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The Spicy Rat Caper
- Corazón: Arlo, may I call you Arlo?Mr Mayweather: Of course.Corazón: You don't need to worry, we have a very powerful Druid in our party.Mr Mayweather: Right.
Corazón de Leon the pirate, a Human Rogue, Dob the Half-Orc Bard, Prudence the Tiefling Warlock and Merilwen the Wood-Elf Druid join forces in the market town of Castor Falls to investigate a string of missing persons cases, and the discovery of a spicy rat leads them towards a rather unique mystery.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- And the Adventure Continues: The story ends with Dob proposing that the group continue going on adventures together.
- Arc Villain: The episode established M. Channail as The Oxventurers Guild's first recurring antagonist.
- Batman Gambit: Merilwen's plan to expose the potions as being responsible for all of the missing people is so clever and so successful that it prompts Ellen to be awarded the first point of inspiration.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Some members of the gang are much more subdued than later on, Dob is even more financially responsible than Corazón in this adventure and the gang discuss not killing their opponents on sight. There is also no sign of Egbert the Careless (in reality, Mike had other commitments and was unable to attend the recording; M. Channail was intended to be a way of representing him in spirit).
A Spot of Bother
After their success with The Spicy Rat Caper, the newly minted Oxventurers Guild encounter trouble when Corazón's past comes back to haunt him, though they receive assistance in the form of Egbert the Careless, a Dragonborn Paladin seeking atonement.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Art Evolution: The visual cutaways to the Oxventurers now shows fully realised custom portraits of the characters as opposed to the rough 3D models of the previous episode.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Dob may be a jokey, music playing Bard, but of the eight pirates killed throughout the story, Dob was responsible for five of them.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: One of the more intense melees that the Oxventurers participate on, from Corazón duelling Curly Joe to Merilwen feeding pirates to a squid, Dob going on a rampage with three one hit kills in a row, Prudence Eldritch Blasting and Egbert incinerating others with his flame breath.
- Didn't Think This Through: The group's plan to lock the pirates in the boathouse fails upon remembering that they didn't lock the end where the boat is open to the sea, and so the pirates escape virtually instantly.
- Black Spot: The inciting incident of the episode is Corazón receiving one of these from his old pirate crew.
- Dance Party Ending: As Corazón takes the Joyful Damnnation out to sea, Dob plays his sister's lullaby, The Vengabus.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Dob disguises Corazón as a member of the ambiguously fictional "Spider-Tiger" species, surprisingly the pirates don't see through this at all.
- Power Echoes: Prudence's next usage of Thaumaturgy gets another usage for the purpose of clearing away a table in a pub.
- Loyalty Mission: Serves as one for Corazón.
- Offscreen Inertia: Much like Gendry Baratheon before him, Lord Milquetoast was last seen rowing into the open sea.
Wild Wild Woods
- Merilwen: There's something terribly horribly wrong guys!Egbert: No one's cut the crust off mine!
The Oxventurers Guild, now featuring Corazón, Prudence, Egbert, Merilwen and Dob, dock the Joyful Damnnation on the shore of a thick wood for a picnic, where a mysterious wizard warns Merilwen of a danger threatening the future of the woods deep within.
Vault Festival 2018 live show.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Audience Participation: Andy asks Johnny what the second largest animal trapped in the cages is, since the largest (a bear) was already freed by Merilwen. Before Johnny can answer, an audience member shouts "FLAMINGO!". However Johnny heard "big goat" and decides to go with that and thus is born Michael the Really Big Goat.
- Blofeld Ploy: When Prudence murders an adjacent Goblin to the one she's interrogating to enhance said interrogation.
- Bamboo Technology: The automated lumber mill seems to be build and powered by things from the surrounding forest.
- Busman's Holiday: The Oxventurers come to the forest for a picnic and are immediately dragged into an adventure.
- Comically Missing the Point: When the Oxventurers first enter the forest, Johnny narrates ominously that they can't hear any birds or animals. Corazón immediately says that he likes this forest because there are no annoying bird or animal noises.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The goblins are: struck with an Eldritch Blast and exploded; skewered through the eye by Corazón; a tied-up and bound goblin was executed by Prudence as an interrogation tactic; another group was lit on fire by Egbert and then shocked to death by Dob; one was mauled by a bear; then Egbert strikes the last one so hard with his mace the goblin is instantly decapitated.
- Expy: As Lampshaded by Andy, the Mechanical Beetle shared a strong resembles to the Mechanical Spider from Wild Wild West.
- Foreshadowing: The Wizard Binbag cryptically tells Merilwen "important things that have not yet come to pass will hinge on this forest"
- GMPC: The wizard Binbag, who sends the Oxventurers on their quest and keeps popping up every so often to give them advice. Curiously, this ends up inverting the typical complaint about GMPCs, as the Oxventurers get very snarky about how Binbag doesn't seem to do much magic for an all-powerful wizard and keeps conveniently showing up after the Oxventurers have cleaned up all the threats in the vicinity.
- Hamster-Wheel Power: All the animals have been captured and forced to run on appropriately-sized hamster wheels to provide power to the lumber mill.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Johnny describes what Merilwen's elf ears hear:There's lots of strange noise in this forest. Sometimes it sounds like there are large metal carriages going overhead roughly every five minutes or so.note Sometimes it sounds like there are voices laughing or whooping or cheering.
- Binbag implores the party to "go forth, and do it swiftly, in the interests of Time". In-universe, he means that their quest will serve Time by preserving a place that will play an important role in History; in real life, it's a reference to the fact that the live show, unlike a normal session, has to be done within two hours.
- The Wizard Binbag admits to be, as they say in the Wizarding World, "a Framing Device", and that he's essentially a device to keep the runtime expedient owing to being filmed live.
- Johnny describes what Merilwen's elf ears hear:
- Narration Echo:
- When the team enter the forest.Johnny: Merilwen, you immediately sense that something is terribly, horribly wrong.
Merilwen: I think there's something terribly, horribly wrong, guys. - When Dob decides to taste-test a fragment of the exploded mechanical beetle.Johnny: It tastes like, uh...
Dob: Guys, it tastes like—
Johnny: Grease.
Dob: It tastes like grease.
Johnny: And wood smoke.
Dob: ...wood smoke...
Johnny: And—
Dob: And wait, there's something else...
Johnny: Tin.
Dob: And— sorry, what?
Johnny: Metal.
Dob: And metal.
- When the team enter the forest.
- No-Sell: Dob's Thunderwave allows a saving throw to completely ignore the effects. Merilwen does it when Dob uses the Thunderwave on the giant beetle while Merilwen is still riding it.
- Oh, Crap!: Dob gasps and covers his mouth with both hands when he realizes that Merilwen is within the attack radius of the Thunderwave he's just unleashed on the giant beetle.
- One to Million to One: At one point, an infuriated Binbag bursts apart into "a million angry crows".
- Running Gag: Various characters eating sandwiches they brought for their interrupted picnic at otherwise dramatic moments.
- Shout-Out:
- Dob straight up admits that his plan of freeing the bear and getting it to attack their enemies was inspired by the song "Far Crye 4".
- Merilwen decides she's going to talk to a bear with her Speak with Animals ability. Johnny tries to think how a bear sounds, and Mike tells him to speak like Bungle the bear from Rainbow. However, Johnny can only remember how Zippy sounds, so he gives the bear Zippy's voice.
- Corazón's strategy in the final battle is inspired by a battle in the ballad "The Empire Striketh Back".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When the Oxventurers free all the captive forest animals from their cages, Johnny notes that since they're ordinary animals and the Oxventurers didn't talk to them first or open the cages in any particular order, the result is several minutes of pandemonium as the predatory animals immediately set upon the nearest prey animals, and the deaths of several small cute woodland critters.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Oxventurers ambush a group of goblins, assuming they are the danger before they can verify anything, which Corazón acknowledges was jumping to conclusions a bit.
- Who's on First?:Johnny: That's when you hear it...
Andy: What, the clown off that movie? - Wrong Genre Savvy: Invoked by an audience member. When Dob fires off a Thunderwave to attack the giant mechanical stag beetle, forgetting that Merilwen is on the creature, he tries to play it off as the monster being big enough that she could avoid it. However, the audience member shouts that since the creature is made of metal, the electricity would conduct and Merilwen would be hit regardless.
An Orc-Ward Encounter
- Alfred Strangetide: Well, if you’re after something like absolution it can bring you that, or…Egbert: What? I am SO about absolution!Alfred Strangetide: …some say it has the power to help you convene with a god, even an awful one that nobody wants to be friends with. And some say it might cure diseases that you’ve had for ages when it doesn’t really make sense, and if you’re missing someone like a family member maybe that’ll help. Or it can help you commune with animals near and far and of all different sorts and…Prudence: What about this guy?Alfred Strangetide: It's probably worth loads of money!
Arriving in the very smelly town of Tanner's Folly, The Oxventurers Guild accept an escort mission from a local archeologist into an abandoned crypt to look for a supposedly wish-granting chalice, and end up having a very orc-ward encounter.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Character Derailment: In-Universe, the first instance of the players penchant to override Johnny's planning.
- Evil Twin: The titular Orc-Ward Encounter, when The Chalice Of Everything Everybody Wants generates an evil duplicate of Dob
- MacGuffin: The Chalice Of Everything Everybody Wants. It seems to do anything and everything required to motivate any given character.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Alfred at one point idly hums a tune containing a clue to the current puzzle, Luke as Dob pretends to ignore it.
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What Could Have Been: Johnny reveals via Word of God that Alfred Strangetide was intended to wander off and trigger puzzle scenarios if the Oxventurers dawdled for too long, but that was not to be once they decided Dob had fashioned a papoose for Alfred.
Quiet Riot
The newly levelled up Oxventurers Guild meet a travelling omnibus of Lady Fyengeh on the road to the town of Inkwater, where the town is being subjugated by a mysterious cult known as "The Order of Keeping It Down" and their desires to maintain peace and quiet, at any cost.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Gone Horribly Right: The first appearance of Merilwen's Meat Grinder and its ability to thoroughly maim several fully armoured guards in one fell swoop.
Plunder Siege
A Fishmas Carol
Bad Chair Day
Brawl of the Wild
Heist Society
Stop Hammer Time!
Spell Check
Out of Order
Ship Happens
Mind Your Manors
Rolling In The Deep
Peak Performance
Exhibition Impossible
Faire Trial
Sect Appeal
Corn Ultimatum
Plandemonium
- Map Stabbing: While Binbag the wizard scries on Liliana in order to track down Vocatus (who plans to steal her power), Johnny mentions in their narration that she stabs a map with a dagger, corresponding to the Oxventurer's Guild's last known location.
