00:00:04.76 Kurt Crenwelge Hello and welcome to another exciting month's episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons & Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. 00:00:15.99 Erin Whitford Thank you. 00:00:16.33 Kurt Crenwelge I've got an awesome guest for you this month, but before we get to my mystery contestant, you know I gotta do it, I gotta leave in suspense with the ad read. Insert here transcription readers for plus one EXP and RPG Zine Club. 00:00:31.99 Kurt Crenwelge If you're interested in a monthly subscription and you're looking for indie TTRPGs and stuff to play, that's not Dungeons and Dragons. You want to expand your gaming diet and see what other kinds of cool games are out there that are hot and fresh off the presses, then you should consider subscribing to RPG Zine Club. 00:00:51.61 Kurt Crenwelge And when you go to the parent website, plusonexp.com, because you got a spouse that has a magnificent beard, or you're interested in a beard RPG or lip balms or anything of that nature that's like TTRPG themed, go to that website, plusonexp.com, use the code Randolph, R-A-N-D-O-L-P-H. 00:01:11.70 Kurt Crenwelge It gives me a little kickback for the podcast, and it, you know, And it's ah it's a great support for us and for plusoneexp.com. So yada yada, all that good stuff. 00:01:23.58 Kurt Crenwelge All right. And I'm very excited to introduce ah the guests that we have waiting for you in the metaphorical wings, but I'll go ahead and turn it over now and I'll say, hello, mystery contestant. 00:01:35.90 Kurt Crenwelge Would you care to introduce yourself? Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:01:40.70 Erin Whitford Yeah, hi. so I am mystery contestant Erin Whitford. um I am an author and English professor and mom and all of those things. so but yeah, I have an upcoming debut dystopian sci-fi novel that's part of a series that's releasing this year. So pretty excited about that. 00:02:05.34 Kurt Crenwelge it's It's so wild ah to see this because, ah you know, when we first met or were introduced, we are mutual friends because your, at the time, boyfriend, who's now your husband, was best friends with my roommate at our college. 00:02:23.16 Kurt Crenwelge And so we, that's how we were normally sort of hanging out. And I would say we were good friends. 00:02:26.59 Erin Whitford Yes. 00:02:28.03 Kurt Crenwelge I don't think we were ever like super buddy buddy, but you know, we kept in touch, you know, the Facebook, the whole thing. And then I pull up social media the other day and I knew that you'd become like an English professor. 00:02:41.02 Kurt Crenwelge And then just out of the blue, it's like, oh yeah, by the way, I have a debut novel coming out. 00:02:41.19 Erin Whitford Mm-hmm. 00:02:45.66 Kurt Crenwelge So what was that whole process like of going from like, Oh, just being in college and finding out my journey. And now I'm a professor and I'm writing novels. 00:02:54.94 Erin Whitford Oh my gosh. That's so funny. It's like, and a quick summary of the last, you know, like 18 years, but um yeah. So we were buddies like back in college and um we actually, my husband Brandon, and I still have like pictures of all of us from, I know. 00:03:10.67 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:03:11.75 Erin Whitford Yeah. So way back when, and yeah, I think it's so cool. Like the, one of the good things about social media and the internet is like you can just stay in touch with people and stay connected in their lives. So I think that's super cool. And um yeah, so I don't know. I always joke that I was pretty much only like decently good at one thing and that was English. Just kind of stuck in that, stuck in that realm. um And yeah, so I've been teaching English at the local college here. 00:03:42.78 Erin Whitford ah for like 15 years, which is crazy. Yeah. A long time. um Once again, i like found the one thing I was semi good at and just stayed put. um And like, you know, low key, had written some like magazine articles and like boring academic articles that nobody's ever going read. um But I just always never, I don't know. I always thought I wasn't like creative enough to like break out and have a foray into the fiction world. And like, just one day i was like, I don't want to look up when I'm 80 and be like, dang, I wish I would have tried. 00:04:20.69 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:04:21.43 Erin Whitford And so I was like, worst case scenario, it's like terrible. at least I, at least I, you know, took my shot. And, um but yeah, I don't know. 00:04:31.10 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:04:32.78 Erin Whitford It's just been like such a fun process, like sci-fi and dystopian stuff is like what I love. That's like always where I go to in the bookstores and that's the type of movies I like. 00:04:44.90 Erin Whitford And um it's, and I was like, man, I, what better person to write a dystopian sci-fi novel than the person who likes to read it. So it was fun to get to make those decisions and build a world, you know, that I kind of wanted to see become a reality. So yeah, I guess that's kind of ah a fast and furious version of it, but it's been super fun just to make people and make places and kind of decide what their directions and trajectories are going to be. 00:05:20.06 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I mean, it's it's wild to think because, you know, about the I'm trying to think what years of college it actually was because this was after after the old 1950s dorm to the on campus apartments before I made the move to the sort of newer dorms before I went off campus. 00:05:30.30 Erin Whitford It was. 00:05:39.86 Erin Whitford Yeah, there was a lot of like dorm hopping. 00:05:40.54 Kurt Crenwelge And. 00:05:42.70 Erin Whitford I kind of did the same thing. 00:05:45.27 Kurt Crenwelge And so through that journey, because, you know, we were, you know, socially hanging out and all this stuff before. and it wasn't until like a couple years later after that point, which is when I played my very first game of Dungeons and Dragons Halloween night 2010 in my ah ah my apartment. 00:06:03.00 Kurt Crenwelge ah And then I was like, oh, so this is like my new hobby and my new thing that I'm passionate about and and want to pursue and do. So this was kind of like after, you know, we were keeping in touch, but we weren't seeing each other as much. and so 00:06:15.49 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:06:15.61 Kurt Crenwelge um you know So it's not like I could come to you and be like, wow, you're an English you know ah major and you know you're becoming this an English professor and surely you're in in around this world of Dungeons and Dragons, which I think is the perfect segue to the next question, which is, do you currently or have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before? Because we've had noted ah academic English professor, Dr. Emily Friedman, who actually does like a lot of work with studying tabletop role playing games and actual plays and stuff so she's like putting the academia angle on Dungeons and Dragons so it just makes me assume naturally well all English professors must know about Dungeons and Dragons and have to play it as part of their hiring process 00:06:58.33 Erin Whitford I know. um Honestly, like i think that that would be a great ah HR additive. Just include that into the the hiring application. 00:07:03.80 Kurt Crenwelge me 00:07:07.00 Erin Whitford So um i am I am ashamed to admit, if you want to include like booing sounds in the background, 00:07:14.74 Kurt Crenwelge No, no, no, no, no. 00:07:15.58 Erin Whitford Yeah, I have not. I've not played Dungeons and Dragons, but I do like my brother did. um And then I have several friends who do. I don't think it's a accident or coincidence that people who really like, you know, fantasy fiction or like sci fi and stuff like that, like art also enjoy those types of games. 00:07:32.55 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:07:36.79 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:07:37.08 Erin Whitford And um i mean, now i think you have inspired me. Like i I have a good friend that I do jujitsu with actually. And um she is into Dungeons and Dragons and plays. 00:07:46.20 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:07:51.42 Erin Whitford So I think I might just shamelessly ask if if they'll take if they'll take a newbie under their wings and let me try. 00:07:56.22 Kurt Crenwelge yeah oh for sure everyone in this hobby loves bringing new people into the hobby and because I think 00:08:00.17 Erin Whitford They're like, oh, fresh blood. 00:08:06.07 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, exactly. Fresh blood and um what the transcription readers were hearing during the ad break portion was, you know, when we talk about our sponsorship with Plus One EXP and the RPG Zine Club, the whole idea behind it is like, oh, hey, we need good gaming diets. Like, it's good to have meat and taters. 00:08:25.59 Kurt Crenwelge as like a stable but like you need to mix up your cuisine a little bit so you can like get new ideas get fresh perspectives and all that so if we're only ever just playing dungeons and dragons then we're kind of doing ourselves disturbed a ah dis disturb ah disservice and by that same token if we're only just playing games with like the only people we know we're not like actively doing the work to like hey i think you would like this because you're a nerd like me and we don't it doesn't have to be dnd maybe it could be a sci-fi game because there's a loads there's loads of different kinds of um science fiction based uh tabletop role-playing games whether it's like the star wars based one star trek has a number of different ones even doctor who has a tabletop role-playing game so 00:09:04.77 Erin Whitford you go. 00:09:08.92 Erin Whitford ah there you go 00:09:10.36 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, you've got you've got the whole gamut. So it sounds exciting. Then you've got a friend ah who can make you one of us, one of us. 00:09:17.73 Erin Whitford Yeah, no, I would love that. I love that there's like a community aspect to it. um i think that everybody, you know, wants a group to belong to you you know, and like shared interests and all of that. And so I think that that the community kind of communal component is really cool. 00:09:36.02 Kurt Crenwelge And also I think in this post pandemic time, I think people yearn for physical in-person community. It's great that the tools and technologies are there. 00:09:46.78 Kurt Crenwelge So if you want to play tabletop role-playing games with your brother who lives out of town and with your cousin who lives in a different state and that friend you made at that conference that one time, but they live in Switzerland, you can do it through the power of technology, but there is something to be said about 00:09:47.24 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:09:57.60 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:10:01.53 Kurt Crenwelge having your friends and family local in the area, just coming together and being like, all right, we're going to commit to like a couple of hours. We're going roll some dice and just be goofy and play pretend and have fun. 00:10:14.49 Erin Whitford Yeah, no, I completely agree. there's There's something that you can't replace about like the physicality, the closeness of people. And um don't know, cool things happen when you sit around a table with people. So I love that. 00:10:25.78 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And so with this podcast being called Sidekicks and Sidequests, we like to ask the question about the others, and we like to ask the questions about the the the different kinds of paths not taken. 00:10:41.46 Kurt Crenwelge or not easily observed. So the first of these, who happens to be your favorite sidekick or NPC, whether they're from a game, a movie, film, television, literature, etc. And why is this character your favorite sidekick or NPC? 00:10:58.47 Erin Whitford That's such a cool question. i feel like that those are the the crews that don't get the um highlights very often. And oftentimes they're the ones doing, they're the, they're carrying the story, right. Or they're, they're doing a lot of heavy lifting. um Okay. 00:11:15.67 Erin Whitford So I know that this is probably like a super like cliche answer, but I'm going to, I've got a couple actually. um And so, I mean, we gotta, we gotta shout out to our boy, Sam wise from Lord of the Rings. 00:11:28.95 Erin Whitford Cause he is like the OG, 00:11:29.40 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:11:31.77 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:11:32.88 Erin Whitford sidekick extraordinaire. Um, okay. I don't know if you guys watch Brooklyn nine, nine, but Boyle from Brooklyn nine, nine, um, is like detective Boyle is the best. Cause he, when I was really like thinking about that, he and Sam are kind of the same. It's like, they're loyal, they're funny, they're optimistic. And, 00:11:56.18 Erin Whitford um I don't know. i I like that about sidekicks where they're like, Hey, you may not have like, you know, you might need some oomph, you might need some encouragement and somebody to be like, we got this, let's go, let's go, let's go. And so i think them, and then, um, so, you know, I gotta, gotta shamelessly plug books. Cause I'm a nerdy nerd and i read a lot, but, um I just finished the Mistborn trilogy, which is a Brandon Sanderson series. 00:12:27.88 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:12:27.93 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:12:28.40 Erin Whitford It was like literally so good. Like one of those series that you think about days and days and days afterwards. um And so I don't know if Sazed, the character in that series counts as like a sidekick. um He's not like one of the main, main characters, but he was just like a constant presence. And like, even when he was struggling, he still showed up for his friends. 00:12:52.07 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:12:52.40 Erin Whitford And um I love that. And then um i know the Red Rising series is kind of like exploded into this like cult classic, like cracked up following on social media. But there's a couple on there, too, that are i think like the underlying thread between all of these like sidekicks is loyalty. 00:13:14.72 Erin Whitford You know, and um that was kind of a cool thing to realize where i was like, okay, I obviously value that if that's what I'm picking as far as like the sidekicks that I love. 00:13:25.73 Erin Whitford But yeah. 00:13:26.00 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Well, you you mentioned Mistborn and Brian Sanderson. I have to say, if you haven't watched it on social media, there was a fantastic keynote address that Brian Sanderson gave in regards to like art and AI. 00:13:42.97 Kurt Crenwelge And what I found really fascinating, because was reminding me of it when you were explaining like oh you know when I get to 80 do I want to it's like no let's let's go ahead and write the thing and it was reminding me very much of the story the truncated story that ah Sanderson was giving in that keynote where he was talking about like well I wrote like my first book and it stunk but it was the book that gave me experience that then let me write this other book and then to make this other book and then that's where I found my voice and then that's how he became this monster writer and just churning out book after book and if 00:14:06.02 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:14:11.49 Erin Whitford Oh 00:14:16.40 Erin Whitford my gosh. 00:14:17.88 Kurt Crenwelge And with the connection with TTRPGs, if you like Brian Sanderson stuff, his whole Cosmere universe is being made into a tabletop role playing game. 00:14:28.45 Kurt Crenwelge It actually broke some Kickstarter fundraising records as being one of the most heavily invested and people want to see his universe ah turned into a tabletop role playing game. 00:14:33.18 Erin Whitford Okay. 00:14:40.58 Kurt Crenwelge So if that's something that interests you, that you're like, OK, D&D, maybe that's fun to play like once or twice, but I want to go in all on all in and cause me, or then that's something that you could totally do. 00:14:52.38 Erin Whitford No, what have you done? You've, you've told me, you've told me all the things and now I'm like, where can i where can i pay into the kickstart? So, um, no, that's really, it's done. 00:15:02.55 Kurt Crenwelge Well, it's already fundraised. I think it's at this point, they're getting close to like, just you just buy the books now and you can just get started with some of the first stuff that's already come out. 00:15:05.32 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:15:11.80 Erin Whitford ah Yeah, his world building is insane and just characters that you buy into and you believe in and all of that. And yeah, no, he's he's wild. i actually did read something from him similar to what you were saying that he just you know had to just make the draft happen first. you know It's like, it's okay if it's bad. It's okay if you're not... 00:15:37.13 Erin Whitford it's not great or you're not the best at something, but you have to make it exist first. And um yeah, so I just really appreciated like the honesty in that. Cause sometimes it sounds like, oh, this is the first thing I ever wrote and it's amazing. 00:15:51.98 Erin Whitford And, and a guy that prolific is sitting here going, it's, that's not how it was for me, but it can still work out. 00:15:58.39 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:15:58.90 Erin Whitford So 00:15:59.86 Kurt Crenwelge Exactly. You get the necessary street cred. 00:16:02.51 Erin Whitford yeah. 00:16:02.68 Kurt Crenwelge You know, you get you get your punches, you get your lumps, and then you're like, OK, I know what to do next time or I know how to find my voice or make it my own. So I don't get those critiques of like, oh, you're just ripping off some guy from the late eighteen hundreds or whatever. 00:16:18.00 Erin Whitford Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, well, that's super cool. i think maybe D&D, it'll suck me in and then it'll be my like gateway, gateway adventure into maybe the Cosmere world. 00:16:31.54 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And then the same side of the coin or the other side of the coin, however that phrase is meant to go, we got to ask about the side quest. So what is one of your favorite side quest or B plot elements? Again, whether it comes from ah video game, movie, film, television, literature, et cetera. 00:16:49.02 Kurt Crenwelge And why is this side quest or B plot element your favorite? 00:16:53.88 Erin Whitford That's such a good question. So side quest. I mean, shamelessly, like I love a good like romance plot. Like I think that, you know, it's just believable and natural and like oftentimes in relationships, um like just ah relational dynamics, I guess, between characters. 00:17:13.94 Erin Whitford um 00:17:14.55 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:17:15.03 Erin Whitford So I'm a sucker for that. um But also have some 00:17:18.17 Kurt Crenwelge Who doesn't love a little smooching in their fighting game? 00:17:20.31 Erin Whitford I know you got to have somebody that you're willing to fight for, you know, it's just a little, little oomph there. 00:17:24.38 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. 00:17:26.79 Erin Whitford But um I also really like, I don't know if this counts as like a side quest, but like learning about the characters past, like what makes them who they are. um i i like that. um I mean, I like knowing that about real life people. And I think it only makes sense to understand characters better to like, you know, where have you, 00:17:47.83 Erin Whitford where have you come from? Cause I think that tells us a lot about where you're at now. 00:17:49.18 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:17:52.95 Erin Whitford um Yeah. So I think maybe a side quest is a flashback if that counts. 00:17:58.32 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:17:58.99 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:17:59.70 Kurt Crenwelge I was to say, are you, I'm trying to remember again from our college days, which I don't even want to utter out loud for the, you know, we're in the presence of a lady. I don't want to say how long ago college was for us, but in those years were, I don't know, were you ever much of a gamer? 00:18:10.49 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:18:15.20 Kurt Crenwelge I know Brandon was, cause you know, they were big into like the skating games and stuff like that, which I remember. 00:18:16.77 Erin Whitford Oh yeah. 00:18:19.88 Erin Whitford Oh yeah. 00:18:21.48 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:18:22.12 Erin Whitford So he, he actually still is a gamer. Um, and now our sons are, so, uh, we're just, you know, generational, um, connections there. 00:18:32.53 Erin Whitford But, uh, so I would play just like to play with friends and stuff. I honestly, I'm like, not very good. so I'm like, 00:18:42.36 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. you You say like, oh, you know, I like romance and stuff like that. And some people would say the biggest D&D related video game that's come out within the last goodness, almost three years now at this point, Baldur's Gate 3, which if you haven't heard about, 00:18:56.19 Erin Whitford uh-huh 00:18:58.36 Kurt Crenwelge ah Yeah, it's part of the D&D canon universe. It's a major award-winning video game that you could sink hundreds of hours into, and you get to learn about all these characters that are in your party, and some people are like, oh, yes, I like to romance this character or that character while I'm doing my playthroughs and stuff like that, so I thought... 00:19:19.51 Kurt Crenwelge oh, if if if there was like ah a synergy of a video game for Erin to satisfy all her loves of side quests and B-plot elements, she'd probably like Aldersgate 3. 00:19:28.21 Erin Whitford Listen, you were like the like gaming matchmaker. Like that's, that's going to be your, like your title. I love that. No, I ah like, I think I just have to be invested in the people. Maybe that's like part of my, my thing. um I know like Brandon played destiny for a long time he 00:19:49.98 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah, that's more sci-fi, yeah. 00:19:51.64 Erin Whitford Yeah, yeah. And um and so I would actually sit and watch him play just because I liked the story. And so he would like fill me in on the characters and these worlds and all of that stuff. 00:20:03.01 Erin Whitford And um yeah. And so I I think I just am a sucker for the storyline, which I guess, you know. 00:20:11.19 Kurt Crenwelge I might have to just send you like a video where someone's done like a very quick, like boil down of each character without spoiling the plot of the game to be like, here are the main characters you find. 00:20:22.56 Kurt Crenwelge If they're interesting to you, you probably want to play Baldur's Gate three and get lost for hours. 00:20:25.91 Erin Whitford one 00:20:28.44 Erin Whitford Seriously, please. 00:20:28.98 Kurt Crenwelge I should be grading papers. No, I think I'm going to go into the goblin camp again in act one. 00:20:33.71 Erin Whitford Yeah. No, I'm going to go over here. Honestly, like if if that game sticks, like Brandon may send you like a floral arrangement. So you finally made a gamer out of me. 00:20:45.01 Erin Whitford um i i appreciate the gaming. um i just am like dexterity bad, i think is what part of the problem is. um But yeah, I'm going to check out. 00:20:55.98 Kurt Crenwelge It's a turn-based game, luckily, so the time will slow down and allow you to like plot out your moves of what you want to do. 00:21:01.59 Erin Whitford It allowed me to to catch up. Perfect. 00:21:03.58 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:21:04.09 Erin Whitford Okay. then you know what? I'm going to, I don't want to look back when I'm 80 and be like, dang, I wish I would have tried it. So Baldur's Gate 3, I'm going to check it out. 00:21:11.92 Kurt Crenwelge There you go. 00:21:13.84 Erin Whitford Okay. 00:21:14.90 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Yes. One of us for sure. and And at the same time, it basically teaches you how to play fifth edition D and D more or less because those mechanics of the actual tabletop role playing game went into the baking and the making of the video game. 00:21:30.74 Kurt Crenwelge So, 00:21:31.12 Erin Whitford Right. that's so 00:21:32.05 Kurt Crenwelge There's a few tweaks that obviously in a video game, you know, that you have to program in that you can't quite do. Like if you're just at a table and you have, you can look at the guy and be like, well, want to do this. 00:21:42.55 Kurt Crenwelge And then he's just like, okay, roll the dice and and let's see what you get. We'll see whether or not it happens. Whereas and obviously in a video game, you can only have so many limitations, but. 00:21:52.09 Erin Whitford right 00:21:52.66 Kurt Crenwelge there are a lot of ways you could do many things in the game and you could get lost in the hours of youtube with people being like hey did you know that this secret was over here or if you chose this different path you could have gotten this outcome in this interaction and stuff like that 00:22:06.66 Erin Whitford Oh, see, those are so cool. They're like, kind of build your own adventure. You know, I love the games that are like, you get different outcomes based on your choices as the player. 00:22:15.74 Kurt Crenwelge exactly this is definitely the game for that and 00:22:16.57 Erin Whitford Yeah. Oh, dang. 00:22:20.25 Kurt Crenwelge Yep. Well, before I turn this into a Baldur's Gate 3 podcast, I have to ask the final question here and say, Aaron, what are you passionate about and why? 00:22:21.04 Erin Whitford I'm never going to go to the player again. Yeah. Yeah. 00:22:31.64 Erin Whitford Oh, okay. So, man, that's such a good, big question. um I mean, i think first thing is um like definitely my faith. Like, you know, we're ah pastors at our church. And so that's a huge, like inextricably linked thing that we're passionate about faith. 00:22:51.22 Erin Whitford um you know our faith there but um actually just got into jujitsu also like a year and a half ago and I so I guess not just got into it but um again on this like wild quest maybe my side quest is doing stuff that scares me that I'm like that makes me feel uncomfortable okay I'm gonna try it um because don't know like life's it sounds cliche but like life's too short to like 00:23:09.32 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:23:19.00 Erin Whitford not do stuff because it scares you. So, um, so yeah, I did jujitsu been doing it. And, um, you know, just like everybody who first starts, I was terrible and didn't know what I was doing. Um, but yeah, it's, I don't know. It's just been super fun. Like you meet all kinds of cool people. Like my friend I mentioned that plays D and D, uh, she's one of the girls there that, um, you know, we, 00:23:44.63 Erin Whitford roll around and try to choke or arm bar each other and then we talk about books and and games and stuff afterwards. 00:23:49.78 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:23:51.63 Erin Whitford um So yeah, that's been really fun and you know obviously my kids and my family and um writing. i think just like the community that you find like in the writing world and when you find people with like similar overlapping interests, 00:24:10.63 Erin Whitford That's just super cool. Like there's so much like negative stuff out there, um but there's so much good stuff too. And I think that that's been really cool to find is, you know, the, the support and encouragement of people in these realms of like shared interests and stuff. And so um i don't know, I feel pretty passionate about like making sure i pay that forward and, 00:24:33.39 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:24:33.46 Erin Whitford you know, be that, be that person for others too. So there's ah enough grumpy people out there. You know, we need some, some good stuff. 00:24:42.74 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and and I know, and I feel like I'm going to do a dis disturb disservice if I don't at least here link it with this passion question I've asked, but how have those passions in your life translated into the writing of this first novel of yours? Obviously, I'm not going to have you spill the beans and give us the whole novel away on this podcast because that's not the place for that, but I don't know if you just kind of had to tease us and be like, you know, overall, like what's the novel about? 00:25:11.64 Kurt Crenwelge And so then when we get to the end of the podcast and we're doing all the plugs and stuff, that way people will know and learn about you as we're making the character of like, okay, I understand what's going on with this novel and let me get invested in and go, go reserve my copy and go get it. 00:25:26.04 Erin Whitford Ah, no, you're the best. Thanks so much for asking about that. um so 00:25:32.34 Erin Whitford kind of like how those things connect into writing this first book. Um, yeah, like, gosh, um, I just, like i said, I have always loved that genre. 00:25:35.26 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. 00:25:42.75 Erin Whitford Like, I mean, even back when I read A Wrinkle in Time but for the first time when I was a kid and, um, I just have always been, I know, right? 00:25:47.00 Kurt Crenwelge e Yeah. Junior high. 00:25:52.46 Erin Whitford Yeah. Or Ender's Game. Ender's Game went hard. Like that was such a good book. Um, 00:25:56.41 Kurt Crenwelge Never actually read that one. 00:25:57.59 Erin Whitford Okay. It's like shameless plug. That's a really good one. um Orson Scott card, I think is the writer of that one. But, um, anyways, I was just always like super intrigued at like, oh my gosh, these people have built these whole worlds, you know? And when I finally got, I was able to appreciate Tolkien. Um, I think you have to maybe age a bit before you're like, dang, that is masterful. 00:26:22.01 Kurt Crenwelge Or you have to be like me and just be born Catholic and then just inherently be like, ah, the Catholicity of this work, it's just a part of my identity now. 00:26:22.39 Erin Whitford ah 00:26:31.25 Erin Whitford You're like, it is who I am. Like that you, you grow up having like memorized a Silmarillion. 00:26:33.14 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:26:37.30 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Well, not quite that. I mean, it's, you know, we're Catholic. we get we get We get credit for at least reading it and at least knowing it exists. 00:26:45.40 Erin Whitford Yeah. You're like, it is, it is a thing. I know that. um Yeah. So i don't know, just having grown up, like loving all of that. And um I'm very much a like optimist, 00:26:57.27 Erin Whitford whether I want to be or not. And um oftentimes, and this is kind of some feedback I've gotten from some like beta readers and stuff, but like, um you know, dystopians and sci-fi are often kind of dark and like, you know, like there is, yeah, yeah. 00:27:10.81 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah. Like Blade Runner. Yeah. 00:27:14.34 Erin Whitford Where it's like, there is no hope. And um that was actually kind of what I wanted to do the opposite of with mine, where I was like, okay, like, 00:27:25.78 Erin Whitford everything kind of sucks and it's like dire, but you know, hope is the driving force. Um, and so it's kind of like a anti like trope, I guess like people. Yeah. And that, that was kind of like the, the vein I went with. Um, 00:27:47.00 Kurt Crenwelge But not farcical, not like something like Terry Gilliam's Brazil or something like that. 00:27:50.55 Erin Whitford No, no, nothing like that. I mean, it's like, it's very like earnest and like, I mean, there's loss and like devastation and some like really like, I mean, the, like i said, the beta readers and like early releasers that have read it are like, I am devastated. i have cried. oh my gosh. But, um but I think like when I was thinking about, okay, the connection between like, if people like D and D and kind of like build your own adventure and like, you don't know quite what going to get. based on the dice rolls and stuff, um the ending of the book is kind of like that. 00:28:25.80 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:28:26.68 Erin Whitford So maybe that's a good like dangle the carrot in front of you kind of interest point. But um the the ending, and I can't i can't say much because i don't I don't want to give it away, but the ending is very much like 00:28:39.51 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:28:41.30 Erin Whitford um a discussion point. Like, okay, reader, what do you think? 00:28:45.62 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. 00:28:47.70 Erin Whitford it doesn't, you know, directly like break the fourth wall. 00:28:51.83 Kurt Crenwelge Fourth wall. 00:28:53.14 Erin Whitford Yeah. And ask that, but um yeah. so just kind of like the, our lives are in ah inextricably like linked and overlapping and the choices that I make affect the choices that are made over here. 00:29:06.13 Erin Whitford And same thing with the characters, you know? 00:29:07.22 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. Mm. 00:29:09.01 Erin Whitford So i you know, not being a D&D expert or anything, but it's like the choices that I make ultimately affect the other people that are existing with me. um So what does that look like and what do we do in response to it? 00:29:25.82 Erin Whitford But yeah, so there's, there's like a whole crew, like there's a crew of friends, like found family. And I mean, you were it's like, you kind of fall in love with them and like, they're flawed and not you know, they have issues, but then there's some redemption and then people you just straight up hate. um There's one character that the feedback I've gotten is like, dude, this guy sucks and i don't like him. and I'm like, perfect. That's what I wanted you to feel like. um But yeah. So i don't know, just, I think whether, whether or not we, i think it's all about like the side of the coin that you choose to see. Like 00:30:05.78 Erin Whitford It can be bad, but there's so much good to to be seen too. And that's kind of how I approached writing this was not like, like satire or anything, but like truly ah almost like an antitrope. Like everything is typically dark and really like, you know, the midnight of the soul kind of a thing. And you never quite get out of that with this genre. And my, my goal was to flip the coin. 00:30:36.95 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. 00:30:37.53 Erin Whitford Yeah, so. 00:30:38.55 Kurt Crenwelge So it sounds like you've crafted a pretty, but pretty, you know, by the by the book sort of D&D campaign and you've structured it. 00:30:46.84 Erin Whitford Yes. Yeah. 00:30:48.57 Kurt Crenwelge You've got a party and we follow them along and then there's a big twist at the end. And then you're like, all right, what did you think? So, yeah, I think like once you probably play a couple of my predictions, 00:30:59.70 Kurt Crenwelge is you're going to play a couple of games of D&D or any TTRPG, maybe some of that Cosmere stuff. You're going to play a couple of them. to play a couple of games and then you're going to get the bug because you're author now and a writer. 00:31:11.64 Kurt Crenwelge And you're going to be like, okay, well, I think I could design my own one shot and then turn this into a campaign. And then I'm recruiting people to come to my table and play out the stories and then see how the story. 00:31:22.52 Kurt Crenwelge And if you run the same story multiple times in multiple groups, you can see how each group has approached the story differently. 00:31:29.14 Erin Whitford no 00:31:30.42 Kurt Crenwelge And that's kind of the fun of being a dungeon master. 00:31:30.74 Erin Whitford is like it's just like plotting it's like storyline plotting i need to learn how to um know 00:31:37.11 Kurt Crenwelge Except you can't control the characters. The characters will be the characters and you have to account for random chance from the dice. And that's basically how D&D works. 00:31:46.75 Erin Whitford know like ah honestly though i think that that would be really helpful even in just like getting out of your own head and being like what are the options Like, oh, I didn't see that one. 00:31:57.18 Erin Whitford Like, okay, let let's go this way. 00:31:58.17 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:31:59.90 Erin Whitford Okay, I need to learn how to like play D&D and be really good at it. And um so that way it'll help me help me with book number two. 00:32:08.12 Kurt Crenwelge There we go. 00:32:08.09 Erin Whitford So. 00:32:09.37 Kurt Crenwelge And the way that we're going to learn the very basics of D&D is we're going to get into some NPC creation. 00:32:16.28 Erin Whitford Yes, I'm excited. 00:32:22.49 Kurt Crenwelge And NPC creation is brought to you by you, our podcast audience and our patrons from Patreons. And now's the time in the show where we give a shout out to our comfortable patrons and above with a loud hurrah. So I've got my glass of Mountain Dew Baja Blast. 00:32:39.32 Kurt Crenwelge So cheers to you, Anson Jablinski and good old mom and dad. All these fine folks that I named, ah you know, they donate $2 or more a month at least to get that shout out. 00:32:52.06 Kurt Crenwelge But they're all actually wealthy patrons, which means they get to introduce an element of chance to our random tables. So we might get to hear some of their responses used today. 00:33:03.64 Kurt Crenwelge If I said my English words properly, ah they get to introduce stuff for our random tables and we get to use them and hear them sometimes. And that's a benefit of being a wealthy tier patron. And we've got all kinds of stuff waiting for you in the Patreon. It's a simple, humble podcaster's way of asking for your support to keep this passion project going, the lights on and all that good stuff. So if you want to find out about what we've got waiting, or you just want to join the growing number of free people that hang out, which, hey, we're happy to have you too, ah go to the show notes below, go to the podcast website, or just go directly to 00:33:41.55 Kurt Crenwelge patreon.com forward slash sidekicks and side quests to find out more about all the options that we have awaiting for you of your patronage help us to grow and expand our operations at the levitating platter in this demiplane and worlds beyond Okay, so we are now here at the part of the show where we get to make up a character. 00:34:02.26 Kurt Crenwelge And since you're new to this whole thing, we've got and a virtual dice roller pulled up. We're just going to work our way through the questions. You're going to get to familiarize yourself with all the different dice that we use in a standard game of Dungeons and Dragons. 00:34:16.25 Kurt Crenwelge And before the end of this, you will be an expert. I guarantee it. Or I almost nearly guarantee it. 00:34:23.49 Erin Whitford Perfect, I'm excited. 00:34:24.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. All right. So then the first question we have to ask ourselves is what is going to be the name of our character? And the way that we generate a name is we roll D20. 00:34:37.66 Kurt Crenwelge So if you find the D20 dice and give that a click. 00:34:40.11 Erin Whitford right, 13 is what I got. thirteen is what i got 00:34:45.02 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. All right. And as I check the list, aha your answer was provided to us by our previous guest, Britt Anderson, fantabulous artist, ah Nora Swift. 00:34:57.81 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, and I should say she's done book art. So if you're looking for book art, I could put you in contact. 00:35:01.53 Erin Whitford Ooh. 00:35:03.54 Kurt Crenwelge There you go, Britt. But yes, Nora Swift is the name we are working with today. 00:35:05.59 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:35:09.71 Erin Whitford Perfect. 00:35:10.46 Kurt Crenwelge So definitely sounds like a protagonist. 00:35:12.74 Erin Whitford It does. Yeah. that's That's definitely got like main character vibes. 00:35:17.62 Kurt Crenwelge All right. And then the next thing that we roll for is the ancestry of the character. The the race, the species, the background. 00:35:25.34 Erin Whitford Listen. 00:35:25.53 Kurt Crenwelge And the way that we generate this is we roll two D10s to give us like a D100 effect. 00:35:25.74 Erin Whitford I'm here for 00:35:32.46 Erin Whitford Okay, so just roll it back to back. 00:35:34.90 Kurt Crenwelge Exactly. 00:35:35.63 Erin Whitford Okay, cool. right, so the first one was one. 00:35:39.29 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:35:40.17 Erin Whitford and then the second one is six. 00:35:42.23 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. So 16. Ooh, a Goliath. 00:35:48.24 Erin Whitford Oh, I'm already intrigued. 00:35:48.98 Kurt Crenwelge So, yes. So Goliaths, ah basically, if I try to give you the truncated short version, think of them as descended from giants. 00:36:01.85 Kurt Crenwelge ah So they're still like medium-sized category. That means to say like they're the basic, they're taller than most normal humanoid creatures. So they stand a little bit taller than like normal folks. 00:36:13.94 Kurt Crenwelge ah They tend to be like, bald-ish grayish skin some like tribal looking markings naturally on their skin don't mind me here in the background while i just find a quick reference and then i'll just send that over in the chat uh so you can kind of like see what they're like and uh and read through them a little bit while we're uh exploring the character and stuff so norah swift is a goliath 00:36:40.69 Erin Whitford Okay. right, i've got I've got the link pulled up. 00:36:42.72 Kurt Crenwelge and perfect 00:36:44.28 Erin Whitford Ooh, very cool. 00:36:48.15 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. And then the next thing that we get to roll for is the occupation, the job or role in society that our Nora Swift is going to have. And the way that we determine this is we roll just a regular D10 to figure out what their job or role in society is going to be. 00:37:07.95 Erin Whitford All right, that's a nine. 00:37:10.04 Kurt Crenwelge nine okay your answer provided to us by previous guest jade alchemist so norah swift the goliath alchemist 00:37:21.34 Erin Whitford okay 00:37:22.87 Kurt Crenwelge And let's see the next thing we roll for. We we try to get it a rough age range. Sometimes if people come in super nerdy, they can like say a specific number, but we we just kind of get like a rough age. 00:37:35.06 Kurt Crenwelge um So this you get to roll a D8 and that'll kind of tell us like the category that we're looking for. 00:37:40.44 Erin Whitford Okay, perfect. That one is a seven. 00:37:45.91 Kurt Crenwelge Ancient. We have an 00:37:47.65 Erin Whitford an ancient alchemist. 00:37:48.79 Kurt Crenwelge an ancient alchemist named Nora Swift, who's a Goliath. So now is the fun part where i say, okay, we were we're putting our dice down for a second because now we've got Nora Swift, a Goliath, who's ancient and an alchemist. So with all those details in mind and and some of those ah ah ah ancestry references I sent to you, when you get all those details in your mind, can you describe a physical appearance of how you envision nor a swift to appear. 00:38:20.26 Erin Whitford Oh, okay. Well, so you mentioned that they kind of are like, have like grayish skin. Do goliaths have hair? 00:38:28.21 Kurt Crenwelge um I think the female Goliaths will tend to have like hair on their head. I think most males tend to be bald, although the notable exception you'll find in popular D&D slash critical role media is you'll find a character by the name of Grog Strongjaw. 00:38:47.54 Kurt Crenwelge played famously by travis willingham uh at one point to make a long story short of the actual play campaign and then amazon prime did the so if you're looking for a cartoon show of dnd to follow that would be uh critical roles the legend of vox machina and then the mighty nine are both ah adult animated television shows they're on amazon prime In The Legend of Vox Machina slash the first campaign for critical role, Grog Strongjaw, the Goliath, finds a belt of dwarven kind, and it allows him to grow a full beard, when normally Goliath would not be able to have facial hair, but through the use of a magic item, he does. 00:39:25.99 Erin Whitford OK. 00:39:30.06 Kurt Crenwelge But otherwise, mostly it's like, we're we're hairless, we're we are adept at living high in the mountains, we are descended from giants, And we're big, strong folk. 00:39:41.82 Kurt Crenwelge Sort of a vibe is typically what they have. But the beauty of this podcast um is that we can take the lore and we can crumple it up and throw it away in the over our shoulder into the trash can. 00:39:52.65 Erin Whitford and that okay 00:39:53.78 Kurt Crenwelge Or you can take what is ah was what is canon as per the the Forgotten Realms, Wizards of the Coast, ah you know, wikis and official lore and canon. But It's your character, so how do you think Nora Swift, the Goliath ancient alchemist, would physically appear when we are meeting her in our games of D&D? 00:40:16.94 Erin Whitford Okay, so I was reading through some of the like, um the wiki information on him. And um so she's ancient. So she's she's been around for a minute. um So I read that like they could have like blue or green eyes that kind of glow. 00:40:34.76 Erin Whitford So can we do kind of glowy green eyes our friend Nora? 00:40:37.94 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, cool. 00:40:39.59 Erin Whitford um Maybe like a like a braided mohawk to keep her hair out of the way. 00:40:44.63 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Yeah. 00:40:47.13 Erin Whitford but like still looks cool. 00:40:48.98 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:40:49.24 Erin Whitford um Yeah. And so she's going to be strong and it's like muscular, like able-bodied um and okay. 00:41:02.65 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, like average height between like seven to eight feet, typically, regardless of whether they're dudes or ladies. 00:41:02.74 Erin Whitford So 00:41:06.07 Erin Whitford yeah. Okay. 00:41:09.39 Kurt Crenwelge So how how tall do you think our ancient Goliath is? 00:41:11.55 Erin Whitford Okay. You know what? Let's just say that she is like straight up eight feet tall. Like she is a commanding presence. Our friend. 00:41:18.98 Kurt Crenwelge She's a mountain of a woman. 00:41:20.15 Erin Whitford Yeah. She's a lot of woman. She's a lot of woman. 00:41:22.90 Kurt Crenwelge Whole lot of woman. 00:41:24.21 Erin Whitford Nobody's messing with her. um yeah And so I looked here at that. There's a growth called lithoderms. So like, that's cool. um Maybe she's got, because she's. 00:41:37.24 Erin Whitford you know, she's ancient. She's been older and been around for a while. um Looks like studded pebbles on their arms and shoulders or head. So like, let's do, she's got like straight lithoderms all over her arms. 00:41:51.93 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. Oh, bony growths. 00:41:53.86 Erin Whitford So yeah, I was just kind of reading some about him. 00:41:54.94 Kurt Crenwelge okay. So it's... Okay. 00:41:58.19 Erin Whitford I was like, what's, what's going to make her like physically like interesting and textured. 00:42:05.40 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and so how does this kind of factor into her alchemy work? Like, does she appear any different because she's been doing alchemy stuff? 00:42:09.21 Erin Whitford Okay. 00:42:13.97 Erin Whitford I would, I mean, yeah, like she's mixing things together. Like I would say so. um I think that um her skin is rougher. And then um I don't know if alchemy plays into the growths on her arm, but it would make sense if she's mixing things together a bunch, then, you know, maybe that's, oh, maybe. 00:42:27.83 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:42:33.59 Kurt Crenwelge Is it like bleat making the skin kind of like go away and more of the bony growths are like being exposed or coming out? 00:42:40.96 Erin Whitford Yeah. What if the growths are like proof of like her like ability in alchemy? You know, like she's got a lot of growths and so it shows that she's like exceptionally good at her craft. 00:42:55.11 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Is that something that's like unique to her tribe or this regional culture that we find her in or even this town or point of civilization that she's in 00:42:55.97 Erin Whitford don't know. 00:43:04.94 Erin Whitford Hmm. 00:43:05.62 Kurt Crenwelge Is she more of a country girl or she a city gal? 00:43:08.76 Erin Whitford Okay, what if she like, her tribe like lives on the outskirts of like a larger metropolis. So she can get into town, but she's more of like a she likes the wide open spaces. 00:43:16.12 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:43:23.58 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. So I was trying to think of a Texas parallel where it's like, okay, so she lives in like, you know, she lives in like bee cave and she's like outside of Austin. 00:43:24.34 Erin Whitford Maybe that's, maybe that's a wide open space. ah 00:43:32.63 Erin Whitford Shut up. was literally going to say Bee Cave. I was like that was literally thinking that. Yeah, so she lives in Bee Cave, but she can get into Austin if she needs to. 00:43:40.87 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, well, fun fact, video game nerd here, and nerd here, because that's where the TF2 engineer comes from. and the In the lore of the game, they're like, oh, the engineer character from Team Fortress 2 is from B Cave, Texas. 00:43:49.57 Erin Whitford Oh. 00:43:56.47 Kurt Crenwelge And he's my most played class in Team Fortress 2, because sentries over here. 00:43:56.74 Erin Whitford Oh. 00:44:01.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, all that good stuff. 00:44:03.09 Erin Whitford Love that. 00:44:04.86 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so she's got these bony growths and she's making alchemy potions. So she lives in a smaller community outside of an actual major city. And then I don't know anything else to note about her appearance. Like what's going to anything to help set her apart or anything else. 00:44:23.09 Erin Whitford Okay, so i'm I'm reading here that, like, they only went to war as, like, a final option. like, like what if Okay, so she's she's older. 00:44:34.53 Erin Whitford i feel like that the her age is helping with some backstory options. but So what if she's got like a crazy scar like her on her face? 00:44:43.55 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Ooh, okay, like a big scar on her face. 00:44:46.34 Erin Whitford Yeah, like maybe like down like the left side across her eye or something. Like her eye is fine, but she's got she's got a scar. So like she's seen some things. 00:44:57.27 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, okay. 00:44:57.88 Erin Whitford So you're like, what what happened here? Tell me the story behind the scar. 00:45:01.11 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And not to mention, I'm pretty sure alchemist is a a subclass option for a artificer, which is basically like and ah to to break it down as like that's a magic using class. Think of them as like magical engineers. 00:45:20.28 Kurt Crenwelge ah And I think our ah alchemist is a subclass of of that. 00:45:20.46 Erin Whitford Oh, okay. 00:45:28.31 Kurt Crenwelge So and like in like in an explaining way of you're like, oh, she has this big scar on her face and she's seen some stuff. Maybe she used to be an adventurer in her younger years and she's basically like just lived this long or outlived or she's retired and she's like, well, I, you know, I did my stuff. 00:45:38.32 Erin Whitford Oh. 00:45:44.87 Kurt Crenwelge I got to level 20. maxed out and now I'm just in town making potions and anyone who tries to give me guff, I just get to bust out my level 20 abilities and put them all to shame. 00:45:55.80 Erin Whitford Ooh, okay. so Yeah, so living the retired life, but she's still got some, like, skills under the surface. 00:46:02.78 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, or if she's still got connections, if she's affiliated with some sort of like adventurers guild or however you assume. um Yeah. 00:46:12.76 Erin Whitford Okay, I'm here for it. All right. 00:46:15.77 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:46:15.90 Erin Whitford So that's that's Nora. Mm-hmm. 00:46:17.75 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. And then to go along with the physical description we've come up with, it helps with role-playing purposes, I believe. What three adjectives would best describe Nora Swift? 00:46:29.38 Erin Whitford Ooh, okay. ah Reserved. 00:46:34.36 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Okay. 00:46:35.32 Erin Whitford Okay. um Observant. 00:46:42.05 Erin Whitford And, oh shoot, I'm going to get like all panicky and not be able to think of a third one. um 00:46:52.68 Erin Whitford What if she's like, 00:46:57.69 Erin Whitford I don't know. I don't want to say something like normal and boring, like patient, but, um, all right. Can I, can I phone a friend? Can I phone in to Kurt? Get a, get a option list. 00:47:12.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I mean, I know with this new experiment that I've been doing with ah the reels with trying to be like, ah what's a fun way to make a bunch of NPCs that are like a very like a minute long version of one of these episodes that I do with a guest? 00:47:28.92 Kurt Crenwelge And the way when I got to this question, the way I broke it up and made it fun on on the reels was like, OK, let me categorize on a D6 role. Like if a one to two was a positive adjective, a three to four was something neutral. And then a five or six was like a negative associated with adjective and. 00:47:47.67 Kurt Crenwelge it kind of gives you a variable, a variety. 00:47:47.92 Erin Whitford That's a. 00:47:49.55 Kurt Crenwelge So if you're not like, or even just the basic rule, you know, of like, oh, they're reserved, they're kind, but here's a flaw or like, here's something weird about them. 00:48:00.45 Kurt Crenwelge It's kind of like a good way to like play off it. 00:48:02.44 Erin Whitford Ooh, okay, yeah. So, okay what if she's like, 00:48:10.64 Erin Whitford don't know, what if she's like a perfectionist? Like she has like very little like, yeah. 00:48:16.63 Kurt Crenwelge Well, that would that would go with being an alchemist. You obviously have to get your proportions right if you want to make a smoke bomb properly. 00:48:22.78 Erin Whitford Yeah, right. But what if she's like to the point of like, that's her catch where she like has very little grace for mistakes? like for herself or anyone else. 00:48:32.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, if it goes back to something from her adventuring days, maybe she used to be more carefree, but then in a moment when something happened, gave her a big scar, that's what made the change where she's like, no, I have to be perfect from now on. 00:48:36.03 Erin Whitford Oh yeah. 00:48:41.42 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:48:46.14 Kurt Crenwelge I can't i can't be as carefree and loose as I once was. 00:48:46.34 Erin Whitford Yes. 00:48:49.76 Erin Whitford No, you see this scar? That's what it cost me. So yeah. Okay, let's do that. 00:48:55.64 Kurt Crenwelge All right, perfect. And now is the part where I say, and now we get to go back to some dice rolling ah because now our alchemist, Nora Swift, has to have something cool on her person. So what's going to be the valuable item, piece of lore, secret, or ideal or concept that she would ascribe to? 00:49:15.29 Kurt Crenwelge This is a combination. So we're going to do a D4 for the category and then a D6 for the particular thing. 00:49:23.66 Erin Whitford Ooh, okay. All right, D4 was four was also a four. 00:49:28.70 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:49:28.74 Erin Whitford and six was also a four 00:49:31.22 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. um well 00:49:33.51 Erin Whitford Okay. 00:49:34.17 Kurt Crenwelge Well, this will be interesting to find how this square ah goes in the round hole. But this answer provided to us by previous guest, Elise Basile. 00:49:44.92 Kurt Crenwelge ah She may be a perfectionist, but her ideal concept that really kind of guides her life is simplicity. 00:49:52.11 Erin Whitford okay 00:49:52.95 Kurt Crenwelge So how does that, how does the perfectionism yet the simplicity sort of gel together for her as a character? 00:50:01.11 Erin Whitford Okay, well, so maybe that's like... 00:50:04.14 Kurt Crenwelge Is she like an Apple user where it's like, it has to be perfect, but it has to aesthetically look very simple and sleek. 00:50:10.01 Erin Whitford Yeah, maybe. Maybe she's a minimalist. um 00:50:12.86 Kurt Crenwelge ah Minimalist. Yeah. 00:50:13.78 Erin Whitford Yeah, well, that's what I was kind of thinking. Like, so if if she is like, this has to be perfect, like maybe she lives very simply and does things like from a simplistic perspective. So there's not as much room for error. 00:50:27.50 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. okay 00:50:29.30 Erin Whitford So maybe maybe the minimalist is how those two things coincide. 00:50:36.76 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so she's a perfectionist and she abides by simplicity through the lens of minimalism. So so her alchemy shop is not very so her alchemy shop is like an Apple store. 00:50:44.09 Erin Whitford yeah. 00:50:48.11 Erin Whitford It is so organized. 00:50:49.66 Kurt Crenwelge it's not like It's not like a wild and crazy, like, look at all these odds and ends on my shelves. 00:50:49.71 Erin Whitford No, sorry. 00:50:55.34 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, these are the potions. 00:50:56.57 Erin Whitford not 00:50:57.68 Kurt Crenwelge This is what you're getting when you're coming in here. 00:51:00.11 Erin Whitford She legit has like OCD. So um that's that's what I'm seeing is like everything is measured and in clear jars, clearly labeled. I don't know if Goliaths or Alchemist have cool scales or something, but she measures stuff down to the gram. 00:51:16.25 Kurt Crenwelge Oh yeah. 00:51:20.28 Kurt Crenwelge Wow. Okay. That precise in her accuracies and measurements. 00:51:24.49 Erin Whitford That's, yeah, that's my story. I'm sticking to it. 00:51:27.96 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. And then we want all of our NPCs to have bright gold exclamation points above their heads. So you know that they have and a side quest waiting to offer you. if You only just go and talk to them and interact with them. So for the last dice roll to truly make it random on a D12, what is going to be the side quest that Nora Swift is going to offer up to a bunch of player characters to go and do on her behalf? 00:51:54.36 Erin Whitford Okay, and that's a 12. Ooh. 00:51:57.28 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, okay. Well, your answer was provided to us by Nicole, the Game Master Mom, a good friend of the podcast. The SideQuest. Find some missing pages from an important book. 00:52:12.31 Kurt Crenwelge So what does this mean? Is that she working on some elusive alchemical formula, but there are some missing pages? 00:52:20.21 Erin Whitford Yeah, I mean, that's what initially came to my mind. Like maybe she got like a a secret request to but like make a potion or a concoction. and um But she finds that the pages are missing from her perfectionist workshop. 00:52:39.07 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. And is it like a sign of, a I don't know, is it like a sign of she doesn't want to admit that like, oh, I can't believe I don't have these pages, and so she's like quietly asking ah the right people when they come into her shop to do the mission, or is she like going out of her way to like find someone to go find these missing pages? 00:53:00.36 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:53:00.71 Erin Whitford Ooh, okay. I think that she's like, you know, if she's kind of struggling with like perfectionism, and she's not going to be like, yo, I messed up. you know Somebody broke in here and stole my stuff. 00:53:10.84 Erin Whitford um 00:53:10.97 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:53:12.07 Erin Whitford And she's reserved. So she's not going to be probably out super boisterous about this either. So I think she this is like a hush, hush, hush side quest. 00:53:20.15 Kurt Crenwelge You have to talk to her the right way. 00:53:23.30 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:53:24.09 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. All right. So we have the idea. Okay. So find some missing pages from this important book. Okay. So we don't have to necessarily nail it all down, but you know, just to give like the, the goal posts, like the rough ideas. So then when the dungeon master is integrating this character, they can kind of curtail or tweak them specific for their game. But, 00:53:45.69 Kurt Crenwelge When she gives the side quest and she charges them, all right, go and find these missing pages and then return to me the missing pages. What is she going to reward the players with for this for the completion of this side quest? 00:54:00.09 Erin Whitford Ooh. And this isn't a dice roll option. I just get to come up with it. 00:54:03.77 Kurt Crenwelge Nope. It's just logically what we figured out about this character and you know her pretty well at this point. What is she going to be willing to offer to a bunch of heroes for completing this side quest of finding the missing pages for this important book? 00:54:20.51 Erin Whitford Okay. I have two two thoughts that just randomly popped in my head. um What, maybe this isn't as cool of a one, but like, you know, and potion of your choice kind of like you know you get a ah freebie whatever whatever you need and whenever you want to claim it so it doesn't have to be now but you know maybe she gives them like a token or something that they can return back yeah um or like and then what if like not 00:54:32.16 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Okay. Okay. 00:54:43.77 Kurt Crenwelge Redeem. Okay. 00:54:49.53 Kurt Crenwelge Does she put a limit on it? I mean, I guess if she's this high enough level alchemist, theoretically, she could make all kinds of potions from like super common mundane ones to like super serious ones that could be like, this is a potion of resurrection that could bring someone back from the dead. 00:54:53.59 Erin Whitford yeah 00:55:00.03 Erin Whitford To like serious wines. 00:55:05.76 Erin Whitford ah Okay, so what if she does do that and then one of the characters or the token comes back but with not one of the initial people and they're like, this person gave this to me. 00:55:16.40 Erin Whitford i need you to resurrect them. Does that make sense? 00:55:19.54 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I don't know. i don't know 00:55:20.82 Erin Whitford yeah I don't know. That or um maybe like a token, like an IOU token or maybe she like... They come back and they're like, hey, we need you to come with us to like be our alchemist in this like battle thing. 00:55:35.51 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, so she's she's willing to lend her services possibly in like a big future to do. 00:55:43.30 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:55:43.48 Kurt Crenwelge ah Like of the campaign, like, hey, we're going to go fight the ancient red dragon. 00:55:43.61 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:55:47.67 Kurt Crenwelge we need an alchemist feeding us health potions. 00:55:49.21 Erin Whitford husband 00:55:50.51 Kurt Crenwelge Like. 00:55:50.61 Erin Whitford Yeah. so either she like gives them tokens to redeem later or She's like, or you can call upon my services when you need it. So like kind of tit for tat kind of a thing. 00:56:02.75 Kurt Crenwelge OK, this is, again, definitely kind of a hint in a preview of Baldur's Gate three. But based upon the choices of all the different little NPCs or sidekicks you interact with in the game, when you get to the very end of the game, based on how you made your choices will depend upon who you can call as an ally in the very end in the big fight. 00:56:23.67 Kurt Crenwelge So that's kind of like in a Baldur's Gate three sort of a thing like, OK, you did the side quest for me. 00:56:23.86 Erin Whitford Oh, okay. 00:56:29.94 Kurt Crenwelge If you ever happen to have a big battle, I guess you can call on my services if you need it. 00:56:34.55 Erin Whitford Okay, okay. So it just another another notch that I'm going to like that the game. All right. 00:56:42.71 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. But now we have to consider the opposite. 00:56:44.13 Erin Whitford it's gonna 00:56:46.17 Kurt Crenwelge What is going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? So she tells ah she's this very reserved perfectionist. 00:56:56.26 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:56:56.38 Kurt Crenwelge They come into her shop. They're flashing coin. They're buying all the potions. She's like, you know what? These these folks might actually be competent. she gives them She gives them the quest. And they're like, we don't got time for that. We're we're busy here fighting liches and skeleton armies and all this stuff. Why would we waste our time with going to look for pages? 00:57:17.58 Kurt Crenwelge That's one thing. Or it's like, okay, they get the mission, but The pages are destroyed. The pages disappear from this realm of existence or some extenuating circumstances where the pages are no longer retrievable. 00:57:33.04 Kurt Crenwelge What's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? 00:57:38.28 Erin Whitford Ooh. 00:57:40.15 Kurt Crenwelge How is she going to react to that when they come back and they're empty handed or they've told her no to her face? 00:57:48.07 Erin Whitford I mean, I know that she's like ah reserved and stuff, but what if she like, what if she just like straight loses it? 00:57:55.80 Kurt Crenwelge She could. 00:57:55.90 Erin Whitford its Is she allowed to do that? Like, what if like, that's like the last straw? 00:57:58.17 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. She immediately gets hostile if they tell her no to her face. 00:58:02.38 Erin Whitford Yeah. or is she like uses a potion on him. Are you allowed to do that? 00:58:06.89 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. yeah um dungeon master is uh is the referee of the game and has a lot of things going for them on their side so if the if nora swift is told no to her face maybe depending on the scale of rudeness because you know maybe a polite no thank you would be treated differently than like a flat no er why waste our time 00:58:23.92 Erin Whitford Yeah. 00:58:28.57 Erin Whitford Sure. Yeah. like yeah ah Yeah. So I think if like it's... 00:58:34.87 Kurt Crenwelge A potion, a potion of polymorph could drop from the ceiling and turn one of them into a sheep. 00:58:42.19 Erin Whitford That's going to... I want that to happen. So yes. um So yeah, let's just say that they're like super rude and she's like, you know what? I'm going to make a... kind of use you as a scapegoat for lack of a better close pun. But, and turns one of them into a goat and then the rest of them are like, oh shoot, we didn't realize who. 00:59:07.61 Erin Whitford Or, or maybe her like reputation precedes her and they've heard about like what she did to get the scar. 00:59:09.43 Kurt Crenwelge Or. True. 00:59:18.30 Kurt Crenwelge true 00:59:19.42 Erin Whitford And so, but I don't know. I kind of like the goat thing because it would be funny. Yeah. 00:59:24.20 Kurt Crenwelge It's very comical. I mean, most time I think there's a meme that's gone around where it's like ah like when you envision D&D starting, you envision yourself being like the fellowship of the ring. We're very serious. 00:59:35.13 Kurt Crenwelge We're multicultural and we're going to charge against the world. And then it's like what your game actually devolves into. And it very quickly becomes Monty Python in the search for the Holy Grail where everyone's just like slapstick and running around and trying to make sense of heads or tails. 00:59:45.09 Erin Whitford he 00:59:49.69 Erin Whitford Yeah. Well, then let's go straight Monty Python and they're a goat. 00:59:56.79 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so if you're super rude to her face, she's going to drop a potion of polymorph on you and you will turn into a goat and there will be all the rules and ramifications for dealing with that um as I guess is sort of a warning. 00:59:57.26 Erin Whitford Mm-hmm. 01:00:10.26 Kurt Crenwelge um So, you know, and if there is the and if the party aggrows her and they decide to get confrontational, you know Obviously, they're going have to deal with her community because I imagine the Goliath community is not going to like getting hostile in her shop. 01:00:24.92 Erin Whitford for that. Yeah. 01:00:28.83 Kurt Crenwelge And she's also a ah retired level 20 artificer alchemist, so I'm sure she can probably hold her own for a while while backup comes in. So. 01:00:38.88 Erin Whitford i'm here for that yeah 01:00:41.05 Kurt Crenwelge But okay. And then as far as if it's a failure, as far as like, you know, Nora, Miss Nora Swift, you sent us on this quest. We did everything that we could. We gave it our all, but the pages were burned by the bad guys at the last second or, you know, something they disappeared into the astral sea and we have no way of retrieving them. Like, or they disappeared into the deepest pits of the circles of hell. Like there's no way for us to be able to get these pages. 01:01:08.76 Kurt Crenwelge Please have mercy on us. What's going to happen? 01:01:11.74 Erin Whitford okay so is she allowed to send them on another side quest like hey there's one there's one other place in this like other location where this book like a copy of this book exists 01:01:16.76 Kurt Crenwelge totally 01:01:25.27 Kurt Crenwelge okay so it's a rare elusive book so if you fail she gives you another opportunity now you have to go to an even more dangerous place to retrieve the copy of this book 01:01:26.24 Erin Whitford a 01:01:33.80 Erin Whitford Yeah. And get it from her like mentor. 01:01:39.26 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Is it like in a, so her mentor, who's her mentor? 01:01:43.03 Erin Whitford don't know. 01:01:43.32 Kurt Crenwelge Or do you leave? 01:01:43.84 Erin Whitford but 01:01:43.96 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. We just leave it up. Okay. Yeah. 01:01:45.57 Erin Whitford i would we haven't rolled enough dice for that. 01:01:45.72 Kurt Crenwelge Whoever. Okay. 01:01:47.59 Erin Whitford I haven't developed a mentor character yet, but maybe there's just like ah another edition of the book that exists, you know, somewhere we far away. 01:01:57.56 Kurt Crenwelge okay 01:01:58.86 Erin Whitford And so now they have to like, 01:01:59.95 Kurt Crenwelge In a trap-laden dungeon that's, you know, full of full of nasty beasties and puzzles and traps, and it's waiting for you right there at the end of it. 01:02:02.05 Erin Whitford if Yeah. 01:02:07.78 Erin Whitford Mm-hmm. And so, yep. 01:02:10.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:02:11.32 Erin Whitford And so then they have to, then they have to go redeem themselves, double or nothing. So. 01:02:16.54 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Okay, double or nothing, and then if they succeed, okay, good. Then they get their rewards, and they also get the extra experience points for having to grind through a whole other dungeon. 01:02:28.22 Kurt Crenwelge But if they fail here, it's the double or nothing, and they lose again. 01:02:28.34 Erin Whitford Yeah. 01:02:32.06 Kurt Crenwelge is there How does she react to that? Or they tell her no. like you know they They're just like, oh we can't put ourselves through this. like Is it going to be, all right, well, polymorph potion and fight time. 01:02:47.92 Erin Whitford Ah, man, that's a good question. Okay. So, I mean, I feel like it's kind of redundant to turn them into sheep or goats. You'll end up with a whole petting zoo in your alchemy shop. But, um, 01:03:03.61 Erin Whitford What would she do? Could she go with him? 01:03:08.60 Kurt Crenwelge If she wanted to, if she didn't believe in them, I guess to actually do it themselves. 01:03:10.07 Erin Whitford Yeah. Yeah. Or what if she like... 01:03:14.04 Kurt Crenwelge But the whole point was like, oh, I'm sending you on this quest because there's plot reasons why I'm not taking care of this myself. 01:03:17.66 Erin Whitford Yeah. 01:03:22.11 Erin Whitford Ah, true. Okay. All right. Hmm. 01:03:28.86 Erin Whitford All right. Give give me an an option. What do you... What's a... reasonable option for like rejection number two for side quest number two. 01:03:40.22 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, rejection number two sounds like a lifetime ban maybe from her shop and probably like a bad reputational thing. 01:03:45.72 Erin Whitford Ooh. Okay. 01:03:48.60 Kurt Crenwelge Like she's a love. She's a high enough level person. She could probably talk to like loads of other merchants and she could blacklist. 01:03:53.01 Erin Whitford Blacklist them basically. Okay. 01:03:58.28 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, you got to hit him where it hurts in the pocketbook. 01:04:01.17 Erin Whitford Yeah. Okay. We're blacklisting 01:04:04.76 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. So it's going to be way harder for them to like get good service or they're going to find that a lot of items are like ridiculously marked up and that either drives them to the black markets or you know or they're gonna have to do something big like to try and make it up to her or they're just gonna get sucked into this whole plot of the whole reason why she's trying to make this thing in the in the first place is because oh this wizard commissioned this potion for this reason or you know there's some clandestine what's a who's it going on and you know so now she makes them 01:04:35.19 Erin Whitford Yeah. 01:04:42.01 Kurt Crenwelge ah you know, she puts the onus on them like, well, you've goofed up two times. Okay. Whoever, whoever's commissioning me for this. Okay. You're, they're going to be your problem now, but you have to now tell them why they can't have their nice thing because you've now messed up twice. 01:04:57.65 Erin Whitford yeah 01:05:00.34 Erin Whitford Okay. Yeah. I'm here for that. So make them own it 01:05:05.59 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 01:05:06.71 Erin Whitford Okay. 01:05:06.84 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. and We've now we've now. ah Yeah, they're like, oh, we're just going to mess around and not do this. And suddenly they're having to deal with high level stakes sort of stuff where they're like, um we were just adventuring. 01:05:19.04 Kurt Crenwelge i don't know why we got pulled into all this political intrigue. 01:05:21.88 Erin Whitford yeah 01:05:22.40 Kurt Crenwelge It's like your fault. 01:05:23.19 Erin Whitford okay 01:05:23.86 Kurt Crenwelge You stepped in this. You got to deal with this. 01:05:25.11 Erin Whitford You showed up. You walked through the door, so take it or leave it. Okay. I'm here for that. I like the kind of... subterfuge that can come in there. so 01:05:38.94 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, many adventures seemingly started from very small things going wrong. And now it's the whole epic of like, wow, if we hadn't messed up that Goliath alchemist mission twice, we would never have and uncovered this whole plot of the person usurping the throne. 01:05:59.59 Erin Whitford And then they were the actual heroes, even though it was three times a charge. 01:06:03.06 Kurt Crenwelge They've stumbled their way into being the heroes. 01:06:04.74 Erin Whitford and I feel like that that's that's a story in and of itself. We just kind of stumbled our way through here and ended up being the the most unlikely of heroes. 01:06:14.74 Kurt Crenwelge Exactly. And yeah. 01:06:16.38 Erin Whitford Okay, I like that. 01:06:18.64 Kurt Crenwelge And so do you think Nora Swift is a pretty well figured out? There are some optional questions I have, but if you feel like you've got Nora pretty well nailed down, we can head into the next section. 01:06:29.05 Erin Whitford Yeah, i think I think we've got a pretty good idea of what our girl's doing there. so 01:06:35.19 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Well then it's time to play some D and D and throw Nora Swift into a random encounter. 01:06:43.03 Erin Whitford hello 01:06:50.58 Kurt Crenwelge And this last section of the show is sponsored by Zencaster. Thanks for supporting the, ah podcasting hosting, uh, recording service that I'm using and, uh, helps, helps me to be able to get all this, uh, stuff out to you and have it be awesome again if you're looking to start your own podcast go to zencaster.com forward slash pricing use the code side kq podcast get 30 off your first month of any zencaster paid plan supporting the sponsor supports the podcast yada yada cha cha cha 01:07:27.32 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. And now we're in the part of the show where we get to role play, do a vignette, a scene with the character that we've made here today. And I think Aaron is going to do a fantastic job of bringing a life to Nora Swift, the Goliath alchemist. But the question I have is, who am I going to be in the scene? 01:07:44.76 Kurt Crenwelge Am I going to be one of my many adventurer characters that comes into her shop to get the mission? Am I a number? ah Am I another member of her Goliath tribe? 01:07:55.29 Kurt Crenwelge Or am I the person who is, uh, you know, suggesting or requesting this potion? And, uh, that's what sets up the, uh, the, the scene of discovery of like, oh, I'm missing some pages from my book or I don't know what sort of scene are you interested in showcasing Nora Swift in? 01:08:15.21 Erin Whitford Oh, man, those are all good options. I'm leaning either towards the requester or the one of the people stumbling in that gets asked to be the side quester. 01:08:30.71 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, well, I mean, it's ah you're the guest, so it's ah whatever you think. 01:08:33.59 Erin Whitford no 01:08:34.39 Kurt Crenwelge yeah And you're the writer, so yeah. 01:08:36.83 Erin Whitford Gosh, um I don't know if I'm much of ah an actor, but okay, let's just do the people coming in that get asked to do the side quest. Let's do that. 01:08:46.81 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so we have a whole list of characters that have been made on the podcast and have had various adventures. But who we've got to choose from? We have Duncan, who is the recklessly brave adventurer for hire. 01:09:00.90 Kurt Crenwelge He's happy-go-lucky, no task too daring, no feet too small sort of a guy. We have Sonya. She's the warrior woman who started off as a barbarian and then multiclassed into a paladin who serves to redeem the undead. 01:09:15.48 Kurt Crenwelge We have Korak. He's the lawful evil arcane trickster roguish dwarf. We have Chrisley, the herbalist, botanist, wood elf druid, who then multiclassed into a cleric who serves living memory. 01:09:30.78 Kurt Crenwelge We have Orion. He's the astral elf illusionist wizard. There is Agape. She's the lilac colored flake, Sorlock. Started off as a wild magic sorcerer and then made a warlock pact with an archfey named Proserpina, who she lovingly and incorrectly refers to as Prosperina. 01:09:53.00 Erin Whitford Okay. 01:09:53.05 Kurt Crenwelge Um, and then we have, uh, life spell, the necromancer who has his whole crew of skelly boys at into he's a little forest gnome. 01:10:03.99 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, and then the last one that we have is, um Anne Boleyn Mithril Shaper and she's like a dwarven bard lady and she's the most greenhorn of them all because she's only been featured in one adventure and all the others have been in many ah but from that whole list of characters those that's who we got but if none of them sound interesting we can always make up someone new truly stumbling through the door 01:10:29.86 Erin Whitford Oh, okay. So i was kind jotting down which ones. um So you said the last one is a bard. So she sings and comes up with things. 01:10:44.06 Kurt Crenwelge ah Yes, so she her her occupation or her character class would be bard. 01:10:49.18 Erin Whitford Okay. 01:10:49.21 Kurt Crenwelge So she is a dwarf, a dwarven woman. 01:10:49.28 Erin Whitford Okay. 01:10:52.28 Kurt Crenwelge um And yeah, I think if I have to, because the last time she was featured was in episode 139, Zaxibus and the Prickly Pete's Pouring Station. 01:11:02.84 Kurt Crenwelge um And i believe she's but i believe I said that she was a dulcimer player. So she has like this huge dulcimer 01:11:10.49 Erin Whitford ah Okay. 01:11:11.29 Kurt Crenwelge thing that she has to haul with her um if you want her to be the one to do it or any of the other adventure characters that i listed off would certainly be more than capable of the side quest mission 01:11:22.82 Erin Whitford Okay. So she, you said that she was the most green of the bunch. She hasn't been on as many adventures as the others. So let's give her a shot. 01:11:30.15 Kurt Crenwelge correct oh okay all right uh so would you care to set the scene or would you like uh for me to set the scene 01:11:37.76 Erin Whitford Yeah, I'll let you set the scene. You've got a little more expertise than me, so. 01:11:43.86 Kurt Crenwelge All right, where we last left our hero, Amblin Mithril Shaper. She was fresh out of her community and beginning her adventuring life. 01:11:55.35 Kurt Crenwelge She stumbled upon this very interesting tavern run by a wizard named Zaxibus. ah that was called the Prickly Pete's Pouring Station, which had a mug club up on the wall, and it had a you know Prickly Pete, who was their horse, that just got to drink all the beer he ever wanted. And she stumbled into that place, and she got her first mission, which I believe was she she was supposed to go to a goblin... 01:12:26.57 Kurt Crenwelge ruins or hideouts far in the north ah to retrieve a piece of memorabilia of a fallen party member and bring it back. So obviously we haven't heard from her in a well little while because she's been knee deep and trying to fight all these goblins as a bard by herself. 01:12:41.70 Erin Whitford Thank you. 01:12:44.06 Kurt Crenwelge So she had to get some help and backup, but eventually she was successful and completed that mission. And she was like, you know, boy, I'm tired of goblins. I've had it up to here. And she holds her hand up to like just about the top of her head. She's I've had it up to here with goblins. So I'm going to go. going to go head out to the nearby big city, the big city, which is where I could find the jobs. But before she gets to the big city, she stops on the small road. 01:13:11.67 Kurt Crenwelge smaller community on the outskirts because she's still probably got another day or two of walking before she gets to the big city and she's ah checking her gear and her equipment and she's like oh man you know I've had to had a few scrapes on the road and I'm running low on healing potions so you know what I better stop oh that that looks like a promising place so she opens the door chaking ching And as she is now taking in this place with her eyes, what is she seeing as she looks around Nora Swift's alchemy shop? 01:13:43.38 Erin Whitford So she's seeing the most organized alchemy shop she's ever been in. So that's the first thing that she notes is that everything is just so the labels are turned the right way. It is clean and organized and um and the woman that is behind the counter looks scary. that she is She's a demanding presence. 01:14:06.34 Erin Whitford Nora is. 01:14:07.67 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And, and, you know, because Anne Boleyn, Mithril Shaper, she's a dwarven woman. So she's probably like four feet. 01:14:13.40 Erin Whitford Yes. 01:14:14.77 Kurt Crenwelge So she's like, she's having to look up at Nora Swift, who's looming behind the counter. Who's like double her height. 01:14:22.14 Erin Whitford yes yeah 01:14:22.42 Kurt Crenwelge So she's, it's the she's immediately like, she tries to like ah psych herself up. And then she's like, ha ha, put on a bright face. We're happy, positive vibes. 01:14:31.35 Erin Whitford Yeah. and Everything's fine. 01:14:34.04 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, everything. are Hello. Hello. ha Hello. How are you doing? ah Hello. 01:14:40.32 Erin Whitford Fine. 01:14:42.33 Kurt Crenwelge ah oh, okay. It's going to be okay. It's going to be like that. Okay. Yes. I, um, healing potions, healing potions, and which I, you've very well laid out. I just, I'm a little, I'm a little short of stature. I'm having a hard, hard time seeing if you could just point me in the the right direction. 01:15:05.47 Erin Whitford Well, this is obviously an alchemy shop, so they're right over there where it says healing potions. Okay. 01:15:11.83 Kurt Crenwelge ah ah And she's nervously chuckling and like, yes, of course. And so she'll like ah walk over there and she's starting to hum a little tune, maybe something she's been composing or working on the road a little bit. 01:15:26.32 Kurt Crenwelge She's like, oh you know, and then she's checking her her coin purse and she's maybe like, oh, she's like holding it up to her ear to check it like by the sound. And she's like, that doesn't sound promising. 01:15:35.19 Erin Whitford All right. 01:15:37.59 Kurt Crenwelge And so she's going to do the thing where she slaps. turns to look towards the the proprietor of the shop and she's like she's gonna maybe try and do a bit of persuasion ah and she's gonna roll her persuasion check and she's basically gonna try and like see if she can butter her up a little bit to maybe try to give her a discount a bit um and so she rolls her d20 and how do you think she does is she is it like good like she succeeds or like middle of the road or like bad she did not she's not nailing it 01:15:51.36 Erin Whitford no 01:16:12.98 Erin Whitford think I think maybe she's like low to mid. Like she's not nailing it, but maybe Nora's like, okay, you know what? I'm not going to give you a discount, but instead i am going to ask you to do this. 01:16:27.67 Kurt Crenwelge oh Oh, a job, a job. a Oh, okay. 01:16:29.28 Erin Whitford Yeah. Yeah. 01:16:31.30 Kurt Crenwelge Um, yeah, sure. I could, I could do that. And she's like very embarrassing. Like, ah you know, it's taken me a while to get here. I'm a little low on funds and, uh, you know, I'm, I am by myself. Um, but, but yeah, you need a job done. I'm, I'm happy to do so. 01:16:47.22 Kurt Crenwelge Um, and maybe she starts pulling the big dulcimer off her back and she's like, she starts like, so she's trying to set some ambiance music while they're negotiating and talking. 01:16:52.70 Erin Whitford yeah doing all 01:16:57.75 Kurt Crenwelge And I don't know, does that annoy Nora in any bit, uh, any shape or form? 01:17:02.65 Erin Whitford um I think that she, I think it does a little bit. I think she gets a little like huffy, like the music distracts her where she's like, I'm trying to focus. 01:17:09.08 Kurt Crenwelge o 01:17:10.41 Erin Whitford And maybe she's like, she's already frustrated because the pages are missing and she's like, I don't have time for the music and stuff. um So I think she's, yeah, she's huffy. 01:17:21.14 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. 01:17:21.76 Erin Whitford She's frustrated. 01:17:21.90 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. I think it's easy enough for Anne Belinda to roll her insight check. She does pretty high on this and she's like, oh, ah she stops playing the dulcimer and just kind of like very awkwardly put puts it back and then just tries to like straighten her hair up and and put her best foot forward. 01:17:34.87 Erin Whitford Yeah. yeah 01:17:39.90 Kurt Crenwelge And it's just like, Yes, I'm a serious adventurer. I'm not a greenhorn at all. Yes, ah your job. ah She's like trying to puff herself up and and get into her ah dwarven acting chops that she picked up ah from her from her community. And like she's trying to put on this air of being someone competent when she's clearly new to this. 01:18:00.50 Erin Whitford Yeah, clearly not. And yeah, maybe she's like, oh yeah, i have all my travels have taken me to all these places and I'm the best one for the job. And maybe Nora's like, well, you may not be the best one for the job, but you're kind of my only option at this point. 01:18:16.70 Erin Whitford So. Yeah. 01:18:18.94 Kurt Crenwelge Ambalyn deflates a little bit, but she tries to do the thing where she forces her smile to be like, that hurt me more than a punch from you, but I'm going swallow that. And i she's like, not a problem. What's the mission? 01:18:35.26 Erin Whitford Yeah. Well, the mission is i need you to find these long lost pages. ah They've been torn out of my book. I don't know who took them, but the residue on the exterior pages around them suggests that they're in this region. 01:18:53.66 Erin Whitford And i have a high paying client who needs me to find them. 01:18:58.07 Kurt Crenwelge oh Okay. um Yeah. Okay. And then so she starts, ah she starts thinking and trying to put some, some puzzle pieces together. And this is, you know, this would be the part of the game where she, she continues to ask questions, get information. 01:19:12.98 Kurt Crenwelge So, you know, kind of like fast forwarding a little bit where it's like, okay, we're, we're starting to get the rapport and the details. 01:19:13.28 Erin Whitford Perfect. 01:19:19.70 Kurt Crenwelge um So before the scene closes out and we leave them um like what's, what's going through Nora Swift's head as she's talking to this green horn, bard who's basically you know built for charisma so she's trying to like use the charisma option of solving the problems and being like you know where you know who do you have problems with like where are the areas that I should be looking with are you okay with me like doing detective work around your shop to see if there's any clues of things low to the ground that maybe your big tallness can't see because you're scraping the ceiling in here 01:19:53.40 Erin Whitford yeah 01:19:57.11 Erin Whitford Yeah. so this is how Nora's responding. So I think that she, she's seen enough. And so she's like, you know what? I think that you're actually going less suspicious because you are a bard and because you are charismatic and you might be able to charm your way into places that a more obvious crew wouldn't be able to go or they would be more suspect, you know? So she's like, I'm taking a chance on you because this is I'm in dire straits, but your charisma is what's going to keep you alive. So that's what you need to use. 01:20:39.26 Kurt Crenwelge All right. and And Anne Boleyn, maybe you know she does like she'll do something nice ah before she genuinely... so like Okay, the the quest starts now. 01:20:50.48 Kurt Crenwelge Quest o'clock begins. 01:20:50.57 Erin Whitford Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 01:20:52.12 Kurt Crenwelge ah i don't know. She'll say something nice or she'll do she'll make some sort of gesture. And maybe she has you know like a bit of prestidigitation. Um, where she noticed like she, you know, maybe she had like some grimy hands or something like that from a sandwich or something she was eating and she smeared it a little bit on the counter. 01:21:11.29 Kurt Crenwelge She's like, uh, and she does like a, a prestidigitation effect to clean it up. And she like looks at, uh, looks up at Nora Swift and does like a thumbs up. Like, see, I I'm, I'm good. 01:21:22.49 Kurt Crenwelge You're, you're, you're fine. 01:21:22.58 Erin Whitford Yeah. 01:21:23.57 Kurt Crenwelge You're good. And then, ah yeah, I don't know how how as ah as Anne Boleyn now begins, like, OK, I've left the shop and I'm going to begin the quest and doing the search and following my HUD display and finding the clues of where the areas I'm supposed to look. 01:21:42.04 Kurt Crenwelge When the camera's back on Nora Swift and she's back in the shop alone, what's her final thought before the scene closes out? 01:21:50.41 Erin Whitford I think her final thought is like she was trying to like when she's alone now, like that's when like the real like trepidation is actually happening where she's like, this has to work. 01:22:02.09 Erin Whitford There's no other option. And like, I don't know if they say like prayers or like, you know, good luck charms like spoken over them. But she's like, maybe like there's like that tender side that kind of comes out there at the very end where she's like, you know, may like good luck, follow her or whatever, like as she goes. So she's been kind of rough, but then like that tender side actually pokes out a little bit. 01:22:32.31 Kurt Crenwelge And scene. So we did it. We made it through the role play and you got to play a little bit of D and d here and now. 01:22:35.72 Erin Whitford Oh, that's fun. 01:22:37.90 Kurt Crenwelge So what'd you think of, uh, getting to be Nora Swift? 01:22:42.45 Erin Whitford Man, Norah Swift I think is cooler than I could ever hope to be. But um yeah, it was really fun. it was cool to get to like, okay, who is this person and how would they act and you know limitless options. It also kind of makes you like you know think like like off the cuff, you know like, okay, what are we gonna what are we gonna do here? What happens? And makes you like think creatively kind of in the moment. 01:23:09.75 Kurt Crenwelge Exactly. Yeah, that is D&D is that it is, ah you know, it is ah it is improvisational storytelling and collaborative storytelling at that. So like I said at the at the beginning, it's like ah it's perfect creative writing fodder for English majors and just nerds alike. 01:23:28.62 Erin Whitford It really is. i am like duly impressed. I'm going to make my students and play D&D to come up with some characters and and fun adventures. 01:23:39.38 Kurt Crenwelge Well, you, uh, you know, you said you're a reader of academic works and things, and you know, you may not, uh, be, ah far off from, you know, wanting to check out some of the the writings and books and blogs and such of, uh, Dr. Emily Friedman, who's she's at Auburn. 01:23:57.62 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know if that's an issue or not. 01:23:57.91 Erin Whitford Mm-hmm. i know No, 01:23:59.51 Kurt Crenwelge Um, ah ah but ah but yeah no she does a lot of great writing on the subject of ah tabletop role-playing games actual plays and then just also sorts of does a bunch of reviews on a bunch of different kinds of tabletop role-playing games I think she well I know she has her own YouTube channel where she'll do like videos of of some of these breakdowns and discussions and she does have a fantastic episode of ah with me so if you're Looking for something to check out in the back catalog there a little bit. 01:24:31.67 Kurt Crenwelge You don't have to go too far. I believe you just have to go back to... ah Don't mind me while I check in the... Ah, yes. So you just have to go back to season five and episode 136. 01:24:46.73 Kurt Crenwelge Sven, the secret slot was her episode that she did with me. And, ah you know, she gets to talk about her English professoriness and stuff, which I think would jive with you. 01:24:58.41 Erin Whitford I think so. I think I might have found my new BFF, so I will definitely check out that episode. 01:25:03.64 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. And then with this being the final thoughts, you know, I always just want to check in with the guest and see how their time was on the podcast. If this is actually been your first time on a podcast or not, I don't actually know that fact. 01:25:17.28 Erin Whitford yeah So um not my first time on a podcast, but definitely my first time um playing D&D. So I'm officially not a super noob anymore, which is nice. 01:25:28.73 Kurt Crenwelge Woohoo. 01:25:29.70 Erin Whitford Yay. And yeah, like this was such a cool experience. Like I feel like i I love learning things and trying new things. And this was right up that alley of, yeah, like I've never done this before. 01:25:41.53 Erin Whitford So tell me, invite me into your world. Let me know about it. And it's super cool. 01:25:44.98 Kurt Crenwelge yeah And I'm sure your brother who does play D&D will be like, great, now I have someone to finally play with. 01:25:52.50 Erin Whitford I know, listen, and ah we we are going to have to do the like, ah you know, Zoom version of it. He's in California, but I think he's going to be like, yes. 01:25:59.26 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 01:26:00.26 Erin Whitford And, you know, I might have garnered ah another listener on the podcast. 01:26:05.97 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. and then ah And then there we go. And then I would be remiss if I didn't give the soapbox, the stage, the platform, and the microphone, the what's-a-who's-a over to you. So you can tell us where can we find you online if you want to be found? 01:26:20.92 Kurt Crenwelge ah Where can we go to find your first book? Where can we find your writings and blogs? and And all the good stuff that you want to promote and share with our lovely podcast audience. And then if finally, if you've got any questions passions or causes that you want us to be made aware of, let us know. 01:26:38.26 Erin Whitford Yeah. I mean, gosh, thank you so much for that. So generous. um Yeah. You can find me at Erin Whitford.com. So that's my website. It's got links to all my social medias, but my Instagram handles. um, Aaron Whitford underscore rights. So that's my author one. 01:26:56.03 Erin Whitford Um, otherwise you'll find just a bunch of pictures of my kids on my personal one. And yeah, so, um, that's where you can find me. I'd love to connect and be friends and follow along. And, um, especially those two places will be where I, um, the release date of the book. So that's, um, the titles like light through water And it's book one of the series. So I'm working on book two right now. And yeah, so that'll be kind of part of the whole whole world there. um 01:27:31.51 Erin Whitford And we're projecting that it's going to be out ah either mid-year or a slightly earlier. So you can ah find that on Amazon, on my website, on my publisher's website, and like barnesandnobles.com and things like that. 01:27:47.77 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Well, Aaron, thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast. And I can't wait to have you back on making even more interesting NPCs. 01:27:52.26 Erin Whitford Yeah. Yes.