Awesome / Oxventure

Dungeons & Dragons / The Oxventure:

The Spicy Rat Caper

• Merilwen's gambit to expose the salesman in the centre of town - pretend to drink the elixir, while actually turning into a wildcat using her powers, thus preventing the party taking harm and helping discredit M. Channail's operation. Johnny is so impressed that Merilwen is the first character to earn inspiration.
• Corazón effortlessly sneaks up on M. Channail and incapacitates him easily. What should have been a challenging boss fight for the gang ends up being a hilariously one-sided grappling of a helpless gnome.

A Spot of Bother

• Dob backflipping onto a boathouse and later jumping off and cutting a pirate into literal ribbons with his rapier. A case of Beware the Silly Ones if ever there was one.
• With Merilwen's use of her Animal Friend perk, she essentially uses squids to invent the speedboat, then has a whale ram the Joyful Damnation. This inadvertently distracts the crew and causes the guild to curbstomp any resistance onboard.
• Dob vs Captain Panierz. It's so hideously one-sided that Dob sends the Captain flying overboard.

An Orc-Ward Encounter

• The successes of Dob, Egbert, and Corazón in escaping the pit-and-arrow traps: Dob is not only able to jump across the pit, but he does so carrying cat-form Merilwen, Prudence, and NPC Alfred attached to his stomach; Egbert snatches the arrows from the traps one at a time; and Corazón does a Wall Jump while playing the hurdy-gurdy.

Quiet Riot

• The birth of Merilwen's Meat Grinder. After scaling a bell tower to attract a group of cultists, the Oxventurers bust out two of their newly-acquired spells. Corazón casts Grease, while Merilwen places her Spike Growth just beyond it. Thanks to DM Johnny failing just about every saving throw thereafter, five of the six cultists sent to investigate are all reduced to a profusely bleeding heap, one of whom is killed outright. The sixth, having miraculously resisted the Grease, takes one look at the devastation the group have wrought (by doing next to nothing) and flees back down the stairs.

Plunder Siege

• Egbert's method of getting over a wall into a mansion. Egbert lights a bomb, places his shield over it and rides the shield over the wall, even though he could've just used the bomb to blow up the wall.
• The gang run into a group of eight brigands who, despite attempts at diplomacy, remain beligerent and hostile enough to refuse them passage without a fight. Dob then invites their leader to share some stew before fighting... at which point he slips a Tome of Eldritch Lore into the stew pot. Johnny then rolls a Critical Hit which transmogrifies him into a goblin... then when the bluff fails, the gang annihilate all but two of the brigands.
• When returning villain M. Channail attacks the gang, it becomes apparent that the Villain Forgot to Level Grind, as the gang destroy him in three combat moves. For extra irony, Mike's character Egbert is the one dealing the killing blow to his Suspiciously Similar Substitute.

A Fishmas Carol

• The gang, plus Iron, managing to convert all the Kua-toa under the Sea Mother temple to Cthulhu while their master isn't looking.
• The guild versus a chuul. The chuul critically wounds Prudence, but otherwise gets utterly demolished.

Peak Performance

• Upon finding the Arc Villain is a trapper who uses necromancy to skin animals, and that this includes Merilwen's wildcat companion Simon who has been skinned and turned into a hat, Merilwen gives him one chance to take the hat off his head. Once Vex refuses, Merilwen just growls "Alright. I'll make you" in a way that is absolutely chilling, courtesy of Ellen's acting.
• The fight against Vex itself deserves mention, for how much the guild utterly brutalise him and leave him at the mercy of a very pissed off dragon, which has him screaming in terror before it freezes him and smashes his frozen form to pieces.

Sect Appeal

• Dob comes across an unpleasant Bulezal, a temperamental fiend that resists Egbert trying to banish it. What does he do? He uses Thunder Wave to not only injure the creature, but also drops several dozen stalactites onto it, causing it to be Impaled with Extreme Prejudice and takes it out of combat and down to two hit points, at which point Corazón finishes it off with a crossbow.
• Just before the cult can use a scrying pool to alert the Blessed Lady, really Lady Liliana, Merilwen uses Destroy Water to take the water out the scrying pool, stopping her from being informed of too much. Though she shouts "KILL THE-" just before the image cuts off, the Guild are able to bluff their way out of danger and free the townspeople.

Elf Hazard

• The revelation that the Elder, Eroan is Evil All Along is played incredibly well by Johnny, and one of the few moments that is legitimately terrifying.
• Corazón stopping Eroan siccing from a Banshee on him, by slapping a cursed iron brooch onto him and making him the target. Merilwen then casts Entangle, leaving him to beg helplessly be killed by the same creatures he had been summoning.
• Some brilliant teamwork against the banshees from the Oxventurers Guild, with Corazón and Dob both softening one up while Prudence really damages one with Eldritch Blast, and Merilwen casting a Wind Wall which kills one. This gives Egbert enough time to break Merilwen free and get the banshees to stop targeting them.

Tower Rangers

• This particular Oxventure may have some comedic moments, but this time it shows just how terrifying and efficient they can be when one of their own is seriously in peril, pulling off a Dungeon Bypass and breaking in straight for Egbert after some distraction. Dob, in particular, becomes legitimately intimidating when holding up one of the scientists at swordpoint.
• A villainous one for Liliana. Though her efforts may have been disrupted again, she is the first mortal foe to make the Guild run.

Watch Out

• It's Luke's first time in the DM's chair, and he pulls it off with aplomb. In the post-mortem on Dicebreaker, Johnny calls him a "natural".
• Corazón gets bracers that double his strength, and obliterates the two mummies that are harassing the party.

Lasers and Feelings one shot

• It's Mike's first time playing since "Bone 2 Pick", but he's in fine form as Egbot.
• Ultimately, despite their being possibly more incompetent than the canon guild were to start with, the crew do successfully thwart the evil plot and stop a war.

Gnome Alone

• A villainous one for Liliana again, who singlehandedly bypasses Merilwen's Wind Wall and shreds the balloon anyway.
• The party face off against a Mindflayer, and it puts up a decent fight by managing to injure Corazón and stun Egbert, but the party still overcomes it.

Unreal Estate

• Props again to Johnny for managing to make the Halloween Episode genuinely scary, to the point that the group are unnerved and on edge throughout the entire episode.
• The fourth and final buyer of the house is entirely unintimidated by the haunted mansion, and when tricked into upsetting the Mimic that has just devoured the previous buyer, cows it into submission.
• Corazón facing down his dad, chewing him out for his abusive parenting and for wanting to take up the exact same career he tried murdering his own child for. Andy's acting for this is startlingly good. Doubles as a Tear Jerker as he's clearly upset afterwards.

Silent Knight

• It's a close thing, but the Oxventurers manage to stop the lone paladin and his numerous traps, and not a single citizen of the town is killed.

Sail of the Century

• Rust-on-the-Harbour makes his return in style, being fired out of a cannon from the Inevitability, grabbing a sail of the Joyful Damnation and using it to slow his momentum as he drops down onto the deck.
• Corazón versus Rust-on-the-Harbour, duelling to see if Rust will side with them. Corazón... takes out two gold pieces and throws them at Rust, confusing him and opening the tabaxi for disarming.
• In general, the Oxventurers Guild were not only outnumbered by a considerable amount (not helped by Ellen's absence that week benching Merilwen), but also outgunned, with the Inevitability boasting more armaments than they could hope to wield. Despite this, they manage to get away without a scratch, with Corazón using his strength-boosting bracers to physically push the ship along to buy them time, then with Egbert rigging up a prototype depth charge to blow up a pursuing longboat, while Dob jumps into the water and injures himself to take out another boarding party with a Thunder Wave.
• Points for Liliana here; though she's failed temporarily, she really brought out the big guns to take the Guild down, even after giving them a headstart. The Inevitability is clearly an impressive vessel for the time, with enough armaments to sink a fleet singlehandedly, staffed almost entirely by Egbert clones. On top of that, the longboats are supported by druids which use Create Water to create a boost and allow their vessels to act as speedboats, allowing them to close the distance at frightening speeds.

High Moon

• The Guild gets into a bar fight with a "biker gang" of werewolves. The fight is an overwhelming Curb-Stomp Battle in the Guild's favour, with highlights including Merilwen casting Stone Shape to cause five of them to fall into the basement, Prudence biting their leader as her bloodlust kicks in, and Corazón grabbing two stools in a row to beat a werewolf to near-unconsciousness by using his Swashbuckler feats.
• Prudence finally transforms into a werebear after multiple stories of having the curse in secret, and takes on Wolfgang, the leader of the rival gang. With some clever help from Corazón, Prudence takes the werewolf down in less than five real-life minutes despite having never used her form before, forcing him into submission.

Crawl Me Maybe

• At the very end of the adventure, Prudence's orb/palantir comes to life and jumps into a font of magical liquid, draining it and ending in a spectacular cliffhanger. Johnny's sudden change of narration, combined with creepy music, really sells the horror.

The Orb-Pocalypse Saga Part 1

• The sheer amount of world-building and Arc Welding Johnny and Luke have done to connect both the current time and the "future" setting of Oxventure Presents Blades in the Dark is nothing short of spectacular.

The Orb-Pocalypse Saga Part 2: Epic Jail

• Corazón and Prudence, disguised as guards, let out a prisoner named "Sully", after getting information from a deceased prisoner that he's someone they can trust. They ask him to create a distraction, thinking he'll be a rascal. It turns out that he's actually a powerful necromancer, and he proceeds to kill and reanimate ten guards singlehandedly.
• When "Sully" reveals his full name and turns on Corazon and Prudence, due to some Black-and-White Insanity about them being guards, Egbert ends the fight almost immediately by successfully using Command on him to make him surrender. Merilwen then uses Windwall to summon a wall of fire to incinerate all ten of his undead thralls simultaneously, at which point they throw him in a cell again.

The Orb-Pocalypse Saga Part 11: Dine Hard

• Dob and Prudence put on truly inspired performances masquerading as Vocatus and Liliana respectively, in front of the real nemeses they manage to direct to different dining rooms.
• Both of them manage to keep the charade long enough for Dob to fool Liliana into going to the top of the mountain in "Peak Performance" where there is an ice dragon, and for Prudence to give Corazón an opportunity to Mage Hand some of the enchanted wine into Vocatus's mouth during his Motive Rant.
• Both of these plans seem to have been thought of in the moment.

The Orb-Pocalypse Saga Part 12: Season Finale

• Everyone who drinks Vocatus's magic wine is compelled to drink, even Vocatus himself isn't immune. Liliana however, takes a careful sip and uses her own power to usurp the energy, then immediately kills Vocatus with his own wine golems.
• The guild's teamwork is on full display as they steal a magic winestone containing Prudence's magic from right under Liliana's nose (or literally, right across her neck) as Corazón and Merilwen team up to stealthfully gets right up to her in order to make the swap, and Egbert and Dob are able to con her into thinking her butler is reading to her as she trances with Dob knocking out the real one and Egbert altering his voice to make the swap.

Wedded Redemption

• Aubrey, the Guest-Star Party Member tabaxi sorcerer, played by guest player Harry McEntire, shows precisely what happens when you know the rules of combat: Corazón and Prudence have to tag team one giant cockatrice to kill it, but Aubrey whips out quick fireballs to instantly kill one and maim another, in just one round.

Battle for Bardcon

• Facing a battalion of former bartenders determined to slaughter every bard in G'eth, Egbert points out that the festival's beer tents are unmanned, so they can take over the supply and charge exorbitant prices (which will be paid because festivals always have such markup), making back their money and then some. Johnny is so impressed they don't even make Mike roll for it.

Bride or Die

• After everything goes south, only Merilwen and Prudence make it out of the church, while the boys are stuck inside with half a church full of bandits. The next round they bust back in and annihilate the remaining bandits with a gruesome Druid/Warlock spell combo, described by the both of them as a "milky tentacle bone broth", which is how the victims of the spell look once it's done.

Dine Harder

• Corazón bluffs that he's A. A. Tomkin to get Bush Ranger to take him to the vault. He then shoots the cable on the elevator ride down, dropping Bush Ranger and his henchmen to their deaths while using Feather Fall to save the Oxventurers and the innocent lift operator.
• During the fight against A. A. Tomkin, Prudence makes creative use of her Banishment spell to get Egbert to safety. Then once she gets inside the vault, she promptly obliterates Tomkin with a double Agonising Blast at point-blank range.

Legacy of Dragons

• Liliana's first named general, Dread-bert, is surprisingly competent for a one-off foe. Despite his respect for Egbert, he's not holding back at all and, in a rarity for an Oxventure villain, almost burns Dob alive.
• After four years of not knowing Egbert's backstory, we find out exactly why he was banished from Mistmire. Mike puts a lot of effort into acting out the paladin's distress, shame and desire to do good, in a performance that might be one of the high points of the arc. The surprise is so good that Andy is visibly Mouthing the Profanity in shock.
• The sight of the golden dragon is narrated so well by Johnny that it's likely to manifest gloriously in the viewer's mind. Although some of the citadel shakes, he flies off gloriously and, partly as thanks for Egbert's kindness, obliterates an army that had previously faced off against an army of wine monsters and a young adult white dragon, sending it packing handily.
• Roger the jackalwere is too fast to catch in a straight chase... until Merilwen traps him with Spike Growth. After an interrogation, Luke asks if, as a one-off, Dob can cast all his spells at once. Johnny, as a special treat they're unlikely to give again, grants the request. There Is No Kill Like Overkill indeed.

Oxventure Presents: Blades in the Dark

Dead Man's Debt

• It's Luke's turn to jump back into the GM seat, this time for a different game, and he does so spectacularly. From becoming a Man of a Thousand Voices to rolling with the gang's nonsense effortlessly, he's clearly been keeping himself sharp.

To the Depths

• Edvard expertly pulls of the heist of the documents from Astor's safe, a safe that Astor sunk to the bottom of a carnivorous eel-infested river, and even manages to strangle one of the things when it gets in his diving bell.

The Horrors of Castle Wisenshire

• On the edge of maxing out her stress, Zillah manages to defeat a demon lord by showing it its own reflection in a piece of broken mirror, causing its eyes to explode, then smashing it over the head with an iron candelabra.

Fate of the Dimmer Sisters

• Barnaby, of all people, cleverly sells his shares in the security firm just before they fail to execute the Dimmer Sisters. This not only cures the gang's finance problems, but it ensures that the tabaxi trapmaker is paid properly.

Foundry No. 12

• Edvard gets Lord Strangford and Bakoros to let the Hobby Horses go by using a grenade as a dead man's switch, threatening to blow up the room they are in unless they call for the Red Sashes to stand down. He doesn't even flinch at potential imminent death.

Magic, Ghosts, Danger & Death

• The Hobby Horses complete their meteoric rise through the Volisport underworld by undoing the Brighteners' calamity and restoring magic to G'eth, not losing a single party member in the process. Barnaby, especially, manages to use a flashback to incapacitate Astor by giving him lead poisoning, ruining his capacity to fight them even with the Mini-Mecha he uses.
• Credit where it's due, Astor's Mini-Mecha is made from the Wonderful Mechanical Man, but rebuilt and made much more dangerous. If not for Barnaby's lead poisoning, the fight could have gone much worse.
• Defeated in battle, Astor attempts to reason with the gang by appealing to their "better nature" and arguing their actions would just cause calamity. None of them are swayed by it, with Edvard and Lilith having especially harsh ways of putting him in his place.
• Special mention the composer who provides two memorable moments in the finale: a success sequence when Edvard deactivates the Worrisome Monstrous Mecha, and playing a major key variant of the theme music when they pull the lever to shut down the barricade.
  • As revealed in the video description of the collection of their BITD music, the composer was Luke himself!
• And the background artist adds to the atmosphere, the final background of the series showing sunlight for the first time.

Deadlands

Running Them Down

• Garnet shows precisely how powerful she is as a Huckster by turning a sasquatch into Ludicrous Gibs with a magic flamethrower.

Dead Man's Worth

• The Quick Draw duel has some impressive feats of gunplay:
  • A tuberculosis-suffering man shoots a frontierswoman straight through the head.
  • Delacy executes a cowboy right through the throat. He later does the same to the tuberculosis guy.
  • In the final round between Delacy and Big Bad Benjamin Bellows, Bellows draws and gets a King, the penultimate score. Luke expertly plays up his loss...and then reveals he drew an ace.
• Nate comes Back from the Dead and shoots a man's spine in two.
• Garnet uses her Huckster powers by raising six times, casting a hex so powerful it travels through the roof to knock people off and kill them.

Forty Times a Killer

• Silas and Edie expertly dispatch an undead horror called a Poxwalker. In an also moment of heartwarming, they are able to use a chamber to cure Robert, the man that helped against Daisy Ducrow, when Ducrow shoved lethal poison down his throat.

The Town That Dreaded Justice

• Garnet expertly uses her Prisoner's Last Meal to gain a bag of sugar, that she is able to gather a lot of insects. Using Nate's powers, a jailbreak is arranged.

More Wonders Than Can Be Found In The Heavens

• "Bison Bill" Thicket is affected by Arc Villain Aunt Hildy to partially turn into a ravenous beast. He bites off a good chunk of her hand, causing her to succumb to her wounds.

Oxventure Podcast

Wedded Redemption

• Jane and Andy explain that they only met special guest Harry McEntire a couple of hours before going up on stage to do the Oxventure. Nonetheless he fitted in like he'd always been there, and made for a memorable adventure.

Oxventure Presents: One-Shot Wonders

Dread

• Credit once again to Luke, who has previously done "horror-lite" but rarely full horror, for trying another genre and acing it completely.
• Against all odds, the Total Party Kill is barely averted when Mike makes one last, lucky pull on the Jenga tower. Brad subsequently kills the werewolf, and becomes the leader of the wolf-pack.

Adventure Skeletons

• Cursed Skeleton #18, despite his/their apparent amorality, proceeds to give the neglectful parents of the boy at the farm one hell of a bollocking.

Teatime Adventures

• This video is Ellen's first time being a Games Master - not just "on camera", but first time ever. Nevertheless, she does a sterling job and the fans and her peers were highly impressed.