. Austin: This is not like a unique to you thing. Dre: Yeah. One of my original pitches for the Terrapine culture was what if steampunk was invented by like, hill folk instead of by like, stuffy British people? Austin: Love it. Great. I think you would get like a weird steampunk version of the Dukes of Hazzard is what you would get. Dre: Yeah, no, for sure. Steampunk NASCAR is happening, baby. Austin: Okay, well— Art: Is steampunk invented by stuffy British people or just like— Dre: I guess that's just what we associate it with. But I don't know, you’re right. Austin: I think it—You—it is what's his face? Dre: Jules Verne? Austin: Oh, I guess—Right. It depends on which era. Jules Verne did not think “I'm inventing steampunk”, right? Dre: Yeah, sure. Austin: But is like a primary text in a way, I guess. Verne and Wells. But then I think of the contemporary start of it being… I'm blanking on the name of this book, which is bad. Gibson co-wrote it with, uh, what's his face. The other guy is the guy who I'm thinking of. Jack: Neal Stephenson. Austin: It was with Neal Stephenson? Jack: Maybe. Austin: What is the, what is the book we're talk—we’re all thinking about? Novels... The Difference Engine with Sterling, Bruce Sterling is actually who I'm thinking of. And Sterling is American. So, no. Yeah, I guess—I guess two American guys is who I think of as being early steampunk-y creators, unfortunately. So can't blame the Brits for this one. Dre: [laughing] Unfortunately! Jack: Yeah, as, as a stuffy British person, I do unfortunately have to say that I think steampunk was invented by middle class Americans. Austin: Yeah, it seems to be the case. I'm looking at other early… Art: That's the stuffiest English person that you could have possibly said. [laughter] Austin: K. W. Jeter seems to be the person who coined the term, and he's from San Francisco, so. Art: San Francisco, Scotland? Austin: Yeah. Unfortunately, some of these people sound like they have British names like Timothy Powers and James Blaylock, but they are both— Art: You're thinking of Austin Powers. Austin: Oh, you know what? I was thinking of Austin Powers. You're right, you're right. That was my problem. Damn it, Americans. Art: We're about to go through an Austin Powers renaissance. I don't know that we're all ready for this. Austin: Are we? Art: I think we are. I think in the next 18 months, you're gonna see a real re-examination of Austin Powers. Keith: A re-examination. Janine: I'm with Sylvi. I think that already came and went. Sylvi: That's already happening. Yeah. It's already being the way people talk about Shrek or— Art: It came and went or it’s happening now? Janine: I saw people putting, like, Foxy Cleopatra clips on TikTok like, a year and a half ago. So, like. Art: Yeah, well, everything's on, everything's clips on TikTok, it’s free money. Austin: I think this is—It's like William Gibson says, the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed. The Austin Powers renaissance is already here. It just hit Sylvi and Janine first. [Sylvi: It just hit Canada.] It just hit Canada first. Sylvi: Mike Myers— Art: Because it’s in the Commonwealth. Austin: I think it— Sylvi: Our favorite son. Austin: Of course. Sylvi: Canada's favorite son, Mike Myers. Austin: True. So you've taken three levels of Tinkerer. Dre: Yeah. Austin: And then what else? Dre: And then I have taken two levels of Loremaster. Austin: Perfect. And then anything special from those mind points up from Loremaster? And Tinkerer gives you [Dre: Extra inventory points.] Extra inventory points. And you can initiate projects, which is also something that I guess we should note that Keith, your character can do because you have that level in Tinkerer. Antistrophe can create a project, and a project is a whole thing that we will deal with in due time. There's a whole section in this book on how do you build an airship, how do you do a big ritual invention or whatever, and they're called projects. Cool. Should we roll for money? Is there anything else we need for Jonathan here? Dre: Oh, yeah, equipment. Austin: As we go over your stats and your equipment. Dre: Yeah, my stats. I have 10 in Insight. That's my high stat. I have 8 in Dexterity and 8 in Willpower and 6 in Might. I'm old. Austin: Low Might. Yep. Yeah. How old are you? An elderly Terrapine. So how old is elderly? [crosstalk] We don't need to get— Dre: [crosstalk] Several hundred. Austin: Several hundred. [Dre: Yeah.] Incredible. Keith: Days. [laughter] Dre: Hours, seconds. Austin: Right, because Jonathan showed up during the world building. Dre: Yeah. He was riding his little bicycle around. Austin: Was already a whole ass grown man. [Dre agreement] Yeah. What were the pronouns? He/him on Johnathan. Keith: Way upgraded from the bicycle days, huh? Dre: Yeah. Austin: Yeah. I mean, what's your quirk? And let's go for equipment. Dre: Oh, sure. Yeah. Austin: Your quirk influences them. Dre: Yeah, we'll do quirk first. My quirk is Traveling Workshop. I own a transport that also acts as my shop and laboratory. You want me to go through all these questions? Austin: Yeah. [Dre: Okay.] We’ll go through them quick. Dre: Sure. Yeah. So the first question is, how did I obtain this? It's been thrown together. The base wagon Jonathan won on a bet. I don't know what that bet involves off the top of my head, but then he has basically just been bolting on extra parts more and more to it. Art: Is the original bike in there too? Dre: Yeah, it's probably like up on the wall somewhere. Austin: That's part of the mechanism. Janine: I have a pitch for the bet. Dre: Yeah. What's the bet? Janine: It was a bet about how many pieces you could break a bike into without a saw. Like how many does it break down into? Like how many components are there in your bike? Dre: Oh, that’s fun. Austin: And that's something Jonathan just knew because Jonathan probably built and rebuilt that bike a bunch of times. Dre: Yeah. Let's see. How does it move? What energy fuels it? What makes it extremely recognizable? It's on six large wooden wheels. It's fueled by a steam engine. That steam engine requires burnable fuel. But probably one of my first projects will be how do I turn this into like, a magic engine or something like that. Austin: Sure. You've written here “working on a way to convert the engine to run off biowaste from the restaurant” [Dre: Yeah.] Love it. Dre: Remember when people were like turning their cars into runoff of like, oil from like old fryers? Janine: Oh right, biofuel, yeah. Austin: Biofuel. Janine: When you say biowaste, it sounds like poo and pee. Dre: Like doo doo. Austin: Yeah, right, sure. Dre: Like the duty room. Janine: You can also do that for fuel, but it's not as popular. Dre: Yeah, I'll change it. I'll change it to biofuel because, yeah. Um, let's see. Austin: How do people react to its passage? Like, it shows up. What do people say? Dre: Yeah, if they've eaten at the restaurant that's in the basement before, they're excited. If they have never seen the vehicle before, it is probably a mix of—I've written amusement, confusion and curiosity because it is just a huge double decker wagon that kind of looks like somebody just built a house on top of a wagon. Austin: I love it. It's big enough to accommodate you and the rest of the group plus two or three guests, but it is unfit for combat. Importantly, this is not a combat built—combat ready device or vehicle, which does not mean it won't get into some hijinks, I'm sure, at some point. But as of right now, it is not built for that. Dre: Besides it is just us having a vehicle. The other fun perk of this is I get the skill, I guess it's not a skill, it's just a perk of the workshop. If a project requires a special ingredient or material, you may spend one Fabula point to suddenly stumble upon something similar in your workshop. If you do, the invention must have a terrible flaw. Austin: Perfect. Great. And that's like a particular thing. The idea of a terrible flaw is not just like—It's not just— Dre: We decide like, yeah, this sounds terrible enough. Austin: But like there's a part of making a project is you may negotiate a terrible flaw with the game master. Perhaps the invention must be recharged at regular intervals, is unreliable, cumbersome, or extremely loud. The flaw would then reduce the cost. But like that's an established thing in the project system. So. In other words, whatever we found laying around your workshop may not be as good as it could be if you went and got and sourced it properly. Right. Love it. All right. Equipment and then spells or spells quote unquote. Dre: I guess spells quote unquote. Austin: Yeah. Dre: My equipment. The weapon I have is the service manual for the Little Snail. It's just a big thick book that has been like—It's probably a bunch of notebooks that have been rebound together, that is just all of Jonathan's written notes. But yeah, I could just hit somebody with his book. It's big. It's heavy. Austin: And it uses Insight to roll. Dre: Yes, uses Insight to roll. Austin: Yeah. Dre: I did also buy just a regular shield and I also bought a combat tunic which I have labeled for flavor text as my turtle shell. Austin: But it—Oh, I guess it could be right. It's just, it's just your armor. It's just your—It's what you're wearing technically, right? Dre: Yeah. Austin: Okay. Art: But it means anything that like, breaks armor becomes really perilous. Ali: Yeah. Can you switch it out if you want to upgrade? Dre: [crosstalk] We can cross that bridge when we come to it. Austin: [crosstalk] Maybe it's like a coating for your shell or like, you know? Dre: Oh, yeah. Austin: I don't want to break your shell. Dre: No, that's fair. Austin: But like if there's some sort of cool spray-on coating that could, you know? Janine: Candy coating or like, magic shell for ice cream. Austin: Right, sure. Dre: Yeah. No, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Janine: Turtle shells are basically just [Dre: [crosstalk] Upgraded shell] Big wide spines. So having something on top of it's probably a good idea. Austin: Yeah. It's scary to me. [Dre: Yeah.] Dre, I'm gonna say the thing— Art: [crosstalk] I hate when Janine explains something to me. Austin: [crosstalk] —That's annoying, which is the tome is two handed, so you cannot wield it and the shield at the same time. Dre: Oh, that's fine. I'll get rid of the shield. Austin: Okay. I think you might be able to wield your summons magic gun at the same time though, so maybe consider how those could be in kind. Dre: Yeah, sure. [crosstalk] I’ll keep it in my inventory and I'll just. I'll unequip it for now. Austin: [crosstalk] But I’m actually not sure. Yeah, okay. Oh, I'm wrong. The magic cannon is also two handed, so you will not be able to do it. Dre: Okay, I'll get rid of it. Austin: There you go. Dre: I'll take that money back. Austin: Take that money back. Dre: Yeah. Keith: Congratulations on your windfall. Dre: Thank you. Austin: And you have these magispheres that you can summon via your—Or build, I guess, via magitech. And those each have a spell associated with them? Basically? Dre: Yes, and the way I read that was that I need to pick ahead of time because that is correct. I think you get three and then once you hit certain level markers, you can add on additional magispheres. Austin: That I believe is correct. Yeah. Dre: Okay. So the three spells I have chosen for my magispheres. First one is Acceleration. You bend the fabric of time until the spell ends. The target gains the ability to perform a single additional action during each of their turns. It's Haste. Austin: It's Haste. That's a useful one always. Dre: I also thought it was funny that the turtle could cast spa—Could cast haste. Austin: It's true. Dre: Second spell. Stop. You trap a foe inside a circle of altered time and space. The target will perform one fewer action on their next turn. Also think it's funny that the turtle makes other people slow. Austin: True. Dre: And the last one… Jack: Wow, some Aesop's Fables shit going on here. Dre: Thank you, Jack. Yeah, Ventus, which is the wind spell. You summon the power of winds against your enemy. Each target hit by the spell suffers high roll plus 15. This one stood out to me because it's cool that it says, opportunity, each flying target hit by the spell is forced to land immediately. That seems like it'd be handy. Austin: Yeah. I think this is the same spell, Sylvi, that you took over on that side. Is that right? Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: Seems like a good one. I think that that's, actually just roll for money and then [inaudible Jack noise] Jack. What was that? Jack: I have a question. We've had a lot of like mononyms in Friends at the Table in the past with Grand Magnificent and Pickman and stuff. I wanted to check in. Is this a Terrapine thing that they don't have last names or is the last name just indistinct or forgotten or something? Dre: I don't think it's a Terrapine thing to not have last names, I think. I don't know. He's just Jonathan. Austin: I mean, is this a thing? We've talked a little bit about the idea that Terrapine—There's, like, a memory thing that they can be doing. Or have I misunderstood that? Is that a thing that you're not gonna do at all, or is that a thing. that’s—The thing you pitched earlier, was that Jonathan forgets—Has chosen to forget certain details of his life in order to store other more relevant memories. Dre: Yeah, the kind of one of the initial pitches was that, like, he is so old. Austin: How old is he? Dre: He is so old that in order to learn or remember something new, he has to forget something. Art: Oh, you're not gonna get any matches with that. Austin: This is really just a me and Art thing. I don't know anyone out there is, like, ready for Match Game jokes, unfortunately. Yeah. There's the “how old is he?” Art: People old enough to be your parents. Austin: Yeah, we watch too much Game Show Network, Art. Sylvi: I know about Match Game. Austin: Anyway. Dre: This goes back to one of my original pitches, which is, for this character, which was, what if Tom Bombadil was Dale Earnhardt? Austin: That's a good one. Dre: You know, Tom Bombadil doesn't remember a lot of stuff. He's been around for a long time. Austin: That’s true. So is there a world where you decided you gave up, you forgot your own last name so you could remember something more important? Dre: Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah. What's in a name? I don't know. Austin: This sounds like you have a plan that I don't know about, which I'm. Dre: No, I don't. Austin: Okay. Dre: I'm vibing. Austin: You're vibing. Love it. I love it. I love it when you vibe. Keith: Every time we, we go—you guys go to a new place. Are you gonna have to pick something that you knew to forget? Dre: Maybe. Austin: I bet there's a lot of, like, there's a lot of chaff in there that it's okay to forget. Dre: Yeah. Austin: I mean, notably, Jonathan doesn't have that Loremaster skill of remembering everything, right? Dre: Yeah. I specifically chose not to take that skill. Jack: Right, I have a very clear memory in my head of that time that the Oscar Mayer wienermobile flipped over on the road. I can just lose that. Dre: Yeah. Jack: I don't need that. Art: What? Jack: I didn't actually see it happen, but I saw a picture of it, and I can picture it in my head. Austin: All right. I think that's John—roll for your money. Roll your, roll your 2D6. Dre: 2D6. Okay. Ah, six bucks. Austin: Sixty. Love it. Dre: Oh, is it times ten? Austin: Rough. We've only had numbers—We've only had tens and sixes so far. Dre: All right, so that's 60 plus 250. So 310 altogether. Austin: Damn. Character Breakdown: Uncle Nicky [01:46:52] Austin: Alright, who is up next from the west? Art: I'll go. Austin: Tell us about your character, Art. Art: Well, if I had to define them by Austin Powers characters, it would be the single mindedness of Fembot [group laughter] Fembot number two, who I've clicked the Wikipedia page of, and has not committed any crimes. Austin: What is your character's name? Art: The humility of uncredited Carrie Fisher Cameo. [laughter] Austin: What is your character's name? Art: Uncle Nicky. Austin: Okay, but this is more— Art: In his previous life he was Niko Da Shark. Austin: And his Christian name? Art: Nikolas Dashiell. Okay, so it's, it's Niko “Da Shark” Dashiell. Austin: Great. Good. That sounds like a mobster name. Art: Yeah, I think they were a mobster in like, the—in the JRPG milieu. I was thinking of like, like the boss of the tutorial era. Austin: Right, right. You're in the slums and enter the boss fight against the head of the slum mafia or whatever and—Yeah. Art: And then you get to go to the ne—But he wasn’t probably the head. I mean maybe like a medium. Austin: Right. Because we want this crime organization to still be out there, presumably. [Art: Yeah, maybe.] It's fun for you to interact with them from time to time. You thought you— Keith: Are you mobbed up a little bit still? Restaurant industry. Art: No, Nicky's identity is Redeemed Scoundrel, I'm not interested in a redemption story. I'm interested in the story of what comes after. Austin: Okay, cool. What is—Sorry, go ahead—[Art: No, go on.] What is your theme? Art: The theme I took is Anger. Because picturing this as a short kind of like, squat guy with a big mustache because I said cartoon chef, and like, those guys getting mad is real funny. Austin: It says here— Art: Like the face gets red and the eyes get big [Austin: It says you—] like Robotnik when you blow up his robot. Austin: He does get mad, and his little bushy mustache also gets like, singed. It's funny. Yeah. Art: That's what would happen if you blow up his robot. Austin: [crosstalk] You were a ticking bomb. Keith: [crosstalk] Don't want to make Chef Boyardee mad. Austin: Always on the brink of rage. Yeah. Okay. Is this a thing that you've carried over from your previous life as a criminal? Art: I think so. Yeah. And like it feels, you know, I—It feels on brand for—There's a lot of mad chefs. Austin: There are a lot of mad chefs. Were you more angry as a chef or as a criminal? Art: I think probably more angry as a chef because, like, you get a lot of—You get a lot of outlets for your anger when you're a criminal. Austin: Yeah, you could just kill a guy if you're the head of the tutorial area slum boss or whatever. Art: Yeah, you get to. You got—You probably got, like, two or three henchmen. Austin: Right! Keith: Should add the Mad Chef to your name here. “Uncle Nicky” Nikolas “Niko Da Shark” Dashiell, the Mad Chef. Art: No, Uncle Nicky's the current name. Don't call him the Mad Chef. It makes him mad. Austin: What's your origin? Because right now it's blank on this sheet. Art: Yeah, I'm. I'm also. How are we? How are we? Janine? I said something to you earlier, and Janine has a different version of it, but like I was saying Sonnerian. Janine: What? No, I didn't care about that. I was talking about the Valtese. Valtese was the one I was picky about. I, I don't know about what you call the Sonnerie people. Austin: Sonnerian's fine for me. It's Sonnerie. So they could be Sonnorites or Sonnerians. Keith: Sonnerians. Janine: Sonnorites maybe sounds too close to other stuff. Austin: It does. It does kind of sound like something else. [Sylvi laughs] Art: Sonnerian I kind of like. Austin: I like Sonnerian. Art: Two Ns? Austin: Well, I mean, a bunch. Keith: Three. Art: Well, two Ns and then another N later. Austin: Right? Son—Yes, Grande Son—Grande Sonnerie. Grand with an E at the end. Sonnerie. S, O, N, N, E, R, I, E. Sonnerian. So, yeah, that makes sense that you're from Sonnorie. Yep. Art: Because I imagine that's where the tutorial area is. Austin: Sure, sure. Or if you're not literally from that main place, you're from a place that has its culture. We imagine that besides the big main city, there are probably a bunch of other nobles out who have their own little towns and stuff that are still part of Grande Sonnerie. Alright, and then that is your origin. What is—what are your classes? Art: My first class is Dark Blade. Austin: Okay. This represents your time as a killer, as a crime criminal. Art: As a killer, yeah. I took two levels in Gourmet. Austin: Okay, great. Those are your classes. What are your stats? Art: I took the 10 in Dexterity to reflect the amount of chopping you have to do as a chef. Austin: Sure. Art: And Willpower is the 6, because all the rest of them seem kind of important. Austin: Yeah. Okay. Keith: Chopping is also important for being in the Mafia. Austin: [laughing] This is true. What are your—What's your up with your equipment? Have you picked equipment out? Art: Yeah, I took a bronze plate and a great sword because if you look at the, the dark blade guy in here in the picture, it's a huge sword. I had to honor. Austin: It's a gigantic sword. Sure, sure, sure. Art: This gigantic sword. But I thought that like a shoddier armor is probably more appropriate for the— [Ali giggles] Austin: Ali? Ali: I just want to say I want to compliment the artists of this game because I'm obsessed with the Dark Blade person. It's like the emo class but they look like they stubbed their toe or like, has a tummyache. It's so funny to me. Sylvi: I would die for them. Austin: I love all of the— Keith: For the Dark Blade, you said? Austin: Yeah. [crosstalk] The character art throughout this game is so funny. Art: [crosstalk] There’s a lot of personality. Austin: I really love, I think it's the Guardian? The like, fuzzy [Dre: Oh, the Guardian one's good.] Fuzzy haired ram guy with the giant shield and giant axe and armor. I love how fuzzy he is. It's great. I like the Lore mask, like, all the character art's great. There's a bunch of different artists throughout the book. The cover art which has a bunch of those character designs in it is by an artist named Moryo, M, O, R, Y, O, and then, then other interior artwork artists are Christian Benavides, Lorenzo Magalotti, again Moryo, Susu Nonohara and Catthy Trinh. And there's also some pixel artwork artists because this game has—This book has gear that you can buy and in the book it all has unique pixel art. Keith: The money is also pixel art. Austin: And the money is pixel art. It's so good. It's so flavorful. ExtantLily, Emanuele Galetto, who made the game, Ben Henry and Sascha Naderer and then damage icons by Lorc. Really fun art throughout this entire book. Art: My biggest regret is that the Gourmet is a playtest class and so the art isn't in yet. But there's a silhouette that I think is quite intriguing with a person holding a fork that's taller than them. Dre: Do you have a big fork instead of a big sword, Art? Do we need to consider this? Sylvi: What is a sword if not a big knife? Austin: Or is like a big—Do you have like, a big steak knife? What's your— Art: Yeah, like a giant chef’s knife. Austin: Yeah, there we go. Art: Yeah, done. A two handed steak—chef’s knife. Austin: Yeah, love it. Fantastic. Art: And also what, what he uses during cooking. The hold chokes up on— Austin: Yeah. So you get a little tighter. Yeah, sure. Of course. Alright, so that was your stats. We need you to roll for money also. And we need—I guess we talked about—Yeah, we talked about equipment and stuff already. Art: Another six. Austin: Unbelievable. Art: Three sixes, two tens. Austin: I mean, very believable, but unbelievable. Keith: What are the odds? Surely incalculable. Austin: Alright, that leaves us— Art: Don't say that. People will send in the odds. Austin: Yeah. Someone will run the numbers. That leads us— Dre: They did it to me. Austin: They did that. They sure did. [laughter] Keith: They did it to me too. Art and Austin: Too soon. Dre: Is it? Austin: That leaves us with— Art: Well, by the time someone's listening to us, I'm sure it's been 18 months. Character Breakdown: Veile [01:54:45] Austin: Ali and Jack, I believe, are on the west side. Ali: Yeah, I'm happy to go. Austin: All right. Ali: So, yeah, like I said, I'm playing Veile Delynn.[2] The identity is Chosen Priestess. The theme is Duty. Austin: And you do have a particular duty. Ali: Yeah, I'm out here trying to talk to God, question mark? Austin: Yeah, you're trying to talk to what I believe Jack called the second God of the Ennead. The—You're trying to stop the fucking end of the world. Ali: I guess so. Yeah. My religion is not to worry about that. So I wonder how that's gonna feel in play. Maybe we'll workshop that a little bit. Austin: [crosstalk] But I mean, I think that's the— Keith: [crosstalk] I've heard that a lot in the real world. Art: [crosstalk] Your religion being not to worry about it is iconic— Austin: Your religion is to—Your religion is, this is a definite thing. So the best thing we can do is help. Ali: Yeah, my religion is help people to the end of the world. Well, no, you know, but. Yeah. Austin: Yeah. But if they're—What if you're not the case. Yeah. Ali: Yeah. So. Yeah. My origin is a Pastoral Chapel. [Austin: Fun.] I think that—Okay. So I wanted to do something that was kind of away from the seat of power for the religion and fans of our world building game will, I guess, know that like, it looked like the Dureil, the Splintered Coliseum is sort of the base for that. That was like— Austin: Yeah, I think it's the place to the east of that. That's that big city that we never named. Ali: Oh, I see. I see. Austin: Okay. Ali: That's even better. Austin: Yeah. Ali: Okay. Austin: Yeah, but there's, but there's, it's still that northwest area. Ali: Yeah. The thing that I have been kind of picturing is A312 over here. There's a settlement nestled between two forests and then also on the, the like, on the seaside. Austin: Yep. We don't know anything about that place. Ali: Yeah. And I just love the idea of like, you know, being a like, sort of local priestess at this little place that is like, both shrouded by forest and also like on the edge of the, the map, essentially. Yeah. So you know, just a little sheltered. Just, you know Austin: Useful, useful origin to have, you know, you'll know all about. You'll know the vibe of little places at the periphery, you know. Totally. We’ll try to name that place before we start, but. Ali: Oh, would love to. Yeah, I will do that. But yeah, that's my origin. And then classes. Austin: Classes. Ali: So my first class is the Orator. I have three levels in that. That I'm also an Entropist. Austin: Oh, okay. Not where I thought this was going, but yes. Right. Ali: Of course. If you hear in the first episode that I'm also a Spiritist, don't worry about it. But right now I have two levels in Entropist. Austin: Oh, okay. Ali: Yeah, this was sort of like, a non specific religion, but I wanted to be like, a mage, so I just like, chose the weirdest, friendliest stuff. God loves me, I guess. I don't know. Don't worry about it. Austin: So I thought where you were going to go for a second was Chimerist with feral speech, you can communicate with creatures of the beast, monster and plant species so that you could then use Orator’s unexpected ally to just like, turn animals into allies. Which I—I'm not pitching you that hard. It's not like I want that. That's—I just, you know, that's where I thought we were going for a moment, but I do. Ali: Well, I. That is interesting because I do have some, I have some, I have, I have a wishlist of moves that I want to take and there's a very specific one that gives you a thing. But anyway, right now, my, my gear is a staff. I'm sort of imagining like, a like, like a staff staff, you know, but like a, like a metal staff. And the top of it is like, a piece of like, wire or like, thinner metal sort of shaped like a Hershey Kiss. And then in there is like a bell, I thought might be fun. Austin: Sure. Okay. Ali: You know the Hershey Kiss commercial where they all turn to bells? Just think about that. Don't worry about it. I chose... Austin: I do know this. Yes, of course. Ali: And then I chose my—I chose travel garb as my armor because it gives me less of an initiative hit than a sage robe. Austin: Sure. Ali: And I'm out and about. Yeah. Austin: Cool. Ali: Is that it? Austin: I think that, that—I think that that's it. I think, now roll for, roll for money. Ali: Sure. Yeah. I think I have. I have. How many money do I have left over? I have 300 left over right now and then. Roll 2D6. Austin: 2D6. Ali: 10. Is that a hundo dollars? Austin: Another hundred. It's a hundred dollars. Dre: Let's go, tens and sixes. Jack: In this season of Friends at the Table, we're only going to roll two numbers. Austin: That's right. Ali: Oh, and then I guess I should—I have added the Glorious Fate quirk. Austin: What does that say? Ali: Which I will just read the description and then we'll get into it and play. Which is. Austin: Yeah. Ali: There's a prophecy surrounding you. A prophecy—A prophecy of hope for a better world. Who spoke or wrote that prophecy? Do you embrace your destiny or are you crushed by its weight? Did someone plant seeds of doubt in your heart? Austin: Love it. Great. So we'll figure out what that prophecy is between now and then. But it's probably about finding some way to stop the end of the world or something like that, right? Ali: Yeah. I mean there's like—So the way that this quirk works is that basically at the end of a session, I sort of look at was it fulfilled? Did I work towards it? Things and then there's different bonuses that happen there. Austin: Yeah. Ali: And I. There's part of that, that's like you've done it, you know. So I like, I don't know if I want it to be like, more of a mid season goal that like you've saved the world, but I— Austin: Totally, sure. Ali: How Anakin Skywalker do we want to get? Austin: Right, I mean, we'll see where it goes, right? Because the, the range on how this goes is from you, you acted according to the prophecy, you acted against it, you fulfilled it or it can never be fulfilled, right? So, you know. Ali: Yeah. Austin: Yeah. Great. All right. I think that that's it for. Is it Veile? Ali: Veile. Austin: Veile. Veile. Just like veil. Alright. V, E, I, L, E, but pronounced veil. Love it. Alright. That brings us back around. Wow. It worked. Character Breakdown: Elena [02:01:49] Austin: Jack. Jack: Oh, yeah. I'm playing Elena Millefiori. Sometimes she goes by Lena, pronouns she/her. Her identity is Megadungeon Hostess. She is part of a sort of fantasy race or civilization called the Tesserae. They are constructed people built long ago by the Passika, which were a former sort of Zonai or Forerunner style civilization that left ruins all over the world-- Austin: [crosstalk] Rillspur is an example of one of those. The big water dungeon we found. Jack: [crosstalk] Primarily known for these sort of like nine great elemental Megadungeons. These aren't the only Megadungeons in the world. We know that the Doomed City of—Is it Perrenation? Austin: Yeah. Jack: Is already kind of a Megadungeon. The Passika don't hold the exclusive claim over Megadungeons. Austin: We don't know what's going on with Perrenation, so who knows? Jack: We truly do not. No, they might. It's not clear. The Tesserae are— Austin: And when you say Megadungeon I guess really quick—because like we don't—we as a show— Jack: I feel like we talk about Megadungeons all the time like Austin and I. Austin: But we are so far from the Megadungeon as a tabletop RPG constructor idea. Can you explain what you mean when you say that to the listener who maybe doesn't play a lot of D and D or doesn't do OSR stuff and doesn't know this kind of conceptual framework? Jack: Yeah, when I think of a Megadungeon, what I think of is—I'm going to describe it in two ways. First in a sort of non-traditional tabletop sense and then more in a tabletop sense. The first is like a large, sort of unfathomably large man-made structure that is explored by adventurers and contains within it often its own internal ecosystems, its own accreted history, rather than sort of being like, you know, you go into the dungeon in Skyrim and that's a single barrow where one historical event happened, etc. A megadungeon, I think of the dungeon in Delicious in Dungeon I think of some of the stuff in Blame!, recent games like Lorn's Lure and old games like Nascence are you know about these—exploring these like tremendous, massive, often abandoned spaces. But a Megadungeon is so large that there might be within it, you know, a town built within the Megadungeon. In games they tend to, especially in the tabletop space, they tend to sort of like, explode out the mechanics of dungeoneering or OSR dungeoneering into an entire campaign. There are some wonderful Megadungeons that have been written recently for games like Mothership, which is a sci fi horror game. And there will be Megadungeons set on, you know, a gigantic space station that you spend an entire campaign exploring. There's a game called Mausritter which is about mouse adventurers, and there is a fantastic Mauseritter megadungeon called the Tomb of a Thousand Doors which sort of contains within it all these sort of like little sub-dungeons that dovetail nicely together. I also think they're really interesting from like, a game design perspective because often megadungeons are constructed by multiple tabletop designers kind of like, working together to like, detail various little bits of these spaces. The first Megadungeon that we have encountered in Perpetua is called Rillspur. It is—It's interesting. There are nine elements in Fabula Ultima and water isn't one of them. Ice is the, is the water element. And I've got some ideas for what's going on there. I think that there is some debate within the world about whether Rillspur is a water dungeon or an ice dungeon. But the— Austin: And ironically, neither of which are the power you took for your quirk, is my understanding? Jack: I took for my quirk? Austin: Yeah. Isn't your quirk wind or did you change your mind? Jack: No, my quirk is Ice. My quirk is Ice. Austin: Okay. Jack: And when I picture Rillspur, I picture this sort of like, cross between Venice, but also like massive abandoned stone canals and causeways, waterfalls plunging into nothingness, icy winds blowing up from beneath, beautiful mosaics and waterfalls on surfaces. The Tesserae who live in the upper portions of the Megadungeon, Austin and I were talking about this—to the Tesserae, the upper portions of Rillspur are just sort of like, yeah, you know, we got a city up there, we got a town, maybe. This is fine for us. And everyone else is like, it's the fucking Megadungeon. Austin: You die in there. Jack: You'll die in there, and the tesserae are like, not us. But as you get deeper, it gets, you know, much more dangerous. But up here, there are people swimming, there are boats moving around, and there is the restaurant that my family, or the sort of tavern that my family ran for a long time. My father and mother and then my two siblings. I'm the youngest daughter. My two siblings have sort of gone off out into the world. And after dutifully being the youngest daughter for so long, I've said to myself, alright, that's it. The world's ending. Off I go. My theme is Wanderlust, therefore. Austin: Right, sure. Jack: And I can kind of. I'm wary of this getting a little close to Dre's Curiosity. Austin: I was gonna say I'm curious. How do you, how do you want that challenged? Or how are you interested in seeing that structure? What is the difference between the two for you? Jack: That's a good question. I—If I'm honest, I think it is probably similar to Dre's Curiosity, but I don't want to be pulling on that thing twice. So I might change this. The impression that I have right now is that Lena is like—Lena is someone who, and this might develop in play, I think is fairly naive about the world and is possessed of a very sort of joyful, well the world's going to end so you just gotta go out and experience it as much as you can before the end comes. Which is not necessarily a naive position, sort of like de facto, but I think coming from this like 21 year old singer who spent her life in a restaurant in a Megadungeon might be. I see her Wanderlust at this point as being like, keep moving, cram it all in, make an assumption very quickly and act on that assumption and then move on on. You know, it's the sort of thing of someone who goes like I really want to go and see the tower of Big Ben. And you're like, yeah, uh-huh. In London? Austin: There's a sort of—Something interesting about that is like, that's a little less like, just curiosity and there's a little more like, there's something checklist-y about it but also something like, [Jack: Yeah, yeah.] It's as if you already have a pre—You know, it sounds a little bit—But like Jonathan is like, what new thing might today bring? Whereas you're like, how do I squeeze meaning like big capital M, traditional meaning from today? What—Where's the nearest like, sight? Where's the nearest— Jack: I want to see Machu Picchu, you know. Austin: Exactly. Yes. There's, you know, I truly love my father. He is a real like, the Olympics are the most important thing that are going to happen this year because they only happen once every four years. Like, we should go to the Olympics. Like, it's historical, you know, oh, there's an election that has a—Okay, maybe not this particular one, let's say. We should go to the inauguration. It's historic and there's a way of looking at the world that is like that. It's like, well you should go to the big historic places. You should go to the places that have history behind them and that's where you find meaning. And I do think it's different than Curiosity. I don't know. [Jack: Yes, this is—] Wanderlust doesn't feel like that though, because Wanderlust does feel like Curiosity more. Jack: Oh, I don't know. I was about to say that, I think for a particular kind of traveler, when they talk about wanderlust, Austin: What they actually mean is, you know… Jack: What they actually mean is this thing that we're describing. Austin: Because I think Wanderlust is so much more open ended than that. Jack: Just like a sort of a desperation to go, a sort of a desire. Austin: Where will tomorrow bring me? Janine suggests Completion. Like a completionist streak of like, yeah, I have this stuff. I have these places. Jack: Yeah. Very possibly because, you know, she heard all the stories from the people going into the Megadungeon in the tavern. Austin: Someone comes in and says, oh, I'm from Grande Sonnerie, and we have this big clock or whatever. And she writes down, big clock. You gotta see the big clock. Jack: Yeah. Keith: Bucket Lister. Austin: I mean, right? To some degree. Jack: Bucket Lister isn't bad. Yeah, it's really sweet. My origin is Rillspur. Let's see. She is—my primary class is— Austin: Let's write something like the Passika dungeon, Rillspur. So that it's—We know that it is not just familiarity with Rillspur, the particular thing, but is this style of ancient ruin or whatever, you know? Jack: Yeah, definitely. It's more workable in that way. Austin: Yep. Jack: My primary move that I have taken, also the primary class that I've put three points into is Chanter, which is a really interesting class. Austin: High fantasy, right? Jack: Yeah. Lena is the songstress at her family's restaurant. And now, having gone abroad, is sort of acting as a songstress for Little Snail. You know, people come out. This is Jack de Quidt’s second swing at Bard. I have a fairly low view of musicians, and I'm sure that will continue. And then I got a point in Spiritist. Spiritists have spiritual magic. They're sort of affiliated with cults and religions, but I'm seeing this as being affiliated with the Passika. Austin: Sure. Jack: Sort of like history. And… Austin: You get a spell from this. This is like—These are really broadly—This is white magic in, in very broad senses. Alright, that's great. We need you—How much money? What's your equipment? How much money do you have left? And we need you to roll for money. Jack: Yes. I have a staff, which is great. The staff rolls Willpower—two Willpower dice. And almost all of the Chanter stuff is Willpower based also. Austin: Wait, are you chanting? Is that what we imagine you're doing, or are you playing an instrument? Jack: Yeah, she's singing. Yeah. She doesn't have an instrument. I'm picturing—And we can get into this in play because I'm gonna have to do this a fucking hundred times this season. I think it's something like the guy who absolutely lets rip in the Metaphor ReFantazio combat music. I don't think that this is like a song, you know, I think she's like a bardic singer when she's working at the Little Snail, you know, she'll sing a song about the ox. She'll sing a song about how, you know, in the winter you have to shear the sheep, etc. No, not share the sheep in the winter. Terrible. Austin: Poor cold sheep. Jack: But in the dungeon, when she's chanting, it's just this sort of like, like staccato, flowing, violent, you know, chant. Austin: Love it. Jack: Her staff is like a thin piece of glass. It's like, strong glass that she holds. She's named after an Italian glass mosaic technique and a Renaissance Italian glass painter. So that's what's going on there. Austin: Interesting. Fun. Jack: Her armor is a silk shirt, you know, is what it is. Austin: She has a silk shirt on. Yeah. Jack: This means that I have 300 gold left because I spent 200 gold and I have rolled. Ah. A three. Austin: Three. Our first non six or ten. Jack: So I have 330 gold. Keith: Did we all do equipment? Did I do equipment? Austin: I think we're supposed to have. Did you not? Keith: I don't think I did. Mine's easy, I can go. Austin: Your shields, right? Keith: I have my two runic shields, and then I also have a bronze armor, plate armor. Austin: Boom. Jack: As far as my stats are concerned, I chose the specialized section with my Insight and my Willpower, both using D10s and my Dexterity and my Might using D6s. Austin: You are a mage. You are a—I am focused on doing magic. Jack: I am a capital M mage. Austin: Do not ask me to hit something with my staff. Jack: I have a nice ribbon in my hair. Austin: Actually, did you buy a ribbon? Did you get a ribbon accessory that might be in here? I mean, it's not—I'm shocked that it's not. Jack: It's a magic ribbon. I'll find one later or something, you know? Yep, that's me. Austin: And I think that's it for characters. Jack: Oh, my quirk. Austin: Oh, yeah. What is your quirk? Jack: My quirk is Elemental Soul. This, I think, is because I am not just like a Passika construct. I'm a Passika construct from the Rillspur Megadungeon. You are deeply infused with the power of a natural element. Who among your forebears first received this magical spark? What trouble has it caused you? Choose your elemental damage. Air, Bolt, Earth, Fire, or Ice. I've chosen Ice, because I drop icebergs on people, you gain resistance to the chosen damage type. Additionally, whenever you deal damage, you may change its type so that it matches your elemental damage type. So this is potentially really useful with spells that other people could have that make people vulnerable to a damage type. And then I can guaranteed hit them with that damage type. However, you also become vulnerable to a different damage type chosen among those five. You also gain the ability to perform rituals of the Elementalism discipline, but only if those rituals manipulate your chosen elements [Austin: Like Ice.] I'm strong with—Yeah, I'm strong with Ice. And I'm weak to Bolt because that seemed like the most Pokemon way to go about this. If you're from the water dungeon, electricity is dangerous. Austin: Water, you go. Water, strong against fire, weak against electricity. Not ice, weak against fire, strong against— Jack: I think we're sort of entering like a spiritual debate here, Austin. But I think that ice is weak to fire. Austin: I do think that. But you're saying it's Bolt. Art: What does Pokemon say? Jack: There is something going on here with whether or not Rillspur is an ice or a water dungeon that I am deliberately leaving ambiguous at this point. But I have chosen a weakness to electricity. Austin: Interesting. Good to know. I'll consider that as I make enemies. Jack: [laughing] Sure. Good. Austin: Some of them will use lightning, you know? Keith: Oh, you should have just not told him what your stuff was. Austin: That’s true. Jack: Yeah. You say, what are you weak to? And I say, wouldn't you like to know? Austin: Yeah. Alright. We will, I think, pick up in the future with the prologues. When we start in, there is a sort of like a little way—There's a little, a little roll that we'll make that will give us a little starting scene when we start. These are on page—I guess they start on page 220. But before then, I would really love for folks to—Unless they have them already, which they do, I'd love to hear some. But we should talk about bonds. Everybody starts with a bond. That's an optional rule that is listed on 220. I think it's important for us not only because some characters have moves that work off of bonds, but also because we have so many players and we have a split party, it's important to have as many opening connections between player characters and player characters in the world as we can. Bonds are also a thing that like, have a bunch of cool mechanics associated with them. And so if anybody has bonds they want to talk about now, we can. Otherwise we can just— Jack: I have a bond. Austin: Talk to me about a bond. Jack: I have a bond with Uncle Nicky and it is a fondness bond of affection. I think that there is something about going out into the world away from my home, away from restaurants, away from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen, and then finding this good hearted chef. Austin: Love it. Jack: And I think there's sort of like a big brother, little sister vibe going on where Elena is like, Uncle Nicky's great. We stick by each other. We're restaurant business people. Austin: I love this. Bonds have, there's like a specific set of emotions. You may have heard earlier that Art's character can create Hatred bonds. Affection, the type of bond that Jack just described is the opposite of the Hatred bond. There's Affection or Hatred, Loyalty or Mistrust and Admiration or Inferiority. You said Affection, right? Not Admiration. I didn't mishear you. Jack: I said Affection. Yeah, it was really interesting. I was trying to think of this as like, is she—Does she admire his, like, skill? And it's this sort of like, I wish I could be like him relationship. But I instead I chose the affection of like, this guy's great and we've got each other's back. Austin: Love it. Simple, straightforward. Enough to start building off of. It starts at. That starts at strength one. I think all bonds start at strength one, and then the thing that can happen is you can end up eventually you could end up having Admiration or Inferiority on top of this Affection because you could add additional emotions over it. Jack: What I couldn't have is Affection and Hatred. Austin: Exactly. Jack: This game does not model the emotional complexity that exists in the real world. Austin: That is right. Because we're in JRPG world and that's where we are, so. Cool. Anyone else have bonds they want to bring up? If not, that's fine and we can wrap up and then… Art: Yeah, I think west crew needs to figure out if we're going to go in a circle or not. Austin: Yeah, maybe that might be the right call. Or you could do the circle of the interior group and then the—And then Veile could be an outward facing one. Totally up to y'all. But bonds are important. You can use them to add to roles and stuff in certain circumstances on top of special abilities. So let's talk through those in between now and when we start the various sides of this game. Any final feelings, thoughts, questions? I think we have a pretty good structure here. Keith: This game seems fun. It's so different than anything that we've played. It's—And it's very similar to something I have played that is not this. Austin: Yeah, I'm excited. Look forward to us coming back in a week or two with the first session, which I don't know— Keith: We're going to roll our first ever D20s. Ali: I've never touched a D20. Austin: It's time. Somewhere—We must have rolled a D20 at some point, right? Art: We have to. Sylvi: I don't know, man. Austin: Maybe not. Jack: I don't believe they work, frankly. Janine: I touch a D20, but in the context of, like, buying one at a convention. Austin: That sounds likely. Janine: It was like looking at them at a booth. Austin: Yeah. Janine: So not in the actual play sense, maybe, but. Jack: Looking at it like, what's this Weird dice. Keith: Yeah. They don't let you buy dice without getting a D20 with it. Austin: I will say there's. There's some D20s in here. There's not that many, but there will be some, I think. I think Keith's potions use D20s, for instance. So it'll be in there. Look forward to it. Jack: Look forward to it. Austin: We'll be back in a week or two with session one of Perpetua of Fabula Ultima. Keith: [mispronouncing] Perpetua. Austin: [mispronouncing] Perpetua. Ali: No. [“Perpetua” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] ________________ [1] Later Caoimhe Wake. [2] Later Veile Lynndel.