The Adventure Zone: Dust is a Weird West themed arc of The Adventure Zone Podcast featuring the McElroy Brothers (Justin, Travis, and Griffin) playing the Powered by the Apocalypse RPG system with their father Clint. Travis is the "Master of Ceremonies", Justin plays the ghost of the deceased cashew baron Augustus Parsons, Clint plays former railroad worker and traveling wizard Gandy Dancer, and Griffin plays werewolf and former politician Errol Ryehouse.
Dust got a second mini-arc with guest player Erika Ishii. Justin returns to the role of Augustus Parsons, Clint plays the gunslinger Callan, Griffin plays Indrid Cole the Mothman, and Erika plays local proprietress Lulu.
This podcast contains these tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: The party is hired by Joseph Blackwell to travel to Crescent City to convince his eldest daughter to return to Dry River. Meanwhile, the Banshee convenes with Isabella Slate, who is informing to the Banshee about Gandy.
- Bittersweet Ending: The party solves Jeremiah Blackwell's murder and clears Dylan's name. However, Dylan is extremely injured, the Banshee is still on the run, the future of Dry River is left uncertain, and the party has taken at least one Corruption point each.
- The Corpse Stops Here: When Jeremiah Blackwell was found murdered, Dylan Mathis was hunched over his body, soaked in blood. Dylan claims innocence.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Errol forces Dylan to think about Jeremiah's death and slaps him in the face in order to keep him angry, in an attempt to keep him in werewolf form and thus more resistant to his injuries.
- Death of a Child: Deputy Rosa mentions that she and Sheriff Connors are deliberately keeping the Blackwell family out of the loop, and not waking them up to tell them about their son's death until morning, so as to avoid the influential Joseph Blackwell from interfering in the investigation. Errol points out that, it being 2 in the morning on the night their son hasn't come home, it's likely the Blackwells aren't getting much sleep in the first place.
- Dying Town: The town of Dry River, formerly called Twin River, before the river dried up. The incorporation into the rest of the Crescent Region, spearheaded by the Mathis and Blackwell clans, is an attempt to avert this. Sheriff Connors' attempt to stop the incorporation by killing Jeremiah Blackwell is his own attempt at saving the town.
- Feuding Families: The Blackwells, a clan of vampires who run the copper mine, and the Mathises, a pack of werewolves who run the silver mine.
- Fur Against Fang: Downplayed, the rivalry is more about the two families, who just so happen to be vampires and werewolves.
- The Ghost: Several characters are mentioned repeatedly, both in the set-up episode and the podcast proper, but never make a proper appearance: Flint Chiddles, Augustus' hated business rival in life and prime suspect in Augustus's murder; Anna Parsons, Augustus' daughter who is living under the care of The Church; Garrett Althiser, the current CEO of Augustus' cashew company; Emil Moche, head of the Ocean to Ocean Railroad Company and primary benefactor to Gandy; and Daria Cross, a defector from the Banshee's crime ring who is responsible for Errol's half-transformed condition, and who apparently lives on Carrion Street.
- Hulking Out: Werewolves' transformations, though governed by how high the moon is in the sky, are more likely to take place when they're angry. So when Dylan transforms as the sun is coming up, he's really pissed.
- Love Triangle: Dylan and Anne Mathis both loved Jeremiah Blackwell.
- One-Steve Limit: Enforced by Clint, changing the name of Gandy's homunculus to Uncle Oni after he learned that there was another character with the name Michael.
- Our Homunculi Are Different: Homunculi are spirits, fey, or demons that have been trapped within a humanoid vessel, such a as a doll in the case of Uncle Oni.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are, for the most part, born, rather than turned. Also, their bites cause an amnesiac effect on the victim, so they don't remember being fed upon.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Much like vampires, werewolves are born, not turned. They also have an allergic reaction to silver, which ranges from being a minor skin irritant to being deadly if come into contact. Fascinatingly, this doesn't seem to stop the Mathises, a family of werewolves, from owning and operating a silver mine.
- Pinkerton Detective: The Greyson Agency, a group who serve as private detectives, bodyguards, arbiters, enforcers, etc was inspired by the Pinkertons, only with less union-busting.
- Sequel Hook: The party is hired by Joseph Blackwell to go to Crescent City and retrieve his daughter. Meanwhile, the Banshee is shown to be operating in Crescent City, in a new body, and is being informed about Gandy by Isabella Slate.
- Spanner in the Works: Sheriff Connors expected the Greyson Agents to arrive a day later, by which time he would've been able to plant the evidence to frame Liam.
- Weird West: The town of Dry River, as well as the rest of Crescent Territory, is home to all sorts of supernatural creatures, such as werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and demons.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sheriff Connors killed Jeremiah to prevent the deal between the two families from going through, which would prevent Crescent Territory from being incorporated; he believed that bringing the territory under government control would ultimately just hurt people by opening it up to corruption.
