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Bye Bye Magic Items: D&D Cartoon: The Hall of Bones Ep 3

Time to talk about the D&D Cartoon again. We discuss Episode 3 Hall of Bones and how to add lessons from it into your Dungeons and Dragons game. We believe whether you are the Dungeon Master or a player there is something to learn. Below there is the video and transcription.

Bye Bye Magic Items: D&D Cartoon: The Hall of Bones Ep 3 Video

Bye Bye Magic Items: D&D Cartoon: The Hall of Bones Ep 3Video Transcription

Ted: “So Dave, did you take any notes on where we need to go next in this game?”

Dave: “No, Ted. I didn’t have my notebook with me. I got like notes papers here, somewhere.”

Ted: “Didn’t it have something to do with the hall of stones?”

Dave: “I don’t know, Ted. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s all halls or made a stone’s typical, right What was it The hall groans maybe?”

Ted: “What is that a place full of bad jokes. Maybe it was the hall of bones?”

Dave: “Yeah. It sounds like you want to talk about episode 3 of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, to me Ted.”

Dave: “Welcome to Nerdarchy. I’m Nerdarchist Dave and as usual, I’m hanging out with this nerd.”

Ted: ”Nerdarchist Ted.”

Dave: “Hey, maybe it’s your first time hanging out in Ted’s basement. It’s a place where we’d like to discuss news, views, and homebrews for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes we even talked about other role-playing games.”

Ted: “So if you don’t want to miss a single video within, don’t forget to crit hit that subscribe button and attune to that notification bell.”

Dave: “All right. We did it. We made it to episode three of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. I want to say, surprisingly of like cartoons that I’ve gone back and watched from my childhood, this holds up pretty well.”

Ted: “Well. I’m going to say loosely. I mean, it is still dealing with a lot of, you know, D&D tropes that just, you know, aren’t in, you know, in the niche anymore.”

Dave: “Well, yeah, we agree with that. But that being said, like, I remember them, I remember playing that way. When I compare it to other You know cartoons, I’ve gone back on watched. It’s a lot more palatable, like thinking about going back to Gen 1 transformers, or even you know Thunddar the barbarian.”

Ted: “A geez, transformers where like, okay, oh my God, something has gone slightly against plan runaway every single episode.”

Dave: “Once again, um, the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, they use that in media res right in the beginning, they running away from these flying monkey creatures through what looks to be like a swamp or something. And we later find out that they’re called Simian bats.”

Ted: “Right. And you know, low and behold, they’re agents Venger, uh, you know, who was constantly on their heels but unable to just, you know, step in and I’m going to just beat them up and take their stuff. So you have that typical villain who isn’t willing to do the work themselves. So you have that, you know, that fallacy of, okay, here is a reason why. Just because maybe he could be defeaTed, They’ve got powerful items. He doesn’t want that to happen. So he’s got to use stronger and stronger lackeys just like what happens in a typical D&D game.”

Dave: “Well, really what is the point of being an evil villain mastermind if you can have some lackeys to boss around and have to do your dirty work for you.”

Ted: “So as always, you know, we’re going to talk about what happens in the show and kind of D&D ize it and see like what kind of, you know, tips, advice. Can we take away from the actual happenings So almost right away the magic items start to fail.”

Dave: “Yes. I mean they only made it through three episodes and they’re already starting to go. You didn’t mean that, did you? You meant in this episode.”

Ted: “In this episode. And magic items are, are running out of power and you know, the barbarian is like, you know, oh, there are batteries. Just need to be recharged. The other people in the campaign or the other, you know, characters are saying we’re not in a real world. We’re in a fantasy world. There’s no such thing as batteries. So then when, when the DM Dungeon Master shows up, it’s like, oh, they need to be recharged Bobby’s like batteries.”

Dave: “Yeah, you know, essentially. So, so you get that encounter just for the, to kind of illustrate that the magic items are failing. They barely make it through, but they do manage to escape. And once again, as you said, Dungeon Master shows up. They’ll let them know what their next quest is going to be. It’s the go to the hall bones so they can place their items in the skull of power to recharge them.”

Ted: “I’ve been playing D&D for over 25 years at this point. And like magic items running out of power, unless it’s like an item that has charges or uses, it’s not something that you know is a, is a common thing if at all. So this, this, you know, fuels my thoughts of okay, well, you know, what could cause magic items to possibly fail short of, you know, anti-magic areas.”

Dave: “Well I kind of reiterate that. I do feel like this holds up, especially the D&D tropes cause it, you know, that it’s a fantastic idea if, say the group has gotten magic items for my specific location, a specific set, a specific theme, they’re all involved. They have something that makes them all kind of connecTed it would make sense for them to maybe have the same problem, the same, uh, the same failure maybe. And they could, and it does create a great adventure for the evening, for a session, maybe a mini-arc where you’re like, oh, we have these cool things. We don’t want to lose them. So now we have to get them recharged. You know, one concept is, you know like, like in the show it’s like, oh well they only last 300 years and then you need to recharge the magic in them. And you know, these may have all been a set for whatever reason, so that would make sense. Or perhaps something happens that only affects these particular items.”

Ted: “I wasn’t seeing that it was a problem. I was seeing that it offers a lot of cause of inspiration. Now honestly, you could take it from the idea that it could be a, a session, this is, this is the theme of tonight’s adventure and your magic items aren’t working. You know, it could be a mini-campaign where you do have to go up against things that are going to be more challenging because the things that you’ve been relying on aren’t working or it absolutely could be a, hey, as the GM I screwed up, I gave a magic item that is too powerful now and oh, it needs to be recharged. But it’s on the other side of the world. So by the time you get there, you have gained enough levels to be able to use that kind of item and it’s another way of doing it. Short of, no, you can’t have that. I goofed up.”

Dave: “Yeah, I, you know, as you’re talking, that’s where my mind was wondering is like, oh, the DM did a Monte Haul campaign and now they need to fix it. Oh, how can I fix it I know the items fail for a while and you have to go on a quest to recharge them. From another standpoint though of, hey, I’m the GM, I want to put these really cool magic items in and I want to give them a taste right and be like, and let them be just totally badass for a session or two because they have these items that are way too powerful for their level. But then you take, then you pull it back, you’d be like, all right, now they’re going to be hooked. They’re going to want that. They’re going to want more of that. And this is going to what’s going to motivate them to go adventure.”

Ted: “So, I mean, there’s a lot that, you know, you just can take away. And I’m certain you guys out there watching, uh, you know, probably have even more ideas off of just that simple idea of hey, magic items, even though they’re considered a permanent item, they don’t always have to be.”

Dave: “ Absolutely. All right. So once again, this is the third episode and we get the third riddle.”

Ted: ”So this one is, you know, uh, in darkness look to the light and all of the episodes, they always goof up the riddle to some degree that when they first, you know, get to town, they’re looking for a guide so that they can figure out how to get to the hall of bones.”
Dave: “Yeah. And later on that, that kind of comes up and it kind of, um, leads them down the wrong road. But before that, one of the things I noticed right away when they get into town, the town is super diverse. Like there’s orcs, bullywugs, lizardfolk, bugbears, trolls, like all kinds of monstrous races just running around in this town. I mean, it might make more sense because later it’s revealed when like running away from these monsters because they try and they try and convince them to be the guide. And Eric like totally bumbles it. He failed his persuasion check and you know, gets into a lot of trouble. So they throw them a bag of coinage, which turns out to be bottle caps, not coins. So now they’re super, super angry mob mode.”

Ted: “Now this is a, a cool takeaway for me is I like the idea of a town full of monsters in a campaign world that we made long ago. It was a virtual city of orcs and it was, was Gawnor it was a, it was a great cool place, but it wasn’t inhabiTed by your typical humanoids to end to have, you know, something like, like this where it’s not humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, what have you, you know, here you get to, to have like, hey look, even back then, you know, this is absolutely a possibility. So why not, you know, create something like this in the, in the world where it’s like, all right, yes, the monsters races that are tribal and what have you. Here they, you know, have a government, have a city, have rules and you know, can exist. Maybe their rules are different. Maybe things don’t act the way normal, you know, human cities do. But it’s something that I look at as, yes, this is something that I would want to put in a world just for its uniqueness.”

Dave: “Yeah. I mean it, you know, years and years later, Keith Baker, you know create a nation of monsters, Droam him with lots of monster cities. So it’s kind of cool to see that even back then, you know, Gary and the crew are doing it. So it’s a thing. Well, so they’re running away from this mob and they see a woman and she’s got a torch and they’re like, and she’s like, follow me. I’m going to help you. And it turns out low and behold.”

Ted: “Here’s where they screw up the riddle up. It’s, it’s darkness. And look, she’s got a torch. That means follow the light.”

Dave: “It’s, it’s darkness. And look, she’s got a torch. That means follow the light and what they ended up following his Lolth and they, you know, they end up on a spider web over the top of a bottomless pit and it’s uni to the rescue. This time Venger gets all their items and you know, the, it looks like they’re going to be lunch for Lolth, but uni manages it to cut them out with, with his horn as well as cut the strand that Lolth is hanging from to drop her into the bottomless pit.”

Ted: “Because you know, the demon queen of spiders as she’s introduced as you know, is going to fall susceptible to something such as, you know, falling from her web.”

Dave: “Yes, of course. I, you know, so there’s some hokiness but again, you know, uh, it’s a kids’ cartoon, so.”

Ted: “ Absolutely. But you know what, that, what that does show us is that the players, you know, put forth an interesting idea. This is a nice GM/DM that is not just, Oh, I’m going to kill Ya. Hey, what How do you think you’re going to get out of this? All right, well, hey my, my animal companion isn’t tied like the rest of us. Can they cut us free? Can they cut this? This is where an interesting idea is put forth, an interesting solution to their problem, and a DM runs with it.”

Dave: “Absolutely. You know, speaking of running with something, why don’t you guys run over to the Nerdarchy Store over on the dot com website, which there will be a link in the description below where you can find Nerdarchy produced products. We’ve got Heroes to Hit Dice over there. Fantastical Mounts a, we’ve got a ton of other products that we’ve made. We’ve got enamel pins, we’ve got 3D printer terrain. We’ve got all kinds of stuff you need to take a look at.”

Ted: “So go, uh, go check it out and then come back to the video. All right, so they, they, they wind up getting free from the spider as Dave says. You know, Venger has got the magic items, but none of them work. So you pretty much is like, you know, these are garbage and just tosses him to the.”

Dave: “No, no, no, no, not yet. He does it because he didn’t find out the hard way. They’re garbage. Like they eventually tracked down Venger and they chased them down. And of course, whenever there’s a problem with Venger who shows up?”

Both: “Tiamat!”

Dave: “Yeah, Tiamat makes an appearance like every episode pretty much. And he’s like Venger is like, Hahaha, I finally have you. I’m going to suck the magic out of these items. And use it to defeat Tiamat once and for all. Uh, but the problem is the magic items are fading. You know, they kind of depower, he gets upset, chucks them, they get the items back. Uh, but earlier in the episode when Vengers spies were introduced and it was a shadow.”

Ted: “Yes. And here is another great take away is when you have the ability to, as DM control the outlying images or you know, things on, on the scene, you have a way to give information to a villain that only the players have. And you know, if you’ve got, you know, an invisible spy, shadow, something that is going to be super stealthy and unobserved you can see what’s going on, report back to the villain and now a villain has the information. So Venger gets the idea of Oh these, these magic items are not crud. They just need to be recharged. He knows where they need to go. Being a supervillain and you know, lots of power. He knows where the hall of bones is. But sadly at this point, he’s already chucked the magic items. So he knows that they’re trying to get a guide. Well, how do you get a guide? ”

Dave: “In the cartoon Dungeons and Dragons I think they just show up most of the time. Cause in this case we did, we got Hector the halfling that just shows up, well cat style.”
Ted: “But he’s not just Hector the halfing as we’ll find out later.”

Dave: “ Of course not. He shows Chester cat style or something is going on there for sure.”

Ted: “ So you know, for the mere mention of, oh, we still need to find a guide, you know, his floating head is like, well then maybe I can help you. That’s a party who is out of money at this point. And I was like, but you know how, how will we pay you? What, what do you require? It’s like I will do it for a favor later.”

Dave: “ We’ll figure it out, figure it out.”

Ted: “We’ll figure it out, figure it out. You know, it’s like, okay, you know, and as pretty easy going as a party is like, we love that idea.”

Dave: “So with that, Hector is as good to his word leads them to the hall of bones, they get in there, but then Hector is like, now let’s discuss my price.”

Ted: “So they get to the skull, he, they put it in there, you know, the ominous, you know, mouth, you know, opens and closes, you know, light show and, or they see the magic items are indeed working again. And that’s when Hector’s like, well now let us discuss.”

Dave: “ And Hector, low and behold, you’re never going to guess it but is Venger. But the kids do get some assistance. Because one of the things that begin to happen is the spirits rise and assist. But of course, it’s Venger. So they don’t want to go toe to toe. They always run from Venger whenever they can. Well, the skull begins to glow and light up and they’re like, look, it’s the light in the darkness.”

Ted: “So it opens, it opens up and they realize this is the light that we need to go into. So when they step into the the glowing skull, the light in the darkness, they’re teleporTed to safety. The spirits can, you know, deal with Venger at least for the time being.”

Dave: “Well yeah, they fight back and forth. You know, it’s a kids’ cartoon so you don’t see a lot. But ultimately what happens is like Venger like, Oh, if this is your place of power and he just blows it up, it looks like a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion. And it, you see like Venger like looming over everything, but they can get away from Venger, the spirits. Maybe they did not defeat Venger but at least stopped him for now. And that’s Kinda like where the episode ends.”

Ted: “So we know that in 300 years, you know, and that was magic items run out of power again, they’re going to have to find something else because I don’t think that’s called power is going to work.”

Dave: “Yeah, the skull power is finished. So I mean again, like you know that artifact that you don’t putting it in there for the kids to be able to recharge the magic items a great idea and even better idea because players are clever is destroying it after they get, you know, they’re a power up because you don’t want that to fall into the hands of the players. It was really interesting to have the spirits step in and assist in it as well as you know, them being able to solve the riddle to get away from Venger instead of just, you know, being a slugfest to defeat him and beat him through combat.”

Ted: “Absolutely. And you know, it goes back to a different play style, you know, that fits more in line with you know, the Lord of the Rings where you do run from combat more often than to just stand up fight. Like what happens in, in today’s typical D&D.”

Dave: “Right cause once you went down, typically that was it. You were done. It was a lot harder to get your character’s back-back back then as well. So absolutely. That was episode three. We’ll be looking forward to diving into number four next. We’re having a lot of fun with this, enjoying watching these, reliving my childhood a little bit. And like I said, I feel like this cartoon holds up a lot better than some of the other ones that I’ve watched.”

Ted: “And it’s cool to kind of, you know, have those takeaway moments of you know, these, this, this great origination of D&D in a visual medium and be able to still like, you know, what, what can I learn from this Now.”

Dave: “Also do like some of this stuff is like over the top, a little bit, kind of a Hokey and in your face below. Listen, if you played with some of the groups that I’ve played with, you need that at times because like you think you come up with something obvious and you know in your players will, they get stumped. They never get it. You think you come up with something clever and they’re like, they’ll never figure this out and they just like right away, boom guess it.”

Ted: “I’ve been on, I’ve been on both sides of that fence and know I’ve been stumped and I’ve been like, well yeah, it’s seven.”

Dave: “Yeah, it’s just those things. It’s like never be afraid. It’s too easy or too hard. It’s been my experience.”

Ted: “Indeed. So what do you think? Are you watching along with us? Did we miss something? Are there any cool takeaways that you have from the third episode of D&D The cartoon? Let us know down in the comments. while you’re down there don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.”

Dave: “On your way down to the comments stopped by the description you can, so you can check out that link to dot com and the store. Check out the digital products we have over there as well as the physical stuff.”

Ted: “Until next time.”

Both: “Stay nerdy!”