Franchise / Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk
Our heroes. Heaven help us.
The Dwarf: So, is that the dungeon?
The Ranger: Indeed, it's the famous Dungeon of Naheulbeuk.
The Dwarf: It doesn't look that great.
The Ranger: Don't go by the look; nobody ever came back out of it.
The Dwarf: Really?
The Ranger: Well, as a matter of fact, nobody ever entered it.
Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk ("The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk") is a French audio series which started in 2001, available for free on the Internet, as well as various materials related to its universe. It was created by John Lang, under the nickname of Pen of Chaos (shortened to POC).
An Affectionate Parody of tabletop RPGs, it tells the "amazing" story of a group of stereotypical roleplaying characters, who are trying to storm the aforementioned dungeon in the search of a magic artifact. It turns out, however, that they're all less than competent. And that they hate each other. A lot.
Two seasons for a total of 30 episodes had been produced. The third, fourth and fifth seasons took the form of novels, La Couette de l'oubli ("The Quilt of Oblivion"), L'Orbe de Xaraz ("The Orb of Xaraz") and Le Conseil de Suak ("The Council of Suak"), while the first two got adapted into comics with Marion Poinsot at the drawings and the third one begins to. In june 2013, the first two seasons also take the form of a novel A l'aventure, compagnons! ("On an adventure, comrades!"). Apart from the main series, several productions added flesh to the Land of Fangh (the setting of the series), developing the sheer absurdity of the adventures, ranging from fake advertisements for such products as the Chiantos candies (which have the interesting property of increasing one's capacity to annoy everybody around; a spoof of "Mentos", the French name approximately would translate to English to something like "Annoytos") or the Durandil swords, to an online encyclopaedia about the history and the societies of the setting. Pen of Chaos, who is primarily a musician, also started to write humorous songs taking place in the Naheulbeuk world, before interpreting them on stage with his group, the Naheulband. Various CDs compiling those songs (as well as several bonuses) had been released.
The series' notoriety has grown in French-speaking countries over the years, and gave birth to a wide internet community.
An adaptation as an animated CGI series is on its way.
Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk provides examples of the following tropes:
· Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: In the third novel, some cheerleaders are quite upset that males of the guild have no intention to rape them. They did not even entered in their changing room on purpose.
· Artifact of Doom: The 12 statues of Gladeulferah, when "properly" used. Which means wrapped in ham and laid out around a dancing one-legged gnome....
· Artifact Title: The main characters leave the eponymous dungeon at the end of the first season, never to come back again. And it even gets seized by the administration because Zangdar the Dungeon Master is too broke to pay his taxes.
· Awesome Moment of Crowning: The Elf gets crowned Queen of the Elves in season 5.
· Aw, Look! He Really Does Like Her:
o The Dwarf's reaction to the Elf's death.
o In a more... physical approach, even though he constantly berates her, the Dwarf was still as horny as the other males when she decided to go bathing in the nude.
· Baguette Beatdown: The Ranger accidentally attacks a weremole with a tuna sandwich, drawing it instead of his sword in the confusion. This ends as badly as you think it can.
· Barrier Warrior: Zangdar. The fourth season novel reveals that due to relying on his invulnerability sphere and never casting other spells, he lost the ability to control the latter.
· Big Brother Instinct: The Ogre towards the Enchantress.
· Blinding Bangs: In the comic book version, the Dwarf wears a helmet fully covering his eyes, and even without it he still has Blinding Bangs to hide them. Later albums reveals it is a generic feature of the dwarf race.
· Bring News Back: After the attack in tome 5, the group is the first to reach civilization, and promptly send Instant Messenger Pigeons to the cities of Glargh and Waldorg to warn the authorities of the threat.
· Cerebus Syndrome: Even though it's still first and foremost an Affectionate Parody and a very funny one, the seasons 4 and 5 are more serious than the previous ones.
· Combinatorial Explosion: At some point in season 2, the group is kind of lost on their way to Boulgourville, carrying lots of ordinary items (some rope, a bow) and unlikely ones (among which nautical skis, an inflatable sword, a magic cleaning wipe...). When they debate that maybe they can use the items to get out, the Dwarf sarcastically suggests one such use:
Dwarf: I see what kind of thing you mean: With the three-fingered mittens we use the bow to kill some birds, we roast them on the kebab skewers on a fire made in the sugar box with bits and pieces of the nautical skis, and we eat them with the octopus's forks! We wipe our spit-soaked mouths with the magic cleaning wipe, after which the Elf smears herself with the stupid ointment vial, and performs a dance around the fire while wearing the crazy slippers and the bear tooth necklace, and waving the inflatable sword around! And in the end we HANG ourselves with the rope, because we're STILL LOST and we're RIDICULOUS!
· Continuity Nod: The characters sometimes refer to the events depicted in some of the Naheulband's songs. That's why the Elf should never know why trolls want apples when they see her...
· Crashing Through the Harem: In L'Orbe de Xaraz, the protagonists crash through the brute-ball cheerleaders' changing room while trying to escape their pursuers.
· Deadpan Snarker: Every member of the group tends to fall into this, but the Dwarf is clearly the champion in this domain.
· Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Justified by Destiny Points, which allow a character's teammates to bring them back from the dead. Also subverted because if you run out of them, you get Killed Off for Real. Although you can be ressurected even if you're out of Destiny Points, via a magical ritual. But it's very expensive, and it can't work if the body and/or the mind of the dead one are too heavily damaged.
· Desperate Object Catch: The alchemist fire at the end of season 3.
· Distracted by the Sexy: Happens frequently in the novel, as the Elf has a really high "charisma"...
· The Ditz: The Elf, and how!
· Doomy Dooms of Doom: Supplemental material mentions a major fire spell called the "Conflagration of Doom". Its upgraded version is called the "Conflagration of Quake".
· Dumbass Has a Point: While the Ogre isn't very smart and is clearly only in the group due to his strength, a good idea pops up in his head every once in a while. The most notable instance was when he offered to give a troll bits of goblin for food so they wouldn't have to give him the Elf.
· Dumb Blonde: The Elf, even compared with everyone else.
· Dumb Muscle: Played straight with the Ogre, but surprisingly averted with the Barbarian. He's not exactly a genius, but he found the right answers to most of the enigmas the group needed to solve and often shows elements of being the Only Sane Man. Sort of justified when he reached level 2 and gained one intelligence point. Finally, the first book acknowledges his (relative) smartness by stating that he is seemingly more clever than most of his kin. See also Genius Bruiser below.
· Elves vs. Dwarves: Oh boy, where to start?
The Elf: (who has fallen in a hole) Help me, I'm stuck!
The Dwarf: She says we can leave her behind.
The Elf: Get me out of here, it's slimy!
The Dwarf: She says she wants us to drop rocks on her and put her out of her misery.
· The End of the World as We Know It: Basically what the group tries to prevent in the novel. After all, they played a part in it...
· Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The main characters are only identified by their race or their class. More than 10 years after the start of the series, we still don't know their real names. Some moments in the season five imply (or outright state) that they don't want to give their real names. The Elf and the Barbarian receive the "fake" names of Selenia and Chef Taurogh (Chief Bullogh) respectively. Interestingly, everyone else has an actual name.
· Failed a Spot Check: As she enters Zangdar's lair, the Elf complains about how ugly the rug is. The Ranger then has to point out the iron golem that's barring their way to her...
· Five-Man Band: Subverted as much as you can expect in a comedy, but the roles can still be attributed.
o The Hero — The Ranger (although it's quite debatable if we can call him the leader...)
o The Lancer — The Dwarf
o The Smart Guy — The Enchantress
o The Big Guy — Two, in fact; the Barbarian and the Ogre
o The Chick — The Elf
· False Flag Operation: The first part of the tome 5 baddie's plan.
· Four-Fingered Hands: Orcs have them. When one character's arm gets orcish due to some weird Orc medicine, they notice two of their fingers have merged.
· Full-Frontal Assault: The Elf during the boat ambush in season 3.
· Genius Bruiser: The Barbarian may like fighting above anything, but he has still solved some riddles that his companions couldn't answer. Of course, it may say more about the "intelligence" of the others...
· Gentle Giant: Kinda. The Ogre is treated and acts like any other member of the group and is not evil, but he still has a very strong appetite. And he does have weird tastes sometimes...
· Gesundheit: The Dwarf takes offense at this happening:
The Enchantress: (reading a location on the map) Chnaffon!
The Ranger: À tes souhaits.
The Barbarian: À tes souhaits.
The Dwarf: Die!
· The Greatest Story Never Told: At the end of La Couette de l'oubli, the adventurers manage to kill the evil wizard who wanted to awake the God of Slumber, and thus manage to save the entire world. Except that it all happened in the wizard's secret lair, so absolutely nobody except them knows about it.
· Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The Enchantress and the Elf fight at range (though the Elf has trouble hitting the right target) while the rest of them clumsily plunder into melee.
· Homage: One song from the Naheulband is a Homage to Kaamelott. With the accompanying fan-art, it leans into Crossover.
· How Dare You Die on Me!: The Enchantress when the Elf dies...
Enchantress: Shit! Shit! Shit! How could you do that!
· Hypercompetent Sidekick: Gluby
· Idiot Ball: Happens a lot, and is sometimes lampshaded.
Enchantress: (reading a chapter in a book, about Boulgourville, the Lost City, where they have to go) In the past, it was impossible to find, but today it's signposted.
[...]
The Ranger: Show us the map; is it far from here?
The Enchantress: Well... It's not on the map.
The Ranger: Wait... What do you mean?
The Enchantress: They say it's meant to discourage those who want to find the Lost City.
The Ranger: (in disbelief) ... So, let me get this straight: they signpost the way to a lost city which is not on the map because they don't want it to be found?
The Enchantress: Exactly.
The Dwarf: That's utterly stupid!
The Enchantress: Indeed.
· The Ingenue / Innocent Fanservice Girl: The Elf knows absolutely nothing about sex and about how other races deal with nudity. Combined with her gorgeous looks, this can be devastating for the male members of the group.
· Intercontinuity Crossover: In an episode, the Dwarf disappears for a few minutes without any reason. Well... actually, there is one. The characters of another MP3 series, Les Aventuriers du Survivaure (this time a sci-fi parody), accidentally beamed him in their ship as they were trying their brand new teleporter. He even does appear in the corresponding episode of this other series.
· Killed Off for Real: Several characters got killed and resurrected. But not the Thief or the Minstrel, who didn't have any Fate Points.
· Names to Run Away from Really Fast: During the course of the second season, the "heroes" have to travel through charming places such as the Swamps of Eternal Agony or the Road of Oblivion. And they also stopped in an inn called the Pervert Sewer Rat.
· Near-Death Experience: Due to being Back from the Dead, The Ranger and The Elf experienced this once, and the Dwarf twice, angels with a weird sense of humor welcomed them with the It Is Not Your Time speech.