Last time on Cloudfall. After going broke on wondrous magical items from the markets of Backsy, the party made a beeline for the impound hangar to get Poppy's wagon back. Doran smooth talked the clerk while Aaron and Journey switched the price tags on Poppy's cart, which to the GM's surprise worked incredibly well. They got the wagon back at a bargain and it came with a bonus gift of Mikey and April. But Guy was left wanting more because inside that same hangar, Guy rediscovered one of his dearest and oldest friends.
His mount from his former life who he affectionately calls Steed. Unfortunately, Steed is currently owned by 1 Mr. B, the best racer in back seat. If Guy wants to get back in the saddle, he's gonna have to get up to speed in just one day. You are all at the Venus promenade.
This is the hologram central of all of Baxi. This is where people come to share and trade videos to upload them to the mainstream so that they can be shared to other people. You see how this works now. The mainstream is just a giant crystal that kind of floats above a platform near the heart of Backseat here. If people press their own Venus crystals to this thing, they can download other people's videos, they can upload their own, and that's how things propagate.
That's how things go viral here on Backsy. You know that it is Oscar's current mission to try to get his video uploaded to the mainstream so that everybody can see his claim of love for Mabel Mabey, Lady Luck. Just a moment ago, you heard Oscar trying to shove his way through the crowd. It is, nearing dusk. It's still sundown, still plenty bright out, but this whole area is kind of in the shade of, a rock wall.
So it's quite cool and pleasant out here, but there's a throng of people. It's almost impossible to get to that crystal in the center. You are kind of rubbing shoulders with Tabaxi on all sides, and then you hear Oscar's voice breaking through. Come on. I need this. Come on. Somebody please just let me through. This is ridiculous. Come on.
That voice, is that not
Yeah. I think it's him.
It gets louder and louder, and he is practically upon your group kind of shoving past a a large, black Tabaxi here, and he kind of bursts into your little circle, and he goes, oh, hey, how's it going?
Great. You, you going up there?
Trying, Dhuba. I got a long way to go.
Oh, pardon me for pointing this out, but can't you fly?
Yeah. That's a little uncouth, don't you think?
I mean, it's for love. Right?
Yeah. I just,
All is cooth and love and war, is that something?
Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that. I've heard that alright, but, it's just it's really bright out here. You know?
Are you uncomfortable flying in front of other people?
He starts kinda staring at the floor and he, like, scratches at the back of his neck and says, yeah. And Aaron. When he says it's bright out here, that kind of strikes you because in Thieves can't, saying it's bright out here means that there's a lot of eyes on you. Mhmm. A lot of people you don't want watching you. I need you to make an insight check.
The insight?
Maybe it's blight out here.
19. K. I need
a sec to look something up. Hold on.
Insight is when you kinda understand what someone is.
Thank you.
I know you're
starting playing now. You're quietly indeed.
Hanging up my headphones.
With a 19, you recall, in an instance, a moment from earlier in backseat. An older woman with a cowl on had approached you and referred to you as a little bird and it strikes you in this moment that that was Oscar in disguise. He was following your group to get into the dungeons. It all kind of clicks in an instant. Oscar's a thief by trade.
He's a a rogue and a scoundrel. And if you didn't know any better, he probably has a blight mark on him somewhere. His skin is just too dark for you to ever see it. Yeah. I just I don't wanna, you know, call too much attention. It seems like cheating to just fly up there and, you know
do you want our help clearing a way through the crab?
If y'all could just kinda, you know, like, plow ahead for me.
For not wanting to draw too much attention to yourself, don't you think putting this on that thing will do the opposite? Isn't that the whole point?
Oh, yeah. No. Everybody's gonna know about it, but they're not gonna find me. Not after this.
Last time we tried to help you on this mission, we almost burned alive.
Yeah. That's true.
Yes. And I planned ahead for that. There will be no flames this time.
Who are you worried about finding you?
Oh, he, looks off to his right. Everybody give me perception check.
Mine was a 5 this time. Not good. 24. 17.
15. 24. Oh. Hey.
Oh, like, yeah.
There's the insurance.
Twinsies.
Yeah. Oscar looks off to his right and Oops.
Sorry. 18.
Woah. Woah.
Persuasion and prayer Except performance.
You know
what John, their spells close enough. Just apply the bonus.
Thank you.
Yeah. For for you. Yeah.
Just for John.
Yeah. We can't start this
again. Chris Wetman.
All of
the all of the p's have the same bonus
to him. John has a plus
10 to
pee skills.
Oh my god.
As long as nobody's watching.
The OPINIS.
Wow. There it is again.
Theobenus. Theobenus.
I will say anyone who rolled a 15 or above is able to track what Oscar is looking at here. Oscar looks up to his right briefly, and those of you who rolled well enough clock a few members of the brass. The brass? The brass. The police. Okay.
Yeah. The coppers.
The foals.
Not the coppers. The brass. Mhmm. Wrong metal altogether.
Terrible. Oh.
Wow. Oscar then drops his expression and looks off to the left. Those of you who saw the cops, gee, Thomas. Those of you who saw the brass also see the blight and familiar blight. You see Ginch and Ribbo from Farewell Oh. Among the crowd. Ginch was a a warlock gnome, an angry, feisty, unpleasant person. Rubo
was the dragonborn.
Rubo was the dragonborn. Didn't do anything wrong.
Sounded on
the couch.
Why didn't they stay home?
Yeah. Those oh, they ate all my cookies, and they were rude about it.
Are we gonna be in trouble here? Are we gonna be in trouble? We got some blood over here.
Where? Just over here.
This way. Just past my shoulder.
She and Aaron ducks down.
The brass is over this way. This is a pincer attack.
Yeah. You're right. We need a GTFO.
We don't look like ourselves, though.
Yeah. Could we g e o f t toe, that way?
What? You can do whatever you want. You guys, I need to
We're so close. I just need your help. Come on.
Aaron, just quick change. Oh my god.
Erin gets down on all fours, in the crowd and, like, kinda tries to, like, be like, guys, crowd around me. Quick. Squeeze. Yeah.
Nothing to see here.
Oh my god.
And then Eren's trapped.
I guess Eren will shift into, a dwarf. Okay. Did I say it right?
Yep. Yeah. You had.
Got it. So good.
Been years
in the making.
I'm gonna I'm gonna just do hidden step, I think.
And just turn invisible?
Yeah. I'm just gonna be invisible. Yep.
Maybe if we get Oscar to the crystal, he can act as a distraction while we escape.
Oh, yeah. Good idea.
I'm invisible now, but you hear behind you. Well, I don't think we're gonna be any trouble. They're not gonna recognize any of you.
Yeah. It shouldn't be any trouble at all. Woah.
And you just see a gray haired little dwarf man. He's very petite for a dwarf. Do dwarf? Dwarf? Dwarf. Dwarf. This is Hagon. He's a dwarfin warrior
So good.
With long gray hair and elaborate braids and his beard, and he has a lot of hair growing out his ears too. Nice. Nice.
Oh, excuse me, sir. Do we know you? I'm Hagon. It's me, Aaron. Oh, obviously. Oh. Wink.
Oscar, you've come this far. I think you can, manage. I think we've made enough of a distraction already.
I we're so close. I just can you guys just kinda push and make a make a break for me?
Excuse me. Out of my way. I'm, in labor.
Thank you, Euchess. Hey, she's having
a baby here. Oh, ow.
Doran's gonna take a step back.
Alrighty. Time to get going this ladies. Give him birth.
Hagon, like, puts his little elbows up, and he's, like, walking like. He tries
to push people out of
the way at their shins and their knees and, like, kinda hit them in the legs.
I've, like, shoved pinched down into my skirt a little bit so I have a bump.
Okay. Yeah. Oh, perfect. Wow. Okay. Between hang on and Poppy, like, the the, like, short squad is, like, hitting people on the back of the knees so that they're just, like, kind of crumpling and moving out of the way. Skins.
Yeah. Guy is gonna to take
care of the people, above the waist.
Okay. Yes. Yeah.
And I'll bring up the rear and catch anyone who's in danger of actually hurting themselves.
Sure. Guys tapping shoulders, and people turn around and take one look at them and go, oh, and they just move out of the way. With all of you combined, you actually start to make a lot of progress towards that crystal and have almost touched it when you hear a whistle and you see the brass star moving towards you.
Oh. Oh. I think it's twins. Oh, no.
Can't arrest a pregnant woman. That's the law.
You guys are maybe you're maybe 10 oh, Jesus. You're maybe 10 feet away from the crystal trying to push up, and the people that have made it up to the crystal made it there because they were strong enough to get there and shove people out of their way. So it's gotten really tough to get through now. These are bigger folks that really want their videos up. What are you
gonna do to break through? Hagon's gonna try to, just punch people in the back of the like, right where their knee is.
K.
Hagon just starts being like, hey. Get out of the way and punch punch punch. Sure. I'm I'm gonna cast prestidigitation k. To make it like a splash Sure. On people's ankles. Wow. Oh, my water just broke.
Cool. Let's have you roll an arcana check for that. And let's have,
Prestigitation Amnaut what is it? Amniotic fluid. Amniotic
fluid. Yeah.
That's gotta be in the roll book.
It's like
a Right?
No. I'm sure it is. And at the same time, Hagon, I want you to make an athletics check for your, punch vest here.
Punch in the knee.
Did we
just ask that Wizards of the
Coast guy on Twitter?
Like, hey, can breastfeed?
Can I get a stat block for amniotic fluid? You know? Did you roll?
Yeah. It's 11. Okay.
At 9.
Wow. Try as they might. Hang on. These people are larger and when they turn around, they're just like, hey, what gives? What are you doing?
Hey, can't you see this lady? She's giving birth.
One of them looks up, and they go,
oh,
what the hell? And they look at their boots, and they're all wet a little bit. And they're just, like, and a couple people turn and walk away, but doesn't clear the full path up to the crystal.
But it helped.
And the brass are closing in on you. Doran, you're the last line of defense before the brass breaks into your group. You've got a moment to do something about it. What do you got?
I take out Owie, and I quickly lick him 3 times.
Okay. Yep. And he's free. Right. Free candy, everyone.
And I throw Owly up into the
air. Oh. And then
I started clapping. Owly
does a huge, like, circular pass around this place, kind of flying around the crystal. And sure enough, the guards stop and they look up to watch, you know, kind of expecting an explosion or something terrible. But they see this thing just kind of like shaking out its wings and dropping rock candy everywhere. You see people, like, shield themselves and kind of protect, and there's like, ow. And you hear this, like, murmur among the crowd of, like, ow.
Ow. Like, as rock candy is hailing down on them. Hey, don't you like rock candy? What's the deal? You hear a voice in the car that goes, nobody
likes rock candy.
But there are some excited kids and this caused a lot of chaos. Why don't you give me give me, an intelligence check, I guess. Yes. Because we gotta root it in something. Right?
Can I make an argument that it's a performance and
try to
Oh, absolutely? Yep. I'll take that. Alright. 20 2.
Great. Okay. Yeah. The, cops are momentarily mystified as are the blight. You can see everybody's kind of stunned for a second, as they stare up at Ali. But Ollie's also kind of returning to you in a moment. This was a temporary deal. Yeah. Oscar's gonna make an attempt to push up.
Okay.
Oscar's bad.
Oh my god.
You see Oscar press against 2 of the largest Tabaxi you've ever seen in your life, and he goes, come on, guys.
He's useless.
Well, gotta go. And, you see Eren as, Hagon the dwarf just kinda
click click click click. I'm gonna try and do just a shove of the people, closest to the crystal that maybe could be pushed through. Okay. Yeah. Can I just Give
me athletics? Yeah.
Yeah. Invisible. Shut around
with my hair. Can it just be strength or does it have to be athletics?
Yeah. You can choose to essentially make an attack.
It is it's like a shove attack. I'm not trying to injure, but I just wanna I wanna use my strength. Yeah. Okay. 13.
Yeah. I I had this guy make a strength save to resist being pushed, and they're quite a bit larger than you are.
I'm large.
Yeah. Yeah. You push on a person, a Tabaxi, and you realize a kind of striking trait about this person. They're a huge Tabaxi in the first place. Big thick arms, long golden mane, but in this golden mane is a large swath of hair that's been cut out. It seems something must have got in their hair and they had to cut it out kind of surgically to remove it, but you see this giant lion like Tabaxi turn around, and he looks down at you, and he goes, we got a problem here.
Did my hidden step go away because I pushed?
Technically, it's a tac, so it would have gone away. Yeah, actually.
Okay.
Yep. So he turns around and I don't know if you expected to be seen or not, but he kind of glares down and he says, what's going on here?
I'm trying to get my pal here over to the crystal just real quick. If you step right out of my way, then I'll get out of your way, sir.
We all got a lot of videos to upload.
He's just got the one.
He, starts to kind of turn around again to disregard what everything you had said, still standing like a brick wall in your path.
Can Guy step in here?
Yep.
Yep. Guy's gonna step right next to Journey and look that guy in the eyes Mhmm. And cast cause fear.
Oh, great.
Yeah.
That's a, wisdom saving throw.
K.
Journey is too nice to be scary.
Okay. I got a 12.
I think that's a loss. Sorry.
I haven't played D and D with them.
A 15?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. You did. Okay.
I think you should step aside, friend.
You see his eyes just kind of like wiggle from side to side as he beholds you. He's almost too afraid to look you directly in the eyes, and then he looks straight at the floor. You see a couple other tobaccs and hear him, and they go, Captain? Captain? What's wrong?
And someone, someone else goes, Captain Field. What What's going on? And, like, they all kind of, like They're, like, oh my god. And all of a sudden there's this huge lion like Tabaxi is just like, and he just bolts Journey. He almost, like, topples you as he peels out of this crowd.
Is this heckles up tails?
Yeah. I mean, all of his yes. He actually kind of like bounds over a couple people and he's just kind of bouncing up and down. You see him cause this chain reaction of chaos throughout the crowd crystal and he presses his against it and then you see him get yanked backwards by a member of the brass. You see him being dragged by the wrist and he is just swiping, swiping, trying to get his crystal to connect with the main one, but he misses.
I wanna grab the crystal out of his hand.
Okay. Oh. He okay. You all kinda see what's going on here. He's desperately trying to hit this, and he takes one final swipe and he ends up throwing his crystal, and it bounces off the main one and lands on the ground. As he's being dragged away by the brass, he goes, oh, man. Oh, I guess this is it. What a crazy journey it's been. Oh, well, I guess I should probably hit the door and and and go with all you guys, before things really start popping off. Aaron. Aaron.
Is this a code?
Yeah. I'm gonna go for the crystal on the ground.
Yeah. Yeah. You got it. No problem. I mean, people were more interested in him shouting than they were with anything else. You pick it up off the ground.
Yeah. I I kinda like I wanna scooch into the crowd a little bit so that I'm not in full view of the brass Yep. And just be kind of crouched and then put the crystal up to the main crystal.
Yeah. Almost like an ambulance driving through traffic. A bunch of people try to get in really quick behind this and, like, take their spot. You manage to kind of weave yourself in there. Yeah.
And you press the crystal to the larger one. You can see you don't know if you're doing it right, but you can see that Oscar had taken earlier in the core chamber of him pointing it towards himself, pointing at the crystal, and saying, you know, Mabel, I'm going to be with the heart of Baxi. If that's where you are. I'm with you always.
Did he get us on that video at all?
Make a perception check.
Nat 20. Yes. Bitch.
Okay. Sorry. Poppy, you're, like, really down low kind of against the crystal. You don't even know people know you're there. You're almost underneath it. I'm being pressed. Yeah. Yeah. You're here. You're being, like, loud.
With your
last breath. Yeah.
And, yeah, you're being pressed right up against one facet, so you get kind of a 4 k.
Eyeballs touching
the facets. Yeah.
The video practically gets uploaded to you at this point. But, yeah, you see it. And for a moment, when he spins it around, he catches Journey. But that's it.
Oh, yeah. Because I was all
over the crystal's business. Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yikes. Okay.
That's fine.
Well, I try and climb my way back out of that crowd, and I have halfling nimbleness, so I can move through people's spaces.
No problem. Yeah.
Okay. So I'm just like, boop boop boop.
City girl.
Yeah.
Journey, we have a problem.
Can I can I take the crystal off now?
I think it's uploaded, but you were in the video. Video? You were in the crystal.
Do is that bad? Am I gonna get in trouble?
Me, probably. We were not supposed to be there, and then now your face is all over it.
Alright. I'm gonna use my last hidden step and go invisible again.
Okay.
And then I'm not gonna attack anybody.
Yeah. You got a whole day of subterfuge ahead of you. It's cold. Yikes.
Making bad choices, y'all. Alright. I'll follow you out, and then I go invisible.
Oh, oh, I'm still in labor.
People are kind of mystified to see you again after having disappeared for a couple minutes there. They're just like, where had she been?
The pinch lump is, like, off to the side now. And I'm just like, oh, this is probably not good.
It's it's enough of a confusing scenario that people are starting to give you a wide birth now. Make a wide birth. Making it extremely easy for you to get out of this crowd and and back out into backseat.
I literally like duck walk, crouching, crawling, following her.
And, Journey, you you get a taste for some of the danger of using invisibility in a crowded space. People are stepping on you. They're kicking you and kneeing you, and they're so frustrated when they bump into something.
Yeah. I get ouchy hands. Oh, I'm sorry.
The rest of you are able to regroup outside of this crowd a little bit. Still near the mainstream, still in the central plaza, you don't see the brass or the blight. It's just you guys.
Did everyone see the, blight earlier?
Nope. Just you and
And me. I did too.
I think I did. Yeah.
We're gonna have I've rolled a sub,
17 or above. Yeah. Okay.
I think we need to track down those Blight members. I recognize them.
Track them down?
We need to figure out where the others are, the other leaders.
I think we should stay as far away from them as possible. Yeah. I think it's not such a good idea to try to, get in their business. I don't know why they're here. Just bad news, you guys. Trust me.
I think the dwarf is very wise.
I think we need to regroup because we keep running into trouble no matter where we go here.
Let's, let's go back to the rolling pin and And the scratching post. The scratching post. Was that the hotel we stayed?
Yeah. Okay. The scratching post by Sunbeam Hotels, I think, was the thing we can
A subsidiary. Oh,
good news.
In that moment while you're all standing outside this crowd, kind of inconspicuous back to your own devices, Venus crystals. Venus crystals. Get your Venus crystals newest model.
We need one of those.
How much are they?
I don't know, but I might be able to foot the bill.
Do we have any money left?
A little bit. Model up.
Journey, do you wanna do the negotiating here?
No. Maybe Journey should stay out of
Someone in the visible spectrum.
Poppy said she saw me on that video that I
yeah. That's right.
Freaking
what do we call them? Video crystal?
We've said something.
We've said something already. Holograms?
The the patent is a horoscope. The common name is a Venus crystal. The thing is it makes is a hologram.
A hologram. Poppy Poppy said she saw me on the hologram that I put in the big crystal.
Yeah. I think we're in big trouble if, if Journey ever gets found again.
Spray some of the fucking get it on
Poppy. Yeah.
This smells really bad. It
says I'm supposed to check to make sure you're not allergic first, but sorry about that.
She starts swelling.
Patty, give me a constitution save. Oh, good.
Introducing the concept of allergy rolls. Yeah. Oh, I love it.
So 14? Yeah. You're fine. Okay. You're dead. Yeah. You approach a fire genasi, holding this big box, and he looks down and says, you looking to record something?
I am. Yes. How much are they?
Going rate is 50 gold per 6 seconds. I can go up to 1 minute. You can record a minimum of a 6 second clip.
But just one one of those.
Well, well, if you get, say, a 12 second crystal, you could do 2 6 sec
How much are those?
The 12 seconds are a 100 goal pieces. It's 50 gold for every 6 seconds you want.
How much money do we have?
I
got 23 gold. A 190, but that's kind of like
You can totally haggle down though because you're you smell nice.
How would you feel about doing a deal?
With that kind of charisma, how could I read this? What is your opening argument?
What about, like, 80?
Oh, just a discount? No.
What does this perfume do?
It reduces the cost by 20%. So
I would like a 20% discount, please.
He he kneels down to you, and he squints his eyes with the most incredulous look. And he goes, listen here, little girl.
And I, like, waft my hair at him.
He kinda, like, wipes an arm across his nose. Goes, 80 gold sounds fine.
Yes. Perfect. 1 12 second second crystal, please.
Yeah. I'll probably get fired, but it's not a deal. Yeah. Exchange is made. You have a, a 2 clip crystal up to 12 seconds.
Oh, that's so fucking funny.
Minus 80.
Does it also have, like, the phone capabilities? Nope.
Just just the video.
I don't understand how this crystal technology works.
The 5 of you are essentially left to your own devices, Still, in the main plaza here by the mainstream, but no longer bothered by Oscar, no longer bothered by wandering merchants. What would you all like to do?
That Oscar is going to be fine in jail. Right?
I mean, is anyone ever really fine in jail?
Well, we escaped.
We never well yeah.
It seemed like he had a plan. I'm not too worried about Oscar. I I know we wanted to head back to the scratching post. I think at least a couple of us should try to tail the blight. I know we don't want to brush shoulders with them, but they could be tailing us already.
Would it be helpful for me to follow them back to where they're staying?
As a disembodied voice?
As a voice in the dark. Keep forgetting
you're here.
Dorn jumps a bit, with Journey's voice popping out of nowhere. Yeah. Journey, you and me? Alright. We'll meet you back up at the scratching post.
Yeah. Scratching post. They're a little skill. This thing's itchy.
And, Hagon is just scratching his beard, and he's like,
Yeah. It sucks, doesn't it?
Oh, it's terrible.
Yeah. A guy instinctually scratches his beard.
Let's go. Back to the scratching post, everyone. Keep your bells on you. Hi. Oh, Brad.
And he starts marching.
Yeah. Journey,
taps Dorn on the shoulder and then starts walking away.
Alright. If you can hear me, call Frank. I have a bell to both of them. Mhmm. And I'm holding them both up. We'll call you. Don't call us. Oh, got it. Goodbye. Bye, Bobby.
Alright. Journey and Doran split off and start tailing the blight throughout Backseat.
What's it called when you are, playing music, like, in public?
Buscoring.
Buscoring. So I'm gonna be, very, very casually, intentionally in the background buscoring. So just kinda, like, strumming very quietly, not actually trying to get people's attention, but just walking through the street, looking around smiling and nodding at people, swinging my legs around, kinda, like, sort of dancing, looking for the 2 Blight members we saw earlier.
Okay. Yeah. People look up and regard you as you pass by, but as soon as they realize you're not, like, a a threat in terms of, like, talent level or, like, what you're putting out right now Okay. They kind of disregard you and just let you pass by. I mean, buskers are plentiful here, and people are mostly concerned that you're better than them.
Oh, okay.
And, I mean, like you said, you're not trying to put on your best performance here. So Yeah.
I'll actually yeah. I'll actually mess up. No. It's occasionally on purpose.
Oh, yeah. On purpose? Yeah. Gosh. Alright. I need a, investigation check from both Journey and Doran.
Not gonna start with a p.
Investigation. Can
I You've got a minus 10 to non p skills? Fuck.
Not peace.
Once before you roll, Tara, one sec. Let me just
Yeah.
Before we part ways, can I cast enhanceability on journey and also provide bardic inspiration to the journey?
Okay. So it needs intelligence.
Yes. So I'll give you fox's cunning. So you have advantage on intelligence checks, and you have the option to add a d 8 with bard inspiration.
Cool. Thank you.
Yeah. So then strumming along, I'll try to do some investigating too. Buscreens. Natural one. So how
Oh my god.
Just putting it all under. Him.
My rolls were bad.
Oh, no. 13. I gave you everything. I can't. Okay.
Journey and Doran following along, trying to keep pace with the Blight or really find them in the first place so that you can tail them. Doran, you are trying to, kind of run through the paces, which is to bolster people around you to the best of your ability. You get into your singing a little bit as you're kind of waddling around with this, and you close your eyes for a good long while, but in exchange, you have completely blinded yourself to any chance that you succeeding. Journey, even with all of that, you know, you're spinning around in the city and, you know, just the density of people here, you're not able to see them. You're not able to see anyone.
After 10 minutes, it's a lost cause and the 2 of you are now standing somewhere in backseat. You've actually lost your place as to where you are.
I will, move my way over to a wall and just lean against it and kinda look around.
Yeah. I walk up to Torren. I lost him. I'm so sorry.
We suck at this.
I don't know what happened. I I think I was just trying to figure out what they were doing too much instead of just trying to look for where they were. I don't know.
It's alright. Let's just take
a second. Last ditch here. Let's just try for Ganymede. And then if that doesn't help, we can head back to the scratching post, wherever that is. Alright. I'll just be real quiet. I'm just gonna see if I can hear anything.
Okay.
So I'm gonna try to use, Ganymede, perception for hearing and just see if I can hear anything that sounds like white members talking.
Why don't you give me a, give me a charisma check to beseech Ganymede in the moment here?
So beseech Ganymede. Just straight charisma. I got a 21.
Beautiful. So much Riz.
It's got a plus 5 beseech.
Thank you for recently explaining what riz means.
What's riz?
Charisma. Charisma.
Ah, okay.
All the kids on TikTok are saying it. Alright.
I'm too old. Me too. I am your Gen z liaison.
Thank you.
Thank you, Gen z.
Gen z liaison.
Doran. Yeah. With that role, listening intently for a specific thing, you hear Ganymede's voice. He says, hello?
Are you there? Ganymede, yeah. It's me, Doran.
You're probably the last person to talk to me, you know that. You listen to so many things. You hear so much. But you almost never hear me when I try to talk to you.
Sorry. I didn't know you were trying to reach me.
Are you, preoccupied? Anxious?
Anxious. We're lost in the city looking for, street thugs that might be trying to kill us. So Well Usual.
Let me introduce you to a finer point of my gift. Oh? I used to use this at parties to stay ahead of the beef. I don't do cocaine. Oh, nope. Oh, sorry. Neither do I anymore. Oh my god. I call this trick Rumor Sense. Here's the deal. You have to concentrate really hard. Like, really hard. But think of one word. A name? A place?
A thing? When you focus on that word, you hear context every mention from every people in a 100 feet around you. I used to stay up late listening to minstrels in the taverns and I could hear every rumor in the tavern. I would just clue in to one thing and listen to everything about it. You can do the same if only you focus.
That's very cool, Ganymede. Thank you.
And try not to focus on the bad, the things that make you anxious. Your mind can get flooded with things you don't want to hear if you open your mind to it. Do you understand what I'm telling you? I think so. Your gift is more dangerous than the others.
Okay. I'll try to be careful. So, like, yeah. I I I think I follow. Just don't pick a word that might
Don't focus on the negative. Don't let it overwhelm you.
Okay. I'll give it a shot. I wanna say persimmon or maybe plan or Ganymede, are you still there? Yes. Oh, great. It's like a name okay even if it's a bad person's name?
As long as you know what the word means and what it's about, then yes. Okay. It's about your perception. Perception.
Okay. Great. Yep. I think that'll work. Journey, do you mind if we take one other round? You might wanna check with Ganymede too, see if he got anything.
Alright. I haven't really used anything from
He's a good guy.
Ganymede yet. I I haven't talked to him yet. I don't think.
Do you want some space?
I don't know. I mean, I'll try.
Okay.
I take the stone out of a little pouch at my hip, and I hold onto it. Ganymede?
Hey. How's it going for a friend?
I don't really know how any of this works. I haven't really tried to use it yet.
Oh, no? You haven't been able to feel your friends around
you? How do I do that?
You'll need to give it some focus and concentration, some awareness, but you should be able to sense every, person you've met before, by their footsteps. Everybody walks a little bit differently and you should be able to sense any of your friends within a 100 feet or so.
Is it is it just my friends, or is it maybe people I met before that I don't like?
Anyone that's been within a 100 feet of you before.
Well, that's good to know.
That's what a friend is.
I'm definitely That's what friends are. Right? Anyone that lives near you at all. For surety, that might be true. For anime, it's the same thing.
Alright. Yeah, Dorn. I I might have an option too to check around.
Great. Yeah.
Why don't we both try it?
Yeah. Why don't we, like, try to find the scratching post, but then try these on our way to see if it works?
Mhmm. Okay.
Yeah. I'll check-in with Poppy. I take out the the shell, and I cough into it.
Oh, and hello?
Hey, Poppy. It's Doran. Yeah. We're lost. We're okay, though.
Do you need help?
Not yet. We checked in with Ganymede, and we're gonna try one other thing and make our way back to the scratching post. So Okay.
If you
guys are having dinner, did you order already?
Yeah. Do you want me to get you something?
Do they still have French toast?
I'll ask, but I don't know if they serve breakfast at dinner.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
Do you want me to get you some, like, some stew?
No. That's fine. Well, yeah. No. We'll we'll figure out what
we get. Yeah. He said, one bowl of stew, please. Yeah. Extra bread. That would be great. Thank you.
Bread is fine, I guess. Okay. Well, yeah. Thanks, Poppy. Yeah. See you in a bit.
Okay. Goodbye.
Bye. We'll actually cut over real quick to, the other group here that was originally heading towards the scratching post. Guy, Aaron, and Poppy are all walking down the cobbles. The hotel building is not far away from you. It's like a 7 story building that runs up along the stone of backseat kind of rising against the column.
It's kind of built to look like a giant cat scratching post with little, smaller, like, house shaped buildings kind of set into it. Mhmm. Like a compact birdhouse almost. As you're all approaching, Aaron, currently disguised as Hagon, you take a small, little tiny misstep. You step on one of the cobbles and it's loose and that causes your ankle to twist a little bit, and it's that little tiny spot of pain again, that little tiny injury from jumping off the cliff and landing on Diver, your last little reminder of the blight that refuses to let go of you.
And that pain always brings your mind back to Diver. You're thinking back to one of the last times that you employed Hagon and we see a dwarf wearing a dark, heavy cloak. He's thin, small for a dwarf, but still tough looking, still with the thick arm hair that you'd expect on a dwarf but his eyes are anxious and wide open. We watch him walk into a small village, leaving footprints in the snow, and he passes by humble wooden buildings looking back over his shoulder every few paces, nervously. He stops at the front steps of an inn and counts just a few gold pieces in their hand.
There's a loud clack as a wagon wheel slips over a stone and it startles the dwarf and they drop their gold into the snow. Aaron, that's all the money you had and it all just disappeared into the snow. You barely made it out of Farewell alive and you know that Diver will be coming after you. He always does. But this time, you're one step ahead of him.
You see someone near you dart for the coins that just fell into the snow. They kind of dive for it and they start reaching through the snow to grab up the coins.
Hey, hey, get out of here. That's mine.
Oh, you dropped these, friend. And he just kind of holds up the gold coins to you.
Hagon snatches them out of his hands.
I'm no friend. Now get.
Back then, it was pretty easy for you to assume that everyone was out to get you, that everyone wanted to steal from you. Shape shifted as the door of you step inside the inn, and the smell of warmth and humidity and soup and the stink of soggy clothes drying by the fire all kind of invades you at the same time. And you see an attendant standing at the desk. It's a young woman with freckles, and they're smiling straight at you. She says, hi.
It's 2 gold for the night, 10 for the week. Dinner too. Plenty of rooms. They all have a fireplace, and Aaron, something is wrong. Your eyes were sharp long before you had Ganymede.
You look at the freckles on this woman's face, and they're not freckles. That's blood spatter. You see the woman give her head an almost imperceptible shake side to side, looking straight at you. You see motion from the kitchen doorway that catches your attention. You see Derringer standing on the threshold, his face coated in someone else's blood.
You look up and see Mercy and Ribbo coming down the stairs. The door opens behind you and it's Diver. His eyes light up as fairy fire rolls through the inn. Peekaboo, little sprite. The next 24 hours was an agonizing blur.
You kept waking up choking on the bittersweet syrupy taste of health potions as Mercy kept you alive, and Diver did the opposite in order to drive out every ounce of hope you ever had for escape. And that vision of that little inn, and that snowy village, and the last time you ever tried to run away has haunted you ever since. You experience all of that in the space it takes to recover from a twisted ankle, and suddenly you're standing outside of the scratching post with your new friends.
Oh, careful. I think you tripped. Yeah. Sorry. Are you okay? Yeah. I'm I'm fine. I'm fine. Got used to this little little body. You know? It's weird. I don't know what that's like. Just kidding.
Yeah. I I wanna get back up to the room so I can change. Okay.
You, you all make your way to your room, and you've actually got surprisingly nice accommodations. It's well heated in here, and the room is luxurious. And the beds are massive and circular for some reason. Always circular here.
As soon as we're back in the room and the door closes behind us, Erin shifts back into Erin form.
Oh my god. I hate beards so much. Ugh. It
feels good to be back.
I don't think I'll ever get used to that.
Yeah. Tell me about it. Sometimes, it just is super uncomfortable to be certain people.
I'm sure.
Well, what's next? Shall we have a meal while we wait for the others?
Before we go, do either of you know any healing? I kinda think I hurt my ankle a few days ago and, just I thought I'd sleep it off. But even after some long rests, it hasn't recovered fully.
Yeah. That's what I call it. Nights. It's just
long rest. Long rest. I can't say I know any spells for that. Not my area. But, I do have a med kit. I could try and splint it.
I, seem to have retained some first aid skills from my old days. I might be able to help you out, Erin, if you'll allow it.
Yeah. It's it just, kinda hurts here. I think it may be a sprain, and Aaron gestures to their right ankle.
Let's take a look. Maybe I'll do some sort of medicinal check.
Medicinal verification.
How appropriate.
6.
Guy, are you using Lay on Hands or the medicine kit?
Right now, I'm just doing a medicine check.
Yeah. You see, a guy opened the medicine kit and very dutifully, you know, kind of like an actual field doctor, he takes out a spool of bandages and he just wraps around Aaron's ankle and he goes, good as
Is that any better?
Sure. And Aaron undoes the bandage and re bandages it tighter. Yeah. That might help. Thank you.
Yes. Very well.
Let's get some dinner.
Tell me what you guys want, and I'll go ask.
I don't know. I mean, food.
I'll have what she's having. Great.
Cool. I'll be back.
Yeah. You, plod downstairs, and, you're a little disappointed with the menu here. It's actually fairly limited.
Just stew.
Yeah. Stew and tuna.
They were serving French toast this morning you saw on the menu, but, they actually have a special chalkboard that says no breakfast at dinner. Fuck this place. You come up to the desk there and they're like, where can I get you?
Yeah. I just oh, hold on a second.
Oh, my puppy.
It's Doran. Yeah. You, field a call from Doran really quick and get his dinner order.
I guess, stew all around then.
Okay. We'll get that right up. It's gonna be about 20 minutes.
Perfect. Thank you.
Uh-huh.
I I curtsy? You smell good?
Oh, yeah. You smell great too. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Great. See you in 20 minutes. Alright.
That was so relevant.
A true and accurate.
Yeah. You
always gotta shoehorn that in.
I feel
like that is how I order things at restaurants.
You peek back into the kitchen, there's just a cat with a chef hat on just bapping the stew with its pilo. It's not stirring it.
It's not a spicy. It's a cat. Yeah. It's not. It's the
only actual cat.
Just knocking spices into the
stew. The object.
Guys, I don't I don't have high hope
for this meal.
Yeah. Poppy, you're you're nervously watching from a from a table into the kitchen, kind of seeing all the missteps that they're making, knowing how subpar the soup is gonna be.
Oh, that much, Sage? Okay.
At least it's included with our stay.
Poppy, the door opens, to this room, to the main floor of the hotel here, and in walks Harley Brummelon. She actually might not recognize you due to your costume, but you see her walk up to the front desk and she starts kind of grilling the employee there and she says, Hi. I'm Harley Brumlinum. You might know me from some of my work around Backsy. I was wondering if you could just let me know, do you have anyone on your ledgers by the name of Doran?
I I met a man earlier and I'm just trying to track him down. We didn't do a good job of saying where and when, so I'm just trying to see. The, person at the front desk is obviously a little standoffish and says, we're not at liberty to really give that information out and you understand.
Excuse me, and I tap her on the shoulder.
She looks down and goes, oh, 2 happenings in one day.
Oh, actually, could you just come to the corner with me? No. I this isn't weird. Oh, great.
Yeah. And she goes with me.
Okay. This isn't weird.
She spit on the down low, but I'm actually popping Oh. From earlier.
She gives you a big wink?
Yeah. We're kind of on the lam. From what? I don't know. A lot of people are after us for some reason. What
did you do?
Well, we make waves wherever we go, so probably a lot of things.
Okay. I can well
There's a lot of customs we're not aware of here.
Well, if you would need political asylum, I might be able to help you.
Do you offer that?
Well, I
can get you in touch with the right people. Captain Field might be able to help with this.
Oh, is he like a big, like, lion?
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
We may have
a problem with that. Okay. Alright. Well, we can seek other avenues. Anyway, I just wanted to reconvene with you and your group. It seems like you had a lot of interesting happenings, a lot of things to say and a big story behind you. I just wanted to get the whole truth, and I I was hoping we could set aside some time for that.
Definitely. I heard you were asking for Doran. He is not currently here.
That's fine. I I assume you know just as much. Oh,
Yeah. I can I can help?
K.
I'm not really good at interviews.
Sure. Oh, is that your soup?
Oh, yeah.
You see 5 bowls laid out on the countertop?
Do you sorry. Do you have a tray?
Not really.
Oh, no. That's that's okay. And I pop pinch out, and I also cast sous chef.
We've got one here, actually. You see them grab a tray from under the, under the bar, and they start dumping the soup onto one of the
tray of the soup. No. Oh. Sorry. I meant for
I misunderstood.
That's okay.
You can handle it.
I'll just pour it
back into the bowl.
And then I, like, place 2 bowls on the tray and then hand off the other bowls to the unseen servant and pinch. Harley, if you'd like to follow me upstairs, we can talk while I eat. Does that work?
Yeah. Love that direction. Okay. Let's do that.
Follow me. Yeah. Soup's here. Also, I Harley's here.
Hi. Harley. I work well, I'm an independent reporter now, but, I did I meet all of you before? I don't remember.
We have met a lot of people in the past day or so, but
this is Guy. This is Aaron.
A pleasure to meet both of you. I was wondering if any of you knew anything about the Island of Lore.
Yeah. That's a tough one. Lore. God, we were just there. The island that fell out of the sky.
So you were there. You saw it happen.
Yes. I was trying to prevent this very outcome. Oh.
I did not pick up what you were putting down. I'm so sorry.
There were so few there, and I haven't been able to track down much of the tortle. They they hid themselves away pretty quickly. Can you tell me what happened?
Before I speak to you, do I need a lawyer? What?
A lawyer?
Yeah. To,
Like Femur and Associates or something? Like, what do you need?
I'm just making sure I'm not under arrest.
You're not under arrest. I'm I'm not the governing body who would do that.
Well, I don't know how things work here.
Okay. Well, I'm a reporter. I just I tell stories. Yeah.
I think we might have some interesting information to share with the Skyland because lore fell from the sky, and we think we might have some ideas why, but we don't know for sure. And we came here to actually warn people that the same thing might be happening I knew it. To the other Skylands.
I knew it. Nobody will listen to us.
We also wish not to incriminate ourselves, not that we did anything wrong, but people have been all up on us since we got here and
Yeah. So we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yeah.
I understand. That's exactly why I wanted to get involved. The real truth needs to get out there.
You're not gonna, like, slander us. Right?
No. No. Listen. Not all journalists are bad people.
Insight check. Yeah.
Even in the intro, Tim said that she's on the up and up. Yeah.
Well, that's Tim saying that.
I got a 9.
She's evil. Yep.
But truly, our goal is just to prevent this from happening on other islands such as the one we currently are on.
She kind of solemnly nods and looks at the floor, and she goes, I I knew I was on the right side of this. Yes. Let's prevent this from happening to Baxi or anything else. Tell me everything.
Okay. So, we went to the island. Mhmm. We were trapped in a cave. K.
And then
there was this big old man who, like
Scary man.
Scary scary man. And he sucked all of the the bismite out of the the cave. And and then everything started rumbling, and then
how the island fell.
Then then we, we fought these guys, and then, we finally left, and they fell behind us.
We are back on the streets of backseat with the setting sun. It is coming into the evening now. The 2 of you are, kind of walking back towards the scratching post, but at the same time, trying to tune into Ganymede. Get a read on things. Let's have you make those attempts here.
Okay. Does the Ganymede require concentration to
It does. Yeah.
So I have to drop enhance ability, but I will give bardic inspiration back again.
K. Here we go. Thanks.
Yeah. I'm gonna be looking for the mention of Ribbo. Okay. Should I go first?
Yeah. Please. Alright.
Do I get advantage on this?
Yes. It's a a check involving hearing, so yes. Okay.
Yeah. 17.
Okay. A 17 is plenty to clue into the words around you, and hear a lot of murmuring and a lot of whispering. And for just an instant, you hear that clacking again, and it sends you into a sweaty panic, but you focus on the mission and you're able to move past it and you hear Next time you see him, just start stabbing. I Diver didn't seem to trust him one little bit, neither Aaron nor that, dorm Doorman guy or whatever his name was. We we gotta kill both of them.
I mean, if Erin's not part of the plan anymore, she's dead to us. Right?
K. With hearing that, I'm I'm just gonna try to stay calm, continue playing my lute, and just kind of, like, shift over towards the direction where I heard the sound. And if I can, lock eyes with Journey, I'll kinda gesture, like, with my head.
I was just chilling invisible.
Alright. Well, yeah, I I make, just a general gesture, like, kinda gesturing inwards like I might have something.
Okay. After getting an idea of how to handle this, Journey is going to reach out, I guess, mentally, magically
Mhmm.
And try to get a feel for where the dragonborn is because she's been in within a 100 feet of that dragonborn. Mhmm.
And
I take advantage because it's the perception. Okay.
Involving touch.
Okay.
22. Okay.
So here's the thing. 2 of you are walking down the street back towards your hotel, and, Doran, you've been tuned into Ribbo the entire time trying to get that read, and it finally, at some point, shows up for you. Journey, The same exact time, you're able to sense the position of Ribbo. You both look around for where that might just be coming from, and you look up and see a tavern, a bar. It's called The Dive.
Cool. Cool. Cool. Subtle. Appropriate.
Yeah. And I would hope satisfied with that bust into the bar now or continue back to the hotel?
No. I'm gonna try and, get a feel for my friends instead and shift focus away from this now that we know where they are.
I Doren's gonna look to see if there's, like, a window or anything like that.
There are, but they are intentionally blackened out so as not to be seen in or out of. You wonder why there's windows at all.
Hey hey, friend. We we gotta get going. Let's let's get out of here.
We know where they're at.
We know
where they are, and we can regroup with our friends.
Why?
Because we're not in any shape to
handle them.
They are gonna know where the others are. Don't worry. And they're after Aaron and me.
Right now, they don't know where we are. If we go in there, they're gonna know.
We can regroup quick, but I wanna go back there tonight.
We gotta we gotta be smart about this, Darren. We gotta rest before we're able to do anything about this. If we try to do something right now, we're gonna be doing more harm than good.
Let's see what the rest of the group says, I guess.
Dorn, I promise you we're gonna deal with this.
Tonight. And then I start strumming and start walking towards where I think the scratching post is.
Okay. Before long, you find it. You walk inside. You smell soup. You see busy employees. You walk up to your room. Who saved? Open the door. And and Too much saved.
And then we caught everyone, and then, and then the island fell out of the sky.
It's the first thing you hear. As Very good. Harley's back is to you, as you walk into this room, and Poppy is excitedly spilling every last bean about Laura.
Oh, and I I, like, punched a guy with fire.
You can see Harley is switching feverishly between taking notes in a very large Libram and occasionally, holding up a, Venus crystal to take little clips of Poppy speaking.
Woah. Crystals a little much. And I kinda stand in, like, just moving between Poppy and
Dormin, it's good to see you again.
Jeez. Jeez. It's Doran. I mean, you know what, Doran? I'm sorry. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Harley. It's been a long day.
No. I drop invisibility.
Oh oh, hello. Hi. Okay. So all of you again. Great.
Hey. Dorian, your soup is right here, and I did get extra bread. But, they said absolutely no breakfast for dinner. I'm so sorry.
I don't understand. It's the best food.
Okay. Thanks, though, Poppy.
So is is this all true? Everything she said? You're on an island, you all punched some people, and the island fell?
I mean, that's not how it
I was paraphrasing.
Okay. We didn't make it fall. We just witnessed it.
I understand. It was this this blue eyed old man?
He, he was if it's alright, if I speak about it.
Yeah. You saw him more than I did. We thought maybe, Harley could help us get the word out to save this Skyland and others.
Right. That's that's why I wanted to be here is to try and stop it from happening here. He's not an old man. He's something much larger and more powerful.
He looked old.
He looked like an old man, but he was hiding. He I I interacted with him once.
Do you think he's a shapeshifter?
I don't shapeshifter is such a such an umbrella term for so many different types of people and creatures.
I've seen the posters, though. They're warning about a a deadly shapeshifter.
The posters.
Here?
Here on back seat. What is in the last day.
What do they say?
Just that there's a a a shape shifter and and to to be on the lookout and and, you know
They say what they look like, usually?
She kinda drops her expression. She goes, they're a shapeshifter.
Who who placed these memorandums?
The brass, I I suppose.
But did they give any indication of what what form they may be taking?
No. That's kind of the hard part. They're just having people be on the lookout for somebody changing their shape actively.
Oh, I
don't think that this is the same thing.
That's I'd be suspicious of any shape shifters for the time being anyway.
Yeah. So Yeah.
We'll keep suspicious. We'll keep both eyes out for that journey,
rat. Anyway, this old man, he was something real old and real powerful, like a he gave off a fiendish celestial tap of energy, and he was able to pull the power and energy out of bismat in the island that was keeping it afloat.
Wow. You see her riding feverishly.
He, like, drained the whole island.
He drained the entire thing faster than it's possible to.
Okay. She slams her Libram closed. She says, listen. This is already bigger than I thought. We're gonna have to escalate this.
And I have a couple requests on how we handle this, and there's more than what we've even shared now. This this touches the great beast as well. Oh my god. I don't want you bringing this just to the general public. I think we need an audience with some higher ups that we can trust.
I agree, but it's it's not easy in backseat. I mean, a good step would be Garth, the captain. I don't know if you've met him, but that would be a good first step. He knows a lot of people, but
Are we talking about the captain Field?
Oh, yeah. Garth Field. Yeah. He's he's a big deal around here. He knows a lot of people.
Stop the podcast.
I just can I just say that it was my idea and I called that Thomas would immediately react to
the podcast?
Anyway, keep keep rolling.
Yeah. Captain captain Garth Field is a great race resource, but he's not everything. Honestly, if if you really wanna get through to the people here, you either need the best of Backsy on your side, or you've gotta be one of the best in Backsy.
Well, we already know Phenom Green.
Yeah. But I
You know Phenom Green?
Yeah. We're close personal friends with Quite well. Mister Green.
Holy shitty. Fuck. Can you get me a audit an autograph or something?
You could probably meet him if you hang around with us.
I feel like there are bigger concerns.
I'm sorry. You're right.
Not to the sky and falling out.
Yeah. Okay. People dying. You're right. That does take a precedent, I guess. Okay.
But he would be a good resource?
Yes. Garth would be a good resource. Phenom would be a great resource. Any of the top I think I
shoved I think I shoved mister Field captain Field.
Okay. Well, let's call that a closed door then.
But what about if I have a a work relationship with Valorant Breeze?
Oh. I mean, Valorant's number 1, but he's been known to defend his position. Yeah. Yeah.
What if I were to defeat mister Breeze in the field of horsey? Horsey.
Horcery. Horcery. This is not
our avenue this
is not our avenue to actual success, but it is the best avenue to hilarity as far as picking out who's gonna go for best of Maxie.
We were, we've been, like, throwing around ideas of how to get into the top 10. Guy thinks he can beat mister b, and I might be able to be best baker in backseat.
Good. Yeah. I think baker's a good thing to go for. Best racer in back seat. I hope you got one hell of a mount.
Oh, we don't he doesn't have amount.
Well, well, I did, but, currently, he is in the possession of mister b.
People have attempted to run-in the ring light before, just on foot, and they are summarily laughed out of the stadium. I advise you don't.
Well, I don't think I could outrun a horse. I've never tried.
Not completely crazy then. Great.
We have, we have a bismite engine wagon.
That's a great start. Why didn't you say that in the first place?
Because it only goes about 10 miles per hour.
Okay. Let's call that a close tour.
Why can't we just ask these people to help us? Why we don't need to beat them, do we?
I mean, I know you're not, like, part of high society, really. No offense. But that's kinda just how the hierarchy works.
It's vicious. She's not wrong. The best in backseat, they they try to make sure other people don't become the best in backseat. They like where they are.
I met some pretty cutthroat business people in my day.
Well, we can just blackmail them or threaten them.
She points her pen at you and goes, that's an open door.
That's I feel morally, opposed to that a little bit.
Here's your targets that you can go after. Okay? There's 10 of them, so hold on to your hats. You all know about Valorant Breeze. Best racer in backseat. There's Lady Luck. Her name is Mabel. She's our best gamer gambler. We've got Patterson Panderson. She's the best chef of our teams. You all know Phenom Green, best performer. You know Oliver Grund. You know Lyra Listing. No. You all you probably heard of Theo Hoff.
There's a relatively newcomer. Her name is Brunhilda Flann. She is the best wizard Baxi knows. She's good with fire. I know that much. There's also Cindy Buns. She's an apprentice of Patterson Anderson. She's the best baker in Backsy, and there's a man named Timothy Matterfax.
Oh, we met him. He is very rude.
Yeah. So you know him. Okay.
What is what's he what, He's
a hologram actor. That's all he does ever.
We don't like him.
No one does.
It would be great to defeat him. Yeah.
Yes. Just like for personal reasons.
I'd say we could end our entire journey there,
The end of campaigning. We just beat the shit out of Tom Petty. Matter of fact, we can call it good. As they're talking about the best ten, Journey is gonna nod at Erin and kind of gesture to a corner and start walking away a little bit.
What's up?
Pernail to Flan. Is that is that Mercy?
Oh, didn't we hurt Mercy back in Farewell?
Right. Why would she be here? I mean I mean, I guess maybe she came with Ribbo and the other one?
I guess. I I mean, Mercy was always in farewell when I was in the blight. I didn't know. She traveled outside very often, so I'm surprised that she rose to number 1 so quick. Right. We better keep an eye out. But that kinda says something about how much control the blight has in this area, I think.
Alright. Well, yeah, we can wait until
What are you guys talking about over there?
Personal business?
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just writing down what I can.
Was Phenom in the top 10 or no?
Yeah. Yep.
Okay. So we've kind of got an in with some of them.
That's great. If you can catch up with Phenom, I'm sure he's in town today or tomorrow. He's got a performance coming up.
I mean, we're we're obviously close personal friends with him, but I don't we don't know where he'll be.
I would hang around the ring light if you're looking to find him.
Okay. How how likely is it do you think I could win best baker? Like, how good is Cindy Buns?
Well, one time I had a croissant from her wagon, and I cried for 8 minutes.
Was did she put a spell on that?
No. It was just a really good croissant.
I get it.
I believe you can do it, puppy.
Well, thank you, Guy. I'm just gonna need to up my game a little.
Well, I feel like if we can just get ahold of Phenom, that might solve most of our problems.
Okay. This has been immensely helpful. I need to go organize my thoughts. I understand you don't want this released to the public just yet. I can respect that.
We also don't want I don't think we want our names named because there might be people here that are keeping an eye out for us and not in a good way.
Yeah.
Are you sure this is big stuff? You don't wanna be at the heart of it?
Yes. I've expressed this already. We do not wish to be known that we are here.
I know we never really wanted to be heroes.
We're here by accident.
Yeah. Most of us are criminals, actually. So no one we're not super credible to
our yourself. I am an upstanding citizen.
I just don't think your article will get much street cred if it's listing our names. I mean, no one even really knows who we are. That's fair.
Yeah. Not yet.
Before you go, Harley, you gather a lot of information. Right?
Yes.
We've had some run ins with the blight and couldn't help but notice a bit of their presence here. Yeah. Could you give us any tips about what their aims might be? I'm sure they've shown up in the news.
Yeah. She opens her Libram. She flips back a few pages. She flips back a whole section, and then draws her finger down the page and taps on something. She goes, Yeah, there's been a growing blight presence here for a few months now. We got a lot of visits from a few people. There is a a Fae type, a fairy like person. I actually didn't get a clear pronunciation of their name, but it was parsman
or something like that. Parsiman.
Mhmm. Yeah. She, makes a correction to her notes and writes parsimon clearly. She says, we've also had a lot of mentions of a, a remote bar owner here. There's a bar called The Dive. It's actually owned by a man who goes by the name Diver, but he lives far away from here. He just owns it with one of his partners. That's where they hang out, a lot of them. The blight, they congregate it there. They're safe there, and they know it. Not even the brass will go there.
And,
the
this diver, what's his partner's name?
I did check the ledgers for this, but I'd never found this person, Larian Hale.
Larian Hale.
Harley, I don't know that I don't know how invested in the flat investigation you are, but, Daver isn't gonna be much of a problem around here anymore.
What? What do you mean?
I wanna know what have their aims been. What have their actions been? Is there anything that as you've tried to get to print that's been shut down?
No. I've I've put out a lot of stories about vandalism, some crime and robbery. I they're a criminal organization. That's what they do.
They're more than that. Okay. We we can share more. They're they were very much related to everything that went down and lower.
They got some big bismite, dealings.
Those people who you punched, was that Diver?
I didn't punch Diver, but I did punch someone with wings.
Did you see this parsimon and Diver and Leary and Hale there?
They came for us, not Learion. Know Lirion.
I don't know. Smilgrin. She's kind of adding stuff to her notes. Diver's dead.
Oh. Smilgrin might be dead.
Good. Good.
We have no confirmation of any of that.
Okay. Alright. At this point, there are some protocols I need to follow, for the safety of the people of. I won't give any specifics. I won't give your name. I'm just going to let the I'm going to let Captain Field know that they need to be on the lookout. Extra care on the blight. They need to watch the dive. Okay?
I thought you said they leave the dive alone, the brass do.
Yeah. They won't go in there, but they'll keep an eye on it. Okay.
Also, maybe keep an eye out for someone with very blue eyes.
That's Well
gonna be a problem.
We saw a bunch of people with blue eyes, and it was just because of that dang drink.
Yeah. Right. People are obsessed with glamour food here. Almost every special treat and every piece of food here always comes with some magical effect. They love it here.
Just it's so weird because I, like, invented that.
I mean, their stuff is all aesthetic. Right? Like, they just like to look different.
I mean, everything looks home baked. I'm not really good at the aesthetic part. Sorry. Unrelated and not
Sure. Sure. Yes. All of you need to stay safe. Okay? It's it's going to be a rough couple of days.
Could you possibly do us another favor? I know that you're already kinda putting yourself out on a limb here with us and not really knowing who we are that well. This captain Field, sounds like he might actually be a really good person for us to know. We definitely had an encounter with him that didn't go great.
Would
you be willing to put in a good word and maybe express that we're sorry and we didn't mean to scare him?
I'll try to work with that. Sure. You see your Maybe don't say scare.
I don't know.
I just I feel I feel bad. We were just trying to get something done.
I'll do what I can, but I hope you all understand my sense of urgency around this, but I have to be going. Thank you for trusting me.
You know where to find us.
Be careful, and don't carry any mining equipment with you. Of course not.
And if you betray us, well, you better watch out. Yeah. Aaron, like, smashed the guy's face in.
She kinda points her pen at you, and she goes, very good. Very scary. Okay. Alright.
Erin just frowns at
her. So scary.
Thanks, Harley.
Yeah. My last warning here. Don't get on Balorin's bad side. And I think we'll end it right there. Thanks everybody for listening. I'm Tim, your GM.
I'm Hannah Plaine, Aaron.
I'm Tara and I play Journey.
Hey. I'm Thomas. I'm Guy.
This is John. I play Doran.
I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy Kenmore.
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