Affably Evil: Zavala speaks kind of like a used car salesman.
All of the Other Reindeer: This is Jem's justification for her violent behaviour, as she's known very little compassion and has been perceived as a monster. None of the player characters buy this, and it slowly grinds her resolve down.
Drop: Last time I checked, my friends were pretty nice to you.
Alias: When I figured out what happened back in Mykonos, I trusted you enough to protect you against other threats around you, because I knew that the best thing at the time was to work with as many people as could cooperate with us.
Lavinia: You're so worried about nobody accepting you. I feel like everybody's accepted you. You have a whole group of people here who've accepted you. When we met you in the mansion, we accepted you. You keep talking about how nobody accepts you, but I feel like everyone does. You just don't wanna see it.
Amazon Brigade: Jem forms one to go after Dr.Sherry, mistakenly believing she caused the massacre of the orc camp.
Ambition Is Evil: Or rather, ambition is not inherently evil, but can be twisted into the most powerful brand of evil. Which is why Zavala is attracted to it, as it is attracted to desperation.
And I Must Scream: Fox, as he is possessed by a devil. He thanks Alias through telepathy for mercy killing him. Those are the first and only words he ever speaks during the podcast.
Arc Villain: Each of the four locations the part travel to have a major antagonist.
The Ragged Woods have the Moss Heart which was causing the local plants and animals to become hostile.
The Tiger mountains has the Orc Guy who took control of the Orc Army from Tusk and despite the party's initial goal of befriending the army, he quickly becomes an antagonist due to the various mishaps that occur.
Mykonos has the Serial Killer who has been killing the upper class. Played With has the killer, Jem, ends up befriending the party and never comes into conflict with them in Mykonos. The problem the party face at the end are rioting townsfolk and the dangerous Modron Swift Justice who turns on them at the end.
The Cascades has two initially, the Drow Gwendolyn is the initial threat due to her attacking the Bullywugs, and the Kua-Toa Father who kidnapped Vinnie, but it is slowly shown that the bigger threat is Welch the Blue who is really a disguised Hag that wants to kill the Eladrin Archmages for killing her sisters and she continues to be a threat after the party leave the Cascades.
The Party's return to the Tiger Mountains has Jem taking the role of antagonist for a few short episodes as she tries to kill Dr. Sherry then Drop.
Berserker Tears: Tusk gets really excited when he sees Drop crying, believing that this trope is in application. They were actually tender tears.
An actual example shows up in episode 34, when Jem loses the duel to Drop miserably, and attempts to goad him into finishing her off.
Bifauxnen: The character of Joan in season 2 was inspired by a picture of Lena Headey looking particularly dashing in a black suit and tie.
Bittersweet Ending: More so for the listeners than the characters. Lavinia Three, Violet, and Alias all are mostly without a care in the world, since the geas made by Lavinia removed all of Zavala's involvement in their lives, as well as any acquaintance with the Blackhearts. Thus, they don't care that the Blackhearts are dead and Drop didn't make it past infancy. Neither can they regret sacrificing their personal growth for the sake of restoring the world.
Brought Down to Normal: At the beginning of the season, Johnny notes dourly that he doesn't have the power anymore.
Violet after swift justice cuts her horn off. Zavala's exact words: "You have 1000x a lethal dose of poison in you."
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Zavala dismisses the drowning of Lorelei as not being his problem anymore, as within a little while he'll have moved on to bigger things.
Casanova Wannabe: Upon meeting Alias again, the first thing Professor Chance does is comment on how attractive both Drop and Cyldiel are, and relentlessly flirt with the latter to the point where she bans him from going under the deck of the Violet 1.
Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Austin jokes that Season 2 wound up this way, since the men of the party are respectively a very Bishōnen elf and a sentient pile of muscles and brooding that jumpstarted a new age of Dicefunk slash shipping, whereas Vinnie the dryad is designed to be cute more than attractive, and Violet is a horse. The secondary characters also have eighties action hero K, and the otokoyaku-ish drow Joan.
Cerebus Syndrome: The moment this sets in is quite clearly delineated by the theme song switches from Thunderstruck to Tears in Rain during the Tiger Mountains arc.
Compelling Voice: The hell portal in the Tiger Mountains tries to compel passer-bys into crossing.
Cooldown Hug: This is a particular talent of Vinnie's. She gives one to Hunter after convincing him to let the Violet One go, turning away from his family forever, and later, to Jem, after she was defeated and spared, curing her from her lycanthropy at the same time.
Chekhov's Gunman: Jem appears to be somewhat done with the player party until they head back towards the Tiger Mountains to rescue the Blackhearts from orcs.
Vinnie: I'm very very sorry. I didn't mean to lie. I'm dumb. I'd like to talk in person if we can. Let me know. Sorry again.
Jem: No apologies necessary. Sometimes you have to do bad to do good. Someone will pay.
Combat Pragmatist: Jem has absolutely no problem switching to her wyvern form in a duel with Drop, dropping him from midhair, feigning a truce, and stabbing him when he isn't expecting it.
Crapsaccharine World: The Lorelei campaign consists mainly of meeting adorable and iconic Non Player Characters, then watching them betray, suffer, and die horribly.
Cruel Mercy: Jem complete rejects Drop's mercy, being dishonoured in the face of her command and facing the loss of everything she had built. She eventually gives in when Lavinia removes her curse of lycanthropy.
Curb-Stomp Battle: With a balance of 13 to 3, the crew absolutely skewersWelch and the Archmages.
Dance Party Ending: Courtesy of Violet, with pyrotechnics and lighting provided by Alias.
Dead All Along: According to Zavala, Vinnie might not actually be Vinnie. As it turns out, he was right.
Deal with the Devil: Another big recurring theme for the characters. Violet makes a deal with Generica/Welch in order to go to the prime material plane, Vinnie makes a geas for her survivalthough it did not go as planned, and Drop's very existence is due to a geas by his father. This is not to mention the myriad of non player characters who have made similar deals.
Mayor Moreno: ...Well, it's just a polite way of saying "My daughter was murdered, and brought back to life."
Demonic Possession: Due to the portals being punched through the planes by Zavala and his geas's the goblin Fox is possessed by a devil.
Despair Event Horizon: Jem is having a long extended one during episode 34, due to the loss of her family and her perception of herself as an unlovable monster only good for killing.
Dirty Coward: Jem accuses Isaac and Judy of being this, for having left her to get mauled and turned into a werewyvern.
Dork Knight: Virtually all of the player characters. And all of the other characters. The propensity towards finger guns ought to be indicative.
11th-Hour Superpower: Austin himself describes Vinnie's level 6 spell Sending as this.
Even Evil Has Standards: Welch the Blue is thoroughly unsettled when bubbly sweet Vinnie threatens to mortally wound herself in order to summon Zavala.
Welch: So, that was a startling series of words. It took me a moment to process them. I actually have no idea if that would work, please do not do that.
Flesh Golem: Zavala's physical form is made of all the body parts that have been recently sacrificed to him.
Florence Nightingale Effect: In episode 35, this is set up for Jem and Vinnie in the aftermath of Jem's duel with Drop. It isn't very romantic, however, since they both have a lot to work through.
Gambit Pileup: The Blackhearts plan to end sacrifice, the Kuo-Toa's contract to bring back their gods, Zavala's mysterious geas' with various inhabitants of the prime material plane, and Generica/Welch's desire to instrumentalize Zavala to get revenge for her fallen sisters all collide to make the plot of the Lorelei campaign.
Geek Physiques: Professor Chance has no canon appearance, but as his title indicates, he is a scholar and just about the only NPC on the Violet One who has genuine trouble climbing the ropes to the Zavala which puts him as rather less fit than average in the Lorelei universe.
Good Cop/Bad Cop: Drop and Alias are set up to pull this on a gnome, but are both too nice and wind up both being the aggressively supportive good cops.
The Greatest Story Never Told: In the end, to save the world from the rising oceans, the party makes a deal with Zavala to retroactively skip Zavala's turn on the wheel altogether; this effectively created a new timeline where none of the season actually happened. Although apparently Alias has dreams about the party's adventures in Lorelei, but dismisses them as mere dreams.
It's suggested in later seasons that it is possible to learn what happened in the original timeline, although only two people are confirmed to have done so.
Gutted Like a Fish: This is Fox's main mode of attack. Drop is subject to it. Twice.
Vinnie: Dad's jumping to conclusions, he's- oh, you know how he does.
Moreno: I know. It's hot. Just throwing people off boats... it's good stuff.
Vinnie: Oh my god, dad.
Heroic Sacrifice: Hunter gives themself up as a component to the spell that takes the entire crew to Zavala, thus sparing Lita.
In the finale, when Lavinia Two expresses to Zavala her heart's deepest desire is that he would not have touched Lorelei in the past twenty years. Lavinia Two, Drop, and the Blackhearts all consent to being retroactively killed in order to save Lorelei.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: When Alias inquires as to why Zavala never tried to strike a deal with him on any of the occasions he was at death's door, he answers after a moment's deliberation:
Zavala: You're just too damn good.
Kill the Cutie: Hunter spends most of their onscreen time being adorable and frightened, only to die for the sake of the rest of the crew.
Knight Templar Parent: Vinnie's father, Keenan "K" Cardinal Stabdaddy, takes great pains to educate her and send her away from the island to save her from the rising waters. After Drop flips a switch and nearly causes a whole party kill, K threatens to throw him overboard if he ever endangers Vinnie again. To which Drop responds that Vinnie has been dead for a long time. K replies by throwing him overboard. note While there were theories that K had made the geas to bring Lavinia back, Austin confirms that he had no idea that the Vinnie who came back from the dead was not the one he raised.
This trope is an overarching theme for the campaign, and for all player characters except Violet, what with Alias' parents and their lies of omission, and the gargantuan sacrifice made by Drop's father for his son. Even Moreno, who doesn't show up much, is shown sugarcoating the truth of his situation to Vinnie.
Leeroy Jenkins: Sheriff K is very much this type of character, as demonstrated when he throws Drop overboard, stuffs Isaac into a barrel, and storms into the meeting between the Archmages and the crew.
Leg Cling: For much of his screen time, Hunter is doing this to Vinnie.
Lighter and Fluffier: Though not nearly as much as Austin professed in the season 1 post-mortem. While season 2 is cuter, it has its share of horrific violence, and still carries some notes of cosmic horror with regards to both the gods leaking into the ocean of Lorelei and the way Welch regards the prime material plane.
Welch: This whole plane is just a weird dream I've been having.
Lighthearted Rematch: The first time Alias and Violet draw blades (and horns) against one another, it is dead serious. By episode 32, they're sparring as friends.
Loan Shark: In a ridiculously Austin move, the main villain of the campaign, Zavala, deliberately grants their deepest desire to people who are near death in a way that will screw other people other, thereby creating a greater demand for his particular brand of merchandise.
Leon: I just realized that Austin's supervillain is capitalism.
Master of Disguise: Welch keeps showing up with different names and different faces and playing the crew like a fiddle.
Maybe Ever After: Jem and Vinnie separate on good terms, with the latter gifting her scorpion whip, which happens to be a symbol of her religion, culture, as well as a literal part of her. In the alternate timeline, Lavinia One meets Jem again and there is much blushing.
Meaningful Rename: Lita suggests renaming the Zavala to the Violet Two, in memory of the Violet One. Violet declines, saying to save it for when they win.
Mercy Kill: As the possessed Fox is falling to hell, Alias uses Mage Hand to rip Joan's sword from his throat, saving him from eternal torment.
Nerf: Violet and Vinnie are both subject to this as they are originally unplayable races, and both of their respective power downs are tied into the plot. In Violet's case, she traded part of her power with the witch Generica in order to pass into the prime material realm. In Vinnie's case, it relates to her murder and reincarnation.
Ocean Punk: Very much so, complete with apocalyptic themes. One village is called Spira, seemingly in reference to Final Fantasy X, another game involving a nautical lovecraftian monstrosity as a major villain.
Odd Friendship: A whole lot of them, such as Vinnie and her murderer Dr. Sherry, Violet and Swift Justice, Vinnie and the spectator, Drop and Tusk, Vinnie and Hunter, and Alias and Isaac. The latter case is notable, as they are friends in both timelines.
One-Winged Angel: Welch is curbstomped by the party, but immediately makes a deal with Zavala that turns her blood into pure lightning.
One-Steve Limit: Hilariously averted when the cast finds the bee-infested corpse of villager Jeff and start referring to him as "Mediocre Jeff", immediately starting to theorize an entire hierarchy of of other Jeffs including Awesome Jeff, Cool Jeff, Average Jeff and Shitty Jeff. Austin declares this canon and the funeral ceremony for Mediocre Jeff features Awesome Jeff giving everyone high-fives and finger guns ("you don't know what those mean but you feel good about them") while Shitty Jeff drinks himself into a quivering wreck for now being demoted to the village's worst Jeff.
Austin: I have to stop naming all my NPCs 'Jeff'.
Ornamental Weapon: Though Joan is a cool cat, she is decidedly a Non-Action Guy and cannot make very good use of her rapier Boris.
Our Goblins Are Different: The Blackhearts are led by a goblin simply called The Fox. While short, he has no problem holding a unicorn over the side of a ship with his strange red hand. Then there's the sword sticking out of his neck...
Subverted because Zavala's gift to him is the hand and it's that specific hand that is strong enough to hold the unicorn over the ship. It's implied that if he didn't have the red hand, he wouldn't have been able to do this.
Our Witches Are Different: Generica, the witch who transported Violet to the prime material plane, was a hag, a particularly monstrous and evil magic using creature. Welch is eventually revealed to be the hag.
Prayer Is a Last Resort: Violet, who isn't particularly pious, prays to Ehlonna while held captive by the orcs in the Tiger Mountains, whereas Alias prays for the first time to Corellon and Sehanine before the endgame, when he fears that both he and his mother may die.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Blackhearts serve this role but switch sides before they're fought again in earnest.
Sadistic Choice: When the Eladrin shoot down the Zavala, Drop is faced with a choice between saving Tusk, whom he has befriended, and Sheriff K who threw him off a boat but is also Vinnie's doting father. He takes a third option.
Sea Monster: One pursues the party throughout Season 2, episode 3. The existence of such creatures is an important plot point.
Sky Pirate: Season 2 begins with the party being accosted by a crew called The Blackhearts.
The Stinger: Throughout the series, garbled audio can be heard after the end credits, changing from episode to episode.
After the end credits of the finale episode, a (very) minor character, the nixie Dora (still voiced by Lauren Morgan), laments that she just wants friends, but they keep drowning. She is approached by the god Ghaunadaur who offers to be her friend so long as she serves him. Dora goes on to become Lauren's player character in season 3.
Supreme Chef: Orc Chief Guy Fieri. He is an Affably Evil host who constantly offers delicious snacks to his guest prisoners.
True Sight: Lita obtained this gift from her geas with Zavala. It comes in handy when the crew realize that she sees one of the Eladrin Archmages as a hag.
Villains Never Lie: While this is not the case for say, Welch the Blue who is a big fat liar, it applies obsessively with Zavala.
Vitriolic Best Buds: While "best buds" is really pushing it, Cyldiel and Joan eventually reach an antagonistic entente.
Wham Episode: In season 2, the reveal that all of the Kuo-Toa are tied to the geas flooding Lorelei, leaving genocide as a potential endgame route for the players.
Wistful Amnesia: Lauren and Skitch both expressed that their respective characters still dream of the original timeline, perhaps even of Drop, without ever understanding those dreams.
Working with the Ex: Joan and Lita, once the party allies with the Blackhearts on the Zavala.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After being knocked down, Jem stretches a hand out for Drop to help her up, feigning a friendly resolution, then pulls him back into the fight.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Austin had not planned for Zavala to be the big bad initially, and actually came up with it because of Drop's background bonus of having a revelation of cosmic proportions set up in his future.
You Kill It, You Bought It: When Drop defeats Jem, leader of an orc camp, he technically becomes chief. However the orcs recommend he leave swiftly as they will unendingly challenge his command until he dies.
Jem: Damn. You might be more of a monster than me.
Drop: I am what I am.
Your Heart's Desire: Zavala shows the crew of the Zavala/Violet Two a scene of their own deepest desire.
For Violet, she wishes to know right from wrong, to be a hero and a unicorn again.
Alias believes his heart's deepest desire (i.e. to go on an adventure and become a wizard) has already been fulfilled, and so his most pressing wish is to repair Lorelei through new technologies and planeshifting.
Vinnie wishes for everyone to be happy, lodged, well fed, and for all those who died before their time to come back.
Drop wishes for agency in the world and to be autonomous from greater powers, which given the fact that Zavala has stalked him his entire life, isn't unexpected.
while the outro becomes A Kid-Pella
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Austin had not planned for Zavala to be the big bad initially, and actually came up with it because of Drop's background bonus of having a revelation of cosmic proportions set up in his future.