Character tropes regarding the main and recurring cast of Acquisitions Incorporated.
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The Dungeon Masters
Dungeon Masters
Chris, James, and Jeremy
Chris Perkins
has been the Dungeon Master of the "A" Team from season 1 until the middle of season 12 (or just over a decade), except for half a game run by his Wizards of the Coast colleague James Wyatt, half a game run by Pat, and one-and-a-half games run by Mike. He has formally passed on his DM cap to another colleague, Jeremy Crawford, in the episode "Switcharoo" in 2018. Most of the tropes listed here refer to the wacky personas Chris had assumed for the live events and to his game-mastering style.- Beard of Evil: Chris dressed up as an evil cult leader for the season 8 conclusion, complete with very evil-looking mustache and goatee. They both came off as the game progressed, however.
- Game Master: Chris wrote and ran every AcqInc game from 2008 to 2018.
- Good News, Bad News: Chris enjoys doing this to mess with the players, for instance:
- To Scott: "The good news is, the dart only does minor damage. The bad news is... it is poisoned. But the good news is, you're a dwarf, and dwarves are immune to poison."
- To Mike: "The good news is, the raven gets No Saving Throw. The bad news is, it has fire resistance. The good news is: you still kill it."
- Killer Game Master: Invoked but ultimately averted in season 7, when Chris dresses up as the God of Murder for the live game and announces his intention to wipe out Acquisitions Incorporated in this session.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Kinda. While every party member dresses up pretty much consistently as their character during PAX Prime/West live events (but not the East and South events), Chris and Jeremy sport different outfits every time (except the very first one):
- For season 5, Chris dressed as the Mad Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- In season 6, he was the Dungeon Master from the Dungeons & Dragons (1983) cartoon.
- In season 7, he wore the makeup of Bhaal, the Forgotten Realms' god of murder.
- In season 8, he dressed up as a king, crown and all, for part 1 (even though the players were not costumed), and as the Cult of the Dragon high priest for part 2.
- In season 9, he dressed as "Portabello da Vinci", the myconid king and a regular fun guy.
- In season 10, he went as a cloud giant high priest, reminiscent of the season's villain, Stratovar.
- Downplayed in the Holiday Special, where he simply wore Santa's hat for the entire duration.
- In season 11, he dressed up as the lich Acererak from Tomb of Horrors/Annihilation modules, complete with a very evil (Canadian) accent.
- In Jeremy's first PAX West game in Season 12, he dressed up as "the real" Jim Darkmagic (Jim's bitter clone, who the party runs into later in the game).
Acquisitions Incorporated
Founding Members
Not a lot detail was initially revealed about the members' background. As the games went on and the players got more familiar with the characters and continued to develop on them, further information about their previous lives gradually came to light. Tropes pertaining to the group as a whole and to the founding members in particular include:
- Mundane Fantastic: The main shtick of Acquisitions Incorporated is that they are essentially a Heroic Fantasy Player Party but with modern corporate structures and customs.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Gender-flipped. Omin is the mastermind of the operation, Binwin mostly cares about killing things (and selling his merch), and Jim is the only one obsessed with his own looks.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Omin is physically imposing, Jim is rather slender, and Binwin is a dwarf.
- Punch-Clock Hero: As the name might imply, the group's primary motivation for going on adventures is acquiring wealth and the fact that they end up saving people from time to time is just treated as an added benefit. Jerry even explicitly
identifies Lawful Neutral as the overall alignment of the organization as a whole. - Required Party Member: Until Binwin's retirement in season 10, no Acquisitions Inc. game has ever been played without the three of them (even Chris was absent for half of season 1).
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The entire team, including the interns. Apparently no one told these guys that Trash Talk is generally meant to be directed at the opponents.Wil: [to Scott, post-acid] I hate you so much!
Ominifis Hereward "Omin" Dran
"This is the worst thing that has ever happened."
The fast-talking founder and CEO of Acquisitions Incorporated. Omin is a half-elf cleric of Avandra and, after a forced relocation to the Forgotten Realms, of Tymora. A consummate businessman whose duty is to his shareholders first (of which he is the only shareholder), his goddess second and his employees/friends a distant seventh.
From season 8 inwards, he serves as a Masked Lord of Waterdeep.
- Badass Preacher: Omin keeps stressing that he is a devout servant of Tymora, though we rarely see him doing any priest stuff. One could argue that Omin serves her in deed more than in word, since Tymora is a patron of adventurers.
- Bad Boss: Omin is a CEO. A few specific examples:
- Early in season 7, Viari gets some honest talk with Jim and Binwin, who hesitantly reveal how Omin essentially browbeats them with legal terminology into working for him essentially for free. It helps him immensely that Binwin is Super Gullible and Jim is a Horrible Judge of Character, so Viari is essentially the first person savvy enough to question his leadership style.
- The following quote, dropped while firing an employee in season 10, perhaps illustrates his attitude best:
"Put everything you own and like in a box, and when I come back, we'll talk about what happens to the box."- Becomes particularly apparent in season 11, when he uses an infernal Magically-Binding Contract to summon Strix to their aid, when, as it turns out later, she would have helped them, anyway, had he deigned to ask. Then, at the end of the season, it turns out that he wasn't really counting on Jim surviving the Soulmonger affliction and had him—secretly and thus unconsensually—cloned, just in case.
- Born Unlucky: Of the party, Jerry has by far the worst luck with dice, which makes Omin this in-universe. This makes the fact that his divine patron, Tymora, is a goddess of luck unintentionally hilarious.
- Brought Down to Normal: Upon arriving in the Forgotten Realms, Omin discovers that his patron goddess, Avandra, has no presence there, so he briefly loses all of his cleric powers. After a near-death experience, he has a religious conversion at the temple of Tymora and basically regains all of the abilities he had before.
- Canon Immigrant: Omin being a Masked Lord of Waterdeep has been officially interred into the Forgotten Realms canon and he appears in that capacity in Ed Greenwood's novel Death Masks.
- Character Catchphrase: Has a habit of saying that some event "is the worst thing that could happen."
- Chekhov M.I.A.: In season 4, Omin relates a story of how his Cool Big Sis disappeared on a routine dungeon crawl. In season 8, she comes back—as a dragon cultist trying to kill him. Season 9 retconned it to Auspicia being the missing sister, not Portentia.
- Combat Medic: As befits a cleric, he is good both with his hammer (theoretically) and with his healing spells.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Ranges from simply being a pragmatic, hardliner Bad Boss towards his employees, to being this trope.Guys! We've found a machine that turns interns into gold!
- Critical Failure: Jerry is infamous for this; the most infamous example of this is when he rolls a 1 twice in a row at the climax of the second season.
- The Face: Omin generally conducts the negotiations on the party's behalf.
- Family Theme Naming: Omin's mom is literally named Prophetess (although commonly shortened to just "Propha"), so his name is pronounced like "omen", and his sisters are named Portentia (like "portent") and Auspicia (like "auspice"). Lampshaded in season 10:Jerry: Which sister? I probably have five, I'm gonna run out of puns...
- Geeky Turn-On: In season 9, Omin admits to reading convoluted contracts instead of "conventional pornography".
- Healer Signs On Early: In fact, the healer was the first member of this particular party (in-story).
- The Leader: The party usually defers important plot decisions to Omin—although he is not above steamrolling their objections if need be (such as when he decides to storm the Dragonspear Castle despite all warnings). Viari puts it best:Viari: I feel like this is a management decision...
- Luke, I Am Your Father: One of the cultists fighting Acquisitions Inc. in season 8 is revealed to be Omin's long-lost older sister. Retconned in season 9, the long-lost older sister who disappeared during a dungeon crawl turns out to have survived, found her way to Faerun, and set up a rival adventuring guild, intent on running her brother out of business.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Omin is definitely not thrilled to learn about Jim sleeping with Portentia.
- Mysterious Employer: To the "C" Team. Even Walnut, who is thrilled to work for Omin (for still-unknown reasons), eventually acknowledges that none of them knows nearly enough about the man to actually trust him.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Jabs at Jerry's bad dice rolling persist after season 2, despite his rolls not being particularly worse than the others' in later seasons.
- Present Absence: In The "C" Team thus far, Omin has only ever appeared as a holographic message at the party's HQ, yet his character is so central to the campaign, he can almost be counted as the fifth party member. In several Table Talk segments, Jerry pretty much admits that the entire campaign had been conceived to explore his own headcanon in regards to Omin.
- Properly Paranoid: In the celebrity game, when The Party first meets the Darkmagic's house cat, it immediately becomes attached to Omin. In his savviness he checks it out first with his holy symbol so he can be certain it isn't "some crazy sorcerer cat". The rest of the party just dismisses it as Omin being overly cautious as usual, but as it turns out the cat is actually an evil spy for the Wartstaffs.
- Survivor Guilt: Implied to be the reason why Omin kept the story of his long lost older sister secret. Auspicia went into a dungeon while a young Omin stayed outside... and Auspicia never came out.
- Token Adult: Kinda. While all player characters in the game are adults (as the Content Warnings helpfully remind us), Omin frequently comes over as the only adult among the core trio in role-playing encounters. He comes off as more of an indulgent, slightly sociopathic minder than a responsible guardian, though.Omin: Shhh, daddy's working.
Binwin (sheepishly): Oh, sorry... - The Un-Favourite: In season 9, Omin admits that both of his moms have always liked his sister Auspicia better.
James Winifred "Jim" Darkmagic III
Jim is a narcissistic human wizard of the New Hampshire Darkmagics. As the prodigious son of a well-renowned family of wizards, Jim exhibited both a talent for magic and immensely self-centered behavior early on. As he had never held his family in high regard, he left it behind to travel the world, despite his status as the oldest son and heir. In spite of his talents as a wizard, Jim primarily sees himself as an entertainer, donning the mannerisms and behaviors of a stage magician. Beside his involvement with AcqInc, he enjoys a career as a popular performer for the masses. Holding his own ego in the highest regard, Jim is most often concerned with his own appearance and well-being.
- Achievements in Ignorance: Of the original cast, Mike was the one newbie to (tabletop) roleplaying. His attempts to roleplay actions that were implausible by the rules of the game system, but awesome, and they mostly worked out well for him.
- Awesome McCoolname: During character creation, Mike was immediately called out by Scott, who demanded "Why don't you call yourself Chet Awesomelaser?" The group then also suggested "Jim Fellmagic," "Fell Darkjim," "Jim Felldark," "Fell Darkevil," and "Ominous Darkfell Magic-Bad."
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Darkmagics, with some additional nuttiness from being a family of wizards.
- Bigger on the Inside: Jim Darkmagic's extra-dimensional bachelor pad.
- Break the Haughty: Mike's initially great rolls evened out somewhere around season 5 and has become progressively worse since, resulting in Jim doing marginal damage in combat and getting one-upped by both his cousin and Viari. As a result, Jim has become noticeably more grounded during the more recent episodes. As long as he isn't talking to or about ladies. Or Percival.
- The Casanova: Jim definitely employs his stage magician fame to be popular with the ladies, although most of his romantic adventures take place off-screen. Portentia Dran is pretty much the only paramour of his we see in the series proper.
- Character Catchphrase: Has a habit of saying "Have a magical day!" or a variant of it.
- Clone Angst: With Jim facing a deadly disease in Season 11, Omin clones a backup. Jim is not happy when he finds out. Neither is the clone, as when the real Jim is saved, Omin dismisses the clone as a no-longer-necessary fake and has him damned to Hell.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mike plays Jim as one, e.g. in season 4:"Yeah, that's it. Run up and fight the devil. How can that end bad?"
- Death Is Cheap: Jim currently holds the record for most deaths among the party: he has been killed three times, by a succubus in season 7, and by the dragon cultists in season 8, and by an old classmate with a grudge in season 10. In season 11, though, it comes to bite him in the ass, however, as an otherworldly entity named Soulmonger starts feeding on the life force of individuals who had been raised from the dead before, which covers their (and Jim's) bodies with patches of necrotic flesh, as well as giving them Maximum HP Reduction.
- Died on Their Birthday: In Season 10, the party is invited to Jim Darkmagic's 40th birthday party, where he plans to host a fake murder investigation with himself as a victim. However, he is actually murdered by one of the guests. He is raised from the dead by the end of the episode.
- Evil Costume Switch: For the PAX West 2018 live game, Mike has updated his costume extensively, adding a lot more black leather and spikes to it. Whether it was to reflect Jim's increasingly jerkass ways or simply out of rivalry with Holly/Strix is unclear.
- Flying Broomstick: Jim loots one from a dragon cultist's corpse in season 8, and it comes in handy at least once later.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Inverted in Jim's case, as he was the abuser. In season 5, it is a recurring theme that Jim had sorta been a dick his entire life, from him bullying his cousin Percival to him continuously mistreating the family butler and their animated set of armor.Chris: You used to torture Clatterby when you were young.
Jim: Boy, did I ever! - Horrible Judge of Character: Jim blindly trust suspicious people which eventually leads to him getting killed by a succubus.
- Idiot Ball: Mike/Jim has it firmly in grasp when he kisses a girl he just met, who turns out to be a succubus.
- I Will Show You X!: In the season 4:Devil: You have never experienced fire this mighty.
Jim: I will show you... fire. - Jerkass: Jim Darkmagic is selfish, narcissistic, and pretty cruel. He is still loved by the fans.
- Kill It with Fire: Jim's primary method of injuring enemies (and Binwin).
- Kissing Cousins: Jim and his cousin, the bushy/busty bombshell Olivia.
- Laugh Track: Parodied when Jim conjures one up when there's no one around to appreciate his joke.
- Laughing at Your Own Jokes: He conjures up an illusory Laugh Track whenever his jokes fall flat.
- New Ability Addiction: After Jim acquires a Broom of Flying, he refuses to get off it for the rest of the season.
- Noodle Incident: All the horrible implications Jim makes about his childhood with the Darkmagic carriage Cronk, an ancient, skeletal dragon. Also that his cousin Olivia makes about her childhood with Jim.
- Screw Yourself: In Season 12, the party runs into Jim's clone, who has become a lich warlord in Hell. Jim is so attracted to the display of power that he starts making out. As a ploy to slip the clone a dangerous magical item, but still.
- Shrouded in Myth: As the party fights the end boss of season 2, they try to intimidate him by revealing that his opponent is none other than Jim Darkmagic himself. He quickly dismisses them:"You are not Jim Darkmagic! Jim Darkmagic is seven feet tall with a shock of red hair and eyes that blaze like the sun!"
- Signature Move: A literal example with Jim's Magic Missile, which scorches out JIM when it hits.
- Small Name, Big Ego: While Jim Darkmagic is a great wizard, his ego is still way too big. He make it sound like he is the gods' gift to mankind, while in truth he is cowardly and fairly stupid.
- The Smart Guy: Statistically Speaking, Jim has the highest Intelligence score of the main cast—which hardly prevents him from firmly grabbing the Idiot Ball from time to time (see above).
- Statistically Speaking: In gameplay terms, Jim has the highest INT score of the party; in actuality, it often comes to situations like in the beginning of season 5, where Jim defers reading a riddle message to Omin, saying he is not good at puzzles—and Jerry immediately lampshades that Omin's INT is 10, but still solves it for him.
- Super-Empowering: Invokes this in season 9 as part of a scheme to kill Jeff by pretending to give him a portion of his own magical powers and sending him to the frontlines—never mind that such empowering is only reserved for deities in D&D.
- Third-Person Person: Jim sometimes refers to himself in third person (though this gets less and less pronounced in later seasons).Scott: Is that Jim saying that, or—
Mike: Jim speaks about himself in the third person. He has a very high opinion of himself. - This Is for Emphasis, Bitch! : From season 1:Berserker Lady: Magic missile me, will you!
Jim: That was Jim's Magic Missile, bitch! - Too Dumb to Live: In episode 6, Jim Darkmagic dual-wields his wands as usual... while dangling from a rope. With no hands available to hold on to the rope, he falls into the giant acid pit he just got out of.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In season 9. While Jim has always been kind of an asshole, coldly exploiting a subordinate's trust to have him killed in a particularly gruesome fashion is taking a whole new level of jerkass.
- Wands Akimbo: Jim utilizes dual wands for his fighting style. He even created a feat for it when it was missing in NEXT.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Jim inherits his family's mansion he isn't really nice about it.Dolores Darkmagic: Jim, now that the house is yours I trust you won't mind me staying in my small corner.
Jim: Listen Grandma, I've been meaning to talk to you about that...
[Disapproval can be heard from the audience] Come on man! - Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The fact that there is no place named New Hampshire in either the Nentir Vale, nor the Forgotten Realms does not stop Jim's family from being from there.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Temporarily had his soul put into a gem in the first part of season 10.
Binwin Bronzebottom
"CATCH PHRASE!"
Binwin is a reckless and simpleminded Dwarven fighter. His clan was disgraced and all but destroyed by the machinations of their main rivals, the Ambershards. After that, Binwin drifted around from tavern to tavern before he was eventually found and recruited by Omin. A warrior by heart, Binwin doesn't care much for anything, beside the thrill of battle and the alcohol.
Binwin has retired from Acquisitions Incorporated after ten seasons to form his own adventuring company, with the 2016 Christmas Special doubling as his farewell episode.
- Acquired Poison Immunity: In later seasons, Scott often jokes that Binwin should have fire resistance 10 for all the times when Jim set him on fire with his magic, although Chris always rules that he doesn't.
- Adapted Out: There is no mention of Binwin in the official AcqInc sourcebook (even in the history summary of the title company) because Scott holds all rights to his character but didn't participate in its writing. Both of them are mentioned in the credits among the original cast of AcqInc, at least.
- The Alcoholic: Binwin's father. In fact, it's a sign of trouble when he stops drinking. And Binwin himself for that matter. So much that he carries around a brewers kit in "Ark of the Mad Mage" and gets seriously depressed when the party has to leave a beer automaton behind.
- Alliterative Name: Invoked by Scott, who explicitly wanted an alliteration, as he explains in season 1.
- The Atoner: Parodied by Scott. Upon first reuniting with Wheaton-Aeofel, he delivers the long-overdue warning about the acid trap killed him. Aofel states that all is forgiven. Scott-Binwin replies "Maybe now I can forgive myself" to looks of amazement, bursts of laughter and a standing ovation from the other players and the audience. The look on Wheaton's face is priceless.
- The Berserker: By season 9, Binwin seems to have acquired the Rage power, which boosts his damage output.
- The Big Guy: As the party's token fighter, Binwin has the most HP and is most capable of delivering pain at close range.
- Blood Knight: Binwin often seems to charge into battle just for the heck of it.
- Butt-Monkey: As the team tank and pointman, Binwin is constantly caught in traps, set on fire, and generally treated like shit. He can (usually) take it.
- Cain and Abel: In season 9, Binwin offhandedly mentions having killed all of his siblings to deal with potential rivalries like Omin has with his, although how serious that was is up in the air.
- Character Catchphrase: Parodied and yet played completely straight at the same time with Binwin's "Catch Phrase!"
- Designated Point Man: Binwin's high health and good defenses (as well as the ability to do serious damage) make him the ideal candidate to lead the charge when the team doesn't know what they're facing. This usually includes major enemies, traps, and seemingly empty dungeon rooms.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When guest-starring in Dice, Camera, Action!, Binwin followed Strix and Diath to find the Xanathar, THE Waterdeep beholder mafia boss, with a charmed Evelyn nearby. To try and save Evelyn, Binwin took a shot at Xanathar by chucking a javelin at him. While he did get an epic shot at his main eye, he was immediately petrified and disintegrated afterward.
- Dumb Muscle: Scott role-plays Binwin as such: he is not good at thinking things through but real good at charging things with a maul.
- I Call It "Vera": Binwin's greataxe is named Séamus. His twin handaxes are named Rook and Ruin.
- If I Had a Nickel...: Binwin says this verbatim in season 8, regarding Jim's favored tactics:"...for every time this fucker threw a fireball at me!"
- Multi-Melee Master: Being a fighter, Binwin is proficient with a wide range of weapons: in seasons 5 and 7, he fights with a two-handed maul but switches to a greataxe named Seamus in season 6 and starts Dual Wielding one-handed axes from season 8 onward. He can also throw javelins.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: In the later seasons he's often overshadowed, first in flashiness by the rest of the party and eventually in sheer damage output by Viari's Rule of Cool swashbuckling style. The latter seems to be causing a bit of resentment towards the Rogue.
- Super Gullible: Invoked in season 6 when Binwin tries to figure out whether Danielle is pulling a fast one on him and rolls for Sense Motive, and Aeofel bursts out into laughter because Binwin's Wisdom modifier is -1 and he would probably believe whatever Danielle said—even if she were just making handfarts.
- Temporary Love Interest: In season 7, he is mentioned to have a dwarven girlfriend in Waterdeep, who is never brought up again in season 8.
- Tragic Keepsake: Downplayed. Upon resigning, Binwin left his Wand of Wonder to the party, which then went to Jim.
Interns
Tropes pertaining to all interns thus far:
- Guest-Star Party Member: Aeofel has been with the party for five seasons; Viari, for six so far (with a break in season 8); while Môrgæn has been an on-and-off member during three.
- The Intern: Though, unlike the usual portrayal of this trope, Acquisition Inc.'s interns tend to be the sanest people of the bunch, generally balancing out the others' crazy antics.
- Disposable Intern: Occasionally crops up, such as when Omin decides it's a good idea to turn interns into gold on accounts that they can always hire more in season 7 (part 1).
Aeofel "Al" Elhromane
"My name. Is. Aeofel!"
Aeofel is an Eladrin Avenger/Paladin of Melora who seeks out Acquisitions Incorporated after receiving a vision from his patron goddess. He initially begins as The Comically Serious, but over time absorbs all of the worst character traits from his new co-workers. His least favourite things include Binwin, being called "Al", and falling into acid pits.
Wil left the show after season 6, concurrently with its transition to the Forgotten Realms and 5E, leaving Aeofel's abrupt departure tantalizingly unexplained. Despite much speculation concerning Wil's possible return, it is clear after so many years that it will likely never happen (especially since Aeofel had returned in The Series as an antagonistic NPC).
- Adapted Out: Aeofel is the only intern who doesn't get a stat block in the official AcqInc sourcebook — possibly as a result of him never being properly converted to 5E, or of his defection to Dran Enterprises, who don't get stat blocks in the book. Unlike Binwin, however, he is at least mentioned (as the nameless "very first intern") in the history of the company.
- Berserk Button: Don't call him "Al"."His name is AEOFEL!!!"
- Character Catchphrase: Often says "My name. Is. AEOFEL!" when people call him "Al," and also would like to remind us all that "Elves are the Eladrin's hillbilly cousins." Out of character, Wil also declares his catchphrase to be "Does nineteen work for you?"
- The Comically Serious: Initially, he serves quite the contrast to other members' happy-go-lucky attitude and takes his role as a intern quite seriously.
- Evil Former Friend: Aeofel comes back in The Series, four seasons after his last appearance, as an NPC agent of Dran Enterprises who snatches both pieces of the Rod of the Seven Parts from his former party mates.
- Knight Templar: Interestingly averted. Yes, he's an Avenger, but he's not particularly dogmatic about it, and he is willing to work with unethical people (like Danielle or Omin) without complaining.
- List-of-Experiences Speech, followed by A Rare Sentence:"Dungeon Master, friends, assembled nerds. I'm forty years old. I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons since the Red Box set in 1981, 82, 83, somewhere around there in my life. It is safe to say that I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for a minimum of 20 years, possibly longer, maybe closer to 30 years. I'm gonna say something I have never said. I have gone against the giants, I've been killed in the Tomb of Horrors, I have visited The Temple of Elemental Evil, and of course, there is not a single square in the Caves of Chaos that I have not crawled through. One time I talked to a wizard named Bargle, and I have never said the following words: I will climb up the asshole."
- My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Aeofel usually introduces himself to his enemy before he swears his Oath of Enmity. Which he does a lot.
- Newcomer Saves the Day: In the Final Battle of season 2, the villains are so busy taking down the core party members that Aeofel gets through relatively unscathed and ultimately goes mano-a-mano against the end boss, killing him in single combat and preventing another Total Party Kill.
- Noodle Incident: How and why Aeofel left the party. The out-of-universe reason was, according to Wil, a falling out between him and Scott, probably aggravated by the fact that the Fifth Edition, which the show was adopting around the time he left, had not yet implemented his iconic Avenger class (along with his race and even faith). It was eventually included in the base 5E game as a subclass of the Paladin, but by that time, Wil has long moved on to other projects, making Aeofel's return ever more improbable.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Aeofel falls into the giant acid trap in season 6 and botches the saving throw, Wil is so traumatized, he even forgets to snap at Chris for calling him "Al"—pretty much the first and only time someone gets away with it on the show.
- Rousing Speech: When Gygax the cat and his undead hamburger minotaurs have ambushed the party and things seem bad, Wil steps up."Listen — I've been to hell. And back. And I did not go to hell and back to let some fucking cat come up here in my friend's house and tell my friend "me and my hamburger train are gonna take your books"! [to Gygax:] FUCK! YOU!"
- Signature Move: His Oath of Enmity, which he gradually perfected over the course of season 2 and which fans of the show can recite by now.
- Slave Brand: Aeofel gets one, courtesy of the Ambershards, after being raised from the dead by them in season 4. He is so not amused.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After his trip to the acid-pit, Aeofel's generally took on a new kind of attitude.Valkar the Magnificent: I don't suppose he's told you what he did to me?
Aeofel: Did he do something that ended up with you at the bottom of a pool of acid? If no, then not a fuck is given this day.
[a bit later]
Olivia: You are a cruel and spiteful creature!
Aeofel: Dying changes a man, baby. - Unnecessary Combat Roll: Aeofel begins to do a lot of very well described air flips from season 4 onwards for no apparent reason.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- In season 4, Aeofel, both in and out of character, has some post-traumatic stress to deal with from the last adventure.
"Why did it have to be acid pits?! Couldn't it have been succubi?"- Even worse in season 6, when the floor gives away to reveal another acid pit, that most of the party falls into, including Aeofel. Wil is upset enough to approach Chris, prop weapon drawn.
Viari/Timothy Goodboy Dunstucker
"What-ho!"
Viari is a charismatic swashbuckler described as "both red-headed and red-blooded". He joins Acquisitions Inc. after they involuntarily move their base of operations to the Forgotten Realms in Season 7 (replacing Aeofel), and has settled into his role as The Sixth Ranger. He is really good at swinging off chandeliers. At the end of season 11, Viari becomes the first person ever to make it out of the internship and sub-employee status into full employment.
- Affectionate Pickpocket: If you cuddle up to Viari, chances are good that you'll miss some of your belongings later. Reversed on him in season 9 finale, when another rogue manages to hug and pickpocket him.
- The Alcoholic: Viari being Put on a Bus between seasons 7 and 8 is explained by success going to his head and him "developing a crippling addiction to drinking songs"—yes, drinking songs—so much that he couldn't even be present for the epilogue shoot in person.
- Awkwardly Gay Dream: Upon meeting Drizzt Do'Urden, Viari implies to have had one about him, prompting Omin to call Too Much Information.
- Back Stab: As the party's token rogue, Viari never passes up an opportunity for a sneak attack... even if it's with a falling chandelier.
- Bastard Understudy: Downplayed, considering that AcqInc in general and Omin in particular are not that evil. Still, there are multiple hints that Viari has been actively undermining Omin's power within the organization in order to take over ever since his employment—all while feigning perfect obedience and satisfaction with his intern/sub-employee role withing it.
- The Bus Came Back: Having apparently gotten over his drinking song problem, Viari comes back with a Gunship Rescue to save the party trapped inside Dragonspear Castle mid-season 8.
- Chandelier Swing: Viari seems to have an unhealthy obsession with (falling) chandeliers.
- Character Catchphrase: "What-ho!" When Pat Rothfuss comes back in season 8, this is literally the very first thing he says.
- Distracted by the Sexy:
- Viari ends up getting (magically) charmed nearly every time the group is fighting female opponents. Not that he particularly minds...
- In Season 12, Pat/Viari intentionally doesn't resist the spell of a Gorgeous Gorgon, and ends up being Taken for Granite instead of charmed as a result. Jerry/Omin calls him out on it:You thought this was going to be hot!
- Dual Wielding: Viari's swashbuckling combat style involves wielding a rapier and a dagger in each hand.
- Embarrassing First, Middle, and Last Name: Yes, all three: the Holiday Special reveals Timothy Goodboy Dunstucker to be Viari's birth name.
- Evil Hand: After losing his entire left arm to the Apocalypse Dagger in the climax of season 10, Viari had it magically regrown but soon discovered that the residual evil of the Dagger somehow infected his new arm, prompting it to sometimes act on its own, such as when he woke up with it choking his own throat. He can still play the lute perfectly, thankfully.
- Expy: The second intro to season 9 lampshades that Viari is "basically Kvothe"—the protagonist of Pat's own Kingkiller Chronicle. He is also named after another character in the books, who wields a sword and a dagger and works "in acquisitions" (acquiring rare books for the University's library).
- The Face: Omin briefly delegates this role to Viari in the first half of season 7, on account of him having a huge charisma bonus, but it doesn't really stick and in season 9, Omin even tells him rather bluntly to stop trying to do that.
- Fiery Redhead: One of the brashest characters on the show is also a redhead.
- Gratuitous Japanese: In the slightly embellished recap of the season 7's Final Battle between Humongous Mecha!Halaster and the Tarrasque, Viari is for some reason given the appearance of a rose-biting Bishōnen and delivers his catchphrase in Japanese.
- I Just Want to Be Special: The Holiday Special reveals that Viari's tragic backstory is entirely fictional: he is, in fact, the younger son of a very much alive and excessively normal peasant family and ran away from home essentially to escape the dreariness of happy ordinary life.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Apart from a chance to look dashing, Viari's only desired reward for joining Acquisitions Inc. seems to be that he gets to be friends with them—completely oblivious to the fact that, their Vitriolic Best Buds tendencies aside, they are a rather sociopathic bunch.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Viari is a huge fan of Jim Darkmagic's show.
- Lovable Rogue: Viari is an archetypal law-despising, but good-natured daredevil.
- Man on Fire: After being on the receiving end of one of Jim's fireballs. Bonus points to Pat for actually playing it out, sending the whole table (and half the audience) into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Born in a small village built around a dragon-mesmerizing stone? An urchin who struggled for survival on the streets of Waterdeep? Raised by chandeliers? Take your pick. The Holiday Special canonized the first one of these.
- Orphan's Ordeal: After a near-death experience in season 7, Viari recounts the harsh times growing up as an orphan on the streets of Waterdeep. Although in the Holiday Special, it is revealed that his parents actually still very much alive—but so Amazingly Embarrassing that Viari prefers to never mention them unless they are in real danger.
- Raised by Wolves: In season 9, Viari claims that he was raised by chandeliers.
- Rank Up: Viari is promoted by Omin from intern to "Sub-employee" in season 9. In the season 11 finale, he appears to have been finally promoted to full employee after heroically saving Omin from falling into a lake of lava.
- Saved by the Awesome: Pat gets away with more rules lawyering than any other player simply because Chris seems to enjoy the sheer audacity with which he plays Viari.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Related to Saved by the Awesome above, Viari's spectacular stunts tend to completely steal Binwin's thunder as the team fighter.
- Stern Chase: At the start of season 7, Viari is on the run from the bad guys after stealing the map of Halaster's dungeon from them. He conveniently tiptoes his way around telling the party about it.
- Swashbuckler: Of all the party members so far, Viari is, by a wide margin, the most spectacular fighter—in fact, the Rule of Cool trumps tactical necessities in his combat decision-making every time.
- Tagalong Chronicler: Through the first half of season 7, Viari keeps saying that he is mostly on an adventure for the stories to tell later.
- Token Good Teammate: Out of all the A-Team characters given stat blocks in the Acquisitions Incorporated rule book, only Viari is listed with a good alignment, with the others being neutral.
- Unexplained Recovery: At the end of the ISTAR Facilities episode, Viari's neck is snapped by Drizzt. This is never brought up again, though the adventure itself is mentioned again in season 11.
- The Unfavorite: Viari's parents make it perfectly clear in the Holiday Special that they consider him good-for-nothing compared to his awesome older brother who has a farm of his own and five (and counting) children.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that he even appears in season 8 is a massive spoiler.
- Wandering Minstrel: In addition to combat skills, he is also described as a bard (though he emphatically denies actually being one) and his secret powers manifest themselves when he sings.
Môrgæn
Môrgæn (pronounced like "Morgane") is an Elven ranger who joined the party as an intern in season 8 and returns in seasons 11 and 12.
- Attack Hello: Môrgæn is introduced by literally shooting Binwin in the head to get the party's attention.
- Double Tap: Does it to make sure the red dragon Omin impaled with their Cool Airship stays "dead for reals". Binwin even suggests she holds her bow Gangsta Style when she does it.
- Establishing Character Moment: Môrgæn is introduced getting the party's attention by shooting Binwin in the head, then calmly telling them that had she really wanted him dead...
- Forest Ranger: Môrgæn's class.
- Ms. Fanservice: Consistently defied. In-game, Webb mostly role-plays Môrgæn as a tough, no-nonsense survivalist. Out-of-universe, the PAX East game was played without costumes, and even though everyone had to dress up for the PAX Prime game, Morgan spent most of it wrapped up head-to-heel in a cloak.
- No Social Skills: Mentions several times that she feels uncomfortable in the crowds and prefers to socialize as little as possible. Season 11 also reveals her favored enemy type to be humanoid.
- One-Shot Character: Subverted. For a while after her stint with the party in season 8, it seemed like Môrgæn's would be the shortest internship to date, until she finally returned to the plot in season 11.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Gets one during her escape from the Zentarim in season 11 opener and grows very attached to it through the episode.
- Properly Paranoid: Particularly in the second half of season 8, Môrgæn's knack for playing things safe helps the party avoid some nasty surprise rounds.
- Sensor Character: One of Môrgæn's powers lets her detect what's hiding inside a storm front they are flying into: 22 dragons.
- The Smurfette Principle: She has been the only female Player Character in the franchise until the "C" Team took off and the only girl on the "A" Team until Strix's summoning.
- The Sneaky Gal/Stealth Expert: Môrgæn's ranger ability Hunter's Veil let the party sneak into the dragon cult's fortress undetected.
- Sole Survivor: Môrgæn was the only intern to have survived the Black Network's massacre of Acquisitions Incorporated Waterdeep headquarters.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end of season 8, Môrgæn is with the rest of the party aboard the Battle Balloon, yet no mention of her whatsoever is made when it lands in Baldur's Gate in season 9, about an in-game hour later. Chris tries to write around it by saying in season 11 that Viari had her go Deep Cover Agent among the Zentarim, but the timeline still doesn't check out, as the party did not bump into the Black Network until The Series, one and a half seasons after her disappearance.
Strix Beestinger
"I know magic!"
A member of the Waffle Crew from Chris' other campaign, Dice, Camera, Action!, who is summoned by Omin (with the power of money) to serve Acquisitions Inc. as an intern for two episodes in season 11 and three in season 12. See Characters.Dice Camera Action for tropes associated with her.
Evelyn Marthain
Race: Human
Class: Paladin
Played by: Anna Prosser
Class: Paladin
Played by: Anna Prosser
Another member of the Dice, Camera, Action! Waffle Crew and Omin's crush, who gets caught up in Acquisitions Inc.'s adventures in season 12. See Characters.Dice Camera Action for tropes associated with her.
Bobby Zimeruski
A native of Ravnica, who meets Acquisitions Inc. when they're hired to rescue and protect his dryad friend Elm. He decides to sign on more permanently when Omin agrees to his fee of "3,000 pounds of cheese".
- Big Brother Mentor: To Elm. Xavier even namedrops the Big Brother program to describe their friendship.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: When Evelyn tried to flip Omin across the room, he used Omin as a weapon against Evelyn. He was later given advantage when using this technique against demons, as he had shown his ability to weaponise people.
- Likes Older Women: He becomes smitten with an elderly gnomish tinker named Vi when the group is trying to deal with a vampire tax collector and Vi just shoots her.
- Made of Iron: During his first fight, Mike marvels at how Bobby has taken several bad hits and still has more HP than Jim does at full health.
- The Stoner: While Bobby doesn't have the stereotypical personality, he states that one of the perks of having a dryad for a friend is being able to use magic leaves recreationally. He stocks up on those leaves whenever he can, and has occasionally lit them up in-game.
- Trademark Favorite Food: "Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!" He insists on being paid in cheese, and becomes very protective of Omin on the sole grounds that he's his "Cheese Daddy".
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: When asked what he wants for his employment, he specifically requests cheese instead of gold.Bobby: People use gold for currency. That's easy: You find some in a mine, you chip it off, you put it on your bag, you go about your day! It's **hard** to make cheese.Omin: Look, as long as that's what you've heard...
- Wrestler in All of Us: It comes with the territory when his player is an actual pro wrestler. When a clone of Evelyn tries to flip Omin, Xavier not only provides the proper term for the move but uses his knowledge of how they would be positioned to have Bobby grab Omin and power slam him into her.
The "C" Team
Tropes pertaining to the "C" Team as a whole:
- Character Alignment: Unlike with the "A" Team, we have the Word of God regarding the "C" Team's alignments, courtesy of Table Talk #15.
- Dysfunction Junction: Even more so than the "A" Team, each member of the "C" Team puts their own goals first, and the success of the team second, to the point where they had to put a Shock Collar on K'thriss to stop him from succumbing to the lure of Eldritch Abomination and endangering the party again. It is particularly noticeable in "The House Wins" arc, where each member (except Rosie) is courted by third parties to switch sides, and even the players comment OOC on how mercenary their characters actually are.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Walnut and Rosie made their first appearance in the background of the Yawning Portal in the animated intro to the PAX East 2017 live game, shortly before The "C" Team went on air.
- Foil: The Waffle Crew are underpowered enough to barely survive their adventures (Usually...), and have a hard time working together under the best of circumstances, but are as a result are Fire-Forged Friends who would die for each other (and all have). By contrast, the C-Team is much more competant and able to coordinate but otherwise seem largely indifferent to each other at the best of times, and the rest of the time seem to barely tolerate each other. This is on full display during the DCA/C-Team crossover Waffles, Inc.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Rosie is a sanguine people person, K'thriss a melancholic Perky Goth, while Walnut and Donaar seem to flip between Choleric and Phlegmatic, depending on the circumstances and mostly out of phase. Walnut livens up greatly whenever official AcqInc business is concerned but shuts down in social situations, while Donaar jumps at any chance to maintain his ego but sticks to the background during group action.
- Hero of Another Story: According to Jerry, the main AcqInc party is the "A" Team of the franchise, then there (apparently) is a "'B' team" (possibly Team Bellerophon?), and the "C" Team are the lowest-levels who are just starting out but tie in with the main story by exploring Omin's real agenda behind forming the company.
Walnut Dankgrass
Repping the natural world
Omin's introduction from the Acquisitions Incorporated website:
Walnut is one of our newest Franchisees, and brings what I would describe as a "weird, borderline-frightening" enthusiasm. As a child of the Enclave Panax Anima, an all-female clan of woodland defenders, joining an urban adventuring guild seems like a weird choice...? That hustle, though. Sometimes, you just have to roll the dice.
- Druid: Walnut's character class, with the usual fantasy druid abilities of communication with animals and shapeshifting.
- Friend to All Living Things:
- Walnut is fond of seeking help and information from various creatures the party encounters... but trying to truly be a friend to ALL living things causes a dilemma for the party when Walnut refuses to aid a group of mice against their arch-enemy, a cat, because she had already developed a rapport with the cat earlier. (As Donaar tells her, "There's this thing called the food chain.")
- Later becomes a Defied Trope as Walnut, despite still ostensibly "repping the natural world", repeatedly shows zero qualms with allowing animals to die if it benefits the party, even (or rather, especially) after those animals have offered their aid to them.
- The Only Believer: Walnut seems to be the only member of the "C" Team who takes her function as a representative of Acquisitions Incorporated in Red Larch seriously, as she at least invests token efforts in maintaining the company's image.
- Pronouncing My Name for You: The "k" in "Dankgrass" is silent ("Dahngrass"). There is a minor Running Gag where Jerry comes up with new ways to pronounce Walnut's surname in increasingly fancy ways (her first name is always just "Walnut").
- Straight Gay: Walnut focuses on her (secret) mission to the exclusion of all else, including romance... except for Brahma the Bard, for whom she falls head-over-heels. Rosie informs Stalker with a Crush Spice Caraway Revealed the next episode to be Brahma in magical disguise., when he makes his advances, that he is "Barking Up the Wrong Tree-Form."
- The Teetotaler: Walnut does not partake in alcohol and is disdainful of sugary treats.
- Treants: After the conclusion of the "Homecoming" arc, Walnut gains an additional Wildshape form of a humanoid tree so massive that it counts as a siege weapon.
- Younger Than They Look: Walnut is still in the first century of her life which makes her very young for an Elf.
Rosemarine "Rosie" Beestinger
Omin's introduction from the Acquisitions Incorporated website:
Rosie Beestinger came to us highly recommended—by basically everyone. By which I mean at least one hundred halflings all entered her name in our Winter Intern drive. They all seemed a little nervous, and their handwriting was very shaky. Who knows! Maybe they were very, very cold. Winter, right?! She's a monk or something. Let's see how she does.
- Arrow Catch: In her introductory scene, she catches a crossbow bolt fired at the back of her head by a bandit at point-blank range. She then asks if he dropped something.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Hints are scattered throughout the first season that Rosie has a very dark reputation among those in the know, primarily fellow halflings, but she remains the most mysterious party member thus far. In the Unplugged 2017 live game, Omin specifically refers to her as Grandmother Night, and we also get to see a much more vicious and brutal side of her.
- Dirty Old Woman: Almost immediately after the introduction of the cartwright's elderly father, she spends an incredibly sleepless night with him in their camp, much to the dismay of the rest of the party. During the Unplugged 2017 live game, she also kept flirting with Viari, with constant call-backs to a very sensuous past relationship. Even when she isn't involved in the relationship in question, her perverted personality would certainly make some characters uncomfortable, notably Strix and Diath in Waffles Inc.Rosie: "So you guys have never... like..." *makes suggestive hand gestures*Diath: "What? No! Rosie, no!"Strix: "AAAH!"Rosie: "Okay... hm..."K'thriss: "She does it all the time."
- The Heart: Somehow, Rosie functions as the moral center of the team, often advocating for the kindest and selfless solutions. She is also the one entrusted by the party with the controls to K'thriss' Shock Collar.
- Never Mess with Granny: Rosie is 120 years old, but her martial arts skills and reflexes are still sharp enough to grab crossbow bolts aimed at her out of the air. In addition, her most utilized skill is Intimidation. Her age is lowered by fifty years in the Chult adventure in Season 12, and does not go back up.
- Shipper on Deck: Rosie strongly encourages, and takes an almost prurient interest in, Walnut's relationship with Brahma.
- Even other parties aren't free from her shipping: seeing Strix and Diath of Dice, Camera, Action! interacting with each other made her almost immediately assume that their relationship was intimate.note
- Small Parent, Huge Child: Rosie, an elderly halfling lady, is diminutive even by her species's standards. She had also enjoyed a very promiscuous lifestyle for most of her long life, so one of her many, many children is a giant half-orc(-half-halfling) named Driebus.
- Token Adult: Rosie often has to act the part, by the virtue of being the second oldest member of the "C" team (after K'thriss, who is a oblivious man-child). She also becomes this literally in the live game, when a curse that reverts most of the party to eight-year-olds makes her marginally younger.
- Warp Whistle: Upon leveling up in Cartographer, Rosie gained the ability to take her cart to any location she has previously been to by telling a story of how the cart gets there.
- Willfully Weak: This is the implied reason why Rosie could play on the power level of the "A" team at the live event: Rosie Beestinger is a mysteriously old low-level adventurer, but Grandmother Night is a high-level badass.
K'thriss Drow'b/Thriss Rah'uuthli
Emerging from a mist shroud
Race: Drow (Dark Elf)
Class: Warlock (Hexblade, Previously Tome Pact with a Great Old One)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Played by: Kris Straub
Class: Warlock (Hexblade, Previously Tome Pact with a Great Old One)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Played by: Kris Straub
K'thriss Drow'b (pronounced "Kuh-thriss") is AcqInc newest hire, officially debuting with the main party in season 11, after unsuccessfully vying for internship since at least season 7 and narrating many of the Previously on… intros in the meantime. Afterwards, he becomes the Hoard Person of The "C" Team, a spinoff beginning March 2017.
Kris Straub has actually been involved with the series in some capacity pretty much ever since its conception, although before 2017, he had only ever actually played with the others once, in the brief Dark Sun spin-off back in 2010.
- Art Shift: Look at K'thriss in the Intern Tryout videos in 2013, then look at the "C" Team intro videos in 2017. This is due to Straub (who both plays and animates K'thriss) shifting him away from the style he used in his webcomics into a new theme for AI only.
- Character Catchphrase: K'thriss seems to start every conversation by addressing his vis-a-vis with "Friend"... even when they have absolutely no reason to be friendly with a weird-ass drow like him, or already act in a very unfriendly manner.
- Character Narrator: Kris has narrated pretty much every Previously on… intro video since the first live event, and the "Five Heads Are Better Than None" intro canonized that he has been doing so in-character, making K'thriss Drow'b the official narrator (of the recap videos), a.k.a. "The Weavyr of Storyes".
- De-power: At PAX East 2017, K'thriss played at Character Level 9, but was brought back down to level 3 for The "C" Team. This is actually addressed in-story as one of the major on-going mysteries surrounding his character, while he tries to figure out what exactly happened to him and why.
- Eye Scream: In "Anchors Aweigh", K'thriss' eldritch patron briefly takes over Ligotti and has it gouge out both of his eyes, partly as punishment for insufficient reverence, partly because K'thriss would be able to see more eldritch truths without physical eyes.
- Familiar: K'thriss finds one after joining the "C" Team and names it Ligotti. Although mechanics-wise, it is equivalent to a snake, it is actually a small self-aware piece of feeder tentacle of his eldritch patron.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Looks like his player, Kris Straub, as a dark elf. This is entirely intentional, since the character was designed to represent Straub in the A-Team recap animations.
- The Mad Hatter: The jury is out on how insane K'thriss was before his live debut (he did, after all, apply for internship at AcqInc), but after botching his very first official roll on camera while communing with eldritch powers, he went officially insane, specifically losing his ability to perceive serious and/or dangerous situations as such. After considering having K'thriss' insanity cured, Kris realized that this is pretty much how he wanted to role-play his character, anyway, so he decided to keep his condition.
- Meaningful Name: In-Universe. K'thriss was born Thriss Rah'uuthli, but changed his name upon his escape and exile from the Underdark to reflect his status as a heretic. Lampshaded by Carver Gall, who is the first (non-hostile) being they encounter who actually knows the Drow language.Carver Gall: That's not a name. That's a sentence.
- Nightmare Fetishist: He's very excited by eldritch horrors of any kind, and among other things thinks magically spreading necrosis is "cool".Jim: [blocking his own view of Auspicia Dran's smashed skull] "I'm just looking at the body. I'm covering the head."
K'thriss: "I'm only looking at the head!" - Perky Goth: K'thriss is very much into death, suffering, and occult lore — and quite upbeat and all-round nice about it. Even Jim finds him cool enough to mimic his style for a while.
- Running Gag: K'thriss was first seen in person in the third Intern Tryouts episode, where he had almost succeeded Aeofel as the company's intern—only to be unceremoniously shanked in the back by Viari, who ended up getting the position. He has since been lurking in the background in most animated intros, always prevented from joining the main cast for one reason or another (at least until season 11).
- Shock Collar: After nearly feeding the party to his Eldritch Abomination patron in the Wandering Crypt, K'thriss agreed to wear a necklace that would allow other party members (specifically, Rosie) to strangle him at a distance if he ever succumbed to the lure of the eldritch again.
- Self-Insert Fic: K'thriss' character started off as Kris' attempt to insert himself into the narrative in a roundabout way (i.e. via Previously on… videos that Kris both animated and voiced), so when he was finally invited to play, he already had a complete character concept. This is lampshaded several times in The "C" Team.
- Unequal Rites: As a Warlock, he gets his powers from a patron being with whom he has pacted. Clerics and Wizards tend to look down on Warlocks as cheating their way to power. This doesn't bother K'thriss (few things bother K'thriss). However, it is starting to become a problem. He now openly hates his patron, The God of Meat and Mouths, and his patron finds him disgusting. Thanks to the mechanical nature of Warlocks, this isn't a dealbreaker for either of them yet, but it may come a point soon if the "C" Team keeps directly attacking his patron's holdings.
- Weakened by the Light: As a drow (dark elf), K'thriss doesn't do well in direct sunlight. He solves this with a massive sun hat.
Donaar Blit'zen
Dragonborn narcissist
Race: Dragonborn
Class: Paladin (Oath of Vengeance and/or of the Crown)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Played by: Ryan Hartman
Class: Paladin (Oath of Vengeance
and/or of the Crown)Alignment: Chaotic Good
Played by: Ryan Hartman
Omin's introduction from the Acquisitions Incorporated website:
This copper, draconic gentleman claims to know more than one hundred different dragons. Chromatic, metallic—just tons and tons of dragons—I'm hoping we can leverage some of these connections in our dealings. None of the dragons I've contacted have gotten back to me, but they're probably just very busy right now. This is one of of the busiest times for dragons... or so I've been told by my new best friend, Donaar Blit'zen.
- Bilingual Bonus: His name sounds suspiciously similar to the German words "Donner" and "Blitzen", meaning "thunder" and "lightning", respectively. Donner and Blitzen are, of course, also the name of two of Santa Claus' reindeer in the classic holiday poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."
- I Call It "Vera": He has a toothbrush named 'Percival.' And a sword named 'Toothbrush.'
- The Fighting Narcissist: In line with his draconic heritage and royal bloodline, he's prissy and demanding to a comical degree.
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- He is the only member of the C-Team who cannot see through Oak Truestrike's flashy demeanor to the horrible person beneath, and actively hides Oak's regeneration from the rest of the party.
- When the party later encounters a young red (read: evil) dragon, Donaar is absolutely against killing it, likening the evil chromatic dragons to black-sheep family members you don't like or approve of, but still love.
- Noble Bigot: Despite being a paladin of Good alignment, he regularly expresses a mild disdain for the other humanoid races, to the tune of them being 'hairy upright pig-creatures.'
- Only Sane Man: Of all the party members, he's the one who reacts very poorly to the "Groundhog Day" Loop in the Dran & Quartier.
- Sex Slave: Donaar gets "sold" by Rosie to a lizardman king unable to sire a son for himself during the "The House Wins" arc and spends sixty years or so as a glorified stud stallion.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Ever since Ryan accidentally voice-acted a typical WWE promo while intimidating some goblins, it seems to have become a staple of his Draconic Entitlement ability.
- Younger Than They Look: The "Paterfamilias" arc reveals that despite coming across like a seasoned adventurer, Donaar is actually 19 years young (which, in Dragonborn terms, is somewhere around the human age of 22).
The Beestingers
Rosie Beestinger has an astounding number of children, who form a distinct subset of the "C" Team's Guest Star Party Members. Tropes that apply to the them as a whole:
- Happily Adopted: Rosie has a habit of adopting younger people(which is most people) who she encounters while in need. It's never specified exactly how much of those bearing the Beestinger name are adopted and how many are directly Rosie's children. Occasionally defied, though:
- Massive Numbered Siblings: There is a lot of Beestingers. Kate has basically given fans a free rein to invent any children and grandchildren for Rosie they want, so the ones we see on the show are just the tip of the iceberg.
- Matricide/Offing the Offspring: Given Rosie's secret history, she is accustomed to one of her children periodically trying to kill her for her power and position. It has yet to work.
Driebus Beestinger
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Rogue/Chaos Sorcerer/Wizard/Paladin
Played by: Pat Rothfuss
Class: Rogue/Chaos Sorcerer/Wizard/Paladin
Played by: Pat Rothfuss
Driebus is Rosie's good-for-nothing son, who first appears in episode 6 of The "C" Team.
- Emo Teen: As Pat puts it, Driebus is way too old to justify the haircut, clothing style, and attitude he is displaying.
- Interspecies Romance: What Driebus is a product of. His mother was a halfing, his father was an orc.
- The Un-Favourite: It seems like every time Driebus is mentioned, Rosie either feels the need to apologize, or asks to not get her started on him. Nevertheless, she secretly still loves him, but in a Tough Love kind of way, unlike most of her other kids.
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Driebus seems unable to commit to any particular course in life, which is mechanically expressed in him taking a different Character Class every time he levels up.
Cher Beestinger
Another of Rosie's many, many children, first appearing during the "C" Team's excursion to the Dragon's Hoard river-going casino.
- Instrument of Murder: Her war lute, while not as deadly as Brahma's bow-transforming one, has a mean retractable blade.
- Magic Music: As a bard, Cher casts spells by playing her lute.
- Write Who You Know: Invoked by Cher's player Molly, who is a musician herself.
Kiwi Beestinger
An adopted child of Rosie, who briefly encountered the party during preparations for a festival that would make use of their home base inn.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The death of his brother (who was also adopted and raised by Rosie) made Kiwi quit his life as a Wandering Minstrel and learn weapon-making instead. It is also pretty much the first piece of his backstory that Mikey reveals, and comes up again and again in the course of his debut episode. The next episode, however (where Kiwi was controlled by Jerry and the Shadow Council), revealed that his brother is still very much alive.
- Happily Adopted: He has a very cordial relationship with Rosie, who describes him as one of her good kids.
- Magic Music: Not that he needs it.
- Only Sane Man: There's an element of this, given how detached and confused he seemed by all the nonsense around him.
- The Teetotaler: Since his brother was killed in a drunken Bar Brawl, Kiwi has abstained from any form of alcohol.
Other associates
Vandal/Vanovendalar
Vandal is a simple-minded halfling who enlists AcqInc to "reacquire" a clutch of bronze dragon eggs stolen and hidden in the Dragonspear Castle by the Cult of the Dragon in season 8. In the same episode, he reveals himself to actually be a silver dragon in humanoid guise and later teams up with the party again in the season 10 finale to storm Stratovar's flying castle.
- Ascended Extra: Most NPCs accompanying the party on adventures don't tend to last long, often perishing in the same episode they're introduced or surviving only to come Back for the Dead. Vandal seems to be largely exempt from this, by the virtue of his much higher survivability (for obvious reasons) and because Chris loves doing his accent so much.
- An Ice Person: The final piece of evidence that outs him as a dragon to the party is the fact that even in his halfling guise, he is immune to freezing cold (all silver dragons have an affinity for the ice element, including an ice-based Breath Weapon).
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Seems to be genuinely in awe of Jim Darkmagic despite being likely more powerful than him in combat, to the point where he wouldn't intervene in a Total Party Kill (where Jim died in the surprise round) because he thought the party could still handle it.
- Mystical White Hair: In his halfling guise, he has a shock of silver-white hair, an early clue of his true nature.
- Psychic Static: Uses it to conceal the fact that he is a dragon in disguise when Jim attempts to read his thoughts — all Jim hears are some silly songs a not-too-bright halfling in awe of the upcoming adventure would sing.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like all dragons, Vandal can polymorph at will into a halfling and back.
Flabberghast
Race: Human
Class: Wizard (NPC)
Class: Wizard (NPC)
Flabberghast is a former employee of Dran Enterprises, first introduced to monitor Acquisitions Incorporated prior to a possible corporate takeover.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is by all accounts a competent(if passive) wizard and carries himself with dignity, however his familiar Mister Snively is a cat that wears a viking helmet and a monocle.
- Mission Control: Becomes this for Acquisitions Incorporated, controlling the airship while the players are disembarked and using telepathy spells to share information with them.
- Non-Action Guy: Though he followed Acq Inc into a number of dangerous situations, he's never intervened in combat.
- Token Good Teammate: To Dran Enterprises; he shows easy remorse for being complicit to their actions. This leads directly to his Heel–Face Turn after the Acquisitions Incorporated main office is ravaged.
Drizzt Do'Urden
"Why don't you guys try being adventurers?"
Drizzt Do'Urden (yes, THAT Drizzt) is a dark elf ranger that just so happens to have not one magic scimitar, but two. While not an actual intern (as he's keen to point out), he joins Acquisitions Incorporated for two short adventures in Season 10 after they helped save him at the end of Season 9.
- The Ace: He's so good when Mike is acting as DM, he doesn't even make Chris roll acrobatics checks for Drizzt's feats of leaping (which doubles as a subtle stab at Chris' apparent weakness for Viari's theatrics). A suit of armor even ends up coming to life just to applaud him. And whenever Drizzt does make a mistake, it's usually followed up with a comment akin to, "Nobody saw that!"
- Cool Swords: Twinkle and Icingdeath. Until they get stolen, that is...
- Dual Wielding: The signature scimitars do appear, though Chris mixes things up a bit.
- Eye Beams: Chris at one point suggests Drizzt could burn a rope with his laser eyes, which, given the character, is actually believable.
- Heroic BSoD: Defied. Drizzt should be mad he doesn't have his swords, and he is, but he doesn't let that stop him from still trying to be The Ace.
- Humiliation Conga: Despite still being awesome, Drizzt's brief stint with Acquisitions Inc. sees his panther stolen by Viari, his swordplay generally being a bit underwhelming (if still ultimately effective), him electrocuted by a door, his scimitars stolen (again by Viari, indirectly), and then blasted with a fireball."I don't approve of this adventure!"
- In-Series Nickname: Drizzsm, after Chris kept calling Diz "Jizz".
- Overused Copycat Character: The original trope namer, only without any pretense.
- Neck Snap: Gives a long overdue one to Viari at the end of the ISTAR Facility module, though it doesn't stick.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Drizzt considers this more than once after realizing what he might be in for if he stays with this party.
Kiupid of the Blit'zen
Kiupid (pronounced as either "Cupid" or "Kee-oo-pid") is Donaar's great-great-great-great-great-... granddaughter from the Shadowrealm who catches up with him and the rest of the party in Waterdeep after a long search.
- The Chosen One: She declares herself to be one during her introduction to Donaar, later revealing that it was her destiny to bring the Shadow King back to the Shadowrealm after he had escaped it with the "C" Team's help in "The House Wins".
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Strongly implied to happen to her after "Anchors Aweigh", as the Shadowrealm's Narnia Time means that by the time she returns after a few subjective days, everyone she knew will be long dead back home.
- Hero-Worshipper: Kiupid is very impressed by everything Donaar did and does, to the point of Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery.
- Kid from the Future: Thanks to the Narnia Time in the Shadowrealm, many generations have descended from Donaar's children there in short time it took him to get from the Dragon's Hoard to Waterdeep, and Kiupid is among the youngest of his descendants.
- Talking Weapon: The axe Kiupid wields is actually Hassar, the bone creature that K'thriss befriended on the Dragon's Hoard who spent so many years in the Shadowrealm that it became immobile and shaped itself into a weapon.
- Shrouded in Myth: How Kiupid and the rest of the Blit'zen view their progenitor Donaar due to the many generations that have passed from their point of view.
- Valley Girl: Whenever Kiupid is not gushing over things and gets into a casual conversation, lots of junk words creep into her vocabulary, which soon gets lampshaded by the mermen queen.
Vi
- Race: Gnome
Class: Artificer (Probably?)
Played by: NPC
- Cool Old Lady: Seems quite old and was very helpful and friendly to the party.
- Dimensional Traveler: She's a Planeswalker, which means she has the ability to move between dimensions on her own.
- Gadgeteer Genius: An inventor who helped repair the device that drew the party to Ravnica.
