#naddplog

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[ID: A doodle of a person with glasses and short hair (me), crying with watery eyes. Music notes float in the air around them, and an arrow points to them labeled "Emily Axford + Brian Murphy's fault.]

they weren't lying. that naddpod sure can music.

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so the dice tell a story, right? henry doesn't crit for the first 6 episodes of eldermourne. he rolls 5 nat 1s, but doesn't crit. jake's first nat 20 of eldermourne is for shank in episode 6

the first nat 20 for henry, though? well, it's his first roll of the fight at the scales. y'know. right after shank says "now's about the time we usually skip town" and henry says "yeah, but let's see what happens if we stick around for a little bit"

henry makes up his mind. truly makes up his mind to stand and fight. and immediately crits for the first time.

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if i think too hard about how emily's compassion for npcs and the way she bonds with them as a player has fully changed the lives and paths of so many npcs i will fall over. her characters always have such a capacity for love and it's so...

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favorite emily thing: when she gets so deep into something but can't bail so she just tries to keep doubling down in character while not being able to finish sentences through her laughter

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okay. c1e100. the boobs enter the hall of prayers, and see all of the prayers of the people of bahumia manifested. prayers to them, from the people leaving the future and the world in their hands. people praying for their protection, and for them to be protected.

c3e56. in aryox's chamber, surrounded by his predictions, callie learns that her mother was also a diviner. that her mother's choices were made to drive her to the path she's on right now. lumi saying "you got here, didn't you?", and the carving. proof of her mother's choice to leave the world in callie's hands. her belief that callie could secure a better future.

the writing on the wall is the song that plays in both of these moments.

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[ID: The Naddpod "In this car we believe" bumper sticker, edited to say "In this car we believe: potions are enemas, anime is a team sport, we narrate our shits, rats ride lose, we all fucking hate Glen, and if you throw a croissant at me... I will press charges." Each line is in a different color of the rainbow and a different font.]

listened to crown of dreams again.

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“i liked books, you son of a bitch” <- things jake said as a goof but that become deeply heartbreaking at second glance

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just was reminded that people hate naddpod because they laugh too much. couldn't be me <3

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the problem with naddpod is that every two weeks i spend my friday pacing like a caged animal and feeling like i could chew through cement bc i'm getting progressively more insane about the episode that just dropped. and then when i finally start to feel somewhat normal again, it's already time for the next one

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moonshine fully neutralizing a death knight captain by polymorphing his flying horse into a dolphin and then on her next turn jumping off an airship, thorn-whipping a man to his death, and then misty stepping back to safety will never not be iconic. emily axford the player that you are <3

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you have to understand. they linked the full book in the description. there's a route where the villain is kristoff and his whole thing is being cucked. there's a route where jax marries olaf. i think there are multiple routes where you die. they did an olaf-less run of the olaf book. i'm obsessed.

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thinking about how caldwell said that reaching out to moonshine in hell saved beverly— that he would’ve gone with his father if he hadn’t reached her. and like… she didn’t tell him not to go. she said she’d love him either way, and she gave him permission to choose, in a moment where he didn’t think he really had a choice.

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caldwell tanner, a man who has on more than one occasion roleplayed so hard he made me cry, also wrote frozen fanfiction where olaf cucks kristoff. that is all.

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also, to real quick twist the (ice) knife.

greener shades was used for that knighting ceremony scene, right? y'know, the balnor's letter song-- balnor saying his last soft goodbye. it's read after the fight, sure, but it's written before. balnor wrote it when he thought he might die helping to protect and save the world, to say goodbye to the people he loves.

later, when calder and gowan are alone and talking by the window, when gowan seems weird and before he leaves the note, the song that plays is balnor the brave. first heard in frostwind of campaign 1, when balnor offers to take the knife that killed gemma and the blame if he is caught.

he knew. he knew what he intended to do when he talked to calder. he says he's glad he got to make calder a ranger, while balnor the brave plays.

he was saying goodbye.

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okay if anyone wants an insane amount of lore/conversations about melora, telaine, and aryox, i transcribed these for my own reference. i'm putting them under the cut because by god there's so much.

Mira, c3e53 The story of the Ice Knife is tied to the story of the Feywild. Thousands of years ago, after the Gods abandoned this world, the Material Plane was in somewhat of a magical dark age. But the Feywild flourised. They still had their gods living amongst them: the Archfey. Now, the Feywild (despite its name) had its own politics, and power grabs, and eventually there were Archfey who used their powers to open gates to the Material Plane. Some to seek refuge, some seeking to rule it. Now, there is some matter of debate over whether the rift in our sky is one of those original gates, but suffice it to say there were gates opened here in the Frigid North through which creatures of the fey entered Bahumia. Now, there were dragonkin and giantkin that existed on the Material Plane. But the Feywild brought even more of them. And unlike the Feywild, where magic and tricks rule the day, the Material plane has hard rules and can be won by strength and sword. So, the original smallfolk of this world were forced into hiding. Just mere witnesses to a great war between dragons and giants, who fought for the realm. The Material Plane was threatened with another apocalypse. So, an Eladrin Demigod named Aryox-- Aryox joined the war on the side of the giants. But while some giants believed he would lead them to conquer the realm, he was secretly working to restore balance. Once the dragons and giants were diminished enough that the smallfolk could build their cities, Aryox sealed the gate, stopping the Feywild from invading the Material Plane. And that is why the Ice Knife was made. So that someday, perhaps, we might open it back up. But originally it was used to lock the rift. [So it's a key?] Indeed. Now, this quote-on-quote betrayal came as a shock to many of the giants. Except for us. Our ancestors were trusted allies of Aryox. We saved the world from being conquered but at the cost of betraying our own brethren. The specifics of the conflict are largely forgotten and there have since been many wars amongst giants, but still it is said that the cavern where the Ice Knife lies is cursed. They say that a paladin of Gruumsh killed Aryox with the Ice Knife itself and cursed his resting place. Now, I don't know if all of that is true, but the cavern in which the Ice Knife supposedly lies is definitely haunted. I investigated as a brazen young ranger general. The ghosts warned me not to tarry there without purpose. [Do you believe it? Did you feel Aryox there?] I do believe it, yes. There are different stories I've been told. But I believe that Aryox came clean about the true intentions of his plan. He was confronted by another party with conflicting views and they… killed each other in that cavern. All I know is I went into the caves there, I followed where I knew the Ice Knife to supposedly be, and I was greeted by a strange specter, who advised me not to travel further. That it was not the time.

Telaine, c1e96 I was in an adventuring party with [Melora] and another eladrin named Aryox. Together, we defeated the goblin god Bargrivyek, and afterwards we were skeptical of creating another god, so we split his divine heart in three. Each of us swearing to protect the realm, without imposing our will on any of its creatures. But in the end, Melora was the only one responsible enough to keep her pact. But me? I fell in love with the beauty of dragons, and believed the world would be better if it was filled with them. And their numbers were being dwindled by evil giant hunting parties, what other choice did I have? I had to side with the dragons. I-- I sided with dragons in a war against giants, and while we were busy killing each other, humans built their empires and, in the end… defeated us both. And afterwards, Melora banished me here for breaking our pact. And years later, I hear Aryox broke our pact as well, but eventually gave his piece of the divine heart back to Melora.

Telaine, c1e96, confrontation It is just like the followers of Melora to bend over backwards for the plight of the smallfolk at the cost of everyone else. You come to my home, my prison, you attack my butler, and you want me to give you my heart? The thing that gave me the power to become a gold dragon? A dragon lost because the followers of Melora let the giants kill them off? If you want my heart, you can do what your goddess did and break it yourself.

Telaine, c1e96, defeat Telaine: You wish to- to borrow a divine heart? And what would all of you do when you had this power? Do you think you would stay friends? Do you think you— you wouldn’t change? That everything would stay the same. Moonshine: You can change for the better! Change is not inherently bad! In fact it’s inherently great! Telaine: I agree, and that is why I think Melora’s indifference is wrong. I saw the dragon’s plight and I took action. Moonshine: We are not necessarily going to do precisely what Melora did. We did not represent whatever she does. Or whatever she did to you in the past. We are going to make our own decisions and decide what to do with this. All we know right now is the only course of action is just getting rid of Thiala. Hardwon: We’ve got a lot in common with you. You saw the plight of the dragons and you made a choice to defend them. We see the plight of our people— us small folk— and we want to defend them. - “I am the one who changed. I changed. She stayed the same.”

Murph, c1e96 short rest [if you had failed a saving throw] You would’ve gone to the groups old hangout spot in the Feywild. It’s a little like— brook, and a little like picnic area, and she had like painted her and her friends and things like that.

Telaine and Melora, c1e97 “Why didn’t you do this when I was in trouble” “You mistake me not taking your side for neutrality. I am not neutral. I defend the material plane. I would not kill for the sake of the dragons, nor would i stop the smallfolk from building their empires, but this— what Thiala has done— is an attack on Bahumia itself. Here I must intervene.”

Armory, c3e27 Telaine was an eladrin. She was part of an adventuring party with two other eladrin. One became the goddess Melora, and the other was an eladrin named Aryox. We do have some recreations of spellbooks of druids of Melora here, but she herself didn’t have a heavy hand on the Material Plane so we don’t have much here that’s representative of her combat. - (Calder’s eyes are drawn to a giant gleaming bow with blue and white touches.) This is a replica of a bow that was wielded by Aryox, who was another Eladrin, who would actually eventually battle against Telaine. He sided with the giants in their wars. [Ultrus: “Yes. Smallfolk but giant heart.”] - (Callie looks for symbols on the bow.) You do see… this does seem to have been wielded by a winter eladrin. But it is very big. The attendant clarifies; “Aryox used his magical powers to grow to giant size, and would use his godly archer skills to shoot dragons out of the sky.” You look at this bow and you don’t see anything from Oberon, but you do see a symbol on it that is a snowflake, and the design of it reminds you of your mothers old family crest.

Book that Callie stole from Glenn, c3e30 Telaine ended up siding with the dragons during the dragon and giant conflicts that happened centuries ago— thousands of years ago, in fact. And Aryox fought against her. He had sided with the giants. And as you’re reading about this, you see that unlike Telaine, who seemed to actually love dragons and seemed to actually feel for their plight and want them to defeat the giants— everything you’re reading about Aryox here is… he was working with the giants as a means to an end. This is someone who saw the ‘smallfolk’ being wiped out by dragons and giants. So he sees this war between the giants and the dragons and he knows that the longer it goes on, the more the giants and the dragons wipe each other out and give the eladrin a fighting chance. So he was actually on the eladrin’s side the entire time even though he was fighting with the giants. And you do know that the end of this age of monsters where dragons rule the sky and giants rule the earth, that humanoids would build up their settlements and everything like that, and the eladrin would flourish in the feywild and humanoids would flourish in the main world. But as you’re reading this stuff about Aryox, it’s not really clear if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. He seems cold and calculating and you get hints of your mother in there.

Murph summary, c3e53 Short Rest Glen had sort of misread the story of Aryox. Because he knew about how Aryox was secretly helping the smallfolk by turning this big war into an opportunity for the smallfolk to establish themselves in their world. But this was your first time finding out that like, oh, there were a bunch giants that were in on that plan with him. And then a bunch of the giants are from the feywild. - So the lore that has been spread out over the two campaigns is that there were three adventures from the Feywild: Melora, Telaine, and Aryox. You found out very little about Aryox in the first campaign, but you found out a lot about him in the third campaign. Essentially what happened is the three of them, during their adventures, killed a goblin god that was trying to take over the Feywild, took his divine heart, spread it out amongst the three of them. They all made an agreement not to get involved in mortal affairs. Melora’s the only one who stuck to that. Telaine joined the dragons, Aryox joined the giants— and then this is the first time you found out that Aryox was killed by a giant. [Yeah, like he wasn’t on the giant’s side, he was looking for balance.] Yeah. [And a paladin of Gruumsh.] Oh yeah, and so Gruumsh is involved, because you also know that— as you guys learned in Molscuriel, Gruumsh and Kord, there are different people that think that he’s “the all-father,” like the one that the giants should follow.

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btw hardwon takes 924 damage (some of which is from galad and angels) and deals 1082 to thiala, meaning he hits her harder than she hits him