Can an old party learn new tricks?
"I think when you make a podcast with the premise that it's adventurers who were angsty teens who are now slightly less angsty, mid-twenties to early-thirties people, we're going to be weird millennial gen Z cusp people making references from 2012."
— Jamie, voice of Aveline, "Episode 3: You Feel A Sting"
QUEST LAID PLANS, a D&D podcast about what comes after you’ve already saved the world once.
The cast:
- Meghan Kelleher as the Game Master.
- Jamie Rose Hathaway as Aveline Javri Skywatcher, Kalashtar druid (accompanied by their dik-dik familiar Addie, short for Admonition).
- Jesse B. Koehler as Esther Mifiance, human sorcerer.
- Maya S. Ming as Winswip Pom, half gnome, half air genasi fighter.
- Neda Marie Valcheva as Noriah Windsworn, lightfoot halfling wizard rogue.
- Phil Arevalo as Kit Marpola, water genasi kensei monk.
This podcast contains these tropes:
- Adventure Guild: The story begins in Saint Simone's Adventuring Guild in the town of Dawnlight, which produced the heroes of this tale, reuniting ten years after they saved the world together.
- Aerith and Bob: Character names include Winswip and Leslie.
- Arms Fair: The crafts fair being held at the adventuring guild also includes a table of cool, fantasy guns.
- Bittersweet Ending: The party's original denouement after the Battle of Horizon Fall, where they defeated the Dreadnought at the cost of the life of their leader, the grief at which the characters are still dealing with ten years later during the events of the podcast.
- Combat Medic: Porla as the party cleric.
- Empty Chair Memorial: At the dinner at their reunion, an empty chair is left for their fallen party leader, Khiron.
- Dumb Jock: Khabriel is incredibly buff and incredibly stupid. Upon meeting Aveline's fiery familiar, Addie, the first thing he tries to do is hug it.Aveline: Yep, that's why you don't touch the familiar that's made of fire.
Khabriel: Aw yeah, it's crazy, right? It's crazy how hot that fire can be. I forget all the time and then I touch it and I'm like oh yeah, fire's so hot!
Aveline: All the time, touching fire? You're touching fire a lot when it's not shaped like a cute animal?
Khabriel: Um, other people are usually around and remind me not to, but sometimes when I'm alone I forget, you know, because there's like a lot going on. - Evil Former Friend: Porla.Esther: Maybe... we don't all walk right up to her... cover our possible escapes. Fun thing to say about a lifelong friend.
- Familiar: Not only does Aveline have her familiar, a fiery dik-dik called Addie who doubles up as a campfire for making s'mores, but Esther can summon his own: a shiba husky (a mix of a shiba inu and husky).
- Depending on what d4 roll he gets when he casts it, the shiba has a different degree of how fucked up it is.
- Fantastic Recruitment Drive: Part of the reunion in the opening episodes includes a career fair for the Adventuring Guild, at which members of the party have been invited to speak.
- Fire Is Red: Aveline, the wildfire druid, has long red hair.
- Flashback B-Plot: Flashbacks to the battle with the Dreadnought and other past events which affect the character's current day are dispersed throughout the episodes.
- Gamer Chick: Winswip discovered some video games on her travels with her mother, and is now a bit of a gamer.
- He Is All Grown Up: Khabriel, who the cast haven't seen since he was a tiny kid of fourteen, has spent the last ten years becoming really brawny, and really, really hot.
- Impromptu Campfire Cookout: Winswip, upon reuniting with Aveline, asks if she can roast marshmallows over the druid's familiar made out of fire, "for old time's sake".
- Slightly less impromptu as Aveline has a flap in her carpenter's belt full of mini marshmallows, specifically to be roasted over their familiar.
- Kid Hero: Formerly the protaganists, who defeated the Dreadnought whilst in their late teens (some in the early twenties).
- Magical Accessory: The party have collated quite the collection over the ten years they've been apart.
- Aveline has a choker that looks like the tips of two antlers joining together at the front which gives them a +1 to spell-casting damage.
- Kit has an amulet called the Smoldering Tear that can give him advantage to charisma checks.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: How Jesse introduces his character at the start of every episode:Jesse: human boy, golden boy, [something] boy Esther
- Memorial Statue: A beautiful, massive statue of Khiron, their deceased party leader, holding a sword aloft is unveiled at the ten-year anniversary of her death.
- Non-Idle Rich: Esther is an adventurer from a very well-off family.
- Ode to Family: Khabriel reads a poem he wrote dedicated to his older sister, Khiron, at the ten-year anniversary of her death. It's really, really bad.
- Old Flame: Kit, for Winswip.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Winswip, four-foot tall half-gnome and level 5 fighter.
- Playing with Fire: Aveline is a wildfire druid. This includes their familiar being a tiny dik-dik made out of fire.
- Their Locate Creature spell creates a trail of smoke and burning for her to follow.
- Esther, as a sorcerer, also has access to fire spells, to his detriment during the fight with the Dreadnought.
- Psychic Powers: Aveline.
- Running Gag: Every song in the world is written by Andrew Hozier, and every book written by Stephen King.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Aveline can shapeshift.Khabriel: Cool, big horse!
- Putting the Band Back Together: The premise of the podcast.
