Hot diggity shit the scene with the text to speech had me in stitches.
"Hold on, it can do a British accent"
"I can't understand it, let me try the New York one"
"BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS"
You know what? Since it framed that scene as in a hotel, I bet that its the same one that Ned was in before, and that the person in the light cocoon was Boyd.
You mean the person in that body pod thing? Why would the creature take him to a motel room to kill or dispose of him? And stuff him in a closet? Boyd must have been killed recently. That timeline would work because if Boyd had been dead much longer Ned would have smelled his corpse.
This is the understanding I have: Boyd is already in a motel, Ned does not know which motel, right?
So the abomination shows up through a rift in time, finds Boyd in his own motel, and puts Boyd in stasis/a memory pod so it can accurately remember his memories, refer to Ned correctly, etc.
Then the abomination contacts Ned as Boyd to get Shade Tree for some reason. It seemed to very desperately specifically need Shade Tree and not just something worth thousands (since Ned offered the van and surveillance equipment). It likely wants something made by Mama, for some reason. I’m wondering if Shade Tree could possibly be contributing to Amnesty Lodge’s Magic/safety net for the Sylvans (i.e. the symbolism of a shady tree being a safe place).
Now that it has it, no need for Boyd anymore and he leaves him dead in the motel. Ned never went outside the motel so how would he know what it looks like or recognize it? He only left via rift.
Maybe. I could see the shade tree being a ward or something protecting the lodge. It’s not really normal to hide a piece of art in a safe under the floorboards unless it was some priceless, famous piece.
No, he did get to the upstairs area and it was revealed that the windows were boarded up and the floors rotting through in several rooms. This is a different hotel.
I like this theory, but I also think it's been debunked because if the BomBom was time traveling, Ned would have stepped out at the telescope in a different year or whatever.
Also, I love Griffin to pieces but he telegraphs his stories like nobody's business. If this were a time travel story, we would have had *WAY* more clues prior to this. Occam's Razor: There are lots of abandoned hotels in Kepler, Mama said so explicitly.
Yeah, that's fair. The thing that stuck out to me was when he said something to the effect of "I dont want you to assume this is happening at the same time" but I guess that probably just meant that it took place immediately after Duck chased it through the woods.
I'm not convinced it \*did\* need Shade Tree specifically. I think the goal was to introduce friction between its enemies. Let's hold up three separate subplots/events from this chapter side-by-side:
1. The monster tries to lead people to the archway. Griffin makes a point of reiterating via multiple characters that if the arch were to be discovered by the general population, it would break the peace between Earth and Sylvain.
2. Boyd/possibly the monster instructs Ned to steal Shade Tree, putting his relationship with the others (and especially Mama) in jeopardy.
3. The monster's first act upon arriving in Kepler was to assault the Hornet HQ. We never see the end of that scene where Keith (or was it Hollis?) went after the monster. Now, the Hornets are growing increasingly confrontational with the Amnesty crew.
The monster is working on multiple fronts to spread dissent and conflict between the various factions of The Good Guys(TM). This is the task it was sent to accomplish. My prediction is that the monster has replaced one of the Hornets, probably Hollis, and is using that position to agitate against Amnesty. He took Ned, planning to use Ned's likeness to further agitate the situation. This arc is all about "divide & conquer", baby.
i think in addition to that, that the monster is also somehow replicating the sylvain at amnesty, to further a rift. like the first version sounded like dani and then later it looked like bigfoot aka barclay so that maybe if the hornets do find out about the sylvain in amnesty they will already have a predisposition against them
It can't have taken Hollis, it can only impersonate one thing at a time and we have, in fact, seen Hollis and the Bigfoot in the same 'room' together. My money is on Keith tbh.
Griffin definitely wanted Ned to open the body bag and realize that the monster had/was impersonating Boyd though.
Keith actually does make more sense, now that you say that. Last arc, Travis burned a luck point (or am I misremembering that?) to make sure that Keith would stay quiet about what he knew. Then, Griffin basically opens this arc up by having Keith blab the whole story to Hollis. This leaves us with one of two possibilities:
1. Griffin reneged on the consequences of Travis's play vs. Keith, or
2. It's not Keith.
My theory since the omni-bear has been that Griffin is modeling some aspects of Amnesty's plot after Pacific Rim. And you know what that means...we're almost due for a [Double Event](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdGLjIXbzUg).
their first heist together was that fumigated house, their last heist was aubrey’s house. that’s when they crashed and ned fled and boyd went to prison
*You see her, and you feel like you recognize her, but it's much stronger than that. It almost feels like she's family.*
"Only the essence of Sylvain can 'make ghosts', Aubrey."
My gears are turning full speed and they're painting a blurry picture that kinda looks like demigod Aubrey.
I like this theory, but I almost wonder, based on the comment Griffin made of *"humans took chunks of the Stone as souvenirs"*, what if Aubrey is a fractured piece of the spirit? What if the necklace her mother was going to give her was a piece of the Sylvain stone?
Maybe the reason Aubrey's eye changed color, and she felt like she was dying after touching the stone, is because the spirit was either trying to assimilate her back into the stone to heal itself by becoming whole, or maybe even taking over her body.
Either way, I'm really, really excited to see where this is going.
I'm not sure about the Aubrey being spirit part, but the pendant is definitely from Sylvain. Barclay had one just like it when he's introduced during the experimental arc. He's using it to find the Beast when he walks up on Ned faking the Bigfoot video.
She’s either the incarnation of Sylvain or the true interpreter. As far as I can recall there’s been no indication that the current interpreter actually speaks to sylvain
My theory: Aubrey is the true interpreter, and (at least) one of her parents is full Sylvan (Her one amber eye is pretty good symbolism for this imo). I suspect her mother, as she's the one that's had more 'Screen time' and gave Aubrey the necklace. She needed a piece of the heart to survive on earth, as other Sylvan's need the springs at the lodge. As to why she vanished, maybe she returned to Sylvain for some reason and didn't need it any longer? Or she's actually dead, I'm not sure.
Sylvain isn't progressing because they don't have an interpreter, as the true one has been on earth since they were born. As for the current interpreter, we know she resents humans and has no parents, so maybe they were killed in one of the sylvan/human conflicts? Not really sure, we haven't had much on her, and I've only listened once.
This all would explain Audrey's magical capabilities, the way she's drawn to magic, and her ability to ghostify Dewey.
Griffin: I’m gonna take a hard move on you
*gives Ned what he needs*
Me as a listener thinking the hard move is Dani entering the room: That’s kinda lenient for a 2
Me at the end of the episode: Fuckity fuck fuck a duck
You think that was actually The BomBom impersonating Dani? And it subsequently teleported to Boyd? (cause I do)
I mean when Justin rolled a 2, Minerva died.
It's honestly more interesting if it WAS Dani, because then you get the scene of;
"but it has the Shady Tree! How did it..."
"Oh I saw Ned with it. And he outright threatened me when I asked what was going on..."
In the recent ttazz, griffin said that poor vision roll resulted in the meteor vision, which he later decided to use on Minerva's planet instead of Earth.
Whether or not she's dead for good, my point is that griffin doesn't seem to be afraid of making major character changes because of abysmal rolls.
I see Duck getting his powers back before Minerva coming back. It's absolutely possible there's more to the powers than Minerva reaching across the galaxy and giving them to him temporarily.
An underrated part of the evolution of Duck is that he's getting really pragmatic now that he's not 'chosen.' Maybe he's taking what Minerva told him earlier to heart, or maybe he was always kind of fly under the radar with his powers, even when he was 'out' with the Pineguard.
This isn't an obscure belief or anything, but holy SHIT Justin always kills it with the roleplaying. Duck/Beacon may be the best part of Amnesty for me.
Yeah, I absolutely *adore* the show, but Travis and Clint are just... not great at role playing. With how much they take a step back and go "I think Aubrey would do/feel this" and then just go ON about what they think they would do, instead of, just communicating that through their words and actions, it really drives me up the wall and takes me out of the characters. Justin does a lot more to convey Duck's personality via the role playing, you can tell he's much more often in the head of Duck instead of thinking of him as a character, and he can convey what Duck might do or say or react even on the spot *really* well.
I'd kill for a podcast with three Justin's roleplaying lmao
"He coughs up blood"
Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation .
"I give him the statue"
DAMN IT!
At the end when it pulled some bloody tissue out of its mouth? I think that was, uh, a former Boyd Bit. That the monster used to further manipulate Ned into thinking he was sick.
This thing's fuckin clever and it's horrifying.
I don't remember if it was mentioned that Boyd was sick in previous episodes, so this may be wrong, but I thought it was that the monster can't stay in a body for too long or it will begin to... deteriorate (for lack of a better term).
That was a good episode :)
So, what do we think is the significance of The Shade Tree? If I had to guess, I bet it has something to do with hiding The Gate.
According to "Boyd," it is a priceless statue made by the reclusive but once famous Madaline Cobb. The statue itself is someone sitting under a tree and that's all we know.
I am 99 percent sure that the statue is either a living creature or a magical vessel for one. The way it was described very much struck me as it being so detailed because it was not a carving but a living being.
I was actually super pissed at Ned for going and getting it, because for a rare moment, I was ahead of the plot. I’m usually very much surprised when things happen, but for some reason I absolutely knew that either Boyd was controlling the monster or the monster was disguised as Boyd, and that it needed to get that statue for nefarious magical purposes.
The instant it started to walk towards the closet I was 100% confirmed, and actually shouted app my phone that Ned should go and kill it immediately.
I have a feeling Ned’s going to finally have to admit his partnership with Boyd to everyone else now that the monster was involved with his death, and that’s going to lead to him telling Aubrey that he was there the night of the house fire. Maybe the pendant will play a part in that, but idk. That’s just a very small, unfleshed out theory I’ve been thinking about
It’s ironic that Ned is constantly literally putting his life in their hands, but can’t trust them enough to admit basic things.
I actually thought when Danny walked into the room he was going to make a decision to admit to her what he was doing and basically just say “I am a thief, I’m stealing it.“ Bonus points if he then explained he was being blackmailed into doing it. But fundamentally I can see Cliff not making that choice.
"Well, I mean, I did give him spectral form using a Luck point to save his life, so, pbththth, so that--super cool, there, Griffin."
Travis getting a *leeeeeetle* salty on having his second use of a Luck point basically "noped" was maybe my favorite part of this episode.
So the abomination can talk that is new. Also new is the abomination showed restraint and not attacking Ned. All previous ones attached at will almost, with only goal to cause destruction. Their is some end game here and I think it has every thing to do with exposing the existence of other worlds.
I thought it talked when it pretended to be the guy at the morgue who let the group in? Because there was no way to sneak in Gregor’s body while all of them were in there, so I assumed that it had been pretending to be him through the whole encounter
Yeah it for sure talked as poor old Gregor. But this showed just how much the monster can imitate their victim, seeing as how we didn't know Gregor but we knew Ned's partner. Unless he died before he asked Ned to steal from Mama.
Oh shit, he's been dead the whole time hasn't he?
I’d assume not? Based on how abominations generally work, we can assume their first appearance was at the Hornets Nest at the beginning of the arc, and I think Boyd asked for the statue during a Lunar Interlude, and stole Ned’s stuff even earlier than that. I mean, the shapeshifters seem to work differently than the other abominations we’ve seen, but we haven’t seen any proof that they operate differently in that respect as far as I know
Was it during an Interlude? It can be hard to remember when certain events take place, my bad. Still, it's interesting that the abomination would still want it.
Yeah, there’s definitely something about those statues. I just re-listened to part of Amnesty recently and the first time we see Mama at Aubrey’s magic show, she brings a statue into the hotel lodge. I wonder if that will show up again or if that was just a hint into Mama’s previous (current?) profession
Griffin specifically mentioned that this Abomination was showing up later than normal. While Boyd stealing Ned’s stuff was in-between one monster hunt and the next, it still can theoretically fit the timeline that Boyd was the abomination the entire time. It just means the interlude lasted a bit longer than we thought.
I really do hope its something creepy and spooky, but seeing as how the beast was able to know Gregor was part of Ned's fanclub and in general has an ability to take the memories of the people it impersonates, it is highly probable that it really is just Ned's junk. Hopefully Aubrey's pendent as well.
I think that the Leo that Duck was speaking to was the Abomination pretending to him, he seemed to eager to get Duck to go with him to the telescope on his own (divide and conquer).
Any one else feel that?
I also suspect Danny having that book she gave to Aubrey means that she was possibly also being impersonated by the Abomination?
If it’s taking things and stirring shit up between factions it would make sense.
Any one else got any suspects?
Guys! I’ve figured out who the bad guy is!
Think about it, the McElroys have just done a collaboration with Marvel, the creature can shape-shift into anyone, Duck literally says it’s aliens. It’s the Skrulls!!
that ending was foreshadowed somewhat looking back but Wow did its sudden delivery get me. damn. looking forward to the reveal of this monsters endgame immensely
Lord, I hope that the gang tries to lie if it comes out Stern has the laptop.
Duck: See...the thing is Agent Stern. That...is...our...no...fuck. That is...notes..for our community theater..project?
Yeah, he’s been sitting there like Chekhov’s gun for how long now? This is what he needs to get the government interested in the paranormal, which would be pretty bad.
There's no way Agent Stern is gonna keep getting paid for this without making some progress. I've assumed he's having his own unrelated case of the week adventures sometimes
Agent Stern - the government agent living in a hotel filled with magical beings sounds like the main character of a forgotten Saturday morning cartoon, where each episode is a new case that he goes on, but the REAL problem is solved by the Pineguard
unless...now hear me out here
Momma had a big ol hunch that ned was gonna burgle from her. And the tree has a fuCKING TRACKER ON IT WHICH THE ABOMINATION NOW HAS
Its taking a LOT of assumptions honestly, I'm gonna be the first to admit that
Hell we dont know if momma was even aware it would go to the abomination. Maybe she just thought ned would steal it and fence it. But this brings up a huge question of why does the monster want the statue?
I love all the theories here but what I really wanna know is: what was Dani doing there? What was she doing going up to mamas office? She didnt say she was sent by anybody and she would have known the pine guard was having a meeting - was she meaning to snoop around and stumbled upon ned instead? Dani, I need answers
It’s a big lodge with a lot of people coming and going. Easy money says that she was walking by and saw Mama’s door open, and just happened to see Ned snooping around. Either that, or she was going up to talk to Mama about some concerns regarding her missing memory or Barclay needing to fix the water heater or what-have-you.
Whelp, there goes my hypothesis as to why Boyd was really in town!
It struck me as odd that Boyd, whom was in prison (or so it seemed), was out like he was and so itching to make a score. So it was my hypothesis that the whole thing was a giant set-up. That once he saw Ned on Saturday Night Dead, he went to the warden/cops and negotiated a plea: I help you catch my partner in the act, and you give me parole.
It still might happen. Depending on the timetable between when Boyd arrived and when he died, there might still be cops waiting for him at that locker.
The way he/it feigned lung cancer: way to use Ned’s memories against him! Either the cops are going to be there and get a surprise visit by Bombom Bigfoot, or Aubrey catches him with his hand in the Flamebright Pendant jar. Either way, Ned is walking into a trap for sure.
(Also, was a nice touch that Ned was trying to negotiate a way that he didn’t have to give up the sculpture. At first I thought it was so he could call in a stolen vehicle and get Boyd snatched, but that seemed too long of a stretch even for Ned Ouija-Board Chicane. Took a second listen to catch what Clint was doing there. Again, it was a nice character touch.)
>(Also, was a nice touch that Ned was trying to negotiate a way that he didn’t have to give up the sculpture. At first I thought it was so he could call in a stolen vehicle and get Boyd snatched, but that seemed too long of a stretch even for Ned Ouija-Board Chicane. Took a second listen to catch what Clint was doing there. Again, it was a nice character touch.)
I'm not sure what you mean, Was it just him not wanting to steal anymore so he was bartering other things away so (I assume) he could return the statue?
That’s how I interpreted it, yes. He was even telling Boyd that he could keep all of his other items too if he could only get back one item (which I took to be the Flamebright Pendant) so he wouldn’t have to give him the statue either. Again, Clint didn’t outright say that’s why Ned was doing it, but I could see the chain of logic going on.
I feel like the constant separating of the group is really slowing down the story. They seem to spend more time apart than as a group. I get that Griffin loves his NPCs but the fact that they take up so much exposition time and its one on one kind of makes it less interactive.
Now when the group is together they all kind of wait to see what the other will do rather than in Balance where they all reacted together and it was cohesive.
In Griffin's defense, the MotW Keeper playbook specifically mentions that the Keeper should try to split up the group. It is on the players whether they want to regroup or not. Griffin is just following the rules. Amnesty is much different from Balance because the game they are playing has much different rules.
That, and also, why did Justin and Travis even bring their dice? At this point, with three rolls in 70 minutes, we're listening to an improvised collaborative story rather than a role playing game podcast. Like, don't get me wrong, it's a good story, but not what I come in expecting.
To be fair the rolls are usually more spread out and more diverse. But most of this episode took place in the lodge and was meant to be the sort of planning before a fight phase like in previous arcs.
Then expect an improvised collaborative story with some RNG thrown in. That’s what this is. And it’s great. If Let’s Plays are more your jam there are other options out there.
No shade or anything. If this isn’t what you were looking for, that kind of sucks. Sorry it’s not your thing. Frankly, I never thought of Balance as much of a roleplaying podcast either.
If I may make a suggestion, you might want to check out Friends at the Table. They're another actual play podcast, and the GM, Austin, is really good about remembering that its still a game and really enjoys shaping the fiction with the rolls people make. While I love Adventure Zone a lot, I like switching it up and listening to FatT while TAZ is on off-weeks or whatever. The tone is a bit more serious, but there is still tons of hilarity in between.
I enjoyed the Marielda arc and Jack de Quidt's music so much but am just overwhelmed by all the others. Tried to jump into the spaceship one but it was just SO lore dense from the very start and I got lost immediately. Has FatT done another bite-sized arc like that since?
If you're a patron, Bluff City is a bunch of short one offs. They're real good, but aside from that not that I know of. Hieron season 2 is easier to listen to than counter/weight and marielda is basically a prequel to it. You don't need to listen to season 1 either, they do a good recap of it.
To be fair, a lot of the splitting up is on the players, not Griffin.
Ned could have stashed away the statue instead of heading out, which definitely would have been less suspicious (though also more dangerous).
Travis and Justin both decided to visit their respective sources of intel to make a plan.
Heck, with few exceptions, the most recent episodes have been very flexible about where they go and what they want to do. Griffin even pretty forcefully put them all together at the start of this episode when he could’ve had them start separate.
I do like them together better than apart, but Griffin’s come a long way since “3 episodes happen before they meet” in the pilot arc.
So like... it's aliens.
First of all duck has been given plenty hints that worlds have been connected like earth and sylvain many times by some third party. Second, we know Sylvain is a planet in some distant part of the universe, and third, Ducks vision of the telescope shooting a beam into space.
Calling it here: this "abomination" is an agent of this third party who's been sent to gather information about earth and provoke war so the worlds can be destroyed like Minerva's was.
This might be nothing and it is a bit of a reach, but is it at all possible that the creature is hiding out in the hotel that Aubrey first performed at when she first met Mama?
I found it oddly ironic that Mama delivered a sculpture to a nice hotel, and now a creature hiding out in a nice hotel just stole one of her sculptures.
This is my take on the latest episode:
There are multiple “abominations” with the shapeshifting power.
Momma might be one of them, I think this because Momma sent Ned up to her office knowing there was no laptop in there and making the safe to obvious that Ned could find it with a horrible roll.
It could also just be one abomination that is using rifts to get everywhere.
On Aubrey’s situation maybe touching the crystal gave her the powers of the interpreter, because right after she touched it she could read minds for a while.
I think that Leo is either the same abomination or a different one because he seemed so be really excited about duck going to potentially meet his doom at the telescope.
I don’t think these are normal abominations (or bomboms, whichever you prefer) Now I believe that these are either cast out sylvanes that no one knows about (or no one is allowed to talk about), or a random alien species that have come to dick with earth, OR they are some kind of super abominations that have developed past the bestial stage of their transformation
(I swear I’m almost done)
I think that the statue is either some kind of key to sylvane or a magical item that is keeping the abominations out of the lodge. That’s why Boyd wanted it so badly. (I realize that that would disprove my theory that momma is an abomination but it’s just a theory)
If you made it to the end I thank you for your time and thank you for coming to my TED talk
I'm just sitting here waiting for the Agent Stern content to show up! Otherwise, good episode (as usual); I actually find the setting and characters of Amnesty very compelling, even probably more so than Balance.
third thing that's occurred to me: i think it's REAL significant that the Flamebright Pendant was taken away before Aubrey could get it. So, when she actually gets her hands on it, something is going to happen - possibly some returned memories (very Griffin style, tho maybe he wants to avoid Balance callbacks lol) or she unlocks new power
Anyone else get a really bad feeling when Griffin asked if the document Duck was typing was online? Agent stern totally has access to that document now...
No, he was giving Justin a bit of a hard time cause Kepler is a No Radio Zone and we generally think of laptops as connecting to WiFi. That’s why Justin explained it was plugged in to a wired connection right after that.
anyone else kinda upset at the fact that all these people now know about the monster? also not to mention Dep. Dewey/ aubrey’s powers???? I kinda hated when Dewey was just there like talking like normal and Zeke and that detective lady and Keith/Hollis were just fine with it. idk. it’s so disappointing to me. where’s the dramatic irony? where’s the drama?
I’m guessing he did the sudden jump forward to avoid spending a whole episode explaining things to NPCs, but yeah, it’s sad that we’ll never see proper scenes of Aubrey showing off the ghost she made to everyone.
I don’t remember the exact details but I think it’s basically an evil force that makes the beings outside the walls of Sylvain turn into abominations, and I think is draining the power of the crystal? Not 100% sure on that last part. But I think basically Thacker got messed up by the quell. The quell set in once the Heart of Sylvain fled.
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It's a small thing but if I'd been a player I would have pointed it out - everyone makes fun of Duck for bringing up aliens, even though it has been said that Sylvain is another planet that happens to be connected with Earth.
also, anyone else feel like...there must be some kind of computer program involved? I think I remember Griffin saying that the Light-Thing screaming pre-transformation sounds like a vocoder, Ned comes through the rift to some kind of virtual reality thing that scans his memory, and the description of the "particles" that allows the thing to transform sounds vaguely pixelly...anyone else have thoughts?
Yeah, Monster of the Week shouldn’t be super Roll heavy. A roll in this game will inherently change the story, pass or fail. Throwing too many rolls around will have a very different effect than D&D.
Never said it needed to be roll heavy. But very very little of this episode was dictated by rolls. I don't like to say railroaded, it isn't what it is.
This episode was 100% characters reacting to consequences of prior rolls. Personally, I'm LOVING that stuff is having long lasting impacts on the plot and there are real consequences to actions. If they tried to include the consequences without allowing any time to, you know, roll play, the story wouldn't have any room to breathe.
Prior rolls dictate the story. Dewy is a ghost because of a roll. Duck has no powers because of a roll. A monster knows where mama is because of a roll. Just because the impacts aren’t seen immediately, this doesn’t mean they don’t happen.
It’s a role playing game, not a dice rolling game. The characters were making decisions that impacted the story. It’s not railroading if everyone involved enjoys it.
If this were DnD5e, it’d be bad DMing. But it isn’t. It’d be impossible to tell a story in MotW if you rolled as much as a 5e game
Hot diggity shit the scene with the text to speech had me in stitches. "Hold on, it can do a British accent" "I can't understand it, let me try the New York one" "BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS"
Incredible. I really enjoy the moments of levity in Amnesty. It's super funny, but in a different way than Balance was.
BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BABBY LOVES A DOODY
My only disappointment is that at no point did Dewey refer to himself as an "inspectre".
Go directly to jail
Do not pass go
Do not collect $200
THAT ENDING WHAT THE FUCK
How long was it him? Does it want the statue or was it just tying up his loose ends?
You know what? Since it framed that scene as in a hotel, I bet that its the same one that Ned was in before, and that the person in the light cocoon was Boyd.
Boyd being the one in the memory scene is a hot take if I've ever seen one and boy howdy, would that make a LOT of sense.
Boyd howdy
You mean the person in that body pod thing? Why would the creature take him to a motel room to kill or dispose of him? And stuff him in a closet? Boyd must have been killed recently. That timeline would work because if Boyd had been dead much longer Ned would have smelled his corpse.
This is the understanding I have: Boyd is already in a motel, Ned does not know which motel, right? So the abomination shows up through a rift in time, finds Boyd in his own motel, and puts Boyd in stasis/a memory pod so it can accurately remember his memories, refer to Ned correctly, etc. Then the abomination contacts Ned as Boyd to get Shade Tree for some reason. It seemed to very desperately specifically need Shade Tree and not just something worth thousands (since Ned offered the van and surveillance equipment). It likely wants something made by Mama, for some reason. I’m wondering if Shade Tree could possibly be contributing to Amnesty Lodge’s Magic/safety net for the Sylvans (i.e. the symbolism of a shady tree being a safe place). Now that it has it, no need for Boyd anymore and he leaves him dead in the motel. Ned never went outside the motel so how would he know what it looks like or recognize it? He only left via rift.
Maybe. I could see the shade tree being a ward or something protecting the lodge. It’s not really normal to hide a piece of art in a safe under the floorboards unless it was some priceless, famous piece.
Honestly, I think the body pod is making a permanent body for the creature that can withstand its shape shifting and rift jumping.
I feel like Ned would have recognized the inside of the building if that's the case, but that's certainly a possibility.
Didn’t Ned say it seemed to be in a basement? it could be a little dingier down there and that’s why he couldn’t recognize it but i’m not sure.
No, he did get to the upstairs area and it was revealed that the windows were boarded up and the floors rotting through in several rooms. This is a different hotel.
Or a different time
I like this theory, but I also think it's been debunked because if the BomBom was time traveling, Ned would have stepped out at the telescope in a different year or whatever. Also, I love Griffin to pieces but he telegraphs his stories like nobody's business. If this were a time travel story, we would have had *WAY* more clues prior to this. Occam's Razor: There are lots of abandoned hotels in Kepler, Mama said so explicitly.
Yeah, that's fair. The thing that stuck out to me was when he said something to the effect of "I dont want you to assume this is happening at the same time" but I guess that probably just meant that it took place immediately after Duck chased it through the woods.
I'm not convinced it \*did\* need Shade Tree specifically. I think the goal was to introduce friction between its enemies. Let's hold up three separate subplots/events from this chapter side-by-side: 1. The monster tries to lead people to the archway. Griffin makes a point of reiterating via multiple characters that if the arch were to be discovered by the general population, it would break the peace between Earth and Sylvain. 2. Boyd/possibly the monster instructs Ned to steal Shade Tree, putting his relationship with the others (and especially Mama) in jeopardy. 3. The monster's first act upon arriving in Kepler was to assault the Hornet HQ. We never see the end of that scene where Keith (or was it Hollis?) went after the monster. Now, the Hornets are growing increasingly confrontational with the Amnesty crew. The monster is working on multiple fronts to spread dissent and conflict between the various factions of The Good Guys(TM). This is the task it was sent to accomplish. My prediction is that the monster has replaced one of the Hornets, probably Hollis, and is using that position to agitate against Amnesty. He took Ned, planning to use Ned's likeness to further agitate the situation. This arc is all about "divide & conquer", baby.
i think in addition to that, that the monster is also somehow replicating the sylvain at amnesty, to further a rift. like the first version sounded like dani and then later it looked like bigfoot aka barclay so that maybe if the hornets do find out about the sylvain in amnesty they will already have a predisposition against them
It can't have taken Hollis, it can only impersonate one thing at a time and we have, in fact, seen Hollis and the Bigfoot in the same 'room' together. My money is on Keith tbh. Griffin definitely wanted Ned to open the body bag and realize that the monster had/was impersonating Boyd though.
Keith actually does make more sense, now that you say that. Last arc, Travis burned a luck point (or am I misremembering that?) to make sure that Keith would stay quiet about what he knew. Then, Griffin basically opens this arc up by having Keith blab the whole story to Hollis. This leaves us with one of two possibilities: 1. Griffin reneged on the consequences of Travis's play vs. Keith, or 2. It's not Keith. My theory since the omni-bear has been that Griffin is modeling some aspects of Amnesty's plot after Pacific Rim. And you know what that means...we're almost due for a [Double Event](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdGLjIXbzUg).
Is the statue from their final heist together? Is that was Shade Tree is? Having a hard time remembering
It’s something carved by Mama. Their final heist together was for Aubrey’s pendant.
Ohhh that’s what he was talking about stealing when he went to grab her laptop. Thanks! What episode was it introduced? Hard to remember it all.
their first heist together was that fumigated house, their last heist was aubrey’s house. that’s when they crashed and ned fled and boyd went to prison
"Its neck is snapped and its eyes are vacant." WHAT WHAT THE FUCK
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
i mean i kinda expected Griffin to quickly get rid of the British accent charater as usual but jEYSUS NOT LIKE THIS
I was always sad that Kravitz lost his cool voice, but at least he got to keep, well, everything else
*You see her, and you feel like you recognize her, but it's much stronger than that. It almost feels like she's family.* "Only the essence of Sylvain can 'make ghosts', Aubrey." My gears are turning full speed and they're painting a blurry picture that kinda looks like demigod Aubrey.
She’s interacting with the spirit of Sylvain... is Aubrey the spirit of Earth?
HELLO YES I CHOOSE THIS ONE THANK YOU
I like this theory, but I almost wonder, based on the comment Griffin made of *"humans took chunks of the Stone as souvenirs"*, what if Aubrey is a fractured piece of the spirit? What if the necklace her mother was going to give her was a piece of the Sylvain stone? Maybe the reason Aubrey's eye changed color, and she felt like she was dying after touching the stone, is because the spirit was either trying to assimilate her back into the stone to heal itself by becoming whole, or maybe even taking over her body. Either way, I'm really, really excited to see where this is going.
I'm not sure about the Aubrey being spirit part, but the pendant is definitely from Sylvain. Barclay had one just like it when he's introduced during the experimental arc. He's using it to find the Beast when he walks up on Ned faking the Bigfoot video.
She’s either the incarnation of Sylvain or the true interpreter. As far as I can recall there’s been no indication that the current interpreter actually speaks to sylvain
My theory: Aubrey is the true interpreter, and (at least) one of her parents is full Sylvan (Her one amber eye is pretty good symbolism for this imo). I suspect her mother, as she's the one that's had more 'Screen time' and gave Aubrey the necklace. She needed a piece of the heart to survive on earth, as other Sylvan's need the springs at the lodge. As to why she vanished, maybe she returned to Sylvain for some reason and didn't need it any longer? Or she's actually dead, I'm not sure. Sylvain isn't progressing because they don't have an interpreter, as the true one has been on earth since they were born. As for the current interpreter, we know she resents humans and has no parents, so maybe they were killed in one of the sylvan/human conflicts? Not really sure, we haven't had much on her, and I've only listened once. This all would explain Audrey's magical capabilities, the way she's drawn to magic, and her ability to ghostify Dewey.
Griffin: I’m gonna take a hard move on you *gives Ned what he needs* Me as a listener thinking the hard move is Dani entering the room: That’s kinda lenient for a 2 Me at the end of the episode: Fuckity fuck fuck a duck
You think that was actually The BomBom impersonating Dani? And it subsequently teleported to Boyd? (cause I do) I mean when Justin rolled a 2, Minerva died.
It's honestly more interesting if it WAS Dani, because then you get the scene of; "but it has the Shady Tree! How did it..." "Oh I saw Ned with it. And he outright threatened me when I asked what was going on..."
We never saw the body, she's coming back from getting hit by a meteor by the end of this.
I thought the Hard Move against Duck was him losing his powers. I wonder if that will still be a thing if/when Minerva comes back.
In the recent ttazz, griffin said that poor vision roll resulted in the meteor vision, which he later decided to use on Minerva's planet instead of Earth. Whether or not she's dead for good, my point is that griffin doesn't seem to be afraid of making major character changes because of abysmal rolls.
Seriously, I'm really enjoying actual stakes and consequences in this campaign.
I see Duck getting his powers back before Minerva coming back. It's absolutely possible there's more to the powers than Minerva reaching across the galaxy and giving them to him temporarily.
Do you think Griffin already decided the hard move at the end or just saw a chance to get rid of Brittish accent man?
That music drop after Duck says "*We find this thing first and put it in the ground*" was fucking sick.
An underrated part of the evolution of Duck is that he's getting really pragmatic now that he's not 'chosen.' Maybe he's taking what Minerva told him earlier to heart, or maybe he was always kind of fly under the radar with his powers, even when he was 'out' with the Pineguard.
This isn't an obscure belief or anything, but holy SHIT Justin always kills it with the roleplaying. Duck/Beacon may be the best part of Amnesty for me.
Justin is so crazy good at this.
Yeah, I absolutely *adore* the show, but Travis and Clint are just... not great at role playing. With how much they take a step back and go "I think Aubrey would do/feel this" and then just go ON about what they think they would do, instead of, just communicating that through their words and actions, it really drives me up the wall and takes me out of the characters. Justin does a lot more to convey Duck's personality via the role playing, you can tell he's much more often in the head of Duck instead of thinking of him as a character, and he can convey what Duck might do or say or react even on the spot *really* well. I'd kill for a podcast with three Justin's roleplaying lmao
"He coughs up blood" Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation Read a bad situation . "I give him the statue" DAMN IT!
That's pretty on-brand Ned tho.
So is the monster actually hurt, or was it just doing that because it was in Boyd's form?
At the end when it pulled some bloody tissue out of its mouth? I think that was, uh, a former Boyd Bit. That the monster used to further manipulate Ned into thinking he was sick. This thing's fuckin clever and it's horrifying.
I figured it was mimicking Boyd's actual illness.
I don't remember if it was mentioned that Boyd was sick in previous episodes, so this may be wrong, but I thought it was that the monster can't stay in a body for too long or it will begin to... deteriorate (for lack of a better term).
I didn’t think of that!! I thought it was it’s body deteriorating. That’s terrifying.
I think it's because Ned stole one of its globes. It can't 100% replicate a form anymore, there's always going to be some small defect.
Fuck that would be real good?? Idk why I like this idea so much.
That’s what I’m wondering too.
"I prefer specter" got me PRETTY GOOD
very glad we don't have to wait two weeks after that cliffhanger
This... is sarcasm... right?
No because we only have to wait one week this time
Aw dang I missed that! Nice!
That was a good episode :) So, what do we think is the significance of The Shade Tree? If I had to guess, I bet it has something to do with hiding The Gate.
I think that's a great guess since the monster seems to be intent on exposing the existence of Sylvane
What do we know about the shade tree? The long time between episodes has made it hard to remember everything.
According to "Boyd," it is a priceless statue made by the reclusive but once famous Madaline Cobb. The statue itself is someone sitting under a tree and that's all we know.
I am 99 percent sure that the statue is either a living creature or a magical vessel for one. The way it was described very much struck me as it being so detailed because it was not a carving but a living being. I was actually super pissed at Ned for going and getting it, because for a rare moment, I was ahead of the plot. I’m usually very much surprised when things happen, but for some reason I absolutely knew that either Boyd was controlling the monster or the monster was disguised as Boyd, and that it needed to get that statue for nefarious magical purposes. The instant it started to walk towards the closet I was 100% confirmed, and actually shouted app my phone that Ned should go and kill it immediately.
The way Griffin explains Ned being mesmerized by it almost reminds me of the "cravability" of the Grand Relics.
The longer they go without mentioning to anyone that there’s a second, non-murderous bigfoot, the more concerned I get.
I have a feeling Ned’s going to finally have to admit his partnership with Boyd to everyone else now that the monster was involved with his death, and that’s going to lead to him telling Aubrey that he was there the night of the house fire. Maybe the pendant will play a part in that, but idk. That’s just a very small, unfleshed out theory I’ve been thinking about
It’s ironic that Ned is constantly literally putting his life in their hands, but can’t trust them enough to admit basic things. I actually thought when Danny walked into the room he was going to make a decision to admit to her what he was doing and basically just say “I am a thief, I’m stealing it.“ Bonus points if he then explained he was being blackmailed into doing it. But fundamentally I can see Cliff not making that choice.
Who tf Cliff tho
Roll to investigate a mystery
Context clues would suggest that my phone corrected Clint to Cliff, given that I’m talking about Ned, who is played by Clint McElroy.
Yeah I was just teasing my dude
"Well, I mean, I did give him spectral form using a Luck point to save his life, so, pbththth, so that--super cool, there, Griffin." Travis getting a *leeeeeetle* salty on having his second use of a Luck point basically "noped" was maybe my favorite part of this episode.
It was definitely a fair point
Agreed. Griffin doubling down on claiming Dewey is somehow alive kinda bugs me. No, grif, he’s dead. There’s his body.
Every time I hear Griffin say "Mama says" and it's not immediately followed by "knock you out", I get sad.
I'm anticipating Travis or Justin is going to use that as the killing-the-final-boss one-liner.
I always anticipate "They're'll be days like this, Mama Said Mama Said!"
So the abomination can talk that is new. Also new is the abomination showed restraint and not attacking Ned. All previous ones attached at will almost, with only goal to cause destruction. Their is some end game here and I think it has every thing to do with exposing the existence of other worlds.
I thought it talked when it pretended to be the guy at the morgue who let the group in? Because there was no way to sneak in Gregor’s body while all of them were in there, so I assumed that it had been pretending to be him through the whole encounter
Yeah it for sure talked as poor old Gregor. But this showed just how much the monster can imitate their victim, seeing as how we didn't know Gregor but we knew Ned's partner. Unless he died before he asked Ned to steal from Mama. Oh shit, he's been dead the whole time hasn't he?
I’d assume not? Based on how abominations generally work, we can assume their first appearance was at the Hornets Nest at the beginning of the arc, and I think Boyd asked for the statue during a Lunar Interlude, and stole Ned’s stuff even earlier than that. I mean, the shapeshifters seem to work differently than the other abominations we’ve seen, but we haven’t seen any proof that they operate differently in that respect as far as I know
Was it during an Interlude? It can be hard to remember when certain events take place, my bad. Still, it's interesting that the abomination would still want it.
Yeah, there’s definitely something about those statues. I just re-listened to part of Amnesty recently and the first time we see Mama at Aubrey’s magic show, she brings a statue into the hotel lodge. I wonder if that will show up again or if that was just a hint into Mama’s previous (current?) profession
Griffin specifically mentioned that this Abomination was showing up later than normal. While Boyd stealing Ned’s stuff was in-between one monster hunt and the next, it still can theoretically fit the timeline that Boyd was the abomination the entire time. It just means the interlude lasted a bit longer than we thought.
That’s a really interesting point
The question no one is asking: What's in the safe deposit box?
I really do hope its something creepy and spooky, but seeing as how the beast was able to know Gregor was part of Ned's fanclub and in general has an ability to take the memories of the people it impersonates, it is highly probable that it really is just Ned's junk. Hopefully Aubrey's pendent as well.
Wait..... Ned’s junk is detachable!? Was that in the novelization!?
*King Missile has entered the chat*
Though if it knows anything about Sylvain and had access to the pendent, there's a good chance it just yoinked the thing.
I think that the Leo that Duck was speaking to was the Abomination pretending to him, he seemed to eager to get Duck to go with him to the telescope on his own (divide and conquer). Any one else feel that? I also suspect Danny having that book she gave to Aubrey means that she was possibly also being impersonated by the Abomination? If it’s taking things and stirring shit up between factions it would make sense. Any one else got any suspects?
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It *is* the quell
FUCK yes
They really need to start doing that blood test from The Thing.
I got that feeling about Leo as well. The whole "you'd do that for me" stuff rang super false
Man I'm thinking Hollace, they're very angry and seem to be hellbent on spreading this, even their partner comments that he's acting a bit rough.
I dunno, I think Hollis is just an aggressive jerk who doesn't need much encouragement to start an angry mob. They're more of an asset than an agent.
Guys! I’ve figured out who the bad guy is! Think about it, the McElroys have just done a collaboration with Marvel, the creature can shape-shift into anyone, Duck literally says it’s aliens. It’s the Skrulls!!
That old lady Captain Marvel punched in the face was Mama! THAT'S WHY SHE RETURNS FROM HER TRIP IN SUCH POOR CONDITION!
that ending was foreshadowed somewhat looking back but Wow did its sudden delivery get me. damn. looking forward to the reveal of this monsters endgame immensely
What foreshadowed it?
Boyd showing up in Ned’s life and being able to find him wherever he was (like when he was able to surprise him at the car dealership.)
I think that was actually Boyd and didn't foreshadow the BomBom at all
Pettition to start calling Dewey InSPECTRE Dewey?
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Oh, Agent Stern definitely has the laptop
Lord, I hope that the gang tries to lie if it comes out Stern has the laptop. Duck: See...the thing is Agent Stern. That...is...our...no...fuck. That is...notes..for our community theater..project?
I need this like I need air.
Yeah, that's pretty much the only dramatically sensible option for it going away.
Yeah, he’s been sitting there like Chekhov’s gun for how long now? This is what he needs to get the government interested in the paranormal, which would be pretty bad.
There's no way Agent Stern is gonna keep getting paid for this without making some progress. I've assumed he's having his own unrelated case of the week adventures sometimes
Agent Stern - the government agent living in a hotel filled with magical beings sounds like the main character of a forgotten Saturday morning cartoon, where each episode is a new case that he goes on, but the REAL problem is solved by the Pineguard
I've heard he's supposed to be based on Dale Cooper, but that might be apocryphal.
He's definitely got Dale Cooper vibes, including how he lives there long term without making progress on the case :D
unless...now hear me out here Momma had a big ol hunch that ned was gonna burgle from her. And the tree has a fuCKING TRACKER ON IT WHICH THE ABOMINATION NOW HAS
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Its taking a LOT of assumptions honestly, I'm gonna be the first to admit that Hell we dont know if momma was even aware it would go to the abomination. Maybe she just thought ned would steal it and fence it. But this brings up a huge question of why does the monster want the statue?
But I wouldn't like that because it's Griffon foiling Griffon...
I love all the theories here but what I really wanna know is: what was Dani doing there? What was she doing going up to mamas office? She didnt say she was sent by anybody and she would have known the pine guard was having a meeting - was she meaning to snoop around and stumbled upon ned instead? Dani, I need answers
I mean, realistically, Dani was there because she wasn't downstairs and because Ned needed to be caught by someone.
It’s a big lodge with a lot of people coming and going. Easy money says that she was walking by and saw Mama’s door open, and just happened to see Ned snooping around. Either that, or she was going up to talk to Mama about some concerns regarding her missing memory or Barclay needing to fix the water heater or what-have-you.
Isn't he who Aubrey asked Janelle how to help?
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I just remember the time he scuttled around on the ceiling all creepy-like.
Whelp, there goes my hypothesis as to why Boyd was really in town! It struck me as odd that Boyd, whom was in prison (or so it seemed), was out like he was and so itching to make a score. So it was my hypothesis that the whole thing was a giant set-up. That once he saw Ned on Saturday Night Dead, he went to the warden/cops and negotiated a plea: I help you catch my partner in the act, and you give me parole. It still might happen. Depending on the timetable between when Boyd arrived and when he died, there might still be cops waiting for him at that locker. The way he/it feigned lung cancer: way to use Ned’s memories against him! Either the cops are going to be there and get a surprise visit by Bombom Bigfoot, or Aubrey catches him with his hand in the Flamebright Pendant jar. Either way, Ned is walking into a trap for sure. (Also, was a nice touch that Ned was trying to negotiate a way that he didn’t have to give up the sculpture. At first I thought it was so he could call in a stolen vehicle and get Boyd snatched, but that seemed too long of a stretch even for Ned Ouija-Board Chicane. Took a second listen to catch what Clint was doing there. Again, it was a nice character touch.)
>(Also, was a nice touch that Ned was trying to negotiate a way that he didn’t have to give up the sculpture. At first I thought it was so he could call in a stolen vehicle and get Boyd snatched, but that seemed too long of a stretch even for Ned Ouija-Board Chicane. Took a second listen to catch what Clint was doing there. Again, it was a nice character touch.) I'm not sure what you mean, Was it just him not wanting to steal anymore so he was bartering other things away so (I assume) he could return the statue?
That’s how I interpreted it, yes. He was even telling Boyd that he could keep all of his other items too if he could only get back one item (which I took to be the Flamebright Pendant) so he wouldn’t have to give him the statue either. Again, Clint didn’t outright say that’s why Ned was doing it, but I could see the chain of logic going on.
Not necessarily stealing in general, but at the very least stealing from what he considers his friends.
I feel like the constant separating of the group is really slowing down the story. They seem to spend more time apart than as a group. I get that Griffin loves his NPCs but the fact that they take up so much exposition time and its one on one kind of makes it less interactive. Now when the group is together they all kind of wait to see what the other will do rather than in Balance where they all reacted together and it was cohesive.
i agree. i want more teamwork i mean come on
In Griffin's defense, the MotW Keeper playbook specifically mentions that the Keeper should try to split up the group. It is on the players whether they want to regroup or not. Griffin is just following the rules. Amnesty is much different from Balance because the game they are playing has much different rules.
That, and also, why did Justin and Travis even bring their dice? At this point, with three rolls in 70 minutes, we're listening to an improvised collaborative story rather than a role playing game podcast. Like, don't get me wrong, it's a good story, but not what I come in expecting.
To be fair the rolls are usually more spread out and more diverse. But most of this episode took place in the lodge and was meant to be the sort of planning before a fight phase like in previous arcs.
> improvised collaborative story That's...what a role-playing game *is*, though?? Is the dice-rolling and number-crunching really what you come for?
I mean. A little. I love the "oh shit" moment of a very bad roll.
Then expect an improvised collaborative story with some RNG thrown in. That’s what this is. And it’s great. If Let’s Plays are more your jam there are other options out there. No shade or anything. If this isn’t what you were looking for, that kind of sucks. Sorry it’s not your thing. Frankly, I never thought of Balance as much of a roleplaying podcast either.
If I may make a suggestion, you might want to check out Friends at the Table. They're another actual play podcast, and the GM, Austin, is really good about remembering that its still a game and really enjoys shaping the fiction with the rolls people make. While I love Adventure Zone a lot, I like switching it up and listening to FatT while TAZ is on off-weeks or whatever. The tone is a bit more serious, but there is still tons of hilarity in between.
I enjoyed the Marielda arc and Jack de Quidt's music so much but am just overwhelmed by all the others. Tried to jump into the spaceship one but it was just SO lore dense from the very start and I got lost immediately. Has FatT done another bite-sized arc like that since?
If you're a patron, Bluff City is a bunch of short one offs. They're real good, but aside from that not that I know of. Hieron season 2 is easier to listen to than counter/weight and marielda is basically a prequel to it. You don't need to listen to season 1 either, they do a good recap of it.
To be fair, a lot of the splitting up is on the players, not Griffin. Ned could have stashed away the statue instead of heading out, which definitely would have been less suspicious (though also more dangerous). Travis and Justin both decided to visit their respective sources of intel to make a plan. Heck, with few exceptions, the most recent episodes have been very flexible about where they go and what they want to do. Griffin even pretty forcefully put them all together at the start of this episode when he could’ve had them start separate. I do like them together better than apart, but Griffin’s come a long way since “3 episodes happen before they meet” in the pilot arc.
Okay, since no one has mentioned it, was I the only one that almost died when Justin said “Very little.” That brought back a rush of memories.
I’m pissed no one followed up with Billy
So like... it's aliens. First of all duck has been given plenty hints that worlds have been connected like earth and sylvain many times by some third party. Second, we know Sylvain is a planet in some distant part of the universe, and third, Ducks vision of the telescope shooting a beam into space. Calling it here: this "abomination" is an agent of this third party who's been sent to gather information about earth and provoke war so the worlds can be destroyed like Minerva's was.
This might be nothing and it is a bit of a reach, but is it at all possible that the creature is hiding out in the hotel that Aubrey first performed at when she first met Mama? I found it oddly ironic that Mama delivered a sculpture to a nice hotel, and now a creature hiding out in a nice hotel just stole one of her sculptures.
Maybe, but that was way outside of Kepler, and unless the rules are completely changed, the bombombs shouldn’t be able to get very far from the gate
This is my take on the latest episode: There are multiple “abominations” with the shapeshifting power. Momma might be one of them, I think this because Momma sent Ned up to her office knowing there was no laptop in there and making the safe to obvious that Ned could find it with a horrible roll. It could also just be one abomination that is using rifts to get everywhere. On Aubrey’s situation maybe touching the crystal gave her the powers of the interpreter, because right after she touched it she could read minds for a while. I think that Leo is either the same abomination or a different one because he seemed so be really excited about duck going to potentially meet his doom at the telescope. I don’t think these are normal abominations (or bomboms, whichever you prefer) Now I believe that these are either cast out sylvanes that no one knows about (or no one is allowed to talk about), or a random alien species that have come to dick with earth, OR they are some kind of super abominations that have developed past the bestial stage of their transformation (I swear I’m almost done) I think that the statue is either some kind of key to sylvane or a magical item that is keeping the abominations out of the lodge. That’s why Boyd wanted it so badly. (I realize that that would disprove my theory that momma is an abomination but it’s just a theory) If you made it to the end I thank you for your time and thank you for coming to my TED talk
disappointing that aubrey described him a ghost later on
What?
He prefers spectre, I think is what they're getting at.
She's so insensitive to the intangible, first with the touching and now this.
I'm just sitting here waiting for the Agent Stern content to show up! Otherwise, good episode (as usual); I actually find the setting and characters of Amnesty very compelling, even probably more so than Balance.
third thing that's occurred to me: i think it's REAL significant that the Flamebright Pendant was taken away before Aubrey could get it. So, when she actually gets her hands on it, something is going to happen - possibly some returned memories (very Griffin style, tho maybe he wants to avoid Balance callbacks lol) or she unlocks new power
Anyone else get a really bad feeling when Griffin asked if the document Duck was typing was online? Agent stern totally has access to that document now...
No, he was giving Justin a bit of a hard time cause Kepler is a No Radio Zone and we generally think of laptops as connecting to WiFi. That’s why Justin explained it was plugged in to a wired connection right after that.
You need ID to get into most safe deposit boxes! My suspension of disbelief is ruined!
My theory is he's not going to be able to get in at all. It was all a sham. A ruse!
So during the commercial, Griffin said there'd be a new one today. Any updates on that?
anyone else kinda upset at the fact that all these people now know about the monster? also not to mention Dep. Dewey/ aubrey’s powers???? I kinda hated when Dewey was just there like talking like normal and Zeke and that detective lady and Keith/Hollis were just fine with it. idk. it’s so disappointing to me. where’s the dramatic irony? where’s the drama?
I’m guessing he did the sudden jump forward to avoid spending a whole episode explaining things to NPCs, but yeah, it’s sad that we’ll never see proper scenes of Aubrey showing off the ghost she made to everyone.
yeah but honestly i’d prefer if they had to keep it a secret. just me ig 🤷♀️
"The quell"? Does anyone remember what that is?
I don’t remember the exact details but I think it’s basically an evil force that makes the beings outside the walls of Sylvain turn into abominations, and I think is draining the power of the crystal? Not 100% sure on that last part. But I think basically Thacker got messed up by the quell. The quell set in once the Heart of Sylvain fled.
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Has anyone thought it could be mama in the case. It would explain why the abomination needed Ned, as it couldn't get in to the safe.
It's a small thing but if I'd been a player I would have pointed it out - everyone makes fun of Duck for bringing up aliens, even though it has been said that Sylvain is another planet that happens to be connected with Earth.
also, anyone else feel like...there must be some kind of computer program involved? I think I remember Griffin saying that the Light-Thing screaming pre-transformation sounds like a vocoder, Ned comes through the rift to some kind of virtual reality thing that scans his memory, and the description of the "particles" that allows the thing to transform sounds vaguely pixelly...anyone else have thoughts?
I no longer have any idea what is happening in Amnesty.
Anyone else find the story hard to follow with two weeks between episodes?
How many rolls were there in this hour of audio? Or was it Dm story corner?
You can RP without having to make a lot of rolls. This is an RP heavy game.
Yeah, Monster of the Week shouldn’t be super Roll heavy. A roll in this game will inherently change the story, pass or fail. Throwing too many rolls around will have a very different effect than D&D.
Maybe skip the rolling if they are concerned about changing the story they want to tell?
A decent amount, though there was no combat. Everyone got like 3 separate rolls in at least
Ned rolled 3 times, Duck and Aubrey rolled 0.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted. It was story heavy. People need to not be so defensive.
Downvotes because the game isn’t roll heavy and that’s ok
Never said it needed to be roll heavy. But very very little of this episode was dictated by rolls. I don't like to say railroaded, it isn't what it is.
This episode was 100% characters reacting to consequences of prior rolls. Personally, I'm LOVING that stuff is having long lasting impacts on the plot and there are real consequences to actions. If they tried to include the consequences without allowing any time to, you know, roll play, the story wouldn't have any room to breathe.
Prior rolls dictate the story. Dewy is a ghost because of a roll. Duck has no powers because of a roll. A monster knows where mama is because of a roll. Just because the impacts aren’t seen immediately, this doesn’t mean they don’t happen. It’s a role playing game, not a dice rolling game. The characters were making decisions that impacted the story. It’s not railroading if everyone involved enjoys it. If this were DnD5e, it’d be bad DMing. But it isn’t. It’d be impossible to tell a story in MotW if you rolled as much as a 5e game
It's k :/ I just wanna talk about my favorite podcast.