Encounter Party - The Legacy Episodes

Encounter Party - The Legacy Episodes carries Campaign 1 of Encounter Party, a Dungeons & Dragons game set in Ravnica, the city of Magic: the Gathering. The campaign was written by Brian David Judkins, and players call Brian by name when the dice are on their minds. The city comes through first. Characters walk by moonlight toward a mansion district, look for a way topside to a fourth precinct and set out to infiltrate the Azorius Prison. Intrigue powers the plot. Lazov, spymaster of House Dimir, fears he may be one of five conspirators and may have deleted his own memories, which could hold the plans of Malfus Reed. Over all of it hangs Merit Lage, a shapeless mass whose claws jut out of ichor and whose head stretches farther than anyone expects. In World's End the party fights her: she lands a bite for 23 piercing damage, fails a wisdom save, and Lorzach clutches an orb as he tries to hold her in place. Lorzach stands out in the party. He sheds spores when wounded, and at another point he takes a Staff of Withering to a mirror prison that Darius Vane planted in a basement, which frees Fikara. The mechanics stay in plain view. Perixx creeps up a staircase checking for pressure plates and trip wires and rolls an eight, so it takes a teammate's fifteen to spot the trip wires on the steps. In Lorzatch, Lock, and Key, the table stops to work out exactly what paralysis does, down to automatic failed saves and every hit counting as a crit. Jokes land in the gaps. A glowing cube becomes the 'geodisco', and the Dice of Fate wriggle between a character's toes before granting a minute of faster spellcasting. Even the plot has a comic streak, including a demolition order halted because of fungus. The recap that opens Refried Leftovers (Pt. 3) finds the heroes on the run from someone framing them for murders, with one last clue leading to their longtime rival Mr. Frankie Peanuts. Recaps like that, introduced with 'Last time on Encounter Party', open several episodes and help a listener rejoin a story already underway. The cold open of The Sacrifice Effect describes Ravnica's streets overrun by undead hordes. The episodes also point outward, to a second campaign made as a television show for the Dungeons & Dragons Adventures channel and to a Facebook group said to be full of conspiracy theories. The credits name Will Malonez for sound capture and original effects, and Ned Donovan and Katie Brough for edits and mixing. A warning at the start flags very strong language and graphic violence, and the table talk bears it out.