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We are PBOP - a TTRPG actual-play podcast where we pretend to be other People! Join us for, hilarious improv, immersive storytelling, and an original score to set the mood. Subscribe now and adventure along with us - for excitement, for love, and for giggles!
Last time on Cloudfall. It's dunker day aboard the heavenly feather, but something felt off at the dinner table. Roland was acting incredibly suspicious and prompted a private meeting in the cargo hold. It turns out the party was being surveilled by Labira with a hidden echo bell, but it also turns out that Roland is a good guy and told them the truth. Now the Isle of Lore is just moments away, and there's no telling what awaits them in the clouds.
Tim / GM:It is still early morning aboard the heavenly feather. Poppy got up real early to start baking all of her cookies, and people have begun to notice. Yahar came by just a moment ago for a early morning stop to let you know that Laura would be approaching in the distance in, an hour or so, But, Poppy, you've got a line outside the wagon.
Speaker 2:Sorry. I think, canonically, Poppy wakes up
Tim / GM:for the voice. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, wait. Good morning, everyone. Single file line, please.
Tim / GM:There's, like, a whole, like, lumped crowd around the wagon that immediately shapes up into a single file.
Speaker 2:It's 1 at a time and don't ruin your breakfast.
Tim / GM:The first person who comes up is offering to pay with gold. They put 2 gold coins on the counter of the window that looks outside from the wagon. They say,
Speaker 3:how money do I get for 2 gold?
Speaker 2:I'm running a deal where you can get 10 cookies for that much.
Tim / GM:He looks behind him and all of his friends and they all get super excited and
Speaker 3:he goes, I'll take 20.
Speaker 2:Oh, perfect. Yes. Just let me wrap them up for you. Hold on.
Tim / GM:People behind them are eagerly, pushing forward. It seems there's some concern about which flavor is going to run out first. What is your protocol for this?
Speaker 2:Well, when we run out, we run out. I'm a small
Tim / GM:business. You hear some unhappy rumblings.
Speaker 2:Every cookie is just as good as the last. That's my puppy guarantee.
Tim / GM:Guy, what is your position in this case? When when the go in is good and cookies are selling like
Speaker 2:I do have hotcakes, actually.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Guy is not taking money at the counter.
Tim / GM:Here's the thing. If Poppy's gotta work the window, somebody's gotta be doing the ovens. Somebody's gotta be moving sheets back and forth, but more importantly, somebody's gotta be watching to make sure that things don't burn. Yep. Guy, how do you accomplish both of these things at the same time?
Thomas / Guy:Wow. Boy. It's like I would need 2 sets of eyes or something. Guy's head is positioned on the counter across from the oven k. Down low so it can see through the window of the oven to make sure nothing's burning.
Thomas / Guy:And then the body is moving trays around, taking the cookies off the trays, and, moving product.
Tim / GM:So crucial question going forward. Can your head get around by any means, and can your body understand what it's doing without the head?
Thomas / Guy:The head does not have its own locomotion. So as long as the head can see the body, the body knows what it's doing.
Tim / GM:Got it. Okay. Easy rule to follow. The rest of you can see what's going on here. Most of the crew is on the main deck kind of crowding around, the rolling pin.
Tim / GM:Journey, you had come down from the rigging a little while ago. What is your reaction to seeing so many people crowded around?
Speaker 3:I'm kind
Speaker 5:of enraptured by it, honestly. Like, Journey had experienced city life a little bit, had seen the crowds for the airship festival, but had seen them kind of from afar. This is someone she knows being surrounded by people that she doesn't really know, but she doesn't have any reason to distrust. And everyone's pretty chipper and jovial. So she's just kinda like, oh, this is this is what it looks like when people are all gathered together.
Speaker 5:When they all live in one big place together, then they do this sometimes and it's fun.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It might be a little different from what you saw in Farewell. A lot of people in Farewell are trying to do the best for themselves. Mhmm. And this might be the first time that you've seen a real community outside of your own.
Speaker 5:I think that that would occur to Journey. Like, this is functioning kind of the way her family functions at home. Yeah. Everybody has something that they're doing.
Tim / GM:Is she participating? Is she, like, among this crowd?
Speaker 5:No. Okay.
Tim / GM:No. I think in that case, Roland is probably hanging out with you a little bit
Speaker 3:Okay.
Tim / GM:Kind of hovering around you. Okay. Maybe trying to, like, start a conversation by, like, walking past you a couple times.
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:But like before, he's a little shy, maybe.
Speaker 5:Okay. Journey is just really trying to get a feel for what teamwork looks like outside of her own home. So she's paying close attention to these people.
Tim / GM:The longer you watch, the more you can see it's not a total community. There's still people budging in line, pushing past each other, concerned for themselves that they're not gonna get the right cookie. But before long, Roland does kind of work up the courage, and he is standing next to you, staring in the same direction,
Speaker 3:and he goes,
Tim / GM:Oh, they must be really good.
Speaker 5:I've I've heard that they're the best. I I wouldn't have any point of reference for it, but they're pretty popular.
Tim / GM:She hasn't given you any?
Speaker 5:No. I haven't had one yet, but I'm sure I will eventually.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Step right up. Step right up. Single file line, please. Don't I saw you budge.
Speaker 2:Back of the line.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I haven't had any yet. Well, recently. I I bought some, you know,
Tim / GM:a couple months ago in North here, but
Speaker 3:I was really looking forward to it. There might not be any left.
Speaker 5:Why not get in line? She might make more.
Speaker 3:Well, This crew has never really experienced it.
Speaker 5:I suppose.
Tim / GM:You can see
Speaker 3:No. You do it. You can see
Speaker 2:That one was intentional.
Hannah / Eryn:That was funny.
Tim / GM:You can see he really wants those cookies. He's trying to do the nice thing. But
Speaker 5:Sure. Well, maybe maybe I can ask her to save 1. Would that be would that be helpful?
Tim / GM:He smiles and looks you in the eyes and goes,
Speaker 3:you don't have to do that.
Speaker 5:I mean, you seem pretty sad.
Speaker 3:No. I I'm not sad, Journey. I there's just a lot going on.
Speaker 5:Sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, Journey. Journey. Hi. Good morning. Oh, hi.
Speaker 2:Roland.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Hi.
Speaker 2:I'll be right with you guys. Hold on. Just know, you have to wait. And then I wave them over.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I head over to the cart and I gesture for Roland to follow.
Speaker 2:Good morning. Sorry. We have quite a rush.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Do you need any help?
Speaker 2:Oh, no. No. Me and Guy and Pincha got it.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I do have something for you.
Speaker 5:Oh, for me?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, you don't want any of the stock that I'm selling but here is a fiber field cake. I thought you might like this, I made it especially for you.
Speaker 5:Wow.
Speaker 2:But eat this when you need it. You can you can have some of the other ones too, but I I did think you want this one maybe.
Speaker 5:Fiber. Is this does this have nuts in it?
Speaker 2:It has it is a crumbly bran and dried fruit biscuit. It's very hardy and and very dense, but it does taste good. It gives you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non magical attacks, and you have advantage on strength and constitution saving throws and on any effect that would knock you back or cause you to fall prone.
Speaker 5:Damn. Yeah. Journey takes a look at it and wow, Poppy. This is amazing. It looks just like something they'd make at home.
Speaker 2:Well, that's probably a compliment. Right?
Speaker 5:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay. Good.
Tim / GM:Roland looks at the fiber field cake, and you can see his eyes squint a little bit. And he goes, do you have maybe any cookies left?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. Don't tell anyone, but I did save some. Yes. I slide over a chewy maple cookie.
Tim / GM:He's got, like, a twinkle in his eyes. It looks like he's almost about to cry, but he takes it, and he's like, I'm gonna save this.
Speaker 2:No. No. No. Eat it. What what's wrong with you?
Speaker 2:Why are you guys just not
Tim / GM:He, like, takes out a napkin and, like, folds it over the cookie and he's just nodding to you.
Speaker 2:No. Try it. Okay. You do you.
Thomas / Guy:You always tell me not to eat them right away, puppy.
Speaker 2:I mean, those are special, though. They they, like, do things.
Tim / GM:What do you mean special?
Speaker 2:Do I have a
Tim / GM:He's he's looking at his cookie suddenly dissatisfied.
Speaker 5:I mean, it looks like there's someone at the counter. I think they're reaching for a cookie. Hi.
Speaker 2:Hands to yourself.
Speaker 5:I clap rolling on the back, and I start strolling away.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. I'll
Tim / GM:talk to you later, Roland. Aaron, watching from a distance. Poppy is getting totally swamped at the wagon. Are you still up in the crow's nest?
Hannah / Eryn:I probably came down when there was, like, a busy moment and people running about and just nonchalantly.
Tim / GM:Enough to go unnoticed?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I'm probably just got
Tim / GM:Erin, captain Yarhar is occasionally out on the deck, and it seems like he might be avoiding you to some degree.
Hannah / Eryn:Is he coming out of his secret passage?
Tim / GM:No. He's just kind of mixed among his own crew, but it looks like whenever he catches you out of the corner of his eye, he kind of turns around and goes the other way.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. I'm here, you big lug, is what Aaron, whispers under their breath. Okay.
Tim / GM:And, Doran, what
Speaker 3:are you
Tim / GM:up to today?
Speaker 7:Doran went back to, his quarters and laid down for a bit. Yeah. And then is getting up, catching the galley as they're kinda, like, starting to pack up the oatmeal. Mhmm. Like, this is perfect, but it's super thick.
Speaker 7:Just use all the brown sugar.
Tim / GM:Dry oatmeal at the bottom? Yeah.
Speaker 7:Gross. And then after that, heads up and sees all the commotion around Poppy's, shop and, stands and watches.
Tim / GM:Poppy, as the last of the line begins to die down, the very last person is Yarhar.
Speaker 2:Good morning, captain.
Tim / GM:He, takes a look at all of your, like, empty or nearly empty baskets, and he says, well, what's left?
Speaker 2:Well, we have a couple of chocolate chip cookies left. There's probably one apple turnover and a chocolate donut.
Tim / GM:Apple turnover sounds nice. Can't go wrong with citrus at sea. That's not citrus. Can't go wrong with fruit at sea.
Speaker 2:He's never eaten an apple in his life.
Speaker 7:He's a captain, not a fruitologist.
Speaker 3:Fruitologist.
Speaker 2:I, wrap up the turnover and I slide it across the counter, and I say, it's on the house.
Tim / GM:Of course not. I couldn't do that to you. He, puts a couple of gold on the counter.
Speaker 2:Oh, no. No. No. Wait. That's way too much.
Tim / GM:Please. It's the least I can do. What the service you've provided to my ship here, I should be paying you a lot more.
Speaker 2:You gave us free
Tim / GM:passage. I did not.
Speaker 2:It's not free?
Tim / GM:You're not paying, but it wasn't free.
Speaker 2:Oh, cool. Just racking up that.
Speaker 5:That's just
Speaker 2:make a mental note.
Tim / GM:Well, hopefully, this clears your mind a little bit. Seems you made a good impression. This is a gift. Chef Bo is cleaning up breakfast right now, but they wanted me to give you this. What?
Tim / GM:He hands you a, pewter ladle.
Speaker 2:Okay. What, thank you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, Bowie told
Tim / GM:me that, you're magically inclined.
Speaker 3:Is that true?
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 3:They also told me
Tim / GM:what a big help you were. This is one of their old favorite ladles, but we used to work in bars, and they would use it to fend off, unruly drunken magic users, so well, basically, you can catch small spells in this and whip it back at people.
Speaker 2:Fuck yes. I have to write that down. Wow. I mean, that's pretty cool. I've never seen one of these before.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I've seen a ladle before, but I've never used it for that.
Speaker 3:He goes, yeah. It is
Tim / GM:a nice gift, isn't it? Yeah. I hope it serves you well.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Tim / GM:Well, I'm gonna take this back to my office. And he kind of, like, nods at you with the turnover.
Speaker 2:I hope it treats you well. It's not magic. It's just a turnover. Sorry. That wasn't a threat.
Hannah / Eryn:I hope it treats you well is, like, actually a good slogan for a bakery.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So cute.
Speaker 2:It treats you well. How much did I make today?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh.
Tim / GM:Good question. They had a crew of 55. I'd say a good chunk of those people came up looking for cookies. He made about 50 gold from all the cookies selling.
Speaker 2:50 gold? Yeah. Sick. Also, I don't know if that was an accurate amount to ask for
Tim / GM:We have been all over the place with money so far. I'm gonna level out at, like, one one gold is worth 10 cookies.
Speaker 7:I think we should just switch the economy to cookies.
Thomas / Guy:Maybe by the end of the campaign.
Tim / GM:That's what we're doing. Yeah. Yeah. One island at a time.
Speaker 2:Fifty gold and a ladle.
Tim / GM:Alright. So I believe that means you're all on deck as you approach. You're all getting closer very slowly to the island realizing more and more just how big it is. There's a massive chunk of land in the center of this cluster, a bunch of broken up pieces that are all floating perfectly still next to each other, but a lot of that is also hidden in the clouds and kind of like the iceberg effect, like, who knows how much of the island is hidden underneath those clouds. But jutting up high above this plane of clouds is a nearly perfectly flat field of moss that is illuminated by a ray of sunshine coming through a break in the clouds above, and the ship starts to angle downwards again, and you get that sinking feeling as the ship descends in altitude coming closer to this land.
Tim / GM:And then it slows and slows and slows and comes over this moss, and then you see these oars kind of jut out from the bottom of the ship, something that you saw from a distance earlier in Farewell. But as the ship gets gets closer to land and slows down, these ores poke at the ground and just kind of like help it softly land itself, and then they also stick straight out to keep it upright on plain ground like a dry foundered boat.
Hannah / Eryn:And this is like oar like row row? Yep. Row your boat?
Speaker 5:Yeah. Oar? Okay.
Tim / GM:Like like 25 foot long oars Yeah. That, like, poke out a little holes and stabilize the ship. Cool. Now that you're on this island, you can really take in the scale of a lot of this stuff. This island is miles wide.
Tim / GM:You know, you might have had it in your head that these skylines might have been, like, little tiny deserted islands by themselves, but no. On this island, you can hardly tell that it's floating in the middle of the air. You can't really see from end to end in a lot of places. Again, you can see those hexagonal towers, jutting out from the ground. They almost look man made, but they're definitely weathered and natural.
Tim / GM:As a ship lands, a long plank is being extended from the side of the ship that gives you a little ramp to walk back on to land from. Standing at the end of that plank on the moss itself, is a very old turtle. He's holding a lamp in one hand and a staff in the other, and there's a very small, much younger turtle standing behind
Speaker 7:him. Turtle people.
Tim / GM:Yes. Turtle people. These are bipedal people. Yeah. They're standing on 2 legs, giant shells, you know, reptilian features.
Tim / GM:This one's got a lot of stuff on him, like little charms and ropes and little things attached to his shell. The younger one doesn't seem to have as much decoration on him. Yarhar approaches you, Aaron, on the deck
Speaker 3:of the ship. He says,
Tim / GM:I just wanted to thank you all for flying with us. You were all lovely guests.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. It's it's been actually pretty alright. Lots of good food and really nice views, and Aaron kinda gestures.
Speaker 3:He says there's a lot of that out here, for sure.
Tim / GM:When we come back in 2 weeks, I wanna start over. How does that sound to you?
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, whatever you whatever you need to do.
Tim / GM:I can understand why you were suspicious in the situation you were in, but I wanna be able to trust you while you're aboard my ship.
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, what do you think I'm gonna do? There's nothing I don't understand what the what your fear that I'm going to do is.
Tim / GM:That's fair, Erin, but it's the fear of the unknown. I don't know you. I don't trust you. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Well, good.
Speaker 5:I don't
Hannah / Eryn:trust you either.
Tim / GM:Well, it's been just lovely getting to know you.
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm. Anything else?
Tim / GM:Nope. It's just, time to exit the ship is all.
Speaker 7:Okay, you 2. Just do the hug, and let's get going.
Hannah / Eryn:Don't touch me. Aaron walks away.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's gonna go in for a vigorous handshake. It was our honor to travel with you, captain.
Tim / GM:You totally take him by surprise, and he's just kind of catching up, and then he catches on to your grip, and it's like, oh, yeah. Absolutely. Thank you.
Thomas / Guy:Your vessel is most magnificent.
Tim / GM:Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Sorry. I just need to take care of one thing. And this whole time, he's kind of been watching Aaron, and he nods at 2 kind of burlier gentlemen on the ship, and they're walking, like, directly behind Aaron.
Tim / GM:In some ways, he is having Aaron escorted off the ship.
Speaker 2:They're gonna get us kicked off. We're gonna get stuck on this island.
Speaker 5:They didn't do anything wrong.
Thomas / Guy:Well, don't forget about us, captain.
Speaker 3:I I
Tim / GM:will never forget you, my friend.
Thomas / Guy:Nor I, my friend.
Tim / GM:Poppy, it was great meeting you.
Speaker 2:It was so lovely to meet you. Thank you so much.
Tim / GM:Journey will have to talk more next time.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Thanks for letting us fly with you.
Tim / GM:And and, Dolan, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 7:I'll never forget your ship, the heavenly father.
Tim / GM:He raises a hand to correct you and doesn't. Roland, like a scared parent watching their children go to the 1st
Speaker 3:day of school, is with you all the way
Tim / GM:to the bus stop. He goes out to the edge of the plank and is just kind of watching over your party.
Speaker 2:Bye, Roland. You better eat that damn cookie.
Tim / GM:Oh, I I will.
Speaker 3:I already take a bite. He shows you the bite.
Speaker 2:How was it?
Speaker 3:Incredible.
Speaker 2:Yes. You come get us in 2 weeks, and there's more where that came from.
Speaker 3:He throws up a fist.
Tim / GM:You're just about to start on the plank, and Roland kind of lurches forward in his classic waiting too long to say something.
Speaker 3:He says, what wait. There's be safe out there.
Speaker 2:Was he saying it to All of us?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Pretty much the first person to turn around he locks eyes with.
Thomas / Guy:Good plan, Roland.
Hannah / Eryn:Wait. What do you mean by that?
Tim / GM:I didn't I
Speaker 3:don't mean anything. Just there's a lot happening
Tim / GM:in the clouds right now.
Speaker 5:Roland, are you sure you don't wanna come with us?
Tim / GM:No. I I really can't. There's
Speaker 7:It's too dangerous where you're leaving us? Is that why?
Speaker 3:No. There's other things I need to see out here. Just be gentle to these people. They're not used to this many outsiders. This is a new time for them too.
Speaker 3:They get visitors, but not like this.
Hannah / Eryn:Are are we the only ones staying on Lor?
Speaker 3:No. There'll be a
Tim / GM:few others. He gestures to, those 2 burly folks that were following Aaron and a small gathering of others, 5 in total.
Hannah / Eryn:Are they just random people, like, we didn't talk to on the ship?
Tim / GM:Yeah. None that you had, talked to before. Okay.
Speaker 5:We only talked to 2 dorks in the
Hannah / Eryn:Cashier. Cashier. Yeah. Cashier
Speaker 5:and a frog.
Speaker 7:Roland, it was good talking with you, and, yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to the return trip. We'll be safe. I hope you are as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. I'll be fine.
Speaker 2:Be safe. I turned on the rolling pin.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. It kind of like you can feel the buoyancy kick in as the levitator starts up. You can feel the oven get really cold. As you've been warned, it will be difficult to run the oven at the same time as the levitator now, but it begins to roll forward very slowly at first, and then you kick up the speed accidentally and race across the main deck of the ship.
Tim / GM:A lot of people clear out of the way and kind of like oh shit. Goodbye. Yeah. And you blast down the main plank. Poppy, in the distance, kind of under the rumble of the levitator, you can hear, that lithe elf boy again, and he's starting into his song.
Tim / GM:From farewell to farewell, and he slowly fades off.
Speaker 7:Guys, we should go listen to the goodbye song. Can we head back there and hear the rest of it?
Tim / GM:Yeah. If it goes, it's too late for that now.
Speaker 3:Are you sure? Yeah. Yeah. You're off the ship. I feel
Tim / GM:like it's not Here it goes. Alright. Oh, there
Speaker 3:you go. You're off the ship. Hey. I don't
Speaker 2:know how to stop it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Poppy, cruising down the main plank there. You come to the end and the Tortle is standing in front of you. You blast right past him and he goes,
Speaker 3:I am your oh. And you just keep
Thomas / Guy:Guy is swiftly chasing after the one moment.
Speaker 2:It's only going 5 miles
Speaker 3:an hour.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, it can go 10, baby.
Speaker 2:It's only going 10
Speaker 5:miles. Is it? Alright.
Speaker 3:Guy catches up
Tim / GM:to it and starts dragging back as Poppy figures out the levitator, gets it under control. Meanwhile, yarhar is introducing his crewmates to this turtle here. He gestures to the 5 that come down with him and he says, it's great to meet you. I understand you are Huber. Is that correct?
Tim / GM:He
Speaker 3:says, that is right. I am Huber. That's fantastic.
Tim / GM:Huber, these are the 10 that'll be staying with you. These 2 here, and then the 3 back there, and and then my crew as well. They'll be the ones mining. Huber says, ah,
Speaker 3:very well. We will get you squared away posthaste.
Tim / GM:He turns around to, Poppy and Guy, now having gotten it under control a little bit.
Speaker 2:I'm so sorry.
Tim / GM:He does the slightest bow and he says,
Speaker 3:I am Hubert, prime archivist.
Speaker 2:I'm Poppy.
Thomas / Guy:I am Guy. Pleased to meet you, Huber.
Speaker 3:Please, give me your proper name. I understand you are a guy.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. No. I am Guy. You may call me
Tim / GM:Guy. Very well, stranger.
Thomas / Guy:Alright.
Speaker 2:This happens everywhere we go, I swear.
Tim / GM:They do brief, forgettable introductions for the 5 crew, and they move on to, Doran.
Speaker 3:I am Hubert, prime archivist.
Speaker 7:Hubert, prime archivist. That's great to meet you. I'm a guy. And I I go I go by Doran.
Speaker 3:Humor. I like it.
Speaker 7:Good. Good.
Tim / GM:And here we have gesturing down to Erin.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, I'm I'm Erin.
Speaker 3:Are you a guy?
Hannah / Eryn:Maybe.
Speaker 3:And finally, we have this guy.
Speaker 5:I'm not a guy. You can call me Journey. It's pleasure to meet you. Thanks for hosting us.
Speaker 3:Come. Come closer. Come. What is this?
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Incredible.
Tim / GM:He starts, like, spinning you around at the shoulders and he's, like, lifting up your hair and he says, what are these?
Speaker 5:Oh, you mean my my fae buds?
Tim / GM:Little timid fae buds of different colors glowing even in the daylights, pop out from your hair.
Speaker 5:The the little pixie like creatures kind of pop out. They're mostly like little glowing balls. If you look really closely and they dim their light a little bit, you can see that they have humanoid shapes to them, but they're itty bitty. They kind of dart in and out, but they'll, like, they'll go up to people and, like, ruffle their hair or, like, pull on a sleeve and then go back into Journey's hair.
Tim / GM:He delicately holds out one of his big hands for one of them, and it slowly goes closer to him and then he kind of like holds it in his fingers a
Speaker 3:little bit and he says, a parasite, perhaps lice or something
Tim / GM:of the like.
Speaker 5:Not exactly. I I'd call it more of a symbiotic relationship.
Speaker 3:They clean your scalp. Is that it?
Speaker 5:No. I provide them shelter and they provide me with a little bit of magic. They're Fae.
Speaker 3:You must seek tower 12. Trust me.
Speaker 5:Great. Alright. I don't know what tower 12 is.
Tim / GM:Nope. Where are my manners? I have been studying for a great time for your arrival. We have prepared a customary celebration, a delicacy, as I understand. He gestures behind him to the other tortle and he says,
Speaker 3:my apologies. This is my nephew, Mikey.
Speaker 2:Mikey?
Tim / GM:Mikey holds up a small round birthday cake with candles in it. He says, we understand this
Speaker 3:is a special celebratory delicacy for you. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Wow. That's that's a birthday cake, I think.
Speaker 5:Whose birthday is it?
Tim / GM:It's all of our birthday today because you are here.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. That looks delicious.
Thomas / Guy:I've never celebrated a birthday before.
Tim / GM:How? Then it
Speaker 3:would be a celebration for the ages. Come. Come to the warming house.
Speaker 2:Guy, that's not right. I should have given you a birthday cake. I mean, we could have made up at the end.
Thomas / Guy:Lots of cakes.
Speaker 2:I've known you for so long. I can't believe I neglected to make you a cake.
Thomas / Guy:It's fine, puppy.
Speaker 5:I follow the turtle.
Tim / GM:The trail away from this place leads immediately downwards. It's a stony path kind of like a very narrow canyon that's weaving between all these higher cliffs, all these gray rocks here and moss on practically everything. It's very wet on this island as the clouds kind of bob up and down causing this place to be sometimes completely shrouded in the mist of clouds. At other times, much more sunny and bright.
Speaker 2:I have a question. Yeah. Does the rolling pin fit?
Speaker 5:Yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think there will be only a few occasions where the rolling pin is. Because it can levitate a little bit, it's less concerned about uneven ground and things like that.
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 7:Mikey, are you an archivist too?
Speaker 8:I am.
Speaker 3:I'm I'm I'll be an archivist before long. Pam no mind. He is shadowing me to someday become the prime archivist himself.
Speaker 7:Sorry, Mikey. I gotta ignore you, I guess.
Tim / GM:He looks up at you with these huge turtle eyes and just solemnly nods his head. And he's like
Speaker 3:you'll earn the right to speak, Mikey, in due time.
Speaker 5:The right to speak?
Tim / GM:As I
Speaker 3:was saying
Speaker 7:I like it's good to have some discipline, you know
Tim / GM:We have a 119 towers on this island, each of them storing knowledge of a different subject. How? Constructed of basil, yes, but not constructed at all. They are quite old and quite natural. We found them like this
Speaker 3:and began to hollow them out
Tim / GM:on the inside, making stellar libraries for our collections.
Speaker 2:Excuse me.
Tim / GM:Over here we have magic towers 1 through 3, wind and water, plants and food, fire and stone, inventions, stories, towers 1 through 8, religion, creatures, and other worlds.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Is there like a list we could look it over and?
Tim / GM:You'd like us to catalog and index all of these. Yes?
Speaker 5:Isn't that what archiving is?
Speaker 7:Yeah. Yeah. It's a good point, Jurnee.
Tim / GM:I did expect some rudeness from the outsiders, Mainlanders.
Speaker 3:It's clear you don't understand how this works yet. That's fine.
Speaker 7:We, we are not prime archivists. So
Speaker 3:If you want
Tim / GM:to know where any knowledge lies, you ask the prime archivist, as anyone on this island could tell you.
Speaker 5:I see. Alright. Alright. What is in tower 12 since you recommended that to me in particular?
Speaker 3:Oh, fey magic.
Speaker 2:Oh. You mentioned the there was one with plants and food?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Which one is that?
Tim / GM:Taua 96. He points to the top of a mountain.
Speaker 2:Oh, great. Thank you.
Tim / GM:Interesting natural structures, they all grow to the exact same height, even though it
Speaker 3:doesn't look like it, does it?
Speaker 2:No?
Thomas / Guy:That can't be right.
Tim / GM:But it's absolutely true. See here, he, points out into the clouds. You can see this one bit where there's a very short tower, but then looking at the edge of the cliff, you can see where the bottom of this tower pokes out of the bottom of the cliff. They are indeed all the same size. They're just shifted up or down.
Speaker 2:That's horrifying.
Speaker 7:So, continuing with the rudeness as being an outsider, we might not know why we're here exactly. Did anyone tell you what towers we're supposed to look at?
Tim / GM:He stops, turns, and looks to you and says, you're here to learn. Oh, no.
Speaker 8:And to teach. Teach.
Speaker 3:Of course. What do you have to teach?
Hannah / Eryn:But that is the question, isn't it? Are we expected to teach? Aaron looks pretty worried about this.
Thomas / Guy:Whom are we teaching?
Tim / GM:For everyone. The world.
Speaker 7:Mikey?
Speaker 3:He looks up at you.
Speaker 7:No. I mean, we're teaching Mikey too?
Speaker 3:Mikey learns from
Tim / GM:me. Don't teach Mikey things.
Speaker 3:Thanks. Don't talk to Mikey.
Thomas / Guy:So we teach everyone else here.
Speaker 7:Except Mikey. Yes.
Speaker 3:No. Simple creatures, you're teaching the records.
Speaker 2:Hope.
Tim / GM:I'm sure you've heard the rumor we don't accept gold on this island. Nope. That's categorically untrue.
Thomas / Guy:Oh my.
Speaker 2:You do you do accept gold?
Speaker 3:Of course, we accept gold.
Tim / GM:Who doesn't need a little bit of gold then and
Hannah / Eryn:Then and then.
Speaker 3:Then and then.
Thomas / Guy:Well, I don't.
Speaker 7:Well, could we talk as a group and figure out what, what we kinda wanna look for first? Is that fine? Or
Speaker 3:and how would you expect to procure this knowledge and pay for it how?
Speaker 2:You said gold works. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Ah, the caveat and the source of the rumor.
Tim / GM:We do accept gold for lodging, food, convenience, comfort.
Speaker 2:Like normal things? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Correct. However, if you seek the knowledge of law, you must pay in knowledge.
Speaker 5:Oh, so it's like bartering.
Speaker 3:In some respects, yes.
Thomas / Guy:This seems like a bit of a chicken and the egg situation.
Tim / GM:We don't know what that means here.
Speaker 7:We could share some of that knowledge
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Can right now.
Speaker 5:Can Guy use that as his payment? The chicken and the egg, we won't specify anymore because then you'd be getting it for free. Right?
Tim / GM:If it's interesting enough, yes.
Speaker 2:K. Do you actually know how that works? Because I think that's been a pretty long lasting question.
Thomas / Guy:I think if I just talk through it, I can figure it out.
Speaker 2:I believe in you.
Speaker 5:So where where are we staying?
Tim / GM:He gestures just forward through the mist. It's gotten very foggy as you've descended through the island here. As you're coming through this narrow stony canyon passage, it kind of opens up again into a low, misty juniper forest. It smells piney down here. It's very wet, damp, covered in moss.
Tim / GM:But there is a cobblestone building that is nestled into the mountainside here. A lot of these cobbles look to be hexagonal in nature and kind of interlock in a very satisfying way. But there's also a glass window, and you can see warm lamplight coming from inside. He opens a huge ovaloid door for all of you and ushers you in, the other crew included. In here, it's a little damp still.
Tim / GM:It seems this there's no escaping the wet on this island, and the turtle might like it that way, but it's much warmer and much more pleasant in here. You can smell food being cooked somewhere. He says, this is where you can stay. This is our warming house but excellent for
Speaker 2:guests. Warming?
Thomas / Guy:Do we pay to stay here?
Speaker 3:Of course not. Honored guests to the Isle of Lore?
Speaker 2:That's us, right?
Tim / GM:Wonderful. You, however, and he kind of gestures down to the rest of the crew that have been pretty quiet up until now. He says,
Speaker 3:I was told there would
Tim / GM:be some sort of advance payment. Is that right? One of them hangs over a small satchel of gold. He looks up at you again and says,
Speaker 3:you've all been covered.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Thank you.
Speaker 5:Because we're gonna be here for 2 weeks. Right?
Speaker 3:Correct.
Speaker 5:Alright.
Speaker 3:I was to understand
Tim / GM:that you would all be bringing your own mining supplies. Is that right? You start to hear grumbles out of that crowd.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We've got most of what we need, but they said you'd have some kind
Tim / GM:of transportation, like smaller wagons or something we could use. We do indeed. I'll have Mikey show you to it.
Speaker 2:What do you mind here?
Tim / GM:Most of the crew is leaving with Mikey to kinda be shown like the tools and stuff. And on their way out, Mikey looks up at you and goes, this might.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Tim / GM:He closes the door and, the guy looks up again and goes, I'm sorry for his outburst.
Thomas / Guy:I was going to guess knowledge.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Me too.
Hannah / Eryn:Did the big burly guy go mining?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Did Huber go with him? Or
Tim / GM:So all 5 of those crew members have left with Mikey, as they're being shown the kind of mining set up. So now it's just the 5 of you and Huber and a crackling fire in the warming house.
Thomas / Guy:Is he still holding that cake?
Tim / GM:No. Mikey left it the table in here. Okay. The candles have gone out since though.
Speaker 2:I do wanna try it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Tim / GM:So, yeah. Poppy dives into the cake. You don't have any utensils here unless you've got something on you.
Speaker 2:I have my bread knife.
Tim / GM:Perfect. Okay. Yeah. You cut the cake and the texture has you worried. It's kinda tough to cut through.
Tim / GM:It's real dense. And it seems that there's some kind of fiber to it.
Speaker 2:Are there is there bran and fruit in it?
Tim / GM:You're not sure. You're not sure what this is made of.
Speaker 2:I take a very tentative sniff.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:It almost smells earthy.
Speaker 2:I will taste it a little bit.
Tim / GM:Cool. So sweet things are not super easy to come by on this island. They do have certain, like, creams and milks they can use and a lot of vegetables. So this is like a kind of like a cauliflower base for most of it. It's not good.
Tim / GM:In fact, make a constitution save.
Speaker 2:That's a 5.
Tim / GM:Poppy, I'm gonna say you can't swallow it.
Speaker 3:What do you do?
Speaker 2:I pull up my apron and I, like, dab at my mouth Mhmm. Very inconspicuously Yeah. And spit it into the pocket.
Tim / GM:Okay. Roll still check.
Speaker 5:Sleight of mouth. 17.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm really good at not eating things.
Tim / GM:Huber is giving a big turtle smile to the rest of the group and is kinda, like, squinting. And he keeps, like, raising where his eyebrows would be as he's looking over you and he says, so
Speaker 2:It's really something.
Tim / GM:Oh, very good. Mikey made it himself. What's it going to be? There's so much you could learn here. I'm curious to know, what do you seek?
Speaker 7:Well, I, for 1, pretty interested in, organized crime, assassins Sorry. Blight.
Tim / GM:Ah, tales of fiction. Yes. We have many stories.
Speaker 7:How about ones that are, like, pretty real and happened?
Hannah / Eryn:True crime.
Tim / GM:The true crime tower.
Speaker 5:I just live with the true crime tower.
Tim / GM:But, yeah. Yeah. They've got a true crime tower.
Speaker 7:Well, Hubert, what I'm looking for is, like, actual histories and things about secret societies.
Speaker 3:An interesting pull. It might
Tim / GM:be difficult to track down. It's not so simple as food or fire. True.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Is there a whole tower dedicated to fire?
Speaker 3:Fire and stone. Until we see
Tim / GM:a reason to separate them, they are together.
Speaker 5:Sure.
Speaker 3:It's Dewey Decimal but super fucked up.
Speaker 2:Dewey Decimal? It's Dewey.
Tim / GM:Fire comma stone. How about the rest of you? Certainly burning questions?
Speaker 2:Recipes from around the world?
Tim / GM:Yes. You'll even find things from saffron here.
Speaker 2:I've heard of that.
Tim / GM:Only for most talented of chefs.
Speaker 2:I think I qualify.
Thomas / Guy:That's you, Poppy.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Guy.
Speaker 3:Perhaps you could teach Mikey a
Tim / GM:thing or 2. He's terrible.
Speaker 2:I kinda led with that.
Speaker 7:You can't teach him anything. Only Huber can. So
Speaker 3:that's correct. Yes.
Speaker 7:So that means, like, Mikey's cooking ability comes from Huber.
Tim / GM:Well, that's not fair to say. We haven't focused much on it.
Speaker 7:I feel like, feel like we got there. That's well Covers that.
Tim / GM:It's just a natural lack of talent, I suppose.
Speaker 2:I thought it was really quite an attempt.
Speaker 3:Oh, please have more.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Have another slice.
Speaker 2:Guy, do you wanna try it?
Thomas / Guy:I don't see why not.
Tim / GM:Make a constitution say it.
Thomas / Guy:Twang.
Tim / GM:Eats it. You just eat it.
Speaker 7:How is the guy?
Thomas / Guy:Does not seem as flavorful as Poppy's cakes.
Speaker 2:And there's something about the texture.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. It's, grisly, gravelly even.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 7:I gotta try a bite. Throw on gross and grab a plate.
Tim / GM:Constitution safe. Okay. You guys wanna do one too?
Hannah / Eryn:No. No. No. 12.
Tim / GM:You can't swallow it.
Speaker 7:Yeah. I just kinda hold my plate a little over my face like this and and then fold the plate in half.
Hannah / Eryn:Wait. Do we have paper plates?
Speaker 2:No. It's a porcelain plate.
Thomas / Guy:I don't know. Birthday cake
Speaker 3:seems like
Speaker 7:it always is our
Speaker 3:favorite pizza.
Speaker 2:It does. Our fantasy world.
Tim / GM:So no. No.
Speaker 7:No. I I spit it out and oops.
Tim / GM:And then drop the plate in the house.
Speaker 7:Drop the plate. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, Hubert. I I I suck.
Speaker 7:I'm sorry about that.
Tim / GM:To be expected, it's disgusting. And the guy who enjoyed the cake, what is it you seek? Oh.
Thomas / Guy:Well, I must admit Hubert, we did not come to this isle knowing we would be seeking knowledge. Oh? You were given precious little details of this visit. May we count on your discretion while we are here, Huber?
Tim / GM:I don't even know your name.
Thomas / Guy:Perfect. Perfect.
Speaker 3:But, yes, those who seek knowledge
Thomas / Guy:You see, I am afflicted by a certain condition, a curse, some might call it, and I wondered if there might be information about it here.
Speaker 3:Of course. We have extensive records on such things.
Tim / GM:There is, however, one place you cannot go.
Thomas / Guy:Alright.
Speaker 3:There is a small tower
Tim / GM:on the east end of our island.
Speaker 7:It's different sizes than the other ones?
Speaker 3:It's low to the ground.
Tim / GM:There we stored information about curses.
Thomas / Guy:Well, that's kind of the thing I was thinking of.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, some time ago, that place was sealed off after a great tragedy.
Tim / GM:We do not allow any in there.
Speaker 2:What kind of tragedy?
Tim / GM:He turns to
Speaker 3:you, Poppy, and says, a great sacrifice. Unfortunately, the place has been made unholy.
Tim / GM:Unholy?
Speaker 2:Like like someone cursed it?
Speaker 3:I'm afraid so.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Thomas / Guy:Ironic. What is the penalty for trespassing into this place?
Speaker 3:No penalty. Though death will likely follow.
Thomas / Guy:I see. I see. I see. Well, since the cursed place is off limits, I guess if you had any records of cool wars or battles, this is an interest of mine.
Speaker 5:Just only the coolest battles.
Speaker 2:He's a he's a reenactment, nerd.
Speaker 3:It pains me to say we have a great number of war records. Yes.
Tim / GM:You would find those here. And Journey, did I tempt you enough with tower 12?
Thomas / Guy:Should I see a Fae?
Speaker 5:Fuck. I mean, I already know a little bit about the fae and spent some time in the realm. I anything I need to learn about the fae, I could probably learn from the fae. I wonder though if you do mind bismat here, do you also have information about bismat?
Speaker 3:Some, but not nearly as much as
Tim / GM:your people do. We've taken it for granted
Speaker 3:all our lives. It keeps the island afloat, but it's been a background element. It seems you all have found something tremendously useful for this stuff.
Speaker 5:Is there a place I could go to just out of curiosity?
Speaker 3:Perhaps the Tower of Fire and Stone may have some metallurgical details. Maybe the miners could take you down as well.
Speaker 5:I'd I'd like to see it, the mine, if I could.
Tim / GM:Certainly. And have we any curiosity looking down at Erin?
Hannah / Eryn:I am I'm not sure. How? Is there a teacher?
Speaker 3:It seems there is much you've yet to learn.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Speaker 5:Erin, you you might get something out of going to Tower 12.
Hannah / Eryn:How does the knowledge
Speaker 2:how does the knowledge happen? How does
Speaker 5:how does
Hannah / Eryn:the knowledge?
Speaker 3:A very interesting question.
Tim / GM:He, moves to the side of the room and grabs a wooden jar. He brings it back to your little group, and he begins to twist the lid on the jar. When he does, he opens it just a little bit, and you can see a little bit of, like, smoke coming out of it, but you can also hear a conversation distant, like it's down a hallway or something. You see him begin to twist the lid again. And as he does, some of that smoke recedes back into the jar, and he twists it closed.
Speaker 5:What's that?
Speaker 3:A unique way of keeping information.
Tim / GM:We developed it here on Lore. It is our magic.
Hannah / Eryn:Is is it a memory?
Tim / GM:It is a recorded conversation. We don't trust the nuance of the written word. We want to hear it firsthand. Wherever you see these jars, there are memories, stories, histories.
Speaker 2:Do you have to go through each individual one to find what you're looking for, or are they labeled?
Speaker 3:We, of course, have a labeling system.
Tim / GM:It may seem a little convoluted to you.
Speaker 3:It might be best to have one of us go with you, perhaps Mikey.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, since there's no teachers or books, do you have anything on changelings?
Speaker 3:Perhaps. But
Tim / GM:maybe none that isn't fairy tale.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, I'd I'd be interested in that.
Speaker 3:Would you?
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron just nods.
Thomas / Guy:You literally have a tower on fairies.
Tim / GM:And he leans in deeper, Aaron, and he goes,
Speaker 3:and how would you acquire that knowledge?
Speaker 2:You mean
Hannah / Eryn:you want something from me?
Tim / GM:There it is. And he kind of stands up again, looks very pleased with himself, and puts all of the pads of his fingers together, and he says, and that leads us to now. I would like to collect your stories, and in exchange you will receive chapters, which you can use to purchase your own knowledge.
Speaker 2:Like a voucher? Ticket? Like gold?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. But gold, you can only spend here.
Speaker 2:Right. Is all of your food like the cake?
Tim / GM:What? No. That that's Mikey. He's an idiot. Okay.
Speaker 3:I'll give you all some time to, adjust.
Tim / GM:These are likely new conditions and much more comfortable than you're ever used to.
Speaker 3:I'll let you enjoy yourselves here, and I'll come back to retrieve you when it's time to collect your stories.
Speaker 5:What do we do in the meantime? I mean, can we just can we walk around? Can we
Speaker 3:Of course. The entire island is yours, except the one tower on the east side. Don't go there.
Speaker 7:What tower number was that? Just in case we see it.
Speaker 3:I think I said 96.
Tim / GM:96. No nope. That was for something else.
Speaker 2:That was the food tower.
Tim / GM:It's tower 13.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, that's evil number. Nice.
Speaker 3:I must tend to the duties of the prime archivist.
Speaker 5:Can we tell our stories
Speaker 7:over here? He's saying he's he's gonna poop.
Speaker 2:Tell my duties.
Hannah / Eryn:It's like the only joke John has is whole the only words you spoke in this one.
Speaker 5:Excuse me. Prime archivist, are we supposed to tell our story to any any archivist or you in particular?
Speaker 3:Not any archivist, but certainly not me.
Tim / GM:I'm not nearly so skilled as I was in extracting stories.
Speaker 3:That will go to
Speaker 5:Don't say Mikey. Don't say
Tim / GM:Mikey. April.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God. Fuck you.
Tim / GM:April is kind and good with
Speaker 3:the drift weed. She'll be able to get your stories.
Tim / GM:Let me know when you're ready.
Thomas / Guy:Must these stories be of a personal nature?
Tim / GM:That's usually the place we start. Everyone's got
Speaker 3:the story of how they arrived here. If you've got more to tell on top of that, that could earn you extra knowledge.
Speaker 5:We don't forget our stories after we tell them to you, Rhett.
Speaker 3:Course not.
Speaker 5:Of course not.
Tim / GM:Our mission is to disseminate knowledge, not to hoard it.
Speaker 7:Does the story have to be true, or do we just have to believe it's true?
Speaker 3:If there is a falsehood in your story, the smoke will appear black. However, the falsehood may not be known. Should your stories be true, the vapor's white. Sorry. The vapor's white.
Speaker 2:What if, so if we don't know we're telling a lie and it turns black, that's like news to us?
Speaker 3:I'm afraid not. It can't
Tim / GM:tell you anything you don't know.
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay.
Speaker 5:What about, like, a fiction story, like a like a fable?
Speaker 3:They always come out gray, I'm afraid.
Speaker 5:Alright. That no. That fits.
Thomas / Guy:Any other shades we should be looking out for?
Speaker 3:That's the gamut grayscale here.
Speaker 5:Can turtles see color?
Speaker 3:Nope. See you.
Tim / GM:He leaves you all to decompress.
Speaker 5:All of the jars are filled with different colors.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You've all been left to your own devices in the warming house. What are you all doing after this, kind of strange introduction?
Speaker 5:We're supposed to get settled?
Speaker 7:I feel pretty settled.
Speaker 2:Is this just a house or are there rooms?
Tim / GM:Yeah. There's a large central wooden table. There's the partially eaten cake, but there's also a large lumpy mass on the wooden table covered under a woolen green blanket. There's also 4 doors, into private rooms around this area.
Speaker 2:I would like to peek under the woolen blanket. K.
Tim / GM:You see glimmering, shiny.
Speaker 2:I mean, what is it?
Tim / GM:You pull it over more, and you see sizable chunks of bismite. All of it in its later stages of decay, this all shows a deep red pinkish.
Speaker 2:They just leave it out here?
Speaker 5:Well, they said they're mining it. They must have a ton.
Thomas / Guy:It seems they do not know its value here.
Speaker 2:Can I sniff it? Sure.
Tim / GM:No real scent to it at all. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Doesn't smell like the cake I just had.
Tim / GM:No. It also doesn't smell like rust like you might expect it to. It's very, like, nonmetallic as metals go or nonferrous, I should say.
Speaker 5:Is it all one big chunk, or is it No.
Tim / GM:It's broken up little crumbles. Okay. Crumbly crystals.
Speaker 7:So I, for 1, don't exactly know what we should focus on here. Personally, I feel like we have this polite situation that's gonna chase us, and I wanna put an end to that. So that's what I'm trying to look for. Trying to learn more about some of these crime groups if we can get anything.
Speaker 5:I don't know that they're gonna have any of that information here. I've been to the one library in Farewell, and it seemed like it was kinda general history of the world and stuff like that, but here, it all seems to be individual personal stories.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, what if Diver came here? That's what I was just gonna say. Maybe Diver or someone else from the blight stopped here to get other knowledge in exchange, gave their story.
Speaker 7:Diver is not at the top. I don't know if you all know this, but I I think there's a larger network out there.
Speaker 2:Doran, I have a bone to pick with you.
Speaker 7:Okay, Poppy.
Speaker 2:You didn't tell us any of this when you hired us. I just thought it was a quick little get rich scheme, but, no, it's it's just the tip of a giant iceberg.
Thomas / Guy:And now we're in this strange place and we have to learn things.
Speaker 7:I yeah. I couldn't imagine how horrible their circumstances would pan out here. So I do apologize, Guy and Poppy. But you're right. I I had my own reasons for putting this together to some extent, but you got exactly what you wanted out of this.
Speaker 7:You're out of farewell, and you have bismite and money and fancy slippers and now a spoon a big spoon.
Speaker 5:A big spoon.
Hannah / Eryn:I do have a big spoon.
Speaker 3:But now
Speaker 2:we're stuck on this island.
Speaker 7:For 2 weeks. Yeah.
Speaker 2:For 2 weeks.
Tim / GM:You know,
Thomas / Guy:we didn't even try to sell Hubert a cookie. Could certainly sell the recipe.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to get out of Farewell so I could keep selling cookies, and I'm not mad at you. I'm okay. Just breathe.
Hannah / Eryn:I am surprised, Doran. Poppy has a point. You know more about the blight than you let on. How?
Speaker 7:I I don't know as much as I would like to. I did have suspicions about Diver.
Hannah / Eryn:Where did you ever meet Diver before the mission?
Speaker 7:That's a story of maybe when we're in a more comfortable, homey place. This doesn't feel like home to necessarily go deep into that.
Tim / GM:You all look around the room, and it's like, this place is, like, made of, like, warm wood and a soft burning fire and, like, there's cozy blankets.
Speaker 2:There's, like, armchairs with pillars.
Speaker 7:It's it's not it's not the actual comp I I just, like, you know, we're up really high and it's a new place. I
Speaker 2:At least save it when you have a jar in front of your mouth or something.
Speaker 7:We'll see. I I will I promise I will open up about that. It's just hard for me to I don't wanna focus on it too much right now. But, yes, I have met Diver before.
Speaker 2:It's okay. I'm I think I told you yesterday that I would wait for you to tell us your story, but you're on thin ice. Just keeping my eye on you.
Thomas / Guy:I too, Doran, was not exactly forthcoming with all details of myself when we first met, so I understand.
Speaker 7:Thanks, Guy.
Tim / GM:There's a knock
Speaker 9:at the door.
Speaker 2:Who is it?
Speaker 7:Come in, I think.
Tim / GM:The door very slowly opens, and you see a tortle younger than the prime archivist, but older than Mikey by a
Speaker 3:good deal. She looks up at all
Tim / GM:of you and says,
Speaker 8:hello. I've been told there are stories together. Yes.
Thomas / Guy:You must be April. Correct.
Speaker 7:You've come to the right warm place.
Speaker 8:And yet we must leave.
Speaker 5:Oh. How does it work? Do we all go together? Do we go one at a time?
Speaker 8:If your stories are already interwoven, perhaps it is best that you come together.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think they're a little tangled at the end.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Let's all go. Right?
Speaker 5:I suppose. I don't know.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Very good.
Tim / GM:She, leads you out of this room. She walks incredibly slow and it's kind of agonizing but it does give you a good chance to look around a little bit more there's a good variance to the areas that you see around here. She, however, leads you deeper and deeper into the lower parts of this island until you're walking and when you step inside, it's immediately much warmer in here than it was outside and much, much quieter. It's incredibly dark in here and strangely fragrant. There's some kind of herbs or something that have been burnt in here.
Tim / GM:She has you all sit in a large communal circle. There's curtains hung against every wall even where there aren't windows. There are pillows strewn across the ground, and a small low to the ground wooden table in the center of the room, a circular table with a center ring cut out of it. She sets a candle in the middle of that table, and sets one of those wooden jars over the candle, a little suspended above it.
Speaker 8:And this is how we will collect your stories. Please have a seat, all of you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I sit down.
Speaker 8:Does anybody need a glass of water?
Speaker 2:That would be wonderful. Thank you.
Tim / GM:And she goes, oh, and she stands up and leaves the room for, like, 2 minutes and comes back with a glass of water.
Speaker 7:Could I have one too? I'm kidding. It's fine. We'll share it.
Speaker 8:Yes. Thank you. Okay. Now what are your tolerances for the drift weed?
Speaker 5:I would assume none.
Speaker 8:A small pinch then.
Speaker 2:Pinch goes, what?
Tim / GM:What she reaches into a small wooden box and takes out a literal tiny pinch of some herbs that are in there and puts it into a little brass thimble, and she lights it, and it starts kind of smoldering like incense. She says, this will help the memories flow.
Speaker 7:For humans too? And other races, this is fine.
Speaker 8:I didn't check the dosage, but it should be alright.
Thomas / Guy:Great. Is this legal here?
Speaker 8:Nope.
Speaker 2:But we don't have laws.
Tim / GM:She gives you a sly smile.
Speaker 8:She says, perfectly legal. It just makes you a little chatty is all. Comfortable. Keeps the conversation flowing. It won't last long after you leave here.
Tim / GM:You can get a little bit of that now. It's, very floral. If you were to breathe really deep, it might be unpleasant, but it's quite nice, just to sit here and breathe in that smoke.
Speaker 7:Well, I'm kind of a bit responsible for us all being here. I'll give it a shot
Speaker 8:first. Very good. I'll start the candle.
Tim / GM:She reaches in and lights the candle that is sitting beneath that wooden jar, And it begins to burn. A white smoke.
Speaker 7:Do I have any of the drift weed?
Tim / GM:Oh, sorry. It's just like in the air. Oh, it's incense. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:It's incense mom.
Tim / GM:No. It literally is. She's burning incense to help the memories flow, and then the candle is what's recording everything here.
Speaker 5:How does it work? Do we just talk?
Speaker 8:As soon as you're ready, begin your tail. And even when she says that,
Tim / GM:you can see the smoke vibrating. It shifts, almost like it's being moved underwater by some unseen force. It just changes shape rapidly before it all sucks up into that wooden jar. She looks at Doran, and then does a very slow closed eye nod. Well,
Speaker 7:I guess where I'd like to start is farewell. I came to this city largely to find someone, diver. I wanted to take him out, but I also wanted answers. So I spent a lot of days getting to know local people and hovering around blight activity. Blight was the the gang that Diver ran in Farewell.
Speaker 7:So I noticed their activities, see how they see how they steal, see how they take advantage of people and take people out, saw where their headquarters were. And over the course of time, I also came to realize how crazy it would be to try to do this alone. Meeting with some of the locals, I became good friends with a bubbly, pastry chef and her bodyguard, baking assistant. Guy was impressive and strong, and I could tell he had a he carried himself like a soldier. And,
Tim / GM:As you're searching for the words, you suddenly see the rolling pin and Poppy leaning over the counter, although she's much more a stranger to you now, in the midst of talking, you're still talking, in fact, you're rambling, but you can see it all now. Poppy is leaning out of the rolling pin waiting for an answer from you.
Speaker 2:We have like 5 options right now. I think they're all pretty good.
Speaker 7:Oh, I'll do one of each. Oh, perfect. Do people do that?
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely. Do you want me to wrap them up for
Speaker 7:you? No. I'm probably just gonna eat them here.
Speaker 2:Oh, awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 5:Here
Speaker 2:you go.
Speaker 7:How are things going, Poppy?
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, not selling as much these days, but I think people kinda get sick of cookies when you're stuck in the same market week after week. You know?
Speaker 7:It's it's a tough cookie economy right now. I know. I saw a lot of other shops close down.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, Pearl had to close just yesterday, and she was well established.
Speaker 3:So
Speaker 7:It's nothing that you're doing, Poppy. Like, these are great.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you. It means a lot to hear that, I came to Farewell thinking it was a great opportunity and kinda gets old after a while, I guess.
Speaker 7:What's stopping you from leaving?
Speaker 2:Oh, like, we physically can't I mean, Guy has to pull the cart. We ran out of fuel and
Thomas / Guy:Poppy. Poppy. Is this man bothering you? Is he
Speaker 2:Oh, no. No. No. No. He, he's a very loyal customer, actually.
Speaker 2:Guy, have you met Doran?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, it's you, sir Doran. Guy. I apologize. I have heard talk of thieves in this part of town, if you can believe such a thing.
Speaker 7:Very well, Ken. That's honestly one reason I'm hanging around here. If fuel is something you're looking for, it I probably shouldn't bring it up. It's not it's not a guarantee or anything.
Speaker 2:I think at this point, I'm kind of desperate.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. We are quite keen on leaving this place.
Speaker 2:So if you know a guy
Thomas / Guy:Besides me
Speaker 2:there's a way there's
Speaker 7:a way I think we can get it, and we'd be taking it from those that take from innocent shops like this. It'll be dangerous, but
Thomas / Guy:That's a win win, I say.
Speaker 2:I mean, I kinda have some reservations about just taking things.
Tim / GM:Erin, this is perhaps the most ironic conversation to be happening. While you're sneaking through somebody's bakery trying to rob the till. They're, standing outside of their own wagon now chatting away with Doran, leaving you to pretty much take whatever you want out of here. You're hungry. In fact, you're starving, and you see food, but you know there's gold in there too.
Tim / GM:What do you do?
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron will grab a handful of donuts Mhmm. And shove them in a little pocket on their belt. Or what's it called in the pocket? A pouch? A pouch on their belt.
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you.
Tim / GM:Like mashing doughnut
Speaker 2:cups. Donut holes where there's powdered sugar
Hannah / Eryn:everywhere. Well, Erin doesn't have any money in her pouch. So and then start to sneak out. A little worried that they're too close to try to rob the till, So they're gonna try to sneak out the back.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Give me a historical, stealth check.
Speaker 3:How do
Hannah / Eryn:I do math? 13. 13.
Tim / GM:Cool. Let's do historical perception checks.
Speaker 7:Got a 15.
Speaker 2:11. Yep.
Tim / GM:Beautiful. So Perfect. It works out for me. So, Doran, you're the one to notice. As Poppy and Guy both have their backs to the wagon when they're talking to you, you see Erin slip out the back, and she makes just the tiniest noise as she drops a donut hole onto the cobbles.
Speaker 7:I'll be right back. I forgot something.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. No problem. I'll see you around.
Thomas / Guy:Be well, Doreen.
Speaker 7:Mhmm. I leave the cookies on the counter, and I try to chase down this person.
Tim / GM:Okay. Erin, I think hearing I'll be right back was enough of a cue for you to start sprinting.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Erin's gonna try to run away, kinda like Aladdin style, like
Speaker 5:Street. Parkour.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Parkour into the streets, like, hopping off buildings.
Speaker 3:Cool. Just a
Speaker 2:little snack, I
Tim / GM:Still up
Speaker 7:and they're
Thomas / Guy:rather tasty.
Tim / GM:Every time.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Sorry. Disney's gonna come after us.
Tim / GM:Doran, you give chase? Of course. You take off after her. And even turning the first corner, you see that this is gonna be tough. She grabs onto a gutter pipe and begins climbing up the side of a building, grabs a window sill, swings onto a plant box, gets onto the second level, and grabs for the eaves.
Speaker 7:Damn. I roll my eyes and miss you stuff. You
Tim / GM:are you are on the top of the building looking down at her offering her a hand to help her up. Erin, what do you do?
Hannah / Eryn:Erin, like, slips a little, in surprise and then grabs the hand out of instinct before they fall to the ground below.
Speaker 7:Yeah. I know they're after you, and I know you're not in with them anymore.
Hannah / Eryn:I I don't know what you're talking about. And, Aaron pulls himself up and kinda shakes his hand off. I'm out here. I'll give them back. And Aaron pulls out a few of the doughnut holes.
Hannah / Eryn:Only half of them.
Speaker 7:Those are not my doughnuts.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm sorry. I mean, don't I
Speaker 7:Don't be don't be sorry. Look. Hey. I'm not chasing you for that. I have an offer.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron doesn't like the sound of that and takes a few steps back. What kind of offer?
Speaker 7:I wanna get back at Diver. I wanna hit him good, And I know you're not on good terms. I've been watching the roots. I've been watching their activity. I've heard them talk about wanting to get back at you.
Speaker 7:I think I got a plan that could get us enough money and hurt him enough that we can leave the city
Speaker 3:and be okay and start a
Hannah / Eryn:new life. You you can't hurt Diver. You might be able to take out some of the blight, but
Speaker 7:Doesn't that sound good?
Speaker 3:And you
Hannah / Eryn:want me to help you do this?
Speaker 7:I do. You can't stay here. They're I know you're good, but there's a lot of them. And the longer this goes on, the meaner it's gonna end out.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron just pauses for a long time and then says, alright. I'm in.
Speaker 7:Listen, Quinn, just as a sign of goodwill, I mean it. He took a lot from me. I want this to hurt. And I gave, Aaron 10 gold and, looked down at the city below. Maybe at the drip sipper in a week.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron nods and then jumps off the edge of the roof and breaks their neck. Assassin's Creed style lands
Speaker 5:in a hay bale.
Speaker 2:There's a hawk somewhere.
Thomas / Guy:But Aaron unlocked a little
Tim / GM:bit of
Speaker 2:the map of this. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Doran, as you're watching Aaron, jump off the roof and and move down the alleyways, the streets suddenly turn back into pillows, and you're kind of looking back and forth realizing that you've just been talking and talking for god knows how long.
Speaker 7:I feel like, I feel like, that's it. Who's up?
Speaker 8:You left out a great many details. How is it that they came to know each other? They were together at the beginning of your story.
Tim / GM:Gesturing to Guy and Poppy.
Speaker 2:Oh, well, I can tell that one.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Why don't you start, Poppy?
Speaker 8:Perfect.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I attended the Tower of Magic in Toldry, and then dropped out because, I wanted to start a mobile bakery, and I put all of my money into that. And one day, I caught Guy trying to steal bread off the back of my cart. It was cooling in the the sill and, I told him, stop right there. You don't take what's not yours.
Speaker 2:And instead, I made him work for me to pay it off. Right, Guy?
Thomas / Guy:It's true. To to this day, I am embarrassed to say this is how we met. But
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you were hungry. It's not I mean
Thomas / Guy:I had not eaten in many, many days before then.
Speaker 2:Yes. And now he gets food every single day. As long as he works for me. Then one day, while we were traveling on the road, we were attacked by brigands.
Speaker 3:Stop right there, love. Where are you going? Hey, where are you going?
Tim / GM:Where are you going? Where are you going?
Speaker 2:Just to the next market over.
Tim / GM:No. No. No. No. No.
Tim / GM:See, Mancy over here, he's got a little bit of a problem with you. Right?
Speaker 2:But I don't know him.
Tim / GM:Oh, Mancy's got a problem. Don't you, Mancy?
Speaker 3:I do.
Speaker 2:Well, that's quite a surprise since we've never met.
Speaker 3:Oh, what's that, Mancy? You're getting angry?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I don't have what you're looking for.
Tim / GM:Oh, sorry, love. You've made Mancy angry.
Thomas / Guy:I
Tim / GM:guess you gotta give him something,
Speaker 2:I I I have cookies. That's all.
Speaker 3:Well, let's take a look.
Tim / GM:He kind of like gets up into your window and he like reaches in and just grabs something and throws
Speaker 3:it out.
Speaker 2:No. That was not no. Please don't. I put a lot of effort and money into this cart.
Thomas / Guy:There's a loud thud as guy jumps down from the back of the cart.
Speaker 2:Oh, unhand me.
Speaker 3:Oh, Mency, Job for you.
Tim / GM:And, he like reaches in and grabs at the tail and just gets like a fistful of coins. No.
Speaker 2:Put that back, please. That's all I have.
Thomas / Guy:Excuse me. Haven't any of you ever visited a bakery before? That is not how it works.
Tim / GM:The one named Mancy turns to you, and he is a big boy. Guy, he's actually got a few inches on you, much less armored, but dangerously stupid. He pulls a billy club from his side, and he kind of, like, threatens you with it.
Thomas / Guy:I don't think you can pay with one of those. Maybe one of these is boyo size, and he draws his greatsword.
Tim / GM:You hear that same first person yell up at you, guy, and he says, hey, why don't you pick on someone half your size? And he throws a gold coin at you, and it hits you in the face.
Thomas / Guy:Oh. Guy flinches, and it leaves a little burn mark on his face. Yeah.
Tim / GM:There's, like, a smoke. A welts, and you can feel the headache kind of pulsing through you as the gold touches your skin. Following that, you bring your eyes back up to Mancy a little too late. He's already bringing a billy club across your face, And your head goes rolling. Guy.
Speaker 3:Man Mancy. Don't under your own strength, but we got we gotta get going.
Speaker 2:Why did you do it him?
Speaker 3:Oh, too hard, I guess.
Speaker 2:K. K.
Thomas / Guy:Well, let's say Yancey turns around to lead.
Speaker 5:Hey, Yancey.
Thomas / Guy:What's his name? Nancy. Nancy.
Speaker 2:The other guy is Yancy.
Speaker 5:No. Nancy and Nancy.
Thomas / Guy:Let's say Nancy turns around to leave and then Guy grabs onto his back.
Tim / GM:Yep. Nancy is taking a lumbering stroll away from you, back toward his buddy to kind of count up the gold. And he says,
Speaker 3:what did we get?
Thomas / Guy:As he's walking away, guy taps him on the shoulder.
Tim / GM:He stops dead and his eyes go wide and he slowly turns around.
Thomas / Guy:There's a headless body waiting to hit him with a great sword.
Tim / GM:I think the last thing he sees is a green billowing flame as you make a historical attack.
Thomas / Guy:16 or 17. I didn't have the great blade of Lodom back then.
Speaker 3:Sure. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Do you wanna kill this guy? Yeah. Okay. Let's do it. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You bring down a large sword. Not the Greatblade of Lotem, but a large sword. It hacks into Nancy a good deal, about halfway. It gets stuck, which is always a pain in the ass to have to shuck them off of your sword after they fall. But he does, and all that's left is the pint sized man that came with him.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. What is happening?
Thomas / Guy:Guy's body is going to motion at the other one to get out of here by what is this motion called?
Hannah / Eryn:Shoeing.
Thomas / Guy:Shoeing him away.
Tim / GM:Okay. He's standing there in stunned silence. His whole face is going pale, and he's just looking up between the 2 of you. And he says, what what are you?
Speaker 2:You go away and you leave my friend alone.
Tim / GM:He's shaking his head and kind of like slowly scrambling backwards.
Speaker 2:You better run. Get get now. Go.
Speaker 3:Monster. Monster.
Speaker 2:How dare you? And I throw a cookie at his head.
Tim / GM:It hits him. Yes. And he continues running down the path screaming monster.
Speaker 2:I rush out of the pin, the rolling pin with a a tea towel.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And I go and scoop up the head, and I bring it over
Speaker 8:to Guy.
Tim / GM:Guy towering above you, a green flame billowing from his neck.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Guy's body is kind of backing away from you a little bit, trying to keep a distance.
Speaker 2:But because I am a halfling, I have advantage against being frightened. Yeah. And you don't scare me.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Poppy keeps up with you backing away.
Speaker 2:I I'm not gonna judge you. I don't know what's happening, but I think you dropped this and you might want it back. And I give him the head.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's body reluctantly takes another step back, but then reaches its arms out to take the head back.
Speaker 2:I think I think you've got a good head on your shoulders, Guy. And I'm very grateful that you're my friend.
Thomas / Guy:Guy places the head back on his shoulders.
Speaker 2:And I I, like, gesture him to lean down a little bit. It's okay. And I wrap the tea towel around and, like, tie it in a little
Speaker 8:bow. Oh.
Speaker 2:This might help. I don't know.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, you you don't have to.
Speaker 2:That's okay. I want to.
Thomas / Guy:I can just go.
Speaker 2:No. I won't hear, but you saved my life and the rolling pin.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. But surely, you want nothing to do with all this?
Speaker 2:Well, I think I can make up my mind for myself. Thank you.
Thomas / Guy:Are you certain, Bobby?
Speaker 2:Dead certain. Oh, sorry. Is that I don't mean to be offensive.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, that's so cute. Oh, that's so cute.
Speaker 2:I I don't make a habit of judging people before I know them, and I already know you.
Thomas / Guy:Guys, eyes swell up a little bit with tears and says thank you, Poppy.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Now get back in the rolling pin. We have a market to get to.
Tim / GM:Yes. As this recollection rounds off, you all see Poppy with her arms on Guy's cheeks, held out towards Guy, kind of, like, holding his head in place, and you realize you're back in that little yurt, that little hut telling your stories to each other.
Thomas / Guy:From that point on, I remained loyal to Poppy, and we traveled together. I am known as a Dullahan, a being whose head is separated from one's body, but remains in a state betwixt life and death. Before we met, I wandered the world a bit. But truthfully, I know almost nothing of my life before I died. And the people I met after were not so kind to me because of this curse and because of Poppy's kindness.
Thomas / Guy:That is why we remain together to this day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 8:Tragic, yet heartfelt. That all makes good sense, but we haven't said a word about this one. How did she come to be here, gesturing to journey?
Speaker 5:That's a little complicated, I I guess. I mean, I I was I was in the city and wandering around Farewell, and I found out that someone had taken one of the little fay buds. Not one of mine, but they had found one somewhere and taken it, hidden it away, and I thought at first that it was an accident. And so I went to I went to the place to try and get him to let it go. That's where Aaron found me.
Tim / GM:Aaron, you see a furry creature, something unfamiliar to you. They're looking through the windows at the blight hideout in the upper ledges. It doesn't look like they're trying to infiltrate the place. They're actually not making a big deal of hiding their physical presence all that much. They just really seem to be trying to see something that's in there.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I think Aaron is just observing this from across the street, sort of laying flat on top of a the edge of a building. They were sent by Doran to stake out the blight headquarters and just see if the guards' patterns had changed in the last couple weeks since Aaron had run away from the blight. They see this creature that they have only seen once or twice, maybe before, furbolg. And as they watch them kind of make start making more and more of a scene and just standing for a long time outside, it just seemed sort of awkward and through that drawing attention to themselves.
Speaker 5:Journey knocks on the door to the Blight headquarters. Like, hey. Hello? Anyone You have something in there that doesn't belong to you, and I just wanted to let you know that, you know, you shouldn't have, like, a living creature trapped in, like, a little box like that. That's not where they're supposed to live.
Speaker 5:And I just wanted to let you know because I'm sure you didn't mean to. And now you know so you can let them go. Right?
Speaker 9:Ball's on you.
Speaker 5:Excuse me?
Tim / GM:Not a
Speaker 9:lot of people come back to the Blight looking for their stuff.
Speaker 5:Well, it's it's not mine either.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 5:It's a living being.
Speaker 9:Yeah. I
Speaker 5:was just letting you know as a courtesy and giving you a heads up because they you should let them go.
Tim / GM:He, like, wipes his arm across his nose, and he sees some gravel fall off of his arm when he does. And then he looks up at you, and he says, What do you
Speaker 9:think is gonna happen here? You know where you are.
Speaker 5:Well, I know I'm in farewell, and I think that you're gonna let that thing go, and then I just go about my day. And I assume you would as well.
Speaker 9:Let me give you a little tip, forest creature.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah. That'd be great. I am new in town.
Speaker 9:You stay away from here, and
Tim / GM:he slams the door on your face.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 5:Maybe there's another door.
Hannah / Eryn:By this point, Aaron got close enough to listen in, maybe just behind a crate or something nearby
Tim / GM:Mhmm. In the
Hannah / Eryn:street nearby. And as the door slams, you see a small child come out from behind a crate journey and come up to you and kinda pull at your your shirt Mhmm. And says,
Speaker 10:hey. Would you be able to help me? I lost, my toy over here.
Speaker 5:Sure sure thing. Hi. Where where did you lose it?
Speaker 10:It's gonna be this way. I think I was over here.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Journey follows this kid.
Hannah / Eryn:The kid kinda runs, and then it's, like, looking over their shoulder. Like, are they still falling? Good. And then Keith's going, hey.
Speaker 10:It's just down a little bit further. Thank you so much for your help.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Of course. Happy to help. I I mean, I got a little bit of time. I I think I need to go back to that place and figure out what they're doing.
Speaker 5:But
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. It must be right down here. And the child runs into a kinda, like, dingy, dark darker valley
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:Off to the side street.
Speaker 5:Yeah. As Journey's walking inside, she's like, why would you be playing in here? This seems like not very fun. Is that glass on the ground?
Tim / GM:Dirty needles?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. The child just goes further and further, and the alley gets darker and darker until all of a sudden you can't see the child anymore. Can't see me. And then Eren is going to shift back into the elf woman version of Erin and say from the shadows, thank you for coming. I'm I'm sorry.
Hannah / Eryn:I had to trick you a little bit. Did
Speaker 5:you see where that little kid went?
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. Erin steps out of the shadows and says, that was me. Don't be alarmed.
Speaker 5:Oh, alright. Great.
Hannah / Eryn:Listen. I know those people who had your friend back there.
Speaker 5:Right. Well, they have a little a little fake creature trapped in there, and I thought it must have been an accident, but that
Hannah / Eryn:Is it is it does it look like a firefly? Yeah.
Speaker 5:Like these. And I shake my hair, and some of and some of the fae buds, like, swirl out and then around my head and then back in my hair.
Tim / GM:This dark alleyway becomes a brief rave as all the colors flash around.
Hannah / Eryn:You see a genuine smile on Aaron's face as the lights fly zoom around them. They're so amazing when there's a lot of them.
Speaker 5:Yeah. They they let me know that there was something trapped.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Listen. I think I might know a way to help you. Get your friend back.
Speaker 5:Really?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. There's there's a guy putting together a group. We're gonna do a break in. Break in? We're going in without permission.
Speaker 5:Is that is that fine? Is that okay? Yeah. Alright.
Tim / GM:And you
Speaker 5:can help me get the the little Faye boat out of there?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Definitely. Alright. Great. Why don't you meet me at this spot tomorrow, and I'll come with some more details?
Speaker 5:I guess. I can come back here. So you're saying I shouldn't go back to that building right now?
Hannah / Eryn:No. You should avoid it for now. Okay. Great.
Speaker 8:Oh, what
Speaker 5:should I call you?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, you can call me Erin.
Speaker 5:Erin, you can call me Journey.
Tim / GM:Journey?
Speaker 5:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:You have a certain consciousness of what's happening right now, you know, that you're in this hut telling a story, and you're waiting for it to be over. You are still stuck in this memory with Aaron, but you know you're in that hut. And Aaron disappears, you're in this black alleyway, and you can't break out of this memory. Everybody else in the room, you see Journey go catatonic.
Speaker 2:Is this supposed to do that? She's not talking.
Speaker 7:April, we need to cut this short. Something's wrong.
Speaker 8:It's it's dangerous to do so. I I think we should let this go.
Speaker 7:What what do you mean let it go?
Tim / GM:She puts up a hand to kind of stay you, Doren,
Speaker 8:and she says, let her wake naturally.
Thomas / Guy:She will wake. Right?
Tim / GM:Journey, you kind of like you bob a little bit in your dream state, but you're staring at that blackened alleyway, and it's just darkness down there, and then you see a little glimmer of light.
Speaker 5:Hello?
Tim / GM:You start walking towards it, and then your footsteps fall out onto open air, and you're just treading water, and you're so cold.
Speaker 5:Hello?
Tim / GM:Looking down at that glimmer of light, it begins to take shape, and you can see the outline of a circle in the blues and greens of a planet thousands of miles away from you.
Speaker 5:Where am I?
Tim / GM:Some memories are too close to you at all times. When you look up, you see its face. For the first time in so long, you see it again, and she smiles at you. Hello. The unknowable voice settles into you.
Tim / GM:Hello.
Speaker 5:What would you have me do?
Speaker 3:Seek.
Speaker 5:Alright.
Tim / GM:And then there's a buzzing, a whispering, and a rushing, and that glimmer of light is becoming so big and you're moving so fast and it's so cold and you're awake again.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank God. She wasn't even breathing, lady. Come on.
Tim / GM:All's well. All's well. She, reaches for that cup of water and hands it to Journey.
Speaker 5:Journee tries to take it, and her hands are shaking so bad that she drops it.
Speaker 3:She, scuffles away with the cup. She says, it's all right there.
Speaker 8:Sit. Sit. Lay. Lay down. It's it's quite okay.
Speaker 7:Is that okay, Journey?
Speaker 5:Yeah. Did did we do did we get all all the all the stories?
Speaker 8:I think that's going to be enough for today.
Speaker 7:Fresh air might be good. Doran opens the door and, like, kinda fans it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You see all the smoke and incense pour out of this room, And there's a new kind of silence between all of you. And I think we'll end it there. Thanks everybody for listening. I am Tim, your GM, and all your turtles.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm Hannah. I play Eren.
Speaker 5:I'm Tara, and I play Journey.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Thomas. I am Guy.
Speaker 7:I'm John. I play Dorne.
Speaker 2:And I'm Maggie, and I play puppy Kenmore.
Tim / GM:See you in the next one.