00:00:05.87 sidekqpodcast Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons and Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. I've got an awesome guest this week, but before I get to my guest, you know I gotta do it, I gotta to leave you in suspense with the ad read. Insert here for a clever ad read that I will fix in post-production. All right, and without further ado, I'm joined by another fantastic blast from the past. So without further ado, hello mystery contestant. Would you care to introduce yourself? Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:00:44.01 Hillary Hello, ah my name is Hillary, AKA you can call me Hills. That's what everybody, all of my friends call me. um And I am a performer in um Orlando, Florida. I essentially specialize in character improvisation as well as atmospheric roles. ah And I have been working in immersive theater for almost 10 years. 00:01:07.05 sidekqpodcast Wow. Yeah. And you and I have shared the stage together because you and I went to college together and we old Alma mater in West Texas. 00:01:10.94 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:01:17.43 sidekqpodcast And, uh, you know, let's see, I'm just trying to remember the exact specifications of the role. Cause we were in, uh, we were in carousel together and you played the, the lead love interest. 00:01:25.47 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:01:29.42 sidekqpodcast And I just happened to play like an ancillary character. 00:01:31.41 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:01:32.62 sidekqpodcast And then we did the best little whore house in Texas together. 00:01:35.60 Hillary Oh, that's right. 00:01:35.58 sidekqpodcast Didn't we? 00:01:36.28 Hillary We did do that together, too. 00:01:38.15 sidekqpodcast Because those are the only two musicals that I did in college. 00:01:41.29 Hillary Ah, killed it. 00:01:41.47 sidekqpodcast So, yeah. 00:01:42.53 Hillary And I was in both of them. 00:01:44.36 sidekqpodcast There we go. Well, because you were a theater major, were you not? 00:01:45.46 Hillary Yeah, and yeah yeah that's correct, yeah. 00:01:49.06 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:01:49.69 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:01:49.85 sidekqpodcast So, yeah, so from the, so I don't know, because we've had our previous guests of the show and also our mutual friends, Liam Murray's been on twice now and we've had La Royal on once, but we're hoping to, you know, wind our way back through the rotation of guests and have him back on. 00:02:00.48 Hillary Yeah. 00:02:05.88 sidekqpodcast I think he's currently, going back and forth between atlanta right now filming some sort of secret project that i will learn about on some netflix trailer launch and help share it on social media be like hey i was the i was kevin's stunt guy again in this project or whatever it was. 00:02:22.72 Hillary Yeah. 00:02:25.89 Hillary Definitely. I love that. 00:02:27.96 sidekqpodcast Yeah yeah so what's that what was that journey like from you know our college years now you're out in in orlando you're making your own way in the world and you're you're You're in entertainment town of, ah well, I don't know if there's some snazzy nickname for Orlando that's like the entertainment town of the southeast part of the United States. 00:02:40.24 Hillary yeah 00:02:47.52 Hillary Um, I think a lot of people call it, uh, the tourist capital of the world, but I don't know if that's legit anymore because Abu Dhabi, uh, is apparently like getting up there and I'm like, I don't know. 00:02:58.64 sidekqpodcast Oh. 00:02:59.33 Hillary Keep that title anymore. Um, but yeah, so I, I mean, I was teaching essentially, uh, back in San Angelo, I was teaching kids from ages six to 18. um at this children's theater, essentially. So I was constantly telling them, you can go out and live your dreams, do whatever you want. And I was like, that's kind of hypocritical because I've never done that personally. so um So I thought it would be a really good idea for me to kind of try and dip my toes, if you will, into performing professionally. 00:03:32.62 Hillary um And it's been a great ride. I've found so many different ah opportunities out here with so many different ah companies. And I have learned just even more than I did in in college and you know high school even. So it's been a really, really great ah almost 10 years, which is crazy. And I did not think that that's how long it had been until recently. 00:03:59.43 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:03:59.65 Hillary So it's it's wild, but it's almost been 10 years that I've been out here doing my thing as best as I can. 00:04:06.18 sidekqpodcast Yeah, no, it's it's crazy to think that ah you've been out, you know, you've been out of college, and you've been working the grind for basically as long as ah the existence of fifth editions been out since it came out. 00:04:17.63 Hillary Yes. 00:04:17.98 sidekqpodcast Oh, 2014. And now we're getting ready for these new rules. ah you know Stay tuned, listeners, because I think we'll have a pretty exciting um parlays at the platter episode that will be forthcoming. I don't know when it'll drop in the future, but ah maybe you should subscribe to the Patreon so you can ah listen to it early. But not to take away from the interviews section, I think that's a great segue into the next question of, do you currently or have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before? I don't think that was something we were necessarily doing 00:04:48.85 sidekqpodcast Together in college because I think I was still in the fourth edition days um You know that would have been about 2010 is when I started with 4e and still going through grad school with that before I moved out here to Dallas and that's I always equate like my move to Dallas is when I officially made my switch over to fifth edition and I've just kind of been in that system since night That's what I feel the most comfortable with now at this point 00:05:03.12 Hillary Yeah. 00:05:14.10 Hillary Yeah, well, it's funny about ah you mentioning going into fifth edition into Dallas for myself I had never played ah D and&D before I moved to Orlando. um So I was never into fourth edition but I dip my toes into it. ah About eight years ago now and I've been playing on and off with ah you know, a lot of friends um I've been on a bunch of live streams to stream different kinds of games I've even ah more so recently have kind of gotten into some more a different TTRBG is essentially as well so I've kind of branched out and have found even more fun ah creative ways to tell stories with friends, but Definitely you gotta go back to D and&D every once in a while, you know 00:05:59.06 sidekqpodcast Yeah. So you were, so you started when you moved to Orlando. And so you, you started with 40 and then made the five E and then you've, you know, branched out, as you said, and played other TTRPGs. 00:06:02.81 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:06:09.97 sidekqpodcast Um, I know the Royal, when he was on, he was sharing about like, Oh, I did a podcast for a little bit of ah of a time. Uh, is that kind of like what you did as well? I don't know if that was prompted by COVID. And so you were like, Oh, I got to do something creative and let me jump into D and D or like, what was that journey like? 00:06:27.05 Hillary So it was a little before that, um i how I initially kind of got into D and&D is I worked with some friends in an escape room and they were big into D and&D and I was like, I don't know anything about that. ah Could I come watch? And they were like, that's kind of weird, but of course you can. ah Because a lot of people are like, no, you can't watch, you have to play. And I was like, I don't know if I'm ready. Like, I just kind of want to know what it's like and see how it is. um And immediately got super involved in the story. 00:06:52.72 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:06:56.95 Hillary just and not involved, but like I was fascinated by it and my friends were super good storytellers. So that gave me a little bit of ah you know, confidence to essentially go and ah start to play. Another friend group of mine, um there's actually, it ah we started streaming on Twitch. and This was pre-COVID, so we were actually physically playing ah together in the room and filming that way. um And that's how I started into a D and&D with a one-on-one, ah excuse me, not a one-on-one, a D and&D, 00:07:34.51 Hillary ah Like intro ah game essentially to kind of get the feel for it and I i picked it up super well. 00:07:40.40 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:07:42.96 Hillary um And then shortly after that I started a campaign through twitch and I was live streaming that way for a good chunk of time so. ah Yeah, that's really kind of how it started for me. And we've played, you know, pre-COVID all the way up until ah just recently. I've done ah another podcast ah D and&D channel called Jousting Through Jacinto. And we're on a short hiatus and that should be coming back around. 00:08:10.72 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:08:12.88 Hillary But ah yeah, so that's kind of that journey of how that started and where we're at now. 00:08:19.20 sidekqpodcast awesome and uh yeah wonderful to hear you know it's it's always good to have another nerd uh to nerd out about things with so uh going along with that and the name of this show you know sidekicks and side quests we like to focus on the other uh the background actor the little guy the one that you know just does a really good job of supporting the main character but you know should be applauded in their own right i mean it's why they give out 00:08:36.80 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:08:43.83 sidekqpodcast academy awards for best supporting actors and all that stuff right so in your mind in your academy awards in your head who happens to be your favorite sidekick or NPC character whether they're from an RPG video game movie film television literature etc and why is this character your favorite sidekick or NPC. 00:09:04.49 Hillary Yeah, um I think my favorite sidekick is Ludo from The Labyrinth. um i I love the the trope of just potentially this very large, could be terrifying creature and could just take you out so quickly that end up having the biggest hearts ever. 00:09:20.81 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:09:24.37 Hillary And I mean, who doesn't want to just go up and give Ludo the biggest hug? Like, honestly. 00:09:31.00 sidekqpodcast Right, yes, the Henson puppet mastery over there and, you know, yeah, because because Ludo is the big one that almost is like reminiscent of like Snuffle up kiss and stuff like that. 00:09:38.40 Hillary Yeah. 00:09:41.55 Hillary Yeah, yeah. ah Stands on you know two legs, has huge like meaty hands essentially and and little horns coming out of his head. And he just, he doesn't speak very well and he's just simple minded. 00:09:49.65 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:09:53.89 Hillary And I'm just like, you're so sweet. I just want to hug that guy. yeah 00:09:58.63 sidekqpodcast okay Yeah, no, he's a he's a good choice. For sure. It's been a while since I've watched Labyrinth. But yes, now it's all flooding back to me. 00:10:04.98 Hillary Yes. 00:10:05.05 sidekqpodcast And yes, yeah he was a very good sidekick to Jennifer Connolly to help her get through ah the Labyrinth to be able to rescue her baby brother or baby brother from ah David Bowie, as he's want to do with kidnapping children, you know, yeah. 00:10:14.28 Hillary Yeah. 00:10:18.15 Hillary Yeah, classic. 00:10:21.32 sidekqpodcast Classic. a And then ah also, like the name of the show, what happens to be your favorite side quest or B plot element? Again, same same kind of criteria, RPG, video game, movie, film, television, literature, et cetera. And why is this B plot or your side quest your favorite? 00:10:41.52 Hillary Um, so my favorite would definitely have to be from Superbad, McLovin and the cops. Uh, I love the absolute absurdity of those three together. 00:10:49.31 sidekqpodcast Oh, yeah. 00:10:55.15 Hillary And it's just like, it encapsulates this very specific type of grownup who's not like still has that kind of Peter Pan syndrome ah and has but also at the same time they're living vicariously through this kid um while they're still don't want to you know fully grow up essentially so and I also just 00:11:04.26 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:11:14.82 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:11:16.78 Hillary love Bill Hader as well. So it's a little bit of merriment of of of our marrying of those two things, essentially. So just the the absurdity of the of the ah characters and their obsession with this kid, which is messed up, but oh just the the shenanigans that they are able to, you know, to live vicariously through Mick 11. 00:11:33.25 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:11:40.98 Hillary It's pretty good. 00:11:41.23 sidekqpodcast It. Yeah, yeah, no, and I was going to say that was definitely like a college era movie that came out. 00:11:47.85 Hillary Yeah. 00:11:49.71 sidekqpodcast For us, so like, yeah, yeah, yeah Bill Hader, Seth Rogan and ah Christopher Minceplats. 00:11:50.74 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:11:56.89 Hillary Yeah. 00:11:56.97 sidekqpodcast Yeah. Yeah. That trio and look at where they all have gone on to now with the, yeah. 00:12:01.86 Hillary Insane. 00:12:03.25 sidekqpodcast I mean, I've been catching up on the boys, uh, and invincible. And I know Evan Goldberg and Seth Brogan are often, you know, producer team up guys that'll, you know, they worked on super bad together and they, you know, and now they're, now they're doing things like the boys or invincible or, or whatnot. 00:12:09.00 Hillary Mm hmm. Right. 00:12:22.63 sidekqpodcast So yeah. Excellent choice. ah Yeah, i'm I'm sitting here drinking a Shiner summer ah lemonade shandy. 00:12:26.15 Hillary Thank you. Oh, man. 00:12:32.27 sidekqpodcast And so it has me thinking Bill Aiders like we need road beers, you know. but Yeah. 00:12:37.39 Hillary That takes me that Shiner was the first beer I ever drank and in Texas or at all. 00:12:44.48 sidekqpodcast Oh, yeah. 00:12:45.04 Hillary And I was like, this is not for me. 00:12:48.21 sidekqpodcast oh Okay, I was gonna say you picked a good one because like my grandfather would say if you're gonna drink a beer drink something worth drinking Yeah, like Shiner All right, and then the way that we end the personal interview section of the show What are you passionate about and why? 00:12:53.82 Hillary You drink the cider. I love it. 00:13:08.86 Hillary um So I'm crazy passionate about creating experiences for others that they won't ever be able to forget. um Growing up, I loved going to Disney World. um i One of the very first times um I went to Disney World kind of actually led me to my path now. ah There was a troupe of performers that worked at Hollywood Studios called The Citizens of Hollywood. And ah we were about to leave the park and we were waiting for my mom and my sister and my dad and I are just standing out on the sidewalk waiting for them to buy something from like, you know, a local merch shop in there. um And these actors are talking and yelling at each other about like, this policeman, I believe, ended up trying to figure out like, 00:14:00.51 Hillary who ah is guilty in the situation between this group and that group and they're going back and forth being super loud and they pull my dad into the into the scene with them and it's like oh well Clark Kent here my dad is my witness he was here with me the whole time and it I will never forget that moment of, this is insane. I don't remember anything else about my first trip to Disney World except for that moment. um Because it just, it stuck with me so hard. And then of course, whenever I grew up a little bit more, I realized, oh, you can do that. That's a real thing. So essentially like coming back to Orlando and finding things to do performing wise, 00:14:51.74 Hillary led me to this immersive theater project ah that I started with, which is really where I ah understood that ah meaning of changing somebody's, just giving them ah this essential core memory that they will never be able to forget. um Essentially this immersive performance was almost like a first-person video game that you would be able to go through with a group of friends or yourself and influence the story ah with all of these actors through the environments. 00:15:17.29 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:15:28.45 Hillary um and really had that agency to change the story and uh so creating stories and and experiences like that that give people this really cool uh just feeling of i have agency just watching a performance and interacting with other actors is something that is in incredibly, incredibly phenomenal for myself. And I love to even incorporate that if I'm not acting, if I'm helping as a production coordinator for a new show, how can I give that 00:16:05.78 Hillary to somebody somebody and make them feel like this is something that they won't ever forget and they can smile and think back on this performance or this experience with you know just happy memories so that they can tell somebody else about it and get other people to get out in the world and and go do a different experience that maybe they've never done before. 00:16:29.37 sidekqpodcast And the the listeners of this podcast know that this is purely an audio medium so they don't get the visuals. But i you and I are looking at each other on the camera. And so I see you're wearing a d twenty ah well dimension shirt. And so it just had me thinking of this question as you're explaining you know why you're passionate about creating these experiences through acting and environmental storytelling and all this. And so I was just trying to think of like, oh, so you know even with that earliest memory and you know through high school, through our college experiences and your working experiences do you think that all kind of helped build and just like gave you this hobby ah kind of served it up like on a silver platter is like hey this is what you love like this is like you know some of your favorite actual play shows like dimension 20 or critical role or some of these other ones that do have actors in fact in the cast and they're like you know showing you a way to play the game like it feels like it was pretty seamless 00:17:16.33 Hillary Yeah. 00:17:25.12 Hillary Yeah. Yeah. Well, what's funny is the but so my I mentioned earlier my first 101 D and&D game. ah that My DM, his name's ah Billy. He's amazing, amazing DM. um I met him through that first immersive experience I was just speaking of. So we became friends via this immersive theater piece. and After that he kept coming to our shows we just our friendship grew essentially and then he became my DM for multiple different shows and and and different ah campaigns essentially so. 00:18:05.54 Hillary ah it it it It's so natural how all of these things lined up and have pushed me to this point. Personally, it's phenomenal to you know look back and be like, oh, if I hadn't have even considered you know, working or attempting to go and work for the theme parks, I might not even be sitting in this chair in Orlando right now, you know. So it's just, it's so cool that it it just all connected exactly how it should have for myself. 00:18:33.37 sidekqpodcast Right. 00:18:39.58 sidekqpodcast And isn't super Florida con something or another supposed to be happening soon and then critical roles going to be there. 00:18:43.15 Hillary meca ah megacon medical Megacon just passed, I think it was, or ended last year. I can't remember. Time's a weird construct. ah But it it'll be coming back around, I'm sure. And it's massive and huge. um But I don't know about ah Critical Role if they're coming out here. But they do. 00:19:07.38 sidekqpodcast Yeah, I thought I saw an advertisement or something like that, that they were like, hey, we're coming to some big convention in Florida. 00:19:07.60 Hillary they Yeah. 00:19:13.54 sidekqpodcast So I was going to be like, oh, that'd be really cool if you could like go see them or something like that. 00:19:14.59 Hillary Amazing. 00:19:17.52 Hillary Yeah, definitely. Megacon is very expensive. ah So it's it's a little pricey, um even if you live here. um is So I haven't really tried to get out there. Also, the area that it's in is ah I also used to work over there, so I'm like, i well I'm going to try to avoid over that section because it's it's very touristy over there. um There's lots of traffic issues. 00:19:43.91 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:19:47.03 Hillary so 00:19:47.63 sidekqpodcast I say. 00:19:47.93 Hillary um yeah ah but i you know i've ah I've been going to some smaller cons more so recently. 00:19:55.11 sidekqpodcast Oh, cool. 00:19:55.76 Hillary that um yeah like Nothing super D and&D related just yet, but i and because I've been going more, I feel like I might have to dip my toe into those waters too to see what else is out there. 00:20:01.05 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:20:10.17 Hillary because um 00:20:10.94 sidekqpodcast Yeah. 00:20:12.01 Hillary there's a There's another one that's coming. I wish I could remember what it's called. It's supposed to be next month, but um from Dimension 20, there is a quarter fae in flowers, which is um actually my favorite Dimension 20. D and&D ah game and Omar was a cast member on there and he's going to be in this at this con that's coming up next month that's actually much cheaper than mega con and a little bit smaller so I yeah so I'm definitely considering going to that one of yeah 00:20:29.20 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:20:40.16 sidekqpodcast Ooh. 00:20:44.86 sidekqpodcast There you go. Yeah. I've only been to a Dallas fan expo twice now. Uh, and then, uh, previous guests of the show, the five sided fates hosted their first con just this past end of March. So, uh, you know, slowly, slowly getting, getting out there and and all that stuff and and working it out. 00:20:57.64 Hillary Wow. 00:21:02.45 sidekqpodcast I know, you know, no big deal, but, uh, the guy who did the voice acting for Astarian, uh, was there. And so I saw him in person, he was at his table signing things. 00:21:11.34 Hillary Ugh. 00:21:12.15 sidekqpodcast And so his line was very long because of. 00:21:14.26 Hillary Of course. 00:21:15.11 sidekqpodcast Everyone wanted to you know get his autograph and then of course seeing different people and all the celebrity photograph lines i'm staring up here on my bookcase and i've got my, my photo with charlie cox and vincent and off reo and if i had just. 00:21:28.30 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:21:30.59 sidekqpodcast Cough that the extra dough i could have added john burn fall in it but um i was like oh i'll be fine and then i went to his panel and i was like. Yeah, I should have added John Bernthal as well, but oh well. Say la vie, you learn and you live. So ah yeah, well, as you can tell, you know, Hilary and I are great friends. 00:21:43.46 Hillary Yes, exactly. 00:21:47.55 sidekqpodcast You know, it's like it's like memory lane. It's like nostalgia all wrapped in one. 00:21:51.38 Hillary Truly. 00:21:51.51 sidekqpodcast And we could sit here and gab for hours. ah But I would be doing us a disservice because I think it's time for us to head into some NPC creation. 00:22:07.07 sidekqpodcast And NPC Creation is brought to you by you, the podcast audience, and our patrons from Patreon. So now is the time in the show where we give a shout out to our comfortable patrons and above with a loud hoorah. So to you, our queen of the Patreon, ah Goblin Katie, aka Katie Downey, as well as our other wealthy tier patrons, including Anson Jablinski, and good old mom and dad, Crenwellgie, we say cheers. So again, you just donate $2. 00:22:36.07 Hillary Thank 00:22:36.13 sidekqpodcast Again, you just donate $2 or more a month. You get a shout out on every episode that I have. And all of these people are at least wealthy tier level, which means they get to introduce an element of chance, which we might get to use here in this section of the show. You never know. But if you want to learn more about this awesome ah Patreon community, you should go to the show notes below, check out my podcast website, or just go directly to patreon dot.com. forward slash sidekicks and side quests to learn about all of our accommodations that we have awaiting for you. 00:23:04.75 Hillary you. 00:23:09.17 sidekqpodcast Help us to grow and expand our operations in this Demiplane and worlds beyond. Okay, so as we were talking before we started rolling, ah you have a unique approach that you like to take whenever you are forming new characters. So what is the method we're using today? 00:23:28.29 Hillary um So I, ah like most ladies of of the internet, I essentially have a Pinterest board um and I will find ah it' different characters that people ah will put their art up on Pinterest and I love to kind of go through and 00:23:36.83 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:23:49.66 Hillary ah essentially take somebody's artwork and put it to a character. I do like to put a little bit of a spin on it um just so I'm not you know absolutely copying the art, but I do enjoy to use artwork as my inspiration to kind of visualize what my character is and then take that and kind of run with it. 00:24:14.11 sidekqpodcast ah Yes, so it's like a theme and variations I'm kind of more musically minded so it's like okay We got the original piece of music here. All right How are we gonna do like our our flavor spin on it like when you do a cover song? So we're gonna do Hillary's cover song to get today based on a piece of Pinterest art um So what is the art that we're working with today? 00:24:27.45 Hillary Yeah. 00:24:33.29 Hillary Yes. 00:24:36.30 Hillary um It is this little, he's just a little guy. ah He looks like a little black crow that can't be bigger than like three inches that is wearing this little ah hood that's clasped his neck. um He's got the biggest eyes that you have ever seen that's almost the size of his head, essentially. And he is carrying this little sharp dagger with a big old smile on his face. 00:25:03.20 sidekqpodcast Okay all right so yeah i think that's a pretty good visualization um so yeah we'll just work our way to the questions and i think it'll be pretty self evident who are gonna make today so. 00:25:13.37 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:25:13.98 sidekqpodcast um And of course you know i always leave it open so if you ever get stuck or you're like i need something to spice this up you know we can always roll a dice and and see if that gets the brain juices flowing for for creativity so the first question what's the name of the character. 00:25:25.58 Hillary Love it. 00:25:31.32 Hillary I think this little guy's name is Peep. 00:25:34.19 sidekqpodcast Peep, P-E-E-P, okay. 00:25:35.23 Hillary Mm hmm. Yep. 00:25:37.39 sidekqpodcast All right, just like ah your favorite Easter candy. There we go. 00:25:40.13 Hillary Yeah. 00:25:40.97 sidekqpodcast Yeah, or marshmallows, I guess I should say. Highly contentious, I suppose. I'm going to have a wildly divided audience. ah they'll They'll get up in arms on social media, who knows. but 00:25:53.70 sidekqpodcast Okay, so peep. And then what is ah the ancestry? 00:25:55.71 Hillary Yeah. 00:25:57.90 sidekqpodcast I mean, I have a pretty good idea of where it might go, but you might have a different opinion. 00:26:00.10 Hillary and I think we got to go kinku. 00:26:02.55 sidekqpodcast So what is the ancestry of this character? 00:26:07.19 sidekqpodcast Uh, good old kanku. 00:26:08.33 Hillary I think we got to go. 00:26:08.24 sidekqpodcast Okay. Are you, are you, of are you of the opinion, um, that it's, uh, purely mimicry, uh, and peep has to learn everything from listening to people or would you imagine like a world of like, Oh, they can talk like normal, but they just have a really uncanny ability with mimicry. 00:26:29.00 Hillary Um, I think it's the latter of the two. Um, cause I have, I've played both ways essentially for kinkoos. 00:26:31.83 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:26:35.41 sidekqpodcast Mm. 00:26:35.80 Hillary Um, but I feel like if you've lived in a world for so long, I think that you would co, you know, essentially gather all of that information if you have that form of mimicry essentially. So you would understand and have lived, you know, if you've lived your entire life essentially. So I'm on that end of the spectrum for, for little people. 00:26:57.50 sidekqpodcast Okay and i would believe it i have a three-year-old son who you know, likes to plan as what he calls his big phone which is the ipad that we've had now for seven months ah you know, try prying that away from him and you know he has an epic meltdown but yeah just all the educational stuff. the programs and games that he gets to play. like he gets He is very good with the mimicry and he like repeats and runs through scripts that he's picked up from different things. 00:27:25.01 Hillary Yeah. 00:27:25.18 sidekqpodcast um I mean, he still is able to like form his own opinions and and when you when you ask him a question or say, hey, can you tell me what this color is? 00:27:32.25 Hillary Yeah, 00:27:33.11 sidekqpodcast And you know he can tell you what it is and stuff like that. But yeah, I i would believe that as far as like if you if you listen to enough stuff, it's like, oh, I have a pretty good idea of like how language is supposed to work. 00:27:43.92 Hillary yeah definitely. 00:27:43.81 sidekqpodcast so Okay, okay. um And then let's see. All right, next question. What is the job or role in society for Peep the kenku? 00:27:55.29 Hillary ah I think that Peep is ah a soldier or a guard. 00:28:00.58 sidekqpodcast Ooh, okay. 00:28:02.13 Hillary So I think he's like the front guard that you would see in front of like at a kingdom or even like a castle or something to that effect. He's what you encounter before you can go in. ah Which I think is very funny because he's just this little dude and you're like, this guy's not gonna do nothing. 00:28:22.33 sidekqpodcast and Okay, so that's his greatest weapon is his deceptive appearance. 00:28:26.03 Hillary Yes. 00:28:27.15 sidekqpodcast Okay. All right. So he's a guard, ah a noble guard for a kingdom. Okay. And then let's see how old is Peep? 00:28:36.70 Hillary Um, I would say that peep would probably be around 20 years-ish. I don't know how the life, I don't know the lifespan of kinkoos, but essentially like in that, not high school years, but just a little bit out of it. 00:28:46.74 sidekqpodcast Hmm. 00:28:52.08 Hillary So, uh, yeah. 00:28:52.89 sidekqpodcast Ah. 00:28:54.41 Hillary So this is first big boy job for peep. 00:28:56.77 sidekqpodcast Mmm. Okay, he's he's out of the nest and he's ready to prove mom and dad right, you know, that whole thing. 00:29:02.52 Hillary Yeah. Mm-hmm. 00:29:03.57 sidekqpodcast Okay. And I know when we were introducing this ah this concept, you've already kind of done a little bit of ah of a physical description of the character, but now that we've kind of gotten some more names to these specific questions, is there anything you would change or ah amend as far as the physical appearance of Peep would be concerned? 00:29:14.00 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:29:27.64 Hillary Um, I would so as he looks in the in the photo that I've essentially use, he looks like he's kind of in his town garb. So I would say that he would probably be ah yielding ah a shield with him, and maybe some little armor and maybe a little, like, essentially an armored hat to that comes down like almost to his beak, essentially, but 00:29:46.93 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:29:51.30 Hillary so he can still talk it doesn't hit it quite there so just to give him some you know a little bit more oomph but also makes it look a little silly because that's wild seeing a little bird wearing a bunch of armor like that. 00:30:05.31 sidekqpodcast Sure. Well, I mean, speaking as a Catholic, I mean, I get it all the time or I hear it all the time when people ever, when people go to Rome and they go to the Vatican and then they're like, who are all these dudes in brightly colored, uh, uniforms and stuff like that. It's like, Oh, that's just the Swiss guard. Um, so I was, I was getting like Swiss guard vibes for peep. Like he's just like, you know, uh, you know, he, you were saying like, Oh, he's in his town guard, but like is his Royal, uh, you know armor and outfit that he's supposed to wear kind of reminiscent of like the swiss guard so it's like a mimics mimics in a way the bright plumage of uh of feathers of like tropical birds or something like that uh but he's like on guard uh at the gates and you know people are like well you know what's this guy all about but if he has to take you out like he goes right for the shins kind of a thing 00:30:24.25 Hillary Yeah. 00:30:36.27 Hillary Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. 00:30:53.22 Hillary Mm hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. And that that that armor is like super shiny and like it looks like it's never been touched before. So it almost looks like it's, you know, just decorative a little bit. 00:31:04.97 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:31:06.07 Hillary So ah it it gives a little bit more sense of a lull of safety of this guy's not going to do anything. He's never seen any action. 00:31:15.90 sidekqpodcast Yeah, and so it sounds like probably a pretty strict training regimen, even even for peep here. 00:31:21.20 Hillary Mm hmm. Definitely. 00:31:23.53 sidekqpodcast Okay, and let's see. Okay, we got a pretty good physical description. If you had to describe PEEP with three adjectives, what three adjectives would you use? 00:31:36.40 Hillary Um, one would be ferocious, um, um, loyal and, um, 00:31:51.19 Hillary a good judge of character. That's not an adjective, but, uh, yeah, there we go. 00:31:54.88 sidekqpodcast discerning. 00:31:57.74 sidekqpodcast Okay, so he is ferocious, he's loyal, and he's discerning. I suppose you have to be as a guard, um you know, with all these people walking by, you just have to like have your crow eyes, you know, open and scanning the crowds and figuring out like, who's a threat and who's not. 00:32:11.28 Hillary f Yeah, definitely. 00:32:19.24 sidekqpodcast And is is this like a well now my question again going back to like you know my frame of reference being like oh the Swiss guard and stuff like that. Is this like a situation of like. Is he the only kenku guard of this place is it a situation of like oh this is a kingdom of bird folk and he's part of the illustrious bird folk guard um or is this like oh the king the noble kenku nation saved the holy religious figure and so there is this there's been this unbroken agreement that like 00:32:37.32 Hillary Oh. 00:32:51.91 sidekqpodcast these noble kenku warriors are supposed to guard this uh you know this dwarven cleric uh for all time as he is the the voice piece of ah one of the dwarven gods on the mortal plains 00:33:05.33 Hillary Right. I think i I love the idea of a peef's out here and he's just like, I'm going to get a job at that place. And there's no bird folk anywhere around essentially. And he goes in to go and get this, you know, to to prove his parents that he, that and make them proud of him essentially. 00:33:26.46 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:33:27.62 Hillary And he goes in and they're like, this guy? Okay, let's learn let's run them through the gambit, you know, and give them that initiation. And he does it with flying color plate, which then they're like, you're in. You got it, peep. 00:33:43.72 sidekqpodcast That's that's pretty cool. Okay, so very cool. So just like I'm going for this job. I'm gunning for it. The ferocity comes out any any blows them all away. 00:33:48.43 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:33:51.83 sidekqpodcast Okay, very cool. ah Excellent. Okay, yeah, I'm starting to love Pete more and more. ah Okay. Well, we like all of our NPCs to have something cool on their person. um So what is going to be a valuable item, a piece of lore, a secret, or an ideal or concept that people would a describe to. 00:34:03.98 Hillary Mmhmm. 00:34:12.21 sidekqpodcast So this is a part, um you know, obviously if you're spit mauling it, you might throw one or two, but if you're like, I just need something, ah then you can always go to the dice rolls and we can figure out one of those things. 00:34:24.17 Hillary I think Peep's valuable item is a piece of gold because crows like shiny things. And I think it's like, oh, here's a lucky gold piece that I found. And then he got this job. So he keeps it close to his heart now. 00:34:42.26 sidekqpodcast ah Okay, well I like that yeah he just has like a very sentimental Singular piece of gold that he just holds on to and that's his most precious thing 00:34:51.89 Hillary Yeah, absolutely. 00:34:54.07 sidekqpodcast okay and he's not that way maybe necessarily with with anything else is just like no this is like the one gold piece i found and then i got the job and like this is the precious thing to me 00:35:03.52 Hillary It was, yeah, it was destiny. If I hadn't found the gold piece, I wouldn't have done the thing, essentially. So, yeah. 00:35:11.46 sidekqpodcast very cool okay i love that and then uh okay and now let's see what is going to be a particular quest that peep the guard would need player characters to go and do on his behalf um if you know if you're inspired you know what is that going to be or you know I always push these tables just because they're here. Their resources, they're here for a guest to use. 00:35:33.22 Hillary Yeah. 00:35:34.67 sidekqpodcast um So if you're stuck and you're like, I have no idea what people would need help with, ah you can always roll a D12 and figure that out. 00:35:39.14 Hillary yeah Yeah, let's, uh, let's do that. Let's use the. 00:35:45.71 sidekqpodcast Or you can mix and match. you know Sometimes it's a launching off point too. so 00:35:49.42 Hillary Yeah, definitely. Let's, let's, uh, let's give it a shot and see what, um, happens. Uh, I got four. 00:35:57.91 sidekqpodcast 4 okay this one's come up a couple of times so i don't know you tell me if you think this is appropriate but our our mutual friend and our previous guest uh nolan page had a response deliver a breeding pair of a rare species of animal to a reserve to help them repopulate their numbers it is that i don't know if that sounds like a peep sort of thing okay i mean you're free to reroll but uh 00:36:22.75 Hillary it's not 00:36:25.74 Hillary no Yeah, let's let's let's reroll real quick because that feels odd for for for our boy a 10 Mm-hmm 00:36:29.83 sidekqpodcast Yeah. Yeah. 00:36:34.17 sidekqpodcast A 10. Ah, OK, I think this one might fit. So this is from when I did my live show, one of my audience members, temp, ah suggested this answer. 00:36:38.80 Hillary Okay. 00:36:46.25 Hillary yeah I love it. 00:36:46.36 sidekqpodcast Find grandpa. He wandered into the forest. 00:36:51.51 Hillary Absolutely. 00:36:53.07 sidekqpodcast Okay alright so ah so peeps grandfather has gone missing he's wandered into the forest is there. 00:36:53.95 Hillary Yeah. 00:37:00.24 sidekqpodcast um Now we get to do some more character building to you know do a bit a small bit of genealogy but. 00:37:03.07 Hillary Yeah. 00:37:05.20 sidekqpodcast um What's what's the deal with peeps grandfather like what's what's his deal why is he wandering around and strains for strange forests. 00:37:14.26 Hillary I feel like he is ah searching for something. um Let's say that, um let's say that Peep's grandfather has a fascination with magic and wants to ah essentially know how it works a little bit more. So maybe he has gone to a market once before and ah went to ah of a cart that had a mysterious ah ah you know ah ah traveler who had a bunch of magical items, essentially, and he saw a um like a magical orb that was like ah ah an arcane focus, essentially. 00:37:59.05 sidekqpodcast Mhmm. 00:37:59.24 Hillary and it it was something that he thought was really cool ah and maybe he purchased it and somehow it got lost mysteriously one day ah and he went out into the woods to try and find it and he keeps going back out to try and find this arcane focus. 00:38:18.37 sidekqpodcast Okay, and so by this point he's just maybe wandered one too many times and now it's like It's it's been a really long time and we haven't found grandpa like normally he'd come back by now, but he hasn't Mmm, 00:38:29.92 Hillary Yeah. Yeah. I feel like every day that he goes out, it's like he goes out for an hour one day. The next day he goes out for two hours and it just doubles every single time he goes out. 00:38:44.13 sidekqpodcast so are we in the point now where it's like days? 00:38:46.60 Hillary Mm-hmm. Yeah. 00:38:47.70 sidekqpodcast weeks? Well, hopefully not weeks, but... 00:38:49.84 Hillary No, I feel like this is probably, it might be getting close to weeks. I think we're like at four day period where it's like, oh, okay, that's that's too much time. 00:38:54.48 sidekqpodcast Yeah, yeah he's pondering the orb too much. He ponders that orb too much. 00:39:02.75 Hillary Yeah. 00:39:03.86 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:39:04.09 Hillary yes Yeah. 00:39:05.02 sidekqpodcast All right, so OK, so grandpa's wandered into the forest because he's in search of this arcane focus. um So I don't know. I mean, obviously we leave things open ended for whoever's going to use peep, you know, but sometimes if there are, you know, if there are benchmarks that you want to leave, does this is this tied back to the ah the peddler as it was like the peddler sold like some sort of faulty item. 00:39:16.55 Hillary he 00:39:24.67 Hillary Right. 00:39:27.75 sidekqpodcast And so it's luring people ah into the forest as it was. 00:39:32.05 Hillary Right. Yeah, definitely. 00:39:34.02 sidekqpodcast Okay, so this all links back. 00:39:34.24 Hillary um It was, yeah, so it was all more of a trick from the peddler itself rather than it was a pretty shiny thing that, you know, grandpa bought and ah it's, it was a ploy essentially to get grandpa to follow to potentially go somewhere. 00:39:54.67 sidekqpodcast o Yeah i feel like that's a very fae trickster sort of thing to do probably some sort of a fae creature in disguise like hey let me sell you these baubles and like every time you try and use it it just gets a little bit further away until it's gonna lead you to a portal to the fae wild or something like that. 00:39:58.61 Hillary Yeah. 00:40:13.71 Hillary Yeah, absolutely. 00:40:15.22 sidekqpodcast Yeah okay so all right so now this is a pretty good segue into the ramifications so the players here peeps ply for you know rescuing his uh you know his grandfather who's wandering about you know 00:40:24.92 Hillary oh 00:40:30.45 sidekqpodcast i'm i'm I'm convinced he's not senile he's just he keeps disappearing and i don't know why he's going to the forest but go find my grandpa. 00:40:37.67 Hillary Mhmm. 00:40:37.65 sidekqpodcast The player characters are successful they find grandpa a four whatever plots going on what is. The reward how is peep going to reward the player characters for their job well done. 00:40:51.75 Hillary I think that I think that Peep would ah have essentially his own box of shinies that would be essentially gold that he has captured around the ah in the in the town essentially so he's picked up a bunch of different like gold pieces and stuff like that one is very specifically special to him but I think that he's 00:41:02.14 sidekqpodcast Mm-hmm 00:41:17.94 Hillary I think gold pieces are one of those things that probably are almost like pennies at some point. Like if you don't really see it and he's in peace like gold and he's just collected like a decent sum of gold pieces for ah for the ah player characters. 00:41:36.15 sidekqpodcast Okay, so there's just a there's a small gold piece reward for ah for rescuing Grandpa. 00:41:42.10 Hillary Mm hmm. 00:41:43.28 sidekqpodcast OK, I mean, that's a perfectly fine and justifiable reward. 00:41:43.71 Hillary Yeah. 00:41:47.63 sidekqpodcast You know, certainly seems in character with Peep, unless you're of the the kind of the goofy video game, he sort of like boop, like a magic item just kind of falls on the ground and is like, here you go. 00:41:50.32 Hillary Right. 00:41:58.33 sidekqpodcast Here's a reward for the quest. And you're like, oh, you were holding on to this thing? Why? Why were you holding on to this this magic arcane six shooter revolver or whatever it is? 00:42:10.24 Hillary Yeah, I don't think I feel like ah with the guard, I don't feel like he would be able to hold anything by his person in that, ah in that sense essentially. ah I think maybe the only other thing that he could have might be like a ah ah Oh, shoot. A component that potentially could be good for ah for spells. So maybe one of the shinies is a diamond that he happened to add into ah you know the pouch of ah gold as well. 00:42:43.74 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:42:44.10 Hillary um So any you know little things like that that might not actually... 00:42:47.58 sidekqpodcast A pearl or. 00:42:49.08 Hillary ah Yeah, exactly. 00:42:51.56 sidekqpodcast OK, all right, so, yeah, OK, so gold and maybe a couple of spell components or something like that have ended their way, so a dungeon master can figure out the composition of his adventurers group and be like, oh, yeah, the wizard's been wanting a pearl for a while. OK, so the this guy can give him a pearl conceit, you know, convincingly and stuff like that. 00:43:06.39 Hillary Hmm. 00:43:09.42 Hillary Right. Yeah, definitely. 00:43:10.64 sidekqpodcast OK. All right, but now the now the opposite. What's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? so Peeps like, hey, my grandpa keeps going missing. You should go find him. They you know tell him, buzz off, bird brain. 00:43:24.39 Hillary Hmm. 00:43:25.50 sidekqpodcast Or they do it, but therere they're too late. you know What's going to be the the consequence of failure or refusal? 00:43:33.09 Hillary o 00:43:36.46 Hillary Hmm. This one's a little bit trickier than I was planning. Um, let's see. Um. 00:43:45.25 sidekqpodcast I mean he's a ferocious guy, is he going to take it personally? 00:43:47.26 Hillary He. 00:43:47.93 sidekqpodcast Like a Ignigio Montoya? I swear I have not drank that much beer. I'll eventually say the guy's name right, Ignigio Montoya. 00:43:56.88 Hillary Uh-huh. yeah 00:43:58.48 sidekqpodcast Is he going to go ferocious on them for like, you you let my grandpa die, now I have to kill you all kind of a thing? Or is that like way too extreme out of his character? 00:44:08.33 Hillary I kind of like the thought of ah Peep seems way too chill about them not doing this, them not completing the thing, or saying, no, we're not going to do this. And he's like, okay. And then he, ah in the middle of the night will gather ah his friends and other guards and ambush the party. 00:44:34.15 sidekqpodcast Oh, OK. Oh, OK. And they're the legitimate. Yeah, they're the legitimate ah guards of this town, this place that you're in. 00:44:41.66 Hillary Okay. 00:44:42.30 sidekqpodcast And so then that gets into further. Oh, that gets in a further interesting political ramifications because it's like, oh, is this like a commentary on police brutality? 00:44:46.76 Hillary Okay. 00:44:52.71 sidekqpodcast Uh, is this like, uh, or, you know, like, Oh, the, you know, wow, we're the guards in this town and we're the ones who make the show. And, you know, is it, ah is it commentary on the police state or is it just like, you know, peep is really like proved his worth with all the guards and they're like, Hey, we got your back. 00:45:07.13 Hillary but 00:45:08.02 sidekqpodcast And like these guys rond you and like, they like grandpa die or whatever it was. 00:45:13.73 Hillary Yeah. Yeah. I definitely think he's more on the, I am loyal to all of you. So you should be loyal to me, essentially. um and And they've built that kind of relationship together. 00:45:24.08 sidekqpodcast ah 00:45:27.06 Hillary So um it's kind of good old boys territory. 00:45:32.11 sidekqpodcast o and Okay, and certainly, you know if the players don't want to ah potentially, you know brand themselves as outlaws because like they just be like, oh, we were attacked by all these guards and you and they murdered them, you know, in self defense, but the town might not see it that way of like, oh, these guys murdered all these beloved guards at the town. And, ah and yeah, now, um yeah, now the now the player characters are outlaws, they have a bad reputation, because it's like, oh, they go around murdering guards, they're murder hobos or whatever. That's how they start their motor murder hobo careers. 00:46:10.17 Hillary Honestly, that's that's all it takes. It's just once. 00:46:13.98 sidekqpodcast OK, OK. Yeah, I'm just trying to just trying to think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had a thought, and then I feel like it left me. And maybe I'll have to cut this out. I don't know. But yeah, no. Oh, interesting. OK. OK, so that's the that's the ramification then. so ah so if you Now, is there a difference ah if the player characters? I found my thought. 00:46:40.08 Hillary There it is. 00:46:40.19 sidekqpodcast is Is there a difference ah if the player characters now surrender? Like, obviously, okay, all these guards come out in force, they decide not to take the violent path, and then they get arrested. Is it just kind of like a, oh, you serve your time? Sort of like ah like a You know, they write up some charge and then the player characters have to endure the however long in jail Or is it gonna be like a trial like how how deep is peep willing to go over this? Slight if you will or this wrong that's been done to him and is someone gonna check him like peep You're letting this like you're getting like the magistrates of the imperial court Involved like I feel like this is not a good use of our resources kind of a thing 00:47:24.12 Hillary um I think that ah even if they surrender, I think that because it's somebody close to him, they're gonna unleash essentially because it's his like ah a slight to him and his family. Uh, and I, think so I think that he would just charge no matter what, essentially. 00:47:44.36 sidekqpodcast Mmm. 00:47:45.50 Hillary Um, because if they're gone, no harm, no foul. If they're killed, you know, they still have to face the ramifications for it. So it's a win-win on Peep's part. 00:47:59.23 sidekqpodcast Ah. And the other guards aren't gonna look at him differently if like say for instance the other guards you know they're there for support moral support but then you know peep goes to like 1v1 the entire party and the guards are just standing back like yeah that guy's carrying a giant flaming great axe I don't I don't want to die like peep you should probably like let this go kind of a thing. 00:48:25.36 Hillary Yeah, I think that he's ah I don't know if he would so I mean the guards could potentially be with him um and maybe that there are some um you know some ties there with Peep has helped his guard friends make sure that They are, ah you know, taken care of and somebody has slighted them and he has helped them. um I feel like he's putting some good tokens with a good majority of his ah group that he's doing, but possibly one might piece out and go and create a fuss about it. 00:48:47.80 sidekqpodcast Mm hmm. 00:49:00.19 sidekqpodcast Okay. Yeah, I'm just trying to think of now I'm just intrigued by the politics of this town and this guard force that's like is this this little kenku supposedly is the entire mastermind ah behind the more quote unquote insidious good old boy culture of this town with their guards. 00:49:11.93 Hillary a 00:49:20.09 Hillary Yeah. ah Yeah. 00:49:20.95 sidekqpodcast Yeah, who would have thought? 00:49:23.19 Hillary I mean, we're we're we're doing it live. 00:49:26.59 sidekqpodcast Yeah, yeah. Okay, and so I'm just, you know, again, I just always, as a DM, you know, fellow fellow DM, I always like to just try and consider every angle. 00:49:37.76 Hillary Right. 00:49:37.61 sidekqpodcast So, I mean, is there any. I mean, is there any chance in failure or refusal or it doesn't end in bloodshed? 00:49:43.66 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:49:48.01 sidekqpodcast Like, is there some like, i' you know, maybe a super charismatic group figures out a nonviolent solution or, you know, like, hey, we really tried. 00:49:48.70 Hillary Yeah. 00:49:57.13 sidekqpodcast But like, by the time we got there, your grandfather was dead. There was like nothing we could do. We didn't have anything to You know resurrect him or anything like that he was turned ton bird birdie limb from limb and stuff like that like they they give like an honest report of like what really happened and stuff. 00:50:10.45 Hillary Yeah, yeah. Um, it would be, I think what would sway Peep's mind is bribery. 00:50:21.11 sidekqpodcast Oh bribery. 00:50:21.50 Hillary it's the Yeah, absolutely. I think Peep can absolutely be bought with Shinies. 00:50:28.47 sidekqpodcast ah Okay. Okay. Yeah. Now we're just getting more into that. Uh, the, the good old boy, uh, culture of like, Oh, you pay me enough gold and I'll, I'll look the other way. Me and my friends will, uh, we'll leave you alone tonight. Okay. 00:50:41.71 Hillary here 00:50:42.95 sidekqpodcast Oh, okay. Uh, well we have, um, we have some optional questions. Uh, if you feel like exploring peep more, or if you're ready, we can go into the next segment. 00:50:53.17 Hillary Yeah, sure. 00:50:54.99 sidekqpodcast Sure. As in alternate questions. 00:50:57.87 Hillary Yeah, absolutely. I'm down. 00:50:59.37 sidekqpodcast Okay. 00:51:00.26 Hillary I'm down for more questions or yeah. Let's explore a little bit more. 00:51:05.48 sidekqpodcast Okay. What are the goals and motivations of Peep as a character? 00:51:12.04 Hillary Um, I think that he is trying to raise in the ranks for, uh, for this, uh, military or, or, uh, guard essentially. Um, and so that's one reason that he's, you know, making relationships with others who are in that, um, you know, in within the ranks itself. Um, and he'd like to, you know, raise himself as high as he can go. 00:51:37.77 sidekqpodcast He's gunning for that captain of the guard position. 00:51:39.90 Hillary Yeah. yeah 00:51:41.22 sidekqpodcast Mm, okay. And then how do these ah goals and motivations affect his general personality? 00:51:48.61 Hillary I think that this has, I think that Pete before he became a soldier and a guard has hardened him a little bit. Like I think that Pete was a little bit more, ah had a little bit more of a spark in him, like a little bit more of a bright light essentially. And I think him trying to gun for these golds has kind of taken that shine away from him. And so he's become a little bit more hardened and cold. So that's why now it's like, oh, if you don't find my grandfather, shink, you know, that kind of vibe. 00:52:19.00 sidekqpodcast o 00:52:26.41 sidekqpodcast OK, yeah, yeah. Oh man, yeah, you what you were saying. I so i saw I heard a poetry in it of like, oh, he used to have more of a golden shine in him, but then you know he he found the gold piece that secured his ah position in the guard and you know now he's just chasing after more gold, more power, more prestige to climb the ranks. 00:52:45.73 Hillary Yeah. 00:52:47.21 sidekqpodcast It's kind of like. It's like it's it's cool, but it's also sad at the same time, like this this poor little bird but ah that's just trying to make it make it honest living. 00:52:52.61 Hillary Truly. 00:52:57.52 sidekqpodcast But is is his honesty ah still intact with this living? Yeah, the things that actors think of. 00:53:03.94 Hillary The world may never know. ahha 00:53:09.18 sidekqpodcast So how does he normally interact ah with different groups of people, you know, like friends and family versus his fellow guards versus, you know, townspeople and, you you know, the the ah the government of the town and, ah you know, enemies and rivals and and such is like, is he pretty nuanced when it comes to like different groups of people or is he pretty same one note across the board? 00:53:29.95 Hillary I think for the majority of people, he would be pretty you know straight ahead, soldier-esque, but I think that he would probably soften around like family members, because i don't I feel like that him and his family was who he had um in the past, um so the you know friends might not have come around as easily for him. 00:53:48.06 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 00:53:55.56 Hillary ah just depending on where he lived. But ah I think he would soften up to his family for sure a little bit differently than ah he would with townsfolk. But I would say that like around the soldiers and stuff like that, I think he kind of is able to take a load off and is you know can joke around with his buddies and whatnot. um But, you know, within reason, if it's off duty, we're all chill. Everything's cool. Like he's not really thinking of those goals fully at that time, you know? 00:54:28.22 sidekqpodcast Okay. okay Okay. And then let's see, does Peep have a particular accent or language ah that he uses? Are there any idiosyncrasies in how he acts or speaks? 00:54:42.81 Hillary oh um I don't think that he has a particular accent. um I think the one thing that how he would speak that would set him apart is sometimes whenever he finishes sentences, they go up when they're not supposed to. um it Because it kind of goes back with that mimicry of, um you know, like he's put all the words together, but sometimes it's like Siri. Like, sometimes she'll say a thing, and it doesn't sound quite right. um Like, and the or the inflection is kind of funny, so I think that those are the little little nuggets that Peep has issues with, so. 00:55:25.22 sidekqpodcast Okay. And then let's see how, what What impact has Peep made on the world? How has he shaped his local area? 00:55:37.34 Hillary um 00:55:40.11 Hillary I think he's in the process of doing that. I don't think he's made it quite there yet. like I feel like he's probably newer to the ranks, essentially. um so He's trying to prove himself, but I think that he's surprise at a lot of the locals in that time. um you know Because again, it's a small little burb. What is this guy doing in here? Laugh, laugh, laugh. Oh, that burb just shanked that guy. Okay. It's that kind of vibe. Like, oh, don't mess with the teeny burb. Don't do it. 00:56:17.39 Hillary thekido 00:56:18.80 sidekqpodcast Okay, yeah, and then ah And then finally D does does peep have any current problems that prevent him from being a bigger player on the stage? 00:56:29.60 Hillary Umm... Yeah, I think he wants to be taken seriously and maybe he's still trying to earn his place um ah you know within the town and within the ranks itself. like ah you know The ah the ah initiation was a good way to do that, but I still feel like there are probably some soldiers who are still like, ah this kid doesn't know anything, that kind of vibe. So um so that's holding him back. So he's trying to, 00:57:01.16 Hillary ah you know build up to, no, you will take me seriously. um I am meant to do this and I will get what I'm looking for. 00:57:14.67 sidekqpodcast I was gonna say, did you watch Andor? 00:57:18.17 Hillary Oh, ah no, no, I haven't gotten to watch it yet. 00:57:19.60 sidekqpodcast okay i was gonna say this sounds very much like one of the side characters uh in andor on the imperial ah secure like he's just like a sergeant for like the security company or whatever like that but he's very much like this intense he wants to do things militarily and he wants to be taken care of uh wants to be taken seriously and so this uh this character that we're we're actually following is like this 00:57:25.52 Hillary Oh, really? 00:57:34.10 Hillary Mm-hmm. Yeah. 00:57:47.72 sidekqpodcast you know he's trying to be like climbing the ranks ah but he he's kind of got like you know he's like a wet noodle he has like no spine or like no real confidence but this other guy's coming in to like try and boost him up to be like we gotta be this is our operation and we're gonna find this Cassian Andor we're gonna take him out kind of a thing ah so that's very much kind of like the vibe I get from Pete it's like he's like 00:57:51.86 Hillary Mm-hmm. 00:58:05.45 Hillary Yeah. That's so funny. 00:58:10.79 sidekqpodcast you know, all the old timers are like, okay, P, you know, see, you're lucky you got the job. Like you can, you can read, you can search under the carts really well. And I'm too old to bend down and look and, and all that stuff. And he's just like really eager, like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna defend this town. the but The bandit attacks are down 37% because of my joining the force kind of a thing. 00:58:34.47 Hillary Yeah, I feel like he's doing math on his abacus. He's like, no, see, the red pebbles are over here now. 00:58:43.46 sidekqpodcast Yes, less bandits in the town. Yeah, that that whole sort of thing. 00:58:45.62 Hillary Yes. 00:58:46.87 sidekqpodcast Okay. Well, very cool. So we've made it through NPC creation. We've got a ah good little burb dude. And now it's time to throw him into a random encounter. 00:59:07.53 sidekqpodcast And then this part will be brought to you by the final ad, and I will add that in post-production to not take more time away from us. All right, and so then this section is the Random Encounter. This is where we get to play a little bit of D and&D. We get to have a scene, a vignette, if you will. Our our old ah college acting powers combine, and we'll come up with some sort of scene ah to present Peep in. ah So the question to you is and you know i think you're gonna do a great job of showcasing pete but the question becomes who am i supposed to be in the scene am i going to be you know ah like an older guard teamed up with pete at the gates and just like we're having a conversation back and forth. 00:59:50.35 sidekqpodcast um Is it going to be Peep meeting one of my adventurer characters from the podcast and trying to give them the side quest to go find Grandpa? Is it, I don't know, could be anything like a Peep with his Grandpa or, you know, any number of scenes. What interests you? How do you want to bring Peep to life today? 01:00:09.72 Hillary Um, let's have him meet with, um, like, um, after, lets let's do, after he's gone through the initiation, um, he is presented to, um, ah like the kingdom, essentially. 01:00:20.80 sidekqpodcast Okay. 01:00:26.60 Hillary So not like the kingdom itself, but like, uh, the Lord or King in this town to initiate him into, uh, the guard itself. 01:00:37.69 sidekqpodcast OK I keep going back to it because again it's the one point of reference I have and I feel like we we actually just passed the the anniversary of it but yeah with the deer there's like an official initiation ceremony for all the brand new Swiss guards ah that that join the Swiss guards to be able to you know have the honor and prestige to to guard the pope and stuff like that and the in vatican okay so you wanna do a scene where like you know it's graduation day or it's like it's presentation to the king and he's like going up and down the line and like meeting the newest batch of guards that are now going to guard the royal city kind of a thing. 01:01:03.31 Hillary fool Yeah. 01:01:12.35 Hillary Yeah, well, I also think that this is like one of the rewards that you get once you pass the initiation is you get to meet the king. And he's the one who like, well, uh, you know, it's not you essentially. 01:01:27.16 sidekqpodcast h Okay yeah or like maybe not like a full nighting but like you get the top of the sword and it's like you get the seal of approval kind of a thing. 01:01:30.41 Hillary Right. But yeah. 01:01:36.09 sidekqpodcast Okay and so ah so i'm going to be this you think like a like a king the figure or a duke or or or other some sort of landed gentry. 01:01:36.93 Hillary yeah 01:01:43.11 Hillary Yeah. Definitely. 01:01:47.37 sidekqpodcast Okay, I'm just wondering is now is this like the royal city or is this going to be like, oh, this is like the you know, this is like San Angelo. So it's like, oh, the judge or like whoever it is is actually like giving you their seal of approval one day you might get lucky to get to go to the royal city and stuff like that. But like, you know, you're just a guy in the small town kind of starting out. 01:02:06.95 Hillary Yeah. Yeah, definitely more smaller town vibes. um And it's not like a big to do with everybody in town. It's more a smaller scale, essentially, of here we all are, we're meeting in this room, tell me how he did kind of vibes, or you tell me peep what you did, that kind of ceremony-ish. 01:02:31.37 sidekqpodcast OK. 01:02:31.57 Hillary Where it's just like, where it's like, this guy? Yeah, you're right. but He killed it. 01:02:36.33 sidekqpodcast OK, and then would you like for me to set the scene or for you to set the scene? 01:02:42.26 Hillary Uh, I would like you to. 01:02:44.95 sidekqpodcast OK. All right, so as we think and let us take it away. All right, so this is a. ah kind of like on the fringes of the royal kingdom um so this is like one of the you know the fort towns i would say like so on the wilderness edge you know they have problems with marauders every once in a while and so you know this is also the fringe of the kingdom or maybe some more of the interesting folk live so that's where maybe we find peeps family you know living in this town and they've you know they have grown up here and they know all these people uh and so you know peep has had his entire life to look up to these guards and think of and see them and hear their conversations of like oh yeah you know if i do really well here at the fort they're gonna call me up to the royal city and then and that's where i'll be doing the real stuff and i won't be you know i won't be slumming it here in the mud and the muck and watching the parapets for 01:03:46.75 sidekqpodcast you know any sort of uh incoming raiders or something like that so um yeah it gets to be like flash forward you know however many years as peep grows up and spends his life here and uh yeah it's it's swearing in day and uh you know uh peep is here probably i would say you know because it's a fort town there's got to be like a good number of guards we're not like a huge like squad battalion so We'll say maybe this year it's like another twelve come in and so obviously you know you have mostly humans maybe like some half elves a dwarf or two. 01:04:16.58 Hillary Thank 01:04:23.69 sidekqpodcast I like one really tall guys like maybe you have like a fear bowl randomly in there and then you go down the line and it's just like. like really short to the ground just this little this little kenku and uh we'll say the captain of the guard is kind of overseeing this along with the commander of the fort of the king's men that guard this territory and ah going up and down the line saying ah yes 01:04:32.16 Hillary you. 01:04:49.25 sidekqpodcast ah I leave yes these are the finest crop that have ah come up for training to join us and guarding our fair town of course by leaves you are in command of all of us but i have the distinct pleasure of ah being a kind of your your ah your go to man here and in town to help oversee the smaller scale stuff and not necessarily the big stuff like. like you and the troops do for guarding the borders. And he's kind of going up and down the line and you know ah shaking hands and you know the and the commander as well as shaking hands and just kind of like, ah but very ah, yes, you did really good in the archery. Yes, top marks. And then it was like going down the line. And then finally, they get to Peep. And so all through this time leading up to Peep, what has Peep been thinking about? What's been going through his mind? What's he been thinking about that he's wanted to say or brag about um before they come up to him in line? 01:05:44.38 Hillary um I think that Peep has, I think his initiation because I think that the ah other soldiers thought it would be really funny to put him up against like a giant or something like that. 01:05:55.65 sidekqpodcast Mmhmm. 01:05:55.90 Hillary um And ah very David and Goliath kind of moment, essentially. ah And so I think he's just replaying that, ah his like final blow to this giant, ah like, you know with his Achilles got him with the dagger that kind of vibes so he's just playing that on repeat of that moment where he looked around and saw all the guards faces just drop like oh shoot like and he's like you belong here you belong here you belong here you belong here 01:06:29.69 sidekqpodcast And yeah, and it's actually the fear ball that's like standing right next to him. And he he seems to have like a bit of a wrap still kind of around coming up from the boot of his grievous, ah grievous leg injury that he's been, you know, he's been working with the the the the healers and the medics to get addressed. 01:06:40.18 Hillary Mm 01:06:48.10 sidekqpodcast And so he's kind of limping a little bit. And they're finishing up with was shaking his hand and he, you know, has a very deep and gruff sort of voice. And then ah the the, you know, the the this captain of the garden and the commander come down and they're like, and then this fellow is a, this is a peep, he's ah from our kenku enclave that we have here in the fort, yeah. 01:07:06.46 Hillary -hmm. 01:07:10.56 sidekqpodcast The commander's like, oh, very good, very good. then What was it that you did to to earn your prestigious spot here in the god? 01:07:18.84 Hillary Peeps gonna go look look up at them and then just look over to the third ankle and just point at it and give it just a big old smile. I did that. I did that. 01:07:34.92 sidekqpodcast Ah, yes, yes, it's, uh, yes. Your, the commander's like, the tactical advantage is he is so low to the ground. He can just, and the, command and then the captain goes, I know it's, uh, we haven't, you know, we had some halflings apply, but they were just, they were just a little bit too portly. They just could not keep up with, uh, with Peep. He just, he just kind of ran circles around them on the obstacle course and just, you know, just, just well done, Peep. You know, the yeah. 01:08:00.29 Hillary I'm, yeah, I'm fast. i'm I'm very fast and I fight good. 01:08:07.37 sidekqpodcast indeed and uh and then the uh you know the guard uh the guard of the the captain of the guard and then the commander both look at each other and they they smile they're kind of like you know tickled pink a little bit seeing your enthusiasm but then they're like uh you know and the captain you know you know gives you like a reassuring like good job sort of a thing as they're finishing shaking your hands and the commander will say like 01:08:07.93 Hillary I'll fight good for you, I promise. I swear on my honor. 01:08:33.25 Hillary Oh 01:08:36.07 sidekqpodcast And we will watch your career with great promise. and ah And then there's probably like one or two more people after you. But they finish shaking hands. ah There's no caps to throw or anything like that. But the captain of the guards is like, right, well, ah you know, he he turns over to his quartermaster and is like, you're A any so the court masters going down the line and is handing everyone there like standard issue kit their gear, um and so then they they're doing it one by one, there's kind of a funny scene where you know because they had to get your requisition right for your size, they start handing it to the fear bowl with a really small and he looks at it like, 01:08:52.41 Hillary no. 01:09:09.17 Hillary who 01:09:13.85 sidekqpodcast like he's not gonna get the backpack to fit right and the swords like, you know, for him, you know, it's a literally like a dagger for him. And he's like, Ah, and they're like, Oh, sorry. And they, they do the thing where they switch it out. And then he gets like the more short sword for his size kind of a thing, which would surely be, you know, quite wieldy for you to be able, you would still be able to do it, but it might be a task, but 01:09:28.40 Hillary Mmhmm. 01:09:34.18 Hillary Yeah, definitely. 01:09:35.55 sidekqpodcast When they come down to you they hand you your your your pack and your uniform and your armor and your dagger and the core master gives you a pat on the shoulder and a Yeah, I mean, is there anything that's ah now going through your mind or any, you know, now it's starting to kind of loosen up a little bit as, as ah the guards are like celebrating and they're talking and cheering and stuff like that. The commanders, you know, obviously peeled off to go do something important, ah but now it's just kind of like a small moment with you and the guards. And so, uh, yeah, is there like anything that, you know, peep is going to do or say? 01:10:09.48 Hillary ah I think he would turn to the fear bulb and point at his leg and go, sorry about that. Is he doing good today? 01:10:17.92 sidekqpodcast Oh yeah, it's doing fine. You know, the healer said just, you know, maybe another day or two and the bandage could come off. 01:10:21.06 Hillary oh 01:10:27.99 Hillary Okay, good. Well, I'm glad it's tight healing really good. ah It looked, it was pretty great that you're holding my dyer. I didn't really think about the size of things, but ah you look really cool holding it, but probably cooler holding the bigger one. 01:10:41.85 sidekqpodcast Oh yeah, you know, just the weird and the heft of this thing is just, it's kind of good in my, you know, I got a really long arm reach and, uh, and all that. 01:10:49.85 Hillary Oh yeah. 01:10:50.47 sidekqpodcast And, uh, you know, he maybe does a bit of a scratching aside. He's like, I thought, did they say we were going to have refreshments after this, like a cheese platter or something? 01:11:00.83 Hillary Oh, I don't know. i could I would kill for some little breadcrumbs though. 01:11:05.50 sidekqpodcast And then ah the captain of the guards like alright alright out in the court large you lots get in your uniforms that there's some. They the the ladies of procured something have a little blanch in a snack and then get to work and then. ah 01:11:20.92 Hillary I think Peep just takes off faster than everybody else. He's like, ha! Gonna change! I'm ready! 01:11:36.15 sidekqpodcast Scene I think that's a pretty good way to end it. So what was it like getting to be peep? 01:11:41.66 Hillary ah He's a little nugget, isn't he? 01:11:43.93 sidekqpodcast He is yeah a very enthusiastic guard yeah it wants to climb those ranks as quickly as possible 01:11:47.08 Hillary believe me Yeah, I felt like going through more of that, like, kind of shiny-eyed, oh, everything is perfect, you know, and not being so hard just yet. So the ah whoever uses him can, you know, tough him up a little bit. But to see where he came from is a lot of fun. 01:12:08.02 sidekqpodcast Especially the idea of ah you know some of these video game franchises and the like do really well and even some of our favorite actual plays do really well with like oh let me introduce this NPC you take them as a joke now but given time and experience you see them like become more and more impressive. 01:12:22.19 Hillary Mm-hmm. 01:12:27.88 sidekqpodcast as time goes on so here he is you know maybe he's just like the over enthusiastic guard that's like a bit of a brown nose or whatever in this this podunk town but sure enough he climbs the ranks and now like your party is gaining more and more prestige okay now you're not on the outskirts now you're like now you're entertaining court and stuff like that and who is then following you this entire time but peep and he has his eye on you because he knows what kind of character you are 01:12:55.97 Hillary Yeah, definitely. I love it. 01:12:59.08 sidekqpodcast yeah and Yeah, so we are now here in the final thoughts section of the show. So this is the point. you know we We do a vibe check. We just you know see how your time was on the podcast and you know get all your thoughts on ah on Peep and the the whole process and all that good stuff. 01:13:15.78 Hillary Yeah, this was really fun. um I love character creation, honestly, um because it just it stretches something that um always was one of my favorite things in doing theater or doing shows is building that backstory with the character. I think it means everything no matter if it's an NPC or a PC or if it's for a role that you're doing or anything like that. It's so important ah to Just think through everything that your character is and how they think um So it's always good to kind of stretch that muscle for sure And then of course the podcast this was this was great. 01:13:49.75 sidekqpodcast you 01:13:52.75 Hillary I loved this so much um It really good to you know talk to you and kind of ah hear how this podcast has changed and grown um And it's really great to reconnect with you, too 01:14:07.05 sidekqpodcast Yeah, and I know I am such a dunderhead because I, it only took me now to realize what I should have said way back when we were like, Hey, remember, do you play D and&D? 01:14:12.57 Hillary Yeah! 01:14:17.44 sidekqpodcast You got to be one of my major faction NPC. leader character guys. So there's been a couple of ah revelations, you know, because, you know, I have had players ah from that campaign as they've been listening to the podcast, and I get to be like, this person controlled someone, and they're like, what you mean? Wow, I was playing, I was playing D and&D with them. So yeah, no, that's, that's really cool that, you know, we've had that experience of like, okay, asynchronous sort of like, just trading notes back and forth. Now you and I getting to be here making up a whole character on the spot. 01:14:45.64 Hillary Yeah. 01:14:49.35 Hillary Yeah, absolutely. I love it so much. I'm really, really happy that you invited me. 01:14:55.76 sidekqpodcast And ah you know I would be remiss here as we're in the the final moments you know if I didn't allow you the stage, the microphone, the soapbox, the platform to plug your socials. Where can we find you if you want to be found? What projects and things do you got going on that we need to know about? And then are there any passions or causes that we should be made aware of? 01:15:16.78 Hillary Yeah, so my friends and I, we are actually creating a Twitch channel ah that's called Inspired Distractions. ah We will be premiering this month and ah we will be premiering a Hunter the Reckoning um as our first game on the channel. You will also find a more of a classic D and&D, a Pathfinder campaign, and I will eventually be taking the DM spot and running a D and&D-inspired game with good society to ah take you down the Regency route of a more RP-based ah game where there's drama and romance and duels. 01:16:00.65 Hillary So very excited about that. um And ah whenever this goes up, it will be live so you guys can come and join us. um And so the Instagram for that, ah as well as the Twitch is just inspired distractions. That's two days in the middle. 01:16:16.72 sidekqpodcast Excellent and then do you want people to find you personally on social media to to follow along as well just in case you know maybe they've ADHD and they're like I didn't get the name of that real quick and Kurt hasn't done a good job with the show notes so I don't know you know where where can I go where can I find that dedicated ah source in link. 01:16:34.62 Hillary Yeah, so you can find me on um on Instagram um at legendhillery, really easy, as well as um you can also find me on TikTok. I'm not as active there, but I do watch and like to follow great D and&D content over there. And that is also at legendhillery. 01:16:52.34 sidekqpodcast So legend, Hillary. 01:16:54.92 Hillary Yeah. 01:16:56.26 sidekqpodcast All right. i I'm here live on the pod. Here we go. Yeah. a Boom. Followed now. 01:17:03.01 Hillary Hooray. 01:17:04.41 sidekqpodcast Hooray. Excellent. So Hillary, it was awesome to get it to catch up with you and have you on the podcast. I can't wait ah to have you back on making even more interesting and awesome NPCs. 01:17:16.97 Hillary Absolutely.