Line #111 WebVideo/AdventureIsNigh


1	[[quoteright:518:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adventure_is_nigh_intro.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:960:Left to right:Grinderbin, Dabarella, Mortimer, Sigmar.]]
3	''Adventure is Nigh'' is an ActualPlay WebVideo series by the folks formerly at Website/TheEscapist. Season 1 is subtitled "The Jade Homunculus," season 2 is titled "The Platinum Heart" (nee "In Search of a Platinum Heart"), and season 3 is titled "the Liar, the Witch, and the Wartorn." It also has a spinoff, entitled "Adventure is Nigh: Sidequest", which sometimes interacts with the main storyline.
4
5	The web video features the following:
6	* [[Creator/BenCroshaw Yahtzee Croshaw]] as an elf-dominant HeinzHybrid (called a "half-elf" entirely to save time) GentlemanThief (Rogue/Bard) named Mortimer Rafflesworth Everwind-Smythe.
7	* KC Nwosu as Sigmar Iceblood, a JerkWithAHeartOfGold Aasimar Archer/Artificer who left his betrothed (it was an ArrangedMarriage) standing at the altar when he discovered that she was in love with his sister.
8	* Amy Campbell as Dabarella Yeetster, a [[CuteBruiser hulking-yet-adorable]] [[CatFolk Tabaxi]] Fighter who aspires to be a chef.
9	* Jesse Galena as Grinderbin, a [[MushroomMan Dikarya]] Artificer who wants to open a discount-magical-items shop.
10	* Jack Packard as DM and show host.
11
12	Animated in the ''Zero Punctuation'' artstyle, the party's adventure begins with tracking down the Jade Homunculus after it was stolen by a flower man with the amusingly inappropriate name of "Davorty Cornhole." Each season follows a different campaign, from stopping a giant worm from tearing up the Earth to negotiating peace talks between warring kingdoms.
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14	The series can be found [[https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUBKwq0XD0ue33z9bbhjnLE2lfSxk31Ob here]].
15
16	After the collapse of ''The Escapist'' on November 6th, 2023, the future of the series was briefly in limbo. On December 13th, 2023, Creator/SecondWind confirmed that they had successfully acquired the rights to the series from ''The Escapist''. Season 3 will be re-uploaded and continued on the ''Second Wind'' Youtube channel, with the old seasons planned to be moved there as well.
17	----
18	!!Tropes include:
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20	* AbandonedCatchphrase: Dabarella, in episode two, shouted the tongue-twister "How many yeets would a yeetster yeet if a yeetster could yeet yeets?" when performing a feat of strength. It hasn't come up ever since.
21	* ActionGirl: Dabarella.
22	* AlternativeCalendar: The calendar of Angondardii has twelve months like normal, but they have [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Janbuberry, Febbuberry, Count Chocula]], Hoag, Maryfeather, Beatrice, [[Music/{{Fergie}} Fergalicious]], Sexstilus, Virgison, Dree Monday, Senendu and Solistice.
23	* AnAlienNamedBob: [[spoiler: When asked by Grinderbin if he knew any "dickheads" from his former home in the Ethereal Plane, King Fuzzyhug names the Council of Five as some of them, of which he lists down all their names as follows: Krrrrrggh, Gaaaahk, Vuvuvuvffft, Oernergoergoerg, and Cory (Should be noted that those first four names are just guttural sounds that Jack probably made on the fly)]].
24	* AnArmAndALeg:
25	** [[spoiler: Sigmar gets his hand torn off in a TeleporterAccident while trying to tear off a manageable chunk of King Fuzzyhug's massive platinum heart]].
26	** [[spoiler: Sigmar then gets an arcane tattoo from a mysterious tattoo artist named Sebastian Piss. The tattoo could, as Piss explained it, allow Sigmar to summon a bow magically, but what actually happens is that it turns his other arm into a Meat Bow through a really painful transformation sequence]].
27	* AnimateInanimateObject:
28	** The party fights a haunted bed, and later, a haunted stove.
29	** Inverted with Albert, who was cursed to take the form of a shovel. He was apparently consious but inanimate during that time.
30	* [[invoked]]AntiClimaxBoss: The party has more issue dealing with Kalandra Ticklepuss (who is a powerful sorceress) than her father Latavia Ticklepuss (who is a powerful sorceror ''and'' a bloody, goopy, skeleton-y EldritchAbomination). When Latavia is [[spoiler:splattered into paste with a single action from Grinderbin]], the party remarks that they were expecting him to put up more of a fight.
31	* ArmorIsUseless: The last guard of the Forest Keep is shotgunned to death by a haunted bed breaking its footboard to shoot splinters through his chest, despite wearing plate armor.
32	* AuthorAppeal: [[https://youtu.be/2b7B0_WYAMg?si=BOIWzOzo46DyeJFs&t=1558 When asked about their inspirations, Yahtzee and KC cite a couple specific things:]]
33	** Yahtzee likes characters who are {{Gentleman Thie\|f}}ves, {{Con Artist}}s, and generally characters who "[[AntiHero fly in the face of what you'd expect of traditional heroics]]". This fits his character Mortimer to a tee: a gentleman con artist and the least moral of the adventuring party.
34	** KC says that {{anime}} was a major source of inspiration for Sigmar, which reflects in Sigmar's incredibly showy battle techniques (like one moment where he rolls with his blades like a wheel of death, or [[BifurcatedWeapon his bow being able to split into dual daggers]]). KC specifically cites Anime/{{Bleach}}'s Kaname Tōsen as his main visual inspiration, which reflects in Sigmar's design (both being white-robed, dark-skinned, [[DreadlockWarrior braided warriors]]).
35	* AwesomeAnachronisticApparel: {{Inverted}}, for Mortimer's party outfit is a be-mirrored lounge suit and star-shaped, pink-framed, mirrored shades. This disco style of fashion only really existed when {{Disco}} was popular in the late 1970's, yet Mortimer manages to make the flamboyant appearance work in a medieval setting.
36	* BaitAndSwitch: Mortimer casts Suggestion on Kalandra. Initially, she complies, about to spill Latavia's weakness... and then Kalandra starts swearing at him again, revealing that she's invulnerable to charm magics.
37	* BavarianFireDrill: One of Mortimer's favorite tactics for trying to evade direct conflict (with varying degrees of success). As an example, Episode 0 had him try to trick two kobolds into handing over their scroll of necromancy by pretending to perform a "dungeon inspection". They almost buy it until Mortimer pushes his luck too far.
38	* BenevolentAbomination: [[spoiler: King Fuzzyhug is a gigantic worm with a maw full of needle-like teeth, but he feeds on positive vibes and is very amicable when communicating with Grinderbin, speaking in dopey voice.]]
39	* BirthmarkOfDestiny: [[spoiler: Grinderbin]] has the Jarmie Family Birthmark, proving his royalty.
40	* BizarreAlienReproduction: [[PlantPerson Flowerfolk]] mating requires a male and female Flowerfolk, and a bee-person of any sex to be present. Kind of like how real flowers reproduce, except flowers are hermaphroditic and use regular bees.
41	* BlackAndNerdy: Sigmar Iceblood is a dark-skinned guy who can cite a number of "nerdy" interests when he was a kid, like having a "shambling mound" phase where he was incredibly obsessed with these creatures and owned toys depicting them, or having trading cards and fanart of Queen Beyoncé.
42	* BlatantLies: Mortimer's bardic instrument is "The Power of Lies." He's able to cast powerful spells by telling absolute whoppers, ex. "I'm 60 feet tall and also the Queen of England!"
43	* BodyHorror: Poor Sigmar:
44	** He gets his right arm messily ripped off in a TeleporterAccident at the end of Season 2.
45	** In season 3, he gets a magic tattoo that allows him to summon a longbow [[spoiler:made out of the bones and tendons of his forearm.]] Not only is it ''excruciating,'' it makes one guard puke and terrifies another into [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running away]].
46	* BookEnds: Season 1 starts and ends with an episode involving Dabarella carrying a statue and hurling it.
47	* BoxedCrook:
48	** The party wakes up in the back of a paddy wagon, and is shortly told they have to raid a dungeon as punishment. We're never told what they did, but it's implied (by Mortimer's hangover) that drunken shenanigans were involved.
49	** When Kalandra Ticklepuss attacks Castle Sasha, Sigmar proposes granting pardon to any prisoner willing to fight in its defense.
50	* BreakThemByTalking: Mortimer does this to [[spoiler:Queen Beyoncé, under the guise of telling her of her son's assassination. By the tone of his voice, it's heavily implied that Mortimer has experienced exactly what the Queen is now feeling.]]
51	--> '''Mortimer:''' This must be a difficult moment for you. I can understand. [[spoiler:I lost a family, too.]] Sort of thing that stays with you, isn't it? Stays with you your whole life. You're haunted the rest of your days wondering if there's anything you could have done to make it happen differently. Don't you...?
52	* BreakingTheFourthWall: While the party is trying to find a hidden entrance to a secret location, Sigmar asks an [=NPC=] follower to do something to help. Jack Packard (in-character as him) says that he won't do that, because it would be {{Railroading}} and the party needs to figure things out by themselves.
53	* CastFromHitPoints: Sigmar's magic bow, ''Bone-and-Marrows,'' is summoned and dismissed through a TransformationSequence that causes him excruciating pain, to the tune of 1d12 damage.
54	* ChefOfIron: Dabarella is a War Chef. Many of her weapons in a battle are also various cooking utensils. She's also capable of making a very good meal, if called to do so.
55	* ChekhovsGun: When the party enters Castle Sascha's courtyard, Grinderbin sees a big stone statue depicting the royal family. Jesse pesters Jack with questions about the statue until Jack relents and confirms that yes, the statue is heavy. Come the final encounter of Season 3, the statue is used to [[spoiler:crush the FinalBoss beneath its weight]]. Complete with a flashback of Jesse asking Jack if the statue is heavy.
56	* ChestMonster: Encountered in S2 E3, when Mortimer makes Dabarella open a chest that turns out to be a mimic.
57	* TheChewToy: Sigmar gets absolutely beat to shit during the climax of Season 3--first by Kalandra Ticklepuss, then by her father Latavia, then by [[WomanScorned his ex-fiancee]] Eggolier (who had, ironically, been one of the people who healed him from the earlier damage). Oh, and [[spoiler:his non-prosthetic arm has just gotten a PowerTattoo that exacts a horrible price every time it's used]].
58	* CliffHanger: Episodes are usually calculated to end on a cliffhanger.
59	* CostumeEvolution: From Season 1 to Season 2, each of the party members gets an upgrade in their outfit. Dabarella is in armor now, Mortimer gains a cape, Grinderbin replaces his shirt with a scalier one and Sigmar gets [[TooManyBelts too many belts]].
60	* CuteButCacophonic:
61	** Dabarella is a mild example, having a voice that's slightly louder and more childish than normal, but Jack takes full advantage of this trope for a couple of the [=NPCs=].
62	** Toasty Cinnamonbuns, the gingerbread familiar, has a voice like an Creator/EdWynn character.
63	** Anus the siren sounds a bit like one of the Pepperpots from ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''.
64	** Both Charon Ferryman[[note]]or possibly Karen, or Sharon[[/note]] and the gang's recurring ally Bread have ''aggressive'' MinnesotaNice accents.
65	* CuteSlimeMook: Oob, a slime monster wrapped around a skeleton and contained in a small wooden bucket. It greets everyone with an excited "Hi!", is dumb as rocks, and addresses its master with an appreciative "Daddy!", generally behaving like a small, stupid child.
66	* CuttingTheKnot: When Grinderbin encounters Bonesy in S3 E10, Bonesy has important information to tell him, but -- being a skeleton that doesn't have lungs -- he cannot succinctly communicate this. Initially Grinderbin plays charades with him to try and guess what Bonesy needs him to know... until Mortimer arrives on the scene, and bypasses the issue by giving Bonesy a pen and paper to write what he means.
67	* DeliciousDistraction: The heist plan involves Dabarella making some really good gingerbread cookies. All the guards get distracted from their duties because they're really good cookies, and they manage to sneak Mortimer in by having one of the guards share the trolley of cookies with the guards in the vault.
68	* DidntThinkThisThrough:
69	** Early in Season 3, the party tries distracting the Royal Chancellor, Benndory Tickletoes, with food. Chancellor Tickletoes is a rather grouchy Halfling. They attempt to negotiate as his snacks are being prepared, but he bluntly refuses to talk until he's eaten, complaining at length that it's taking forever. You can't offer a hobbit food and expect him to think of ''anything else'' until after he's eaten!
70	** After convincing Latavia Ticklepuss to turn Albert the shovel back into a person by showing him the future he and Betty would have had together (including [[IWantGrandkids grandchildren]]), Latavia laments that he didn't use his ability to see the future beyond his daughter running away to get married, as he was too afraid of losing more of his family after being banished. If he had, a lot might have been different.
71	** Sebastian Piss gives tattoos that allow the summoning of weapons [[spoiler: made out of the bearer's flesh, bones, and tendons]], but "the price is pain." 1d12 damage per +weapon level to get the tattoo, and again for the TransformationSequence. The Religion Check Siggy whiffs implies that Piss is some kind of Evil entity; meaning that Sigmar made a [[DealWithTheDevil Warlock Pact with him.]] This being a faustian bargain is confirmed in the Season 3 finalé.
72	** What Sigmar intended as an act of good by breaking off his wedding to Eggolier so she could be with his sister ended up "ruining her life" and she'd been wanting to deck him ever since. 1) He [[ForcedOutOfTheCloset "outed"]] them to what is likely a highly conservative, religeous society, and 2) he abandoned an arranged marriage, which would have rent assunder the alliance their parents intended.
73	** Mortimer's plan to attract the attention of Fudge Ruckersford by casually name-dropping the Jade Homunculus within earshot gets him and Sigmar in a lot of trouble, because knowledge of the Jade Homunculus is supposed to be highly classified in the human settlements, leading Fudge to believe that the group are a bunch of enemy spies.
74	* DistractedByTheSexy: Grinderbin, while infilitrating the Black-Eyed Susans' hideout, is able to distract one of the flora-folk guards by offering him a magazine containing "human pornography."
75	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
76	** When the party first encounters Prince Chisarick Thathird the Second, he makes a number of [[InnocentBigot race-oriented social faux-pas]] like remarking that seeing the uncommon Flora-folk is "unusual", or wanting to touch Dabarella's hair because hers is different from his, as a cheeky joke about certain uncomfortable real-world behaviors around minorities.
77	** To steal a magic amulet, Mortimer is snuck into a royal vault beneath a linen-covered service cart. Jack didn't have the graphics for a service cart at the time the episode was recorded, so Mortimer represents the cart and the cart is drawn over him in post. The amulet is guarded by [[MrFanservice shirtless, ripped-muscle men in denim shorts known as "Himbos"]]. When all the Himbos get distracted by the DeliciousDistraction placed atop the cart, all of them surround Mortimer -- at which point the players start remarking that it strongly resembles the classic pornography trope of an oblivious character being flanked from behind by a number of male porn actors.
78	* DurableDeathtrap: The first obstacle the party has to overcome is a hallway full of spinning blade traps, in a dungeon that's indeterminately old.
79	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Episode 0, which was initially meant to be more of a proof of concept than an actual pilot, has some minor oddities where compared to later episodes. Notably, many of the named [=NPCs=] are depicted with realistically-rendered faces, and Dabarella is depctied as much more vulgar and aggressive than her later characterization (likely because Amy had yet to nail down her personality).
80	* EatBrainForMemories: Invoked. When Oob steals a memory, that memory is sucked out of the victim's head, eventually killing them when it takes all of them. It's shown gnawing on Sigmar's boots in an effort to get his memories, implying that it actually does at least eat their bodies in the process.
81	* EmotionEater: Celestials eat good vibes, to the point that Happiness is used as a CurrencyCuisine.
82	* ExoticExtendedMarriage: For dwarves, it is common to be polyamorous and the most prominent example is the royalty of the kingdom, consisting of a queen who is married to three other dwarves.
83	* {{Familiar}}: As of S3 E1, Dabarella gets Toasty Cinnamon Buns, a living gingerbread man decorated as a wizard, as a familiar. Sigmar is somewhat creeped out by Toasty's excessive cheerfulness, while Mortimer immediately jokes about eating him for lunch before Dabarella points out that Toasty is sentient.
84	* FantasticRacism:
85	** At least the guards of Borthelmoore Keep are prejudiced against Flower and Faunafolk, as well as Celestials. Basically, anyone non-human.
86	** Elderly Dwarves refer to non-dwarves as "Upsiders" and immediately distrust them. Jack illustrates it by invoking the RacistGrandma trope. ''"There's your really racist grandma, your kinda not-racist but still kinda-racist mom, and then there's you."''
87	** Mortimer on occasion will say something horribly racist, usually resulting in offense from the people around him, especially Grinderbin.
88	** While the Elves have been integrated with the human kingdom for a long time, and the Aasimar are allies, the Flora and Fauna folk are noted to have been enemy countries for a long time. Queen Beyoncé uses this to justify several unspecified atrocities against them.
89	* FantasticSlurs: The slur "upsider", used by racist dwarves against non-dwarves. Younger Dwarves [[InnocentBigot just use it out of cultural habit with no real malice behind it]].
90	* FantasyGunControl: Averted. Several guards are seen armed with blunderbusses. They don't seem very effective, since the one time we see one fired, it misses the target.
91	* FluffyTheTerrible: The primary antagonist of season two is a huge, wormlike EldritchAbomination called "King Fuzzyhug."
92	* {{Foil}}: Eggolier and Sigmar are opposites. TheChessmaster versus the SpannerInTheWorks. Eggolier always thinks ten steps ahead, while Sigmar is impulsive and brash. She's not afraid to manipulate to get her way, while he's always trying to do what's immediately good. Eggolier is [[BitchInSheepsClothing always putting up a friendly facade to achieve her goals]], while Sigmar [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold is irritable and no-nonsense but amicable deep-down]].
93	* FriendshipMoment: There ''appear'' to be a couple between Mortimer and the others, during Season 3, but one is immediately subverted, and the other is one-sided at best.
94	** Before Dabarella attempts an extremely risky FakeMemories gambit on one of the season's main antagonists, Mortimer pulls her aside for a pep talk, where he praises her abilities to the sky--then gives an AsideGlance to the viewer and quips "I can bullshit with the best of them, can't I?"
95	** In the finale, after Mortimer is forced to [[spoiler:reveal his Changeling abilities to impersonate Queen Beyoncé]], he threatens Grinderbin with a horrible fate if the secret ever gets spilled. Grinderbin responds that if he were interested in spilling it, he wouldn't have let Mortimer know that he knew about it.
96	* FryingPanOfDoom: One of Dabarella's pieces of equipment is a big cast iron wok. Naturally, she hits a few people with it.
97	* GiantEnemyCrab: A battle with such a crustacean takes up the entirety of S2 E5; "The Battle of Piss-Off Bridge.".
98	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: While it's mitigated by the presence of his daughters, Latavia Ticklepuss didn't handle being banished to Destiny's Keep very well, becoming fixated on happy memories and eventually becoming an infovore, literally eating the happy memories of others.
99	* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: King Fuzzyhug]] is too lazy to do anything evil, being a {{Sleepyhead}} who just wants to snooze in his lava cave. He was only [[spoiler: causing the earthquakes]] because he was being disturbed.
100	* GoodGuyBar: The protagonists run the "Adventure Is Nightclub", the club-slash-tavern where they kick back and unwind between adventures.
101	* GuestStarPartyMember: Susan Sheerfist (played by [=JM8=], of another The Escapist/Second Wind show WebVideo/DesignDelve) briefly joins Dabarella and Grinderbin in one of the side stories, and leaves by the end of that arc.
102	* TheGreatOffscreenWar: Apparently the kingdom is in semi-open war with the Flora- and Fauna-Folk; at least according to Egelier. The Season 3 finalé reveals that the Flora- and fauna-folk are at war, and Dehidré's daughter wants the party to guard the Peace Talks because she fears that he may attack it.
103	* HeinzHybrid: Mortimer is "a mix of genetics" and referred to as a "half-elf" to save time. He doesn't mind being called a "mutt" to his face either. According to the season 1 recap, Yahtzee figures there have to be people in ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]'' whose ancestors were multiple parings of several different kinds of {{Half Human Hybrid}}s.
104	* HiddenElfVillage: Ironically, it's the dwarves who hid their capital, not the elves.
105	* HufflepuffHouse: The Faunafolk and Elf factions exist (Dabarella and Mortimer evidence their existence), but have little bearing on the central conflict in the first three seasons. {{Subverted}} at the end of the third, which [[SequelHook cues the party in to their next adventure]] for helping the Faunafolk and Elves mend relationships.
106	* HumansAreWarriors: The Human Kingdom is noted to have entirely subsumed the elven nation, and driven the dwarves into an isolationist LandOfOneCity. There is also tension between the human, flora-, and fauna- folk nations.
107	* HumanWeapon: Sigmar jokingly calls himself this in S3 E8, [[spoiler: and then actually becomes on in S3 E10, when his other arm becomes a Meat Bow thanks to an arcane tattoo given to him by a mysterious man named Sebastian Piss]].
108	* HurlItIntoTheSun: While discussing Queen Beyoncé's very powerful magical amulet, Pikeworth says that he'd want to destroy it, but it would take some effort to do. Amy jokes that they could destroy the thing by throwing it to the moon.
109	* IngestingKnowledge: Latavia Ticklepuss's slime servant Oob eats memories, especially happy memories, which it brings back to "Daddy" Latavia, as a way to deal with the isolation of banishment.
110	* InherentlyFunnyWords: The magic word Mortimer uses to activate his Stone of Detect Truth is the goofy sounding "buggernuts". It comes in handy at [[{{Bathos}} relatively serious, plot-heavy moments]].
111	* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: PlayedWith and {{Lampshaded}} in one sequence: Dabarella casts Augury to predict that the group's plan (distract Lativa Ticklepuss by convincing him to prepare for [[spoiler:Albert and Betty's wedding at their shelter, which they actually don't plan on having yet]]) will be immediately useful, but once Lativa finds out, he will be [[BerserkButton very, very angry]]. Dabarella sums it up as "good for now, probs bad for later". Mortimer responds that taking immediately-useful decisions with significant negative long-term consequences is "the story of my life".
112	* KingIncognito: [[spoiler: Bonesy is the peaceful yet undead remains of the King, who went missing a long time ago.]]
113	* LeftHanging: At the last episode before ''Website/TheEscapist'' collapsed, it was revealed that Eggolier pinned the theft of the Jade Homunculus on Mortimer's criminal friend Domino Fantastic. Literally three days later, ''TE'' went under. If not for the series later returning with Second Wind, that cliffhanger would have been the end of the series.
114	* LetMeGetThisStraight: Eggolier falls back on this, when she learns that [[HumanoidAbomination Latavia Ticklepuss]] may be headed for the castle the main characters are currently in, at the exact time when (due to Reasons of Plot) the magical barrier that would normally repel him is severely weakened.
115	* LieDetector: Mortimer's Magic Item is a Stone of Detect Truth, a rock that turns green when someone tells the truth, and red when someone lies. Like a real "lie detector," it's not 100% accurate.
116	* LineOfSightName: According to Jack, the name of "Angondarii, the Land of Red Grass" was vaguely based on a species of prairie grass[[note]]Andropogon gerardii/big bluestem[[/note]] that he encountered while landscaping his garden.
117	* TheMagocracy: Only the Nobility has any magic in human society, and even then, it [[PowerCrutch comes from]] some kind of MagicalAccessory.
118	* MistakenForGay: After Grinderbin takes Mortimer into a room for a talk, Sigmar sees them walking out cheerily acting casual, and leans into Dabarella and whispers "I think they're fucking." Mortimer later uses this as part of his cover story as to why he and Grinderbin swapped outfits as part of one of his schemes, claiming that "This is what happens when you get dressed in the dark."
119	* MurderByMistake: Mortimer acquires a needle laced with PerfectPoison. By [[spoiler:hiding it in a forgery of Queen Beyoncé's amulet]] his intended target is made quite clear. However, the needle instead ends up poisoning [[spoiler:Prince Chisarick Thathird, when he attempts to [[TheStarscream usurp control from Beyoncé using her amulet]]]]. Mortimer makes the most out of the situation by [[SurvivorGuilt guilting his intended victim over the sudden death of his actual victim]].
120	* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous:
121	** The ruler of the humans is Queen Beyoncé Knowles, appropriately located at Castle Sasha, with a nearby disowned keep called Destiny's Keep.
122	** The twin Aasimar cities are named Venessula and Hudgnes, for Vanessa Hudgens.
123	* NeverMessWithGranny: Kalandra Ticklepuss is an extremely powerful magic user. She manages to hold her own against a platoon of guards, and treats being set on fire like a painful annoyance. She's also quite old, and Jack Packard gives her a very "crotchety old woman"-type voice.
124	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Prince Chisarick Thathird II is a dead ringer for Prince Charles, both of whom are (or were, in Charles' case) prince-heirs poised to become king when their mother dies, but said mother is unusually and exceptionally long-lived.
125	* NonHumanNonBinary: Jesse sees his MushroomMan character Grinderbin [[https://youtu.be/2b7B0_WYAMg?si=qBB5s3LcfKECcDdF&t=3250 as using they/them pronouns,]] although this doesn't always come across since the players (including Jesse) will accidentally refer to Grinderbin with he/him, and in-character Grinderbin doesn't care enough to correct people if they refer to him incorrectly. For the later-introduced flora-people, it's {{subverted}} in that they do present as masculine or feminine.
126	* NotTheIntendedUse: Queen Beyoncé's [[PowerCrutch necklace]] is actually [[spoiler: the power source for the robot army, which itself is only supposed to be bodies for the dead who don't want to move on to reincarnate into. Karen Ferryman is mildly annoyed when she finds out one of her acolytes built the facility with a way to control the robots into it, and she asks that its punch card reader be removed.]]
127	* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: Charon[[note]]or possibly Karen[[/note]] Ferryman is voiced and animated in a way that references this trope, but in reality [[DontFearTheReaper she's quite nice]]. Ironically, when [[spoiler:Chisarick Thathird the Second]] dies and gets sent to the netherworld, he's the one bothering ''her'' with demands to speak to the manager.
128	* OddFriendship: Moped, a crazy, senile peasant, and his shovel friend Albert, who is a guy forced into the form of a shovel and is completely inanimate. When Albert [[spoiler:is given his original body back, taking the form of a proud Aasimar warrior poised to marry into royalty, he greets Moped with a charismatic, appreciative "My man." and thanks him for keeping him safe and using his shovel body to do various wacky tasks]].
129	* OffTheRails:
130	** During one of the sessions, the party takes a moment to visit general store-owner Bread and talk about the weird skeleton friend he has. They manage to uncover the identity of Bonesy (he's [[spoiler:the previous king long thought to have disappeared]]) when that's not the party's immediate nor long-term goal. Once the group concludes they need more evidence, Jack Packard admits that he wasn't expecting they'd be going this direction during the current campaign.
131	** Jack Packard was expecting the party to fight Lativa Ticklepuss, who is [[spoiler:an EldritchAbomination BlobMonster responsible for forcing Albert into the form of a shovel]]. Instead, the party [[spoiler:convinces Lativa to return Albert back to his normal form]], a detour Jack admits was unexpected as he describes Lativa opening a puzzle he expected the party would need to do themselves.
132	* OneSteveLimit: Thoroughly averted throughout Season 1, where many of the male [=NPCs=] share the given name of "Jeremy".
133	* OnlyOneName: Grinderbin, unlike all other Flowerfolk shown so far, has no discernable surname. Even the only other known mushroomfolk, Celia Sporefold, has one.
134	* OurSirensAreDifferent: Anus Quiver, a river siren who is portrayed as a super-sexy woman on the top with a mass of wriggling tentacles and a cephalopod beak on the bottom. She also speaks like a Monty Python pepperpot.
135	* ParasolOfPain: One of Grinderbin's weapons is the Umbrella of Foul Language, which he uses to cast spells.
136	* PartyOfRepresentatives: Dabarella is a Faunafolk, Grinderbin is a Flowerfolk, Sigmar is an Aasimar and Mortimer is a half-elf, half-everything else.
137	* PerpetualFrowner: Well, [[InvisibleAnatomy he doesn't usually have a mouth]], [[PlayedWith but the same emotion is communicated]]: Sigmar's default expression is an unimpressed, annoyed glare.
138	* PimpedOutDress:
139	** Dabarella's party outfit is a pink, Franchise/DisneyPrincess-esque ballgown.
140	** Grinderbin's party outfit can only be described as the men's equivalent of this trope.
141	* PointyEars: Mortimer's family tree is such a mess that it all averages out to a regular guy with pointed ears.
142	* PowerTattoo: During Season 3, Sigmar gets a tattoo that lets him conjure a bow whenever he wants one.
143	* PrecisionFStrike: Eggolier comes out with one, when Grinderbin questions her scheming ability.
144	-->'''Eggolier''': You ''saw'' my plan.\
145	'''Grinderbin''': That was it? I don't believe that.\
146	'''Eggolier''': ''(splutters)'' Oh, I'm sorry, "that was it?" ''"That was it?"'' You mean returning a precious item [[spoiler: under the guise of someone else (who I know didn't steal it) so I could make an alliance with the most powerful--wizard--in--this--land?!]] Oh, "that's it"--''fuck you!''
147	* ProductPlacement:
148	** The series is sponsored by dice company Dice Envy starting with the third season. Sometimes they cut to the dice cam -- a camera positioned over a box with the Dice Envy logo on it -- to show off the result of important rolls.
149	** In [[https://youtu.be/mLATIvH8CJc?si=XlrW7K9yHhg6OQ-5 one bonus video where the players receive miniatures of their characters,]] Jack mentions that a 3D modeller named Sam Elliott created them. Each time anyone mentions his name from that point onwards, it's announced alongside some very prominent links to Elliott's social media to contact him by.
150	* RaceFetish: Prince Chisarick Thathird is absolutely smitten with Dabarella; entirely because she's a Tabaxi.
151	* RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler: Egelier has one, albeit into total frustration rather than rage, when Sigmar and Grinderbin tell her that they helped free one of Latavia's daughters, after telling her that Latavia might be coming straight for Castle Sasha]]
152	* ARareSentence:
153	->''"I will absolutely ''not'' fuck a shovel!"''
154	-->[[spoiler:'''Betty Ticklepuss''']]
155	->''"We should be putting on puppet shows for gingerbread men to appease an eldritch horror, and we're going to make some fucking visuals of that!"''
156	--> Yahtzee Croshaw
157	* ReallyRoyaltyReveal: [[spoiler:Grinderbin]] turns out to be the recently-sprouted heir of Queen Cillia and King Jarmie.
158	* RollingPinOfDoom: One of Dabarella's weapons is a giant, wooden, metal-studded rolling pin.
159	* RoyalBrat: Chisarick Thathird the Second (son of Queen Beyoncé), who is slightly racist and constantly demanding attention. More worryingly, [[spoiler:he attempts to steal his mother's magical pendant and force her to abdicate, which gets him killed]].
160	* RunningGag:
161	** In season 1, every second NPC was named "Jeremy." Even [[spoiler: the minor god trapped in the Jade Homunculus]].
162	** Dabarella cooking a meal for an NPC the party has befriended. [[spoiler: This culminates in her causing the party to have A Moment since King Fuzzyhug is an EmotionEater who feeds on positive emotions. She has his essence imbued into her wok so he'll be warm (from cooking) and be able to partake in the meal somehow (everyone nearby enjoying themselves).]]
163	* SecretKeeper: Grinderbin knows what [[spoiler:Mortimer]] really is, which they talk about in S3 E8, but only refer to via allusion to not give the twist away yet. It comes out in S3 E10: [[spoiler:Mortimer is a Changeling, and [[GodzillaThreshold the massive stakes at hand lead him to finally put his shapeshifter powers to use when he's abstained from them for the whole campaign thus far]]. He also tells Grinderbin that if he ever tells anybody about it, he'll never be safe again]].
164	* ShipTease: Mortimer hits on Dabarella during Season 2's victory party. [[spoiler: She lets him down gently]].
165	* ShoutOut:
166	** KC has admitted that Sigmar's original design was based on Kaname Tosen from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. His redesign in Season 2 also took inspiration from the album cover to Music/{{Bad}} by Music/MichaelJackson.
167	** Amy's initial concept for Dabarella started as a female version of Meowscles from VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}.
168	** Mortimer's catchphrase for activating his stone of truth is [[WesternAnimation/AngryKid "buggernuts."]]
169	** The minigun-wielding centaurs are modeled after [[TheAhnold Alan]] [[Film/{{Predator}} "Dutch"]] [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Schafer]], [[Creator/SylvesterStallone John]] Franchise/{{Rambo}}, and [[Creator/BruceWillis John]] [[Film/DieHard McClane]].
170	* SpellBook: Part of Dabarella's backstory is that she read a necromancer's spellbook after mistaking it for a cookbook. She was looking for cookie recipes.
171	* SidekickCreatureNuisance: Dabarella's familiar has a shrill, grating, Bozo the Clown voice. Mortimer takes one look at the little bugger and immediately proposes ''eating him,'' while Sigmar is highly uncomfortable with him getting into his personal space.
172	* SimpleYetOpulent: Sigmar's party outfit is just the same kind of jacket he always wears, just 1) clean and 2) closed.
173	* SimpletonVoice: Dabarella is noted to have a low INT score, and Amy gives her a childish voice you'd expect from someone half her age and a quarter her size. (She tends to stammer a bit as she talks, which gives the impression of her brain running to catch up with her mouth.)
174	* SuddenAnatomy:
175	** The ''Zero Punctuation''-esque artstyle used for the series usually [[FloatingLimbs omits limbs except for their extremities]]. When Sigmar gets a magical arm tattoo, he suddenly has an arm for Sebastian Piss to paint onto.
176	** Grinderbin [[TheBlank has no face, for his entire head is a mushroom]]. According to [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slugfestgames/adventure-is-nigh-the-card-game?ref=dvjylv the official promotional expansion]] for ''TableTopGame/RedDragonInn'', Grinderbin does have a face in his mushroom cap's ridges, it's merely not drawn most of the time.
177	* SuicidalPacifism: The party is generally against hurting important [=NPCs=] whenever possible. They try to avoid killing Latavia Ticklepuss despite him being an ObviouslyEvil EldritchAbomination, and keep Kalandra Ticklepuss alive for way longer than they need to, despite the fact she's made her intent to kill everyone in the room quite clear and refuses to cooperate in any capacity even if it means her certain death. The only exception is Mortimer, who very nearly does kill Kalandra, and has previously stated that murdering the entire adventuring party during their sleep to cover his own ass is an actual consideration he once had.
178	* TeleporterAccident: Mortimer has the idea to use Sigmar's Blink Arrow to harvest some platinum from King Fuzzyhug's corpse. [[spoiler: Sigmar leaves his hand behind]].
179	* ThatCameOutWrong: A man named Sebastian Piss gives Sigmar a magical tattoo that allows him to summon weapons. When trying that goes wrong ([[spoiler:a bow is created from Sigmar's own flesh and bones, which is extremely painful]]), a nearby guard vomits at the results. Sigmar is irritated, stating that he needs to see (Sebastian) Piss; the barfing guard gets ticked off, questioning why Sigmar wants to [[BringMyBrownPants see piss]].
180	* ThisIsMySide: Fortude and Dave Thomas, the two kobolds in the dungeon from Episode 0 are bickering over this exact thing when the party enters their workshop.
181	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Downplayed with Sigmar, who is canonically the shortest of the group, although it is brought into focus whenever he's next to Dabarella, and especially Eggolier.
182	* {{Transplant}}: Jesse's character Grinderbin is transplanted from a separate ''D&D'' material Jesse wrote: [[https://rexiconjesse.itch.io/grinderbins Grinderbin's Mobile Market of Ridiculous Magical Items,]] in which Grinderbin peddles strange magic trash.
183	* TrashTheSet: At the start of Season 3, Jack Packard blows up the original ''Adventure is Nigh'' viewer interface and replaces it with a smoother new one, which they can use now that the whole group is playing in-person.
184	* TraumaCongaLine: The finale of Season 3 puts Beyoncé through an extensive one. First, [[spoiler:her son is killed by a weapon meant for her]], and Mortimer ''really'' twists the knife when he gives her the news. Then [[spoiler:her father dies]], although she wasn't on great terms with [[HumanoidAbomination what was left of them]] anyway. Finally, she's forced to kill [[spoiler:her half-sister Kalandra]], since she's the only one in the room besides Mortimer who realizes that they can't be talked down from trying to kill everyone else.
185	* {{Tuckerization}}: One of the members of the Ticklepuss family is Kalandra Ticklepuss, named for Second Wind founder Nick Calandra.
186	* UnfortunateNames: Jack LOVES giving ridiculous names to his [=NPCs=], partially because it means [[HehHehYouSaidX the players will have to repeat the names during dialogue.]] Some notable examples include...
187	** An NPC the party [[YouAllMeetInACell meets when they wake up in the back of a paddy wagon]] is a goblin named "Jeremy [=GoodSex=]." He turns out to be an, er, adult entertainer later, and they guess it to have been his "pornstar name." The ''Side Quest'' spinoff reveals that there's an entire commune for clan [=GoodSex=].
188	** The primary antagonist of season 1 is a Flowerfolk rogue by the name of "Davorty (pronounced "Dafferty") Cornhole."
189	** A River Siren who tries to seduce and eat Sigmar is named "Anus Quiver" (pronounced exactly how you think it is), presumably because her mother hated her.
190	** At the Flowerfolk hideout is a grunt named "Jeremy Nagginwife."
191	** One of the Dwarf Kings is named "Verri Longdick."
192	** Sigmar gets a [[spoiler:cursed]] tattoo in Season 3 courtesy of a man named "Sebastian Piss".
193	* UnscaledMerfolk: River Sirens are elven women with technicolor hair from the waist up and freshwater octopi below that. It's stated that their horrific main jaws reside at the center of their tentacle cluster.
194	* UpperClassTwit: An InvokedTrope. Part of Mortimer's plan for the Moonlight Ball heist involves acting like a boor, then disappearing with Dabarella ("his chef"), in the hopes that nobody will worry too hard about where he's gone, just so long as he IS gone, and might (hopefully) be gone a long time.
195	* VerbalBackspace: At one point Dabarella offers to pick Oob up and hug him. He cheerfully responds [[CreepyCute "Oob will hug your memories!"]] and she quickly reconsiders.
196	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Out of the six named [=NPCs=] in Episode 0, only 1 becomes a recurring character in the series proper. [[spoiler:Tourniquet Fastlevel is killed mid-sentence after trying to defy Lady January Farfell's orders, Fortude the Poison-Touch (the alchemist kobold) is killed during combat, Lady January is murdered by Sigmar after the party summons a horde of undead to kill her guards, and the same undead horde also gets sicced on Jeremy Goodsex.]] Only [[spoiler:Doory the Magical Talking Door and Dave Thomas (the artificer kobold)]] return for the series proper, and even then [[spoiler:Dave Thomas]] is immediately PutOnABus when the party sends him away at the beginning of Episode 1.
197	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Mortimer's first words of the campaign are "Oh, what was I drinking last night?"
198	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: InUniverse. The party's plan to get Albert turned back into a man is to show the EvilSorceror who turned him into a shovel how happy Albert and the sorcerer's daughter could have been, and creating new memories for the Sorcerer to enjoy with them and their children (the sorcerer dealt with his grief by sending an infovorous monster out to steal happy memories), if only Albert wasn't turned into a shovel. [[spoiler: It works.]]
199	* YouAllMeetInACell: The party wakes up in the back of a paddy wagon, [[BoxedCrook being driven to a Dungeon they've been sentenced to loot for one of the local nobles]].
200	----
201	!! Tropes in ''Adventure is Nigh: Sidequest'' include:
202	* ArmorIsUseless: Averted, Grinderbin's new suit of armor actually saves his bacon during the battle with the Ghost Knight.
203	* BuriedAlive: How Suzan kills [[spoiler: Moll Cutpurse.]] Justified, because her Magic Item, the Spade of the Grave Digger, prevents any corpse it buries from being Raised as an undead, and he's an extremely evil wizard and an AssholeVictim.
204	* ComicallySmallBribe: Aaron Mooney is willing to work for three heads of lettuce a day, and rotten lettuce at that.
205	* GhostlyGoals: The Ghost Knight fought in season 2 feels he needs to commit at least one heroic deed to be let into Warrior Heaven.
206	* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Season 2 Episode 3 has a faun who goes bottomless as a matter of course.
207	* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: Catholics in Angondarii are actually more like mafiosos. They speak with Italian-American accents and set up illegal tollbooths on bridges.
208	* UndeathAlwaysEnds: The Ghost Knight is finally defeated by Dabarella, Grinderbin, and Susan Sheerfist, along with Susan's Spirit Guardians, the ghosts of a hedgehog and a cyclops (who have made their peace with dying, but help Susan because she helped them).

Context WebVideo / AdventureIsNigh