00:00:04.66 Kurt Crenwelge Hello and welcome to another month's exciting episode of Sidekicks and Sidequests, the best unofficial Dungeons and Dragons podcast in my humbly biased opinion. 00:00:15.69 Kurt Crenwelge I've got an amazing guest for you this month, but before we reveal who it might be, I have to leave you in suspense with the ad read. insert here all you transcription readers about plus one exp and RPG zine club got a banter a bit so I give myself enough time in the editing to be able to chop this out later so o movie magic and all that so You know, if you're looking for a beard RPG or a beard balm or a lip balm, you should go to the main website plus one exp.com and use that code Randolph to get a discount on your purchase and give a little kickback to me and make sure you check out the really good work that Tony Vicenda and the team were doing over at plus one exp with the RPG zine club can. 00:00:37.87 sean (MrShickadance) you 00:01:01.05 Kurt Crenwelge I just think those guys are cool and you should check them out and back to the podcast. All right. And we're now back from the ad read and we're going to reveal who we're speaking with this month. 00:01:12.98 Kurt Crenwelge So without further ado, hello, mystery contestant. Would you care to introduce yourself? Tell us who it is that you are and what is it that you do? 00:01:22.26 sean (MrShickadance) Uh, hello, everybody in the audience. My name is Mr. Chicken Ants or Sean, whatever you prefer. Uh, do, uh, act, I'm act like an idiot on the internet for my own entertainment and possibly yours. 00:01:37.40 sean (MrShickadance) If we have a similar sense of humor, but mostly I just, I kind of make jokes about D and D and I talk about D and d a little bit here and there or general TTRPGs across the space. 00:01:50.43 sean (MrShickadance) But yeah, thanks for having me on. I'm happy to be here. 00:01:53.82 Kurt Crenwelge Awesome. Yes. um No, I've i discovered you through the almighty algorithm of Instagram, which seems to be the one place that the podcast seems to be thriving pretty well on social media spaces. So you have indeed done some very humorous reels and clips about different spells. I think this it'll certainly date it, but I think at the time of this recording, 00:02:16.50 Kurt Crenwelge You recently did a video where you were talking about maybe the most um like, like, oh, for 5.5, like this spell, you don't think on the surface is like a big deal, but it actually is a big deal sort of a thing. 00:02:28.06 sean (MrShickadance) and yeah yeah it's the saloonase viper thing that it spells kind of busted 00:02:35.80 Kurt Crenwelge Or it may be one before that, because it was like, oh, this may be one that would get banned at tables like how Silvery Barbs was before, where it's like, not only does it mean you get to do this, but it also means you actually are doing this sort of a thing. 00:02:43.19 sean (MrShickadance) yes i did a few videos 00:02:49.02 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. for So for those of you who haven't played 5.5 or haven't even looked at it, there's actually some incredibly powerful things that they're releasing in the, is that Faerun collection of books, where it's like the official Sword Coast setting in the world, like the broader world of the Sword Coast. 00:03:00.06 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:03:04.55 sean (MrShickadance) um 00:03:04.88 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:03:05.72 sean (MrShickadance) But they added a lot of very powerful spells. One of them is like this weird AoE thing that prevents people from healing. It's very powerful. 00:03:12.44 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, I think that may have been the one where you basically can trap a bad guy in it and just be like, you just don't get to heal anymore, sort of a thing. 00:03:19.26 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. And they also introduced this very interesting mechanic called circle casting, where you and multiple other casters can get together and empower a spell by expending like additional spell slots. 00:03:24.76 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:03:28.40 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. and Okay. 00:03:30.70 sean (MrShickadance) It's incredibly cool, but it's something probably best used for DMs, because I don't think players are going to use you know three fourth-level spell slots to cast one spell. 00:03:32.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:03:35.50 Kurt Crenwelge Mmm. 00:03:39.64 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. Yeah, that definitely sounds like something us dungeon masters all kind of just homebrewed on the side. We're like, how can I creatively solve this problem? ah Sure, I'll have the big main, ah you know, higher tier NPCs just be like, we're just going to channel all of our resources while you the heroes are busy fighting the evil priest of the cult. 00:03:59.94 Kurt Crenwelge We'll actually be off on the side over here, you know, helping you out and stuff like that without having to manage so many things on the board. 00:04:04.68 sean (MrShickadance) Hmm. That's our... 00:04:08.78 sean (MrShickadance) It's our most powerful ability, being able to dump all of our resources into a single fight. It's totally unfair. And I love it. 00:04:15.24 Kurt Crenwelge Yep. Yeah. So, um, so that's the, the primary thing that we would know and see you from is, uh, you know, on the social medias, I guess that's Instagram and Tik TOK where you're, uh, making this video content. 00:04:28.98 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, yeah. i i I refuse some stubbornly to use YouTube at all, unfortunately. My brain just doesn't want to do it. 00:04:36.28 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:04:37.12 sean (MrShickadance) But yeah, the other two places you'll find me there. 00:04:39.19 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Very cool. And, uh, and then are there any other like, um, like actual plays or any, or other things you've posted on the DMS guild or, or anything? 00:04:49.91 Kurt Crenwelge I'm just trying to do my, my good service, my good, uh, research into like, you know, all these, you know, cool people on the internet making things. 00:04:51.38 sean (MrShickadance) Oh. 00:04:58.40 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like, oh, I don't just want to be like, oh, I only just know you because I saw you on this one reel. And I thought you would be a fun guest to have on the podcast. 00:05:06.12 sean (MrShickadance) No, that's definitely fair. I also stream a little bit occasionally. I'm going to start back up. I always say that, but I am going to try this time. And also, I do have an actual play that I did like one season of. 00:05:18.94 sean (MrShickadance) It's called Chaos Theory. 00:05:19.29 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:05:19.94 sean (MrShickadance) It's on YouTube. um There's a lot of ah really fun players. It's kind of like ah I tried to do a what the city looks like when the heroes are away. Like who who solves crimes in the city that the heroes have already left. 00:05:29.46 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:05:33.75 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:05:33.94 sean (MrShickadance) What is a magical civilization with, you know law enforcement look like? It was kind of fun. 00:05:38.99 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:05:39.80 sean (MrShickadance) A little new R story, but yeah, you can go check out that if you'd like. 00:05:44.09 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. That definitely reminds me of an earlier YouTube, the older stuff of Corridor Digital. And I think they had like a skit they did called Wizard Cops. 00:05:53.50 sean (MrShickadance) A wizard city. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where they were like a gun at the end. 00:05:57.50 Kurt Crenwelge Well, it was like they were wizards, like they were police. They were dressed like police officers, but they had big wizard beard beards. And they were like, hey, you can't. But what are you drinking that potion for? And then the guy's like stumbling around drunk, but he's drinking a bunch of potions and like vomiting colors up on the walls and stuff. 00:06:11.16 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:06:13.16 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like, oh, I got to get my I got to get my scroll. We need backup and sort of. so it was like an episode of cops, but it was like wizard cops or whatever. 00:06:20.80 sean (MrShickadance) I think they did a sequel to that with Keegan-Michael Key and Freddie Wong. Where they had a standoff, like a three-way gun standoff. 00:06:27.74 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:06:30.48 sean (MrShickadance) And at the end, they were like, another day here in a wizard city. 00:06:31.19 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:06:33.40 sean (MrShickadance) And it zoomed out. and there's a big Hogwarts school behind them and stuff. It was pretty funny. Funny, guys. 00:06:38.90 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. the good the good The good days of the YouTube of the internet. 00:06:42.17 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Now we got Mr. Beast. I want to fucking die. 00:06:47.26 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, man. Well, um this, of course, you know, with the name of the podcast being sidekicks and sidequests, you know, it's all Dungeons and Dragons theme. So I would be remiss, you know, as you explained with the content that you're making. But do you currently or have you ever played D&D before? 00:07:05.40 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, D&D, that's the Dungeons & Dragons one, right? 00:07:08.89 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, yeah. 00:07:09.72 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, I think I do one of those once or twice. um i don't have one currently. I don't have a campaign going currently. And it's it's definitely a part of my life that I'm missing right now. 00:07:20.34 sean (MrShickadance) I can feel it. Like I lost a part of myself. But i have I have run mostly. I've run campaigns. I've played in one or two over the years. But, you know, you know how it is. 00:07:32.57 Kurt Crenwelge I do. Yes. As a, someone who got their start in fourth edition on Halloween night of 2010, um 00:07:39.16 sean (MrShickadance) Damn. Yeah. 00:07:40.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I've been in it for a while and then ah you know made the the transition over to 5th. And I've been pretty happy with 5th and you know any homebrewing or tinkering that I need to do, I just do. 00:07:50.94 Kurt Crenwelge But I'm like, fundamentally, most of these things seem to work. And um you know I haven't you know messes necessarily made it all the way from a 1 to 20 run in 5th edition. 00:08:01.55 Kurt Crenwelge So one of these days. um 00:08:03.16 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:08:03.90 Kurt Crenwelge But I am running games. I'm currently doing like a like a Google Doc. campaign with with a friend ah long distance so we just kind right back for back and forth to each other and that's how I've been playing D&D for like the last two years it's basically like a play by post but we just do it through Google Docs that we both have access to and we're already up to Google Doc 13 so we've been yeah it's a lot of words that we've typed out on the computers 00:08:18.82 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, so like play by post. Nice. 00:08:28.09 sean (MrShickadance) Wow. 00:08:33.17 sean (MrShickadance) You should publish it into like a book. 00:08:35.96 Kurt Crenwelge We'll see. ah There's probably a lot of banter that we would have to cut out and stuff like that. 00:08:36.70 sean (MrShickadance) Or not. I don't know what's in it. 00:08:40.92 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:08:41.00 Kurt Crenwelge You know, the the characters needlessly off on a divergent tangents and such. 00:08:41.19 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:08:47.29 sean (MrShickadance) Fair. That'd be an interesting, like, ah yeah. 00:08:48.79 Kurt Crenwelge like ah Like a standard game of Dungeons and Dragons. 00:08:52.35 sean (MrShickadance) It'd be interesting, like, I don't know, like ah something to dive into after the fight. Like after it's done, just to like go back and go through the layers, see what happened over the years. 00:09:00.28 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yes. 00:09:01.02 sean (MrShickadance) That'd be cool. 00:09:01.85 Kurt Crenwelge It would be cool. Yes, indeed. and And with this theme of our podcast being on the sidekicks and the sidequests, we like to ask all of our guests these, I think the adjective I'm looking for is eponymous questions, but do you happen to have a favorite NPC or sidekick character that you enjoy, whether they be from one of your many Games of Dungeons and Dragons or RPG, video game, movie, film, television, literature, etc. 00:09:31.32 Kurt Crenwelge And why is this character your favorite NPC or sidekick? 00:09:34.78 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, so not one that I've created. Hmm. 00:09:37.08 Kurt Crenwelge Well, anyone that you just personally enjoy. 00:09:40.34 sean (MrShickadance) Because that'd be super biased if I said it was one I made 00:09:43.61 Kurt Crenwelge i mean, it could be one that maybe you've made or maybe it's someone else's that you enjoy. 00:09:50.50 sean (MrShickadance) That's interesting. I never think about characters from movies and TV being NPCs, but they are. 00:09:56.86 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:09:57.07 sean (MrShickadance) They're not players. They're just actors in ah in a role someone wrote for them. Just like a video game character. Oh, I guess ah the Baldur's Gatecast is an easy easy slam dunk. Obviously, my main my main guy, what's his fuck? 00:10:06.62 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:10:11.06 sean (MrShickadance) God damn it. Popper. The kobold from Act 3. 00:10:14.08 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. Ah, yes. 00:10:15.45 sean (MrShickadance) Best NPC ever made. 00:10:16.16 Kurt Crenwelge And the circus. 00:10:16.66 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. He sells good things, I hear. 00:10:19.96 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:10:20.05 sean (MrShickadance) That's about it. 00:10:20.98 Kurt Crenwelge And he's got a hat. 00:10:21.14 sean (MrShickadance) ah He does have a hat. 00:10:23.67 Kurt Crenwelge hey 00:10:24.09 sean (MrShickadance) A fine connoisseur of NPCs, I see. I should have known. 00:10:26.87 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. I've done at least one playthrough. 00:10:29.30 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. yeah At least one. 45 hours of your life later, maybe more. Thousands of hours for some. 00:10:34.90 Kurt Crenwelge Working on the second one. 00:10:36.31 sean (MrShickadance) You know there are people who've played thousands of hours of that game still in Act 1? Haven't seen Act 2? That's crazy to me. 00:10:43.10 Kurt Crenwelge that is That is quite astounding. 00:10:44.02 sean (MrShickadance) That's... 00:10:45.02 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, what are you going over? like you've Surely you've done everything in Act 1, right? 00:10:49.46 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Multiple times probably at that point. 00:10:52.50 Kurt Crenwelge How can you even spawn or trigger more fights? 00:10:52.54 sean (MrShickadance) How are you not... 00:10:55.74 sean (MrShickadance) Or how are you not dying to see the rest of the story? You know what i mean? 00:10:59.13 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Unless they're just save scumming. 00:11:00.33 sean (MrShickadance) That's crazy. 00:11:01.49 Kurt Crenwelge They're like, they just want the most perfect version of the so of the story. 00:11:05.70 sean (MrShickadance) They're trying to get every role to be a natural 20 throughout all of Act 1. 00:11:08.45 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. That would be, i don't know. 00:11:11.10 sean (MrShickadance) It's like the... 00:11:11.93 Kurt Crenwelge there's There's someone who's probably on that run right now, and then months from now, we'll see like the the Polygon Kotaku article where it's like, this streamer did a run of Baldur's Gate 3, and they only made it where it was a natural 20 on every single roll. 00:11:27.48 sean (MrShickadance) That's such a BuzzFeed article. It's not even correct. I could genuinely see that going like this D&D campaign took this person 13,000 hours. 00:11:36.25 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:11:37.14 sean (MrShickadance) Oh God, that's so sad. ah But yeah, I like Popper to answer the question. um Yeah, he's he's just yeah a wacky little guy. He does some weird shit. 00:11:47.00 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:11:47.65 sean (MrShickadance) He stole a guy's hand. That's kind of funny. Love little guys, especially if they're gross. If they're like little gremlin-esque monsters. 00:11:57.40 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:11:57.98 sean (MrShickadance) immediately have a place in my heart. 00:12:01.46 Kurt Crenwelge So you think for the Baldur's Gate 3 scenery, because it is true that we do get to encounter many different kinds of, I think in the 5.5 terminology, they'd say species in the more general sense, they'd say ancestries. 00:12:14.62 Kurt Crenwelge But, you know, act one, it's like, oh, we come across the goblins and how at least they're presented in this story, along with ogres. 00:12:15.11 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:12:21.91 Kurt Crenwelge um And then, yeah, by the time of like act three, it's like, oh, we finally get to see like a cobalt and I think that's pretty much the only point in the game that you would ever meet a Cobalt because I don't think they appear anywhere else, right? 00:12:36.54 sean (MrShickadance) i 00:12:36.82 Kurt Crenwelge we We meet Dwargar, we meet Deep Gnomes, and you know we meet ah ah you know obviously Mind Flayers. 00:12:41.91 sean (MrShickadance) Trying to rack my brain. i Oh, there's one other place in Act 2. You meet them. They're all like drunk at a little party in the in the chapel. 00:12:51.00 Kurt Crenwelge Ah. 00:12:51.77 sean (MrShickadance) In the the old Pellor Chapel. There's like a a hallway where they're all getting wasted on wine. You can blow them up there. 00:12:58.01 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, you're right. And then you can use a firebolt and like explode them all. 00:12:59.18 sean (MrShickadance) That's about it. 00:13:02.20 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, because they all got wine in their bellies so they explode real good. 00:13:05.56 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Okay. So two places in the game where you get to meet cobalts. 00:13:09.08 sean (MrShickadance) I think those are the only two, yeah. 00:13:10.88 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:13:11.51 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. And then there's, yeah, there's very, very interesting uses of the the different species and in D&D in that game. um I'm very mad you don't get to play it as a goblin. 00:13:18.97 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:13:22.06 sean (MrShickadance) That's my only complaint about the game. 00:13:24.16 Kurt Crenwelge I think I've seen one going on right now with Mage Hand Press. ah They've been doing a run of Baldur's Gate 3 that I've seen at least in the real clips, but they they did a mod or they installed a mod where it was their gunslinger class. 00:13:34.81 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:13:37.78 Kurt Crenwelge And so the person's just going through and like finds a chest with like innumerable amounts of firearms and is just going through the game as like a gunslinger and is just like decimating all the creatures in Act 1. 00:13:52.49 Kurt Crenwelge It's like... 00:13:53.08 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:13:53.30 Kurt Crenwelge wow, a gun's pretty powerful. And it's like, yeah, a gun would just be pretty powerful in general. 00:13:58.36 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. If you brought AK to file a D&D campaign, it would probably one-shot a lot of people. 00:14:05.40 Kurt Crenwelge Right. As I've certainly found out in the game I've run, because it's a spell jammery was the kind of the start of it. 00:14:08.93 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, God. 00:14:12.60 Kurt Crenwelge um But I gave that character access to basically the rail gun from the DMG. 00:14:19.27 sean (MrShickadance) What level? 00:14:19.35 Kurt Crenwelge And I was like, that's pretty fun. 00:14:20.05 sean (MrShickadance) What level were they? 00:14:21.10 Kurt Crenwelge So when she's come across some higher level bad guys, she's like, I'm going to pull out the big gun. And I'm like, OK, let's see you do some damage with this one. 00:14:30.26 sean (MrShickadance) so it's like how everyone plays Doom. They just save the big gun for when a boss shows up and then they one-tap it and leave. 00:14:35.96 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, well, maybe like one or two shots, but ah but yeah, it gets the job. 00:14:38.34 sean (MrShickadance) Gotcha. 00:14:39.72 Kurt Crenwelge it gets the job done. 00:14:42.04 sean (MrShickadance) That's usually what I found with rail guns is they tend to do a pretty good job of doing the one thing they do. 00:14:46.94 Kurt Crenwelge yes And not to be confused with the ah the hypothetical that's made its way through the community of the peasant railgun, where you have them, if you've heard of this, where it's like, oh, it's a free action to pass an object to someone. 00:14:48.87 sean (MrShickadance) That's awesome. 00:14:58.04 sean (MrShickadance) I've made videos about it before. 00:15:00.64 Kurt Crenwelge So with the terminal velocity of passing a chair, if you had a a thousand peasants in a row and it's a free action. So by the time it gets to the end, it does like a silly amount of damage to whatever's on the receiving end of it. 00:15:16.25 sean (MrShickadance) yeah i've i've had my time with the peasant rail gun i've made videos about it before it's i i yeah i i find it hard to believe that if you passed a chair from one person to another with enough force to literally obliterate something at the end of that rail you would kill about 30 people before it got to the end of that line 00:15:24.57 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:15:37.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. 00:15:38.10 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, because they'd be vaporized by a chair going the speed of light through them. 00:15:39.03 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, very true. yes 00:15:43.79 sean (MrShickadance) Anyways, that's just my take on it, but it is funny. 00:15:45.69 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, no, and we've had we've had noted Canadian physicist student on this podcast, mr Mr. Dylan himself from the Kill Every Monster podcast. So he always has some very sage words of ah about ah science, but also D&D and d and like how they can work together and how sometimes you just need to be like, hey, it's a fantasy world. 00:15:55.99 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, nice. 00:16:07.45 Kurt Crenwelge The science is busted. So just like embrace the fantasy and don't try to science it too much and ruin the fun. 00:16:12.92 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:16:15.51 sean (MrShickadance) That is true. And I'm with that 100%. If my players brought that idea to me and it was funny, I'd be like, okay, that's fine. We're all having a good time. But the amount of people who have brought it up as like a solution to every problem, is like, you are insane. Stop it. Stop lining up 40,000 peasants you don't know to shoot a dragon 50 feet away from you. 00:16:33.59 Kurt Crenwelge yes 00:16:33.75 sean (MrShickadance) But also, you can marry the two in a beautiful way. Have you ever seen the um the engineer who designed like an arrow that shoots a portable or a bag of holding into a portable hole? 00:16:46.30 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, I haven't heard this one, but I do know that if you mix of interdimensional storage items together, you make a a hole in space time and a portal to the astral sea. 00:16:56.18 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. So there's there's this, i it's probably on Reddit somewhere if you if anyone who was listening wants to look it up. It's this like actual engineering student who got into D&D. They decided to like blueprint it out, like an actual diagram of how it would work. There's a bag of holding tied around the arrow. 00:17:16.31 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:17:16.82 sean (MrShickadance) And there's a portable, like a contraption that unfurls the portable hole directly in front of it. So when it hits a surface, it turns into a hole and the bag immediately travels into it. And it creates a black hole, basically. 00:17:28.12 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:17:29.01 sean (MrShickadance) That's how you can do it with like science and magic meeting together in this beautiful sort of way that I absolutely, I love that. 00:17:32.85 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 00:17:35.71 sean (MrShickadance) For some reason, my brain's like, that's awesome. But the peasant thing doesn't work. 00:17:40.55 Kurt Crenwelge rights yes agreed um the human brain and uh continuing on continuing on with the the other side of the coin of our uh questions what happens to be your favorite side quest or b plot element when it comes to ah you know the games that you play the movies or films or television shows or historical events etc and 00:17:41.77 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. The human brain. 00:18:05.85 Kurt Crenwelge that you've ah that you've enjoyed and why is this your favorite side quest or plot element? 00:18:13.13 sean (MrShickadance) Hmm. Favorite B plots. 00:18:17.33 Kurt Crenwelge Or side quests? 00:18:17.48 sean (MrShickadance) That's an interesting question. Yeah, Sidequests, B-plots. There's, i mean, right now, I'm currently playing through the Crimson Desert, which ah you don't understand what's happening in that game. 00:18:29.99 sean (MrShickadance) I'm 60 hours in, I have no idea what's going on. 00:18:30.03 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:18:31.55 sean (MrShickadance) So I can't really tell you about that. I'm trying to think past that game to something more interesting. Like a Borderlands 2, if you will. 00:18:36.79 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. ah 00:18:39.86 sean (MrShickadance) That has a lot of really good ah side quests that are like their whole full stories. actually think there was one about a missile in Borderlands 4 that just came out not too long ago. 00:18:53.11 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:18:53.98 sean (MrShickadance) It was a side quest about this missile that was like, you know, the city of Megaton and Fallout Fallout three, I think. 00:18:59.80 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Three. Three. 00:19:01.94 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. um It was essentially a parody of that game where the missile was sentient and could talk. 00:19:05.56 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:19:08.15 sean (MrShickadance) And all it wanted to do was blow up. 00:19:08.50 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. That sounds very much like Rick and Morty sort of humor. 00:19:10.75 sean (MrShickadance) That's all it ever wanted to do. 00:19:15.03 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, they they're really trying to do that kind of humor in the fourth game. um But it went on like you took this missile on this whole journey and trying to find purpose for it. 00:19:19.90 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:19:25.62 sean (MrShickadance) and And it was like, no, it's fine. Just blow me up. That's all I ever wanted. And it's a really funny, like existential journey with this fucking bomb. 00:19:36.02 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Yes. Yeah. So getting into, uh, yeah. AI technology, you know, can, can androids dream of electric sheep and all that stuff? 00:19:42.07 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:19:46.36 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. Do missiles dream of electric explosions. 00:19:51.03 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:19:51.06 sean (MrShickadance) Something like that. But yeah, it's a pretty funny. 00:19:52.81 Kurt Crenwelge All that, that, that it That does sound funny, yes. And as someone who is a fan of the Fallout games since 3, for sure. um Yeah, I do remember that being a ah a litmus test as far as like your will your playthrough and the morality and how you viewed the world where it's like, oh do you do you save Megaton? 00:20:00.88 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:20:13.26 Kurt Crenwelge Or do you follow that evil Mr. Burke and ah Abernathy Tenpenny and blow up Megaton? 00:20:21.37 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:20:22.47 Kurt Crenwelge because Oh, because it's an eyesore. It's like, really? 00:20:24.82 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:20:25.48 Kurt Crenwelge That's how we're going to live in the post-apocalypse? 00:20:28.28 sean (MrShickadance) you love a good litmus test for what kind of person you are. That's the kind of side quests I tend to use or are like just the, the plots I try tie into character stories is usually like, who, who are you as this character? 00:20:44.25 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:20:44.31 sean (MrShickadance) Like if I put something in front of you and I don't give you a hint on whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, what do you do with it? 00:20:49.71 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:20:50.44 sean (MrShickadance) I love those kinds of quests for like my games, not to play through this. Um, and'm I'm busy talking to missiles over here. 00:20:58.87 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, yes. 00:20:58.94 sean (MrShickadance) What do I know? 00:21:00.43 Kurt Crenwelge We're like, hmm, maybe if I got like a sentient, ah like like ah like a sentient sphere of annihilation. Yes, I could integrate that in as a side quest into my next dungeon I make. 00:21:10.71 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Professor A, he teaches at the school. Sentient orb. 00:21:17.88 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, funny. Oh, because of the, is it is that a bald joke or is that not a bald joke? 00:21:22.74 sean (MrShickadance) No, it's not a ball joke. I just think it would be funny to see that orb wear little graduation hat and like walk around to school and teach kids about math. But also he's like destroying the hallway as he goes from class to class. 00:21:36.28 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Well, and as we're seeing in in our popular media, as it were in the D&D sphere, because it's certainly no secret at this point, but Taliesin Jaffe is playing a player character that is a sentient object riding on a humanoid body. 00:21:44.71 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:21:52.35 Kurt Crenwelge So I'm sure people have obviously been doing this in the hobby for years. time immemorial um but yeah i wonder if this inspires a whole new generation being like yes i'm going to be a sentient sphere of annihilation or oh i'm going to be a spentient artifact now 00:21:58.15 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, 00:22:05.34 sean (MrShickadance) oh yeah. 00:22:09.61 sean (MrShickadance) Judging from the number of like champions of the Raven Queen I've seen in non-critical role campaigns. Yeah, it's going affect, it's going to affect the community for quite a while. 00:22:16.89 Kurt Crenwelge mm-hmm 00:22:20.30 sean (MrShickadance) We're going see like sentient cut racks and sentient, you know, I'm a dress that's possessed by a spirit of a woman in this. i just happen to be on this person right now. You know I mean 00:22:29.91 Kurt Crenwelge Interesting. 00:22:31.16 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:22:31.42 Kurt Crenwelge Well, yes. And our good friend over at RPG bot, um you know, ah at least for the first monster manual over on the DMs Guild, I know he released a compendium where he basically converted every monster in the monster manual into like a player class. 00:22:47.23 Kurt Crenwelge or a player, a player character. 00:22:48.03 sean (MrShickadance) Well, that's cool. 00:22:50.47 Kurt Crenwelge Basically you could, so if you wanted to be like an on keg, you could find a way to become a, like ah a rogue on keg or something like that. He, he managed to do that for entire monster manual. 00:22:57.98 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:23:01.50 Kurt Crenwelge So if you wanted to play an animated piece of clothing, you could totally do that with the monster, the rug of smothering as a, as a player character. 00:23:06.26 sean (MrShickadance) A rug of smothering. 00:23:10.28 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:23:10.87 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, that's cool. Interesting. I know they did that with Pathfinder 2. They have like certain select creatures in the monster manual that are humanoid-ish. And they're like, if you wanted to play this, here's here's why you just change a few things. 00:23:24.47 sean (MrShickadance) They have like little blurbs on the page. and and i thought that was kind of interesting. So that's cool. 00:23:27.74 Kurt Crenwelge That is, that's, that's pretty cool that they provide that to you up front. So that's, that's pretty neat. 00:23:32.39 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, Paizo's doing some really good stuff over there. their Their game... i I don't know enough people to play it with because no one wants to learn to play Pathfinder 2, but they do support their game very well. 00:23:41.19 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:23:44.58 sean (MrShickadance) So that is a ah glowing endorsement on them for supporting their product. 00:23:49.94 Kurt Crenwelge we We like supporting our products. 00:23:52.02 sean (MrShickadance) We do like a supported product. 00:23:54.20 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. And then the way that we round out the personal interview section is we ask the question, Sean, Mr. Shikadance, what are you passionate about and why? 00:24:05.82 sean (MrShickadance) Me? What am i passionate about? 00:24:07.35 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. 00:24:10.55 sean (MrShickadance) um When it comes to storytelling or just in games or just in... 00:24:15.93 Kurt Crenwelge What are you passionate about and why? 00:24:16.14 sean (MrShickadance) i i am very passionate about getting other people to be DMs. I think that is my purpose on the internet through my videos or whatever I do. My goal is to make as many people feel comfortable DMing as humanly possible. 00:24:33.30 sean (MrShickadance) Because we need more people to run games. 00:24:36.15 Kurt Crenwelge you want to play a game. 00:24:37.24 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, I want to play. That's selfish. It's very selfish. I'm very passionately selfish. Is what I'm realizing on the show. 00:24:44.60 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:24:45.11 sean (MrShickadance) i want everyone out there to run a game for me so I can be a player. Thank you so much. 00:24:51.83 Kurt Crenwelge Well, hey, if you ever, I know I happen to participate at times with our local con here in DFW, FateCon. So I've run games at FateCon. 00:25:02.20 Kurt Crenwelge So if you're ever at FateCon in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you're certainly welcome to join my table. 00:25:06.72 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, let's work. Okay. 00:25:09.46 Kurt Crenwelge And I'll run for you. 00:25:09.56 sean (MrShickadance) Maybe I'll go to fake. Oh, yeah. 00:25:11.26 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:25:12.60 sean (MrShickadance) I've never been to Texas. 00:25:12.96 Kurt Crenwelge FateCon, happening later this year, 2026. Ding! 00:25:16.70 sean (MrShickadance) Damn, what month? 00:25:18.23 Kurt Crenwelge I believe they're having it in October this year. So like the first weekend in October. 00:25:21.67 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, it's a good month. Okay, interesting. 00:25:25.94 Kurt Crenwelge More details at fivesidedfates.com. 00:25:26.02 sean (MrShickadance) Definitely check that out. 00:25:30.65 sean (MrShickadance) Not a sponsor. 00:25:32.17 Kurt Crenwelge They're not a sponsor, but I do enjoy them. They're they're they're class act. They are good people. 00:25:36.54 sean (MrShickadance) This free publicity. 00:25:39.43 Kurt Crenwelge fle public Free publicity is good publicity. Any publicity is good publicity. 00:25:42.01 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, that's what I've heard. 00:25:45.34 Kurt Crenwelge Indeed. All right. And now that we have ah made it through the personal interview section, it's now time to head into some NPC creation. 00:25:56.33 sean (MrShickadance) Nice. 00:26:02.17 Kurt Crenwelge And NPC creation is brought to you by you, the podcast audience and our patrons from Patreon. So now's the time of the show where we give a shout out to our comfortable patrons and above with a loud hurrah. 00:26:14.36 Kurt Crenwelge So to you, answer Jablinski and good old mom and dad, we say cheers. So again, this is for patrons who donate at least $2 or more a month. They're getting the shout outs on every episode. 00:26:26.55 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, but all these folks that I named, are actually wealthy tier patrons, which means in addition to this, they're also getting the chance to add an element of chance to our random tables that we use in this section of the show. So we might get to hear some of their responses used today. 00:26:42.84 Kurt Crenwelge So if you want to learn about all the various rewards that we've got waiting for you in the Patreon, you know, even the free tier is cool to hang out, but we've got one, two, four and $10 levels. If you want to learn more, Just go to the show notes below, go to the podcast website, or just go directly to patreon.com forward slash sidekicks and sidequests, all spelled out. 00:27:04.89 Kurt Crenwelge To find out more about our tiers of patronage, help us to grow and expand our operations in the Levitating Platter, in this Demiplane, and worlds beyond. All right. So as we were preparing for the recording of this show, i always ask the question of my guests before we start rolling is ah for the for the NPC making part today, do you have an idea of a character you're bringing to us or do you want to roll some dice and see what kind of random NPC we can make today? 00:27:36.76 sean (MrShickadance) I have, I have, we got kind of, ah the conversation kicked something around in my brain or as we were, we were talking through the earlier section. 00:27:36.82 Kurt Crenwelge Or a combo of the both? 00:27:46.31 sean (MrShickadance) I do kind of have an idea that I've always tinkered with. I don't know how to make it work. So maybe we can work it out here. 00:27:54.20 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. All right, cool. We could do a combination of the of the two. So you have ideas of the kind of NPC you want to make. And as we make our way through the questions, we'll be able to answer those. 00:28:01.42 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:28:03.92 Kurt Crenwelge And if we don't have an answer for it, well, then we can shake it up and do some dice rolling and get prompts and inspire us. 00:28:10.84 sean (MrShickadance) I love it. Let's do it. 00:28:11.80 Kurt Crenwelge Perfect. All right. So then the way that we begin this is we need to figure out the name of our character. So do you have a name? Are you looking to roll a name? 00:28:22.39 sean (MrShickadance) I do. 00:28:23.61 Kurt Crenwelge Or do you or like Tony Vicenda has done and some other guests. 00:28:23.94 sean (MrShickadance) do have a name. 00:28:27.45 Kurt Crenwelge But if you feel like the name really comes at the end, once you figure out the character, we can always, you know, switch to another question and come back to it later. 00:28:39.00 sean (MrShickadance) I think his name is Qbert. 00:28:41.56 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, Qbert, like the video game character. 00:28:42.65 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. Like the little orange guy with the nose. Yeah. 00:28:46.71 Kurt Crenwelge So just, we're going to spell it the same Q-B-E-R-T? 00:28:50.71 sean (MrShickadance) Yes. I think that's a good a good way to go about this. It'll make sense later, audience. Trust me. It's the prestige. 00:28:59.19 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, alright, we will go that way then. Qbert, okay? And then, what's the ancestry or species of Qbert? Qbert. 00:29:10.64 sean (MrShickadance) That's difficult. That's difficult. 00:29:13.94 Kurt Crenwelge Is it? 00:29:14.94 sean (MrShickadance) Yes, because, and I'll tell you why my idea is and why his name's Qbert. ah I have the idea for a character who was a gelatinous cube and was polymorphed, true polymorphed into a person. 00:29:28.02 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:29:31.48 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 00:29:32.88 sean (MrShickadance) that's why his name's Qbert, because he's a cube. 00:29:32.89 Kurt Crenwelge So. Mm-hmm. 00:29:36.25 sean (MrShickadance) But I don't know what spaces he would be true polymorphed into. It'd be funny if he was just a guy. 00:29:42.68 Kurt Crenwelge Like a human guy. 00:29:43.77 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, like a man. Not like a plasmoid, because that's too close. But if it's like... 00:29:47.13 Kurt Crenwelge Right, or or like our friend of the podcast, Mark Thompson, creator of the Combat Wheelchair, also developed the Sentient Slime as a as a player character option. 00:29:47.59 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:29:57.98 sean (MrShickadance) Yes. 00:30:01.11 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, feel like that's a little too close. 00:30:01.46 Kurt Crenwelge So you think not that that's because that's too obvious. 00:30:04.09 sean (MrShickadance) No, I want him to be Pinocchioed into a real person with blood and and skin and muscle because I think that's funnier. 00:30:11.39 Kurt Crenwelge I'm a real boy now. 00:30:12.57 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. And then he starts lying and his nose gets bigger. 00:30:16.15 Kurt Crenwelge Does he does does Qbert still retain any actual like slime properties or just you said true polymorph. So he would lose those like, you know, like, oh, I want to stretch my hand and I try to stretch it, but like it doesn't go any farther than my arm allows me. 00:30:26.23 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:30:32.09 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, he's just a guy. He's not, no slime to be found. Just a guy who does, he's, my thing is, the gelatinous cube has like an intelligence of one. 00:30:45.82 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:30:46.46 sean (MrShickadance) So this guy is stupid. 00:30:49.75 Kurt Crenwelge Well, I was going to say that's a, now that's an interesting point of order in that if the Qbert was true polymorphed into like a commoner, like a commoner has like pretty average, 00:30:59.70 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:31:02.23 Kurt Crenwelge you know, stats across the board. So Qbert would actually get smarter as a human. 00:31:04.41 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, well, there you go. 00:31:06.63 Kurt Crenwelge He might not have reference for things that he once knew as a as a gelatinous cube, but he would be like, Oh, I'm experiencing the dungeon. 00:31:16.71 Kurt Crenwelge Like I have a need to clean things or like, I want to, i develop Pica syndrome and I suddenly think all these in these inedible things I can eat, but, but they're not really nutritious for me anymore. 00:31:20.47 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:31:27.64 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. tries to eat like rocks and he gets real sick and he breaks his teeth. 00:31:31.45 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, or he's just like, that did that did not please me. Like, if he talks more like an alien or something like that, or he's trying to find his voice. 00:31:34.68 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:31:38.42 Kurt Crenwelge Like, how how do I speak, communicate words? 00:31:40.34 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. And he like lives in the sewer. Cause that's where he used to live. 00:31:46.17 Kurt Crenwelge All right, so Qbert, so we're saying human. Do you think human is like human fits? 00:31:49.78 sean (MrShickadance) I think human fits. Cause he's, he's, he was the most inhuman thing you could be, which is just a big square of jello. And then he became the most human guy. 00:31:56.76 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:31:59.14 sean (MrShickadance) He's just a, he's just a guy guy, you know? 00:32:01.85 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. I'm what was it? Jacob Wysoski doing the, you are a regular guy. You are doing the thing and you are a regular guy. So that's, that's Q-Bert's inner monologue now. 00:32:11.16 sean (MrShickadance) yeah That's his missing character. Yeah. But also he has like jello thoughts. 00:32:17.58 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:32:18.54 sean (MrShickadance) He's like, i shelter. I need warmth. I need to absorb food. 00:32:22.98 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. And so then as far as Q-Bert's concerned, what's going to be his job or role in society? 00:32:30.94 sean (MrShickadance) Oh God. What is what does a gelatinous cube do for a nine to five? um i think he, 00:32:38.62 Kurt Crenwelge Or what what role does he occupy in society? If he's like living in the sewers, like did the city find him and just like, hey, you're our new sanitation engineer now? 00:32:43.42 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, I think he like... 00:32:48.50 sean (MrShickadance) I think he just kind of is there. I don't think he the city knows about him. He's like kind of just this weird urban legend of... Like, they don't even know his name. 00:32:56.45 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:32:57.12 sean (MrShickadance) He's just a guy who lives in the sewers, you know? Like a weird guy by the train tracks or something. 00:32:59.74 Kurt Crenwelge Urban legend. I like that. 00:33:00.64 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:33:01.30 Kurt Crenwelge like His job is just, you know, he's just the guy in the sewer and he doesn't know any better. 00:33:06.30 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, like don't go in there. You'll find some some weird guy down there who's living in the sewers, and we don't know why. and Very rarely he'll come up and like do some weird shit and then go back down. 00:33:16.89 sean (MrShickadance) But when you go down there, he's just like, I don't know, cleaning the place up, because that's what he used to do anyways. 00:33:21.66 Kurt Crenwelge okay all right so he's just he just is a he is a subterranean sewer dweller uh he just dwells on the sewers and that's just what he does 00:33:28.89 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:33:32.79 sean (MrShickadance) He's like a reverse Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. 00:33:35.60 Kurt Crenwelge hmm middle-aged something sewer guy now 00:33:41.80 sean (MrShickadance) Puddle of pudding. 00:33:43.35 Kurt Crenwelge ah Okay, so, alright, so he's just, he's gainfully unemployed right now. He's waiting for someone to come give him purpose or tell him what to do with his life. 00:33:53.98 sean (MrShickadance) I mean, yeah, he's just kind of thriving down there. You know, he used to live in the sewers. e nine And now he lives in the sewers with a person's brain, intelligence of 10. That's a big step up from not having a brain to having a full brain. 00:34:03.93 Kurt Crenwelge From one, yeah. 00:34:07.74 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. He's bait. He's the fulfillment of the scarecrow song from the wizard of Oz. 00:34:14.47 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:34:14.58 Kurt Crenwelge If only I had a brain. Now he has a brain. 00:34:17.02 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. And I like the idea that he's just like learning through stuff people throw away like newspapers, books, old like torn up. 00:34:24.98 Kurt Crenwelge So he's kind of like Wally, too. He's like going through their trash and cleaning up and organizing it. 00:34:28.18 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:34:29.90 Kurt Crenwelge And he's like, you know, he reads about a play and like, you know, he starts, you know it's like this play is called Hello, Dolly. And I just really seem to resonate it with it. 00:34:39.06 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. And he can only say his own name like a Pokemon. Yeah. 00:34:42.86 Kurt Crenwelge Q-bert. Yes. 00:34:44.20 sean (MrShickadance) Q-bert. Q-bert. 00:34:47.06 Kurt Crenwelge ah 00:34:47.77 sean (MrShickadance) Really emotive. 00:34:50.14 Kurt Crenwelge Well, until he gets a language book and he starts figuring out language. 00:34:53.37 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, yeah, yeah. he can You know, he has like a weird, don't know, maybe he has like animal friends or some shit. And they like scurry around and meet people they bring down to the sewers to help them teach. I i don't know. 00:35:04.31 sean (MrShickadance) it's It's just an interesting concept to go from not having a nervous system to being a full human being. 00:35:04.76 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:35:07.19 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 00:35:09.84 sean (MrShickadance) I think that's funny. 00:35:11.29 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, and I'm definitely you know very curious as well, because that's a pretty high-level spell, so someone just had to rant. 00:35:17.34 sean (MrShickadance) so yeah. 00:35:19.24 Kurt Crenwelge Some high-level spellcaster must have like taken a wrong turn, fell in the sewers, and then their first thought was in dealing with this gelatinous cube that was surely going to eat them when they were in an inebriated state was to turn them into a guy. 00:35:34.96 Kurt Crenwelge And then he's just like, all right, see you, bye. then Qbert's just like, what do I do with my life now? 00:35:41.98 sean (MrShickadance) To be fair, that would just be me if I got a 20th level spell. I'd be like, hey, big cube, you're a guy now. Welcome to the existential dread. 00:35:50.07 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, man. So then how old would you say that Qbert is? Like, how long ago did this incident happen? Like, is it long enough ago that, like, this urban legend has had real time to develop? Or is this like something new that's happened in the town? 00:36:05.40 sean (MrShickadance) I would say he's probably new-ish, kind of like five, six years, maybe. 00:36:08.56 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Okay. 00:36:11.03 sean (MrShickadance) Like if you're from the town. 00:36:11.48 Kurt Crenwelge Five or six years by himself in the sewers as a guy. 00:36:14.62 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Everybody wants that to happen to them, right? 00:36:20.98 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. And then before that, like, you know, whatever the lore states for how gelatinous cubes come about, like how long ago was he just a wee tiny little cubelet before he got big enough to be a gelatinous cube and then turned into a guy? 00:36:37.78 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, he's probably like... How old do gelatinous cubes get? I'm going say like... Hundreds of years? Is that a thing people think about? 00:36:44.79 Kurt Crenwelge Uh, 00:36:47.29 Kurt Crenwelge Yes, it's like, let's look at the stated lore of ah ye olde gelatinous cubes from the Forgotten Realms wiki, and does it tell us anything about the ages of gelatinous cubes? 00:37:01.90 Kurt Crenwelge Let's see. Ecology. Omnivorous scavengers. Okay. Reproduction asexually by you know, dividing themselves into two smaller cubes of equal size or via budding. 00:37:09.66 sean (MrShickadance) Good. 00:37:16.50 sean (MrShickadance) He can still do that. 00:37:16.79 Kurt Crenwelge i'm due to Yeah, so it's like just they operate, they seem to operate like ah microscopic organisms. They could remain in that fused form from up to a few days before splitting and going their separate ways. 00:37:29.40 Kurt Crenwelge So, yeah, it's like, I don't know, a quick scan of the article without taking too much time away from this very riveting or ah you know creation process. 00:37:29.69 sean (MrShickadance) ah Interesting. 00:37:38.54 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, I don't know. Yeah. Could be hundreds of years old. Could be like was like freshly butted off and then ran into this high level spellcaster and then became a guy. Now for the last five or six years, he's just been a a human guy living in the sewers. 00:37:55.87 sean (MrShickadance) I kind of like the idea that he's like a super old slime, but he got turned into like his mid thirties. 00:38:00.80 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. Okay, so he it quite so it it it through the magic, it equated him to turning or appearing like a guy in his 30s. 00:38:08.06 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. He was turned into a child. 00:38:09.38 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:38:10.46 sean (MrShickadance) the The magic was definitely like, you're a, you're a guy now. And he should figure it out. 00:38:14.65 Kurt Crenwelge o Okay. And then I'm also curious because he's lived long enough. I wonder if the other cubes, I mean, granted the other cubes have like an intelligence of one as we've established, but is he like a, is he like a slime, a gelatinous cube wrangler of sorts? 00:38:32.79 Kurt Crenwelge Like he, you know, he's like, Oh, I can commune with them. Like I still have a connection. 00:38:36.09 sean (MrShickadance) The Slime Whisperer. 00:38:37.07 Kurt Crenwelge to He's a slime whisperer. 00:38:39.10 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, he's a Slime Shepherd. 00:38:41.78 Kurt Crenwelge A shepherd of the slimes. 00:38:43.93 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:38:44.18 Kurt Crenwelge That's what I be. I be a shepherd of the slimes in these sewers. 00:38:47.32 sean (MrShickadance) I actually think that that's a fun idea where he like leads the other oozes around the sewer to like clean certain areas and get rid of blockage and, I don't know, kill other creatures that are in there. 00:38:56.86 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:38:58.85 sean (MrShickadance) He like uses them almost like Pokemon to be like, go my slime, go my children. Clean the sewers. 00:39:04.48 Kurt Crenwelge oh man i feel like that's gotta be that's that's you know now i'm just thinking of if i convert uh qbert into like a player class it's like oh is he like a swarm keeper ranger because he's just got like all these slimes that follow him or is a unique druid that's like the circle of the slime um or is he like a a or is he like 00:39:09.15 sean (MrShickadance) It's a movie. 00:39:28.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, a cleric or a sorcerer. don't know. However you'd work it, but the idea of like a Swarm Keeper Ranger or a Circle of the Slime Druid also sounds pretty good. 00:39:31.39 sean (MrShickadance) It's like a 00:39:38.98 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Uh, what's the one that conjures stuff as a druid spirit totem? No, that's the barbarian. 00:39:44.50 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, of the the the Circle of the Shepherds is the one with the totem. 00:39:48.44 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. There you go. Yeah. That one might be cool too. 00:39:53.05 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, that could be cool. 00:39:53.72 sean (MrShickadance) Some in different colored slimes to do different AOE effects. 00:39:58.65 Kurt Crenwelge Pretty cool. Someone out there will get on it and they'll make it and then it'll be a hit on the DM's guild. 00:39:59.63 sean (MrShickadance) I like that. 00:40:04.12 sean (MrShickadance) They go free content. 00:40:04.38 Kurt Crenwelge People be like, I want to be a slime tamer. 00:40:07.61 sean (MrShickadance) don't Don't credit me on that. i don't want to be associated with the shit, Shaman. 00:40:13.56 Kurt Crenwelge All right. So we got an aid. Okay. So with all these details in mind and we've started kind of doing it, but how would you describe the physical appearance of Qbert? So he's just a guy. He looks like someone who's in his thirties, but he clearly for the last five or six years, he's been living in the sewers. So when we picture him and we introduce him at our tables and our games, how are we going to describe him physically? 00:40:38.10 sean (MrShickadance) ah Uh, go on like shutterstock.com, find a picture of guy and then hold it up. Like the most generic middle of the road, you know, kind of just a dude, clean shaven, bland features, like perfectly, almost like Ken from Barbie, just like perfectly, almost plastically styled hair. 00:41:02.74 sean (MrShickadance) I'm talking weirdly pristine for someone who lives in the sewers. 00:41:02.84 Kurt Crenwelge m 00:41:07.80 Kurt Crenwelge m Is he, is, is Qbert one, maybe because that's a lingering thing of having been a gelatinous cube. Does he take great care and concern to his tight, his appearance and his tidiness and his cleanliness, even though he won't really leave the sewers? 00:41:28.09 sean (MrShickadance) I think it's because he has it now, he enjoys cleaning his his personhood. He didn't used to be able to do that before, because everything just dissolved when it touched him. Now he's like, ooh, I take pride in this, because it's fun. 00:41:37.28 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 00:41:39.42 sean (MrShickadance) i get to comb my hair, and he just combs his hair all the time. 00:41:42.92 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, sorry. I was just thinking of it now, kind of like a little philosophical, but it's like now that he has the intelligence of an average person going up from a one to a 10, he can truly appreciate beauty. 00:41:54.90 Kurt Crenwelge Now he can see the beauty in creation where he's like, i have hair and this is beautiful. 00:41:55.70 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:42:00.98 Kurt Crenwelge And then he like, like you said, he comes his hair and he comes at a lot. 00:42:01.50 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:42:04.72 Kurt Crenwelge And he's just like, I have a face and it looks nice. It's good. This is a good face. 00:42:11.19 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, it's like a very... i wouldn't say, like, handsome or attractive, just like a very neat dude. He's very neat, tidy, but he just lives in the sewers. it's like a weird juxtaposition of, like, the cleanest person you've ever met lives amongst the shit and the muck. 00:42:26.23 Kurt Crenwelge m And his clothes are, are, are they pristine clothes? Are they discarded hand-me-down? 00:42:31.48 sean (MrShickadance) No, he's he's covered in like rags. Yeah. Like sewn together rags and towels and stuff. 00:42:38.58 Kurt Crenwelge So he's kind of like rat King from Ninja Turtles. 00:42:40.34 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah, exactly like Rat King. 00:42:44.18 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. So he has he has an otherwise you know disheveled you know clothing attire on, but like when you actually look at his person, it's like very clean and very neat and proper. 00:42:55.86 Kurt Crenwelge and he's like 00:42:55.86 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:42:57.08 Kurt Crenwelge Even though he's like not especially handsome or charismatic or anything, he's like, I care about my cleanliness and being neat and orderly and all put together. Mm-hmm. 00:43:06.42 sean (MrShickadance) It's like somebody who just walked out of a salon, put on a homeless man, Halloween costume and walked into the sewers. 00:43:12.98 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Okay. 00:43:13.99 sean (MrShickadance) That's the kind of vibe I'm going for. 00:43:15.86 Kurt Crenwelge All right. All right. So we're getting an idea of his physical appearance, but with role playing to help us out, if you had to describe Qbert with three adjectives, what three adjectives would you use? 00:43:29.46 sean (MrShickadance) Confused. 00:43:31.96 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:43:33.66 sean (MrShickadance) Hmm. 00:43:33.91 Kurt Crenwelge Is he dazed? I feel like whenever you say confused, it's like you're obligated to say dazed and confused. 00:43:39.95 sean (MrShickadance) Daisy Confused, because he loves the band. He loves the song. um I would say Excitable. 00:43:46.99 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh, excitable. Okay. 00:43:48.06 sean (MrShickadance) like Excitable, because he finds out about new things. He's like, ooh, let me learn about this, because I can learn now. 00:43:53.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:43:53.62 sean (MrShickadance) um And I think the third thing, weirdly enough, Hungry. 00:43:57.83 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. Well, that makes sense. I mean, not not a lot of fresh food necessarily coming down ah the way. 00:44:03.19 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. I think he's got a weird a weirdly abnormal appetite. 00:44:09.50 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. and And so, I mean, so he lives in the sewers, but but surely, he know, he's not long-term, he's not going to be able to survive in a human body. in the sewers because there's no real ready access to food. 00:44:20.34 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 00:44:24.31 Kurt Crenwelge So he does, does he venture up or does he just like, Oh, this is someone's sewer basement entrance into the tavern. 00:44:24.73 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:44:32.23 Kurt Crenwelge And I'll just pop in there and take a bunch of food and then like sneak out before anyone notices sort of a thing. 00:44:39.20 sean (MrShickadance) I definitely think he sneaky skulks. He does a lot of skulking on the above ground. 00:44:42.43 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:44:43.48 sean (MrShickadance) um But it's also one of those things where people see him. They just kind of like, oh that's a weird guy who smells. 00:44:48.41 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:44:49.02 sean (MrShickadance) You know? Because he looks totally clean and normal, but he's wearing all these weird rags and he's sneaking around behind bushes and everyone's like, that guy's crazy. Don't talk to him. Don't look at him. Just, you know, let him let him leave. 00:44:59.35 sean (MrShickadance) He'll leave shortly. 00:45:00.22 Kurt Crenwelge Like Nobark. So he's like Nobark from Fallout New Vegas where they're like, that guy is strange. 00:45:03.51 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Mm-hmm. 00:45:06.16 Kurt Crenwelge He's weird. We don't. I mean, like, well, he'll keep to himself, but like, there's no need to necessarily interact with 00:45:10.81 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. It's not like he's ever hurt anybody. There's not stories about like him kidnapping kids and dragging them into the sewers or anything like that. He's just got like, oh, there's that, there's that guy again. i I'm going to cover my apples. 00:45:21.46 Kurt Crenwelge And he's not a cannibal. 00:45:22.87 sean (MrShickadance) No, no, no, no. 00:45:23.99 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, so he's just, he's a regular guy. 00:45:26.39 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. and i think some of the store owners are like, I know to put my food somewhere else when that guy is spotted around. Like someone's like, oh, there's that guy. 00:45:35.58 Kurt Crenwelge So it's like when you go camping and there's, and you have to like tie your food up and hang it up. So the bears can't get it 00:45:40.25 sean (MrShickadance) so based and Yeah, kind of like that. But like, you know, they just put like the cover on the apple so he can't swipe one when he runs by, you know. 00:45:48.02 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:45:48.98 sean (MrShickadance) Like he puts a cloche over all the food so they can't grab him. 00:45:52.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Although, you know, he does have average intelligence. So given time, it's like, I like to think, you know, as he's learning things, he's like, this is how a lock works. Like, oh, this is how I can pick locks and get into food or like, oh, this is how a door handle works. 00:46:01.11 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:46:04.63 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, yeah, 00:46:06.64 Kurt Crenwelge And now I can open doors to get into places. 00:46:09.24 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, like they close the door and he just kind of wo it runs into it the first time. it's like, I don't know what's going on here. Some sort of wall that moves. 00:46:17.34 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:46:18.26 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, I love that. 00:46:18.42 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Okay. All right. And we always like our NPCs to have something cool on their person. So what's going to be a valuable item, piece of lore, secret or ideal or concept that the character would ascribe to? We've maybe kind of danced around a few things that we could, that could just be gimmies. 00:46:39.22 Kurt Crenwelge um But certainly if you're looking to generate anything, of course we have the tables as well. If you, want those but i don't know you tell me your thoughts of like valuables or something that he cares about i mean i know he's a newly person and you know what he does find he's kind of like ariel i guess for the little mermaid where he's like look at this stuff isn't it neat i don't necessarily have a frame of reference for what this thing is but it's cool and i like it mm-hmm 00:47:00.89 sean (MrShickadance) It's all shit. It's like a broken moss covered alarm clock. He's like, isn't this awesome? It's a piece of shit. 00:47:11.91 sean (MrShickadance) Um, I it would be really funny if he had something from like the wizard who turned him into a guy. 00:47:17.48 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:47:18.27 sean (MrShickadance) he had like a giant grimoire or like a, a very ornate staff that he just carries around, like it's a stick. And everyone's just everyone everyone who meets him or like detects magic is like blinded by how magical the thing is, but he's using it to like direct oozes around a shit room. 00:47:35.29 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:47:36.38 sean (MrShickadance) I think that'd be pretty funny. 00:47:36.41 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, okay. So when the, when the wizard cast true polymorph on him, ah just in the in whatever the circumstances in my head can, I'm thinking, Oh, the wizard was drunk and fell down the, what of dropped his staff. 00:47:47.83 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, he dropped his staff or something. Yeah. 00:47:50.68 Kurt Crenwelge And then this, you know, Qbert, this guy just picked it up and it was like, Oh, this is neat. And he walks around with like, I don't know, like a rod of fireballs or whatever it is, you know, 00:48:00.22 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, the crazy staff of power. 00:48:02.04 Kurt Crenwelge some crazy, very rare, legendary sort of ah a staff or a rod or something like that. But as you said, he's just using it for very mundane purposes. 00:48:08.47 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:48:11.32 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, it's like very dirty and like covered in like grime and in dirt. So you wouldn't be able to look at it and be like, that's a magic item. It's kind of just like a dirty pole he's using to walk around with or like, you know, how people carry around like pipes or something in apocalyptic settings. 00:48:26.07 Kurt Crenwelge Mm hmm. 00:48:26.80 sean (MrShickadance) It's kind of like that where it looks like he has a pipe. 00:48:28.02 Kurt Crenwelge Or like a gondola, like a gondolier's stick. 00:48:29.59 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, exactly. Exactly. um But if you like detected magic or like i actually took time with you, like this is actually one of the most powerful things I've ever held. And I don't know why this guy in the sewer does it. 00:48:42.10 Kurt Crenwelge yeah i wonder so yeah just you know and sort sort of beginning to lead into our next question um it wouldn't necessarily be from the point of view of qbert but if this wizard became you know was like hey i'm missing the staff you should go look for it in the sewers that would be a way to meet qbert but the question's more 00:48:57.56 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:49:01.62 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, that's such a good quest hook too. Because if this takes place in a city, you could have like the wizard somewhere else and be like if you ever come across it, this is a crazy question, I know, but I lost a staff one night. I was getting a little drunk and I was wandering around some friends and we started popping spells off. 00:49:15.48 sean (MrShickadance) I don't know where it is. If you ever come across it, handsome reward, you know, that kind of thing. 00:49:19.81 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. 00:49:21.30 sean (MrShickadance) Then you stumble across this guy. 00:49:21.72 Kurt Crenwelge That could definitely be the quest, a side quest tied to Qbert, certainly from one angle. And you could go with that if you want. But I know I always ask the question of what's a particular quest that Qbert would be willing to offer to a bunch of heroes or player characters. 00:49:37.12 Kurt Crenwelge So if the players are exploring the sewers, they come across Qbert and Qbert's like, oh, well, you're here. 00:49:38.04 sean (MrShickadance) Interesting. 00:49:44.06 Kurt Crenwelge You know, you could do this or that or whatever. And then he asks the players for help or presents them with a side quest. You know, what would that side quest be? 00:49:52.44 sean (MrShickadance) It would definitely be a creature that's like traveled into the sewer system that him and his oozes just can't handle on their own because they're oozes. 00:49:58.71 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:49:59.45 sean (MrShickadance) It's not like they're, you know, CR 20 creatures he's leading around. They're a bunch of like starting mobs, you know? 00:50:04.55 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:50:05.18 sean (MrShickadance) So it's not like he's leading an army into war. He's trying to clean the sewers with and can't kill the occasional rat, you know? 00:50:13.81 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:50:14.30 sean (MrShickadance) um But there's something gets down there and he's just like, Hey, there's this thing that's, screaming I don't know what it is. There's this thing screaming down the hall, down this tunnel right here. If we take a left, it's just kind of there. And it's in it's made a nest and it's blocking up a lot of the sewage. And it's making things kind of unbearable for the city and for me. And my slime boys need to eat. 00:50:34.58 sean (MrShickadance) He's blocking up all their slime food with this little shit damn he's made. You know, this weird creature nest blocking up sewage is is it kind of a basic 00:50:41.46 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, like an audio or like a carrying crawler or something or even bigger. 00:50:45.66 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, or anything. Even like if you, yeah, you can connect it to like any ongoing threads if there's like, oh, there's weird demon stuff being summoned. It could be a weird demon thing or, you know, any sort of ethereal, yeah, grander plot design. 00:50:55.38 Kurt Crenwelge a demon of filth. 00:50:58.53 sean (MrShickadance) Do you want to foreshadow or anything like that? Feel free to put it here. 00:51:01.94 Kurt Crenwelge okay all right so from Qbert's point of view it's like hey there's this thing that's blocking the sewage and my me and my slime fellows can't deal with it so we could sure use your help and then tangentially if you wanted to also tie it in from the point of view of the wizard like hey it's really embarrassing but I lost this very powerful thing in the sewers if you happen to find it that would be great 00:51:12.53 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:51:18.90 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:51:24.38 sean (MrShickadance) You know how there's those quests like in Skyrim, there's like that quest to find all those little like garnet pieces or something like that? You just like have random things where it's like, if you find any of this, yeah but there's no waypoint on your map. 00:51:38.38 sean (MrShickadance) That's what the wizard's quest would be. like he would just mention it in passing, but like, oh, by the way, I lost his staff. If you find it, I'll give you something, but unlikely you'll find it. Or he just talks about it. 00:51:47.58 Kurt Crenwelge And then you just have to randomly explore the sewer and then be like, this is the thing that guy was talking about. 00:51:53.43 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. It's one of those things where he just, like, doesn't even mention it as a quest. He's like, oh, I shouldn't have lost that fucking staff. I got drunk, blah, blah, blah. Tells the story. But doesn't, like, give them the quest. He can even just mention in passing. And if they put the pieces together, they can be like, oh, shit. Or if they find it, clean it up, and then go back to him for, like, another conversation, be like, where'd you find that? Where the fuck did you find my staff? 00:52:14.65 Kurt Crenwelge m Okay. and And so with our side quests, we always like to figure out what's going to be the reward and then like what's going to be the failure condition. 00:52:19.18 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:52:23.23 Kurt Crenwelge So as far as Qbert is concerned, if they're able to deal with the blockage and whatever is causing problems for him and his slime fellows, how is Qbert going to reward the party? 00:52:31.69 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:52:35.50 Kurt Crenwelge What's he going to be able to offer them? 00:52:37.16 sean (MrShickadance) That's a good question, because he doesn't really value a lot. 00:52:40.15 Kurt Crenwelge I mean, he if he's like Ariel, he collects a bunch of stuff. Is he willing to part with anything from his collection, or does he just... 00:52:45.78 sean (MrShickadance) Right, but his collection would be like, here's an old tennis shoe I found floating in the water. Isn't it awesome? And your party's going like, I'm good, actually. Thank you for the shoe, Cuber, but I need money. 00:52:57.47 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:52:57.91 sean (MrShickadance) you know um yeah he has to have something that's valuable that he doesn't know is valuable for the players to be like, what about that thing, though? where it's like Fabergé egg or something he found floating in the in this sewage. 00:53:06.55 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:53:11.13 sean (MrShickadance) Or like, you know, somebody threw something down the sewer, like ah some burglar tossed massive car... 00:53:17.02 Kurt Crenwelge do you think like another plot hook for another adventure or another side quest where it's like, Oh, you know, like the regent was murdered. And then it's like, Oh, well here's this thing I found in the sewer. And it's like, Huh, that looks menacing and odd. And it sort of, I don't, 00:53:34.04 Kurt Crenwelge Remember those rumors we were hearing and it was like, they found what they found him in the sewer and like, wait, this, ah you know, maybe, maybe it's like a a plot, a plot crumb or whatever for another quest or something, maybe possibly. 00:53:36.25 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:53:42.97 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:53:47.13 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. well Or like, um, same way that he finds like a discarded bag or something and that bag has a map or some sort of important documentation that denotes some further plot relevant stuff or even just like, 00:54:01.46 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah, because sure surely other adventurers have come into the sewers before as well, and he's picked up all their stuff, and maybe he hasn't gone through all of it if ah you know if he's like a classic hoarder. 00:54:08.12 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 00:54:12.63 Kurt Crenwelge I mean, so he he's like Ariel, but he's also maybe developing a hoarding problem or something like that. 00:54:13.34 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, yeah, he's definitely a hoarder. 00:54:17.18 sean (MrShickadance) i definitely think he has a hoarding problem. That's something we should have added in there earlier. He definitely has a hoarding problem. 00:54:22.30 Kurt Crenwelge Because he thinks everything is cool. 00:54:24.09 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, he thinks everything has value. He's one of those people, and it's like, you're wrong, Qbert. 00:54:26.43 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:54:28.93 sean (MrShickadance) Some of this stuff is just trash. um But he definitely... 00:54:32.85 Kurt Crenwelge And it's like, well, the slime doesn't eat it, so surely it must be valuable. it must be worth something. 00:54:36.86 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:54:37.10 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:54:37.82 sean (MrShickadance) I think i think the the way you handle his reward is like he'll let you take two of his his things. He'll part with two of his items and it's up to you as the party to like go through and determine what has value and what is just kind of like a tennis shoe you fish out of a lake. 00:54:45.59 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:54:53.19 sean (MrShickadance) You know what I mean? 00:54:54.52 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:54:55.03 sean (MrShickadance) I think that's a better way to handle it than like you get the coin purse or you get the big yeah expensive item in his garbage heap. 00:55:03.00 Kurt Crenwelge Right. 00:55:03.13 sean (MrShickadance) It's like you... 00:55:03.28 Kurt Crenwelge Or like, they're like, wait a minute, you're Rod. Like if they clue in with the detect, they do a detect magic when they're trying to sort and they're like, whoa, he's holding on to like a super powerful magic thing. 00:55:08.70 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:55:14.14 sean (MrShickadance) And I think that's what when I would say that thing is like more sentimental that he he has issue giving it to you because it's the thing he walks around with all the time. It's his favorite thing. So I would say like that's the one thing you get and you don't get anything from the pile. 00:55:22.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:55:26.36 sean (MrShickadance) right It's kind of like if you clue into it, you get to take that, but that's it. 00:55:31.60 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:55:31.70 sean (MrShickadance) One of those things. 00:55:32.09 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Okay, so two two things in his horde that you get to choose from, or if you clue into the the rod, the staff being the most important thing, then you can take that, but nothing else. 00:55:36.87 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 00:55:43.29 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. I think that's ah that's a fun way to do it. 00:55:44.50 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, take Okay, I like that. And then for the reverse side, what's going to be the consequence of failure or refusing the call to the adventure? So the adventurers are in the sewer. They meet Q-Bert in all the slimes and they, you know, Q-Bert's like, help me defeat this thing. And they say, no, thank you. 00:56:05.02 Kurt Crenwelge Or they tried to do it and they get defeated somehow. What are what the consequences of that? 00:56:11.83 sean (MrShickadance) ah If they fail the quest in whatever state, then whatever made the nest hatches whatever it's nesting there. 00:56:20.82 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 00:56:20.89 sean (MrShickadance) The town starts to get ah infested with it. It starts to run amok. Things become a bit more chaotic. Maybe that town just sort of gets abandoned over time if they leave it long enough. 00:56:30.14 Kurt Crenwelge o 00:56:30.78 sean (MrShickadance) Or they call in like, you know, the Kingsguard to help them deal with the infestation or... you know some Whatever they do to deal with it, the town gets infested with that creature sort of spawning constantly. 00:56:42.54 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. So, okay. Yeah. So now the town gets worse because of their failure and now they have to deal with it when it's a little more dangerous or a little more threatening. 00:56:47.93 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:56:50.45 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. Yes, there's going be like more mobs. The creatures might be bigger the longer they leave it there. There might just be fully grown versions by the time they come back. And it's like, okay, we had to fight one of them. 00:57:01.75 sean (MrShickadance) Now we had to fight six. That's fucked. 00:57:03.48 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. 00:57:04.36 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:57:05.59 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. So that, so that's if they refuse and, oh I mean, I guess maybe it's the same because I don't know. And I guess you could fail forward. Um, but I don't know. Like, so I don't know. 00:57:16.85 Kurt Crenwelge Is Cuba going to react in any particular way if they were to refuse or if they were to fail or he's just a regular guy, he's figuring things out. He's not going to necessarily be one way or the other, unless they somehow threaten the slimes or something like that. 00:57:31.77 sean (MrShickadance) I was going to say, if the infestation gets bad enough, they kill all Qbert's slimes and then he hates the party because they didn't help. 00:57:37.74 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. He, he becomes their arch enemy. 00:57:42.53 sean (MrShickadance) Well, yeah, but he becomes a guy who lives in the sewers who hates them. I don't know how much arch enemy he could be. 00:57:49.11 Kurt Crenwelge i don't know. He's the persistent guy. He's going to, he's a guy, but you know what? He's going to figure it out. And then eventually he's going to stumble on the one item. 00:57:54.05 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:57:55.91 Kurt Crenwelge That's going to be the undoing of the party. He, everything. 00:57:57.69 sean (MrShickadance) you could You could do it where it's like this whole revenge plot where he learns about the staff and he like casts magic for the first time. 00:57:59.03 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 00:58:05.41 sean (MrShickadance) And then he goes on this whole like I'm going to be a wizard track and he becomes this wizard who like shows up with a first level spell slot and tries to fight them. 00:58:05.90 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 00:58:14.52 sean (MrShickadance) I think that'd be really funny. But then also out of nowhere he drops a wall of force from from the fucking staff he has. 00:58:17.11 Kurt Crenwelge Or... 00:58:20.88 sean (MrShickadance) That'd be really funny. 00:58:23.10 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, or yeah, he just unexpectedly shows up. Like, they're on their journey. You know, they they unfortunately, you know, ah didn't do a good turn ah with Qbert, and then Qbert unexpectedly shows up and like, hey, we're in the middle of this important fight, but Qbert's like fighting the party, and and then the bad guy's like, 00:58:42.97 Kurt Crenwelge Oh, yeah, cool. Hey, you just did me a favor. Yeah, let's gang up on these guys sort of a thing. 00:58:46.97 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 00:58:47.74 Kurt Crenwelge And Qbert's like, yeah, I'm getting revenge. He doesn't maybe understand whatever's going on with the current bad guy they're fighting, but he's just like, yeah, I'm getting the party. 00:58:51.51 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, yeah. 00:58:54.39 sean (MrShickadance) I don't even think he he understands the concept of revenge. I think he's just angry at them and he's doing it because he's angry. You know, he's got kind of got that animal in him still. 00:59:02.74 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. All right. All right. Yeah. Okay. All right. So those, those seems like, uh, okay. Yeah. Very, very plausible. And yes, good old Qbert. And then as far as, uh, we do have some optional questions. If you feel like Qbert needs any more rounding out to his squared edges, um, or do you feel like Qbert's pretty well fleshed out? 00:59:27.64 sean (MrShickadance) I can go a little further with him. I think he you can have a little bit more character if you want. 00:59:32.47 Kurt Crenwelge All right. So what are the goals and motivations of Qbert as a character? 00:59:39.10 sean (MrShickadance) I honestly think he's very and invested in raising his little slimoids. I think that's... 00:59:44.31 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 00:59:45.00 sean (MrShickadance) He's like a proud papa because now that he he knows what living is like, he wants to take care of these little brainless blobs that he used to be. 00:59:53.27 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, so in a way, kind of well, I mean, it's like a Jane Goodall. like He becomes like an advocate for the slimes, and if he wherever you know the Wizards College ever invited him to lecture on slimes, he'd be like, actually, slimes are an integral part of the ecology of the world. 00:59:57.53 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:00:06.65 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:00:09.43 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Or like any adventure starting out, come down to like kill, you know, slimes to train up before they go out and venturing in the real world. He's like, what the fuck, dude? Stop. Those are my friends. 01:00:19.54 Kurt Crenwelge It's quite cruel that you're doing this. 01:00:21.38 sean (MrShickadance) You're killing my friends. 01:00:23.54 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. All right. And then how would these goals and motivations affect his Qbert's general personality? 01:00:31.42 sean (MrShickadance) Well, we we already know about the fail state. So if you if his slimes die because of your action or inaction or you harm his slimes, he goes on a vengeance quest against you that it will never end. 01:00:42.81 sean (MrShickadance) ah I think that's... That's the... 01:00:46.97 Kurt Crenwelge But otherwise, ah but otherwise his personality seems like he's just a guy. He's learning about things. He's very, he's very curious and he's like and enthusiastic and he's hungry and he's like all these things. 01:00:55.65 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. 01:00:58.81 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:00:59.06 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, he definitely wants to learn about the world. So any information you bring him or anything, you're like, oh, look at this. He's definitely like, you almost automatically succeed on roles to like persuade him if you give him information or new new toys to play with, new stuff to look at. 01:01:12.24 Kurt Crenwelge hmm. 01:01:12.41 sean (MrShickadance) i think that's a good interaction like a a good way to interact with him or like utilize your inventory to win over an NPC. Yeah. 01:01:20.02 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Do you think he, Qbert would be willing to be like a hireling? Like if the players like we love Qbert, we want to adopt him. Like, do you think Qbert would be willing to do that if he brought like some of his slimes with him and then kind of becomes like this hireling slime tamer guy? 01:01:33.13 sean (MrShickadance) I don't think... 01:01:36.44 sean (MrShickadance) I think it's more like they can't live outside the sewer. The slimes have to stay in the sewer so he can't necessarily leave and like travel with the party. 01:01:40.49 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 01:01:44.17 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:01:44.82 sean (MrShickadance) But he's like their their hometown friend. like If they ever come back to this town, they're going to be like, we got to visit Cuba while we're here. 01:01:47.32 Kurt Crenwelge ah Okay. 01:01:50.97 sean (MrShickadance) Love that guy. 01:01:51.19 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:01:52.38 sean (MrShickadance) Bring him some toys or some stuff from outside the city. 01:01:53.03 Kurt Crenwelge Ooh. 01:01:54.56 sean (MrShickadance) Okay. 01:01:55.06 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So we've already talked about how Qbert was like a hoarder, you know, maybe as he learns more about people and he learns about the concepts of like the free market and economics and coins and how they're actually worth things. there the He was like, oh, these were weird things that like I used to not think much of and they would get stuck in me sometimes. 01:02:15.42 Kurt Crenwelge Maybe even like when he turned into a real person, like a bunch of coins and other inanimate objects fell out of him. So among his collection, those are the first few things that he had. 01:02:21.56 sean (MrShickadance) flew out of his chest. 01:02:24.86 Kurt Crenwelge He's like, you're telling me that if I trade these for other things, I can get more the things I like. So maybe he slowly becomes like a weird ah yeah eccentric item merchant in the in the community or whatever. 01:02:29.62 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:02:37.75 sean (MrShickadance) He definitely has like a pile of coins when they first mix. He's like, this is the shit that my guys can't eat. And it's kind of useless. It just sits there and it's like kind of shiny. Gross. It's like pristine, like perfectly cleaned gold because it passed through a fucking ooze. 01:02:52.06 sean (MrShickadance) So it's had all the stuff like burned away off it and now it's just pure gold and metal. 01:02:55.90 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:02:56.60 sean (MrShickadance) That can be fun. 01:02:56.82 Kurt Crenwelge Or gems. Yeah. 01:02:57.78 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, gems too. 01:02:57.86 Kurt Crenwelge Other magic items. Yeah. 01:02:59.90 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, anything that a gelatinous cube would have in it, these things just pass through harmlessly and leave on the side. So he has like a little pile of useful stuff. 01:03:05.42 Kurt Crenwelge I wonder if he's also into bones too, because I guess a lot of the bones would stay unless they dissolve slowly. 01:03:11.33 sean (MrShickadance) Probably a pile of bones. Actually, there's probably a pile of bones with good stuff hidden in them like gems and coins you have to look into and see. Yeah. 01:03:19.00 Kurt Crenwelge It's like, oh, this skull has like really glowing eyes and it's because the skull just happens to so perfectly have like two gems, like two rubies sitting inside of it. 01:03:24.34 sean (MrShickadance) yeah to Yeah. 01:03:28.70 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, okay. 01:03:29.94 sean (MrShickadance) Why you rooting through the trash? 01:03:30.01 Kurt Crenwelge And then let's see. And then let's see, how would, how would Qbert, how is, how does Qbert normally interact with people? Like as far as like with his slimes, with anyone he considers, you know, family or friends or peers versus does he have enemies or rivals or, you know, anything like that? Is he like pretty nuanced or is he like pretty one note across the board? 01:03:53.14 sean (MrShickadance) I think he's nuanced in the in the form that he's like very timid but quick to trust where it's like he'll hide from you until he knows you're not going to attack him or his you know his slimes but and you don't mean them any harm necessarily but then once he knows you're not going to harm them he's just like excited to talk to another human being 01:03:59.18 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:04:17.08 sean (MrShickadance) Usually, like when you interact with him, he's like very energetic and very excited to like speak with somebody, even though his speech is like kind of weird, probably. don't know. 01:04:25.24 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, probably very alien in how he speaks. 01:04:28.57 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:04:29.69 Kurt Crenwelge Like, like, like, it well it's like someone who has like English has like a second language or like, you know, an immigrant coming to the United States and they're they're in the English classes and like they know their native language. 01:04:34.76 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:04:40.93 Kurt Crenwelge They've picked up a few phrases in English and they're trying them out, but they're like disjointed or like the emphasis is in the wrong place. 01:04:43.82 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:04:48.18 Kurt Crenwelge So that could be like a real life way to kind of figure out how to role play Q-Bert a little bit. 01:04:52.86 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:04:56.02 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Although I like to think, you know, I don't know if he, if he still has ah a remnant of how he was when he was a slime and how slimes communicate, if he just kind of like blurbles or he like makes like weird noises that like somehow the slimes understand and they're like, they're like flubber and they like happily, you know, but but but but but but bla back to him and he's like, oh, that makes me happy. 01:05:13.66 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:05:16.92 sean (MrShickadance) yeah He definitely has like vocal stems that are just kind of like bubbling sounds. 01:05:23.16 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. Yeah. 01:05:23.86 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, yeah. 01:05:23.96 Kurt Crenwelge that Okay. Yeah. that That's good to consider too. So yeah, he's just like figuring out how languages work and he's like, Oh, it's fun to have a mouth and how a mouth works. 01:05:31.22 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 01:05:35.90 Kurt Crenwelge So with his language or his accent, ah you know, obviously wherever he's based, he's probably going to hear the people above and how they're talking. So like, oh, he if he were like a ninja turtle living in the sewers of Manhattan, he would sound like a, you know, someone from Manhattan. 01:05:52.81 Kurt Crenwelge But like, how do you imagine that he would talk? 01:05:53.43 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 01:05:56.17 Kurt Crenwelge Does he have any? We've kind of discussed like the idiosyncrasies of how he would act and speak and that he's just still learning how to be a guy. 01:06:05.45 sean (MrShickadance) uh oh it depends on the environment because if it's like a big city or like a coastal town it would have a lot of different accents coming through that would probably confuse learning process all over the place like there'd probably be ah a majority one kind of accent but i think the different almost like um 01:06:08.80 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 01:06:24.60 sean (MrShickadance) almost like a Kenku where he says certain phrases in certain accents because that's the only people who ever say them, right? 01:06:28.63 Kurt Crenwelge oh 01:06:31.25 Kurt Crenwelge aha 01:06:31.32 sean (MrShickadance) Like if he hears like the guy who owns the market down the street, constantly yelling fresh fish, fresh fish in a certain voice, he's only going to be able to say fish in that way, right? If he hears the town crier going and like reporting the news, he's going to be able to say those words in that accent, kind of like more like a Kenku than just like a guy who just doesn't speak well. 01:06:48.06 Kurt Crenwelge Oh. 01:06:52.50 Kurt Crenwelge Right. But the difference being, I mean, ah again, granted the stated lore of Kangoo's are like, oh, they can only speak in mimicry because they don't possess the mental faculties to actually speak like an in intelligent sapien creature. 01:07:04.79 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:07:05.29 Kurt Crenwelge But I know I've homebrewed that away. 01:07:05.46 sean (MrShickadance) And then they're like, no, they're cursed. 01:07:07.24 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:07:07.54 sean (MrShickadance) They're cursed. It's different. Yeah. 01:07:10.81 Kurt Crenwelge But I do like the idea of like, you know, you were you were sharing like the vocal stem with the, you know, the slime like noises that he was used to. But like the mimicry or um I guess I'm thinking of like, what was it like? 01:07:22.94 Kurt Crenwelge um a Mila Jovovich's character in like the fifth element, you know, like Leeloo, multi-pass. And, you know, she's trying to like figure out how different words work or like. 01:07:30.68 sean (MrShickadance) the Exactly. 01:07:34.71 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Or as someone might say like, you know, someone who could be on the spectrum, like, oh, I hear something in a certain way and that's how I associate it. So that's how I decide to say it. 01:07:45.59 sean (MrShickadance) Exactly. 01:07:45.72 Kurt Crenwelge Or like the master from, I guess, Fallout one. 01:07:45.84 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:07:48.99 Kurt Crenwelge No, not I've only seen videos, but and I know that's Jim Cummins ah voice, but it's like modulated, like with a blend of all these different voices together. So that could be like maybe another way to do it. 01:07:58.42 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 01:08:01.62 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, it's just kind of an interesting way to to show that he's been learning based on the other people around him rather than like he learned how to talk and he has this very strange accent. It's just sort like, oh, he's listening to people through the the sewers and the grates and he's hearing these things from above and he's piecemealing language together from a community of people. 01:08:22.14 Kurt Crenwelge Wow. That's pretty cool. 01:08:23.00 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:08:23.97 Kurt Crenwelge That's pretty cool. 01:08:24.70 sean (MrShickadance) Thank Yeah. 01:08:26.90 Kurt Crenwelge And then let's see. ah What impact has Qbert made on the world? How has he shaped his local area? Hmm. 01:08:34.01 sean (MrShickadance) I think invisibly. i think if, if he's had an impact, it's gone completely unnoticed by everyone on the above ground. And that's not really like something he's trying to do. It's just no one pays attention to the sewer. 01:08:47.32 sean (MrShickadance) i don't know what the sewer below my house looks like. 01:08:47.66 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. 01:08:49.40 sean (MrShickadance) You know, it's not like I ventured down there and go through the manholes and stuff. 01:08:50.78 Kurt Crenwelge sure 01:08:53.00 sean (MrShickadance) I never think about it unless it backs up. So I think that's kind of how he exists down there where he's keeping everything moving in a way that nobody really notices. 01:09:01.85 Kurt Crenwelge And none of the city engineers or you know the the people who work for the community in maintaining the sewers are like, hmm, this part of the sewers is or or you know it's you know like extraordinarily clean or tidy. 01:09:16.38 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:09:16.54 Kurt Crenwelge or like we never We never seem to have issues in this part of the sewer. So that's why we never go over there and check it because it's like, why would we need to sort of a thing. 01:09:20.44 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:09:24.78 sean (MrShickadance) think, guess debris doesn't flow down this way, I guess. and I don't know. It's really weird, but we've never had issues with that part of the sewer, so we've never checked it. 01:09:33.75 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, definitely. Probably some of the first voices he would have ever heard. Aside from what he remembers, the wizard ever screaming out and, you know, what he's heard through the sewer grates is probably if he just he's around the sewers and he's walking cautiously, but he's like listening for the sewer workers and like what they're saying. 01:09:38.70 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:09:51.08 Kurt Crenwelge And so that'd be kind of interesting. 01:09:51.42 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, just repeats it. 01:09:55.22 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, because then if someone's at like, wait a minute, I heard, were you down in the sewers? It's like, no, I haven't been in the sewers today. i'm I've just been in the pub drinking because it's my off day. And it's like, oh, that's weird. It's like why we like we heard you in the sewers earlier, but you've been here all day. 01:10:09.32 Kurt Crenwelge So maybe like a a first clue for someone. 01:10:10.60 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, yeah. It's almost like a horror story where you hear like your friend from down the hallway and they're like, I wasn't there. like, what? You were, i'm sorry. That's probably how the myth got started where it's like, there's something down in the sewers. 01:10:22.95 sean (MrShickadance) We don't go down there. 01:10:23.54 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:10:24.35 sean (MrShickadance) It'll steal your voice. You know, something like that. 01:10:26.68 Kurt Crenwelge Like it or whatever. 01:10:27.51 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:10:27.80 Kurt Crenwelge Not that I've ever watched it. 01:10:27.83 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Exactly. Like Pennywise. 01:10:29.40 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:10:29.62 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:10:31.13 Kurt Crenwelge It's all fun down here. 01:10:32.31 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:10:32.53 Kurt Crenwelge Isn't that the thing he says? 01:10:33.03 sean (MrShickadance) You'll float too. 01:10:34.45 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. All right. And then let's see. Final optional question. Does Qbert have any problems that prevent him from being a bigger player on the stage? 01:10:45.05 sean (MrShickadance) he used to be a slime. He used to be a big gelatinous cube. 01:10:47.24 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:10:49.54 sean (MrShickadance) doesn't know doors work. I genuinely think it's just like his inability to navigate modern society just keeps him hidden down here because he's like afraid of some of the things he sees up there. 01:10:58.20 Kurt Crenwelge e 01:11:02.71 Kurt Crenwelge Sure. Yeah. 01:11:03.19 sean (MrShickadance) Like I mentioned going outside as like I used to not have a brain and then I go outside and I see a ship on the ocean and like I'm not coming out here ever again because that's terrifying. 01:11:13.72 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:11:13.75 sean (MrShickadance) Or like a thunderstorm and you're like, ah. 01:11:14.04 Kurt Crenwelge i 01:11:15.74 sean (MrShickadance) ah 01:11:16.73 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely thinking of the fifth element now because that's kind of how Mila Jovovich's characters presented where she's like, or Daryl Hannah in, in splash where it's like, I'm new in a human world and I don't know how anything works or how to relate or understand. 01:11:30.26 sean (MrShickadance) Exactly. 01:11:32.25 Kurt Crenwelge And then any terrible thing that they experience is like physically recall recoiling to them and like horrifying. Yeah. 01:11:40.02 sean (MrShickadance) Kind of like a child, but in like a grown adult's body. 01:11:40.23 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:11:42.56 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:11:42.65 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Okay. Well, it sounds like we've made quite the guy with Qbert. And I think it's, I think it's time we take him into a random encounter. 01:11:48.73 sean (MrShickadance) Q-Bert. 01:12:01.24 Kurt Crenwelge And final ad read thing here to insert for later editing, but it's Zencaster, the platform I'm using that helps me to record these episodes and get them all out there to you. So if you're looking to start your own podcast, be sure to go to Zencaster.com forward slash pricing. 01:12:17.37 Kurt Crenwelge Use my code side KQ podcast, get 30% off your first month of any paid Zencaster plan, all the good stuff and supporting the sponsor helps the podcast. So thanks all you transcription readers. Ha-cha-cha-cha. 01:12:31.89 Kurt Crenwelge All right. So we're now here in the part of the show where we get to do a bit of ah a role play, a vignette, a scene with the character we made here today. And I think i think Sean is going to do a fantastic job portraying Q-Bert. 01:12:39.58 sean (MrShickadance) beignier 01:12:44.89 Kurt Crenwelge But the question that I have is, who am I going to be in this scene? Am I going to be one of the slimes? 01:12:49.93 sean (MrShickadance) You're a little jelly boy. 01:12:51.70 Kurt Crenwelge Am I going to be a little jelly boy? Am I going to be 01:12:53.49 sean (MrShickadance) You're my little jelly son. 01:12:54.97 Kurt Crenwelge a sanitation worker that's uh in the sewers am i the wizard who turned uh you know qbert into a man in the first place or am i one of my adventuring characters that comes across and meets qbert uh for the first time and gets to to show his uh new humanity off too 01:13:14.75 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, who do you want to be? Is there like a one, one that you're dying to be a part of one, one that you're willing to embody? 01:13:17.30 Kurt Crenwelge well i mean 01:13:22.17 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, well, i mean, I've certainly got the Rolodex of podcast characters. So if I run through them real quick, there's Duncan. He's the recklessly brave adventure for hire. No task too small, no feat too daring. 01:13:35.00 Kurt Crenwelge ah He's the happy-go-lucky fighter guy. We've got Sonya, who is the warrior woman who started off as a barbarian and then multiclassed into a paladin who serves to redeem the undead. 01:13:38.71 sean (MrShickadance) citizen 01:13:45.37 sean (MrShickadance) Of course. 01:13:48.47 Kurt Crenwelge We have ah Chrisley, who is the herbalist botanist wood elf druid, who started, you know, druid and then multiclass into a cleric who serves living memory. 01:13:59.34 Kurt Crenwelge There's Korak, the lawful evil arcane trickster roguish dwarf. We've got Orion, who's the astral elf illusionist wizard. 01:14:10.04 Kurt Crenwelge There is Agape, who's the lilac colored tiefling sorlock. So she started off as a wild magic. 01:14:14.97 sean (MrShickadance) Damn. 01:14:17.44 Kurt Crenwelge sorcerer and then multi-classed into a archfey warlock pact um with it with the arch fiend that she incorrectly refers to as prosperina but real name proserpina um we've also got a life spell the necromancer he is a forest gnome necromancer and he's got a whole crew of skelly boys with him and a big uh undead skeleton dog 01:14:34.35 sean (MrShickadance) That's a crazy name. 01:14:42.14 Kurt Crenwelge um and then we've got amblin mithril shaper she's a ah young bard dwarf lady uh fresh on her adventures and those are all the characters that i have made but if none of those sound good we can always make up someone 01:14:57.66 sean (MrShickadance) It's great to the list all those off and they'd be like, well, if none of those work, it's such a robust. 01:15:02.10 Kurt Crenwelge yeah well i mean if none of them inspire you yeah we're always down to make new ones to add to the rolodex 01:15:04.48 sean (MrShickadance) No, I'm good. 01:15:07.21 sean (MrShickadance) I'm just curious if there was like a role, like one of those vignettes of like the wizard, the the sanitation worker, one of the adventurers, like, is there any one that you feel would fit one of these quick role play? 01:15:16.57 Kurt Crenwelge m Well, I mean, you're the guest, so it's like it's your choice of what kind of scene you think would best showcase Qbert in how you're going to, you know, this is your this is your time to shine. 01:15:21.64 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, shit. 01:15:27.96 Kurt Crenwelge You know, how do you want Qbert to shine? 01:15:31.00 sean (MrShickadance) I think we would probably do is the... I want to leave the origin sort of ambiguous just in case anyone wants to bring this character into their game. 01:15:37.42 Kurt Crenwelge OK. Sure. Yeah. 01:15:41.46 sean (MrShickadance) So let's do the sanitation worker. 01:15:44.60 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, yeah. Sanitation worker. Got it. Okay. um So would you care to set the scene or shall I set the scene? 01:15:51.81 sean (MrShickadance) don't you do it? I've talked too much. 01:15:54.55 Kurt Crenwelge All right. Fair enough. Okay, so where we begin? ah It is a busy metropolis. We'll say that it is a seaside city. 01:16:05.72 Kurt Crenwelge um So it certainly has very extensive sewer networks, you know, plenty of ah operations with ah water elemental engines helping to modernize this ah this capital a city in the region, um you know, because they can boast of indoor plumbing and, you know, cleaner streets and all this because of the extensive work that they've done in these sewers built on ancient ah dungeon and passages of of the city before, kind of like Rome being just built on layers and layers and layers. 01:16:40.11 sean (MrShickadance) Nice. 01:16:40.14 Kurt Crenwelge So that's how this, this is how this power center has been operating for centuries. 01:16:40.41 sean (MrShickadance) nice 01:16:45.14 Kurt Crenwelge In centuries, it was that Qbert dwelled as a gelatinous cube and then found himself now a man. um So it's probably like a standard working day. 01:16:57.62 Kurt Crenwelge um There's a pair of workers um that are working, but the one that we're following will split off. And he says to his comrade, ah, yes, you go down that passage and I've got this one. 01:17:09.24 Kurt Crenwelge um He's, you know, a human as well. We'll say it's a very human centric society. He's got a nice sturdy helm, but he does have like a candle, a lantern that he's fashioned on the front, like a miner's helmet. 01:17:22.16 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:17:23.03 Kurt Crenwelge So it can project a beam of light forward. So he's always looking around and trying to spot where there's like cracks or there's infrastructure damage and stuff like that. So He's got like a big, ah sturdy iron pole with them that he's just, he's tapping the ground and tapping the ceiling in certain parts, just trying to make sure that all the infrastructure um is doing well. 01:17:44.82 Kurt Crenwelge And, you know, he's like humming to himself and and saying his name like, oh, Patrick, ah you know, you've you've been... working hard and you know just just think you know another another day or two and you've got your furlough you've got your break and you'll go with sally out to the country and it'll be a grand time um so as he's doing this what are we finding qbert doing as patrick is scanning looking in the dark and tapping the the walls and the floor and all this checking uh the infrastructure 01:18:16.60 sean (MrShickadance) I think you would find him curled up in one of the smaller, like, passageways. 01:18:23.61 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:18:23.64 sean (MrShickadance) just Just big enough for him to, like, lay in, like, a hammock almost. 01:18:23.91 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:18:27.83 sean (MrShickadance) As one of the oozes just very briefly catches a glimpse of the light and starts to hurriedly wait make its way over towards Qbert to try and wake him up. 01:18:43.35 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. um So we'll say that Patrick, you know, he's a commoner. He's a sanitation worker. So not especially trained up and ah um not especially trained in his skills. 01:18:50.46 sean (MrShickadance) easy to kill. 01:18:55.72 Kurt Crenwelge So we'll just say he rolls a D20 on his perception check. He doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary as far as any slimes are concerned. Maybe he's starting to get an inkling that like, 01:19:02.74 sean (MrShickadance) Okay. 01:19:05.56 Kurt Crenwelge I thought I was, I was like, it was a fortnight ago and I was in this part and it was, it was a little dirtier then, but, oh, I wonder if, if, um you know, if, if Riley had been down here, if he had, you know, done any cleaning and, you know, Patrick has like his basic stuff with him, his basic tools that he needs to be able to make any repairs and any basic cleaning sorts of stuff. 01:19:22.41 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:19:26.39 Kurt Crenwelge um You know, very common magic sorts of items on his person. um so yeah he's not seeing anything um like out of the ordinary so that's definitely a clue and because i think the last time you maybe had suspicions that like oh you know the the thieves were operating in the sewers again or there was bandits or just like some punk kids and they were like you know making graffiti and all this stuff so um maybe patrick is gently calling out 01:19:50.71 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. I think what he would... 01:19:54.78 Kurt Crenwelge Or like talking louder is like maybe trying to preemptively be like, hey, I'm coming. So if you're doing something, you better watch out because I'm coming down the passageway. 01:20:05.27 sean (MrShickadance) I think what he would notice first as he enters the next chamber he's walking into is that the graffiti he once like saw there, the last pass through, has been erased like it was never there in the first place. 01:20:19.97 Kurt Crenwelge That's so odd. Yeah. Okay. and But, and there was the mark over there. So yeah, he's, he's starting to look around and then how long is it before? Like he'll actually see like this hammock. Is this like where his, is this like where his hoarding nest is or is that in another part? And he's just taking a snooze in this section or whatever. 01:20:41.53 sean (MrShickadance) I think that's probably in a harder to access section that he would need to like lead somebody back to rather than just, know, I think this is just a napping spot. 01:20:45.05 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:20:49.73 sean (MrShickadance) He thought no, it was going to be safe for the next few hours, but turns out he was wrong. 01:20:53.60 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:20:54.78 sean (MrShickadance) Um, and I think, 01:20:55.03 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:20:57.82 sean (MrShickadance) What this sanitation worker would probably see is like just a real quick like maybe it's a trick of the light. Maybe he just turned around too fast, but he sees like the leg of a person just sort of vanishing out of sight up one of these side tunnels. 01:21:14.59 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:21:15.32 sean (MrShickadance) ah Followed quickly by like a slide. 01:21:18.71 Kurt Crenwelge Okay, yeah, and Patrick is kind of like, oh, that's weird. And so maybe now he begins to tap his pole a little louder, and he's just kind of like, hello? is there is there someone down here? you know, this is the kings the king's orders, you know, that ah you know the sewers are meant for sanitation, not meant for loitering. 01:21:37.97 Kurt Crenwelge Hello? 01:21:38.22 sean (MrShickadance) he'll then hear the echoey sound of hello is there someone down here these sewers aren't meant for just repeating exactly what he just said 01:21:48.66 Kurt Crenwelge And then, ah ah yeah, he probably says, like, ah he invokes the name of a saint and he, like, does a prayer gesture to himself. He's like, oh, but yes be still in my heart. Because he's like, the echoes aren't normally supposed to be like that. 01:22:03.35 Kurt Crenwelge ah So he'll, like, yeah, delay like, severely delayed. 01:22:03.50 sean (MrShickadance) I feel like they're delayed. 01:22:06.61 Kurt Crenwelge he's So he's, like, making his way forward. and he's And he's kind of like, Riley, you better not be playing any tricks on me now. And he gets he tries to get closer to the source of where the delayed echo came from. 01:22:18.87 sean (MrShickadance) the I think he would definitely hear like the pitter pattering of someone's feet in the water. Kind like moving around in the sewer around him. Almost like a, kind of like a horror story I'm picturing now. Qbert's kind of like cryptid. 01:22:32.95 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, so Patrick is continuing to look around. ah You know, his his head is just on a swivel, and so this beam of light is just constantly going. So, I don't know, is there is there a point where he's going to catch Qbert in the beam of the light, or is he always just missing him? Like, he hears a sound, he looks, and then, like, he's just barely missing it. 01:22:52.54 sean (MrShickadance) I think you would catch him at like a, like around a corner, just like partially staring out from around the corner, just watching him. 01:23:01.62 Kurt Crenwelge so he gets he gets scared and he holds the the the his ah his rod is you know out and he's like hey who who who are you what what are you doing down here sort of a thing 01:23:14.25 sean (MrShickadance) he would hear in like a different sort of accented voice, Hubert say nothing much, just looking. 01:23:23.94 Kurt Crenwelge you're not supposed to be down here this the sewers are off limits don't you know 01:23:28.42 sean (MrShickadance) You're not supposed to be down here. The sewers are off limits, don't you know? 01:23:34.07 Kurt Crenwelge my name is Patrick and I work for the city. And you so now he's like, tries to puff himself up and be like braver. And so he starts like approach Qbert, like with this sense of authority, even though he's terrified as he's doing this. 01:23:49.59 sean (MrShickadance) I think then Hubert makes the sound of some sort of like quick movement and then a facsimile of what sounds like splashing acid. 01:24:02.41 sean (MrShickadance) It's what he thinks intimidation sounds like. And then a few other gelatinous, like not gelatinous cubes, but like a few other of the jelly sort of like move into sight. 01:24:06.26 Kurt Crenwelge ah 01:24:12.16 sean (MrShickadance) Almost like he's summoning oozes to threaten this guy a little bit. 01:24:16.73 Kurt Crenwelge ah So Patrick will now like now starting to see the presence of oozes, uh, uh, you know, yeah probably. Well, I mean, I think, I think Patrick is a good guy. So he would call out, he'd be like, Hey, mister, look out. You're the oozes. Watch out. You got to get out of there. 01:24:35.16 sean (MrShickadance) ah Oh, God. 01:24:35.62 Kurt Crenwelge He's trying to like lead him to safety. Like, come on, you got to get out of here. 01:24:38.55 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:24:38.84 Kurt Crenwelge Sort of a thing. 01:24:39.75 sean (MrShickadance) I wonder how much of a practice this is if he knows to like, if he knows what that means and if he can utilize it to be like, I can just run away and he'll probably also scatter. You know what mean? 01:24:50.07 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. 01:24:51.16 sean (MrShickadance) I think what Qbert would try and do in that moment is look to him and pretend to be scared and then dart down in a different direction. Like he's running away from the oozes, but also this guy. 01:25:01.52 Kurt Crenwelge Hmm. Okay. Yeah. And if the oozes like don't have their, their tamer around, so to speak, and like his light is still focused on them and the oozes like know that like, 01:25:07.42 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:25:10.90 sean (MrShickadance) They just keep moving towards the guy. 01:25:12.63 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. So now Patrick is he like, I wasn't looking for this today. And so then Patrick will start going the other way. And he's like, he pulls out a map hastily that he starts making a note here of like slime will need to hire adventurers to clear out or, you know, call in the big guns. 01:25:29.90 Kurt Crenwelge Essentially, he writes his note down. I'm like, okay, bend C junction F. 01:25:31.44 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:25:34.78 Kurt Crenwelge This is where, you know, we're going to have to call in something. So he's like, ah, I'm getting out of here. I'm not losing my trip out with Sally now. And so, He like runs and disappears. And as he's disappearing, what's Qbert doing? 01:25:44.32 sean (MrShickadance) I'm three days from retirement. 01:25:47.72 Kurt Crenwelge So Qbert can hear that like Patrick has retreated and stuff. 01:25:48.06 sean (MrShickadance) ah 01:25:51.70 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, I think like he gives it a beat, wait until Patrick like fully is leaving. 01:25:57.18 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 01:25:57.21 sean (MrShickadance) And then he just sort of pokes his head back out. And then you hear the sound of a seagull cawing because that's what his laugh sounds like. 01:26:02.08 Kurt Crenwelge Mm. 01:26:04.39 sean (MrShickadance) That's what he thinks laughing is from below the sea level. So that's kind of what his laugh sounds a little bit like from this close to the ocean. 01:26:09.02 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. 01:26:13.46 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. And then as the camera like settles on Q-Bert for like the last beat of the scene, what would Q-Bert then be doing now that this problem has been scared away? 01:26:27.19 sean (MrShickadance) I think he starts playing with the oozes like they're little ah beach balls. Like he starts like just throwing them around and they bounce around like the walls. Almost like you know how kids pick up or adults pick up kids and throw them in a pool. 01:26:38.79 Kurt Crenwelge Mm-hmm. 01:26:39.34 sean (MrShickadance) That's kind of what he's doing with these spheres of just material. And he just sort of like there will like one will climb up on his shoulders and he'll take it and like throw it into one of the water piles and then it'll slowly make its way back to him as he picks up another one and throws around. 01:26:57.34 sean (MrShickadance) Just sort of like that's how they show their appreciation of like you did a good job. That was awesome. That was fun. 01:27:09.56 Kurt Crenwelge And scene. So there we go. We had Q-Bert live in a scene. So what did you think it was like getting to be Q-Bert? 01:27:16.54 sean (MrShickadance) I think he's fun. I think he's a little bit creepier than I first even pictured, but it was a figure of authority, so he probably wasn't going to get too involved with that. 01:27:26.14 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, true. I mean, yeah, could it could have certainly been any number of different ways, like if it was like, you know, a group of bandits stalking in or like a pirate or any other number of things coming in the sewers. 01:27:37.11 Kurt Crenwelge But, you know, ah the the people who are going most likely be found in a sewer, aside from ruffians and ne'er-do-wells, are going to be the people who are actually hired to maintain the infrastructure. 01:27:46.01 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:27:48.56 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. It feels like more of a game he plays with the people who go down there regularly rather than like, you know, he was comfortable enough to be seen, but not comfortable enough to like have an interaction with that person, especially when they're writing down, like, gotta kill all the slimes on their way out. 01:28:00.66 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 01:28:04.60 Kurt Crenwelge right yeah so now i'm thinking from like the first portal game he kind of has like the aura of like rat man or whatever like he less he leaves like the secret markings on the wall and is like the one who tells shit yeah ah 01:28:11.29 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 01:28:15.86 sean (MrShickadance) What's the reverse of that? he erases the markings on the wall. So it's like, but even if they're like, you know, ah we they leave like arrows on them. 01:28:20.41 Kurt Crenwelge okay yeah so this 01:28:24.80 sean (MrShickadance) They're like construction marks or something like, you know, repair this wall, big red X or something. When they come back, it's gone. And they're like, are we in the right tunnel? You know, that kind of thing. 01:28:32.66 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Is this is this where we need to be to fix the thing, maintain the pipes and all that? 01:28:34.81 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:28:37.51 sean (MrShickadance) Mm-hmm. 01:28:38.42 Kurt Crenwelge I also think it's interesting there at the end of the of the ah of the random encounter. You were like, oh, he like picks up the slime and like throws him in the water. So like, does he have like, um you know, I guess the slime if he's like a slime tamer, like whether that's a swarm keeper or like a druid thing. 01:28:54.28 Kurt Crenwelge Does he just have like, na ah like acid resistance? So like when he's interacting with the slimes, they're not actively like trying to burn his flesh and stuff like that. Oh, 01:29:03.94 sean (MrShickadance) Well, think not all the slimes are acidic to touch. I think some of them are just like gelatinous balls, you know? 01:29:07.00 Kurt Crenwelge okay. 01:29:10.04 Kurt Crenwelge Ah, okay. 01:29:10.46 sean (MrShickadance) um Yeah. So some of them just, I don't know, they have that sort of like 01:29:15.10 Kurt Crenwelge Some of them are like flubbers is what you're saying. 01:29:16.44 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah, like non-Newtonian liquid spheres. You just kind of like throw them around. Some of them you don't want to touch because they will burn your hands off. But he knows those ones and they stay in a different part of the tunnel sometimes. 01:29:22.97 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:29:26.36 Kurt Crenwelge Okay. But yeah, now that we've made it through the random encounter, um yeah, just like get, you know, you thought this was a silly idea coming into this, but now that you've had a chance to kind of like bounce it off and, you know, role play Qbert in a scene, just like, you know, what are you hoping for your little guy now? 01:29:38.49 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. 01:29:43.51 Kurt Crenwelge What are you hoping for Qbert's? 01:29:45.28 sean (MrShickadance) I kind of love him, honestly. I kind of want him find that adventuring group to come through and bring him stuff from the outside world and, you know, maybe maybe tell the city to not deal with oozes. Maybe convince the city council that oozes can actually be healthy for the sewer and stop sending guys down there to try and kill him. 01:30:03.99 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, is Qbert going to be someone that you're going to introduce in your game? 01:30:09.34 sean (MrShickadance) I probably will, yeah. I feel like going to put Cuba to one of my cities because I like him. 01:30:13.72 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, I feel like Qbert is a great addition to any major city, whether they're landlocked or they're a seaside town. um Yeah, I think Qbert's a great addition. 01:30:19.84 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. Yeah. 01:30:22.08 Kurt Crenwelge And it's just so fun, you know, with ah such these high level spells of like true polymorph. It's like, well, what happens when you use them on, you know, a normally dangerous creature and you just you just turn them into a guy? 01:30:31.03 sean (MrShickadance) yeah 01:30:33.99 Kurt Crenwelge Like, what is their life now? 01:30:34.90 sean (MrShickadance) yeah Well, to a level 20 character, Gelatinous is not threatening. 01:30:35.77 Kurt Crenwelge So. 01:30:39.13 sean (MrShickadance) So he's kind of just like, I've fucked this guy. Get him out of my sight. and He turned him into a dude. And it's like, well, that guy has to live a life now. 01:30:45.50 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. 01:30:45.69 sean (MrShickadance) You can't just like use a ninth level spell and walk away. 01:30:45.82 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah. What do we do now? 01:30:48.65 sean (MrShickadance) That guy is alive now forever. 01:30:51.13 Kurt Crenwelge Yes. Yeah, for sure. 01:30:53.23 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. It's crazy. 01:30:54.97 Kurt Crenwelge And now that we're through the other side and we're here in final thoughts, you know, I always like to leave this part of the show to the guests. So like any, um you know, what, how did you think your time was spent on the podcast today? 01:31:08.18 sean (MrShickadance) I thought it was a fun time. This is a concept I've had before, but I've never actually like tried to sit down and think it through like what it would look like. And this was ah a good little exercise in fleshing out a ah thought that I've been just letting sit and fester in there for a while. So that's that was fun. I enjoyed myself. 01:31:26.33 Kurt Crenwelge Yeah, very cool. and And hopefully, you know, maybe on your on your reels and your videos and TikToks and all that, you'll you'll share more nuggets of wisdom as you've dwelt on Qbert and you share more about his life. 01:31:40.54 Kurt Crenwelge You know, again, obviously everything that, you know, we can use and borrow and steal and such, the lore can always be altered, but in your head as you're developing his headcanon or like where he lives and operates in your world, it'd be really cool to 01:31:47.80 sean (MrShickadance) Oh, yeah. 01:31:53.94 Kurt Crenwelge maybe see the series of like, oh, this is what Qbert found in the sewers this week. And you're like, this is how I could have my idea of like, you know, the the the the cool magic item or whatever of the week or whatever. 01:32:05.21 sean (MrShickadance) Yeah. that's That's kind of fun. Especially in a bigger city. If it's a big city, people lose shit in the sewers all the time. So it's fun little NPC mechanic. 01:32:12.66 Kurt Crenwelge Very true. And I would certainly be remiss if here at the the closing moments of the show, if I didn't leave the soapbox, the stage, the microphone, the platform and the what's a who's it to you. So where can you be found on social media? What projects do you have going on What passions or causes do we need to be made aware of? Let us know. Lay it all on us. 01:32:36.86 sean (MrShickadance) ah I am found pretty much everywhere under Mr. Shikadance. There's underscores and stuff, but if you just type that into the search bar and hit find, you'll probably find me. If you find me in one place, there's a link tree to go everywhere else. um I am looking forward to streaming on Twitch soon, so find me there. It's just going to be kind of chill, world-building D&D stuff, answering people's questions if they have any, while I try and build out a new setting. 01:33:05.27 sean (MrShickadance) So that should be fun. 01:33:05.78 Kurt Crenwelge With Q-Berts. 01:33:07.00 sean (MrShickadance) We, Qbert will probably be there. 01:33:09.02 Kurt Crenwelge yeah 01:33:09.02 sean (MrShickadance) I would actually love to include him in there. um And I don't necessarily have any projects other than the streaming thing right now, but I am very passionate about getting out there and DMing. So if you haven't done it yet, this is your call to action. I'm demanding, currently demanding you... 01:33:27.99 sean (MrShickadance) Use your time listening to this podcast. Put it to good use. Make some NPCs and fill your world fill your own world, your homebrew world or a source book setting with your own NPCs and run a game for your friends. 01:33:41.85 sean (MrShickadance) Nothing will go wrong. I promise you'll do fine. 01:33:46.90 Kurt Crenwelge amazing call to action I like it and there we go we've done it we've made the podcast episode Mr. 01:33:48.46 sean (MrShickadance) Hell yeah. 01:33:54.66 Kurt Crenwelge Sean thank you so much for being a guest on sidekicks and sidequests I can't wait to have you back on making even more interesting NPCs 01:33:55.96 sean (MrShickadance) Of course. 01:34:02.90 sean (MrShickadance) Hell yeah. I'll bring a real person next time.