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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.
Speaker 2:The party spent the whole day on
Tim / GM:lore, sipping tea, watching the clouds, and trying to catch wild kittens. At the same time, Journey took a break on her own to mourn the loss of her fae friend. But while out on the fields at the edge of the island, she also met an unsettling old man who abruptly disappeared. Poppy was meanwhile making friends with the locals, baking cookies and handing out smiles. But that's when they caught on to the sneaky sneaks over at Tower 13.
Tim / GM:Doran and Guy disobeyed the rules of the island and went to examine the tower straight away. Now they've been caught. And with Guy's lost memories being held hostage, it's time for him to make a hard decision. So all of you except Journey are on the east end of the island at Tower 13. There's a tense standoff between Doran and Guy who are currently facing down Poppy, Huber, and Shred.
Tim / GM:Aaron is changeling shape shifted into April and is kind of caught between this whole reaction.
Hannah / Eryn:Poppy is probably in between, like, holding hands up. Like Yeah. Don't hey. Maybe think about it.
Thomas / Guy:I do not wish this to end in violence, but you should not stand between me and my past.
Tim / GM:Huber looks over at Shred. Shred kind of mirrors your position. Guy, you've got your hand on your sword. You see Shred's hand move behind him to grab at a bo staff that he's got on his back. He says, I warned you once.
Tim / GM:I will defend this island.
Speaker 5:I have a question.
Tim / GM:Yes.
Speaker 5:How far away is this place from the place where I was eating cookies?
Tim / GM:Extremely close, and it makes a lot of sense for Journey to not wanna sit here as
Speaker 5:Literally, once Journey heard April on the echo April on the echo bell and then saw April in the building, she realized that Aaron was on the scene, and she left.
Tim / GM:Okay. Cool. So I think that's what you see, Journee, is Shred loosening a bo staff from his shell and taking it into his hands as he stares down Guy.
Thomas / Guy:What right do you have to stand in my way? This history that you defend is mine. It doesn't belong to anybody else.
Tim / GM:There will be a fair exchange, a flow of knowledge. Just because you feel slighted or wronged by your circumstances doesn't give you the right to take what you want.
Hannah / Eryn:Wait, I have an idea. Have you ever heard of a library? You borrow knowledge.
Speaker 2:Of course we have heard of libraries.
Hannah / Eryn:It's free to the public and and you share knowledge.
Speaker 2:Poppy, we are not learning things such as how to repair a wagon wheel.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, I mean, you can learn all sorts of things.
Speaker 2:The knowledge held here, it can shape kingdoms. It goes beyond trivia.
John / Doran:That is absolutely true. I just wanna point out, these are special circumstances.
Speaker 2:Is there
John / Doran:any precedent for perhaps a loan? Guy, from what I've known and been with in the last few days, is very noble and strong to his word. There's no doubt about that. And if you actually have met him, and I'm looking at Trent as I say this, then you should know that what I'm saying has probably always been true about him.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, do anything.
Speaker 2:I can empathize with your situation, but I must urge you to exercise patience. We have rules and rituals. What difference does it make whether we give you the knowledge now on loan or whether you build the memories to earn the knowledge yourself on return? The only factor is your unwillingness to wait and play by the rules set forth here.
Speaker 5:Journey has been slowly kind of edging around this group, but her fey beds are kind of, wilding out in her hair and around her head, looking a little agitated.
Tim / GM:Journey, make a perception check.
Speaker 5:13.
Tim / GM:Alright. That is enough to hear a very large thing approaching from behind you. You hear the scrape of gravel and the brushing of a bush as something steps up near behind you.
Speaker 5:I turn around.
Tim / GM:You see a turtle you haven't met yet that is similarly trying to hide itself from this scene while observing from a distance. This one is much bigger than you had seen before. He holds one finger to his lips and goes, shh,
Speaker 2:don't make any rash decisions.
Speaker 5:Nothing rash here. Just trying to keep the peace.
Speaker 2:As am I. Let's observe. Alright.
Thomas / Guy:I must admit the immediacy of gaining this knowledge would be very much appreciated. I've spent 2 years not knowing who I am and do not wish to spend any more without this knowledge.
Tim / GM:Have you considered a situation in which you would want to have forgotten? I don't know what you had done, as I didn't hear, but I know something of who you were, how they talked about you.
Thomas / Guy:What nonsense is this? Of course, I want those memories. They're mine. They were taken from me.
Tim / GM:It seems we've reached an impasse.
John / Doran:Okay. Impasse sounds pretty, final. Thorin's going to cast, calm emotions in the general vicinity, seeing that tensions are not naturally diffusing.
Speaker 2:K.
John / Doran:This spell within a 20 foot radius, people can choose to fail their saving throw on purpose. If you fail, your, strong emotions will be suppressed, and, essentially, we can kinda bring it into, like, a from hostile or leaning towards hostile to a neutral situation. Yeah. So, anyone that's choosing to resist the spell would then make that saving throw against me, and it is a, Charisma saving throw.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Here we go.
Speaker 5:Marathon, 20 feet?
Speaker 2:No. I got a 13.
John / Doran:Spell save is 14.
Tim / GM:A shred got a 6. Yeah. Huber makes a startled face as a charm unwinds from his shell and falls to the ground.
Speaker 2:He says, what treachery is this now?
John / Doran:Another strong word. Treachery is not what I'm going for here. I'm just trying to bring the temperature down a tad.
Tim / GM:He bends over with great effort and picks up the charm off the ground.
Speaker 2:This, a simple mechanism to prevent the prime archivist from being fooled.
John / Doran:That is not my intention at all, prime archivist. Just trying to get everyone to lower their weapons so we can handle this more diplomatically.
Tim / GM:Hubert, we should at least hear him out. We don't need to take them off the island.
Thomas / Guy:That's a real threat.
John / Doran:Looking at April?
Hannah / Eryn:April's gone. No.
Tim / GM:I'm just kidding. You can see Huber is very emotional. He has lost a lot of trust in you guys. His chest is heaving, and he says,
Speaker 2:April.
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. Prime activist.
Speaker 2:Prepare a modification.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. April waddles off into the woods.
Tim / GM:Hubert gives himself a satisfied nod. He says, if you
Speaker 2:will not give up this pursuit, we will take the incentive from you.
Hannah / Eryn:What what does that mean?
Speaker 2:I will speak with you when I've
Tim / GM:had time to calm myself.
Hannah / Eryn:Me, I think that was kind of the point, you know?
John / Doran:Hubert, I meant nothing by that. Why don't we just, meet this evening over some Earl Grey?
Tim / GM:Let's do that.
John / Doran:Okay.
Speaker 2:In the primary meeting house.
John / Doran:Right.
Tim / GM:I expect to see all of you there.
Thomas / Guy:I suddenly am fine with waiting until I see a thing to decide.
John / Doran:Doran pats a guy on the back. Please don't kill me later. I'll I'm sorry.
Thomas / Guy:I don't know why I would, but well, well No promises. Yep.
Tim / GM:Journey, you look up to see that other turtle that was standing by you has this strange wooden whistle, and he's almost got it up to his mouth and then he just kind of like puts it away into a pouch.
Speaker 5:What was that for?
Speaker 2:In case our island needs protecting. That's how it's protected.
Speaker 5:Well, my friends really didn't mean any harm.
Speaker 2:Such misunderstandings are actually commonplace.
Speaker 5:I guess that makes me feel a little better.
Speaker 2:There are many who think we are incapable of protecting ourselves.
Speaker 5:That was never in any doubt for me, but
Speaker 2:There are many who come here seeking that which we do not grant them immediately. In rare occasions, we have to call upon the great beasts.
Speaker 5:Really?
Speaker 2:Unfit as we are for combat? Most of us.
Speaker 5:You call on the great beasts?
Speaker 2:There is one who responds to my call.
Speaker 5:Which one?
Speaker 2:He says, I think even now she's in some distress.
Tim / GM:With all of you still standing in that group, there's a sudden massive shadow that passes over the whole island like a shiver up your spine. It's like an eclipse in fast motion, and then through a break in the clouds above, you can see her A bird. A monster as large as the ship you came on. You see a titanic bird with iridescent tail feathers that stretch on twice as long as its body. There's a gleam of cyan and magenta in the momentary light before it's gone and then it's lost in the clouds.
Speaker 2:-We solve our issues through peace or I call her down to eat who she chooses.
Speaker 5:That is that is quite the protection. Would Journey have a good chunk of knowledge about this creature?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. So,
Tim / GM:yeah everyone here knows about great beasts to poppy they're kind of like myths you know like fairy tale sort of things To Guy and Doran, maybe Aran, they've probably seen one before, at least at a distance. It's not all that uncommon, especially when you live close to the clouds. This bird, Kree, is known to quite a few, and Journey has sort of different knowledge of the great beasts. You know that they are sentient, that they talk to each other, and that they're not gods, but they're not animals.
Speaker 5:And, sorry. I never I never caught your name.
Speaker 2:Nor are I yours. You may call me Tully.
Speaker 5:Tully? Nice to meet you under the circumstances.
Speaker 7:You
Speaker 5:can call me Journey.
Speaker 2:Journey? You came with them, this, group from the great ship?
Speaker 5:Right. Yeah. We all were traveling together. We found ourselves in some complicated circumstances in the city and came over here to get away from it for a while.
Speaker 2:Seems you found your own trouble.
Speaker 5:I guess. Trouble seems to keep finding me. I don't know. But not trouble like that, and journey points up into the clouds. Whereabouts did you get that whistle from?
Speaker 2:It's actually not mine. Belongs to the island. It was given to me.
Speaker 5:Interesting. Well, I'm glad you didn't need to use it. I'm hoping that we can find a way out of this that doesn't require it.
Speaker 2:You're wise, Jurney.
Speaker 5:Just trying to keep the peace.
Speaker 2:Huber. Huber.
Tim / GM:He starts kind of, like, trolling towards the other group. You see this large tortle plotting out. Tully breaks out from the bushes and is trying to kind of, you know, calm everything back down, get everybody back on the same page.
Speaker 2:He says, there's no reason anyone here needs to fight. Let's all go back to our corners and think it over. That's what
John / Doran:I said until that giant bird flew over. What the shit was that?
Hannah / Eryn:It was huge.
Speaker 5:Hi, everybody.
Thomas / Guy:Hey, Journey. Oh, Journey. Journey.
John / Doran:No. But what was that?
Speaker 5:It was it was Kree, the great bird.
John / Doran:And why is it here?
Speaker 5:Tully was just telling me that it protects the island. So maybe we should work on, being a little bit more polite.
Hannah / Eryn:At that moment, Erin comes stomping out of the bushes as Aaron, the middle aged elf woman, and says, you guys, I I was this close This close to catching a cloud kit. Oh. Hello, everyone. Hello. These guys almost got us kicked off the island.
Hannah / Eryn:Surprise. Surprise.
Thomas / Guy:Well, they are holding my memories hostage. They are not?
Hannah / Eryn:I mean
Thomas / Guy:potato potato.
Hannah / Eryn:I taught him that one.
Tim / GM:Shred is actually urging Huber to move along. The 2 of them take off back towards the main cabin. Tully sticks around for just a second to introduce himself to you guys, and, he actually leaves shortly behind Lem, leaving all of you alone by the tower with a lot of trust.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. What happened to the plan?
Speaker 5:I thought we were gonna wait 2 weeks until we tried the freaking tower. The shell. Let's go. That's right.
Thomas / Guy:The what? What?
Hannah / Eryn:Follow me. And then Aaron's gonna lead them off into the woods into a little clearing they found by some stones.
John / Doran:Doran's gonna stomp any shells he finds on the ground, just in a general vicinity.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You you end up stepping on a live Echo whelk.
John / Doran:Oh, I'm sorry.
Hannah / Eryn:You just hear it go, and it dies.
Speaker 5:It's wide, Oren.
Hannah / Eryn:I almost found my mate.
Thomas / Guy:I was one day from retirement. Whoops.
Hannah / Eryn:Guys, we've been here for one day. 1.
John / Doran:Oh, I hate this place.
Thomas / Guy:We did not even go inside the tower. And moreover, after we went to this forbidden tower, we find out there's another tower that's forbidden. Have we been inside any towers yet? I bet they're all forbidden.
Hannah / Eryn:Can Aaron roll a quick perception check to make sure we're alone? Mhmm. 14. Yes. Sorry.
Hannah / Eryn:No one's following us?
Tim / GM:Yep. You're alone.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy fell off the island.
Speaker 5:Alright. Look. I only caught some of it because there were some coming through the echo bell, and then there were some when I got here. But you said they're holding your memories hostage?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, one of the Tortles recognized me from, before I became a Dullahan and said there's records, memories of my own at tower 25, but they forbade me from going there.
Hannah / Eryn:Was that the true crime tower?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah. I guess it was.
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, they really just emphasized that you need to pay for it.
Thomas / Guy:Why should I have to pay for my own memories that I provided?
Hannah / Eryn:I understand.
Speaker 5:I mean, who did they say didn't have enough memory for payment? Was it just you? Because, god, I would understand that you don't have any memories at all.
Hannah / Eryn:Why? And I tried to offer my own to to pay for it, but they they were very insistent that if you want to know the knowledge, you have to pay for it yourself. Because I tried, and they said no.
John / Doran:One of us could get them and then tell you, guy, but that's not the same as getting your own memories back.
Speaker 5:And what if it's something that you don't wanna remember? I know Shred said that.
John / Doran:That doesn't matter. Guy can't even choose in this situation.
Speaker 5:Maybe if you wanted, someone else could get the memories for you and give you an idea of how bad they are.
Thomas / Guy:I don't see how bad they could possibly be.
John / Doran:I wouldn't trust these turtles' perception of the situation at all. They apparently are in some sort of deal binding them to Kree, that giant bird thing. I I don't feel we are safe here.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. And then I find out if I were to slay all of the tortles to regain my memories, I would also have to fight a giant bird, which I do not feel prepared for.
Hannah / Eryn:I just I I mean, like, I understand where you're coming from, but, also, the society changes depending on where you are, and there are rules you have to follow. And I I don't know where you guys came from, but I grew up learning that you have to follow the rules. That's just the expectation. You do it.
John / Doran:I don't disagree, Poppy. It's just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 5:We're guests here. It doesn't have to feel right.
Thomas / Guy:I do not know why these beings are stewards of memories when they do not freely share with their owners and make up the rules arbitrarily.
John / Doran:Would it change anything, Guy, if you learned that you yourself put the memories there?
Speaker 5:Well, he did put the memories there. They weren't stolen from him. I didn't lose the memories that I put into the jar earlier today. I I think that losing the memory and putting them in the jar are 2 separate occurrences.
Thomas / Guy:But they may be related. Perhaps my memories contain some clues as to how I was given this curse.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, as far as I can tell, we can go about this 2 ways and maybe both at the same time. We can go along with what they want, give them our memories for now, for the next couple weeks. And then in the meantime, we keep an eye out. I mean, there's always a way to steal from everybody, so I can probably figure something out if they aren't gonna give them to us willingly. I say we figure out exactly what payment they're looking for.
John / Doran:Word of caution though, Aaron, and all of you, that beast that flew overhead, we cannot underestimate what that creature is capable of. It it has powers and and it can shape things to its will.
Hannah / Eryn:Churney things.
Speaker 5:Churney looks at Doran with a frown, like, confused, and I would like to roll insight.
Hannah / Eryn:Darn, that's just a a children's tale.
Speaker 5:Natural? Nope. That's a 4.
Speaker 2:Natural 4.
Speaker 5:So that is 7 that I got.
John / Doran:What I mean to say is if these turtles don't consider us welcome guests, we are at their mercy. We are at their mercy the second we came to this Skyland. We should have that in mind going forward here.
Hannah / Eryn:I agree. I am kind of curious as to the amount of hypocrisy coming out of your mouth right now.
John / Doran:Same part, Poppy. Sounded like an accusation.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, I think we should follow the rules. We're guests here. We've been guests here since we landed here, But, no, I'm gonna break into the tower.
John / Doran:Break into the tower? We just checked the door. We literally checked the door, and it was locked. Right?
Hannah / Eryn:How does that bird even know when to attack and who to attack? Does it just fly around all day?
John / Doran:It's very intelligent.
Hannah / Eryn:We can watch it and
Speaker 5:track it. We're not in active danger from the bird.
John / Doran:Agree to disagree. Alright.
Speaker 5:We're not under active threat from this creature. We're we're perfectly safe as long as we don't make the turtles angry.
Thomas / Guy:I agree. I do not wish to fight the giant magic bird, but I like Aaron's path of subterfuge and sneakery.
Hannah / Eryn:I knew you would all come over to my side eventually. Speak for yourselves.
Speaker 5:I'm with Poppy. We should figure out what the cost is for that memory and figure out if we can pay
John / Doran:it. We should hear them out. Maybe there's more context that we are missing around guys' situation, and I think we should cool it for a few days. Let's not even check doors. Apparently.
John / Doran:Assume there's shells everywhere.
Speaker 7:You all hear.
John / Doran:I'm sorry.
Speaker 5:Maki?
Tim / GM:Mikey had been listening from around the corner. You have no idea how long he's been here, but it seems mention of sneak caused him to lose his footing and fall over.
Speaker 7:He looks up and says, please don't hurt me.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, that depends on what you do with this information. I'm holding up the rolling pin.
Tim / GM:The whole wagon?
Hannah / Eryn:No. The lowercase rolling pin from my back.
Thomas / Guy:Guy is going to walk over to Mikey. Can I pick him up? Is he pretty small?
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. I'm gonna pick him up and hold him at head level.
Speaker 7:K. What have you heard, little Mikey? Just that, you guys are scared of the big bird and that you're gonna sneak into the other tower and
Thomas / Guy:Well, that was just an idea. We're spitballing here.
Tim / GM:He kind of, like, swallows hard and looks around at the rest of you with his big turtle eyes.
Speaker 5:Alright. Put him down. God, put him down.
Thomas / Guy:God, drop some.
Speaker 5:Journey kneels on the ground so that, she's at height with Mikey. Maki, do you know anything about what the press would be on the special memories?
Speaker 7:Well, yes. As a prime archivist in training, I know a lot of these things. Where he's got guys' memories stored up, well, they're behind little sealed stone containers. I don't think he could get in there if he even tried. But the bigger problem is even getting into that tower.
Speaker 7:You need the archivist's key to get in there. Or at least a junior archivist's key.
Speaker 5:I see. And, you wouldn't happen to have one of these keys yourself, would you, being that you're in training to be a prime archivist?
John / Doran:He's not a junior prime archivist. He's a prime archivist in training. They they don't get keys, or do they?
Speaker 7:They do, and he
Tim / GM:starts turning over a little, necklace in his hand.
Speaker 5:Wow. That's really interesting. And about the the cost associated with such memory, is it is the reason, in your expert opinion, that Poppy's memories were not sufficient, is it maybe because she's too young? No offense at all, but I am quite a bit older than you.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm 23.
Speaker 7:No. It's not because she's too young. Anyone of any age that has important information, that pounce.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, Poppy deflates a little bit.
Speaker 5:How important we talking?
Speaker 7:Hubert mentioned that what's stored there, it could it could make or break a whole kingdom.
Thomas / Guy:So we need to acquire other information that could make or break a kingdom.
Speaker 7:Something on that level. It doesn't have to be darkness. Could be a new invention, something important.
Hannah / Eryn:What about information about business? Maybe.
Speaker 5:Mikey, I greatly appreciate all the help that you've been today, and I and I won't be we don't need to tell prime archivist about you skulking about or
Hannah / Eryn:You've been so helpful. Anything like that. Yeah.
Speaker 7:Oh, thanks. Thank you very much for not telling anyone.
Speaker 5:Yeah. And then, anything you heard here, you know, was just people goofing around and
Speaker 7:Well, I don't think we came to that conclusion yet.
Speaker 5:Just thinking out loud and not making any plans at all, rat.
Speaker 7:No. I think,
Speaker 5:Journey puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes just a little.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Make an intimidation check.
Speaker 5:My charisma is very bad. 6. How's that versus Mikey, the baby turtle?
Tim / GM:Surprisingly effective. You see him begin to, tremble a little bit. You can see him swallow hard and, you see the lump all the way down his long turtleneck. And he looks at you and he says,
Speaker 7:what do you want me to do?
Speaker 5:Nothing at all, Mikey. Just, keep yourself to yourself. Right?
Tim / GM:He's nodding feverishly.
John / Doran:After that message gets across, Doran's gonna interject. Journey, let's not scare him. He's he's a good prime archivist in training.
Speaker 5:The best. Yeah. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Mikey. Can I call you Mikey? Say, listen. You know how much you like chocolate?
Speaker 7:Yeah. You have you have more chocolate?
Hannah / Eryn:I might have more. Do you wanna go hang out and and and eat some?
Speaker 7:Well, yeah. Yeah. I do.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Great. I've got plenty of extra. I just need you to to kinda lay low for a bit.
Speaker 7:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Wonderful. Since we're all in agreement, Mikey, if you say anything about what you heard today, I will bake you into a cake.
Hannah / Eryn:He likes to he likes to joke.
Tim / GM:The smile just disappears from his face as he looks up at Guy, turns back to Poppy and with a big smile
Speaker 7:and says, can I hang out in your wagon and eat all the sweets?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my gosh. Yes. I can I can show you how I make everything, because I know you have an interest in baking? Right?
Speaker 7:Well, I'm not very good at it.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, it's okay. You just need a little practice. And, who better to teach you than me? Yes. Let us bring you to the rolling pin, and Poppy can show you everything.
Hannah / Eryn:And Aaron's gonna put an arm around Mikey, Shell, and just say, I'm so glad we've made a new friend, and kinda start walking.
Speaker 7:He's like, yeah. Me too. I like that.
Speaker 5:I don't suspect anything.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron's gonna try to steal the
Speaker 7:What?
Hannah / Eryn:No. The key
Speaker 7:from him.
Speaker 5:I'm just kidding.
Hannah / Eryn:K. Please. All of that persuasion.
Thomas / Guy:I mean, we still threaten him
Tim / GM:a lot.
Hannah / Eryn:25. Yes. Oh my god. Weird.
John / Doran:We're the bad guys
Thomas / Guy:this time.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm not the bad guys this time.
John / Doran:Guys, we need to talk about our group dynamics. We need one more Poppy to balance this out there. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Walking with Mikey, he keeps looking between Poppy and Aaron on either sides of him. And when he's down talking to Poppy at eye level Fuck you. Aaron just kind of sneaks out a hand around his neck, kind of by his shell, giving him a pat, and gracefully lifts the necklace right off of him without a sound.
Hannah / Eryn:What's this it's called the prime?
Tim / GM:It is the junior archivist's key.
Speaker 5:Oh, poor Mike. He never had a chance.
Hannah / Eryn:We're gonna get fucking eaten by a bird. No.
Tim / GM:You make it to the wagon, you come to the front door, and he goes,
Speaker 7:I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, I mean, we may have hyped it up a little bit. It's not that great. But welcome to the rolling pin and I opened the back door. So over here is the oven. It's where I bake everything And, over here is the storage cupboard.
Hannah / Eryn:The jar up here on the shelf is full of chocolate chips. Would you like a couple?
Tim / GM:He's like a sudden rabbit animal. He's kicking over pots and pans and opening drawers so he can use them as stairs. He climbs up to that cupboard, grabs the jar, and he just sticks his face in, and he is scooping mouthfuls with his lower jaw. Just
Hannah / Eryn:Mikey, if you eat them all now, there won't be any left.
Tim / GM:He's shoving his fingers into his mouth just full of chocolate chips.
Hannah / Eryn:It's a good thing I didn't tell him about the extra. I am going to lock the cupboard with the back stock of chocolate, though.
Tim / GM:Yeah. That makes sense.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Maybe just, here, a couple of recipes, Poppy, for him to try out? Yeah. These are very, very simple, beginners recipes. And if you need anything, come find me, I guess.
Speaker 7:Okay. Here.
Tim / GM:He, he gives you a tiny echo bell.
Speaker 7:He goes, I got the other one.
Hannah / Eryn:Awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 5:Third fucking set of echo bells.
Hannah / Eryn:So we have to talk in code then.
Tim / GM:Here's the thing. Mikey's echo bell is different. It has a latch on the front. It can be on or off at any given moment.
Hannah / Eryn:Turn it off.
Tim / GM:The problem with these models is that it's kind of pointless to keep it latched because you'd never know when somebody's trying to get to you unless you could feel the vibration.
Speaker 5:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:It's like having an off walkie talkie.
Hannah / Eryn:Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Well, Mikey, we'll be back in just a little bit. We just had a quick, errand to run.
Hannah / Eryn:They were gonna help me with a CloudKip situation. Be back soon.
Thomas / Guy:As Guy leaves, he points to Mikey and then points to a cake pan.
John / Doran:So, yeah, like I was saying, if we can just, like, lay low for at least a few days, because anything that happens now, they're gonna suspect us. We definitely kinda fudged that a little bit.
Hannah / Eryn:I would not use the word we.
John / Doran:Thought you were
Tim / GM:gonna say, I would not use the word fudge.
Hannah / Eryn:That's a disgrace to fudge. Yeah. Let's talk about it over here a little bit. Okay. We need to just keep an eye out a little bit better, everybody.
Hannah / Eryn:And Erin's gonna lead them away again, just like often somewhere trying to find a private space on this island that's apparently got a turtle in every corner.
John / Doran:Just falling out of trees.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Jesus.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm gonna roll a perception check. That's not a rock. That's a turtle sleeping. Perception check, and I'm gonna keep an eye out this time. Ugh.
Hannah / Eryn:That was bad. 4.
Tim / GM:Coast is clear this time for sure.
Thomas / Guy:Sweet. Absolutely.
Hannah / Eryn:Alright, guys. Coast is complete. An eye out.
Tim / GM:Sure. I
John / Doran:would never second guess Erin personally, but
Speaker 5:I would like to, assist. I don't know.
John / Doran:Let me do it.
Tim / GM:Okay. So so after Aaron comes back and says coast is clear, Jenny Jenny goes, let me check.
Speaker 5:Basically.
Hannah / Eryn:I did I did mess it up
Tim / GM:last night.
Thomas / Guy:It's that number again.
Speaker 5:Fucking Christ. 9. 9.
Tim / GM:So what? Both of you look in one basket, and you're like, there's nobody here.
Hannah / Eryn:What about 15?
Tim / GM:There's still nobody there.
Hannah / Eryn:Great. I think we're good.
Thomas / Guy:I am starting to agree with Doran. Perhaps we should stay low, Lelo. Stay low and Lelo.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I think that we're gonna have to come together and talk to Huber and the rest of the turtles pretty soon here, and I think we need to present ourselves as apologetic because we should be apologetic.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. We definitely, need to be apologetic because I stole the junior archivist key from Mikey. And Erin pulls it out.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, you took the key.
Hannah / Eryn:Now listen. I don't know how long that stupid turtle is gonna not notice that their key is missing, but my guess is, like, 3 days before they even suspect us. So we probably have some time.
Thomas / Guy:Well, I think Doran's plan is dumb. We should sneak into the tower.
Hannah / Eryn:Can we? Okay. Hold on. Bear with me. Bird?
Hannah / Eryn:Giant bird. Sky bird.
John / Doran:I do recall. Yes. I
Thomas / Guy:saw it.
Hannah / Eryn:Big, gaping beak. Very hungry. Well, it can't hurt us if we're in a tower.
Speaker 5:Oh, we don't know that. That that ain't true at all.
Hannah / Eryn:How does it know if you go in a tower?
Speaker 5:That bird is incredibly smart.
John / Doran:We can't underestimate its power.
Hannah / Eryn:How do you guys all know about this bird? Like, a kid's tail. It's part of nature.
Thomas / Guy:How is it in kid's tail? You just saw it
Hannah / Eryn:fly over. The bird exists, but the powers maybe not so much.
Speaker 5:Oh, no. It's incredibly powerful.
Hannah / Eryn:So you're telling me I stole this key for nothing?
John / Doran:No. I
Hannah / Eryn:mean, we can just put it back. It's fine.
John / Doran:Can we make a copy?
Hannah / Eryn:I like that idea. Can you tell if there's any magical properties to this? And Erin's gonna hold it out to Poppy. Yeah. Let me arcana check.
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm. A 16.
Tim / GM:So it's a stone key. It's a rectangular shape with, some kind of, like, toothy grooves towards the end of it. It's much thicker than a normal key. In fact, it's more of a rectangular prism than anything else. You can tell it's magic.
Tim / GM:Definitely. This has been enchanted by something.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah. It's magic.
John / Doran:Well, we don't have to give back this one. Doran sits down, takes out, oil flask paper, and is gonna trace the key. Mhmm. Alright. Can anyone make this, like, another one?
Speaker 5:Uh-huh. I wouldn't even begin to know how to enchant a key.
Tim / GM:Oh, we don't have to enchant
John / Doran:the key. We just need one that's made of stone like this and is looks like this.
Hannah / Eryn:My wheelhouse is, confectionery stuff. Is this a nature check, Tim? Like, what would it even be to craft something?
Tim / GM:It's usually tied to intelligence in some way, but it's usually like you've got a specified skill with a certain set of tools.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Tim / GM:In this way, I would think jewel crafting, pottery, masonry stone cutting, even woodworking would work.
Thomas / Guy:Wait. I have a perfect solution. We have encountered something fairly akin to stone, have we not?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. The whole Skyland is made of stone.
Thomas / Guy:I'm talking about Mikey's cake. Oh, we just need to have him make another cake, then we mold it into the shape of this key.
John / Doran:Then after a couple days, be indistinguishable from Rocky.
Thomas / Guy:Well, shit.
John / Doran:That's probably our best plan.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Alright. Listen. I think we just need to go now into the tower that we wanna go into and give the key back before Mikey even notices. Not.
Hannah / Eryn:No way. What's the difference between going now and going in a few days? Bird. Yeah. The bird's still gonna be there.
Hannah / Eryn:They want to talk to us. We're under suspicion. We already almost got shoved off the island from what I hear.
John / Doran:Here. Let's just leave the key on the ground where we know that Mikey was walking, but hide it a bit in some bushes. We can come back and get it. And if they find it before we do, we got a plausible explanation of why it's here.
Hannah / Eryn:That's actually not a bad idea. What if they memory smoke us again and they learn all of this?
John / Doran:It's a lot of what ifs, a lot of potential here, but feel like we can't linger too long.
Speaker 5:It's just dropping along the path, kick it behind some bush, and then go about our way and try and get the memories the right way. I understand that we wanna get those because guy needs to know about his past. But for now, what we're doing is preemptively bad. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Perhaps if we attend this meeting tonight and agree to their terms, they will be less suspicious of us.
Speaker 7:Mhmm.
John / Doran:Could work though, Erin. I mean, I'm glad we have options.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. As we head back to the main lodges, Erin's gonna just drop a key in the woods off a path, kind of in, like, a little bit of brush.
Speaker 5:K.
Hannah / Eryn:As we're walking back, I'm gonna open the echo bell from Mikey to see how things are going.
John / Doran:How much HP does the rolling pin have?
Hannah / Eryn:So okay.
Tim / GM:So, Poppy, you immediately wish you hadn't done that because all you can hear is Oh, my god. Oh, my god.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god. No. I
Hannah / Eryn:close it. Guys, I think he got the cupboard unlocked.
Speaker 5:The backup chocolate.
Speaker 2:Oh, no.
Thomas / Guy:The strategic reserves, Poppy?
Hannah / Eryn:We shouldn't have left him there by now.
Tim / GM:The key is hidden. You've all got a lot to think about, and the afternoon moves pretty quickly. As the evening approaches, Huber had instructed you all to meet him back at the prime warming house. That's where Poppy had doled out her cookies to the 7th portal earlier. When you all arrive there, the atmosphere is much different.
Tim / GM:It is just Huber and Shred and April in there, and it's very quiet, very solemn.
John / Doran:Good evening, everyone.
Speaker 2:Good evening. Please have a seat. How are you?
Hannah / Eryn:Yes, sir.
Tim / GM:Alright. The first thing you all notice is a wooden jar in the middle of the table.
Hannah / Eryn:Should Journey even be here for this then?
Tim / GM:Hubert looks up and says,
Speaker 2:I would prefer if you were all here.
Hannah / Eryn:It's just that she had a bad reaction and I am looking out for my friend.
Speaker 5:It'll it'll be okay, Poppy. Thank you, though.
Tim / GM:He puts up kind of a dismissive hand and he says, there
Speaker 2:will be no driftwood. Sit.
John / Doran:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Cut out a 12 for sitting?
John / Doran:Sitting down.
Tim / GM:John Zoran falls down.
Hannah / Eryn:That's a
Speaker 2:that's a
Speaker 7:clumsy junk.
John / Doran:John Paul's town. Chairs.
Thomas / Guy:That's a j c 14.
Speaker 2:We checked the archives. Nearly every memory that guy had stored with us before is inaccessible. At least, without great payment.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, it's behind a paywall. Okay.
Tim / GM:This, however, he pushes forward the wooden jar,
Speaker 2:was in regular storage with your same markings. It's yours to listen to.
Thomas / Guy:This one contains some of my memories?
Speaker 2:A single event. The Ouran retelling. It does not paint you in the best light. However, it bears no implication on the current world.
Thomas / Guy:Very well. Let us hear it.
Speaker 2:Before we do that, we have one more issue of treachery to discuss. It seems April has no recollection of this afternoon's events. I would like to know how that is possible.
John / Doran:Well, April's gonna have to figure out how to pay for those memories.
Tim / GM:You can see Shred actually smirks at you.
Speaker 5:Jurnee is looking up and away.
Thomas / Guy:Can I try to give Doran a stealth high 5?
Tim / GM:You gotta roll for it.
Hannah / Eryn:Poppy full on face palms.
Thomas / Guy:I do have disadvantage on stealth because of my Armor. Heavy armor.
Tim / GM:Go, Clyde Clyde.
John / Doran:I wanna inspire a guy. Try. Alright. Here's a decent. Try.
Speaker 2:Try to
Thomas / Guy:stealthy this. Okay. So it's a 7.
Speaker 2:Wow. With all
Tim / GM:of that. Guy Guy, you're holding your hand low under the table for Doran to high five it, and you just keep jingling your gauntlet to get it done. Doran won't catch on to what you're trying to do until Huber looks over and sees, what
Speaker 2:is this? Come
Hannah / Eryn:on. Come on.
Tim / GM:What are
Speaker 2:you doing celebrating something like this. I demand answers. Why? Why does April remember none of this?
Thomas / Guy:What events do you refer to?
John / Doran:When she threatened to, force us to fall off the island?
Speaker 2:Indeed. I heard it for myself, yet yet she claims to have never said such a thing.
Thomas / Guy:It is quite a claim, I will say.
Speaker 5:Can I roll a deception check to see how well Journey is doing at keeping her cool?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Are you 2 the only ones who know?
John / Doran:Does Journey knows?
Thomas / Guy:Does Journey know?
Speaker 5:Journey assumes. Journey heard April's voice coming out of the echo bell and saw April in the house.
Thomas / Guy:That's right.
Speaker 5:17. Yeah. I'm just looking around, but I don't look super insecure
Thomas / Guy:in nature.
Tim / GM:Nothing about you is betraying your secrecy here.
John / Doran:So Doran has known Aaron the longest. Can I roll an insight?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think insight makes sense.
John / Doran:So, 16?
Tim / GM:You can see the same sly pride in Erin whenever she, like, really pulls a fast one on someone. Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:So for the next, like, minute of conversation, Doran's gonna be squinting and staring at Aaron, but not saying anything. Yeah.
Tim / GM:The table comes to a silence again, and Huber says,
Speaker 2:I will not release this memory until I know what happened this afternoon. There were threats of death, of violence. April's name was brought to shame with these threats.
Hannah / Eryn:You were the one yourself that said you would throw us off the island if we disobeyed the rules.
Speaker 2:And I'm authorized to make such a decision.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, so is April.
Tim / GM:She is not.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, she didn't say it was her decision. She said it was
Speaker 2:How do you know what she said?
Hannah / Eryn:I was there also listening in the woods.
Speaker 7:Very good.
John / Doran:Huber, I also don't know why April made that threat towards myself and Guy. So I feel, we're all in the same Scotland right now on this.
Tim / GM:With that silence, the focus of the room actually shifts back towards April, who hasn't said anything yet. She's been staring at the table, and she's kind of shaking her head back and forth just staring at the grain in the wood.
Speaker 2:She says, I I I don't know what to think anymore. I I don't know what to trust, you, but perhaps I perhaps it is time I retire my duties.
Speaker 5:Oh, I don't think that's necessary. Maybe it was just an after effect of, the driftweed. I had a problem too, and it was a a strange session. Right?
Speaker 2:Indeed. Today has been full of hardships. April, I think it wise we at least remove you from your duties as a memory capture.
Hannah / Eryn:This blew so out
Speaker 5:of proportion. It's like
Speaker 2:We're organizing search parties for Mikey. We, no. We will give it time, and we will get to the bottom of this. But in order to sate your curiosity, I fear only worse may come if we don't give this to you.
Tim / GM:And he slides the wooden jar into the middle of the table.
Thomas / Guy:Guy reaches over to grab it.
Speaker 5:How how does this work when it's the other way? I mean, we've given memories, but we never experienced them. Do we all have to do we all hear it, or is it just Guy?
Speaker 2:You'll hear it as if he was here himself telling the story.
Speaker 5:Is that what you want, Guy? Or do you wanna be alone?
Thomas / Guy:I did not think this far ahead.
Speaker 5:You're already far ahead. You already used this your head joke this time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Guy, if if it makes you feel any better, nothing we hear will change anything. You'll always be my friend. And if if you're okay with me staying to support you, I would like to stay.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Thank you, Poppy. In fact, all of you, my companions, were willing to stick your necks out in one way or another for me to get this information, so I will listen to it
Speaker 2:here in front of everyone.
Tim / GM:Hubert gestures for you to twist the cap and remove it from the jar.
Thomas / Guy:I knew it.
Tim / GM:And in that moment, you see white vapor begin to pour out of the jar, and at the same time, you hear a distant voice that seems to be coming closer as if they're walking into the room. You hear
Speaker 2:In the 1st spring after the upheaval, Lotem struggled to maintain the status quo. Many of our best workers, our strongest soldiers, our most talented inventors left in the great exodus, all headed for the traitor's citadel in farewell. We had few capable hands with which to solve our nation's problems. In the spring, there were frequent floods in the plains outside Lotem. And this year's floods promised to be worse than ever before.
Speaker 2:I knew we had to divert the water and precious little time to do it. A small impoverished village called Mako sits on the river near the plains. I knew it would be the first to go. The destruction of Mako would displace hundreds of refugees that would overburden nearby cities causing even more strain. I needed to divert the water without causing more hardship for others.
Speaker 2:I ordered a dam be built 5 miles inland towards the city. And it worked. The dam held fast and stands to this day. The village of Mako was a total loss. I believe nearly 40 structures.
Speaker 2:200 some civilians. Until that day, the only lives I had taken were by my sword. But that day, I realized how terribly simple it was to condemn rather than to kill. How terribly, terribly simple. You chose the bigger number, the more lives saved, and that's all it was.
Tim / GM:You seal the cap on the jar, and this vapor that had floated out into the room is sucked back into the jar like a vacuum upon closing.
Speaker 2:You may seek out more of your memories, but they all end with a similar coda. 25 civilians, 71 civilians, a 141 civilians. We will work towards freeing more of your memories should you seek them out.
Thomas / Guy:I understand. I appreciate this opportunity to learn more about my past.
Speaker 2:I would hope our bending the rules for your circumstance would build a mutual understanding. I believe we have been more than patient with you. What Huber's neglecting to say is, if we catch you again,
Tim / GM:we're not gonna talk.
Thomas / Guy:May I keep this or must this remain in your archives?
Speaker 2:I have no attachment to its history. Take it with you.
Thomas / Guy:The guy is going to pick it up and then walk out of the room.
Tim / GM:Now the rest of you are left in this very quiet, very awkward room, April says.
Speaker 2:I think I need to lie down. She stands to leave.
Hannah / Eryn:Wait, April. I was just messing with Doreen and Guy earlier, pretending to be you. It was just a disguise, but I didn't mean anything by it. I was just giving them a hard time.
Speaker 2:I knew it. Treacherous.
Tim / GM:And Huber stands up and points at you. April's eyes begin to well up with tears and she gives you a slow nod. And she says,
Speaker 2:thank you. Thank you for saying so.
Hannah / Eryn:I didn't want you to think it was you losing your marbles or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Of course not, dear. They thank you so much for telling me. Huber, I
Tim / GM:I think I'm going
Speaker 2:to make myself some tea.
John / Doran:Get back on that drift, weed. April, you're fine.
Tim / GM:She pounds her fist twice to her chest, then once to her lips and gives you a thumbs up.
Speaker 5:Elaborate. Love it.
Tim / GM:Huber is obviously a little disappointed, kind of shaking his head. Shred doesn't seem to know what to make of you guys, but in a lot of ways, their, body language is indicating that it's time for you guys to at least leave this room.
Hannah / Eryn:I think I think I have to go after him.
Speaker 5:Yep. Poppy, it might be good for Guy not to be by himself right now.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah. If you need me, call me.
Speaker 5:Oh, do you wanna hand me one of the echo bells? Yeah. As, Poppy leaves, Journey turns to Huber. Thank you for letting Guy have a little bit of information. I know that the rules here are pretty strict.
Speaker 5:And, honestly, I don't understand why. If this is a place of learning, shouldn't there be some some grace for mistakes? Shouldn't there be an opportunity to learn? Not just from the jars, but from last experiences? Seems unduly harsh, especially if you wanna gain information from the peoples and lands outside of your island.
Speaker 5:Why would you punish the people that came here just for being curious?
Speaker 2:You speak wisely. I would agree with many of your points, but please know that the rules we've developed here are a learned practice. They are necessary from our experience. When this island was set up to give, to never take, we received very little. It makes my heart heavy to say, if you provide so much for free, very few will choose to give of their own accord.
Speaker 2:It is a sad fact of life that we all must take.
John / Doran:I think we're learning to understand each other a bit more. I think it is fair for you to know a bit about ourselves. We well, we found each other through reckless acts and
Speaker 2:Big surprise.
John / Doran:Well, that's I'm not rubbing in. But I understand what you are saying. I understand what that creature is that you or someone among you has bonded with. All I'm trying to say is I understand the circumstances. If you don't have to necessarily trust us, I would like to be on friendlier terms, but we have an understanding of where we are.
John / Doran:You control this Skyland. Absolutely. A word of caution though. You should be careful interacting with such a beast.
Speaker 2:Doran, are you quite sure you don't have valuable information to share with us?
John / Doran:Of course, I do. I just don't know if you have anything I need. Of course, given where we are, perhaps I will share it freely.
Speaker 5:I could I could share some things as well. I don't think I need anything from this place.
Speaker 2:To give freely? Starling. Let's talk tomorrow.
Speaker 5:Alright.
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:Huber and Shredleaf, not too long after April did. Guy, where does Poppy find you?
Thomas / Guy:Guy is on the edge of the forest nearby. He is chopping down a tree with his great sword.
Speaker 2:Poppy, you hear this deep thud, this whack
Tim / GM:in the distance, and then another whack. And you follow it to find Guy in a frenzy, hacking at this tree, splinters of wood, coating his clothes and the ground all around him.
Hannah / Eryn:So as not to startle him, I
Thomas / Guy:Oh, Poppy, is that you?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Hi. Hi, Guy. I just, wanted to make sure you were okay.
Thomas / Guy:I am fine. Are you okay? You came back not scared of the big scary general.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, well, you know me. Never scared when I should be.
Thomas / Guy:You never were scared of anything, Poppy, and I admire that.
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you. But you're not so scary.
Thomas / Guy:No. But you heard the story.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, yeah. But that's that's all it is to me. It's just a story. The way I see it, that history belongs to somebody I don't know. And the only thing that matters is what I do know.
Hannah / Eryn:And I I just wanted you to know that.
Thomas / Guy:That is very kind, Poppy. Thank you. What that story was about me, you know?
Hannah / Eryn:Well, I mean, of course. I'm just saying I think people change. Histories aren't always so important if the the future is different. I I just think who you are now makes up for it, or it can.
Thomas / Guy:Well, from my perspective, there is no reason to be scared or anything to make up for. I was once a man of great importance, of great power, and I had to make hard decisions. Decisions about who lives and who dies. And these turtles sit on their little island, controlling nothing but these distant, silly memories of the past. But once I wielded true power, true importance, they know nothing of what it was to be me.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you're sitting with a different kind of silence, wondering what to say to that, and you realize that steady thud of Guy hacking at the tree, it never stopped. He's had his sword at his side for a good long while now, but you can still hear this distant.
Hannah / Eryn:I think we should both think on that for a while.
Thomas / Guy:Come, puppy. It's getting late.
Speaker 5:Right.
Thomas / Guy:In the story, I once built a dam. But tonight, and a guy puts the whole tree log over his shoulder, I am building a fire.
Hannah / Eryn:Like a like a campfire? Fire?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. A campfire. Okay. What did you think?
Hannah / Eryn:I well, I don't know. Fire can be used for lots of things. Before we go back, I just, I wanted to give you this, and I pulled a little, forget me not pin out of my hat, and I pinned it to the tea towel around his neck. Just remember me if you if you can't remember anything else.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, thank you, Poppy. I will.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Let's go build a fire.
Speaker 2:Let's. As the 2 of you head back to
Tim / GM:the warming house to meet up with your party, you pass by a tower. One that you've passed by before, but never entered obviously. And when you pass that poppy, that thudding gets louder. Now just a few meters outside the entrance of that tower, you hear
Hannah / Eryn:What? What is that? Like, I I thought it was you earlier.
Speaker 7:I
Thomas / Guy:thought it was me too. What, tower is this? Are there any sort of markings?
Tim / GM:There are markings. They are thoroughly unintelligible.
Thomas / Guy:Well, I'd say we should check it out, but we'd probably get put on trial again.
Speaker 5:Oh my god.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, I'm just I'm kinda curious,
Thomas / Guy:though. Me as well.
Speaker 2:What if I poke it
Thomas / Guy:with this big tree I'm carrying?
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, you couldn't get in trouble for that. Right?
Thomas / Guy:It was the tree.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I'm gonna echo Bell to Journey. I I found him. We were coming back, but we've there's like, a tower.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of
Hannah / Eryn:those, but it's making noise.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I don't know. Maybe take a peek and come back? I wouldn't touch anything or get into any doors. Okay.
Speaker 5:If you're nervous, you should just come on right back.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't think it should be making noise. I'm just gonna take a peek. Okay. Just Bye. So so Poke it.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah. Guy, is carrying a whole damn tree and pokes the door with it.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You've got, like, 8 foot of log sitting up in front of you, and you poke at the door. And when you do, the door pushes in a little bit and then bounds out back towards you. Unlocked, not even latched.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Speaker 5:And you
Tim / GM:hear so much louder now.
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, if it wasn't locked, it's probably not forbidden, right?
Tim / GM:And then, from downstairs in this tower, underground, you hear,
Speaker 5:my gay.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, no.
Tim / GM:Someone shouting his name.
Thomas / Guy:Should we respond? Mikey's not here right now. May I leave a message?
Tim / GM:You hear all of the noise stop. That consistent beat stops, the voices stop, it goes silent in there.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, do do we still have the direct line to Mikey?
Hannah / Eryn:That's a really good idea. Hold on. Mikey.
Tim / GM:You open it up and you hear wind.
Hannah / Eryn:I think he clo I think he has it off.
Tim / GM:When you hold it up to your ear, you can hear the last little echo of the last word that you just said. Do you
Speaker 2:think he
Hannah / Eryn:has it off? Yeah. I think it's I think it's broken. I can't hear him. Journey?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I think we might be in trouble.
Speaker 5:Alright. What are you what can I do?
Hannah / Eryn:Can you guys come here?
Speaker 5:Yeah. Let me just grab Doren and Aaron. It Bobby, where are you?
Hannah / Eryn:We popped in, and the door opened. And and then there was noise, and then they said, Mikey. And then we said, Mikey's not here. And then they stopped talking, and I think they might I think they might kick us off the island.
John / Doran:Journey, can you ask Poppy what number is on the tower?
Speaker 5:Poppy, can you see what number is on the tower? Is there a number?
Tim / GM:Kind of sifting through all the glyphs up there that you don't quite understand, you can parse the number 33.
Hannah / Eryn:I think it says 33.
Speaker 5:33 ring any bells?
Thomas / Guy:Do we
John / Doran:know where that one is?
Tim / GM:Yeah. You've passed by it enough to know where that stands, at least.
Speaker 5:Poppy, should we get Mackie on the way?
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know. I don't even know where he is. I tried to call him and he's not answering, and I I think maybe he's in a food coma.
Speaker 5:We'll swing by the rolling pin on our way. Just hang tight. Okay? Okay.
Thomas / Guy:While Poppy is talking, Guy is inching closer to the door. Mhmm. Still holding the tree, like, kinda brushing the tree inside the Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You don't see anything in that whole first floor of the tower. You can see clear into there.
John / Doran:Do we recall what 33 tower is?
Tim / GM:No. No mention of it yet. K. Journey, when you reach the rolling pin, the door is hanging open in the wind.
Speaker 5:Hey. Hey, Mackie. Are you in there?
Tim / GM:No answer. Oh, no.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I, slowly make my way up the couple of steps and into the rolling pin.
Tim / GM:It looks like this place was ransacked. Every cupboard is open. Tied. There is a shattered jar that once held chocolate chips. There's, like, chocolate, like, smeared on the ground.
Tim / GM:There is a bag of sugar that was torn open and strewn on the counter. You can see where somebody obviously licked the counter for, like, 3 feet.
Hannah / Eryn:What have we done?
Speaker 5:I'd like to do an investigate to try and find a trace of Mikey. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Erin's gonna investigate the outside for footprints. Okay.
Speaker 5:Oh, this one keeps rolling fours. It's going to jail.
John / Doran:I'm gonna help Erin So investigate.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Go ahead and take advantage on that investigation, Erin.
Hannah / Eryn:18.
Tim / GM:Wow. And what'd you get your name?
Speaker 5:Can I make a perception instead?
John / Doran:What what
Speaker 2:did you do initially, investigation?
Tim / GM:No. Those are different things.
Speaker 5:Yeah. 13.
Tim / GM:Okay. Alright. It goes to Erin then. Erin, you find sugary, chocolatey, powdered sugary, flowery footprints.
Hannah / Eryn:What a messy boy.
Speaker 5:I'm not seeing them in here. You are you all seeing them out there?
Hannah / Eryn:There's some sugar footprints.
Speaker 5:Oh, alright. An attorney gives up on looking inside.
Tim / GM:You follow the footprints, and they line up with pretty much where you're going anyway. They track all the way back to Tower 33, and then you see him hiding behind a boulder, watching Poppy and Guy.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron's gonna sneak up behind him and say, gotcha.
Tim / GM:Please please don't don't do that to me right now. I'm full of electricity. I don't know what's going on, but I feel like I'm going crazy.
Hannah / Eryn:Why are you always sneaking around?
Tim / GM:You ought to see how fast I can run?
Speaker 5:Yes.
Tim / GM:He, like, bounced over the rock and he sprints into tower 33, brushes past Guy. Guy, you almost lose your footing with that log a little bit, and Mikey tears down the spiral staircase going into the basement.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, that was unexpected. Was that Mikey?
Thomas / Guy:What was that?
Speaker 5:Yeah. That was Mikey.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god. I think
Speaker 5:I think he's on a full sugar high. Oh, no.
Hannah / Eryn:What have we done? These turtles really like doing the hard stuff, don't they? Should we go in? Should we go after him? I mean, they asked for Mikey, and they got him.
Hannah / Eryn:Right? Yeah. But it was unlocked.
Speaker 5:Most of them are.
Hannah / Eryn:For once, I don't really wanna go in. Everyone keeps yelling at us for the most stupid shit, so I'm kinda over it.
John / Doran:I feel like I've built pretty good rapport with the Tortles, prime archivists, at least. I'll I'll go check it out just to make sure Mikey's okay. Would you like to take this log with you, Dora? Yeah. No.
John / Doran:No. It's alright. It looks just good on you. And Dora's gonna walk fast guy and head down.
Speaker 5:Journey follows him.
John / Doran:Journey, I got this.
Speaker 5:I don't know. Last time I let you wander off, you got into some trouble.
Tim / GM:Fair enough. Alright.
Speaker 2:The 2 of you take
Tim / GM:off down that spiral staircase following the trail of sugar and chocolate. It's hard to tell what this tower is for. It's not really decorated to reveal any kind of theme, and these jars and all other glyphs are unintelligible to the both of you. You pass by 7 floors of this stuff. The very similar build on every floor.
Tim / GM:You know, these things are hexagonal. There's 4 walls are filled with jars and 2 walls that serve the stairs to go up and down, and then you reach the basement, and down there you see 4 familiar faces. It's Mikey, Ralphie, Donald and Leon.
Speaker 5:Of course it is. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You all hear
Speaker 5:this.
Tim / GM:You look up from them and see that this room is filled with echo bells, almost a 100 of them, maybe more. Some of them huge, much bigger than you've ever seen before. Some of them quite small and all of them have latches. You see Leon move around the room and he opens this huge latch in the middle of the room, and you hear this. He opens another latch, and you hear this.
Tim / GM:Mikey points at the center of the floor and Mikey begins running in a circle around
Speaker 2:the room. He goes, I'm so fast.
Tim / GM:This beat begins to pick up in earnest and Mikey points
Speaker 2:to the ground and says, I'm gonna spin forever.
Tim / GM:He throws himself to the ground and rolls on his shell, spinning madly time and again and again and again and again. And then he begins to rise up on one fingertip so that he's spinning on a fingertip.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, my God. He's breaking.
Tim / GM:And then back down onto his shell, and everyone in the room breaks out.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, that's so fun.
Tim / GM:They continue to dance. Mikey gets out of the circle, heaving with breath, and Ralphie jumps in to take his turn. Mikey says,
Speaker 7:we'd just like to come down here to blow off steam. Some of the older guys, they don't even know what to live for. They say we gotta do all these chores and learning and stuff, but I just wanna dance, man.
Speaker 5:Journeys sits on the bottom step and puts her head in her hands.
John / Doran:Well, finally, I meet the cool Tortles, and I pull out my loot.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god.
John / Doran:So show me how these work.
Hannah / Eryn:Please please make this a song. Oh, no.
Tim / GM:Leon comes up to you and he says, well, we've, actually been at this for a long time. You see, all the clouds that move through this island, they all condensate, and then all that water drips down into the caves under the under the island. And so we set up echo bells in the caves where the water drips down, and we set up little drums. So we've got over a 120 different consistent beats around the island. And we can use them here all at the same time in the same place.
Tim / GM:It took us years to make this. Brilliant. He closes one of the valves, opens another one, and gets this kind of, like,
John / Doran:Alright. So, yeah, Doran's, just doing some single string, like,
Tim / GM:Yeah. This is a special treat that they've never gotten before. You can see that there's a couple of, jars down here, and they open one of the jars, and they get this background, like, woah.
John / Doran:Do you got one on the Prime archivist so we can get some, Mikey, baby baby.
Speaker 2:Ralphie points a finger at you, picks up at Johnny goes, Mark, Mikey, Mikey. Ralphie, don't say such things.
Hannah / Eryn:Ralphie, don't say such things.
Speaker 5:God. Journey is talking into her echo belt. Poppy, it's an underground turtle club.
Tim / GM:Poppy, through that echo bell, you hear just a little clip of,
Speaker 7:who who who wants some tea? Who who wants some tea?
Hannah / Eryn:Are you playing music?
Speaker 5:Yeah. It's music. You can go down if you want. I'm trying not to laugh at him.
Hannah / Eryn:I go down. Yeah. Aaron will go down.
Thomas / Guy:Guy will follow.
Tim / GM:The turtles are goes like massive amounts of water down here, in between their dance breaks. As the rest of you pile down, they're just so excited to see more people down here and they keep ushering you down. And then one of them takes Doran's loot and kind of pretends to play it a little bit or tries to. And then they all point up at Doran and they go, Doran, Doran, go, go, go. And they point at the middle of the round.
John / Doran:Okay. So, yeah, Doran's going to shift side to side, and then he's going to just, do, like, a roll onto his back and, try to, like, spin on his butt at first. And as I'm spinning, I'm gonna, like, shoot out some, like, sparks, like, using prestidigitation. Fo. Yeah.
John / Doran:Yeah. So let's, see how that goes. So I
Tim / GM:need a performance check.
Speaker 5:I wanna cast fairy fire on him in the center of the circle.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:Mhmm. Very cool. Alright. Here we go. Performance.
Tim / GM:Yep.
John / Doran:23.
Speaker 2:I'll have
Tim / GM:you take advantage for the sparks. Okay. And I'll give you, plus 2 for the very fire.
John / Doran:Okay. It's 25 then. That was my my highest.
Speaker 2:So Alright. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:Dorny, you're not really sure what you're getting yourself into, but the ground here has been worn to such a mirror polish from all the shell sliding that they do down here that you actually are able to spin on your butt, with very little resistance. These little sparks that you're shooting off are in some way propelling you to continue spiraling and spinning around the ground as Journey is causing this fairy fire to give you this kind of like halo of color as you're sitting there.
John / Doran:Okay. And then at the very end, I'm going to, Misty Step and then be kind of in a leaning like on my elbow on my side pose right in front of Mikey. Mhmm. And then just like finger guns sparks as well.
Tim / GM:Cool. There's like a moment of stunned silence before simultaneously they just and clap and stare and cheer for you. And at the same time, Journey, fairy fire, is a very interesting spell. What it actually does is it traces magic. Sort of like how modern day doctors will inject a dye into the veins of their patients to be able to trace it through their bodies, Fairy fire is like injecting a dye into the magic in the room.
Tim / GM:That's how it clings to people. It shows the colors within them. It outlines invisible things and makes them easy to find. And Journey, when the fairy fire was going off in the room with Diver, you were blinded at the time, but your eyes are open now, and you're looking at Doran, and he's looking at you with the fairy fire having rolled through him, and you see, one eye is a purple spinning ring, but the other burns with blue flame.
Speaker 5:Journee was laughing and clapping along with everyone else, and as and Journee makes eye contact with him and sees that, the smile is wiped from her face, and she looks concerned.
Tim / GM:The, mood in the room doesn't seem to change much, though. Journey has just kind of stood stuck still in the middle of all this jovial cheering. They're trying to get Guy to dance next.
Hannah / Eryn:Guy. Guy. Guy.
Speaker 7:Come on. You gotta do it. Armor or no? It's up to you.
Thomas / Guy:I I don't know if I know what to do.
Tim / GM:You just let feel the music and just twist your body and let it rip.
Hannah / Eryn:Hey, guy. I'll teach you. And I grab him by the hands and I, like, spin around in a circle
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:And do a little jig. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Guy dances badly.
Tim / GM:Roll a performance check.
Thomas / Guy:Can I have disadvantage, please?
Tim / GM:Yes. You can.
Speaker 5:Guy does the, like, point to the lord Yeah. And, like, the the, drunk uncle with a cup. Bring it in right. If you if you guys if the listeners can only see what I'm doing right now.
Thomas / Guy:So 11.
Tim / GM:11. He he, bites his lower
Hannah / Eryn:lip. Yes. Look at Poppy dancing with her grandpa.
Speaker 5:Her feet on his feet.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's unfortunately just good enough that they can't tell if you're joking or
Speaker 2:not. Yeah.
Tim / GM:They're kind of looking around for takers on the next dance. When they're changing the beat, they close-up a bunch of the, lower bass line, they close out the higher snares, they open a new one, a new kind of bass beat, and you can hear it, but you can also hear a voice echoing.
Speaker 2:It says Wow. This cave is even worse. Nothing but dead bismite.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Damn. Silver everywhere. The, the pink stuff is still worth something. We should go back in another chamber and see how much we can get.
Tim / GM:Yahar is gonna be pretty disappointed, not to mention
Speaker 2:Libera. Wait.
Tim / GM:Did Did you hear that? What? Did you hear that?
Speaker 2:What is that? That a person? Hello?
Speaker 7:Hey. Are you okay? Excuse me. Are you?
Tim / GM:Ralphie grabs the top of the lid and slowly closes the latch.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, were those the my minors?
Speaker 5:I think the party's over.
Hannah / Eryn:I think we should tell someone.
John / Doran:We should go to the morning house. Warming house. That was a slip. No time for jokes right now, Poppy. Come on, Ralphie and Mikey and Barney and all all you guys.
John / Doran:That's let's go.
Tim / GM:They close-up all the latches and get very serious all of a sudden. You see Mikey holding his stomach a little bit.
John / Doran:It's okay. Where was that shell located? Do you know?
Speaker 7:Yeah. It's it's it's in the the mines, the the Bizbite mines. It's not too far in. It's one of the first ones we set up.
John / Doran:Okay.
Speaker 5:Alright. We're gonna go tell Hubert right now what we just heard. Alright?
Tim / GM:Mikey nods. Everything's okay.
Speaker 5:Yep. We're gonna be fine, but we gotta go.
Speaker 7:Okay. Do you guys know what's going on? Are we gonna be okay?
John / Doran:You don't have to worry about it. We'll get you back safe, and then we'll take a look.
Tim / GM:Mikey nods to you and looks you in the eyes, Doran, and the entire island begins to shake.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh no, oh no, oh no.
Tim / GM:And I think we'll end it there. Thanks everybody for listening. I'm Tim, your DM.
Hannah / Eryn:This is Hannah playing Aaron.
Speaker 5:I'm Tara and I play Journey.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Thomas. I play Guy.
John / Doran:This is John. I play Doran.
Hannah / Eryn:And I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy Kenmore.
Tim / GM:Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you in the next one.