Welcome, everyone, to an extra special bonus
episode on Valhalla Conversations podcast, and
much like how Odin had to prepare for the arrival
of Eric Bloodaxe by having the benches sweat,
the tables cleared, the cups cleaned and the
mead brought forth, because he was welcoming
a great guest, I am indeed welcoming not a great
guest, but many great guests, many heroes and
heroines, indeed, are entering this fabled hall
of worthy undead, or worthy dead, in a way. And
I'm delighted to welcome not only the Game Master,
but the Game Master and some of the cast, because
it was quite an extensive cast, of the Vikings
and Valkyries podcast, which was the amazing
brainchild of Mr Ian Sharp, who I often call
Mr Vikingverse, because that's just who he is
to me. So along with Ian Sharp, we welcome CJ
Adrian, we welcome Bill Hopkins, Steve, Anina
and Taylor. Welcome. to my humble little hall
of Valhalla guys and ladies. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Now it's amazing because there they
all responded straight away with thank you for
having us. When we recorded our podcast there
would be like a 10 second gap and I'd have to
remind them to say, say something, say something.
It's your teacher's tone that's the problem.
We already thought we were in trouble. the Speaking
of, I guess I should warn our dear viewers and
listeners that because this is kind of a season
recap Q &A of the cast, and indeed the game master
behind this wonderful actual play, tabletop roleplay
game of Vikings and Valkyries, set in Ian's own
massively created universe of When the Wolf Comes,
playing his thought and memory saga, series of
adventures, there will be spoilers. There will
be character names dropped. All the cast are
here because I possibly couldn't fit that many
on one Google Meet, so it'd be quite a beat if
I did. I don't know how I would even start around
the questions with so many guests. But I'm looking
honoured to have you guys join me tonight as
well, because we have three of the main heroes
and a couple of other heroes and heroines like
myself, because I too did take part, albeit briefly,
here and there, but I won't say more than that.
But there will be spoilers. I won't try to spoil
it too much, and I'm sure my guests will try
their best not to. But best advice is, dear listeners
and viewers, pause here, go and watch all 20
odd episodes, then come back and watch later.
because it is worth a watch it is the wildest
ride i've ever been part of and even though it
was a small part i'm still very pleased to be
part of it and i think hopefully all my guests
were as well i'm not sure if there'll be if there'll
be spoilers though because you know especially
for bill and steve it might be the first time
they're hearing some of this it was steve's fault
i just want to make that clear right have we
met Yeah, how disappointed would it be to hear
the spoiler alert and then you do the 20 episodes
and then you come back and watch this and realize
that there were no spoilers at all. We had no
idea. This is all new. obviously say your name
and then you introduce yourself and say your
role in the game as well as your character and
possibly describe them for our viewers and listeners
because of course this is going on YouTube as
well as Spotify and other audio only channels.
So Ian, we'll start off with you. Would you like
to describe your role in this podcast of yours?
Yes, the podcast of mine. So I was the the auteur
the genius behind this staggering work of heartbreaking
genius. I was the GM, so you hear me way too
much droning on through all 22 episodes, trying
to corral it together. Thank you. CJ, we'll move
on to you. Do I introduce just myself and then
and then my character yourself and then you can
yes Okay, oh then Bill's character great. All
right. Well that we are we're gonna do around
Robin great Yeah, so it's CJ Adrian. I write
historical fiction novels about the Vikings came
out on the show as Gryot got the Magnificent
and his friends call him Gigi for short and he
is a let's see. He's a very large specimen. He's
a yo for which is a a species that is genetically
enhanced in Ian's world or universe and he's
very rich and quite arrogant and also he is trying
to hide the fact that the entire time all he
really cares about is making sure that nobody
finds out that he lost his sex robot. and that's
kind of it. He gets swept up into saving the
world, all based on the premise of he lost his
sex robot and then got corralled into this whole
thing and really has no idea that he's actually
saving the world. All he cares about is, did
you find out what I was looking for? And in the
end, did we find out? Nobody found out, right?
He kept it under wraps. Yeah, nobody cared. None
of the cast and regulars and semi -regulars.
knew. Some of the NPCs made snide remarks. And
of course Odin the Allfather, who knows everything,
is all seeing and all knowing. He made a passing
reference to it as well. So yeah, in trying to
conceal his deepest, darkest secret, he ended
up becoming a hero. An interesting character
arc. Okay, I'm Bill Hopkins. I played Lyomi,
which I like to pronounce with a mouthful of
marbles. Lyomi, because I don't really have any
Viking background or understanding. Lyomi was
an alfar 1200 years old, I believe. He's a wooden
tree creature encasing the soul of a long -dead
Viking warrior. Feels pretty smug about who he
is and his place in the world. not like those
horrifying dark alpha. And, you know, in his
own mind, very much the star of the entire work.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Steve, your turn.
Hi there, I'm Steve Medel. I'm a science fiction
author, which makes me uniquely unqualified to
have anything to do with this. My character was
Er, a doc, like his people, and I'm probably
going to get this wrong. After 20 episodes, I
should have this down, but I don't. As I understand
it, we're essentially dead. in Valhalla and then
through some nefarious ritual ripped out of Valhalla
and placed into magnificent stone bodies with
which they attempted to navigate the world. More
than anything else he just wanted to get back
to Valhalla and if possible kill Bill's character,
really, who is possibly the most irritating creature
on the planet. Bar one. Wait, who? And Nina,
would you please? Hi, I'm Anita Kasky. I'm an
actor and writer and cast member and producer
on Bardic Quest as well, another TTRBG show.
And I was a recurring guest. I played Alma, a
Jan Wittju. I probably mispronounced her, but
anyway, she was a Wolverine creature, bipedal
Wolverine creature, a genetically engineered
child soldier. And she was looking for her siblings
when she met this ragtag lot. Thank you. And
last but by no means least, Taylor. I'm Taylor
Moe. Even more unqualified to be here than Steve
because my claim to fame is I'm friends with
CJ, but I'm also a documentary filmmaker and
blacksmith, so I always kind of understand the
Viking verse a little bit. I played an Alphar
captain named Old King Cole, which is Cole for
short. Nominally, I would say for at least the
first few of my episodes, the only adult in the
room until I was corrupted by too much exposure
to these three. Yeah, and just I was the captain
of the Falkir and led some fun anecdotes and
tried to keep the ship right, you know, right
as much as we could in terms of the story and
keep us on plot as much as we could. But it was
a uphill battle. And there was, Becky, there
was actually one episode where these five were
the cast and I think it was your first episode
and it was the one where it was Anina's last
episode. It was when they abandoned me. when
they abandoned you. That was the rescue of the
law speaker and the first time that people were
in their own ploy and ship, the Falkir. But there
was a little cross over there and so all of these
people played together. You, of course, Becky,
kind of bookended that and were in... earlier
and later episodes, but such was the joy of recording
it. We had lots of people drop in and out, and
there's one kind of interesting point, and I
don't know if anyone's listened back to that
episode, but generally we do our own intros,
and they'd be fine, but bringing new people in
each time, you'd have to warm up. At the end
of that particular episode, Taylor told this
great story about that armour that you can see
behind him, and I took it from the end and brought
it back into the beginning and spiced it up at
the beginning because it was a much more exciting
intro. So it's funny because you transplant the
things from the end of the show to the beginning
once people had warmed up. I don't know if the
audience could tell but there was certainly a
lot more camaraderie had been earned by that
point as opposed to more stilted intros at the
beginning when everyone's on their best behaviour.
I did listen to that episode and I I did not
remember him saying that at the end Versus the
baby. I just I if had you said nothing I would
have suspected I'm really enjoying the very soft
British criticisms underlying Ian's whole commentary.
It's just quite a little smack smack on the way,
but do better next time. Yes Let's start with
the beginning, and of course it all begins with
you, Ian. So how did this idea of turning your
real campaign sourcebook of a real TTRPG universe
into a podcast come about? Yeah, so I'd actually
been, I'd hosted one podcast or GM'd one podcast,
the actual Play Entertainment guys, and I'd done
that in the summer of 24. And we did three or
four episodes um and it went well it was a kind
of proving ground and then i phoned up bill who
i've known for way too long it's over a decade
now at least isn't it yeah uh yeah 2008 actually
isn't it nearly two decades bill you know uh
anyway thanks for that we i phoned him up and
i said uh yeah those guys It was a great experience,
but I think they're leaving some stuff on the
table. I think that we could do it better. So
I was working with their format, with the people
who were ordinarily on the actual Play Entertainment
podcast. And so I thought, let's try and do it
better. Let's try and do something a bit different.
And I made the mistake of choosing Bill to do
that. But what did you think, Bill? Because you
kind of embraced the idea, and then you worked
in Steve and a bunch of people, and then it was
born. And the first episode was perhaps a little
bit experimental. But what was your perspective
when you took the phone call? Oh, it sounded
like fun. It sounded like something unusual to
do, so why not? And they say keep your friends
close, your enemies closer. And the next generation
of your family even closer is my interpretation
of that so as well as dragging poor Steven I
got my nephew Ed Did the sex robot at the beginning?
Before school took over his yeah, I may maybe
I should have phrased that differently, but it's
okay He had his school responsibilities, so he
stepped back. And really, at the time, I thought,
well, Ed's created this over -large, huge character.
What are we possibly going to do to replace that?
And then, of course, CJ showed up, so it really
wasn't a problem anymore. And then my son Jay
did, I think, three episodes as different characters,
all from the south of the north. They all had
weird southern accents, like southern American
accents. And my other nephew, Evan, also. I have
more nephews, so if we do it again, I have one
more son I haven't tapped yet, and I have a lot
of other nephews, so I can easily... Just a never
-ending closet of nephews. Yeah, and there's
some nieces. Of Hopkins. Yeah, Hopkins, yeah.
Yeah, my sister's two daughters, Ed's sisters
could come, you know, so. Anyway, yeah, so it
just seemed like fun and it was fun. I mean it
was It was weird. It was a very weird experience
not quite like playing a regular tabletop game
Just in the sense of there was a performative
element. There were things Places we had to get
to we had not just a game master but a taskmaster
who was making sure that I felt very much in
the role of Alex Horne. I was gonna get that
reference but Yeah, we can put captions up. The
premise of the podcast was actually to try and
involve authors, and especially Norse authors
and artists and academics, people who had some
kind of insight into the Viking sphere in order
to augment the lack of knowledge that Stephen
Bill had. But I brought Stephen to back me up.
So I didn't, you know, in fact, everyone I brought
in knew not really anything about Vikings. But
you two had you've been friends for ages and
you played together before. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lots of chemistry. Well, of a sort toxic chemistry,
perhaps. Well, the odd couple. Yeah, I kept thinking
R2D2 and C3PO. It was that same level. Plus no
one can understand. No one can understand anything
Steve says. You also are a bit like mine and
Anina's acquaintance Wayne Ingram that you DM
public playable games on startplaying .com. I
have done a little bit and then I got like a
very heavy contract which is wrapped now like
in my other life, my technical life. Um, it's
wrapped now. So yeah, i'm getting ready to go
back and do that again. So anyone listening to
this look me up on start playing magic ludi I
forget if i'm magic ludi or magic ludi 42. But
anyway, it's one of those two things and I I
believe becky's putting the link in just Um,
yeah, yes, so I yes I do that and I have dm'd
a lot I mean I I was the kid in my teens who
bought the games that nobody had heard of. You
know, I had the very early versions of D &D,
and I showed Ian my original hardcover manuals
from advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and he burst
out laughing because he had only ever seen photos
of them in collections somewhere. Yeah, museums.
I probably dig them out here somewhere. I'll
find them in a minute. But anyway, so yes, yes,
I do do that, and I will do that, and I have
done that. My other question is kind of like
did you get excited for the chance to be a player
instead of be the DM because I always am interested
in how DMS do they always like to be the forever
DM or do they like to be the bride as well as
bridesmaid kind of what I find is it It makes
me want to be I'm I become completely untethered.
I'm like the nightmare. I'm my own nightmare
because I'm used to all these players like Ed
when when he would I run a game with my sons
and some of the nephews and some of their friends.
And Ed would forever be saying things like, OK,
I'm going to balance on one toe and then throw
a dagger in the air, catch it in my nostril,
and then fling a fireball at the dragon. And
that's all the first segment of the round. I'd
go, no. So I find I kind of channel that sort
of chaotic energy. It's being unchained, right?
It's like, oh, now I can be the jerk who just
causes chaos. Now I don't know if anyone would
have picked up on that in this podcast, but it
was certainly behind the scenes a little bit.
No, not within the first 30 seconds anyway. Yeah,
exactly. I had a funny follow up on that too,
which is I DM CJ in our home game and getting
to watch. I know that that was part of the joy
for me is being the player here and just kind
of watching the facial expressions of Ian on
the video calls as CJ would, you know, bring
his brilliant level of chaos from our game and
then like double down on it in this game and
just be completely wild and just kind of getting
the watch and being like, yep, he's your problem
now, Ian. I'm just going to be on the sidelines.
It's great. I'm now imagining Gigi, but in like
a different outfit. but it's still gg completely
not far off to be honest there are differences
but yeah the chaos level is definitely there
that's what makes you fun cj so steve did you
come to this podcast with any ttrpg experience
then oh lord yes i've known bill since i don't
know forever too long um and two thousand ish
yeah yeah too long um i played um ttrpgs since
forever i was much like Bill, except better.
I was the guy who back in high school who bought
all the books and I've been, I'm always the DM.
I am the perpetual DM. I'm DMing two campaigns
right now because I make bad choices fairly regularly.
So when I had the opportunity to play as a player
and, you know, and to do to some unsuspecting
GM, all the nonsense is done to me on a regular
basis. I really, I leapt at it. Even though I
had no particular clue what I was doing, that
didn't stop me because it never stops anyone
else who I play with. So yeah, it was a great
opportunity. You play with the, you call them
affectionately the chuckle heads, the knuckle
heads. That's not exactly the word I use. I call
them the chuckle heads. Yeah. Have they listened
back to it? Have they listened to you? Have you
told them that you were doing it? Apparently
I'm not highly competent at playing, I've been
told that. Which I believe, I totally believe
that. I've been playing with the same group of
chuckleheads for... Oh my God, it must be 35
years now, maybe going on 40. You're so old!
Oh my God, you're so old. That's a game we played
and you already lost, I think, Bill. But yeah,
so it's been a long time. I've known the same
guy since forever. They weren't impressed by
my playing skills, which is appropriate, I think.
Yeah. But, you know, I got to share my misery
with you, Ian, and that was great joy for me.
Therapeutic. Yes, highly therapeutic. So I guess
that's kind of a roundtable question then. Besides
kind of like connections with Ian or other players,
was there something about the Vikingverse and
this campaign setting, whether it was Norse or
because it was sci -fi -esque, that maybe you've
pulled you into it? Or was there other qualities?
I thought, oh, I'd actually like to play in that
universe and see what it's like. We'll start
with you, CJ. You know, I used to get picked
on first in class, too. It's my school experience.
Ian emailed me, you know, because I had had him
on my podcast, the Vikingology podcast, because
I was already aware of the work that he'd done
in our podcast. We explore both the academic
side and the creative side of, you know, Vikings
and popular culture, that sort of thing. And
then, uh, and Ian emailed me saying, Hey, I'm
doing this podcast and we're going to do a live
play and our Home D &D group hadn't gotten together
in a while because you know such such as the
way of things and I really enjoy the The the
performative side of all of this What Taylor's
not telling you is I hadn't played D &D before
I joined his group So it was brand new for me
and I jumped in not knowing how to any of the
rules I think how long did we play Taylor two
years before I figured out how to actually use
my character I just enjoy the social aspect of
it and also the performative side of things you
know and I like to do voices and like to play
characters and that sort of thing so when Ian
when Ian emailed me and said hey I'm doing this
I was like yes I want in and then he's like okay
well do you want to do an episode Uh, I mean
can I do more? Oh, okay. Well, you know, he's
he's kind of uh Just kind of tets in the waters
to see what kind of level of commitment he's
going to get from me and then you know I was
like i'm all in I want to do something fun and
Here we go. I got signed up for the the long
the long haul Uh, and uh, and thanks to ian,
you know somewhat railroading us a little bit,
you know My character probably should have died
a few times from some silly actions, uh, and
we had to figure out how to bring him back but
uh yeah that's uh i think i think it's yeah for
me and you know it's interesting i just had um
or we just had a guess on our on our other podcast
where we talked about law in the viking age and
there is this this thing about the performative
side of things in the in viking age culture they
didn't have a writing system they couldn't write
things down so if you wanted people to remember
that you know say you know, Steve sold a patch
of land to bill, you couldn't just write it down
in a contract for people to consult later, you
had to bring witnesses and then you had to do
a little ceremony and that this thing like passing
the stick, but there's a, but we imagine that
there was a performative side to it. We know
the all thing that did that too. So, so for me,
it's kind of maybe I'm tapping into like my Viking
age, Ness, my Viking side, which is, you know,
we joke that, you know, I'm like, I'm French,
but there's a little bit of a, you know, Something
else there, I think. I like your word choice,
CJ. You jumped into D &D not knowing what it
was about. It feels like that echoes things.
Two feet first. Yeah, let's mess around and find
out. Well, it brings up an interesting point
because you're right. You don't want to be presumptive
when you reach out to people. Because we recorded
this for over six months, right? So it's every
Monday with a break for the holidays for Christmas.
But generally speaking, it was every Monday.
And sometimes it involved people staying up late
or reaching out to people that you don't know
at all and saying, do you want to do this elaborate
and crazy thing where you get to be performative
with complete strangers? And it's all recorded
for posterity. And so we had some great guests,
and we're grateful to all of these guys for recording
here, that they came back for more than one,
because it was lots of fun. But just the nature
of crashing new people into the podcast was very
different to the usual D &D table, because the
usual D &D table is your nephews, your friends.
people that you know, acquaintances at least,
all coming together and sitting ordinarily face
-to -face and having fun. This was people all
over the world not knowing each other, pretending
to be Vikings, and trying to cobble that together.
So there was, I think CJ joined for the first
of the new format. which was to introduce the
queers as a kind of icebreaker. And then he also
took the role of being the Viking expert as a
historian. He could talk authoritatively about
that kind of stuff. And so that was also the
goal with this thing is to try and change the
dynamic each week by introducing new guests and
that created a whole new level of chemistry.
I think it worked really, really well. It worked
really well. It gave me a chance to hop on board
and hitchhike with the whole craziness of it
all. But it kind of helped connect with the Viking
-y aspect with the way you sort out people with
Viking connections. I know I kept throwing names
at you saying, oh, get that person, get that
person, get that person. Well, tell the story
about Anina. Because you brought Anina by being
one of her biggest fans, right? And you recommended
it. to us and so i'm interested in you know because
you've been becky you played but then you reached
out to an alien you persuaded her to take part
in it was just like how did you do that well
i'm i'm gonna confess that i think i saw becky
post something on her instagram and i was like
oh that looks really cool vikings that's interesting
i've not played a ttrpg that's vikings so i did
message her going oh my god that was cool And
yet Becky has been a huge fan of Bardic Quest
since the very beginning. Yeah, the very beginning.
Been there from the start. Three and a half years.
Yeah. And in that I play very much a Viking saga,
but obviously a D &D. Viking, so the word Viking's
not used, but everything else is very, the aesthetic,
the lifestyle, everything is very based on Viking
stuff. Well, my connection is probably, I'm Finnish,
so, I mean, again, this is controversial, because
some people are like, ditch people, we're never
Vikings, and I'm like, what? So we magically
stopped at the border of Finland. and didn't
wander into Sweden or Norway, sure. Anyway, but
yeah. But yeah, there's some interesting questions
about Finnish people being the mutts of the Nordic
countries. Well, the reference is the finna,
because again, the verb, the grammatical way
in which they were described is different in
Norse, so they were the finna. pop up time and
time again in the sagas as uh as wizards and
sorceresses so you had it there was a there was
a lot of griddick yeah there's a lot of magic
behind your people yes and we and then then we
had a chat and you were like email ian had a
look at the stuff and i went oh we had a really
nice really nice uh zoom where we talked about
Tolkien and the influences he took from Kalevala,
which is our epic tale, similar but distinctly
different from Norse stuff. We have our own Thor,
we have our own God of Thunder. So I really like
looking at the differences of Finnish and Norse
and what's same, what's different, because they're
obviously... inspired by each other, but there's
cultural differences. Yeah, and here we are.
It was loads and loads of fun. I wanted to play
someone very different from Saga, so I went for
a... I think I pitched the character as, oh,
I'll be, you know, one of these genetically engineered
animal... Child soldiers, but I want to have
total like labra labrador energy But I'm not
killing things And then I thought because usually
they're wolves I Think and I I went how can I
make it more finish and I went have you Wolverine?
so I Got to change it to a Wolverine and there
we are So yeah, basically I'm here because Becky
was one of our most eager fans and just got in
touch with, I think, the whole cast from the
very beginning. I did send it to Wayne. I said,
Wayne, see if the guys are up for this. I'm not
trying to nick them from you, Wayne, but let
them have some fun elsewhere. I think, Wayne,
you probably saw your email and then got too
busy. But I jumped in. But yeah. How did it differ
from Bardic Quest? What were the big differences?
You've done three years of that. What did you
find with this? Was it jarring? Not jarring,
but it's always different with a different group
of people. The energy is different. I'd say this
is more chaotic, more fast -paced. I think you
did warn me that It's a Harsher system like you
might just one mistake you're out dead Whatever
so higher risk. Um, but yeah Chaotic but a lot
of fun a lot of laughs Well, then the first episode
that a Nina showed up so I we put my my now what
is the 18 month old son in daycare for the first
time in January and anyone who's had children
knows that the you get sick fairly regular regularly
once that starts happening and every Monday I
would show up with some different disease and
we would have to find a way to work around it
and the episode Anita showed up I I was still
in the throes of norovirus I mean literally like
I'd started the sentence the day before, but
I was like, I can't miss the episode. We worked
it to the episode. So I'm sorry, Nina. That must
have been a bit jarring for you to show up. And
it's like, by the way, one of the main characters
has explosive diarrhea. And also diaper rash,
I imagine. It wasn't great either. Yeah. You're
weaving those kind of things in. made for an
interesting kind of comedic background for Gigi.
But it also is testimony to the fact that we
really didn't reschedule a single episode in
those six, seven months. Everyone was there on
time and got it done. There were a couple of
technical hurdles, but... You know nothing insurmountable.
No, no even yeah I mean, I mean you took duck
out of every single episode But I could you cover
that with the with the edits while as you feel
computer crapped out But the only one person
who was a notion Eventually came back. Oh, yeah
weeks later Yeah, so so we didn't have anyone
who didn't join in with the kind of the right
kind of Viking spirit There were people I asked,
and I gave a rough description of what had happened
in the previous episode, and in a fair number
of cases I got no response at all. Well, there's
this sex bot who was cut in half during a trial
by combat, and lubricant went everywhere. I was
like, huh. And do you want to play? I think it
says something about your skills as a pitch man.
Yeah, I I think we missed a trick with the first
episode I was in I just thought about it Why
wasn't Gigi's character just allergic to? That
would have helped explain the next couple of
episodes where I was sick with something else
It was about a month of CJ coming with a new
melody. But it goes to show, again, the nature
of the thing, because it is just improvisation
every single week. And while I tried my best
to have a plan, as we know from General Moltke,
as soon as you have a plan, it meets the enemy,
it gets thrown out of the window. I pointed a
friend of mine at it and he listened to like
the first three and he said That's all scripted,
right? Which I think speaks to your editing probably
in more than the improvisational qualities. I
had to say no, we're just we're just making it
up. We have no idea Yeah, well Well Taylor, obviously
you come with a very specific set of skills and
expertise from kind of like the medieval world
of history. Was there anything about this setting
that appealed to you from that kind of context
besides just being a general D &D player? Yeah,
I mean, I love the Creed. Once I like really
dove into it and started reading through the...
the rule books and the supplements and stuff
like that, and kind of seeing the world that
was created there. I have a layman's knowledge
of Norse mythology, so stuff was familiar, but
I have no expertise in it, but it was the creativity
that really kind of like... Latched on to me
seeing like how the ancient weapons were modernized
for you know, sci -fi, you know the How do you
bring guns into a Viking world? How do you still
you know keep that kind of you know through line
going so that was That was just a pleasure to
kind of see the world building be so, you know
concrete. I mean we do a we do a homebrew campaign
and And it is exhausting to keep that world building
going. So to see that this world was so fleshed
out and didn't, as far as I could tell, ever
have any real hiccups at all, even though we
threw everything we could to try and destabilize
it, it was airtight. And it's art in that sense.
And it's just art watching a good GM be able
to keep that world, keep that storyline there.
as much as we do, you know, everything in our
power to break it. So, but I'm like, I mean,
I'm also, I mean, a gigantic Tolkien fan. So
I kind of always get into Viking stuff as a,
you know, Tolkien's the gateway drug to the Norse
sagas to me. And as far as I'm concerned, and
it's just, you know, a constant joy to see those
kinds of things and try and create those epic
stories. I think Ian, you gave me my favorite
piece of directing with near the finale, I think
it was, which is, actually, it was like my second
episode, but you were seeing way ahead towards
the finale. You're like, I'm going to give you
your Bernard Hill, Thea didn't charge moment,
like your blaze of glory thing. And I'm like,
cool, that's my North Star. I'm just going to
stick with that. And I was just hooked. I mean,
from day one, it was great. Yeah, so there's
a little bit of secret sauce there in that everyone
did have. I didn't interfere with character choices
at all. everyone could do what they like they
you know they said how about this you do what
you like because the whole point is to have fun
and interestingly enough you know i was actually
very surprised when i i ended up with in the
first episode you know an alpha and a doc alpha
because they are diametrically opposed and in
when i'd run this previously everyone had basically
chosen humans or something you know the majority
of the party were men um as opposed to men with
two ends in case you think i'm being sexist that's
the the norse equivalent but they were um they
tended to be just more normal and what this campaign
and the choice is here instantly went off in
a different direction. And so we started off
with the kind of bedrock being these two long
dead warriors who bickered over the centuries.
And that was then the starting point. And once
they had mown down the various people who joined
the first couple of episodes as guests and CJ
joined, it really did start to... to build into
something really quite ludicrous. Well, one of
the things I loved about CJ's character was he
brought this enormous ego and total self -interest,
whereas he seemed, as unaware as all of us were,
he seemed the most unaware of anything except
his own glory. And I thought it was wonderful.
And I had to... camp myself down not to start
channeling that same voice because I love the
just over -the -top confidence of this this giant
idiot who had had everything handed to him all
his life and it made him I don't know I feel
like there's weird parallels in the in current
reality but I can't think what they might be
um anyway it was it was terrific fun and allowed
Steve and I to just be in the in the gutter picking
at each other and running away and whatever else
we thought we needed. But the only direction
that I gave, and Taylor referenced it there briefly,
was I'd kind of say, here's a North Star. Here
is one thing to think about. And that's all you
have to worry about, as long as you do this.
Because then you've got some kind of anchor.
Steve's, yours was always the mine. Yeah. Actually,
I just want to throw something in is that with
regards to character choices, I was going to
be a doc alfar, but my initial thought was to
be a healer because that's more traditionally
a thing that I do. And the discussion was, no,
no, no, Bill's going to be the healer. And so
that sort of sorted, which I mean, And you did
eventually start healing people, Bill, around
episode, what, 19 or 20. You remembered that
you were, in fact, a party healer. I was saving
it till we really needed it. Yeah, never mind
the trail of bodies we left behind us. Well,
they weren't, they were, you know, they didn't
matter. He had the equivalent of a resurrection
spell, and he'd always go for cure -like wounds.
I was saving it for when I needed it. Oh my god,
so obvious. You needed it. Yes. Yes, that's the
joy of a slightly new system. So obviously we
know that you were keen to have those two opposites
of the elves from, obviously inspired from mythology,
combined with the alpha from Alfheim, the dark
alpha being related to dwarves and that kind
of thing. and Enid you explained how you wanted
to be a animal soldier and therefore went to
finish with the Wolverine. Taylor did you always
want to be an alfar as well or did Ian possibly
give you a hint that oh maybe we could do someone
else to help Bill be a better alfar? I don't
think I was given that specific of a hint of,
hey, let's step up the Alphar game here. But
I think it became pretty apparent once I joined
that that was needed. I didn't, unfortunately,
have as much time as I like before my first episode
to really dive in and create a character. So
Ian was very helpful in kind of saying, here's
a framework you could start with and then build
on it from there. And then we were able to go
back of a back and forth a few times but I did
love the idea of coming in not playing a typical
you know human fighter or whatever the equivalent
would have been in this world and having something
a little bit more nuanced and a little bit more
out I don't usually play healers in other RPG
games I usually play you know and I wouldn't
necessarily say Cole's you know a crew healer
either but it was I I think there was the moment
in my first episode when we were in uh we were
trying to rescue the lore speaker and it was
Anita and I trying to break into this building
where Gigi was juggling grenades these two were
off somewhere else and we were the only ones
doing the plot yeah we were the only ones actually
literally the only ones in the plot And and I
think the moment I realized I needed to kind
of be the the Alphard doing Alphard things was
when I think I used what was it? I have my character
sheet to avoid some trap that Ian was kind of
telegraphing a little bit. And I think there
was a moment where Ian just kind of looks at
Bill and is like, yeah, see, he's using his sheet.
This is how it can help you. I still don't get
what he was trying to get at there. It's a mystery.
The irony is his dream site gives you a... Foretelling
of the future and enables you to divine what's
going on around you Bill didn't use it in 22
episodes. I'm making a note. Yeah You know when
I when I pitched the coming on the show to taylor
We had we had gone through so many bodies at
that point that you know I just said hey won't
you come on the show and you can be a guest?
You can just have some fun and learn the game
and and taylor's like oh so like what's the commitment
i was like just come on for a show okay you'll
take you'll be there for an hour you'll die it's
fine and then he and then poor guy ended up stuck
with us until the very end thank you i think
i think ian originally said yeah maybe like two
episodes and it's like six later i think is what
ended up being longer than most other characters
Every time I would finish and I would text CJ,
I'm like, how am I still alive? Like, I thought
I was going to kill off. Like, I'm happy to keep
coming back, but like, I'm on time at this point.
Well, you did have a heroic and fiery death.
I did have a heroic and fiery death. We arranged
for you to come on. I think Ian clung to you
like a piece of driftwood in a storm. I think
you came along and he went, oh my God, this is
how I get out of this thing. Yeah, well, it was
the same with Anina. The time difference made
it hard for Anina to join, and she was often
doing auditions and stuff. But I'd ping her every
week and say, can you join? And she'd say, I
can't, I've got an audition. Okay. We have multiple
recurring characters on today in this podcast,
and I thought that was a really cool thing. I
thought that helped. add some thread to lace
the whole thing together and give anchor points
to the story. And, you know, it's like a TV series
where a favorite recurring character shows up
again. It's great fun. I did enjoy that. I think
that's the first podcast I've guessed it on where
it was like you can dip in and out. And it was
a lot of fun and surprising because I would have
a week off and That'd be like well, yeah, like
I can I can jump on and then Ian would rise away
from a pit Because in the first episode I did
fall into a pit due to my own bad dice rolling
So that was all not planned I just fell But yeah,
I really enjoyed that. It was nice to be able
to work around. Because again, just having body
quests as a recurring thing is hard enough. I
just never know what I'm doing. It's like, do
I have a gig? Do I have an audition? I don't
know. I'd love to be there if I can. Thank you
for the flexibility, and especially if people
enjoyed sort of guest stars popping in. That's
good. Becky, can I ask a question of these? One
I've always been interested in. So we used to
talk about the fact that some of the cast have
plot armor. Right? And so you had to survive
because you were going to be a good character.
But at the same time, there was one of my favorite
episodes to GM was in the middle where there
was a TPK and everyone died. I'm just interested
in your all of your individual recollections
and kind of and what you genuinely thought at
that time. Because I edited it all so much, but
I can hear people's voices still in my head,
like CJ would go, am I dead? And just like the
careerlessness, the shock of it. And so I'm interested
in whether you genuinely thought at that point,
oh my God, I've done it. When I realized everyone
died, I was like. is this how you end the podcast?
I did have an image of like, well, he did say
there's a risk that you die, and I'm like, I
guess we're ending on, I don't know what episode
number it was, but I'm like, there was a good
10 seconds that I was like, bolt, everything's
dead. Everyone, like if I die, fair enough, but
I'm like, no, everyone's dead. I think after
the initial shock, it was sort of, oh, it looks
like we're all dead. My next thought was sort
of from a narrative point of view was sort of,
OK, Ian, write your way out of this. You bastard.
Because, Bill, you went first. You drove off
into the sunset, so to speak. Yeah. I mean, I
was an early reader, Ian, of your. novels and
then of the first drafts of this rule system,
including all the scenarios. But I had been careful
not to go back into it. But I did remember there
was a very charming time loop one. So when that
happened, I did my best to act. That's how I
act. If I'm ever in that position, there's some
quality art coming. Anyway, but I thought this
is probably the one, but I hadn't remembered
enough detail because it had been some years
before that I'd read it. And frankly, I'm getting
older and Steve's constantly buzzing in one ear
and it's just, I have children and there's a
dog in the neighborhood and there's squirrels.
Above I'm trying to channel crazy old man and
apparently doing really well by the flat stairs.
I'm getting across the screen right now, so But
see CJ was it a surprise But he there was a there
was a moment where it was like, oh well, we finally
did it And I think it was the episode there's
one episode where Gigi Did something really crazy?
An episode sorry an episode In particular where
he came in and then yelled yelled, you know We
shall do this because I have plot and in the
episode And so it's just kind of like oh as it's
you know He was getting a little little ahead
of himself and I think we all TPK the next the
next episode and that's where I was like Well,
that'll teach me but see going back to the whole
this the the the joy of this for me is that performative
aspect I had three other characters that I built
the background. I was ready. I was like, if he
dies, I've got another one. I've got another
voice and I've got a completely different character
and we can kill him and then we can do the next
one. Like I was just, I was really excited. I
mean, Taylor knows cause he's seen all the characters
I created for our campaign. Cause like, look,
cause the character I play on that campaign is
Bellanos and how he's still alive. I don't know.
He should have probably, you know, and then I
was just like, well, then I've got a barbarian
after that. And then I'm going to barred after
that. Well, Becky, you were literally a clone
race and your clone comes back in several forms.
What was it like? Because you didn't die in that
particular episode, but you did die despite the
kind of very clear warnings from all of these
guys. And I remember you cursing yourself because
it's like you walked into it and you literally
kind of touched the door of death. Yes, that's
why she saw it happen for the NPC and Brynn my
character thought well it's happened to one person
it can't possibly happen to me because I've got
the special key card which should help me be
immune from whatever's happening and no no it
was it was interesting to play if anything I
found it her playing her more challenging than
any other character because I've like my other
non kind of like podcast games I'm playing definitely
not well non -human race, I play as a back sea,
I play a dragonborn. I find them more fun to
play because I can let my imagination loose,
whereas I'm playing a human thinking like, oh,
am I being more like myself or do I be less like
myself? And when I have to be some kind of cybernetic
implanted woman with cables here and bloody lights
and visors, I'm like, I don't know how scientific
to be. I've never been scientific because I'm
just generally eccentric and carefree kind of
thing. So I tried to go down a slightly nerdy
route and then she kind of got a slight posse
of a tone and I've got no idea where that came
from. But yes, it was fun playing those two episodes
and especially with my guest at the time who
was Sam Fleagle, the Norse artist who I interviewed
in episode 14 after I interviewed you in episode
13 because he added a lovely flavour being a
Norse poet and actually quoting Norse poetry
which really kind of like brought the whole atmosphere
to life. Whenever there was a Norse poet, CJ
would say something along the lines of, there's
only one authentic poet here, can you be quiet?
You're terrible. It was like, we get the point,
stop showing off. poofed into non -existence
quite literally. He kind of like went beyond
that point, although I was a bit cheeky because
after my character demise I stayed on in the
podcast. I just muted myself and I could see
what these guys were going to struggle with and
so I mentioned something in the chat. I like
to think I was the Norns being very naughty and
whispering, well not the Norns, maybe Loki, probably
more Loki than Norns because I think I was the
one who suggested using the dynamite for the
door and Sam went and got the dynamite. Thank
God you did. This is why you fit in so well because
your initial impulses were quite chaotic and
against your own best interest and then after
it was too late you got quite clear on how it
should have gone down which is like a perfect
match for our whole approach. If I could have
come back for the next episode, I would have,
but being a mum with a four and a half year old,
a CJ with a test code like parents, we value
our sleep. And I'm not much of a night owl, but
I will push the boat out for you guys because
I absolutely adore all you as people and as characters
so much. I had the best time and fun listening
as well because I followed it from the start
all the way through to the very, very end. So
it was just absolutely superb. And I was thinking
before this record, what would my favorite moment
be? And I think it would have to be aptly when
Taylor and the ship, the Valkyr, which I love
the name of, went flying off, albeit burning,
dismantled by a nonic entity. Kind of like someone
saying, I think it was Steve who said, no CJ
said, when are we? Someone said. where are we
then i think bill said who are we and i thought
that just sums up the entire podcast really really
well i like that taylor got the heroic moment
the actual an actual real heroic it was good
to have one you know going down with the ship
he had to he had the yeah And the charge yeah,
there's like a whole ten seconds of just like
ringing silence after You know Ian described
the ship going down because I think these two
were like, wait a minute. Wait, he's actually
dead Like he's made it this far. I thought he
was going the whole way. It's like nope. See
ya That's my favorite moment do any of you guys
have a particular favorite moment from either
your episodes or episodes With other characters
that obviously aren't joining us tonight My yes,
I oh I have one it's it's The moment is the episode
with with Josh Gillingham And, um, he was, he
was playing there. We had two guests playing
men. We had a little bit of a run in. They were
investigating the murder or whatnot. And there
was a strange shadow entity roaming around killing
people and whatnot, you know, the run of the
mill stuff. And we got to this building, I think
it was the healing shack or something like that.
And whatever we saw was up on the roof and Josh
goes up there and kind of going to the caution
of if you make one mistake in this game, it can
be very. it can be finished quite quickly for
you now we had faster deaths like the berserker
who went and got his head locked off but the
i think what was that 48 minutes it was quick
it was but but josh goes up onto the roof and
this thing you know basically kills his character
and throws him off and he has a that scene from
the departed you know where they throw martin
sheen off the building and he just explodes like
a meat bag at the bottom and de caprio's like
oh and that's where you know the rest of us were
And it's my favorite part because everyone when
that happened Was so shocked there was dead silence
for something like 20 seconds. We were all like
And and ian didn't disturb it either. He just
let us just wallow in it. We're like what just
happened Josh was like wait am I done? That's
great Anyway, that's my favorite i'll jump in
with mine because it's uh much later on but we're
listening to it There were so many things, it
was a great joy to edit because you'd listen
and you could just laugh and laugh and laugh
and laugh. But right at the end, the Beowulf
episode where we have the professors from the
Saga Thing podcast. And Steve cast a black hole
that sucked them all in and killed friendly fire
and killed them all. But then the line reading
that one of the professors gave, because they
had posed as gods, the main characters had posed
as gods in this Vendel age setting. And the line
reading was something like, I guess these gods
are not helpful after all. And I could listen
to that all day long, because that was just such
a hilarious little line to lead into that. And
Steve, you should be ashamed of yourself. Right,
no, hold on. No, I will interject here, because
Steve cannot be ashamed of himself. There's CJ,
who did actually indirectly take out another
player. Did you not, CJ? Was it only the one
I lost count is fear in the skull he was he was
in in between me and and the bad guy and bullets
What choice did you have? I mean I got So when
when Eric has that black hole in my head he was
casting it in the sky above all the bad people
and There was obviously miscommunication of some
sort, and he was like, I've just said he sucked
everyone up. And I thought I initially in my
head, I believe I initially protested. But then
I thought, oh, no, wait, no, this is how Ian
gets rid of these players. OK, well, then let
it go. Let it go. Let it go. This role. And I
just decided not to fight it anymore. Oh, no,
I see what he's doing. He's killing them off.
Yeah, I'm fine with that. Yeah. Yeah, that's
fine. Was that not was that not the plan? Yeah,
and you can always, if you said anything annoying
or irritating that went against the flow of the
narrative, I could always just edit it out. But
in that particular case, you definitely said...
the equipment of rules lawyering in podcast land
is just edit lawyering and i was well prepared
to come back to you with no you said and it's
on tape you said i cast it in front of the dragon
very definitely yes three dimensions here and
someone else says in front in the audio clip
it's What I really enjoyed, my character did
not. She got really frustrated, but what I really
enjoyed was the time loop episode. Because why
did you guys want to try the same thing again?
That caused the TPK. And in the end, I think
Alba had to be like, no, we're going to go fast.
Let's not go. the the the the I remember in the
episode when you were in the mine and he knows
Elmer and you fell down. I thought he hasn't
mentioned damage rolls. He hasn't mentioned numbers.
She might be alive. She might be somewhere down
there. And then we had the next whole episode
of these guys stuck in a dark cave, talking to
a dark buffer, answering riddles to try to survive.
And amazingly, thanks to Fjord and Blessing,
they got through it all. Only for Fjord to then
die because then Air wanted a better body and
upgrade. which was a cold coup as a character,
I must say, Steve, that was an incredible move.
Switching bodies after going, after downgrading
from your original body, you want them to play
by three level. Yeah, and at the end, kind of
like, oh, we hear Anita's voice and they go on
fire. And you're like, oh, she's back. Yes, I
was so happy. I nearly cheered at my dad. I was
like, yes, she's still there. What was your favorite
experience, Taylor? Oh, it's a small one, and
it's almost a throwaway moment. But I think it
was like the episode or the second episode after
I was temporarily dead. There was a whole kind
of Beowulf storyline going on. And CJ has always
impressed me with his one liners throughout the
entire podcast and it's one of my favorite things
about him as a player is he's very good at finding
the one -liners um and there was this whole bit
where i remember you talking to me about this
off podcast but i think it made it into the cut
too where it was just kind of like you were so
confused about like i don't remember the beowulf
story do they die does everyone like how does
it end and then we get through the whole episode
and you know the you know the story comes to
its natural conclusion and then you just hear
cj going Ah, they do die in the end. Ending on
that beat is just like art. The professors had
to roll with that one. I can't remember if they
die. No, no, no. He dies. They were quite adamant
since they were. They studied these sagas on
a regular basis. I thought in our fight, we had
a conversation about favorite death. on the podcast
and then we opened it up to social and I was
like I really wanted there to be like a favorite
one line award for the gg character because it's
just like yeah there was always yeah good stuff
generally speaking because we'd always in the
edit we would find a natural conclusion and uh
We'd try and keep it on time, and we'd record
perhaps two and a half, three hours, and it would
edit down. But there was always a natural out,
and there was often, 80, 90 % of the time, something
that was so good, you could just leave it there.
It naturally came up as the line that would just
act as the kind of closer. And if we didn't quite
get it the first time, it was like, well, let's
just do that again, or let's just say this. But
it was almost there. And they get so, Bill, to
your point about the guy who said it was scripted.
It wasn't scripted, but it did kind of write
itself in a way. Especially that line you just
talked about, Becky, where you were saying, they
were saying, like the three blind monkeys, who
are we, where are we, who are we, that one. That
was natural. And I think we did it. And then
I said, let's just do it one more time. But I
think I arranged it up using the original version
anyway. Sometimes you just did things like, oh,
let's just do, again, coming from TV land and
Nina will appreciate this. Sometimes just do
a second take for the hell of it. But generally
speaking, we didn't use them or didn't need to
use them. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun.
I mean, it's a creative group, right? So there
was lots of lively stuff. I think my overall
favorite, and there were so many moments that
were so wonderful, and as someone said earlier
tonight, We spent a lot of the time laughing,
which was the great joy of it. It's why it was
quite easy to come back every week, no matter
how tired or whatever else was going on, you
know, a touch of a light touch of norovirus or
whatever might be going on. And but I just really
liked Ed's exit. My nephew Ed as the I don't
remember his character's name now, but the sex
robot who attempted to sacrifice himself and
destroy all of the opponents. and failed. It
was just the the exceptional futility of the
entire thing. And he ends up getting split right
down the middle. It was like, I don't know, there
was just something about that was extremely gratifying.
There's one other one, which was when damn, I
forget the bear's name. Snow White. Snow White.
Yes. Yes. Snow White. Our utter failure to deal
with the charging. polar bear, and Bjarne being
consumed. Who was the old guy, Bjarne? I don't
remember anything. Anyway, it was just such,
it was so gauntless. There was just nothing we
did that was effective, or practical, or sensible,
or rational. It was just utter collapse. And
I loved that. And then that's where the reviews
came in. So the people who have listened to it,
one review came in saying the most hapless adventuring
party ever. Little do they know. It was a litany
of disaster. I literally may listen to the episode
where I think you're on trial because of Snow
White and him. the the Guys You just left Yeah,
yeah Definitely know where that those reviews
came from. It's like you somehow half -assed
a really important job Or in some cases I would
say It's just making me think that, to kind of
like, sorry, just making me think that there's
that phrase that Billy kept saying, we need more
men, kind of like in the end of episode after
episode. The joy always was of GMing it and then
listening back and editing it. There was always
the moments of clarity and realization that made
it all the funnier. It's just that when the pin
drops and everyone goes, oh, we should have done
that really obvious thing. And so it's not like
there wasn't. 2020 after science elements of
the three stooges it seems to me you know good
lord i mean that episode is making me think back
to um when the fish on the sticks um other fish
heads on the stick appear outside the house and
there's that that jotton woman kind of like throwing
insults and charm and then she falls in love
with him that's one way of avoiding killing Of
all of Ian's bizarre voice, I mean, excellent
voice portrayals, that was my favorite. I hear,
ooh, me lover, every night as I'm falling asleep.
It's very disturbing. There was that moment and
there were more than a few of them when for instance
at that moment I remember Ian describing there's
a person outside and they've got the stick and
putting ground and they're putting fish heads
on it and he's saying it in a way that Clearly,
this is a big deal and we should a understand
what's going on and be should be taking it seriously
And if you lift and carefully you can hear that
I'm providing sort of the verbal equivalent of
a blank stare as I did fairly often because it's
just like I have the faintest idea what the heck
is going on around here. And I think that came
through. Yeah, I've often thought, Steve, and
I don't know if people listening are judging
our acting performances. But, you know, I thought
you often had a very stony sensibility about
you. And I feel my performances were consistently
wouldn't. It was really appropriate. You should
feel shame. And yes, I must echo what Bill says
there because your voice talent throughout the
entire thing was absolutely extraordinary. I
mean, I try to put voices on when I'm reading
to my daughter and I can either go west country
or I can do a little old lady. That's about the
extent of my acting talent. but your skills i
mean there were other skills you used well you
had lots of clever sound effects put in in the
editing that really actually brought all the
gunfire and explosions and the ghosty sounds
and um of course when you're kind of speaking
as the shapeshifting um you're gonna correct
me because i can't remember the name of it but
the shapeshifter i'm just gonna go that was it
i couldn't think like exactly what is it it's
got a giant it's not a troll it's it's something
else but there were some really clever skills
here. Would you mind revealing the secrets behind
how that all got put into place? Yeah, I mean
just before you answer, Ian, I think that's an
important thing to call out because first of
all, I want to interrupt him, which is always
fun. But secondly, Steve and I and CJ and Taylor
and, well, everybody on the call, all we had
to do was show up and be idiots for a couple
of hours. Which for me comes quite naturally,
yeah. And then Ian would take away a steaming
pile of audio and turn it into something with
a lot of work, like the amount of time put in
every week. That's why there's something coherent
and entertaining. So anyway, now Ian, you can
do your shit. It was vastly more than I thought
it would be when we came up with it. But the
thing is, I became quite the perfectionist. No.
And I couldn't let little pops and things go.
And then I started off by adding in sound effects
around the deaths. But then as the thing went
on, I just lay it on more and more. So there's
a progression from episodes one and two by the
time you get to the last one. The last one is
like the shining city on the hill. I really do
enjoy that last episode because it just got everything.
polar bear charges and and black hole sounds
and uh you know and you know through the kitchen
sink of that one and in terms of voices it's
kind of then the like the greatest hits because
all of the characters that they've met who they
haven't killed come back and say a line or two
after the past couple episodes so and then the
voice wonderfully yeah so the so so the the voices
are hard to keep because everything naturally
fears towards West Country, just like it's this
human nature to suddenly become a country bumpkin.
So we'd record on a Monday and I would, and Anina
probably does lots of this as a pro, is you just
spend a couple of days beforehand just speaking
to yourself mainly. And your family. No, no,
to myself because otherwise I'd be locked up.
Strangers. but you just have to speak in that
voice until you've got it and until you can naturally
trot it out with any sequence of words. That's
just practice. And so tabletop audio is a great
free resource and a big shout out to them because
they provide a lot of the ambient sounds and
then I'll drop in spot sound effects. But without
tabletop audio, and the stuff that that guy there
provides I think would have been stuck. So everyone
should for their own games you know get hold
of that stuff put it on in the background it's
good stuff and is free as long as you credit
the source and you know it's well worth crediting.
You used it very very well and I would love to
know more about how you edited that final bit
because of course in the final episode sorry
major spoiler coming up They do kind of like,
Ian has carefully pulled all these different
voices from previous characters to tell Leomi's
character kind of like a dark prophetic warning
of vision of death and Ragnarok and everything
that's going to come and that was wonderfully
done, wonderfully done. Oh well I raised all
of the guests. How did you work out which line
to give to who? I gave them all, it's actually
a real world historical curse. and the Curse
of Buzla, a B -U -S -L -A. Oh, that one. Bill,
you're now cursed. You're now cursed and realized.
And I wrote to all of the guests who they'd killed
and the ones that had time. Or were nagged by
their dad slash uncle. sent me their recordings
and I spliced them together in a way that made
sense and obviously we'll leave something on
the table for anyone who's listening but that
also is anchored by Anita and reveals her fate
because she was too busy to come back so I wanted
to give her a fitting place in the finale and
so she anchors that whole curse. That was a fun
audio to record me screaming in this chair one
day, growling, scaring the neighbours for that
night heath time. And so that's a fitting finale
because it comes, it's the ghosts of episodes
past come back to haunt, specifically Bill, who
stumbles right into the middle of it. And Alma
really liked Iommi as well, so betrayal is deep.
Good. I like a strong reaction. I don't really
care where it falls on the spectrum as long as
it's intense. That's another, sorry CJ, I know
you want to say something, but there's just one
other thing. When Becky, you came back for that
surprise guest appearance and you asked for the
skull, that's another one of my favorite bits
because I can still hear Bill in my ear saying,
I don't know what to do. Because you were asking
for the skull. And you came back as evil Brittany,
which is so, what's going on? That was, I found
that really hard to do because I'm not, and as
you can hopefully tell, there isn't, as you can
guess, I'm not generally a quite nice, bubbly
person. I'm not good at being mean. It's why
I find it so hard giving discipline to my four
and a half year old because I just try not to
be empathetic and understanding and kind. Like,
okay, you feel this, but why? Instead of just
saying, right, no, naughty step, 10 minutes,
and that's what my husband does. He's very swift,
but. Yeah I couldn't do it very very well all
I can just like overly confident and then it
was like oh they're asking me questions and I
don't honestly know what Brynn knows therefore
I don't know and I'm like my gosh Ian what do
I do? And plus I kept going off script for a
bit because me and Ian did try and plot about
what I should say to then predict what you might
do to then predicts another reaction from Bryn
and I lived a little bit and they were like,
go to the script, go to the script, say this
bit and I was like, okay, okay, I'll do that.
Well, you did admirably because there was no
way they were ever, you could never contingency
plan for all of the things they were going to
do. And as you know, you were up at one o 'clock
in the morning recording it and they went off
on this whole non -secator and almost forgot
you were there. I'm offended by that description.
It was a good plan but it was kind of like it
was so in the presence it was it was literally
kind of like if it wasn't you all characters
talking about it it would have been fine but
no you as characters were talking about it so
she was kind of thinking well time's ticking
I either kill you or I don't kill you now. But
it was cleverly done going back an hour to then
make me redo that line again. I thought, OK,
I could maybe do a second take as a second take.
Raven's Go is the best plot device for a GM to
have to hand, because then you can literally
unwind things. Yeah, which happened once or twice.
I don't remember. CJ, were you trying to say
something? But it looked like you were. I just
had a story about the cool sound effects that
can. got better over time right or more intense
over time and there was through for the last
episode after we recorded the last episode you
released it so i put it in my in my earbuds and
i was going to take the dog for a walk and it
was the same day that in our neighborhood we
had some heavily armed criminals pull into my
apartment complex and ditched their car like
yep and they ditched their car like right in
sight where i was and they were both carrying
you know lots of firearms and then they ran across
the construction site across the canal anyway
then the police showed up and then they said
you know stay in your house and do all that stuff
so a few hours go by and i'm like i'm sure it's
fine to go take my dog out so put my put the
episode on had my headphones on you know with
the noise canceling taking the dog for a walk
and we start crossing the street kind of between
where all these cop cars are in the construction
zone and there's the scene at the end where jiji
is inside the the temple and he's trying to You
know do whatever the hell he was supposed to
be doing and and Ian inserted a gunshot in that
scene and it was so loud and so realistic I dropped
to the ground because I thought oh shit somebody
there's a gunfight outside my apartment and I'm
looking around and luckily nobody saw it so it
was good but I was like was that the episode?
Well your dog must have been so embarrassed He
was confused. He was absolutely confused. He's
like, what are you doing? Why are you on your
stomach in the middle of the street? So good
sound effect work there, Ian. I mean, that's
the result. Wow. I think it's also worth pointing
out, too, how good Ian was at doing that live.
I remember my first episode, I was nervous to
come in anyway, but I got so wrapped up in the
storytelling that it was like, all right, and
Cole, what are you doing? I'm like, wait, wait,
I'm here. Because his voices generally were,
you did some cleaner takes later, but you performed
as much as anyone else did. And that was just
completely just immersive for the player that
it. To the point that it got distracting. I'm
just like I'm just watching I'm watching an episode
here. Oh wait. I made it what I gotta do something
Yeah, it just occurred to me that anyone who
just listened to all the episodes didn't get
to see what we saw every single episode which
was moments of Ian going Oh, my God. Oh, I've
got so much work to do to figure out what to
do for next year. And that was my typical English
restraint. I suggested the dynamite. That was
my typical English restraint as well. Oh, yeah.
No, any of these words would have been throwing
things. That was my light catastrophizing. I
actually got a note from Ian in between episodes
to not encourage Gigi to jump on anything in
the next one. That's true. It was one of my favorite
things. Let's see if we can get him to jump on
this. You know, he's jumped on a spaceship. He
jumps on a giant sea worm. My gosh, yes. I wanted
to use that special ability. And then the one
episode Ian put something big that I was meant
to jump on, I didn't jump on it. Right to have
his paper with good intentions. Becky, I'm conscious
of the fact that you must be drifting off and
we need to get you to. No, no, I'm wide awake,
guys. I'm wide awake because we're slowly building
up to what is actually the final question because
it is all to do with endings. And of course,
we've been speaking really recently about the
final episode that Taylor starred in wonderfully
and heroically, Bill and CJ and Steve and...
I was wondering, do you all think your characters
had the ending they deserved? Were there any
regrets? Would you have had a different ending
if you had more control or say in the plot of
the narrative or the dice rolls? For example,
if Leomi hadn't rolled poorly, would he have
got a song of praise and poetry inspiring him
instead of a song of doom and horror and death
from the great reincarnated Mim? I feel like
he got more than he deserved in a good way. Like,
it was better than it should have been. Like,
it's really self -absorbed. You know, I was making
fun of CJ's character, Gigi, being so self -absorbed,
but I think we all were. Like, we were all very
much... I used to work with this guy at the end
of every meeting. He would go, I only have one
question. How does all of this affect me? And
he was a very considerate guy. It was just a
joke. But I feel like that's how the three of
us, our three characters, approach the world.
Wait, wait, wait. Oh, that's fine. End of the
world, yeah, Ragnarok, whatever. But how does
all of this affect me, right? So I know I think
it was a gracious ending for that idiot. Anyone
else? What about you, CJ? I thought I thought
it was a fitting end for Gigi He didn't die though
So I'm kind of I was a little a little miffed
because I figured it would there would be a good
death scene I didn't get to have the death scene.
He got to go on and have a happily ever after
you know Writing into the sunset on his big worm
thing And I felt a little bit bad for Taylor's
character who should also have died But then
was condemned to a life with Gigi. Yeah, that
did seem sad. But, I mean, that's clearly the
kernel for season two, which is the further adventures
of Gigi and Cole. I mean, obviously. This new
buddy cop thing going on. I think, CJ, you just
need to do a spin -off for your Viking series.
You know, move from Hastings to Gigi and write
the future version. He's a great character. Within
the Vikingverse to a future Gigi. I don't know.
If we were to reprise the character, I think
I would pull a Harrison Ford, what he did to
George Lucas, where in the next two movies, he
would go to George Lucas and say, you need to
kill him. You need to kill Hans on him. How about
you, Steve? Because your character certainly
did have an end that I didn't expect, but it
found you in the end, in a way. He didn't deserve
I think what he deserved was to wind up inhabiting
a vending machine in a CD host held somewhere
certainly Certainly nothing good Yeah, like again
self -absorbed self -interested dismissive pretty
much everyone and everything else as he followed
his own ends and Not not super not super self
-aware. So yeah, no, he got better than he deserved
and I was very grateful for it He wasn't surprising
that three people who are so self -absorbed are
so sort of endearing Well self -absorbed, but
no there was no real hate or evil in any of the
characters now we were crabby and snippy and
self -absorbed, but I mean, you know, sure, we
killed a lot of people or were somehow responsible
for that. There's no malice to it. We were quite
nice about it. It's just incompetence. And who
doesn't love that? You know, incompetence is
endearing, I think, I hope. Yeah, I think the
incompetence because like, yeah, the deaths you
were involved in were more like you stood near
the escape hatch, which is far enough that you
didn't go in. but everyone else did, kind of,
kind of thing. And you might have maybe leaned
against, you know, the button, maybe, but we
don't know. And I just enjoyed that every week,
Ian, like there would be fresh faces who would
show up and bless them, they tried to be competent.
Right? They tried so hard and they really tried
to steer us in any direction other than our natural
trajectory. With, you know, some more success
than others, like the people here, but most of
them succumbed and, but bless them for trying.
I kind of came up with like a headcanon that
like no we're not the heroes of this story we're
the observers of the story all the heroes are
we're just watching them do the work and that's
why we haven't died yet because we're actually
not the heroes we're just we're riders in the
back ranks of the you know academics and so they
know how stories work the structured story and
this was not that but caitlyn phoenix was the
only person to buck the trend and just say no
you lot are crazy i'm off yeah she did she did
amazingly well and that was her first ever tabletop
role play game experience because I remember
she emailed me saying like becky i'm about to
do this thing can you give me some tips i said
okay well this is what a roll 20 does is what
d6 does just imagine you're someone else it's
all pretend don't worry it's super nice you'll
keep me straight go along with the others they're
a random bunch but you'll be fine you'll have
fun and she did exceptionally well yeah we had
a lot of newbies um yeah you know the first person
who joined alongside uh cj as a friend of mine,
Mike, got eaten by a worm. And it was his first
time playing. And he began by praying. And he
did this old verse. For all the good it did.
And he prayed to the worm. And I felt a little
bit bad there because, you know, he did put that
kind of newbie effort in that. It had a kind
of I was crying so hard. It was sincere. It was
so sincere. And all along the way we had people
who were brave enough to try something new. Rowdy
Gerson was brand new to it as well. And he got
sucked into a black hole. And then we had some
people who tried, died in the wall, who had done
lots of role playing. they couldn't make a dent
in proceedings either. Again, it was just the
chemistry of new people and old veterans and
experts in Norse mythology. We talked just in
the preamble here about Terry, the science Viking,
who's a good friend of mine who literally joined
an episode and chomped through a kind of haunch
of chicken leg and drank... made and belched
through to give it that kind of authentic flavor
of recording. But everyone brought something
new to it, so we appreciate if guests, if you
watch this, we appreciate all of your time commitment
and the laughs that you gave us. I have another.
Your sacrifice. Sacrifice, yes. I have a different
answer for favorite moment. Actually, it just
came back to me. It was the moment on your third
appearance, Taylor, maybe when you couldn't come
up with an action. You couldn't decide what to
do and you went. Oh my god, you people have infected
me That was the moment that was the word that
may make oh my god. This has all been worth it.
We were we were We were I think it was the space
elevator up from the prison and uh, the other
two guests we had uh, like blasted out and went
out to like fight the orcneus and it's just the
the four of us in the tube and it was And I think
and I think ian Said something about like well
your competent members of the party have now
left you in the tube and that hit me I'm like
wait. I'm no longer the competent one. What have
you guys done? Slow deterioration of my sanity
has led me to this point so great He's one of
them. I think mentioning Terry in that kind of
way I guess his character didn't technically
die either because he did his thing and then
he got banished to a distant remote station That's
correct. And he was WhatsApping me afterwards
because he slowly realizes the son of a Valdi.
He takes me and said, are we the baddies? That
happened on air. You could tell he suddenly went...
You could just see suddenly the light bulb over.
He went, oh no, I chose the wrong side. So some
people like that, you know, I left it open for
them to come back and again, we just skim. We
couldn't make that deal work. Once they, once
they got the, got the taste of things, you know,
their fee went up. Astronomically wanted a trailer,
which made no sense. There was something that
I was paying attention to for a little bit. And
then afterwards I just kind of stopped, but like,
cause the Gigi character is. so loud and, you
know, and so Ian would say, well, we have this
guest this week and they haven't done any role
playing before. And so, you know, and then I
remember there's even an email once that was
just like be nice and I'm just like, okay What's
that supposed to mean? And because because of
course we would Understand being nice what yeah,
we would have that we get the quiz and then and
then you would say, okay Here's the imaginary
set of circumstances that we're going to be playing
with today and and she's you would jump right
in like with some of them, you know, who the
fuck are you, you know, I Remember there's one
or two in a row that just kind of they had their
video on I could tell I was like okay I need
to dial Gigi back until they're until they're
a little more comfortable because if I go too
hard they might have a bad experience but then
after a while then I was just like nope that's
the game you gotta play we're playing I'm a method
person sometimes sometimes that gives license
to everyone else too right like when I play board
games with with friends particularly with new
people who haven't played them before I go over
the top and there's Like fun trash talk and stuff
like that just to kind of lead everybody up.
Yes. Yes Yeah, like you don't When I joined I
felt like obviously I had a chat with Ian but
everyone else I was like I wonder who these people
are and if they're nice I thought it was a really
nice energy. But then again, I did come in with
and the Do you have any auditions to give me?
The chemistry between all of you in just kind
of like from top to bottom from the first person
to the last person off the board it was just
it's just it pulls you in it's got the drama
it's got the humanity that we all love about
humans and it's just I just loved it all and
I am really sad that there's not more of it and
I wish there was hint hint. But you're getting
at it and I'm not following. I have no idea.
But I guess we should probably wrap up this wonderful
special episode by talking about the crucial
matter that is the best death award because we
did kind of want to pay homage to the many people
who have come and gone on this wonderful adventure
with us. I would like you all to nominate one
person and I'll start with Ian to buy everyone
a little time and then we'll give you my nominee
and we'll put it all in the chat and then we'll
see which name crops up the most. So we're going
to be like the Academy and cast our votes but
what I'll do is I'll just give you a little recap
just so you can in case you've forgotten because
there are an awful lot of people that we killed.
I will do it relatively quickly. So we had Joe
Aleo, who wrestled the bone bear into the fire.
We had Caitlin Felix, who simply left the party.
We had Bjorn the Scald, shot in the back. Sam
Flagel, who vanished across timelines to the
Great War. Matt Forbeck, who was executed by
firing squad. He was the berserker that you mentioned.
Mike Foucher, who was eaten by the Great Worm.
Rowdy. Geerson sucked into a black hole. Josh
Gillingham chucked off a building. CJ referenced
him. Jeremy Hall was blasted off a space elevator.
Terry, the science viking, was banished into
the wilderness. Josh Heath detonated his power
armor and took out the Orcneus attackers. Becky,
you were disintegrated by an angel. Tilda was
killed by a shapeshifter. And Nina, you were
executed off camera, having been left in the
observatory ruins. Bill, if you don't remember,
you were devoured by the death mask, the final
computer at the end. Jay Hopkins was both decapitated
by a bear, fell off the troll's tongue, and was
eaten by a shapeshifter. Evan became a cabbage,
having... succumbed to put on memory drive. Ed
was sliced in half in a home gang. Steve, you
were shattered by your enemy dock alpha red gold.
And the sound effects for that were particularly
good. So you need to get back and listen to the
sound of brick on brick. Taylor, you were, you
crash landed your spaceship. and you would later
be born but you know you you you died in a fiery
blaze uh dr john sexton died by dragon fire and
uh andy dr andy frigga was sucked into a back
hole so those are the deaths outside of the time
loop because obviously you know, CJ died in the
bath, et cetera, et cetera. There were those
rubber ducky deaths. That's the full list for
you to cast your vote on. Can I ask, wasn't there
Pilda Hulp? Did she not die from this? Yeah,
I did. I mentioned her. Ah, sorry. And I really
did think the amount of ones that she rolled
in that episode. She just kept rolling ones.
It was bizarre. But she didn't actually die in
that episode. She died a couple of episodes later
when these guys failed to see all of the Mooriad
clues that the shapeshifter was still on the
prowl that were sprinkled in every episode. We
had a lot on our minds. There was a lot of things
going on. We did. It was a busy time for us.
So Tilda actually died again off camera a couple
of episodes later when the shapeshifter inhabited
her form. I'm going to go for Becky disintegrated
by an angel. I think it's got everything. It's
got absolute disintegration. There's an angelic
creature involved from a different timeline.
I remember that because we didn't get past the
door. She just literally touched the door handle
and poof. Fantastic. That was the great part
of it. Because then you then went on to tell
us what we should have done from beyond the grave.
That's my favorite, and that's mine. All right,
so you've cast your vote. Again, we said we were
going to just type it in chat and then total
them up. But why obey any rules at all, ever?
Can we put it in the chat? OK, we're not. Well,
that was going to be the enough, but it's merely
collating the official vote. Hey, man, don't
try and fence me in. That's all I got to say.
So, would you like it in chat or do we just announce?
This is an audio thing, let's just... Okay, you
announce it then. Okay, you go ahead. Danina,
do you want to go next? Yes. So, I'm giving my
vote to Rowdy, who has sucked into a black hole,
because that is horrifying. Bagenified. Yeah.
Horrifying. And so, and the betrayal through
incompetence again. Yeah. He was kind of angry
because he was hoping to go to Valhalla and it
was all thwarted. Maybe there's a three way through
the back door. I'm voting for cut and half because
it was so fast, so heroic and so utterly futile.
And I really yeah, it was that thank you and
it really that futility I think really captured
the essence of you know stuff CJ I'm torn between
two I think I think the the Josh Gillingham thrown
off departed style off the roof was It's just
because of the just the sheer shock value I think
I was still new enough in the show to where it
was it's like I hadn't been desensitized all
the way yet It was like what ah, you know, um,
but but I also have to shout out um Joe alejo
Because in that episode where we're in the hall
and we're fighting the mystical bear thing The
three of us rolled I think Well, first of all,
Steve ran for the hills. He was gone. Yeah. And
Bill tried to cast something. He shot an arrow
at it and it went through the bones. I think
he rolled a one. I also rolled a one. That's
right. Gigi put himself between Lomi and the
bear thinking, all right, I can take him down
and then roll the one. and so we were dead i
mean for all intents we would have we were supposed
to die and and joe got in there and he's like
no i'm gonna lift the bear and take it into the
fire so i think i'm gonna vote for that one because
and also just the way that it played out felt
like a movie right where this guy comes in and
does this heroic act so i'll do i'll do joe with
the bear certainly certainly a pretty viking
dip it's quite brave take one for the team baylor
whatever you go i'm gonna go with Josh being
thrown off the roof for basically the same reason.
It was cinematic and shocking, and the effect
it had on the players was hilarious. So I'm going
to go with that. OK, Becky, can you go next?
And then I might have to cast a deciding vote.
I was going to say, I was pretty much like CJ.
I was thinking kind of like Joe Bush and the
Bear. That was just so. Not quite cliche or stereotypical,
but it was what you wanted or expected from a
Viking -setting film. You just expected them
to wrestle bears and all sorts. But then when
you reminded me, I think it was in Jay and his
prayer to the serpent slash worm, I thought,
yes, it was so beautifully done and yet proved
so futile in the end. You could almost see the
serpent think for a nanosecond about what this
human was trying to tell it, and then it's delayed
it. So I think I'm going to have to go with Jay.
Well, that was Mike. That was Mike. Mike, sorry,
not Joe. That was Mike. Go for Mike. We haven't
made life at all easy because everyone's done
everything. Which obviously shows the vast breadth
and depth of the depths on display. The sheer
quality. The sheer quality. Should we do a second
round? Like take the ones we just voted for and
make them the finalist and then revote? I don't
want to get in trouble again. Well, there's a
good way of doing it, but I'm going to throw
my one then, because I think just for the sheer
versatility of his deaths, we have to award something
to Jay Hopkins. Not only for the most incompetent
detective ever who came up with the immortal
line, suicide by bear. But if you look at, I
mean, he genuinely, when he died, seemed like
a grieved and horrified. And he would just, because
Bill had this meme line that he'd say, where
you would just say, that's fine. That's fine.
And he'd just say, no, it's not fine. No, it's
not fine. And because he came on board three
times and then ultimately got you know, imitated
by a shape -shifter and just pounded into a bloody
pulp in that episode, having witnessed his friends'
arms and legs being cut off. I think we have
to, I think I have to go Jane. Okay. Not many
people gave three times. All right, well, let's,
let's, let's, let's whittle it down then and
see whether anyone can align on I'm going to
vote for Jay, because I like the versatility.
Now that you mentioned it, Jay did have some
wonderful moments. And the Josh Gillingham death,
Jay's death in that episode was equally shocking.
And he actually sits on the opposite building
watching his partner of many years. You know
Josh is his partner and Josh falls in the building
and Jay just didn't really know what's going
on. He said he says that so he's dead. There's
a kind of denial. Yeah, second one too. Yeah,
so I'll I'll switch to Jay. I'll I'll go that
way too. I think you've argued a good case and.
Yeah, let's do Nina and Nina is that you know
is. Oh, God. I mean, everyone's voting for Jay,
but I'm still, I mean, rarely do you get to die
by black hole, so. It depends if you play with
Steve. You're not wrong. It's a good one. It
depends if you play with Steve, because bear
in mind that two people were sucked in at the
same time. Exactly. It was like double death.
That's more of an award for Steve, then, perhaps.
We can just call Steve the best murderer. Yeah
I do what I can. All right, well, perhaps we
just do a general and and Bill perhaps you can
get you can get Jay on the phone not necessarily
now, but just for an exception speech. Yeah Call
him up and tell him You're gonna call him now.
If he doesn't answer that's gonna be a bit of
a dymatic. I am gonna give Jay a pause for basically
being a cat with nine lives and Yeah, creating
characters that then had different deaths each
time is like numerically he's beaten definitely
everyone else for sure. But I guess the commendation
could go to Rowdy and his friend for going in
the black hole because it was such a uniquely
unintended death, whereas everyone else was killed
by something with intention. These two just happened
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rowdy
and John. Rowdy and John. John was the one who
came up with that immortal there. The gods are
not as good as we were. It was very good. Bill,
I presume he's not going to arrive on the phone.
Well, I pinged him, let's see. He's just started
a new business and is working very well. You
just convey the fact that we will be turning
up on this doorstep with the golden statuette.
And the big check with zero. He gets repeat fees
for coming back another three times in series
two. Okay, I'll let him know that too. He'll
be he'll be thrilled with the extra demand on
his time Like the death is he like Sean Bean
of like I'll do it That's what we would now be
christened it's the Sean Bean best death Viking
verse award and he is he is one All right, I've
let them know. We'll see. Becky, thank you for
taking time to do this. It's been fun to see
the old gang after all of these weeks apart.
Yeah. It's kind of weird to have not been seeing
you guys regularly as we did. That became a very
regular part of Monday nights. Having a Monday
night without that in, it's like, oh, that's.
That seems a little strange. Is there plans for
series two, or? I'm going to say, please, please
tell me. Sure, sure, sure. But probably just
a little bit of a break because I need to do
things like, you know, earn a living. Yeah, that's
the downside of being a critic. It's super fun.
It's super funny. You know, there's lots of laughs.
But what you can do is just, you know. is relive
those laughs and listen to the podcast, not mentioning
Bill or Steve at all, and the fact they haven't
listened to that last episode. I'm going to listen
to the whole damn thing. You know what? I'll
tell you what else. Steve and I are going to
start a podcast where we listen to each episode.
together and discuss it. It's like all these
three watch episodes that are going on right
now. It's like you're not the people also in
it. I thought it was really good in this episode.
It's like mystery. I must say that kind of like
anyone who's watching, can indeed go to Vikingverse
.com and they can get the wonderful When the
Wolf Comes campaign source book. So you can go
to Vikingverse .com for a quick tour, learn more
about When the Wolf Comes and the thought and
memory saga, its modular series of adventures.
And of course, find the Vikings, the Valkyries
podcast, wherever you are listening to and watching
this podcast today, ladies and gentlemen. Thank
you to my one, two, three, four, five, six wonderful
guests. Most guests I've had on any episode so
far. So thank you for that. It's been a lot of
fun. I have managed to survive and we've all
survived to the end without too much overlapping
with speech and everything. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for the fun of the podcast
as well. I appreciate all the hours you guys
put into it. Of course, not just Ian's wonderful
work on and off camera, but you guys as well.
dedicated those Monday evenings. It made my Tuesday
afternoons all the more fun at work. And I wish
you all best of luck in all your own creative
endeavors. And I will be sharing links to all
your work, websites, et cetera, in the blurb
below for visitors and viewers to go check them
out and support you guys in all you do next.
Thank you so much. You're all wonderful people.
Thank you, Becky. Yes, thank you. You're all
wonderful people. I don't care what Bill says.
You bastard. That's it. I've had it. Thank you
very much.