The Adventure Zone: Amnesty - Episode 12

July 12, 2018 10:40 AM

A Lunar Interlude. The Pine Guard and the residents of Amnesty Lodge take a well-earned break at a local winter recreation hotspot. Aubrey meets the Hornets. Duck reveals soupy secrets. Ned logs onto the InterNed.
posted by Tevin (14 comments total)

I don't think it's confirmation bias at this point. It seems like the quality of Justin and Griffin's work has increased markedly since downshifting to one full-time job each.
posted by howfar at 2:08 PM on July 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I should say "consistency". It's not that they ever stopped being able to be funny, I think that they were just so bone tired that it became hard for them to do anything but just power through, rather than enjoy themselves. It's delightful to hear them having fun.
posted by howfar at 2:13 PM on July 12, 2018

The World Cup of Skiing is a legit thing.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:22 PM on July 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Anybody else notice that Duck’s skiing story was also Justin’s one and only skiing story. I thought it was cute how he gave a little shout out to Sydnee slumming it with him.
posted by bleep at 9:31 PM on July 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Oh man, the editing with the background music swelling as Justin repeats the bartender’s story. So perfect.
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:54 PM on July 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Was that the first time the beloved Nonni has been recorded?
posted by Tevin at 5:16 AM on July 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also, huge Nonni fan here, she needs an NPC immediately, and was very impressed with Clint (!) making the pull that our feral basement boi was Thacker. Clint! Also also, bless Justin for getting into the spirit of the thing and trying to avoid just saying "I try to Read a Bad Situation."
posted by Rock Steady at 5:33 AM on July 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Austin Walker, GM of Friends at the Table (an RPG podcast Griffin loves and has mentioned a few times), seems to have enjoyed this episode too.
posted by Maecenas at 5:29 AM on July 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I had never finished the mini-arcs and just this week I finally decided to catch up to the present day. I'm not disappointed! All the player characters are great but especially Duck, poor bastard.
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:30 AM on July 14, 2018

As the series progresses, I'm also starting to appreciate Aubrey as a kind of foil or counterpoint to Duck. Her character isn't as simple as just "Travis's manic energy in a lady magician package." She is someone who found out that she could do magic and that monsters exist, and who (very unlike Duck) immediately said "fuck yes I've seen TV shows let's do this thing!!" - but she is also already showing signs of over-reliance on magic as the solution to her every problem. Shades of Willow's arc in Buffy. And (as seen in this episode) her extremely casual magic-slinging is already beginning to put the secrecy of their mission at risk.

So as Duck begins to get more comfortable with his destiny, I think we might see Aubrey getting a little overly-comfortable with hers, and then needing to fall back a bit (or else going completely overboard).
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:13 AM on July 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

Ahhh, I want to hear Austin and Griffin on an RPG podcast together sometime! They've both talked about being fans of each others RPG podcasts and they've recorded some other stuff together, so it's possible, right?

Also, somebody needs to start doing fanfare posts for friends at the table. Their current arc is great.

Oh, and to include a comment about this actual episode- I ate at least half a pizza right before listening and the french onion soup bit still made me a little hungry. Justin's just very good at describing food.
posted by fomhar at 1:46 PM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh, man, Nonni! Now, what was Clint doing, recording his DnD podcast while his mom was over visiting, even?

I always love the lunar interlude episodes. Also, I always love a nice, piping hot bowl of French onion soup.
posted by meese at 8:49 PM on July 14, 2018

Fun fact: I've never had a proper bowl of French onion soup.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:04 PM on July 15, 2018

You're missing out, you really are. In Duck's honor, you should rectify this situation immediately.

Just be careful, especially if you live in the US. There is a lot of bad not-quite-French-onion-soup out there.
posted by meese at 9:55 AM on July 16, 2018