Season 1 Episode 2 "The Ties That Bind"

The dads mediate a conflict between a dragon and his children.

## Episode Summary

The dads head to an inn to rest before heading to rescue their children. Outside of the inn, they find a group of humans attacking Gartok, a small dragon. Henry rescues Gartok by casting Thunderwave on the crowd of attackers, and the dads take Gartok with them into the inn. Gartok explains that he is looking for his children, who have run away from him. The dads agree to bring him with them on their journey and to help him find his children.

The dads and Gartok, who can turn invisible, head to the Wispy Winds Inn. Having no money, the dads successfully make a business deal with the bartender of the inn, who trades them three silver and a room at the inn for a six pack of Darryl's beer, with the promise that they will provide her with more beer later on in exchange for more silver.

That night, the four dads share a dream in which they are standing on the lip of a crater and a person in a purple cloak is pointing at them with a unintelligible yet familiar voice. Upon waking, the dads attempt to sneak out through the window to avoid their business deal with the bartender. A guard stands outside the window, and they bribe him with the three silver given to them by the bartender. However, Darryl accidentally reveals that a dragon is with them, and the guard attempts to cry for help but is knocked out by Glenn before he can do so. The dads steal back their three silver and find their way back to the Odyssey, where the begin the drive to Neverwinter to rescue Lark and Sparrow.

The Honda Odyssey drives north, towards Neverwinter. Eventually Gartok sees a cave he recognizes and asks that they stop to see if his kids are there. He explains that he cannot go search for his kids himself, but is unable to say why, and the dads see that there are magical armbands on his limbs that seize up. Ron takes one of the armbands off of Gartok, and Henry expresses fear that they accidentally murdered one of Gartok's children by doing so. Gartok's reaction confirms this. The dads promise to bring back Gartok's two remaining children, and leave the Odyssey to explore the cave.

Upon entering the cave, the dads finds Gartok's two adolescent daughters, Reese and Sylvan. The daughters quickly discover that Gartok sent the dads, and express their hatred for their father. They explain that Gartok uses his children as slaves with the use of the magical bracelets, which force them to help him against their will. A figure in a purple cloak allowed them to draw from the Deck of Many Things, and the children drew The Fates, allowing them to change an event from their past. The children placed the bracelets on Gartok instead of themselves, and escaped. One bracelet, attached to Drakkon, Gartok's son, stated that he would die if the bracelet was removed. The other two bracelts prevented him from harming his children and speaking badly about them, respectively.

The dads go back to Gartok and remove another of his bracelets, which prevented him from speaking badly about his kids. The dads decide to change the bracelets to say 'treat your kids the way you want to be treated' and 'let your kids make their own decisions, within a certain boundary, until they are adults.' Suddenly, a portal opens, and another version of Darryl walks through. He explains that he is from the future, and that it is important that the bracelets say 'if you don't like yourself and you would actually treat yourself badly, that doesn't mean you can hurt your kids or hurt anybody they love, actually.' He also asks that they remove the 'within a certain boundary' from the first bracelet, and that the second bracelet says 'no one can remove these bracelets except for the four dads.' With that, future Darryl disappears into the woods.

The dads tell Gartok that he must change the writing on the bracelets to the conditions they came up with, or they will kill him. He does so, and the dads put the bracelets on Gartok and place him at the opening of the cave. Reese and Sylvan exit the cave and immediately try to kill their father. Henry blocks them from doing so, explaining that the bracelets have been changed and that it was in fact the dads who killed Drakkon. As the children begin to attack the dads, Gartok tells them that it was in fact him who killed his son by making the bracelets in the first place. Sylvan states that if she sees any of them again, she will kill them. The dads get into the Odyssey, leaving Gartok and his children behind, and continue driving into Neverwinter.

Upon arriving in Neverwinter, the dads see that a large drawing of the Doodler, the Westrock Elementary mascot drawn by Sparrow, is hanging at the entrance to the town.

## Dad Facts

Glenn is pretty bummed out that his Wonderwall cover in the previous episode didn’t work out the way that he hoped it would--it has worked for him every other time.

Darryl is beginning to suspect he misses his wife more than his wife misses him.

Henry has condoms on each of his fingers to protect himself from the 'weird druid stuff' that is happening to him.

Ron does not have any leg hair.

## Cast

Matt Arnold as Darryl Wilson

Anthony Burch is the DM

Will Campos as Henry Oak

Beth May as Ron Stampler

Freddie Wong as Glenn Close