Last time on Cloudfall. Who cares about what happened last time? Today is the best of all. The best day of every month on backseat, where the most talented singers, dancers, racers, fighters, and crossword puzzlers all gather together to test themselves, and see who really deserves recognition among the clouds. And we've got our contenders.
The party needs to earn the respect of the island in order to save them all. If they can earn the influence held by the top 10, they just might be able to talk some sense into the socially obsessive inhabitants and warn them about the impending cloud fall. It all comes down to this. Can they save Baxi? Can they even save themselves?
Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens. The lot of you, all of you plus Mikey, plus Sir Bo, maybe a few others, you all enter into the gardens, and it is dessert o'clock. There are savory smells of dinner still in the air, but they're giving way to the warm embrace of baked goods. Once again, around the central fountain in the gardens here, you are surrounded by trees, food wagons, and a shoulder to shoulder crowd of onlookers. There's an area cleared around the contestants in the middle.
Poppy, when you arrive, you see Cindy Buns, formerly from Perbaked, but her cart burned down. You had offered to let her use your cart whenever she would need to bake. She's here to take you up on that offer.
Right. Oh, I forgot about that. Cool.
Cindy is a small petite little red Tabaxi with sharp green eyes, a sharp smile. You also see standing there is Brody Tatum. He's a shaggy blonde Tabaxi with a headband. He's smiling most of the time. And finally, there's Ruby Christmas. She is the owner of Scrumdiddly Suites.
I curtsied all of them. Good luck out there.
Ruby and Cindy just both give you a nod, and Brody goes, yeah. Thanks. You too.
May the best woman win.
Oh, hey. Come on. That was pretty funny. Hey. I'm Brody. What's your name?
Oh, I'm Poppy.
Hey. Oh, Poppy. You're from the videos and stuff. That's awesome.
Yeah. That's me. I'm also a baker.
Oh, dang, man. I'm probably gonna lose.
How do do you do you bake often?
Oh, for sure.
Do you own a shop?
Kinda. Yeah.
Well, what do you what do you make? I haven't seen you around.
His wagon is very much unlike the others. It's it's like there's not really, like, a room inside to it. It's just kind of like a rolling cart or kiosk almost. It's called roll, roll, roll your dough.
Oh my god.
Everybody on Backstreet knows I like to roll my own, so they just show up and get some sweet breads.
Is he selling catnip laced?
Probably.
Catnip laced. Just just
full of sage.
Oh, like bread. Bread's your area.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Very cool.
Yeah. Hey. Did anybody, like, tell you the rules here and, like, how this works? Or Nope. Yeah. You're probably gonna wanna know.
Yeah. Could someone tell me you do you know him?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've done this a bunch of times. Alright. So, basically, there's 3 rounds. Right? Each time they're gonna say, like, hey, here's the title of the dish, you know. It's like sprinkle salmon and then you gotta, like, figure out what that's gonna be. But it's not literal. Okay? It's open to interpretation. They give you a title, and then you just kinda make a dish from the title. Okay. So then
So, like, creative and
and Yeah. Okay.
They wanna be surprised and impressed. That's the whole thing.
Right. Right. Right. Right. And I think someone mentioned secret ingredients.
Yeah. Yeah. So everybody gets one secret ingredient, but you gotta keep it a secret. Right? That's why it's a secret ingredient.
Oh, we bring our own.
No. No. No. You're gonna get assigned one from the tastemaker. Oh. You gotta make sure nobody else finds out what that is. Right? Because it's gotta sit in this little gold dish, okay, in your area. And if one of the other teams finds out what your secret ingredient is and they use it, they're not gonna like your stuff anymore. Interesting. So there's a lot of, I don't know, sabotage, I guess.
Yeah. That sounds really cutthroat.
Yeah. Well, I don't really pay attention to that part of it. I just kinda do my best. You know?
Well, I'm I'm not nervous at all.
Oh, don't be super fun. Basically, we get a title, make a thing, you get a half an hour, we show up, and then they they judge it based on the looks, the flavors, and the special effects. And then I said effects? Oh, yeah. You really ought to put some magic into everything you put here.
Good to know.
Looks like we're starting, now. So, yeah, good luck.
Okay. Guys, I have a problem.
I like this Brody fellow.
Yeah. He seems cool. He
seems real nice.
Man's man.
I may have offered the kitchen to Cindy also. What? I don't I don't know. I didn't know the rules, and I didn't
You have to stop offering shit to people for free.
I'd like to be helpful.
I'm kinda
with Erin on this one.
That's just well
Excuse me. Greetings all the way from Saffron.
Oh, you're from Saffron.
How are you? Me tastemaker Winston.
It's very nice to meet you, Winston tastemaker, sir.
I'm here to give you your secret ingredient and acknowledge the strange circumstance around today's Bake Off. I've heard you will be sharing your space with another.
Yeah. See, that was a mistake. I didn't I didn't understand the rule and
Indeed most difficult with the secret ingredient of it all. Here's what we're going to do. The oven will be communal use between the 2 of you but there will be a cloth of privacy placed between the two areas. You are not to spy on each other's secret ingredient. You understand me?
Across my hearth.
That
was a joke. I'm yes. Go on.
Here is your secret ingredient. He is holding a gold dish with a cloth over it, and he allows you to just peek at the cloth, and then he throws it back over. And you see a bowl full of lemons, tiny spherical lemons.
Poppy, we use those all the time.
Yeah. I I know a lot of things I can do with that. He
tucks his bib scarf a little bit, and he says, I can't wait to see what you're going to come up with.
I salute him, and I, like, awkwardly walk back to the I'm very nervous.
He just kinda crosses his eyebrows and walks away from you. Brody whispers to you guys again. He's like, probably gonna wanna set up some roles, you know, like spies and stuff.
Yeah. Thank you. Good advice.
I'm gonna go over my wagon, so good luck.
You too.
Let's plot this out a little bit.
Okay.
There are 3 roles to be had here, aside from the baker itself. There is spy, anti spy, and assistant.
Okay.
The spy is trying to figure out the spy or spies. You can put any number of people in any role here. Spies are trying to figure out what the other secret ingredients are. Anti spies are trying to catch and disqualify people spying on your stuff. The assistant is going to help the finishing touches for the baker. Finishing touches determine your aesthetics.
Copy. You tell us what you want to do.
You're the leader. I think the 2 of you would be good spies, you and Journey.
Sound.
Let's see. Guy, you know you know your way around the kitchen already.
I'd like to think so.
So, if you could help me, that would be great.
Very well, Poppy. I will serve with Ara.
Dorn and Mikey.
Yeah. Yes.
I need you guys to be on your most distracting behavior. Can you be anti spies?
Anti spies? Wow.
It's a really important role. I just need you to keep an eye out, catch people who are trying to peek, talk to them. Just start asking questions, anything you can think of.
For sure. Okay. Yeah.
Just keep them from finding out anything.
Good. Yeah. Good. Let's let's distrust strangers. I like this.
Does that work?
Yes, chef. I I love it, Poppy. Yeah.
Just just cause chaos and and don't get in trouble. I don't wanna get disqualified.
Yeah.
Okay.
Aaron kinda, like, leans over to
Mikey and just, like, Mikey, just remember, don't tell anyone our secret ingredient.
Your hands are warm.
Just remember, our secret ingredient, don't
tell anyone. It's pepper. Okay?
Pep? Yeah. That's gonna be tough.
Black pepper. Don't tell anyone.
Okay. Okay.
Alright. You got this.
Don't tell.
And
then I, Eric pepper. Erin Wing said Poppy.
Black pepper. Black pepper. Black pepper. Black pepper.
Okay. I
think you got it memorized.
Great. I pat Poppy on the shoulder and say, you're gonna do great, Poppy. I'm I'm so excited. And I cast, fox's cunning.
The fox is cunning.
I I give, fox is cunning, which gives you advantage on intelligence checks for the next hour.
Hell, yes.
So that will be my concentration spell. I'll also give you and guy bardic inspiration. So this, is unique now with my bard inspo. You get to use this until it succeeds. If you fail the check still, you get to keep the die.
Mhmm.
So Neat. Yep.
The first round begins. The tastemaker stands in the middle of the area here kind of addressing all of the onlookers around the fountain. He says thank you. Showing up to another Bake Off sponsored by Saffron. Remember, the winner here will get a 1 on 1 lesson with master Cholly in saffron itself.
I wish you all the greatest of luck. We've some incredible people on display today. With that, let our bake off begin. The title of your first bake is terribly chocolatey. I wish you all the best of luck. We will meet again in 30 minutes time.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
Okay. Here we go.
And, everybody should remember Tomothy Matterfax's flavor palette. Is that right? And he kinda points out at people in the crowd and the other contestants. He's like, remember, I'm judging too, so it's pretty important that you remember, you know, everything about me. You all see Maple maybe take a step back and kinda shrug her shoulders and go, I wanna thank you all for coming.
It's so nice to see everyone here. Well, I just I'm excited to eat, I suppose. Rob Rockley says says, let's eat. Alright. Alright. Poppy, what's your idea?
Okay. So flashing back to the previous night, I think I'm gonna remake the coffin cakes.
Mhmm.
And I'll do, like, a lemon raspberry compote in the middle, sort of like a curd that will, like, ooze out. But I think I'll I'll amp up the raspberry so it looks more like blood than pale.
Yeah.
So, like, terribly chocolatey,
but it's Yes.
Dark chocolate, and I'll do, like, a sea salt crumble on the top. K.
As you're kind of putting your stuff together, you see the judges? They're just kind of drifting, like, from work area to work area and giving the bakers, like, a mini interview. You had heard them, like mumbling with Cindy buns on the other side of your wagon and they kind of move the privacy cloth onto your side, and they see you kind of getting the lemons ready And immediately, you hear Mabel maybe say, oh, are you familiar with how to use, Wasser Lemons?
No. I've I've never used them before.
Oh, interesting. Tom, I think it was pretty bold, doing your secret ingredient on the first bake. A lot of people wait for the second or third.
Oh, you don't have to use them right away?
It's a strategy.
Well, I'll think about it.
Rob Rockley says, so, Poppy, what can you tell us about you, Poppy, the mainlander, the half man?
Well, we prefer the term halfling, but, I I guess not much. I I I went to magic school in Tilderie, and I dropped out to pursue baking.
Timothy goes, boring. What about some of these other guys? Who else has got something going on?
I am mixing this bowl as we speak.
Even more boring. While they're going back and forth with this inane bullshit, Doran and Mikey on anti spy. Yep. And you should make a perception check.
Okay. It's Mikey's wisdom.
You don't wanna know.
I got a 22.
Okay. You don't wanna know. Doran, while you're looking around, literally keeping an eye on every avenue, every window and crack in the wood that people could be peering in here through, When they peeled that curtain back to walk into your side of the wagon, you saw one of Cindy's employees kind of leaning back, and you can still see their eye in a slit, like, on the edge of that curtain. They are illegally watching your bake. God.
Mikey is staring at the floor going black pepper black pepper black pepper.
Mikey, do you have one of those crystal things?
Black pepper.
What? Do you have one of those crystal things?
The recorders? Yeah. Oh, no. Dora, these are way better. And he gives you one of those, recording jars for audio.
Okay.
Did you need to record something? You could just say it into the jar.
No. It's okay. I I have one. I'm gonna use minor illusion and just pretend to take 1.
Okay.
Say cheese, and I take a like, try to basically like feign, activating a crystal.
Yeah. You hear the curtain kind of like like slam against the wall as they're trying to close it, like, as quickly as possible and back away from that position. You catch the attention of a few other people when you make that sound and this whole interaction. People turn around and go, oh, what was that? Did we just have
our first spy? Oh, yeah. Man, this is really nice. We got rid of Cindy already, doing some illegal maneuvers over there, and I adjust her over to the curtain.
Rob Broccoli goes, that's absolutely right. We can't have people spying. Excuse me, Cindy. And just hear this kind of muffled on the other side like, what?
That is not true. I didn't.
Pretty soon, they, come back with that other person, grabbing them by the scruff of the neck. And they're just like, is this who you saw, Doren?
Oh, yeah. Yep. That's it.
Alright. Well, Cindy, you're not quite out of the race yet, but you did lose a crew member. Sorry, kid. And, they just toss out one of their crew.
Okay. Good job, Mikey. And, could you just, like, keep it down a bit when you're talking about that?
Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just I got distracted.
Do you know what secret means?
Yeah. Okay.
Good. Say, do you happen to still have a echo bell to any, like, sound beats
and stuff? Yeah. I got a few.
Okay.
Yeah. Why? Let's see if
we can get those a little louder.
Okay.
Just to, you know, like, heighten the energy a bit, you know, in the kitchen here.
I get you. I get
you fun.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Move it to this 8 drum. Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
He, sets down 3 echo bells and, gets a little
rhythm going. Okay. Yeah. And the intent there is just to, like, allow us to talk more safely without being overheard. Sure. So yep. That's it.
Okay. So, they said I didn't have to use a secret ingredient right away, but I don't even know what these taste like. So I'm gonna try, like, a tiny little bit.
Give me a constitution save.
21.
Nice. Yeah. You're fine, Poppy, but you realize, Wasser Lemons, as they are, are roughly 10 times the sour potency of a regular lemon. They're incredibly difficult to work with. A pinch goes a mile.
Yes. I am not gonna use them for this k. Round. Yeah. But I I'll start stewing on it. Saving these for something more citrusy. And I'm gonna start trying to, like, imbue it now with magic.
Okay.
I would like to put a little bit of invisibility into it in, like, a very small potency so that the consumer
Mhmm.
Goes a little bit transparent up their limbs so they look like a ghost.
Okay. Cool. Cute. Alright.
I thought it would be cute with the coffin cakes thing.
Yeah. Give me an Arcana check for that.
Which I get advantage on. Yes? Because it's intelligence. 25.
Brilliant. Yeah. You feel really good about the way that that settled into the food
here. Awesome. Okay.
Alright. Spies. Of your competition, you've got Cindy Buns, you've got Brody Tatum, and you've got Ruby Christmas. Who are you gonna try to spy on to find out what their secret ingredient is? You each get one spy.
I was gonna go for Ruby. Do you wanna go for Cindy?
Yeah. I'll go for Cindy since the judges already stopped by there.
Nice. Good thinking. I'll give you advantage for that journey.
So what I would like to do is, walk out of the wagon and behind it. Mhmm. And as I'm walking behind it, use disguise self to look like raw broccoli.
Okay. Nice.
So I'm gonna use one of my uses of disguise self. K. And then I wanna walk into the side of the cart that has Cindy Bunn's team in it. Perfect.
We open the door. Cindy looks up at you briefly and does kind of a double take and goes,
oh, hi. Hi. Just double checking. How is it going?
Yeah. Still kinda struggling. I I don't think I'm gonna be able to put the opal nuts in this one.
I believe in you. And then I turn around and walk out again.
After you close the door, you hear this muffled,
thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I take that information back to Poppy. I I scurry behind, drop the disguise off, and come back in the cart.
Give me your stealth check.
Yeah. Please.
You got advantage.
Oh, thank you.
Yep. For the plan there.
That's way better. 18.
Oh. Just barely. Very nice. Very nice. You make the mistake of, like, forgetting to drop disguised self, like, right until you open the door. It's like as you're opening it, it's like peeling off of you. Uh-huh. And Rob Rockley looks up and thought he saw himself for a second, but didn't. And you you come back with the knowledge that Cindy Buns is trying to include opal nuts somewhere.
Yeah. So I share that with Poppy. Poppy, I don't know what opal nuts are, but that's what Cindy Buns is using.
I mean, of all my food knowledge, can I try and figure out what that is?
Yeah. You have, access to every ingredient available to anyone here. As long as you ask for it, they will provide it.
Yeah. I'll ask for some.
Okay. Yeah. They, come back with a bag of opal nuts. They are blue iridescent almonds. And when you cut them open, they literally look like opals. It's like a galaxy of color on the inside.
I wanna try one.
Contrary to how they look, they actually don't taste like much of anything. They're just kind of crunchy, and they stick to your teeth.
Well, I'm just gonna save this. K.
Aaron, the other spy.
Aaron is going up to Ruby Christmas. Can I see the team that they have? Is there anyone, like, milling about?
Yeah. They've got a full crew there. All 10 people are used. So this is mostly a confectionery booth, but they'll bake if it's gonna win them something. So they're yeah. They're super busy in there, and you can actually see through the wagon because it's made of glass mostly.
Mhmm.
So
Is anyone coming and going from the wagon?
There are some people running for ingredients. Yeah.
Okay. I'm gonna try to if someone's coming back to the wagon, I'm gonna try to be like,
hey. Hey. Can you help me over here real quick? I think I found, I think I found one of the judges' notes on on how people are doing. I just wasn't sure what to do with it.
Like, it's from one of the judges?
Yeah. Like, I think it says, like, how they think everyone's doing so far.
Oh, can I see?
Should I turn it in, do you think? And, No.
Give it to me.
Wait. Look. Look over here. I just
Give it to me.
I don't know. And Aaron Let me see it. And then, sort of behind the wagon, I'm just gonna try to, like, do a sleeper hold on him and make him pass out. Oh my god. Alright.
I need 2 things from you. K. I need a, stealth check and a grapple check.
21
for stealth.
For the stealth? Yeah. K.
And then grapple
I think it's athletics. When you're the aggressor. 11.
You kinda get them around to the back of the wagon, which happens to be blocked from the crowd by another wagon. You're in this weird little corner where not many people can see you. You turn as if there's something on the ground that you wanna show him, and you begin strangling him. You've got him under your arm, and you're just slowly guiding him to the ground, and you're just like, look. It's a little closer down there.
And, by the time he gets to the ground, he is fighting your grapple. He's, like, grabbing at your legs and, like, trying to get you to let go, but you you feel him get weaker and weaker until he just kinda slumps to the ground.
Okay. So I won.
Yep. You
got him. Jesus. Barely. Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna change into this guy. Mhmm. Does it have his name anywhere? Any sort of identifying factors on his face? Okay. What does he look like?
It is a Tabaxi, extremely, like, light blonde. Very, like, faded, almost grayish looking.
Okay. Yeah. Aaron will shift into this Tabaxi Mhmm. And head back around, taking the ingredients that he was bringing back to the wagon and burst in the door, like, here you go.
Thanks, Dan.
Yeah. No no problem. And then I'm gonna turn and be like, yeah. I was crazy when they told
us the secret ingredient. Don't you guys think?
Our secret ingredient?
Yeah. When they told us what it was, I mean, I was just really surprised.
Ruby Christmas is kind of walking up behind you and she says, I think we actually got fairly lucky.
Really?
Yeah. It's, not all that hard to work with. I just hope we get something citrusy enough.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're the leader. You're the chef. You know what you're doing.
I don't remember giving you speaking privileges in the wagon.
Oh, sorry. Sorry. I'm mushing something on the table, like, grinding it up. Okay. And then I'm just gonna hang out there and watch and listen.
Okay. You're still in there then. Alright. The half hour concludes at the end of round 1. The buzzer is about to go off, and that means it is Guy's time to shine. Guy, you are putting the finishing touches on Poppy's dish alongside her. I need a 1 d 6 roll from you, and Poppy, I need a 1 d 20 roll from you.
Okay. Just a straight roll?
Straight roll.
Nat 20, bitch.
Yeah. Love
it. Amazing.
Nat 4.
Alright. Natural 20 plus 4 from the assistant. Poppy, these could not have come out more perfect, including the higher in Arizona. The bakers are summoned to the center of the fountain. There's a few pedestals set up there for everybody to put brilliant baked goods on, and you are first among them. They ask you to set down your
Terribly chocolatey coffin cakes.
Beautiful. Just like they were last night in in aesthetic, and, you've perfected it a little bit since then. You see, set down next to them are Cindy's chocolate drizzle chocolate croissants with chocolate chips. Next to those, from Brody, chocolate apple.
Fuck you, broody.
I love broody.
Next to that from Ruby, double chocolate muffin with volcano fudge core and coffee crystal topping. Sure. You see the judges dive into these foods. They eat rubies first. They take one bite of the chocolate muffin, and they see that it gives you a big, curly, dastardly mustache Oh. Thrown off the side of their face. They look at Brody's, and Rob Rockley goes, Brody, they're supposed to be baked goods. Oh, dang, man. I knew I forgot something. Oh.
He goes, I I guess we can try it anyway. Rob Rockley takes a big bite of the apple and gives it a couple chews. Pretty darn good. That's a good chocolate. It's a fine apple. Not seeing much for SFX. He goes, oh, man. I forgot about 2. Jeez. I suck at this. Oh my god. He's amazing.
Rudy's the best.
Finally, Mabel maybe picks up a chocolate drizzle chocolate croissant with chocolate chips, takes a little nibble of it, and you can kind of see the physical sensation of it melting in her mouth. And from her lips, kind of spreading over her face, down her shoulders, and her whole body, you see that she turns into a glossy chocolate statuette. And she kinda, like, looks at her new beautiful fur and kind of, kind of, like, embraces herself, and she goes, oh, lovely.
I'm just imagining, like, the shape of one of those, like, 2 d Easter bunny chocolates.
You know,
she's like, it's like cat. Wow. That's pretty good magic.
And then, Tomothy Matterfax goes, alright. I'm excited. And grabs one of yours, Poppy.
They're to die for.
I bet. And instead of just biting into it, he breaks it open and looks at it, and he goes, oh, now that's on theme. And he takes a bite of it, and he says nothing. He says nothing, and he hands up a piece to Mabel, and she takes it from his hand, and she bites into it, and then she looks hard at Timothy, and then down at you, Poppy. Rob goes, hey.
What what am I missing here? And he reaches over and grabs some out of Mabel's hand, and he takes a bite too, and the 3 of them, they just go, no contest. Poppy advances to the next round. Brody, seal it.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Brody.
No, Brody.
While this is going on and everyone's, like, enrapture of this, Erin's gonna try to peek under or, like, look at the bowl that the secret ingredient came in, while everyone is, like, watching this guy.
Another stealth check. This one's gonna be tough. There's a lot of people in there.
Matt, 20. Done.
Today. This one god. Every time. This is
a 3.
Jesus. Man, forget their 18th.
I know. Alright. No hope. That's a that's a 31. No. Wait. What's my thing? That's a 30.
Alright.
This is our course. Spies.
Spies for life.
Spies for life.
With that, not only do you, flip over the towel, you see that they've got a bowl of honey citrus glaze. It is labeled. You get a taste for it. You know exactly what they're doing. Awesome.
Is that one they used on their first
No.
They have not used it yet. Nobody used their ingredients except for Brody
Mhmm.
Whose secret ingredient was apple. Just apple. Just apple.
Oh, just apple.
Yeah. Yeah.
It was terribly chocolatey, and he made chocolate apple.
Oh my god. Like a whole apple dipped chocolate
for me.
He's just the he's a delight.
Yeah. Well, you guys, made some pretty smart decisions in going after Ruby Christmas and Cindy Buns first because you know both of their secret ingredients, and the one you don't know just got disqualified.
The trick with the secret ingredient, just to understand, like, you would want to use their secret ingredients
Yes.
To
try but wouldn't that hurt your own dish?
The judges know what each person's secret Rob Rockley says, alright. Bakers, back to your corners. We're coming up for round 2. And mister tastemaker, what is on the menu? Tastemaker looks back at them and says, yes. Thank you. For the second bake of today's bake off here in the garden of backseat. We would like something for the kids. You heard me right. Bake 2. The title is I'm keeping that.
See, shit. What I do.
The title is For the Kids. I look forward to eating your treats that were for the kids.
Okay. For the kids, not literally.
Well, Poppy, we know 2 of the secret ingredients. What is your strategy for utilizing them?
Let's see. Well, I think kids tend to go for, like, sweet fun and not really, hazardous scary lemon. Right? Well, that's not true. On the mainland, we had these candies, that were just, like, super sour, and it was kind of fun to see who could handle them the longest.
What if the intent was to punish the kids?
I don't I mean, maybe in some families.
No. No. Probably not. Forget it.
I like that thought. I think that's pretty fun.
Like, really sour?
Right. But,
like, fun sour. Maybe it's like a layer of sour, and then it's sweet on the inside.
Yeah. So that they're they're experiencing it for a while, but then they don't have to feel like it's forever.
Hey. Hey, spy. Where's the other spy?
I don't know. Okay. Is there anything else you need to find out?
I have a thought.
We should probably figure out what Timothy Matterfax likes. He mentioned he has a taste, something to think about.
It is probably something annoying, Guaranteed.
I can go try and find out. Thanks, Dorn. Good luck.
Aaron walks into the back door and says, hi. Sorry I'm late coming back. Let's start with the next recipe. Okay?
Who says this?
I can help bake for the next recipe. Can someone show me our secret ingredient so I can help?
This is Erin.
Welcome back, Erin. I am happy to show you the secret ingredient if you
wish. Hi.
Yes. Good. Show me the secret ingredient so that we can use it while
I'm walking over to Wait. Wait. Will you tell Aaron what the secret ingredient is?
Oh, black pepper.
You guys, we can't be saying this out loud.
Aaron just gives this huge smirk and goes, actually, I forgot something out in the garden. I'll be right back. It's I have to pee. She opens the door, walks out, and Aaron, on your way back, you pass by Aaron as they are melting back into their original shape.
Can I tell does it look like when I change? Or just
Not at all. Looks like when Journey changes. Disguise self.
Oh, they got their own spies.
Doran, make a perception check.
10. Okay.
Can I see where this person's going back to?
Yeah. They're heading back to scrumdiddly suites.
That errand is so forgetful.
They seemed really nice to me.
I come bursting in the back of the wagon as Dan, the Tabaxi.
Did you guys think that was me?
Oh, who are you?
Hey. We have secrets back here.
Oh my god. And Aaron will shift back into Aaron
and say, guys, it's me. Oh. Whoever was just in here wasn't me. It was a disguise.
I kinda figured I just sent I sicced Mikey on him. Mikey, what did you tell him? And Aaron grabs him by the shoulders.
I'm sorry. I I ruined everything. I told him that we had black pepper.
Oh, Mikey. No,
Mikey. It's okay. That was a fake ingredient. No.
You're so wonderful, Mikey. And Aaron
just kisses him on the forehead. Mikey. Mikey, the real secret in hand
What?
Don't tell. It's actually anchovies.
Oh, anchovies. Okay.
Don't tell anyone.
Anyways, yeah, let's just play a card game.
Okay. I
think we're doing a good job, but we should play cards.
Good. Okay. Okay. At the same time, nobody seems to notice the small lizard that is creeping out of this wagon. That was due to a failed perception check.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. What happened.
Yeah. Okay.
What's going on?
Poppy, what is your big idea for the kids?
I guess, like, cream puffs, but not, like, that bready.
Mhmm.
More of a a cake pop kind of. I'm gonna request some of the honey lemon glaze.
Okay. Yep.
And I'm gonna make, like, a sticky toffee center Okay. Of the sweet honey lemon glaze. Mhmm. And I'm going to put a very small amount of the Wasser lemon
Yeah.
In the cake batter k. To do, like, a sour outside. And then I'll caramelize the outside so it's got a crunch. Mhmm.
But I
want it to be, like, sour and then sweet. I want them to look like I want them to look like bumblebees.
Okay. Aww.
Kind of. Like, cute and kid like and not like the Starbucks cake pops
And, what about the SFX on this thing?
Yes. So I'm thinking a a low dose of shocking grasp where it's it's less of, like, a damage and more of, like, a, like
Tingle? Tingle.
Yeah. And, like, you can you can do little static shocks to people.
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Give me an arcana check for that. And you've got a little bit of confidence in this knowing that it they didn't even get to the special effects on your last one before they declared you the winner of that round.
Okay.
Oh, yeah.
Because it just tastes so good.
Literally.
That is a 21. Very nice.
Yeah. You feel just as good about this one and how the magic is going to settle into it, especially knowing that there is a chance this is for kids, that it's not too potent and actually shocks them to death.
I'm gonna call them buzzy bees.
There you go.
Okay. For anti spy stuff? Yeah. Mike and I are playing cards, just chit chatting. I'm going to occasionally cast prestidigitation to put out alternating smells of anchovies and pepper. Okay. Just like shooting that out into
the air with the listeners. Good.
Yeah. Alright. Spies, you've already succeeded as far as you could. Is there anything you wanna do to sabotage or interfere with other wagons?
I'm gonna go up to Timothy Matterfax and say, hey there.
Yeah. Shouldn't you be, like, you know, helping?
Oh, I am. I was just wondering what you're into for baking and stuff like that. Since you said that was real important, I was just curious what you meant by that.
Uh-oh. Yeah. It was really just a call to get one of these people to put some booze into something, and I could use a drink.
Is that pretty pretty usual to put alcohol in baked goods?
Yeah. They figure it out sometimes. A little bit of a bourbon flavor or something.
Yeah. Okay. Good to know. Alright. Well, have a good one.
You know, I don't know if I've ever really met anyone quite like you. What do you say you are? A furbolg?
Yeah. I'm a firbolg. I'm I'm from the mainland. You knew that.
Yeah. Interesting. Hey. Can I just, like, film you? I think a lot of people would wanna look at you. You're just kinda interesting. Yeah. He takes out his little, like, pistol looking, camera and kind of revolves the crystals around and starts recording you a little bit. And he says, this is my friend, Jani. She's, a woman named Jurney. Journey. Yeah. Sorry. She's a furballg, and just I don't know. Look at all the fur. Isn't that cool?
I mean, you have fur too. I'm I'm waving at the crystal, but talking to Tomothy.
Well, yeah. But, I mean, everybody's seen this kind of fur around here. This is I don't know. Here's something else. It's really cool. And is that is that really hair, or is that leaves, or what do you got going on here?
Journey picks up one of her, like, vine tendrils.
Mhmm.
I guess it's kinda both. I mean, it's part of me, and it's alive, and it's me, but it's also kinda of the Earth, I guess.
He sees the little Fey bud kind of creep out between your locks of hair, and it, kind of uncharacteristically settles right in front of you and just kind of hovers there between you and Timothy. And he says, now what is this?
Well, that's that's one of my buds, my my fae buds.
And what is it doing right now?
Just hanging out, I guess. I don't know. And I I just tilt my head at the fae bud. Am I getting any feeling in particular from them?
The fay bud is subtly moving side to side as if it's trying to, like, get your attention. Like, it's shaking itself for your attention.
Okay. Thanks, Timothy for, chatting. I gotta I gotta be going, and I'm gonna follow the lead of the bud wherever it wants to lead me.
He's utterly in confusion as you're walking away from him because he wasn't quite done with you yet. But you're, you know, sort of meandering back towards your wagon, and the, Feybudd seems distressed, and it only gestures kind of upward. And when you look up, sure enough, you can see those swarms of bright bulbs.
Yeah. Maybe I maybe I ought to go check that out.
Soon enough you hear, bakers, please present your second bake.
Do we have a finishing touch on this one?
Poppy, like, as you're setting it out, Guy is kind of, like, walking with you, like, working on stuff as you're walking with it. So let's get the d 20 out of Poppy and the d 6 from Guy.
Can I add part of inspiration to
either of these? Yep. Yep. Okay.
Nice work. Poppy and, string my loop a little bit. Yeah.
Okay. Dirty 20.
K. 1.
A dirty 21? 1. Alright.
Okay. Alright.
He'll see.
Can you just look at this for me, Hannah? Can you please look at the 2 natural ones I just rolled over by?
Oh, yeah.
With the same fist.
Oh, no.
Cursed. He's cursed. It's my
lucky day.
Alright. What is going on?
Oh, man. This is too good. Okay. They all set out their food. They all look pretty good. They got on the line again. This time, they're starting with Ruby. Ruby, what have you got for us here? Ruby says, oh, it's, summer side up macaroons with a honey citrus glaze. And, it'll it'll, well, it'll it'll give you some summer decor, for the kids.
Can you just kinda furrow up the roads like summer decor for the kids. Like, what do you mean by that? You see Mabel takes a bite of the macaroons, moves around in their mouth a little bit, swallows down. It's just yeah. That's pretty good. Could have done a little better on the finishing touches, and she kind of like dabs around her forehead, and you can see Mabel maybe's fur is starting to turn red at the roots. What is this exactly?
You hear Ruby go, it's, it's supposed to well, when the kids are outside playing in the summer sun, it makes them sweat different colors, but you see, the plan all along was to have kids try these along with them. And so there's a bunch of kids from the audience that have been allowed up to test these as well. You see a bunch of kids eating these macaroons, and Mabel's all of a sudden looking down, very nervous at all the kids. And you see all the kids looking up at you, and they all just start to sweat red. Woah.
There's like 10 kids that are all just sweating red from their foreheads and from their eyes and cheeks, like looking at each other. And they're
just like, what is going on?
It quickly descends into chaos to the point where they have to have, like, medics on standby to let them know that they're all fine. It's just colored sweat. Everybody's fine. It's
just wet.
But things are not looking good for Ruby this round. Oh, no. After that chaos kind of dies down a little bit, they invite Cindy up to show off her cake pop kickers with sparkling opal nuts. You see Rob Rockley take one of the cake pops, bite into it. Cindy quickly goes, oh, shoot. Don't eat the middle. Sorry. I I should have said that. You're not supposed to eat the middle.
She looks around and you can see a bunch of kids have they're just standing there with like completely empty cake pop sticks. They have eaten the whole cake pop middle and all, and they're just walking around. You see Rob Rockley take this kick pop and that stick, this little ball in the middle of the stick starts to expand and expand into a little kickball. And Cindy is looking at all the kids with horrified eyes. Oh my god.
And she
goes, it was supposed to be a toy. It was supposed to be a toy, a kickball for the kids when they're done eating. Oh my god. No. And you see all these kids look down at their own stomachs and go, I don't feel so good.
And all of
a sudden, all of their stomachs just starts to inflate and get huge and huge. And some of them are like there's a lot of burping.
No children were harmed?
Children are fine. It was just an uncomfortable experience for everyone. Oh, no. With the most apprehension you have ever seen in a human being, Timothy Matterfax looks at Poppy's baked goods and says, are these gonna kill me?
No. I don't think so.
Are these gonna kill the kids? Because we can't do this 3 times in a row. No.
No. These are buzzy bees. They just kind of crackle in your mouth, and you can zap people if you want. Not in a dangerous way, just like a fun little like a sparkler. So there's a laser lemon cake with a honey lemon glazed toffee in the center.
The judges all look at each other. Kinda shake their head. Honey lemon glaze.
And it it should be sour and then sweet.
1 of the kids is about to run up and grab one of them, and all of a sudden, you see Rob Broccoli, like, hold down a big hand and kinda stop the kid and
go, no. Not yet. I'll try
one too if you'd like.
Good. Yeah. The the 3 judges and you, Poppy, all bite in at once, and it's kind of like a culinary bee sting. It is so electrifying and sudden. It's like an experience all by itself.
It just takes your attention with that shock, calls you right to it, and it makes you focus on the thing that is in your mouth and what that is. It's pure flavor. It's sour and then it's sweet and the balance therein is perfect. It makes you forgive whatever that tough experience was upfront for something that pays off so well.
So it's good then.
They eventually let the kids come up and take their own. Each of the kids lets out an excited squeal as they bite down on yours. Mabel says, with the delicately balanced Wazer Lemons, with the Honey Searchers glaze, how can we not? Poppy, you advance. Yes.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
Cindy, all things considered, your cake pops were a little better than the macaroons, so you advance as well. Ruby, sorry. And with that, the final round is decided.
And you're sharing a fucking cart.
And you're sharing a cart. Yep. Secret ingredients are off the table. Yours has been used. Their chance to screw you over is done with. Though they did figure it out. The lizard was a druid.
I figured. And I used rubies also. You did. So
The final round is announced. The title is blow it up. Blow It Up.
I, like, lean over to Cindy, and I go, you kind of already did that.
Well, shut your mouth. She stomps back to her wagon and begins furiously baking against you.
Her wagon, which is Poppy's wagon. Yes. Yes. Yep. Her side of the wagon.
Anti spy. Yeah. I need you to make a roll. Okay. This is important. If you've got tricks, stops to pull here, I'd pull some stops.
So I think what I'll do is I will still play cards with Mikey, but I'll ask Mikey, like, we gotta take it real seriously this time. We're the anti spies. We can't let anything get past us. Okay?
Okay. Alright. Go fish.
Oh, yeah. It's my turn? Yeah. Okay. And, so I'm gonna give, bardic inspiration to Mikey. Mhmm. Okay. But then I'm also going to lean into my, Ganymede effect and try to focus just on listening more or less rather than, other senses to see if I can get advantage on trying to anti spy. Cool. So for my perception, only listening. Got an 18.
I mean, it's Mike.
Now it's the thought that counts, Dwayne. Okay. Mikey's inspired. There's no doubt about that. How far that goes with Mikey, it's hard to say.
He's just such a dog
for Mikey.
You see him, like it makes him better cards. He's, like, about to lay something that was, wait a bit. He's just focused on the wrong. But you are able to hear something. Okay. It's Cindy. She's crying. She's saying, I I just feel like
I feel like I just
I can't I can't beat her head to head, so and I can't let go of best and backseat, so this is what it is. This is what it's come down to. Okay? Just figure out what she's doing, and we'll do it better.
Okay? Any response that I hear?
You hear a couple people, like, mumble in agreement that they'll try to figure out what Poppy's doing so that they can copy her and do it better.
Okay. I'll just, like, kinda lean over from playing cards, and hopefully, there's still, like, kind of some kitchen sounds and stuff like that happening. So, Poppy?
Yeah.
This might make things hard, but I think Cindy's gonna pull out all our stops and try to copy your dish.
I I have a thought, and I was actually kind of inspired by you and Mikey. Oh. You're playing go fish. Yeah. I think I'm gonna make fish cakes.
Oh, cool. Sounds delish. Alright.
I'm going to whip up a quick anchovy crab cake kinda thing Mhmm. So that the smell walks over, and I'll just, like, set it down. K. What I'm actually going to do is make Japanese taiyaki
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Where they look like fish, but they're filled with, like, a sweet they're like cake.
Yeah. Right.
And I'm going to say loud enough that I'm making fishcakes that they can overhear.
Again, kind of using, like, smell to your advantage of the anchovies and stuff? Yes. Yeah. And the previous mention of the anchovies as your, like, secondary
there.
I haven't quite decided what I wanna fill them with. I might do, like, a triple. One's chocolate, one's, like, cream, and one's, like, a sweet bean filling.
K. Variety pack.
I'm going to call them big fish.
K.
And I'm going to imbue them with enlarge.
Now There's
blow it up. Yeah. Blow it up. Very good.
But I'm go I'm going to try and be, like, sneaky about it.
Yeah.
Would it be possible for Erin to help try to assist with, like, trading out pans and just assisting her in, like, a sneakier way because I'm good at this or no?
Yeah. Yeah. So there's gonna be 2 sides to this role. There's going to be team sneak that is trying to hide everything that's happening, and there's team detection that is try trying to stop Cindy's spies from watching what's happening.
I'm going to look over at my key, and I think you're gonna win this round. So I'm just gonna throw on the towel here.
Come on. Let me play it out.
No. You shuffle up. I I'm gonna help hop you for a bit. Okay?
Ah, shit. Okay.
You keep watch. Don't let anyone come in. Well, anyone that's not on our team.
Right. Right. Right. Yeah.
Okay. Good job, Mikey.
And the people on the other side of this cloth are not on our team. Yeah. I think so. Okay. Good. Good. Yep. Alright.
Then I'm gonna help with the anchovy dish. K. Yeah. He's he's okay at cooking.
So I
I That's not relevant.
No. He's pretty good.
Good. Actually, yeah, Doran is pretty good at cooking.
Do excuse me.
He just grabs it. He grabs a knife and he's like. Yeah. He's like perfect, like, sharpening. Yeah. Like, what are we doing next?
Yeah. Poppy, you see some surprising technique out of Dorn that
you're just like, what
the hell?
Like like,
this last 30 minutes goes by in a blur. There's so much going on even on just your side that it's hard to keep it all straight. Guy, Journey, and Aaron, is there anything else that the 3 of you wanted to do to tip the scales in this final round? Because they're about to present.
I I yeah. I make my way into the wagon and I tell Poppy, Timothy Matterfax just lacks booze in his bakes. I don't know if that's relevant for you right now, but that's just what he was telling me. I I didn't learn anything else. Sorry.
Let's yeah. I can make the the chocolate one kind of like a rum chocolate.
Why not?
Yeah. That could work.
I wanna perform a smell check to see if I can tell what Cindy is doing on the other side.
Very cool. Okay. Take that with advantage.
What is a smell modifier?
Perception? Perception. Yep.
Damn. 11. Oof.
I'll tell you this. It's awfully fishy. Like, the whole area.
Perhaps I should have tried before we cooked the fish.
Someone put the fish in the microwave at lunch again.
Oh, froze.
Just like that, you guys are getting the 32nd warning. Guy and Poppy, it's time for you to put the finishing touches on your taiyaki.
Do you want me to do an arcana check?
That would be for the special effects. You still have to do that yet.
Okay. I'm gonna do that first.
K. Just No advantage anymore. No? An hour was spent. Yep. Yep. Oh. Sorry. Can I give bardic inspiration to Poppy? Yep. Okay.
The last one.
That's a 2 plus 6.
6 plus 6 from my arcana. So 12 14.
Oh, oh, yeah.
Okay. That can't even close.
Blow up as much.
Yeah. You, you know, it's just the pure exhaustion of being on your 3rd round, but you you stutter in the very last part of your incantation here. And you're like, oh, god. Did I just ruin this entire thing? And you're not sure you won't be until somebody bites into it, but you only made 3 of these, one of each. You can't test it yourself. And that's it. Time's up. Time for finishing touches, Guy and Poppy.
Here we go. Jesus. 7. 8?
So No.
I got a 1.
Oh. Oh, so an 8 total. Okay.
They don't look great. My flavor is always good.
You notice in the final moment that the taiyaki are off center on the plate. They're all kind of off to the left, and you pick one up to move it so that the bees they'd be centered more. But when you do, the bottom of it sticks to the plate and tears off and drags a little bit of cream filling across the plate.
What did, they get bribed to ignore what feature?
Aesthetics.
Okay.
And focus on flavor.
Okay. Good.
When you all come out, there are 2 pedestals. You place your dish of off center taiake. You had to move it back to cover the fact that it was torn. What comes out after that is Cindy Buns with red, wet eyes. She is carrying a dish that smells very strongly of fish and crab. She sets it on the pedestal next to Poppy's and stares at the cobbles. She looks up at yours, and she goes, that what is what is that?
That's a fish cake. It's like a a sweet cake with a cream filling. It's shaped like a fish.
You see her face absolutely crumble, and she goes Oh.
I feel really, actually, bad.
The judges the judges walk over, and Timothy says, alright. 3rd and final course. I could stay and eat forever, but I've got a race to run. So I guess we'll just start with the current champion here. Walks over to Cindy, picks up one of the crab cakes, and goes, oh, did not expect this. Crab cake, Fish cake? Yeah. Should be good. He bites into it. And it explodes in
his face.
Fish and crab cover Timothy Matterfax from head to tail.
I'm sorry.
You see him back away. Go. Blow it up. I get it. Very funny.
That one's kind of on you guys.
He turns around and goes, makeup. And a woman, like, bounds out of the crowd with a mirror and, like, a fluffy, like, foundation brush comes over and just goes, oh, sorry, mister Mattefax. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And And she just prestigations him to clean off all the fish and everything. He goes, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. That was so long. You had to endure that. He goes, it's really nothing. Just relax.
Ugh. What is that smell? And Aaron looks at Timothy and just says, like, in disgust.
A few to the back seat all kind of, like, turn and look at Tomothy and at you. And then, like, a few of them kind of, like, put their hand to their nose, like, oh, no, and kind of turn away from
him. I think
you smell lovely.
It's very very kind to you, Poppy. I just, I gotta go clean up. I'm I'm not gonna show up like this for the race. I'll
Are you sure you don't wanna
show up? Know where my vote lies. Yeah. Yeah. Give me 1 of yours to go, I guess.
I'll give him the chocolate one.
Yeah. Great. Okay. Thank you. And he is taking a bite of it and he's walking away and he just kind of, like, moves down the cobbles and stops. You see him kind of, like, look towards the ground and nod his head a little bit. He takes the remaining half of your fishcake and eats it, still staring at the ground, and he turns around and looks at you, and he goes,
Poppy, I'll tell you what. These are good.
You're all looking up at a giant Thomas the matter. He's standing about 15 feet tall
Oh, no.
Overshadowing the central fountain, and he goes Oh, no.
You guys ought to join me up here. It's pretty good living.
Pointing at the other judges, they each reach down and take their own flavors and shortly join him in the upper echelon of Flavortown. You see them It worked. It worked. Grow to equal height. And then they're all kind of laughing and smirking at each other. And, Poppy, you notice they never stop growing.
Oh, no. Out Out.
They are getting bigger and bigger as you see their shadows creep across the gardens as a whole, in shadowing this entire side of Backsy until they're visible from a great distance away from the island. You feel the island start to tip one way instead of the other.
I'm gonna cast reduce.
I will dispel magic Mabel.
Okay. Yeah. You dispel magic on Mabel and you hear this as she goes back to her normal size. The other 2 are slowing in their growth but are still gigantic. You hear, you know, from a quarter mile away, Thomas going, is this a problem?
I think I went a little overboard. I'm so sorry. But you you look like the biggest star in the sky.
You and a couple, Remedy magicians work together to reduce their size a little bit. And with the 3 judges returned to their normal size and the apparent danger over, You hear Cindy Bunn say, she doesn't have a permit. She doesn't have a permit. She can't sell here. She can't work here. It's not fair. She's not a licensed baker.
I actually am a licensed baker on on the mainland, and I pull out my license.
And you see a kind of wave of indifference come over the judges, and Mabel says, that was never really part of it. She doesn't have to be registered. Sorry, Cindy. You're not the best. Cindy's kind of pouting, but at the same time, she's nodding her head. She goes, yeah. I guess so. She looks up at you, Poppy, and she says, you are the better baker. I didn't need to get to the 3rd round to find that out. I knew it the second I bit into your coffin cakes last night.
You tried one?
A sample.
Well, hey. Listen. I I know a good baker when I see 1, and I I know you have skill. You wouldn't have been best baker for so long if you weren't.
Thank you.
And and I probably won't be here very long, so you can have your title back.
Yeah. That's right. But you are the best in backseat right now.
For now?
You are. Congratulations.
Thank you. Congrats for second place?
Yeah. On an unfamiliar oven, no less.
Right. Yeah. No. It's that was probably a big part of it. You don't know the temperature. It's unfamiliar territory, and and you did really well.
She reaches out to shake your hand.
I I reach out back.
He shakes Cindy's hand, and, you know, for as bitter and tense as this was and for all the malevolence that she pushed upon you, you know, it's nice to know that you went toe to toe with someone trying their best and you came out on top. That's validating. That's real. But there's something else that's real because you thought that all of the rumbling was over as soon as the giants were shrunk back down to their normal size, but, at the conclusion of the Bake Off, the island of Abaxi begins to shake. And I think we'll end it there.
No, No. No. Here we go again. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I am Tim, your GM.
I'm Hannah Plain, Aaron.
I'm Tara. And I'm Journey.
I'm Thomas, and I'm Guy.
I'm Joren, and I play Doran. My god. Doran.
Jesus, John.
I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy and
I'm the best.
The best. She's the best in the X and Y. Please share the show with people you love, and we'll see you next time.
Yeah.