Web Video / Broken Bonds

From left to right: P'mis, Bryan, Li'lu, Hashbrown, E'ar, and Remag

Broken Bonds is an Actual Play web video series, in which members of OfflineTV and Friends play in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign run by Arcadum. The campaign is set in The Living World of Verum.

The Shackled Legion is a place that criminals often find themselves. It is a place where thieves, murderers, bandits, and so many more go to pay for their crimes. And our adventurers this time, are doing just that. They have all been imprisoned at the Iron for crimes that they may or may not have committed. But their goal for now, is to break the bonds that bind them.

Session 0 was streamed on July 5th, 2020; the first episode of the campaign itself was streamed on July 12, 2020, and the last episode was streamed on December 27th, 2020. There are two official playlists of the campaign: one is from the perspective of Arcadum and is in his usual style focused exclusively on MapTools, the other is from the perspective of LilyPichu and utilizes facecams.

Cast

• Arcadum as the Dungeon Master
• Disguised Toast as P'mis, Kobold Rogue
• Sykkuno as Hashbrown, Halfling Ranger
• QuarterJade as Bryan, Dhampir Monk
• Michael Reeves as Remag, Tortle Rune Mage ^note Basically Arcadum's homebrew version of an Artificer
• LilyPichu as Li'lu, Sprite Barbarian
• Valkyrae as E'ar, Water Genasi Druid

Character-specific information can be found here.

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Broken Bonds provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Li'lu is a raging sprite wielding a greataxe.
  • Bryan is a deadly monk.
• All Crimes Are Equal: Despite their crimes ranging from murder to alleged cheese theft, the party members all seem to have the same sentence.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Li'lu and E'ar both want "hot demon boyfriends".
• The Alcatraz: The Iron, the prison where the party is first sent to.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The party's crimes range from murder (Li'lu and Bryan) to stealing cheese (E'ar).
• Art-Style Clash: A notable aversion by the time the party obtained finalized art in episode three ^note Bryan in episode 5. Most of Verum's campaigns have the players individually obtain character art for their tokens, often from differing artists, which results in a spread of tokens with at times wildly contrasting art styles. This group is among the few that had a single artist, in their case datsean, handle all of the party's official character art, allowing their tokens to completely match with each other aesthetically.
• Badass Crew: Every party member is a strong fighter.
• Birdcaged: Li'lu is transported to The Iron in a birdcage.
• Blackmail: When Remag lets slip to Rzamd that the party is in town to kill Valloween, Rzamd charges the party one thousand gold to not warn her about them.
• Body Horror: Played for Laughs with Tysk, who gleefully shows off that, beneath his body's relatively normal outer appearance, he's pretty much made of this. Apparently, being a follower of Oloken'hai will do that to ya.
• Boxed Crook: While the party initially starts off more in a Trading Bars for Stripes situation, they are later called on by Lazarus Lodestone to assassinate Valloween for him in exchange for gaining their freedom immediately.
• The Cameo: Being the world of Verum, it's pretty much a given that this will happen at some point.
  • The "Broken Bonds" party itself appeared in Verum's Crossover Grand Finale "The End Game", though only Michael (and briefly Lily) were available to play their characters.
  • Jairx, of the "Silent Knights" campaign, makes an appearance in Episode 10.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: "The Sock", which Gallant briefly traps Li'lu in when the Sprite bites her.
• Cut Short: The campaign ended abruptly when Toast had to take care of his father, and the rest of the players chose not to continue without him.
• Deus Exit Machina: During the fight against the Cacophonic Collective, Nox is held in stasis for the first four rounds. The party manage to defeat it before she is released.
  • Furthermore, Tomen is stated to be unable to aid the party, with no explanation given as to why.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In episode 1, Bryan is "thirsty" for P'mis's blood. As she doesn't want to suck on P'mis in public, they consider getting a private room, and end up doing it in a corner.
  E'ar: It was consensual!
• Explosive Leash: The collars that the party wears in The Iron once they were finished being attuned. It's not elaborated on exactly what would happen if they try to run or attack their captors, but it's implied that it would slit their throats or something similar.
• Foreshadowing: A meta example. Early on, P'mis picks up a pair of daggers dedicated to Crowley, the god of undeath, and LilyPichu shows an interest in Arcadum's description of him. In the later campaign "A Storm Approaches", LilyPichu's new character is a Cleric in service to Crowley.
• Gilded Cage: Valor Venicci, Gallant's younger brother, is believed by her to be held in one by Lazarus Lodestone.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Nox, of the "Silent Knights" campaign, travels alongside the party for awhile.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: The party's first combat encounter was a tutorial, with a group of skeletons as the enemies that Arcadum spoke through in-character to explain to the party how combat in MapTools worked. The second battle, which was against a different, more dangerous, group of skeletons, had a few moments of this as well when things came up that the first battle didn't cover.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: When the party arrives at a tavern at Ladrag's Rest, Jor-Jor Jambis, who had very nearly died in a goblin ambush the previous session and is stuck working for Lazarus Lodestone, promptly orders three ales for himself.
• "Inescapable" Prison Easily Escaped: Though the security of the Shackled Legion is played up, the party manage to escape by stealing a single rod. Though by this point, they're more under the custody of Lazarus Lodestone specifically rather than The Iron itself.
• Machine Monotone: The Rune Golem EX1L3D, which the party finds on their first quest.
• Magically-Binding Contract: When Lazarus Lodestone takes over control of the party from Gallant, he replaces their collars with an Oath to Astaroth, which continues to force the party to stay on task under threat of immediate death, and isn't affected by range as the collars were.
• Motor Mouth: Kezzebezzekerrez, though she'd have to be with a name like that.
• Mythology Gag: Lampshaded in Episode 1, when Hashbrown makes a reference to Outpost Santa Barbara, OfflineTV's previous campaign.
  Sykkuno: Hashbrown says, "It would be terrible if an unfortunate accident were to happen to the mayor," which sounds very familia-
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The party includes a kobold who must serve a master, a halfling who runs into danger and is obssessed with hashbrowns, a dhampir in love with a dark god, a senile tortle, a sprite with anger issues, and a hyperactive water genasi.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: The Rune Golem EX1L3D, which the party finds trapped in a ritual circle until E'ar releases it. It doesn't appear to be particularly good or evil, but being a twelve feet tall and very broad golem, it was probably pretty tough. At least, until the party releases Vesseven Talisbane, who had also been sealed nearby, the act of which promptly destroys it.
• Sequel Series: Sort of. LilyPichu and DisguisedToast later take part in another campaign with Arcadum alongside other members of OfflineTV and Friends starting in June of 2021, albeit playing new characters instead of reusing Li'lu and P'mis. This campaign is called "A Storm Approaches", and information on it can be found on the page for The Living World of Verum.
• Shipped in Shackles: The members of the party are all transported to The Iron this way, with special precautions made on the bindings used on Li'lu and Remag to prevent them from having access to some of their class features.
• Shout-Out: There have been some notable ones:
  • With the campaign quickly going into a Boxed Crook scenario after the first quest, the obvious reference comes up:
    Li'lu: So what are we, some kind of suicide squad?
  • When the lore behind Chimerists is explained to the party, as Valloween, who they are being sent to assassinate, is one, Fullmetal Alchemist naturally gets brought up.
• Title Sequence: Arcadum's usual loading screen when waiting for sessions to begin is replaced with a 3D animated sequence of a shot panning through the inside of a prison. Especially notable in that Arcadum didn't typically add these to episodes of his campaigns until sometime later.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: Basically the entire concept of The Shackled Legion, which the party starts out as a part of, in which prisoners serve Krazax to earn their freedom.
• You All Meet in a Cell: The campaign begins with the party being transported to prison.