Recap / Acquisitions Incorporated

For the recaps of The "C" Team's games, see Recap.Acquisitions Incorporated The C Team.

Acquisitions Incorporated began as podcasts, available through the official Wizards of the Coast website, then transitioned to live events at Penny Arcade Expo events around the United States, and is now also available as The Series on Penny Arcade TV. The podcasts and live adventures to date are (see also the official Portfolio):

1. "The Keep on the Shadowfell" (podcasts). Recorded in May 2008, the first half of the adventure sees the newly-founded Acquisitions Incorporated venture into Shadowfell Keep in pursuit of Irontooth, the leader of the local kobolds and goblins, while the second half (with a different DM) has the party confront a death cult of Orcus. This adventure is an abridged version of The Keep on the Shadowfell, the first module published for the fourth edition.
2. "The Tower of Goldenhawk" (podcasts), recorded in February 2009. Several months later, the party is joined by an Eladrin intern Aeofel, just in time for a mission from the local militia captain to scout out the abandoned tower of Goldenhawk. This and all subsequent adventures were written and DMed by Chris Perkins specifically for the podcast, although a modified version of this one (titled Storm Tower) was published in the Dungeon magazine.
3. "The Ambershard Manor" (podcasts), recorded in August 2009. The party is sent to root out a gang of bandits on the eastern road, and eventually track their quarry to the Dwarven necropolis-city of Hammerfast. But the mission becomes personal when Binwin learns the leaders of the bandits are the Ambershards, sworn enemies of the Bronzebottoms. It doesn't end well.
4. "The Prisoners of Slaughterfast" (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). Played live at PAX Prime 2010, this adventure sees the surviving members of Acquisitions Incorporated gather to perform a ritual to bring back their fallen comrade, only for it to fail for an unexpected reason. To get their friend back, Acquisitions Incorporated must travel To Hell and Back — literally.
5. "The Last Will and Testament of James Darkmagic I" (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). Played live at PAX Prime 2011, this adventure follows Acquisitions Incorporated as they travel to the Darkmagic Estate, Jim's childhood home in New Hampshire, for the reading of his late grandfather's will. Once there, family rivalries soon escalate and the party are thrown into unexpected adventures and shocking revelations.
6. "The Lost Episode" (part 1, part 2). This adventure was the first to be played by D&D5 rules, live at PAX Prime 2012. It opens with the heroes waking up in an evil lair that's equal parts Gary Gygax and J. J. Abrams, tied to the altar of an imposing demon. Before long, Acquisitions Incorporated meet a mysterious Drow girl who seeks their help, and warns them of the dangerous "others"...
7. "Ark of the Mad Mage". This adventure was preceded by "tryouts" for the new intern (1, 2, 3) and played in two sessions:
   1. Part 1 (podcasts) returned to the podcast format in July 2013. It saw the party stranded in the Forgotten Realms, having headquartered at Waterdeep and taken on Viari as a new hire to replace Aeofel. Binwin gets a girlfriend, Omin has a religious conversion, and the party sets out to find the lost ark of Halaster, the Mad Mage.
   2. Part 2 (intro, video) concluded the adventure live at PAX Prime 2013 and saw the party venturing into the lowest levels of the dungeon in order to find Halaster's orb, the key to opening the eponymous ark. The quest leads Acquisitions Incorporated to a mighty weapon, just in time to save Waterdeep from a monstrous threat.
8. "Tyranny of Dragons" ties in with WotC's eponymous 2014 metaplot concerning the Cult of the Dragon, which was launched simultaneously with the fifth D&D edition. Season eight was played in two sessions:
   1. "Dragons Over Easy" (intro, video). Played live at PAX East 2014, this adventure opens with the party enjoying the benefits of fame, success and franchising — particularly Omin, now a Masked Lord of Waterdeep. Soon, however, Acquisitions Incorporated find themselves crossing wits, words, and swords with their most dangerous enemy yet when they are enlisted to retrieve a clutch of dragon eggs from Dragonspear Castle.
   2. "Five Heads are Better than None" (intro, video). Played live at PAX Prime 2014, it sees the party trapped inside Dragonspear Castle and fighting for their dear lives, when an unexpected ally returns with reinforcements. From there on, their adventure transitions into the most epic High-Altitude Battle yet and culminates in a shocking revelation.
9. Season 9 tied in with not one, but two of WotC's metaplots launched in 2014 and 2015: "Elemental Evil" and "Rage of Demons", respectively.
   1. "Playing With Fire" (intro, video), played live at PAX East 2015. Having arrived in Baldur's Gate safely, Acquisitions Inc. find their local chapterhouse besieged by the Flaming Fist mercenaries and fire demons, and must organize the last ditch defenses to repel an imminent assault by the Elemental Evil.
   2. "Darkmagic vs. Do'Urden" (intro, video), played live at PAX Prime 2015. In preparation for Acquisitions Inc.'s merger with the Dran Enterprises, the latter's CEO (and Omin's sister) decides to evaluate the party's performance by sending them into the Underdark to deal with Drizz't Do'Urden, who had lost his mind to a demonic Hate Plague.
10. Season 10 (intro, backstage & retrospective) consists of two standalone mini-adventures played at PAX East 2016, Acquisitions Incorporated: The Series (teaser, podcasts), and the live finale at PAX West (formerly PAX Prime).
    1. "How Not to Host a Murder" (video) was a mini-module ran by Mike, with Chris joining the party as Drizzt. Jim invites his friends to his 40th birthday party for a fake murder investigation, only to be murdered for real by one of the guests. The module can be downloaded here.
    2. "I.S.T.A.R. Facilities" (video), ran by Pat immediately after Mike's module, put the party through Viari's unauthorized and therefore top-secret testing and assessment facility for new AcqInc interns. Can be downloaded here.
    3. The Series - "Part One" (episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). With Dran Enterprises still working on the buyout paperwork, Portentia reveals to AcqInc the location of the dwarven vault where her and Omin's sister keeps a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. The crew disguises Omin as Auspicia and infiltrates the Horn Enclave, narrowly dodging detection, and secures the piece of the Rod, just as the entire facility goes into lockdown due to a (seemingly) unrelated theft. Binwin and Jim spend most of the game locked up in a box, and team escapes the Enclave before they can find out who set them up.
    4. The Series - "Part Two" (episode 9, 10, 11, 12). Upon returning to the Waterdeep office, the team finds the entire staff slaughtered and Portentia kidnapped by the Zhentarim in retaliation for the thefts that AcqInc were framed for at the Enclave. Before they can act on that, however, they receive a proposal from Dran Enterprises to join forces to retrieve a second piece of the Rod from a white dragon lair deep in the mountains. It ends even worse than their trip to the Ambershard Manor.
    5. The conclusion to The Series and thus to the entire season 10 (intro, video) was played live at PAX West, and also streamed in cinemas across the US. Regrouping at the Battle Balloon, the party decides to take the fight to Auspicia and her Mysterious Employer Stratovar, a cloud giant with ambitions of world domination. With the help of their old dragon pal Vandal, they breach Stratovar's flying fortress and trick their enemies to fight each other, while they get away with six pieces of the Rod.^note This adventure is tied directly into the finale of Force Grey: Giant Hunters, which deals with the final piece of the Rod, and the fate of Auspicia and the cloud castle.
    6. "The Holiday Special", published on January 6, 2017, was the first non-free installment of the series (available for just $5). On the way back from Stratovar's castle, Viari realizes that one of the artifacts there was probably stolen from his own hometown of Nightstone and convinces the rest of the party to check up on it. From there, the story segues into the weirdest mix of Yet Another Christmas Carol, Saving Christmas... uh, Deadwinter Day, and a bunch of other holiday-related, if twisted aesops.
11. Season 11 is based mostly on the 2017 adventure module Tomb of Annihilation, which is a reboot of the classic Tomb of Horrors, with some elements (like Whelm and the Yawning Portal Inn) thrown in from the Tales from the Yawning Portal anthology, also published in 2017 by the Wizards. The finale of this story arc was actually played in early 2018, at PAX South, making it the first season to both start and end at the same location.
    1. PAX South 2017: With the AcqInc business in Waterdeep down due to recent scuffles with the Zhentarim and Binwin's retirement, Viari and Môrgæn decide to lift Omin's spirits by presenting him with the mythical sentient warhammer named Whelm—which the party first has to steal from the Zhentarim, who plan to auction it off to the highest bidder. After many hijinks and more than a little cosplay, Omin does get his hands on Whelm, but his jubilation is cut short by some very grave news.
    2. PAX East 2017: Omin's agents retrieve his sisters' lifeless bodies, only to discover that his newly-gained resurrection spells won't work—and on top of that, Jim falls prey to a necrotic curse targeting those who had been brought Back from the Dead. To discover what's trapping the souls of the dead and sapping the lives of the resurrected, Acquisitions Inc. (with the newest hire K'thriss Drow'b in tow) has to go on a quest to the Spine of the World to speak to an ancient oracle guarded by frost giants.
    3. "Enter the Trash Witch" (podcast) was a "surprise podcast" published two weeks ahead of the PAX West game. Upon learning that the source of Jim's affliction, the Soulmonger, is hidden under Chult, the party travels to Port Nyanzaru on the Battle Balloon and begins investigating. En route, Omin makes use of an infernal contract to summon a tiefling sorceress named Strix to temporarily bolster their ranks.
    4. PAX West 2017: Before heading into the jungles, Omin, Viari, and Strix help the slowly-dying Jim win a dinosaur race on a triceratops they name "18". Finally arriving in Ommu, where the Soulmonger is supposedly hidden, they fight its defenders, with Jim and 18 double-teaming a monstrous Tyrannosaurus rex. Strix saves the wizard's life, earning a release of her contract from Omin (which he does not honor).
    5. PAX Unplugged 2017: With Rosie Beestinger magically summoned from Red Larch to replace Strix, the party ventures into Ommu, where everyone except her is turned into children by a stray curse and fights Red Wizards of Thay in this weakened state. In order to enter the Tomb of Annihilation, they make a deal with the lich Valindra Shadowmantle, before going back on it and instead allying themselves with the local yuan-ti.
    6. PAX South 2018: As the party descends into the Tomb, a helpful French lizard shows them a way into the "backstage area", where a freak dimension-hopping accident lands them in the actual, not-at-all-embellished Wizards of the Coast HQ in Renton. There, the mighty wizard Chris Perkins helps them to get back to their rightful ages and to return to the Tomb. Omin, who had managed to snatch a copy of the adventure module, devises a cunning plan for a Dungeon Bypass, which succeeds through a creative combo of his and Jim's magic. As Jim's soul is finally freed from the Soulmonger, however, the party is split internally by The Reveal of Omin's contingency plan Gone Horribly Right.
12. Season 12 ties into the sourcebooks The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica (thereby crossing over with Magic: The Gathering) and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.
    1. "WizardUnknown's Battle Royale" (video, live map). DMed by Mike at PAX East 2018, this adventure sees Omin, Môrgæn, Strix, and Viari participate in a team-building exercise where they compete in the eponymous completely original game for the exclusive right to discover the true identity of WizardUnknown, who turns out to be Jim Darkmagic and who is still kind of pissed at Omin.
    2. "Omin's Four" (video), played live at PAX West 2018. Back in Waterdeep, Acquisitions Inc. is hired by Jarlaxle to break into the Dragon's Hold vault operated by a devil-worshiping tiefling. To aid their infiltration, Omin invites Strix (herself a tiefling) along for the ride, but The Caper goes way Off the Rails before it even starts.
    3. "Switcharoo" (video) continues where "Omin's Four" left off, with Omin summoning Walnut Dankgrass from Red Larch to help them infiltrate deeper into the Dragon's Hold. However, unexpected things happen in- and out-of-universe as soon as they reach the vault: Chris passes his DM cap on to Jeremy,^note which he had presumably planned for the climax of "Omin's Four", but the players have derailed his plot so badly, they ran out of time while the party finds itself teleported across dimensions and multiverses all the way to Ravnica (except Strix, who is held back in Forgotten Realms by Asmodeus himself).
    4. PAX Unplugged 2018: The party (and Strix's teammate Evelyn) arrives in Ravnica and, naturally, causes a mess as soon as they get there. Once they get their bearings, they set about gathering resources to get home, starting with a young male dryad named Elm — who, unfortunately, has gotten caught up in the Cult of Rakdos and their Circus of Blood.
    5. "Cheese and Blood" (video), played live at PAX South 2019. In their raid on the Circus of Blood, AcqInc is joined by Elm's cheese-obsessed friend Bobby Zimeruski (Xavier Woods). After rescuing Elm, they head underground to find some Omniglass ore they'll need for the portal device.
    6. PAX East 2019: Omin and Viari have been captured by the Golgari Swarm and the team has to negotiate with their leader get them out.
    7. PAX West 2019: Of course, the party can't get out of Ravnica without one last fight, as House Dimir tries to claim the secret to interplanar travel. And the trip back isn't any smoother, forcing Omin to make a literal Deal with the Devil in "the worst Shark Tank ever". They end up in the hellscape of Avernus, where one of Omin's mistakes comes back to haunt him (again).
    8. PAX Unplugged 2019: As Omin tries to talk his way into the good graces of the hell-warlord that hates him, Jim is rather attracted to the power. Literally. Meanwhile, Viari's Apocalypse Dagger is preparing to go off again...
    9. "Apocalypse Incorporated" (video), played live at PAX South 2020. With the warlord dealt with temporarily, it's time to finish the job and get out. Easier said than done with half the party thrown into the void by the Apocalypse Dagger, but with old friends coming to help they might have a chance.
    10. "The Omindalorian", DMed by Mike at PAX East 2020. The party takes on a job from "the Client" to acquire a magical target that isn't what they seem, of course turning out to be baby Jim Darkmagic.

The "C" Team

See Recap.Acquisitions Incorporated The C Team.

Spin-off games

Acquisitions Incorporated has dabbled in systems and/or settings other than the standard D&D:

• Dark Sun (podcasts). The podcast was produced in 2010, between AcqInc seasons 3 and 4, to showcase the eponymous newly-resurrected campaign setting. It did not feature the characters of Acquisitions Incorporated, with Jerry serving as the DM in place of Chris and Kris Straub subbing in for the absent Wil (whose character Aoefel was still dead following the events of season 3). This was Kris' first and last appearance on show until 2017.
• Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (video). Played live at PAX Australia 2017 (first time at that event) in the middle of Season 11, with Mike as the GM and Jerry (Omin), Kris (K'thriss), Holly Conrad (Strix), and newcomer Jesse Cox as players.
• Call of Cthulhu (video), played live at PAX Australia 2019 during Season 12. Kris was the GM and the players were Jerry (Omin), Ryan (Donaar), Anna (Evelyn), and newcomer Arnie Niecamp.

Other side stories

These are side stories produced by the creators of Penny Arcade and PvP, starring the core cast of AcqInc but most likely not canon in any way:

• Penny Arcade: Jim Darkmagic: A short vignette about Jim's life as a touring magician.
• Penny Arcade: The Vault Of Winter: AcqInc are hired by a mystery woman to acquire the Naughty List from Lord Wyntyr in the Feywild.
• PvP: Grand Entrance: A miscast dimensional travel spell accidentally transports AcqInc to PAX East 2015, smack in the middle of an AcqInc game.
• Penny Arcade: Acquisitors: AcqInc are hired by the Elder Zoo to acquire a marsupitooth from the Underdark in a highly illegal fashion.

See also Binwins Minions.

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