014 The Enchanted Rock

We, all I have written for where we left off last time was they kill Iggy.

Yeah, but we tried to bring Iggy back to life. Yeah, and it did not work. Yes. So, other than killing Iggy, what happened? Do you want to go or do you want me to go? Um, I have an evil goblins too. So do I. I just had a dog flap his ears underneath the microphone. Mm-hmm. Sound effects, Mike. Free. I don't know what he's doing right now. Come on. Looking for an invite. Which I assume you have to. Our new pet? Yes, the horse. Wilson. Winston.

Winston. Yeah, Mike wanted to call him Wilson. The dramatics on this horse, man. Yep.

We brought the goblins to the cave and Furt Eggs and Kron agreed to let them stay but they don't get any eggs from their salary and they get the smaller space and they have to help protect the cave, Furt ate one of Corn Dog's eggs even though I warned him that I didn't know what would happen it was one of the magic eggs four flumps appeared and Furt flumps entangled flumps, whatever, I put the flumps in my notebook because I think there are more imaginary creatures

coming to life in front of my eyes. We met in with Respira to check in. Iggy was alive, we discovered. Respira told Meriwether about the rope of climbing and said to check with old Dave to get the command word. Oh my god, we did get the command word. What was it? Yeah! Yes, I did write it down.

We sort of told Raspira about the book and how we wrote Iggy into the book and he was alive, but she doesn't know anything magical like that. We pressed a digitization out Iggy's entry and Iggy was no longer alive. Oh, no one kicked me. Maybe you need to kick me again. Because that was what we were doing when we brought him to life, if I'm not sure. We kicked you? Yeah, because he responded. We wrote that he would respond to like bullying or something like that.

Ah, that's why Mike said not yet or possibly why he said not yet. Yeah. I do. We've offered to buy the book or replace the book. The author's name is Kenzie, but old Dave says that we have to either replace the book by writing our own.

Um or make a huge donation well i've put in huge make a donation a good donation that's what it was i bought a blank book so we can write a story that i forgot about until right this second, we've rewritten iggy's entry we're sitting at the tavern i had someone respond about my ad, and i'll have to stop in and talk to marigold about training and whatnot and so we're sitting at the tavern to write the children's book someone kick me i'll kick you thank you i mean oh no, but being bullied.

Ouch i really hurt shawley bit my finger fair and weather kicked my shin. Okay so you guys are sitting in the tavern mm-hmm oh and respira wasn't there yet fauna is very interested in listening to respira every time she shows up well yeah i also had um something i wanted to check when she shows up, i made a note of it gotcha so looking for her to show up for a particular purpose, i think we had agreed we were going to write a children's story about our adventures Yes.

Around the what you call the tavern you might hear a little bit of scuttlebutt, about some kind of goblin town forming he had nothing to do with that.

Rumors of loud digging noises where around town around town myths about goblins being able to, see things that the average person can't and you hear some people talking about like uh, just random items getting lost and these are all just rumors that we hear so far yeah was that last one goblins can find things that are lost no what no the last one was that people have been losing things or things have been going missing.

Goblins are not able to find things at all. I mean, they might, but that's not a magical ability. Was there something about someone being able to sense things going missing? No. My brain just put it all together. Okay. Any other thoughts? Any other things you're doing or designing this book? Yeah, we gotta work on the book.

Yeah, we gotta get that plan so we can fear what's up but i do need for a spear to come in yeah i'm not leaving until she shows up tonight okay yeah we were leaving till this book was done yeah we have the paper and everything because i think i was drawing i bought a blank journal. I may go back to the general store to get colored pencils or colored yeah colored pencils to the coloring of my drawings. Okay. What would you say back then?

Well, I think we were saying we were just going to outline like the main plot points. So you're, you're thinking wait while you're coming up with the plot points for the story. Yeah, no, that's fine. I just realized that I don't have anything to draw anything with.

Get to it talk about things that you want to include in your book i think we wanted to kind of make a children's book about our adventures so far especially because we met so many cute things, i think that's what we were thinking all the creatures so i guess if we want us, i mean i guess we could start and like go down the list of all our friends that we've met, i think the first one was the dragon oh yeah let's let's tell the story of the

dragon and the mean pixies i was gonna say i think the pixies will be a really good addition, do we start with once upon a time well i think maybe we should we can start with the once upon a time and like something about like the mayor giving three friends or whatever.

A quest a noble mission yes okay so and we could, go ahead Becca our actual quest was to find a magical item we could modify that instead to like go help a dragon in need if we think that that's better than saying we were looking for a magical item or if the magical item would be fun for a kid, I see that both things could be interesting. Let's just say we hear about a dragon in need, because then I think it's a more fun story to show up and it's just a goblin in a dragon costume.

Yeah, I was going to ask you if we were going to put the goblin in a dragon costume. Oh yeah, for sure. This is the first you're hearing of a goblin in a dragon costume. Did she?

Becca? i mean i'm just gonna assume when i hear them talking about this that we're just embellishing the story so it's not too scary so it's not too scary yeah that makes perfect sense that sounds like something she would assume yeah and for the three friend characters we could even say how one really wants to go on adventures the other one doesn't really care then one of them just doesn't really want to to be adventurous but goes because her friends like drag her with them

yeah that tracks three bears i mean what else am i gonna do in my house by myself with the ranch hands.

Okay so we go to the cave uh we have this noble mission from the mayor and we should probably have some trials to actually find the dragon, have to figure out how to cross a river and maybe there's something hiding under a bridge or i don't know the dragon's trap yes bless you thank you and i could have just pressed digitized yeah yeah that has to come in at the end what has to come in there oh the oil fauna and i getting really messy, trying to get through this trap merriweather refusing

to go through the trap and then after we make the arrangements with the dragon after we talk to the dragon she just prestidigitations our feet clean and we're like wait a second you could do this the whole time yeah especially cause you were not very happy about that one we worked so hard to clean that off of our shoes or feet bare feet, or half health feet. Until she wild shapes into a bear and then And you just come out and snap your fingers and it all goes away.

After you watched us scrub until our fingers were numb. Anyway. I'm sorry, Caleb, for God, Mary, you either could do that. Yep. So, so our quest is to help this dragon. He put out a call for help. And it's because his cave has been overrun with pixies. It was pixies, right? Yeah. So once we hear that, we go get to where the pixies are. We have that other trap where we froze if we failed getting around this stone in the floor.

So we can write a little scene about the next trap with the giggles all around us. And the flying bag. The bag of holding, they took it.

So we were all dangling from it. it was a game right so until somebody got hurt see that could be the lesson right there, it was all fun and games until somebody gets hurt i mean we failed at trying to get them to leave we did the other lesson can just be helping people right did we help the pixies with anything we did not help the pixies with anything you know we were helping the dragon so we have our game with the pixies, but we can't convince them to leave.

So we go back to talk to our dragon friend. We should probably give him a different name than his actual name. We don't want to get sued, you know, for calling him a goblin in a dragon suit. We'll give him a different name and we find him a new home and everybody's happy what name is. Drago the dragon no okay, dave i don't know we have an old dave we can't do that yeah i'm trying to think of like just a normal name? Kurt.

Kurt? Because his name's Krun, so at least we stick with the first letter. Who could do Krun? Fuck the two letters in the middle. What are you rolling for, DM? Why'd you roll? Why'd you touch your dice? Nobody seems to notice you guys making a story on the tavern.

I guess they don't need to. I guess not. You don't ask me why I roll my dice I just did Well I already did Well I'll do it again, That's not gonna happen Okay so now we have our story So Fauna Not Fauna Meriwether can illustrate And then I'll help color, I'll have to go and get the colored pencils Okay so you're gonna go get the colored pencils, Okay and fauna's still waiting for respira so i'm sure this takes a while respira might

come in while we're still working yeah gospel it's definitely gospel so you go to old dave yeah colored pencils i mean what the equivalent of colored pencils during this time period maybe pastels or something chalk anything i can use to drop it yeah something to the effect, you're able to find maybe colored inks or something like that. Not too expensive. They're not like very fancy things. This is not, um, what's that company? Prisma. Yeah, this is not Prisma. The fancy artist supplies.

It's Prisma Color. Right. Chris Mo. Yes. That's, that's it. No, I'm just kidding. So you get the colored inks and head back to the tab where your friends are still, you know, talking about the book, blotting out what pictures they need and where they'll go and that kind of stuff. Unless you're coming in, respira holds the door for you.

I'll run and kind of, you know, how like people, when they're holding the door and they got a person around i do one of those oh thank you thank you put a little hitch in you get it yeah so you you uh speed up to the door to hold it so she can let go if she walks into the tavern you guys probably notice her walk into the tavern and uh you see mary when they're walking behind her i am very kind of subtly get up and i wander over into her general direction but not like

i'm walking towards her and when i get within let's say five feet of her i'm not like facing her or anything just acting like that maybe i'm just going to talk to merriweather or something i very quickly and stealthily pull iggy out of my pocket and take a look to see if iggy's alive uh make a perception roll i didn't pull my nose out what is this 23 okay yeah you notice that he is not active right now but i will let you keep that 23 for to to notice any changes over say the next 10 minutes.

Okay. So, Raspira just nods to you as she's coming in. I nod and I just give a wave to Meriwether. Oh, did you find them? Let's see you. The colored pencils, yeah. Or whatever you were calling them. The colored ink. So, what did you say last, Becca? You kind of faded out there. That's it. We're ready for you. Perfect. So, what exactly, what pictures do we want exactly?

Probably. So we should have something of like on our travel there, like maybe the bridge where we encounter something for instance. But also like when we get the quest from the mayor. I think you're still at the table. Oh, good call. I thought we were all at the table. Not yet. She went to her and is asking these questions. They're probably... Yeah. Yeah, so you guys are walking back to the table. You see Resperia towards the back of the tavern setting up her music stuff.

Somewhere in this, I think, Fauna, you feel a wiggle in your pocket. I pull out Iggy from my pocket. He smiles at you. He's like the Zola commercial egg. I whisper, Hi, Iggy. It's good to see you again.

And now we're not back to the table I am rushing back to the table Yeah you see him like mouthing words Back to you but no sound comes out He can't talk he just, You know it's like when People draw like those cartoons On things, We'll have to figure out how to Communicate with this rock I mean if you could read rock clips then I guess You could Speak what is it Terrence Oh Igdum.

Would it be Evelyn or would it be Taryn I don't know I don't remember I think going back to our story that on the way home from that is now where we ran into Rocky so on our way home we could meet a new friend in our book the enchanted rocking horse we could but that might be trying to do too many things in one book in one book got it because even though it happened in real life that would be introducing something right at the end which might not

make for a satisfying ending okay we already made the friend of the dragon got it yeah at least that's mine that's mine yeah i'm not sure it's the bull i'm gonna pull it out so they see that he's alive we wrote it back in the book stage whisper yeah we wrote it back in the book i think it might be respira did we bring the rock around respira the first time that was when we found out he was alive.

But it's what we saw oh but then we assumed it was the book but we cleaned it out of the book and iggy was no longer alive yeah and respira's known so much about magic i started to get suspicious i mean i guess we don't really have a way to rule out that variable so it sounds like you've made two variables the book and respira yeah yes yeah that's the problem that is the problem you keep looking at me hoping i'll give something away yeah this is where you go

you've you've already given it all away a while he's offended that's okay that's an angry movie Yeah.

No I like the movie It's just been a while since I've seen it Andre the giant died pretty soon after the movie He was a gentle giant, Okay so I guess you're What penciling in Some sketches or something Yes Give me a roll for, I will let you choose Performance Or sleight of hand Oh definitely sleight of hand, okay yeah nothing weird nothing they're not bad in their their first drafts so they're pretty good for first drafts close to inking.

Ink or i'm assuming you're using like a pencil to like yeah to just sketch out the outline before we make it all fancy schmancy so how do these look guys and then i'll just lay them lay out the sketches or a sketch depending on how much time or how many rolls you're gonna make me roll per sketch um i assume i just trust her trust her artistic judgment And maybe she's looking for validation. Looks great. Thanks. I mean, I'm ready to put down some ink lines, make some colors. What do you think?

Sure. If you guys think that the pictures look all right, I can start inking them out. I think we're set for that. So I'll move on to the next step then. Okay. So you can start to ink. Roll. See?

I knew it. it's a 16, that you weren't exactly expecting and unfortunately the inks are opaque enough that they don't cover each other do you do you mean like drips on the page, yeah like I don't know if you do this but sometimes my attention span disappears as I'm doing something in my hand just slightly to put a mark where I don't want it happy accident yeah i'll make some suggestions for filling in those spaces so that's disguised like with a little plant or

a shadow or something a happy bush yep okay yeah cool what's next, did we write the words in pencil or in i don't know that you had ink yet i i think we had talked about and i can't remember what we were going to write it in so i don't think i wrote it down but we had some sort of some other like paper or journal that we were going to take the notes of first before we started writing the story.

This i think she's talking about your hotline oh like in my notebook yeah so that we would be able to like write the story then i know that doesn't really answer whether we use pen or not or ink or not but it at least means like it wasn't like it was our first draft directly straight in so maybe we would have inked it but we only have one notebook so when i went and got the colored, ink can i also pick up like a another blank book or something yeah how much did i say that was,

um gold okay so are we like redrafting i think the first one was just an outline, plus i'll just pick up an extra book in case we made a mistake on that one, did we make a mistake i don't know i don't know you roll for a slight of hand or performance.

Sleight of hand it is oh yeah i'm spending everyone 13 so so make me another sleight of hand another oh 21 okay one roll that was good enough would have been fine one roll that's mediocre was gonna require a second roll so yeah you're able to get get through it i mean you know where the imperfections are but most other people probably won't be able to tell, In that case, I think we should go ahead and finalize what we have here.

So if there's any finishing touches, like embellishments on the first letter on the page or like anything you want to touch up on your drawings, I think we can just finish that up and then call it good to go. And what is the title of your book? The Lonely Dragon. Okay. I hope in some of the times. It's probably a big time. I hope you.

Can't be protected gotcha i like it what time is it now uh late evening so old days is probably closed at this point probably so we can take it by tomorrow he said that we should also give a good donation what makes it a good donation for you guys my friends okay so it sounded like it needs to be pretty decent amount of money. But what makes a decent amount of money? I mean, I guess we can always just throw out a number.

Write a nice slip of paper, slide it across the table? Yeah, that kind of thing. I feel like old Dave told us that rare books like that are usually like 25 or 30 gold on their own and that we maybe need to go above that. And we just got all that copper. We did.

But we did write an entire book also yes but he said a book and money you mean like 35 gold, is that too much too little i mean i should do something easily to this little bit three yeah, 36 gold plus a brand new book i mean that seems like a decent deal right I mean, it's more than what a rare book would be. And this is a children's book, which are usually less expensive. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, we can go and do that. Okay. So 36 divided by 3, that's 12 gold apiece.

Unless you want to do 30 gold and each give 10. I think we need to go above 30 from the way it sounded. So I think 36 seems fair. so we'll throw 12 gold into a pile together each for a total of 36 gold and when we talk to old Dave tomorrow we can give him that and the book let me just see what happens you guys finish the book and decide, a donation price for old Dave tomorrow when she's still looking.

Yep. Okay. Precisely. Just chill it out and Raspira's playing her musics. Yeah, I'll just sit and enjoy the music. I think we ate bread bowls for dinner, so I might just go up and get an ale, unwind a little bit after our long dungeon trek. I'm going to keep looking at Iggy. He just keeps on talking, but no sound. Just lips moving. And his expression. Thumbs up and smiling at him. Okay. Like you would do at a concert that's too loud.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. He like smiles back and gives you the equivalent of what a thumbs up would be, but in facial expression. So whatever you imagine a thumbs up looks like in facial expression, that's what you get. Okay. You guys doing anything else? Fine. I don't think I was fighting on it. Okay. How much is the ale? A couple of silver. Like not many. Maybe five or less. One gold is 100 copper. Is it 10 copper to a silver? Yeah. Ethereum is five to one gold. Most people don't have Ethereum.

Would it be four or five silver for the ale? Five silver. So I'll give 50 copper. because I don't have five silver. You just have a thousand upper. Yeah, I'll sit there. I'm so sorry for spirit as I'm counting out and I'll apologize like three more times while I'm counting coppers. Yeah. Like you're sliding pennies across. Yep, that's exactly what I was going for here, but I'm going to apologize the whole time because I know it's obnoxious.

Yeah. Okay. Cool. So you put your dad before you don't I'm gonna go home. It's too late to go talk to Marigold. I'll plan to do that tomorrow. But I want to check in on the chickens. Make sure everybody's settled for the evening. Check if there's a cupcake. I need to make more cupcakes. So I'll probably bake tonight instead of...

I'll check on winston okay you not like winston no he's just a no i like winston he's just a dramatic little guy yeah but nobody's there that can talk to him so he's probably losing his mind, doesn't realize that not everybody can talk to him you assume that he cares if people can understand him true when you go home and you walk into the barn you just see the top of a pony and ethyl pop up but i don't think you can probably see over in the stall poor guy and you just hear like i'll go

over hi winston and i'll pet him he just like shakes into the pets right the sound you heard was basically like you know when you go to let the dog out and they're at the door and they're like dancing yeah that's what you were hearing no i was really excited you're home it's like meeting roscoe what are you talking about he's the calmest ever, but huh don't think about that time he jumped up on the back of the couch to greet you and get your attention probably looking for carrots if he's on the

carrot diet he just doesn't know that because remember i did say the last time that i was regulating his carrot intake when he sees no carrot is coming. He does one hoof stump and throws his mane. Cancel my hips. You can be as dramatic as you want to be, sir. And you just get off. You can have a carrot tomorrow.

He turns around and lays down. Facing away from you. Fine, be like that. I'll go over to Pickaroo and Flane. Make sure that they're tucked in their stalls. Maybe put a blanket over them. Give them some pets. Okay. Cool. They're normal. Yep. I'd expect them to be. Good little horsies. Yep. And Fauna, what are you doing? Did I happen to hear Flora say she was making cupcakes on her way out? I don't think she said it. Okay. That's what I had a feeling. I just wanted to make sure.

So I'll probably just wander my way on home. And as I'm like walking towards home and I get further and further from the tavern, I'm going to keep pulling Iggy out and checking to see if Iggy's still alive. Yeah, Iggy's still alive. Even all the way back to my house? Yep. Hmm. Okay.

Do you want to make like an arcana check To see if you can understand Sure, He's still alive Whatever magic brought him to life is probably What he needed to be alive It doesn't seem like Anything has to maintain his life Other than what you know From before which is When it was erased from the book That definitely killed him And he doesn't have a stovepipe pad on right? No You could make him one, but. You get that, right? Yeah, Frosty.

All right. If it's not too late and my parents are still up, I'll probably just check in with them. It's probably too late. They're farmers, so they wake up early. Yeah, true. We'll quietly go in and decide that, eh, I'm going to stay in my room tonight, but I'm going to put Iggy right next to my bed. So I can like, if I wake up in the middle of the night Take a look and see is he still alive, She has anxiety About her pet I have anxiety with that With you sometimes Is he breathing?

I think everybody does the same thing I'll see freckles and I'll be like Is she breathing? I did that with Maggie when she was really old Yeah Yeah. Were smooth. Park go, Jackie! And then she would just be like, slide-eye me so hardcore. That sounds like her. Yeah. Biggie seems alive every time you check.

Okay. So, Meriwether checked on Winston and he was traumatic as usual and her other horses who or a cool Fauna went home to bed and had to check her signs life through the night with a poor understanding of how he's alive and what was yours, Flora? Before you go I'm making cupcakes and then I'm gonna go to bed I will leave a fresh cupcake out, though, for Rain. But this time, Fauna didn't hear it, so she can't sit there and eat all my cupcakes.

When you go out to put a cupcake on the chicken coop, Rain is out there, like... Yeah, making biscuits up into the chicken coop. Does she have claws? Yeah. Oh. Is she damaging the chicken coop? Do you like high or low? High. She is damaging the chicken coop slightly. Oh, Ray, please don't do that. I have a cupcake for you. And she will do the, like, stretch thing and reach and pull her claws back in and then yawn and like come over to you.

I set the cupcake down on the ground and I hold my hand out to see if she'll come sniff it. Yeah, she'll sniff your hand. I will act like I do with a normal cat and try to pet and see if she accepts. She does not accept that. I hold my hand back. But as she spins to take the cupcake, she will like slightly brush up against you with the end of her tail and then jumps to the chicken coop and then back up into the clouds. Flora says, I have been blessed and then goes inside.

Okay, so you go inside. I assume we go to bed. Mm-hmm. Yes, you can roll a constitution check. Save. Save? Yeah. You might be too excited to go to bed Oh, I don't think I'm too excited What'd you roll? 17 without the modifier Oh, what's the modifier? 2, so 19 It's pretty exciting, but you're able to get to sleep anyway I'm good at compartmentalizing after our last few adventures Yeah Okay, I got my notes in Okay, Okay You guys wake up the next day?

Mm-hmm What's up? Taking care of my chickens. Lifting eggs. Preparing for my delivery. Do I see rain at all this morning? No. Okay. I'll leave another cupcake out since she took the one last night. Uh-huh.

Okay how many eggs do you collect i don't think the week is up yet to take the eggs out to, the goblins so it's 25 for helene i'll keep an extra maybe six so that i can have breakfast and i have breakfast for my friends because they always stop by and want something, and then i'll take a couple eggs over to my parents okay yeah cool cool fauna what are you doing i'll wake up and be the good daughter and go out and get my chores done for the day so check on the props make sure

everything has enough water etc and then i'll make my way to Flores Okay The next day I will Go see the horses Do my chores And this time I will bring A carrot For Winston.

Winston is very happy And like takes the carrot out of your hand and then does like a victory little circle like march in a circle carrot like this and then near the end of the circle he got and eats it see i told you you were gonna get carrots yeah he's not huffing or puffing at you today oh yeah because i gave him a carrot but he will when i refuse to give him another one yeah he probably will that is probably true uh and then then what are you doing i'm probably gonna go out

for a ride like i always do, find a nice spot read a book after i do my chores and then go to, Fora's house That seems to be the meeting place Oh and I also want to check on the Rocking horse too, That one doesn't sass me Yeah rocking horse just sitting there Rocking Did we determine does it eat or no No Okay, It's literally a wooden rocking horse that just happens To be animated Okay, I'd be really sad if once we fix all of them, What else has he ever traumatized you over?

Killing all of my children That was in the future. Some of them died of old age Others died in a Packboard Do you never specify the packboard? Yeah it is Yeah. A war against their pack against something else that was just you know an ultimate enemy that came along out of the way traumatized okay. Xander helped you kill the uh what do you call it I don't know you're the one that named it or found it what's the place where the dead people are. What plane is that? Not celestial.

Astral. So it was an astral trend. So, okay. So you go over towards Flora's house. Flora, your friends show up at some point. Meriwether probably lagging behind because she took a lot more time to read a book and just chill out. I'll say I've already taken the eggs to my parents next door. So I'll cook up The eggs that I kept here along with, I'll set out the cupcakes in case they want a cupcake. Oh, can I help you prepare any

of this? If you want to make some toast or do you want birds in a nest? Oh, that sounds good. Yeah, let me get the toast started. He hates that dog. Oh, it's fine. Did you tell us about Rain and the cupcake? I'll tell you about it over, like, preparations for breakfast and over eating. Over eating? While eating. I'm also going to make a note that I would like some jam. So I'm going to see if old Dave has some jam to purchase at the general store. Well, and you were at, there was that Grove.

Did we make jam? Maybe we did. I think we made jam before. I'm going to pull out the jam. Yeah. I'm going to pull out the jam. I also really wanted to. birds in a nest now. So that might be my lunch tomorrow.

In a basket there's a bunch of names yeah we call it eggs in a frame becca what do we call it, i thought like birds in a nest or eggs in a nest what we've called it you know we're talking about now yeah the egg in the middle of the toast yeah yeah you cut a hole in the middle cook the egg in it thanks in a basket i've heard so many different names for it at this point i can't even remember or what we called it when I was a kid. Yeah, there's a lot of regional names for it.

That's what we're making, and I'll pull out the jam for the extra little toast circles so we can have the toast along with the eggs. I think that's probably a good breakfast. So you make the toast circles? I used to just eat the pie. I fry them up as little toast circles. That's smarter than what I did, and I would just pinch it out of the middle. I use a top to cut it out, And then toast up the circle Instant gratification.

I wasn't gratifying It's just plain old bread Oh I think I still have some milk from old Dave too So I'll pull that out Oh yay old milk Milk from old Dave Yeah but it's probably old milk It's also going to be old Yeah it's not super old But it's on the old end of Yeah so we gotta finish it I got three gallons of milk it expires tomorrow, oh my okay so you have a nice breakfast mmhmm let's see how nice it's okay probably because the milk's getting old probably.

We're slowly filling this with mushrooms is that like a little mushroom house no it's spooky spores this is a lantern with a little pixie in it, that sounds pretty rude and then i sketch these guys on this side i wish i had that artistic ability i'm lucky i can draw a circle yeah right i'm mostly just doodling to keep my hands busy i'm lucky if people recognize it's a circle or a puffy paint puffy painting i'm so much decent at you seem like a puffy painter like you made some she was a sorority

girl yeah that's what i uh-huh yeah of course i know a I've made some sweatshirts in the past. That sweatshirt swag. Okay. Like glasses, chug jugs, cups. You have to make the paddles. Yes. When I worked at AC Moore every year, well, I guess I was only there for one year, but you.

Scores of sorority girls coming in and buying the wooden paddles from a seymour wait i'll have we can continue this but i will find my paddle and show you a picture of it because i was quite proud of it but yeah and then last christmas i decided to be super artsy and bring out the puffy paint again because one of the things we used to do is for a big little night our we would buy wine bottles for our littles so when we got our little we would hand them the bottle and they

would chug it and then they would give us the bottle back and then we would put glitter on the inside and then we would puffy paint the outside and give it to them on when i actually got in.

So yeah puffy paintings my gym so last year because i work at a bar i was like oh i have all these empty bottles at my fingertips let me just buy some glitter and some puffy paint and then they were christmas presents for some of my regulars i lost my phone oh sorry mike you're fine you crazy puffy painter so what are you guys doing now well i don't know about you guys i need to run to this this girl marigolds to see if she's still up for the job and

then we need to take the book and the donation to old dave so that we can keep the other book what order you guys want to do that i guess in the order of like so that way we're not going like this way to go this way to go back over here like i don't care where we go as long as it makes sense in our path okay i would like to stop at marigolds first i think okay i think we said that she wasn't that old like maybe Teen preteen? Yeah.

Okay. So, Helene gave me directions to the house. I know the family. I love the family. So, kind of tagging along at this point. So I'll go up and knock on the door. Okay. A young girl opens the door. Good morning. I'm looking for Marigold. That's me. Hi, Marigold. Hi. I saw that you responded to my ad for some part-time help. You saw my ad? My response? I saw your response. You're the lady with the chickens? I am the lady with the chickens. Can I watch the chickens?

Can you what? Watch your chickens. Watch them? Yeah, watch the chickens. Yeah. So what I would need you to do, right? I'd show you how to take care of them. If I'm not there in the morning, you'll just feed them. You can come by every morning. I'll give you a little bit of pay every day for this. Okay. Help me take care of the chickens. If I'm not there, you'll take care of them yourself. Yeah, sure. And if I'm not there, you'll also take the egg delivery to Helene. Okay. How many eggs?

However many they produce when I'm not there. Okay. I can't control the magic when I'm not there, so. I do. No, this is me as an aside to the DM. And I'll show you how to take care of the chickens. How does that sound? Absolutely fabulous. Okay. What's a normal amount to pay someone for something like that? Like to pay a neighborhood kid to help with the chores? I was telling them.

Is it in the realm of like. Coppers to silvers. like a silver that would be a pretty I think what's the, maybe for just chores it would be lower and if she does the delivery it's double, let me see that's magic items I guess it's, describe what you're looking for they wouldn't call it salary maybe lifestyle odd job yeah so squalid is one silver that this is if you were to rent like a room wallet is one silver poor is two silver modest is one gold so it'd be less than that because

that's that's for place to stay that's for rent basically per day or for like a hotel room or something whereas let's see cost of hireling.

Not hurling i said i left out another cupcake right yeah yeah that's okay ah so hirelings can range from this one person said a modest hireling is one no that's lifestyle sorry they're saying like what was it said in here a skilled hireling would be like two gold a day which is a comfortable lifestyle this is not a skilled, hireling mercenaries with no immediate ties except pay range from one silver piece to five which would be like a squire to five gold per day for like heavy infantry.

So it would be less than that. Probably right. Basic hirelings in the PHB they're listed as two silver pieces per day for an untrained hireling and two gold per day for a trained hireling. So you would be training her. So she's not trained. So one silver a day, two silver. If she does the delivery. Sure. We'll say because minimum wage. Well, because she's a kid too. Yeah. It's like doing odd jobs, like going around and asking your neighbors if they

can mow your lawn. Yeah. Yeah. Say okay so if that sounds good come by tomorrow morning or actually come by tonight and i'll i'll show you how to do everything that way you can stop by in the morning and we'll make sure that you know what's going on just in case i am off somewhere you can handle it what time tonight, after dinner is fine okay before dark i don't want you to have to come out after dark, so i'll give you one silver every day that you come and do helping take care

of the chickens if you did take the delivery i'll give you two silver yeah sound good sound good okay, do your parents know already all this i told them i was going to sign up for that service okay so just let them know if they have any questions they can come talk to me okay happy to answer, and I hold out my hand to shake hands with her. She'll spit in her hand and shake. I'll spit in mine and we'll shake. Okay. All right. I look forward to working with you, Marigold. You too.

Do you think you want to be a chicken farmer? Maybe. Good enough. All right. See you tonight. See ya. Let me write down what I'm charging or what I'm paying. Oh, yeah. I'll describe to you what you've seen. And so she's like, you know, it's just a regular, like baggy shirt, like a farm shirt, farmhand shirt and pants that are like bristling with pockets. She has chestnut colored hair that's cut jaggedly and amateurishly.

Oh, there's a bunch of comments. I'm using LibreOffice on this computer because I don't have word on it. Ooh. Okay. Hey, I'm using notes to mark important things to remember. Okay. I remembered I'm carrying the eggs, so I have to go to the next. It's still early, I assume. So I'll just keep walking around doing my chores and assume they're still tagging along. So you went back to your house? I think I was carrying everything I needed. Okay. So I have the book. I have the eggs.

And we, whoever is carrying the donation, we have the donation. So I'll go to the tavern, make my egg delivery, say, thanks for letting me know about Marigold. I spoke with her and I think we're going to give this a shot. So if I'm not here in the morning, Marigold will be doing the egg delivery. Okay. And what if she doesn't show? I'll compensate you and we'll figure out an alternative.

That's a good business woman. trial run like i said she's just a kid yeah but it's a good opportunity for her to learn, and i mean we've known each other for a long time so i hope you understand trying out the new sharp new system yeah yeah but don't worry just let me know if she doesn't show with the delivery one day we'll figure it out okay yeah okay.

And then we can head to Old Dave's. Okay. Okay, you guys head to Old Dave's? I have a little bit of shopping to do. And by a little bit of shopping, I mean I want more milk. Okay. Fresh milk. So. Not two-legged cow milk? I hated that thing. Sold the picture. No, thank you. Yeah, we say we took a picture of the board. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I sent it to everyone not that long ago.

I think we did yeah for fun yeah for everyone for funsies it's fun for everyone, okay so i'm gonna buy a new bottle of milk um yeah let's say five copper silver maybe five silver five silver maybe okay i'll pay 50 copper you're not poor, it's just because i don't have silver so i'm paying 50 copper again okay okay, yeah she loves and then i'll pull out the book and we'll get the donation, we took your suggestion we wrote a book oh and we have this donation okay can

i see the book here you go read it to make sure it's appropriate. While he's looking at it I want to take a quick look again at Iggy in my pocket I put Iggy right back in my pocket this morning yeah, yeah it's a little it's a decent book it's okay it was our first try yeah we thought it was a fun story, I think it'll work great glad to hear it yeah and the donation did you choose an amount we picked 36 gold, yeah I think that'll do okay okay let me see the old book I pull out the old

book card thing You know they don't actually do that when they get rid of library books, right? They just take out the card. Old Dave's gonna substitute this book. It's a book heist. Does the other library know this is happening? No. Oh. No, you've been part of the crime. Well, I don't know that. So, Old Dave pulls the thing off and replaces the card into the new slot. Is Old Dave keeping our money then for himself? I don't know.

Insight Okay, roll Insight We might be part of a crime ring now A book Crime Oh no What we do. 14 Payment For the effort and the risk The risk?

Oh no I mean, we're all standing in front of him I doubt he's gonna say something right now I know, I can say it in your heads i use message and say it in their heads do i respond nope yeah um i think my eyes get wide when you say this and i just don't know what to do and old dave notices how you look at him and he says don't worry olive won't know anything you know that to be the librarian yeah i remember the name library i mean she

didn't give us a card for tinyville anyway so it's not like we can go check out a book there no you don't pay taxes there yeah well.

Tacos we're leaving yep thanks old dave bye and uh peace out of there see you i mean we could have passed on that is not to be suspicious but as quickly as i get what'd you say i said we could have just done that yeah he probably wouldn't have noticed but we have to be nice people and ask questions we thought that it was an actual like payment to the library for buying the book It is. Hold Dave's the library of Calendron. Okay. You're paying him to violate the librarian's code.

Yeah. Let's not think about this anymore. I don't want to think too hard about this, or Flora's going to feel real bad. She already feels bad for writing in the book. But she felt worse killing Iggy, so... Which is why we did this whole entire thing. Exactly.

Iggy is the only reason we did this maybe flora's gonna like circle around all this in her head and come to the conclusion that all of what understand it was to save a life, it's a rock life it's a rock fact i know i just watched it but now i just want to watch it, over the garden wall it's a very like fall mini series every episode is like less than 15 minutes, and you can watch the whole thing in like two hours but some people compare it to as a retelling of dante oh i could see that it it

has a very like dark fairy tale kind of vibe it's a cartoon but it's it's weird but it's neat storytelling but the one character is like it's two kids and the one character is like a much younger kid and he has like a pet rock and so he'll like hold up the rock and say something go it's a rock fact which means it's wrong it's a lie, it's false i got that when you said it's all right yeah that's not true.

So what are you doing now i did everything i needed to do okay i don't think there was anything i needed to do besides go down and see what's the bus okay uh father, i was trying to think i i think i've mostly just been focused on iggy and i'm still confused as to why Iggy's still alive, but only since we encountered Respiria again last night. Although I know we had redrawn in the book, but Porn wasn't an immediate response, so I'm still just trying to figure this out. Yep.

My sleep solidified. Any thoughts in my head, maybe, about what's going on with the magic with it? Give me an Arcana roll. It was also after she kicked me again, or...

Worse than last night's roll okay yeah nothing new comes to you you just know it has something to do with the book and it has something to do with respira so i think that was all that's really all i focused on it yeah we have the book now i feel a little bit guilty but i'm also curious about this mystery i just want to know how we can get to the bottom of it so okay yeah yeah i'm not sure how you get to the bottom of that mystery i don't know that we have any leads right now,

we had other potential missions from respira it's possible that we could continue to learn things if we tried something else there was something on the board about a town hall meeting coming do we need to go to that when is it you're gonna have to remember that one because i don't, we checked it before we went to the dungeon so there was a town hall meeting in a couple days to discuss expanding the businesses in town like upgrading

the library, new business ideas, other ideas to increase trade and economy. Has that passed yet? It'll probably be tonight. Maybe after you talk to what's her name? Maracle. Okay. I'm not the one who got kicked the first time. What we wrote about Iggy, Fauna named him and we said Iggy likes to eat seeds and spits them out at people who are bad, and he's real. And I put a seed in front of Iggy and then kicked Fauna. Whoops.

I'm just trying, stuff about him no the other stuff that respira had given us is like things we could go adventure, i think they were more like checking with her oh i found it no she had given us options gotcha she had said we could go retrieve something from a magical place she suggested a dungeon such as the howling cells or the quarters of the shrouded king which is what we did i think yeah or the grotto of the ghost warlord.

We picked the Shrouded King so I wouldn't freak out about ghost warlords. Yeah. So there were two other dungeons. So we could go to Rispira and get our next task. What did we pick up at the dungeon? What was the magical item at the end? The Wand of Secrets. What did it do? It helps you find traps and secret doors and ice throw in their treasure, even though technically it doesn't, but, um. When Raspira gave us these options, she gave us a wand to help find traps.

Yeah, I noticed that after a while, too, and ended up, but I think you probably have to return that one and maybe keep one we found. Yeah, we promised to return it in one piece. We never used it. Maybe we realized we still have it, and we have to go give it back to her. Yeah, I don't think we gave it back to her. No. So I guess we need to go return it. I'm going to guess Fauna probably has it. So Fauna, you want to lead the way

since you're so enamored with Rasphera? You got to stop giving magic items to Fauna. Hey, she has no lost or broken. No, but she forgets she has no. They like, they like sorcery points. Sorcery points don't actually exist. That's why you don't use them. Just cause you. Gotcha. Yeah. You know, I was joking about how Kara always forgot to use sorcery points. Fauna's been remembering to use that ball. Yeah. Yep, a few times. You want to lead the way to town hall then? Yeah, let's go.

Okay. You guys head towards town hall. Right. So, uh, I assume, uh, I'm trying to say Kenzie and I know it's not Kenzie. Kazara. I assume Kezrae's at her death? Yep. Henzie was the author of a book. The Imaginary Creature Book. Okay. That's true. Hey, Kezrae. Is Respirin busy right now? I don't think so. She leans back in her chair and knocks with one knuckle on the door. Does one knuckle mean get?

No, it just it tells her attention is needed out here and a few seconds later the door opens and respira is standing there hey respira so a couple things first off we realized we forgot to give you back this when we got back yesterday oh yeah i'll hand her her wand of secrets yeah she'll take it twinsies and she if you're holding the wand to see your wand of secrets she goes, twinsies. I'm not sure who has it, but so she I'll take it and go twinsies and then hand it back to Fauna. We really.

And, uh, now that we have one of our own, I can see why that was a good dungeon to start on, I think maybe after tonight's meeting, maybe first thing tomorrow, we might be ready to take stock of another dungeon. Are the same ones still ideas we could do? Yeah, I mean, sure. You could also go to the, the halls of the goblin king, if you want something a little more challenging because you're a little stronger now.

Hmm i look at my friend i i uh i'm going to assume but maybe i need to roll an insight that particularly flora may not look super thrilled with the fact that she says we're stronger now flora flora is conflicted because she's made a lot of goblin friends and the halls of the goblin king doesn't sound that bad could we uh chat about it for a few minutes and let you know? Sure. I don't know if we want to step out or we just want to go to a corner. You don't have to worry about goblins.

It's more of a hobgoblin game. What's a hobgoblin? A hobgoblin is bigger and uglier. Does he need to be defeated or help? I guess you'll have to find out when you go there. Are there goblins there? I don't know. We found nine goblins at the last place. Are you trying not to find goblins? No, I didn't say that. I'm just saying they keep finding goblins everywhere. We're introducing them to each other. It's a goblin town, it seems. Yeah, it seems like they're building a little town. Gross.

They're not bad. They smell. They steal. I'm sure we smelled them. And that was a misunderstanding. I don't know why Flora is defending them, but she has no reason not to like them. And she's going to say... I think they're just a little misunderstood. They're making their own way around the world. And those nine goblins we found, they lost everything. Their village was attacked and destroyed. They're the only ones left. Okay.

I'm just saying, you might be a little hard on them. Maybe. But as long as I don't have to deal with them, that's fine. I mean, maybe they'll be a benefit to the town. Who knows? Are they skilled?

Some of them are a war band. They're good at protecting. They killed this armor thing That kept coming back to life, Baby One of them's a dragon And I wink at Meriwether I love how we keep finding ponies Chickens and dragons Or not dragons, goblins Okay Dragons, And dragons And I wink at Meriwether again Trying to hold in a laugh So you can hear us Okay.

What are you meowing at yeah okay so uh you can go here do you guys think we need to get a little bit more practice before we go something stronger it's not it's it's appropriate strength it's proportional it's proportional everybody's getting air quotes well what do you guys think do we do more goblin or do we go check out what's howling around or see the ghost for lord i mean didn't someone at the tavern last night also say there was something digging around town? What's that all about?

Something's digging around town? I heard someone talking about it. That can't be good. What could it be? I don't know. Maybe a bullet? A what now? Would I know what this is? No. A what now? A bullet. It's a giant beast from the Underdark who digs through the ground. It's very vicious and well, I don't think you three should go digging around for anything. Like that. Oh, well, maybe keep an eye for it, then. That doesn't sound good at all.

Yeah, it does. But maybe that goblin warband can help. Maybe. Or they'd just be fodder for it. Well, I guess let the patrols know. I heard it at the tavern, so I thought everyone kind of knew about it. I haven't heard anything. I'll keep an ear out. I'll keep an ear to the ground. But I can't believe you would joke at a time like this. I'm kidding. That was a good joke. I'll keep the joke safe. You haven't failed us yet, Raspira. Thank you.

I've got to get back to work it's very chemo doing something fun or whatever, yeah i guess what time of day is it it's still like pre-noon i got a lot dead this morning, i mean things are relatively close when you wake up you're all farmers you wake up It wasn't close enough.

No, it's nine o'clock on the dot. And that one signals to him. Yeah. As soon as she starts meowing, he thinks it's time for food. Yeah. So what are you guys doing? I don't know. Okay. Well, you've slightly been disinvited to Pixie Ticipate in this office, so. She's gently told you she has to go. Yeah, I assumed we were leaving. Yeah, I'm walking out. Let me head back to Flora's farm and take stock of what we might need to tackle this next dungeon. Sure.

Flora says, begrudgingly, would you rather go somewhere else we could go to? My parents, I just, you know. We don't have to. I can start making some snacks. Sure. I just put the snacks for the room. I mean, I'm the only one at mine. I'm the only one at mine, too. Okay, what did you do this morning? Oh, he was happy. He got a carrot. Wasn't happy I wouldn't give him one last night, though. Yeah. But he forgave me this morning when I presented him with a carrot. Well, that's good.

So should we make our plans around Winston? Give him some company? We can, since you're the only one that can talk to him. He may feel a little lonely, since that's what he was used to with us. Then maybe we should do that. Should Winston be Fauna's mount, since she can talk to him? Like, should she just, like, drag him around everywhere, like I do with popcorn? And like I do with the other two horses? I mean, we can't drag him around, unless Mike doesn't want to do the dramatics all the time.

I don't know. I feel like he might give up our position. Yeah, he seems more like a domesticated whore. Pony. Pony. Yeah. Just wants to lazy around. Don't we all? Okay. I feel like he might be safest on your farm. Does he like the other horses at all? He's a little wary of Rocky. Other than that, he's fine. I mean, that's good. But if he's comfortable, I feel like he might be safer there than anywhere else. But I'll have to make sure I go visit him regularly.

Yeah, he'll like that. I get the feeling he likes to chit-chat. Do you think it's too much if I bring him an extra carrot when I go to visit him? No, you can bring him an extra carrot. All right, then maybe I'll...

Okay so you guys going to Meriwether's house yeah okay you get there there's no danger within the town now yet, except for a bullet possibly I think most people pronounce it bullet because of the way it's spelled almost french like so you guys get to Meriwether's farm to go see Winston I think we were just making preparations for the goblin. Oh, okay. I was also going to poke my head in on Winston, though. Okay. You poke your head in on Winston and Winston, like, Hey!

Hey, Winston! How's it doing around here so far? It's not bad, but I don't know if you know this, but your friend is stingy with carrots. Oh. Are you starving again? Yeah. I'm dying. Dying. I'm sorry. Roscoe is attacking. No, he's... I keep moving my computer so he can't stare at me. And he keeps moving so he can stare at me. Yeah. Go lay on your bed. Go. Go. Don't step on him. Go to your bed. That's not your bed. Your bed. Your bed. Your bed. Thank you.

I'm gonna go out with Fauna. Is she letting me know what he said? Because the ranch hands definitely gave him more carrots today. Oh, yeah. Do you want to make sure? I don't want to overfeed him. That's not even possible, he says. I know the ranch hands fed you more carrots today. It's possible. That's who he's modeled after. And as you're like doing that, he goes and stands closer to Fauna. Does he think Fauna's going to protect him? Yeah. You two are outside the stall. You're here.

Fauna's here. He goes and like over in the corner towards Fauna. We've got the rule enforcer and the fun carrot. Well, I guess you won't get your treat tonight if you take that carrot. I go over to I'm going to get I have like apples somewhere. Well, I'm not going to guess. I know I have apples somewhere. I'm going to get three. One for Piccolo, Flame, and Winston.

Here's an extra special treat, but you can't lie about what food you're getting, lie I would never lie I give one to Pickerow and he, he's not admitting anything but he's like, I prefer apples anyway I give one to Flang and he he's ready for his apple he didn't see that I grabbed a fourth one I give another one to Pickerow because they're his favorite, and then I go i don't have any more whatever a pony would do to gasp you hear a gasp and he like,

stopping the front hoof and throwing the head so like the bangs like all indignant and then he like rears up and he's like oh it falls over and pretends to die and then like one eye pops up, and this is how i have my arms crossed just staring at him like you want to try again and then his legs kicked a little bit yeah i'm not falling for that buddy and then he goes. Well i guess if he's dead i guess he doesn't need any carrots or anything either He jumps up, and...

I'm here. You can't hear this, but you hear his noises. There were... apples? You have to stop pretending like things aren't the way they really are if you want to keep getting good treats. Or I could pretend to not... pretend to stop, but not. Okay fauna let's go we have a lot to plan for we do all right i guess i'll see you later.

You hear these cries i don't know what it would sound like in horse language i'll go over to flame and produce the fourth apple and give it to flame, Winston goes and puts his head in the corner The back corner So he can't see you And Just stands there And every once in a while stops, Alright Merriweather I think we should give him one too I know he's a bit dramatic But it's a good boy I'm not Blah blah blah blah blah I'm not rewarding this behavior and he,

Slightly turns back And gives a coy look to Fauna. And I'm manipulated by it Alright well let's I stop it I'll meet you guys there in a second Nope nope nope nope I know exactly what's going on Because I know my friend and I know this horse And this is not happening, Flora also feels dead But she's not really like In the barn in the barn She's like standing on the edge I mean, you can't, like, let everybody eat in front of him and not feed him, too.

And he's not in the water. Yeah, but he also can't lie, either. Look at him. I'm fully prepared to give him more apples if he doesn't lie. I'm gonna lean in. Winston, if you just admit you had more carrots today, you'll get an apple. I had more carrots today. You get two apples. Good job, buddy. If he could clomp his hooves together, he would. That's a good boy. I'm going to pet him a little bit. He accepts the pets and prepares for the apples. Standing there with his mouth open.

I keep him pet's tooth. For the apples. I saw I gave him two apples. Oh, I didn't hear that part. Yeah, I didn't hear that part. Okay. Yeah, he loves the apples. He dances around a little bit. So I will put The horses back Put the blankets on them Winston do you want a blanket tonight? Sure Winston gets a blanket Will you tuck me in later? He says Looking to Fauna But for translation Yeah it's how I look at Fauna And I'm like I want the carrot Huh?

Oh from Fauna Lucy doesn't make him the carrot Alright. Don't worry Winston I'll make sure you're always welcome It's not like he's starving I give him carrots The ranch hand gives him carrots Then they get apples, I know but he's a good boy Yeah And I want to keep him around for a while, Can't gorge himself, Yeah I mean that's fair but I mean he's a baby We don't know how much he got to eat before we found it. For all we know, he could be an old man. He's a full grown pony.

He's a full grown pony. Last time we decided he was a baby. I think we did decide he was a baby. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. That's where we'll stop for the date.