Last time on Cloudfall, Diver is gone. Aaron made damn sure of that. The Island of Lore is doomed to fall, but the party wasn't going to leave Diver for another day. They fought a difficult, chaotic battle and it's not quite over, but Diver is dead. Diver is dead and Aaron and Doran are alive. To start us off, we are out of initiative. Oh,
I I think Doran caught sight a closer look at Cree and noticed the blue eyes and the strange demeanor and that it was literally sucking magical energy from the island. Just that was enough to shake him a bit, and then looking and seeing Poppy and Mikey running towards the whale and runs towards his companions. Still running towards Diver, but different goal here.
On your way back to where you knew Diver to be, you encounter a strange small creature, A redcap if you know your fey at all. His scythe that he's holding is stuck fast into a juniper log. He seems unwilling to move on without it. He is just kind of Guy and Journey are waiting for something to happen here.
Do I recognize the the red redcap, creature?
Yeah. Got him.
And seeing him is actually doing some good things for you. You've had a long time to work this creature into nightmare, to build it up to be something impossibly powerful in your mind. But when you see him kind of struggling here to get his little weapon out of a juniper log, things seem suddenly humble. Do you continue on towards diverse out here?
Journey, Guy.
Dorn, you're okay.
We have to leave.
Yeah. The whole island is coming down. I don't know what to do with this creature though, and, Journey just has her bow trained on him with an arrow notched.
Let's forget about him. Where Aaron
Aaron is finishing things up with Diver.
Please head to the whale. Stay away from Kree.
Are you not coming with us?
Going to find Aaron.
What's wrong with Cree?
I look up towards a bird. Mhmm. What is what is it doing right now?
It is like getting a higher vantage, kind of slowly doing little half flaps to climb up the cliffside. It is just looking down at the island now as the structure of lore falls into chaos. Mentioned in the last session, the island is actually starting to split apart now and crumble to pieces.
It's destroying the island. Something I've I've seen this creature before, and something about it isn't right. It doesn't seem to be of its own mind even. It had blue eyes.
Blue eyes?
We need to go.
It is supposed to protect the island, is it not?
It's not doing that.
We gotta figure this out later. Hurry up and grab Erin Guy. Let's catch up with Poppy.
Have you heard from Poppy? Is she okay?
She's alright. She's she's at the rolling pin with Mayaki. We gotta go.
Yes. Let's.
As you're turning to leave, Smile Grin, still obsessed with his scythe, drops one hand to his side. And, Journey, as you turn around, he goes, snack. And he reaches out his hand and grabs for one of your fey buds.
I use primal savagery, and I swipe at him with one hand.
That's a
9. Take advantage for his, situation here. He is laid bare and vulnerable hanging off this log.
13?
Still doesn't hit him. He's a wily son of a gun. You swipe at him, and he kind of, like, jerks his hand back much faster than you expected and then flashes this huge big smile, and he looks at you and goes, snacks.
Did he catch 1? No. I, just hissed at him and bare my teeth and, gather my fae buds into my hair and step back, and I don't keep my eyes off of him until I'm far
enough away. K. Smilgrin gives a couple of nervous glances up at the people around him. He recalls his bismite back to his hands to form claws once again, and he begins climbing up the cliff side. Is anybody going to chase after him?
I don't think we have time. No. K. That's gonna bite us in the butt later.
Oh, yeah. 100%.
100% gonna bite us. One zaddy at a time.
Doran, you see them, heading off for the whale. You continue into the island. Now you have to step over cracks and fissures, one of which you can even see the mist of clouds being pushed up through. You see an aarakocra standing over Diver's macerated body, a bloody familiar short sword in its hand.
When have you seen an aarakocra
before?
A lot of weird people were coming through. Farewell. Yeah.
Erin It's done.
We need to go now.
Yeah. Let's go. Erin is going to run next to Doran and just completely disregard what happened and is done. Like, that's it for for them. So
Doran stops mid stride and looks back at Diver. Just one quick look just to make sure he's not moving.
Yeah. You're watching his chest for longer than is advisable to see if there's any breath there. Then you realize there is really no point in that because when you look at his face, there is very little left. Aaron left nothing to chance here.
Doran gets a slight grin and runs forward catching up with Aaron.
We book it to the whale,
I think.
Yeah. The the geography of lore that you would come to know in the last few days is literally crumbling beneath you. Doran has to help Aaron. At other times, Aaron has to help Doran, But the 2 of you, you know, you made it from the farewell. You both survived Diver, and now you're both gonna live through this.
The rest of you are at the moss, waiting, hoping that the rest of your party is going to show up, and soon enough they do. You see them cresting over the moss, the 2 of them practically hand in hand.
Are you still in bird mode?
Yep. I see them. Guys, over here.
All of the Tortle are standing with you, Poppy, except for a couple. You don't see Tully and you don't see Huber.
And
you hear a shuttering crack. And you see in the great distance, the clouds begin to move as a massive part of Laura falls away through the clouds.
That doesn't seem, good probably. Should we get on?
Is everyone here?
Everyone's now here. You all look up to see part of the whale for so much of it is buried in thick storm clouds. Great beasts are typically colossal versions of their species and Hallelu is much like a blue whale. So obviously ancient and surrounded by spirals of stony cracks and grooves in her weathered skin. And her presence makes you calm, calmer than you should be given the situation.
Like Laura is actively falling. You can feel the wind rushing around you. But in that moment, you hear a low rumble and then a noise so deep and so loud that it makes your teeth vibrate and go numb. And you wince as you're suddenly laid bare to sunlight and a high blue sky a mile wide. All of the clouds in a mile radius have been gathered into a massive wobbling blob of clear water, silently wiggling 50 feet overhead.
It pours down in a column and breaks into speeding arcs that kind of race throughout Lore, flooding it one last time. You see Smile Grin up on a cliff, staring after you get demolished by a crashing wave of water.
Heike?
Yeah?
I'm sorry. We're not all going to make it. I'm I have a shell, and I I think you should come with me. And I take out the, the shell that talks to Hubert. Huber?
Doran good to hear from you.
How are you? Could be better. I'm sure the same for you. Look, Huber. You've taught us to value lore and stories. And I'm here with Mikey right now. And I was wondering if there's any story you want to leave us with. Can I, bring the shell over and give it to Mikey?
Hi, Hubert. Mikey, no talking. Listen closely, Mikey. This is the story of young Huber. When I was a hatchling like you, my father, the archivist, taught me everything he knew. We spent countless hours learning his stories and stories he had learned from others. And now I have all of those stories in myself, and I continue to pass them down. But I sometimes wonder if I had stories of my own to craft that I did not seek out. Nike, my story is one of regret. But also one of great happiness.
Perhaps there was another life for me, but I don't regret this, and I don't regret Lore, and Mikey I don't regret you. You're not the prime archivist and you don't have to be Mikey. Be what you want to be for lore. Be what you want to be for yourself. Seek happiness Mikey And please.
I put my hand on Mikey's shell, and I, kinda close his hand around the echo bell that was Huber's. And I sit down next to him and then just kinda look out to the clouds.
Mikey's just kind of, like, staring down at the moss, and you don't see him look up for a long time. As a calm and orderly group, you're all ushered onto the ark that hangs below Halu, the great whale. In a single column, you all walk onto this plank and then up a short set of stairs and suddenly you're standing on the deck of an ark. A grand wooden balcony looks out over a 3 story tall market row, several 100 meters long. Anxious Tortle are gathered in the crowd as they board and a small crowd of people from the ark begins to speak with them and offer aid.
Mikey kind of clings to you, Doran, as you board the ship and doesn't seem to wanna go far from you. He doesn't seem to wanna acknowledge much of anything else. You're all kind of getting your bearings here as you feel this sudden jolt of motion. A few natives of the ark are helping Poppy's translucent on her nose and on her cheeks and ears. It's almost like your skin is impossibly thin and fragile. She says, are you alright? You're from lower?
I think we've been better, but, we're all here. So yes?
Beautiful. I see some injuries. Yes?
Yeah. Yeah.
We can take care of this. Please. I'm I did not name myself yet. Martha. Martha. My name is Martha. I am the speaker of Halu. I want to welcome you to Halu's Ark and be the first to say I'm deeply sorry for the tragedy of your homeland. If there's anything we can do to make your travel to back sea simpler, easier, more comfortable, please let us know. I am she kind of like, gestures unconfidently side to side. I am in charge here if there's anything you need.
There is one thing that maybe you should know, because you visit a lot of the Skylands. Right? You stop by a bunch of them?
Nearly all of them.
There's something that you should know about what happened here. The Skyland was was drained by some powerful being. The bismuth here wasn't supposed to be depleted. Someone did this.
Bismide is not forever. It does drain over time. It's a natural thing.
No. This was this was unnatural.
You've had a difficult time. I suggest you all lay down. Your heads must be swimming.
I don't make them understand.
There's nothing we can do now, Journee. We need to rest.
Yeah. And if an island falling out of the sky isn't enough to convince them,
I I don't know what would be. So
Mikey still clinging to you, Doren. April also approaches you. She says, well, it's good that we're all safe. Yes?
I nod.
Thanks to some sacrifices.
Yes. Yes. I knew this would come to pass, should Laura fall.
What would come to pass?
Huber would not leave his island, of course.
I'm sorry for your loss. You seem like a great husband. Oh,
heavens, no.
Oh, I'm I'm sorry. I just, assumed you're both pretty old.
I kinda assumed too. Mikey, who is your mom?
You know, somebody goes, I don't know. I was a egg.
All the eggs are just hatched together in one big herthing.
He goes, it doesn't really matter. We just gotta raise each other.
Oh my gosh. Just hope they crawl inland and not off. Off the cloud.
No, Mikey. Our new goal is to find your parents.
April says, Mikey, I think we should find something to do. Are you hungry at all? He says, not really. I think I need to lay down.
You did fight a very brave and and long fight. So,
he goes, oh, yeah. And he kinda, like, turns around and looks at his shell, and you can see these kind of, like like, molten dimples where the bismide impacted him. And he goes, cool.
Woah. That doesn't hurt?
To understand you suffered this wound in defense of Poppy?
Well, yeah. I mean, she doesn't have a shell like she said. So
But, yeah, he was real brave. He even carried me over here.
Guy, gets down on his knee and bows as low as he can before Mikey.
Oh. Mikey's looking down at you, and he just goes, woah. What?
You have done well, little one. I thank you for your service.
He reaches out his hand and he, like, touches one of your shoulders and then he raises it over your head to the other shoulder and he goes, thank you, sir.
Kinda.
I think you just got knighted.
Arise, sir Mikey. I don't actually have the authority
to go. Okay.
I think you should take a nap.
We could probably all use a nap, honestly.
Will you guys all be here when I get up?
I think we're all going to back see.
Yeah. Well, we'll stick around.
Okay. Good. Because I'm getting really sleepy.
I try to, like, hand him off to April.
Yeah. Yeah. You see just all of the fight drain out of Mikey and he just lets the day kind of take him.
I think we're all feeling that way, honestly. Yeah. So seedy.
What do we want to do here? Long rest?
Short rest?
Rest. Long rest.
Okay. So let's say you guys do a a long rest here, and it takes you to roughly this time next day, so kind of mid afternoon sort of thing. You've found some of the accommodations on the arc so far. Like I said, this whole thing is like a massive kind of like a banana boat sort of thing, and it's all one long central stretch. It's kind of like being in a mall where there's like 3 stories of of stores on either side and kind of, like, you know, balconies, around the the inside of this thing.
It's a cruise ship.
Yeah. Cruise ship. But it's inside instead of outside.
Mhmm. There's a casino.
Yeah. Oh, casino episode.
There is a ton of shops. Oh. You also see a couple, like, permanent establishments. There's a paid inn called Hallyu's Cradle. There's a fine dining establishment called Stars Below, and a supply store called Fishigans.
Fishigans. I love
that. But you all find yourselves in, the kind of, like, free lodging area. They just call it the passenger loft. You see these large columns that support a jungle of hammocks and benches and lounging chairs. They're all pulled into little unofficial pods and groups. There's also a central bar area that serves food and drink, and it kinda makes this whole place feel like a like an indoor outdoor pub more than anything. But that's where you've all taken your long rest.
I would go back to the pin because I would like, in the morning, to set up shop Oh, yeah. And sell some cookies. Okay.
I would say that we all go over what happened back on lore, like, the final moments, and Aaron recounts where they were and what they saw to the group and kind of just sharing stories back and forth of, like, the final time to sort of fill in the gaps, I guess, with everything we missed with each other.
Poppy, not far from this, like, loft area. There's, a a large, like, almost, like, stable where you can see a couple other people have moved, like, large wagons that are meant for moving supplies, you know, crates full of stuff. Mhmm. And then you just kind of park nestled between them, a little more exposed to the open, pathways here so that you can get some foot traffic. You don't really attract much attention until you really start the baking, and you get that fan on, and you start kind of wafting fresh baked cookies all over this arc, and before long, you've drawn quite a crowd.
I'm gonna have you make an arcana check, and we're just gonna check the potency of your bake today.
I would also like to state that these are not chocolate chip cookies because I don't have any more chocolate chips. Arcana, that's an 18.
Not bad. Okay.
I can roll when it counts for cookies.
Roll for cookies?
Yeah. Roll for cookies.
Alright. Ready to go.
Go. Mhmm.
Not the biggest take home you've ever done, but in the first few hours before the business kinda slows down for the day, you managed to collect 24 gold off the patrons of the ark.
Sweet. Thank you for your business. Okay.
Including, Martha, the, speaker of Howlue comes to see just kind of what you're all about, where you're from, what you've done. She, orders the first thing that you suggest to her, and just gets 10 of them, which is too many.
That's a lot of peanut butter cookies, but okay.
She looks at it and she goes peanuts and butter.
Yes. It's quite the combination.
Crystal at herself, and she goes, this looks delicious. And then she puts the crystal away. She says, this is kind of an odd combination of flavors. Are you from, saffron?
No. I I actually have never been to saffron. I've heard wonderful things, and I'm hoping to someday visit.
You bake like this and yet you've never been?
Yeah. I mean, I'm self taught.
I can't imagine how incredible your recipes could become.
Oh, thank you so much.
I hope you get to try more someday.
I will if you're here tomorrow.
Yeah. I mean, where else am I gonna go? We're stuck on a whale.
She just, like, looks up at the belly of the whale above you and she goes, yes?
Yeah.
Alright. Back at the loft, you guys are discussing the events of the fight that you had just come from.
Maybe we should go see if, Poppy's closed up shop.
Yeah. That sounds good.
Doran's very carefully, putting on his, gambeson because he's got some fresh burn wounds. Yeah.
I think Aaron's back in their normal,
elf woman form also after the long rest.
We'll head up, find the rolling pin. Mhmm.
Guy is
doing the dishes.
Oh, good to see you guys. Are are you all done for the day?
I think so. Not as much stock as normal. I I'm gonna have to pick up supplies at some point, but yeah.
It was a good first day for this new location.
Yeah. Alright. We were thinking of comparing notes on what happened the last couple days.
We were split up a bunch. I would like to know what happened to everybody.
Yeah. All I remember is I was up on the cliffs, and I saw diver's ship come in. I knew
I mean, I knew it right away from when we saw him back
at the Blight headquarters taking off, and I was terrified in that moment. It was so
unexpected, but expected at the same time. Like, I knew he would never stop. Aaron has, like, tears coming to their eyes, as they say this because divers finally gone. And they feel like relief, but also, like, letting go of that fear is a lot.
You did well, Aaron, despite that fear.
Thanks, Guy.
I'm just glad. I can't believe he's gone. Like, I I was so scared of him for so long.
Journey, gathers a little Fay bud out of her hair and kinda, like, pushes it toward you so that it kinda swirls around you and lands on your shoulder.
That's a new trick.
I know you're still struggling with closeness with other people, but I figured it might help.
Thanks. You see a smile come across Erin's face for maybe one of the first times. It's not, chuckling at someone else's pain or sadness. I think we're becoming fast friends, if you don't mind me saying so. I don't know if I would say that. But Well, I would say that.
I would say too, Poppy. Thank you. I know Daffer meant a lot to you in a terrible way, and, Doren, I know he had a big impact on you as well. And so
terrible pun. It's very inappropriate. You don't know. I'm sorry. Go on, Journey.
I don't get it.
It's a big impact, and and then I start unbuttoning my gambeson.
What?
I show the scars.
Why are you always getting undressed when we have team meetings? Aaron blushes a little bit as, Doran starts to unbutton his games.
I didn't mean anything bad. I just
I'm kidding, Journey. It's fine. No. I I agree. Like
We never got the full story around that, and I I don't wanna impress, but what does this mean for you both now that Diver's gone?
For me, it seems like that was 2 out of 3.
Yeah. Who were those other guys? I didn't really recognize them.
I mean, I was pretty focused on divers, so I don't
I don't really know what was happening. But
The smiley one seemed to unlock some sort of memory in myself. I know not exactly what it means, but I feel we may have crossed paths before.
You seem to recognize you as well.
You're getting memories back.
Yes. It's all still a bit cloudy, but, eventually, they may fall.
But, Doren, you know them? They run with Diver or did, I guess, because he's gone.
Yeah. I mean, I recognize all 3 of them. To be honest, I didn't know them all before what happened. But
You mean what happened to you?
Right.
And what was that? I think if we're gonna be fast friends, a little honesty would be appreciated. Not even fast friends, but allies to fight next to. Yeah. That's what I said.
I, yeah. I I I can share a bit. This was when I was still a a kid. Looking back, I think we were tricked. But it's silly, but we we used to go sailing near the cliffs.
There'd be strong winds some nights where you could grab a glider, and it would just send you flying, you know, dozens of feet into the air. It's the best thing to do, especially in the middle of the night because nobody's around watching us and making sure we're safe. We can just have fun, be kids. One of the guards told us this night would be a really good one. So we snuck out of the castle and had our gliders with us, and the air was still.
But we figured we'd still find something fun to do. Out of nowhere, a burst of some sort of magic energy exploded near us, Sent us flying. I was in a ditch. I got up and I could see my best friend lying there. He wasn't moving.
I started crawling towards him and another explosion of energy, and there wasn't really much to recognize after that. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, so I I was just crawling, and then I saw a diver and the other 2, and they were just toying with me. Sending blasts near me just to scare me as I crawled away. And the only thing I could do was I got to my feet, and I just jumped off the cliff with my glider. And, yeah, I maybe I'll share more later, but that's how I met them.
Hopefully, that helps you understand what has motivated me since we've met. I want them gone.
So sorry. Yeah.
What was their name? Your friend.
Nail. Well, Aeronail was his full name, but I just called him Nail. Anyways, that is all I knew at first, but what I think we've learned so far is they've been pulling strings across the kingdoms in the skylines for potentially years, and it's no longer just a grudge at this point. I I don't know what their aims are, but it's clear it's not good for the rest of the world for them to be around.
What do you think they're after?
Guy knows more than I do.
But Guy doesn't know a whole lot. Right?
You said 2 out of 3, so one of them got away. I thought we saw a Smallegrin fall.
Well okay. So, when Mikey and I got back to the rolling pin, I watched the the wings guy, get on the ship and use some sort of technique I've never seen before to start the ship.
Technique? What do you mean?
They made, like, a ring out of bismite, and it had other rings under the ship that, like, lifted it, and and they were, like, controlling it. It was very different. I'm no stranger to bismite engines. Right? I mean, I I live in the city. I have one. It wasn't like that at all. This was this was different. They were, like, in tune with it. You know? I don't know how to explain it.
I've seen I've seen that before. The first time I saw the spark engines on those big old ships coming out of Farewell Mhmm. I was shocked at how destructive it was, and I still don't understand why why these ships are built to consume bismuth the way they do. I
I mean, that's just that's just how we know it works. Right? It's you you consume it. You use it up. It's a fuel. But the way they were using it was not it wasn't they weren't using it. They were working with it.
It's how it's supposed to be.
I didn't even think that was possible.
2 things concern me about these blight individuals. First is their ability to manipulate Bismite in ways we have not yet seen. Yes. There's the flying, but also they have weaponized it in a way that I knew not was possible. We saw diver consume it and spit it back at us.
Not too unlike what you said of the blue eyed individual who you ran into in the mine. Yeah. The other thing is their connection to the Fae. Journey, I mean not to offend, but we have seen diver twist and manipulate the Fae into more deadly creatures. And the other 2, the the winged one and the one with the red mask, both sound to be of Fae origin too.
I'm familiar with some of the Fae. I've I've spent some time in the Fae realm. I I've never seen corruption like this.
You spent time in the pharaoh?
I mean, where do you think I got all this? And the buds kind of pop out of her hair and then dive back into it.
Okay. Do you deny that the fae are capable of such great corruption as this?
It's not a matter of capable. I mean, corruption can happen anywhere anywhere where there's power. I just I'm surprised to see these powerful fae acting outside of the fae realm with such impunity, and it surprises me that they even care about this realm. Does that make sense?
Would it make sense if there was something here that they needed?
I mean, what we saw of them draining the bismat, maybe maybe there's something wrong.
I, for one, think the Fae are capable of much more than we know and interested in our world more than you think, Journey.
I think you're probably right. Feels a little naive to think that I knew the depth and the breadth of the Feywilds at all.
I spoke quickly to only a couple of you. I tried to communicate with Cree to bring it to aid us, and it wasn't responding to me. I also overheard Huber speaking with another describing that Cree wasn't responding. So I had a moment to look closer, and I I noticed it was actually, pulling energy from the Skyland. It was absorbing magical energy probably from Bismite. I think that's what made the island crumble and fall much faster.
So it's like the the guy we saw in the caves?
More spot on than that. I did notice it also had a demeanor that didn't really fit with what I would have expected of Cree. It did have blue eyes.
Are you suggesting this old man, whom I've never seen, by the way, could transform into a great beast?
And also the one of the miners. Like, he looked like one of the miners.
Well, a a miner tracks. Aaron can pull off such stunts. But, Aaron, could you turn into the mighty Kree?
Aaron, squids up their eyes for a second, and you see a little bit of smoke kind of appear on their skin.
Guy takes a step back.
Hail out of breath.
No. I I can't get that big.
I think that's a lot of leaps to assume that whatever that being was is also inhabiting or impersonating Cree, a beast like that. I don't know. But something was off. Something was wrong.
When I interacted with the old man, the feeling that I got was unimaginably powerful. I wouldn't be surprised if that creed that you saw was not Cree at all.
Hey, GM. When, I made eye contact with Cree, how did that make me feel? Doran looks off into space. Yeah.
I got a tingle.
Icy. Not good. Not good.
Thorin comes back from staring off into space. I feel that journey.
When we saw it in the caves, it was really scary.
Well, perhaps this is more a side effect of absorbing the bismite.
Oh, maybe. Because I'm not I don't really get scared. Right?
No. You're very brave.
Hi. Sorry. Excuse me. Oh.
Oh, sorry.
We're close. Past guy. Excuse me. I'll take 2 of the peanut butter, one of the, the strawberry sugar here
Oh.
And, 2 of the honey dips. That sounds great. Did we not close?
So I'm I guess I didn't. Sorry. Just one sec.
I saw the closed sign. Just if really quick. What do you
think?
Closed means closed, my friend.
Oh, I'm sorry. I was talking to the proprietor here. What do you what do you got for him?
Well, he works here as well.
I am an employee of the rolling pin.
I'm sorry. What was your name?
Oh, I'm so sorry. He takes a step back from you. You see delightful little calico ears, a large fluffy tail. The first Tabaxi that some of you have laid eyes on maybe takes a step back, a a cat person. The the island of Tabaxi, of course, is named for the Tabaxi who inhabit it, an island of cat people. He says, so sorry. Tomothy. Tomothy matter facts.
Tomothy matter facts.
Well, it's nice to meet you, Tomothy. If you give me 2 seconds to box these up, I will
I need
a perception check
from everybody. Oh.
What's his name again?
Timothy. Matter of fact. Here.
That's a good name.
That's Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Last name?
Yeah. Yeah.
Matterfax cats.
Which one did he?
Jellicle cats.
I'm trying to make Bexy pretty fucking Jellicle, so
you're ready. That's a 6. Aaron got 4. 23.
A gentleman's 2.
11. Okay. Just perfectly appropriately, the only one who notices his journey. Right when he makes his introduction, Timothy begins aggressively wiggling his nose and looking at each of you, and the conversation continues on. So where are all of you from? What's the deal here?
Well, you are at the Rolling Pin, and we are a traveling bakery. But, I guess we we come from Tildry on the mainland.
Uh-huh. Sir, did I I'm sorry. Did I say something?
Well, you did barge away in here after hours when we typically do not serve customers.
I'm a paying customer, but I didn't think I was was that rude to afford this kind of treatment.
Poppy Sorry? Poppy looks ready to serve you. I think we can make an exception in this case.
Yeah. I was just Are you
all being sarcastic? I don't understand what's happening here.
I don't understand what's happening here.
I don't
understand what's happening either.
What do you
He kinda like takes a step back from your whole group and kinda crosses his arms and looks at all of you. He goes, where are you all from?
The mainland.
You're all from the mainland.
Have you never left the clouds?
Farewell, Dawn's Edge?
No. Lodem? I haven't heard of it. Alright. Listen, I'll throw you a bone. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Okay? But I gotta say, he's kinda looking between all of you, and then he settles on kinda between Guy and Doran. And he says, Mainlanders? A Mainlander human? No shit? I mean, some people like chocolate, but damn if I don't love vanilla. That's as vanilla as it gets. Mainlander humans. Oh my god.
We're not all humans. Excuse me.
He just, like, runs a hand through Doran's hair, and he says, what is your duty? Like, what do you do? Do you have to, like, do you, like, plow fields something or or, like, wrestle cows, something like that?
Okay. I imagine his energy. Doran leans in and pulls on his ears, like, oh, I didn't know if you were just dressing up or if this was
This is a racist Tabaxi.
He kind of, you know, he's taking Doran in stride now and they're both kind of inspecting each other. And he goes, let me explain. And you're gonna feel so embarrassed about this. Basically, when I walked up to you guys, you looked at me and told me I smelled like shit and get away from me. That's what you all said to me.
What? That did not happen.
Did I
say that?
Look. Look. Look. Look. And he, like, points in towards his face, and he shows you his nose. And he starts wiggling his nose at you. He says, when you're talking with people like me, and he points at his ears, he says, the fine Tabaxi of Baxi, make sure to let them know that you're not holding your nose. It's polite.
So like wiggle our nose a bit? Exactly.
Being a mainlander is one thing, but you don't have to choose to be rude all the time. You can only get by with that excuse for so long. Baxi's tough.
Hey. I I really appreciate the heads up. We don't really Do you? Have no response.
Like a 100% discount kind of appreciation?
What if we just skipped Baxi? Is that the only cards?
I was kind of thinking about that. I, I step in front of him and, like, tilt my head and give him a good sniff, and I would like to do an insight check to see if he's yanking our chain. Sure.
Yeah. Do it. It.
He's pulling our tail.
That's What? 5. I should have done an intimidation. That's what I should have done.
Can can I help Journey? Yeah. Okay.
I'll use my other die. How are you helping Journey? It's going better. 7.
How are you helping Journey?
We were doing a standoff, like Oh.
Because he was,
like, doing his thing and then I see I'm just matching Journey's energy. Okay.
Yeah. He he's much more on board with the 2 of you and kind of, like, engaging more like this. And he, you know, he he sees the ham fisted, like, open faced sniff that you did.
Mhmm. And
he's like, okay. Yeah. Kinda like that, but, you know, not, so direct. Not so creepy.
We don't have many Tabaxi where I'm from. Most of the cats that we see are pretty tiny.
Okay. He starts doing, like, like, hand to his neck kind of thing. He's like, none of that. No. No. No. No.
Does your Skyland not get tourists?
Tourists. Yeah. But nobody walking around calling us cats.
Can I ask you a question?
Yeah.
You're offended by our attitude. Yeah. But you called us all humans.
Yeah. You're humans.
We're not.
Well
I'm a halfling. Sure.
Half human. Whatever.
That's a human. I mean
Yep.
He's not really a human.
Sure he is. Look at him.
He's not really alive.
Big sucker. No. No. No. He's alive. He, like, pulls down his lip and looks at his gums. See?
Try a little lower, Fred.
He goes, excuse me, what?
Are Tabaxi related to cloud kips then, if not regular housewives?
No. And I'm telling you, like, keep it down with that kind of stuff. What? Do I just okay. You start calling us, you know, cloudkips and cats, we're gonna start calling you little piglets. Okay? Because that's what you looked like to us, overgrown pigs. So don't play this game.
I feel like you really came in here hot and bothered, and we didn't even do anything at first.
Well, you guys came in rude as hell and you don't even know my name for God's sake.
Tomothy. We literally Your
name is Tom Cotton.
I'm just I'm sorry. He, shakes out his hands and he just goes, in with the breath, out with the stress, In with the breath, out with the stress.
Me me me me me me. Okay. Alright.
I'm sorry. I'm used to people recognizing me. Mr. Matterfax, the he kind of like looks around and is waiting for you all to finish the answer. Holly Graham star. The hollygram star. The hollygram star.
Yeah. The hollygram. Yep. What is
I mean Wait a second.
Yeah. I had an independent rise. Sure. It took a long time. You know? I had a brief encounter with Lady Luck. Maybe that had something to do with it. Now I'm one of the biggest stars in Backseat.
Mister matter of fact, you already know we're from the mainland. I I don't know half the things you're saying.
Seriously? They don't have freaking Venus crystals on the mainland?
Wait. Can you back up
a second? What is a Holly gram?
Well, back in Telgi I mean, I'm sure they're popular everywhere, but everyone has a little crystal. You can, like, record things on it.
It's like the where you sniff the jar, but but you see it.
Sure. K. Do you know what a picture is?
Like a painting.
Yeah. These ones can move. It's pretty cool. I can never afford one, though,
so I don't I mean
Yeah. They're pretty pricey. I mean, it's, like, I think 50 gold for about 6 seconds is the going rate now. And, of course, you can get better models, but yeah.
Well, what's, like, the the point of it? A moving picture. I mean, cool.
But
I mean, you watch it back later. I mean, it's got a whole history. I had to go through some classes, you know, early on. So basically, they're called historoscopes, I think is the technical name for it.
Could you show us 1?
Yeah. He reaches into his pocket and he pulls out this, like, immaculate,
pristine it almost looks like, a revolver that
doesn't have a barrel, but it's got pretty spinning slowly. He goes, this one can hold up to an hour. It's a pretty expensive model. But, yeah. I use this for little, solo missions. And he turns it on himself and he goes, hey, this is Tomothy Matterfax, and guess who just met vanilla? And he points at a Doran.
That's what they call him at the rolling pin, where you get fresh baked cookies.
He's, like, walking all around Doran doing some, like like, spiral angles and, like, going, like, right up in his face and kinda, like, zooming down over his clothes.
How does this work? Are you stealing our souls into that crystal?
In a
matter of speaking. And he kinda like puts his tongue between his teeth and he just gets a final angle on Dora and he zooms out and we're out. And he turns it off.
Oh, I wanted to do something with you, Timothy. Could you could you record it again? Timothy. Sorry. Timothy Matterfax. Can you bring it out?
Yeah. Let's give it another go. Here we go. And he kinda, like, lines it up straight at you.
I'm here with Tomothy Matterfax, and, I wrote a little song for Tomothy.
No. You did.
Pull out the lute.
He looks delighted.
Alright. And then ring. Tomothy, matter of fact, coolest of all the cats.
Turns it
off. Oh, come on.
I was gonna
do more.
Turns it back on.
No. That's all I got.
He goes, alright. That's enough of that. He puts it back away.
So not vanilla. Right? Got a little
Yeah. A little spice. A little pepper in there. Great. Awesome. It rhymed? Yeah.
Well, been great meeting you. Thank you so much for stopping by. Are you gonna buy the cookies or no?
Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were super appreciative of me telling you stuff.
Appreciative. Yes. But then you, ruined it with all your insults.
I'm sorry. It's just been it's been so long since I've paid for something. You know what I mean?
Oh, well, that's not how we do it on the mainland.
I I have so much money. It doesn't make sense for me to pay for stuff. You understand?
No. No. I really don't.
That sounds like a perfect economy. I I kinda do get it. Yeah. I don't it's hard for me to
explain this to you. You have so much money. That is truly awful. I am sorry to hear that. But I don't have enough and this is how I make my living. So if you would pay for the cookies, you can have that.
I'll spot it for Tomothy.
No. You are not going to.
Tomothy, Bobby. For the cookies.
Or not?
I think you should pay for the cookies or get the fuck out. Woah. I'm gonna roll on intimidation.
Yeah. Yes.
21.
Okay. Yeah. You this guy goes full Hollywood, and he, like, puts his hands up and he goes, hey. Hey. Hey. I don't want any trouble. I mean, come on. Really, guys? I mean, come on. And he's, like, reaching into his pocket with, like, a sack of coins. And he's like, how much is it? And they're just, like, dropping to the
floor.
Five gold.
Yeah. There's, like, 10 or 15 on the ground. He goes, great. Great. Let's call it even.
Awesome. These are the best cookies you'll ever have in your entire life.
I hope so. It was really lovely meeting all you people. Hope to see you on backseat.
Yeah. Well, think about it.
Awesome. He kinda starts to walk away. And as he does, he pulls out his little revolver crystals again. And he starts filming himself, and then as he's walking away from you, he points it back at your pod, and then he points it back at himself. And he's kind of, like, talking in the distance as he's walking away.
There's, like, zero chance we're going to backseat. Right? Like, if that's
I say we go take our chances on Laura again.
Yeah. I'm real confused. What? Why did he put the crystal hey.
I cannot imagine a more frivolous use of one's time than these video crystals.
I agree wholeheartedly.
Oh, god.
April kind of, like, walks up having watched that whole interaction.
Thank you, April.
Lies. Lies and shame.
What? I mean, that's going a little far, I think.
She gets it.
5 gold is an exaggeration for how much Cookie's cuss, but it I mean,
tell him why.
He deserved I could never afford 1, so I don't know what you do with them. I just know that you can keep memories.
So it's it's kinda like the memory jars on lore.
Absolutely not. They're a farce and a far cry. These crystals, they record what's visible, what seems to be true, but then they pervert it. They take it back to their editing booths and they change the events. They rerecord crystals over crystals until it all appears exactly as they meant. And suddenly, what they've created is nothing real at all. It's lies start to finish.
Well, could it not just be another art form Nope. Then? Okay.
They should be used to document and educate and spread stories.
I mean, some stories are lies, but it's with an intention to to teach a lesson.
Mikey kind of cozies up to it and he says, I don't know. It's not lies. It's stories.
Right.
We tell fake stories to the smokes sometimes. And then April looks like incredulous kind of down at Mikey and she says who would ever just sit and listen to a story that's not even real?
Well, everyone, all of that.
Where's the value Yeah. I don't know. It sounds nice. Relaxing.
It's a good way to, like, start your weekend and just, you know, enjoy a drink with some friends around a table. And
Thorne's starting to do dishes now.
There's all sorts of stories too. Like, there's, like, fantasy. You go on adventures. I always wanted to do that. I wanna meet a dragon, I think. Yeah. And maybe, like, you know, go through a dungeon, fight some stuff, and fall in love.
Back in my day on lore, you smelled the stories. You didn't look at them.
Back in my day
on lore.
April looks up at you and she goes, the good old days.
Well, those days are at the bottom of a ravine full of clouds now, I think. Those days were yesterday.
How much gold did he drop?
He gave you an additional 20 gold on top of
your tunnel
4. Yeah. In his panic. April, I
I draw my hands off on an apron the guy is wearing. Did you happen to learn anything about Tabaxes in lore?
They're quite obsessed with the olfactory senses. It's best to tell them they smell great right off the bat.
Are you getting off at Paxi?
I haven't decided. I want to do what's best for Mikey. Mikey has got some distance from you all now and she's kind of like talking about him looking at him off in the distance. She says, I'm I'm worried. Hubert was his best friend after all.
I thought he was his dad.
I thought he was his grandpa.
Dad, grandpa's friend. Yes.
He could be
total culture is complicated.
When he woke up this morning, he told me he no longer wishes to be an archivist.
What is he gonna do?
He said he wants to be like you all after what he saw.
Tossed into adventures.
A few different things.
I don't know what we are.
Reluctant adventurers?
Has this been an adventure?
Oh. I mean, what else could
it be? A hell of a week.
I thought this was a vacation. Does he wanna be a baker?
He said he wants to be the one who stands up when no one else knows what to do.
Aw. That's very sweet.
That's real nice.
That doesn't really imply that he also knows what to do.
As long as he doesn't want to become a baker.
Poppy I
think it's a wonderful profession.
Well, he sucked at it.
Yeah. True.
Poppy, she kinda looks over at Mikey, and she says, no. No. He doesn't yet know what to do. You're right. But he will.
Yeah. He'll learn. He just needs to figure it out for himself. I mean, that's what I did.
Poppy, what do you think about not having Mikey bake or anything, but maybe just help with the dishes or sweeping or something?
Have more help around the shop?
Have something for him to do.
You're right. He could actually take the money from customers. No offense, guy.
Hey, Mikey. What's 7+6? He looks over at
you in, like, a fraction of a second, and he's like, 74.
Alright. So maybe we'll just keep him the the sweeping stuff.
And we should put a lock on the chocolate chip cupboard.
Right. Right. That could be a problem.
Are we thinking about bringing Mackey along with us?
I don't know what to do with him.
April, I mean, we don't really know what we're doing yet, but, I mean
To, like, a a summer job
just to get
some experience. Yeah.
A task would be good for him. Yes. There's a a moment's lull here, and in a brief silence between the 6 of you, you hear a bell. The sound of a bell plays out from April's echo bell. It's the bell tower. The descent will take a while. It's not immediate.
You know, things don't the islands don't immediately crash to the ground. The bell tower hasn't quite sunk beyond where it can be heard from April's echo bell. One more time, you all hear the bell of lore ring out and you take a moment to examine yourselves and how you've grown. Well, it will take a second here to level you all up to level 5 after having survived that. Poppy, on lore, you had kind of a adventure all by yourself.
You had shown a lot of strength. You climbed a mountain by yourself. You went up against persimmon to try to save Mikey. A lot happened. And now that you've leveled up, how have you grown?
Well, I I learned a new recipe or 2.
Yes. You did. You can now do long rest recipes where you prepare a fantastical either dinner or brunch for everybody whatever you feel like in that moment but you learn to create bright bulb soup You also got
Good meal.
The Chamorre Crescent?
The Chamorre Crescent, which is one of Master Chole's own creations. And of course Good Meal as Guy suggested.
But I don't have the ingredients for it.
Not right now, but you would be able to.
I also, took this time to reflect a little bit and think on my magic, and I whipped up a few new spells.
Oh, what are those?
I got 3rd level spell slots. I took fly, which will be very useful useful Mhmm.
Considering everywhere we go crumbles into the void.
I also took what I'm calling Poppy's tiny hut.
Kind of makes like an immobile immovable, impenetrable dome for 8 hours Mhmm. So you
can just, like, be safe inside of it, and I also took major image.
Oh, illusion magic?
Illusion magic.
Got some phenom rubbing off on you?
Maybe a little bit. I'm kinda jealous of everyone Yeah. For being able to change things. So
Poppy's combination Pizza Hut Taco Bell. Yeah.
Going around that room, we see Aaron next, and again, a lot had happened on lore, a pretty significant life event, I would say. Diver's gone now. Do you feel better?
I guess so. I mean, I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder all the time, so that's a pretty big relief.
Yeah. And how have you grown? What's changed about Aaron mechanically?
With level 5 rogue, Aaron gets uncanny dodge. When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to half the attacker's damage against you.
Nice. Any other new fantastical abilities?
Not really. Just some more HP. So level 5 is a little quiet for rogue. Okay. Hopefully, I can find some cool weapons coming up to expand my arsenal and replace some daggers I lost. So Okay. Yeah.
Doran, same setup, actually. Diver is gone now. Do you feel better?
It's 1 out of 3. Potentially, 2 out of 3, actually. So doing good.
And personal growth. I mean, Laura had some adventures for you. You seem to come out okay in almost every situation. Probably the most okay out of anybody in the group, maybe. How has Doran grown, changed, or empowered himself?
Certainly mechanically, Doran has gained, a new spell, dispel, dispel magic. Nice.
What spell?
Dispel. Basically, I can target a creature object or a magical effect and end it if it's 3rd level or lower. And then on higher level spells, I get to roll and try to dispel them. Additionally, my bardic inspiration moved up to a d 8 from a d 6. Okay. And proficiency bonus went up, which is helpful for bards. Helpful for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's pretty much it as far as mechanical stuff. And then
Oh, yeah.
I forgot I get proficiency bonus too. That's really helpful. Yeah. That's like a level 5 thing. Right?
Cool. Oh, that's right. Okay. So everybody's a little more powerful across the board is what that means, I think.
Mhmm.
Next, we have Journey. Yeah. Journey's been kind of there or not in a lot of cases. It's sort of been all about Journey or Journey's not in the room. Yeah.
She's got a little bit of different path so far than everybody else. To that point, everyone else has had some kind of evolution with Ganymede, and you're the only one who hasn't. Mhmm. All their senses have been enhanced so far, yours hasn't. Journey's got more unanswered questions than she has answers about herself or anything else that's going on. So I ask, how's Journey?
Journey is realizing the stakes. I think Journey is seeing the true impact of all of the things that she's interacting with, and feels like she needs to work harder and do more. And to that end, Journey now has 2 attacks per action.
Nice. Okay.
Is able to shoot the bow twice, which is a big deal because she's felt that sting of missed shots. I got Legolas over here. I know. I have access to 2nd level spells now, and I took pass without trace, which is gonna be huge Mhmm. For this group.
Yeah. Stealthy.
And then as part of my swarm keeper magic, I believe, I got access to, web, which isn't the stereotypical in my mind, it's not the stereotypical, like, spider's web situation. Mhmm. In my mind, it's Journey's Feybudds throwing a net
Oh, great. Okay.
Out.
Yeah. That works. So it's it's it works mechanically the same, but visually, it's kind of iridescent. It's more like a hand woven net tossed out by the faebuds.
No. I think you've got spiders in your hair now.
No. Spiders. I'd say, like, crocheted. It's crocheted. Yes.
Okay. Yes.
A woven net of vines and plant matter. Love it. Guy. Guy probably learned the most on lore of all of the lore there was there to learn. Guy learned a lot about himself. You've got these creeping memories now. Sometimes these new smells around the world will trigger parts of your old life. How was Guy taking all of this?
Guess Guy did learn a lot and grow on lore. That's why his strength is now 2 points higher.
Good lord.
That's about it, folks.
Now So strong.
Because because Guy has a level started with a level in Warlock to get some of those Dullahan features.
That's right. So because everybody else is hitting level 5, they're getting this extra attack and whatnot, but you're split between warlock and paladin. Right? Yep.
So I'm only a level 4 paladin.
I see. Soon though.
Next time it's getting exciting. I get spiritual weapon. Next level.
That's dope.
Yeah. We'll have to think about what that means.
Another sword. It's just another sword. Cool.
Alright. Well, with that, you all feel the cool breeze of the wind passing by you on the whale, and decide you've had enough time introspecting. And it's time to outrospect back on the world around you.
Alright.
At the end of your 6 minutes, April departs, kind of leaving you all to your own devices again. And you get a sort of abrupt warning is that Backsy is fast approaching. If any of you were to walk to the kind of upper deck so that you could actually see out beyond this kind of contained corridor, you can see the Isle of Backsy. You're flying lower than ever before and it seems Halo isn't afraid of dipping beneath the darkness of Lower Cumula, nearly touching the deadly null substrata. Through the clouds, you can see the fiery glow of lava, molten rock pouring from the side of the island in 3 places.
You see dark industrial buildings dusted with ash and they feature massive brass exhaust pipes and cooling towers that are lining the edges of the skyline all the way up to the clouds above and Haliu begins to pitch upwards, spiraling and ascending around Backsy with speed you never expected from a beautiful neighborhood bursting at the seams with houses and storefronts and parks and gardens all stacked on top of each other, climbing vertically up and up and up. Clever works of architecture reach far out over the clouds making the whole city look like it's bursting outwards. And finally, cresting the top layer of the clouds, you see an immaculate temple framed by twisting trees with white flowers casting petals into the wind, and Hallyu slows, bringing you back towards the middle tier of the city towards the docks. You hear the speaker, we've now arrived at backseat. Those deboarding, please make your way to the port side of the ark.
We welcome new guests, refugees, travelers, all. Stay with us if you wish or enjoy your time on back seat.
Are we getting off?
I can't say I'm in a hurry given the individual we have met already.
Yeah. Not so much a warm welcome.
We might just wanna try and warn him anyway. We don't have to stay long, just long enough for the whale to come back.
We learned a lot. We have to say they smell nice. Yeah. Does anyone know which side is the port side? I'll look around to see where everyone's moving.
Side of the Skyland, I think.
Okay. Right. Ports. Yeah. Of course. Great. I think we should go. We should find out who leads here.
Maybe if we're lucky, this one will fall out of the sky as well.
Wow. I
bet they have some interesting food here. I mean, that one cat man was probably just a one off. Right? They can't all be that bad.
Yeah. Guess we'll find out.
How could one with such fame be so insufferable?
It could be a generational thing. I don't know.
You all see this flat dock extends out from the arc towards the port plaza of Back Sea. You see migrants and merchants and Tortle and your party all begin to pour off the ship corralled into a single file. You see all these cloth banners posted up high and they're stretched tight and they're barely moving in the wind and they're completely blank. There's like 100 of them. Give me a perception check from everybody.
10.
7. It's
terrible. 8, 5. Unnatural one. We're blinded.
We have no no idea.
We walk off the porch.
Yeah. That's a flag. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. No further, information. Yeah. So you don't see the the trick behind all this, but you do see on all of these canvases, these banners, these flattened sheets that are hung up everywhere, you suddenly see them lighting up with images like like I said, 100 of them.
It's all the same image. It's a beautiful face of a confident woman with pink hair and a shock of white. And she's holding a small bottle of perfume and she says, the newest scent from Lyria Luna. Come get it. Well, it's good. And then she winks, and she says, and tell him Holly sent you.
Oh my god. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Amazing.
You see all of those screens go blank again. And it was just like the sudden everything is talking. This one woman is just talking at you from every angle in this entire city and then silence. And it's all just back to a regular city again.
Question. Mhmm.
Being from Tildry
Mhmm. And an entrepreneur, would I know who Holly is? Yeah. Okay.
Holly Hiaasen is as common as Amazon is to us.
Wow. Wow. What a nice
Tom and Yikes.
I have that. Don't worry.
Guys, that was Holly Hrysant. I didn't realize her reach, reached, I guess, all the way out here. Who's that?
Do you know Holly?
Oh, no. I mean, I've never met her. She's just, a very well known businesswoman from Tilderie. She she really made it big. It's kind of been my idol. I don't think I'll ever get as famous as that, but that's okay.
Does she steal cookies?
No. No. No. No. No. She made clothing. She's a designer. I guess she's selling perfume now.
Poppy, I am confident one day you will be more famous than this.
Oh gosh. No.
No way. She's like the it witch. You know?
She puts it in witch.
Yes. Makes now you're getting it.
Alright. Well, yeah, let's go meet her if she's maybe here.
I
You see a a couple Tabaxi that are walking past you. You're all excitedly talking about Holly Hya, and then Doran goes, let's meet her if she's here. One of them just looks at you and is like, okay. Just meet Holly Hyacinth.
You smell nice. Thank you.
Yep. Alright.
Doran looks at Jurnee and, like, nods.
Good job.
I think I think that's it.
Alright. Just gotta get
that done.
Let me
try. Guy draws his sword at the nearest peasant domestic.
They just kinda raised their hand and like, hey, what's the problem, Guy?
Oh, I didn't know we had met, but I'm just trying to confirm you smell
well. Oh, do I?
The sword takes a sniff. Yes. You pass.
Yeah. Good. Good. Good. Can I go?
By all means.
Good. Good. Good. Good. Good.
And he just kinda, like, takes off running, and he kind of stops. He is stopped by, this line, this group that you're traveling with, is actually getting kind of bottlenecked at a certain point. They're corralling people single file through this security check as people are coming in. He gets kind of stopped there and nervously looks back at you guys a couple times and then gets in line to be security checked. You hear other Tabaxi near you that are like, it's the brass.
You see a bunch of Tabaxi in official looking garb. They do indeed have little, like, brass pins and insignias all over them. You saw from a distance that, a lot of Backseat is indeed made of brass or covered with brass. They use it heavily in their architecture here. But it's clear that they meant the police. The officials. Everyone's items are being inspected as they're coming through the gate here. You're not sure why.
Does it go well?
The line is moving such that you're already single file and there are people in front of you and behind you. You would have to, like, jump a fence and run to get out of this.
Well, I mean, that's that's the rules?
I guess. I mean Go
through the security check. What are they looking for?
Yeah. I I try to look past the brass and, like, the peep like, the to actually walking around, do they have weapons
on them or anything? Or
Oh, yeah. Give me a perception check.
Okay.
Or investigation.
Sorry. Perception is 23. It's gonna be good. Okay.
Awesome. Yeah. Doren, like, rain man, you look around, you spin in a circle, and you're just like, knife, knife, knife, knife, knife, knife, knife, knife sword. Like, you you caught every weapon in, like, a quarter mile radius. You see in addition to the weapons around here, the brass, they don't have weapons that you're familiar with. They have these flimsy looking sticks that have, like, a string wound around them.
Okay. Okay.
Little cat toy.
You see a couple people ahead of you. They're getting their items inspected. They take out some, like, jewelry, some, like, really fine looking stuff, and they just kind of set it on a little tray table next to them. I'm like, okay. They take out a knife and they go, okay. They take out a clearly magical item. They, like, hold it one way and it goes, and they hold it the other way.
It goes, Clearly magical.
And they're like, alright. Whatever. And they set it down. You see another person come through, and they've got, like, a bear trap and some caltrops in there. And they're like, yeesh. Alright. Get in there. Okay. It is all of y'all's
turn. And the rolling pin.
And the rolling pin needs to go through inspection. That's actually gonna be a separate line, Poppy.
I like the idea of getting up to the the end of the line and they're like, oh, actually you have to Yeah.
Sorry. You
gotta go on this other line. They point to this line with, like, 20 wagons in it. Yeah. Poppy standing
off to the side with a couple
of officers, like, standing near her in kind of, like, a protective escort sort of thing. And there are other officers that are, like, going through her wagon, like, you know, bottom to top, like, turning over every item.
Oh, careful with the that's glass.
Was glass? Yeah. Yeah. Let's choose an order for being inspected, and then read me your inventory. Oh, no.
Guy can
go first. It's like a test.
Great. What do you got, Guy?
Yes. Here is my sword. It can smell.
He gets down and sniffs the sword. Mhmm. It doesn't right now though.
Good. This is my hot rod.
Okay. It's a magic staff, looks like.
Yeah. It does fire stuff.
Okay. Yeah.
Let's see. I have this bismide pick. Thought I'll use this again, but it's here.
Jeremy Carle. We got a 6440.
Alright. Is that good? Can you stand over here
for me, sir?
Is that good?
Who else was with you? Is that everyone here?
Well, the, woman with the cart over there.
Very good. And, you points to Doran.
Yeah. I am also a refugee. What's going on?
Who else we got here?
I'm I'm with them too.
Alright. 4 of you? Alright. I need you all over here.
I they're inspecting my cart.
I
need you all over here right now.
Alright.
Alright. Inventories, please. Sure. Bags, upend, please. Immediately. Thank you.
You smell nice.
He just kinda, like, looks up at you as he's still looking at your items. He goes, yeah. Thank you.
Aaron's just gonna be in the crowd kind of, like, looking lost, but keeping an eye on what's happening.
Yeah. He just for whatever reason, Aaron, they just kind of pass over you and not associating you with the rest of these people here.
Whatever reason, we are complete and utter silence.
It happened so fast. They've got the pick set off to the side. What other items?
If if the pick is a problem, like I said, I doubt I'll ever use it again.
Again. Alright. What else we got here? Doran, what's in your pack?
I got, this dagger. I got, what's your owl policy? And I pull out the owly.
Yeah. It's fine. What is that, candy? In a way.
And this rapier, and I pull out the rapier warning.
Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. It's fine. Okay. Yep. Loot?
Yep. Yep. Yep. Do you wanna hear a song?
I do not. No.
Well, I'm just gonna check. Okay. Yep. Fine. I set it down. I got a signet ring. Yeah. I'm wearing some armor. Mhmm. I got, yeah, scroll, clothes, ink, ink, ink, pan, lamp, oil, paper, perfume. And I got this, a couple bells here.
Oh, yeah. Nice. Echo bells.
I think that's
it. Alright. Alright. You there? Firbolg.
Hi.
Yep.
You smell good.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You guys are very nice. Alright. Anyway, I need to see your stuff.
Rat. And I pull out my hand axes, my herbalism kit. I've got arrows, my bow. I've got the wand. I have my touchstone. And then I have probably, like, 15 to 20 just little bound, like, flowers that I liked or pieces of grass that were neat or a leaf that I found or, like, just little stuff like that. And I set them out really neatly and nicely. They were just kind of jumbled in my bag, but somehow they all stayed intact.
Sure.
And I painstakingly describe each one thinking that they need that information. Yeah.
I'm gonna tap him in the middle of one of these, like, monologues of items. I forgot to mention a couple things I have too
when I'm done. Oh my god. Okay.
Yeah. So this necklace, I don't and I and I also got this diamond.
No. It's fine. I mean, good for you, but it's fine. Thanks.
Yeah. Are you looking for bismat?
No. Not necessarily.
Oh, okay. Well, I also have this, and I, like, pull out the jewel encrusted mace, and I just slam it on the table.
He just kinda, like, opens his eyes wide, and he's like, where have you been? Sorry. That's not for me to know. Alright. We gotta keep this moving, little one over here.
Yes. So I have a my Bell scoop ladle.
Spoon. Okay.
Loafers of levitation.
Shoes. Okay.
Big britches belt.
A belt? Great.
And, 2 echo bells.
Mhmm. Echo bells on these guys.
Oh, I forgot. I also have echo bells.
Does anyone else have echo bells?
Do you
need to know where the echo bells are the other guys?
These echo bells are to each other.
It's a party line.
Okay.
A bread knife.
Mhmm.
The pendant with pinch in it. My rolling pin, like, lowercase. Glow stick, a headlamp, a med kit.
Alright. Alright. Alright. 6440. We're gonna isolate that.
Okay. Do you want these?
We're gonna have you stand over here. We got an inspector coming. I'm gonna need all 4 of you to just stand here for me.
I'm sorry?
No questions at this time. I'm gonna need you to stand here for me. Okay?
I'm standing here.
I need you to calm down. Okay?
You don't
You all see Poppy kind of fuming, and this situation is, like, rapidly escalating. You see a couple other officers coming over. One of them is dressed in a like jet black garb with this kind of brass colored trim to it, this metallic line that runs down the middle. He moves near Poppy's, laid out effects and picks up the glow stick. And he turns it over in his hand, and he cracks it.
And it starts to glow brightly. He looks over at the mining pick. He shakes the glowstick in front of you and goes, crack glow Kane.
Excuse me? What?
We've got a lot of word about mining lately.
Oh, no. No. No. That I'm I am not a miner.
Need to come with us.
I'm I'm a baker.
We are not miners. You're all carrying mining gear. This is strictly outlawed on backseat.
That's because confiscate it and take it.
Many of the miners we know are dead.
I don't know if you got the debrief. Is that the word, guy? We are actually refugees from lore, and we actually do have news that I think would be important to whoever rules here. We escaped barely before the island completely collapsed.
I don't think that's selling our story very well.
I mean, we just had this stuff with us.
We understand. We've received messages. Trust me. We are fully informed beyond what you might expect. You need to come with us now. Bismite Miners, take them to the dungeons.
No. They've
got some explaining to do.
Excuse me. What'll what's gonna happen
to my cart?
A few more officers are moving around you. Some of them are starting to unwind those strings around their sticks.
Aaron is going to sidle up closer to the group, and when they hear take them to the dungeons, Aaron pulls the ripcord belt.
We're gonna get kicked off the fucking island. That's fine.
Record time.
Aaron, you go to pull the ripcord belt, and it doesn't work. The ripcord belt needs to be painstakingly reset every time you use it. Every capsule needs to be pushed back into place. Every smoke bomb reset.
Like parachute packing.
You pull the ripcord and it just like the the the string just pulls straight out of it lamely, and you're just sitting there like wincing and gritting your teeth and nothing happens.
Oh, no. Shoot.
That's all I got.
Okay. You see a bunch of those Tabak's, so you turn back and look at you and you're holding the string out to your side as if you had just tried to, like, detonate a bomb or something and they're all just like, carry on. And they move past you, kind of encircling your friends as they're walking away from you, like, looking over their shoulders at you.
Excuse me. This is a miscarriage of justice. What happened to a trial?
Alright. Someone's gonna have to handle her. You see somebody unwinding one of those sticks.
No. Unhand me. I'm a guest here.
The flimsy stick dangles a little charm on the end of a string right in front of you, and he starts to bounce it up and down right in front of you.
That's nice.
Poppy, you feel the world around you begin to fade away.
Yeah. That's nice.
And I think we'll end it there. Thanks everybody for listening. I'm Tim, your GM.
I'm I'm Hannah playing Aaron.
I'm Tara, and I play Journey.
I'm Thomas. I play Guy.
I'm John. I play Doran.
I'm Maggie. I play Poppy, and I am not a criminal.
Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you next time.
Tell her Poppy.
I am not a crook.