Ep. 44 — Chapter 6 from "Blood of Elves" (Part 3)

Garrison from the US and Daniel from the Netherlands join Alyssa for Part 3 of our discussion of Andrzej Sapkowski’s first Witcher novel Blood of Elves, Chapter 6. Very important bits include: all the questions that readers should be asking at this point in the series, our first introduction to Tissaia de Vries and Vilgefortz of Roggeveen in the books, the benefits of being an enigma, the weirdest dinner party (so far), the dumbest thing to yell to an angry Witcher, betrayal and the long game, Rience’s X-Men cosplay, car dealership frenzy, and Geralt of Rivia and The At Least Two Teeth.

This episode is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

Transcript

Cold Open

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Pst… Hey, everyone. Listen to the announcements in the beginning of the episode to find out how you can be on the next two seasons of Breakfast in Beauclair. Can’t wait to meet you all!

ALYSSA: I would so want to make a quip about just Lady of the Lake and the *BEEEEP* but I can't. Okay, I'm going to take that out.

GARY: Yeah.

ALYSSA: I'll just take that out.

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

Introduction

ALYSSA: Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair, a global Witcher Podcast. My name is Alyssa from GoodMorhen, and I’ll be your host as you, I, and our international hanza accompany Geralt of Rivia and his destiny, Cirilla of Cintra, across the Continent.

[TUDUM]

Major news! We’re two and a half months out from Season 2 of “The Witcher” on Netflix and I’m so excited to share that not only has the show been picked up for a third season, but we’ll also be getting another anime film set on the Continent and a kids and family show set in the Witcher Universe in addition to Nightmare of the Wolf and “Blood Origin"! With all of this new Netflix content and most of the saga to go… I think I’ve sold the next decade of my life away. Hope you’ll continue to join us as The Witcher Universe and the Breakfast in Beauclair international Hanza continue to grow. Thanks for being here from the beginning.

[Hanza-ween]

It’s October 1st tomorrow and we begin Hanza-ween! Throughout October, I’ll be spotlighting Witcher cosplayers across social. Have a favorite? Send them my way on Instagram, Twitter, Discord, or at greetings@breakfastinbeauclair.com. Hanza-ween will culminate in a Hanza Halloween Party and Witcher closet cosplay contest on Saturday, October 30th! Meet members of our community and join the party at the Hanza Discord at bit.ly/thehanzadiscord.

Members of our community are also talking about watching horror movies through October. Keep a look out in the Hanza Discord for that. As I’m a big scaredy cat and will promote all of their movie nights, I probably won’t partake myself. But I will be a guest on an horror podcast this spooky season. The show is funny and chaotic and I loved how my episode turned out! Can’t wait to share it with you all when it releases in a few weeks.

[Podcast Survey & Call for Guests]

As a gentle reminder, this season of the podcast will wrap at the end of next month, which means it’s time for the annual podcast survey and an open call for guests for the next two seasons of the podcast, which will cover Nightmare of the Wolf & “The Witcher” Season 2, then Andrzej Sapkowski’s Time of Contempt. If you would like to be on a future episode of the podcast, access the application at bit.ly/witcherguest. This link will be open indefinitely—if you’re listening at a far point in the future—and potential guests will be contacted ahead of each season of the show.

You can find this year’s podcast survey at bit.ly/listenersurvey2021. Your honest feedback will directly improve the quality of the show's content and community resources as I plan Seasons 4 and 5 of "Breakfast in Beauclair", which will premiere in February 2022. Receive a code for 15% off the Breakfast in Beauclair shop at the end of the survey as a thank you for your time and thoughts! The code is good through the end of October 2021.

[Patron Announcements]

This episode we welcome Little Eye Charlotte and Miss Magitek to our hanza on Patreon! A shout out to James Carson III and Kyle, the H2HOE, who upgraded their pledges to join our producer-level patrons on Patreon: Luis of Kovir, The Owner of The Churlish Porpoise, Arix the Godling, Katie (The Redhead of Toussaint), Jacob B., Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye, RedKite, The Original Roach, Codringher’s Cat, Libby, Clare Odell, Jennidy Mundilovitch, Brett from California, Wolf, Corey from the US, John of Ryblia, Sebastian von Novigrad, Tom from Australia, Jill Cate, The Tabby Witch, and Olle from Sweden.

If you’d like to explore becoming a patron of the show, head over to patreon.com/breakfastinbeauclair.

[Episode Details]

As for this episode, Garrison from the US and Daniel from the Netherlands join us for Part 3 of our discussion of Blood of Elves, Chapter 6. Join us as we discuss all the questions that readers should be asking at this point in the series, our first introduction to Tissaia de Vries and Vilgefortz of Roggeveen in the books, the benefits of being an enigma, the weirdest dinner party (so far), the dumbest thing to yell to an angry Witcher, betrayal and the long game, Rience’s X-Men cosplay, car dealership frenzy, and Geralt of Rivia and The At Least Two Teeth.

In our mid-episode news segment, “Tidings from Toussaint,” Lars from Witcherflix shares major news from Netflix TUDUM about “The Witcher”, “Blood Origin”, and the future of the Continent.

Without further ado, let’s conclude our discussion of Blood of Elves, Chapter 6.

Discussion

[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): When we left off, the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaardian Empire were preparing for war. Geralt, Dandelion, Shani, and Philippa were interrogating Myhrman for Rience’s whereabouts and Rience had hired the Michelet brothers, professional assassins, for a mysterious job.

ALYSSA: In the next section of this chapter, Tissaia de Vries and Artaud Terranova visit Vilgefortz of Roggeveen. The chapter of wizards is planning their response to the kingdoms on the continent. If you're a fan of the show, and you came to the Witcher series through the Netflix series, this is the first time that we're actually meeting Tissaia de Vries in the books. We don't really have any context into her importance or her significance at this point, but we do learn that she is, you know, a prominent mage. Tissaia, Terranova, and Vilgefortz have dinner and end up moving to Vilgefortz's workshop, where they discuss their plans for the Northern kingdoms. The chapter wants a unanimous front when they go to deal with the Kings. They've heard about the council at Hagge and they need to plan a unified response. Vilgefortz eventually insists that um the King's plans must be ignored. Vilgefortz says to Terranova at some point, you know, “if you think another solution is possible, you're making a mistake. You mistake the stars reflected in the pond for the night sky.” And this is now the second time we've heard that in this chapter. Throughout the chapter, you know, there's a couple of other things that happen. That's kind of the overall conclusion of it. But we are with Tissaia throughout this whole section. She, as an Archmage, points out some strange things around Vilgefortz's workshop. Items for the detection of missing persons. She mentions the "crystal, metal, stone, method," which I have a suspicion about. And we'll talk about that in the chapter seven discussion, as well as cloaked books on Aen Ithlinnespeath, and Aen Hen Ichaer. Ithlinne's prophecy and the Blood of Elves. So, Vilgefortz has all this weird stuff that he's, like, hiding with magic, but Tissaia can still see it.

DAN: Well, I mean, it's the first time we meet Vilgefortz. I mean, like he's already mentioned this chapter by the Northern Kings. Like, oh, Vilgefortz. The one who led the mages. The one who wants the peace. And now we’re, ta-da, Vilgefortz. So yeah, sort of like his introduction, I guess.

ALYSSA: And what an introduction for sure. Because we’re with Tissaia throughout the section, we're also hearing her internal monologue and her analysis of what he's saying and doing, which ends up being a really fascinating read, right? Like, we hear her thoughts counter to, like, everything that Vilgefortz is saying. And she's picking him apart, the same way that, you know, she picks apart everything else in her vicinity. It's interesting. I feel like this section almost serves as, like a parallel to us being with the scene in Nilfgaard, where we are with the marshal, and we're kind of listening to this Emperor, this hero. And we kind of get that same sense here, while Tissaia is an archmage and she has a certain amount of authority, we're still at a slight distance from who Vilgefortz is. He is the hero of Sodden. He's the one who created this truce, and we're kind of seeing him through this lens and this distance of a certain level of fame. So, it's interesting that way.

DAN: Yeah. He really dominates the conversation as well. Seems like, you know, the side of the observer sees a lot and knows a lot about what Vilgefortz is doing. So, Vilgefortz is the one who says the things, who leads the conversation to where he wants to, he decides what the Chapter is going to do. You really feel like, just like you said, that’s sort of like Emhyr all over again. A strong charismatic person who just says things, and those things are facts because he said them.

GARY: It's interesting that he, uh he has the power in the conversation to just, like, you know, they come out of these portals and he's like, one of the people says, "First of all, we'd like to hear your opinion." And he goes, "First of all, let us have something to eat and drink." You know, let's, let's change this for a second. Come in, let's have dinner. You guys want brunch, you know, and he walks them through his laboratory pretty much. And you have to feel like that's intentional, because if somebody is strong and powerful as Tissaia de Vries walks through your stuff, you got to imagine that either he believes that his cloaks are working or that he wants her to see that, you know.

DAN: Like you said, like, it's quite a power move that he invites them for dinner, because it's sort of like he changes the pace and initiative. Instead of them being there, we're here. Give us your, your opinion. He's like, "Come in, take a seat. I'm going to give you my opinion." And suddenly it's like, "Hey, wait a second. We came here to question you." And he's like, "No. Here's dinner. Listen now."

GARY: Mmh-hmm. You, uh you'll hear it a lot in sports, but you want to control the pace of the game. And in this situation, Vilgefortz is controlling the pace of the game. He slows him down. Come in for dinner. It's very well done.

ALYSSA: Yeah. And he’s, I think, notably the youngest, but he's the one in command of the room. We had talked earlier about, like, Vilgefortz as a leader in times of peace, and a leader in times of war. And we can certainly see firsthand now how that benefits him and how he takes advantage of that even in small discussions such as this one.

GARY: Yeah. If you're going through this chapter, you've just heard about Vilgefortz from the Northern Monarchs, and then you get this. So, it's still fresh in your mind, you're still wondering, who is this person? What is—? What's so special or evil about them? You know, what, what, what gives them the power? Early on, you see that obviously, he’s some kind of powerful mage. He has a lot of tools at his disposal. He has servants that will do things at his command. I think we've seen different ways in this whole chapter of how different people have different power, right? You have the charismatic side with Vilgefortz right here. You have the very brash and quick to react power with the Northern Monarchs. And with Emhyr, you saw just absolute power. You have all kinds of different power levels, or how each person gets their power in their situations.

ALYSSA: And I would say like, with the Northern Kingdoms, it really comes down to compromise. Like, they're using collective power in order to take on whatever they think is coming toward them. We already said that Emhyr uses fear. And I think with Vilgefortz, I think his power comes from one, the fact that he has demonstrated leadership, but also that nobody knows what the fuck he's up to. They just don't know, and that certain element of, like, Tissaia says, as she's walking through his workshop like, "Oh, he's famous for, like, solving weird problems that nobody else cares about." And I think that level of mystery also adds to his power because nobody knows, nobody needs to know, and nobody expects to know what he's doing. So, he can spend that time up to anything really.

DAN: But also it gets interesting that in contrast to Emhyr, you actually see a bit of character of Vilgefortz by being presented with the case of Lydia.

ALYSSA: Yeah. So, Lydia van Bredevoort is Vilgefortz’s personal assistant. She's also a mage. We see her littered throughout the section. She's always noted by Tissaia as smiling with her eyes. And it's not until nearly the very end, that we find out that one, she is madly in love with Vilgefortz but will never, ever, ever say anything about it and never expects anything from it. And Vilgefortz knows this, but he will never, ever do anything because he doesn't love her. So, we hear that their relationship is stable albeit a bit odd. But also, that Vilgefortz had pushed her and a number of other mages to become test subjects with an item that they found in a necropolis, I believe. This item that they found was cursed. It kills three of the mages on the spot. One lost their eyes and hands and went completely mad as a result, and Lydia lost her jaw. Among other things, she suffered burns and lost her jaw, larynx, and throat. So, she can't speak. She can't really eat. It's noted that at dinner, she obviously didn't eat or drink anything, Tissaia says. And so, she can only communicate telepathically, really. But the relationship between Vilgefortz and Lydia is very interesting, I think to say the least.

GARY: It's twisted. When you get to that part, and it's revealed that, like, he used all these test subjects, even though it killed three people used it on other people, and it hurt those people too. And then, he's keeping this one around, and that he knows she loves him, but always keeping her at arm's length. And he has this twisted sort of loyalty from her. It's so weird. And you wonder if it might have something to do with the artifact. And when you hear, like, necropolis, you're like, "Oh, so this artifact must have been, like, wicked, dude." Like, whatever it was, it must have been super messed up and he's subjecting people to it. So, you get this sense that he's this uh mage in the tower with all the weird experiments. Creepy.

DAN: Yeah. I think, like, the impression I’m partially are getting, maybe also partially because there’s like a low amount of like life and emotion like Lydia can give overall, because I mean, she lost, like, so much, you know, with her voice, her smile and everything. But also because of her relationship with Vilgefortz. She obviously felt a bit like a robot to me. Not like in a sort of rude kind of way like, "Oh, no. She has no emotions. She's a robot." But more like, she's following constantly, doing his bidding. But nothing happens. anything more than that, that's. I don't know. That has a robotic feeling to it.

GARY: You know what it reminds me of a lot, it reminds me of, Euron Greyjoy from Game of Thrones, where he has the ship. And all of the crew members on the ship are mutes. They can't speak. Like, he doesn't stay around people who can talk to him, or backtalk him, or tell other people his secrets. So, maybe that's…I don't think Lydia talks in this entire chapter.

ALYSSA: Uh, she does telepathically. She says– 

GARY: Yes.

ALYSSA: – things like, "Dinner's ready," "We should go to the workshop," "Hey. a letter came in for you. Should I expect a response?" Like, it's little secretarial things

GARY: Yeah, but it's telepathic. She's not moving her mouth because of the illusion, you know?

ALYSSA: Yeah.

GARY: But important to note that the injury left her unable to regenerate anything. Like, she can't use magic to fix it. I think some characters up to this point, I think Yennefer –

ALYSSA: So, Yennefer, Triss, everybody who was at Sodden. We heard in chapter three I believe, from Triss that, like, nothing was left wanting for the heroes at Sodden. And like every sort of magical remedy that they needed, they got. And Yennefer's eyesight was restored, Triss' body was restored, but they couldn't do anything to fix Lydia because of the curse.

DAN: Yeah, but other thing, it's also kind of funny, like, contradicting myself, which also has in a certain way a character by being quite a decent painter, you know? Like, Tissaia mentions that she apparently paints quite nice. I mean, Tissaia wants to see the paintings. I mean, knowing Tissaia, that is probably quite a compliment.

GARY: Oh, yeah. She notices that she has paint on her hands. She says, "I'll have to ask her about that later."

ALYSSA: Again, Vilgefortz has his own idea of how the mages should respond to everything that's happening on the continent. And when Vilgefortz insists that the Kings' plans should be ignored and they should act like they have no idea what's going on. Initially, Tissaia and Terranova are just like, "Are you serious? Like, what the fuck are we gonna tell Gedymdeith and Francesca? Like, we're just gonna let them slaughter non-humans?” And Vilgefortz insists. Like, maybe we, maybe we get a Convention of Mages. We get everyone all together, including Yennefer. And he gets really weird about the whole thing. Tissaia, as an archmage, points out strange things that are around Vilgefortz's workshop. The three things of note are items for the detection of missing persons, which she notes is the "crystal, metal, stone method," which we'll come back to, I believe at chapter seven as well. And books on Aen Ithlinnespeath, and Aen Hen Ichaer, Ithlinne's prophecy and the Blood of Elves. Tissaia sees this and we as readers are informed, but Vilgefortz keeps giving tells about Yennefer, and then eventually turns the conversation toward her. Terranova just says like, "Yeah. This mage, this mage, this mage, Yennefer." And Vilgefortz sends out an impulse. He has, like, a little twitch and he has an impulse to the items on his workbench. So, Tissaia works out like, "Is he looking for Yennefer?" And then, Vilgefortz gets a little more bold. He's like, "Yeah. Um, you know what, I tried to contact Yennefer a bit ago and I didn't see what she was up to. Do you guys know what she's up to?" And Tissaia just, like, "Look, dude if she doesn't want to be found, you're not gonna find her." It's, it's very weird, like, for us as readers that have no idea of what he's plotting. It's weird.

GARY: Feels like almost, like, a stalker, you know? And you're like the best friend of the person being stalked. Like, dude come on. She doesn't want to talk to you. She's not gonna talk to you. Stop calling her number, you know? Like, leave her alone you weirdo.

DAN: I checked her Facebook but other than Facebook, she didn't say where she was. Do you guys maybe know where she is? I know it just—.

GARY: You didn’t accept my friend request on Facebook.

ALYSSA: Oh, my god. Like, I think for me as a reader, like, it just leaves me really uneasy. Like, why do you need to know this? And even Tissaia brings that up a couple of times in her own thoughts as well as to him directly. This part of the section closes out. Vilgefortz receives a letter and Lydia carries it in. He briefly reads it. Lydia is like, "Should I send a response?" And Vilgefortz just says, "There won't be any response." He folds it up and again turns the conversation back to Yennefer. Like, uh how is Yennefer doing? Has, has she gotten her sight back yet? Like, I think she's to be seen in the company of The Witcher. How is she doing now that news of his death is kind of going around? Tissaia is just like, "She's fine." Like, she hears about this all of the time and every time, the Witcher is still alive. Vilgefortz is just like, "I wouldn't be so sure about that." And it's weird. It's so creepy and weird.

DAN: Sort of like, "Hey, is she single yet? Please tell me she's single. First, that's sus but then, like, he's like, “Geralt is dead”. And you're like, "Wait, what?"

GARY: That makes you question what he knows. We haven't got back to that fight yet. We don't know how that fight went. So, this leaves you thinking like, "Oh shit, Geralt's dead?" Like, maybe he's trying to play up something, or maybe he's trying to poke a reaction out of her. It's like they've elevated the wrong person. I think she says, she's like, "We're all pawns now on his chessboard, we've elevated him too high. We've let the weird dude get the power, right?" Like, uh-oh. We let the wrong one in. You can see when this person has, like, magic power, and now he's getting political backing. He's getting that executive power. You're seeing the guy who has a woman who has no face and is creepy to keep around. You're seeing a guy who's stalking one of your former students. This guy has just told me that Geralt of Rivia is dead, the famous Witcher. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, who the fuck is this dude?

ALYSSA: Right. And especially as a reader getting into the books for the first time and like, you know, stepping back into that role for a minute, it's, like, still so many questions. This chapter leaves you with so many questions and this section is, is no exception. Like, Tissaia does the work, thankfully, of like asking all the questions that the readers should be asking themselves at this point in the series. What the heck is Vilgefortz up to you? Why does he want to know all this weird stuff about Yennefer? Who was he tracking and why? Why is he interested in Ithlinne's prophecy and the Blood of Elves? It's like—

GARY: Yeah.

ALYSSA: —What? Like, she has seen stuff and she's able to kind of see past these screens in order to ask those questions, but it's, like, for her to even be so confused, just leaves so many questions about what Vilgefortz's intentions are. And I think that's the thing. It's like having that shroud of mystery and an assistant that can't actually speak. You have no idea what his intentions or his motivations are, for anything that he's doing. We're just kind of being presented with some of this information that we as readers have to then piece together ourselves. And if you don't do it now, it'll slap you in the face. And a couple of books from now.

GARY: Yeah. I mean, in this chapter alone you've set up different villains, right? Like, you could say the monarchs were villains because of the way they were so easily going. They're brash. They just run into the first option, and then you get Emhyr. He's very calculating. He's smart about everything, but at the end of that, he's not a villain because he himself is a bad person. It's because what he orders is a bad person. He has to be the Emperor and so it's the empire that causes him to be a bad person, and then you look at somebody like Rience. Rience just wants to go, get somebody killed, right? He's just the step in the ladder. And then you see like, Philippa's, like, willing to kill people and torture them, and then you get to Vilgefortz. And despite everybody up to this point, this guy's the creepiest. This guy's the worst of them all, just from the little bits you get. And you're like, "Who's next?” The next page, I'm going to flip and I'm going to see an even worse villain. Like, ugh.

ALYSSA: As we've kind of been saying, this whole episode, the previous episode, we're seeing everybody start to strategize and set the foundation for, you know, the next book specifically and the rest of the saga to come. And for the mages, Tissaia and Terranova consult Vilgefortz. He says we should do nothing and ultimately suggests that they host a convention of mages that will summon everybody from a certain level up, including Yennefer, which is again the key for him. And Tissaia suspects that he is searching for Yennefer unsuccessfully. So, he is now setting the foundation for this mandatory meeting of the Chapter of Wizards and the Council of Wizards, that she will then have to attend.

DAN: Sounds like a trap to me.

ALYSSA: Yeah, it smells a little fishy if I do say so myself. So, we will see. We will see where Vilgefortz and the mages head. We'll see how this proposition may or may not come to fruition in future episodes of the podcast.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Before we get to this ominous revelation, we’re going to hand it over to Lars from WitcherFlix for recent news on the Netflix show. When we come back, Garrison, Daniel, and I will continue our discussion of Blood of Elves, Chapter 6.

“Tidings from Toussaint”

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by MojoFilter Media]

LARS FROM WITCHERFLIX: Hey, it's Lars from WitcherFlix and this is "Tidings from Toussaint". Welcome back everybody! Last Saturday, Netflix organized a big event named "TUDUM" that saw the reveal of several Witcher-related clips and other pieces of news.

Let us start with the most important one: Netflix released a new Witcher trailer! It is named "Road to Season 2" and gave us several new looks at some key scenes of what seems like the first episodes of Season 2. And it also revealed an important character for the first time: After catching a glimpse at his back in the first teaser for Season 2, we finally got our first look at Vesemir, Geralt's mentor. He is played by Kim Bodnia. Moreover the trailer features a Jaskier in distress, Yennefer and Fringilla as prisoners, Ciri training next to bones of a griffin and Tissaia de Vries interrogating and torturing Cahir.

In addition, Netflix released two short clips from the first episode of Season 2. The first one features our first look at Nivellen, the monster from the short story "A Grain of Truth". Geralt and Nivellen are having a talk in his dark mansion. Nivellen is played by Kristofer Hivju and his face is a mix of prostethtic makeup and a little bit of CGI. In the second short clip, that also takes place at Nivellen's manor, Ciri is woken up by Geralt in the middle of the night preparing to fight a bruxa that is hiding in one of the rooms. This clip is very atmospheric and features creepy noises and dark lighting. Go to Netflix's YouTube channel to have a look for yourself.

But there was something more, no pun intended. Arguably the biggest news of the evening was the confirmation of a third season of The Witcher. This isn't the biggest surprise, but it is really nice to finally have it confirmed by Netflix officially. Then showrunner Lauren Hissrich herself made two more announcements, as the Witcher world on Netflix will still be growing in the future: After "Nightmare of the Wolf" and its success, Netflix is currently working on a second anime movie set in the Witcher universe. Finally they had an actual surprise in store for us last Saturday: Netflix also announced a "kids and family"-targeted show set in the Witcher world. Unfortunately we do not know yet what the new anime film and the kids show will be about.

But it will be interesting to see how Netflix will tackle the Witcher's mature content like xenophobia, sexism and violence to make it kid-friendly. This is what Lauren Hissrich had to say on Twitter about this recently announced kids show: "I know so many kids who want to tiptoe into this world — mine included — but there is nothing for them. The idea that they can get a taste of what we adults enjoy, that they can learn this world, fall in love… and then grow into the adult content? It makes me so happy."

Last, but not least, the main show's news were accompanied by a short tour behind-the-scenes of the Witcher prequel miniseries "Blood Origin" where its showrunner Declan de Barra shows us sets, shooting locations and a table read. Speaking of “Blood Origin”: Redanian Intelligence reported on several castings for the spinoff: While Oliver Asante's role is currently unknown, actresses Natasha Patel will play an unknown character named Pyren and Sabrina Basilé will play an unnamed "elven singer". But arguably the most intriguing casting is British actress Claire Cooper who will play the role of Aevenin. A character of this name (but in a different writing) is mentioned in the Witcher books: Aevenien was the mother of Ithlinne, the legendary elven prophet who will make an appearance in Season 2 of the main show. Could this mean that a young version of Ithlinne will also appear in "Blood Origin" to connect the spin-off miniseries with the main show? I can't wait to learn more about this.

Anyway guys, that's it for me for today. I hope you all stay safe and well. We'll talk again in the next episode of Breakfast in Beauclair. Until then, thanks again for listening and good luck on the path!

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by MojoFilter Media]

Discussion

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Hey everyone! Welcome back from the break. When we left off, Tissaia de Vries and Artaud Terranova visited Vilgefortz of Roggeveen… who just announced that our dear witcher, Geralt of Rivia, may be dead.

ALYSSA: In the next section, using the information from Myhrman, Geralt finally confronts Rience on the canal. Rience, aided by the Michelet brothers and magical help, escapes, but without killing the Witcher. This is something that we've been building up to, for a lot of Blood of Elves, and especially this chapter. Rience has been a constant annoyance all throughout the book and Geralt finally has the opportunity to confront him here. When this little section first opens, Geralt has just taken a witcher potion. We're walked through the effects of what this feels like, to take a witcher potion, have your senses heightened. He hears all of these things, including cats, and a woman making love, and he's like, "I hear the name of the woman's lover” at some point, it's very bizarre. And he also hears the footsteps of these men. Four or five men approach so he knows that Rience is not alone. When Rience finally steps out of the shadows and Geralt does as well, they have a brief exchange. Geralt, you know, can obviously sense that Rience is not alone and eventually sees that as well, that he is what the four Michelet brothers. And Geralt is immediately able to recognize Rience, even though he's never seen him before. He can tell that, just who this man is, and the scar that's on his face, that was a present to him given by Yennefer at the beginning of Blood of Elves. We hear a little bit about what had happened after the gang threatened Myhrman. And apparently, Myhrman had given up the fact that he had some sort of amulet that is able to summon Rience um or able to message Rience, but Rience then reveals that this amulet both sends a message and also warns. So, he knew that Geralt was there and expected an ambush. That's kind of where we start the chapter, did you guys have any thoughts on that?

GARY: Yeah. I really like the description we get of him getting these, like, superhuman powers from the potions. If you play the games, you know, they give you, like, stat boosts and stuff, but to hear it here it's almost like he turns into, like, Daredevil or Superman with these super senses that he, you know, hear things 10 blocks away. It's a really interesting way to highlight, like, how powerful Witchers can be.

ALYSSA: I feel like you saying, "I could hear things 10 blocks away," is a very funny call back to the pilot episode of Breakfast in Beauclair when Chris and I ate too much pineapple and if you listen to the bonus content for that, he at some point whispers I can hear things 10 blocks away.

GARY: Yeah, that's all it is, right? It's just—

ALYSSA: Yeah.

GARY: —Geralt is just taking a pineapple potion.

ALYSSA: Yeah, he's been gorging himself on too much sugar and dried pineapple, clearly.

DAN: Well, ladies and gentlemen, we finally got the ingredients for the secret Witcher potions. So, I mean, if you want to make them at home, just get pineapple, more pineapple.

ALYSSA: Mages who? We don't need ‘em.

GARY: Nope.

ALYSSA: But yes, like, it is such an interesting and colorful description. And I love how illustrative it is because it goes through really all of the details of things that he can hear. How specific, like, all the things that he can hear are, like, the actual way that his sight is able to, like, penetrate into the night. It's incredible.

DAN: It's quite interesting how he, Sapkowski first makes Geralt hear certain parts, that there are cats, and that there is uh some rowdy people at the bar, and people making love. But later on, he actually hears everything more detailed. Like, at first it sort of slowly gets into your bodies and are like. "Okay, it's happening," and then boosh it kicks in. And yeah, you're completely feeling it. You're, you know, in the vibe.

ALYSSA: But yeah, so once Rience and Geralt start having a conversation, they kind of do that weird hero-villain back and forth banter. Like, we're about to fight but we need to talk about it first. Rience makes the mistake of threatening Yennefer. We had heard in previous sections in this chapter that Rience is explicitly being given the instructions not to go after Yennefer and not to touch either Yennefer or Ciri. And he tells Geralt as much. He's like, "I'm not supposed to do it, but I bear the horror of personal grudge." And Geralt is like, "You're an idiot, and I'm going to kill you for that." Rience eggs on Geralt, and granted he has no idea that Geralt now is, like, Witcher 2.0 at the moment. But still, that seems like a really stupid thing to do. Ahead of an enemy that you know is super, super deadly but he eggs him on. At this point, Geralt knows that an attack is about to come. He senses it with his medallion, steps out of the way of this magical attack. And Rience thinks twice about actually going to attack Geralt and then immediately turns around and runs away, but before Geralt can reach Rience, the Michelet brothers move in. We had met them previously in this chapter and they seemed very nonchalant, and debonair, and confident, and like, "Yeah, we can take on the dude." If it at least just a little skeptical about what they were getting into. Geralt does acknowledge that they are very competent and professional killers, clearly. But even so, they are no match for a Witcher. But yeah, the fight is laid out beautifully. It's very wonderfully illustrated and described, but what are your thoughts on the fight between Geralt and the Michelet brothers?

DAN: Like, it also surprised me. It's like still how competent they were described, you know? Yeah there's there we get just got there ass beaten by Geralt, but it was clear that they are actually good professionals who would have been able to kill a normal good fighter, you know? I would even dare say that the impression that I still get from how their tag-teaming and constantly attacking from different angles at the same time, that if they had known that they were fighting a Witcher and what a Witcher's fighting style is, I even would dare say they might have had an actual chance against Geralt.

GARY: Right. If they had known they were taking on a guy who could deflect two blows in one thing, you know? I know Alyssa you're very averse to gore and blood and all that but I really liked how brutal the scene is described, whenever you hit somebody there's crunching of bones. And it's like, "Oh, god. He's going through them." It's very sad when some of the brothers die and you're like, "Oh, these are people with brothers." Even though they're horrible people, they're still brothers so it's sad to see them go down and some of them realize that.

ALYSSA: To both of your points it's like they didn't sign up for this. Like, Rience full on just, like, pulled the wool over their eyes. Like, no this was supposed to be a normal man. Rience did not disclose anything that would have helped them because honestly, they probably wouldn't have taken the job had they known this had been a Witcher. Even though there were so many of them. At the end of the section where they meet them, Toublanc Michelet haggles for a higher price and Rience says, "Yeah. Cool. Whatever." As soon as Rience agrees to this outlandish price for this person, Toublanc Michelet knows that they've made a mistake. And so yeah, they probably wouldn't have taken a job that, you know, clearly cost them in their lives had they known what they were getting into. So, which makes the whole thing incredibly somber and really, really tough to I think, listen to. Even if the prose is still very compelling and the fight is very compelling. Gary's right. I'm not really big on gore, by the time this episode comes out, Nightmare of the Wolf will have also come out, but I spent a lot of that just hiding behind my fingers. So, I feel like it definitely evokes the same kind of spirit and the same kind of, like, blood lust, I think that we can find in other sections of the Witcher universe.

DAN: Yeah, but I mean we shouldn't forget that the Michelet brothers were murderers., maybe not assassins, but like, mercenaries who are clearly meant to assassinate seem to be a lot of high profile targets as well. So, it's like, it's sort of sad to see, you know, brothers being together and then seeing them slowly die off. But at the same time, also like it is maybe not a prison sentence. But now at least these people are not on the street murdering other innocent people again.

GARY: Oh, yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, they're still terrible people who murder nobles, and were going to kill an innocent person, but it's also sad in the fact that it's like, "Oh, all these brothers just went down." It's the way Sapkowski describes like, a brother hits the ground and one of them notices it and they're not getting back up. And it's like, Oh, that's sad. That's, that's sad for them.

DAN: Yeah, for sure.

ALYSSA: Yeah, there's a lot to the fight that is almost beautiful and poetic, but as I said, very much filled with bloodlust throughout. It repeatedly, at least in the English translation, it repeatedly says, "Geralt was angry. He was angry." He says, "These men had to die. They had to die. He took the potion, that was it, there was no turning back." But on top of that, he was angry. So, the bloodlust from the potion plus the adrenaline he felt in finally meeting Rience, plus the frustration of being confronted by these people who really have no involvement in their fight, or in the matters that are suddenly taking over the continent. These poor men are just suddenly thrown into the middle of this and Geralt says they have to die. The fight itself is very beautiful if you do get the chance to read it. We're told that they fight in pairs, the four brothers. Two on the left, two on the right and they fight that way to guard each other's backs. Geralt starts taking them on and is kind of killing them just by the tip of his blade. It talks about how he, like, swishes past one and severs their spine at the tip of his blade. He, like, knocks the belly of another and eventually by the time it gets to the last, he just sticks them right between the eyes. And Shani and Dandelion are still there on the canal. And Shani is screaming in horror at what is going on. Geralt then goes after Rience. We get a slight departure from Geralt for a moment. We get a short breath from Geralt. We're brought over to Toublanc Michelet with his dying breath, he’s kind of taking in the scene. He can hear Shani screaming. He can see one of his brothers, I believe it's Flavius, who had been twitching just a moment ago, suddenly lay still. He smells perfume and feathers and sees Philippa standing over him. The way that Peter Kenny does this in the books is very masterful. Philippa stands overToublanc Michelet and just says like, "Just tell me what you know. Tell me. This won't hurt at all. Everything will be alright." And she's kind of coaxing this information out of him. Toublanc Michelet is just like, "Fuck that, dude that just ran off.” At some point, he says, "My guts. Help me." And it's just like, he's asking Philippa to help him put his guts back in his body to, you know, no help at all. Goddammit, like, that was brutal. Eventually he kind of accepts, I think the fact that he is about to die. Closes his eyes. Tells Philippa the information that she wants to know. And when he opens them again, she has a small stiletto, a blade at his temple. And she just says, "This isn't going to hurt at all. Everything will be alright." The prose I believe says something along the lines of like, “Toublanc Michelet, a professional murderer since the age of 14 closed his eyes and it did not hurt at all.” So, she just shanks him in the head. And that's the end of the Michelet brothers.

GARY: I really liked the part where Dandelion's telling this medical student, "Don't look. Don't look. It's so awful," you know and he's telling the medical student not to look just because, you know, she's a woman. You know, don't look it's so horrible, but, I’m, you know, she's ready to go save them because she's a medical student. She's absolutely fine with bloody bodies.

ALYSSA: I think Dandelion being protective of Shani is probably more just like, she's gonna put herself into a frenzy trying to save these people who just cannot be saved. Like, Toublanc Michelet has his guts spilled out over the street and he's not dead yet. But there's no way that she's going to be able to fix him even if they wanted to. Even if Philippa wanted to help with magic. I feel like it would just be a lost cause and I feel like to an extent, Dandelion might just be trying to save her from the heartache of being unable to save them

DAN: I agree with this, yeah. Dandelion is actually really being concerned about Shani. Like, imagine if Shani would have already run earlier. Like, if Dandelion hadn't hold her, maybe she would have run towards the massacre and try maybe to make Geralt stop or something because, you know, saving lives and all that. Maybe then if Geralt have taken a wrong swing and Shani would have been hit at least I can imagine that, that's also one of Dandelion’s concerns.

GARY: Yeah, don't go into the firefight.

ALYSSA: Exactly.

GARY: Get the medic off the field.

ALYSSA: Speaking of firefights, we are eventually shuttled back toward Geralt. Geralt is now dashing toward Rience. And Rience is just kind of running through this alleyway shouting for help, and for whatever reason I imagined this, I imagined it very frantic. Like, one of those little, like, blow up things that you see outside of a car dealership, that its arms just are flailing everywhere. That's how I imagine Rience running through the street. Just shouting for help from the heavens and help arrives. Amazingly, there's a portal that opens that's described as being, like, very fiery and luminous that fills up the street with this glowing light. Before Rience can get his little butt over to the portal, Geralt catches up with him and just tackles him. Rience tries to raise his hands for a spell, Geralt just pummels him straight in the mouth. I believe the text says that his mouth split open like black currants, which is again, gross, but fine. So, they're brawling out in the street, and Geralt keeps getting warnings from his medallion that magical things are happening around him. And he tries to throw the Sign of Aard toward this portal, but nobody comes out of it. Instead of somebody physically coming to help Rience, Rience is able to draw power, magical power from this portal. His hand turns into six inch steel spikes, basically Wolverine, and he stabs this straight through Geralt's chest and back. The prose says like, Geralt, like, feels this crack and chomps down so hard that he breaks at least two of his teeth. I think about that and I was like, "You only have, like, 30. That's a lot of teeth to lose in a fight."

GARY: At least two, you know?

ALYSSA: Yeah, at least two, it's pretty bad. Rience is able to escape but not without the help of Philippa which is unexpected for both the reader as well as for Geralt himself. Rience eventually draws these, like Wolverine talons from Geralt. Goes crawling on all fours toward the portal and Geralt is still, despite Rience having a pulp-like face and Geralt having just gotten shanked through the shoulder, is still about to catch up with Rience when Philippa basically grabs him from behind with what is described as a light of magical pliers and holds Geralt in place. While Rience takes his damn time sinking into the portal like a diver, the portal closes and the whole street turns black. But yeah, this is a very surprising revelation for readers who are coming to Blood of Elves for the first time.

GARY: Oh yeah.

ALYSSA: Geralt had him.  Geralt had Rience and Philippa was just like, "Nope, no."

GARY: The thing I liked the way you described him, like, frantically running down the street. It almost reminded me of anybody who has an older brother would know. Sometimes you just mess with the older brother by accident and then he chases you, and you scream for the parents. It's kind of like, he's just like, "Help anyone. Please, no. Get him away from me." You know, it's the moment where you messed up. In this case, it's a Witcher that's chasing you down. So, you're probably gonna die. It's pretty bad.

DAN: I'll say I'm also, partially imagine like if this was more comedic that someone would have just been in there and, like, someone just trying to sleep being irritated that someone's screaming through the street and just throws a shoe at Rience and knocks him out or something like, "Shut up. I'm trying to sleep here." Like, it really fits with the fight that Rience is giving off in this scene.

GARY: Yeah, it's a college town, right? So, I'm sure everybody is already very used to sleeping through loud noises. You know, partygoers and stuff like that. So, it's like, somebody's screaming at the town and it's like, "Shut up. I got 8 AMs.”

DAN: Fair.

GARY: It's interesting. Like, the magic systems that Sapkowski uses are not very defined, but it is interesting when, when you see things like this where Geralt uses magic on a portal and then immediately, Rience sucks that out and uses it for himself. In my mind, I didn't think they were actually attached to Rience’s fingers, like these huge nails. And we already talked earlier about how there's not much of a description for Sapkowski whenever he describes magic, like earlier, when Philippa turns into an owl. He just says it happens, right? This suddenly has his nails and he stabs them into Geralt, but it is interesting to think about them as a, like Wolverine's claws, stabs him through and then you get that visual, Oh that, that's awful. And now he's got these puncture wounds, but he's still going. Whatever these potions did, they made him more than, like, superhuman. He's just a fiend that wants to kill somebody.

DAN: Also, I think it is remarkable, you know, if Rience took magic that someone whom opened a portal made, that's at least the impression I got, you know, sort of like Bluetooth and magic. One stands and the other side of the portal just says, "Okay, here gives you some magic," and then Rience, "Oh, thanks now I got claws." That's at least how I interpreted the scene.

ALYSSA: Yeah, although I do wonder if it was almost like receiving, this is going to be a D&D reference. Like, if it was almost like receiving a specific, like, spell scroll. Like, Rience, you will be able to take this magic and you will specifically be able to make these Wolverine claws, or if it was like, he just kind of took magical energy and that's what he decided to do with it.

GARY: Hmm.

ALYSSA: Like, I don't know if that was the prescribed thing or if Rience was like, "This seems like a good idea."

GARY: Yeah. I mean, it's not like Harry Potter where there are specific spells, right? It just seems like the spells are up to your imagination.

ALYSSA: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

GARY: If you have the strength to push through, and do whatever your imagination gives you. So, in this case, he just thought of, you know, that X-men movie he watched a few years back and it was like, "Oh, I got 'em.” Stabs.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I think what we do know of magic, there are still incantations for magic in the Witcher universe and a lot of them are Elvish. We learned this in the short story The Last Wish because Geralt kept telling everyone to go fuck themselves. We also hear this in the next chapter, chapter seven of Blood of Elves, as well as throughout the series. There are a few specific moments that I can at least think of off the top of my head that do require specific incantations, but whether or not that's for everything. For example, in Harry Potter, being able to do non-verbal magic, it is a next level skill set, whereas most people do need to speak their incantations out loud. I can't think of any instance in the Witcher where it's specified that magic has to be verbal or non-verbal, but I wouldn't see a reason for why mages couldn't do non-verbal magic if they were competent enough. We'll never know and it's not particularly important.

GARY: It's not super important.

ALYSSA: I guess, like, yeah.

GARY: What is important is Philippa helping Rience get away which is like—

ALYSSA: Yeah, what the fuck?!

GARY: —whose side are you on? What the heck, man.

ALYSSA: Because at this point, like, Rience is just taking his time. I think he sees at some point that Geralt is now like, gripped in a vice and can't get to him. He then just kind of, like, struts over to the portal as best as he can. Like, being incredibly wounded and it indulges and there's a description of like, "Rience slowly walked over to the portal and, like, dove into it like a diver, sinking deep into its depths," and like it, it takes its time and throughout all of this, presumably, Geralt is like, “mrrrehhhh”. Just trying to get there and Philippa's magic is stronger than Geralt's is at that moment. So, the portal closes, the street fades to black, Geralt turns around and he's like, "Dude, what the fuck?" Philippa starts to like, go into this whole, you know, morality, the continent is bigger than you. She basically tells him, like, "You don't understand. I did what I had to do. Can you just sit down? Let us help you. We'll deal with it later." And Geralt is so angry, and I think at this point, the effects of the fight or at least the adrenaline, if not the Witcher potion, are starting to wear off. He's clearly very much injured. He can't feel any of his injuries because of the Witcher elixirs as Philippa puts it, but he's just like, "You got the information that you needed from Toublanc Michelet, and you let him escape. What, what is your game? What are you, what are you getting at? You got the information that you wanted to know, but that I wasn't to know because you killed him in cold blood. Like, all of this is unnecessary. I don't understand what the hell is going on." And Philip is like, "Well, you don't have to understand. You got mixed up in something much bigger than you. Everything else is trivial matters, and you can't even fathom what is going on above the surface." Geralt is just like, "I don't care what's going on. I don't care about the war with Nilfgaard. I don't care about these cats fighting in the street. If anyone harms Ciri, I will kill everybody." And Philippa is like, "Yep, I know. That's fine, but we're gonna take care of you right now." And that's more or less how the chapter ends. It’s very high intensity through the end.

GARY: It was a long chapter. There's a lot of stuff that happened and this ending to this chapter you're just like, "You're gonna leave us here with this right now?" But also, now that you're at the end of this chapter and Geralt collapses, you think back to what Vilgefortz said earlier. Where he said, "Oh, Geralt of Rivia is alive, really." And now you're like, "Oh, no. Geralt is dead."

DAN: Wha wha whaaaaa.

ALYSSA: Yeah, it leaves us in such a weird, weird spot because just like Geralt, we have no idea who to believe anymore. You know, he spent chapter five with the Malatius and Grock Company. He was trying to do the right thing and then the Temerians got involved, the Redanians got involved. And suddenly, he was in the middle of something, and then there was a squid. And then, we get to, like, the second half where, like, Philippa and Dijkstra are digging into Dandelion. And then, Philippa comes into the picture with Geralt, and suddenly it's like, you know, we have spent the first half of Blood of Elves more or less in just, like, this very escapist bliss. And then, everything comes crashing down on us in chapter six alone. Yeah, this, this doesn't feel great by the end of the chapter.

GARY: No. Of course, we're a non-spoiler podcast, but there are more books. I think most people know that there are more books, but I feel like if you're reading this at the time, or even if you don't know about the rest of this, alluding to Geralt dying, this is quite a way to go. Other than, you know, at Kaer Morhen, I feel like we haven't got a whole lot of him in this book because there's so many things going on. To have a go down like this, it would be mindboggling, because there's so much still left open.

DAN: One thing I also always thought about, when Geralt was stopped by Philippa, I was pretty sure yeah, of course he's being stopped because Philippa wants for some kind of reason for Rience to keep living. But I also maybe imagined because maybe at that point, that was maybe a bit more positive, still about Philippa. Maybe she wanted to make sure that he wouldn't jump after Rience into the portal because probably the one who made the portal would probably just obliterate Geralt the moment he steps through the portal, you know, like.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I feel like that's also true. In this moment, Geralt is pretty closed-minded. Like, he has a goal, and right now it's just to kill Rience. What we can tell is Philippa is playing some kind of long game. We don't know the details of it, she just tells us like, "There are things that are bigger than you. There are things that matter that you can't even fathom." And to Philippa's credit, we did find out in the previous chapter that she's no less than 300 years old. And probably to someone with that kind of perspective, a little alleyway brawl is probably not the biggest concern at all. Yeah, I could see that as well. Like, just trying to save Geralt from himself. Seeing as he just got like, he just lost two of his teeth and like, got stabbed through the chest. Yeah, she's just playing the long game. It seems like.

DAN: One thing I always sort of think is interesting about his chapters is until you start reading the saga, it's quite a unique one, because suddenly, Sapkowski instead of dabbling into mythology, characters, and you know, witchery stuff, it's suddenly politics. I would say the first time you're reading the series, it's suddenly, I wouldn't say out of the theme, but quite out of character for how the rest of the books are written, of course, follow Geralt or Ciri then. What I think is interesting about these chapters, I mean, every one of the books in the saga has at least one I would call political chapter. Like, that's focused on, oh yeah, what happened in the world, what's going to happen in the world. And that's the most of the perspective changes, I would say, are seen in the book. And all those things are so interesting, because it feels like, "Okay, well, thanks for following sort of Geralt. Now, what happened here in the last few months that, you know, again, we can go back to the story, and now you know, how screwed they are or how the plots will develop.”

ALYSSA: You're right in that this chapter is specifically unique in Blood of Elves. All of the chapters that we've seen previously have been fairly contained, like chapters one through three in Kaer Morhen. In chapter four, on the path of the caravan. Even chapter five was two parts, but still very much related. Chapter seven is also very self-contained. And we said this when we started the chapter, chapter six is just this barrage of vignettes, and slice of life pieces, and we jump all over the continent, throughout it from our time with Geralt. We go to Vilgefortz’s. And we just go to a Vilgefortz dinner party, but we also go to Nilfgaard throughout this chapter. And we're seeing all of these little puzzle pieces from all over the continent. And you're right, this is kind of our little introduction to that, a very dense introduction, however, to the players on the continent that we're going to see, you know, grow, expand, and battle each other throughout the next four books. So, it's definitely starting to put those thoughts in our head that the continent is so much bigger than just Geralt, and Geralt and Ciri.

GARY: It's one of those chapters that, I feel like a lot of fantasy books do this. A common feature of fantasy books is to throw a lot of names and a lot of people and a lot of areas at you in rapid succession, and it kind of overwhelms the reader. I think my way of usually handling that is to reread the chapter. I feel like a lot of people when they hear, "Oh, you need to reread this one chapter," they go, "Oh, my God. Why would I do that?" But if you do, it's not gonna, it's not gonna be the worst thing to do. And then, as you read it the second time, you really understand because you're already expecting the bigger parts that you catch the small things. So, I think this is the chapter that you have to reread once, in my opinion. Because there's so much depth going on here, and I mean, it's taken us so long to get through this chock-filled chapter with people, locations, how they're interconnecting. And you might miss that, if you just read through it once and you glance over one sentence too quickly. There's so many good little details and snippets in here that has drama, comedy, horror, and so many other things. So, that's my thoughts on the chapter.

ALYSSA: I say this in every darn episode, so much to look forward to. And this chapter definitely gives us a taste of that. So, that is it for our show today. Gary, Dan, thank you so much for joining us for this episode and thank you to our Hanza for listening. Gary, for people that might want to find you and find Hanza D&D, where can people do so? And is there anything that our community can help you with or anything that you would like to share with them?

GARY: Well, obviously a lot of people kind of know me at this point for being the Dungeon master of the Hanza. But if you are listening to this and you're not part of the Hanza, I'm still running D&D games for anybody that wants to run D&D games. So, if you ever have questions or want to get involved in D&D, or have always been on the edge looking in, and you really want to get a game with your friends, I am super willing to run those for you. Of course, I don't run them for free but I don't charge a whole lot to get people in. You can find me on Twitter @Gari, with an i, _Watts. You can find me on Instagram @GarrisonWatts on Instagram. My Ko-fi page is ko-fi.com/gariwattsdm. And of course I'm on the discord. So, if you can get onto the Discord, I'm there and I'm pretty active. So, I like running D&D games. If there are people out there who want to get a D&D game going, contact me and we'll set one up because I run, right now I'm running four games for the Hanza and one home game for my friends. I'm actually looking because I have the extra time now to possibly open up to another game.

DAN: And I'm not sponsored to say this, but Gary is quite a good DM.

ALYSSA: If you do want to have conversations and join the community with myself, Dan, and Gary, you can certainly do so at the Hanza discord, which you can find at bit.ly/thehanzadiscord. And that's where we play all our D&D games. So, even if you do want to just spectate and watch the games that Gary's putting on or watch games that Dan is a part of, or that I'm a part of, you can certainly jump in when those games are available. Just to watch and hang out and maybe join one of our games in the future. Next episode, join us as we discuss Chapter 7 of Andrzej Sapkowski's Blood of Elves.

Outro & Credits

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Thanks for joining us at the breakfast table! For show notes, transcripts of each episode, and a complete list of our social platforms and listening services, head over to breakfastinbeauclair.com.

Breakfast in Beauclair is created by Alyssa from GoodMorhen. It’s hosted by Alyssa with the “Tidings from Toussaint” News Segment by Lars from WitcherFlix. The show is edited by Alyssa with music by MojoFilter Media.

Breakfast in Beauclair is produced by Alyssa in New York City with Luis of Kovir, The Owner of The Churlish Porpoise, Arix the Godling, Katie (The Redhead of Toussaint), Jacob B., Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye, RedKite, The Original Roach, Codringher’s Cat, Libby, Clare Odell, Jennidy Mundilovitch, Brett from California, Wolf, Corey from the US, John of Ryblia, Sebastian von Novigrad, Tom from Australia, Jill Cate, The Tabby Witch, Olle from Sweden, James Carson III, and Kyle, the H2HOE.

Special thanks to Garrison and Daniel for joining us for this episode and our international hanza for their support.

Transcriptionist: John Matthew Sarong
Editor: Krizia Marie Casil

 

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