Geeks on a Roll: Corrupted Fantasy (Part 1)

Christian Ashley: 00:01:14

What happens to the worlds of fiction we love if they're thrown off course? Guys, this is systematic ecology. We are the priests of the geeks. I'm your host, Christian Ashley.

Today on another Geeks on a Roll episode, I'm repping the shirt. It's a great time to be alive. And we've got two new players today to this. Not to the channel, not to the show, but two geeks on a roll.

I, of course, am with the handsomest of all men, Nick Polk. How's it going, Nick?

Nick Polk: 00:01:38

You know, it's good until I found out that you're a liar, Christian Ashley, because you are the most handsome man in the world. So. But I'm excited to be here.

Christian Ashley: 00:01:49

I'll take it. And then, of course, we have Gollum stunt double John Eardley. How's it going, John?

John Erdely: 00:01:54

Yes, I was in fact Gollum stunt double. And yeah, look just like him. They actually based column off of me.

created the character in the: 1950

Christian Ashley: 00:02:07

Tolkien had a vision and went, oh, God, please no. And you know what?

Nick Polk: 00:02:10

It was omniscient.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:13

All right, so, gentlemen, before we head into the game proper, what have you guys been geeking out on?

John Erdely: 00:02:17

Well, I've been geeking out on Once Upon a Time, Been given that a re watch with the wife, and that's been a lot of fun. And the dark one cracks me up every time he's on the screen.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:27

I get it. I got into Once Upon a Time to impress a girl. It didn't work, but it was a fun enough show.

Nick Polk: 00:02:33

That happened to me with the Jonas Brothers. The, you know, the things we do for love, you know. But you know the thing I've been geeking out on two things.

I've been reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and just, you know, just immersing myself into the Victorian English countryside and romance. And then I've been playing Shadow of Mordor. I've been going through some older games and so just been kind of addicted to that recently.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:01

Okay. Yeah, I just finished the base game for Star Wars Outlaws, which was fun enough.

I have my issues with it overall, but at the end of the day, like, It's a fine 7 out of 10. I definitely played again way later on. But, gentlemen, today we're going to be in another Geeks on a Roll episode. So for those of you.

This is your first time. We have two first timers right here.

This is one where we go through a pre Planned scenario where the DMs adapt to the choices that you guys bring, including the characters that you make based on different archetypes we select.

There'll be multiple times for you to roll to beat a challenge, or if you have a question about something in the environment, want to figure something out.

I'm not going to throw a limit on there unless there's something like, I'm not going to make you run combat roles for everyone because that would take too long. As someone who's endured many DND combats like, it is what it is. So you guys have any questions before we move forward? You ready to go?

John Erdely: 00:03:55

Where's the panic room?

Christian Ashley: 00:03:55

Oh, you're going to need it, buddy. All right, so I have entitled this episode Corrupted Fantasy.

And I had told them forever ago when they were selecting characters, the theme of this episode would be corruption.

Now, I had not planned on many references we had made earlier to this, outside of one, because we're going to be going into very, very familiar territory for our young men here, our young handsome men, even John. This, of course, Corrupted Fantasy. We see in the background good old Mountain Doom and Sauron.

Now, before we head that way, though, we have to go through the characters you selected. Now, I gave for some of these, like, extremely broad categories, some a little narrower, and these are the ones you're going through in a while.

You can explain who. But first off, we're just going to go character by character. And our first character here is Spyro.

So what do you guys have to say about good old Spyro?

John Erdely: 00:04:48

Well, Spyro is a charismatic, heroic dragon who is, if I remember correctly, he's pretty small, and they comment on his size, but he ends up being the big hero, especially in the original games. And I grew up on the original PlayStation 1 games. I love the janky graphics and the, you know, there's just a lot of fun collecting all the.

Collecting all the stuff, flying around and burning the sheep, chasing all the little critters. And then, you know, you know, eradicating all of the wildlife was one of my favorite pastimes as a kid.

Christian Ashley: 00:05:18

Certainly not a sign of things to come.

Nick Polk: 00:05:19

Oh, yeah. The justified animal cruelty that you get to, you know, enact in the original Spyro games is fantastic.

Christian Ashley: 00:05:26

Perfect. All right, so that was our idealistic character. Now we have a religious character.

I specified any Earth religion, and you picked Guan Yin from Buddhist mythology and the like. So go ahead, Nick, say a little bit about Guanyin. Well, once again, explain why you picked them in a bit.

Just like for people unaware of the character.

Nick Polk: 00:05:44

Yeah. So Guanyin is a. The goddess of compassion, and she goes even further than Buddhist.

So she's like the current Buddhist goddess in, like, various regions of China and other parts of. Of. Of the Far East. And she's also been a part of, like, Chinese folklore, going to, like, prehistory.

But she's an important figure in a lot of Chinese mythology. And, you know, for an example, in some of the Wukong myths, she comes along as a guide and helps and things like that. So she's really just a helper.

And sometimes she heals. But, yeah, that's who Guanyin. She's got also, like, a ton of arms as people can see on the screen if they're watching.

Christian Ashley: 00:06:27

Fun fact. Originally, Guanyin was a man, but, you know, as the mythology drifted on, became a woman. And you say goddesses and Buddhism.

What are you talking about? What? Buddhists are very multifaceted in the fact that there are some of, you know, God, some are agnostics, some do believe in multiple gods.

There's a lot of transference sometimes with something like, you know, Hinduism and the like. So for anyone out there, how could dare you say this Buddhist would think that. Well, you're not thinking of the same Buddhist I am. Or we are.

Nick Polk: 00:06:52

Correct.

Christian Ashley: 00:06:52

So I just want to throw that out there. So next off, we have a superhero. I specified anyone who can lift less than 20 tons. And you chose good old Freakazoid. So who is Freakazoid?

John Erdely: 00:07:05

Nick Freakazoid.

Nick Polk: 00:07:07

Freakazoid is a superhero who runs around in underwear. He is super fast and super crazy, and he's from. He's. He's actually doesn't really even have his own show. I think he's like a.

Like a small little mini episode that's attached to, like, Animaniacs, but for some reason, he just popped up in my head. And he's just very zany and super fast. He's almost like a Flash character. If the Flash was a slapstick.

Christian Ashley: 00:07:35

Yeah.

Nick Polk: 00:07:35

Looney Tune, I guess.

Christian Ashley: 00:07:36

Yeah, I never watched that. I know there was a show that he spun off of the Animaniacs. I'm pretty sure, like he said.

Nick Polk: 00:07:43

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:07:44

But I know enough about him to have an idea. John, you have anything you want to add for Freakazoid?

John Erdely: 00:07:48

I like Freakazoid. He's always full of references and comments that talk about pop culture.

And it's because, you know, in his backstory, he had the entire Internet downloaded into his brain, which, I mean, circa the era he came out wouldn't have been a big of a. As big of a problem if it happened today. He'd probably be a different character.

Nick Polk: 00:08:08

s. But this is, you know, the: 1990

Christian Ashley: 00:08:17

Yeah.

All right, next up on our docket, you picked a gardener, and I didn't railroad you into this one, even though I kind of figured this might be the answer. Your gardener you picked was good old Samwise Gamgee.

Nick Polk: 00:08:30

I think, John, you should take this because you came in swinging earlier with some Samwise quotations.

John Erdely: 00:08:37

I love Samwise Gamgee. The very.

He's kind of idealistic also, but he's just like pure good Paragon best friend material of, you know, Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, where he provides basically the ultimate support character for his journey and, you know, as exemplified by when Frodo is trying to leave and Sam comes around, he's like, of course you are, and I'm coming with you. When Frodo wanted to be alone. But he's just a moral compass.

He's always doing what he can to help, and he provides sometimes, you know, inspirational speeches and talking about keeping spirits up and focusing on the task, and he. He helps Frodo. There would have been no, you know, resolution to the. To the Lord of the Rings if Sam Wise hadn't been there to support.

Nick Polk: 00:09:28

His best friend, the true hero of the story.

Christian Ashley: 00:09:31

Absolutely.

Nick Polk: 00:09:31

I mean.

Christian Ashley: 00:09:32

I mean, the absolute brother you can get out of this story. Like, there was one time I had found a fan made D and D class for paladins would be Oath of the Brotherhood.

It'd be like, always look out for your bro. I was going to base him off of Samwise, but that campaign unfortunately didn't, you know, come into fruition, but excellent pick.

Next up, I asked you to select a magical apprentice, and you chose Denday, who's Good old Denday for the Dragon Ball. Illiterate.

Nick Polk: 00:10:02

Gosh, you know, this is me. I love, love Dragon Ball Z. This is like one of my OG fandoms. I was there at the beat. Well, I wasn't there at the beginning. It's. It's. It's kind of.

I wasn't born in the: 1980

Frieza is trying to, you know, conquer it. And the DBZ Fighters have to go and save it. And Dende is there, and he can heal people, essentially.

And so after the destruction of Namek, he comes back to Earth. There's another Namekian who's like the guardian of Earth named Kami, and. Yeah.

John Erdely: 00:10:51

Oh, yeah.

Nick Polk: 00:10:51

And then Dende comes and replaces him. So he's kind of like this little character who's like, very little. But then out of nowhere, he just.

Like most heroes, he gets the responsibility of guarding the entire Earth, you know, put on his shoulders.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:05

Okay, well said. Well said. All right, next up on our document, I said you could choose between a physician, doctor, nurse of any sort in time.

And you chose Kumar of Kumar Go to White Castle. And is Kumar right? Or Kumar?

Nick Polk: 00:11:19

Yeah.

John Erdely: 00:11:19

Yes. Well, Kumar is a. If I remember correctly, his family are doctors, and he's pressured by them to also become a doctor.

And he's actually really good at it, but he doesn't really want anything to do with it. Like, he has top medical school grades, but he doesn't. He just wants to get high and have fun. And in.

That basically brings the plot of the movie where he wants to go get burgers from White Castle, but he's a doctor in training, I guess.

Nick Polk: 00:11:48

Eventually he does become a doctor. So in the. In the first one, he, you know, he performed surgery. But like. Like John, he rejects the. The family, you know, sort of expectations.

But eventually he does become a doctor in the Heroin Kumar universe.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:04

Is this what, two more films?

John Erdely: 00:12:05

Was that in number? I don't think I've seen number two.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:08

Was it number two?

John Erdely: 00:12:08

Number three?

Nick Polk: 00:12:09

I think it was. Yeah. Let's see. The third one's the Christmas one.

John Erdely: 00:12:12

Okay. I haven't seen that one.

Nick Polk: 00:12:13

I'm trying to remember. I think it was either towards the end of the second one or it's like a important plot line of the third one.

I probably haven't watched those in, like, 10 years. So I just thought the last.

John Erdely: 00:12:25

Last one I watched, they were riding a cheetah. Was that number one?

Nick Polk: 00:12:28

Yeah. The second one's them in Guantanamo Bay, which, you know, very dated reference for everyone.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:36

All right, so with that in mind, when it came to these categories, like, what. What made you want to pick these characters?

Nick Polk: 00:12:43

I just thought a lot of them were just kind of quirky. Like, you know, we're Kumar. Like, we've got these very serious characters, like Sam. I mean, we've got Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion.

And then all of a sudden, like, Kumar, who's a pothead.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:57

Yeah.

Nick Polk: 00:12:57

Like, I thought that was kind of A funny combo.

Christian Ashley: 00:13:00

Perfect.

John Erdely: 00:13:01

Oh, they're a diverse cast of characters with quirks and things that are going to set them back and they're probably not going to get along very well.

Nick Polk: 00:13:09

So, yeah, I think there's going to be some good conflict.

Christian Ashley: 00:13:11

Excellent. So since this guy's first time, we grade uncertain efforts here, I'll put here. That's the mission status. How well did you complete the mission?

Teamwork. How well they work together. Sustainability. Would they remain a group after this mission happened? Strength, you know, the.

The strong strength of the team itself. And then fun is like, how fun would they be as a group? So the last time. Sorry, not the last time.

The current high score at this time is 48 points done by Mark Flower and myself, the one that Joshua ran.

I will say today you have a good chance, especially since I forgot to put something in there in those notes that if that happens, I'll have to remember it. So you could potentially get even higher than 48.

You could also go lower than that because there will also be negative points here for certain things that you could choose to do on this journey. All right, so, gentlemen, it is now time to play. So all of you minus one, find yourselves in a room where there are a bunch of dead bodies.

You see, yes, we're starting off very nice and easy. It's some dead dwarves, dead elves, dead humans, hobbits. But there is a survivor. Two survivors, actually, one of which is joining your group, Sam.

And you see a dying Elrond looking at you. And so we will explain what's going on. This is what he will tell you.

Ages ago, Sauron corrupted the world of Middle Earth through his desire to rule everything. However, when he attempted to forge the Ring of Power, he was distracted in his final blow.

Whether through the agency, the final actions of his former master Morgoth, or through the subtle designs of ERU iluvatar, none know either way. His failed last strike created not the Ring of Power, but the Ring of Half Power.

Having imbued his own soul, his fiat into the Ring, Sauron feared the results of making a second more powerful ring. So he instead gathered forces under his thrall and attacked the men, elves and dwarves of the land.

But without the strength of the One Ring, he was not as powerful. And thus no alliance was formed between the races of Middle Earth. And thus no cooperation came between them.

Sauron was eventually defeated by humans and the Ring of Half Power taken. But it retained enough corrupting influences within itself to cause strife and a civil war occurred where the Ring was also lost to time.

Ages later the world was much different and the ring was found by the burglar Bilbo Baggins who had found it in the clutches of Gollum. Much the same as had happened before. But this time Bilbo slew Gollum for the ring.

When his riddles failed to test the corrupted Hobbit he journeyed with his fellow Dwarven with excuse me, his Dwarven fellows and fought the dragon Smaug with Gandalf.

But a mysterious figure appeared in the fight and slew allowing Smaug to kill everyone there but Bilbo, who fled choosing the ease of the ring to guide himself.

Decades later, Saruman, unwilling to ally with a weak Sauron became a warlord on his own right and scoured the Shire seeking the Ring of half power for himself. The surviving hobbits fled to Rivendell where you find yourselves today. What do.

Nick Polk: 00:16:12

Gentlemen, I'm gonna say that before everything happens Freakazoid is speeding and looking at each individual body very fast. And then he. As he gets to the last dead body he.

The camera pans to his face and he looks at the the party and real quietly he whispers I think I see dead people.

John Erdely: 00:16:32

That's funny. That's really funny. And no one else. No one gets the reference with the.

Christian Ashley: 00:16:38

Team you've assembled, no one else gets the reference. I believe this to you, Nick.

Considering that freakin sword is created by nerds, would you think that he would have any knowledge of the Lord of the Rings universe?

Nick Polk: 00:16:55

I mean especially if he like John was saying the he downloaded the whole Internet of the time? I mean. I would. I would assume so. So maybe he would come in with some pre existing knowledge.

Christian Ashley: 00:17:05

Okay. Okay. Yeah, that might play into things. I want you to think about that as things go on.

So yes, he makes that very inappropriate comment as is very appropriate for him though. Now what does your team do with this knowledge? As Elrond.

John Erdely: 00:17:19

No, Kumar wouldn't kid that.

Christian Ashley: 00:17:21

He has the Ring of half power there and he's going to entrust it with you to bring it to Mount Doom in order to destroy the ring. Now I will also say we're not going through three whole films here. We have a limited amount of time.

So we will be speeding forward through some things but focusing on others. So you don't have to worry about me keeping you here for six hours.

Nick Polk: 00:17:40

Boo.

John Erdely: 00:17:43

Okay, so Elrond is giving us.

Christian Ashley: 00:17:46

He's dying. He's. He's saying Mafia is about to go to the Undying Lands. You know if every Luvitar wheels.

I will come back, but the way the world is, I don't know if I want to.

John Erdely: 00:17:54

You think Denday would try to fix him right there, try to do something? Because if he's trying to tell us something, maybe Dende, try to heal him so he could speak more clearly or talk longer.

Christian Ashley: 00:18:04

So we'll go ahead and have your first roll here. And in fact, you have two healers around, so I will allow you both to roll with advantage with Guanyan giving Gende the help action.

So if one of you would like to roll a D20 and the other do, let me know your result.

John Erdely: 00:18:15

All right, I've got a 20.

Nick Polk: 00:18:17

Roll the 19.

Christian Ashley: 00:18:19

No, no, he's saying he has a D20.

Nick Polk: 00:18:21

Oh, he has a D20. Okay, I roll the 19.

Christian Ashley: 00:18:23

Yeah, yeah, roll your D20, John.

John Erdely: 00:18:25

Oh, all right. 19.

Christian Ashley: 00:18:30

Well done. And I'll say let's just give him double proficiency because it makes sense. You've got yourselves a 31.

And you, Elrond, who is marveling at the healing magic you have both done here. Like it is possible within Middle Earth to do feats like this, but to have it be done so quickly and so deftly, like he is completely in awe.

And he immediately says that he will join you on this quest, fearing the power of the ring himself, but at the same time knowing that he doesn't know why you're here. He doesn't know how you came here, but clearly you're here for a reason. And now you've saved his life, he's going to come with you.

Nick Polk: 00:19:08

That's what I'm talking about, Elrond. To the party, baby.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:11

Okay, all right. So how would you like to proceed now that you have someone who knows the land a little better? You've got Sam with you, who knows certain things too.

You've got Freakazoid, who knows enough about what would have been written in the 90s Internet about, you know, Middle Earth and the like. How are you going about things?

John Erdely: 00:19:26

I think Kumar would be marveling at Elrond's ears at the time. And also, you know, despite the fact being in a group of very diverse.

Nick Polk: 00:19:35

Characters, I think Kumar might know that it exists. But I think Kumar, I think he would think that would be for like, people who didn't have fun in high school.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:44

Okay, fair enough.

John Erdely: 00:19:45

Like, do you think I will say that, you know, you know, real world reference, my pot smoking roommate watched Lord of the Rings every time he smoked.

Nick Polk: 00:19:58

That's true. And they do think, like lots of people who are Potheads think that the pipe weed that hobbits smoke is marijuana, even though it's not, obviously. So.

Yeah. So actually, Kumar. And that was. I mean, that movie came out when the. The movies were out.

Christian Ashley: 00:20:12

So, you know what?

Nick Polk: 00:20:13

You know, I'll give you that too.

Christian Ashley: 00:20:14

So they will have enough knowledge to prepare away. Also say that, you know, things are dire. There are ring race out there.

Like, that still happened, you know, with Caleb Rimbor and everything celebrated either one. So other rings were made. There's still ring rates and everything abounding. You know, Sauron's forces are still out there.

Orcs are in the land, but it's not as organized as it would have been in the original film.

John Erdely: 00:21:39

And also, yes, Sauron's like a shell of what he would have been because his only ring is pathetic little ring.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:45

Of power, you know, and he is still a force out there, but he's not as big a force to reckon with if he had made the original ring.

Nick Polk: 00:21:52

Instead of nine feet tall, Sauron is also four and a half feet tall.

John Erdely: 00:21:56

So I like this.

Christian Ashley: 00:22:00

Perfect.

John Erdely: 00:22:00

He's like Napoleon.

Nick Polk: 00:22:02

So I guess, you know, with both.

With Freakazoid and Kumar's combined knowledge, they're, you know, I would say that they're like, okay, so I'm guessing we need to go to Mordor and destroy this thing.

John Erdely: 00:22:13

Yeah, yeah. They're both kind of geeking out different ways, though.

Nick Polk: 00:22:17

Yeah. Like you said, I think. I think Kumar is like, eyes wide, looking at, you know, Elrond's ears, as you said.

And then Freakazoid is actually, you know, having side conversations about some of the more deeper nerdy lore. Yeah, exactly.

Christian Ashley: 00:22:32

Perfect.

Nick Polk: 00:22:33

So I guess they could say, I guess at this point maybe Spyro, because Spyro is like the cool guy. And I think Spyro rolls his eyes and he's like, okay, enough of this. Like, I don't know what's going on.

When are we going to destroy this thing and when are we going to kick the Sauron's guy's butt?

John Erdely: 00:22:50

And I think Fricazoid would pretty much have the path already kind of like figured out from a, like a written literal standpoint. He would. He. Since when the Internet was downloaded, the movies weren't out yet. He wouldn't actually know what it would look like.

So Kumar is trying to recall his knowledge of the movies.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:08

And Aaron would have maps, not sophisticated, our century kind of maps. But you. You would know, like the way to the regional original.

Original Fellowship took to head that way that you would have probably have to go around the same way if you wanted to be as speedy as they were attempting to be.

John Erdely: 00:23:24

Well, they have Spyro. And does Guanyin fly or no?

Christian Ashley: 00:23:26

She's enlightened. I don't remember her doing anything like.

Nick Polk: 00:23:30

That, but I think she can. I think, I mean most, most Chinese gods can fly.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:36

You know what? I'll say yes. So you've got two flyers.

John Erdely: 00:23:40

Okay, what is Spyro's canonical size?

Christian Ashley: 00:23:42

Itsy bitsy.

John Erdely: 00:23:45

Okay, could sit on him.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:49

Spyro is about, I'm trying to figure out 4ft tall at best if he stands on his hind legs.

Nick Polk: 00:23:55

So maybe he.

John Erdely: 00:23:56

Okay, so Dende. Only because Dende is kind of like kid child. He might be able to sit on him and they could scout or the, the path ahead.

Christian Ashley: 00:24:05

I should also ask you here, who is holding the ring?

John Erdely: 00:24:08

Okay, good question.

Probably gonna have to go with my boy Sam because he's a hobbit and that was one of the things about in the Lord of the Rings where they, they let the, the hobbit carry it. The hobbit seemed to be least affected by it. Or maybe how about this?

How about they take turns like holding it and seeing and then like they spend a minute seeing who would get corrupted the fastest and then they, and they figure out who's the least affected.

Christian Ashley: 00:24:35

By it and then they'll say the more you pass it on to each other within a short amount of time, the easier will be to corrupt someone. So sticking it with one person you trust would be more expedient.

John Erdely: 00:24:47

I think I would. My vote would be.

Nick Polk: 00:24:49

I agree. I think Sam would just take, I think he would volunteer as well. Like Sam's very selfless, so I agree. And then of course the knowledge, I.

John Erdely: 00:24:56

Mean and it might, it might corrupt him a little bit later on but like with Frodo, he was. Frodo made it almost all the way.

You know, he didn't really lose it until they were climbing up that one thing and Gollum tricked him into thinking Sam ate the bread. Like that was like Frodo made it a pretty good ways on the journey before he kind of lost it.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:15

We are going to make the first of several roles not at this moment, but across the journey. A Corruption roll.

f is that be the one with the: 1020

Nick Polk: 00:25:40

Oh yeah, I've got the 10.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:42

20.

John Erdely: 00:25:42

30 Goes up to 90 00. No, it has a zero. Zero. Oh okay.

Nick Polk: 00:25:46

I just rolled a zero.

John Erdely: 00:25:47

So all right, let's see if our only happened one time but tradition of copying each other happened. Okay, I got a 50.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:56

So with this Sam much like originally has moments where you know, it's like the ring tries to give him what he wants.

He imagines a garden that he accept he himself could be the only person in charge of that's a heads across the land and he kind of like laughs at the notion but there's a bitterness to the laugh this time around his friends are dead like Frodo is dead in the midst killed as everyone was trying to take the Ring for themselves and the council.

But it's at that same time the memory of his friend being who he was what he was going to be willing to do reaches into Sam and he says no, I have to live onto his Legacy. With that 100 roll he is a okay. And there is no risk at this present time for Sam to be corrupted by the Ring's influence.

Nick Polk: 00:26:38

What an icon.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:39

Okay. All right.

So heading as you were once again as the intended path was going to you weren't heading towards where they eventually do with the minds of Moria.

But knowing the film as you do now, knowing the series as you do now it is very easy for you to realize that Saruman's influence is once again afflicting the area you're going to and he is railroading you as it were towards the minds of Moria.

Nick Polk: 00:27:02

So is the I can't so is the quest still depend on secrecy?

Christian Ashley: 00:27:07

It is one of those things where you're not sure what they know. So if you want to be secret about it probably the better option.

John Erdely: 00:27:14

Okay, so who's pressuring us to go to the lines of Moria? Is it Elrond?

Christian Ashley: 00:27:17

Well, you know from how the story has gone from the people who've read it or seen it or what have you that that's how they went and they're forced in the exact same way as they were in this direction due to the influence of Saruman.

Nick Polk: 00:27:31

So we originally intended to go to the Gap of Rohan. We see the crab iron all this stuff and then we're now you know, we'll just assume that we tried to go up the path of Caradross and.

John Erdely: 00:27:41

Then we're and Spyro couldn't fly over there and breathe fire on he's not there.

Nick Polk: 00:27:46

This is this comes down to the question John when people are like, why didn't they just take the Eagles to Mordor? And it's because their Sauron has too many people in his employment that would. That would destroy the Eagles, first of all.

But then they would also reveal the presence of the Ring and it would be easier for him to find it.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:05

Or they themselves corrupted by the Ring.

Nick Polk: 00:28:07

True. So it depends. I don't know, John, are you feeling. Are you feeling like, you know, are you feeling lucky?

Are you trying to take on Saruman feeling like a.

John Erdely: 00:28:16

An overconfidence check from Spyro and some and just be like, why would we do that? I can fly over there.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:22

You know, like, so what's he thinking of doing?

Nick Polk: 00:28:24

I agree. I think that'd be so. I think we should have him like you said. I think. I think the Krebine are the first thing that we see.

And I think that Elrond's like, oh, we're being watched because he has the knowledge. But then as John says, Sparrow's like, what's the big deal? I can fly and I breathe fire. I'll take care of these. Crab on. No problem.

John Erdely: 00:28:41

And he can. Yeah. Burn them like he does in the games. He's thinking, you know, these are just gonna be like the butterflies floating around. Just.

I'm gonna hawk some fire at them and I'll be fine. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:49

Okay. Okay. So is he going solo?

John Erdely: 00:28:53

I can't think of anyone else who could help him unless you had. I can't think anyone else except for. I don't even think Freakazoid would be able to do much.

Nick Polk: 00:29:01

Yeah, I think Spyro. I think Spiral's going solo.

John Erdely: 00:29:04

I think he's gonna solo this. He's like, watch this, guys. You know, like a.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:08

All right. Knowing the crib on it as.

John Erdely: 00:29:10

Tell me what the role has been explained to him.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:12

He had said, like, easy enough that like, they're not used to like, being directly attacked, as it were. This is. This is like kind of. They're freaking out for a moment, but they don't break rank. And that becomes. Let me see. Spyro.

Why don't you go ahead and give me a perception check for him at disadvantage because he's in the midst of blasting them. One roll from each of you, please.

Nick Polk: 00:29:36

Did it. I rolled an eight.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:39

Okay.

John Erdely: 00:29:39

Thirteen.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:40

I'd say Spyro is a pretty perceptive guy normally, but, like, due to the fact that he's engaged in what he's doing, even with like A and 14, it's not enough for him to not be taken by surprise as Spectral, deathly, darkly evil beings we know as the Nazgul come and attack him on his three of them.

Nick Polk: 00:30:02

Oh, three Nazgul.

John Erdely: 00:31:05

Awesome.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:06

So he's not dead, but he's already been hit.

John Erdely: 00:31:09

Okay, so freak is always going to have to run really fast and acquire Spyro after he falls out of the.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:14

Air in the midst of battling in the air.

Nick Polk: 00:31:15

Okay, I'm going to see Guanine has powers. So I'm. Instead of fighting the Nazgul head on, I'm going to see if Guanine can.

John Erdely: 00:31:29

Use brilliance to blind them real quick.

Nick Polk: 00:31:31

Yeah. And then Spyro can escape.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:33

Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Like, no role needed for her.

She has all the opportunity to line up the shot, basically get a little, you know, flashbang for them and they're like throwing off their tracks. They don't fall onto the ground, but like they're barely hanging in the air.

Spyro, who wasn't prepared for it either, also kind of falls down, but he's more wounded. But it's easy enough for her to go and get him before he does fall to the ground.

So he will not take permanent damage from a fall, but he still has the wound inflicted by the Nazcul inside of him. What do you do now?

John Erdely: 00:32:05

Well, Dende is going to have to heal him and then they're going to have to escape the area.

Christian Ashley: 00:32:10

All right, so this is done under duress. So it will be a straight roll because technically it'd be advantage disadvantage.

But since you know he's good, the advantage being because he's good at it. The disadvantage being on the run. Like, go, give me a straight medicine roll. Whoever wants to roll.

John Erdely: 00:32:24

All right, let's do this thing. Come on.

Christian Ashley: 00:32:27

Denday9 okay, so he is unfamiliar with the different properties inside of a Nazgul himself. These are brand new creatures to Dende. He's used to corrupting forces, as it were, in his own reality. We'll just say it's composite.

Dende he around for a bit, but it's enough for him to start healing the wound but not take away the full force of whatever. Like almost like a Komodo dragon kind of in a sense, tearing away at Spyro. But you are free.

The Nazgul don't follow you because they're too blinded at this moment. But your path. That way, you know, if they recover, they know exactly where you'd be.

John Erdely: 00:33:01

Oh, also, Kumar would know who. Actually, Kumar and Freakazoid would know who Spyro is at the same time. So I think Kumar would be super freaking out. And be like, oh, it's Spyro.

He's hurt. Not Spyro. He's like my favorite video game character.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:14

And as someone who hasn't played a lot of them, he doesn't have like half poison resistance or anything like that in any of the lore. Like, I want to be accurate as possible.

John Erdely: 00:33:23

He's always got, you know, random power ups in the world. He's got. But, but I don't know how we would incorporate that.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:29

I just want to be sure that one person out there who's going to say, well actually, you know, Spyro, six figures, you know, under whatever this happened. Okay, sure. Okay.

John Erdely: 00:33:38

And I, I haven't played all the.

Nick Polk: 00:33:40

flight of dragons. There's a: 1970

Christian Ashley: 00:33:50

Yes, and actually I find this very interesting. Roll me another D100. Just one of you please.

Nick Polk: 00:33:58

All right, let's see if I can beat a zero here.

John Erdely: 00:34:00

Go ahead.

Nick Polk: 00:34:01

I did 40.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:02

40. Okay. It is very apparent across the group that Freakazoid is starting to get on their last nerve.

John Erdely: 00:34:09

Just because he's like jumpy jumping. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:12

Where even jovial Sam is kind of like, I don't know. And that may have negative effects for certain checks made later on.

Nick Polk: 00:34:23

He has really been unhelpful.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:27

I love this so much. Okay, so now what are your options in front of you for heading forward?

Nick Polk: 00:34:34

So I think, I think, I think Elrond, you know, probably in the midst of all this, he is disheartened, you know, maybe a little annoyed, you know, with, with Freakazoids whole interjection of references that he doesn't understand. And he is like, we only have a couple options here and the best one is probably going through the minds of Moria.

And you know everyone except Spyro Dende. Well, I guess the three. Yeah. Spyro Dende and Guanyin. Well, I guess. And Sam, Sam wouldn't know either.

He's not educated and to that degree he knows Elvish but he doesn't know what the minds of Moria are.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:14

Say friend and enter.

Nick Polk: 00:35:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, easy enough.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:16

There's no time for the watcher in the water to take anybody. Like it's like a non factor.

John Erdely: 00:35:21

Freakazoid and Kumar would know the reference. They would know the answer regardless. If Sam knew the answer to the riddle they would just be like, they would already know.

Like, oh look, it's the door. They'd be really.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:30

They would have said it before Elrond had the opportunity to say it.

Nick Polk: 00:35:32

I think Freakazoid wide.

John Erdely: 00:35:34

Oh, that would be great. Like deflation for Elrond to be like, I know the password. And then they say it like both Freakazoid and Kumar at the same time.

And it pisses them off just like.

Nick Polk: 00:35:44

In like real quick melon.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:47

Oh, perfect. Yeah. They say friend and enter, like, no issue here it is, if anything, somehow more drabby and dark and everything.

And this is kind of like the people who have knowledge of the books. Like, everything being off course in the first place. Being this, like, grim dark is very disconcerting. Like, this is not Tolkien at all.

Like, he was more hopeful. Optimism.

John Erdely: 00:36:10

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:10

He had. There's some times so, you know, things couldn't be beaten. Like, you know, Frodo was never going to be able to reject the Ring.

All that jazz at the very end. It had to be Gollum taking it into the lava, as it were. But this is not him. And it's really starting to grind their gears. Like, why?

How could things get like this messed up? And this doesn't help. When they get down, they're aware. They would have told everyone, hey, the Dwarves are going to be dead.

But when they get to the inscription, it's different. And it's even worse than before. The Dwarves were already fighting amongst themselves before supplies had dwindled.

Accusations of cannibalism were rampant. People were dying right and left. And then the goblins and orcs attack.

And it's very quiet and dreary, but, you know, based on the knowledge your characters would have. Yes, they would still be around. They're nearby. But there are going to be more of them because there were fewer dwarves to fight.

Nick Polk: 00:37:01

So we're being. So now Goblins are coming our way because of the lack of Dwarves that have.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:09

Now they're unaware of your presence because you knew they'd be there based on character knowledge.

Nick Polk: 00:37:14

Oh, okay, okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:15

But you also know there's more of them because there are less Dwarves.

John Erdely: 00:37:17

Are we gonna try to sneak through?

Nick Polk: 00:37:19

Gotcha. Gotcha. All right.

John Erdely: 00:37:20

Are we still gonna try to sneak through or are we just gonna open the door and they're gonna be like, turn their head to see us immediately.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:26

That's up to you.

Nick Polk: 00:37:28

Can we. Guanyin has, like, an internal light that she can use to, you know, she's got, like a can trip, you know, where she can light herself up there.

So I don't know. Do you. Should we risk, you know, like Gandalf. Should we risk a little light Here.

John Erdely: 00:37:42

Well, none of them could see in the dark, so what choice do we have except for maybe Spyro? Unless Spyro's got some cannon where you.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:48

Can see in the dark caves.

John Erdely: 00:37:50

But then that wouldn't help me.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:51

He's also really debilitated at the moment with, you know, what's in his veins.

John Erdely: 00:37:55

Yeah.

Nick Polk: 00:37:55

So do you think that if we're.

John Erdely: 00:37:57

In the mine, do you think we need like, do you think.

Nick Polk: 00:38:00

Yeah.

Can we do Guanine turning on her lights and then afterwards I think we should try to have Elrond, who is knowledgeable of stuff, do a little more healing to Spyra since there's at least right now no threat of direct danger.

Christian Ashley: 00:38:16

Yeah, you can certainly attempt to do this. I will say that given the characters you have, it is more likely to be found out based on certain roles.

Given how the healing process would work with the magic they have at their disposal. It's kind of obvious, hand wavy and light show kind of thing. But it's still doable.

Like you could still roll well enough to where no one would see you. Especially with advantage because you're working together on this issue.

John Erdely: 00:38:41

Would Guanyin have the ability to give everyone night vision?

Christian Ashley: 00:38:44

I think that'd be a bit much. I've granted quite enough.

John Erdely: 00:38:47

You think so? Like you can't impart powers to people.

Christian Ashley: 00:38:51

If it is something in the lore and I mislook didn't see it, then sure, you can call me out later on. For right now I'm going to say no.

Nick Polk: 00:38:58

How about. So can I roll? Can I roll for a Guanine? Okay. Or I guess both might be is the best. Yes. 14 For me.

Christian Ashley: 00:39:08

Okay, 12. Okay. So what you both realize is that. That everyone involved realizes, okay, we've got it intact. He's not going to die anytime.

His wings are still bruised and battered, so he's not going to fly anytime soon. But he's able to walk, he can breathe fire. He's aware of his surroundings. He's more able than he would have patent have done this.

And because you rolled the way you did, no one has noticed you doing this except for one figure. And you. You hear in the background passions rations. And you see this messed up. You like Kumar and freak is sort of like expecting Gollum to show up.

But wait a minute, he's dead. And instead you see the deformed Bilbo Bilbo Baggins heading your way.

John Erdely: 00:39:56

I caught.

Christian Ashley: 00:39:58

And we're gonna do something special that's.

John Erdely: 00:40:01

Not supposed to happen.

Christian Ashley: 00:40:03

We're gonna leave it there. For right now, we're gonna do a part two.

Well, we're still gonna do a recording with this, guys, but to help our editor out, to make sure things don't go over an hour, we've been splitting stuff up like this because it messes up his laptop if that happens. So this will be part one of the journey heading that way. You guys have anything you want to recommend to the audience?

John Erdely: 00:40:27

I've been playing the heck out of Red Dead Redemption 2 if no one's picked that up. That is an amazing, probably the most photorealistic nature with animals and stuff that I've ever played.

Christian Ashley: 00:40:37

Yeah, Nick.

Nick Polk: 00:40:39

New season of Rick and Morty. I'm a big Rick and Morty guy for this. These first three episodes have been better in than the last couple seasons in a little while.

So it's worth your time if you like Rick and Morty.

Christian Ashley: 00:40:51

Perfect. All right. I have been rereading some of the old HP Lovecraft stuff. Love the.

The writing, not the writer so much, but you know, that's the world we live in. So thank you guys for everything. Well, we'll be back for part two. Next time, please get a chance.

Leave a five star review and your podcasting platform of your choice. Help us rating there, help us find more people. Feel free to help us out in any way you see fit.

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This bonus question, by the way, later on will be Knowing the story as you do now, who would you have switched one or more of your character picks to and why? But that of course, will be after the second episode, so shout out some supporters. Quick. Thank you.

Russell Gentry, Justin Vaughn, Annette Noel and Jeannie Mattingly. You guys are the best. But remember, we're all the chosen people. A geekdom of priests. Sat.