00:00:06.05 Kurt Crenwelge another exciting episode of sidekicks and side quests, the best unofficial Dungeons and Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. I've got an awesome guest for you this week. ah Some may say he is the creme de la creme, the cream of the crop. I don't know if that's Macho Man Randy Savage or not, but anyway here we're this is we're off to a great start here at the top of season six for our February episode. ah So ah before I rattle and prattle on too long and tease this out ah too much without fanfare, let me go ahead and lead you into our first ad read. 00:00:44.99 Kurt Crenwelge Insert here now where all you transcription readers know about plus one exp and RPG zine club. Make sure you use the code Randolph at checkout on the website plus one exp.com to get some savings and to help support the podcast. Thank you so much. All right. And without further ado, I turn the microphone over to my guest and I ask, hello, mystery contestant. Would you care to introduce yourself? Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:01:12.50 eatingthedungeon Yeah, so my name is Marcus, and I run the channel Eating the Dungeon. It started as a few Reddit posts ah many years back, actually, specifically just asking the question of how do you prepare certain monsters in D and&D. I had a party that I was DMing for at the time, and the question came up as many DMs run into of, hey, i you know this awesome campaign you ran? How about instead of that, we start a restaurant? 00:01:36.77 eatingthedungeon And then the next about six years of my life developed into this project that is chronicling the culinary analyses of plenty of the monsters in D and&D in addition to the culinary trends, cultural analyses, and economic aspects that go into what makes a food culture in a fantasy realm. So that's been my passion project for the past few years now. 00:02:02.10 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. I'm now suddenly inspired because I've been doing these parlays at the platter panel style episodes. 00:02:09.00 eatingthedungeon Mm hmm. 00:02:10.06 Kurt Crenwelge And since we've had previous guest, ah Chef Mike Harris on the podcast, now I'm kind of inspired to be like, let's do like a food panel. And like we talk about like eating monsters and like, you know, food and D and&D. 00:02:18.72 eatingthedungeon You what? 00:02:23.22 Kurt Crenwelge I think that would be so interesting because, um you know, did did it involve like actually doing like legitimate like 00:02:29.12 eatingthedungeon Mm hmm. 00:02:30.32 Kurt Crenwelge food science research into figuring out like, okay, if this monster like lives in this environment, what kind of textures or gaminess can you expect in the meat and stuff like that? 00:02:33.83 eatingthedungeon yeah 00:02:42.16 eatingthedungeon Yeah, so all of my write ups are really focused on an actual real world analysis of beasts that don't exist. So thinking about, you know, the the physical ramifications of, for example, right now I'm finishing up the long form video on the catablipus. 00:02:51.67 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:02:58.34 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:02:58.98 eatingthedungeon So you have this toxic monster that lives in a ah marshy swamp waste. What would that do to the meat? What would be necessary for preparation? What would the flavors that develop from that kind of ah lifestyle look like? And so looking at all those things, because it's easy to just be like, oh, flumph marshmallows. 00:03:16.54 eatingthedungeon you know um But this is going a little bit further on, and sometimes to an overly further level, it's easy to get caught in the weeds there. But it is a lot of fun, and you know we've built up a small community as well of and other individuals who ask the same questions, and we get into some pretty heated debates of, no, this is actually what Orac would taste like if you look at this source material. 00:03:36.67 eatingthedungeon And it's funny because there's so much D and&D source material out there, but there's very, very little ah um of this, so there's a lot of room for home brewing. 00:03:40.09 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:03:44.78 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, true. I'm I'm I'm reminded of the viral maybe is like a meme sort of a post where and someone was like, Oh, I'm a curator at a museum in a natural history museum. 00:03:55.96 Kurt Crenwelge And we get all kinds of interesting questions from the guests who come through and had a man asked the question of whoa, how would a T rex taste? 00:04:03.64 eatingthedungeon Hmm. 00:04:03.88 Kurt Crenwelge And they went to the paleontologists who did the back and forth and they were like, well, based on all the heavy metals present at that time, if you were to eat a T rex, you would die. And then they told the guy who then sent them like a drawing of him and his buddies eating a T-Rex, but they all had little X's in their eyes because they were like, it was a really good eat, but like, we're all dead because of the lethality of the toxic metals in the meat or whatever. 00:04:24.06 eatingthedungeon yeah 00:04:28.84 eatingthedungeon Oh yeah, definitely. And that's where part of this comes in too. Because if we're being completely honest for most of the monsters, don't. The answer is how do you eat this, don't. But then there you also have to have, how do we how do we make this work for the intrepid party that will? 00:04:41.36 eatingthedungeon Because all party members are risk takers of some type. So usually there is a lot of things of considerations of 00:04:44.08 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:04:46.92 eatingthedungeon you know, the usage of lesser restoration, the usage of purify food and water, ah the usage of different sorts of maybe you need to cast something to get rid of a curse first, whatever things would make, you know, that and that's where the interplay comes in, because it's more than just, you know, a completely realistic analysis, but also where does the fantastic will come into play there. 00:04:56.23 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Hmm. 00:05:07.31 Kurt Crenwelge Sure, of course. Yeah. um Oh, man, I was just ah thinking or just reminded of because I happened to have enjoyed ah the issues of Arcadia from mcdm productions. 00:05:19.07 Kurt Crenwelge And I want to say that one of their issues they did have something that was called like the pickling guild that 00:05:25.63 eatingthedungeon me 00:05:26.01 Kurt Crenwelge have played with the idea, like, it was like a spy sort of a network, but they were also like really invested in food. I don't know if that particular write up went into the same sorts of depths of things that you're doing. 00:05:38.97 Kurt Crenwelge But I feel like that's like a good synergy of resources. Again, like saying, you've been doing this on Reddit for so long. 00:05:42.13 eatingthedungeon Oh yeah. 00:05:45.55 Kurt Crenwelge So you've, ah yeah, you probably got some like high rated checkmarked, saved, favorited posts and stuff like that. 00:05:48.97 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:05:53.39 eatingthedungeon There's plenty of good stuff out there. I actually collaborated with another creator called a Codex of Strings, Ariane's Codex of Strings. They put out a bunch of great, great supplemental material. um I wrote one of the the recipes for one of their books. 00:06:05.28 eatingthedungeon I reached out to them. They made awesome stuff. They reached out to me. And then I made a video on one of the other ones from theirs that they had written up. And it is fun doing this because everyone has a different style. 00:06:17.37 eatingthedungeon you know I'm much more of the like, let's look at the actual 00:06:17.50 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:06:21.66 eatingthedungeon on the ground, realistic, as realistic as fantasy can get kind of analyses. And theirs was more along the lines of like fantastical, like beholder sashimi kind of stuff. 00:06:31.22 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:06:32.20 eatingthedungeon Like just stuff that, and their artworks amazing. So that kind of stuff is really fun as well. And so it's always just fun to see different people's takes on these type of topics. 00:06:42.38 Kurt Crenwelge Well, you say beholder Shishimi, and I feel like I would be doing a big disservice if I didn't give a shout out to our previous guest, Travis Frederick, who was the inventor ah behind Binwick, the death tyrant beholder chef, who because of that episode, in my homebrew world, there's like a inter ah realm, a multiple dimensional organization that exists. 00:07:08.72 Kurt Crenwelge um They go by different names like I think the Feywild in the in the campaign that I'm running. um They call they nickname them the iron chefs. And I think in the Astral Sea, they nicknamed them the rue, but they're called like, I think, culinary, the contour culinary I think is their official name. 00:07:27.39 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:07:27.55 Kurt Crenwelge But the idea is like they're the chefs. of ah the mo of the multi well not necessarily multiverse but at least within the context of the of the realms of the universe I'm playing in and they have like interdimensional ah recipes and stuff like that have been collated and and put all together and they have like this you know ah immense wealth of knowledge and being able to do these recipes but they're also like really beholden to them 00:07:37.38 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:07:55.99 Kurt Crenwelge And so if they don't follow the recipes ah exactly precisely how they're, they're made or meant to be done, um then they could potentially, ah you know, get expelled or lose all their privileges and stuff like that because Oh, you went off book you didn't follow the recipe. 00:08:11.30 eatingthedungeon you I like that. 00:08:12.94 Kurt Crenwelge Um, so it's, yeah, so it's kind of interesting now because of that and, you know, bringing all this into, uh, into the forefront of my mind, this was like, Oh, I saw your stuff on Instagram, especially like you were alluding to the cattle bus or cattle. 00:08:26.74 Kurt Crenwelge I kind of believe this. 00:08:26.75 eatingthedungeon Catablipus. Don't even attempt because everyone's going to tell you you're wrong no matter how you pronounce it. 00:08:32.14 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:08:32.43 eatingthedungeon Catablipus, Kato-blipus, every different way I've pronounced it there's been someone saying you're saying it wrong. So but however comes naturally to you, you'll be wrong regardless, I promise. 00:08:38.59 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:08:41.98 Kurt Crenwelge So that one and then the on cake videos and then, ah you know, something that we're going to use here later at NPC creation. You also I saw your reels and videos of your supplement that you've developed for the 2024 rules of five v with your own Bastion ah download that you can get right. 00:09:00.98 eatingthedungeon Yes, that was a lot of fun to make. I joke in that, you know, video in that write up that the Bastions are awesome. There's something that people have been wanting more of in D and&D, you know, with Matt Colville, strongholds and followers, all that kind of stuff. 00:09:13.48 Kurt Crenwelge Oh yeah, I think that was the catalyst for this. 00:09:15.76 eatingthedungeon Yeah, definitely. 00:09:15.86 Kurt Crenwelge I think they saw that and they were like, oh, he's using old rules. ah Well, we, yeah, we should bring those back and figure out some way. 00:09:22.86 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:09:23.52 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:09:23.95 eatingthedungeon And not to break anyone who like follows me's heart if they think I'm a D and&D purist. I played plenty of different TTRPGs and played other ones with you know more of that focus on development. So I'm glad that there's more of this in 2024 D and&D. 00:09:35.70 eatingthedungeon I think there's been a great lot of great changes. But there was one rule, there was one line in the and the Bastion write-up that says, kitchens are not special facilities or basic facilities and that means that kitchens mechanically or a bastion with a kitchen is mechanically the same as a bastion without one and i'm like okay you're just calling me out in particular i'm like a kitchen completely makes or breaks it and i get it i get it mechanics wise and that kind of stuff changes it but then i was like well what if someone wants to utilize the bastion system specifically for developing a restaurant for 00:09:56.17 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:10:09.68 eatingthedungeon you know, creating some sort of area where they can serve food, whether that's to friends and family, whether that's to the general public. And so then that kind of just spiraled out of control, which was awesome, because it's ah a way that I was more easily to integrate another rule set that I already had made on like a bigger scale with a lot more focus into the current rules. ah So that was a lot of fun to make and I'm already like iterating on it. That's one of my biggest issues is I need to like just drop a project. It's hard to you know be like, I'm done. I have too many things in the pipeline, but I always want to keep on like fixing and iterating. 00:10:41.23 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Well, i'm I'm certainly excited to dive more into it when we get to that part of the show. But you said something that I think is a perfect segue and lead into our next question. Do you currently or have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons before? 00:10:54.87 eatingthedungeon uh... yes if anyone uh... could guess here uh... i have played it once or twice no actually not to date myself but i've been playing for in here about 15 years now. um So I got into it actually, my my dad is an OG Dungeons and Dragons player. 00:11:05.13 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:11:08.49 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:11:11.29 eatingthedungeon Like when he was a kid, he got into first edition Dungeons and Dragons. 00:11:15.68 Kurt Crenwelge Wow. 00:11:15.88 eatingthedungeon And he has a friend group that like still plays second edition D and&D. oh And so I've been trying to convince him to move up editions for a while now in that they they play second edition. 00:11:20.48 Kurt Crenwelge Wow. Okay. 00:11:24.93 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:11:26.48 eatingthedungeon And so I actually started playing second edition D and&D when i when I first started out with him. um But I've played plenty of other editions as well. 5E is what I've done the most time in. um And then I've DM'd other games. The other big one that I DM'd for is Cyberpunk. 00:11:38.62 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:11:38.75 eatingthedungeon I really enjoy that. And it gives me two sides of, you know, different things. If I'm wanting more of the Fantastical, if I'm wanting more of the Oceans 11, I get the other side. um But yeah, I've been DM'ing for a good while now. 00:11:49.91 eatingthedungeon I think in those 15 years, I have been a forever DM for about 13 of them. So... 00:11:58.16 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I mean, I know that I started playing Dungeons and Dragons ah first time ever was Halloween night of 2010. 00:12:06.78 eatingthedungeon isn 00:12:07.03 Kurt Crenwelge So that's how long I've been playing. So I came up on my 14th anniversary just this past Halloween. So I started in fourth edition and then ah made the switch into fifth. And I was like, oh, this is very cool. 00:12:17.41 Kurt Crenwelge It feels very familiar with what I was doing. But now it feels like old school classic ah kind of a way. 00:12:22.77 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:12:23.55 Kurt Crenwelge So 00:12:23.85 eatingthedungeon Oh, yeah. 00:12:24.57 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, that's I like it. So I think and I would hope that, you know, ah you know, you said you started off in to eat. But maybe eventually, you know, now with this whole thing that you've published, maybe you can finally convince your dad to play. And he and his friends will want to open up their own restaurant. 00:12:39.91 eatingthedungeon Hopefully, we'll see. They do play very different types of campaigns than I do. um They're the old school, like, generating the heroes of myth and legend to end up, like, running, you know, countries and everything. 00:12:53.64 eatingthedungeon Which is it's an interesting thing to see, like, how D and&D has developed the narrative structure over time of, like, what is it about? 00:12:53.73 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:13:01.87 eatingthedungeon kind of thing when you go back to you know original D and&D campaigns compared to a lot of new stuff. 00:13:02.10 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:13:08.04 eatingthedungeon And I don't think one's better than the other. It's just any DM will say that the right table is just people who want to do the same thing and making sure that you're catering to that, making sure that you as a DM are having fun too. 00:13:19.71 eatingthedungeon ah So whatever it is, just making sure that everyone's having fun. If it's you know running a restaurant, if it's being the protectors of the realm, if it's, I don't know, a fetch quest to collect chickens, 00:13:30.48 eatingthedungeon If you're just all really into it, whatever it is, as long as you're really into it, you'll have a lot of fun. 00:13:34.23 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And, ah you know, this show is called Sidekicks and Sidequests. So ah the first part of these questions, who happens to be your favorite NPC or sidekick character, whether they be from one of the many games you've played in a video game, movie, film, television, et cetera. And why is this character your favorite NPC or sidekick? 00:13:57.47 eatingthedungeon Oh, sidekick. If I'm going to go for all-time favorite sidekick, it has to be Samwise Gamgee, obviously. But if we're going to go for just general NPCs... 00:14:03.43 Kurt Crenwelge a 00:14:06.81 eatingthedungeon um Okay, so in RuneScape, which if anyone out here knows RuneScape, shout out OSRS, there is a bunch of trolls. 00:14:17.64 eatingthedungeon And these trolls have like a running gimmick. That the trolls are you're named after the first thing you ate as a child. 00:14:27.11 Kurt Crenwelge Huh. 00:14:27.15 eatingthedungeon um or as as a troll child um and so they're just a hilarious little set of NPCs to like run across in the world because you'll like hover over them and you'll see names like burnt meat or my arm like the troll ate its own arm so its name is my arm kind of stuff and it's just a funny little gimmick of like you know boulder okay that that troll ate a boulder it's probably big and powerful 00:14:29.19 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:14:49.59 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:14:51.51 eatingthedungeon or like pebble, you know. um So that's probably my favorite just general set of NPCs because they're just so funny to run across in the world and they're a bunch of like little jokes that the developers put into the the game for you to encounter. 00:15:04.29 Kurt Crenwelge Is that how you run trolls in your game? 00:15:07.41 eatingthedungeon I haven't completely stolen that but honestly I might. um Yeah, i i mean the party hasn't encountered too many trolls recently so maybe the next one they run into I'll sneak that in. 00:15:18.66 Kurt Crenwelge Well, with your with your supplement and yeah your investment in knowing all this ah food culture of your world, it'd be kind of interesting to run into a troll named like Fondue or Omelette Du fromage or something like that. 00:15:30.37 eatingthedungeon Yeah, just like a clan of culinary trolls, you know, completely bucking the norm of, oh yeah, they'll just eat anything under a bridge. Now these ones, these ones are picky. 00:15:39.13 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, I am truffle sauce. 00:15:41.07 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:15:41.60 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, oh, you're like a fancy troll. It's like, yeah. 00:15:44.05 eatingthedungeon Yeah. I like that idea. I'm still in that. 00:15:47.17 Kurt Crenwelge There you go. That's the the joy of this podcast is that we come up with great ideas and I just give them away from free because I just want people to have more fun and to, you know, laugh and have some humor in their life. 00:15:53.13 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:15:58.47 Kurt Crenwelge So. Excellent. And now, with the other side of the namesake of this show, what happens to be your favorite side quest? Whether it happens to be, again, one of your many games you've played in, and our a video game, but a movie, a film, a television show, a play, a piece of literature, et cetera. And why is this side quest or B plot element your favorite? 00:16:23.05 eatingthedungeon Um, favorite side quest. There is one from Cyberpunk, the video game that really stood out to me. I've been a big Cyberpunk fan for a good long while just from the TTRPG. 00:16:34.79 eatingthedungeon So when the video game came out, I was very excited. 00:16:37.13 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:16:37.25 eatingthedungeon And one Cyberpunk side quest, there is a side quest where you're helping like this dude who's running for mayor. 00:16:42.48 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:16:42.47 eatingthedungeon I think the side quest name is called Dream On. And basically, you're finding out that they're that things have been going weird in their apartment and they aren't exactly sure why and like you're a detective pretty much through this of like trying to figure out what it is and figuring out that certain memories they have don't match up with other ones. And so basically find out that they're gradually being like gangstalked and like manipulated by these this organization that's trying to like sway the election. 00:17:10.62 Kurt Crenwelge So it's a real Manchurian candidate sort of situation. 00:17:13.27 eatingthedungeon Exactly um and it it definitely is one of those that is it kind of gets into your skin of like you know obviously this is fiction ah but like how much could be done just for you to like mistrust your own memory like I'm obviously not running for like the mayor of Night City so I don't think anyone really cares but you know how easily it would be for these tiny things to just not match up in your memory and really make you like lose it um And it was just a nice like change in pace, I guess, from a lot of the other ones, you know, the the tone is completely different. I mean, the tone of Night City is always pretty dark, but the the tone of like how you approach it, it's very like old school Colombo style, collecting information kind of thing. um So I loved that one. That was a good one. ah Second ah guess would have to be the Wabajack 00:18:00.73 eatingthedungeon ah uh the wabajack side quest you get in Skyrim where you have to go into that dude's mind and then basically like it's some straight up psychonaut stuff of like use this weird chaos magic and everything to to make him like overcome his demons and you get this crazy daedric like uh wand at the end of it so that one's also fun just for like how cerebral and random it is 00:18:22.50 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:18:28.08 Kurt Crenwelge Well, there you go. Yeah, I know I was in college when Skyrim came out. So I had roommates that disappeared when that game came out for lengths of time. And my wife loves that game. And I got her the, ah you know, the the complete, you know, version of it for the Xbox one. But admittedly, I've never sat down to play Skyrim. It seems like it's I mean, I mean, I know it seems like it's, ah you know, the perfect evergreen, ah you know, um RPG game to play like any of the well, 00:18:57.49 Kurt Crenwelge questionable as far as like maybe some of the other ah Bethesda titles, but I mean, I'm still partial to Fallout. 00:19:01.44 eatingthedungeon anything 00:19:04.94 Kurt Crenwelge But yeah, it just seems kind of like, oh, yeah, Skyrim, it's like evergreen and it just seems so vast and full of stuff. So it's like, I didn't even know about this, but OK, you get to go into somebody's mind and you get to get a super OP wand at the end of it. 00:19:11.75 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:19:16.76 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:19:19.79 Kurt Crenwelge That's pretty cool. 00:19:20.61 eatingthedungeon Yeah. Once again, I think my favorite ones are anything that like kicks the norm of whatever's going on in the story. You know, some, something that really stands out because it's just so out of place. 00:19:31.73 eatingthedungeon And sometimes you might like think of out of places like, Oh, that shouldn't fit there. But like to me, that's what, so that's what's memorable. You know, that's what keeps the the players talking afterwards of, Oh yeah, that just really stuck out. 00:19:42.22 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And then Marcus, the way that we end the personal interview section of the show, we ask the question, what are you passionate about and why? 00:19:52.11 eatingthedungeon Yeah, so for me, that's an easy answer. It's culinary ethnography. And so culinary ethnography is basically the study of the trends of food culture at a higher level than just like the individual, you know, and that's also the difficulty of like the work that I do for the cultural analyses is you know it It's treading the line. 00:20:19.27 eatingthedungeon You don't want to be doing generalization, but there are overarching factors that lead to whatever food is consumed by a cultural group. And this is the case in the real world, not just fantasy. you know What is the economic implications? 00:20:32.02 eatingthedungeon What are the cultural, the geographic implications, the topographical implications, the climate implications? like Why were certain things grown in a specific place? Why did a specific community you know gravitate toward something? 00:20:46.40 eatingthedungeon what cultural interchange needed to happen for one you know good to end up somewhere else. you know We think of Italian food as always being like having tomato sauce as a key component. 00:20:55.49 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. Mm hmm. 00:20:57.21 eatingthedungeon But if you really think about it, that's a post-colonial good. 00:21:00.11 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, that's for the new world. 00:21:00.28 eatingthedungeon So a lot of food doesn't go out doesn't go back that far. A lot of food is constantly being iterated on for all kinds of social reasons. 00:21:03.76 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:21:07.95 eatingthedungeon And so I like looking at that, whether that's in the real world or in fantasy societies as well, and trying to like extrapolate that. And so that's really where I like lose myself just for hours and hours is writing and developing those kind of questions, ah both for you know fantasy settings, but also for real world things, you know, ah my my background, ah I'm Mexican. 00:21:29.86 eatingthedungeon And so for me, a big thing is just looking back at, you know, the pre colonial post colonial, you know, development of Mexican food, and you know, even just something as simple as like, 00:21:37.19 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:21:39.49 eatingthedungeon what goes into a taco, not just the physical aspect of like meat and be or meat on a tortilla with you know cilantro and ah onion or whatever you want to put on it personally, that's a completely regional thing, but like the social structures that are necessary. 00:21:52.72 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:21:56.09 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:21:56.71 eatingthedungeon you know I ah saw a really good speech by a university professor um a little while back. I'll see if I can find it later. But he had a really good paper on what is a taco. And it was basically the idea is that it's not a taxonomical question of what ingredients are necessary, but more of like the the social structures that are necessary for that kind of food to develop because a taco isn't a burrito or tamale it's not designed for transport you know like those are like masa with meat that's an old thing like burritos tamales we we have very very far back 00:22:33.77 eatingthedungeon you know, records of that. But tacos are actually much more recent, if you think about it, they're something that needs the industrial portion for there to be a standardized meal time, and there to be taqueros who are out and about in the city who are like selling these things close, but it's also not a sit down meal. It's not something that that that's that way. So it's like this weird ephemeral state. So those are the kind of like really over the top questions that I get into is, you know, culinary ethnography, like what are all of the aspects that lead to the development of a food? 00:23:03.94 Kurt Crenwelge Well, I'm here in Texas, so I mean, I know, you know, we love our Tex-Mex, we love our Mexican food. um You know, the the the the punk rock poets bowling for soup said it best in their song, Ohio. Besides, the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway. 00:23:20.96 Kurt Crenwelge which I wholeheartedly agree. um And it sounds like you would be have you would be someone to have in my corner, because I know at my day job, ah the place where I work at least two different times since I've been there, they've you know, just because they're bored, and they want to throw out the argument of like, hot dog is a sandwich. 00:23:41.14 Kurt Crenwelge So I feel like this is an important years, you're rolling your eye and shaking your head. But I feel like 00:23:45.35 eatingthedungeon My friends ask me those questions specifically to trigger me and I've given the rant so many times that food is not able to be simply taxonomically classified and that taxonomical classification is a fool fool's errand. 00:23:58.76 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:23:58.98 eatingthedungeon The is this, this, you know. 00:23:59.04 Kurt Crenwelge Well, I mean, I did, I did make one taxonomical sort of a thing that I thought was pretty good. I'll have to find it and share it with you sometime off, off microphone. 00:24:09.82 Kurt Crenwelge Um, but yeah, no, this sounds fascinating. I love this. Like, yeah, like food is part of everyone's culture. And, uh, it's definitely interesting to study those things like you were alluding to, like, you know, Oh, we think of like, Oh, the Irish have always had potatoes or ah the Italians have always had tomatoes. 00:24:25.26 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, no, those are new world foods. food like they didn't exist natively there. I'm just thinking offhand of coming up with something when I was learning about Mongolia and I was like, Oh, you know, like what's like, what is their dairy situation like? And apparently in Mongolia, they like do like horse milk, because they have a lot of horses out on the steps. 00:24:45.71 eatingthedungeon Yep. 00:24:48.10 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like, well, we don't do horse milk. But like, in somewhere where it's like, literally, the only major city we have is like, Ulaanbaatar. And the rest of it is just open steps. 00:24:59.95 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:25:00.95 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like, we don't have cities and places. And it's like, it's farmers you know, with horses and cattle and stuff like that. And like, horse milk ends up becoming the thing that ends up being like a like ah part of an ingredient with ah with alcohol, because I was looking up something I was like, what's an interesting alcohol? I was like, I don't know what's like an interesting, not like a dulce de leche, sort of like a Cubano milk, a dairy sort of a alcoholic drink. I was like, what is it like in Mongolia? And I found out about this whole thing with like, 00:25:34.10 Kurt Crenwelge horse, horse's milk used in making like a beer, ah sort of a thing in Mongolia. So fascinating stuff and random tangents for D and D nerds for sure. 00:25:42.76 eatingthedungeon yeah 00:25:45.26 eatingthedungeon Oh, yeah, I mean, that's what our players love. And then all you have to do is repackage that real world information into something about, you know, an NPC or something. And then boom, yeah, you have information. And I feel like that's always the biggest thing is, you know, I have people asking me, you know, how do you become a bigger, better DM? And one obviously is just experience. Don't be afraid to do it. Everyone sucks at the beginning. I was an atrocious DM. And you're going to be an atrocious DM for a while. But the biggest one is just like, 00:26:09.24 eatingthedungeon steal you know learn about the real world and think about logically how would that affect whatever either world you're building or if you're running a module how that would affect like npc's within it that kind of stuff just being more knowledgeable about the things that go on will always make you a better dm so like that you know the horse milk alcohol i used to live in china i had no idea about that so uh that's something i'll be stealing as well and just flagrantly steal and it will gradually gradually you know build up that knowledge base and you have more fun things to give your players 00:26:31.09 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, there we go. I feel like we could spend the whole rest of this podcast just on this passion alone, but I would be doing us disservice because I think it's time to head into some NPC creation. 00:26:48.47 eatingthedungeon Mm hmm. Yes. 00:26:57.09 Kurt Crenwelge And NPC Creation is brought to you by you, the podcast audience and our patrons from Patreon. So now is the time of the show where we give a shout out, a loud hoorah to our ah what are comfortable patrons and above with a loud hoorah. So I've got my uh my uh what is it it's irish morgan morgan whiskey it was a whiskey that i got for christmas and i added a little mixed cocktail thing in there so it's like a john collins sort of a whiskey drink so that's what i've got to cheers our patrons so to you our queen of the patreon 00:27:25.30 eatingthedungeon oh 00:27:31.42 Kurt Crenwelge ah goblin Katie, aka Katie Downie, as well as our other wealthy patrons, and so Jablinski and good old mom and dad we say, Cheers. Again, these fine folks donate just $2 a month, and they're able to get shout outs on every episode of sidekicks and side quests. 00:27:50.21 Kurt Crenwelge And not only are these patrons comfortable, they're wealthy and sometimes aristocratic, which means they get to introduce an element of chance to the random tables that we have that we're going to use here today. So if you want to learn more details about what we have to offer here. 00:28:07.41 Kurt Crenwelge You should go to the show notes below. You should just go to the podcast website or go directly to patreon dot.com forward slash sidekicks and side quest to learn more about the accommodations that we have awaiting for you. Help us to grow and expand the levitating platter in this demiplane and world's beyond. 00:28:27.95 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so we definitely did some collaboration talk behind the scenes to figure out how are we going to do this? How are we going to combine our loves and strengths together? And so what we've come to the arrival at is that you have this great spanking new cooking with bastions, a guide to restaurant design and management for the 2024 rules. You want to make a chef character of somehow, but you want to start with yours so we can figure out what kind of a chef this character is and then we'll transition over to my random tables to discover, like, okay, now that we know what kind of chef there are, what that what kind of chef they are. Now we kind of like figure out their life story and some of the other key details about them to kind of plug it all synergize it and make them perfect NPC staff for your players to have at their stronghold, their bastion, their home base, their business of operations. 00:29:26.48 eatingthedungeon Yeah, that sounds great. 00:29:27.88 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, perfect. So you are very kind and gracious to share with me your document here, which again, kudos. It's fantastically outlined. 00:29:40.12 Kurt Crenwelge It's got brilliant. Excuse me, I'll have to edit that out in post. You've got brilliant art in here. And it's all formatted nice and neat. And it's great. So I think here, maybe towards what is it pages? 00:29:55.04 eatingthedungeon Page nine, you just drop down there. 00:29:56.30 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, page nine. Perfect. Okay. So yes, here we are. So we are going to go to the hireling section. So here we go. Just to kind of not to give, not to give the whole thing away, you know. 00:30:07.30 eatingthedungeon Oh, it's available free. 00:30:07.40 Kurt Crenwelge ah Oh, well, there you go. 00:30:08.18 eatingthedungeon You can give the whole thing away. All my content is completely free for all users. If you'd like to, you can support me on Ko-fi, but I will never pay well anything. 00:30:16.95 Kurt Crenwelge Well, there you go. They're a true gentleman of the people. So here we go in this hireling section. Here's the general information for each hireling. So these are the kinds of things ah that we may get to kind of go through here. So like hireling name, lineage, years of experience, culinary background, culinary feature, learning rate, and locality. So as we work through this section, I can see it goes years experience, 00:30:41.15 Kurt Crenwelge culinary background, culinary feature table, location of origin, and learning rate. And so those are the things that we're going to roll for first, and then we'll hop over to my tables. 00:30:48.13 eatingthedungeon Yep. 00:30:52.06 Kurt Crenwelge Is that correct? 00:30:52.81 eatingthedungeon Yeah, that sounds good. And I can walk us through these little bit of explanation of each one, and then I'll hand it over to you for, we'll figure out the background of that character. 00:30:56.84 Kurt Crenwelge Go for it. 00:31:01.84 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. and And I think you did say for me, you wanted to wait till the end to get the name, whether that's something that you're inspired by and you're going to come up with it, or if you want to do a D20 role and see what works. 00:31:02.84 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:31:13.94 eatingthedungeon Yeah. but i've I've always done names last. And I think that's just because names are the hardest part of a character for me, so I procrastinate. 00:31:21.12 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:31:21.12 eatingthedungeon um But yeah. ah So generally, when you're making a hireling, you'll know name, lineage, that kind of stuff. And so the stuff we're going to roll on first is year's experience. And so I have my trusty D20 here. 00:31:33.53 eatingthedungeon um And so for year's experience, this is going to determine how long your hireling has been in the business of cooking, restaurant management, kitchen work, whatever it is. 00:31:42.10 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, are they are they the bear? 00:31:42.28 eatingthedungeon and so 00:31:44.14 Kurt Crenwelge Are they just ah the person working minimum wage at a fast food restaurant? 00:31:45.50 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:31:49.08 Kurt Crenwelge Or are they ah like Chef Gusteau from Ratatouille? 00:31:51.48 eatingthedungeon Yeah. Yeah. Oh, an important thing to note here is that feel free for this portion to adjust it to your NPC's lifespan compared to lineage. You know, a cobold isn't going to live as long as an elf. 00:32:01.61 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:32:03.85 eatingthedungeon So if, uh, yeah. 00:32:04.84 Kurt Crenwelge I mean, not unless they took a potion of immortality or they made a deal. 00:32:07.60 eatingthedungeon Yeah. Or write that in their backstory. 00:32:10.00 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, right in their backstory, they made a deal with the devil and now they live forever. 00:32:13.87 eatingthedungeon Yep, okay. So I'm gonna roll, I got a six, 17. 00:32:19.15 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:32:19.17 eatingthedungeon So 17, that means that according to this table, they have five to 10 years experience. So they're relatively seasoned. 00:32:25.49 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. As far as their seasoning, would you say, you know, like ah like a, like a, like a paprika, is it like a good salt rub or, uh, 00:32:29.50 eatingthedungeon I would hope, I would hope, unless they've gotten fired a lot. 00:32:36.01 eatingthedungeon Yeah, yeah, I'd say i'd say ah a nice Cajun robe of sorts, you know, there's there's there's a good amount of flavor there. 00:32:39.52 Kurt Crenwelge ah kit nice kate Okay. Okay. It's I'm a dad. So of course we have to do our dad jokes on the podcast. 00:32:46.04 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:32:47.02 Kurt Crenwelge So okay. 00:32:48.43 eatingthedungeon Okay, so then culinary background. 00:32:48.48 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. 00:32:50.43 eatingthedungeon So this one is dependent on year's experience. For one, if they didn't have any experience, then you don't roll here, but thankfully ours does have some experience. um So we will roll here. 00:32:58.63 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:33:00.31 eatingthedungeon um So I'll do a D20 roll. That is a 12. They were a brewer in a small ale house. 00:33:08.05 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:33:08.61 eatingthedungeon So they ah they are particular to things that they can imbibe. 00:33:14.34 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. OK. Yeah. i'm I'm thinking like microbreweries or something like that, like a. 00:33:18.24 eatingthedungeon Yeah, yeah, i could it could be fun, whatever it is. You know, one of the things I love researching is how, you know, like old, old breweries, if you know, like German Abbey breweries and anything, or even like old distilleries, like how a lot of that quality came about. 00:33:30.83 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:33:35.48 eatingthedungeon One of the the funny little tidbits to, you know, get off of the tangent is that a lot of Scotch distilleries in Scotland, they didn't know why, but it just became like, 00:33:47.89 eatingthedungeon a ritual that when they replace their copper stills that they would take the the new copper still and beat it and bang it up in the same way as the previous copper still and it it just was like a you know a superstition so to say and then people these days you know actual researchers and scientists have looked into it and be like no that was like actually the correct thing to do because there were so many tiny little interactions that happen on like the molecular level that doing that actually kept it consistent 00:34:00.27 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:34:07.90 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:34:13.32 eatingthedungeon ah So I like including those kind of things of things that might just be like old wives tales in setting, but actually have realistic reasons why you would do that. So maybe this guy with his five to 10 years of experience or this gal with her five to 10 years of experience has started to adopt those things and those superstitions have been passed down to him. 00:34:30.19 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Perfect. 00:34:32.13 eatingthedungeon Okay, culinary feature table. If you're old 16 or higher, they have a culinary feature. So this one, I got a 15, which means they are a culinary diplomat. 00:34:43.89 eatingthedungeon And I do have that in a separate section, but I'll give the information. 00:34:44.05 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:34:46.42 eatingthedungeon Culinary diplomats are basically, they know a lot of different culinary aspects from different ah you know locales, different cultures and everything. And they're good for branching those kinds of things of, oh, hey, I know a lot about, you know, if we're thinking real life, someone who knows a lot about Korean cuisine and someone who knows a lot about, you know, Mexican cuisine or South African cuisine. 00:35:04.51 eatingthedungeon And yet whether they're doing it for fusion, whether they're doing it for, you know, they're the person you want to invite when you have like a diplomat come through and prepare food for them, those kind of things. 00:35:11.56 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:35:13.77 eatingthedungeon So this individual, maybe he knows all about both how to create elvish mead and dwarven firewater kind of things. 00:35:21.54 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, yeah, the the the kind of the the the the alcoholic savant, some all year of the of the brewery, the the beer snob, if you will, it's like 00:35:27.67 eatingthedungeon Exactly. 00:35:31.99 eatingthedungeon Oh, yeah, I like that idea. 00:35:32.74 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, actually, if, yeah you know, you're going more of a goblin still water, it's, you got to get it more grimy. 00:35:36.57 eatingthedungeon listen 00:35:40.08 Kurt Crenwelge But like, if you're really going for like, dwarvish, like, ah you know, ale, then it's like, Oh, you really need to go up here. 00:35:40.28 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:35:47.78 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:35:48.17 eatingthedungeon Yeah, that guy, guy he's gonna correct you on absolutely everything. 00:35:48.30 Kurt Crenwelge I love that. 00:35:50.69 eatingthedungeon Actually, no, that's more of a, that's a hill dwarven ale, not a mountain dwarven ale. that They use a completely different hop. 00:35:55.28 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Yeah. 00:35:58.59 eatingthedungeon Okay, so that location of origin. um This is a general one. It doesn't have to be like exactly where it's in ah relativity to wherever the kitchen is. 00:36:08.53 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:36:08.85 eatingthedungeon So I got a one. 00:36:11.93 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:36:12.18 eatingthedungeon He's a local born and raised. So wherever your party is from or wherever they're running their kitchen, ah he is going to be someone who knows the lay of the land, the lay of the city um for whatever reason it is. 00:36:24.71 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. What a excellent NPC to drag and drop. It's like conveniently is like, Oh yeah, I grew up here. 00:36:28.42 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:36:31.66 Kurt Crenwelge I know and that guy over there. He always has been picking his nose. Like he's done that since he was a a kindergarten. 00:36:35.90 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:36:39.06 eatingthedungeon And he knows all the different cultures, he might be a good ah mentor character for the party. 00:36:43.07 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:36:44.26 eatingthedungeon Okay, and then finally learning rate, this basically determines how quick they can pick up new things. 00:36:50.92 eatingthedungeon I got a, oops, sorry, that's a d6, not a d20. Six. So fast. 00:36:57.16 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:36:57.28 eatingthedungeon So they he picks up new things quick. So yeah, he'd be a great mentor character to drop into any setting for your characters. They can pick up new things quickly, they can teach you about the lay of the land, and they can tell you about how to deal with different cultures if you're cooking for three cream or gnomes or whatever. 00:37:14.46 Kurt Crenwelge OK, yeah, it sounds like ah well, I mean, like we were saying, like beer snob, but actually it's like it not comes. It doesn't come from a place of snobbery. It comes from ah a place of passion. 00:37:23.55 eatingthedungeon Mm-hmm. 00:37:25.24 Kurt Crenwelge It's like he really, you know, five to 10 years. But like he really knows this stuff and he picks it up real quick. And I guess everyone's like super impressed with like how knowledgeable this person is. 00:37:33.73 eatingthedungeon isn't it 00:37:36.31 eatingthedungeon Yeah, I like it. 00:37:37.22 Kurt Crenwelge OK. 00:37:37.39 eatingthedungeon Okay, so let's jump to your side of it. Let's see exactly more of the concrete details on this individual. 00:37:42.56 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. OK, so we're saving the name to last. So we'll go ahead and skip that one for now. um We'll come back to it later here. ah The next thing we would then proceed to roll is for the ancestry of the characters. 00:37:56.51 Kurt Crenwelge So this is where we get to do a D100 or a 2D10 roll. 00:37:59.79 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:38:00.66 Kurt Crenwelge And if you don't like it, you know, you are free to reroll. 00:38:03.83 eatingthedungeon a problem look get me I live by the dice, I die by the dice. I can't tell my players one thing and then do the other. Okay, D100. I got a 44. 00:38:17.91 Kurt Crenwelge 44 as I scroll the list. Ah, well, this sounds very perfect of a dolphin. 00:38:23.74 eatingthedungeon I like it, I like it a lot. 00:38:25.51 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, they're the perfectionist seekers of the world. 00:38:27.76 eatingthedungeon Yeah, that's fitting. 00:38:28.94 Kurt Crenwelge So, okay. All right. Of a dolphin. And then let's see. The next thing we roll for is, uh, well, we kind of know what the job or role in society is. So they, they, so five to 10 years and they work at a small ale house is the idea of where they work. 00:38:39.02 eatingthedungeon Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 00:38:46.60 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. All right. So they work in a ale house in whichever setting or whichever town or place of interest. 00:38:52.03 eatingthedungeon yeah That's, that's the nice thing there. Wherever your party's going, they probably have a tavern and that a tavern needs ale. 00:38:58.75 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Like within the same tavern or it's just like, Oh, the ale house is separate from the tavern. 00:39:03.13 eatingthedungeon Could be. Either way is totally fine. um I think that one comes up to the DM how they want to world build it. 00:39:08.07 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:39:08.22 eatingthedungeon So if they want to have him, maybe he runs the tavern, you know, and that he's the one who sources it. He could be a tavern keep, or, you know, he could be working at a local tavern or a local ale house, a local brewery, and they could try to recruit him for their own organization. 00:39:22.55 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm, okay, okay. And then let's see, what's the age range of this character? This is a D8 role, so we kind of get an idea. 00:39:31.89 eatingthedungeon Okay, let me grab my d8. 00:39:37.49 eatingthedungeon Two. 00:39:38.86 Kurt Crenwelge Teenager? 00:39:40.04 eatingthedungeon Wow, so they're a savant. 00:39:42.45 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, well, I mean, the Dawkins are the ones ah to my understanding that they're always seeking like perfection, perfection, perfection. 00:39:42.48 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:39:50.45 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:39:50.53 Kurt Crenwelge And it and it works good in my setting ah ah without, you know, too much patting myself on the um but my on the back, um the cadence ah was ah is an ancient city state built on a ship ah that that circumnavigates the the mundane material world. And the idea was that to help them build the ship, they all the gods, the begotten collectively before the fall, um they worked together to they like, you know, like, oh, well, we need someone to like, be there physically to help us build the ship. So they created the Vidalkan. So these are the guys that are like, 00:40:26.77 Kurt Crenwelge They seek perfection because they were all made collectively by the gods together. 00:40:28.31 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:40:32.06 Kurt Crenwelge And then when they were done, they, you know, they exist as their own, uh, ethnic people group and stuff like that. 00:40:36.78 eatingthedungeon I like that. 00:40:37.43 Kurt Crenwelge And it's just, they have that inherent quality of like, well, we're always seeking the highest good. We're always seeking perfection because we were all made by the gods themselves. 00:40:47.72 eatingthedungeon So if I remember correctly, Fadalkans do age slower than humans. I think they achieve maturity somewhere around 30 to 50 range. 00:40:51.26 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:40:54.58 eatingthedungeon So if he's a teenager, we'd say 20s, some odd. 00:40:58.60 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:40:58.70 eatingthedungeon um Which would actually make that fit, you know, five to 10 years, we'll scale that up a little bit and just say 10 years experience. Um, so yeah, he's been, uh, he's been going for a little while since maybe since he could, uh, you know, get around, he's been either in the family business or set out very young, uh, for ah that specific interest. 00:41:19.00 Kurt Crenwelge OK, and then let's see. So now comes a part where we get to come up with the physical description of the character. So when you picture this, you know, this ale house savant, what do you think that they look like? 00:41:25.93 eatingthedungeon Mm-hmm. 00:41:37.45 eatingthedungeon Hmm, man, this is always the hardest part. and That's the thing that my party loves asking me. What do they look like? I can give you a name, I can give you anything else. oh But what do they look like? I think one of the big things for him, I'm kind of leaning into, you know, the perfection and everything. So I think he would kind of stick out compared to a lot of others in the ale house, you know, where you might be assuming a lot of like, dirty, grimy, you know, different kinds of individuals who are like just covered in cake and sweat. I think you would have someone who is there in like a leather spotless apron. 00:42:13.39 eatingthedungeon um who makes sure that their sleeves are rolled and cuffed up, that there's just nothing completely out of place at all with his physical appearance. um I like the idea of like no tattoos, no piercings, nothing whatsoever, just incredibly like very focused on only the matter at hand of like my My life is you know developing, searching, researching these kinds of different things. um And that's it. Just like clean business. That's the one thing there. They're just hyper fixated on that at all times. 00:42:47.10 Kurt Crenwelge Hey, so clean and crispy. I was getting the image of I don't know if you have them where you are, but there's a there's a chain called whiskey cake and the the sort of standardized uniform is like, oh, khaki pants and like some sort of ah roll, you know, white sleeve shirt and, you know, or like rolled up jeans sleeves kind of a thing. 00:43:07.26 Kurt Crenwelge You know, the the picture you get in your head when you think of like a brewery and you see these like 00:43:12.19 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:43:13.49 Kurt Crenwelge big bearded tattooed sort of guys. It's like, no, he's just like clean, crisp, no distractions. All I care about is making the best ales and beers and alcohols. 00:43:23.97 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:43:25.62 Kurt Crenwelge OK, and then let's see it to help us with the role playing aspect of the NPC. If you had to describe this character with three adjectives, what three adjectives would you use? 00:43:38.08 eatingthedungeon First one is definitely focused. Without a doubt, it is focused. that is That is her life's work. That is her life's goal. She's known this is her life's work. This is her life's goal. Even from a very young age of just, this is what interests her. And not even from, you know, just the scientific aspect, but the socialization aspect. 00:43:57.94 eatingthedungeon I like to think of this for, you know, I'm always switching back and forth on how I'm thinking of this character already. But you know, now I'm thinking that this character, maybe this is their method of socialization and how they how they like bringing a room to together. And that's really what they enjoy is just seeing seeing people gathering together. And so that's their focus. I think the next one would be innovative. 00:44:22.68 eatingthedungeon you know constantly looking for new things, constantly looking for new combinations, um as much as you know she's classically trained, you know also figuring out how to push the envelope and asking, why why? Why can't we do it that way? Why can't you make that cocktail? Why can't you you know create this ale? Why can't you brew this spirit kind of thing? And I want to say the last one is, 00:44:46.73 eatingthedungeon serene. I'm gonna say that ah she exudes a really calm and composed demeanor. You know it's funny because it originally you know I'm not too big on what what the gender of my character is but I was thinking you know male at first but now I'm kind of like leaning more female even more to like buck stereotypes and everything. 00:45:03.38 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:45:03.81 eatingthedungeon of you know um her being raised this way and just being able to like own a tavern house and like you know she walks in and just everyone knows like okay the you know the person is here maybe not the star of the show not super lively but you know like things are gonna get taken care of while she's here she just exudes that like calm collected like serenity 00:45:26.63 Kurt Crenwelge All right, so if you're thinking of this character as more feminine, um and and I know we described kind of the appearance, ah you know, I guess in my head, I was kind of defaulting to a more masculine appearance as well. Is she, you know, is she, you know, certainly a feminine person, but she dresses masculine or do you know, when you said, Oh, the leather and all clean and spotless and no no distractions or anything like that? 00:45:51.76 Kurt Crenwelge Or does she purposely dress very feminine when maybe everyone else is like, Oh, they're a dirty, grimy man. And she's like, I am prim and proper and I am a lady and I am here and I can out school all you fools sort of thing. 00:46:03.62 eatingthedungeon I don't think she dresses overly feminine so to say as far as like blouses and dresses goes, but I do think she cares about her her appearance when it comes to like cleanliness. So I'm thinking I'm thinking like white linen um with like work pants and like a leather apron that kind of stuff like something simple and I'm also thinking of you know someone who that Her focus isn't you know on a lure or anything. Her focus is like, what what is going to be functional? you know What is going to be functional for me to you know study, for me to develop, for me to brew, for me to craft and everything? like She's a craftsperson through and through. 00:46:43.32 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. So kind of like a sailor's sort of an outfit, if you will. 00:46:46.25 eatingthedungeon Yeah, almost. I like that. That with just, you know, a functional leather. And I want to say like a leather apron with ah a bunch of pockets that she personally has stitched each for a different tool that she always knows exactly where it is. 00:46:58.48 Kurt Crenwelge She's like, ah, this is my hops barometer that I get. 00:47:00.98 eatingthedungeon Exactly. Or, you know, that my what what is it specifically they use their gravitational um that they pop in to see exactly what the ABV is. 00:47:01.86 Kurt Crenwelge And this is. 00:47:08.91 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:47:09.36 eatingthedungeon So like those kind of things. 00:47:11.10 Kurt Crenwelge OK, all right, very cool. And and then this is the part where I say and now we get to go back to some dice rolling. ah We like all of our NPCs to have something cool on their person, whether it be a valuable item, a piece of lore, a secret or an ideal or concept. 00:47:17.47 eatingthedungeon okay 00:47:25.26 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:47:25.85 Kurt Crenwelge So this is a combination role where you get to roll a D four first for the category and then a D six for the particular thing. 00:47:29.82 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:47:33.07 eatingthedungeon Let me grab my d4. 00:47:37.32 eatingthedungeon Okay. I got a three. 00:47:40.21 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, so this is gonna be a secret. 00:47:41.95 eatingthedungeon Okay. What do I roll now? 00:47:44.86 Kurt Crenwelge And now you roll a D6. 00:47:46.40 eatingthedungeon Okay. 00:47:49.72 eatingthedungeon I got a five. 00:47:50.31 Kurt Crenwelge A five. Okay, so your answer was provided by previous guest, Kiki Hayden. It says here, the secrets of our character, of our ah ale meister. You have a herd of owl mirage that follow you around and you don't want anyone to know. 00:48:08.37 eatingthedungeon Okay, interesting, I like that. 00:48:11.63 Kurt Crenwelge So yeah, what what is the deal with this little herd of owl mirage? 00:48:17.75 eatingthedungeon So Elmerage, they're the little bunny folk, right? the They're from the Feywild? 00:48:21.04 Kurt Crenwelge yeah they're like Yeah, they're like unicorn bunnies. 00:48:24.08 eatingthedungeon Yeah. um So that makes me think that she has some Fey connection. 00:48:29.86 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:48:30.21 eatingthedungeon Um, which also makes me wonder, you know, now I, now I'm pulling in like information of, you know, she's in this career at a very young age comparatively. Um, so like, is there anything more supernatural there? So now I'm thinking like, maybe like Faye touched in some way of, you know, maybe like fell into the Faye wilds as a child and like time worked differently and, you know, spent a lot more time there. 00:48:54.65 eatingthedungeon then technically her age should allow. And for whatever you know scenario happened, now she has these El Mirage that like follow her um in ah you know in a weird little boogeyman style that she's trying to you know not make too obvious, which might also you know lead to a thing of her just randomly disappearing of like sometimes of like, hey, I need to make sure I'm not seen with these around me. I can't have these questions asked. 00:49:19.42 Kurt Crenwelge Right. If it's like a situation of like a little Pikmin's or if it's like, uh, uh, what is it? 00:49:23.14 eatingthedungeon Mm-hmm. 00:49:25.57 Kurt Crenwelge My son, my son inadvertently downloaded a, uh, Sonic frontiers game for our X-Box and there's little dude ads, uh, whatever. 00:49:31.14 eatingthedungeon Mmm. Oh, the chow. 00:49:34.78 Kurt Crenwelge I don't, sorry. I'm not, my son is like, he's, he's three soon to be four. Uh, and he very much is like Sonic everything. 00:49:40.34 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:49:43.93 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, and I still don't know all the Sonic war. Forgive me. I remember playing Sonic on a, on a, on a Sega Genesis. I remember that, but I was not that heavily invested in the Sonic war. 00:49:54.23 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, so I don't know what those little dudes are, but if it's kind of like that or or it's ah like little fairies or something like following her around, she thinks of them as like little fairies. 00:50:00.29 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:50:03.19 Kurt Crenwelge Maybe it's like a thank you or something like that from whoever she played with, ah you know, she fell in this portal into the Feywild and as a thank you for being a good friend for however long she was stuck there without her knowing or realizing just a little a little clutch, hutch, and whatever you call a group of rabbits, a little group of rabbits of our mirage, just follow her around and hang out. 00:50:07.66 eatingthedungeon Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. 00:50:28.33 Kurt Crenwelge And they're just kind of like ah the eternal promise of friendship, if you will. 00:50:33.37 eatingthedungeon I like that. 00:50:35.40 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And then, of course, I mean, our laws are cool. And if the party ever found out and like, ah yeah, it just be like, oh, I want one of those. And it's like, oh, they just kind of like disappear. 00:50:43.41 eatingthedungeon yeah Yeah, they're all hers. 00:50:45.48 Kurt Crenwelge They just, you know, it's like a video game thing like, oh, you try and get get near them to interact with them. And then they they're just they vanish. I don't know where they went. They just disappeared. Yeah, okay, cool. 00:50:57.48 Kurt Crenwelge And then now is the part where we get to ah come up with a particular quest that our character would be willing to recruit or hire player characters to go on her behalf. 00:51:09.68 Kurt Crenwelge So, okay, 00:51:09.76 eatingthedungeon So now I'm totally thinking of her as a tavern keep, the more we've been discussing. 00:51:14.00 Kurt Crenwelge yeah. 00:51:14.19 eatingthedungeon And so now I'm also thinking of her with the El Mirage secret, which I'm loving, and you know them gradually finding out more and more of her backstory. I'm i'm imagining her gradually giving them more and more quests to like test their trust and you know connections. 00:51:29.15 eatingthedungeon So starting off with simple things like, hey, could you get you know this ingredient from the Feywild for this beer I'm brewing or something? 00:51:36.66 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:51:36.87 eatingthedungeon you know more and more things just to like test who they are as a party. But I think that would be working up to this like more important quest of, for whatever reason, like her Elmerage are getting sick now. 00:51:48.64 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:51:48.63 eatingthedungeon And she knows it's because of like some connection to whichever fae originally bestowed that blessing on her. And so she wants the party to like go and like find and like check on that fae and like see what's going on. 00:52:03.17 eatingthedungeon And I think that would be like a fun like introductory quest into its own like arc of you know like saving like a poisoned or dying fae or like that kind of stuff. 00:52:12.17 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:52:12.21 eatingthedungeon um I think that would be a fun one ah for the party and then seeing where that goes from there and then obviously you know that gets gets her in her corner afterwards. 00:52:20.60 Kurt Crenwelge OK, yeah, so this idea of, ah you know, it could be like a sicker ailing archfey or or a trickster figure or or something. 00:52:31.64 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:52:32.07 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:52:32.20 Kurt Crenwelge Whatever kind of creature they happen to be from the Feywild. Hopefully, hopefully you pick something good and not something sinister, you know, 00:52:38.85 eatingthedungeon yeah well i mean we're we're thinking like all mirage we're thinking you know like cute bunnies and everything i mean you could take the dark route but i don't know i'm kind of thinking you know like something benevolent and that that opens up to like a larger arc of you know something something's wrong you know this good fairy godmother type has been like deceived or something and like there's like a coup or something going on in the feywild um and you know this vedalken is like on the good side or like was bestowed by like a good fairy godmother who took her in and now she's like 00:52:48.76 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. A unicorn. 00:53:01.45 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:53:08.00 eatingthedungeon She needs to help her fairy godmother now. 00:53:10.77 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, well, now we'll just think about our one of our previous guests that we just recorded with recently, Game Master Mom, Nicole. And she talked about like, oh, for my daughters and for a couple of families, so you know, sessions of our family game, we would, you know, we maybe pop out a D and&D and we go play Tales of Equestria, the My Little Pony game. 00:53:30.35 eatingthedungeon Mmm, yeah. 00:53:32.39 Kurt Crenwelge And I just i just said it and I was like, What if she befriended a unicorn in her time in the Feywild? And that's why she got Almoraj because maybe she was like, Oh, I like bunnies. 00:53:42.55 Kurt Crenwelge They're cute. And she's like, you know, Oh, I wish bunnies had like unicorn horns. And she's like, Well, in fact, they do their Almoraj. 00:53:49.17 eatingthedungeon Mm-hmm. 00:53:50.71 Kurt Crenwelge And so then that's why um this little, you know, group of Almoraj have been able to follow her around. So now Oh, something's wrong with the unicorn or something like that. 00:53:58.70 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:53:59.36 Kurt Crenwelge And now she has to go on this quest for like the last unicorn, if you will, or, you know, sort of inspiration or whatever, but in the Feywild or whatever. 00:54:04.17 eatingthedungeon Mm-hmm. 00:54:09.28 eatingthedungeon It's funny you mentioned unicorn, because they're probably, they're my top three for most requested monsters to figure out how to cook and eat. And I'm like, you are all monsters. Everyone who's requesting this, 00:54:17.24 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:54:19.11 eatingthedungeon But hey, I gotta get rid of those 12 kinds of things. 00:54:19.79 Kurt Crenwelge Some real Voldemort's out there trying to trying to sneak 00:54:21.47 eatingthedungeon I know! I'm like, you wanna kill Anita in Unicorn? 00:54:23.95 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, because well, but i what if I remember it from the book, it was like, Oh, their blood is like, like, ah like silvery, like mercury colored. And it's like, oh, if you drank it, you would get like a sort of a boost to immortality, but at a great, great personal cost to your soul. 00:54:40.11 eatingthedungeon Yeah. ah Yeah, literally. And I think in the old editions, that's like one of the actions that can straight up, back when they were more focused on alignment, like straight up, you are evil. 00:54:48.49 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:54:50.96 eatingthedungeon you Your alignment is evil now. you You don't kill unicorns and be a good person. 00:54:56.54 Kurt Crenwelge Right. Oh, I was just putting the unicorn out of his misery. 00:55:00.39 eatingthedungeon Yeah, no. you're good enough 00:55:03.42 Kurt Crenwelge Evil! 00:55:04.43 eatingthedungeon okay 00:55:05.72 Kurt Crenwelge OK, all right. So the quest is to go and make contact. We're thinking maybe with like a unicorn ah that originally, you know, maybe she, ah you know, I don't know. 00:55:11.60 eatingthedungeon Yeah, I like that. 00:55:15.92 Kurt Crenwelge So she must know the name. So she gives them a name, maybe doesn't lead on that it's a unicorn. But like, oh, this is the person I need you to go make contact with in the Feywild. I haven't heard from them in a while. 00:55:26.30 Kurt Crenwelge I'm worried something's wrong. And so she wants the party to go investigate. So now we have some questions to consider. What's going to be the reward for the party? So they, they end up journeying to the Feywild. They end up discovering this unicorn. Whatever problem is befalling the unicorn dungeon masters, figure out what that whole adventure is, but they come out through the end of it. It's a success. And they come back to our of a dulcan and report on their success and all the Al Mirage are okay and happy and all that stuff. What's going to be the reward for the party? 00:56:00.89 eatingthedungeon Well, I think it's only fair if Arvedalken, you know, got a boon or a blessing that for, you know, saving or protecting this unicorn, that each of the party members also gets some sort of boon. And probably not, you know, they each get, you know, a leash of all mirages, but I'm sure at least one of your party members wants an all mirage. So I'm assuming one of them gets one as like a little petter or a follower. But I think that they could each get, you know, some sort of boon and I would, you know, create a table or leave it up to, you know, D and&D or DM and PC like discussion, which those are my favorite kind of rewards is, you know, very Very personalized to the player, you know of whatever that is, you know something, you know, maybe it's like a They get like one wish so to say not like a full-on wish spell but something that is within the uniforms, you know magical power to impact in some way of like, you know, they want to find their like 00:56:34.22 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm. 00:56:55.41 eatingthedungeon missing relative this Unicorn is able to give them like some information towards that they've heard, like that they can you know use magic to like scry and find out information, whatever that is. 00:56:59.16 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 00:57:05.97 eatingthedungeon Or they want more powerful and they get like a blessing on their weapon, that kind of stuff. 00:57:09.91 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:57:10.12 eatingthedungeon So I would say the big reward would probably be that. And then the reward from the Vadalka and herself would definitely be, and this is the one that I always give to players, in some capacity because it's so easy and they love it, it's free booze. 00:57:20.35 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Yeah. 00:57:24.65 eatingthedungeon That's the simplest one. People just love going into a tavern and being like a regular and being like, yeah, don't worry about it. 00:57:30.91 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:57:32.63 eatingthedungeon You don't go over your tab. You did me like such a solid that beer is on me. 00:57:36.38 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. And for rescuing adorable bunnies and going into the Feywild after a unicorn friend. i Yeah. I feel like that owes you beer for life. 00:57:44.71 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 00:57:45.42 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. And then we have to consider the opposite. What's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? 00:57:54.91 eatingthedungeon Well, I think that if we're gonna leave it in the PC's hands one way or another, then that it should have... I think this is up to the DM if they want this to be a tie-in sub-quest that leads to a larger arc down the line. You know, that maybe is, hey, the the big bad evil guy, they got points to whatever conquest they're trying to pull off. They were able to successfully poison or kill this, like, protector beast. And this part of the Feywild, like, fell to shadow. 00:58:20.50 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm Oh 00:58:20.66 eatingthedungeon Or if we want to just make it like a straight up side quest with no ramifications to the larger plot, make it a thing of, you know, the the Dawkins demeanor completely changes. You know, a darkness falls upon her. 00:58:31.73 eatingthedungeon She's lost this, you know, mentor figure and she's lost her, you know, leash of all mirage companions that she's always had and everything. um And so losing that connection with her would be, you know, you're that that's a big loss to lose that connection to your tavern keep to not be able to have that anymore, especially if you're running a restaurant in the area. 00:58:51.33 Kurt Crenwelge I was going to say, does it tank it? 00:58:53.94 eatingthedungeon I think it could, you know, maybe that I don't like to make purely binary decisions for failure or success. 00:59:02.59 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:59:02.69 eatingthedungeon I do like there to be a gradation in both directions. 00:59:05.21 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:59:05.37 eatingthedungeon So I do think it depends on how badly they fail, you know, maybe like completely just refusing the call is a gradual, you know, descent, but you know, like i taking it on and failing spectacularly or even, you know, getting 00:59:09.92 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:59:21.46 eatingthedungeon uh a offer by the big bad person to you know kill the unicorn for a promise of power and then that's an extra fail that's a big fail yeah yeah you shouldn't say this on air you're gonna get my party ideas 00:59:27.75 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. You, uh, you, one of the player characters has a secret flaw of like, I've always wanted to know what unicorn blood tastes like. And they actually go in there and they're like, Oh, well we just want to murder you because we're curious of what you taste like. 00:59:49.09 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Okay. So now we we know that information and we have a pretty good idea. Okay. So, you know, scales scales of degradation as far as like refusing versus how catastrophically bad you fail. Are you wanting to roll for a random name off of my D20 chart or do are you inspired for a name? 01:00:09.96 eatingthedungeon You know what? i think I think there are some things that are ah common to me. I'm thinking... I'm thinking her name is... 01:00:21.24 eatingthedungeon Thalara and her surname is Solanus. 01:00:27.77 Kurt Crenwelge How do I spell that? 01:00:29.12 eatingthedungeon Yeah, Thalara would be T-H-A-L-A-R-A. 01:00:34.53 eatingthedungeon And her last name would be Solanus. S-O-L-A-N-I-S. Yeah. 01:00:40.06 Kurt Crenwelge All right. ah la sallanis The the Vidalkin. 01:00:43.31 eatingthedungeon yeah 01:00:44.46 Kurt Crenwelge And so you're envision and we're envisioning her as like a full fledged tavern keeper at this point. 01:00:49.96 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:00:51.09 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, any curiosity on the name? is Is the name of the place a wink and a nod to her little furry magical friends? 01:01:01.24 eatingthedungeon Yeah, I'm thinking that would be that'll be a good one. As far as that goes, get that to get that connection to the all mirage. 01:01:08.07 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:01:09.69 eatingthedungeon And make that you know a little bit more obvious for the players as they develop into learning more about her and that kind of thing. 01:01:15.22 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, she just has this weird obsession with these animals. Like no one's ever seen one in this town and they're just kind of like, oh, that's an interesting cutesy name. 01:01:18.42 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:01:23.14 Kurt Crenwelge We've heard about those in folk tales, but it's like, no, she's really insistent that she has them as her friends. 01:01:29.48 eatingthedungeon Yeah, no, I like that. um And, you know, make it her tavern all all mirage themed or rabbit themed in general, just like make everything like fully rabbit and that kind of stuff. 01:01:40.01 eatingthedungeon Like she loves her rabbits or even make it that her all mirages. 01:01:41.35 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, she she employs she employs hair and guns. 01:01:45.72 eatingthedungeon Yeah, yeah, even make it that, you know, her all mirages appear as rabbits to like anyone who's not fate touched kind of thing. 01:01:52.07 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, there we go. 01:01:53.36 eatingthedungeon So she just loves bunnies. 01:01:53.68 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah, she loves bunnies. Yeah, the hair and the hair and guns and yeah, if you're fae touch, that's just something really cool because now your archfae warlock packed warlocks are like, wait a minute. 01:01:58.27 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:02:04.76 eatingthedungeon isn Yo, why does that rabbit have horns? 01:02:08.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and she then she looks at me like, wait a minute, you you know too, you have this height? 01:02:12.74 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:02:13.78 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, okay. 01:02:14.87 eatingthedungeon Yeah, I like that. 01:02:17.15 Kurt Crenwelge I'm just trying to think of any puns ah with hairs or something in them. ah 01:02:22.24 eatingthedungeon The All Mirage Lodge, that's the name of her tavern. 01:02:25.04 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, the El Mirage Lodge. Off the dome, that was fantastic. Kudos to you, sir. The El Mirage Lodge. 01:02:36.01 eatingthedungeon done and not done a lot of li naming. 01:02:38.35 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, right. I love that. I think that's our solid title for the episode as well. So. ah So with these questions answered, I know we have some alternate questions. 01:02:48.06 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:02:48.14 Kurt Crenwelge Do you feel like any of those need to be answered or do you have a pretty good idea of the Laura Solanus and her Almerage Lodge? 01:02:55.40 eatingthedungeon I feel like I have an um a good idea in my head, but we can go through them to paint the picture more for the audience. 01:03:01.93 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. So what are the goals and motivations of the Laura Solanus as a character? 01:03:07.72 eatingthedungeon I'm thinking of her purely as a academic and a crafts person. So her her goal is to do what she does perfectly. And that will no matter what traveling, no matter what studying, no matter what, you know, discussions are necessary. Like she wants to learn more about brewing and creating like the perfect pint. 01:03:29.02 Kurt Crenwelge And then, you know, so then how do these goals and motivations affect her general personality? 01:03:34.21 eatingthedungeon I think she's very driven. And so she is very focused on individuals who can advance that development, but at the same time, she's not cold. You know, she's not someone who's going to just manipulate you and use you. Like she, she cares about, you know, her friends, she cares about, as mentioned, she wouldn't be running a tavern if she didn't care about creating a ah nice atmosphere for individuals. Um, so definitely a balance between those of, you know, wants to create that serenity, wants to create that piece for adventurers to come back to, but also is very focused and driven on, Hey, I heard that this person can help me out. I will do whatever is necessary to learn more about it. 01:04:12.62 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. And then how does Thalara normally interact with other people? Is she pretty nuanced or is she pretty the even keel across the board, depending on if it's like friends and family versus enemies and rivals but versus the people that work for her, etc. 01:04:30.72 eatingthedungeon I'm imagining her as that tavern keep that anyone can go to. And she definitely has some nuance to her of the people she likes, but she can handle people she doesn't like, you know, business is business. Or even her, you know, tavern being like, if we want to keep it in a more metropolitan setting or something, being like the neutral zone. 01:04:53.15 eatingthedungeon where no matter what guild or faction, like no one no one hates bunnies. You can go to the happy safe bunny place, whether it's you know eat people from this one bloodthirsty gang or whatever it is. like That's fine. That's a neutral zone that different gangs or packs can like go into. And so she she can manage the diplomacy between both. 01:05:14.34 Kurt Crenwelge this this ah you know this 20 year old of a dolphin running like the equivalent of like a cat cafe where it's like hardened street criminals and cops alike come into this place and they they all just want to pet bunnies they want to have like a nice beer and just like pet some bunnies and chill and relax 01:05:20.85 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:05:34.65 eatingthedungeon I think that's my favorite part of like any hardened or like you know criminal or villain. you know like People will refer back to a specific scene from Yu Yu Hakusho that's just very iconic of there's this you know bloodthirsty ah bounty hunter who is like was just shown killing people mercilessly. And he walks in to like discuss a contract or some work he needs to do with like the guy who's contracting him. 01:06:00.73 eatingthedungeon And, you know, you assume the, oh, you know, badass guy is going to ask for whiskey straight and everything. And he's like, what can I get you to drink? And he's like, could I get a glass of orange juice? You know, it's just like those idiosyncrasies I feel like make people so much more like realistic. It's, you know, this terror, you know, this terrible bloodthirsty person isn't always a terrible bloodthirsty person. Maybe they like a glass of hot cocoa too. 01:06:24.08 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of idiosyncrasies, does Thalara happen to have a particular accent or language that she uses? Are there any idiosyncrasies in how she acts or speaks? 01:06:36.24 eatingthedungeon there have to be because of her time in the Feywild. 01:06:39.87 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:06:40.07 eatingthedungeon So I'm thinking that, you know, we did mention she's a local, but i'm um I'm definitely thinking that there's certain things that she says that are tells that even though she's a local, she hasn't always been here. 01:06:43.95 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:06:53.25 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:06:53.62 eatingthedungeon And so I'd like to think of those as like maybe different like phrases of speech that are only from the Feywild that just slip out every now and then. 01:07:02.30 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:07:02.74 eatingthedungeon um that aren't exactly actively wrong, but are just off. And you wouldn't notice it unless you were actively paying attention of like, huh, that's not really a phrase that's used around here. You know, if she's asking about, hey, how much, how much does it owe you and everything? And she is like, oh, don't worry about it. You know, your purse strings are lighter than hypocrite feathers. And it's like, well, no one really says that around here. Oh, yeah I don't worry about it. It's not much kind of stuff. And then she immediately like brushes it off. 01:07:32.29 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. Yeah, I was getting, ah if you've ever seen the original Gary Cooper ah movie of Mr. Cooper Goes to Town, the original movie that the Adam Sandler, Mr. Deeds movie is based on. 01:07:44.16 eatingthedungeon oh okay 01:07:45.52 Kurt Crenwelge And the courtroom scene when they're like doing the you know they're doing the trial to figure out of whether he's mentally stable to be able to hold this fortune and they interview the two old ladies from his hometown and they they use a word or a term. 01:08:00.95 Kurt Crenwelge And then like the the sophisticated New York people are like, well, what's this term that you mean? And it's like, oh, it means like he's like befuddled with pixies and like he, you know, and then everyone kind of laughs at them, ah you know, and they they don't know any better or understand. 01:08:09.81 eatingthedungeon Oh, okay. 01:08:15.86 Kurt Crenwelge So that's kind of the picture I was conjuring in my head when you were describing her using 01:08:17.30 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:08:21.26 Kurt Crenwelge phrases or, you know, different expressions, turn of phrases ah that may allude to something in the Feywild, that it's like, oh, you know, if it's a more folksy sort of a setting that we find her in, and like in a small town, it's like, okay, maybe that is possibly something they say here. But for the savvy among the party, they may be like, actually, that's not actually what they would say here. And maybe the other locals kind of know, like, 01:08:47.64 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, you know, for Laura sort of, you know, I don't know, like one day she was here and then the next day she came back and, you know, she seemed like she was a whole completely different person from her perspective. 01:08:57.89 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:08:59.10 Kurt Crenwelge It it had been like it was like a Brigadier situation where it was like, oh, I was gone for 50 years. 01:09:01.95 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:09:04.72 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:09:04.74 Kurt Crenwelge But really, I came back and then it was like, OK, it's only been like a day. ah But mentally, I've aged like 50 years ah kind of kind of a situation. 01:09:13.64 eatingthedungeon Yeah. Yeah, I'm thinking of that, you know, the more we're talking, the more I'm building this character of, you know, maybe this, like, unicorn, like, is a representation of, like, some god of rebels. And, you know, that's where, like, her love for, like, drink and everything has come from. And, you know, the same thing where that's why she's, like, so accomplished at such a relatively young age. And it's like, well, yeah, you know, she's 20, but, like, mentally, like, well she she was, you know, partying and developing and, you know, doing, like, vineyard work and winery work, you know, in the Feywild for, like, 40 years. 01:09:44.35 eatingthedungeon um So she came back as this like 10 year old with, you know, an entire multiple decades worth of experience. 01:09:51.76 Kurt Crenwelge Must be 18 years of age to apply, but needs 30 years of experience. 01:09:56.14 eatingthedungeon Yeah, she would be the one who fits. 01:09:59.02 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, she's like checkmate. And then let's see what impact has Thalara made on the world? How has she shaped her local area? 01:10:08.60 eatingthedungeon I think for her, um as much as like her aspirations are high craftsperson-wise, I think the impact on her world is very local. She has traveled a little bit. She has you know learned about other cultures. But if she's from here originally and stayed around here, I'm assuming there's something that's going to keep her here relatively. That's probably her drive to just create like a community establishment. 01:10:31.27 eatingthedungeon And so that's the biggest thing is that in the years that she's had her tavern, um that she's just you know created this establishment, whether she opened it or you know she took it over from like a previous mentor and developed it and that kind of stuff, learning from them. So I think that would be the bigger thing for her is just creating a community center where people can feel you know comforted and so involved at. 01:10:53.74 Kurt Crenwelge And then does she have any current problems that prevent her from being a bigger player on the stage? 01:10:58.74 eatingthedungeon Yeah, I think that goes back to that side quest we were talking about, you know, that that concern, that anxiety of the sickle mirages, and knowing that that's a connection to whatever her patron was while she was in the Feywild, and that's just weighing on her mind that You know, as much as she's trying to study to get her mind off of it, you know, it's always there. 01:11:19.50 eatingthedungeon She's dropping flasks when she shouldn't. She's adding incorrect amounts, you know, of ingredients. And it's just not like her. 01:11:26.19 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 01:11:26.18 eatingthedungeon ah But, you know, that's just weighing on her mind so much that these little mistakes are creeping up. 01:11:30.30 Kurt Crenwelge yeah And as tempted as I am to want to name all the possible names for the almarages or even this unicorn patron, ah the only other question I think I have left here is because I know the idea, you know, with your information is that, oh, this is a person that you'd be able to hire ah for your bastion for your kitchen or in this particular instance, like, oh, you want to ah have your own brewery on premises or whatever. 01:11:46.58 eatingthedungeon Mhm. Mhm. 01:11:54.81 Kurt Crenwelge So is the idea if we're using 2024 rules, you know, so she runs the Almoraj laws, she could potentially be recruited to like, come work at your place. 01:12:01.46 eatingthedungeon Mhm. 01:12:06.92 eatingthedungeon Yeah, definitely. I think at the very least, you know, she probably could still be the tavern keep. And one of the one of the amenities that the players can actually develop in my ruleset is a small batch brewery within their bastion. 01:12:18.31 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:12:19.73 eatingthedungeon um So it could be a thing where maybe she works there like weekly. You know, she comes in and she trains individuals specifically to use it. 01:12:26.43 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, 01:12:27.85 eatingthedungeon And maybe that's the the benefit that they get from this side quest is that they get her as a higher one. 01:12:33.22 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 01:12:33.26 eatingthedungeon you know She comes in and she works the weekends at their brew house you know while she works her own lodge the rest of the time and that kind of stuff. 01:12:35.56 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:12:40.45 eatingthedungeon um But she's she's still a hireling, she's you know still paid, and she's still you know teaching and developing the rest of their staff. 01:12:46.49 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, yeah, that's pretty that's a good way to blend the two together. Yeah, so she could be like, sure, I'll consult and like, you know, help out like a day or two of the week. 01:12:52.59 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:12:55.26 Kurt Crenwelge And then the rest of the time I'm, you know, in knee deep in, ah you know, mixtures and recipes and variations and cloves and ah flavor profiles and all this stuff. 01:13:00.90 eatingthedungeon Mm-hmm. 01:13:07.50 eatingthedungeon Yeah, and if any of the players are interested enough to make a small batch brewer in their bastion, then I'm sure that they would have a bunch of fun just talking to her regardless of, you know, geeking out over whatever new ingredients they got on their recent adventure and like, can we ferment this? I want to see if we can ferment this. 01:13:23.47 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Can you ferment a cattle bus? 01:13:27.51 eatingthedungeon Yeah. this is they see See, however, you know, is is it going to be something that we're ah fermenting? Like the tusks, are we fermenting like the the mildew that grows on the hair from one specific swamp? 01:13:38.93 eatingthedungeon I mean, you could even think of, you know, like a real world example, Scotch. You know, that is specifically fermented from the peat within the swamplands and everything. And maybe different kind of leopards and different swamps, like their hair gives like a different flavor to the grain ah that you then distill and that kind of stuff. 01:13:56.27 Kurt Crenwelge or slots. 01:13:56.69 eatingthedungeon So. Yeah, exactly. Any of those kind of things of like anything that the flavor comes from like the earth and like the specific topography and setting that this monster lives in. 01:14:09.59 Kurt Crenwelge There you go. Perfect. I think this thoroughly covers our brilliant NPC that we've made here today that now it's only appropriate to throw them into a random encounter. 01:14:19.19 eatingthedungeon Oh, yeah. 01:14:28.60 Kurt Crenwelge And this final section, uh, is brought to you by Zen caster, the platform I'm using podcast readers. Thank you so much for the support. And you should totally think about starting your own podcast and use Zen caster and use my code psychic podcast. Uh, when you want to sign up, you get a discount and again, it's another kick back to the show. So I appreciate it. And thank you so much. 01:14:54.24 Kurt Crenwelge All right. And so now this section of the show, uh, is where we get to do a little bit of role play, a vignette, a scene with the NPC that we've made here today. So I think, you know, Marcus is going to do a great job with the Lars Solanus and the owl Mirage lodge. But the question becomes, who am I going to be in the scene? Am I going to be. 01:15:13.14 Kurt Crenwelge one of my reoccurring adventurer characters that's going to like get the side quest? Am I just another member of staff, you know, noticing this like funk that Thalara's in? 01:15:27.39 Kurt Crenwelge ah Or, I don't know, or the unicorn, you know, from in the past from when she was a kid in the Feywild? 01:15:31.36 eatingthedungeon Mm hmm. 01:15:33.61 Kurt Crenwelge I don't know, what kind of scene are you interested in showing off Thalara in? 01:15:38.85 eatingthedungeon I think a good scene would probably be, you know, you already mentioned a character that I started peaking my interest, ah the Archfey Warlock, that's part of the party, walks in, and we'll say just for convenience that they're all so interested in brewing that they're going to be the individual who eventually is. 01:15:54.89 eatingthedungeon But more importantly, is Faye touched, and notice these these things that others haven't before, about her organization, about her little rabbit friends that are actually Amorajes, and she can be very excited to finally have like, 01:16:02.26 Kurt Crenwelge No. 01:16:08.78 eatingthedungeon a compatriot, who she hasn't been able to talk to anyone about this, you know, she, she, you know, spent so many years like, oh, yeah, you know, like, it's horns and everything, and no one saw it. 01:16:10.20 Kurt Crenwelge Well. 01:16:16.40 eatingthedungeon And now she finally can. 01:16:17.80 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Well, this is perfect. You say that. And one of the characters in the roster for the podcast, her name is Agape and she is a lilac colored tiefling sore lock. 01:16:28.15 Kurt Crenwelge So she started off as a fae wild magic influenced sorcerer. 01:16:28.26 eatingthedungeon Okay. 01:16:34.68 Kurt Crenwelge And then she made a arch fae warlock packed with one of the other NPCs made on this podcast, Prosperina. So I think this is the perfect opportunity for Agape to show up to go to the Almerage Lodge and be able to actually see the Almerage and like have that instant connection ah with Balara. 01:16:48.27 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:16:55.59 Kurt Crenwelge So would you like to set the scene or should I go ahead and set the scene? 01:16:59.70 eatingthedungeon I'll set the scene. So the party has just entered this new location. They have been on foot for the past two weeks, venturing out from the capital. They have heard some news of a quarry that needs to be taken care of in the the local farmlands outside of the capital. They've been given this contract specifically to investigate this unknown beast. 01:17:25.60 eatingthedungeon And as they make their way into town for the night, before they have a chance to really start investigating as the the sun has started to set, they decide to make their way to the local tavern. As they wander the streets, they see a waving wooden sign rickety with the old metal creasing against rusted metal. 01:17:45.81 eatingthedungeon and they see a picture of a rabbit with a horn on it. They get closer and they can read the all mirage lodge. They make their way into the establishment and they can see that while it is bustling with, you know, a bunch of people all consuming their ale, eating their dinners, 01:18:03.85 eatingthedungeon that it seems to be different than a lot of lodges they've been to otherwise, whether that is because they're less you know intense and less bustling and less conflict going on. and There's an air of serenity in this entire establishment, even though you can tell that there are members of many different groups strewn across the establishment. 01:18:23.04 eatingthedungeon And the one thing that they are drawn to immediately is the lady who is at the front. She is in the process of teaching a new hire exactly which taps and which spigots are used. 01:18:38.31 eatingthedungeon She has the ah crystalline blue skin and they notice that she is dressed in a completely creaseless linen white linen shirt with a very very well kept leather apron and just craftsman pants. Everything from her from top to toe looks like she's never had a spot on her. 01:18:59.85 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and where we last left Agape, she had recently stopped into the baker shop run by Daniel, who's a Bobby or one of the beaver folk from my world. um And there was a whole kerfuffle there. And, you know, going off on this quest ah for one of the three orbs of ah hard Glax. 01:19:20.80 Kurt Crenwelge ah So that's why she's with the party. She's on the journey to go, you know, on this big hunt of a quest for this. 01:19:23.12 eatingthedungeon Perfect. 01:19:27.97 Kurt Crenwelge And so they stopped in this town. And thanks. So thankfully that you know, agape was able to like get a party together. And so she steps foot in this and she immediately is picking up on all of the fave vibes of this place. 01:19:41.90 Kurt Crenwelge And she's like talking. She's like elbowing everyone else like guys, guys, just look at that look at that don't don't you feel that and everyone else is kind of regarding her as like you know hey we're on an important mission you know we were appointed by the court you know we you know the court wizard summoned us and mentioned this whole catastrophe that's looming yeah like we need to stay focused on the mission and then like you know agape is completely awestruck and you know, is there an area maybe where the the rabbits actually are where they can like freely be in this place or they, you know, like sequestered and they only appear like when they want to be seen. Or if she looks off in a certain spot, she like sees an almora, she tries to point it out to someone. And then when they look, they just they don't see anything there. 01:20:29.85 eatingthedungeon I think that that's probably one of the quirks of the the tavern, is that as long as you know it's a normal operating night, the the bunnies are just bouncing around. 01:20:39.99 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:20:40.13 eatingthedungeon And that is the one rule of the tavern, you don't mess with the bunnies. You can pet them, they can jump on you and that kind of stuff, but anyone who hurts a bunny is just ostracized and better off dead. 01:20:51.05 eatingthedungeon You don't you do not hurt the large bunnies. It's the one thing that everyone can agree on. So they're bouncing around the place. 01:20:56.76 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, well, agape is gonna make her animal handling check. And we say she gets in this instance, she gets a critical success. 01:21:03.64 eatingthedungeon isnt 01:21:03.76 Kurt Crenwelge So she like, has one of the owl mirage hop into her hands, one of the big, like a big chungus of owl mirage. And she's like, oh my god. So she's like going like weepy high pitch. 01:21:16.61 Kurt Crenwelge She's like so happy and overwhelmed by the beauty of this creature. And she's just saying, oh, you're And she's like, you know, rubbing her nose up on its nose. And she's like, she's petting it and scratching. And she's like, Oh, I just want to take you home and never let you go. And you know, the rest of the party is like making their way up to the bar. um While she's doing this, they kind of ignored her. They're like, Hey, we've got our mission, we need our drinks, we need our food, we need to get going. So you know, so agape is kind of having this moment just of of her own revelry of like enjoying this beauty of the fae. 01:21:50.45 Kurt Crenwelge And so when Thalara has finished like with this training, she can look over and she can clearly see that one this agape this lilac colored tiefling is fae touched and that she is like, 01:22:03.48 eatingthedungeon isnt 01:22:05.05 Kurt Crenwelge She is joyous. She's rapturous with this owl mirage in her hand that she's treating like the most precious creature that she's ever come across. 01:22:13.83 eatingthedungeon Yeah, I think she would definitely reach over, you know, probably shout over since the party came up, so she's probably a little bit separated and probably first say to the party, oh, your friend really seems to like rabbits. You know, not sure that she understands this is more than a rabbit yet. um And she yells over to the T-flake and is like, 01:22:32.92 eatingthedungeon Oh, Biscuit seems to really have taken a liking to you. I didn't know you were such a fan of rabbits. 01:22:38.51 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, biscuits. Oh, your horn is so pretty. 01:22:41.98 eatingthedungeon And that immediately takes the Lara back. 01:22:42.15 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, It's so majestic. 01:22:44.57 eatingthedungeon The moment she says, I'm i'm sorry, his what? 01:22:50.71 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, you're a big boy, aren't you? And she's like scratching him. And I gained getting up on his whiskers and like, Oh, you're a big boy. You're a big tungsten. You eat lots of carrots, don't you? i'm no no nom nom nom no 01:23:02.82 eatingthedungeon Thelar will immediately just pour drinks for the party, not even addressing them. Just, here's your drink, here's your drink, here's your drink, here's your drink, go take it to tea. 01:23:11.31 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, and the party is certainly happy with this. 01:23:11.77 eatingthedungeon And then, as the tap, 01:23:14.25 Kurt Crenwelge They're they're they're thankfully ah placated. And so they're like, Oh, they they look at a copy very strange. Like, we don't know what magic you just sort of work to get this for us. But thanks, you keep doing your thing to get us more free things. 01:23:27.60 eatingthedungeon Yeah. And I'm assuming that Agape probably starts going with the party over the table. And so the Vlara immediately says, not you. 01:23:34.27 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. 01:23:34.35 eatingthedungeon Over here. Bring Biscuit. 01:23:37.06 Kurt Crenwelge And she comes back over. She she sets them down on the bar. 01:23:42.26 eatingthedungeon How? You can see his horn? 01:23:44.37 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, duh. 01:23:46.45 eatingthedungeon No no one else can. 01:23:49.64 Kurt Crenwelge Really? So everyone else thinks that these are like big fluffy cute rabbits? 01:23:50.91 eatingthedungeon ah 01:23:54.91 eatingthedungeon ah that for the past 10 years, yes, that's all that I've seen. 01:23:59.16 Kurt Crenwelge Huh. Oh, the Al Mirage Lodge. Now it makes sense. 01:24:04.13 eatingthedungeon Yeah, everyone told me I named it wrong. Why would I bring rabbits to an Elmerage village? Thought I was just really into the books that, you know, mom always told us about, but no, you can see at least. I i have to know. Tell me about yourself. Who are you? 01:24:16.56 Kurt Crenwelge OK, so she's happy to like start going on this long winding journey talking about like, oh, well, I was always touched by the Feywild and, you know, I would do my magic and sometimes it would go a little wonky. And then, you know, she tells about meeting Prosperina and kind of like the organization that well, I don't know. She she starts saying she says prospering and she's like she snaps her fingers. She's like, darn it. I've done it again. I've gotten in trouble a couple of times. I'm not really supposed to say her name, but like The organization that I work for, the Archfey, Wink Wink, that I have a pact with, like, you know, you know, she's cool, you know, she's given me a purpose and a mission. And, ah you know, yeah, she helps me out. She's a great friend. I love her. She's she's awesome. 01:25:02.36 eatingthedungeon Huh, you also have been blessed. 01:25:06.62 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, yes, I have. And she scritches biscuits a little more. 01:25:11.82 eatingthedungeon Huh, well, if that's the case, then I might be able to ask you for a favor of sorts. 01:25:20.13 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, a favor. What kind of favor? 01:25:22.64 eatingthedungeon Well, would you be able to ask your friend, ah whatever you said, prison arena, prima arena, what was it? 01:25:28.31 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, Prosperina. 01:25:29.48 eatingthedungeon or Sorry, your friend. Your friend. Would you be able to ask your friend? 01:25:32.46 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:25:33.32 eatingthedungeon If your friend knows of an individual in the realms that we both have ventured to named Heston. 01:25:41.73 Kurt Crenwelge Heston, okay. 01:25:43.14 eatingthedungeon Yes. um And whenever you have the chance, if you could just let me know. I will i'll be here and happy to reward any information you can find. 01:25:54.31 eatingthedungeon they're They're an old friend of mine and I wanted to check in on them. 01:25:57.57 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. Sure. I mean, I know we're kind of on this whole thing about the three warps of hard glass and I'm not quite sure what they mean, but like the court wizard we went and saw said they were like really dangerous. And so if that one litch is after them, it's probably a bad thing. So that's why I had to recruit all these guys because like, you know, I'm pretty bad-ass myself, but you know, 01:26:19.40 Kurt Crenwelge ah I'm you know, it's it's much easier to do it when you have a whole group of people than rather just trying to go and solo that whole sort of a thing. 01:26:28.42 eatingthedungeon um I can tell you get told to stop talking a lot, don't you? 01:26:34.68 Kurt Crenwelge and She lets that hang and she doesn't quite finish the answer to so much sort of give you the answer. 01:26:42.12 eatingthedungeon That's okay. ah You're good in my book, but just for your own, I would say. be a little bit more choosing on who you divulge information to. But please do let me know if you can find any information out about Heston. I will reward you as necessary for any information that you can give me. And please, as long as you are in town or around these parts, ah you have free lodging. I would love to spend any night by the fire chatting with you about your own experiences. I am enthralled. 01:27:14.37 Kurt Crenwelge All right, and ah yeah, no, so she's happy to to do as you've asked. um you know She'll certainly ask if this requires, like oh, does she need to like go visit the Feywild right now? Or is it just like something that she can get to whenever she can? 01:27:32.95 eatingthedungeon Um, the sooner the better, but it does sound like you have some stuff on your hands. So, uh, if you can, or if you do know any other compatriots who might be able to assist, I would like to, you know, checking on an old friend. 01:27:44.43 eatingthedungeon You never want to do it too late. 01:27:46.03 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 01:27:46.27 eatingthedungeon Um, but I do understand that there are sometimes things in the stake of the world. Uh, so but we can definitely discuss that as you do find out information. 01:27:56.53 Kurt Crenwelge I think just a fun way to end the scene, maybe just be, you know, you told her like, Hey, yeah maybe you need to be more choosing and like, you know, so it's sort of alluding to like her free spirit rambunctiousness. 01:28:07.20 Kurt Crenwelge She just straight up at the bar is just like, you know, because I like to envision kind of like the Skyrim thing on one hand, she channels her wild magic. 01:28:14.96 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:28:15.96 Kurt Crenwelge On the other hand, she channels her warlock. So literally she like channels her warlock powers and you watch her eyes kind of like become bright ah emerald green and it's like literally her like summoning her connection to prosperina to like ask the question and I think her body lurches a little bit and some sort of like ah Galadriel when she's resisting the temptation of the ring 01:28:38.13 eatingthedungeon in 01:28:39.47 Kurt Crenwelge sort of a voice sort of pours out of her. um And I don't know, just curious, whatever you think it may allude to, but like, whatever condition ah Heston finds himself in, she just sort of like, proclaims that out loud. And then when it's done, she like turns off the power and she kind of like shrugs and she like stretches and kinks out her neck. And she's like, Oh, okay. Well, did that answer your question? 01:29:06.41 eatingthedungeon Thalara's jaw would be on the ground for one. I'm assuming that probably would have also drawn a scene within the tavern. 01:29:12.14 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 01:29:13.25 eatingthedungeon And so Thalara first off would be like, drinks drinks drinks on me. Just rounded drinks for everyone as you were doing. 01:29:20.65 Kurt Crenwelge The place cheers, the place cheers. They're like, yeah! 01:29:23.26 eatingthedungeon Yeah. And then ah as soon as, you know, she has a little bit of privacy. Okay, I have another quest for you. End scene. 01:29:36.55 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. Called it. Yeah, that's a great. That's a great way to do the scene. And I just love Agape. She's just she's just so delightfully rambunctious and chaotic to be able to play a sore lock, which I've never done. 01:29:48.33 Kurt Crenwelge But I feel like if I had to play a sore lock, Agape would probably be a good choice. 01:29:52.49 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:29:53.96 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So there we go. Now that you've had a chance to inhabit the shoes of a Thalara Salinas in a scene, how do you think it was getting to be her and envisioning the Almerage Lodge in your head? 01:30:03.06 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:30:05.68 eatingthedungeon Well, that is a setting that I am immediately going to be pulling in one for one. I'm currently working on a larger campaign module um that I am hoping to get out by the end of the year if I can, but it's a bit of a bigger project that I'm about halfway done with. 01:30:21.66 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:30:21.82 eatingthedungeon um that will have an entire module for DMs to be able to run a restaurant campaign from scratch, along with settings, along with characters, along with you know wacky taverns and locations that they can you know visit or recruit from. 01:30:39.79 eatingthedungeon And so I think this is a perfect edition. 01:30:39.81 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:30:41.31 eatingthedungeon And this will definitely be going in the book with ah with a shout out to you for it. 01:30:44.40 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, I love that. Yeah. No, that as long as I can make my mark on the world in some way, you know, I may be only a D and&D podcast that at this point in six seasons at the time of this recording has accumulated 18 total thousand downloads. I'm not going to. 01:30:59.98 Kurt Crenwelge have those crushing Instagram numbers. I'm not going to have the most liked tweets and and skits, whatever they call them on blue sky or anything like that. 01:31:10.83 Kurt Crenwelge My YouTube channel is just like a place to back up ah the RSS feed. 01:31:14.59 eatingthedungeon Mm hmm. 01:31:15.51 Kurt Crenwelge It's not going to be like one million subscribers on YouTube. 01:31:17.75 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:31:18.98 Kurt Crenwelge I just care about that. We're having fun, that we're collaborating, that we're doing And just you know being free, and being creative, being like you know my three-year-old son who finds joy in Sonic the Hedgehog and making up games. like I want to you know enliven and embody that that sense and feeling of play ah even now as adults and not have to worry about like, oh, yeah, this is my side hustle. This is my grind. I have to make that cheddar. I have to you know squeeze every penny out of a thing I love. And I just want to enjoy the thing I love, man. I don't have to make this ah to break this sort of thing. 01:31:56.99 eatingthedungeon Oh no, this has been a lot of fun. 01:31:59.56 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, so as we're getting here into our final thoughts section of the show, I always like to just, you know, ask the guest, what did you think of your time on the show? Any critiques and feedback or just, you know, anything that, you know, it's your final thoughts. It's the final thoughts of this episode. 01:32:14.99 eatingthedungeon I had a lot of fun. I think that it's a great format. And I think that I will probably utilize similar methodologies for just creating like NPCs and locations moving forward, ah just because it's it's a nice little way to do it. 01:32:25.83 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:32:28.46 eatingthedungeon I would say one of the outside of D and&D, one of my favorite things for developing NPCs is actually from Cyberpunk. They have like a full life path system. And this gives me a lot of those vibes there of, you know, answering those questions and then being able to fill in the blanks of why. 01:32:42.76 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:32:42.76 eatingthedungeon And NPC creation is always like the most fun part of DMing for me. 01:32:45.39 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:32:46.98 eatingthedungeon So this is great. 01:32:48.22 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and I have the blessing and the privilege to be on an episode of Role Play Chat with Matt, and we talked about NPCs, and so I know you know the big piece of advice I had on there, aside from, hey, if you're running campaigns with lots of NPCs, it's not a bad idea for you to share a Google Doc, or rather a Google Sheet with your players, and just fill in all the notes of your NPCs that you love, because ah you know you're going to make hundreds of and NPCs together, and you're not going to have a 01:33:07.51 eatingthedungeon Yeah. yeah 01:33:15.96 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:33:17.56 Kurt Crenwelge easy time necessarily keeping track of all of them. So that's good tip piece of advice. But also I think some of the best NPCs are made in collaboration. So in a setting like this, or, you know, you're just talking with your players are just giving them permission being like, okay, you go into a shop, you happen to know this shopkeeper 01:33:26.62 eatingthedungeon yeah. 01:33:36.16 Kurt Crenwelge who are they tell me who they are and then they just throw something at you and then you're like great let me put this in the salad spinner and mix it up a little bit and throw something back at you and you're like and then they feel like there's that sense of connection and ownership but also some surprise because now someone else is taking it and throwing it back to them with a variation. 01:33:37.33 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:33:55.90 eatingthedungeon Yeah, one thing that I do in all of my campaigns is I have the system. I probably stole it from someone. I don't know who, so if you came up with it first, I'm sorry. um But D and&D is all about stealing from places, is these things called Noah Guy cards. 01:34:07.46 eatingthedungeon And I give every single one of my players a Noah Guy card for the session. 01:34:11.18 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:34:12.14 eatingthedungeon And they basically can come up with, you know, if they're in a pinch, oh, I know a guy who could help me out. And I'm like, okay, cool. How? And you know they feel like it's some like massive thing of like, oh, this is overpowered. 01:34:24.84 eatingthedungeon and I can you know choose someone. and I'm like, no, you're doing my writing for me. like you're You're helping me with this collaborative effort. like It's completely worth it. I want you to feel invested. that's As you said, you know you can spend so much time trying to convince your players to be invested in characters that you created. 01:34:42.24 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:34:42.77 eatingthedungeon But the moment you put the ball in their court, like they just love them you know so much more. 01:34:46.32 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:34:47.26 eatingthedungeon and That gives them so much more investment in the game. 01:34:49.51 Kurt Crenwelge Not to mention, you know, shameless self plug for the podcast at this point, but we've got over 140 episodes. 01:34:55.45 eatingthedungeon Yeah. 01:34:55.91 Kurt Crenwelge So there's, there's a lot of NPCs in this podcast that are free for you to use. I promise I'm doing my best to catch up on all the write ups. So if you don't have time to listen to the episode, or you don't use a transcription reader I know like Apple podcast automatically does ah like transcription reads and I'm trying to do my best to include transcripts but all that to say there's a lot of NPC so if you're ever stuck and you need someone or you just want like a springboard of where to go off well I just hope that my humble resource of a podcast is good for you and you can you know be inspired and 01:35:31.00 Kurt Crenwelge Again an idea of like a death tyrant chef beholder suddenly spawns a whole you know multi-realm Guild of chefs that all belong to it and affect your games moving forward or you know, you have ah you know this bastion ah that you can get and introduce the Laura Solanus in your game and this whole intrigue with Unicorns and Voldemort's and all this other sort of stuff going on in your game 01:36:01.35 eatingthedungeon I like that 01:36:02.36 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. So I think the best way to round this episode out is to give the soapbox, the microphone, the stage, the platform to you. So anything you got to plug, where can we follow you on social media? What sort of projects do we need to be made aware of? And then if there's any passions or causes or anything that you want us to be made aware of, feel free to let us know. 01:36:25.79 eatingthedungeon Yeah, definitely. So the big thing for me is just follow me at eating the dungeon on most platforms, on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube. Those are the big ones that I post on. This year, I'm really making a push for more long form content. So the goal is at least one long form YouTube video every month, if not two, and then a bunch of shorts that will be coming up all the time on Instagram and TikTok as well. 01:36:49.32 eatingthedungeon As far as anything else, just take a look for any published work that I'm going to be putting out for a lot more of the monsters when it comes to their write-ups. Everything that I make for the monsters and for the colonographies is edited in Home Brewery. It's completely free to download. 01:37:04.46 eatingthedungeon um So please download it. Please use it for your tables. You don't have to ask permission. If you're going to publish it in other things, you know, accreditation would be nice. But for kitchen table stuff, I'm a very firm believer that D and&D is a game that is all about collaboration and about home brewing, about, you know, home narrative writing. And so I don't want to lock anything behind a paywall. When I was a kid, 01:37:24.65 eatingthedungeon you know as a teenager that was what really drew me to D and&D is just that it really didn't take much other than some dice and some piece of paper. We didn't have to buy all these fancy things and even now I'm still shying away from all of the super fancy you know things you can spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on to enhance the experience just give me some pieces of paper and some dice and we can play a game so everything I make is completely free for that reason. 01:37:51.72 Kurt Crenwelge Excellent. Well, Marcus eating the dungeon. Thank you so much for being a guest on this podcast. I can't wait to have you back on making even more interesting NPCs. 01:38:03.10 eatingthedungeon Thank you.