The Adventure Zone: Amnesty - Episode 29
June 13, 2019 1:15 PM - Subscribe
One last Lunar Interlude. As Kepler recovers from the devastation of the last hunt, the Pine Guard reflects on the events that brought them to their final confrontation.
Also, I'll say that Amnesty inspired me to create my own MotW campaign based on the idea that enough friends wanted to play and everyone has tough schedules and that MtW would allow us to trade off GM duties let people sit out sessions they couldn't make it to, etc. I've only gotten to do one arc of sessions as a PC myself (GM'ed the rest, or I guess Keeper'ed the rest? Kept the rest?) but I did so as a Monstrous NPC (Our setting is a social club in Victorian London and my character is a guttersnipe 18-y.o. vampyre from Whitechapel who managed to finagle her way into a large estate in town, keeps fed via blood from the London Free Hospital where our Expert basically resides, and is basically a violent Eliza Doolittle.)
The point is, the Monstrous is fun as hell and very adaptable. Presuming that's what Thacker is, Clint's gonna have some fun with it, I think.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:11 PM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
The point is, the Monstrous is fun as hell and very adaptable. Presuming that's what Thacker is, Clint's gonna have some fun with it, I think.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:11 PM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
Though now I realize that with Thacker's database of everything, he might be The Expert, which would fit how great Clint has been about Lorekeeping in Amnesty. Either way, I'm excited.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:46 PM on June 13, 2019
posted by Navelgazer at 6:46 PM on June 13, 2019
I feel like, if only I could piece together the clues, this episode has everything you need to understand the whole story of this arc. But I can't piece together the clues! What does it all mean!?!?
posted by meese at 7:56 PM on June 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by meese at 7:56 PM on June 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
Navelgazer: I love it! We played an MotW game as a family for the same reasons; it’s pretty accommodating. (Ours is set in a real little bar called The Hub in a small town in the Adirondacks that we visited once, which is the hub of elemental creature activity.)
I am very glad for a flashback, as I mentioned last week, I’ve started relistening from the beginning because I felt really out of touch with what’s going on.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:02 AM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I am very glad for a flashback, as I mentioned last week, I’ve started relistening from the beginning because I felt really out of touch with what’s going on.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:02 AM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I feel like this should have prepared me to think about what could happen in a final encounter but I actually am in the same boat as meese - I'm really not sure what the arc of this story is or where it could be going. I enjoyed the reveal that Clint is going to be playing Thacker until the end of the campaign and will listen to the rest of the arc but I'm not really going to be tuning in to figure out where the story is going.
posted by Tevin at 5:22 AM on June 14, 2019
posted by Tevin at 5:22 AM on June 14, 2019
It would have been cool if Clint took over the role of Beacon. But Thacker could be OK too.
posted by ardgedee at 7:25 PM on June 14, 2019
posted by ardgedee at 7:25 PM on June 14, 2019
I was thinking Beacon or Minerva as Clint's new role, but they each already have their own unique voices and I think it's more interesting for Clint to play someone we haven't heard from before. Thacker is a great choice because he's a character that's been in the middle of events for a long time but in a form that we can't get to know.
As for what the arc of the story is, here's my theory based on everything and especially what Griffin chose to highlight in this episode:
There are beings, four-armed beings made of light, that for whatever reason seek to connect two worlds and sow strife between them. The beings are sometimes friendly and non-threatening when confronted, but they consistently employ tactics that provoke conflict between the two worlds.
Minerva is the last surviving member of one of these linked pairs of worlds, her world of warrior humanoids fought a world of insectoids and in the end they annihilated each other. She made it her mission to discover why her world was linked to another and, while she did not discover the beings of light she discovered Earth and sought to protect it.
Earth is linked to Sylvain and the two have been skirmishing for centuries. One such skirmish, hundreds of years ago, resulted in damage to the crystal that sustains Sylvain. This damage resulted in a growing blight that spread across the planet and slowly consumed it until now only one city remains. I do not think this blight is due to the beings of light, though it's possible. Meanwhile, Earth continues largely unaffected and in fact unaware of the connection to Sylvain. The beings of light began sending abominations to Earth, looking as if they came from Sylvain, but thanks to the efforts of Minerva's chosen warriors and groups like the Pine Guard the abominations have been stopped for decades. I suspect the dangerousness of the abominations has been increased to try and match Sylvain's increasing destruction from the blight.
There's also details like the book Aubrey found that seems to describe spells for transferring the life energy from one world to another, which is what the Sylphs were attempting to do when Mt. Kepler blew up. This book seemingly came from the beings of light and might be a clue to their motivation, they're attempting to siphon life from the worlds they connect together.
It all reminds me a bit of Balance, where we got hints as to what the true enemy of the story was throughout but it wasn't really spelled out until the last chapters. I suspect the nature of the beings of light and their motivation will become clearer very soon, and I think Thacker might have an insight into the nature of Sylvain's blight as well.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:01 PM on June 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
As for what the arc of the story is, here's my theory based on everything and especially what Griffin chose to highlight in this episode:
There are beings, four-armed beings made of light, that for whatever reason seek to connect two worlds and sow strife between them. The beings are sometimes friendly and non-threatening when confronted, but they consistently employ tactics that provoke conflict between the two worlds.
Minerva is the last surviving member of one of these linked pairs of worlds, her world of warrior humanoids fought a world of insectoids and in the end they annihilated each other. She made it her mission to discover why her world was linked to another and, while she did not discover the beings of light she discovered Earth and sought to protect it.
Earth is linked to Sylvain and the two have been skirmishing for centuries. One such skirmish, hundreds of years ago, resulted in damage to the crystal that sustains Sylvain. This damage resulted in a growing blight that spread across the planet and slowly consumed it until now only one city remains. I do not think this blight is due to the beings of light, though it's possible. Meanwhile, Earth continues largely unaffected and in fact unaware of the connection to Sylvain. The beings of light began sending abominations to Earth, looking as if they came from Sylvain, but thanks to the efforts of Minerva's chosen warriors and groups like the Pine Guard the abominations have been stopped for decades. I suspect the dangerousness of the abominations has been increased to try and match Sylvain's increasing destruction from the blight.
There's also details like the book Aubrey found that seems to describe spells for transferring the life energy from one world to another, which is what the Sylphs were attempting to do when Mt. Kepler blew up. This book seemingly came from the beings of light and might be a clue to their motivation, they're attempting to siphon life from the worlds they connect together.
It all reminds me a bit of Balance, where we got hints as to what the true enemy of the story was throughout but it wasn't really spelled out until the last chapters. I suspect the nature of the beings of light and their motivation will become clearer very soon, and I think Thacker might have an insight into the nature of Sylvain's blight as well.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:01 PM on June 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
The first time I listened to this I found it really hard to understand because there were no breaks in between the edits so I would think like it was Mama talking to the FBI agent and then a second later it was Mama talking to Aubrey and the whole gang was there. The story that they have weaved is pretty complicated and then the way the episode was edited with some pieces being flashbacks and some pieces being new, and everything being out of sequence, but with no indication of what was what, and no breaks between scenes, made it really hard to follow. But then the second time I listened to it on a plane where I had to actually focus I could actually understand what was going on in this whole story for the first time, so that was nice and I was glad they provided this episode. I just think about feedback I used to get when I was writing in papers in college which was that all of my professors told me to slow down and take readers by the hand more and walk them through my ideas piece by piece. I think this episode could have benefitted from been dumbed down much more.
posted by bleep at 12:59 PM on June 18, 2019
posted by bleep at 12:59 PM on June 18, 2019
Yeah, I had trouble keeping track of what was a flashback and what was new, and the way they blended together in a couple cases left me confused. I I'm thinking of another podcast where changes in setting or time period are denoted by a little "fwhoosh" sound, and it really helps make things easier to understand without being too disruptive. A few sentences of framing narration from Griffin to set the stage would have made everything much clearer, but I don't think that's quite what they were going for here.
I'm really excited to hear what Clint does with Thacker; I think that's a great choice.
posted by beandip at 10:04 AM on June 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm really excited to hear what Clint does with Thacker; I think that's a great choice.
posted by beandip at 10:04 AM on June 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
I kind of felt that the disorienting feeling, with the discussions blending together, felt a bit intentional. It made the whole thing feel just slightly like a fever dream, which I imagine is a lot like how everyone in Kepler right now feels about what's going on. Past and future bleed together, and discrete moments in time are clear but the context of any particular event is blurred.
posted by meese at 10:44 AM on June 19, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by meese at 10:44 AM on June 19, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'll credit that there was some intention to the swirl of it. But Griffin isn't really a professional class voice actor, and so it was kind of hard to know who's talking now. Really excited by Clint's new character though.
posted by wotsac at 9:51 AM on June 20, 2019
posted by wotsac at 9:51 AM on June 20, 2019
I like that take, helped me think about it & appreciate it in a new way, I lobe that.
posted by bleep at 12:40 PM on June 20, 2019
posted by bleep at 12:40 PM on June 20, 2019
I'm thinking of another podcast where changes in setting or time period are denoted by a little "fwhoosh" sound, and it really helps make things easier to understand without being too disruptive.
I kept thinking he needed to do the "take a chance" thing from the MBMBAM clip show episodes.
There are beings, four-armed beings made of light, that for whatever reason seek to connect two worlds and sow strife between them. The beings are sometimes friendly and non-threatening when confronted, but they consistently employ tactics that provoke conflict between the two worlds.
I keep thinking about Boyd's line to the effect of, "A spider doesn't understand why you step on it, but sometimes, spiders need to be stepped on." If I step on a spider, it's not because I bear it any ill will, in fact, I am rather upset that I need to do it, but my wife is arachnophobic and we do get poisonous ones around here, so sometimes I step on spiders. I think that might be what the four-armed beings are doing.
Meanwhile, Earth continues largely unaffected and in fact unaware of the connection to Sylvain.
[CW: bummers] I don't know, we are looking pretty blighted lately if you ask me.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:46 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
I kept thinking he needed to do the "take a chance" thing from the MBMBAM clip show episodes.
There are beings, four-armed beings made of light, that for whatever reason seek to connect two worlds and sow strife between them. The beings are sometimes friendly and non-threatening when confronted, but they consistently employ tactics that provoke conflict between the two worlds.
I keep thinking about Boyd's line to the effect of, "A spider doesn't understand why you step on it, but sometimes, spiders need to be stepped on." If I step on a spider, it's not because I bear it any ill will, in fact, I am rather upset that I need to do it, but my wife is arachnophobic and we do get poisonous ones around here, so sometimes I step on spiders. I think that might be what the four-armed beings are doing.
Meanwhile, Earth continues largely unaffected and in fact unaware of the connection to Sylvain.
[CW: bummers] I don't know, we are looking pretty blighted lately if you ask me.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:46 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh, also, I was SO MAD at Griffin for bringing Ned back when I heard Clint's voice at the end of the episode and shook my finger at him quite harshly when I realized he was setting me up and bringing him in as Thacker instead. Well played, sir.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:48 AM on June 24, 2019
posted by Rock Steady at 4:48 AM on June 24, 2019
Meta note: wow Griffin's voice changed a lot, not voice acting, just normal narration, probably due to the sinus surgeries he's mentioned in e.g. Wonderful.
posted by supercres at 9:18 AM on June 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by supercres at 9:18 AM on June 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Navelgazer at 6:04 PM on June 13, 2019