View source for Season 8

{{Season Infobox
  | title     = Time & Punishment
  | image     = Season 8 podcast cover.jpg
  | caption   = Official Season 8 art by [[Simon Greiner]]
  | campaign  = [[Dragon Friends]]
  | theme     = "[[You Can Always Go Back]]"
  | link      = [https://thedragonfriends.com/episodes/podcast/#season-8 Official website]
  | dm        = [[Dave Harmon]]
  | players   = [[Alex Lee]]<br/>[[Simon Greiner]]<br/>[[Michael Hing]]<br/>[[Edan Lacey]]<br/>[[Tom Cardy]]
  | composer  = [[Tom Cardy]]
  | producer  = [[Shakeera Khan]]
  | season    = 8
  | first     = 14 March 2022
  | last      = 25 December 2022
  | episodes  = 20
  | length    =
  | filmed    = Yes (from episode 9)
  | previous  = ''[[Season 7|The First Age]]''
  | next      = ''[[Season 9|Dragon Friends Must Die!]]''
}}
{{Quote|quote = Seven seasons, two continents and one global pandemic later the Dragon Friends are back with a brand new season of their deeply crook ''Dungeons & Dragons'' podcast, taped live every month at the Comedy Store.|personquoted = Comedy Store show advert}}

''The Dragon Friends have ushered in a New Age at a terrible cost. With only a few short hours before they must return to their own time, there are some loose ends that need to be taken care of.''

Season 8 was announced directly after [[season 7]]'s finale. The season's title is ''Time & Punishment'' and it directly follows on from the events of {{7.18}}. The Friends attempt to travel back to their present, unsure of what they'll encounter along the way.

The season's title and theme were first teased by [[Simon Greiner | Simon]]'s Instagram when he [https://instagram.com/p/CZySnxmh3Df revealed the season's poster]. He earlier teased various parts of this poster before revealing the full piece. The first episode was recorded live at the 9th of March 2022. The first podcast was released on the 11th of March for Patreons and on the 14th for the public.

==Overview==
The [[Dragon Friends]] are in the flying city of [[Eileanar]], a thousand years in their past. [[Karsus]] has vanished after [[Lionshield Banknote]] was annihilated entering his “God Cell”, and all [[Freezo]] finds inside is a [[Kiss the Ham|Christmas ham]]. The Dragon Friends are still suffering from time sickness, but cannot return to the future using the magic of the Lodestone. After the victory celebrations - during which [[Merreline Vowell]] sleeps with [[Baston]] - Vowell builds them a “cold cell engine”, powered by aether, in which the Friends can safely sleep until they awake in their rightful time.

Things don’t go according to plan. The engine’s aether runs out after 25 years, and the Friends emerge just after Vowell has died. They meet a now older [[Strahd von Zarovich|Strahd]] - still not a vampire - and [[Byron Vowell|Byron]], Baston and Vowell’s son. Byron goes on an adventure with the Friends to fetch a dragon egg to power the cold cell engine, and they are successful, but Baston doesn’t do a great job as a father. They also encounter a wizened goblin mage, a member of a group who claim to have heard “the blank note”, but the Friends pay little attention. Before they get back into the cold cell engine, they let slip to Strahd that he is their vampire enemy in the original timeline, cursed for murdering his brother Sergei after falling in love with his sister-in-law, the [[Carcosa]]n noble [[Patrina Velikovna]]. After Strahd leaves, Baston gives the [[Name Sword of Sergei von Zarovich]] to Byron, telling him to use it on Strahd if he should ever become a vampire.

102 years later, the Friends are wakened again when an explosion outside dislodges the egg powering the cold cells. The Friends discover that ten years after they went back to sleep, Strahd had unified the Freeborn and created the nation of [[Barovia]]. After years of Strahd avoiding them, Sergei and Patrina visited and all three were killed - by Byron. When Barovia refused to return Patrina’s body to Carcosa, war broke out and continued for nearly a century. Barovian Major Boroff confiscates the cold cell engine’s dragon egg and sends the Friends on a mission to ask Lord Ravenloft, leader of the Barovian forces, to finally return Patrina’s body; they instead kill Ravenloft’s right hand man and are only saved from execution by a disguised Byron. He explains that Strahd killed Sergei, and Byron fought with Strahd, hoping to avert further tragedy; but Patrina arrived suddenly and was accidentally killed by Strahd with the Name Sword. Byron then killed Strahd, but as the only survivor was blamed for all three deaths. He knows the bodies were interred in the crypt under Castle Ravenloft, and came to return Patrina’s to end the war. But they discover Strahd and Patrina’s bodies are missing - and a diamond from Sergei’s pin has been taken.

As they escape the castle, Baston is grievously wounded. They take him into the desert to the camp of the Sonic Church, a faith none of them have ever heard of, with help from a mage prisoner who claimed to have heard “the sound”. Members of the church agree to help Baston, but in return ask the Friends to restore the food supply for the Church. Freezo and Philge go with members of the Sonic Church to a camp of the Silver Chorus, an alliance of faiths who had been distributing food. When their Paladin leader refuses to aid the “blasphemous” Sonic Church, Freezo and Philge kill him, and Freezo summons an uncontrolled demon as a “distraction”. It slaughters most of the Silver Chorus’s camp as they escape with a cart full of bread. Bobby meanwhile has been painted by the mysterious Lady Casador, and made friends with The Fred, an aspiring magician. When Freezo and Philge return they all discover that the Church was created by a now immortal (but not a vampire) Strahd, a plan to create a god who would resurrect Patrina. They find Patrina’s body magically preserved inside an orb, but Freezo causes The Fred to be killed setting off a magical trap before running off with the orb. The Silver Chorus arrives in force to wipe the Sonic Church and Strahd’s blasphemy from history. Philge, Bobby and their new friend, a tortle druid named [[Logan the Huge]], try to face the music, but are banished. They end up rejoining Freezo and returning Patrina’s body to Major Boroff, allowing him to bring an end to the war. But there’s no sign of Baston, alive or dead. Logan and his new “imprinted turtle friend” Major Boroff swear to find Baston and place his body into the cold cell engine before sealing it safely in the crypt of Castle Ravenloft.

The engine brings the Friends to their home time, but something’s wrong. For one thing, there’s no Baston - Logan emerges from the heavily modified fourth cell, furious with the friends that Boroff spent the rest of his life trying to find Baston. He’s joined them to try and fulfil Boroff’s promise. For another thing, the castle is partly ruined, and isn’t in Barovia any more. It turns out the demon Freezo summoned grew more powerful, becoming Pater Terra, ruler of the City of Dis. In order to get at Freezo, he pulled the entire Castle Ravenloft into Hell. The Friends travel to the City of Dis, where they discover their only ticket out of hell is aboard the train that ferries souls to and from hell. They manage to bluff their way on board, only to discover that living mortals cannot survive its trip through the barrier between hell and Faerûn. They defeat the Engine Mistress when Freezo uses an ancient scroll to summon the Terrasque, destroying the train but allowing them to still her Iron Sign that protects them as they return to the mortal realm.

The Friends find themselves in a small storeroom under Waterdeep - they’re more or less home. But as Vowell warned them, they aren’t quite back where they left: it’s 1492 DR, five years earlier than when they left, and they’ve arrived during their infiltration of the secret cult during {{1.10}}. They run into [[Two Guards|two guards]], then [[Dilge]], and then alternate timeline versions of their younger selves...

==List of Episodes==
All liveshows were simply named "Live at the Comedy Store" (Sydney) except for the final four, which were held in the Vanguard (Newtown). The names used here are from the notes Dave released on Discord after the season had concluded.

*I: New Beginnings
**{{8.01}}
**{{8.02}}

*II: Hard Times
**{{8.03}}
**{{8.04}}

*III: (''no name given'')
** {{8.05}}
** {{8.06}}

*IV: Summary Execution
** {{8.07}}
** {{8.08}}

Starting with 8.09, video recordings of the show are made available for Patreon supporters.

*V: The Retreat
** {{8.09}}
** {{8.10}}

*VI: Cielo Drive
** {{8.11}}
** {{8.12}}

*VII: FAFO
** {{8.13}}
** {{8.14}}

*VIII: On The Road To Hell
** {{8.15}}
** {{8.16}}

The final four episodes were recorded in The Vanguard, King St. Newtown, with Montaigne as a special guest:

*IX: Hellpiercer
** {{8.17}}
** {{8.18}}

*X: Get Back
** {{8.19}}
** {{8.20}}

Somewhere after recording 8.12, [[Dave Harmon|Dave]] ran a one-shot [[Spelljammer]] adventure on the official D&D channel. [[Demi Lardner]] joined him as one of the players.

* [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1567178182 D&D Beyond Live: Wizard Presents Post-Show Celebration]

Additionally, in between 8.14 and 8.15, when the Dragon Friends were at PAX in Melbourne, Alex Lee DM'ed a Patreon exclusive one-shot special with Dave, Simon, [[Michael Hing|Hing]], [[Ben Jenkins|Ben]] and a special guest as the players.

* [[PAX Comedy Republic 2022|PAX Comedy Republic 2022]] (''the one with the baby'')

==Other links==
* “[[Season 8 Theme|You Can Always Go Back]]”, this season's theme song, composed and performed by [[Tom Cardy]]
* [[:Category:Season 8 NPCs|Season 8 NPCs]]


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[[Category:Dragon Friends]]
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[[Category:Season 8|*]]