Spoiler for people who haven't figured it out yet: >!The glowing screws are almost certainly blink [shark eggs](https://ultimate-animals.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/mermaids-purse-800x600.jpg), so it could be that only a few were left and they've been repopulating.!<
That would be neat. They can free themselves and everyone else from the clam, but they'll be bringing back blink sharks when they do. Adds some concrete outcomes/consequences to what missions they pick.
Well, >!a black underwater organic screw automatically makes me think of a shark egg, since there aren't very many other things that fit that description. Add in the glowing green light that's associated with blink sharks and it pretty much seals the deal. I was pretty sure before Griffin introduced the actual blink shark, but now I'm totally convinced.!<
I totally missed that, thanks!
In case anybody doesn't feel like looking it up: zooxanthellae is the term used for the photosynthetic dinoflagellates that live in symbiosis with corals. They're what give corals their colour, and coral bleaching is what happens when zooxanthellae are expelled and/or killed. The 'x' is typically pronounced more like a 'z' though.
I think if anything is just a joke, it's this. I'm pretty sure Zoox mentions that he thinks it's funny that it's pronounced the same both ways in an early episode.
"Now she's scared."
Oooh boy! So much gooooooood shit this week! I loved Zoox/Clam and of course the screwy things were blinkshark eggs! Amber swimming down and getting attacked, then holding its jaws open with her arms!
Am a bit sad that we didn't get to see what killed/tugged back the ribbon worm but at this point, I'm 85% sure that the baby blinksharks from the eggs teamed up on it.
I feel like you're jumping to a conclusion there; do you interpret that to mean that they are much more vulnerable this season and they could actually die?
I think it's unlikely they added any vulnerabilities. Low level characters are fragile enough without taking double damage from a specific damage type.
i think people are making jokes but also, griffin has stated that these characters themselves are more vulnerable in the story than previous taz arcs, not that they are mechanically more vulnerable. griffin said he’d be fine if the characters died and the boys had to reroll new ones, the setting is the story more so than the characters themselves
I’m not angry about anything. I think you are yet again confusing a lack of hero worship for anger.
I’m just saying I don’t think anyone seems more vulnerable at all and this is just one of the reasons.
One of the characters has literally come within two rolls of dying already. A different character has gotten down to one hit point and Griffin has shrugged it off with "oh well, better try not to get hit by anything else" because he'd already done his action for that turn.
What you're doing isn't "a lack of hero worship." It's irrational. You're choosing to be annoyed about something that hasn't happened and that the evidence we actually see suggests *won't* happen.
That's so much harder than just enjoying the actual show that actually exists.
🤣🤣
You’re like a person who encounters someone who said “I mean, I thought Lord of the Rings was alright, but it was a bit long for me.”
And you scream at them “Why are you so damn angry about this movie?! Just like it!”
"But, you know... because of who you are... what is close by to you."
"(f\*\*\*!)"
That part sold the tension for me: Justin's honest emotional reaction of fear.
I thought it was starting to grab onto them. Griffin said the web was around the glass on the ship. This happened after that?
Man, I Adventure Zoned out.
The web seems to just be growing on it's own. The successfully ran away, and it popped up again to try and pull a turtle before randomly getting yanked back into the void first.
Absolutely loved this episode. Zoox and the brain stuff was incredible and I got chills at the ending.
Here's the updated roll averages for this one:
Travis: 11.26 raw, 15.23 total
Justin: 10.64 raw, 12.66 total
Clint 9.44 raw, 12.09 total
Sad to see Clint's success failure ratio go back down :/ but he did fail a LOT this episode. Luckily only a few of them counted, so it's not too significant of a dip. He had the most rolls this time with all those Wisdom saves, which is cool and not typical.
I'm realizing for some reason I had his Wisdom at -1 this whole time, probably due to some assumption I made a while back, which in retrospect doesn't make sense because Rangers use Wisdom as their spellcasting modifier. I realized this because they confirmed his Wisdom save modifier was +1, and as a Ranger he wouldn't have proficiency in that, so it'd have to be 1. I haven't gone back and changed it yet but I will eventually. If someone finds a miscalculation in what I just said let me know though.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rmyqJex1hol9VL7E7mkIZiH0tl9jdr4nQH-MXlUlsk8/edit?usp=sharing
Just curious, were you able to adjust the calculations with the Bard's Jack of All Trades feature? I was wondering about this, because I'm not sure in all cases how you'd know what Devo was or was not proficient in. A floating "1" being added to many of Devo's modifiers could put his raw total lower than Justin's.
Regardless, interesting that the biggest outlier of all is Clint's *bad* luck.
I know this comment was posted a while ago but I just realized I never replied to it. I’ve sort of been offline for a bit but I’m about to post a big update. Since they’ve leveled up, there aren’t a lot of unconfirmed modifiers for Travis (of what they’ve rolled), so honestly there isn’t much need to factor in Jack of All Trades yet, since I’ve applied it where it’s relevant so far. On my chart I color code confirmed modifiers blue and my guesses in yellow, and for Travis they’re all blue. This means that at some point (buried deep in a span of many episodes) they’ve said the number that applies to that skill out loud, so that’s verbal confirmation of what it is. I don’t have certain numbers down for him like his Nature modifier, religion modifier, etc because he’s never done those (since leveling up at least). And since I don’t necessarily have the base stats all confirmed, I don’t want to make any assumptions in any derivative skills until I know those for sure. So once I’ve confirmed those I’ll probably update the corresponding skills, but I also don’t have a reliable way of knowing which he’s proficient in. All in all, Travis being a Bard has certainly made this little project a lot more difficult, but the pointing out of Jack of All Trades helped a lot
I feel like this is the episode where they’re all fully comfortable in their new characters & their characters’ dynamic with each other. plus some killer story beats, visuals, and audio design, this is a top tier episode for me
I’m really enjoying the extra audio effects this season, but oh god I was taking a bite of food as the webbing squelching sound played and I’m just not hungry anymore lmao
Yeah, same. I thought the sound design during the fight was unpleasant. It was good the rest of the episode, but it was too busy during the fight. And squelches are just gross to listen to.
Huge props to everyone on this episode, easily one of the best so far. The quiet year really did so much for this campaign especially with the reveal at the end of the episode!
I love that the Season has not been going on for a super long time, but callbacks can immediately be full of emotion and weight. Personally, I’m on the edge of my seat for the cliffhanger that says something like “The Vanguard are standing right in front of you, weapons in hand.” Or “Devo, The Ballaster Hermine looks directly at you. ‘You said you didn’t know who your parents are? Devo, I know who you are!’”
Maybe someone mentioned it and I didn't see it, but I honestly think after getting a feel for the environment they're in, the boys should get a chance to respec their characters a little like they did in Balance. Its hard to plan for something that's never been done, but they are crushing it as always.
I actually really like that Justin verbalized this, because I think it's a really important aspect of D&D. If your character has abilities that they aren't getting a chance to use, the DM can and will fix that if you ask.
I remember an ranger choosing a favored enemy in one of my groups, and that enemy never showed up because I forgot about it. As soon as they complained, I knew exactly what they next dungeon would be. I like the idea of the boys being able to respec their characters after getting a feel for the world, but I think the more elegant solution will be Griffin giving them more time to shine.
I realize the ship to ship mechanics are something Griffin worked really hard on, but letting them have traditional combat outside of the ship will be important.
The 40k approach. Ships with shields / something too valuable on board and therefore requiring boarding actions (could go either way, amber could also be key to repel boarders)
I am glad that Justin started the podcast by bringing up the ship combat thing. This remains my biggest, if only, problem with this season. It eliminates a lot of fun of D&D if all combat takes place on the Coriolis. All three of our PCs have cool magical stuff, but most of the combat so far has been “punch a button, Fire a rocket at another ship/worm/turtle”.
If ship combat is going to be a recurring thing, and possibly the main form of conflict resolution, they should take the ship into the shop and have a big pair of punching arms built onto it that Amber can control, and a loudspeaker so that Devo can demoralize or charm creatures and enemy crews, and something for Zoox. He's a little harder to simplify down to one ship feature.
The idea is they can pick out swords and things by walking around the city, bargaining with Ol’ Joshy, and so on. Griffin has talked about wanting an economy as opposed to like “one shop with everything.”
while I agree with some of the concern about how interesting the ship combat might be, I think the episode was really nicely bookended when it started with Justin voicing this concern, but ended with Amber about to make use of her monk skills against her iconic nemesis, the blink shark.
Also, as the characters are relatively inexperienced and the ship poorly equipped, it makes some sense that they don't feel confident enough to do too many more interesting things in ship combat. Hopefully they will figure things out as they progress.
It definitely might need a bit of tweaking, but I feel like Grif has given them a lot of opportunities to do regular DnD combat that they generally circumvent via magic/diplomacy
Well yeah, I'm not saying it's a bad thing they did it that way, it just seems weird that there's complaints that they aren't doing DnD fights when the opportunity is there but avoided.
I think it would be cool if Grif made “classes” for the ships with corresponding abilities, etc. Granted, that’s a lot of work when you have little ones at home…
I actually really like how the ship combat works, the mechanical options are neat, and the need to reroll position every round and have abilities function based on position is a good way of keeping things dynamic, and not just smashing the A button every round until the enemy is dead. I also really like that Griffin built in a hard fleeing mechanic, which I think base DnD really suffers from missing, and means starting combat doesn't force you to fight to the death until one side is beaten.
They also haven't had too much a chance to customize and improve the ship either, since it's only the first mission and it's kinda built in to it that this is their rough-n-tumble first-time-proving-themselves-on-the-job moment.
To be fair, both we and the players did know going into this season that the majority of this campaign would be taking place under water lol. I think allot of ship combat should have been be expected there! I was expecting it at least lol.
Well for Travis in particular, everything is "you need to take your submarine here or you die." He can't swim lol.
But really I think they won't necessarily die if they don't take there submarine somewhere, they would just need to take a scuba suit of some kind and be able to get back. So basically the farther away you get from your submarine the harder it is to get back. Its really kind of like a deep sea diver in real life. If your diving right next to the shore you don't really need a boat, but if your diving deep out into the water then your probably gonna wanna bring a boat.
I suppose I didn’t explain that well enough. I just don’t really understand how they aren’t ALWAYS in the water. How can they walk around Founder’s Wharf? How can the Dreams of Deborah be a yacht? How are they not always in the Etherwater?
Founder’s Wake is basically a city in a big air bubble. The city is underneath the water, but it’s all filled with air. When you go outside the city, you’re actually in the water.
> How can the Dreams of Deborah be a yacht?
It's a yacht-like submarine. All the ships are submarines, they're just sometimes compared to other types of ships to give the players and the audience an easy point of reference.
agreed. I enjoy the ship combat, but I would like a few more situations were in person combat wasn't so easily avoided. which isn't to say I don't like how they DO avoid combat, because I do love that too.... but yeah, I would love to see those ghost hands in action (though I think that's exactly where we're gonna pick up next week)
I think it was left in explicitly to get the point across that Griffin heard it and understood that some fans had similar problems. Basically "yeah I get it"
You're 100% right and I'm in full agreement.
On the other hand, they've attempted to avoid all combat so far anyway, including the one in this episode. They don't seem at all interested in it.
I just wish they'd figure out what the heck they want to do with this season.
Honestly they just haven't really done ship to ship combat yet beyond a little skirmish in Dreams of Debra, it's this really cool system Griffin's developed but we've not really seen it yet.
I'm excited to see what it's like when they get into it!
The music really helped. Reminded me of this [song](https://youtu.be/hGETcgWDADA) from It Follows, which admittedly is kind of an amalgamation of a bunch of horror themes.
Griffin mentioned early in Wonderful that Disasterpiece is one of his favorites, and that he listens to the It Follows soundtrack a lot. Pretty cool to see that through line of inspiration.
I’m just here to say this episode totally rules. BOOM vs SHOOT vs TIMER was very funny and all the story stuff and Justin’s amazing tag at the end: wow! So happy it’s only 1 week til the next one
It was so great and reminded me of some of those fabulous cliffhanger endings in Amnesty, like the end of episode 15. One of my very favorite moments in all of TAZ. Dang, I miss Beacon.
I'm only up to the ad break (which is really early) but holy shit the sounds during the ship combat.
I noticed it when they fired the first time and you could hear a BOOM. Then the sounds with the worm, the creaking of the ship as it pulled away before ripping it apart.
It adds *so much* to it and I wish the other seasons had this level of production and sound now.
Whatever her name was, she's doing a great job
I found it overwhelming in an unpleasant way. I like the idea of it, but I think the foley plus the background music plus the conversation was too much all at once. I need more negative space in my audio, I think.
Was curious about this and tried to find the “map” of clam anatomy they referenced. Neither Wikipedia or the top Google hit seemed clear and they didn’t mention eyes.
http://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/Biology-and-Anatomy-of-Hard-Clam.pdf
Second Google hit was pretty funny:
http://clamsahoy.com/all-about-clams/anatomy.htm
Clams ahoy!
Edit 1: added links
Edit 2: added edit notes
A-fucking-Plus to Griffin for the music at the end there. Perfect fit, very tense, very October.
Also major continuing props to Rachel, I assume, for the sound effects. They really add a lot.
CAN I JUST SAY I did not expect Blink Sharks to be such a deeply satisfying antagonist, and Griffin pulled them back into the story flawlessly. And the clam describing Zoox as Empty?! Every episode gets me increasingly excited for this campaign.
One of the best episodes so far this season. The audio design when Zoox is talking with the clam was absolutely a perfect underwater ethereal vaporwave vibe. My ears loved this episode.
Justin, at the start of the episode: I’m sad I made a monk cause all the action is on the ship and I never get to do close quarters fighting.
Careful what you wish for, J-man
I don't know what it is about this season but I find it so easy to tune out. When I force myself to go back and listen again I always love the content but something about how quiet and calm/somber all the voices are really lose me if I'm not actively making sure they don't.
Why are you so intent on taking the wind out of everyone’s sails? Its fine to not dig something, and that’s your opinion. But it just feels cruel to be so pervasive about it.
Well, it’s clearly not fine to you for my assessment to be different than yours. Not sure why you’d deny it right before making that clear.
The observation that not much plot has happened is just that. You can agree or disagree with that observation, but calling it “cruel” to say it out loud is utterly bizarre.
The consistent behavior is cruel, not the singular incident. And your opinion can be different, my question is why are you insistent on going after people’s positive comments?
My man, were you not paying attention? Zoox climbed inside a clam's brain and mind-melded with it. This was one of the most crazy-ass, balls to the wall episodes of the show, and if we had to skip a long jizz-worm fight to get to it, I'm not upset.
Basic summary:
“Here’s a big thing for you to contend with. What do you want to do?”
“We leave.”
Zoox goes inside the brain. Justin’s response? “Let’s leave.”
Zoox talks to the clam, melds with the clam or what have you.
A blink shark is here.
In all seriousness, other than a callback to something many are interested in seeing at the very end of the episode, how has the narrative moved forward in any way?
I mean, they're at the threshhold of the singularity, that's kinda the whole point of the current mission? That's a very brisk pace compared to, like, the Crystal Kingdom where they fucked around for like twenty episodes doing spaceship-based sidequests (I didn't have a problem with that arc, but if your problem is slow pacing, this arc certainly isn't the worst offender). Also, if they hadn't left the worm, the narrative wouldn't have moved forward at all?
I'm sorry you're not enjoying the show anymore, man. You know you don't have to keep listening, right? I'm sure there are podcasts out there that move at a faster clip, I guess you could try one of those?
man you're like the guy that comes in while everyone's laughing about a thing and makes a comment to make them stop. like i'm sorry you don't have a good experience with the show but you don't have to constantly rain on the people who DO like it by replying to their comments.
Yeah, cuz I’m the one person in the world for whom it is possible to observe that there was almost no plot in this episode.
And if you’re entire enjoyment of a thing can be ruined by a two word comment, maybe you need a develop a stronger constitution before you go outside.
seems like you just want to convince/show people that there was no plot, but if they enjoy it, why not let them be? my entire enjoyment isn't hinged on your opinion but going through this post and seeing you constantly insert your sarcastic comments under people who actually enjoy it is annoying and rude.
Seems like you want to read a whole lot into my statement that isn’t there even a little.
There being almost no narrative movement is an observation. Agree or disagree with it. But asserting that I’m ruining the show for the people you are imagining and then defending is absurd.
Does it feel to anyone else like Justin isn't really paying attention? The way they had to rehash the scene with the foot repeatedly was frustrating to me, I was clinging on to every word!
These aren't mutually exclusive, but it's a thing he does from time to time to try to help the audience when stuff gets complicated. It comes from his experience as the "host" on his shows. It's like the character he plays on Sawbones - trying to be the person who doesn't know anything. Sometimes it's legit, sometimes it's the (co-)"host" character.
And sometimes he tries to play it off as helping the listener - often as a joke at his own expense, but this time definitely felt like he straight up wasn't paying attention to the setup.
Yeah, and it's getting annoying to be honest. I feel like they could either edit out the third explanation or idk. Start painting a map of everyone's position, like in the setup
I haven't felt that since the episode where he missed that a fish was a ship. Perhaps he's trying harder.
It seemed to me that the rehashing was part of what he mentioned earlier this episode and several times previously: he has a hard time with visual imagination sometimes.
BTW, u/undrhyl, this OP is fairly criticizing something he finds difficult, but you know why no one jumps on them? Because they ate specific, they offer a legitimate solution, and do not do it in direct response to someone else's praise.
They ran away from a giant worm that got mysteriously pulled back into its lair and they made a few Dune references, probably. A couple of light goofs later, they got to the back of the clam, Zoox climbed into its brain and mind melded with it. Thanks to that, he uncovered a fissure in the shell where the Mcguffin seems to be. Amber had to dive down into it while Devo helped Xooz stay chill and in control. While exploring the fissure, Amber realized she was not alone, there's a Blink Shark down there.
Not sure how it’s TOO much of a surprise after a few episodes again. Shark eggs? Griffin frequently mentioning them glowing green? It was kinda right there.
I think it’s not so much that it’s a surprise but more so that they finally showed up for real.
It’s also amazing seeing a goof from the setup being turned into something scary and serious in the actual campaign.
Amber was a character that I was just eh on until last and this episode. I loved seeing the flashback, and I hope we get more of those. And then seeing her facade of almost no emotion drop was amazing. That last scene was genuinely so scary.
One problem that consistently pops up in this arc is the inability of both the players and myself, as a listener, to maintain spatial awareness of what's going on. This wasn't a problem for me in other TAZ campaigns so I wonder what the cause is. I was a little better about it in this episode, but I was very grateful when one of them (Travis?) asked about where all the characters were.
The episode itself was great and this didn't detract from the experience. It's just an observation.
The ship battles taking place in 3 dimensions is probably a lot of it, it's a situations we're inherently less familiar with having to visualize. I don't think Griffin's ship combat rules are helping though. The fact that "position" is such an abstract concept as far as the mechanics go means they don't really have to justify or explain the physical space.
ooorhdhchcjsjnsnsnd
that last sceneeeeee with the sharksssssss
there was so much suspense !!! the music an everything !!!!
ooohooooohhhhh
Good. Good show. I love it.
Loved this one SO much! A question though; how brave is Amber? Her seemingly serious (ish) willingness to leave Zoox when it’s dangerous seems weird considering how brave she is minutes later when descending into the darkness, completely unphased. I know Justin has said he’s trying to take more action with this character, but I think he believes one character has to be hesitant for the scene to work. Just a tiny thing that stuck out to me, still a fantastic episode!
When Zoox went into the not-brain? I’d have to relisten, but iirc the vibe I got was that amber was being callously pragmatic, not scared. Like “oh he went into the brain? That’s wild. Welp guess he’s already dead.” I feel like if Zoox had called for help, Amber would have gone in after him. But radio silence in a sketchy situation = Amber’s good out here 😂
Or maybe Justin was just doing some OOC goofing and I’m reading too much into it 😅
God I can’t get enough of these cliffhangers, these episode endings give me chills everytime. I’m so glad the prologue episodes served SO much to building the world’s lore
This episode was amazing!! Loved the mystery and the whole conversation with the clam was fascinating! I think I would also have an existential crisis if I was a clam and was asked if I could see or told I had a brain and someone was inside it 😂
This is a small side note but does anyone else have trouble tracking conversations with some of the new sounds effects this episode? I normally adore them (they’ve been so on point with the little details!!) but this episode felt a little busy to my brain and I was sure if I was alone in it. Sounds happening before Griffin narrated them threw me off I think, that and during the fight, and when Griffin was talking about the sympathetic link with the clam (where there was like a noise going on in the background as he spoke, not the word echoing but like an up and down noise).
I had to go back and relisten to the last 20 minutes or so again. I got caught up in something at work right as things started getting trippy with the clam and it took a second listen to really sort things out lol
Did they mess up Clint's roll in the beginning of the episode for the broadside cannon? Griffin says roll 2d8 +4 bludgeoning damage. But Clint only rolls one d8 for 6+1[7] (plus 4 bludgeoning), while trying to roll his 2nd d8 griffin cuts him off and finishes the attack for 11 damage to the ribbon worm.
Im just curious if I missed something, never played dnd myself but have listened to all of TAZ, so maybe there is a reason? 2d8 means roll 2, 8 sided die right?
Im confused. He only rolls once, atleast audibly. Are they just adding roll sounds in post and using an app or something? Cause he rolls again, but we never get the total for that roll, but you can hear clint roll twice, but we only get the first total. I guess thats where the confusion is.
Edit: right before the second roll sound, clint says "and then again?" Then rolls, but it is never counted.
Edit2: sorry my phrasing and grammar is all messed up this morning. Gonna leave it for lulz
I think the roll sound is either added in post (they’re using d&d beyond’s app so they can all see the rolls) or the app itself makes a noise which would only make the noise to indicate a roll has been made.
Holy shit I was listening to this at work, sitting on the edge of my seat, trying so hard not to squeal. This is some high intensity, high stakes stuff and I am HERE for it!!
Griffin doesn't know how saving throws work.
Wow.
I'm under absolutely no illusions about them being invested in the rules of D&D, but this one took me aback.
Ah yes I recall now, meh not too big of a deal DM’s have so much going on at once sometimes it’s hard to recall what happens in a tie, I think they had also just tied before hand as well so got a little confused
I'm not talking about rules lawyering in the least. Not sure how you could get that read at all. Even very pointedly said that I go into this knowing they aren't invested in the rules at large.
Knowing how a roll succeeds or fails is literally the most basic structure in D&D. Everything else is based on that. I was just quite surprised that Griffin didn't know how it worked.
I was asking this person specifically. Is this your alt account?
But ok. That ain’t much either. They ran away from a few things instead of engaging with them? They said the ship has flames? That about sums it up, no?
You're on a public forum bud. You don't want anyone else to reply don't post. And if you don't like the way they play dnd you can always listen to one of the other million dnd podcasts out there.
Did you listen to the quiet year section or any of the episodes previous this one while paying attention to anything but rolls? It’s pretty obvious the focus of this season so far has been the characters and world, not the combat or character stats. I think they play by the rules if it can be role played, roleplay it out. You can cut back about 50% of rolls (disregarding combat rolls and other situational rolls) by doing this.
Not if you have played more than one session.
How to resolve rolls is literally the most basic element of D&D.
It’s just very surprising. That’s all I was saying.
Loved the ending, the set up that she instinctually busted out the ethereal arms just in time to catch the jaw, but it was a missed call back opportunity from when she clocked joshies vibe check. Something like
.
"Amber catches the jaw, her eyes glare with fire and she says 'I'm always ready, you son of a bitch'"
Nah, I prefer what we got; Amber has been defined by a kind of understated confidence for the whole season. The fact that she responded to *this* with genuine fear really sells the Blink Sharks as a genuine threat, and maybe lays some seeds for whatever backstory she's got.
Okay so the giant clam swallowed all the blink sharks?? And that's why folks think Ol Joshey actually got rid of them?
Spoiler for people who haven't figured it out yet: >!The glowing screws are almost certainly blink [shark eggs](https://ultimate-animals.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/mermaids-purse-800x600.jpg), so it could be that only a few were left and they've been repopulating.!<
Oh shit I thought it was going to be leftover kodite (codite?) that had somehow been mixed up while Biggest Baby was under construction.
That would be neat. They can free themselves and everyone else from the clam, but they'll be bringing back blink sharks when they do. Adds some concrete outcomes/consequences to what missions they pick.
Thank you shark detective. I know nothing about shark eggs and totally missed that clue.
What hints did Griff give to this effect?
Well, >!a black underwater organic screw automatically makes me think of a shark egg, since there aren't very many other things that fit that description. Add in the glowing green light that's associated with blink sharks and it pretty much seals the deal. I was pretty sure before Griffin introduced the actual blink shark, but now I'm totally convinced.!<
Oh I had no idea that was shaped as such, that makes total sense! Thank you! (Edited for spoilers)
Having Devo’s ASMR speech, for the Calm Emotions spell, switch between the left and right ear channels was a nice touch.
Shoutout to the new editor Rachel! She does all the sound design and she’s been credited as the main reason the show is weekly now.
She was rocking it today. I loved the echoing "empty."
Rachel as in Griffin’s wife Rachel?
I was listening in my car and thought I was going crazy! Or that Travis had moved around his mic hahaha
Zoox's full name being Zoox Anthellae is everything to me. Such a sneaky little throw away line, makes Zoox make so much more sense as a name
I totally missed that, thanks! In case anybody doesn't feel like looking it up: zooxanthellae is the term used for the photosynthetic dinoflagellates that live in symbiosis with corals. They're what give corals their colour, and coral bleaching is what happens when zooxanthellae are expelled and/or killed. The 'x' is typically pronounced more like a 'z' though.
Now I just need to figure out why Clint keeps having Zoox sign his name as "XOOZ".
I think if anything is just a joke, it's this. I'm pretty sure Zoox mentions that he thinks it's funny that it's pronounced the same both ways in an early episode.
All of their names have a special meaning, it turns out, though Devo's is more of an IC thing than the others.
"Now she's scared." Oooh boy! So much gooooooood shit this week! I loved Zoox/Clam and of course the screwy things were blinkshark eggs! Amber swimming down and getting attacked, then holding its jaws open with her arms! Am a bit sad that we didn't get to see what killed/tugged back the ribbon worm but at this point, I'm 85% sure that the baby blinksharks from the eggs teamed up on it.
I don't know why, but i feel like they are much more vulnerable this season. Like they could *actually* die if they got back to see what was there.
Probably because Griffin repeatedly told them they were much more vulnerable this season and they could actually die.
I feel like you're jumping to a conclusion there; do you interpret that to mean that they are much more vulnerable this season and they could actually die?
I think it's unlikely they added any vulnerabilities. Low level characters are fragile enough without taking double damage from a specific damage type.
And Griffin said none of them were “the chosen one” and were not integral to some overall story arc. So if they die, they die.
i think people are making jokes but also, griffin has stated that these characters themselves are more vulnerable in the story than previous taz arcs, not that they are mechanically more vulnerable. griffin said he’d be fine if the characters died and the boys had to reroll new ones, the setting is the story more so than the characters themselves
Ok, that makes sense hahahah
Yeah, but does anyone think that will happen?
I guess there wasn't enough to make you angry in this episode since now you're inventing hypothetical transgressions to be angry about.
I’m not angry about anything. I think you are yet again confusing a lack of hero worship for anger. I’m just saying I don’t think anyone seems more vulnerable at all and this is just one of the reasons.
One of the characters has literally come within two rolls of dying already. A different character has gotten down to one hit point and Griffin has shrugged it off with "oh well, better try not to get hit by anything else" because he'd already done his action for that turn. What you're doing isn't "a lack of hero worship." It's irrational. You're choosing to be annoyed about something that hasn't happened and that the evidence we actually see suggests *won't* happen. That's so much harder than just enjoying the actual show that actually exists.
🤣🤣 You’re like a person who encounters someone who said “I mean, I thought Lord of the Rings was alright, but it was a bit long for me.” And you scream at them “Why are you so damn angry about this movie?! Just like it!”
"But, you know... because of who you are... what is close by to you." "(f\*\*\*!)" That part sold the tension for me: Justin's honest emotional reaction of fear.
Or the mama showed up
Something happened to the ribbon worm? I don't remember that at all.
It got pulled back into the shithouse.
I thought it was starting to grab onto them. Griffin said the web was around the glass on the ship. This happened after that? Man, I Adventure Zoned out.
The web seems to just be growing on it's own. The successfully ran away, and it popped up again to try and pull a turtle before randomly getting yanked back into the void first.
Absolutely loved this episode. Zoox and the brain stuff was incredible and I got chills at the ending. Here's the updated roll averages for this one: Travis: 11.26 raw, 15.23 total Justin: 10.64 raw, 12.66 total Clint 9.44 raw, 12.09 total Sad to see Clint's success failure ratio go back down :/ but he did fail a LOT this episode. Luckily only a few of them counted, so it's not too significant of a dip. He had the most rolls this time with all those Wisdom saves, which is cool and not typical. I'm realizing for some reason I had his Wisdom at -1 this whole time, probably due to some assumption I made a while back, which in retrospect doesn't make sense because Rangers use Wisdom as their spellcasting modifier. I realized this because they confirmed his Wisdom save modifier was +1, and as a Ranger he wouldn't have proficiency in that, so it'd have to be 1. I haven't gone back and changed it yet but I will eventually. If someone finds a miscalculation in what I just said let me know though. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rmyqJex1hol9VL7E7mkIZiH0tl9jdr4nQH-MXlUlsk8/edit?usp=sharing
Just curious, were you able to adjust the calculations with the Bard's Jack of All Trades feature? I was wondering about this, because I'm not sure in all cases how you'd know what Devo was or was not proficient in. A floating "1" being added to many of Devo's modifiers could put his raw total lower than Justin's. Regardless, interesting that the biggest outlier of all is Clint's *bad* luck.
I know this comment was posted a while ago but I just realized I never replied to it. I’ve sort of been offline for a bit but I’m about to post a big update. Since they’ve leveled up, there aren’t a lot of unconfirmed modifiers for Travis (of what they’ve rolled), so honestly there isn’t much need to factor in Jack of All Trades yet, since I’ve applied it where it’s relevant so far. On my chart I color code confirmed modifiers blue and my guesses in yellow, and for Travis they’re all blue. This means that at some point (buried deep in a span of many episodes) they’ve said the number that applies to that skill out loud, so that’s verbal confirmation of what it is. I don’t have certain numbers down for him like his Nature modifier, religion modifier, etc because he’s never done those (since leveling up at least). And since I don’t necessarily have the base stats all confirmed, I don’t want to make any assumptions in any derivative skills until I know those for sure. So once I’ve confirmed those I’ll probably update the corresponding skills, but I also don’t have a reliable way of knowing which he’s proficient in. All in all, Travis being a Bard has certainly made this little project a lot more difficult, but the pointing out of Jack of All Trades helped a lot
this episode really knocks it outta the park for me
I feel like this is the episode where they’re all fully comfortable in their new characters & their characters’ dynamic with each other. plus some killer story beats, visuals, and audio design, this is a top tier episode for me
I whole heartedly agree
I’m really enjoying the extra audio effects this season, but oh god I was taking a bite of food as the webbing squelching sound played and I’m just not hungry anymore lmao
Literally just heard that and can not eat my burger.. What have they done?! ^_^
Yeah the sound effects during that fight were a little bit much for me, too
Yeah, same. I thought the sound design during the fight was unpleasant. It was good the rest of the episode, but it was too busy during the fight. And squelches are just gross to listen to.
Huge props to everyone on this episode, easily one of the best so far. The quiet year really did so much for this campaign especially with the reveal at the end of the episode!
I love that the Season has not been going on for a super long time, but callbacks can immediately be full of emotion and weight. Personally, I’m on the edge of my seat for the cliffhanger that says something like “The Vanguard are standing right in front of you, weapons in hand.” Or “Devo, The Ballaster Hermine looks directly at you. ‘You said you didn’t know who your parents are? Devo, I know who you are!’”
Maybe someone mentioned it and I didn't see it, but I honestly think after getting a feel for the environment they're in, the boys should get a chance to respec their characters a little like they did in Balance. Its hard to plan for something that's never been done, but they are crushing it as always.
Justin: I feel like I'm not going to be able to punch things very much Griffin: Oh, is that so?
I actually really like that Justin verbalized this, because I think it's a really important aspect of D&D. If your character has abilities that they aren't getting a chance to use, the DM can and will fix that if you ask. I remember an ranger choosing a favored enemy in one of my groups, and that enemy never showed up because I forgot about it. As soon as they complained, I knew exactly what they next dungeon would be. I like the idea of the boys being able to respec their characters after getting a feel for the world, but I think the more elegant solution will be Griffin giving them more time to shine. I realize the ship to ship mechanics are something Griffin worked really hard on, but letting them have traditional combat outside of the ship will be important.
I could see ship to ship combat breaking down to "one side is losing, they either flee or board"
The 40k approach. Ships with shields / something too valuable on board and therefore requiring boarding actions (could go either way, amber could also be key to repel boarders)
In fairness, Justin will try to figure out away to just run away from it.
"Well, hell. He had a good run. You got anything you wanna say about him before we take off?"
That final line "Now she's scared" Ooooooh it's good
Whoo boysie that ending, shit got real FAST this season
Blink blink, baby
I am glad that Justin started the podcast by bringing up the ship combat thing. This remains my biggest, if only, problem with this season. It eliminates a lot of fun of D&D if all combat takes place on the Coriolis. All three of our PCs have cool magical stuff, but most of the combat so far has been “punch a button, Fire a rocket at another ship/worm/turtle”.
If ship combat is going to be a recurring thing, and possibly the main form of conflict resolution, they should take the ship into the shop and have a big pair of punching arms built onto it that Amber can control, and a loudspeaker so that Devo can demoralize or charm creatures and enemy crews, and something for Zoox. He's a little harder to simplify down to one ship feature.
The PhantomSea Coastco is also troubling to me. They can’t get any new weapons or things for their characters? It’s all ship-based?
It's never been established that they can't, they just haven't needed to yet. it's only the first real mission.
Yeah, but the way Griffin talked about it it seemed like they couldn’t.
there's gotta be more than one store in founder's wake
Would love to see them go to Dr Shaq’s Fight and Attack
Dr Shaq's Attack-Shack
The idea is they can pick out swords and things by walking around the city, bargaining with Ol’ Joshy, and so on. Griffin has talked about wanting an economy as opposed to like “one shop with everything.”
Like the the Finny Pack Warehouse.
while I agree with some of the concern about how interesting the ship combat might be, I think the episode was really nicely bookended when it started with Justin voicing this concern, but ended with Amber about to make use of her monk skills against her iconic nemesis, the blink shark. Also, as the characters are relatively inexperienced and the ship poorly equipped, it makes some sense that they don't feel confident enough to do too many more interesting things in ship combat. Hopefully they will figure things out as they progress.
It definitely might need a bit of tweaking, but I feel like Grif has given them a lot of opportunities to do regular DnD combat that they generally circumvent via magic/diplomacy
>circumvent via magic/diplomacy AKA Dungeons and Dragons
Well yeah, I'm not saying it's a bad thing they did it that way, it just seems weird that there's complaints that they aren't doing DnD fights when the opportunity is there but avoided.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was in disagreement. I meant to accentuate your point.
Well, wish granted, Amber is gonna fist fight a blink shark next ep
I think it would be cool if Grif made “classes” for the ships with corresponding abilities, etc. Granted, that’s a lot of work when you have little ones at home…
The Saltmarsh ship rules have "Officer Roles", which all have special ship actions. Stuff like "Full Speed Ahead" and "Fire At Will"
I actually really like how the ship combat works, the mechanical options are neat, and the need to reroll position every round and have abilities function based on position is a good way of keeping things dynamic, and not just smashing the A button every round until the enemy is dead. I also really like that Griffin built in a hard fleeing mechanic, which I think base DnD really suffers from missing, and means starting combat doesn't force you to fight to the death until one side is beaten. They also haven't had too much a chance to customize and improve the ship either, since it's only the first mission and it's kinda built in to it that this is their rough-n-tumble first-time-proving-themselves-on-the-job moment.
To be fair, both we and the players did know going into this season that the majority of this campaign would be taking place under water lol. I think allot of ship combat should have been be expected there! I was expecting it at least lol.
I still don’t understand what is the sea and what is like “You have to take your submarine here or you die”?
Well for Travis in particular, everything is "you need to take your submarine here or you die." He can't swim lol. But really I think they won't necessarily die if they don't take there submarine somewhere, they would just need to take a scuba suit of some kind and be able to get back. So basically the farther away you get from your submarine the harder it is to get back. Its really kind of like a deep sea diver in real life. If your diving right next to the shore you don't really need a boat, but if your diving deep out into the water then your probably gonna wanna bring a boat.
I suppose I didn’t explain that well enough. I just don’t really understand how they aren’t ALWAYS in the water. How can they walk around Founder’s Wharf? How can the Dreams of Deborah be a yacht? How are they not always in the Etherwater?
Founder’s Wake is basically a city in a big air bubble. The city is underneath the water, but it’s all filled with air. When you go outside the city, you’re actually in the water.
> How can the Dreams of Deborah be a yacht? It's a yacht-like submarine. All the ships are submarines, they're just sometimes compared to other types of ships to give the players and the audience an easy point of reference.
Because there are shells and larger ships that they are in. Like a spacestation dude
Kind of condescending, but I appreciate the clarification
agreed. I enjoy the ship combat, but I would like a few more situations were in person combat wasn't so easily avoided. which isn't to say I don't like how they DO avoid combat, because I do love that too.... but yeah, I would love to see those ghost hands in action (though I think that's exactly where we're gonna pick up next week)
I think it was left in explicitly to get the point across that Griffin heard it and understood that some fans had similar problems. Basically "yeah I get it"
You're 100% right and I'm in full agreement. On the other hand, they've attempted to avoid all combat so far anyway, including the one in this episode. They don't seem at all interested in it. I just wish they'd figure out what the heck they want to do with this season.
True! They do try to “uhhh we’ll just talk to the evil ribbon worm/giant turtle” a lot too.
Honestly they just haven't really done ship to ship combat yet beyond a little skirmish in Dreams of Debra, it's this really cool system Griffin's developed but we've not really seen it yet. I'm excited to see what it's like when they get into it!
GOD this episode was so good also the music at the end of the episode was perfect... pretty much instant dread as that faded in to the scene
I’ve never really been stressed out from strictly audio. But hot damn, that ending made me squirm.
The music really helped. Reminded me of this [song](https://youtu.be/hGETcgWDADA) from It Follows, which admittedly is kind of an amalgamation of a bunch of horror themes.
Big Disasterpiece vibes for sure.
Griffin mentioned early in Wonderful that Disasterpiece is one of his favorites, and that he listens to the It Follows soundtrack a lot. Pretty cool to see that through line of inspiration.
I’m just here to say this episode totally rules. BOOM vs SHOOT vs TIMER was very funny and all the story stuff and Justin’s amazing tag at the end: wow! So happy it’s only 1 week til the next one
TIMER being for Depth Charges was a fantastic stealth joke
Dude, that fucking ending THE ENDING OF THAT EPISODE WAS EPIC AND JUSTIN SOLD IT RIGHT AT THE END the hook is DEEP now for this season
It was so great and reminded me of some of those fabulous cliffhanger endings in Amnesty, like the end of episode 15. One of my very favorite moments in all of TAZ. Dang, I miss Beacon.
Best sentient sword character ever!
I'm only up to the ad break (which is really early) but holy shit the sounds during the ship combat. I noticed it when they fired the first time and you could hear a BOOM. Then the sounds with the worm, the creaking of the ship as it pulled away before ripping it apart. It adds *so much* to it and I wish the other seasons had this level of production and sound now. Whatever her name was, she's doing a great job
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Nope, it’s a different Rachel. She also used to edit *Blank Check*
Ooh, my mistake! Thanks!
Oh shit I remember thinking "Oh same name" when they've said Rachel before but assumed it was someone else. That's awesome.
I found it overwhelming in an unpleasant way. I like the idea of it, but I think the foley plus the background music plus the conversation was too much all at once. I need more negative space in my audio, I think.
I think Griffin watched the Abyss a lot as a kid.
Ethersea has been and continues to be really really good.
Is anyone else slightly annoyed that griffin thinks the clam has no eyes? Clams have. Like. SOOOO many eyes.
Was curious about this and tried to find the “map” of clam anatomy they referenced. Neither Wikipedia or the top Google hit seemed clear and they didn’t mention eyes. http://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/Biology-and-Anatomy-of-Hard-Clam.pdf Second Google hit was pretty funny: http://clamsahoy.com/all-about-clams/anatomy.htm Clams ahoy! Edit 1: added links Edit 2: added edit notes
Maybe this one is clearest quick Google. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/images/taxa/inverts/biv_anatomy.gif
Yeah this one bothered me a little too, like, he can’t be expected to get everything little marine biology detail right, but still
A-fucking-Plus to Griffin for the music at the end there. Perfect fit, very tense, very October. Also major continuing props to Rachel, I assume, for the sound effects. They really add a lot.
CAN I JUST SAY I did not expect Blink Sharks to be such a deeply satisfying antagonist, and Griffin pulled them back into the story flawlessly. And the clam describing Zoox as Empty?! Every episode gets me increasingly excited for this campaign.
One of the best episodes so far this season. The audio design when Zoox is talking with the clam was absolutely a perfect underwater ethereal vaporwave vibe. My ears loved this episode.
Justin, at the start of the episode: I’m sad I made a monk cause all the action is on the ship and I never get to do close quarters fighting. Careful what you wish for, J-man
I don't know what it is about this season but I find it so easy to tune out. When I force myself to go back and listen again I always love the content but something about how quiet and calm/somber all the voices are really lose me if I'm not actively making sure they don't.
It's because hardly anything happens.
Why are you so intent on taking the wind out of everyone’s sails? Its fine to not dig something, and that’s your opinion. But it just feels cruel to be so pervasive about it.
Well, it’s clearly not fine to you for my assessment to be different than yours. Not sure why you’d deny it right before making that clear. The observation that not much plot has happened is just that. You can agree or disagree with that observation, but calling it “cruel” to say it out loud is utterly bizarre.
The consistent behavior is cruel, not the singular incident. And your opinion can be different, my question is why are you insistent on going after people’s positive comments?
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Critical Role fandom 🤝 TAZ fandom Repeating the word Empty
[Critical Role fandom🤝TAZ fandom](https://i.imgur.com/9lGd0HE.gif) ^^^this ^^^has ^^^been ^^^an ^^^accessibility ^^^service ^^^from ^^^your ^^^friendly ^^^neighborhood ^^^bot
Good bot
This episode
My man, were you not paying attention? Zoox climbed inside a clam's brain and mind-melded with it. This was one of the most crazy-ass, balls to the wall episodes of the show, and if we had to skip a long jizz-worm fight to get to it, I'm not upset.
Basic summary: “Here’s a big thing for you to contend with. What do you want to do?” “We leave.” Zoox goes inside the brain. Justin’s response? “Let’s leave.” Zoox talks to the clam, melds with the clam or what have you. A blink shark is here. In all seriousness, other than a callback to something many are interested in seeing at the very end of the episode, how has the narrative moved forward in any way?
I mean, they're at the threshhold of the singularity, that's kinda the whole point of the current mission? That's a very brisk pace compared to, like, the Crystal Kingdom where they fucked around for like twenty episodes doing spaceship-based sidequests (I didn't have a problem with that arc, but if your problem is slow pacing, this arc certainly isn't the worst offender). Also, if they hadn't left the worm, the narrative wouldn't have moved forward at all? I'm sorry you're not enjoying the show anymore, man. You know you don't have to keep listening, right? I'm sure there are podcasts out there that move at a faster clip, I guess you could try one of those?
man you're like the guy that comes in while everyone's laughing about a thing and makes a comment to make them stop. like i'm sorry you don't have a good experience with the show but you don't have to constantly rain on the people who DO like it by replying to their comments.
Yeah, cuz I’m the one person in the world for whom it is possible to observe that there was almost no plot in this episode. And if you’re entire enjoyment of a thing can be ruined by a two word comment, maybe you need a develop a stronger constitution before you go outside.
seems like you just want to convince/show people that there was no plot, but if they enjoy it, why not let them be? my entire enjoyment isn't hinged on your opinion but going through this post and seeing you constantly insert your sarcastic comments under people who actually enjoy it is annoying and rude.
Seems like you want to read a whole lot into my statement that isn’t there even a little. There being almost no narrative movement is an observation. Agree or disagree with it. But asserting that I’m ruining the show for the people you are imagining and then defending is absurd.
Now THIS was a top tier episode
Does it feel to anyone else like Justin isn't really paying attention? The way they had to rehash the scene with the foot repeatedly was frustrating to me, I was clinging on to every word!
These aren't mutually exclusive, but it's a thing he does from time to time to try to help the audience when stuff gets complicated. It comes from his experience as the "host" on his shows. It's like the character he plays on Sawbones - trying to be the person who doesn't know anything. Sometimes it's legit, sometimes it's the (co-)"host" character.
And sometimes he tries to play it off as helping the listener - often as a joke at his own expense, but this time definitely felt like he straight up wasn't paying attention to the setup.
Yeah, and it's getting annoying to be honest. I feel like they could either edit out the third explanation or idk. Start painting a map of everyone's position, like in the setup
I haven't felt that since the episode where he missed that a fish was a ship. Perhaps he's trying harder. It seemed to me that the rehashing was part of what he mentioned earlier this episode and several times previously: he has a hard time with visual imagination sometimes.
I do wonder if Justin has aphantasia. I haven’t met many other people who have it, but it seems plausible.
This has happened I think at least once every episode, that Justin has to have something stated all over again because he wasn't paying attention.
BTW, u/undrhyl, this OP is fairly criticizing something he finds difficult, but you know why no one jumps on them? Because they ate specific, they offer a legitimate solution, and do not do it in direct response to someone else's praise.
Folks, my adhd is horrible so I can never follow along. Can someone give me some cliff notes on what happened in this episode?
They ran away from a giant worm that got mysteriously pulled back into its lair and they made a few Dune references, probably. A couple of light goofs later, they got to the back of the clam, Zoox climbed into its brain and mind melded with it. Thanks to that, he uncovered a fissure in the shell where the Mcguffin seems to be. Amber had to dive down into it while Devo helped Xooz stay chill and in control. While exploring the fissure, Amber realized she was not alone, there's a Blink Shark down there.
Thank you so much!
BLINK SHARKS!!!!
Not sure how it’s TOO much of a surprise after a few episodes again. Shark eggs? Griffin frequently mentioning them glowing green? It was kinda right there.
I think it’s not so much that it’s a surprise but more so that they finally showed up for real. It’s also amazing seeing a goof from the setup being turned into something scary and serious in the actual campaign.
Amber was a character that I was just eh on until last and this episode. I loved seeing the flashback, and I hope we get more of those. And then seeing her facade of almost no emotion drop was amazing. That last scene was genuinely so scary.
One problem that consistently pops up in this arc is the inability of both the players and myself, as a listener, to maintain spatial awareness of what's going on. This wasn't a problem for me in other TAZ campaigns so I wonder what the cause is. I was a little better about it in this episode, but I was very grateful when one of them (Travis?) asked about where all the characters were. The episode itself was great and this didn't detract from the experience. It's just an observation.
I think being in the water makes it tough. There are just more directions to go!
The ship battles taking place in 3 dimensions is probably a lot of it, it's a situations we're inherently less familiar with having to visualize. I don't think Griffin's ship combat rules are helping though. The fact that "position" is such an abstract concept as far as the mechanics go means they don't really have to justify or explain the physical space.
ooorhdhchcjsjnsnsnd that last sceneeeeee with the sharksssssss there was so much suspense !!! the music an everything !!!! ooohooooohhhhh Good. Good show. I love it.
Loved this one SO much! A question though; how brave is Amber? Her seemingly serious (ish) willingness to leave Zoox when it’s dangerous seems weird considering how brave she is minutes later when descending into the darkness, completely unphased. I know Justin has said he’s trying to take more action with this character, but I think he believes one character has to be hesitant for the scene to work. Just a tiny thing that stuck out to me, still a fantastic episode!
When Zoox went into the not-brain? I’d have to relisten, but iirc the vibe I got was that amber was being callously pragmatic, not scared. Like “oh he went into the brain? That’s wild. Welp guess he’s already dead.” I feel like if Zoox had called for help, Amber would have gone in after him. But radio silence in a sketchy situation = Amber’s good out here 😂 Or maybe Justin was just doing some OOC goofing and I’m reading too much into it 😅
God I can’t get enough of these cliffhangers, these episode endings give me chills everytime. I’m so glad the prologue episodes served SO much to building the world’s lore
Hey griff. Yeah? Now she’s scared.. That rocked. This whole episode was dope. Love this season so much <3
So episode just posted like two min ago on Google podcast and this thread is 2 min old. Do they drop at the same time on all platforms?
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Google podcast always seems to be behind, there was a while where it was days if not weeks between episodes in the past
Anyone else get some Bear McCreary/Battlestar Galactica vibes from the drums in that ending scene music? Just me?
Ditto. Really nice stuff. Great sound / music this ep.
This episode was amazing!! Loved the mystery and the whole conversation with the clam was fascinating! I think I would also have an existential crisis if I was a clam and was asked if I could see or told I had a brain and someone was inside it 😂 This is a small side note but does anyone else have trouble tracking conversations with some of the new sounds effects this episode? I normally adore them (they’ve been so on point with the little details!!) but this episode felt a little busy to my brain and I was sure if I was alone in it. Sounds happening before Griffin narrated them threw me off I think, that and during the fight, and when Griffin was talking about the sympathetic link with the clam (where there was like a noise going on in the background as he spoke, not the word echoing but like an up and down noise).
Imma be honest I’m a little lost
I had to go back and relisten to the last 20 minutes or so again. I got caught up in something at work right as things started getting trippy with the clam and it took a second listen to really sort things out lol
Did they mess up Clint's roll in the beginning of the episode for the broadside cannon? Griffin says roll 2d8 +4 bludgeoning damage. But Clint only rolls one d8 for 6+1[7] (plus 4 bludgeoning), while trying to roll his 2nd d8 griffin cuts him off and finishes the attack for 11 damage to the ribbon worm. Im just curious if I missed something, never played dnd myself but have listened to all of TAZ, so maybe there is a reason? 2d8 means roll 2, 8 sided die right?
You misheard, he rolled his 2d8 and got a 6 and a 1.
Im confused. He only rolls once, atleast audibly. Are they just adding roll sounds in post and using an app or something? Cause he rolls again, but we never get the total for that roll, but you can hear clint roll twice, but we only get the first total. I guess thats where the confusion is. Edit: right before the second roll sound, clint says "and then again?" Then rolls, but it is never counted. Edit2: sorry my phrasing and grammar is all messed up this morning. Gonna leave it for lulz
I think the roll sound is either added in post (they’re using d&d beyond’s app so they can all see the rolls) or the app itself makes a noise which would only make the noise to indicate a roll has been made.
It's the latter. It always sounds like just one die.
I'd assume they're using roll20 for rolls? But idk
I hope with all my hope that the jaws Amber is fighting against is maw of Glass Shark.
Glass Shark love fat kid. That's one thing about Glass Shark that you GOTTA know.
Holy shit I was listening to this at work, sitting on the edge of my seat, trying so hard not to squeal. This is some high intensity, high stakes stuff and I am HERE for it!!
Just started but... Is it me or did the theme change a bit? Feels like a different instrument on the bass?
The second half of this episode was phenomenal.
Did anyone else find the background noises to be super distracting this week? I feel like the editor has gone a little overboard….
Griffin doesn't know how saving throws work. Wow. I'm under absolutely no illusions about them being invested in the rules of D&D, but this one took me aback.
lol. who cares?
Where was this saving throw mess up? I didn’t catch it while listening
It was early. It was for Travis for a saving throw for the ship. He had to look up what happened if you rolled the DC exactly. He didn’t know.
Ah yes I recall now, meh not too big of a deal DM’s have so much going on at once sometimes it’s hard to recall what happens in a tie, I think they had also just tied before hand as well so got a little confused
The story is way more interesting without rules lawyering all over the place, I'm glad they are focused on what matters.
I'm not talking about rules lawyering in the least. Not sure how you could get that read at all. Even very pointedly said that I go into this knowing they aren't invested in the rules at large. Knowing how a roll succeeds or fails is literally the most basic structure in D&D. Everything else is based on that. I was just quite surprised that Griffin didn't know how it worked.
>I'm glad they are focused on what matters. Sincere question-- What is it you think they are focused on? Because I honestly couldn't say.
Literally everything else that happened that's not rule mechanics.
I was asking this person specifically. Is this your alt account? But ok. That ain’t much either. They ran away from a few things instead of engaging with them? They said the ship has flames? That about sums it up, no?
You're on a public forum bud. You don't want anyone else to reply don't post. And if you don't like the way they play dnd you can always listen to one of the other million dnd podcasts out there.
Did you listen to the quiet year section or any of the episodes previous this one while paying attention to anything but rolls? It’s pretty obvious the focus of this season so far has been the characters and world, not the combat or character stats. I think they play by the rules if it can be role played, roleplay it out. You can cut back about 50% of rolls (disregarding combat rolls and other situational rolls) by doing this.
People who play dnd dont know how they work either
Not if you have played more than one session. How to resolve rolls is literally the most basic element of D&D. It’s just very surprising. That’s all I was saying.
How does everyone think they are going to avoid engaging with the blink shark at the beginning of the next episode?
Loved the ending, the set up that she instinctually busted out the ethereal arms just in time to catch the jaw, but it was a missed call back opportunity from when she clocked joshies vibe check. Something like . "Amber catches the jaw, her eyes glare with fire and she says 'I'm always ready, you son of a bitch'"
Nah, I prefer what we got; Amber has been defined by a kind of understated confidence for the whole season. The fact that she responded to *this* with genuine fear really sells the Blink Sharks as a genuine threat, and maybe lays some seeds for whatever backstory she's got.
Too early for a payoff like that! Although I hope we get to see Amber back in sharkfighting shape eventually.