#taz scuttle buddy

[katgametable]

TAZ Balance Episode 22: Petals to the Metal Chapter 5

Written 24 Apr 2025, shortly after relistening, having listened to the entire Balance arc some time ago.

Taako, Merle and Magnus are trying to get into the Hammerheads’ base, and Taako is confronted by the ruffian he’s impersonating. He accuses the real ruffian of being an imposter and casts Sleep. Taako tries to convince the ruffian with him that there’s an attempted infiltration, they must kill the imposter and check on the arcane cores, but the ruffian is suspicious and challenges Taako, who Magic Missiles him. Clint forgets Merle has advantage on initiative checks, but Griffin reminds him, as they all engage the ruffian. Magnus attempts to cleft him in twain, but only severely injures him, at which they remember Hurley didn’t want them to kill anyone. Rather than healing him, they decide to conceal it by throwing him off the cliff of Goldcliff. Before they do so, they loot his pockets for a load of gold and the key to the access booth, so back at the base, they can get in.

The base has a large field, and three buildings, surrounded by a twelve foot wall. The largest building is a long garage, and the second a smaller garage. The third appears to be a normal building, so they sneak towards it – except as they pass the small garage, it’s locked, so they think it might be holding the best wagon. As they don’t have any lockpicking abilities, Taako casts Clairvoyance to look inside. The wagon inside is more like a tank; with three rows of teeth, two cannons, a massive grappling hook and several crew compartments – it looks reminiscent of a shark. No sign of an arcane core. So they head for the third building. Travis suggests using Scuttle Buddy, but Clint and Griffin have to remind him Merle let it get destroyed.

Merle gets on Magnus’ shoulders to see in through the window, and find it’s a bunkroom, with two ruffians sleeping. They sneak through the door, Merle casting Silence to avoid waking anyone. They look for anything like a diary. They dig through the chests at the foot of each bunk, and find enough clothes to disguise themselves as Hammerheads. They walk in to the big garage, acting rather suspicious but somehow getting away with it. In the garage, three battle wagons are being worked on, while another ruffian works at a desk, and two hassle a figure tied to a chair. Taako, still disguised as the scared ruffian, talks to the one who’d been “recruiting” Magnus, who examines one of the wagons and makes some good suggestions for improvements (he’s got vehicle proficiency). But the chained-up figure, in a full-face mask with eye holes, sees Magnus and Merle and starts freaking out. Merle asks who they are, and the boss ruffian says he’s a rare import. Magnus figures out that he’s Klarg, the Bugbear from outside Phandalin.

This was fun. I’m not overly-happy about them killing that ruffian when they were specifically asked not to, but other than that (and a few times they spent five minutes doing a bit when thirty seconds would’ve done), it was all solid. I liked the range of spells being used – Clairvoyance, in particular, in the Oxventure I’ve been relistening too Prudence has been using it a fair bit and it works well when deployed properly, like Taako did here. Magnus got to show off his smarts a bit, rather than just punching everything. And I have to say, the shark-tank battle wagon sounds rad as anything. And then the surprise return of Klarg! What a revelation to end on.

[everythingsucksbutthatsokay]

I’m working on a TAZ: Balance/Transformers crossover and I’m having trouble deciding what Angus, Lucretia, Lup and Barry should all turn into. As a rule I’m trying to only use vehicles/animals/whatever that are actually from the podcast

My ideas for Angus so far are: his crossbow, his magnifying glass, or Scuttle Buddy

Lucretia turning into the Voidfish makes sense but also feels weird?

Lup and Barry are completely eluding me

Anyone have any thoughts? I would be very grateful

[amberjuni]

Found out that I love drawing dwarfs. And I love Merle, but I knew that already. <3

[ask-taz]

I won’t take any arguments, the saddest death in The Adventure Zone was scuttle buddy.

[turtle-noise]

Re-listening to Taz Balance

Pros: Accidental foreshadowing and reading into everything

Cons:

[withlovingregards]

LOOK AT SCUTTLE BUDDY

[bam-b33]

My scuttle buddy~

[taz-quotes]

Clint: I could put the scuttle buddy in with you guys!

Griffin: Actually, Dad I’ve been looking for the right time to tell you this...

Clint:  What?

Griffin: Your scuttle buddy was on the train that got destroyed.

Clint: SHIT!

Travis: No, he gets three uses from it.

Griffin: NOT IF IT’S DESTROYED!

[icast-zoneoftruth]

Scuttle Buddy

Reblog if you agree

[katgametable]

TAZ Balance Episode 19: Petals to the Metal Chapter 2

Written 16 Apr 2025, shortly after relistening, having listened to the entire Balance arc some time ago.

The fight with the Treant continues. Magnus and it exchange blows (because Magnus has two attacks now), then Taako Blinks back, fires off some Scorching Rays, and Blinks out again (confession, when Taako cast it, I thought it was a single blink in, blink out, but it turns out it’s every round for up to a minute). Then a bunch of vines, animated by Treant sap, rise up and restrain Merle. Merle tries talking to the Treant, and the conversation is…not productive, but very upsetting. He does learn that woman came through, created the Treant, and charged it with stopping anyone from going upstairs. Magnus and Taako launch attacks again, and kill the Treant, which saddens Merle.

Taako and Magnus have a look around the booths, and find a lockbox. Magnus smashes it open, and they find 900 gold, but Taako has an attack on conscience and insists they shouldn’t steal it, which is…kinda weird, given he stole all the valuables on the Rockport Limited. They argued for quite a while, I could not work out if they took the money or not. But they did also find a sort of square key.

Magnus then points out the way the footsteps went. They find two doors, one marked “Stairs”, the other unmarked but requiring the key. They open is, and find a glass elevator. The buttons are labelled 1-19, and V. Magnus presses all the buttons, and Taako decides to take the stairs.

There’s a comment here about Taako getting in shape in case he gets back on TV, which confuses Clint, and the others remind him that there was a prequel bonus episode that established Taako used to have a cooking show. I haven’t listened to that bonus episode, because I am not, at this time, a Maximum Fun member. But the cooking show thing is important for Taako.

Anyway, after they reach the second floor, they decide to go straight to floor V at the top, and Taako gets in the elevator. And Merle gets out. He takes one of the Stones of Far Speech and suggests leaving Scuttle Buddy with Magnus and Taako, but Griffin points out that he left Scuttle Buddy on the train that was then obliterated, and he needs to keep better track of his stuff. Which is fair. I think I might’ve forgotten some of the magic items they have, and I’ve been relistening relatively quickly and making notes.

As they continue up, the elevator reaches the point between floors 11 and 12, when vines start breaking in and halt the elevator. Looking out the glass, Magnus and Taako can see the vines starting to infiltrate the lower floors. Magnus uses the Phantom Fist to smash open the hatch in the ceiling – yay for remembering he has that! Taako tosses his rope up and casts Rope Trick, which makes an extra dimensional hole and dangles the rope out. They then call Merle on the Stones and ask him to open the door on floor 12 for them. Magnus climbs onto the rope and grabs Taako just as the vines pull the elevator away, leaving them hanging from the rope. Merle reaches floor 12, finds there are already vines starting to infiltrate it, and gets his crowbar out. He opens the elevator door, but vines shove him into the shaft and close the door behind him. He grabs on to the rope, and all three are left dangling.

This was a solid episode. I liked the combination of tactics in the combat. The moral quandary over the gold was rather baffling, because I can’t work out why Taako suddenly got upset about it. The elevator shenanigans were rather amusing – the rope trick seemed unnecessary, but when the elevator fell away…

It’s a great moment to leave it on.

[nonexistentpumpkin-blog]

In Nowhere, there was a lot of cleanup to do.

Not just since The Hunger was disbanded into the hundreds of planes it was made up of, but ever since The Hunger began attacking planes to add to itself.

Nothing can exist in the same place at the same time, and even using the Light of Creation to break that rule, it was a difficult arrangement to maintain.  Every time something inside or from The Hunger "died," it didn't have a place to go.  Every time a shadow from a black opal army was felled, whatever being or beings underneath that shadow couldn't go to the astral plane.  There was no astral plane for them, at least not one that wasn't sharing space with all the other astral planes and prime material planes and planes of thought and so on within The Hunger.  So, they ended up Nowhere.

This was where John found himself after his last parley with Merle.  Well, more specifically, he found himself in a train, for some reason.  He spent some minutes trying to get his bearings, and searching the car he found a little mechanical bug, shut off and having gathered what little dust fell in this train.  Something rattled inside it as he picked it up to wind it, but it seemed to function just fine as it sprung to life and began buzzing around John excitedly.  It didn’t know why, but the little Scuttle Buddy liked this formally dressed man.  If nothing else, he had the courtesy to wind Scuttle Buddy up, and it was grateful for that.  After a few minutes, both of them saw a sudden burst of hundreds of planes appearing outside the window of the train, all planes John recognized as fractions of the unnatural space he had created for himself and lived in and as for over a century.  And then, they heard some people fall to the floor in the next car over.  The Scuttle Buddy flitted away from John and flew through a vent into the dining car.  John looked through the door window at the people in the next car, and he recognized Merle instantly.  The others he could easily guess from his talks, Taako, Magnus, and Lucretia.  They must have done it.  They must have broken the bonds.  He thought for a moment about going over to them, but... he thought it best to leave them be.  He had the feeling they wouldn't be staying long anyway, and it wasn't long before that feeling was proven to be correct as the four members of the crew that had evaded and fought back against John for one hundred ten years and eventually freed him from the unholy amalgamation he had made and become and then lost control of faded from the car.

The Scuttle Buddy flew back through the vent as John felt himself, and the entire train, being... pulled.  Pulled as though in a direction John didn't know about.  Planes instantly disappeared from view and then new ones took their place, and then those disappeared, over and over again until the train came to a stop.  And outside, something new was in view.  Pieces of buildings, fragments of land, other vehicles all displaced like the train.  You see, it wasn't just people and creatures that became displaced from The Hunger into Nowhere.  Sometimes, friction between the impossibly piled planes would cause places and objects within to knock into and destroy eachother, causing them to fall, but having Nowhere to fall to.  After being shown this, John heard a voice.  A voice from whatever direction the train was just pulled in.

To say "Jefandrew" had a lot of work to do would be the understatement of the century, and the extenuating circumstances that made Jefandrew break protocol and speak to the crew of the Starblaster were far from over.  Jefandrew thought it would be helpful to talk to not just the people who fixed this mess, but the person who caused that mess as well.

Jefandrew and John's conversation lasted for... hours.  John of course had a lot of questions, and so did Jefandrew.  Jefandrew even took note of some of the feedback John gave on how "horrible" eternity was.  Not notes to be used on this world, of course, but maybe to look into for future projects...

That wasn't the reason Jefandrew talked to John, though.  It was clear that there would be a very long time period in which individuals displaced from their planes and into Nowhere would have no safe place to stay while the planes were sorted.  There needed to be a temporary place for people to stay with at least some protection from the harsh void that was Nowhere, and Jefandrew had some leeway in this cleanup process but he could not talk to every person who needed to be put in this temporary space, for numerous reasons.  He needed someone who was good at talking to calmly guide people.  He needed John's skills.

John accepted.

Piece by mismatched piece, fragments of forests, mechanical brass structures, mounds of jelly, hamster tubes, and other tiny crumbs of wildly different planes The Hunger had shed as it moved across existence were put together, and it wasn't long before the train John woke up in had tracks to rest on.  John thought it would be fitting to have the place people are brought to from the void be a train station a ways outside of this mismatched city.

John would, Scuttle Buddy on his shoulder, greet anyone who found themselves in Nowhere Station, and explain the situation to them.  Some people John recognized as people he spoke to and who joined him happily, others as people who resisted The Hunger to what would be their last breath as an individual being for a very long time.  Some punched John in the face.  A lot of people punched John in the face.  He knew he deserved it, he didn't mind. (Scuttle Buddy would still try to cheer him up though.) He knew he couldn't begin to right the wrongs caused by his plan, but he could try.

There were, of course, people who refused to board the Rockport Limited.  Some even walked off the edge of the small amount of ground around Nowhere Station.  These people were picked up and escorted into the city by the Judges.  It turned out the Judges had a... higher tolerance for the void, so they spent their time in the city as catchers, bringing in anyone who fell off into the void, intentionally or otherwise.

Within the city, governments from wildly different planes taught eachother how they operated, the technique of parley was taught to the royal animals, curators from Conservatories shared their competitive pursuits of the arts.  It was a strange and even wonderful melting pot that sometimes made its residents almost forget the horrible circumstances that brought them all together.  And somewhere within this no longer impossibly connected amalgam of places...

A smile flashes across John's face.

[milkpropaganda]

From the adventure zone! Decided to draw Taako's umbrella, Merle's scuttle buddy, Magnus' railsplitter and the Bureau of Balance's Bracer!

[cantripconundrum]

did some taz doodling today

[thrash-rocket]

My thoughts on Taz Murder On the Rockport Limited

So since I done goofed up my original post I just relistened to all the episodes and wrote down some live reactions in my journal (also all rest of these posts will be written in the same way) and here they are

I wonder how many more times through out the series Clint is gonna reference Animal House and Kenny Chesney

Robbie the gangs roommate seems like an okay dude but I would hate to live with him but he'd be cool to hang out with every now and again

I love the image of the gang going to be briefed by the director and showing up in their jammies and magnus just changing mid conversation and pulling it off without Griffin noticing

Shout out to Travis for trying to bring in some fan favorite characters on the next adventure before Griffin shuts him down

The gang actually has to talk Magnus into doing something for a change

He drinks Robbie's potion which leads to a pretty fantastic conversation with Avi

The boys stopping to explain Salvia to their dad and that they know about it through a "rolling stone article" was great

Let me say that while takko is my favorite character but Magnus is my favorite in action scenes and battles because he does so much unique things with the environment like the trial in the last chapter and using rail splitter to fell a tree to damage the leeches in the swamp

In classic Clint fashion tries to bullshit his way into using spells his character let alone his class does not have

Tom Bodett makes an appearance for some reason but at least he left the light on and has a sprinkler party to help the boys out after the encounter in the sawmp

Their minds quickly change from no don't kill Tom to we have to kill Tom very quickly

They totally should have killed Tom I mean there's an entire town of him in some kind of hive mind of Tom Bodetts for unclear reasons

Everyone immediately shoots down Clint's Scottish accent which occasionally slips into scrooge mcduck

Like every interaction takko has with an npc the one with Hudson is just swell. The general confusion on both parties takko switching between fancy and basically child talk

If Travis didn't bring up the phantom fistI wonder how Griffin would have worked in Hudson's hand stink into the story if at all

The gang just in and out of character just tear Jenkins apart verbally for a straight 15 minutes

He is a shitty wizard though can't even bother to use a single spell slot

Griffin takes a trip to the burn ward after it's revealed he needs a "exosuit of pillows" to properly sleep

As a huge wrestling mark I am ecstatic that wrestling in some fashion exists in the show

It does somewhat feel like Griffin railroaded them into learning the mechanics of the pleasure room but as a dm you just gotta do that from time to time

We meet the world's greatest detective who is immediately evangelized and accused of being the baddie

I'm slowly learning the gang gets through most of their adventures by just goofing about and bullying their way through everything

Chapter 4 starts off of course with more shitting on Jenkins again

The gang is deemed by Angus to be too incompetent to be the killers yet are trusted by a shadow organization to gather the world's most dangerous items... Go figure

R.I.P. Jenkins even in death you are roasted figuratively and later literally

Who gave this precious baby boy a crossbow and how did he go about getting it on the train

CRAB BATTLE (please someone get this reference)

Magnus again proves how amazing he is at using his environment in a fight using the phantom fist to punch the crab out of the train and using the chair to cause blunt damage

Clint has some good crab related jokes during the fight

It says a bit about Magnus' character that he seems so jealous of Jess but I mean hey we all do 29 points of damage am I right

I know it's a goof but it's so funny that Jess changed her last name to The Beheader for her brand because there are plenty of wrestlers in real life who have done just that

Griffin reveals his expectation that the group would be incapable of properly introducing themselves and was 100% correct

ZONE OF TRUTH

Griffin keeps slipping into angus' voice for the juciy wizard during the interrogation scene

Knowing then ending gives a different perspective on the conversation with the "conductor"

Scuttle buddy needs more fan art

Angus expects too much from the gang requesting they not kill anyone

The mystery was pretty well thought out what with ghost voice, the misdirection with Jenkins, using the drink cart to move the body, and the wand to create a false cargo room

Even after being revealed as the murderer they still shit on Jenkins despite Griffin's attempts to get them to take him seriously

Clint has used all his spell slots unsurprisingly mostly casting zone of truth

Travis nearly kills his character before retconing his impulsive decision to basically jump out of a moving train

Griffin is so impressed by Travis' sick moves he let's Magnus get away with some cool ass shit

In an amazing turn of events Jenkins completely whiffs his only spell proving what we knew all along that he is just the worst

Look i know some things that happen later on towards the end with the umbra staff and I can not wait to see how it leads up to that

Justin takes a moment to do what almost any sensible D&D player would do and jacks everyone's valuables while their backs are turned

In a moment that proves my bullying theroy the shove actual child Angus Mcdonald from a moving train

Takko pulls a boss move sending the train to the garden to avoid destroying yet another city

I kinda want to know why Graham has juciy on his robes

Robbie is now just known as pringles but at least they remembered to get him the snack of his name sake before returning to the moon

Griffin and Travis set the seeds for a Magnus heel turn later on

The director as seems to be her trade mark expects too much hoping they would have just removed the relic from the train rather get into a murder mystery on a runaway train.

That's it for now tune in next time once I finish the Petal to the Metal chapters where I'll also cover the 1st moon Interlude

[movedto-enbylebeau]

au where scuttle buddy is alive and happy and talks to merle on the reg

[ragsliveblogs]

TAZ Episode 19 Minutes 38-46

Griffin: Your scuttle- Your scuttle buddy was on the train that got destroyed.

But, I loved scuttle Buddy.  And i mean it was bought at Fantasy Costco.  Surely they must have some more scuttle buddies in the back.

Griffin: And, the vines outside of the exterior glass wall of this elevator shaft, uh, begin to… move. They begin to, uh, uh, move in a circular pattern around the building almost like they’re constricting. Um. And, they... shatter through the exterior glass wall of this elevator shaft, um… and begin to sort of close around the glass walls of the elevator car. And, below, you see a flurry of activity, as you see the vines have broken in through the first floor, and are almost like filling up the elevator shaft like water. They’re just growing wildly. It looks like a, looks like a- a- a pit of snakes is just sort of being poured into this shaft. Uhm, and that… is the situation for you. Merle-

First off, Bravo to Griffin’s GMing here, that was a really good description and I liked it a lot.  Second off, why are the vines doing this?  If it was just to kill Magnus and Taako there must be easier and more efficient ways.  I’m thinking that The Raven is trying to do something to the building as a whole, and this vine business isn’t just for keeping people out.

Justin: Like how far is there up, uh, above us? I guess we got like, what, a hundred feet?

Is Taako about to do what I think Taako is going to do?  Fly is a third level transmutation spell and he does have the hover spell as well...

Justin: So here’s what Rope Trick does. I take my rope, that I have, in my bag- Justin: -and on the other end of the rope, it ties to something in another dimension, and we can crawl up the rope-- It goes to its full height, of 60 feet, and we can crawl up the rope… Into another dimension.

Rope trick is a real cool spell but I never understood why it has that name.  Like, yes it involves rope but.. Like Rope Trick should be what Animate Rope is called.  This one should be like.  Bigsby’s extra-dimensional fortress. 

Taako: So here’s what I’m thinking. If we can climb up, uh, a foot, just you know to the next level, maybe uh, maybe then Merle- Merle, do you read me?

I mean, if you’re just doing that you probably could have reached it from the top of the elevator hatch.  Magnus is good at athletics, he probably could have jumped/climbed his way up there.

Taako: Okay, great! And once you get up there, try to figure out a way to get the doors open.

Although I suppose that does make the situation a bit more difficult.