I love this episode! Especially getting a glimpse of a new side of Norren 😆

This was a strange one. Not bad in any sense that I can think of, other than the fact that similar to 11 there seemed to be an odd pace about this. Thoughts near the end here but first of course the highlights: 3:00 Poor Lirial is confused and stuck with this bunch of weirdos 5:45 “Don’t ask questions” is definitely both the character and gm talking. 7:07 Norrin loves exotic food and is enjoying this immensely 8:30 “Captain have you ever known a land full of good things and wonder?” Renya laying out how out of character Norrin is acting. (and its hilarious) 8:55 Secret relationship chats “What do you see in this man?” 11:40 LORE Finally getting the full names of all 6 gems 19:30 It was at that moment Hannah knew she messed up. 21:00 History of the elven nation 23:09 Respect the Batman transition 25:30 GM quiet singing 29:05 GM continuing to break awkward pauses with singing 32:15 Pearl realizing she might be dumber than she thought and causing a rather large hole to appear in the fourth wall (Gabes direct eye contact/eyebrow wiggling at the audience) 33:50 GM getting to reveal something that could have happened had different player choices been made 34:23 Duncle 35:35 “You can do better” “I really cant!” 38:40 Hmm…curiouser and curiouser 40:40 “Where did you get that it sounds like a cursed item” four sessions later finding out they might have been scammed (Actually working theory has to do with the gems weird timey wimey nonsense) 46:20 Poor Poe 48:15 Shadow and the owl bears weird relationship 53:15 Jaren needs therapy. Badly. 54:15 The reveal 55:20 “I dont know if youre catching the undertone but I dont think everythings good” 59:12 More awkward moment breaking with GM singing 59:38 “Captain I think you need to shut it” 1:00:20 Jarens lullaby (best part of the episode) 1:02:00 Shadow mosh pit. 1:08:29 Bit of dragon lore/explanation for Mutys knowledge 1:19:20 Bit of kinda cute rp here. 1:28:35 The horse puns are real 1:31:30 Smell the color 9 1:40:56 Helpful metagaming Character highlights: So first gotta point out the fun NPC(s) this time around in Harmon and Dorian. Harmon being played up as someone who rather likes to “break the tension by singing” and his cute quick friendship with Pearl is rather entertaining. He also seems to be one of the most “sane” of the LORE dropping NPCs so far with only a bit of bias towards the dragons. (Im not entirely sure why the Circle has such a strong dislike for all dragons but given they almost destroyed Javros I guess it makes sense) He didnt really seem to dodge any of the questions thrown at him and actually played more of a helpful role than anyone theyve met so far. (Possibly because hes the first one to not just appear and then quickly peace out there after) He also didnt seem to hold it against Shadow for not trusting him even though Shadow obviously did not come across friendly towards him. We only meet Dorian briefly near the end but Im already liking the fact that he seems to be pretty down to earth if a bit distracted by his research. He reminds me a bit of the professor in the library from Avatar though I get a different hard to explain vibe from him as well. He was also surprisingly neutral despite the Captains nonsense of “He should know who you are” (As if it really makes a difference that shes royalty given they are outside of their home) Speaking of the Captain wow did he have a bit of an odd character arc this time around. Not only did we find out Norrin is actually a huge fan of exotic foods, but we also got to see him kind of bond with Shadow. Yes Shadows reveal last time came as a surprise to him, but he quickly switched into “father/ older brother” mode towards Shadow encouraging him albeit in a very awkward way. (Which is broken only by the GMs song) Now if only there was a way to keep his foot out of his mouth and as Renya states “shut it” he might actually come across as likeable. Its obvious Renya is exhausted with the captains antics and this journey as a whole. At this point her main goal seems to be “get back home and get as much sorted out as possible” Expedited by the fact that her scrying has revealed that there is a much bigger threat to her family than before. While she herself may not admit it she is probably the closest thing to an actual “leader” the group has. I also love her dynamic with Lirial going from “Im sorry that I misjudged you” to “tentative friends” Lirial still doesnt get a lot of moments to shine this time around though her conversations with Renya on the side and her actions towards the end in the library show that at least she is still able to participate in the overall narrative. As to Pearl…Pearl having to reveal her backstory a second time within a short span of time, and it feels like shes already having to give up on hiding it. It does make one wonder if given the sense that Mutys could still very well scry on her that Cedric may already know about her secret as well, and I think that was part of her realization during the important conversation with Harmon. (Which again her odd quick friendship with Harmon was very cute) Feel like Pearl has a lot of soul searching to do over the course of the rest of the journey. And then theres poor poor Jaren… While his antics with Shadow were truly laughable and fun its just as Renya said Jaren *really* needs therapy at this point. The reveal that his Duncle is back with his mom now just serves the purpose of adding salt to his still fresh wounds. I dont think he even knows who he is anymore he is just rolling with things as they come now. Even if he doesnt quite accept it I think he has “found family” in the odd group he is traveling with now. (Which feels really tropey but at the same time so sweet also reminds me of a certain other series) I think this is definitely going to add some emotional stakes down the road when the crew finally meet up with duncle again. Finally of course there is Shadow who really I have to give Krieg props for playing a teenage character so well. Shadow clearly (as he has stated himself) has no idea what he is doing. His distrust of Harmons group lead to tension at first but it worked out in the end. Funny that the “monk assassin” who punches ALOT is also the resident cinnamon roll of the group. Must protec at all costs as Renya states. His character is clearly going through growth in more than one way. (And SO EXCITED to get to see his backstory in full view in the coming episodes!!!) So yeah while this episode/session was a bit unconventional in many ways, I feel like it had some really great moments and even more fun setup for things to come. The characters are really getting into the thick of it at this point and I cant help but feel like the pace is really starting to double down with them finally finding a way to get somewhere outside of the desert theyve been wandering for…well technically the majority of the campaign so far. As stated cant wait to see whats upcoming as there has been SO much set up at this point and there are many many places the characters could end up going in the coming sessions. Also excited to meet more NPCs related to character backstories and continue to unravel the world right alongside the players :) Until next time!