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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, the island of lore is trembling, threatening to fall out of the sky at any moment. The party investigated and found that the Bismite mines beneath the island were infiltrated by a dangerous magical entity. The party was separated but have reconvened deep within the mines. Now in a forgotten ancient chamber beneath the island, a fey spirit trapped inside of a statue has reached out to the group to strike a deal. His name is Ganymede and he's here to party and to help them get out of the cave.
Tim / GM:Ganymede has struck a deal with each of you. He now lives inside an object in each of you and is lending some senses to you. As soon as this deal concluded, you are made aware that there's a pile of rust monsters, these bug like creatures standing between 2 and 6 feet tall, depending on if it's the baby or the mama, now stand before you near the stone column. You've been promised that once you destroy these rust monsters that the door leading out of here will move open as Ganymede's animated armor is holding the door shut from the other side living in constant terror of these rust monsters.
Hannah / Eryn:Let's take them down. Erin, pulls out a dagger out of their boot pocket. Guys, I'm really sick of fighting and and and murder, and and I just want out of this cave. Aaron throws a dagger at the monster.
Tim / GM:Oh, jeez. Yeah. Yeah. They haven't quite engaged you yet. There's, one big one and three smaller ones that are kind of milling about this large area of stone.
Tim / GM:Go ahead and make an attack.
Hannah / Eryn:10?
Tim / GM:Okay. The dagger just kinda sails past them. You hear it land in the gravel, and it immediately catches their attention. All 4 of them kind of turn in towards it, and one of the smaller ones is allowed to approach the dagger. You see it lift these antennae above its head, kind of over the dagger.
Tim / GM:And these antennae, they look like feathers almost. They're kind of wide and they look like they're made of like flat copper. They start to shake, and they release this kind of shimmering noise. You see that dagger start to rapidly corrode. You see a brief heat ripple come off of it, and you see the surface of the metal kind of fuzz over with brown, and it starts to grow out of it.
Tim / GM:And then most of the dagger just turns to a pile of dust.
Speaker 3:You see
Tim / GM:the rust monster kind of angle towards it and start lapping up all the dust.
Tara / Journey:Yuck. That was my best dagger. Everyone hold on one second. Would you say it's been less than 10 minutes since I was trying to talk to Owley? Yeah.
Tara / Journey:I, take a couple steps toward the rust monsters. Are they beasts?
Tim / GM:I don't think so.
Tara / Journey:Shit. They're bugs. Right?
Tim / GM:Monstrosity.
Tara / Journey:Shit. I don't have speak with monster. I take a step closer, and I go, can you can you understand me?
Tim / GM:The large one, the brood mother, kind of turns around and just bears its yellow eyes at you.
Tara / Journey:We just wanna get out of here. Would you be willing to relocate temporarily so that we can leave?
Tim / GM:It starts to shake its antennae at you trying to dissolve you if you were made of metal, but it sees there's kind of no reaction there.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. I go ahead and cast a hunter's mark on the mama. Okay. And then I take a step back.
Thomas / Guy:What did they say, Journey?
Tara / Journey:I don't think they're willing to talk. I think we just need to do some pest control and then get the hell out of here.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Well, seeing as I am mostly covered in metal, I do not wish to take the charge in this particular situation.
Tara / Journey:Maybe if we kill the mama, then the rest of them are maybe they'll scatter. It's worth a shot, and, Journey draws her a bow and goes to take a shot.
Tim / GM:K.
Tara / Journey:Are we in, like, initiative?
Tim / GM:Not yet.
Tara / Journey:Okay. 23?
Tim / GM:Now you're in initiative.
Tara / Journey:Oh, someone hit them.
Tim / GM:Yes. That connects. Go ahead and roll damage.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. 8.
Tim / GM:Alright. Journey fires off an arrow. It lands directly into the carapace of the brood mother. You can tell it's done real damage. The party.
Tim / GM:It takes a few steps towards Journey and begins to shake its antenna. And it notices Guy. I need everybody to give me their initiative.
Speaker 6:Right? Oh, no.
Speaker 7:17 for Doran.
Hannah / Eryn:16 for Erin.
Tara / Journey:Journey got a dirty twenty.
Hannah / Eryn:That's a 13 for Poppy.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's a 12.
Tim / GM:Alright. Journey, you can tell that this is going to be a fight now, after that. However, they've only just turned to make it a real endeavor. You have the opportunity to act again.
Tara / Journey:Oh, dope. I rolled the highest. Yeah. So I'm gonna use my bonus action to, pull back the bow for even longer Mhmm. And then shoot again k.
Tara / Journey:At the mom again. That is a 10 to hit.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It hits the carapace at the wrong angle. You see the arrow just slide off. That brightness kind of dies against the cave wall as your luminous branch had been pulled back to be as bright as possible.
Tara / Journey:K. I'm gonna back up using my movement. K.
Tim / GM:Doran.
Speaker 7:Seeing the dagger getting dissolved by one of the restless monsters and the creature's eyeing guy, Doran will, first of all, eat a Cinnabom. Okay. So the Cinnabom is consumed as a bonus action, and for the next minute, all creatures adjacent to me at the end of my turn must make a deck save, and if they fail, take fire damage, basically. And then for my action, I'm going to use minor illusion to make a decent size, chest that appears to be made out of metal, like, 10 feet in front of Guy. Okay.
Speaker 7:Then I will use my movement to step away from my allies.
Tim / GM:Are you going to position yourself adjacent to to any of the Ross monsters? I don't
Speaker 7:wanna get that close. I don't
Tara / Journey:but yeah. So Sure.
Speaker 8:I mean, the Cinnabom.
Speaker 7:It will do damage, but I Doran does not wanna get too
Tim / GM:close to them
Thomas / Guy:because they're scary.
Tim / GM:And, it was minor illusion. Correct?
Speaker 7:Yes. Okay. So I I create an object that can be no larger than a 5 foot cube.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Speaker 7:It looks like a real object. Mhmm. The creature can use its action to examine it to determine whether it's an illusion or not.
Tara / Journey:Does it smell real?
Speaker 7:It's only gonna be one sensory effect. Okay.
Tim / GM:What luck a
Thomas / Guy:treasure chest has appeared before us.
Speaker 7:No. No guy. That's not real. Careful.
Tim / GM:Alright. Is that it, Doran?
Tara / Journey:Yep. Okay.
Tim / GM:Then it's Aaron.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron's gonna hide.
Tara / Journey:K.
Hannah / Eryn:Bonus action to hide. Do I have to roll?
Speaker 6:You do. Yeah.
Tim / GM:I need a stealth roll. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:And I'll roll new dice. Not rolling too hot. Stealth? Mhmm. 16.
Hannah / Eryn:Damn.
Tim / GM:Wow. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Am I headed?
Tim / GM:You think so? Cool. You, ducked behind some some low stones there and seems to not catch their attention?
Hannah / Eryn:And then Aaron is going to throw a stick of dynamite at the bugs.
Speaker 3:Jesus.
Tara / Journey:What? I'm
Thomas / Guy:glad this field work it gets started. Hell
Tara / Journey:yeah. Fucking blasting caps. Just get them.
Tim / GM:So the blasting caps that you have, they have kind of a finicky fuse. So once you ignite it and throw it, there's a good chance it'll go out. If it doesn't, it's pretty much game over for whoever it lands on.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. You just tell me what to roll.
Tim / GM:Okay. Cool.
Hannah / Eryn:I have 3 of them, so I mean, I might as well keep trying.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I'm just gonna have you roll a flat d20 to see if that dynamite goes out. Sorry. That blasting cap.
Hannah / Eryn:Dang it. 6.
Tim / GM:Okay. Alright. Next up is Poppy. What happens? Some of you noticed a lit blasting cap sailing through the air and landing among the bugs.
Tim / GM:And it's Poppy's turn.
Hannah / Eryn:Poppy reaches under her shirt and pulls out pinch
Tara / Journey:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:And whispers a little something to pinch, puts them on the ground, and then pulls out her bread knife and goes, oh, no. I hope none of you get my bread knife,
Speaker 8:and wave it around super obviously as pinch runs and tries to, like, go up to the closest one without them noticing.
Tim / GM:Sure.
Speaker 8:I'm trying to be a distraction one.
Tim / GM:I love it.
Speaker 8:He's a summon, a find familiar. He can cast a touch spell as if it was me touching. So I'm gonna have him do shocking grasp
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm.
Speaker 8:At the closest one.
Tara / Journey:Sure.
Speaker 8:So he would touch shock. It would be a melee spell attack. Never mind. That's a natural one.
Tara / Journey:Yikes. Oh, no.
Speaker 8:Yes.
Tim / GM:Pinches waddling up behind this thing. Their eyes are following that knife as you wave it, just kind of side to side to side, like an entranced group of tennis watchers. And then Pinch kind of creeps up behind it. And as soon as Pinch gets close enough to touch it, you see one of those things whip around and just gobble up Pinch in its mouth. No.
Tara / Journey:Oh, no. Pinch.
Tim / GM:It kind of like does a couple, like, choking bites to get the rest of them, and then it just, like, macerates pinch and, like, whips them side to side. And you just see little pieces of dough flying all over you. No.
Hannah / Eryn:Pige, fan favorite. Rip.
Tim / GM:Next up is the broodmother.
Tara / Journey:Jesus Christ. Oh, good.
Hannah / Eryn:Man, they got bad initiative.
Tim / GM:Yeah. They're both pretty low. The brood mother looks up at guy, all that metal Who? And then you follow its eyes down to the chest. It charges at the chest, kinda almost like stumbling over itself, kicking rocks back as it does.
Tim / GM:It kneels down to the chest to investigate it kind of smashing its face into that area and you see its antennae just going crazy and you can all hear this as it's trying to corrode the chest, getting nothing.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Dorn's useful.
Tara / Journey:More than candles.
Speaker 7:So, physical interactions reveal it to be an image. Okay. Illusion. So,
Tim / GM:yeah. Yeah. It, makes note of that and looks up at Guy, but it's now Guy's turn.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, boy. Guy watches it go crazy on the fake chest and starts backing away and kind of waits for the big one to make eyes with him again.
Speaker 6:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:And I'm
Thomas / Guy:gonna do a fear effect. So, yeah, a guy waits for the monster to make eye contact with him again. Mhmm. When it does, he lifts his own head off of his shoulders. And, the flame erupts from his neck, and he screams, no.
Thomas / Guy:Casting cause fear at the monster.
Tim / GM:Cool. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:This is a a wisdom saving throw. K.
Tim / GM:12. That's a fail. Alright. Yes. Very good.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:So it is, frightened of me until the spell ends. It's a one minute concentration. Okay. At the end of each of its turn, it can try again.
Tim / GM:Got him. Okay. Yeah. You all see this thing, for a moment. It was kind of flashing its antennae up at Guy, and then Guy kind of flashes his antennae back.
Tim / GM:You see this kind of green flame that is spouting up from guy's neck and it's billowing over his head casting it into this imposing black shadow as he's got it held above him. And then this noise that he makes, it sort of comes from everywhere all at once. You can hear it from your brain stem at the same time that you can hear it in your ears, and you get a little bit of this fear at the same time that the broodmother does. You see it kind of back off skittering backwards trying to make itself small. Next up is the babies, who are not afraid of Guy.
Tim / GM:They each charge in 1 by 1, sprinting towards him hungry as can be.
Tara / Journey:Great.
Tim / GM:They can't eat what they haven't softened, so each of the 3 of them shakes their antennae at you.
Thomas / Guy:It's a lesson for all of us.
Tim / GM:Guy, what is your AC?
Tara / Journey:Don't tell him.
Thomas / Guy:17.
Tim / GM:Okay. Your AC on that armor, after they have shaken their antennas, you see pieces of your chainmail begin to fall away in patches, kind of turning to sand on your body or rust as it were. Your permanent AC for that suit of armor is now 14.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Oh. Yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:Or back to the top of the round with Journey.
Tara / Journey:Hey. Journey is going to try again to shoot mama, using a bonus action to pull back the bow. K. 17 to hit?
Tim / GM:Yes. That hits the broodmother.
Tara / Journey:Fantastic. Okay. So I have a question about where the babies are.
Speaker 6:K.
Tara / Journey:Wow. All fours. 12 damage to the brood mother plus 1 d 4 radiant damage. That's another 4. Alright.
Tara / Journey:Damage to the brood mother. Are any of the babies adjacent to her?
Tim / GM:Yes. They all are, but they're kind of in front of her.
Tara / Journey:So they all get 4 radiant damage.
Tim / GM:Nice. Anything else? No. K. We're back to Doran.
Speaker 7:How close is the brood mother next to the blasting cap that Aaron threw?
Tim / GM:No longer near. It moved after Aaron had thrown it.
Speaker 7:I'm gonna run over and pick it up.
Tara / Journey:Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You can see the fuse is only about half burned down.
Speaker 7:Okay. Guy, duck. Where? I'm gonna light it with prestidigitation as I throw it midair so that it's a little away from you. And then I don't even look.
Speaker 7:I turn around and plug my ears facing the other direction after throwing
Thomas / Guy:it. K.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Give me a d twenty for that.
Speaker 7:Plus?
Tim / GM:Nope. Just d 20.
Speaker 7:Oh, come on, Tim.
Tim / GM:Oh, for you, John, plus 10.
Tara / Journey:Oh my god.
Speaker 7:I got a 12. 12? Great.
Tara / Journey:12 is more than 10.
Speaker 7:That's above average.
Tara / Journey:That's in the good part.
Tim / GM:Alright, Erin.
Thomas / Guy:That's at least a ball.
Tara / Journey:It didn't go, guys. It didn't go. Aw.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm a little concerned that the creatures are close to Guy, and Guy will get hit. But I'm gonna try to throw my 2nd blasting
Speaker 8:cap kind of more than 1.
Tim / GM:He's got 3.
Hannah / Eryn:Trying to not directly hit them so Guy can try to be at the edge of the range more. I'm trying to aim it better, but Sure. We'll see. Mhmm. It's close.
Tara / Journey:It's so much damage though if it goes off. I'm
Hannah / Eryn:still hidden also. 13.
Tara / Journey:K. Alright.
Tim / GM:Poppy, your turn.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, wait. And my bonus action, I'm gonna eat my fiber field cake.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You fortified as hell. Mhmm. Read for us what the Fiberfield cake does really quick.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. It will give me for 1 minute it
Tim / GM:will give me for 1 minute resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Advantage on strength and con saves. You might need them. It is Poppy's turn.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god. Pinch. He died. Oh, wait. No.
Hannah / Eryn:I can just bake him again in the morning. This is for Pinch, you jerk.
Speaker 8:And then I, cast burning hands. Mhmm. I don't know
Speaker 6:Okay. Yep. No. You did that.
Tim / GM:Okay. Alright. They have to make
Speaker 7:a deck save. Direction.
Speaker 6:They gotta make a deck save?
Tara / Journey:Yes. K.
Tim / GM:Brood mother gets a 15.
Speaker 8:Against my spell save? Yep. Where the fuck is that? 13.
Tim / GM:And babies got a 13. So I think they all succeeded. Correct?
Speaker 8:I don't know how that works.
Tara / Journey:Meat to beat it.
Speaker 8:Yep. How did, did the blessing cap succeed?
Tim / GM:Well, they take do they take half damage or full or no damage from a miss bringing into
Speaker 8:the half as much. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Hell yeah.
Tim / GM:And roll those.
Speaker 8:That's 3 d 6 16. So 8.
Tim / GM:Cool. 8 plus.
Speaker 8:8 plus. The fire ignites any flammable objects in the area. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Oh my god.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, shut. Oh, no. Cool. Erin's just crouched hiding, thinking the blasting cap didn't go off. I'm like, damn.
Hannah / Eryn:There's 2.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Oh, no.
Speaker 7:So you gotta bring Neil deGrasse Tyson in or something Yeah. Explain the physics of
Hannah / Eryn:this one.
Speaker 8:Okay. Dirk, there is so much happening. And it's only been, like, 6 seconds.
Tara / Journey:Guy's gonna be triple dead by the end
Hannah / Eryn:of this.
Tim / GM:Alright. Let's have Doran and Arryn both roll 5d6 bludgeoning plus 5d6 fire. Oh my
Hannah / Eryn:god. 5?
Speaker 8:I'm sorry to do a d6. Oof.
Hannah / Eryn:23 fire.
Speaker 7:Oh, I only got 22 fire. 15 bludgeoning.
Thomas / Guy:I feel like it's not twice as much.
Hannah / Eryn:23 bludgeoning?
Speaker 7:Well, I
Thomas / Guy:mean, probably it is.
Speaker 7:This might be the most damage Dorn does all the campaign. Yeah.
Speaker 8:No. No. You don't get credit for this.
Speaker 7:I do. I got to roll the dice. That means it was me.
Tara / Journey:No. You'll be doing social damage. Don't worry. Emotionally. Unintentionally.
Speaker 7:Fair enough.
Tim / GM:Alright. So, Guy, only one of those threatened you, and it was Doran's. Go ahead and make a dex save.
Thomas / Guy:Nope. That's a 9.
Tim / GM:Okay. So unfortunately, you take the full brunt of Doran's.
Thomas / Guy:K.
Tim / GM:And, none of Aaron's as she had intentionally positioned hers to not get you as well.
Hannah / Eryn:You know, I'm always looking out.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. So what's that number?
Tim / GM:So Doran's was
Tara / Journey:22 plus 13?
Tim / GM:Plus 15. So 37 damage.
Hannah / Eryn:Are you are you down?
Tim / GM:Yep. Fuck. But all told, including the burning hands, you guys did 91 damage.
Tara / Journey:God almighty.
Tim / GM:And the Rust monsters have evaporated.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god. Guy.
Tara / Journey:Journey immediately drops down and, like, slides over to Guy, like, does, like, a cool baseball, like, slide over on her knees and then cast cure wounds on him. Unless we're still on initiative, in which case
Tim / GM:she does not have No. No reason for initiative at this point.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I yeah. I cast cure wounds. Hold on one second.
Hannah / Eryn:Do you need help? I have Band Aid. I have a med kit.
Tara / Journey:10. 10 Heelys.
Tim / GM:There was a lot going on here. So those 2 blasting caps went off one after another and caused a crater, in this little cave. The island also begins to shake.
Hannah / Eryn:No.
Tim / GM:Just briefly after that explosion, and during that time, this chamber also goes completely dark. All of the scuttle bumps in here that were giving you light are scared again from this huge blast and went momentarily dark. For the time being, you guys are speaking to each other in pitch darkness.
Hannah / Eryn:This is why I don't use offensive magic. It just it it went off more than I meant it to.
Tara / Journey:No. It's alright. We got rid of all the bugs and that's what matters. Guy, are you alright? Oh, oh.
Tara / Journey:We'll get you healed up. Journey taps on her or switches on her headlamp, however they work.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Oh, did did we did we win?
Tara / Journey:I think so. I think they're all dead. Define win. Everyone else okay?
Thomas / Guy:Could someone please hand me my head?
Speaker 7:I can't see anything.
Tim / GM:You do catch a little bit of light, some coming off of Journey's helmet, but a little more coming through a crescent shape on the wall where a large circular stone door is being moved out of the way.
Hannah / Eryn:We're free.
Tara / Journey:Alright, everybody. Let's get out of here.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Let's go. Aaron rushes out.
Thomas / Guy:I'll be right there.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, I think I think this is your head. Nope. That's a rock.
Tim / GM:It's a scuttlebutt.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, here you go.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, thank you, Poppy. Wait till I find out who cast that fireball.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Gosh. I don't know. I maybe Pinch did it before he exploded.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, he's probably that little rascal.
Tara / Journey:Sorry about Pinch.
Hannah / Eryn:It's okay. I always keep a little bit of him in a vial around my neck, just in case that happens. So if I always have a little bit of the dough mother, I can I can bring him back?
Tara / Journey:Oh, okay.
Hannah / Eryn:It's a long story.
Speaker 7:Do you name him Pinch every time or does he
Hannah / Eryn:It is Pinch every time.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 8:I learned that the hard way.
Speaker 7:Alright. His brother.
Tara / Journey:Right. Let's get out of here. Okay.
Tim / GM:As As you move into the next room, you see a little more of that blue moss growing along the walls here. This chamber is much drier and has not been accessed as recently as this. When you move in there, you see a suit of armor standing all by itself, helm and all. It is a full plate suit of dark tarnished armor with deep green cloth accents, kind of tied around it and sashes.
Speaker 7:That's super cool. I think, Journey, you're up next. Right?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I think this is clearly for me.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Oh, I mean, I've been looking for some full plate metal armor Yeah. To be extra sneaky. Do you think this would fit me?
Speaker 7:It's one way to try it.
Hannah / Eryn:Green's really my my color. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:I'm still a bit woozy, but
Speaker 7:if I
Thomas / Guy:may chime in.
Tara / Journey:Guy is so injured, and we're all cracking jokes.
Thomas / Guy:This this armor has served me well over the past few years. And a guy, like, puts his hands on his hips and flexes a little bit, and then, like, half of his armor slips off.
Tim / GM:Your hands
Tara / Journey:fall down?
Speaker 8:Just, like, tingles into rust shards.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, do you think you can fix this up for me?
Hannah / Eryn:Your current suit?
Thomas / Guy:Yes.
Tara / Journey:I
Speaker 8:pull out a little baking soda, and I, like, spit. And I, like, try and run some of the rust out. It does nothing. It like I think part of the pauldron just, like, crumbles off.
Thomas / Guy:Well, perhaps this gentleman can be of assistance.
Tim / GM:It kind of does, like, a a bow and, like, waves its hand in a circle as if to offer its service.
Thomas / Guy:Do you know how to fix a suit of
Hannah / Eryn:armor?
Tim / GM:It, places its hand kind of beneath its chin and sort of strokes, and then it looks it squats and looks at your armor, and, it starts kind of, like, subtly nodding towards you. He thinks he could fix it up.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, very well. If, I mean, if you could fix it to be something as nice as your own armor, that would be quite special indeed.
Tim / GM:Doesn't look up at you, but just shakes his head no.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no. Well, of course, perhaps I'm overstepping.
Tim / GM:Shakes his head yes.
Tara / Journey:Guy, when I was getting this new bow that I've got, Doran taught me about something called a trade in.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. I remember this.
Tara / Journey:Maybe it's time for you to trade in what you got for something a little better, and then tilts her head at the new armor.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, I see. Yes. Well, as I said, this armor has served me well. It does not cover my entire body anymore, but perhaps with a little spit and polish, we could do a trade z?
Tim / GM:The, armor kind of shakes its head side to side considering for a second then nods. It gestures for you to remove your armor.
Thomas / Guy:Very well. Everyone turn around, please.
Tim / GM:When you all turn back around, the suit of armor is wearing Guy's old armor. It's kind of, like, looking at itself and kind of showing it off, and then turns around and shows you the butt, and then it shrugs at all of you.
Thomas / Guy:Double protection. I think this is very keen.
Speaker 7:The AC bonus does the stack, unfortunately.
Tara / Journey:Danny gets dizzy.
Hannah / Eryn:You're looking a little small.
Thomas / Guy:It's true. I rely on a bit of armor to appear larger and more intimidating.
Tim / GM:The armor is kind of looking you up and down and just gives you a quick nod and then gestures forward and starts walking.
Tara / Journey:What the fuck?
Thomas / Guy:Did he mention a name? Or
Hannah / Eryn:Who? The armor?
Thomas / Guy:The armor.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, he didn't talk to me. Excuse me, sir armor?
Tim / GM:It has taken a couple of loud steps away from you and then looks back.
Hannah / Eryn:Do you happen to know where we can find some new armor?
Tim / GM:It, like, looks ahead and looks through the door that you all came through, and then shrugs and then points up.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Alright.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Doran walks out to this suit of armor.
Speaker 7:I'm going to, press the digitation to just give a little bit of sparks. And then do I see a face at all behind the faceplate or anything like that?
Tim / GM:Nothing. Nothing.
Speaker 7:K. Well, this, this little transaction was unexpected to say the least. I have another idea. Do you like to travel, see the world?
Tim / GM:It tentatively, like, shakes its head and then points up again.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Up there.
Speaker 6:Yeah. It nods.
Speaker 7:Well, that armor you're wearing, see that gentleman, that handsome, revered old man over there, he took good care of that armor, that previous set.
Tim / GM:He, holds out a piece of the rusted chainmail.
Speaker 7:You know what? You're you're a pretty good looking set of plates, if I don't say so for myself.
Tim / GM:He, like, shines his gauntlet on his chest.
Speaker 8:I'll check Doran flirts with armor off of his bingo.
Speaker 7:I think you look like a could be a good pair there.
Tim / GM:He kind of, leans back to look past you and sees Guy standing there and then shakes his head no.
Speaker 7:No.
Tara / Journey:Excuse me, armor. I know you're best friends with Ganymede.
Tim / GM:It kind of, like, stops for a second and then takes a curious step towards you, turning one side of its head as if to hear better.
Tara / Journey:Well, we met Ganymede back in there. And, he, he and us, we we all made a deal that he would ride along with us as we travel, and we would get him out of here and let him free and get rid of the rust monsters. And, you know, if if you wanted to stick with Ganymede and stick with us, a good way to go about that would be by teaming up with Guy here.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Guy, isn't a little piece of Ganymede in you right now?
Thomas / Guy:I believe that was something to the effect that we were told.
Speaker 7:Something like that?
Tim / GM:The armor strokes its chin again and then kind of gestures out at all 5 of you, pointing to each
Hannah / Eryn:of you individually. Yeah. We all have some
Speaker 8:of him. I pull out the ladle.
Tim / GM:Kind of examines it looking in close and then gives you all a big continuous nod. Slaps Guy on the back, gives him a nod, and then takes off walking again.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm sorry, Guy. This is not how trade ins work, so I don't know.
Thomas / Guy:Well, what now? We have an armed friend who will travel with us. Not sure there's room in the rolling pin. We might have to
Tara / Journey:Maybe.
Speaker 7:I don't know about that. Like, Guy, I think we'd I'm sorry to say, but I don't know if we need you anymore.
Hannah / Eryn:Excuse me.
Speaker 7:I'm just saying, like, we already you know, there's not enough room in the rolling pin. We got a
Tim / GM:set of armor. No. You don't
Hannah / Eryn:have any say in who goes in or out of the rolling pin.
Thomas / Guy:No copy. I was rather worthless in that last encounter with the Rastmasters.
Hannah / Eryn:I won't have you speak so ill of yourself. Eren is following the armored, entity.
Tara / Journey:The armored armor. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, it seems 2 of our companions have already left. Perhaps we should get moving.
Speaker 7:Now there's room, you know, if Aaron left. So never mind. You're back, guy. Let's go. Yes.
Tim / GM:You've been led up these paths, by the armor that seems to know the area quite well, when it reaches the terminus of where you're headed you see a horde of blue glowing urchins, and it kind of puts its hands on its hips and gives, some simulacrum of a sigh, and that looks back at each of you, and then it kind of, like, gestures forward.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, no. Oh, no. It's these things again, Erin. Is there a path through?
Tim / GM:It's still staring at the urchins, but it shakes its head. And a a moment passes, then the armor looks at all of you and kind of shoos you away.
Hannah / Eryn:I think we need to back
Tara / Journey:up. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Take up.
Tara / Journey:Take cover.
Speaker 7:Alright.
Hannah / Eryn:Kai, you get behind me. You're not wearing armor.
Thomas / Guy:Thank you, puppy. I'm very tender.
Tim / GM:Just giant guy standing behind 2 foot tall puppy.
Tara / Journey:Wrinkly.
Tim / GM:You're all standing behind a corner so as not to get hurt by what comes next. The armor just kind of calmly walks into the horde of urchins and lets them burst. He seems to really not care. They explode and crumble and destroy themselves all around him, and he just kind of walks through it, And it makes a, clattering gesture to get you all to follow him now.
Tara / Journey:I follow. Thank you.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yep. Poppy and Aaron, when you move through, you realize this is where you were stuck before. This hoard of bursting urchins was blocking the way for you to go further into these caves.
Hannah / Eryn:It wasn't even blocked off. We could've I don't know. There's a lot happening. At least it's a way out.
Tim / GM:There's something else here that's new that wasn't here last time. It's Shred. He's got some friends with him. They have lanterns and ropes. It seems they have just kind of made contact down here.
Tim / GM:They have lowered themselves into the cave to try to rescue you.
Hannah / Eryn:Boy, am I glad to see you. Can you get us out?
Tim / GM:You can, and they do. You all work together to, hoist each other 1 by 1 out of these caves up the sheer cliff wall, some 100 feet back to the mainland of lore.
Hannah / Eryn:They get us out of these fucking caves. I wrote that in my notes. Fresh air.
Speaker 7:Doreen's laying, like, totally spread eagle on the grass, like, gripping onto it. That was the worst part. Coming up, that was the worst part.
Hannah / Eryn:You didn't see the worst part?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. For me, getting blowed up was the worst part.
Hannah / Eryn:Blowed up.
Tara / Journey:Take off his armor. Guy's just a big kid.
Hannah / Eryn:I think I need to see Huber right away.
Tim / GM:Huber's, he's trying to take suck of everything we lost. I think it's best y'all get some sleep.
Hannah / Eryn:There was something in the cave that disintegrated a body. I just hadn't seen anything like that before. It was it was terrible.
Tim / GM:Yeah. We'll get to the bottom of it, but not right now. You need rest.
Tara / Journey:Has there been any sign of the the old man?
Tim / GM:No. Just you. And, we talked to, Bria and Barry too. They weren't much help, but they're safe.
Tara / Journey:Alright.
Thomas / Guy:What of the Wisherspoon 1?
Tim / GM:He did make it back. He's been talking with Huber, but Huber's been distracted, to say the least.
Tara / Journey:Alright. Well, maybe we just hold up for the night at the house we've been given and do an inventory in the morning and try and figure out what to do next.
Hannah / Eryn:I guess so.
Speaker 7:Is our suit of armor friend with us?
Tim / GM:Yes. It took some strange insisting back and forth that the armor needed to be hoisted separately as a person by itself, but it sort of insisted. As soon as you're out of danger's way, the exhaustion of time. Follow you back to the warming house. And you are all ready to take your 1st night in lore.
Tim / GM:How
Tara / Journey:how's it going? Oh, man. Long rest?
Speaker 6:Long rest.
Hannah / Eryn:We sleep. Long rest. I need
Speaker 8:do we know what's happening tomorrow?
Tim / GM:No. Suffice to say the rumbling has, like, subsided. It probably rumbled one more time, like, as you guys were going to bed, but not again. So it it does feel like the threat is is over.
Tara / Journey:Okay.
Tim / GM:The next morning doesn't really match the tone of what you had all been through. It is bright, which is rare for lower being, under a layer of clouds here. But it's bright and clear and, as sunny as it really can be. Huber showed up early at your warming house. He came with tea and April wrapping up everything he had to explain to you.
Tim / GM:He says,
Speaker 6:we owe you all a great deal
Tim / GM:of thanks. There's no telling what would have happened to all
Speaker 6:of us without your your intervention, but even so, there has been significant damage to the island. Lore is dying. We don't have the
Tim / GM:time we thought we did.
Speaker 6:Perhaps it's time for us, turtle of Lore, to find a new home. April has communed with the island this morning. Correct. Yes. I have discovered that Lore will become unstable within the month.
Speaker 6:We'll will continue to lose some ground at the edges, but for a few weeks, yet we are safe. And the descent will be slow, but unstoppable, certainly. Guy, I am afraid little remains of tower 25. You are free to examine the ruins if you wish.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, this tower contained more of my memories.
Speaker 6:A great deal more. Confessions of your former self.
Thomas / Guy:Very well. What of all the other memories on this island? Will they make it off in time?
Speaker 6:As much as we can. We've made contact with the whale, a sort of supply vessel that makes its rounds around the clouds. It was here only a few days ago but we've asked them to return, to reroute so that they can take some of our people. The rest of us will remain here for a few weeks yet to ingest as much knowledge as possible so that we can take it with us, that which we can't carry.
Tara / Journey:Should we be going on on the whale and leaving, or should we stay and help? I I I feel bad that all this happened to y'all.
Hannah / Eryn:What's gonna happen to all the cloud kips?
Speaker 6:I feel the cloud kips won't return after last night. The shaking scared them something fierce. The only thing we've seen since then are bright bulbs, and in high amounts, there's droves of them out today. It will take the whale a day or 2 to return here. In the meantime, please take what Lore has to offer.
Speaker 6:Take Mikey's key. It'll give you access to everything on the island.
Speaker 7:What happened to Mikey?
Speaker 6:Everything that remains. Mikey's fine.
Tim / GM:Oh.
Speaker 6:Find him and ask him for his key.
Speaker 7:K.
Tara / Journey:We have that key.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Okay.
Tara / Journey:We definitely have that key.
Speaker 8:We don't technically it is hidden in the shrubbery.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Hubert kind of, like, moves his hand to his own necklace,
Speaker 6:and he says, you can't have mine.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 7:Which was, which one was the Chu Crime
Tim / GM:Tower? 25. K.
Speaker 6:Iron Shred will be here for a few weeks yet, and a few more of us. We're going to take in the knowledge we can. Engelbert has also offered to remain for a few weeks.
Tim / GM:He's going to write it all down.
Hannah / Eryn:The way books should be.
Speaker 8:Where where
Tara / Journey:will you all go after that?
Tim / GM:He gets a little kind of wistful and looks out the window. He says,
Speaker 6:I'm not sure. There's a nearby island called Baxi. It's not for us. It's fast moving, but perhaps we could stay there a while while we find a new home. I worry things will not be as they once were.
Speaker 6:We all now live with the fear, the uncertainty. This island falling, why? Will it happen again? Where? On Backsy?
Speaker 6:When?
Hannah / Eryn:Are you asking us?
Thomas / Guy:I don't know.
Speaker 6:I'm desperate, Poppy.
Speaker 7:Well, I'm gonna take a bit of a leap, and say that whatever that was sounds a bit like a curse or curse adjacent.
Speaker 6:When I spoke with Engelbert, he seemed most convinced that this was not the work of a curse. He seems to be well versed in such things.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. Darn, what I felt from that creature was fiendish.
Speaker 7:Is there a fiend a tower?
Speaker 6:Never got around to it.
Thomas / Guy:It seems everyone has met this entity but you and I, Doran.
Speaker 7:Maybe it's not real.
Hannah / Eryn:Excuse me. It was totally real. I I just don't wanna think about it anymore. He had really blue eyes and and veins that didn't look normal. They were spirals.
Speaker 7:I mean, we have to tell someone. It's just whatever it is, it's just gonna go to another Skyland and cause another catastrophe.
Tara / Journey:Maybe it got what it wanted here.
Speaker 7:Yeah. All of the bismide power.
Tara / Journey:But maybe that's not its ultimate goal.
Thomas / Guy:Perhaps it is amassing power for some other purpose.
Tara / Journey:Right. I mean, I wouldn't even know where to start.
Hannah / Eryn:We're not equipped to handle that. It's not our responsibility either.
Tara / Journey:We're just here to escape something happening over on the mainland, like
Thomas / Guy:Nimbus sent us here with a group of isknight ismite miners.
Tara / Journey:Biz knights. Biz knights.
Thomas / Guy:Certainly, even after this ordeal, they wish to continue their operations. At the very least, we could warn them in farewell.
Hannah / Eryn:But how do we do that?
Tara / Journey:Hubert, do you know where the whale is headed?
Speaker 6:I can show you. Please, follow me.
Tim / GM:He, leads you into this tall natural cave opening, some distance outside of this warming house.
Hannah / Eryn:More caves.
Tim / GM:He sees all of your, like, hesitance hesitance at entering the cave. He says, I promise it's shallow, and it is. It's just kind of one chamber, really, with a sort of sandy floor at the end of this cave you can see this kind of circle in the ground sort of like raised up out of the sand It's a dome in the vague shape of a large turtle, and Hubert kind of walks over to it and he sort of lifts this dome off of the large turtle shape and inside you can see a big pool of clean sand.
Hannah / Eryn:It's a sandpit turtle.
Tara / Journey:Goddamn it.
Tim / GM:It's essentially a sandpit inside a big fake turtle.
Tara / Journey:Just like I had when I was 10. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:He waves his hand over this clean, flat sand, and you see bits of it start to float upward into the air, and you see it take 3 d shapes. And after a moment, you recognize the shape of lore built in beautiful detail just floating in the air. He kind of gestures his finger, and lore begins slowly spinning in circles.
Speaker 6:He says this is lore of course see the towers here of course
Tim / GM:but near lore is back see He, conjures up another island. This one is much bigger than lore but built almost entirely vertically. It's all kind of stacked on top of itself instead of being a wide spread out field and mountains like Lore is.
Speaker 6:Some of the islands in the sky move, which makes it complicated for traditional maps. It's why I prefer the sandbox.
Tim / GM:I find it most illuminating.
Hannah / Eryn:How does it work? And she touches lore.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You touch lore and you feel like the room start to shake a little bit.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, that's it. No.
Tara / Journey:No. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Just a coincidence, I'm
Tara / Journey:sure. The
Speaker 8:old man was actually eating sand.
Speaker 6:The geography tends to change over time, but these are some near neighbors. After a back sea, you would find the old castle.
Tim / GM:He conjures up a small floating island with a singular small very modest fortress on it of course you have Saffron you see these idyllic rolling foothills and 3 large domes on it. The garden. A tangled mass of hanging roots and trees and stone bound together by roots.
Speaker 6:We have Magnus. We have the winnowed kingdom, the deluge, and chanoka. These are all quite close to us. A day's ride, maybe 2, depending on the winds.
Hannah / Eryn:There's a lot more out in the clouds than I ever knew was here. I didn't realize so much had been mapped.
Speaker 6:Indeed. And so much yet unmapped. There are hundreds of known islands, but hundreds more unknown.
Hannah / Eryn:How do we get there?
Speaker 6:The whale is one option. There are several others. Skyships are not unfamiliar here.
Hannah / Eryn:Isn't a ship coming back for us in a few days?
Tara / Journey:More like a few weeks.
Hannah / Eryn:I've only been here a day.
Tara / Journey:Is there a way for the ships to talk to each other or for us to get a message to Cabs and Yarhar.
Speaker 6:April is gifted in the magic of divination. She may be able to send a message for you.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. If we're trying to warn maybe warn other miners, other islands.
Thomas / Guy:We should let Yarhard know what happened. He will know what to
Speaker 6:do. The good thing is you have time. At least a few days until the whale gets here. I suggest you decompress as much as you can. Learn something.
Tara / Journey:Does this map tell you where the whale is going next?
Speaker 6:Unfortunately not.
Tara / Journey:I don't know. I'm I'm just a wanderer. I don't know.
Speaker 7:Why don't we talk to the couple of surviving miners, see what their thoughts are, see how they're doing too?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. We should let them know about their companions.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Hubert kind of leaves you guys to your own devices, really, for the first time. You are unbothered, for a little while, at least. After Hubert departs there, the island is yours.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron's gonna level up. No. I'm just kidding.
Tim / GM:He's an elective choice. Do that.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm just kidding.
Speaker 7:I think it would be good to talk to the miners only because it seemed like there was a reason we were sent here that we were supposed to figure out, and I don't know if we did that. Maybe they know something.
Hannah / Eryn:I thought we were just here to get away from the blight, and this was the first place they were coming
Tara / Journey:and the best ship they could trust.
Speaker 7:I don't think they were so charitable as to let us just be here freely. I think we are meant to gain something.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, so now you're saying that there was some other objective that these people wanted? I brought that up at the beginning, but no one listened to me.
Speaker 8:You're all just saying, oh, let's just go.
Hannah / Eryn:Wow. Tell us how you really feel.
Tara / Journey:Your teen dude is coming out, and I love it.
Hannah / Eryn:You're not my mom. I mean, we're we're all kind of put together for one reason, and now we're all kind of stuck. I don't think that they planned for that. So if there is an ulterior motive, I don't think I was involved. I think you're right.
Hannah / Eryn:We should warn people about this creature we saw on the island, but I beyond that, I'm like, I don't I mean, it's out of our control like you guys said. And if they did send us here with some weird motive, then that's on them, not on us. Are you not telling us something?
Speaker 7:Who are you talking to?
Tara / Journey:You. Oh,
Speaker 7:I don't think so. I think
Tara / Journey:insight check convincing. Just kidding.
Speaker 8:I don't I wouldn't think to do that.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron rolled an insight check on Doran.
Thomas / Guy:Let me just assume Aaron's rolling an inside check anytime anyone says anything.
Hannah / Eryn:5. So Dorn is
Tara / Journey:the picture of honesty and has nothing to hide.
Speaker 7:Thank thank you, Jordan.
Tara / Journey:Oh, me?
Hannah / Eryn:I just don't see what what I would have to do with this fight. You know? Yeah. I'm with Poppy on this one. Apparently, we really bonded in that cave.
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, trauma does that to people. I do, however, want to see these islands, and I don't feel safe going back to Farewell.
Speaker 7:What was the first one they said? Start with a b?
Hannah / Eryn:Bearskin. Baxi.
Speaker 7:Baxi?
Speaker 8:Bearskin. Baxi.
Speaker 7:I I do think we should skip Baxi, though.
Hannah / Eryn:Just because small.
Speaker 7:I don't know. I I
Thomas / Guy:believe we will be at the whim of whomever's ship
Hannah / Eryn:Or the whale.
Thomas / Guy:On board. Are we talking about a literal whale, or is the ship named The Whale?
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron shrugs. Uh-huh. I'm sorry. Doran, you have an issue with the name Baxi?
Speaker 7:I do. I really do.
Hannah / Eryn:Your name is not that great. I'm just
Speaker 7:wow. Wow, Poppy. What happened to you in that cave?
Hannah / Eryn:Everything. You weren't there.
Speaker 7:Let's go find these minors and share our condolences.
Hannah / Eryn:Sure. But then we need to see if there's anything that you wanted out of these towers that are still here. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are all raring to get into them.
Thomas / Guy:At some point, I will be returning to tower 25, perhaps see if more of my past is there.
Speaker 7:I insist on going with you, Guy. Very well, Doren.
Hannah / Eryn:I would like to see if there are towers with recipes.
Tim / GM:K. So the first thing I think that happens is checking in with Bria and Barry, and they are understandably a little somber. Bria more than Barry. Barry seems more or less unbothered. They had spoken with Huber earlier today.
Tim / GM:He let them know the kind of terrible nature of what had happened, let them know that mining missions, at least for the immediate future, are an unsafe venture and that they might find a new line of work in the short term. He's offered them, to stay with the Tortle, for as long as they wish, to travel with them if they want to.
Speaker 7:Hey, you 2. Yeah. Well, I I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm very sorry we couldn't get there fast enough.
Tim / GM:Having you guys at all, it's, you know, it's better than if we didn't. I mean I mean it. Thank you.
Thomas / Guy:I just
Hannah / Eryn:If it's any consolation, which I'm not very good at consoling people. So I'm sorry if this comes off wrong, but no one could have lived through what we saw. No one could have survived that.
Tara / Journey:There's nothing you could have done Yeah. If you had been there. There's nothing you could have done. You just would have been dead too.
Hannah / Eryn:What they mean is that it was already too late. They probably didn't suffer. I mean, we don't know that part, but yeah.
Speaker 7:Okay. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Thank you all for stopping by. I
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, and your blasting caps you gave us, they were awesome. So thank you very, very much. They killed Guy here for a second.
Tim / GM:Great.
Thomas / Guy:Just a second.
Hannah / Eryn:But he came back. He's already dead too, so he's fine. But he's he's one of the player characters. So Yeah.
Tim / GM:Plot armor and all that?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Journey is so dizzy. Actually, armor is kind of a touchy subject right now.
Tim / GM:The the suit of armor just folds its arms like
Speaker 7:I feel terrible trying to pry information out of you right now, but I think that we need to ask, especially with the island falling, before our return flight is even gonna get here. Do you have any idea why captain Yarhar and Libera, sent us here? I mean, I'm sure rumors were going about on the ship. Did you hear anything?
Tara / Journey:Can I
Speaker 7:roll out persuasion or something?
Tim / GM:So Bria is sympathetic to the things you're asking. You know, she she seems, like, shaken and wants to understand what happened here. I think you're gonna need insight to figure out what she's really grappling with.
Speaker 7:Insight, you said?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. 20.
Speaker 7:Not natural. Oh, shit. Okay.
Tara / Journey:Wowie. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. So she, you can see she wants to tell you, but is afraid of, like, consequences. You can also see that Barry is, like, looking at her. Bria looks at Barry, and then looks at you, and she says Listen, nobody wants to talk about it, but there's something going on.
Tim / GM:It's like this secret that's spreading among everyone, or some people, the elite. I don't know, but some of us miners are starting to catch on too. Somebody knows something. This bismite, this this mad rush for bismite, there's something about it that we don't understand. It's more than fuel.
Speaker 7:So you probably don't know for sure, but as soon as we get off this skyline, we're gonna be able to hear the same rumors. No harm in just spitting it out, Barry. Right? I'm gonna look over at Barry and try to make him say it.
Tim / GM:It's like a race or something. Whoever gets it all wins. I don't know. It's not gonna be me. I know that.
Tim / GM:He, like, throws a glow stick on the ground. Just a union grunt.
Hannah / Eryn:Who are you mining this bismite for?
Tim / GM:At the same time, they both go. Liberia?
Speaker 7:Who would you want to win the race?
Tim / GM:If we knew what it did, I might have an opinion, but if you're asking if I want Liber to have more power Yeah. More than I want the other kings to have power, more than I want Lodem back on the forefront of everything.
Hannah / Eryn:Where where is the Bismite getting delivered? When you guys dock at Farewell, where does it go?
Tim / GM:It doesn't go very far. As far as I know, it actually doesn't really leave the forge ring. It all kind of stays near the tower.
Thomas / Guy:What do they tell you it's for? Is it just for fuel for the airships?
Tim / GM:The Age of Innovation. Sorry, that's they keep saying the age of innovation like, you know, all the sky ships and stuff like flying around all the fuel. They say we just need we need all of it. We need all we can get our hands on so we can fly forever.
Hannah / Eryn:Flying forever kinda seems like falling forever depending on the way you look at it.
Tim / GM:I
Hannah / Eryn:mean, I'm I'm not against innovation. The technology has really helped my business. At what cost are we drawing all the bismide out of the earth? As far as I know, the earth is pretty big.
Tim / GM:I mean, I certainly wouldn't have been here if I knew that the island was gonna collapse. I I thought it had, like, an abundance. That's why we're here in the first place.
Hannah / Eryn:It may have. Don't worry. It's not your fault. It's the the big man. Big people in charge.
Hannah / Eryn:The biz night.
Thomas / Guy:God.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know what else to call him.
Speaker 7:Who are you talking about, Poppy?
Hannah / Eryn:Old man.
Speaker 7:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep.
Speaker 7:Biz night's not bad.
Hannah / Eryn:I feel like biz night sounds too nice.
Tim / GM:I was really hoping we would just call the bad guy Phil Collins.
Hannah / Eryn:I mean, Philip j Collins.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Let's not let's not mention Philip j
Hannah / Eryn:Collins here.
Tim / GM:Bria's just like
Speaker 7:I think I know a few that I wouldn't want to win the race. We have diver Yeah. Old man. Not my favorite person going after the bismite. I have to say Libera is actually someone worth supporting of this group.
Speaker 7:We need to learn as much as we can.
Tim / GM:To that end, The towers of lore are at your disposal with an archivist's key in hand.
Tara / Journey:In Shrub.
Tim / GM:In Shrub.
Hannah / Eryn:In Shrub Mountain. Able to get the key back?
Tim / GM:Yeah. You guys go to recover where that key is, and there is a hole in the floor exactly where that key was, and then, you know, it's it's there.
Tara / Journey:A key shaped hole in the ground through the island. And
Hannah / Eryn:you'll see
Tara / Journey:clouds all the way down.
Tim / GM:Briefly reconvene with Mikey, who is a nervous wreck being that he had lost or misplaced his junior archivist key and had been looking for it ever since. Do you guys let him know that you took it?
Hannah / Eryn:No. Absolutely not. Well, it's a good it's a good thing we found it on the ground out there. Mikey, can you believe this? Your best friend, Aaron, found your key here.
Tim / GM:I just don't think we're ever gonna be able to make another key. I don't even know how these things work.
Hannah / Eryn:It's okay. It's here.
Tim / GM:Really?
Hannah / Eryn:My key. You really have to be careful, though. Don't drop things like this.
Tim / GM:Oh, thank you.
Hannah / Eryn:You're welcome. I I'm always looking out for my friends.
Tim / GM:Wow. Aaron, I wow. That that's really special.
Speaker 6:Thank you so much.
Speaker 7:But Hubert did say we can have it.
Tim / GM:Oh, okay.
Speaker 7:And he
Tim / GM:just gives it back.
Speaker 7:Thanks. Hey, Mikey. Yeah. How are you feeling?
Tim / GM:Well, I I I did a couple of reverse eats throughout the night.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Tim / GM:But I feel okay now. Okay. A little sad and anxious from all the stuff that's going on. But
Speaker 7:Yeah. I
Hannah / Eryn:That also might be the sugar drop.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 7:I sit down next to Mikey. I want you to pace yourself. K?
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 7:Good things are better in moderation.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 7:Can you can you do that?
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Okay. I reach into my satchel, and I pull out a owl figurine.
Speaker 8:No. You don't have it. You gave it to me, and it's in my inventory. Fuck no. He does not get my owl.
Speaker 8:He will eat it, and I don't think that's fair.
Speaker 7:Okay. Well,
Speaker 3:yeah. What did
Tim / GM:you have for me, Doreen?
Speaker 7:I'm digging in the satchel.
Tara / Journey:Poppy? Yeah.
Speaker 7:I think that, Mikey here has been through a lot, and I figured we might have something for him that would really cheer him up and brighten his young beautiful minds day. Shit. Hold on.
Tara / Journey:Hold on.
Speaker 7:Hold on. Give me a second. Hold on. Let's have
Thomas / Guy:a try to live. Minds.
Tara / Journey:Shut up, gay. Me. Alright. Ready? That doesn't work.
Tim / GM:Digging
Speaker 7:Doran looks over at Poppy. Poppy, you know, I think there's something that we could share with Mikey that's more age appropriate for Mikey to have and would really mean a lot to this young, handsome twiddle who is losing his whole world.
Hannah / Eryn:Wow. Yeah. I think you're right. I spent a little bit of last night making
Speaker 8:a kid's cookbook for you. Aw.
Speaker 7:That that's what I was looking for. Yep. Where is it, Poppy?
Speaker 8:It's right here, and it's definitely just, like, scraps of parchment. And I I didn't have a crayon, so I used a chocolate chip. It has one recipe. And
Tim / GM:it What's it for?
Speaker 8:It's for, Pizza.
Tara / Journey:It's for cookie. It's for cookie.
Speaker 8:It's for, like, a no bake cookie where you just, like, combine stuff and let it cool. K.
Speaker 7:That's very thoughtful. You can just eat it if you get impatient halfway through. But, again, the moderation and, all of that.
Hannah / Eryn:And it's easy enough for you to follow.
Tim / GM:Cool. Did you get this from the recipe tower?
Hannah / Eryn:No. I'm I I made it myself.
Tim / GM:Woah. New knowledge. And he kinda, like, starts pouring over it.
Speaker 7:Well, I'm satisfied. Hope you have a good life, Mikey.
Tim / GM:He kinda waves you off looking at the recipe.
Speaker 7:Okay.
Tara / Journey:Did you hear that, Poppy? Recipe tower.
Hannah / Eryn:Can't wait. I'm gonna learn so much.
Tim / GM:You've all been made privy to the knowledge that inhaling the vapor of these things will actually instill the memories in you permanently, instead of just hearing the conversations. I I will assume that is what you guys will wanna do in some of these cases.
Tara / Journey:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Poppy.
Tara / Journey:Oh, no. Yes.
Tim / GM:The recipe tower is actually the tower of plants and food. Yeah. It is also on top of a mountain.
Hannah / Eryn:Not so yeah.
Tim / GM:In order to get to the tower of plants and food, I need you to make an athletics check.
Speaker 8:That's a negative one for my modifier. That's a 3 because I rolled a 4.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You spend a good portion of the day kind of like trying to rock climb a sheer cliff face. Is is
Speaker 8:there a hidden staircase somewhere that I missed?
Tim / GM:Not that you've seen so far. Meanwhile, Erin, what kind of information do you seek out?
Hannah / Eryn:I think Erin wants to know more info about magic because Diver showed some crazy magic, and they saw what they assumed to be magical deaths in the cave. Dark magic, maybe?
Tim / GM:Mhmm. There are a few towers devoted to magic of different types. The one you end up at is one that is dedicated to, magic as a resource, as a sort of utility, kind of like people might think of electricity. Mhmm. And here you hear things about the weave.
Tim / GM:You open a few of these jars to hear people discussing the weave and what it means. Effectively, the Weave is, sort of invisible threads that that are magic. They tie us people, creatures, to the realm of magic that allows us to manipulate reality. The Weave also connects different things together that might create a temporary bond between a wizard and an object that he can manipulate, but it can also tie places together. It gives the example of the Feywild and the mortal plane, are are tightly bound by the Weave, so that in certain places you can literally walk between these places through the Weave.
Tim / GM:Much like electricity, magic is an expendable resource. It's very quantifiable. Power can be given, taken, it can be drained and amassed and stored in battery like objects. In fact, that's more or less what bismite is, a sort of natural crystallization of magic. It's a sort of natural magic battery.
Hannah / Eryn:I wonder if I have a battery. Erin just says to themselves in a dark tower by themselves.
Tim / GM:Journey, what do you seek out?
Tara / Journey:Journey wants to figure out who that who or what that old man was. Mhmm. I think she felt like she got she got its focus for a moment, and that scared her. And she wants to know more about fiends, celestials, that sort of stuff, and like how they interact with this plane. Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:So that's kind of where she's landing, but she's also kind of open to wandering and just picking up knowledge wherever.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Being that you know that this thing had this fiendish celestial energy on it, that's the first thread that you can follow. That leads you to a couple different places, including a sort of religious resource that describes, what fiends are in a religious sense, and it leads you down this weird rabbit hole about learning about Godhood and pantheons and what that all means. You can see that there are scores of different pantheons. There's, you know, a set of 12 gods here, another dozen there, another 36 under a different faith, and you start to wonder, like, what makes something a god?
Tim / GM:What are they? Are they entirely different? Are they things not of this world? Or are they things that were here that became so powerful that no one could say they weren't to God?
Tara / Journey:That feels similar to the way that journey views the great beasts. I think, I think that what we've touched on in this group with our interaction briefly with Cree is that a lot of beings see Cree as some sort of godlike creature, and Journey knows that they're not a god. Am I a god? Do I have a god?
Tim / GM:While researching, you know, these these creatures of different kind of, echelons of of power and their proximity to the great beasts, you do come across mentions of them. There are certain ones in the clouds that are sort of known and revered. You see a few names come up again and again. Kree is mentioned the most often, but also Halu, the mother whale, another one called Melas, the quake, Sesc, the coil, and vermin lord Trick. They're all quite pompous and elevated names.
Tim / GM:You've seen a lot of these before. You've seen mentions of vermin Lord Trick, he has ruled over parts of, the Fernglade, a massive forest on the western edge near Silvery. You know that all of these beasts are accompanied by powerful cohorts, usually of the same kind of creature that they are. You know that they grant blessings, that they're said to grant wishes for people who's who have earned their favor. And some people here in the clouds also think that the great beasts are pets of the Fae.
Tim / GM:They seem to only exist in areas where Fae are also common. And that leads us to tower 25.
Hannah / Eryn:Dun dun dun.
Thomas / Guy:Is that armor with us?
Tim / GM:Armor stays with you, guy, most of the time.
Speaker 7:Okay. I think it's taking a liking to you, guy. Yeah.
Tim / GM:It shakes its head now.
Thomas / Guy:He'll get there.
Tim / GM:The first thing you find that instills a little bit of hope in you is that the tower has not been destroyed. It is not completely collapsed. Collapsed. In fact, the first few floors of it still stand tall. It's the below ground stuff that didn't fare so well.
Tim / GM:It had mostly collapsed in fact. In these upper levels is where you find information on crime, organized crime. Dorn, it doesn't take you long to find mentions of the blight. It seems they are well known out here. The blight is a criminal organization with ties to the Fae that is known.
Tim / GM:They once attempted to assassinate the King of Dawn's Edge. Right. They're led by powerful kingpins. Those that you heard mentioned are known as Diver, Parsimmon, and Smilegrin. Diver is spoken about in curses and gritted teeth he's a murderous eledrin with little regard for mortal life, and he's been known in the public eye for open defiance, outbursts, and some of the smaller crimes.
Tim / GM:Usually, when somebody gets mugged or somebody stabbed to death in an alleyway, Diver is somehow attached to it, especially in Farewell. Parsippen has Diver's respect, Smile grin has been seen with both of them but is a complete enigma. They've been seen around the clouds for over a decade, but only in recent years have they been seen among the kingdoms, notably an uprising in Lotem just over 2 years ago.
Thomas / Guy:I have a question.
Tara / Journey:Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:So everybody else is alone, but when we're, sniffing knowledge Yeah.
Tim / GM:Often not. Is it
Thomas / Guy:like does it like go right to our brains or is it like being recited?
Tim / GM:Yeah. So you would open it and just, like, inhale it, and then nobody else would hear that. So it's it's really up to door, and whether he's cracking these open to hear them or if he's just inhaling everything he finds knowing that this island is crashing.
Speaker 7:Sniffing it up.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 7:Do I do I glean anything about their goals or motivations in any of the memories?
Tim / GM:You can get a little bit of, like, emotional read off of the people that are telling these stories. And so you keep finding yourself like in the room with April, you know, and she's like drawing memories out of people. In some cases, it's shred that is like traveled to talk to people and get their memories, and you can see the kind of like reactions in the way that these conversations happen and it is hatred. Most of the people that know of these people in the blight they they literally do think of them as a blight as, the sort of unridable curse among the clouds.
Speaker 7:Doran, leaves the chamber after he's had his fill. Stands up straighter, a little more rigid, has a sense of urgency, restored, and a little more resolve. Goes looking for a guy.
Tim / GM:Yeah. A guy, you are down just one floor, hoping to go deeper, but moving into that second sub basement, it's just rubble, and, unfortunately, that's essentially where your memories begin, was at that second sub basement. What you do notice is smoke vapor rising up through the rubble.
Thomas / Guy:Guy, draws his sword, not for combat, but brings it out and starts sniffing.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You kind of point your sword down at the rubble, and those vents are open. And as Guy inhales deep, at the same time, you hear this metallic, almost echoing as your sword inhales, and, you get all of it. You get all the mustiness. You actually cough a little bit as it kind of, like, cakes your throat quote unquote, And you're also startled because at the same time, you are seeing glimpses of something that is yours but is completely unfamiliar.
Tim / GM:You see hooves in mud and you see armor. You see a corpse just getting stepped on. You see swords and torches and you see long tables. Diplomatic conversations with lords and ladies from all over the world, but just little flashes until it lands on one salient clean memory. And Doran, coming down the stairs to see Guy, you can see this last part.
Tim / GM:He's inhaling a trail of black vapor. And Guy, in your mind, you hear and see.
Speaker 3:I have been convinced that these confessions are to remain in historical archives and that those who might hear them will do so long after my passing. And to those hearing this,
Speaker 6:hear my words in plain speech.
Speaker 3:I am responsible for the death of no less than 1,000 people. Thieves, murderers,
Speaker 6:soldiers, men,
Speaker 3:women, civilians. My actions, my decisions, right or wrong, they were made for the good of my kingdom, of my people, my family. But now I have something else to confess for the good of the people who will hear this long after my passing. I cannot bear it, the humiliation, the kingdom for which I've sacrificed, sacrificed my people, Sacrifice my family. The kingdom that is called my blade to war time and again is a lie.
Speaker 3:Lotum has fallen, infiltrated by fey machinations with roots so deep I cannot discern where they began, and I am trapped among the roots.
Speaker 7:And I
Tim / GM:think we'll end it there.
Tara / Journey:What? Wow.
Tim / GM:Thanks everybody so much for listening. I am Tim, your GM.
Hannah / Eryn:Uh-huh. I'm, Erin. Wait. I'm Hannah playing Eren. Oh, my god.
Tara / Journey:I'm Tara, and I am startled, and I'm Journey.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Thomas, and I am guys. Guys.
Speaker 7:I'm John. I play Duh Duh Duh Dorn.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy.
Tim / GM:Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you in the next one.