History Podcast / TheAdventureZoneBalance

* SurpriseCreepy: ''Carnival Chaos'' features Tres Horny Boys having fun at the Midsummer Solstice festival during the first part. Then comes the Eclipse watching and, though we don't know it at the time, [[spoiler:the first appearance of [[EldritchAbomination the Hunger]]]].

** {{Averted}} with Brian and his pet spider Bryan--and both also have the [[TheRedBaron epithet]] "The Black Spider". Since they still ''sound'' identical, Brian winds up going by "Magic Brian" to avoid confusing the players.

* ActionGirl: At least one major example every plot arc, with the exception of ''The Eleventh Hour'' (which is a more exploration-heavy arc). The first has Killian, a crossbow-wielding orc packing the ability to animate {{golem}}s. The second has Jess, a pit fighter with AnAxeToGrind. The third has two: Hurley, a constabulary lieutenant with a black belt in ass-kicking, and Sloane, the apparent villain of the arc who Curb-Stomps our heroes in her first appearance. The fourth arc has Killian return with her teammate, Carey Fangbattle, a Dragonborn Rogue and sister of Jeremy "Scales" Fangbattle. The sixth has Antonia, an elven mercenary, and [[spoiler: Lup, who manages to kill 50% of the big bad duo despite being stuck in an umbrella for the whole arc.]] The seventh has [[spoiler: Lup, and Lucretia ascends to this after episode 65.]] Taako lampshades this when he says "There must be a competent woman who can bail us out".

* CombatDiplomacyStealth: Magnus, Merle, and Taako accordingly.

* ArtifactOfDoom: The Grand Relics, seven artifacts so powerful that they once threatened to destroy the world. They double as an ArtifactOfAttraction, as they seem at least semi-sentient and try to tempt anyone who picks one up to use them, eventually corrupting them through MoreThanMindControl if they don't resist. Seen so far:
** The Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, which grants powerful fire magic with a side helping of [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity madness]]. [[spoiler: Made by Lup.]]
** The Oculus Lens, which claims to grant TrueSight and ultimate knowledge. In actuality it allows the user to render anything they can think of or create with illusiory magic into reality. [[spoiler: Made by Davenport.]]
** The Gaia Sash, an enchanted belt that grants the wielder power over nature. It attempts to tempt Merle with the ability to [[{{Squick}} fuck any vine he wants]]. Merle resists, saying he doesn't need anyone's help to do that. [[invoked]] [[spoiler: Made by Merle.]]
** The PhilosophersStone, which can transmute any material into anything else. [[GreyGoo Stopping the process is another matter entirely]]. [[spoiler: Made by Taako.]]
** The Temporal Chalice, which can manipulate the flow of time and even create barriers out of time. Instead of an outright villainous [[TheFinalTemptation Final Temptation]], it speaks directly to the heroes about undoing their [[{{MyGreatestFailure}} Greatest Failures]]. [[spoiler: Made by Magnus.]]
** The Animus Bell, which has the ability to knock an affected listener's soul out of their body and allow another to take it over. This imitates death, meaning that the soul affected by it will get pulled away to the Astral Plane. [[spoiler: Made by Barry.]]

* ArtisticLicenseCars: {{Lampshaded}} by Griffin,
--->'''Griffin''':I don’t know anything about cars, I should mention, just for the remainder of this campaign, so like, if I say something and you go, "yeah, that’s not how a car works." Just know that it is a fantasy world and that ''is'' how battlewagons work, [[MST3KMantra and calm down a little bit maybe there]], [[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious Vin Diesel]].

** All the Lunar Interludes serve as one, providing light-hearted moonbase hijinks in between plot arcs.
*** [[spoiler:Heavily inverted in ''Reunion Tour''.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: In ''The Stolen Century'', the audience already knows going into the arc that [[spoiler: the crew is going to create the Grand Relics, Lucretia is going to erase everyone else's memories, and Lup and Barry are going to die]].

* GoodCopBadCop: Magnus and Taako slip into this routine while interrogating Graham (aka The Juicy Wizard)...with Merle as a bonus "Maternal Cop".

* HeroesRUs: The Bureau of Balance. How does it even make money?
* HeroicBSOD: In the ''Petals To The Metal'' arc, after losing the battlewagon race against Hurley and the boys, [[spoiler: The Raven has a mental breakdown and drives herself off a cliff. From then on, the Gaia Sash takes complete control over her.]]

** Merle has the Extreme Teen Bible, his holy symbol, used to preach the good word of Pan to the youth of Faerûn.
*** [[spoiler: He also gains the Soulwood Arm, a prosthetic arm made of living wood to replace the one he lost in ''The Crystal Kingdom''.]]

* {{Kaiju}}: The Purple Worm from ''The Eleventh Hour'' is far, far, far larger than a normal purple worm found in dungeons and dragons. This worm was described has having a mouth ''200'' feet in diameter! If scaled proportionally, this worm is ''3,200 feet'' long, ''40 times'' larger than a standard purple worm!

* KillerCop: At the end of the ''Petals to the Metal'' arc, Captain Captain Bane attempts to poison the party, presumably to steal the Gaia Sash.

* TheLoonie: Justin has decided that Taako's mission in life is to invent the taco and name it after himself. Considering that the setting of the game has yet to discover concepts such as grinding meat, processing dairy into cheese, or growing corn for food, it looks to be a significant challenge.
** This gets especially hilarious once you consider that the taco quest was set up at the beginning when they were still attempting to make the setting full HighFantasy, at which point having no concept of cultured dairy products or ground meat would have been a big stretch but not entirely impossible, but the campaign pretty quickly diverges from that once things like the moon base and Fantasy Costco start showing up. Hell, Taako even [[spoiler:had his own cooking show]] for a while.
** [[spoiler: Somewhat subverted when he finally learns how to make a taco, and it ends up giving him the ability to reconnect the broken bonds between planes, liberating the gods and his boyfriend from purgatory and basically saving the world. Not so loony after all.]]

** The ''Live in San Diego!'' show's place in the timeline is difficult to determine. The explanation with the fewest {{Plot Hole}}s is that it takes place after ''Story and Song''.
*** To explain, Taako and Magnus possess the Umbra Staff and the Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom respectively. In the main story, Magnus didn't receive the sword until ''Reunion Tour'', and Taako [[spoiler: broke the Umbra Staff to free Lup]] the same day during ''Story and Song''. This inconsistency, however, can be explained by them being inside of a simulation during the episode, and thus any equipment they possessed was simply the result of the simulation.

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: {{Lampshaded}}. There are [[MacGuffin seven ancient artifacts]] that must be collected and destroyed for the safety of the world. Secret magical society with limitless resources and a moon base: zero. Three horny boys: ''six''. The Director of the Bureau of Balance notes this in-universe after the ''Petals to the Metal'' arc and decides to reassign all other reclaimers and put the Bureau's full resources behind supporting the party.
** Later justified: according to the Director, [[spoiler: because they made them]], the main party are the only people who can resist the thrall of the Grand Relics. Anyone else gets tempted to use them and inevitably corrupted by their power if they do.

* MicDrop: [[spoiler: Lup]] does this during [[spoiler: the IPRE press conference]] in Episode 60.

* TheRolePlayer: All three players are pretty good about this, attempting to negotiate with enemies whenever possible and occasionally making suboptimal decisions that are in line with their characters. For example, Travis plays Magnus as an impulsive man of action who will leap into situations without thinking, Clint plays Merle as a bit irreverent, usually trying to keep up with Magus as he rushes in, and Justin plays Taako as disinterested in combat, usually hanging back and waiting for things to play out, or be dragged in by the other two.
** Perhaps best exemplified by the Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom, which is so ridiculously overpowered that it would trivialize most combats... but remains deliberately unused until it would have the most dramatic impact.

*** To a lesser extent, it was also one long shout-out to ''Space Jam''.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The two weeks between the introduction of Garyl the Spectral Binicorn and the clarification of the spelling of his name saw a lot of fanart with a lot of confusion about how many [=Rs=] and [=Ls=] are in his name, whether the final syllable is spelled with a Y or an E, etc.

--> '''Clint (as an NPC asking the IPRE a question):''' "Uh, Captain Davenport? Rex Reed, Hollywudd Reporter— that’s H-O-L-L-Y-W-U-D-D—"
--> '''Davenport:''' "Oh, good."
--> '''Clint:''' "Um, it's a town near Neverwinter."

* SupernaturalTeam: The Red Robes.

* TheButlerDidIt: In "Murder on the Rockport Limited" [[spoiler: Jenkins, the Wizard Assistant, is murdered by the Rockport Slayer. However, he is later revealed as the Rockport Slayer, and that he killed and swapped clothes with the engineer.]]

* UltimateJobSecurity: The party gets up to antics that would get anyone else tossed out on their rear, being rude to [=VIPs=] and superiors, [[HeroicComedicSociopath trigger-happy to the point of murderousness]], and liable to [[KleptomaniacHero loot anything that isn't nailed down]]. The thing is, their track record when it comes to hunting down and safely disposing of [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] is six to everyone else's zilcho.
** [[spoiler: It helps that they've been friends with the boss for a century, and they're the only living beings capable of resisting the thrall of the Grand Relics.]]

* UselessUsefulNonCombatSkill: Magnus keeps trying to find a use for his Vehicle and Animal Handling proficiencies in the first couple episodes, but finds himself in situations that are either too easy (driving an ox-drawn cart down a safe, level road, which doesn't require a proficiency check) or too hard (trying to calm a hostile wolf after he's already picked it up and thrown it into a fire) for them to do much good.
** The vehicle proficiency does end up coming in handy during the ''Petals to the Metal'' arc, which is basically fantasy Mad Max, and Rustic Hospitality gets a lot of use during ''The Eleventh Hour''. Still not a lot of use for the Animal Handling proficiency though.
** Averted as of ''Story And Song'', where Magnus's animal handling proficiency [[spoiler:lets him ride an evil Hunger rhino, and use it to attack other Hunger creatures.]]

* WhamEpisode: The end of ''The Suffering Game.'' [[spoiler:Magnus loses his body, it's revealed that he (and possibly Taako and Merle by extension) is ''originally from another planet'' if not another universe, the party cuts off contact with the Bureau of Balance to join up with the Red Robe that's been helping them... and said Red Robe is revealed to be none other than Barry Bluejeans from the first arc.]]

-->'''Kravitz:''' Taako, you've died eight times.

--> '''Griffin:''' [[spoiler:And in this sketch, this earlier sketch, Jack and June look exactly the same. But the Red Robe's hood is pulled down. And you can see his face. And it's an incredibly familiar face, Magnus... because it's your face.]]

--> '''Griffin:''' And Merle, you crack open the chest and retrieve the clothes within. A white cotton shirt, a studded leather belt, and a pair of pants... [[spoiler:Sturdy. Denim. And [[IconicOutfit blue]].]]

--> '''Griffin:''' [[spoiler: Lucretia's kneeling over her white oak staff, and she's channeling some sort of energy from the orb into the staff, which, of course, is the grand relic she made when the seven of you first came to this world.]]

--> '''Lucretia:''' [[spoiler: So those are the 6 of us. Me, Barry, Lup, Taako, Merle, Magnus. And of course, the seventh, our captain. When I redacted the logs to feed to the second Voidfish, I let you keep your names while eradicating any information pertaining to the mission. [sighs] But for our captain, his life was the mission. He was impossible to edit around and so, unfortunately, [[PokemonSpeak his name was all he kept]].]]
--> '''[[spoiler:Davenport]]:''' [[spoiler: L...Lucretia, what have you DONE?]]

* WithOurSwordsScene: Taako swindles the [[InfinityPlusOneWeapon Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom]] from a shopkeeper, but his player, Justin, refuses to use it or give it to anyone else because the item was acknowledged InUniverse as a GameBreaker. Only in the final arc did he relent and give it to the group's fighter, who used it to great affect in fighting the multivers-chomping monster.

* WrongNameOutburst: As seen in the page quote, Justin/Taako accidentally says "Travis" instead of "Magnus" during a rant in ''Murder on the Rockport Limited''.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: An accidental, in-character one. The nullsuit colors that Magnus, Taako, and Merle pick out near the beginning of the Crystal Kingdom arc were Burgundy, Burnt Umber, and Cinnamon, in an attempt to be amusingly difficult. All of these are [[TheReveal shades of red]].]]
* While talking with the director in an early arc, Magnus questions whether the Grand Relics could be used for good. Travis follows this up with an OOC goof that he's setting up a classic betrayal to happen at some point in the future. As time passes, [[spoiler:Magnus is the first of the THB to receive evidence of the truth about the Relics and the Red Robes.]] And indeed, [[spoiler:his suspicions promptly lead him to infiltrate the Bureau of Balance's brig.]] And ''then'', [[spoiler: he is the first of the THB to take the chance on trusting lich-Barry.]]

** Taako sold his Gustmater 5000 in ''Internal Affairs'', but later gave it to Ren at the end of ''The Eleventh Hour''.

** While talking with the director in an early arc, Magnus questions whether the Grand Relics could be used for good. Travis follows this up with an OOC goof that he's setting up a classic betrayal to happen at some point in the future. As time passes, [[spoiler:Magnus is the first of the THB to receive evidence of the truth about the Relics and the Red Robes.]] And indeed, [[spoiler:his suspicions promptly lead him to infiltrate the Bureau of Balance's brig.]] And ''then'', [[spoiler: he is the first of the THB to take the chance on trusting lich-Barry.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Barry Bluejeans, after being presumed dead since episode 4, is revealed in episode 58 to have been the Red Robe who's been following the party around the whole time.]]

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: ''The Stolen Century'' is actually played using a modified ''TabletopGame/PoweredByTheApocalypse'' ruleset instead of the usual 5E D&D.

** Taken UpToEleven with the sandworms in The Eleventh Hour, where the babies are the size of the tardigrades and the adults are tens of miles long.

** [[MyNaymeIs Maarv]], Little Jerry, and [[UpToEleven Jerreeeeee]] from ''Petals to the Metal'' and Ren from ''The Eleventh Hour'' make a return at Neverwinter High.

* {{Kaiju}}: The Purple Worm from ''The Eleventh Hour'' is far, far, [[UpToEleven far]] larger than a normal purple worm found in dungeons and dragons. This worm was described has having a mouth ''200'' feet in diameter! If scaled proportionally, this worm is ''3,200 feet'' long, ''40 times'' larger than a standard purple worm!

** UpToEleven in the ''Live in San Diego!'' show, which takes place in a simulated replica of the Tomb, said to be [[ShowWithinAShow based on an old game that Lucas played]].

* EdibleThemeNaming: Implied with regards to Taako's family — his grandfather's name is "Tostada," [[spoiler:and his twin sister, "Lup," was originally intended to have the full name "Chalupa." This has since been retconned due to problematic implications for anyone imagining the twins as Latinx.]]

** At the end of the second episode of ''The Eleventh Hour'', right after [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll everyone dies]]]], Griffin chooses to reveal what the ''actual'' situation is:

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Every arc more or less follows a unique set of circumstances and characters with new uses of 5e D&D mechanics with the overarching Grand Relics plot holding everything together. [[spoiler: ''The Stolen Century'' goes even further into this trope, completely eschewing D&D's ruleset and instead using a simplified homebrew of Griffin's own design.]]

* CharmPerson: Taako uses this to turn a hostile bugbear named Klarg to the party's side. Klarg turns incredibly friendly and offers them a valuable hostage, a gift of gold, and ASpotOfTea.

* SuddenGameInterface: In the ''Live in San Diego!'' show, the Tres Horny Boys suddenly see a LifeMeter with three hearts and a [[VideoGameLives life counter]] in the upper corners of their vision, as well as a chat feed in the bottom left. {{Justified}}, as they were inside of a simulation.

The series also has an ongoing [[ComicBook/TheAdventureZone graphic novel adaptation]]. Each volume covers one arc of the podcast (with parts of the Lunar Interludes folded in where applicable). The first, second, and third volumes have been released in July of 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively.

'''Spoilers for ''The Stolen Century'' and "Story and Song" and related spoilers from ''The Suffering Game'' should be spoiler-tagged. Everything else is fair game. Reader beware: you're about to enter... the Spoiler Zone!'''

* AerithAndBob: Character names include Magnus, Gundren, Yeemick, Klarg, Brian, and Barry [[AnachronismStew Bluejeans]]. The spectrum is weighted towards Bob, since [=NPCs=] are for the most part named after real people. {{Lampshaded}} when Justin mocks Griffin for naming the party's new Halfling roommate "Robbie", and invoked when Griffin changed several of the "Aeriths" to "Bobs" during the first arc, which drew heavily from ''TabletopGame/LostMinesOfPhandelver'': Sildar Hallwinter became Barry Bluejeans; BigBad Nezznar was renamed Magic Brian.

* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: In ''Carnival Chaos'' The Boys partake in a carnival in celebration of the [[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy annual midsummer solstice eclipse]]. During the eclipse, [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination the Hunger]] makes its first appearance, foreshadowing the overarching plot to come.]]

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: A total solar eclipse occurs every midsummer solstice over Faerûn. The annual eclipse is somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]], since it's a ConstructedWorld.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Merle's final question to [[spoiler: John, the avatar of the Hunger.]]

-->'''Griffin:''' But very fucking good. Give me a minute, I'm reeling a little bit.

* AerithAndBob: Character names include Magnus, Gundren, Yeemick, Klarg, Brian, and Barry [[AnachronismStew Bluejeans]]. The spectrum is weighted towards Bob, since [=NPCs=] are for the most part named after real people. {{Lampshaded}} when Justin mocks Griffin for naming the party's new Halfling roommate "Robbie", and invoked when Griffin changed several of the "Aeriths" to "Bobs" during the first arc, which drew heavily from Lost Mine of Phandelver: Sildar Hallwinter became Barry Bluejeans; BigBad Nezznar was renamed Magic Brian.

* ShaggyDogStory: In the ''Petals to the Metal'' arc, Lt. Hurley of the Goldcliff constabulary instructs the boys to steal an important MacGuffin from a gang of street toughs ''without'' [[MurderIsTheBestSolution killing anyone, as is their usual habit]]. They spend the better part of a few episodes attempting various harebrained schemes to surreptitiously gain entrance to the gang's hideout, at one point actually killing someone and furtively disposing of the body so that Hurley won't find out and turn against them, finally infiltrating the gang through various [[HijinxEnsue wacky disguises and bald-faced bluffs]]. Then their cover gets blown, they wind up [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer killing just about everyone anyway]], and Hurley... [[AntiClimax is very disappointed in them. And gives them a bunch of sweet loot anyway.]]