Kat On A Game Table

[katgametable]

Introduction and Master Page

About three years ago, a friend of mine told me that if I really loved DnD, I would have at least 100 gaming podcasts in my library. I am still quite far from that number - and I’m starting to suspect she was having me on - but boy am I having a good time.

What do we do with the things we love? We hoard them, or share them. So let me share with you.

Everything I listen to, or watch, is either on Apple Podcasts (probably others, but that’s the app I use), and/or YouTube.

Oxventure

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Oxventure, my first and truest love. When I decided to really get into DnD, this was my first actual play show, and it managed to tickle me just right. It has definitely spilled over into my games, and I refuse to be ashamed of my house rule “if it worked in Oxventure, it can work here”, even when it meant a moonbeam blew up a drug lab.

Oxventure was started by video gaming channels Outside Xbox (OXBox) and Outside Xtra (OXtra). Two of the hosts of OXBox, Andy Farrant and Jane Douglas, and the two hosts of OXtra, Ellen Rose and Luke Westaway, got their colleague Johnny Chiodini, then of EuroGamer, to DM a one-off game for them back in 2017. Not much later, the OXs had acquired costumes, convinced the last OXBox host Mike Channell to join, and started doing live shows at cons. Johnny has since spent some time on the channel DiceBreaker (more about them later), and then moved on to their own independent projects. Luke has also left OXtra for his own projects. However, both are still heavily involved in Oxventure, which has gone from strength to strength.

The main series, The Oxventurer’s Guild, was retroactively rearranged into seasons when they changed from almost exclusively one-session adventurers (sometimes broadcast in multiple instalments but recorded in one) to extended storylines. They brought the adventures of the Guild to a close in 2024, but by that point had already spun off two side-series, Blades in the Dark and Deadlands, and announced a new DnD series, Wyrdwood. They also have a selection of special one-offs, One-Shot Wonders and DnD But…, plus several mini-series.

The Adventure Zone

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As far as I can tell, The Adventure Zone is one of, if not the, oldest actual play shows out there - it debuted several months before Critical Role started streaming. They began with 5e as it was launched; when they started, there was only the Starter Set, not even the Player’s Handbook. Over a decade later, it’s still going strong.

I found them because one of the team co-hosts Sawbones, another podcast I listen to. The team are all one family; Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy and their father Clint. They all have backgrounds in broadcasting and journalism, the boys were early into the podcast game with My Brother, My Brother and Me, and they’ve also done other podcasts. So their games are less technical, more jokey, and prioritise entertainment.

At time of writing, they are on their seventh main campaign, with numerous short series and one-shots, some of which attach to a campaign, some form their own series, and some are stand-alone.

DiceBreaker

DiceBreaker was a YouTube channel set up by Johnny Chiodini along with Michael “Wheels” Whelan and Alex Lolies in 2019. They were joined by Matt Jarvis, Alex Meehan and Sara Elsam. The channel was the home of all things tabletop, covering boardgames, trading card games, and TTRPG, or “pen-and-paper” role play games. Personally I’m only interested in the TTRPGs, though.

In 2020, Sara Elsam left, and then in 2021 Johnny left, and Lolies shortly after. Maddie Cullen and Olivia “Liv” Kennedy came on to take their places.

The parent company was acquired by IGN Entertainment in 2024, and DiceBreaker was shut down without public comment shortly after.

I miss DiceBreaker. Particularly the first two years; Liv and Maddie are great, but the chemistry just wasn’t the same. But I still loved it.

DiceBreaker’s stock in trade was to try a little bit of everything. While they tried extended serieses several times, most of their games were one-shots, often spread over two or three episodes. But their most endearing factor, for me, was a propensity for absolute chaos. They’re probably some of the games I revisit most

…damn I miss them.

Natural Six

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Four voice actors and two writer/producers, all veterans of the video game industry, went to the pub to chat DnD, and left the stars of a new show. They recorded an episode zero, played a zero-point-five at a EGX 2023, and started a kickstarter. They got funding for ten episodes, then launched a Patreon to keep going. It’s a really quite high production value show, too.

The DM is Harry McEntire, and the players Doug Cockle, Hollie Bennett, Ben Starr, Aoife Wilson, and Alex Jordan.

The way these guys play is a lot more like a home game; the episodes tend to be longer, and there’s a lot more emphasis on mechanics in certain places. But it’s not too crunchy, it’s still very narrative, and a very cohesive story too, even though it’s clear players are still making a lot of the choices. Currently, there is one campaign, with each episode proper followed by a an after-show called Action Surge.

Fool’s Gold/ Fool’s Gold Sands

A YouTuber called DingoDoodles decided to make an animatic of a particularly memorable incident in her DnD game involving karaoke and a tarrasque. The viewers wanted more, so she animated the next bit. And the next, and the next. She kept going.

Dingo, her DM and now husband Felix, and fellow player Avery have managed to build it up: merchandise such as plushies; a successful kickstarter for a setting book and plethora of accessories; converting the game into a graphic novel; and an actual play with an all-new adventure called Fool's Gold: Sands.

The original animated series is still ongoing; Dingo has said she's not interested in animating the portion of the campaign before the karaoke incident (other than brief flashbacks), but she fully intends to animate to the end of the campaign. And Sands continues with Felix DMing and Dingo and Avery playing. Both are reasonably chaotic (honestly, the way I like it), but Sands feels more cohesive. However, that might be more of a reflection on the difference between Dingo remembering and retelling a game from years ago, and a game happening right now in your ear. Could also indicate Felix has tightened up his worldbuilding over the years. Either is totally fair.

Rusty Quill Gaming

This was recommended to me when they were midway through their…I believe it was their fourth season. I regret that I have yet to actually start the main campaign, as a 150+ episodes backlog is rather daunting. What I have listened to, and very much enjoyed, is their wide variety of one-shot specials utilising a whole host of different systems, and quite often guests as well.

Following the conclusion of their long-running campaign, they decided to start a new project called Chapter and Multiverse. This was relatively short-lived. The RQ network is still going strong - you may have heard of their hit horror podcast The Magnus Archives - but they seem to have stopped gaming. Which is a pity. If they started up a new campaign, I would love to jump in at the start.

The GM for the original campaign was Alex Newell, and the players were Brynn Monroe, Ben Meredith, Lydia Nicholas, and James Ross, who left partway through the campaign, replaced by Helen Gould. The GM for Chapter and Multiverse was Maddy Searle, and the players Ahmed Aljabry, Lowri Ann Davies, Lydia Nicholas, and Pip Gladwin.

Rolling With Difficulty

A couple of veteran podcasters and DnD aficionados decided to try their hand at an actual play show, and it came out quite nicely. It explores the Planescape, but before the Planescape was brought to 5e, which to my mind means DM Austin did a pretty impressive job. They ran a campaign of five seasons, then started a second, currently in its second season.

This is a rather more technical game than most I listen to. While it’s very definitely set into episodes, it feels a lot more like a home game than something like TAZ, which plays to the audience. It’s also less chaotic - some chaos, but much more restrained - but where it shines is in the setting. Not only is there the Planescape world-between-worlds, they explore so many different worlds, many with their own rules governing them. Of course the characters are also well-crafted, with their own quirks and foibles, and the characters and the settings mesh very well together. And of course, the Weird Little Dudes, the ever-growing cast of companion creatures running around at ankle level.

Not all the cast members use full or real names, so bear with. They are Austin Funk, OSP Red, Sophia Ricciardi, Noir, and Wally.

Realms of Peril and Glory

Alas, so many podcasts means I haven’t quite got a grip on this one yet. They play a lot of different systems, shorter seasons that sometimes follow on from each other and sometimes don’t. They have guests often, including Johnny Chiodini from Oxventure and DiceBreaker. I will hopefully be able to write a better summary after I’ve familiarised myself with it; I’ve only listened to one short season so far, and it was very good.

I believe the main cast members are Zack Fortais-Gomm (who’s also Oxventure’s producer), James Barbarossa, Maddy Searle, Liz Campbell, Laura Girling, Naomi Clarke, and Pip Gladwin.

Critical Role

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This is the biggest name in actual plays, but also one I’ve been very wary of, due to being extremely lengthy and extremely dense. Which aren’t bad traits, but they are intimidating. They’re currently on their fourth campaign, which has more players than ever before, following three long and popular campaigns. There’s also a plentiful supply of shorts and one-shots.

The main cast are Matt Mercer, Laura Bailey, Luis Carazo, Robbie Daymond, Aabria Iyangar, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Whitney Moore, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Alex Ward, Travis Willingham, and Brennan Lee Mulligan.

Push the Roll with Ross Bryant

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I believe this is a spin-off from a different show called Ain’t Slayed Nobody, which is on the list for checking out at some point. It’s a full-improv actual play, meaning the GM has no plan and the players have no characters until they sit down and play. They’re playing Call of Cthulhu, with a few regulars and a guest each adventure – the adventures split into two or three parts. They choose the idea for each adventure by rolling to randomly select a title from a list suggested by the Ain’t Slayed patreons.

I really love this one, it just seems to hit just right for me. It’s weird, doesn’t always stick the landing perfectly, they’re all embracing the idea of making the wrong choices for the fun of it, and it’s just a riot.

The GM, or Keeper of Arcane Lore, is Ross Bryant, and regulars include Paula Deming, Scott Dorward, and the producer cuppycup.

Last Line. Rewind.

Main page here

This is a creation of some of the guys from Realms of Peril and Glory, and is a horror anthology. The conceit is to play a lengthy one-shot to sort of make a horror movie, so each season, Volume, is a collection of “Tapes” on a theme. They use different systems, and have a rather limited release.

Horror has never been my favourite, but I do find these intriguing and they really draw me in. I enjoy the why the worlds are shaped, the way the characters interact with them, and the synergy between everyone.

The GM is Fiona Howat, and the co-creators are Zack FG and Liz Campbell.

Puffin Forest

YouTuber Puffin Forest, Ben, has a wonderful range of bitesized animatics of notable characters or incidents, but he’s also done an absolutely brilliant retelling of an entire Curse of Strahd campaign he played in, another retelling of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and a handful of actual plays.

Ben’s illustrations are great, his breadth of game knowledge is impressive, but his storytelling is astounding. I remember awaiting eagerly each new instalment. He doesn’t seem to be doing much anymore, at least not publishing on YouTube, but what he’s given us is fabulous.

Reba Derps’ Chibi DnD

I'm not trying to throw shade on Reba Derps, she's got a lot more talent and a lot more gumption than me, but I highly doubt you'll ever see this channel on a recommended list. There's not a lot, Reba went silent quite a few years ago now, but it's fun, it's funny, and the illustrations are lovely.

Put simply, it's an animatic retelling what happened in a home game - not unlike the original Fool's Gold, but somewhat less dramatic. But games don't have to be overly dramatic to be fun. This was a series I found very early in my journey to loving DnD, and in reflection, I can see some really clever stuff that went on in that game.

And of course, adventurers in an adorable chibi style.

[katgametable]

Oxventure Shorts: Kids on Bikes Holiday Special: A Twixtmas Disappearance

Written 11 Jan 2025, shortly after watching.

This game features Ellen Rose as GM, Mike Channel as Keegan, Andy Farrant as Corey, and Jane Dougles as Torey, Corey’s twin sister.

It is Boxing Day in Milton-on-Sea, the time between Christmas and New Year, in the 90s. Tourists are thin on the ground even in the summer, and now, it’s like a ghost town. In the centre, there’s a model village recreating the town. Kids can come here to catch up after Christmas Day. Corey and Torey arrive with Clive Barker, the family Yorkshire terrier. Torey, a conspiracy theorist, put an advert in her magazine for teens to investigate a mystery. Keegan the transfer student arrives to join in. Corey dubs them the Mystery Conspiracy Crew, MCC. Keegan moves around because his parents are marine biologists, so maybe they can investigate a fish mystery – Torey says fish are government drones. Keegan asks if they have twin telepathy; Corey and Torey disagree.

They decide to find a mystery to solve. The twins remember there was someone else who said he was going to meet them, Rollo (real name Christopher), who’s late, which isn’t like him. They head for Rollo’s house. It’s very well-decorated in that part of town, but there’s also a police car with flashing lights outside Rollo’s house, the policemen talking to his parents. MCC cycle past slowly, attempting to eavesdrop. Keegan fails to hear anything, but the twins hear the policeman ask when Christopher was last seen, and he went out to get the paper in the morning and never came back for lunch. The mother sees them and calls them over, as she knows Rollo was planning to meet them. MCC learn Rollo vanished, not abducted in the night by aliens, and Corey promises to find him. The policeman is unconvinced, but assures the mother there’s people looking, and gives Corey a card with the station’s number.

As they prepare to move out, Corey and Torey see a black, animalistic shape dash across the street. Torey grabs Clive Barker so he can’t chase it. Keegan didn’t see it; he mentions his parents were working on Christmas Day. Corey thinks Keegan’s parents are making fish people and kidnapped Rollo as a test subject. But first, they chase the black shape on their bikes. They find two girls from the primary school, Sarah and a younger girl. Sarah waves to Torey, and Corey asks about the shape; Sarah thinks they might’ve seen a dog, not a fish-boy, then the younger (Emily) corrects them that it was a wolf. It was headed towards the sea or the pier.

They ride off, Corey waxing lyrical about his favourite series of children’s mystery novels. They reach the Victorian promenade and pier, which has not well withstood the test of time. Everything’s shut up for Christmas, but the security hut is manned. The twins ask the guard if he saw anything. He didn’t, and he doesn’t want to bother going into the back to check the tape. Corey keeps the guard talking while Torey sneaks in the back, but she trips over. Torey and the guard argue, until Corey starts yelling that the guard hit him. The guard plays the tape for them to shut him up.

There is indeed a black shape dashing across the pier and into the arcade, but the guard cannot see it. Keegan begs to be allowed into the arcade to play Street Fighter 2, and Corey starts yelling about being hit again. With some really good rolls, the guard directs them to a back entrance. Mike and Andy get carried away simulating a bout of Street Fighter, before Ellen reminds them to enter the arcade first. The door isn’t fully closed; they pass through a staff locker room and into the games room with penny pushers and other games. Corey and Keegan keep getting distracted from searching for Rollo by the prospect of Street Fighter 2, but Torey thinks it’s government brainwashing, so while the boys play, she sneaks around to investigate. She finds deep scratch marks on the wooden floor leading to the way they came in and then going back and forth. There’s bits of dark fur caught in a penny machine. Clive Barker sniffs around a lot; Torey offers him some fur, and he heads off to where the really old, antique penny machines are. As she approaches, she hears some quiet crying. It’s Rollo.

He’s wedged himself in between two machines, and is sobbing barely coherently about a big black cat. The boys join in coaxing him out, and there’s a mewing from behind them. They turn around and see two giant eyes in the dark staring at them. Torey compares it to the Beast of Bodmin Moor. Corey suggests they back up slowly and get out. Rollo is babbling about socks and jumpers, and this reminds Keegan of when he lived in Iceland, and a legendary yule cat who’d hunt those who don’t get clothes for Christmas. Corey thinks it’s a property developer.

The cat runs around them, blocking the way to the door. They start gifting each other pieces of clothing, which calms the cat, and it wanders away to start sleeping. Torey takes a photo with her disposable camera. The flash agitates the cat and the photo is too blurry to be convincing. Corey spends an adversity token to find out this is an actual, otherworldly cat.

They try to run out; Corey and Keegan reach their bikes with Rollo, but as they look back, a line of gnomes are carrying Torey. Corey tries to crash his bike into the gnomes but fails, then the boys ride after the gnomes, Rollo on Torey’s bike with Clive Barker. As they catch up, Keegan tries to pull Torey away and fails. Torey fights back against the gnomes but cannot get out. The gnomes claim to be the yule lads, who are taking her home to Grilla. Corey tries to remember his mystery novels, but these seem to be garden gnomes turned into supernatural beings unlike anything he’s read of. He finds an improvised catapult among the stalls, and shoots some projectiles at the gnomes, which drop Torey and run away.

Torey asks Rollo why his neighbour’s gnomes came to life. The neighbour just comes down every winter to rest. There’s a scream, and they decide to investigate, Rollo balanced between the milk crates on Torey and Keegan’s bikes and Clive Barker with Corey. The gnomes appear to be heading back to Rollo’s street. As they go, Keegan explains about Grilla the Icelandic troll who eats children. Torey wants to know if the Icelandic government are doing a cover-up. Rollo nearly falls off the baskets, but Torey uses her knack to stabilise him.

As they go, they find Emily, who is in tears because the gnomes have taken Sarah. Corey scolds her, and they continue on to Rollo’s street. The house which previously had lots of gnomes, and now only has quite a few gnomes, is dark. They see an orange glow from the kitchen. Corey boosts Keegan over the garden wall, and he unbolts the gate. All four sneak round the back. There are grotty net curtains that Torey peeks through, and sees into the kitchen. It’s been modified to expand into the conservatory, which features a bubbling cauldron over a fire, and a giant shape; hooves, a cloak that moves like with the movement of more than one tail, the deeply wrinkled face of an ancient being. Torey holds her nerve and takes a photo with her camera – without flash. There are gnomes all around the kitchen, and in the corner, she sees little Sarah, absolutely petrified.

Torey reports back, and Corey says they have to rescue Sarah and capture Grilla. There’s a catflap, and Corey proposes Keegan knocks on the door and runs away, and they sneak in the catflap to rescue Sarah. And he can do it repeatedly until they’re done. Keegan is very good at knocking and running, so he does that, and Corey leaves Torey on guard while he sneaks in.

Corey gets stuck in the catflap, but the doorbell calls Grilla away. Torey boots Corey through the door. He gets in and sneaks towards Sarah. The cauldron is held up by some chains, and looks precarious. He successfully shuffles Sarah around and posts her through the catflap. Torey receives Sarah, who is distraught. Corey suggests burning the house down with Grilla inside. Out front, Grilla doesn’t open the door but looks through a peephole and roars in frustration. Keegan decides to do it again. Corey and Torey plot how to upend the pot over Grilla, including a lawn decoration disguised as Sarah. He sneaks the decoration in, the gnomes still distracted playing around, and slides it in just perfectly. Corey uses Treasure Hunter to find a useful object (Mike suggests machine gun) and finds a five litre bottle of sunflower oil, which he pours into the cauldron. Keegan rings the bell again, and this time plans to confront Grilla. It turns out that Keegan has been injected with electric eel serum by his marine biologist parents, and he does a lightning attack a la Street Fighter. Grilla is badly shaken and stumbles back to the kitchen, where the gnomes have made a mess and Corey has trapped the cauldron. She knocks the cauldron down on herself, and the oil catches fire.

There’s quite the commotion. Keegan can see the living room is covered in dust sheets, contrasting the chaos. The twins call Rollo and Sarah to run away and they all sprint around the front again, and Keegan tells them about the electrocuting. Corey decides everything Torey believes must be real, and at Keegan’s suggestion decides to invent the internet to share theories. Somehow he passes the roll, so Ellen rules he will in later life have an internship with Tim Bernard Lee.

The house is on fire, and as it’s a semi-detached, Rollo’s house is now also at risk. They return Rollo to his parents; his mother is delighted, and they tell her there’s an electric fire next door, so she calls the fire brigade. The firefighters eventually figure out it’s an oil fire, but it’s too late for Grilla.

Another house on the street has another model village, but Grilla’s house is now blackened.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: It’s Jane and Andy again. They highlight that Ellen’s only prior DMing was Teatime Adventures. For Andy, this is one of the busiest weeks of the year, so he’s tired but doing well. They’re recording shortly before Christmas, and Jane has been seeing things about “animals know to sleep when it gets dark early, why are we being more active?”, but she thinks it’s more to oppose the darkness. Andy thinks it’s a time of good times and seasonal food; he goes through his favourite Christmas food. Jane is going to go see the new Avatar, and he and Jane have mixed feelings about that particular cinema. They move on to the Christmassy set dressing for filming this one-shot, and Jane thinks it looks really pretty on screen.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Andy loved the yule lads; Jane thinks it sounds like a bunch of guys out for a night on the town. She explains “Twixtmas”, the time twixt Christmas and New Year when there’s few regular activities and obligations change, and it’s a strange free-floating time; Andy remembers a lot of cycling around when he was boy in that time. Andy looked up the yule lads, and there are indeed thirteen of them with specific names for the specific mischiefs they do. Jane loves the idea. She sent Andy a link to a Swiss spa hotel with a Krampus festival. The town, Milton-on-Sea, is inspired by any number of seaside towns where the tourists have moved on and so are mostly empty, so they compare solo trips. As they wrap-up, Jane announces a post-Christmas sale on their merch store.

This is a bit of an odd one; I’m not sure how much I like it. The characters all had particularly strong personalities, possibly a little too strong. I think it kinda overrode Ellen a wee bit.

Regarding Rollo, I can actually think of a reason why that might be his nickname. It seemed to me everyone’s twelve, thirteen, right? So secondary school. An awful lot of secondary schools start first year history with the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, so it’s reasonably likely the first time the twins really met Rollo might’ve been in that class. Now, some generations before the Normans conquered England, I can’t be bothered looking it up to check the details, they were Norsemen (Vikings) raiding north France (specifically Normandy), until the French king, who was nicknamed the Fat, I think Charles the Fat, can’t quite remember for sure, made a settlement agreement with the leader of these Norsemen, who was called Rollo. Rollo and his men were granted the land they’d been raiding, in exchange for a level of fealty to Charles. During the signing, as a little ritual to symbolise the fealty, Rollo was told to kiss the king’s foot. Rollo wasn’t going to do that, so he got one of his men to do it, who did it by picking the foot up to his lips rather than stooping all the way to the floor, tipping Charles backwards in the process. Or so the legend goes, I don’t know how well attested that is. Anyway. That sounds like the kind of thing a history teacher might get a class of eleven year olds to play-act to get them interested in history. If Christopher was given the part of Rollo and was a little too enthusiastic with lines such as “I am Rollo, leader of the Norsemen”, that might result in him gaining such a nickname.

After that interlude into Norman history, I don’t actually have much to say about the Icelandic folk lore. It sounds rather bizarre to me, but maybe it’s just that I don’t have the cultural context. It is rather interesting, even though I don’t understand it.

Them deciding to give Keegan electric eel powers at the end was a bit of a jolt, but quite fun. I do feel like there’s plenty of potential for more here; it’s not quite so final as, say, a round of Dread (my word, can you imagine trying to do a campaign using Dread? Shudder). That said, the sudden electric powers feels like the kinda thing a GM allows when they’re not going to have to deal with it again later.

So yeah, it’s a decent little piece. A nice Twixtmas listen.

Oxventure Shorts: Dread: Giant Jenga

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: DnD But Everyone's a Kobold

[katgametable]

Oxventure: Dread Giant Jenga

Written 30 Oct 2025, shortly after watching.

Andy is running the game, which uses a tower of Jenga blocks instead of dice, and this time they’re using giant Jenga. Mike is playing Milton the nerd, Ellen is playing Zoe the slacker, and Jane is playing Poppy the rich kid. Due to the visual component of the Jenga tower, I think watching is notably better for this one.

It is Fall Break at Gregg High School. Poppy has been invited to a party at a cabin in wood by Bill, and she’s driving herself, Bill, Kevin and his girlfriend Sarah, and Milton. Zoe had to hitchhike. Bill lifted the key to the bar and after an evening of partying and drinking, Zoe finds Kevin dead in the basement. She screams, waking the passed-out Poppy, and bringing her and Milton running. Bill and Sarah are nowhere to be seen.

Milton resists the urge to vomit to examine the body (successful pull), finding Kevin’s face has been smashed in by something blunt. Zoe also pulls to resist vomiting. She doesn’t remember coming down. Poppy doesn’t remember much of anything, and pulls to see if she can remember anything (and Jane causes extra tension by prodding the tower). She doesn’t see blood on her hands, but there are mud stains on her shoes. She was the only one who really knew Kevin, a jock, and his girlfriend Sarah is the head cheerleader. Milton looks around (successful pull) and sees a bloody tree branch beneath a broken window. He pulls again to examine it, and finds claw marks. Poppy points out her muddy shoes, and suggests they should investigate the woods, or maybe call the police. They still haven’t found Bill or Sarah, and Zoe suggests they might be more than friends, and Kevin died in a lover’s quarrel.

Milton finds the landline in the cabin (no mobile signal) has been disconnected, and pulls successfully to not freak out. They head out to find the phone’s junction box, and hear a crash in the garage. The girls divert to the garage, Zoe pulling to claim a branch as a weapon. Meanwhile, Milton checks on the junction box, successful pull, and finds everything’s been smashed beyond repair. In the garage, Zoe and Poppy find a screaming raccoon – Jane abandons a pull, deciding it’s more in character to panic, and Poppy sprints to her car in front of the cabin, leaving Zoe with the raccoons, who scuttle off.

In the car, Poppy hears branches scraping against the windows and feels distinctly unsettled. She tries to start the car, but nothing happens but an error message flashes up. Poppy checks on Milton, and as the phone box is wrecked, she asks if he could fix the car. He’s willing to try. He pulls for something only he and Andy know, succeeding, but cannot fix the car, despite being president of the electronics club (I suspect he’s a fake nerd). Zoe comes back with her tree branch, and they decide to call for Bill and Sarah – no pulls, but no response. They check the outside of the basement window. Milton checks for footprints; he pulls successfully and sees a trail of drag marks between the woods and the window. Milton and Poppy think they should follow it, but Poppy is scared. They compromise on going a little bit into the woods, after Poppy pulls to find a tyre iron in her car (with lots of dramatic camera angles) and Zoe pulls for a good head-mounted torch.

As they head for the woods, they see the lake with a boathouse, and there’s lights on in the boathouse. Speculating Bill and Sarah might be there, they decide to check the boathouse first. Zoe is scared because statistically, they’re more likely to be killed around other people, even if their bodies are less likely to be found in the woods. They hear noises on the boathouse like someone rooting around. Poppy calls out for Bill and Sarah, and footsteps approach the door. They hide themselves out of immediate view; Poppy dives under the decking (successful pull), and then Jane starts filming as Mike tries to pull and succeeds, Milton running around the corner. Man in a hockey mask with a machete comes out, looking around, and calling for Zoe, who’s at a distance and thus didn’t see him. Zoe responds, and the man reveals himself to be Sam, who (following a plan of Zoe’s) came up to scare everyone on the cabin and smashed the phone box, and also was the one who scared Poppy so much she passed out earlier. Poppy isn’t happy, and accuses Sam of murdering Kevin. Everyone’s getting rather confused, but Sam filmed Poppy being scared. Kevin is alive in the video, and it was filmed about ten minutes before Zoe found the body. There’s a lot of accusations thrown around. Sam leads them at a run to his car half a mile down the trail, and they all have to pull to keep up with him. Zoe keeps pace, but Jane and Mike decide not to risk it, and let Poppy and Milton fall behind.

Zoe loses sight of Sam for five seconds as he rounds a corner, then finds that something’s pulling him off into the woods by the ankles, screaming. Zoe succeeds the pull to grab his arms and pull against whatever has him. Poppy and Milton catch up, but they think it’s another prank and do nothing. Andy sends Ellen for a two-block pull to keep hold of Sam, and she decides she can’t manage it. Sam is pulled deep into the undergrowth, and his screams are cut off. A large black shape emerges. Poppy decides to stand her ground; Milton and Zoe leg it. But Poppy has to make two pulls to swing her tyre iron enough to get away. They’re all sprinting, and have pull again. In fact, they keep running and pulling until Andy decides they’ve reached the cabin nearly half a mile away. But after the first round of pulls, Ellen knocks over the tower trying to place the block on the top. She theatrically drags herself under the table as Andy narrates how Poppy and Milton see Zoe being dragged off by the monster.

Poppy and Milton conclude the monster probably killed Kevin as well, and possibly Bill and Sarah. They don’t feel safe in the cabin, so they go back to following the drag marks into the woods – Jane and Mike are distressed to discover Andy has had some blocks in the rebuilt Jenga tower pre-pulled. Milton pulls, sees something white in the woods, and Poppy pulls to remember what Bill and Sarah were wearing, recalling Bill was in a plaid shirt, and Sarah a white cardigan. It is indeed the cardigan, but it’s caught on a branch without owner, a trace of blood present. A little later, Milton pulls and spots a glint; one of Sarah’s earrings. They reach a clearing, and Poppy pulls to pick up the trail, spotting disturbed underbrush. They accidentally back into each other, and Poppy pulls to avoid accidentally lashing out with the tyre iron. Mike declares Milton uses his asthma inhaler, so Andy makes him pull for it. He succeeds, and they reach another clearing, with Sarah impaled on multiple branches. They both successfully pull to keep their cool, and note that her death seems different to the monster’s attacks, and there’s footprints around, possibly Bill’s. They wonder if there are two killers. While considering their options, Milton admits he sabotaged her car so they’d spend more time getting to know him. Poppy doesn’t trust him any more, but succeeds the pull to not attack him. Milton grovels, insisting that he did try to repair it earlier, and Poppy concludes he didn’t contribute to the killings.

They hear a human sort of cackling, and investigate. They find Bill curled on tree stump in the middle of a clearing, gibbering. He says that the cabin was built from the wood of the largest tree in the wood, and the wood seems to have had enough with the logging and is getting revenge. Roots shoot out of the ground, wrap around him, and pull him into pieces. The roots come from them, and they have to make two pulls each. They avoid the roots as thunder peels and rain begins to fall. For lack of better options, they run back towards the cabin, trees whipping at them as they go. They succeed in more pulls, Poppy suggesting that maybe they should start dating. They reach the cabin, which was made of cursed wood, so they make for the boathouse, hoping to get into the middle of the lake. But the monster that took Zoe steps out, a humanoid tree monster with arms that could impale or batter. As it approaches, they pull again, and reach the boathouse. They close the door to block the tree monster, and pull out a canoe, sliding into the water with it. They see the cabin collapse in on itself, forming into a golem that heads towards them. They make two pulls each to row across the lake; they see Sam’s car, but the wood golem is catching up along the bank. They make for the car, lest the golem realise it might float. Another two pulls each, and Jane topples the tower. They reach the bank, and Milton gets into the car, but the cabin monster catches Poppy, and tosses her into the air before chomping down. Milton drives off, alive, but alone.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane and Andy start by being clear the video would be best for the game, even though it’s here in audio form. They mention that at points, they thought they might need a stepladder for Ellen. Also, they’re preparing to play Battlefield 6 for the Geek Media Network. Andy has been enjoying his favourite time of the year. He and Jane went to see Tron Ares, which was not as good as they’d hoped due to too much Jared Leto. Then they talk about Hallowstream, their collection of spooky game streams, so the Dread has a slasher-movie vibe. Andy took inspiration from scenarios in the sourcebook and did his own thing with it. Jane also announces the 60 Skeleton dice set, which I bought the same day they were released – there’s also Hallowstream merch, but I didn’t get that. Andy suggests a name for this adventure could be “In The Woods”.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Mike has now been the sole survivor of both Dread games. Jane did love the climax, even though it killed her. She thinks the Jenga was a great vehicle for building tension. They saw the tower swaying a lot, and Jane theorises it was less stable than the smaller, regular-size Jenga. There is much discussion of Jenga strategy. Andy says a difficult aspect of Dread is that often there’s only one result, and ideally there’s only one survivor, or none. He also reveals the scenario in the book involved one of the players being the killer but no-one knowing who, not even that player or the GM. Andy announces the next Oxventure, a Deadlands one-shot, and Jane talks about a Stranger Things VR game she played so much she strained her arms. She recollects a time they went to the Crystal Maze experience for Andy’s birthday and also strained herself. They’ve decided to switch their Oxventure day to Wednesday, from Friday. And they still have tickets for their live show in London next year on sale. Jane is going to see a Hunger Games show, and Andy went to Hercules the Musical and managed to get a deal on the king’s box.

A slight problem I had was that the pulling took so long it kinda pulled me out of the story. Also, as Andy noted, the players weren’t really contributing to the story all that much. Another weakness of the system is that it’s very binary in that you pass the check or die, there’s no room for nuance. However, I don’t think those problems could be overcome by anyone, really, they’re just how the system works.

It was a very satisfying story, though. I loved that Zoe and Milton both had secrets (I wonder if Poppy had one that she never disclosed, although I think Jane would’ve mentioned it int the pod commentary). At the end, I was really rooting for Milton and Poppy to become a couple, but alas, the Jenga had one more victim to claim.

A wood that comes alive to exact revenge on those logging is a brilliant idea for a horror story, especially because there were a bunch of innocent kids who got killed for it. So good work Andy on that one. I loved that Milton just wanted people to spend time with him, and that Poppy never wanted to do anything to put herself in danger (when they were running from the monster, right before Zoe got killed, Jane spent a good minute debating whether to just knock over the tower, but she couldn’t narratively justify Poppy sacrificing herself). Sam, the class clown who accidentally took it too far by destroying the phone box, he was a bit of a twit but he didn’t deserve it. But it did make for an excellent ramping up the stakes when he got pulled off.

I did moderately enjoy this one. Maybe not a favourite, but good.

Oxventure Shorts: Invincible

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: Kids On Bikes: A Twixtmas Disappearance

[katgametable]

TAZ Graduation Episode 13: Apple for Teacher

Written 27 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep14.

The Thundermen wake the morning of their field assignment, and have levelled up. FitzRoy has taken a second level in Sorcerer and now has sorcery points. Argo has gained Uncanny Dodge. The Firbolg has some magic stuff. Before heading off on their assignment, they stop off at Barns and Nobles to pick up some more goodies. The Firbolg gets navigational yarn (leads you to a specific location), the pocket watch of second chances (allows a reroll of a saving throw) and a jar of bees (what it says on the label). FitzRoy gets the early bird 5000 (summons a spectral blackbird to bring a useful object, reflavoured to be Leon-the-hawk) and the ink eraser (removes ink ad stores it, and releases it to reveal hidden messages). Argo gets the Slapsidian (an obsidian dagger that transforms into a bracelet) and the monocle of misdirection (gives advantage on deception/insight).

In the Great Southern Meadow is an apple tree, the leaves perfect, that every year produces two perfect apples, on half red and one half gold. The tree is surrounded by a magical barrier two herds of centaurs maintain. Then at harvest time, both herds come, lower the barrier, and collect the fruit. The centaurs of the valley split their apple perfectly along the red/gold divide and read the future in the shape and placement of the seeds, so they can prepare for the year to come. The centaurs of the wood burn their apple in a ceremonial fire as an offering to the spirit of the woods, to give them good hunts and protection. But this year, there’s only one apple and both think they need it most. The Thundermen will be representing the centaurs of the forest, and must resolve the situation to their satisfaction, while Rhodes the ranger and her sidekicks Mimi (the Gnome artificer) and Moon will be representing the centaurs of the valley.

They travel towards the meadow to meet Malwyn the Strong, leader of the forest centaurs. As they go, they try to plan how to get the apple for Higglemist. As the Firbolg cannot lie, he blocks his ears, and Justin removes his headphones. Unfortunately, FitzRoy and Argo can’t come up with anything better than a pinecone illusioned to look like an apple and a quick switcheroo.

The journey is interrupted by a Satyr, who pleads poverty and asks for supplies. After giving him some rations, he reveals himself to be a bandit, and an Ogre appears to back him up. The short fight ends with the Satyr dead and the Ogre Charmed. (I think this is the second time Justin’s character has ended a fight by Charming a mini-boss, see Klarg in Balance: Here Be Gerblins.) They continue on, and meet Deanna, Malwyn’s number two. She leads them to the meadow, while explaining the theology behind their custom of sacrificing the apple to the spirit, how they’ve set additional traps around the tree, and their dislike for the valley centaurs.

They arrive at the two encampments, with banners flying. They meet Rhodes and his sidekicks – Moon is new, they haven’t seen him around before. They agree not to sabotage each other, and come up with a possible compromise for the two herds. After reading the future, the valley centaurs bury their apple by the tree, but perhaps they’d be willing give it to the forest centaurs to burn at that point, if the forest centaurs are willing to let them have it for a bit first. They go back to their respective herds to present this idea.

FitzRoy and Argo send the Firbolg off to talk to the tree, while they scheme (Justin’s headphones off again). They think they could swap out the apple for a substitute between reading the future and burning, or possibly grab it from the flames before it’s burned. They rejoin Deanna, who sends a sentinel after the Firbolg as part of the protections for the tree.

The Firbolg examines the tree, the magics, the roots, but he doesn’t get much. It seems to have been purposely created and planted, but it is a living tree, and there’s no way of knowing if it was created for the centaurs, or if they just found and adopted it. The magic is unlike any he’s seen before.

The other two are shown to Malwyn the Strong, who already has a visitor. Althea Song has decided to observe a field assignment.

Okay, I reckon what’s gonna happen is, the valley centaurs get their augury done, then by the time the forest centaurs go to burn the apple, they find it’s not the sacred apple, and blame the valley centaurs. Possibly with multiple layers of misdirection.

I don’t feel great about this mission. I’m a little suspicious about the idea that it really won’t harm the centaurs’ lives, and even if it doesn’t, it’s so incredibly disrespectful and risks causing so much emotional devastation, and possibly starting a war – although if the Thundermen are identified as the culprits, it might unite the herds against the school. But it’s also just a real nasty thing to do, take advantage of people needing help to rob them.

Now, here’s something interesting. I’m pretty sure that by level five, the Firbolg should have access to the spell Speak With Plants. But, Druids are prepared casters, so he might not have prepared it, but he could during a long rest…if Justin knows that. And as I mentioned last episode, he probably has Druidcraft. So it would be interesting if he could coax the tree into growing more apples.

The interlude with the Satyr and Ogre was amusing. I did also like the shopping trip a fair bit, some interesting stuff there. Travis didn’t make a point of emphasising budgeting and accountancy this time, which may or may not be significant.

But overall, I’m just not feeling great about the mission.

TAZ Graduation: Pop Quiz

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation: Spirit Day

[katgametable]

Oxventure Shorts: Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork

Written 28 Jun 2026, shortly after relistening, having listened previously.

This game features Jane Douglas as Constable Igorina, surgeon and forensic scientist, Mike Channell as Detective Bartholemew Hamrahan, Zombie detective, Johnny Chiodini as Constable Cliff, Troll, Dominic Allen as Constable Sully Underhand, Dwarf crime scene iconographer, and Andy Farrant as the Discworld Master. This game used the system Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork. It is governed by narrativium, using a d8, and after the player justifies why they should be good at something, the DM decides whether they get a s4, d6, d10 or d12, to try and roll higher than the narrativium. Fail and they get consequences, and they also have luck points to reduce consequences etc.

Four members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch have been dispatched to investigate a break-in at the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons. Their instructions are threefold: find out what happened, protect the people of Ankh-Morpork, and not make any more paperwork than necessary. If they need help, they can consult Sergeant Angua at The Bucket on Gleam Street, but it’s her day off so she won’t like it.

Outside the Sunshine Sanctuary, there’s a papier-mâché dragon for collecting change, which doesn’t have much but hasn’t been ransacked. They pull on a rope at the gate and gain admittance.

Igorina looks around the front garden, and finds a sleeping dragon, a golden deceiver, often used as guard dragons. Next to it is a whiskey jug marked for the Lamp and Needle. She tries to rouse the dragon, but it explodes all over her. Sully captures the moment of detonation on iconograph.

Hamrahan pokes around the side of the building and finds a goods entrance with fresh cart tracks. There’s no indication of what was loaded or unloaded, but the tracks are deep enough to imply a heavy load.

They knock on the front door to the building, and are let in to pandemonium. There are loose dragons everywhere and the genteel women who care for them trying to corral them all back into their pens. Cliff, who’s the PR specialist, gets everyone organised to recapture all the dragons.

Once everything has calmed a little, they’re able to talk to Rosie, who is in charge. They seem to be missing about a dozen dragons, including a particularly sickly one called Gunther who needs vitamins in eight hours or he will explode. They didn’t receive any deliveries the previous day, and that day’s delivery of coal dust from Nobbler and Son hasn’t arrived. Also, there’s a guy called John, very normal looking, average height for a human, who buys her drinks when she goes to the pub, the Lamp and Needle, for dinner; he asks a lot of questions about dragons.

They head for the Lamp and Needle. It’s not open, so Hamrahad picks the lock and lets them in. It’s a very cosy atmosphere, but no easily-gleanable information. While searching, they knock over a bar stool, which wakes the proprietor upstairs. He comes down, and while Hamrahad gets his back up, Cliff charms him into talking. John is a regular who comes across the city from Dimwell. He doesn’t have a lot of money; last time he was in, he got drunk and railed against the world, also talking about dragons, and said one dragon would set the world to rights. He settled his tab with a brass instrument, which Igorina identifies as an architect’s tool called a theodolite, inscribed “Stone On Stone”.

None of them recognise Stone On Stone, so they go to Nobblers, who failed to deliver coal dust that morning. It’s over in Dimwell, across the Ankh, and they’re…kinda like a confectionery for Trolls. However, they’re also closed, so Hamrahad unlocks the door again. They pass through the shop and find cart tracks in the back yard, that indicate a cart sits there a lot, but it’s not there now. They head upstairs and find Nobbler tied to a chair, knife in his chest, dead. Igorina removes the knife, wrenching it around and causing a spurt of blood to cover her. Nobbler screams; it seems he is a zombie now.

They (mostly Hamrahad) calm Nobbler. The man who killed him matches John’s description, except he had a bag on his head. He ranted a lot about golems before stabbing him. Nobbler happens to know Stone On Stone, a local architect. He also lets Cliff take a bucket of coal dust to snack on.

They move on to Stone On Stone, which is advertising its current project renovating the Misbegot Bridge. There’s a Golem among the draftsmen. They talk to the owner, Erica Loft. She did indeed employ John Johnson, but he got erratic and had to be let go. Golems are very good at drafting because they are able to predict the outcome of the plans. John started getting erratic after his landlady Mrs Ethin raised his rent, then they employed the Golem Potts and John got very angry, and had to go. He also took his theodolite with him, an expensive piece of equipment. Igorina confirms it is the one they recovered from the pub, and says Erica can get it back from the Watch after their investigation. Cliff and Sully charm her into telling them a little about the weak points on the Misbegot Bridge’s supports - if the bridge collapsed, the architects would be ruined. She also gives them the address to Mrs Ethin’s.

When they reach Mrs Ethin’s, there’s a crowd, because it’s on fire. The firefighting Golems are there, removing the burning furnishings and so on from the building and stamping the fire out. It’s mostly out. Cliff goes in, Igorina trailing behind him, up to John’s room. He finds a document tube and a mostly intact wardrobe, while Igorina gets covered in soot. In the wardrobe, Cliff finds a rather abashed dragon hiding, with a collar tag calling her Smokey. He tries to calm her by offering coal dust, which has the opposite effect and she starts vibrating with excitement. Igorina dives down the stairs while Cliff gets blasted through the wall into the street. Meanwhile, Hamrahad tried to search through the stamped-out remnants, and got covered in soot.

After getting back together, they try talking to the furious landlady Mrs Ethin, who kicks Hamrahad’s shins and blames the fire on Dwarves for no good reason. They don’t learn much from her, but examining the document tube Cliff recovered reveals an architectural drawing of the Misbegot Bridge and the scaffolding on the service level beneath it. They decide that, despite the inevitable paperwork, for safety’s sake they’ll have to close the bridge.

It takes some time to clear the bridge. They find a goods lift that will take them to the service level. It’s missing a cog, but Sully retrieves one from his iconograph, which only really makes it whir. It fits just right, and they descend. Below, they find a cart with the Nobbler livery making unhappy dragon noises up against a structural support, and a man matching John’s description trying to light a fuse with a non-cooperative dragon. Sully takes an iconograph with his now silent equipment, and Hamrahad attempts to shoot John in the shoulder, missing. John sees them, succeeds in lighting the fuse, and runs away towards a ladder. Hamrahad fails to shut the fuse, pinning his foot to the ground, and Cliff tries to grab the other end of the fuse (a box of fireworks) without startling the dragons. He’s not having much luck at fast plus stealthy, so Hamrahad rips himself off the crossbow bolt, grabs the box himself, and jumps off the bridge into the Ankh river. Onto the Ankh, as he bounces before settling, just as the fuse reaches the fireworks and they explode, breaking Hamrahad into multiple pieces lying on the surface of the river. He’s still undead, and Igorina can probably fix him up later.

Meanwhile, Sully has been trying to coax the dragons down to the lift, causing something of a cascade. He spots Gunther, the sick one, but Hamrahad has the supplement he needs. Hamrahad manoeuvres his head over to his pocket, retrieves the vial, and manages to spit it back into the bridge. Sully manages to catch it and feed Gunther, who calms down. Cliff joins in calming the dragons with some soothing chants, and they corral them into the lift.

Igorina chases after John up some scaffolding. He is raving about Golems. Given they’re quite high up, she tries to use some rope to anchor herself, but ties her feet together. John lunges, but she succeeds in grappling him. She climbs down again, Sully taking an iconograph, and once in the bridge ties him up. He’s still raving so Cliff knocks him out. They gather up the bits of Hamrahad and Igorina stitches him back together as they take the dragons back to the Sunshine Sanctuary and John to the Watchhouse.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane and Andy talk about how this came after the gut-wrenching finale of Deadlands S2. Andy recommends the video version for Zack’s set dressing, featuring his collection of special edition Discworld novels. They plug other shows on the Geek Media network and a live stream on Outside Xbox. Andy explains that Summer Game Fest is happening. They’ve been looking into and playing Mario Kart. Andy’s been to the V&A Storehouse, a secondary museum for the Victoria and Albert. Jane has heard of it, and that you can book an appointment to see particular articles. They’ve also started preparing for Father’s Day, which involves socks. Jane gives the pigeon update; they saw off a squirrel. Andy’s magpies are not present. Then Andy talks about the game, which is a pre-written called Up in Smoke.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Andy used a quick-start guide, as there was a Kickstarter just beginning. Andy loves Discworld, but Jane’s a bit of a latecomer, partly because she prefers sci-fi and partly because the Jack Kirby artwork didn’t appeal. Andy met Terry Pratchett at a book signing for Soul Music when he was eleven, so this was a great treat for him. They loved the way they were using traits to justify proficiency, and Mike loved the rules-light nature. Andy loved how they had a range of locations to visit. There was another character in the guide they didn’t use, Constable Misbegotten Ampersand, a Gargoyle who looks like a dragon. There was no resolution in the guide, just the set-up. Jane contrasts it to the Blade Runner game. Then they talk about the Tales From The Guild tour in early 2026. Jane remembers the lisp she had to do for Igorina, and being a little unsure if it was okay to mimic a speech impediment, but the guide gave her position. She’s trying to learn accents properly.

I love this. Big fan of Discworld, particularly the Watch. This is one of the one-shots I’d most like to see more of, although what with there being a guest that would be more difficult.

I liked the composition of the story, for which credit must be split between Andy and the gamemakers, but I also loved the way the characters acted. There did seem to be a slight tilt towards a certain lack of caution and professionalism in some areas, which feels like it might upset Sam Vimes eventually - and of course Sam’s wife Sybil will be devastated by the two dragons they accidentally exploded. They also have the sort-of-murder of Mr Nobbler and the burning of Mrs Ethin’s to deal with. And closing the bridge. Oh, the paperwork…

I just really enjoy this one. Not much more to say.

Oxventure Shorts: World Wide Wrestling RPG

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition

[katgametable]

TAZ Graduation Episode 12: Pop Quiz

Written 27 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep13.

The Thundermen are heading out on real-world assignment early this term, and the night before, Argo makes dinner (it’s mostly inedible). As they argue about the food, Gary tells them a letter has arrived for Argo. After a bit more arguing, FitzRoy decides it must be from a secret lover.

Argo steps out to read the letter. It’s from FitzRoy’s mother Dendra. She’s delighted to hear he’s making friends, and she tells a little about his childhood. He never inherited the family’s illusion magic, so they were delighted when he received an invitation to become a knight of Goodcastle, and mortgaged the caravan business to send him to knight school. After his strange wild magic erupted, an anonymous benefactor paid for him to go to Wiggenstaff’s. She also sent several sticks of hot mint gum FitzRoy had mentioned previously.

Argo hides the letter and returns to the sitting room, where FitzRoy has ordered burgers. FitzRoy then smells the gum, and Argo claims he got it through the Garies. He then brings up that he’s dissatisfied with his position in the company, but FitzRoy doesn’t want to give him a title and implies he’s being paid less. While they are arguing, the Firbolg finds himself getting up and walking off.

Gary alerts FitzRoy after the Firbolg enters the Annexe. FitzRoy tells Argo about the Firbolg having compulsions, and they rush off to intercept him. By the time they reach Higglemist’s office, the corridor is empty and the door locked. Argo deactivates a ward around the lock, and FitzRoy sends his familiar Snippers the crab in to scout around. He deduces they won’t be able to sneak unseen, and starts to concoct a plan to claim there’s a fire, except the meeting ends and the Firbolg emerges.

Higglemist sees them and invites them into the office, as they try to cover for themselves. The Firbolg gets angry about the mental manipulation, until Higglemist speaks a command phrase. Then he agrees they all need to go in and hear Higglemist out.

Higglemist admits he has been mentally manipulating people, but only with their consent. He’s been hiding something. As Elves, he and his brother are hundreds of years old, and were active heroes when heroing truly was heroic, not just a form of entertainment. During that period, they fought a demon prince, and fifty years ago, the demon prince returned and cursed Hieronymus. Higglemist saved Hieronymus’ life, but at a cost; he himself was greatly weakened, and Hieronymus was turned into a dog. He and the dog have been unable to leave the heavily warded office ever since. But two other things happened at the same time. First, some sort of imposter Hieronymus turned up, the Hieronymus they’ve been interacting with so far. Second, the Godscar Chasm appeared, no lead-up, no period of splitting, just appeared, and everyone else in the world remembered it as being there all along. It’s been spewing wild magic for the last fifty years, and is likely connected to FitzRoy, as they have the same magic.

Higglemist has spent the decades trying to undo the transformation on Hieronymus, but he couldn’t get hold of the materials he needed. That’s where the Firbolg came in. Given Firbolgs cannot lie, Higglemist knew he could trust the Firbolg, and the Firbolg agreed to help, and to have his memory wiped and compulsions implanted so he couldn’t give away the secrets. The Firbolg confirms this; his code leads him to help. Leon had also been involved; he’s been scouting for Higglemist in the form of a hawk, but can’t be turned back until Higglemist completes the anti-transformation potion.

Argo easily agrees to join in, but FitzRoy is more reluctant. He gets Higglemist to agree to give him his diploma in exchange for his help, and Higglemist is more worried about the threat to the world than whether or not FitzRoy gets a piece of paper saying he passed his schooling. He also signs the form for FitzRoy to do his artificing project without paying much attention.

There’s only one ingredient still needed, and Higglemist had pulled strings to get them into proximity. There are two centaur herds who both have the same sacred tree, which grows two apples every year. To prevent war, each tribe gets one apple. This year, only one apple grew, and Higglemist needs that apple. He assures them that the centaurs don’t appreciate its power and it’s just symbolic to them.

They discuss whether or not to wipe the Firbolg’s memories again, and decide not, given the other two can shut him up if necessary. Higglemist warns them not to tell anyone about this, there’s no way to know who to trust. The Firbolg remembers and reveals the recording brooch on the inside of his shirt, and says Althea knows everything.

Starting at the end. If Higglemist is right about  the tree and apples being purely symbolic to the herd, it might be possible to just take the apple and get them to do something else to symbolise equality or whatever, maybe say they’ll try to grow a sacred sapling at the school - I believe Druidcraft is good for that, not sure if the Firbolg has it yet. If the centaurs are aware of the power, if it has in fact been providing tangible benefits, that might be a lot harder.

I also reckon Argo should just go and tell Jackal everything. They’ve been studying the Chasm, so Higglemist’s information would be valuable, and it would just be better to form alliances rather than keep working around each other. Also, get someone who can deploy Zone of Truth to confirm people’s words. They made fun of Clint for it in Balance so much, but this is what you want it for.

I like Dendra. I’m also starting to think Goodcastle might be real, despite what was implied in an earlier episode. I suspect if she was indeed absent in FitzRoy’s childhood, she might’ve just been working on the caravan business. She also mentioned that he’d had trouble fitting in at knight school, so that could be why he’s self-aggrandising so much. And here’s a slightly wild thought. Maybe FitzRoy was conceived while Dendra and Jerry were caravaning next to the Chasm.

The whole plot with the demon prince and the dog and the imposter, it makes for a great set-up, but given we already have the Unbroken Chain, and Althea, it’s getting pretty convoluted. I’m also…I’ve already said I’ve seen reviews of this campaign. Something that almost universally got condemned was the stuff with the centaurs. So I’m worried, y’know? It’s been a lot better than I feared so far, but still.

Oh, and one more thought. When was Justin read in to Higglemist’s secrets? Because either there was some smooth editing, or he knew exactly what to do when the Firbolg’s memories were restored. The next TTAZZ isn’t until after episode twenty, I hope someone asked. Because it would be weird to interrupt a Royale-based TTAZZ six years later to ask.

TAZ Graduation: You Can Call Me Al(thea)

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation: Apple for Teacher

[katgametable]

Oxventure Shorts: Invincible

Written 23 Sep 2025, shortly after listening.

This game is the Invincible RPG based on the eponymous comic and cartoon, which is Kickstarting now. This game is for a mature audience. OX Producer Zack FG is Gamemaster, Jane Douglas is Atom Eve, Mike Channell is Rex Plode, Luke Westaway is Robot, and special guest Emily Bates is Monster Girl. Apparently these are all canon characters.

To play, every skill has a number of d6 to roll, and rolling any number of 6s is a success. Helping each other can give more dice. You can push yourself to take stress to reroll, except for ones. Initiative is determined by drawing custom cards, lower is sooner. They redraw each round.

It is the aftermath of the deaths of the Guardians of the Globe and the fight between Omni-Man and Invincible. The world needs new heroes, and they’ve been called to a secret meeting room beneath the Pentagon by the Global Defence Agency. The boss, Cecil, teleports in to give them a job. The Mauler Twins have escaped and are up to no good. The GDA have tracked them down and need the new team to go in, find out what’s going on, and apprehend the criminals – not explode them.

As they head out in a hover craft (Robot the person staying safe behind while Robot the robot goes with them), Robot talks about how the Twins appear to be dumb brutes, but should not be underestimated as their intellect is nearly as high as Robot’s. Rex complains about having to look after children – Monster Girl, who looks ten, complains that she’s twenty-five. Robot asks Atom Eve why she’s with them given she turned down an invitation to join, and she says she’s freelance because she can’t join any team with Rex on it, but someone’s got to keep an eye on him.

They arrive at the warehouse the Twins are supposedly in. Robot tries to analyse the lay of the land but fails to get anything much. There are three potential entrances. Eve looks around and determines that this is a rather dangerous site, and unmanaged explosions could cause serious damage to the city’s infrastructure. She also notices the heat signatures of several people crowded in one corner, but none of them the size of a Mauler Twin. Robot decides that they should go in quiet to determine if these heat signatures are hostages, and if so get them out. So Rex and Monster should hold back while Eve goes in stealthily. Eve agrees, while Robot stays back with the other two. Eve turns a non-weight-bearing portion of wall to gas and enters.

The warehouse is quiet, and laboratory-esque. There’s what seems to be cloning apparatus, a massive tube filling a large portion of the centre of the room. Eve avoids a tripwire, and sees traps on the entrances they noted earlier. There’s a chamber with frosted glass that voices come from. Eve sneaks over, and radios back her report of tripwires and to be very careful following her in.

Monster Girl turns into her monster form, and they enter through the hole Eve left. Robot detects scientific energies, identifying the goo around the cloning tube as Kaiju Goo. Specifically a Kaiju Omni-Man fought. But there’s no Kaiju present. Robot announces that the Mauler Twins, expert cloners, seem to have been cloning Kaiju.

Eve turns on to intercom to talk to the people in the frosted glass room. They ask to be freed, they’re just scientists forced to work for the Twins. Rex tells them to stand back, and explodes the door – Robot tells Monster to be ready in case the people were lying. Rex frees the people, but also injures them. One of them dies. Eve is furious.

The surviving scientists explain that the Twins threatened their lives if they didn’t help clone four Kaiju. Rex is unrepentant, but it seems like the scientists aren’t telling them everything, and what they said about being forced seems a little dubious. Robot and Monster intimidate the scientists into telling them more. The scientists work for Machinehead, a massive company involved in both legal and illegal ventures. Machinehead broke the Twins out, and the Twins were working for Machinehead, until they decided to input their own commands into the Kaiju. They call the GDA, who tell them to arrest the scientists and also get the Twins. Monster grabs them and the corpse, but drops the body on a trip wire. The tripwire sets off a siren and triggers four turrets to pop up.

They draw initiative. Robot shelters behind the computers, then does some scans to find the turrets’ power source. He alerts them to the power generator. Two turrets fire at Monster and miss. One hits Rex, and Eve puts up a barrier to partially protect herself from the fourth, although it still hurts her badly. Mike determines the smart thing to do would be to sever the cables between the generator and the turrets, but that’s not Rex would do. He tries to explode the generator, but blasts Robot. Eve can’t reach the generator, but turns the cables into rubber. The turrets power down.

The scientists want to be released before the Twins turn up, but Monster insists on delivering them to the hovercraft. Except a blast destroys the hovercraft; the Mauler Twins have arrived.

They all draw initiative again. The first Twin fires an absolutely massive gun at Monster and misses, and Monster charges him. He grabs her by the throat and spits in her face. Eve uses her powers to throw a crate at that first Twin, but even pushing doesn’t work as the Twin pushes it back, tearing the area up and triggering something incendiary. Robot reasons that they probably need to worry about the Kaiju, and the Twins would’ve put a backdoor access into the Kaiju, so he gets on the computers. He finds the Kaiju (Alpha, Beta, Gamma Delta) have all been hidden in stasis at various points under the city. He can’t find kill switches from that console, but there is a self-destruct for that facility. So he downloads the data and transfers it to Cecil. Then he calls on the Twins to surrender. But the Twins reckon they can take the team. So the second Twin charges Robot, he just dodges out of the way in time.

Monster punches the Twin holding her, doing a tremendous amount of damage, wrecking his arm and stunning him. Rex throws an explosive at his crotch and detonates it, annoying Monster, then another, which finishes the Twin off. Eve sends an energy bolt at the surviving Twin, making a hole in him, then puts up another barrier around herself just in case. Robot tries to blast the Twin, but telegraphed it too obviously. Said Twin takes over the computer and starts typing rapidly. Robot tries to interrupt but fails. The Twin activates the self destruct, boasts that he’s destroying the evidence, and starts to flee.

Robot tells the others to let the Twin go, as they have clone-body backups, and that they must prevent the explosion. He cannot disable the countdown, so he directs Eve into building a protective structure. The scientists got killed in the melee, so they just have to evacuate themselves. Monster pins the Mauler Twin to the wall and leaves, while Robot decides to sacrifice the robot body and stay inside. Rex leaps out a window. The dome goes up and Eve steps out of it. They watch for a moment and there’s a massive, contained explosion. There’s some damage outside, but almost all of it is contained.

Monster Girl turns back to her human form, losing her last point of resolve and is broken by stress. She passes out and has to be carried home. The GDA are rather upset about the deaths, and aren’t convinced the damage was indeed minimised. The team ask about the Kaijus, and are told they are being isolated and taken in for study. Robot asks Eve if she’ll reconsider being a permanent part of the team, and she agrees after he estimates Rex won’t last long.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane and Andy are joined by Mike. Mike hates all jokes about his name. Jane forgot Mike was in this one-shot; Andy was meant to participate, but he was sick. Mike had not read/watched any Invincible. Zack set up the characters and offered them to them, but Mike thought there was no other choice for him than Rex-Plosion. Zack had to step in for Johnny who unexpectedly couldn’t come in. This is reminiscent of the last time Emily Bates guested on Oxventure, for DnD But It’s Cluedo, when she had to step in last minute because Jane and Ellen were both sick. They turn to the source material. Invincible is “what if superheroes were bad”, and also extremely violent, with mostly teens and young adults. Mike likes that everyone has their powers straight away. He also liked that they got to play actual characters, which is why he attempted an accent. They move on to discussing Silksong, the hot release of the moment which Andy has been playing. They’ve all been watching various horror movies in the run-up to Halloween season. Jane is planning on finishing her knitted blanket, as it is now cosy season. Andy has been collecting horror paraphernalia and is getting close to starting a collection of horror dolls.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Mike really enjoyed it. There were lots of explosions, lots of violence, some spicy language, which isn’t normal for OX but felt necessary for Invincible. They enjoyed playing with Emily again. Jane noted that it was very unusual for them to use a map, but it’s an intrinsic part of the system. They discuss how environment mechanics interact with the story, and how Atom Eve is overpowered without a real drawback like Monster Girl. They think about the recent Superman film, where Superman seemed to actually enjoy being Superman, in comparison to the Snyder films. They discuss Rex and Eve’s past, and Mike talks about the character arc for Rex he’d read about, and speculates that a longer series would incorporate that. Jane also mentions her character having an ex in Traveller, and Andy brings up that she did in Blade Runner too. They consider having a non-angry ex in play, which won’t happen with Katie Pearlhead in The Guild (note from me: Happen’s ex Beatrice in Wyrdwood?). Andy reveals they’re going to be shooting some spooky Oxventures for Hallowstream. They plug the merch, and have nearly sold out of tickets for the Birmingham and Manchester Tales From The Guild live shows next spring – there’s more tickets for the London show still available. (I can’t afford three cross-country jaunts, so I’m just going to Birmingham.)

I read a little Invincible, and did not like it. Partly because I don’t like “what if superheroes were bad”; the point of superheroes is to be good. I also found it extremely gratuitous. We also discussed it on the OXSC Discord before the live release, and some people expressed concern with inappropriate costumes for the ladies (some of whom are teens), an apparent requirement to be in unrealistic physical condition, and indications of side-lining persons of colour. But that based on the artwork on the TTRPG’s Kickstarter. However, we all agreed that OX would probably handle it at least reasonably; we were correct.

It was still a bit more violent and irreverent than I’d prefer, but it was great fun. Those who are familiar with the source material say Mike’s performance was very good; Mike (as mentioned on the podcast) hadn’t seen it, but did do a lot of research, which paid off. Not sure how accurate the other characters were, but they were great fun. The GDA seem a bit sus, though. But I think it was fair to be annoyed with the team for all the death and destruction, even if they did locate four Kaiju before they could start anything.

Also, love Zack being on-camera. He does such a good job.

I don’t think I’d go out of my way to find more Invincible TTRPG, but if OX did more, I’d happily watch it.

Oxventure Shorts: Traveller

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: Dread Giant Jenga

[katgametable]

TAZ Graduation Episode 11: You Can Call Me Al(thea)

Written 27 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep12.

Althea Song has agreed to leave interviews until the morning, and they’re going to have separate interviews. FitzRoy is first.

FitzRoy starts by talking about his ambitions to learn to be the best knight, and claims his family are big in the hero/villain scene – Althea says the Heroic Oversight Guild has no record of them, and FitzRoy says there’s a shadow guild. He talks a bit about the Thundermen company, before they get down to business. Glancing at Gary, he says everything’s good. Althea explains her ring guarantees privacy, and FitzRoy says that she must have received a letter about the school, the he encouraged the student to send it, and now he thinks that student is no longer alive. He’s scared of being disappeared or brainwashed. Althea says brainwashing is very serious, and she’ll have to investigate that further.

Meanwhile, the Firbolg goes to talk to the Gary outside the Annexe. He asks Gary if he saw him enter and leave; Gary confirms, saying he looked out of it when leaving. After checking the Gary hivemind, it turns out that while the Firbolg was in Higglemist’s office, the Gary in the office was put to sleep, which must’ve taken a lot of powerful magic. Also, the Firbolg seems to have these meetings every other day or so. The Firbolg asks him to get the Gary network to alert FitzRoy if he sees him going in to stop him, and in exchange the Firbolg agrees to get Gary a hat or something to keep the sun out of his eyes.

It’s Argo’s interview. He tells Althea his ambition is to be a sidekick for a naval hero called The Commodore – his mother worked for him as a privateer after working on a narwhalling ship and leading a mutiny to change industry. Althea explains a bit about placements, and offers to put a word in with The Commodore, but Argo says he’d preferred to prove himself first. Then she asks how his experience at the school has been and if he’s seen anything strange. The only real problem he has is related to the Thundermen company – FitzRoy is the CEO, and the Firbolg the CFO (because he did accountancy), but he doesn’t have a position so feels left out. He acknowledges it’s a personal issue, and Althea suggest just talking to them. But overall, he feels he’s been treated fairly, and he says he hasn’t seen anything strange, given “normal” includes skeletons serving drinks and so on.

FitzRoy goes to see Festo, his magic tutor, to subtle probe about HOG. She’s sleeping off a night of partying – fairies party a lot. After asking for the goss, FitzRoy learns Althea is one of the most well-regarded inspectors, sent to the most important investigations, and that he can trust her, but she might put her job before the person.

It’s time for the session on the battlegrounds. Frostus “Crush” Crushman is a former arena champion, a silver Dragonborn who won every bout (which was always to the death), before he had to retire because no-one would fight him anymore. He’s married to fellow former arena champion Jimson (they were in different weight classes). As well as the former champions, an Elf woman Argo recognises as part of the Unbroken Chain is waiting for them.

Crush has heard they nearly died to a bunch of imps, so he wants to go two rounds against them to see where their weak points are – the Elf, Marie, is the school physician, and will make sure they don’t get killed. The fight goes pretty well, including a laser of wild magic from FitzRoy and finishing with Crush bloodying him. He concludes that the three are actually pretty competent, and asks what happened. The Firbolg deduces that being outnumbered was a factor, and FitzRoy brings up the chain devil. Crush is impressed that they killed a chain devil.

Argo goes to the library to research the Maplecourt family. He meets Sabor, also of the Unbroken Chain, and in his office, tells Argo he’s already tried that, but if Argo has more details they can use that. Argo has picked up FitzRoy’s mother’s name, Dendra, and Sabor looks that up. Turns out she’s four times removed from the mainline, and married to a long-haul caravan driver. There’s also an address. Argo decides to send her a letter, and also read up on barbarians.

The Firbolg is meeting Althea. He puts on a “bad boy” show, but gives it up, saying Raynier told him to do it. Althea knows Firbolgs can’t really lie, and says she’ll be careful. She asks about him leaving his clan, and he says he’s in exile but doesn’t want to talk about it. She moves on to his experiences at the school. He enjoys studying, but he’s been compelled to do things and he doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t remember things. It’s important to him to live by a code, and he doesn’t know that he is any more. Althea gives him a brooch she uses to record meetings, so he can record his day and listen back if he has blanks, and assures him she’ll get to the bottom of it.

Argo write his letter to Dendra Maplecourt, introducing himself as FitzRoy’s roommate, assuring her of FitzRoy’s good progress, and asking her for details he can use for a roast, a good-natured ribbing, in FitzRoy’s honour.

I’d like to take a moment to explain what it means for FitzRoy’s family line to be fourth cousins of the mainline, by comparing it to the UK monarchy’s lines, because I like tracing the lines of descent of my own royal family. Currently, the mainline is Charles III, his sons, their kids. Then you’ve got the sibling lines, descendants of Elizabeth II; the Philips, York, and Edinburgh/Wessex lines. The first cousin lines would be descendants of George VI, that is, Margaret’s lines, Snowdon and Chatto. Second cousins, descendants of George V - Gloucester, Kent and Harewood. The third cousin lines are the descendants of Edward VII, which are Fife and the Norwegian Royal Family (and how that one happened is more interesting than you might think). The fourth cousin lines, therefore, are the descendants of Queen Victoria, and I haven’t memorised that layer yet but you get the picture. FitzRoy is as far from the Maplecourt mainline as, say, the heirs of the German Kaiser are from King Charles. Also, interesting fact, the name “FitzRoy” literally means “son of the king”, and was traditionally a surname given to royal bastards.

So, backing away from that side hobby to the technicalities of DnD combat. Justin/the Firbolg was completely correct when he said their problem with the imp clear out was numbers. This is called action economy; even the mightiest bosses rarely have more than three actions per turn (plus lair/legendary actions), but ten CR 1/2 imps still have ten actions per turn. In addition, it wasn’t a massed combat, it was a series of skirmishes. That meant they were constantly burning through resources, hit points and spell slots and once/twice a day abilities, even before they reached the Chain Demon, taking out one or two imps at a time. Yeah, finishing with a boss fight tipped it over into deadly, but it was still a rough slog.

What else was there? Argo’s mother probably isn’t a Water Genasi; he mentioned she can’t breathe water. I’d tentatively suggest we’ve now seen all the Unbroken Chain members at the school – if I was right about the artificing professor. HOG, which is cited in one of the episode titles, is confirmed as the Heroic Oversight Guild – I think I’d been calling them a council or committee earlier. The Garies aren’t necessarily on Higglemist’s side, if he’s been deactivating the one in his office, but that doesn’t automatically mean that Higglemist can’t get information from them. Argo, I’m not sure if he’s genuinely not picked up on anything strange or is afraid of giving away the Chain’s presence – that’ll be interesting, if Althea can find them.

But what this episode really brought to the table was fleshing out bits of character backstory and motivation. We have an answer as to why FitzRoy’s stories don’t quite ring true, what’s important to the Firbolg, why Argo chose this path. It’s making the story that bit richer.

TAZ Graduation: Dark Arts and Crafts

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation: Pop Quiz

[katgametable]

Oxventure Shorts: World Wide Wrestling RPG

Written 19 Jun 2026, shortly after relistening, having listened previously.

This game features Andy Farrant as Fabian Fantastic, Mike Channell as The Funeral Director, special guest Dan Layton as Matt Finish, and Johnny Chiodini as the game master. The system is The World Wide Wrestling RPG from NDPDesign.

It’s time for a night of wrestling from OXW. Babyface Monster The Funeral Director, a crowd favourite, last week won a match against another wrestler Baby Boy with a particularly impressive finisher. Newcomer Babyface Matt Finish was announced as a new signing, who has been mentored by The Funeral Director. And Champion Heel Fabian Fantastic is so rich he didn’t even bother showing up last week.

Commentator Chip Spudley announces the first match will be between Matt Finish and The Funeral Director, and in the locker room, Flex Abslington (who sounds like Kermit the Frog) interviews The Funeral Director, who promises a good funeral for Matt. Matt responds that Director taught him everything he knows, but Matt picked up some tricks elsewhere. They both cut promos, and Matt adds a condition that the match will be No Disqualifications.

They both make dramatic entrances, and the match begins. Andy takes control of Chip and Flex to provide commentary. Director gets an early pin on Matt, but Matt kicks out, and makes an impressive showing. But the Creative (Johnny) books Director to win, so Matt goes down.

The camera cuts to Fabian in his opulent mansion, insulting the wrestlers. The next fight is a grudge match between two NPC wrestlers, Baby Boy and Dude Wipes, who used to be a tagteam called Baby Wipes until Dude Wipes betrayed Baby Boy. Baby Boy wins, and there’s a set of adverts.

Fabian Fantastic is back, in Graham Graham (the owner)’s office. Graham is furious that Fabian has been refusing to turn up to wrestle and has just been slagging off the wrestlers. Fabian says he’s the proved he’s the greatest and can beat any of them. So Graham throws him his costume and tells him he’s fighting Director, right now. He cuts a promo, and stipulates his butler Herringford will be with him ringside.

Chip interviews Director about how he feels about wrestling again tonight, and Director talks about his competitively priced funeral plans. This confuses the audience. He enters the ring, setting a large urn on the commentators’ table. He and Fabian have history; they trained together at the start of their careers, but he went into funerary care while Fabian focused on becoming the best wrestler. However, he’s scared of Fabian and his prowess.

Fabian enters, descending from a helicopter with Herringford. Dan is now controlling Chip and Flex. The fight starts, and Fabian quickly knocks Director down before taunting the crowd. As Director mounts a defence, Fabian fights back, Herringford distracts the referee, and Fabian pulls out a telescoping baton to smash Director’s knees. As he prepares for a second strike with it, Matt sprints in, and interrupts. The crowd is thrilled.

Fabian lets go and drops, so the ref turns and sees Matt holding the baton. There’s an argument about disqualifying Director, and Fabian performatively staggers off on Herringford’s shoulder. But Graham blocks him, and herds him back to the ring. He puts each wrestler in separate corners, and grabs the mike. He orders them to sort it out; Fabian protests, and Graham points out the baton has Fabian’s name on it. He books Fabian into a handicap match right now, without Herringford. Matt apologises, but Graham is fed up. He tosses the mike to Director and leaves. Director promises Fabian he’ll smash his face in, but will do his best to reconstruct it for an open casket funeral.

There are more adverts, improvised by the players.

Johnny is back in control of Chip and Flex, as the arena is set up for the new match of Director and Matt against Fabian. Fabian darts out of the ring and jeers at the audience, and hides under the ring. Director goes after him, and pulls out Herringford, who hits him with Fabian’s championship belt and crawls back under. Matt watches in confusion, and Fabian pops out and hits him in the back. He puts Matt in a submission, but Matt twists out of it and drops Fabian. Director has a gold casket brought in.

Matt kicks Fabian over the ropes to Director. Director starts laying him out, but Fabian punches him in the groin with brass knuckles, then starts taking out his legs. The Creative decides to book Fabian to win the match, and Fabian calls for a finisher that will put Matt into the casket. Matt charges him to protect Director, and Fabian starts to crush him.

But Matt has an ability, Hungry, and decides to win anyway. As he’s slammed into the casket, he pulls Fabian in after him. Matt manages to climb out, shutting the lid behind him, catching his fingers in the process. As the crowd goes wild, the commentators wonder about if Matt made too many enemies on his first day.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane checks on Andy’s lunch plans. Andy explains the concept of this RPG. He asks Jane if she considered playing this one, and she says she doesn’t think she’s sufficiently well-versed in the wrestling world. She recalls going to a Money In The Bank with Andy, in which Logan Paul got beaten up. If she’d played, she’d have gone for a Rhea Ripley type. They talk about wrestling, how you’d have to watch five hours of wrestling a week to keep up with just WWE (don’t ask how many hours a week I spend listening to TTRPGs), and how a lot of the appeal is the complex storytelling – much like a TTRPG.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Jane loved it. Andy explains that Mike was in costume (can be seen on the video), and was parodying The Undertaker, a real wrestler who went through an evolution. Andy drew on a long tradition of rich jerk heels such as Rick Flair. Matt was an archetypal whiteknee babyface, a clean-cut underdog for the crowd to root for. They read some comments, amusement at Flex being Kermit, and Dan saying he loved playing the wrestler without having to go to the gym. Andy says he tried wrestling, and it really hurt. He and Jane have been to see the film Long Legs in the cinema, and they’ve both seen The Black Phone separately. Jane has been playing Vampire Therapist. Andy has a lot of horror in the cinemas he wants to watch. They will be doing a stream on Outside Xbox with the Sims 4 dating pack.

This is a very fun one. I love World Wide Wrestling RPG; Dicebreaker did a play they called Spinebreaker, which is one of my favourite of theirs. So I was delighted when OX did it too.

One thing that’s interesting in this one, is how much is kayfabe. If you’re not aware, kayfabe is…kinda like a veil of narrative over the whole thing, separating performer from character. To give an example, it’s what separates The Rock from Dwayne Johnson. Now, in this game, we almost exclusively saw just the kayfabe. The exception was when Johnny declared who they’d booked to win the fights – although, as we saw, there were opportunities to disregard that. So, I’m wondering how much was planned in advance – was Matt always going to step into the Director/Fabian fight, or was it improvised? It certainly led up to an exciting episode conclusion.

I found The Funeral Director bizarre, for how he was being a big scary imma-kill-you type, but also promising to deliver an extremely respectful funeral. Liked it, though. Matt, he’s just a good guy starting his career. And Fabian, he deserved a loss, quite frankly. Makes for a much better narrative for him to have to eat humble pie after getting too arrogant.

Yeah, I loved this one.

Oxventure Shorts: Blade Runner

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: Discworld: Adventures in Anhk-Morpork

[katgametable]

TAZ Graduation Episode 10: Dark Arts and Crafts

Written 17 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep11.

It’s the start of a new semester. The Thundermen have moved into new quarters in the Hero/Villain section, consisting of a sitting room, two bedrooms, and a private restroom. Their Gary has followed them, but it seems the insubstantial cat has not.

They go down to breakfast, and see Buckminster by himself. They sit with him, fill him in on their imp clear-out (Argo now considers himself owing FitzRoy a life debt), and the Firbolg asks about Leon. Buckminster says he’s away travelling, but there’s an odd look in his eyes. The Firbolg notices, but FitzRoy catches his eye and gets him to drop it. Raynier joins them; she has spent the break with her father, a lich.

Hieronymus Wiggenstaff gets up to make an announcement. First, he tells them they need to remember to focus on their studies, and second, he introduces an Elf woman called Althea Song, who is from the Heroic Oversight Council and is just checking on them.

They head to classes. The Firbolg goes to see Higglemist Wiggenstaff, but the next thing he remembers is waking up from a nap under a tree.

Argo goes to a private session with Jackal. Jackal steps onto the balcony, where there’s an anti-spying ward. He asks Argo if he’s learned anything about FitzRoy and the Maplecourt family. All Argo has is a few bits of trivia. Jackal tells him the Unbroken Chain needs to know more, and Argo gets upset that they might be planning to hurt FitzRoy. Jackal tells him that it’s not that, it’s that the wild magic in him hasn’t been seen in a person before. He points to the Godscar Chasm, a canyon near the school, and says the Chasm is bleeding the same wild magic as is in FitzRoy. Argo isn’t entirely convinced, but agrees to try harder. Jackal then gives him an exercise in lockpicking that involves trapped locks.

FitzRoy has a break between classes. He’s not terribly keen on getting mixed up in the weird occurrences at the school, but he really wants to graduate and fears he can’t if things aren’t resolved. He spots the Firbolg waking under the tree. The Firbolg mentions he doesn’t remember, and FitzRoy tells him they need to talk somewhere more private, asking the Firbolg to find a secret spot in the forest. Then he goes on to the Artificing Lab, because he wants to make something to protect him from mental control.

He speaks to the Artificing Professor, Crabtree, who is described as having a beard so I’m guessing a Dwarf woman. FitzRoy is very cagey about what he wants to make, but eventually “randomly” decides on the mental protection item. Crabtree warns him that’s not going to be easy; it will require a lot of expensive materials, and given the dire consequences of getting something like that wrong, she also wants a signed permission slip from one of the Wiggenstaffs. FitzRoy leaves with a list of materials.

The Firbolg has found a nice spot on the outskirts of the woods – when he enters, he can see there’s a magical dimness, and the sunlight doesn’t pierce the canopy. He sends directions to FitzRoy via the Notebooks of Farspeech. FitzRoy considers finding Argo and bringing him, but he saw Argo sneaking out in the middle of the night too many times to trust him. He joins the Firbolg alone.

They swap notes about the Firbolg’s compulsive actions, and FitzRoy’s observations. FitzRoy Detects Magic, and finds an enchantment on the Firbolg. He asks him to trust him, then casts Charm Person. It takes hold, and FitzRoy can tell there’s no other control on him presently, but there is the residue of past control. They consider bringing Argo in, and the Firbolg suggests doing a Charm Person test on him too, but FitzRoy isn’t convinced he isn’t choosing to do whatever it is he’s doing. The Firbolg acquiesces.

They return to their quarters, just as Argo is also returning. The Gary on the door tells them they’ll have combat training the following day. Entering their rooms, they find Althea Song waiting for them. She has questions.

This feels like an episode more about preparing for development than actual development itself. Kinda more setup.

I like FitzRoy’s plan to get mental protections, although I suspect Crabtree might be a member of the Unbroken Chain – if I’m correct about her being a Dwarf, I think one of the un-introduced professors at the meeting after Argo’s induction was a Dwarf. Which does tie together FitzRoy trying to protect himself from Higglemist and the Chain. However, I think getting the protection item is going to be pretty difficult. Smart, though.

The Firbolg didn’t get so much to do this time. I’m kinda wondering where his head’s at; while we got some of Argo’s thoughts and opinions, and FitzRoy’s, not so much from the Firbolg. He seems a very passive character. Not necessarily a bad thing, but…maybe a little dull? It feels like the character isn’t living up to its potential, not yet at least. Something I am remembering is that way back in episode one, the Firbolg was invited into Higglemist’s office to examine his dog. Maybe that’s when Higglemist first sank metaphorical claws into his brain.

Argo’s interesting in that he seems to lack much commitment. He was very gung-ho about joining the Chain, but he’s almost immediately backing away a bit. And sure, maybe it isn’t the best decision to immediately have him spy on one of his best friends, but…I dunno. Argo feels a bit flighty there, which is ironic for a water Genasi.

Oh, and the woman from the Heroic Oversight Committee, that should be interesting. I’m betting she’s gonna come into conflict with at least one Wiggenstaff pretty quick…

TAZ Graduation Episode 9: Mission: Imp Hospital 2 - Unfinished Business

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation Episode 11: You Can Call Me Al(thea)

[viewfindercomics]

POV: your public execution has created a domino effect which will last at least 100 four-hour long actual play d&d sessions.

So happy with how this turned out! Speedpaint available here and here!

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I promise I’ll get back to Critical Role…

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Oxventure Shorts Blade Runner

Written 16 Jun 2026, shortly after relistening, having listened previously.

This game features Jane as Margot Worth, human investigator, Aoife Wilson as STK0438, Static, replicant negotiator, Andy Farrant as JL2780, Purvis, replicant analyst, and Mike Channell as the game runner. The system is Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game, based on the classic sci-fi franchise, by Free League Publishing.

Los Angeles, May 2037, toxic rain falls constantly. The rich have left for the off-world colonies, leaving the poor and the cops. Margot is at a noodle bar with Purvis, reading a newspaper article about the successful launch of the Nexus 9 replicants (such as Purvis and Static) by the Wallace Corporation.

A police spinner arrives outside, and Static gets out. She’s been sent by Deputy Chief Holdon to retrieve Margot for an urgent meeting, and no is not an acceptable answer. Margot grouches about being on leave but agrees, while Purvis immediately invites himself along. Static sys Purvis is superfluous, but takes him along.

Deputy Chief Holdon has synthetic lungs after being shot in the chest in 2019 (I’m assuming a reference to the book/film), and a permanent desk job. He’s called Margot in due to an incident in the Snake Bit on Nightclub Row the previous night, involving two undercover Nexus 9 Blade Runners. Sandor was shot dead, and Leah has gone missing. The Wallace Corporation is getting involved because they don’t want anything to jeopardise the launch; they’re letting the LAPD investigate, but want kept in the loop and are offering their resources, and a PR manager wants to see them. Sandor’s body is in the crime lab, and the files for both he and Leah are available. The nightclub might have security footage, and word from the beat cops is that a human supremacist group were active. This needs solved fast, and Margot’s the best. The other two can help, too. He advises not to leave Wallace waiting too long, though.

Mechanically, the day is broken into “shifts”, and after three shift they have to rest.

Margot decides to start by going to Wallace, while the other two examine the body, then they’ll meet up at the crime scene. She takes a spinner, and is show to the VP of Public Relations, a woman called Quell. Quell explains that it’s very important this gets resolved quickly, and also mentions that Leah had failed a few baseline tests and been recalibrated not long previously, but that’s not considered suspicious. Meanwhile, Static and Purvis are examining the body of a guy they had seen around the office occasionally, but now he has a really big hole in his chest. Purvis determines it must have been made by a high calibre weapon, a big gun, fired at close range. The first shift is over.

On the way to the crime scene, Margot calls the others, and hears about the big hole and big gun, then contacts a confidential informant. He’s already heard about the shooting the previous night, but he has some more details. There was indeed a human supremacist group there, and there was some sort of disturbance prior to the shooting. Also present, was the publisher of Kill Magazine (“that rag”).

Both spinners land outside the Snake Pit at much the same time. There’s a crowd being kept back by a harried-looking beat cop. One man stands out in the crowd; he’s extremely tall, and notably fair in colouration. Static approaches the beat cop, identifies herself, and asks where the esper security footage would be; he directs her to the owner. Margot asks about the witness statements, but the cop hasn’t taken any. Grumbling, she goes to talk to the albino, Static following, while Purvis goes to talk to the owner.

The albino is called Stiles. He says it started with a bunch of human supremacists harassing one of the dancers, a Nexus 9. He intervened, and while his back was turned, there was a shot. Static pries at what exactly Stiles said to intervene, and he admits punches were thrown. He also confirms the magazine publisher was present. Margot takes his details, and they go inside to join Purvis. Purvis has been talking to the owner, and trying to seem tough by calling him a piece of trash. The owner is unimpressed but cooperative. He can’t show them security footage, because it’s all centralised at the LAPD, but he points out the cameras – they don’t watch the dance floor, but they do focus on the door. There’s also a smashed mirror behind the bar, and a large pool of blood. Margot and Static come in, and Margot takes a sample of the blood. They also examine the mirror and dig a bullet out of it. Margot talks to the owner, and then go to talk to the dancer. She’s too flustered to remember much, but she confirms about the human supremacists and Stiles, and when shown a picture of Leah, confirms she was there. Another shift is over.

They split up again. Purvis takes the blood and bullet back to the LAPD. It turns out the bullet is a caseless 44 calibre, predominantly used in Blade Runner’s standard issue blasters. All the blood is Sandor’s. He continues on to examine the security footage, and while thinking, he remembers a nightmarish memory, of being on Animoid Row and being spooked by a fish with the face of a man. But he also remembers, also on Animoid Row, a shop called Bullet Bob’s Runner Surplus that peddle excess Runner gear.

Margot and Static have gone to see Gell Shylar, the magazine publisher. In between insults to Static and replicants in general, he tells them that he and his mates were arguing with Stiles (who hangs out on Animoid Row), a scuffle started, Sandor went to arrest Stiles and Leah shot him. Then in the commotion, Leah ran out and got in a taxi. Static senses he’s telling the truth.

Back at the LAPD, Purvis is reviewing the footage from the Snake Pit, which confirms Leah left the club in a taxi. He then starts reviewing footage near Bullet Bob’s, and finds that Leah went there a few days earlier, then goes down a narrow street and doesn’t reappear until the previous evening. The three catch up on their communicators, and that’s the end of the third shift.

Purvis and Static take downtime. Purvis goes home, hangs out with his holographic girlfriend, and practises quickdrawing his blaster in the mirror. Static wanders the streets, and runs into an old mentor of hers. After explaining the current case, the mentor says she’s seen Stiles hanging around a butterfly stall on Animoid Row a lot.

Margot has a speciality that lets her work a fourth shift before downtime, so she stays up all night researching. She finds Leah’s file, which shows she was actually suspended between failing her baselines and the recalibration. There’s also a file on Stiles, who is a Nexus 8 replicant, fifteen years old, hard labour and combat model, no known address. Then she goes back to the Animoid Row footage, and finds Leah returned to Bullet Bob’s after the shooting, and then conversed with the stallholder of The Aurelion. She sends her findings to the others early in the morning, then goes home, has a drink, and passes out.

Purvis and Static meet up at Animoid Row, and wonder where Margot is. They decide to investigate Bullet Bob’s while waiting for her. Purvis suggests going in with a ruse about being criminals looking to buy weapons, but Static reminds him she cannot lie, and so cannot assist. He tries it anyway, and Bob immediately clocks him as a cop. He is, however, willing to tell them about Leah; the first time she came in, she looked but didn’t buy, and the second time, she bought ammo – caseless 44 calibre. He is not willing to sell Purvis an assault rifle.

They leave, and trace Leah’s path to the narrow street, which turns out to be a blind alley. Wondering why she spent an extended period down there, they find a rusted-shut door that may not be as rusted shut as it appears. They debate going in versus waiting for Margot, and Stiles appears. He tells them they need to stop pursuing Leah, that the ramifications of their investigation are too great. Purvis refuses to accept that as a man is dead already. Stiles calls out two other replicants, one with a knife and one with a length of pipe, and a fight breaks out.

By the end, Static is stabbed, Purvis is nearly dead, the replicants are unconscious on the floor, and Stiles is willing to talk. He doesn’t know where Leah is; she’s meant to be in the safe house, but she left. She killed Sandor to stop him arresting Stiles; Stiles has been running a secret group to protect replicants. He’s clearly not telling them everything about his operation, but he lets them search the safe house (behind the rusted door) if they want.

Margot finally arrives. Purvis tries to claim he killed a bunch of replicants that have already been carted off; it is not convincing. They share the new information, and Margot asks if they need medical aid. Purvis is actually the best at first aid, so he patches himself up and then helps Static.

Searching the safe house, Leah is indeed absent, but they find a magazine with the page marked to an article about Lilith Tyrell’s memory design. The Tyrell Corporation no longer exists, but Lilith is now a contractor working for Wallace – her work was mentioned in the newspaper article about the Nexus 9 launch they read the previous day. Margot calls Quell, who continues to be cagey about Leah’s recalibration, but does give them the location of Lilith Tyrell’s Memory Lab.

They head to the Memory Lab, and see Leah heading towards it. They intercept her. She tells them that all Nexus 9s have a traumatic memory implanted in them, and if they think about disobeying, the memory is triggered. But hers is being triggered constantly. She needs to leave town, but first she wants to kill Lilith Tyrell, who designed and implemented it. She charges towards the Memory Lab, and Margot shoots her, blowing off her leg. Lilith Tyrell herself emerges to see what the commotion is, and has absolutely no compunctions about forcibly traumatising replicants – and Wallace knows all about it, and pays her to do it. Purvis, haunted by the image of a fish with a man’s face and screaming she’s a piece of trash, whacks her with the severed leg, knocking her out, then goes inside and smashes up some computers (it won’t take too long to fix). Margot calls Stiles to come take Leah away, provided she never comes back, which he easily agrees to, and he and several others turn up to collect her (and the leg). They’ll say she escaped, keeping the arrangement secret. They know more about the world they live in, but what can they do about it?

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane is joined by Mike for his first on-camera game-running. He felt it quite prescribed; they didn’t touch on much of the starter pack. He found the case set-up to be very intricate, with lots of details about each NPC to keep in mind. The clash between Margot and the PR woman early on, he enjoyed that clash of minds. Jane perceives it all as a massive crime puzzle. She didn’t feel lost, because they still had the framework of a criminal investigation to work with. It was a very concentrated form of the case, there was a lot they didn’t cover, and Mike found it a bit hard to manage that. He has seen the DnD movie and is looking forward to Barbie and Oppenheimer, as well as special events at the Science Museum.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Mike was worried he hadn’t made Leah sympathetic enough, but he liked the tinge of regret at the end. Jane says it’s very like the film. There’s mechanisms in the game for balancing your career progression against your humanity. You could play as someone who doesn’t care about replicants and just wants to climb the ladder; they compare to Prudence’s motivations – the latest OX Guild to be release was Squid Pro Quo. There was a similar tension with Barnaby in Blades. Jane loved both Static and Purvis, and how some replicants are just out and about in this time period. The replicants are only a few years old, and so have personality quirks coming from that; Jane found it a light spot in a depressing setting. Mike was worried about the tone, given the setting pointed to something much less lighthearted than usual OX, but they managed to do it well. Jane thinks she made the wrong choice with the extra shift, which put her out of sync with the rest of the team. They’d never played “shifts” before, and she liked the day/night cycle and time pressure. Mike says that if they hadn’t condensed the case, there’s different events that happen in certain shifts to move things along. They found the injury chart really brutal; some of them could be instant death (Leah’s lost leg was the only one I specified). Jane recommends the video to see their costumes. They are also looking forward to starting to release Deadlands. For the event, they are release a pack of Oxventure playing cards.

This was engaging! Some parts of it were very fun (Purvis calling people pieces of trash, Static taking idioms literally), some parts were pretty shocking (there were several serious injuries during the big fight that were nasty, and the traumatic memory implants), and some things were just fascinating. I suspect I’d have got more out of it if I’d seen Blade Runner (from what Jane and Mike were saying, it sounds like there’s both a theatrical release and a director’s cut available), because there were definitely references.

I would have loved to see a longer version. Two strands that were identified but not pulled on were Stiles and the butterflies, and Leah and The Aurelion. I’m sure there was more to dig into with the human supremacists. Possibly more with Bullet Bob? And probably more that wasn’t even touched on.

Thing is. I like a happy ending, which we don’t really have here. And it seems this system of implanted trauma isn’t great for anyone, if it can go wrong and, let’s be honest, send the replicant insane. Holden would have to be told about the flaw, but it might cause problems for Purvis and Static as well – maybe Purvis’ man-faced fish is part of his implanted trauma.

Still. I do want much more of this, it’s so much fun.

Oxventure Shorts Teatime Adventures

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts World Wide Wrestling

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TAZ Graduation Episode 9: Mission: Imp Hospital 2 – Unfinished Business

Written 09 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep10.

The Thundermen take a short rest in the hospital, as FitzRoy needs to rest and heal. Argo is doing fine after the Firbolg healed him. He hands out fish jerky made to his mother’s recipe. He asks about their mothers. The Firbolg has one, who was much the same as any other member of the clan to him. FitzRoy also has a mother, but he lived in such a large house he sometimes didn’t see his parents for days on end.

After the rest, they go upstairs, which is still being built. FitzRoy picks out a nervous-looking imp hiding, and lures it out with fish jerky. It doesn’t want to make trouble, not after hearing the destruction below, and FitzRoy asks where they came from. It tells them it was conjured to come here and keep three idiots busy – but the idiots never showed up. It doesn’t know why or who the boss’ boss is. It warns them the boss, Terry, is a liar. Then it turns into a bird and flies out the window.

The Firbolg casts Detect Magic, but gets trails everywhere. He opens the door to the first room, and finds a large spider. He closes the door, reports the spider, and then they remember the imps are shapeshifters. The Firbolg goes back, giving Argo the chance to sneak attack it to death. The next room is empty, and FitzRoy relays from his studies that imps can turn invisible. Argo loudly declares imps are so easy to kill, a great performance, but nothing attacks. They move on.

In the third room, there’s a load of building material against the door, and nothing else. Fourth room, an imp is sheltering behind a model skeleton. The Firbolg casts Ice Knife, and knocks the skeleton’s head off. He then gets clawed by the imp. Argo Creates Water over the imp, knocking it prone and removing the skeleton. FitzRoy finishes it off with Booming Blade.

The next room is empty, and the one after that has two imps. The Firbolg Moonbeams and melts them. FitzRoy sends Snippers in to scout out room seven, who reports back there’s a bird. Going in, the roof isn’t finished, and there’s a hawk-like bird holding something in its beak. It sees FitzRoy, drops the object – an ornate brooch – and flies away. FitzRoy claims the brooch.

Room eight is a store room, including ingredients for potions. The Firbolg takes a vial of mercury, saying he needs it, and then FitzRoy takes a lollipop and Argo a vial of arsenic and a healer’s kit.

Sneaking into room nine, Argo finds two imps who were burned by the earlier Moonbeam. He sneak attacks and pops one. He nearly gets stung by a second, and Argo responds by headbutting it to ichor.

They all go into room ten together, and all have to make dex saves as they approach. FitzRoy fails, and gets hit by two chains that smash through the door. A Chain Devil steps out. Argo two-weapon attacks with Florence and a rapier, and hits, but the Chain Devil just laughs and claims they’ve been caught in his machinations for months. FitzRoy asks what he means, and the Chain Devil identifies himself as Terrence, claiming to be behind everything since they arrived at school. FitzRoy doesn’t believe it, and casts Chromatic Orb, lightning flavour; it hits, and Travis awards an extra d6 for being lightning vs chains. The Firbolg attempts a Hold Person, which fails, and he gets hit with chains and is grappled; FitzRoy dodges.

Argo feeds the Firbolg the healing potion and hides. FitzRoy Rages, which triggers Wild Magic, so FitzRoy taps into the minds of both the Firbolg and Terrence. He learns Terrence is having fun, and the Firbolg isn’t. He uses Reckless Attack, and smacks Terrence on the head. The Firbolg gets hurt from the chains, but gets out and Shillelaghs Terrence real hard. Terrence whips Argo and FitzRoy, grappling Argo.

Argo rushes Terrence and grapples him with the chain from the front door. FitzRoy makes another Reckless Attack and mauls Terrence. The Firbolg casts Frost Touch, which also imposes disadvantage on the next weapon attack. Terrence breaks out of Argo’s hold and Animates Chains to cut up Argo and reduce him to zero.

Argo succeeds his death save. FitzRoy drops Rage, and dives for Argo’s bag, taking an attack of opportunity in the process, and uses the healer’s kit to stabilise Argo. The Firbolg casts Ice Knife, fatally stabbing Terrence. Terrence says they have nothing more to worry about, and dies.

FitzRoy tells the Firbolg to go outside and tell the doctors they can come in now. The Firbolg goes out, and is greeted by the mayor, who hands over the gold and some gift certificates for the tavern in the town, including a trip to the spa.

When FitzRoy enters the tavern, Springs Eternal, he sees Buckminster sitting at the bar. The other two have gone off to rest up elsewhere. Buckminster has good news, he’s remembered that Leon said he was going to go travelling, so he isn’t missing. FitzRoy rolls insight, and he can tell Buckminster believes it, but he’s not reacting right. So FitzRoy casts Detect Magic as discreetly as he can, and sees an aura of enchantment magic around Buckminster’s head. Buckminster raises a toast to the Thundermen’s successful mission. FitzRoy is lost for words.

Yeah, more good classic-style DnD! A social interaction, exploring rooms, small fights, a BBEG! Woo!

Ahem. I liked this one. Travis does seem pretty good at setting up little missions. I liked the fact they were able to get some information from one imp, I liked the odd bits of loot, I liked the Chain Devil fight. I’m wondering if the Firbolg grabbed the mercury for the same reason he grabbed the rock in the mine. It seems someone was trying to keep them busy for a bit – Buckminster was probably enchanted by Higglemist to stop him chasing after Leon before he could talk to FitzRoy, but it was Tomas who hooked them up with the job, although Tomas could be working with Higglemist. It’s also possible that Buckminster isn’t anything to do with the distraction, and it’s just to get them out of the school for a bit.

Anyway. There were a lot of good combat moves being brought out here, although they forgot that Argo didn’t actually bring the chain with him from earlier. But Griffin was doing some good work with Barbarian skills, the Firbolg used some cool spells (gotta love Moonbeam), and Argo really did do some good sneak attacks.

So, I had a good time with this one, and there’s some interesting hints of things to come.

TAZ Graduation Episode 8: Mission: Imp Hospital

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation Episode 10: Dark Arts and Crafts

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Oxventure Shorts: Teatime Adventures

Written 15 Jun 2026, shortly after relistening, having listened previously.

This game features Jane Douglas as Posy Clackett, Mike Channell as Captain James T Cozy, Grant Howitt as Tabitha Templeton, and Ellen Rose as the Game Master. The system is d20-based, and is made by Snowbite Studios.

It is the Feast of Flourish in the village of Oakenbend, a planting festival with a series of feasts on different nights. Tonight’s feast is the potluck, where everyone places a dish in a magic pot and then pulls out someone else’s offering. In the Milkbar Tavern, three people show off their offerings. Posy, the Puffwing (bird person) florist, has made brownies with edible flowers. James, a deer person captain of the cricket team, has brought English muffins. Tabitha, a Snootling (crocodile person) travelling reporter for the Arts and Crafts Society, has brought swamp leek mini quiches. Unfortunately, as a frog person enters, a labrador called Daffodil (an actual dog, not a dog person) slips in, and goes straight for their treats. Everything ends up on the floor.

The three despair, while Posy keeps Daffodil from the brownies. The bartender reassures them that they still have time to prepare new treats, and advises that no-one’s signed up to make veggie dogs this year. Last year’s were particularly good, with the addition of a spring lettuce garnish. As well as the lettuce, they’ll need buns, and veggie sausages from the Sage Sausage.

They head out into town, the dog following, and James immediately gets them lost while trying to find the sausage shop. Luckily, they find themselves right outside of the bakery. The baker is in a bit of a tizzy. Tabitha gives her a hug to calm down. She’s very busy and has yet to make her contribution to the potluck, cookies with sweets called Cleverlies, which give a little extra wisdom when planting. Unfortunately, she has no sweets. They offer to get some from the confectioners while she makes them the veggie dog buns.

James does indeed find the confectioners, two doors down from the sausage shop. Tabitha stays outside with Daffodil while Posy and James go inside. Many of the sweets have minor magical properties, and James gets distracted by a set of sweets modelled after various bits of cricket equipment, while Posy remembers they need the Cleverlies. They end up getting an entire jar. They take it back to the baker, and get their buns, which have a herb infusion.

They go back to the Sage Sausage, which is just off the main square where the potluck cauldron is. The proprietor, another Puffwing, says Daffodil isn’t allowed in, and she’s left outside alone. Tabitha is rather taken by the Puffwing, but he’s married to his work. He can’t make them the sausages because he’s run out of sage. If they can bring him some, he can make them.

As they leave, they find Daffodil is moving towards the cauldron. James uses his cricket skills to interpose himself and intercept her before she can cause any more problems. Then Posy leads the way to the communal allotment, which is where she gets her flowers.

At the entrance, they’re greeted by the manager, who’s rather busy co-ordinating the planting. She indicates where the sage is, and also the spring lettuce, which they’ll need for the garnish. They split up; James and Tabitha taking Daffodil as they hunt for lettuce, and Posy going for sage. James and Tabitha find the lettuce, and coax Daffodil into digging it up for them. Meanwhile, Posy tries talking to the plants to locate the sage, but they don’t want to talk and she falls back on her gardening skills.

They reconvene, and Daffodil is praised to high heaven. They take the ingredients to the Sage Sausage, and the Puffwing says to come back in an hour when the sausages will be done. They return to the MilkBar for some afternoon tea, and muse that it would be nice to make their own addition to the veggie dogs. Tabitha wants to celebrate Daffodil, the dog who brought them together, and suggests some sort of daffodil garnish.

They all head back to the confectioners, and Tabitha explains they want some sort of edible flower, or just some yellow marzipan to make their own. The confectioner has something better; flower treats made out of the same veggie bacon that Daffodil’s favourite treats are made of. They happily accept these, and continue on to the Sage Sausage. The sausages are done, and the Puffwing lets them use some counterspace to assemble the veggie dogs. James’ are a bit battered-looking, but they’ve successfully made twelve veggie dogs.

They take the veggie dogs to the potluck, and place them into the cauldron, before milling around with a growing crowd of townspeople. At seven, everyone starts taking turns to pull out treats. They each get a veggie dog, as do other people. They are delicious. And there’s enough different foods in the cauldron for everyone to have seconds and thirds. It’s been a wonderful Feast of Flourish.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane is joined by Ellen. Ellen has been busy with Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. There was also some Pikmin. They’ve also been shooting Oxventure Deadlands (season 1). Ellen chose a spring theme for the one-shot, as it was released in the spring.

Notes from post-show podcast commentary: Jane and Ellen were very impressed by Grant and his ability to slide into character. This was Ellen’s first time ever running a game, and doing so on camera was…interesting. She found having Daffodil useful for keeping things moving along. She consulted with Luke afterwards about how hard it can be to gauge the players’ engagement. She also had more content prepared, including a vineyard, and a lot of details of the townsfolk. When they went to PAX, Ellen and Producer Zack found the gamemaker’s stall playing the OX game, and the makers were very happy with Ellen’s game. Ellen had been reading the DnD DMG, and had been thinking about running some. It’s a lot harder to prep to run a game than play it; she also watched Johnny and Luke’s How to DM videos on DiceBreaker. Jane is the only one who has yet to GM (I think that’s still the case), and there’s been lots of calls for her to do Vampire: The Masquerade. Jane goes through feedback for the Bladerunner game, which was released on the podcast before this one, but it was recorded and initially released after this one’s initial release so I’m using the initial release order. They talk about accents, merch releases, and upcoming videos.

This is gonna be very much your-mileage-may-vary, but I found this one a bit dull. There just wasn’t enough when the stakes were, they might not have great vegetarian hot dogs. I know the cosy genre is popular, and I don’t object to that, but it’s not my favourite. I prefer a classic high fantasy, or a nice aspirational sci-fi.

That said, this was very well-crafted. It was well-structured, the side-quests were pretty good, the dog was a nice addition. It was a bit odd that James was getting lost when he had lived in Oakenbend for ages, but other than that, it was just…well done.

I’m not entirely sure how the system works, but it sounded like rolls were opposed by the GM. So, instead of rolling against a flat difficulty, it’s more dynamic, and there’s luck on both sides. Assuming I’m right about that, it’s an interesting twist. It feels like it should be more chaotic, but it probably isn’t – and it lets the GM roll dem bones more often.

If you like cosy, this is the game for you. If you don’t, probably still worth listening to some time, it’s still nice.

Oxventure Shorts: Adventure Skeletons

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: Blade Runner

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TAZ Graduation Episode 8: Mission: Imp Hospital

Written 09 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep9.

It’s level up time. FitzRoy has multi-classed as a Wild Magic Sorcerer. His main gains this time are Wild Magic and Tides of Chaos. Both of these will trigger rolls on table. The Firbolg has some Dexterity points. Argo increased his Intelligence.

Tomas managed to hook them up with an adventuring job for the mayor of Last Hope, clearing imps out of a hospital being built, for 100 gold each. This will be a job for Thunderman LLC.

They’ve been given a skeleton key for all the doors in the hospital. There’s a padlock chain on the main door, and the Firbolg is sent to unlock it. They decide to relock the door behind them to stop the imps escaping. They find themselves in a vestibule, list by stained glass windows. FitzRoy thinks this infestation might be related to the demons in the forest the Firbolg mentioned.

It’s too dark for those without Darkvision, so the Firbolg turns into a cat. They see things like birds and rats. Moving on, they find the reception desk all chewed up and corridors to admin offices and such. The flapping and skittering sounds increase.

Argo goes to check an office, and a bird swoops down, hurting him and poisoning him with a bite. FitzRoy grabs it with Mage Hand, and a second bird and two rats emerge.

There’s a fight, which includes FitzRoy Raging and causing plant life to grow up from the ground, and the rats turning back into imps. The Firbolg decides being a cat is useless, and Argo expends one of the +2 charges on Florence. They kill all four imps, despite FitzRoy saying they should take one alive.

They get worried about how much effort it took to clear just one room, and they consider making some sort of lure to bring all the imps to them. FitzRoy wants to interrogate one about where they came from. They enter another room and find a single imp, which they catch. It is not amenable to talking to them. FitzRoy Disguises Self as a demonic being and tries to convince it it’s a higher order of demon come to look after it. Then a bunch more imps turn up. FitzRoy “captures” Argo and the Firbolg and throws them to the floor, declaring it’s time to feast. Four imps come close, and FitzRoy unleashes a Thunderwave, catching everyone. Two of the imps pass the save, as do Argo and the Firbolg, taking half damage. The other two imps are destroyed. Argo skewers one of the remaining imps, and FitzRoy Firebolts the other.

FitzRoy casts Detect Magic, while the Firbolg Cures Wounds on the now rather battered Argo. FitzRoy locates conjuration from an exam room and one of the offices, and healing magic from another office. A flock of birds fly past out of the exam room, and the Firbolg and Argo knock down one each with Thorn Whip and rapier. The others fly upstairs. Argo finishes off the one in the Thorn Whip. FitzRoy finishes off Argo’s first victim with Shocking Grasp.

They enter the office, where several imps are sleeping in the middle of destruction. The Firbolg casts Moonbeam to catch all of them, and destroys them. FitzRoy complains that they need to work on their formations. Justin points out how high the Moonbeam is, and suggests anything directly above would be affected. Travis makes notes about some other imps.

They investigate the healing magic, and find a cabinet. Argo picks the lock, and they find some healing potions, healing ingredients, and a potion of poison resistance.

I loved this. Especially the Firbolg starting to break out the good Druid stuff; good spells, Wild Shape, Moonbeam, healing. Good good good.

Travis said the name of the episode came to him before the set-up, which is not a surprise, but he made it work! I am a little confused as to why there’s medicine and patient files in a hospital that was described as still under construction, but I’m sure it’s fine.

Argo is doing some real damage even without the +2, but I don’t think he’s really getting to show off his range, what with how fast everything is dying. Rogues are great at wearing down the enemy without taking hits, but he’s not getting the chance to hide, sneak attack, dodge etc. Maybe there’s some tougher demons upstairs.

FitzRoy is doing a bit of everything, really showing off his new Sorcerer abilities (I’m so glad he finally sorted out where his magic comes from). He’s now got two sources of Wild Magic, from his Barbarian Path and from his Sorcerous…I think it’s a Bloodline, they call the sub-class. It’s pretty good, but he does seem to be swinging from overkill to reprimanding the others for killing. I dunno.

But it was pretty good! Much more classic DnD, bit of exploring, bit of monster hunting.

TAZ Graduation Episode 7: Secrets, Secrets

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation Episode 9: Mission: Imp Hospital 2 - Unfinished Business

[katgametable]

Oxventure Shorts: Adventure Skeletons

Written 10 Jun 2026, shortly after relistening, having listened previously.

This game features Mike Channell as Lionel Spinal, Jasper William Cartwright as Doctor S Kelly, Liv Kennedy as Bony Emily, Johnny Chiodini as Cursed Skeleton 18, and Luke Westaway as the GM. Liv and Jasper are both of Three Black Halflings. This game is played by rolling on tables for ancestry, two pieces of equipment, and a treasure, then rolling a d10 against different difficulties in play. Damage to player skeletons can detach or destroy body parts; destroyed body parts can be replaced with similarly shaped items. The system was created by Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor.

Four skeletons are hanging out in the dungeon the Crypt of Devil’s Rest, guarding an old pair of magic gloves that’re starting to decay and no-one has come after in years. Lionel Spinal is an Orc, formerly a travelling axe merchant murdered by a customer, who has two great axes. Doctor S Kelly came together from a random assortment of bones and has no recollection before that, and has two of Lionel’s axes. Bony Emily is a Goblin, who thought she could infiltrate dungeons better as a skeleton so was overly reckless. Cursed Skeleton 18 is an Elf (to Johnny’s chagrin), and has two daggers as well as their treasure, a magic scimitar. They don’t talk about their past. There used to be a fifth, Benny, who two weeks ago declared he was fed up and left. He doesn’t tend to follow through, but given they haven’t seen him, he appears to have done it this time. They’re starting to get worried about him.

They decide to go find Benny. 18 recalls that there’s a back exit from the dungeon so they don’t have to go through the traps meant to stop intruders. They find the lever and open it. Emily decides to take the magic gloves, which increase her speed, but then the others can’t keep up so she doesn’t use it much.

Stepping out of the Crypt, they find themselves in a graveyard. Heading towards the gate, they’re blocked by a groundskeeper who is horrified, and tries telling them to go back to the Crypt. 18 and Doctor S try to sweet-talk him into letting them go to retrieve their friend from the human dungeon, then they’ll come right back, and he seems to agree, but as they file past, he swings his spade at them, removing a leg from Emily and an arm from each of the other three. 18 throws their scimitar at the groundskeeper and it sinks into his back, then Lionel charges him and stabs him in the eyes so hard his skull is broken.

Lionel puts the punctured eyes in his own sockets and recovers his arm. 18 replaces their knocked-off right arm with the groundskeeper’s right arm, and Doctor S his right arm with the groundskeeper’s left arm – he also grabs his own right arm. Emily replaces her leg with one of the groundskeeper’s. They look out from the hill the graveyard is on, down to the town in the distance.

They head towards the town, and stumble over a boy sleeping in the field. After a moment of panic at skeletons, he panics even more that he’s slept the say away and not done his farm chores, and his parents will be back from market and will make him sleep outside. He agrees to give them clothes (to fit in with the humans) in exchange for doing his chores of milking the cow, collecting the eggs, feeding the dogs, and bringing in the harvest. 18 is appalled that that much work is being put on a child.

Doctor S takes the cow, and tries to figure out how to extract milk. He manages to convince the cow to explain the process. Outside, Lionel is dealing with the chickens. He reckons the best result is to shout at the chickens and scare the eggs out of them. He yells so loud that even the roosters lay. Emily takes the dogs, who like the scent of her limbs – not the fleshy leg, the other ones. She ends up feeding them her hands and forearms, and her remaining original lower leg. 18 goes to harvest, finds the scythe is missing, and grabs a sickle and some rope. They tie the boy’s hands together holding the sickle, and swings him wildly like a scythe in a mad whirlwind to reap all the grain. Unfortunately, they let go at the wrong moment and the boy flies into the air and crashes into the thatch of his house.

Doctor S sets up his original arm so the cow can milk herself, but neglects to use a bucket so all the milk goes on the floor. Lionel brings in a lot of eggs. Emily replaces her lost leg with a rake, one arm with another sickle, and the other with a rope dog toy. She has now lost the magic gloves. 18 brings the harvested grain into the barn. The boy pulls out all his parents’ clothes and they dress themselves, before leaving.

As they continue towards the town, they come across a couple on an empty cart being accosted by some people in red robes. Given the man looks a lot like the boy, they deduce these are his parents, and 18 accuses the father of child abuse. He is dragged off. The robed figures don’t seem terribly startled by skeletons, and mention they serve the Grave Lord, Death himself. The skeletons say they are his friends, and are escorted to town. As they go, it is mentioned coin money has been replaced with literal blood.

In the town, there are more of these red robed death cultists. The skeletons are shown to the hall, and identify themselves as Death’s associates Famine, War, Pestilence, and Not-An-Elf. They find a hot tub, with a black robe and scythe next to it, and in it, Benny.

Benny explains that he came up with the wheeze of dressing like the grim reaper, and now he has a whole cult and town obeying him. He mentions he’s ordered them all to only drink blood, which 18 protests as not being good for humans. Benny calls in a cultist, and says he has a new decree, to eat…he stumbles over ideas…one hundred eggs. The cultist departs, and 18 despairs. Doctor S says they can be a ruling council, Death and his associates, and Benny can be the figurehead. If they get bored, they can go back to the crypt. Benny says there’s a festival in an hour, and invites them to hang out until then.

After chilling in the hot tub, it’s time for the festival. The town square is covered in runes in goat’s blood, and the rather sallow townsfolk are wearing red robes. There’s a trumpet droning. Benny, as Death, approves of the action. A high priest steps forward, and declares that many years ago a great evil was sealed away and they were forbidden from dealing with it, but now Death is here there’s no reason not to release it. He starts reading from a tome.

Emily sneaks around and throws a dagger at the book to knock it out of the priest’s hands. It falls, but the priest has the incantation memorised and keeps going. Doctor S tells Benny that if this happens, the greater evil might take over and make them work. The ground cracks open and a Bone Devil emerges. It lashes its tail at Lionel, and his head falls off. The Devil grabs two humans and starts eating; the other humans run screaming.

18 comes up with a plan to graft themself onto the Devil and take it over. Lionel charges forward and removes a hand with his two great axes, leaving a socket that 18 inserts their skull into. Doctor S uses his knowledge of skeleton culture to recall Bone Devils are born of volcanoes, and sings a song of the volcanoes, which distracts the Devil. 18 manages to dominate the Devil and take it over.

As their first order, 18 sends the villagers to go eat some toast. Benny tries to assert authority, and 18 smashes him. The death cult is delighted, and prepares a feast of toast.

Notes from pre-show podcast commentary: Jane and Andy talk about the haunted house video (see You Awaken in a Strange Place); Andy has compared their visit to others, and finds he and Mike were rather lowkey, given they never screamed. He thinks it being three in the morning might’ve contributed, and some bits had already broken. Jane couldn’t make it. Andy recommends watching their video, then the hosts’ making-of video. They compare haunted house technique, and the response to Battle Royale (much rules-lawyering). Jane reads the blurb for Adventure Skeletons, and also Everyone is Seagulls.

Notes from the post-show podcast commentary: Andy enjoyed it immensely, especially the skeletons trying to figure out farming. They consider the inconsistencies of skeleton biology, and think about different types of zombies. Andy announces the next one-shot, DnD But Everyone Has Amnesia (which ran two video/pods). Jane participated, but Andy has been waiting for public release to watch it. They used scratchcard character sheets, but Jane says no-one brought a coin, but she had a pocket knife, so they used that. Andy is going away to Japan.

I’d like to split this adventure into three sections; the graveyard, the farm, and the town. Because I have rather different feelings about each of them.

The graveyard section was pretty good. I would’ve like a bit more dungeon-y stuff, but 18 going straight for the lever was funny. Maybe if there’d been one last trap between the skeletons and the gloves, that’d have been perfect, but it was great, as was Emily grabbing the gloves. The encounter with the groundskeeper was also great. However, I did not like the limb removal to replace perfectly good skeleton limbs. This is in part because it felt unnecessarily gruesome, and in part because I have read the rules. Specifically, the rule that you can only have one non-bone replacement at a time. Now, the rule sheet does go on to say that people and animals have bones, so I think the interpretation of letting them take whole limbs is probably appropriate, but I’m not entirely sure it was considered in the best way.

Moving on to the farm, I didn’t much like it. Not because the set-up wasn’t good, but because I don’t think the players took it seriously. Which, funny, but also annoying. And this is where the carelessness re limbs gets real bad. Emily should not be able to replace three limbs with non-bones. I’m also confused by how old the boy is. Feeding the dogs and collecting the eggs, he could be, like, seven, and that’s still kinda fine, maybe a few more years before milking the cow, but at those ages, he probably shouldn’t be left home alone all day. Collecting the harvest, that’s more like sixteen minimum. By which point it would be okay to leave him home alone, and also being disciplined for repeatedly failing to do his chores is also more understandable (although the exact punishment appropriate would be a different question). So either 18 was overreacting, or they were very bad parents indeed.

Then on to the town. Benny’s Death wheeze was very good, and him being so bad at giving decrees was quite funny. Then taking over the Bone Devil, and while it did continue the loosey-goosey attitude to bone replacement…I loved it, it was brilliant.

So, even if it dragged in the middle, on average, gotta be a nice big skeletal thumbs up.

Oxventure Shorts: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

Oxventure Shorts Masterpost

Oxventure Shorts: Teatime Adventures

[katgametable]

TAZ Graduation Episode 7: Secrets, Secrets

Written 09 Jun 2026, shortly after listening, before listening to Ep8.

It’s the last day of the first semester. FitzRoy has prepared to move to the new quarters, and has been trying to catch the insubstantial cat to bring with, with little success. Argo and the Firbolg have very little to move.

Gary wakes them up, telling them it’s the last day, there’s no classes but they’ll be meeting with teachers. The Firbolg will be meeting with Bartolomeus, Argo with Jackal, and FitzRoy with Higglemist. During the two week break, they could go home to their families, get a job in Last Hope, or just stay at the school. The Firbolg is banished from his tribe, and intends to stay at school. FitzRoy was thinking the same, but reckons they can make some money for the Thunderman franchise. The others agree, and they go for breakfast.

The Firbolg has his meeting with Bartolomeus the accountancy teacher. He’s not the best student, but he is the most improved. Bartolomeus tests him on some fiscal terms, which he gets right. But Bartolomeus wants to talk about how the Firbolg is settling in to the school. It’s been mixed; he studies hard, but he has no goal beyond studying. He was forced to leave his clan, and walked unto he reached the school, and decided the school was his clan now, so he studies hard to bring honour to the school. Bartolomeus says he needs to find a personal goal, or he’ll end up left behind again.

FitzRoy arrives at Higglemist’s office, where he’s set the table for tea for the two of them and his dog. Higglemist asks why FitzRoy is so determined to become a knight, and after the claims of desiring nobility and chivalry are swept aside, FitzRoy admits it seems to be one of the only ways to make a name for himself in this world. Higglemist points out that success needs more than hard work, which FitzRoy agrees with. Higglemist says that in the 250 year history of the school, FitzRoy is the only student to be promoted from Sidekick/Henchperson to Hero/Villain. He wants to know exactly what Hieronymus said, but FitzRoy confesses he wasn’t listening. Higglemist warns him there are many ulterior motives, especially with Hieronymus.

Argo meets Jackal in the tavern, where Raynier’s animal skeletons are preparing for the party. Jackal challenges Argo to get Tomas’ pocketwatch, without stealing it or saying it’s for Jackal. Tomas is drinking coffee. Argo approaches, and convinces Tomas he wants to learn how to memorise things, by borrowing his watch and then coming it back and Tomas can describe it. He succeeds, and takes the watch to Jackal. Jackal asks what if he told Argo not to return it, or even if he offered money for it. Argo decides his word is his bond, and he would have to return the watch. Jackal is pleased, and sends Argo to return the watch. When he returns to Jackal, Jackal asks if he’s considered the offer (to join the secret organisation). Argo shows off a new tattoo he got, with the points labelled Blood, Bone, Rain and Stone in Genasi runes. He accepts to offer to join. Jackal is pleased, and tells him to meet him at the forge that night.

It’s time for Raynier’s party. FitzRoy has borrowed the Cloak of Classy, and Argo has made party clothes for himself and the Firbolg out of curtains. FitzRoy tells Raynier about his promotion, and while she’s a little disappointed he can’t be her sidekick, she thinks they could partner. FitzRoy gives her a Notebook of Farspeech for them to talk. Argo gives her ten gold rings from the curtain rod. The Firbolg didn’t know presents were a thing, and all he has is a story about eating a melon. She likes it, and asks him for a dance. He doesn’t think he can do it, but he does okay.

Argo amuses himself going around doing sleight of hand fake magic tricks. FitzRoy sees Festo the Fairy magic teacher, who wants to dance with Snippers. FitzRoy gets tapped by Buckminster, who seems dishevelled. Buckminster wants to know if he’s seen Leon. He hasn’t come home for a few days. FitzRoy hasn’t seen him, but shares that he’d seemed on edge, and they agree to meet up during the break.

The party ends, and FitzRoy and the Firbolg can’t find Argo. FitzRoy notes Argo has been sneaking out. The Firbolg says they should respect Argo’s privacy. FitzRoy uses the Notebook to ask Argo where he is. Argo is heading for his meeting, but replies that he’s running errands to get his tattoo finished. They are satisfied.

Argo enters the forge, which is blazing hot, where Jackal is waiting with his Goliath friend Mosh. Mosh tells him the organisation is as old as human memory, the Unbroken Chain, which is based on the principle that someone must take responsibility when something needs done. They do what needs to be done, whatever that may be. By becoming a member, Argo will be given missions and tasks that must be done in secret. The name is because they select the next member to continue the chain, no weak link, a responsibility to each other. Argo asks if it will interfere with his training at the school, and is told there will be missions, but for the most part, no. He clarifies that he can’t tell his roommates, and in honour of his mother, he accepts.

Mosh asks for the coin, and puts it in the crucible. He gets Argo to repeat: Blood and bone, rain and stone; your burdens now shall be my own; no longer shall I walk alone; I vow by blood to work unknown; rain and stone, blood and bone. As they recite it, Mosh forges the coin into a pendant of overlapping rings encircled – chain links. Argo realises his mother wore a similar pendant. Mosh puts in on Argo.

Now a member, Mosh reveals there’s a secret. He puts on a rune-encrusted glove, reaches into the forge, and opens a secret passage. Seated at a table are various teachers: Dakota (drinking), Sabor (research librarian), Ramos (shield work), and two more he doesn’t recognise. Argo is invited to sit. His first assignment is to tell them everything he knows about FitzRoy.

FitsRoy and the Firbolg lay down to sleep. The Firbolg dreams. He finds himself in Higglemist’s office. Higglemist is holding the green stone he brought back from the mine, and is wearing the spectacles. The Firbolg remembers telling him about the rift. Then Leon entered, and the Firbolg was told to forget. But as it fades, Higglemist tells Leon he knows about the report to the Heroic Oversight Committee, which is disappointing. And the dream fades.

Liked this!

The idea of, everyone has secrets, is being dialled up to eleven. I’m gonna make a guess that Higglemist is super jealous of Hieronymus and is working to undermine him in some way. Hieronymus knows this but can’t do anything overt without damaging the school’s reputation, so they’re in a kind of cold war. Some teachers are siding with one, some the other, many don’t know, and of course a bunch have their own agendas.

I want to think that FitzRoy is innocent. A stuck-up moron, but an innocent. But possibly has been manipulated, definitely by Hieronymus, possibly by others. Argo, there’s something up with his father, but he seems like he’s trying to be good (and Tomas confirmed his full name is Argonaut, so maybe Jackal wasn’t ever saying Argo Not-Keene and I misunderstood Travis). The Firbolg, I wonder if something lured him to the school in the first place, and also why he had to leave his clan.

Lots of big spooky stuff here! Good one!

TAZ Graduation Episode 6: Long Overdue

TAZ Graduation Masterpost

TAZ Graduation Episode 8: Mission: Imp Hospital