Rotgrind - S2 E17 - Meet the Family -

[@OnCallGM]

We knew it was coming to this.

[@richardpaxford5792]

"Hoot! Hoot! [Insert "Your Mum" joke here] Hoot! Hoot!"

[@benjamingarridomaffet6833]

If he dies i swear!

[@Sordman]

PINKTON NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Voice_of_p]

Good job. I really like the Bossfight.

[@Tab1300]

I was in the discord with one of the artists and I called it.

[@Gormathius]

1:03:44 Tannhauser did build a dirigible. It sank into the swamp. So he built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So he built a third. That exploded, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up.

[@joethepsycho2123]

And that Oran, my boy will all be yours!

[@acethurman71]

Is this a malachai mckyson reference?

[@Zamtrios245]

I was thinking "Why is Piktern hating on Tannhauser? He's the only one that liked his stories!" Then I remembered that Tannhauser puts people's heads on pikes. Edit: I bet Thurston picked the mute complication on Tannhauser because Tannhauser actually listened to Piktern

[@crusaderthestranger5982]

It's hilarious how hulky's character went from "funni ripped pants joke man" to "funni tree person that makes horrifying sounds"

[@sctumminello]

Piktern kinda had this unknown value to him. Honestedly i expected him to be a fugitive or a powerful sorcerer playing dumb. Instead he was just some guy; out of his depth, infected, and terrified. On one hand this is some premium grade role-playing story telling. Its a real hazard to handwave it. On the other is i was thinking Piktern would really get along with Cronch and Duquasus. Sir Cronch seems the kind of person who likes bagpipes. And the gargoyle scholar seemed like she would write somekind of sociological treatise on the customs and legends of the Squelchfoot clan.

[@spritemon98]

Yeah I was hoping for him and kronsh to meet

[@theofficerfactory2625]

I think Odo was about to cry when rolling perception for initiative. I was, too. You are a cruel bastard Thurstin and I love it.

[@stryderlordofweird.6108]

We all love Rehua, but moments like 25:20 reminds all that he’s a chaos abomination and a figure of true horror. But at the same time “Me at the local buffet about to devour all of their food” lol

[@Zakvadr1995]

I damn near shot cold soda out my nose that that mark! Holy shit!

[@spritemon98]

I nearly fell out of my chair from the sound

[@shotgunshells2]

It's funny how often Earndil talks up Victrix as a huge monster that must be stopped, but the worst thing we see her do is... be pretty rude and prone to violence. Which is basically what Baldric already was.

[@bigbadbob7070]

Nah, Victrix is much more homicidal than Baldric

[@shonklebonkle324]

The RotGrind version of Gork and Mork. One is grumpy and violent, the other is violent and grumpy.

[@Nick-sx8yg]

I dunno, Victrix has some sadistic vibes and a sheer absence of morality that I think Earndil does a great job slipping subtly into her roleplay. Sometimes one does not really know how good/evil a person is until the opportunity rises for them to commit great good/evil.

[@zombieshark803]

Baldric isn’t really as violent as Victrix, who has actively threatened Pikturn *twice*, bullies commoners and was explicitly mentioned to be quite unpleasant.

[@freelancerthe2561]

@@zombieshark803 "They must be saving that for sweeps week"

[@LittleGoldRose]

Hulky’s Unearthly Shriek was absolutely and ridiculously Haunt, and I Loved It! 😍

[@mionn_naofa]

Now rewatching this, I just realized something... Back in Episode 24, when Rehua rolled a will save to stare into that reality engine in the solitude, he saw a caravan on fire, several crates from the Medics guild, etc, etc. Cut back to Vaali's vision here in this episode... and for a brief moment, she saw our favorite tree man looking inside that same caravan before what happened to Piktern. I know the world works in weird ways, but it's details like *that* which I enjoy the most from this series and from Thurston. Keep at it!

[@TheGM-20XX]

CONTINUITY!

[@CommissarMitch]

Holy shit you right!!

[@richardpaxford5792]

"My dog is no longer Anglican!" 😂😂😂

[@lockskelington314]

Oh no I realize now. Everytime Pickturn told a story that was a cry for help but because he never got to finish any story he never got to tell them how they all ended horribly!

[@Zakvadr1995]

If you guys don’t clip and animate that 25:20 mark y’all messing up hard! Hulky that was horrifyingly hilarious!

[@WASDLeftClick]

I've made that noise as a DM before as monster sound effects, but Hulky makes it sound so much more....inhuman...than I can.

[@Khornecussion]

" I'm going to cast my Haste spell. " Spear of the Revolution, make haste!

[@TheGM-20XX]

Speaker D doing a Starscream voice. . .foreshadowing???

[@TheGM-20XX]

@@Deridus Screamer D would have also been acceptable.

[@kingbubbles9461]

Victrix is a Simptrix for Vaali

[@chocamolee5085]

The precious boy has been demolished, and my day is ruined. (Seriously though great episode!)

[@bardbard196]

Well, what an episode to catch up to. I think everyone saw it coming at this point, the fact this could have bren avoided with some better dice rolls and a better treatment of the guy gives the fight a sadness that not even the other rotten bosses reached (it seems a theme with rotten boss fights, the pityness of the creature).. Good job by everyone, having a lot of fun watching you all!

[@gnomeknight2311]

I kinda wish the party pointed out that picktern only ever spoke of himself and his family and never once asked about anyone else’s. He was kind of just a self centered dick.

[@h.s.6269]

My thoughts exactly. I doubt he could name 1 friend or family member of each PC

[@50_Foot_Punch]

To be fair he was also suffering with rot for an unknown amount of time. From the way it effects people as described rot madness is probably very much so a thing.

[@Blackstardragon393]

I do wish Vaali would have remembered/mentioned the bag pipes from her rot dream, the second we met him I forgot it was a warning

[@JamieIsfeld]

I cannot wait for people to rewatch season 2 now.

[@Voice_of_p]

Rot has come to our family

[@Nick-sx8yg]

I don't feel bad for Piktern, really. My impression of the character was that he always felt entitled to friendship with the party, he resented them for not wanting to hear his stories but not once thought to ask WHY they reacted the way they did. It felt extremely inconsiderate to me; he didn't care that he was annoying, he deserved to be listened to and treated like a friend just because he bothered to show up and attach himself to the party. But that's just my subjective interpretation.

[@h.s.6269]

My thoughts too. Cause he never really asked them about their families or life beforehand either. When he demanded they name 5 family members I wanted them to ask him to name 1 friend or relation of each PC.

[@zombieshark803]

You’re right then Piktern wasn’t very considerate either, but here he’s also been heavily rot infected to an extent that it’s made whatever insecurities and flaws he had much worse. He even realises he never asked much about the party after the first half of episode 31.

[@gothpunkboy89]

I figured that a betrayal was coming. I didn't see it happening this way. May they finally get some peace.

[@TheGM-20XX]

There was no betrayal. Just revelations.

[@WASDLeftClick]

I thought he was just showing early signs of PTSD.

[@gothpunkboy89]

@@TheGM-20XX Nah this qualifies as betrayal because of how friendly and helpful they were leading up to this. At least in games.

[@Kaiju_Kyle]

They kinda saved Oran's dragon but dude got a Nickelodeon amount of goop, and doubtful you can recover from that outside of divine intervention.

[@CommissarMitch]

Last time I was this early Zoren was playing a Dwarf.

[@collinfulling3223]

Holy fuck Rehua + octopus = fucking Cthulhu

[@Lord-Norghul]

Missed this last week. Feels bad but thankfully we've got the Tube.

[@Mr.Smerples]

Most ofmy coworkers havenever played dnd or any table top rpg. I showed them the old pi brainanimation where hes hunting in the lower decks. Theyve watch everything since and even call a half dead tree in the office rehua

[@alphaandomega4422]

I had mixed feelings on this one. One hand, I never really liked Piktern from the start, and I always suspected he was something to be wary of. Still, it was kinda sad to see him go through that. On the other hand, for this boi to belittle the folks who took him in as evil, has he paid any attention to their encounters? Oran had to put his dragon friend down to save him, and these snarky fae birds are just flying jerks. And they weren't the ones attacking caravans and setting people on fire, although now it seems like that group was the good guys but oh well. Sadly, I see no way for Piktern to be saved, all they are fighting right now is a body that doesn't know it died a long time ago.

[@Yormolch]

I think he was already in deep mental degredation when he talked like that. Sure, the group was mean to him, but at least two of them, Tannhauser and Vaali, really cared for him and his stories. Rehua and Oran disliked his stories, but kind of liked him, although Rehua as a character is too autistic, to propperly communicate that and Zoran is too much of a troll to do it. The only one who actually disliked and belittled Picktern, was Baldric, who funnily enough actually listened to his stories and remembered them all. I think it is very good, that Thurston pulled this switcheroo on the group, since this shows that you should never NOT take an NPC serious, not even when they appear as a joke. A truly good GM can create funny characters, that still function like real persons. And Picktern was a man that was looking for a new family, after his first family and then the second one (the caravan) was appearently killed before his eyes, while at the same time suffering from the most horrible desease, that this world knows. The only thing that really bugs me, is that things like this can be missed by some bad dice rolls and ho boi, are Odoroshi and Hulky known for their bad rolls. In conclusion, I wish they would have been able to save Picktern, or at least lessen his pain and give him a non rotten end, but this is a tragic universe in decay, we just tend to forget it, because of the funnies.

[@albertdrevdal4233]

The point is that the Rot has completely twisted him, they were never going to deal with it peacefully, but they rolled trash on their diplomacy anyways.

[@barrybend7189]

I think Piktern was already gone as haven't you noticed each of the stories are twisted. He was already gone when the rot fell over him. It was after the fireball spell incident story in which every story almost bubbled with bloat like other things wanted to speak instead of Piktern.

[@MrPlainsflyer]

You gotta grind the rot real fine to get that premium sausage

[@spritemon98]

Was not expecting the fake god bit to come back full circle

[@WASDLeftClick]

30:58 Is that a soundboard, or the infamous Zoran baby cry?

[@mahirislam207]

Zoran baby cry

[@spritemon98]

25:25 god Damn rehua!!! That's terrifying

[@MyRYNOrunsHot]

Ok - nitpick I must make. Yeah, the group not noticing cos of bad rolls makes sense. That I get. But didn't Ribuis say last session that there was no rot on either Victrix or Piktern? How did they not notice?

[@kevincall170]

No ribuis said that aunty drown eyes are on the group but her eyes weren't on piktern or victrix as in that those two aren't chosen ones and won't respawn. I think that what he meant

[@lastwymsi]

I had a feeling. Thurston, I picked up what you were putting down! Good tid bit with the reality engine there :)

[@digishade7583]

You know it’s funny how complications have changed since their warhams campaign seeing as originally they were 1 an already established rule for the RPG they were playing and 2 they weren’t necessarily bad and in that system could be rerolled but going through that original campaign you could see them slowly becoming purely negative for the party unless warp perils were involved because chaos goes either way no matter what. And now in Rotgrind the homebrew complications are almost always negatives and cannot be rerolled

[@milesohalloran8355]

2:33:50 rehua is being cabinalized

[@spritemon98]

Am i the only one who wasnt phased by his betrayal???

[@spritemon98]

@@Deridus I kinda expected this to happen eventually

[@somenerd3515]

You expected a backstabbing from Rehua?

[@zombieshark803]

It’s not really a betrayal. More of a “Oh shit the rot has hit its worst with our little guy, he’s killing us”

[@Parrupena]

Didnt tannhauser see something black in piktern cabin but speakerd didnt say anything about it?

[@Blackstardragon393]

I gotta double check that, mentally was lumping that with B-teams fleshwarp cabin lol

[@MrMorrisX]

*SPOILER* Re-watching this episode hits different!

[@spritemon98]

How different?

[@megamangos7408]

I knew something was up as there was plenty of foreshadowing, but I didn't know if it wasn't going to come up this episode or the next. And it also makes so much narrative sense to switch Earndil's characters out. Because like he said, Baldrick was probably the only character who would remember everyone and be able to talk him down. But- I don't think that would have ultimately changed the outcome. Likely, it would have just skipped the first phase of the fight.

[@Gormathius]

I can't believe we're already in a god slayer arc.

[@AbyssalGamer13]

I’m sorry I doubted you, Pictern

[@fridge.2785]

NO!!! NOT THE LITTLE GUY!!!

[@vinhiem6962]

I've noticed this a few time now. It's not a big deal but Oran has to declare he is attempting a higher medicine dc to get the bonus healing. 1:00:19

[@NarrativeDeclaration]

I mentally know that I'm going for it, I tend to forget to announce it for the audience. - Zoran

[@vinhiem6962]

@@NarrativeDeclaration Thanks for the explanation. I happen to be playing a cleric of Nethys in a pf2e campaign right now so it was something that jumped out at me. Can't wait to see what happens next!

[@Auntiebels]

You know thinking about it, Piktern may have always been annoying but it would be narratively beautiful if the storytelling was more the part of him NOT infected trying to desperately hold onto his life. Hence why his stories became more messed up themselves over time.

[@dhruvmukherji4735]

SPOILERS I'm not crazy about the reveal of Piktern having the Rot. You're telling me that the entire party and several specialists who work to identify and treat the threat of the Rot, not a single person noticed that Piktern was showing symptoms.

[@tellmeninetails5819]

Didnt' they say they didn't roll higher than a natural one? which means each one crit failed?

[@megamangos7408]

While I agree, there is also the fact that actually curing the rot is seen as impossible. So it's likely that a lot of npc's who saw him and the group struggling with the rot would have just respectably ignored it. I kinda see it as if someone with terminal cancer that you could see on their face. And with Piktern, he's such a happy, plucky guy that you really don't want to sour his mood or take away that brave smile. They probably saw him putting on that brave face and said, "Yeah, you can definitely cure that! Keep your chin up!" And even if the group knew...what could they have done differently? Hell if anything, you could even argue that all those nat ones and bad rolls were just the characters subconsciously ignoring the obvious rot. Because here's this little guy with his bright attitude and big smile in this dark, cruel world, struggling with this incurable disease. There's no reason to bring it up; he'll be fine. Someone as bright and incandescent as that in a hellscape like this deserves to be fine. Right? Yeah, Piktern is fine. He'll be fine....He'll be fine.

[@albertdrevdal4233]

They all have the rot, so for anyone seeing them it would just seem like he was another one of the rot gang, which seems fair to me

[@Tab1300]

I was waiting for that twist. I noticed it when the party met dude.

[@Azraile]

I knew they shoould have listened to his stories

[@ShotGunner5609]

Wow! What an episode!

[@Somajsibere]

Damn, that was sad!

[@matthewyeldig4608]

I'm back! Just in time to THINK OF THEM.

[@halladall1]

Right in the beginning Victrix just looks like she is sitting far away which is perfectly in character for anything Erindil plays

[@Penumbra_Guard]

Oh wowsers that ending 😮

[@Oxide445]

I feel like a large part of this could have been avoided if the party just kept notes -_- But as a DM, I also enjoy punishing players for not keeping notes.

[@BlackShadow1991]

Daaaamn 😱 Now that was a masterfully done gut punch and the boss fight was great; very creepy atmosphere 👍For the algorithm!

[@TocloseamI]

I canNOT believe you made the Valee meme real hahaha

[@spritemon98]

Let's goooo!!!!

[@megamangos7408]

Spoilers! Spoilers! . . . . **FUCKING ROTDADIMOUS HYPE!!!!!!!** I'm loving the continuity and the world building. Also, the Medic's Guild might have started out fighting against the rot by studying it, but I 100% don't think that's the case anymore!!

[@Ashtor1337]

Love the science and learning

[@allenbettis8558]

MONSTER HOUSE!!!😂

[@saphirone8030]

I fucking knew this was happening. I wish I was wrong.

[@mycastephens4987]

My screen was blurry what were you calling vix at the start of the fight?

[@TheRealFrozenRain]

Fantastic episode

[@quinthalus]

Top 20 Pathfinder memes.

[@rancorius]

Doesn’t freedom of movement cancel out difficult terrain? Edited never mind

[@BrunoHenrique-gi1wd]

Oh god, i caught up to the latest episode, what the fuck do i do now?

[@122MrShorty]

Scp "the old man" vibes

[@Arcaninebreeder]

I'm gonna be fr, I only remember 3 siblings. Ik the sister caused the Bad bake sale

[@spritemon98]

These dice are rigged!!

[@magadadaskolin4667]

1:30:26 oh i saw that frame

[@blckforest4531]

When your beliefs make an evil God and friend

[@AimlessSavant]

2:36:05 Rehua fucking *dies*

[@joshuachapman247]

Poor Piktern 😭😭😭

[@dubuyajay9964]

"Matango?"

[@BlackShadow1991]

Daaaamn 😱 Now that was a masterfully done gut punch and the boss fight was great; very creepy atmosphere 👍For the algorithm!