Web Video / Heart of Elynthi

Heart of Elynthi is a weekly Actual Play role playing series using the Dungeons & Dragons system using the website Roll20. It is hosted and DM'd by JoCat on his Twitch (with later uploads to his Youtube account). The series debuted November 30, 2022. In December 2023, JoCat announced that he would be going on indefinite hiatus from regular content creation, but would be continuing other off-site obligations. This includes Heart of Elynthi, where he and his players continue to hold sessions, with edited YouTube uploads being unlisted, but otherwise available to find through the campaign's playlist.

The setting is within the Lustrous Expanse in the year 253. In the kingdom of Elynthi, there lies the life tree known as Queremsia. It provides fertility and life within its land, but the tree itself isn't immune to age. To keep it alive, five ancient relics are gathered every ten years by a group of adventures chosen through the Draconic Pilgrimage to bring vitality back to the tree. However, one of the greatest threats to this journey is the Blot, a weather phenomenon that possesses the carcasses of dead animals & people to attack anyone.

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The main cast consists of:

• Feltheleb as Buck Baccarat.
• Poi Boi PNG as Fritz.
• Red OSP (from Overly Sarcastic Productions) as Laira.
• Runesmith as Wurd.

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Tropes:

• Acknowledged Absolution:
  • Both played straight and subverted respectively in Buck's cases with his ex-wives. Because of how kind-hearted Talindra is, she was able to forgive Buck for leaving her, although she cautions Buck against hurting anyone in the future by abandoning them too. Pamyel, on the other hand, refuses to ever forgive Buck for breaking her heart and her trust, even if Buck were to change.
  • Played with in Astrapio's case: as an adult, Fritz forgives Astrapio for abandoning her because she understood the circumstances. However, Fritz wants her birth father to understand what he did to a child and she wanted him to apologize for it.
  • Subverted hard in Buck's case in Session 19. Wurd and Laira initially appear willing to forgive Buck for getting them involved in a death trap, but Fritz calls him out for it, especially since Laira almost died from it. When Buck digs himself deeper by revealing that his motivations weren't very sound (he wasn't actually looking into the situation surrounding Old Diosia and the Life Tree — he just wanted to find Lady Luck again for himself)), his reputation among the pilgrims tanks hard.
• Actually, I Am Him: The party goes over to the adventurer's guild in Tigamura to get license from the guild master so they can get a job. On the way, they run into a self-proclaimed newbie adventurer named Eduardo Borobia. Later on, it turns out that he was actually the guild master in disguise (though his disguise isn't all that good).
• Advancing Boss of Doom: The Humanoid Blot does this in Session 16 by becoming a massive fusion of countless Blot that chases and clings to the back of the train that the party is on.
• All for Nothing:
  • It's revealed that the ancient warforged found in the Pallitrios ruins were in fact just decoy automatons as part of a death trap for explorers who come to explore the ruins. This upsets Sergi as that means that his friends who explored the ruins died for nothing, and the "warforged's heart" is completely useless in helping him stop the Blot.
  • Buck's greatest fear surrounds this idea, oddly befitting his gambler shtick. It's revealed that he had been abandoning the relationships he made in order to continue his obsessive search of meeting Lady Luck again, ensuring that he will always end up alone. This only further spurns him to pursue his search even further, always holding out hope that he'll be successful and not render his own efforts worthless, which eventually starts to strain his friendship with the other party members.
• All or Nothing: Early on, Buck buys a special magic item called the All-or-Nothing Coin. In-game, the player can roll a D2 die in place of a D20 die, with the results being either a Nat 1 or a Nat 20. After nearly tanking his relationship with the other party members — as a result of revealing the extent of his selfishness and destructive obsession with Lady Luck — Buck throws the coin away.
• Always a Bigger Fish: In Session 5, the party gets ambushed by pirates. However, during the fight, a number of pirates suddenly get picked off into the ocean by an army of the Blot, resulting in both groups having to fight them (including the party members rescuing as many of the pirates they can).
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Despite being the dragon of Sacia, Elias is shown to be a bit laidback and eccentric, unfortunately for his niece Jidae. It isn't helped that Elias likes to wear pajamas outside.
• Amicable Exes: Talindra is one of Buck's ex-wives, but despite the divorce being all Buck's fault, Talindra doesn't hold much animosity towards him, at most loving to tease and embarrass Buck in front of the other pilgrims.
• And Then What?: One of Spade's important questions to Buck is what does Buck plan to do after he finally gets that "major pay off" from all his devotion and faith towards Lady Luck. He doesn't have a very good answer.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Lucia Baztan is not only a stereotypical and prideful noblewoman who looks down on people from the countryside, but she is a greedy woman who resorts to destroying a town's defenses just to trick the town into hiring her soldiers, allowing her to take it and its crystal reserves over.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Abril the Warforged lost one of his arms as a result of being worked too hard prior to his awakening. He was lucky to be able to get a prosthetic to replace it.
  • After Tyrell gets petrified as a result of betraying the party and trying to usurp the gods, Wurd breaks off her right hand in order to hinder her ability to cast magic, even when she gets cured of her petrification.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Spade the Warforged asks Buck two of them with regards to Buck's undying faith in his goddess, which he claims would be for a big payoff: would it even be worth it, and what would Buck even do after that? Buck is visibly shaken, but Spade reassures Buck that he can take his time finding his answers.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Buck drinks a potion to make him grow large in order to fight toe-to-toe with a dangerous large warforged.
  • The Humanoid Blot pulls this off by fusing itself with an absurd number of Blot, forming a massive Blot capable of chasing down a train.
  • To the party's horror, it turns out the Blat are capable of possessing even a stone tower to attack them with.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Fritz is the youngest in the group, and is also the most innocent and naive to the more mature or darker topics of the world.
• Bad "Bad Acting":
  • Eduardo Borobia pretends to be an adventure who very recently arrived in Tigamura. While they don't immediately pin down that he's the guild master they've been looking for, his over-the-top acting makes him too suspicious to the party to take at face value.
  • The party themselves end up doing this when Edmund tries to stealthily find and dispose of the Sending Stone being used to eavesdrop on them.
• Bad Liar: Due to Edmund's kind and chivalrous personality, he struggles to lie or to keep secrets from the pilgrims.
• Bad Samaritan: the Underthrone Society abuse giving out generous acts to those down on their luck in order to use those people and get them in debt to the criminal group.
• Bait-and-Switch: During the party's investigation into the destruction of Vicerli's sentries, their prime suspect was an obnoxious noblewoman named Lucia Baztan. However, when the party lays in wait during their trap for the culprit, they end up finding the affable mayor of Vicerli arriving instead. This turns out to be a false alarm as the mayor was just nervous with the trap and wanted to talk to the party. Then, surprise surprise, Lucia shows up as the true culprit all along.
• Batman Gambit: The pilgrims speculate that Lord Nicholas tried this on Edmund. Since Pallitrios, Lord Nicholas forced Edmund to tail the pilgrims in secret despite Edmund not being provided anything or any assistance for the mission, so the pilgrims believe that the lord, knowing that Edmund was sent to Elynthi by Belkinus to ostensibly re-establish relations between the two, set Edmund up to fail in order to justify kicking Edmund out and keeping the relations to Belkinus broken, all to further prevent Belkinus from sticking its nose into the lord's business. It also helps that Edmund is very loyal to Lord Nicholas, especially due to his mission, and his personality makes him a poor liar and a poor spy.
• Battle Strip: During the cage match between the pilgrims and Cecilia's team, Buck takes off his poncho after recovering from a massive beating by Cecilia, letting the audience know that he's getting serious.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: The Collector Warforged attempted this. Wurd hid inside the clothes of a magically enlarged Buck in order for them to tag team against the warforged. The Collector, in turn, releases a few regular warforge from inside him in order to attack the party. Unfortunately for the Collector, it wasn't enough and it still gets defeated in the end.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Dozin reveals that he and Astrapio became friends as a result of the latter defending him when Dozin was accused of stealing from his captain. As a result, Dozin had no problems accepting Astrapio's request to raise the latter's child.
• Beneath the Mask: In public, Cecilia acts as a stereotypical wrestler who shows off her strength as a gladiator. However, she's actually pressured by the expectations of both her fans and her own father as both a gladiator and one of Elyhthi's dragons.
• Benevolent Abomination: Non-Stop Begonia is a terrifying (but hot) creature that resembles a bulky stone golem with three glowing eyes and sharp teeth. He wants to help Wurd in exchange of Wurd spreading the entity's name whenever Wurd achieves something big or gains reputation. Even when Non-Stop Begonia prematurely ends his pact with Wurd following the party's failed uprising in Trevesetta, he does so with no hard feelings, insisting that "it's just business."
• Benevolent Boss: While Wurd loves being praised and pampered by his minions, he is very protective of them and sees them as family.
• Berserk Button:
  • Trying to even threaten to destroy a dragon's heart is a really bad way to get the entire party on your bad side. As Liam finds out, it doesn't matter if he didn't realize that he threatened to destroy a dragon's heart; the party seriously considers tearing the fae's wings off and even outright killing him for trying to pull that stunt.
  • Buck serves as this towards Pamyel (one of Buck's ex-wives), who hasn't forgiven Buck after their divorce.
  • It turns out that a good way to anger Wurd is to run away from responsibility, especially important ones with people's lives on the line, like Pavita.
• Big Damn Heroes: The attempted revolution in Trevesetta goes off the rails when the pilgrims discover the extent of its government's involvement the Underthrone Society and their conspiracy to claim the hearts for themselves. The ensuing battle sees them fighting and killing Lucia Baztan, with their attempted escape being intercepted by a phalanx of Baztan guards (including Captain Arzire). Fortunately, they're rescued not just by Pavita — the city's rightful dragon — dropping in and taking out as many guards as she can, but La Destructora/Jidae, and after quickly retrieving Torellan (who himself is just about to be executed), the party escapes the city.
• The Big Damn Kiss: While only on the cheek, Rama kissing Cecilia is to be celebrated.
• The Big Guy: Being a bugbear, Buck is the largest of the group. It helps that he is a barbarian who wields a large hammer.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: The train's bar has a cocktail containing an unknown piece of animal flesh because the cocktail caters to goblins, who are known for their hearty and meaty dishes.
• Black Sheep: Not by choice. Pavita is the only dragon to lack any friends, family, or loved ones because she was an orphan, and Lord Nicholas prevented her from making any relationships when the former became the dragon of Trevesetta. As a result, she also the only dragon to lack a true dragon's heart and had to create a substitute by bonding with a cheap ring that would act as her 'heart'.
• Blessed with Suck: Cecilia is popular for being the strongest gladiator of New Bascay and the city's dragon. However, it led her to not only be pressured by the city's people but also by her father to live up to that reputation.
• Blob Monster: The Blot usually takes this appearance. Even when possessing a corpse, its body still looks like sludge.
• Broken Pedestal: Buck severely strains his friendship with the rest of the party when it's revealed that he had been ruining all his relationships in the past in order to meet Lady Luck again, further admitting that he would still continue ruining any future relationship done the line in order to meet his goddess. With this horrible revelation out in the open, all of Buck's party members could no longer see him as a friend, and Buck ends up having hell to pay to regain their trust.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • The general population in Elynthi treats the Draconic Pilgrimage as a tradition and even a festival. Furthermore, the participants of the pilgrimage see it as a means for achieving fame or fortune. Laira is understandably confused at why everyone is so lax with the pilgrimage or using it for more personal reasons, despite the life tree and the kingdom's fate being dependent on it.
  • Apparently, La Destructora the Destroyer has been attacking and losing to pilgrims every Draconic Pilgrimage for so long that Sacia's dragon Elias Verdugo and Lord Candela are nonchalant with her existence. It turns out it's more or less a tradition for Jidae to pretend to be La Destructora and keep an eye on the pilgrims every year when she isn't one of the pilgrims herself.
• Call-Back:
  • The Stick of Stickiness, which first appeared in Belkinus Necro Hunt, returns once again as an item sold by No Tails.
  • The Church of the Builder is a religion that appeared from Belkinus Necro Hunt as the religion that Enoch followed. Even the church's god, Kothusung, is revealed to actually be the renamed version of the god Erathis from the first game.
  • Shade, a follower from the Church of the Builder, described an acquaintance of his that share similarities with Enoch from Belkinus Necro Hunt.
  • It's revealed that Edmund is a representative sent by Belkinus to Elynthi in order to re-establish connections between the two. Edmund even vaguely mentions how Belkinus were through some serious hell from the first campaign.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Fritz calls her biological father by his name, Astrapio, because he is a stranger to her who abandoned her as a baby.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Upon meeting him for the first time, Fritz calls out on her biological father's actions of abandoning her, shooting down his claims that he was trying to give her a chance of a better life than what he could provide and instead pinning his actions on cowardice.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • The party tries to convince Sergi that they encountered a Blot with enough intelligence for communication, but while he doesn't think they're outright lying, Sergi does think the party were hallucinating or misunderstanding things.
  • Played with in Session 15. Laira fails to convince Lord Eufrasia Biel that the ruins near Pallitrios are being used as a trap by a noble from Trevesetta, made to kill off potential explorers looking into ruins from the old world. However, due to how suspicious Lord Eufrasia has been acting and how dependent she already is on Trevesetta, it's possible she is part of the ploy revolving the fake ruins being used as a death trap. This is later confirmed in Session 26, where Lord Eufrasia is revealed to have indeed known the truth about the fake ruins.
  • Pamyel warns Fritz, Laira, and Buck that Buck is a horrible, selfish person who would abandon people and break their hearts. The party initially shrugs this off as just petty snipping from a vengeful ex, but they end up learning the hard way through Buck cooperating with Tyrell that he is the kind of person who would risk their lives trying to find Lady Luck, and that he is willing to continue going down this path even if it means continuing to ruin any future relationships with him.
• Character Catchphrase: Laira has the habit of saying "Fantastic" and "Interesting" a lot, may it be straight or sarcastically.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • During Session 10, the party finds a Lantern of True Sight (an item that counters invisibility) for sale. Later in that same session, they learn that culprit behind the sentries' destruction is using an invisibility spell to hide their identity. Put two-in-two together on what the party does next. Furthermore, they start running into more issues with troublemakers and enemies using invisibility in the next session.
  • During Session 16, the party learns that the train had a lever meant for activating a barrier against outside intruders. Unsurprisingly, they have to use it when the train gets attacked by the Blot.
  • Back in Session 2, Wurd stole a Ring of Certainty from No Tails, with the ring allowing the user to identify the DC for a situation, as well as the outcomes for the success and failure of the situation. Fast forward to Session 25, Wurd uses the ring to help plan out a coup in Trevesetta.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • During Session 12, the party noticex a group of children cheering for La Destructora. In the next session, they run into a kid who was from that same group of children, and is being taken cared of by the dragon of Pallitrios.
  • Do you remember Lucia, the troublesome noblewoman who caused trouble in the town of Vicerli? Her family seemed to be responsible for the creation of the Collector Warforged that killed Sergi's adventurers. Furthermore, her guards make up a good portion of the soldiers defending Pallitrios.
  • The party sent Edmund to hide in Tigamura for the latter's safety. Some time later, Edmund would send the party a Sending Stone that would help out the party for their planned coup in Trevesetta.
• Chick Magnet: To the shock of Fritz, Laira, and Wurd, apparently Buck had at least two ex-wives. Throughout the campaign, they repeatedly question how many wives Buck had.
• The Comically Serious: Much of the humor inherit to Laira is that she's a very stoic individual whose self-identified communication issues means she has a difficult time making friends or conversing at length. There's a lot of comedy derived from her staid reactions to some of the more outlandish and colorful characters and events around her.
• Commitment Issues: The reason that Buck and Talindra had a divorce is because the former didn't want to settle down due to having "other plans"... which came to nothing in the end. It is revealed that the true reason that he couldn't settle with Talindra, as well as Pamyal, is because he is obsessed with meeting Lady Luck again, causing him to constantly travel for any clues or means to meet his goddess.
• Cool Train: Sergi worked on building a train powered by magic that can run from Pallitrios to Trevesetta in a day. It even comes with a barrier for emergency protection, even due it isn't perfected yet for multiple uses.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: With only one dragon heart powering her, Tyrell is easily caught by a Beholder and instantly turned to stone.
• Cuteness Proximity: Fritz loves cute creatures like her pet kitten Ceefa, and the slime that works in Sacia's temple.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Astrapio and his wife had a falling out and left Fritz to Dozin because they believed that they couldn't raise Fritz in a good environment. It's also implied by Dozin that at least Astrapio was struggling in his life due to his ragged state when Astrapio gave Dozin the former's child.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • In Session 5, Buck is forced to see glimpses of his past failures by a humanoid Blot, causing him to be temporarily paralyzed, including visions of Talindra and Pamyel, Buck's ex-wives. It's ultimately revealed in Session 19 that Buck became obsessed with seeing Lady Luck again after being blessed by her, with led him to meet and then abandon Talindra and Pamyel. Buck admits that he had practically burnt down every bridge with everyone important to him, leaving him all alone with no friends or family.
  • Also in Session 5, Wurd implies that he had a rough past where he had to crawl his way up from poor living.
  • Pavita grew up as an orphan before she was forced into becoming Trevesetta's dragon. From there, she had to tackle countless problems of the people with no end in sight, all the while not receiving much gratitude on top of being overseen by Lord Nicholas Tejero, who prevented her from making any lasting relationships with anybody. These all contributed to Pavita finally reaching her breaking point and abandoning her dragon duties, running away from the city.
  • Roberto implied he had one that led him into going into the Underthrone Society in an attempt to escape it, only to end up as a slave.
  • Dozin implies that Astrapio struggled in his life when he gave Fritz to him because of how ragged the latter was at the time.
• Deadpan Snarker: Laira is prone in talking sarcastically in a somewhat stoic manner.
• Defiant to the End: In Session 26, when the party is ambushing a group of Baztan guards, there's one mage guard who was adamantly against surrender despite the odds being turned against him, landing a strong magic attack on the whole party. He only gives up because his terrified co-worker begs him to for their survival, and even then, he remains staunchly uncooperative despite Wurd's threats to kill him. Wurd eventually has it and kills this guard, finding a different captured mage guard for answers while showing him what he did to the defiant one.
• Dirty Coward: Wurd accuses Pavita of being this, as she chose to abandon Trevesetta because she couldn't handle the pressure and responsibility of being the dragon anymore.
• Dramatic Irony: In Session 16, La Destructora loses her greatsword during her serious fight against the pilgrims, with it planting itself onto the roof of the train. With the reveal that La Destructora is actually Jidae in disguise, it becomes a rather ironic Call-Back to how Jidae planted her greatsword early in the campaign when she finally retired from becoming a pilgrim.
• Dramatic Unmask: La Destructora, upon removing her helmet, is revealed to be Jidae, the niece of Elias Verdugo.
• Dreadful Musician: According to Fritz, Captain Dozin is terrible in singing.
• Drunk with Power: A minor example by proxy: According to Cecilia, her father wasn't always a jerk who shows of his daughter's status or berates his daughter whenever she loses a fight, but he changed after Cecilia became the Dragon for New Bascay.
• Eat the Bomb:
  • Wurd ends up trying to eat an enchanted egg that has a small chance of increasing his ability score and a large chance of just blowing up from inside his body. Unsurprisingly, the latter happens, and Wurd barely survives the internal explosion.
  • Wurd ends up using one of his explosive eggs on a sleeping Bulette (land shark). It hurt it badly, but it didn't kill it off, leaving the Bulette proceed to alert its sleeping family of the attack.
• Epic Fail: During the cage match, Buck attempts to finish Cecilia off with an RKO. Unfortunately, he fails and ends up landing on the ground hard, injuring himself.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Wurd makes it clear that he and his gang would never steal from the church, primarily because he recognizes how powerful and dangerous the church can be.
  • While the casino isn't below cheating its customers of their money, Buck refuses to cheat himself or work with anyone cheating like Wurd.
  • Upon learning about how Buck's obsession with Lady Luck ruined all his relationships and yet Buck will still continue with his search, Wurd makes it clear that even he can recognize when a path becomes too much for it to be worth it, no matter how much he wants what is at the end of it.
• Evil Is Hammy: La Destructora the Destroyer is the evilest and most powerful villain that the pilgrims have ever faced! Along with her trusted hound El Coco, they are invincible! It makes sense since La Destructora, or rather Jidae, isn't actually trying to be evil on purpose.
• Exact Words: Dosario gives a discount to Wurd for the latter's purchase in exchange for making No Tail leave the shopping area. However, the merchant didn't say anything about keeping No Tail out of the area. No Tail and the party are happy to exploit that loophole.
• Eye Scream:
  • Noriam lost her right eye from a Blot attack in the past.
  • Eduardo lost his left eye in the past. Supposedly, he lost it while traveling through the Blot-infested region of Old Diosia.
• Fatal Flaw: Buck's fatal flaw is obsession. Buck became so obsessed with meeting Lady Luck again that he ruined all the relationships he had made in the past, like with his ex-wives Talindra and Pamyel. This ultimately left him all alone, as best shown when he is the only pilgrim who didn't have anyone that when to intentionally see him again during the reunion in Tigamura. However, despite this, he is willing to continue ruining any future relationships he makes just to see Lady Luck again, in part because he didn't want all his efforts and sacrifices to be All for Nothing. This reveal was so bad that it tanks the relationship Buck had with all his party members.
• A Father to His Men: While he isn't the nicest person, Wurd is very supportive and protective of his underlings.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Session 16 does this leading up to La Destructora being revealed to be Jidae, like how she used a greatsword when she fought the pilgrims seriously, and how she said "I'm too old for this" during the fight (just like when she said that during the fight back at Session 1).
• Foil: Tyrell serves as this to Buck. Both of them are/were pilgrims who have more selfish goals at hand. Tyrell wants to become a goddess for the perks, and Buck wants to meet Lady Luck again just to understand why the goddess appeared to him in the first place. Both of them have abandoned people in the past in order to pursue their goals, and are willing to completely isolate themselves from everyone in order to do so. However, Tyrell portrays her situation as if the people around her are the ones in the wrong for not supporting her and that she is justified in leaving them. In contrast, Buck implies that he is highly aware that he is the horrible one in the situation for leaving his love ones behind for his selfish goal.
• Friend to All Children: La Destructora the Destroyer (or rather Jidae) seems to be quite friendly with children, with kids cheering for her during her fight against the pilgrims, and even allowing them to draw on her cardboard spear.
• Friend to All Living Things: Prickly Pear is a grandmotherly Warforged who loves taking care of kinds of animals and monsters.
• Funny Background Event: During the campaign, the players quietly but frequently draw funny doodles on city maps during periods of downtime when they're not speaking. One example is the New Bascay map having a drawing of an odd sea monster.
• The Gambler: Buck's whole motif: his weapon is designed after a roulette wheel, his Wild Magic uses playing cards, and his goddess is Lady Luck.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The pilgrims consist of two males (Buck and Wurd) and two females (Fritz and Laira).
• Godhood Seeker: It was revealed that Tyrell wanted to enter the realm of the gods in order to usurp them.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Played with. Fritz wears a pair of goggles on her head for protecting her eyes from bugs while flying. However, she still wears them even while she's walking or flying low.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • After a run-in with a chest mimic, Wurd starts stabbing chests with his dagger as a safety precaution against more mimics. Unfortunately, Wurd accidentally stabs a real chest so deep that his dagger broke one of the potions inside of it.
  • Laira uses "Dispel Magic" to get rid of a tracking rune on the party's cart so that nobody can tract them down anymore. Unfortunately, it worked too well as, in addition to the tracking rune, the spell also dispels the cart's levitation crystals, which helped it move in place of wheels.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Tyrell creates a portal to the realm of the gods so she could usurp them. However, to her horror, something clearly went wrong because, instead of a god, a Beholder came out instead and proceeded to petrify her into stone.
• Gravity Master: It turns out that the culprit behind the sentries' destruction at Vicerli had been using Gravity Sinkhole, a powerful gravity spell, in order to crush the sentries easily.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: During the fight against the Beholder, the party shuts down the portal while the Beholder was in the middle of it. As a result, the Beholder gets Portal Cut in half.
• Harmless Villain:
  • Both La Destructora and her pet dog El Coco fall under this. It helps that their armors are made of cardboard and La Destructora's spear is pretty shabby. It makes more sense once it's revealed that La Destructora is actually Jidae. Hilariously, while most of the party feigns fear and gravitas during their encounters, Laira genuinely perceives them to be actual serious enemies (due to her critically failing an Insight check on them in their first encounter and nobody bothering to correct her).
  • According to Jidae, the real La Destructora is also pretty incompetent.
• Hidden Depths: Edmund trained in many kinds of fields besides in being a knight. Fritz also realized that Edmund had the natural skills in stealth, with only the heavy armor getting in Edmund's way.
• Hidden Eyes: Grumble has very thick white eyebrows that cover up his eyes, helping out with hiding his expressions.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: During his compulsory fight against the pilgrims, Elias sets the greasy floor on fire, burning Fritz in the process. Unfortunately for Elias, Fritz finishes the dragon off by setting the greasy floor where he stood on fire.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Roberto runs a temple that does "treatment for the body" and sincerely wants to help out the pilgrims when he notices that they're getting dangerously too close in their investigation into the Underthrone Society and Torellan's disappearance.
• Hostile Weather: The Blot is a strange weather phenomenon unique to the Kingdom of Elynthi. It acts like a black rain that possesses the dead bodies on the ground to attack people.
• I Call It "Vera":
  • Buck named his large roulette-themed hammer as "Big Blind".
  • Later in the campaign, Wurd named his special dagger as "Negotiation".
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Chinges, the author of Buck's favorite book "Lost and Adrift", at first appears to be a typical snobby rich man like the other nobles in Trevesetta. However, once he's in private, he deliriously vents to Buck how much he hates living the noble lifestyle to the point that it's clearly driving him insane, and begs for Buck and the pilgrims to get him out so he can live a quiet life at his hut.
• Innocently Insensitive: After Buck calls out Aurelia for cheating against Fritz on roulette, Buck tries to iron out their relationship by giving a bit of money to Aurelia. Unfortunately, Aurelia takes this as an insult to pride, and Buck — realizing what he just did — decides to just leave the casino with Fritz before he sours Aurelia's mood any further.
• Internal Reveal: During the first fight against the Humanoid Blot, Buck gets paralyzed by the Blot when he is forced to remember all his past failures, like this ruined relationships with his ex-wives Talindra and Pamyel. It also shows when Buck received his blessing during his encounter with Lady Luck, which serve to send Buck into a downward spiral where he essential isolates himself from everyone during his attempts to meet Lady Luck again.
• Ironic Echo:
  • When the Blot ambushes the fight between the party and the pirates, Buck decides to put his focus on the Blot over the pirates, asking the pirate next to him to not make him regret changing targets since they both have bigger problems now. The pirate's response is a callous "We'll see where it goes". Not long after that, that same pirate gets trapped by the humanoid Blot and screams to Buck for help, with Buck replying "We'll see where it goes".
  • In Session 10, after discussing about the strained relationship between Pyria and Coriac, Wurd convinces Pyria to at least meet with Coriac halfway and see where it goes. In the next session, after acting dismissive and rude towards her birth father, Fritz — having basically just gone through the same discussion with her own birth father — realized that she should at least give him another chance and meet him halfway.
• I Shall Taunt You: Wurd does this to Cecilia during the cage match in the form of his Kobold ability "Grovel, Cower, and Beg" in order to give the others advantage on attacking Cecilia.
• It Can Think: During the party's second run-in with the humanoid Blot, they found out to their horror that the Blot seems to possess a form of sentience and intelligence. Not only can the humanoid Blot be able to understand people and use a form of communication, but it is capable of preparing ambushes, commanding other Blot in strategic attacks, and identifying who possesses the dragon hearts.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Captain Arzire appears to be a somewhat stoic and strict guard who simply follows Lord Nicholas' orders and doesn't care for people outside of his duties. However, the party steadily realize that he still has an earnest conscience, quietly expressing concern for his lord's suspicious-at-best conduct and guilt for not being able to help civilians. When the pilgrims decide to break away from his watch to heal a civilian suffering from the plague, he willfully pretends to turn a blind eye, passively enabling them to do so, and expresses relief when they're successful.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Edmund Goldback seems to fit the picture of a traditional chivalrous knight, from the personality to the looks. He is forced to abandon the knight armor and to bend his knightly code when the pilgrims make him face the reality of how dangerous his Lord Nicholas is.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In Session 26, the party ambushes a group of Baztan gaurds who were experimenting on a Kobold named Gola. A rather defiant mage guard is able to land a nasty attack on all the pilgrims, but a frightened footman (who was being pinned and mauled at by panther-form Laira) quickly surrenders and begs his wizard coworker to surrender too.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Torellan tries to earn more money through bets done during the tournament by hiring a weather witch to summon the Blot in the middle of the event in order to delay it. It goes wrong HARD: Not only does it fail because the Blot gets summoned after the fight, but he also loses all his money because he bet it all against Buck's team (who won). To top it all off, he now owes a thousand gold to the Underthrone Society, which he can't pay. It's only thanks to Buck's persuasion that Torellan is merely exiled from Sacia for being unable to pay his debt instead of... much worse.
  • Andre Aviles is quite terrible to his own daughter, whom he berates whenever the latter loses in a match. He also has no problems bad-mouthing people like the pilgrims of Sacia or Cecilia's own teammates behind their backs. He finally gets a taste of his own medicine when he is endangered by the Blot with only a cane to defend himself, and the only people able to rescue him is his own daughter and the pilgrims. After saving the jerk's butt, when he still has the nerve to complain and badmouth his daughter, Cecilia finally has enough and punches her dad unconscious.
  • Tyrell uses the pilgrims and steals their dragon hearts in order to create a portal to the realm of the gods so she could usurp them. However, it goes wrong when the portal releases a Beholder instead, and because Laira was able to relinquish most of the dragon hearts from Tyrell, the weather witch doesn't have enough power to free herself from the Beholder and ends up being petrified by it. To top it all off, Wurd breaks off the petrified Tyrell's right hand off to hinder her ability to use magic against them.
• Late to the Tragedy: Within the ruins near Pallitrios, the party finds a ruined civilization that showed signs of it being attacked and possibly massacred by a third party in the past. It is suggested that the third party are people from Elynthi.
• Laughably Evil: La Destructora is this because not only is she and her partner Harmless Villains, but they are also pretty hammy to boot. With the reveal that La Destructora is actually Jidae in disguise, it makes sense that she wasn't really trying to be evil.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Spade the Warforged got his name because the first thing he saw when he awakened was a spade. Later, the pilgrims encounter a Warforged in Trevesetta who simply goes by "number 7" (he's not allowed his own name until he pays off his debts), and when asked if he thought about what he'll name himself, he falls back on the Warforged tradition of naming himself after the first thing he saw at his awakening: "Soup Ladle".
• A Lizard Named "Liz": The party named their second horse Efficiency because Lord Nicholas described the previously nameless horse having good efficiency.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Fritz found out that Astrapio Bescires, an official from Pallitrios, is her birth father.
• Mean Boss: According to Adrian, one of the pirates, his boss, Paula the Rattler, is this to her crew.
• Meaningful Echo: In Pallitrios, Spade asks Buck what does he plan to do if the latter finally gets the payoff from his worship for Lady Luck. Buck struggles to reply to this question, showing how aimless the gambler is. Later on, Buck gets the party caught in a trap that nearly kills Laira because he was desperate to finally meet Lady Luck again. Upon learning this motive, Wurd separately asks Buck what he is going to do once the latter gets his wish, which again leaves Buck speechless, showing the true extent of how truly bad and hopeless Buck's pursuit of Lady Luck is.
• Meaningful Name: Fritz seemingly didn't have a birth name before Captain Dozin adopted her — he gave her her name because she never cried as a baby, jokingly describing her as "being on the fritz".
• Mysterious Veil: Shymaia wears a mushroom-themed hat with a veil to conceal their face. During Session 18, Shymaia finally reveals her face to her pupil during a serious and heartwarming conversation.
• Never Learned to Read: Wurd isn't even able to read Common, with a Running Gag being that he has to have other people read important documents for him. This especially becomes a problem after he tasks Non-Stop Begonia to dig up some info on Trevesetta and Lord Nicholas, to which he returns with important books.
• Noodle Incident:
  • In Session 1, Fritz remembers Wurd for "the incident" involving the latter a month prior to the first session's setting.
  • Fritz said that once should wear goggles in order to prevent bugs getting in their eyes when they flies, implying this happened to her.
• No Social Skills:
  • Laira falls under this due to her upbringing under Shymaia, someone who is also unsociable. However, despite her own social isolation, Shymaia tries to teach her pupil how important it is to interact with other people during the pilgrimage.
  • A frequent point of hilarity among the cast, especially out-of-universe, the entire party utterly lacks anyone actually specialized for talking (and this is despite 5E having several classes and subclasses devoted to the charisma attribute). Ironically, Laira has the highest charisma in the entire party at a +2. Of the group, Wurd and Fritz are the most gung-ho about attempting diplomacy, but are held back by being smart-mouthed and scatterbrained respectively. Any successful social skill checks are treated as pennies from heaven by the party as a result.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: During the discussions about contacting the gods for answers about the true nature of the Blot, Buck admits to Laira that he doesn't give a damn about the truth with the Life Tree Queremsia and Old Diosia, as he only cares about is meeting Lady Luck again, no matter what.
• Not So Above It All: Despite Non-Stop Begonia lashing out at Wurd for eating a suspicious magical egg grown from a magic bean that exploded Wurd's stomach, the creature would later ask Wurd what the magical egg tasted like.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Tyrell claims that she and Buck are the same: people who are willing to do anything for their goals and leave anyone who tries to get in their way.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Lord Nicholas Tejero shows many signs of this. Not only does he want to alter how the pilgrimage works for the sake of efficiency, but he has even goes as far as taken over New Bascay and plans to implement several laws that could get in the way of the citizens' lives. There is even suspicion that he may be working with the Underthrone Society to take over Elythi.
• Odd Friendship: Dozin and Astrapio used to be this in the past. Dozin was the sociable dwarf with an interest in the sea, while Astrapio was the more reclusive individual who had an interest in books and learning.
• Official Couple: Seems to be the case between Rama and Cecilia by Session 8, thanks to the party's help.
• Only Friend: It seems Cecilia's only companion whom she can drop her gladiator persona and show how she really feels is Rama from the Soft Shore's Inn. Though, that friendship seemed to have grew into something more, as the party saw them holding hands and kissing in secret.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Fritz is usually the Nice Guy of the group, only showing anger towards jerks who insult her or her companions. However, when she meets her biological father Astrapio, she shows signs of Tranquil Fury towards the man who gave birth to her, even despite him trying to appeal to her in a mannerly fashion. Even Fritz herself admits later on that she acted rather out of character from someone who is normally kind towards most people, and should have not outright dismissed him.
  • Buck normally has a cool head, even in some tense situations. However, upon surviving a Blot attack, learning that the Blot had intelligence, and realizing it was potentially following them, he ends up so stressed and paranoid that he actually attacks La Destructora the Destroyer even after she already lost
  • Buck is usually a gambling type, even to the dangerous degree. It says a lot that even Buck refuses to risk starting a coup in Trevesetta until he is absolutely certain of their chances of succeeding.
• Opposites Attract: Eduardo Borobia is a reckless, energetic, and friendly adventurer. His husband Iker is a cautious, tired-looking, and stern healer.
• Our Dragons Are Different: While traditional D&D dragons do exist in this world, the Kingdom of Elynthi also have five people who can transform into dragons. These five dragons are responsible for the "hearts" that help bring vitality back to the Life Tree.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Wurd is very protective of his followers. When he meets the weather witch responsible for the Blot that endangered his minions, he attempts to kill her for putting his people in harm's way.
  • Captain Dozin makes it clear that he won't let anyone, may it pirates or even the Blot, so much as get near his crew.
• Parental Abandonment: Fritz was left behind by her parents to Dozin because her parents fell out of love with each other (leading to their divorce) and believed that they wouldn't be able to give Fritz a stable life for her to be raised properly.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Shymaia acts as this for her pupil, Laira.
  • Captain Dozin is this towards Fritz.
  • Sergi, the dragon of Pallitrios, seem to act as this for Miquel as he is the only one willing to look after Miquel despite the latter's mischiefs.
• Precision F-Strike: Fritz gives two of these in the same session: the first is when she tells Buck that she doesn't give a 'fuck' about her biological dad. The second one is when she straight-up calls her birth dad a 'fucking coward' to his face.
• Poor Communication Kills: The strained relationship between Pyria and Coriac was caused because Pyria's letters to Coriac went strangely unanswered for a whole decade. This led to Pyria moving on with her life and Coriac seemingly being under the misconception that nothing much had changed back home.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • When the party discusses activating the divination circles at the Pallitrios ruins in order to open the magical seal blocking their passage, Wurd suggests that the party tie up or move the skeletons that are near the divination circles, fearing that they would reanimate once the circles are activated. The party ultimately didn't do Wurd's suggestion. The skeletons promptly do reanimate after the divination circles are activated, immediately attacking the party.
  • After the party's run-in with the humanoid Blot near Pallitrios, the party starts to get concerned that they are somehow being tracked down. This is further enhanced with their reunion with La Destructora soon after that. The party eventually finds a tracking rune on the cart gifted to them by Lord Nicholas.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Laira isn't the type of person to raise her voice and let her emotions loose when anger, as seen with her interactions with jerks like Andre. However, she finally snaps at Lord Eufrasia when she reaches her limit as a result of the lord's attitude and flawed argument against the party, as well as her recent near-death experience from the city's nearby ruins.
  • Fritz reached this from Buck getting the group caught in a trap that nearly killed Laira. She makes it clear that a simple apology from Buck isn't going to be enough to make up for this.
• Rags to Riches:
  • While we don't know Talindra's entire financial situation in the past, we do know she had struggled during the early days of her baking business (and that's not taking into account when she had to support Buck's gambling loses prior to their divorce). However, Talindra now currently runs a successful and popular bakery that caters to the coliseum.
  • Roberto was in such a bad situation in the past that he ended up involved by the Underthrone Society, only to end up as a slave. However, he would later be able to claw his way up to the point that he became powerful enough to leave the criminal group and start the Temple of Saphira in New Bascay.
• Rail-Car Separation: When the Humanoid Blot breaks into the back of the train, Buck disconnects the carts at the back of the train in order to prevent the Blot from getting to the others. Unfortunately, this leads the party to lose their stuff that was left behind in those carts: their carriage, their Lantern of True Sight, and Wurd's horse snacks for Butterscotch and Efficiency.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While the target of the speech (Andre) wasn't around, Fritz had no problem giving out that speech to Cecilia after seeing how Andre treated his own daughter.
• The Reveal: Buck reveals that he had been blessed by Lady Luck in the past, granting him his Wild Surge ability with the magic deck. However, Buck became obsessed with meeting Lady Luck again, leading him into a long journey that would lead him to his wives, Talindra and Pamyel, who he ended up abandoning to continue his quest. He admits to having abandoned other people he met in the past for that search for Lady Luck, and furthermore makes it clear that he still will continue searching for Lady Luck, and is willing to continue burning down every new relationship he makes in the future in order to make his wish come true. This revelation sours the relationship between him and his party members.
• Rebellious Spirit: Liam has a strong dislike towards authority and the current norms, especially the current norms for the fae. He prefers the old ways of the fae, finding the older versions of fae as mischief makers and troublemakers to be way more fun.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Wurd recruits Paula the Rattler to both run the Soft Shore's Inn and gather information in New Bascay in order for the party to be kept updated on the movements of Lord Nicholas and the Underthrone Society in the city.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The large humanoid Blot that attackes the party in the middle of the sea had a single red eye. It is also obviously very powerful and shows signs of sentience.
• Revenge Before Reason: As the party confronts the Tyrell the weather witch, she only agrees to explain her methods on how she summoned the Blot in exchange for them never telling anyone that she was involved, enforcing it with a hex. Most of the party reluctantly agrees to the deal, but Wurd — knowing that she's complicit in hurting his minions — pulls a dagger on her and has to be talked down by his friends to cooperate.
• The Rival: Purposefully invoked by La Destructora, who goes well out of her way to antagonize the party in petty ways that in no fashion actually threatens them. This is deliberate, because Jidae simply wants to track their progress through the pilgrimage across Elynthi with silly rival battles inspired by the original La Destructora (who was equally as ineffectual when she fought Jidae's crew). When the party explains to her that things with the Blot are getting particularly tense, Jidae actually puts effort into fighting them on the train to truly test their capabilities, showing herself to be far stronger than she presented herself as being during the competition to become a pilgrim again during the first session, way before officially revealing herself to the party. The party and Jidae mutually agree following the real fight to keep up the appearances of being rivals, and fights following the train encounter return to being silly, fun affairs to help the group and Jidae relieve stress. Humorously, until the train fight and Jidae's confession, Laira actually considers La Destructora to be a threat that's holding back against them for some nebulous reason. The rest of the party doesn't bother to correct her.
• Robbing the Dead: Wurd has no issues desecrating the dead when he digs into a random grave in Old Diosia, just to look for some loot.
• Rooftop Confrontation: The true fight against La Destructora goes from the train to the top of the train's roof.
• Save the Jerk: While not a villain, Andre is a massive jerk to both the party and even his own daughter Cecilia. Nevertheless, the party begrudging save the old man's life from the Blot, but only for Cecilia's sake.
• Save the Villain: A group of pirates attack the ship that the party was on. Unfortunately for everyone, both sides are ambushed midway the fight by a group of Blot, seemingly led by a large humanoid Blot. In the end, Fritz saves one of the remaining pirate minions (Adrian, a tiefling) and Wurd saves the pirate captain, Paula the Rattler.
• Scars Are Forever:
  • Buck has scars over his body, which are usually hidden by his poncho. He got them during his travels to meet Lady Luck again.
  • Grumble has scars and bruises on his arms, possibly due to his job as a protector and mechanic behind the town's sentries.
  • Noriam has a scar on her face as a result of a Blot attack.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After Laira pushes the powerful humanoid Blot out of the ship and back into the ocean, Fritz uses Gust of Wind to push the ship's sail so they can drive the ship as far and as fast away as possible before more Blot arrive or the humanoid Blot returns.
  • When Paula walks in to see La Destructora making a scene outside the Soft Shore's Inn, she decides she doesn't want anything to do with it and heads back inside the inn.
  • Pavita chose to abandon her duties as Trevesetta's dragon, running from the city, because she couldn't handle the stress and pressure from the unending troubles of the people.
• Secretly Selfish: It's revealed that Buck is obsessed with meeting Lady Luck after his first encounter with her in the past. As a result, he was willing to abandon his former wives Talindra and Pamyel and break their hearts, as well as ruin many other relationships he had. If fact, he is still so obsessed with seeing Lady Luck again that he allows his party to be put in danger. Even after admitting how aware he is on how isolated he's made himself in this pursuit, he is still adamant on continuing his search for Lady Luck and is still willing to ruin any future relationship he might make.
• Secret Test of Character: Eduardo pretends to be a newbie adventurer seeking help from potential candidates to see if they have what it takes to be adventurers.
• Sex Slave: Roberto from the Temple of Saphira strongly implied to have been this during his younger days, back when he was part of the Underthrone Society.
• Ship Tease:
  • Lord Candela seems to have a crush on Jorbib.
  • Rama and Cecilia seem pretty close as they were Only Friend of each other. This relationship grew by Session 8, where the party sees the two secretly kiss.
  • When the pilgrims mention to Liam (the fey prankster who keeps following them) that Captain Arzire (the stoic dragonborn guard of Trevesetta) is actually on their side, Liam briefly asks if he's single. The pilgrims are decidedly less enthusiastic about their chances.
• Shipper on Deck: The party is this with Rama and Cecilia, as they helped the two become an Official Couple.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After surviving the Blot attack near New Bascay, the party and Cecilia grow sick and tired of listening to Andre complaining how bad they did their job to demanding money from his daughter. After Andre has the nerve to shout that Cecilia would be nothing without him, Cecilia snaps and punches her dad out cold in one punch.
• Spiteful Spit: After overhearing Andre berating not just his team but even his own daughter, Wurd makes his displeasure clear by spitting on Andre's shoes before the old man leaves. Wurd would do another aggressive spit towards Andre's direction after the former saves the latter from the Blot, with Andre still not learning his lesson.
• The Stoic:
  • Laira doesn't show much emotion due to her upbringing and serious personality.
  • Grumble is a man of few words and little expression, helped by the fact that has thick eyebrows covering his eyes, and a bushy beard and mustache covering his mouth.
• Stunned Silence:
  • Played for drama. When Wurd questions Buck on what he is going to do after the latter gets his wish to see Lady Luck again, Buck is left speechless. Even above table, Feltheleb even admits he's just as speechless as his character, having no idea how Buck should react to that.
  • When a Baztan guard tries to prevent the pilgrims from choosing to help out a civilian over going to a meeting with Lord Nicholas, Laira silences him with a nasty insult that even JoCat himself is stunned with.
• Survivor Guilt: Sergi show signs of this, feeling guilty for the death of his group by the ancient Warforged during their exploration at the Pallitrios ruins, holding out that getting the ancient Warforged's heart for his research could make sure the group's sacrifice wasn't in vain.
• Sword Plant: When Jidae decides to retire from joining future pilgrimages, she leaves her greatsword on the ground in front of Sacia's temple, along with many other weapons left behind by previous pilgrims.
• Taken for Granite: Tyrell gets turned to stone by a Beholder during her attempts to open a portal to the realm of the gods. The only way she could be cured of her petrification is with a Greater Restoration spell or with a Greater Restoration potion, leaving her in a disadvantageous situation for when Buck later interrogates her.
• Team Pet: Butterscotch the Horse gets bought by Wurd, and they swiftly get another horse named Efficiency.
• Tempting Fate: A Baztan footman asks his companion why they were needed to be stationed in an experimentation room... moments before he gets ambushed by Laira in her panther form.
  Baztan Footman: Hey, you ever wondered why we're here- (gets tackled and pinned by Laira) Oh Gods!
• That Came Out Wrong:
  • While Buck tries to help Fritz out with her issue about her meeting the father that abandoned her, he makes a comment of how Wurd would kill Astrapio if Fritz told him to. Fritz jokes on how that comment makes it sound like that he's the one who wants to kill Astrapio, leading Buck to backpedal.
  • When Wurd tries to convince Fritz to drink someone's leftover alcohol, he ends up describing the drink as "pristine trash". Conveniently, Wurd also rolled a Nat 1 on his Persuasion. As a result, Fritz isn't interested in the idea of drinking something referred to as "trash".
• Token Evil Teammate: Unsurprisingly for a rogue, Wurd fits this to a 'T. Unlike the rest of his team, he isn't above stealing, cheating, and just being a troublemaker.
• Too Dumb to Live: Played with: Out of character, Runesmith knew that Wurd could still survive if he ate an enchanted egg that had a high chance of blowing up upon being eaten. However, in-character, Wurd just knows it as an egg that grew from a magic bean and decides to try eating out to find out what happens.
• Tragic Keepsake: Sergi's heart is a wrench wand that originally belonged to a goliath friend named Viglin, who died during the exploration of the ruins near Pallitrios.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Fritz shows signs of this when she meets her birth father for the first time, being rather dismissive towards him and even outright calling him a stranger rather than a father.
  • Captain Arzire undergoes this when he learns from the party that the plague spreading in Trevesetta is actually being artificially created by Lord Nicholas and his minions. This is on top of the learning that Pavita's life may be in danger, and that Lord Nicholas plans to make himself as his city's dragon along as the city's lord.
• Trauma Button: The Humanoid Blot is capable to paralyzing people with visions of their biggest failures by staring the target directly into their eyes.
• Trickster Mentor: Eduardo, Tigamura's guild master, tries to be one by pretending to be a newbie adventurer and seeking out help from potential adventurer candidates. Unfortunately, he isn't very good at it due to his Bad "Bad Acting".
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: Buck suffers this as a result of the Humanoid Blot paralyzing him with visions of his past failures.
• Unfinished Business: The party finds several lingering spirits inside the ruins near Pallitrios, being the remaining emotions and thoughts of those who died within the ruins.
• The Unfought:
  • Sergi is the Dragon of Pallitrios, but unlike previous dragons the party encounters, he doesn't fight them at any point. Dragons are in control of the terms in which they hand their hearts to pilgrims, and Sergi decides to simply give it to them after helping explore the ruins of the old world south of the city.
  • Pavita, the Dragon of Trevesetta, similarly chooses to not fight the pilgrims. Her "dungeon" instead takes the form of the party trying to find her in the swamp she chose to hide in, and upon locating her, they convince her to help fight with them in staging a revolution on the city.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Narrowly avoided: When the party finds Liam stowing away in their carriage, the party prepares to capture and punish him. Liam then proceeds to threaten to destroy a locket that he stole from the party, unaware that said locket is in fact a dragon's heart, and destroying it would doom all of Elynthi. Fortunately, the party is able to safely get the locket back thanks to Laira's Entangle spell.
• Verbal Tic: Whenever Laira is nervous about something, she'll very overtly suck in a breath, either during conversation, before talking, or sometimes just mid-conversation with another person.
• Walking the Earth: Jidae prefers to travel around the land freely. She's currently torn between her desire to continue doing this and the need to take over her uncle's role as Sacia's dragon, as becoming an Elythian dragon robs your freedom to travel.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: La Destructora the Destroyer's spear is just a long pole made of wood with a sharp metal shard tied/taped on top, and it's so weak that Wurd to cut in half with just one hit. This, along with her literal cardboard armor, reflecting how hilariously ineffectual she is. La Destructora pulling out a real greatsword when she challenge the pilgrims to a real fight not only shows she's serious, but also doubles as a Five-Second Foreshadowing to her identify as Jidae.
  La Destructora the Destroyer: It was the best I could do. What could I say?
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Supposedly, Priest Omar of Sacia's cathedral created the Underthrone Society in order to allow "unscrupulous people" to still live in Sacia, so long as they honour their agreements and keep in line. However, Elias still has his doubts.
• We Used to Be Friends: Dozin reveals that he and Astrapio had a bit of an Odd Friendship in the past as a result of the latter defending him from a crime he didn't commit. However, after Astrapio gave his daughter to Dozin to take care of, the two men had a falling-out when Astrapio barely communicated back to Dozin before all communications just stopped altogether.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The party runs into this dilemma when they run into an argument between merchant named Ruben and a warforged named Abril. Apparently, Ruben bought an unawakened warforged to work for him, and claims that he would set it fear when it awakens. However, Abril wants the unawakened warforged to be sent to the Pallitrios' lord for storage until it has awakened because he feared that otherwise the unawakened warforged would be worked ragged to the point of being badly damaged before it awakened.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • During the cage fight between the pilgrims and Cecilia's team, Cecilia prioritizes healing herself over healing one of her allies, which hurt him. However, this is because of the pressure Cecilia is under by both her father and the audience.
  • During the third fight between the pilgrims and La Destructora the Destroyer, Buck attacks La Destructora again even though the latter already lost and was in the middle of monologuing right before leaving. La Destructora is shocked that Buck would do that, and even the party gets upset with Buck's actions. In fairness, Buck was still tired from fighting against the Blot earlier, and was currently paranoid with the idea that the Blot was somehow tracking them down.
  • A more comedic example: Buck ended up losing the party's stuff from performing a Rail-Car Separation during a fight against the Blot. When Wurd finds out, he gets mad at Buck for losing the horse treats and demands him to pay back for them.
  • A serious and dramatic one: Fritz is absolutely furious with Buck because the latter's interests in taking Tyrell's offer to communicate with the gods led the party into a trap so deadly that it almost killed Laira.
  • Wurd is angered upon learning that Pavita abandoned her city because she couldn't handle the responsibilities of being the dragon anymore. Upon meeting her, he chews her out — even with her attempts to justify herself in having the position being forced upon her by birth — because people have gotten seriously hurt by her absence.
• Wham Line:
  • During the rematch against the Humanoid Blot near Pallitrios, the monstrous creature lets out a chilling line in Common as it seemingly dies. This foreboding phrase confirms suspicions and raises concerning questions.
    Humanoid Blot: WE WERE HERE BEFORE.
  • The Humanoid Blot delivers another one during the attack at the train, revealing a connection between the Blot and the fallen civilization that accused Elynthi of betraying and destroying them.
    Humanoid Blot: (to Buck) BETRAYERS.
• Wham Shot:
  • After discovering a restless spirit of a supposed lord that ruled a destroyed town within the Pallitrios ruins, they find dragon scales on the lord's chair that the spirit was at. This is especially shocking because the spirits of the destroyed claimed that Elynthi, the civilization with five dragons that help support the Life Tree, is responsible for their death and destruction.
  • At the end of Session 18, the Weather Witch Tyrell makes a return in Tigamura after suddenly disappearing in Sacia some sessions ago.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Defied. According to Pavita, she was forced into having the responsibility of being a dragon just because she "won the gene lottery". As a result, Pavita was forced to constantly save people her whole life, only for more trouble to arrive soon after. Pavita eventually grew sick and tired of it all, choosing to run away and abandon all her duties as the dragon so she could finally live her own life.
• Woman Scorned: Pamyel Masante never forgave Buck for abandoning her after their divorce, calling him a horrible person and telling his companions that they shouldn't trust him.
• You Are Number 6: The Awoken Warforge in Trevesetta's secret dungeon is named Number 7. According to him, he isn't allowed to have a real name until he "pays off his debts" as a Warforged owned by someone. Number 7 plans to change his name into Soup Ladle once he earns his freedom.
• You Have Failed Me: A non-lethal version: after the pilgrims fail to overthrow Trevesetta's government and end up in bigger danger than ever, Non-Stop Begonia announces to Wurd that he's been forced to reevaluate their partnership and decides to cut their pact then and there.
• You're Not My Father: Fritz says this to Astrapio as the former sees Dozin as her real father and her birth father abandoned her when she was so young.

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