The latest episode of Geeks on a Roll dives headfirst into a tabletop adventure where Nehemiah from the Hebrew Scriptures takes center stage alongside a quirky crew: Blastoise the Pokemon, Beorn from "The Hobbit", Merida from Pixar's "Brave", and the ever-magnificent kaiju Mothra. They’re not just hanging out—these characters are gearing up for a wild quest to clear a rat named Remy of murder charges in a Parisian restaurant filled with animated shenanigans. The gang’s banter is as amusing as it is insightful, with discussions on empathy, imagination, and some cheeky references to pop culture and scripture. As they navigate this whimsical world, listeners are treated to a delightful mix of humor and clever storytelling, all while the stakes of their mission rise higher than a Kaiju’s wingspan. So, grab a snack, settle in, and let the fun unfold as they strategize, roll dice, and, of course, get their geek on!

In the latest episode of Geeks on a Roll, listeners are treated to a whimsical journey where tabletop gaming meets theological musings. Joshua Noel, the game master, guides TJ Blackwell and special return guest Michael Morelli through a colorful cast of characters, including Nehemiah, Merida, and the ever-popular Blastoise. The session opens with a humorous exchange that sets the tone for a relaxed yet thought-provoking adventure. As the players engage in character selection, they dive into discussions about the significance of their choices, weaving in themes of leadership, empathy, and community. The concept of 'theology as play' serves as a backdrop for the narrative, prompting the players to consider how storytelling and games can cultivate a deeper understanding of one another. Their shared experiences in the campaign reflect broader truths about life, compassion, and the importance of seeing the world through different lenses. As they embark on their mission, the chemistry between the players shines, with witty banter and clever insights enhancing the overall enjoyment of the episode. With the promise of an exciting quest ahead, this episode captures the essence of fun, friendship, and the transformative potential of gaming, leaving listeners eager for what comes next.

Takeaways:

• In this episode, the hosts dive into a tabletop campaign featuring iconic characters like Nehemiah, Merida, Beorn, Blastoise, and Mothra, highlighting their unique traits and dynamics.
• The podcast explores the concept of theology as play, emphasizing how engaging with stories can foster empathy and imagination in adults, akin to what kids experience when they play.
• Listeners learn about the characters' backstories and how they impact their roles in the campaign, particularly Nehemiah's strategic thinking and Merida's magical bear connection.
• The episode showcases the humorous banter and camaraderie between the hosts, making it a light-hearted yet intellectually stimulating experience for fans of pop culture and theology.
• As the team embarks on their Parisian adventure, they face challenges that require teamwork and clever problem-solving, reflecting on how different personalities contribute to group dynamics.
• The discussion emphasizes the importance of storytelling in understanding complex themes like compassion and community, blending pop culture with insightful theological reflections.

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Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

When I saw their fear, I stood and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.

It's a quote from Nehemiah of the Bible, the Hebrew scriptures. Who is going to be one of the characters today in this episode of Geeks on a Roll on Systematic Geekology.

Geeks on a Roll is a series we've been doing.

Take some of our favorite characters from across pop culture, occasionally scripture and stuff, and we just play through a tabletop campaign together. I'm Gonna be the GM today. Joshua Knoll here with the two most handsome, most incredible players. TJ Tiberius 1, Blackwell, the Pot almighty.

Michael Morelli, the smart guy. Other people might say they're smart, but he is the smart guy. You know, PhD of theology, great guy, knows pop culture.

It is just, just a wonderful human to hang out with. I asked them to come up with a team of five for today's episode.

It was gonna be a Hebrew character, a character with background, a large animal character of some sort, a Kaiju, a Pokemon or Digimon and a princess. So today they chose Nehemiah from the Bible, Blastoise, the Pokemon, Beorn from the Hobbit, Merida from Pixar's Brave, and Mothra, the Kaiju.

You know, Godzilla stuff. Yeah, exactly. Right now the high score in this series was set by Christian Ashley and mark flower with 48 points.

Today we're going to see if TJ Blackwell and Michael Morelli can best their score here. In a little bit I'll explain how the scoring works. But for now we set the stage.

Now we got to talk to those beautiful, beautiful men that I mentioned. TJ Tiberius Wan Pod Almighty. What have you been geeking out on lately, man?

For clarity reasons, this is attempt two at this and last time I said a different thing. So don't be confused, guys. I'm gonna go with Tekken 8. Actually, I just decided it was time to be good at Tekken.

I've had enough of only playing 2D fighting games. So most of my morning has been sit sitting here with my buttons and figuring out Tekken.

Fair enough, fair enough. Well, that wasn't as smooth of a transition as last time when you mentioned magic. Because I've been playing a deck building video game.

Marvel Midnight Suns. I've been putting off for a long time because I wanted to play because it was Marvel, but it was turn based combat and I was like, I don't know.

I like more dynamic fighting style stuff, but it was on sale for Summer on Steam, and I'm addicted. It's incredible.

You got your dark magic characters like Nero, like Doctor Strange magic, and then you got your mainstream Iron Man, Spider Man, Hulk and stuff, too, and it's just. It's a blast. I can't put it down. Michael. What? What have you been geeking out on lately, man? We have no idea. This isn't take two. TJ's wrong.

We have no idea.

This is not take two. This is the first time I'm answering this question. I'm nerding out on the final season of the Bear.

I love that show.

Yeah, tell us about that. Yeah, me too. I mean, so, you know, in preparation, I actually started an essay.

I wanted to make the essay, like, done and dusted before the final season.

Just to say, like, whatever happens, this show is awesome and it's a gift, and I wanted to reflect on it, but it just didn't feel like the essay was done. So I watched the final season. I've got some thoughts. Now I need to nerd out some more so I can finish the essay.

Nice. Nice. Yeah, I can't wait to finish that season as well, because I haven't finished. And then read your essay afterwards.

I don't want to hype it, you know? You know, I don't want to hype it. I just want to say watch it, and I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

Yeah. Michael's like, it's actually really bad, and I can't believe.

Yeah, Just lower expectations. Yeah.

All right, well, with that, hopefully won't lower your expectations too much. If you go to our website. Hopefully you'll be like, oh, man, this is pretty good. You'll see some of our merch. You can sponsor the show, etc.

Speaking of sponsors, I do like to shout out one sponsor today. Today we're shouting out financial supporter Trip Fuller. We all love you, Tripp. I'm gonna be at Theology Beer Camp. The other two were undecided.

Current plan is to dress Michael Morelli up in a hurricane's hockey outfit and tell everyone he's tj. Because TJ won't be able to make it. So we're just gonna, you know, we'll move some stuff around, move some round trip. We'll do a two in one.

You'll get both. You'll never even know.

I've always wanted to be TJ for a day. Yeah. Oh, I really want to go. I just don't Know if I can make it this year.

So you'll be there, tj, don't worry.

Anyways, with that though, if you want your own shout out like Trip, I mentioned the website, you can go over there, you become an official member, sponsor the show. If you don't want to be an official member though, you can leave a one time tip. You can buy merch, you can check out some of the bonus episodes.

There's all kinds of stuff. Some of my favorite merch is the Geeks on Roll T shirts that we sell. I really like the mustard yellow because I love yellow.

I don't like mustard so much, so I was kind of worried about it, but then I saw it when I got it and I'm like, oh, this is great. Only problem is I have some grease stains and the original one, the logo is a little bit too big.

So I have a new one coming that I'm going to wear at Theology Beer Camp. So there. Look, I plugged Theology Beer Camp twice.

And this is the first time I'm saying this, but Beer Camp is awesome. But also, the yellow of this T shirt is spectacular. It is actually more spectacular than the yellow of Bumblebee in the Transformers movies.

And that's a spectacular yellow.

You do. Also, you have to keep in mind the lighting in Josh's office is like really, really bad.

Yeah. And even this, I'm like blown away by this hue of yellow.

I think it's so funny how different the yellow I'm wearing looks than the slide that's showing right now. That's humorous to me.

It kind of looks like a pale mango just going to that go into.

That lighty,.

Lighty everything, folks.

Yeah. So we mentioned this is part of our Geeks on the Roll series.

If you want more episodes like this of some tabletop fun, you know, omniverse pop culture, whatever craziness stories that we play through. There's a link also in the show description. There's lots of links in the show's description. Check out all of them.

If you want more from us, you can get more from all of systemic ecology except for tj. He's the Pod Almighty. And part of the agreement to prevent blasphemy was that he can't be everywhere. You can know everything.

You just can't be everywhere. Yeah. Him and God had to. Yeah. Yeah. Just so we're not getting into that blasphemy territory, you know, that's all.

With that though, we are going to go ahead and move on to today's episode. I've mentioned. I'm not sure where I first heard the phrase theology as play.

I mean, I know it was at theology beer camp, I just don't remember who said it. And I'm going to put Michael Morelli on the spot.

You hear the phrase theology is played, what I heard at beer camp, it was something like theology is embodied and it's actually important that we game, that we play, that we do stuff together. Michael, if you just had to guess, just hearing that phrase, what do you think that phrase means or what does it mean to you when you first hear it?

Well, it makes me think of another quote from the musician artist Brian Eno. I can't remember what interview it was, but he said kids learn through play and adults play through art. And I thought he was so right.

But I also think that there are some adults who are honest about their learning through play.

And I think theology we can group in there as well is at least theology in the way that I want to do it is a bit like, you know, the artistic risk or the, or just the free space of games and play is you just go to the edges of your imagination in yourself and have fun and get excited and get freaked out or whatever. Then every once in a while you turn around and say, who's with me? Am I the only one? And I think that's the type of art that moves people.

That's the type of games that move people and changes people and the type of theology that that moves and changes people. So that's what comes to mind.

I like that. What you said brought to my mind, surprisingly to everyone is CS Lewis.

He talks about how a lot of times our reasoning really isn't what gets us to our beliefs, but it's almost like a guardian that's preventing us from seeing new things. And sometimes imagination can kind of sneak past that dragon and get us to see stuff in a way that we wouldn't before.

And I think that's like a lot of play, a lot of this kind of stuff.

That's what I think of is like sometimes we're so guarded, especially as adults, because we have had all these building blocks our whole lives of like, this is what we believe and we can't believe other things.

And sometimes playing, letting your guard down a little bit, seeing a story, experiencing art, that kind of stuff can let us kind of sneak past that and maybe see stuff from a different perspective. And what I like about tabletop role playing games is we are choosing different perspectives.

Like, you know, I've never thought of life as Merida from Pixar. Like, I, you know, I don't think of stuff like that all the time.

So it forces us to think as other people and then maybe have a little more empathy and see the world differently. 100%. Yeah.

I mean, you know, people are saying, why? Why are we such a. In a state where people don't have empathy or compassion?

And it's like, well, imagination is essential for empathy and compassion and fine arts games play, all this teaches us imagination, which is essential for compassion and empathy. So are we surprised when we, you know, think of it as lesser, you know, than like all the important things we should be doing?

When you're like, actually developing our imagination for the purposes of empathy and compassion is actually like literally a life or death thing at this point.

So, yeah, yeah. What Michael Morelli is trying to say is the reason we don't have enough compassion in the world is not enough people listen to systemic egology.

So, hell yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Or playing enough D and D. Yeah, yeah.

Share the episode and then text TJ to play D and D. He'll probably do it.

We figured something out.

So do want to go through before we get to the campaign, the characters you chose? So again, I'll do it in order. So for Large Animal, you guys chose Beorn. Do you want to talk some about who he is or why you chose him?

Just real briefly?

Yeah, so I chose Bjorn Beorn, however you want to say it, just because I always found him to be such a fascinating character in the Hobbit. For those who are uninitiated, I'm assuming anybody who's listening to this show is Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Key.

But in case you're not the party of Bilbo and the dwarves and Gandalf, they stop off at Beorn's place during their journey and they discover that Beorn, this mysterious kind of wild man, he's almost kind of got this like John the Baptist vibe where he's got all these animals and he's got like bees and honey and all that sort of stuff. He can also transform into a giant bear. And that's just cool.

It's just cool.

It's so cool.

So when you said, when you said animal, I was like, does this like large animals? Like, does this count? A shape shifter? And you were like, yes.

Trying to do the yes. And whatever you guys think counts, count, right? Yeah.

So these first two are the ones I think surprised me the most because, like, in my mind, big animal we were going to do, like, King Kong, maybe even Clifford the Big Red Dog or something.

Clifford was. Did come to mind.

Yeah, Or Big Bird. Yeah, Big Bird is, like, so obvious. Plus the theme of yellow.

And when I said Hebrew character, character, you know, inspired with Jewish background, my brain went, they're going to just say Superman, but instead we have Nehemiah. So let me hear, let me hear why. Why we got Nehemiah up here?

Well, okay.

Well, so first of all, in our group chat, when we were deciding, like, I just listed all the ones because I thought TJ was going to pick some and I was going to pick some. So then I was. I just, like, I just picked a bunch of people and listed them off, thinking.

And then I was like, wow, that's very presumptuous that Michael's just forming the team without any interaction with tj. And TJ was very gracious. Yeah, okay, so take that back.

And said, I did TJ's homework for him and he came in at the last moment and provided some great edits. So I thought.

Initially I was actually thinking, like, Deborah would be cool from Book of Judges, you know, but then I thought Nehemiah would be interesting just because, you know, he's got the ability to, you know, play politics as the cup bearer, you know, but then also he's got the architecture stuff. Right. He's a builder, but he also can fight while he's building. And I think that's just a cool.

Pretty well rounded.

Yeah, he's well rounded. Right. He's a good leader. He's got the strategy, he's got the diplomacy, but if he needs to, he can also fight.

Yeah. All right, just a couple more here. Speaking of edits.

So originally, we hadn't thrown out Milan, and TJ mentioned Merida might be a better pick from Pixar's Brave. So tj, who was Merida? Why Merida?

Yeah, because, well, Merida, like you said, is from Brave, which not one of their more popular. And Brave was, like, widely panned when it was released. Whatever. Brave is a good movie.

But I said Merida because I think her skill set typically is more applicable than Mulan's. Just in general. Mulan is like a soldier.

They have similar skill sets, but Merida is shown to be, you know, genuinely prodigious and also has a much better understanding of kind of the magical world because of her story. Also, I thought there was some really good synergy there with Beorn because her mother turns into a bear.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was actually going to Ask you about that here in a minute because. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She has the ability to regulate the other characters.

Yeah.

Although I feel like Blastoise and Monroe be like, oh, wow, this human actually can do some cool stuff.

Yeah.

Freak out.

Though I did think about suggesting, like, a bear. Pokemon. Just. Just table of bears.

Yeah. No.

Table bears. Mother and Nemi.

A Care Bear.

Yeah, yeah, why not? Oh, man. Yeah. So I actually rewatched Brave today to make sure I had a good understanding of the character.

And I, for a long time, wrote Brave off with Tangled, and I've gone back to watch Tangled and affirmed that I just don't like Tangled. One of my bad opinions. I apparently have just not done the same courtesy to Brave. I was wrong about Brave. Brave's a good movie. DJ's right. So paper.

I'm on about that today. So that's fun. That's a big moment. Right. All right, next up, we have the Blastoise for your Pokemon or Digimon. You chose Blastoise, Michael. Why.

Why we got Blastoise up here? Other than obvious reasons, Big.

I mean, it was only the obvious reasons. A giant turtle with cannons.

Big man Blastoise.

Praise God. Yeah.

We need a tank. A ranged tank, no less.

Yeah. Okay. Finally, Mothra for your Kaiju. You could have went Godzilla. You could have went like, Kingro. We want Mothra. Why we got Mothra?

I'm always down for Mothra.

Yeah.

I feel like Mothra has been in all of the geeks on a roll that I've been a part of.

I affirm this. Yeah. I love any Mothra inclusion I'm here for.

Yeah. A big moth that is kind to humans and can actually do a little bit of healing if needed. I panicked a little bit.

Minutes before we signed on, I was like, wait, do we have a healer? And then we looked. I was like, no, no, no. Monster actually can heal, which is. Which is also a bonus, so.

And air power.

Cool.

Yeah.

Air superiority, it's hard to overcome.

Yeah. It's such an unlikely thing, right? A giant moth that can throw down, like, big dinosaur, big gorilla. You're like, that's predictable.

But a giant moth. Let's go.

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Love the team choices here. I'll go back to it. TJ already mentioned it. I'm curious.

How do you guys see the relationship of Myriada and Beyorn playing out? Because Beyorn's typically not super human friendly.

Merida had kind of like a traumatic bear experience, but also, it could be pleasant, depending on how you view that. How do we see those two characters?

Interacting, I think they would come to a pretty good understanding with each other. Just because Merida has built that relationship with her bear mother and Beorn.

She's this, you know, this tiny little Scottish girl who's very in tune with nature. I think he would appreciate that. Write her off as one of the good ones.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I can affirm that.

Yeah, yeah. I. I've got nothing to add to that. I. I think. I think that's the right take. And this may be an opportunity for. For both to grow.

You know, Bjorn not just writing everybody off, right? It's like, oh, no, this. This girl's the real deal.

So my other question, who would you see as the team leader?

Because, like, in my mind, I think beyond Blastoise, Mothra, all kind of play secondary characters usually, but I could see Nehemiah or Merida being like, take charge, being leading point. Who do you. Who do you think you got on this?

I think Merida would want to. If it was Ashes, Squirtle or, like, Team Squirtle leader as a Blastoise and he had the glasses, it would be Blastoise, but that's not the case.

Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. All right. So I mentioned I was going to tell you guys the scoring stuff and everything. So we are going to.

We're allowed six rolls, something like that. I can do two. Y' all do four or six. We're going to try and limit the rolls for the game. Seven rolls, y' all can do five. I can do two.

Also two coin flips, if need be. That I can use. I'm just going to help the story go along if we're uncertain about what might happen.

The points at the end, you're going to be graded on mission status. Did you complete the mission? How well you completed it? Teamwork. How well did the team work together? Sustainability.

Is this team sticking together after the fact. Strength. How strong is this team? And then fun. How much fun do we think this team had together?

And of course, we also have some bonus points at the end. You'll have both negative and positive bonus points that you could occur depending on your choices in the game. 48 Is the score to beat.

I think you guys can. I think you guys can do it. I really do.

I believe in us.

I think sustainability is the big one. That I'm like. I'm not sure, but I feel that way every time we play it. That I'm like, these. These people really hanging out. I don't know. We'll see.

Are you guys ready to, to move on to the. The game itself. A Mouse Entrapment in Paris is the name of our campaign and I'm. I'm thrilled for this. This is gonna be a lot of fun.

So as we have it, just to set the stage, we're not going to do any. How did they get here? Any of that stuff. We'll just. They're here. Okay. Because I didn't think things through super well.

I'm gonna have to explain away something real quick.

Mothra is just outside of Beerus flying around and for some reason your team has just a deep connection, can understand and communicate without having to explain that. Because I don't feel like explaining it. Yeah, that's what we're gonna do for.

That works for me.

Cool. So everyone except for Mothra however, is going to suddenly appear in front of a mouse hole. You're all just here in front of the mouse hole.

There is two tables beside of it. One is larger, one is smaller.

The larger one has what appears to be a shrink ray because it says shrink ray with a headset in a note that says one shot only, please don't be an idiot. And there's also appears to be a really tiny headset and a note you can't read on the other table. That's where we're at, fellas. Take it away.

What do we got?

Alright, so the question is, will if we shrink Beorn in his human form, will he still be small when he's a bear or does his shape changing ability override that?

You guys have no point of reference. Characters just showed up. Yeah.

Does this give new meaning to the discussion of miniatures?

Miniatures.

Sorry. Okay, well, let's assume because there is a size component here that we need to consider. Like Blastoise is quite large, as is Mothra.

So let's just assume that the shrinking.

Blastoise is around five to six feet.

Okay, I did look at this. Okay.

Yeah, he's like human ish size.

So let's just assume that the shrink ray, like everything will be relative to the spatiality of entering into this mouse hole. Is that a good assumption, gm?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Okay, cool. So. So the next thing then is this mini note. I, I want, we, I want to know what's on the mini note before we shrink anybody.

Because is it the same information or is it a different info? Different. Different note.

Super tiny writing. You can't quite read it.

Oh, so we have to shrink to read it.

Well, I'm trying to see if there's anybody here who just has super good sign you know, I think Nehemiah, being a scribe, might be able to squint. You know, squint.

You want to.

You want to roll for. For his ability.

Meredith does also have really good eyesight.

True.

It's true. Because of the.

Would Nehemiah actually have some sort of, like, architecture, tools, implements, something like a magnifying glass or a telescope or anything like, to that end?

No, but so that we don't stick here too long, I'm just going to say that Merida can read it.

Okay.

Yeah. All the note says is, come inside. We need help. He was framed.

Okay, well, I mean, we're not going to have much fun if we don't shrink ourselves, right, T.J. so let's. Let's shrink. Okay?

We only get one shot. We can only shrink one person.

Do not lose this chance. Was that a 8 mile reference? You only get one shot.

Alternatively, it's one opportunity, much worse reference to some play or something.

All right, so let's shrink up. So, yeah, the question is, who's first? Yeah, who's going to be the first? I feel like Nehemiah, he's like, you know what? I'll go first.

I'm not going to ask anybody. I'm not going to ask anybody to do something that I wouldn't do myself. So who wants to shrink me?

Oh, Merida will do it. Yeah.

She's like, let's. Let's go. Yeah.

What'd you have? Nehemiah is shrunk successfully and the ray is now out of shots.

Yeah. Yep. Oh, so they'll put on. Yeah. One shot only.

Yeah.

So tiny Nehemiah, but his true gift is not his size or his strength.

But the super tiny note had even smaller writing on it that does say, put on the headset.

Okay, headset on.

Cool.

Let's put it on. You might put it on and Merida will put on the other one.

Yeah, so those two can hear each other and communicate. That's. That's all. The headset is pretty, pretty simple. All right, so what are we doing from here? Nehemiah going to enter the mouse hole?

Well, he didn't get shrunk for nothing.

Yeah. All right. Turning back, he enters to find the one and only Basil of Baker Street.

Oh, my gosh. Detective Disappeared. Oh, I love this. Back in the day, I had the book and the movie. Let's go.

Yeah, yeah, I love it, too. So, Basil Pierce, follow me. I'm told Rick Sanchez stop by, needed your help. So this doesn't go to the Omniverse Court.

Something about he had things that he wanted to deal with and didn't want something stupid getting in his way. So Basil leads you on through a tunnel. I assume Nehemiah follows. Does Nehemiah concerned about Basil at all?

Talking mouse. Whatever, man.

Dressed up as a detective. Yeah, I mean, what's to distrust there? I got no questions.

Perfect. So Nehemiah and Basil head into what was Basil's kind of lounge. And of course, you have Dr. Dawson there, and he begins to explain the case.

He originally came here because he heard there were rats in Paris who managed to overcome the class situation that they have in London, where many of the rats were of a lower class, became super villains like Ratigan, and even tried to deny their status as rats. So he originally came here to investigate, to see how the rats here were able to have a better life here in Paris.

Some rats he heard, were even chefs, but they had to do it secretively. So he came to investigate, found an entire team of rats who were going into a restaurant and pulling people's hairs to let them cook.

And one of them is named Remy, who has recently been accused of murder. He's been thrown into a rat pound and all signs. Apparently, everyone's telling him that he was framed.

So Basil is on the case to solve how this happened. Rich Sanchez appeared to him alongside a man with a black coat.

Because they didn't want this to make it to the TVA course of court for the Omniverse, they wanted this to be solved ahead of time. So, of course, they chose the world's greatest detective, Basil of Baker Street. And he needed help.

So that is why you're here, to help Basil solve the case. Basil, now explaining all this, Invite you to go with him to the restaurant. Dawson's gonna stutter. I'm good here. I'm just gonna stay back this time.

Merida's gonna tell him to ask if the rest of us are allowed to come.

Basil explains there's only one shot for now. But when we're in the restaurant, humans, of course, are more than welcome to just walk in.

But going through the rats, he does have to take some alternative means to get there. So they'll base insert smart people words.

There's going to be a side adventure for Basil and Nehemiah before they meet up with everybody else at the restaurant, basically.

Okay, okay, good to know. I just. Let's, let's, let's advance in that. In that way.

And the only thing that I would add is that Nehemiah specializes in cups, so he can bring that that skill set to the restaurant. Should there be anything involving cups, cup bearing, cup sipping, cup holding, passing, throwing, toasting. Me. And I got this locked down.

Perfect. So Nehemiah and Basil go through the holes and are brought into underground place. Man. My brain is just struggling with words. Day guys.

Where many other very clearly Pixar animated rats appear. And they're all talking about what happened. They're chatting back and forth.

And you hear them discussing some about a man in a black coat appearing to them as well. Most of them seem to be the belief that there's no way Remy did this. Did you see the fur? It wasn't even animated. The same.

So the man in the black coat, who was he?

Are you asking me or you ask?

Is it Johnny Cash who's asking what as a rat or a mouse?

Johnny Cash. Unsure. Johnny Cash ratio. I will say there is a certain amount of hints or clues to the case that you can find that I want to.

I'm going to be checking off. If you find them throughout.

Neuma is going to ask if anyone recognized the man in the black coat.

His face was hidden. He seemed to be approximately six feet. Some of them were talking about stuff. Of course. The one rat. He didn't have any food and tell you that.

And the stuff he gave us just is not edible at all.

What did he give you?

Ah. So they bring you to what was brought to them. I can't wait for this. This is just a fun little side thing for me. But.

So the first brings you to three different items that the man in the cloak brought to the rats. First up was Blastoise tonight. There we go. We got Blastoise tonight. You can unlock Mega Blastoise this game should you choose.

Yeah.

Okay.

You also have a small disc with Pym particles. I'm not sure if anyone here has any reference for what it is. But there is one disc. Yeah.

So increase. Decrease size.

Yeah. There's only one disc.

Only one disc. But we don't know what it does.

None of your characters would recognize. It is the one that increases. But I don't think your characters would recognize that.

Right.

You just know that some man in a cloak gave it to the rats and said that these things would be useful.

Right.

Last always Tonight. The Epirus Bow and Pym Bartacles.

And do we get. Can we have all of these or do we just get to pick one.

Oh, you have all three. They were. They were left with the rats. The rats don't know why the man in the cloak left it.

Right.

But if he chose you to go on this adventure, obviously you guys should have it.

Wow. That you're so generous.

I feel like all the other.

They're like, we can't learn from you, Josh. This, like takes so long to get magical items.

Yeah, this is.

This is awesome. I'm having so much fun here. Okay, sweet. We'll take for later.

Yeah.

I want to learn more about this hair, though. You said the hair wasn't even animated the same. So. So that's. That sounds like a clue to me.

You heard some of the rats talking about it. Did you want to go back in and ask them? Yeah.

So we got these cool items. Yeah. Let's go back and do a little detective work.

All right. So the rats who were talking about it, you go up to them, they're like, yeah, you see like Pixar here. It's like animated strand by strand.

Like, we are very clearly detailed animation. A work of a modern art. Incredible. This, however, is just flat. It was just a flat black piece that. I mean, we smell it.

We know that that's mouse fur, but like, it's not even from our unit. Like, there's no way this is from a Pixar universe. They're very self aware rats, of course. Yeah, yeah. Why would they be?

Nehemiah, who is unfamiliar with animation as a medium and speaking animals as a whole,.

Praise God.

I think he would compare the fur to the other point of reference that he has for a talking rodent, which is Basil.

It's much closer to that. Different color, but it's a lot closer to Basil's animated style.

Okay, and how did Ratatouille Remy under Remy get framed?

Ah, the health inspector was who was killed and it's because he was going to shut down the restaurant having found out that rats were in the restaurant. And the way he found out was from this mouse fur. Well, not even rats.

But he found that he was going to shut down the restaurant for, you know, rodents being a problem. And Remy was freaking out trying to figure out what to do. And next thing everybody knew, health inspector was dead.

Seemed pretty clearly the rat freaking out about it. Did it? There was what they're claiming was rat fur on the scene that all the rats here seem to be like, there's just no way that was any of us.

Also seems pretty clear to you guys that there's just no way this is the same for her.

They seem like good natured rats. I mean, it's early days to point the finger at anybody.

But, you know, given my deep, deep knowledge of great mouse detective lore, prime suspect at this point, and I'm just going to, like, overlay my great mouse detective lore knowledge on to Nehemiah here. Be like, ratigan is prime suspect up in here.

Well, you can always say Basil. Basil was like. The only problem is that Ratigan is a rat. And the rats did say this smells more like mouse fur.

Interesting.

So our suspects are a mouse, a 2D animal.

Maybe it is a mouse. Yes. So either this mouse is framed or Ratigan put out a hit.

Which is smart, because if you're, you know, the kingpin, you don't actually perform the hits. You assign them so you don't get in trouble. Okay. Are there any other clues that we should be aware of? Any other discrepancies?

Basil thinks we're onto a great place to start. Let's go to where the mouse fur was found at the restaurant. Yeah. All right, Let me stuff. All right.

Who can hear this is gonna go at this point.

Yeah. All the characters. Yeah, the big characters are gonna walk through the dining room. Not Remy, Basil and Nehemiah are gonna go through the kitchen.

And of course, you do find out that the health inspector has been replaced. Also from someone that doesn't appear to be in this universe.

It's none other than the health inspector from Bob's Burger, who was currently at the restaurant doing his own kind of investigation, trying to shut the place down again. So that's what they are walking into in the dining room. Merida. Let's see. Merida, Blastoise and Beorn.

Meanwhile, Basil and tiny Nehemiah are walking into the kitchen where all the chefs are still. Some of them are being controlled by rats, and some of them are not. And you can pretty much tell from their frantic moving who is and is not.

Yeah.

All right. All right.

So Merida, Bayorn and Blastoise are in the restaurant. Do they sit down? They have a seat?

Sure.

They'll sit near the health inspector, try and listen.

Yeah, they're just investigating in general.

Yeah.

Would you like to like to use a roll to see what they are able to see?

Sure. I don't have my dice because.

Yeah, I don't have mine either.

Not just on the desk.

I had it in my hand and dropped it.

Yeah. I only have one within arm's reach and six sided.

I got it. 20 Sided dice. And no matter what you're Gonna observe something, but we'll see how much you observe. So am I doing a roll for Merida Beorn or who?

Both. We do one for each.

No, that's too many. Yeah, Merida can find it.

Sure.

Oh, an eight. But she pretty perceptive, so, you know, I'll give her a nat 10 or so, bump her up to, like, an 18. So she's going to. She's going to notice.

A lot of the guests at this restaurant appear to be the same tanned, bald man, like, identically the same. Some of the other people in the restaurant who are eating keep complaining about chest pains, holding their chest.

And health inspector seems to be particularly interested in them. Yeah. So those are the two things you see. You could have seen more, but an 8 still is not, you know, not ideal.

So, I don't know, just a restaurant full of people going into cardiac arrest.

Wow.

They appear to be like, they're holding their chest, talking about pains, but then it subsides and they'll go back to eating. It seems to be something.

So it's more like I'm weird. Acute heartburn.

Okay.

Something.

All right, well, I think, actually.

Okay, no, I'm gonna wait till later. Continue.

Okay. So I think Merida notices this and is like, I think I should check in with Nehemiah and let him know, like, hey, this is happening.

You should factor this in. And Nehemiah's like, you know what? Let's just grab the bull by the horns here and just approach the health inspector and ask him what's going on?

Can we do that? Can he try to approach the health inspector with Basil? Or the rest of them going to go up to the health inspector.

I feel like. I feel like Basil. Nehemiah. Like, I think they're going to leave, you know? Yeah, I think so.

Because I feel like just Nehemiah. Yeah, Because Basil.

Right.

Yes.

Good show. That's. That's a good point. Yes. Just Nehemiah. Yeah. And.

But he was excited for that.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, sorry. This is why. This is why we work in teams. Right, tj? Josh. Yeah. So I think, yeah, Nehemiah's like, okay, cool, I'll get this.

But I will mention that I am working with a detective. I'll just leave out the detail that it is a mouse.

The great mouse.

The great mouse. I'm working with a great detective. He'll just leave out the mouse part.

Yeah, yeah. All right. I dig it. However, we got a lot more of the story to go through, so we are going to pause here.

Wrap up the episode and do it as a part two for the rest of the story. Story.

So guys, this hanger.

Yeah, yeah, a little bit of cliffhanger. They're about to talk to the health inspector but before they do, we're going to wrap up and start a part two.

Wrapping up though, going to let everybody know at the end we will do a bonus question asking them who they would have chose instead if they known the story. We'll do that after part two. So if you want that bonus, gotta wait a couple days and then become an official member.

For now though, guys, if you had to give one recommendation to our listeners, just some random thing to geek out on, I'm going to cheat and just say what I said earlier. Marvel Midnight Suns. If you like deck building games. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

Dj, any recommendations for anyone out there listening before we start our part two?

No watch.

DJ recommends Magic the Gathering.

You've seen it, You've seen it all but Christopher Paolini's fractal verse. Pretty good, Pretty good. It's two books deep. It's a sci fi series.

It's pretty good.

You know, if we all buy these books then he'll go back to writing about dragons.

Yeah, and we'll get more Aragon story, also villainous. Disney's villainous. You can play as Ratigan. I'm recommend that too. Yeah. Michael Morelli, any recommendations before we wrap up and start part two?

Calvin and Hobbes and Asterix and Obelix. I mean my 9 year olds get into both of those and so I'm reliving them through him and I just can't recommend those enough.

Nice, nice.

All right guys, well do have to remind everybody, you know, go to the website, leave a rating review, get a T shirt, be like Tripp and support the show, all those things. And of course come back in a couple days for part two of A Mouse Entrapment in Paris. See what happens next when they speak to the health inspector.

Do they find out who framed Remy for the murder of the other health inspector? Only people who go to part two will find out. So don't miss it. Don't miss it. And remember, we are all a chosen people. A geekdom of priests.

Till next time.

It.