Title: Gladlands
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Ally Beardsley (they/them) as Quinn Wedbush (she/her); Zac Oyama (he/him) as Connor Kawasaki (he/him); Oscar Montoya (he/him) as Poppy Persona (she/her); Jacob Wysocki (he/him) as Kokomo (he/all); Vic Michaelis (they/she) as Hugi (All Pronouns), and Kimia Behpoornia (she/her) as Tess Tube5 (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

Back in the Gladlands, we return to Rotglob’s chili cook-off where Tess struggles to help Kokomo. The Cooking Person isn’t impressed by Tess’s flexing, and when Quinn attempts to help, she fumbles to convince the leather-clad food judge. Hugi quickly jump in. They manage to impress the Cooking Person with a barrel-roll back flip, pleading Kokomo’s case. Relieved, Connor puts a pin back in his grenade, breathing out a sigh of relief as his dear friend’s dream is fulfilled.

Kokomo watches in wonder as Ash cooks, but her presence leaves Thagomizer intimidated. However, Kokomo bops off with his friends, planning to return for an unbiased tasting of the chili once cooking.

Connor and Quinn head out, searching for Justin as Tess remains, watching Ash. With his warmth burned out, Connor is on high alert. His tenseness draws Quinn into German Shephard mode, earning a plus six that I’d love to have further explained, but as they find Justin trying to get the generator back in the water, George the Giant Termite eats at one of the two stilts. The pair manage to stay upright. Though Connor fails to stop George from eating the stilt, Quinn manages to compel the giant bug to fight on their side by mentioning Ash.

As Justin and a couple others are sabotaging the engine, George launches forward. He attacks, lunging at one of the men. George drags one into the water. Only three remain. Quinn wants to beat them up, but Connor calls truce. Justin agrees, but he leaps into the water with a broad sword. Connor and Quinn learn Justin wants to cancel the cook-off because other villages need food from them. His mind is absolute consumed by quotas. Our high-strung duo calms him down, bringing him back to Rotglob.

Tess and Ash bond. Though she never had a dream of Uncle Pus, she has a fuzzy memory-like dream of a bug-faced man with a horn on his face who talked about Uncle Pus, but unlike Tess, the horned-faced man didn’t like Pus and seemed angry with him. The two end up hugging, seeing each other as siblings.

Returning to camp, Connor notices that Hugi is off. Kokomo also offers reassurances despite Hugi’s fear that they have failed the mourners who trusted them. He and Poppy are also struggling under the tension; however, Poppy is still full steam ahead as she read a nonfiction book which reinforced her belief that fiction was necessary to reinvigorate people’s hope. Unfortunately, this comes off as Poppy and Quinn sabotaging Ash.

Luckily, Connor and Tess quickly reassure Ash. Learning Thagomizer’s dream, she jumps on board, helping the poor arthritic man. When Kokomo tastes it, he praises their cooperation and happily imagines the ‘summer’ that he spoke of in the last episode. Thagomizer wins the chili cook-off. Weeping, Thagomizer lifts Ash, calling her name to be chanted alongside his own. Riding high of this, the town goes to Poppy’s performance, and the decide to have Bug Day in which they’ll be able to address the problems and grievances of folks to help lighten the burden that they face, ending their stay in Rotglob with a massively positive influence.

Highlights

Vic denied Jacob a celebratory high-five, so she’s on thin ice. Ever the adorable bundle of positivity, Jacob highed his own five. His little sad expression when his friends talk about leaving is so Totoro-coded. Kokomo’s mood was a bit of a pendulum throughout the episode, being one of the first to show the way the rising exhaustion in Rotglob carried over. I feel like in world there would be a mood gauge in the Carer Van that would be based on the angle of Kokomo’s ears with him going full cartoon sad, droopy ears when the mood completely soured.

Final Score (3.5 out of 5 Stars)

For an episode that was everywhere and had so much happen, the story development of the Carer Van’s occupants was a bit less than I had hoped. Maybe Quinn and Connor bonded over stress, and it seemed contagious. If that isn’t reality in any workplace, I don’t know what is. Kokomo took the wildest swing from happy chili high to covered in fabrics low, but they all came together in the end. Ash shone as the best NPC so far this season. She’s sweet and adorable, and undoubtedly, we’ll be panicked for her the rest of the season in case something happens.

But it did get Brennan quoting, “Violence is easy. It doesn’t make you special.” I’m not 100% certain if he means Mazey Phaedra from Fantasy High or a Mazey who I’m not aware of, so please let me know if there’s a source for this quote as I couldn’t find one, but it’s incredibly poignant considering everything that is happening lately.

Let us know in comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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