Cloudfall | 41 - Lip Service

Last time on Cloudfall. The eternal night of the Feywild did its best to keep everyone spooked and separated, But it didn't last. Journey's Faye Buds brought everyone back together, converging on a blood red ravine full of red caps and something far more unsettling. La Nati. A fey creature who appears differently to each person who looks upon her, who seems to know both Journey and Doran a little too well, was about to make a bargain with Doran when they were interrupted by a great beast.

Oh, yeah. Of course. I pull on it.

You see little seed pods burst into the air and kind of sail off into the breeze, tracing a path back to the bonfire. And when he turns to look at you again, he says, it's so beautiful tonight. Perfect. I feel so so light. I feel so happy I could cry.

Feel free.

He blinks his eyes hard, and you can see his eyebrows kinda screw up as he looks at you. And he turns toward the bonfire and starts humming, And at the same time, you hear Lonati floating towards you, a true smile on her face.

It's tonight, isn't it?

She looks down at you and slowly nods, pats your head, then you feel a subtle breeze, and in an instant, she makes herself visible to your tribe. Some stare in awe while others sing even louder. She says, You're all so beautiful. You all understand. You understand life.

Journey's great.

There's a a lull at the campfire as, Tully and Huber are gathering a little bit more birch to throw on, and Mikey is starting to fall asleep just from all the exhaustion here. Poor boy.

And the, like, desecration of his lungs.

Yeah.

Well, this is not what the plan was originally. That's for sure.

Yeah. The plan was to stay in the sky.

I really miss having a really cool ship.

I mean, it's probably still up there. Right?

It better still be up there. My my shop is on that ship.

I think we can probably trust the remainder of our crew to take care of it until we come back.

Unless they fell too.

Oh, Kesher and Tic? Was Tic on the ship still? Kesher at least, she's pretty responsible.

And April?

Yeah. They're probably still looking for us.

They can't come down here without crashing the ship. We we gotta get up through the null mists, and there's one way to do that that I'm aware of, and that's that tower.

How do you know that?

Well, Poppy, I've been here before. And Maeve is the one that helped me get out originally the first time.

Right. Right. Right. Do you guys remember on lore when I tried to climb the mountain and I failed?

Poppy, this time, one of us can carry you, probably.

Okay. Good.

Yeah. You're not on her own this time.

I'm not very athletic. Yeah. We're definitely not going into any other caves. That's for sure.

Smile grin is one of the feylords. Feels weird calling that thing a lord that we need to take care of.

Just saying we should check one off the list right away.

Right now, we don't have any of our stuff.

Yeah. I mean, at the rate they come looking for us or we run into them, I feel like we barely have to even try to look for them. And to Poppy's point, we don't have any equipment. I mean, I don't really care about anything lost, but it'd be, I mean, nice to get get a crossbow again. It can be any crossbow.

Like, it's 1 arrow.

Dorn, at that mention, you made a frantic dive for gear when you're among the red caps. Yep. When you check your pack, haphazardly thrown in there are most of your belongings. The pile that you grabbed at and stashed away had a good amount of things. If you check your inventories now, they've been updated to reflect the things that you do and don't have.

Sneaky sneaky.

Yeah. Most of you should be back to full.

Okay. What who's missing something?

I don't have my doppel fox daggers that I never used.

Kind of, Eryn. Doran found one of them.

And I'm missing my Ganymede item. Okay.

Wow, Dorn. You're really holding out on us as he hands our stuff back. I thought I'd lost this forever.

I can't believe I was able to carry all this.

I feel

a lot better having weapons again.

Yeah. My spell scoop.

Spell scoop? Oh.

Hi, Anna Mead.

Pao Pei.

Hello.

I thought I had lost you forever.

Me too. What does the air taste like to you?

Familiar.

Yeah. Minty.

Did you find some of those birch barks?

I didn't. Anyway, see you.

I like to also just imagine Poppy tending to to pinch or something. Like, I'm about, like, are you okay? He's got a hot little cup of cocoa. Like, he was, like, abandoned. Yeah. And then he came back

just oiling his butt. Yeah.

Pulling little leafy and plant parts out of him. Yeah.

Bunch of dry grass to try this on.

Replacing the cloves for his eyes.

Yeah. As you're all sitting around here, kind of getting resituated and redistributing all of your equipment, you remember you heard, not too long ago, a bell go off, the bell of lore, and you didn't have a whole lot of time in that moment to really think that much or consider what's happening, but right now you do, you have the temporary safety of the parceling birch. You have time to think about everything that's changed. And that's usually when we discuss level ups.

Level up. Level up. Level up.

This one I think technically occurred like an episode or 2 ago, but let's go over what we all learned. Poppy.

Poppy is just kind of spacing out, thinking about where they are, and how, like, very little and very much time they've spent in the Fae. It feels like forever, but it hasn't been that long. She's always been, like, bright and sunshiny, and it's very dark and very unsettling here. So I took the feet fey touched

hey

just to kind of affect myself a little bit by the fey. I get misty step kind of on command. I had switched around some spells. I don't remember what they were, and I think I took another 4th level. Fabricate? Oh. Yeah. I think I took fabricate.

And that lets you, like, create things entirely?

Yeah. I convert raw materials into products of the same material. I think they last, though. I think it's, like, permanent.

Cool. Feels like a real thing. Yeah. Nice.

But it takes me 10 minutes to do. Yeah.

And what is Poppy doing at the moment? Again, you guys have, passed kind of a thick wall of trees to get into this, kind of underhanging, almost cave like area protected by the fire here.

I think she's spacing out pulling the bits and pieces off of pinch. Mm-mm. It's just like mindless grooming at this point.

Doran. Where's your head at? That'd be a better question for Guy. Yeah.

Doran is sitting, kind of back away from the fire a bit, sharpening the blade of selimeris riz. I don't Got it. Got that item back. Yeah. Just hours ago, having been totally surrounded and at the mercy of all the red caps and just by good fortune of a couple spells managed to escape.

To shut down 10 red caps at a time? Yep.

And then I realized I didn't have, some toggle on within D and D Beyond, so I actually had more spell options available. So I swapped something out and got a mirror image as well.

Hell yeah. Very cool.

That's a good one.

And, plus 2 to constitution. So no feat.

That's it. And, Guy, your body is still holding your head instead of wearing it as it should. What are you doing in this moment?

Guy is kinda ruminating on his experiences here in the Feywild, thinking about that escape from the red caps, like, Doran is. And this part of the Feywild is a scary place, but Guy also knows how to be scary. So, he, now has access to the aura of conquest. A Paladin ability. Any frightened creatures within 10 feet of Guy, their speed is reduced to 0. And they take psychic damage if they start their turn in that aura.

So they can die of fear by being around you. Yep.

Mhmm. Damn. So normally, frightened creatures have to run can only run away. But now they can't do that?

Oh, my gosh. Like, on top of every other fear enabling thing Yeah. And, like, additional fear ability that stacked on you Yep. Yeah.

So you took sleep paralysis demon.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Aaron, where are you at in camp?

I think Aaron would maybe be, like, their backup against one of the walls of the cave, in a place where they can see everything really well, and Aaron sort of sitting on the ground with their legs pulled up against them. And in their hands, they're holding something, and kind of just rubbing their thumb over it, and it's that wood carving of their elven parents. And Aaron's sort of just staring off into space. I think Aaron's a little freaked out because they saw that other changeling creature. I think they are just trying to understand what makes them different.

As for, mechanical growth, what has Aaron learned or taken on in the last level?

So I just got, my decks. I think I added 2 to decks. I'm trying to remember exactly. I just got, 2 points for my skills. I don't is that what they're called? Mhmm. And so my dex is at 20. Damn. So plus 5 now, which I think is maximum. Yep. Right? Mhmm. Yeah. So I think I put both my points into that, and then I got more HP. That's it, I think.

Erin didn't even know she leveled up.

I know. I was like,

not a lot going on.

Yeah. Yeah. Journey.

Being in the Feywild has made Journey really think about how far from home she felt. Like, this is obviously not the Feywild that she knew and explored throughout her youth, and this is not anywhere near the forest that she called home, but it has that same feeling of chaotic nature and things alive in the dark that you don't necessarily feel when you're in cities or towns or villages, not in the same way. And being here and the inherent danger that she has felt here, she felt the need to really return to

her roots.

And so what I did for journey is I backtracked a little bit. I took away a level of ranger, and I took 2 levels of druid. So I have access to some druid magic and wild shape. Woah. Cool. Cool. So there's gonna be a little bit of, more nature vibes coming from Journey, especially given this, like, reunion with Lenati. I think Journey is feeling feeling closer to home in a way that she hasn't in a while.

There's something on top of that journey, and that's that not all of your swarm has returned. You sent out over half of it to find your friends. You found them, and they came back, but not all of them did. Your swarm has thinned. You can rely on them less.

Yeah. The the ability to float and fly that I had gained briefly before is gone. And I think Journey is really aware of how many pieces of home she's lost.

Tully kind of stomps onto the scene carrying a bunch of dried birch in his arms, and he drops it into the fire. And there's a roar of cinders as he does, and he looks down at each of you and says, who would like something nice to eat?

Oh, I was thinking I would takes take care of that.

Oh, very well.

Or we could tag team it.

We've, only cave moss and some other frightful things here to eat, but, I do have one delicacy to share with all of you. Follow me.

Is that bright bulb soup? You

see Tully and Hubert kinda turn in. I go, oh, do you have some? It's been so long for us.

Just a no. Let's see what you got.

I might have some, like I think I cured some a while ago. So

God. And bright bulbs.

And jellies. Tully says, I've, had the opportunity to, to nurture some plants here, further into the cave. Just a few. Some seeds I found here. As he's walking you back, he shows you

Where are those?

I did forget to name them, Ashley.

Are you still poisoned?

We long rested. You're fine now. Okay. Yep.

But this plant, is it native to the Feywild?

Correct. Only here and only in Anseelie territory, unlike these. He, shows you this, gleaming pink, almost red fruit. It's kind of an elongated pear shape. He says, this is called a pink meridian fruit. It grows far from here, but I found some seeds and was able to nurture it.

I'm sorry if this is a huge imposition, but could I maybe have at least one of those?

He turns and looks up at the plant that has one fruit on it, and he says

Oh, there's only 1.

Well, I mean, we had been looking forward to this treat for a little while, but

It's it's way more important than just having a treat. It's it's

Is it you having a treat?

No. No. It's an ingredient I need, that I've been searching for for a long time that could mean life or death. It could revive someone.

I I'd be willing to part with it.

You want the seeds? Well

Oh, no.

It's okay. It's fine. It's just, maybe I'll find some somewhere else.

Well, you know, we'll I'll make it out of here soon, and then we it won't matter that there's only one fruit.

Could we take some of the seeds and maybe try planting them ourselves?

Do you have more seeds?

We could harvest the seeds from this one, and I don't mean to be withholding. It's just that we look forward to this.

No. I understand. I thought you had grown more. That's fine. But, yeah, if I could have some seeds.

It should be ready in a day or 2.

Do you know how long it would take to grow otherwise?

Naturally?

Yeah.

On the mortal plane?

Yeah.

Unlikely. Ever? They require the deep magic of the Feywild.

How long did it take you to grow this one?

Time is strange here. How long have you been above exactly since we parted?

Months.

Not months, certainly. But many days, perhaps a week, 2 here. Okay. Time does not flow consistently.

Okay. Well, this, meridian fruit, that was at the snack you were wanting to share with us?

Doreen, I don't think there's another opportunity to get one of these.

I'll leave you all to discuss. I'm going to get more Birchwood, and, Tully heaves himself up and and leaves the scene. Huber follows with him, leaving the 5 of you.

It's theirs, Poppy. I don't know.

But it's like it's like the most rare ingredient, and I've never even seen one before.

Well, if we get some of the seeds, we might be able to find a more hospitable area of the Feywild to try and grow one.

I was hoping we would, you know, leave the Feywild soon.

Right. But we could find another way, and that isn't like, I'm I mean, the I mean, the other option is we could give them some rat balled soup and take the fruit and get them out of here and call it a day or a week or whatever.

Like, take it and leave?

No. No. No. Oh, bring them with us. Oh, back to the material plane.

Can I roll to know if, like, it's possible to find more of these, meridian flowers or fruit in this area?

Go ahead. K.

Just nature of the Survival. Yep. Survival. Okay.

You could also do, history, like, knowledge history, Faye Wild. Unnatural 20. Yeah. There was a hint a long time ago from Phenom. He said, pink meridian fruit only grows at the exact, like, like midday center of the Feywild where the sun is highest. Okay.

It

requires essentially constant sunlight. They're just very, like, needy, greedy plants. Rare in the 1st place, like, unlikely to nurture and raise really anywhere else. Not exactly hard to find if you know where to look.

I I'll just relay this to Poppy. You know? So there's other places we could find them. I don't know, Poppy. They saved our lives. I understand you need this.

It's really hard for me to pass up a rare ingredient, especially if I could, like, bring one of you back from the dead. I mean, it's fine. It's fine. Well, how do you think they got it? Why are they in the midnight section if they went to the daylight section?

It's clear someone has quite the green thumb. Shouldn't be possible, really. If Tully can grow it here, who knows where else he can actually grow it?

But how much of it do you need?

You'd be able to get it done with 1 fruit. One fruit is needed.

But, like, a whole fruit. Yeah. Yeah. I

think we can probably take the fruit. I think that the brief heartbreak of not having this fruit that he tried to grow will be overcome by the chance of escaping this blasted land.

It's it's his whole livelihood while he's been down here.

Well, the way things are going down here, I bet you will have an opportunity to save their lives and then build the ar dead.

Or or maybe, I could learn, like, the daylight spell and, like, try and grow the seeds myself at some point.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'll just take the seeds. It's okay.

Dora, there's little glowy bugs.

Yeah. Okay. I walk over to Mikey.

At the, far end of this shelter, there's a sort of pond, a very small pond that kind of is closed off by a sheer stone wall at one end. It's dark water, but it's calm and relatively private. You can see what Mikey's looking at. There's these little, they almost look like inchworms or or small slugs that seem to be inching their way across the, inner surface of this pond. Mikey goes to poke 1 with his finger. Don't

can I roll a nature

check

to see if I know what these are?

Let's do, yep. Survival would do that. More knowledge nature again. 12. 12. Okay. I don't think you know what these are.

Mikey, everything in this area is potentially very dangerous.

He looks at you and he goes, what is potentially? When he touches the worm, it kind of like explodes into, like, a bunch of little tiny, almost like ant sized glowing bits, and then they all just kind of, like, swim around in this little pool and regroup elsewhere. You can see that these are like colonies or little amalgamations of tinier things.

Yuck.

Warm, warmth.

What did it feel like?

Slidy. K. It changes colors too. That's cool. Alright.

We're not swimming in here. Okay?

I was just I'm kinda dry is all.

That's how you should be right now. Oh. Book, Mikey. Yeah. Well, let's just what else is over here? So it's a it's like a pool, and there's these glowy little bug things.

Oh, yeah. That's all. I just Okay. I don't know. I wanted to focus on something else as a whole.

I'm glad you're in better spirits, I think.

Well, I mean, yeah, Hubert. He's okay. Right? Everything's good again.

For now, Mikey, we're in a very dangerous place.

Anybody ever called you a Debbie doubter before?

Doreen Downer.

Doreen Downer.

Yes. Yes. They have.

He's letting this man babysit.

Edward? What? Thank you. I I didn't know if anybody was gonna be around when I fell, and I know I shouldn't have chased you guys in the 1st place, but I mean, you you stopped for me, and then you came back for me. And then I stopped again, and you came back again.

And it all worked out. Who knows? If, you hadn't been there, maybe I would have tried something too risky, and I wouldn't be here. You know? I mean, I don't want you to feel guilty, but I do need you to know that we are not out of danger until we're in that tower heading up. Okay? I know. Yeah. Don't eat one of the bugs.

You see him kind of like take one out from behind his back and put it back into the pond.

I see I see the other one in your other hand.

Puts it

back in the pond. Okay.

Alright. So you're growing up and I'm I'm proud of you, Mikey.

Thanks. Best friend.

Oh. I give him a wink, pat on the shoulder, and I head back to the group.

Oh, let's slurp one of these things down. Yeah. Oh, god. Doran, you you kind of rejoin, I think, your your friends in the circle here.

I think Jurney would wanna talk to Erin a little bit, but would be kind of hesitant to do so. So I don't know. Erin probably sees Jurney kinda, like, looking contemplative and lurking nearby.

What do you want?

I I know we were kind of talking about some stuff, and then we got interrupted when when we saw Lenati. I just wanted to wanna make sure you're okay.

I mean, I don't know. I learned a couple weeks ago back on backseat, you know, that changelings come from the Feywild. Yeah. And I guess, while we weren't really expecting to be here, but I certainly didn't think I would run into one that was like that. I've never met another person like me. And then to meet that creature was just really I mean, it was really fucked up, honestly.

Yeah.

It's like if you woke up and you met the worst version of you that could possibly exist. Yeah. I don't know.

I think there are good people and bad people, and there are people no matter where you live, no matter where you're from. And I think that changeling that you met was not necessarily an example of what all changelings are lack and certainly not what you lack.

Yeah.

If I hadn't made it to the other the other plane when I was a kid. I wonder if I would have turned out just like that thing. I mean, I basically almost did kind of being part of the blight,

but that's another.

No. But doesn't that doesn't that tell you that you would have risen above it anyway? You were in a bad situation, Erin, and you came out of it strong and kind. Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know?

Yeah. Still a ways to go on the kindness thing, I think, but

I see it.

Thanks, Journey.

Yeah. And Journey kinda wanders off.

Hey, Journey. Georgia didn't know fuck all about these bugs. Could you help?

Oh, you found some bugs? Cool.

Let me see.

He brings you over to the pond.

They both start pedicures with in their they stick their feet in, and the bugs start munching on their toes.

Yeah. It's like the

corona thing. Yeah.

Guy?

Yes, Bobby?

Are you gonna put your head back on?

No. I'm trying a new thing out.

Oh, no.

Well, as your closest friend, I'm I'm here to support that. But I think it might get inconvenient, especially since you have a, a big sword.

Yes. I was lying, Poppy. I'm sorry.

I thought we said we would never lie to each other.

I do not recall this pact. Oh.

Well, you have memory issues, so that's fine.

Yes. Well, it seems ever since we've fallen down here, my head does not wanna stay on this body. It must be something about the fae magic here. I'm not sure. Does

it, like, repel like magnets? I don't know what those are.

Yes. I suppose if there were a thing like magnets, it would be like that.

Do you do you want any help? Do you want me to tie it on? I don't know.

Well, I suppose let's give it another shot and just maybe if we both try to hold it on there, it'll take.

Yeah. Or I could, like, sit up on your shoulders and push down.

Yes. Yes. That might work.

Okay.

We'll we'll give it a go.

Okay. 3, 2,

1.

Woah. Woah.

Slides off again.

But There's a little burst of green flame as the head is kind of, rejected from the body forcefully.

That's really weird.

Well, in the meantime, maybe is there some way this could be made more convenient for me where I don't have to just hold it.

Oh, okay. So, like, one of the neighbors that we had growing up, she just had, like, a ton of kids, And she always had a newborn strapped to her chest in, like, some sort of sling.

Mhmm.

And what if we just, like, put your head down here in, like, a sling, like you were a newborn?

I can picture it.

I'm my own baby.

If you think you could fashion such a thing for me, Poppy, I would be grateful.

Yeah. Or even fabricate it.

I that's what I was thinking. Do you what do you want it made out of?

Bread for sure.

What do you

want it made out of? I can do white or whole grain?

Baby bread, baby bread.

A little papoose for his cabeza. Oh, gosh.

Well, just something strong and durable, but also something that if I needed to grab my head at a moment's notice.

Okay. So, like, something that maybe had, like, little divots for your ears. So it, like, stayed there, but you could just, like, whoop.

Oh, and I could still hear that way.

Yeah. Cool.

I'm just gonna, like, fabricate something out of vines. Yeah. Because I'm not gonna weave that.

Yeah. You come upon a, a ropey, somewhat stiff kind of vine hanging down from a tree, and you gingerly kind of like reach out and test it like it's a live wire or something, and it's gonna hurt you. But eventually, you're able to just kind of, like, yank it down and cut it with your little bread knife.

Yeah.

And, yeah. You're able to get your raw materials.

Okay. I'll make some sort of, like, net something or other that with, like, backpack straps

Yeah.

That he wears backwards.

With. Bobby, when you're finished with it, this pile of random twisting torn vines has turned into a professional looking cross hatched canvas sling with an adjustable strap on the back. Pretty much exactly what you had envisioned has come to be.

What do you think?

No. It's got form and function.

Yeah. And I tried to make it comfortable because your head's gonna be sitting in there, and I just didn't want you to be

Good thinking.

Yeah.

Let's try it out.

I'll tie it back here, and then you're gonna have to get used to the perspective shift, but it's not that hard being shorter.

Oh, yes. Now I'm like Doran's height.

Guy, your body picks up the great blade of Lodom, and your stance will have to change by some degree because your forearm tends to block your line of sight the way that this is set up now.

Sorry.

Well, no. I think this will still work. Yes. Thank you, Poppy. You're always so thoughtful.

Anything for you.

I, you know, I've been meaning to say, it seems we are on this quest now to slay the rest of these fae lords. I know killing was never really your thing. You know, I had killing and you had baking.

Right. Very different.

Yeah. How are you feeling about all this, Poppy?

Oh, you know, not great, to be honest, but I'm I'm happy to be seeing the world and and making friends. So, I mean, I'd rather not have to kill anyone.

Well, you can leave that part to me.

Are you sure? I feel like I'm not really pulling my weight.

No. You're doing more than enough, Poppy. Thank you.

Well, anyway, should we see what everyone else is up to?

Let's do it. Okay.

So, Doreen, leaving or passing Journey, coming back from, hanging out with Mikey, Sees, Aaron and goes over to sit next to Aaron.

Why are

there so many squeaky chairs?

Sorry. My shoulders are out of control.

How are you holding up?

Well, I saw another creature, before I got together with Journey on our way to you guys.

K.

And it was a changeling, but it was, not like me. I I think its nature was truly evil or something more unhuman than human. I don't even know if human's the right word, and it kinda freaked me out. Also, I didn't realize it was a changeling at first, so, like, I thought it was, like, another type of creature.

Who did who did you see?

Well, at first, it was me, so I thought it was like a mimic. And then I saw you, I think. You as a kid. Yeah. Changelings can't really change easily into things they haven't seen before, and so I think it was maybe it knew you or saw you when you were here. And I wanted to ask you if you knew other changelings, or, I guess, I wanted to know more about your time as a kid

here. Aaron, I yes. I met other changelings here, but I didn't meet one anywhere close to, like, you. I I know what you mean. There's something about this place that it it's, I don't I don't want us to dwell here.

Yeah. I the reason I was asking you about growing up here or being here as a kid is the changeling I saw when it turned into you. It looked so scared, I I know what that's like. I don't know, Dora Knight. I didn't grow up in the Feywild, but it was a different kind of crazy, I guess. And I don't know. I guess I didn't realize what you had gone through too. I guess I always thought you were like this I don't know. You grew up in a castle or something, and so it just seemed

I grew up scrubbing castles. Doran scoots in a little closer and puts his hand on Aaron's knee. I I thought I was going to die when I fell. I thought I was going to die there when I landed. And, honestly, I I I could tell that Maeve put you off, and I don't fully trust her, but she's the only reason I ever got a chance to meet you.

Yep. Please roll the 1 now. Wait.

Do we really roll for this? Oh. Oh my god. I was like, I don't think this has happened in the campaign before, so I

had to check.

I say do it.

Aaron is in a little bit of shock for just a split second and freezes, and then, yeah, Aaron feels kind of this panic and stress of the day hit them and puts it all into that kiss too.

The 2 of you share a moment together before you hear, Doran. Oh, Aaron. Sorry. I didn't see you there. I made something for the 2 of you.

Huber. Yeah.

Are you quite alright? Is something the matter?

We're doing great.

What were you doing to her? Oh my god. Anyway, as you already well know, there are terribly dangerous things here, Faye Wilde. Thankfully, the white flame here of the paracilian birch, it it protects us from from the fey, from protects us from most fey things.

Right. Well, I mean, yeah. I

There are more terrible things out there. Lanati, of who I spoke, relies on the ability to charm others. Doran, you once tried to charm me on lore. I remember this every day of my life.

Once he charms you, you never forget it. And Aaron nudges him with her elbow with.

You and me both. Well, it is of the utmost importance that you are all able to resist such effects. I happen to have some skill at making these charms. He, hands you a little, like, woven, like, twine spiral, with a a very specifically shaped rock in the center of it that gives it a little bit of weight. He hands you each one, and he's got a few more in his hand that he's going to go distribute out to your friends. And he says, we'll

Did you ever try to make a deal with Lanati, Hubert?

Of course not. A terrible force as she is practically a demigod on some level. I would never.

Thank you for putting these together. You spoke of some invisible creature that is preventing your path?

Yes. The closer we got to the tower, the center tower that leads back up through the clouds, the closer we got, the more vicious something became. A sailing, Tully and myself, We've dared not to go closer to the tower since then. We've even been afraid to move to lore.

Does anyone have a way to see something invisible?

I mean, I can see really good when I need to.

I got very fire.

K.

Hubert, when you say that Lonati charms people, like, do you mean just convinces them to do her bidding? Or

Nay. I mean, dark magic. She enraptures the minds of those around her just with her presence.

I mean, Hubert, that actually explains a lot.

Hubert, I'm sorry, but you were so paranoid when Doran tried to charm you, and it was such a harmless little thing. He was just trying to

Calm emotions.

Calm everybody down. Charm isn't inherently bad or dark.

This is true. While there have been recorded instances of altruistic manipulation, Such things are

preyed at me

who was Such things are rare. You're safer to not trust them than you are to trust them.

Oh, my mom always says you shouldn't trust anyone.

So, Poppy, since we're all talking strategy and stuff, like, those those things that the mom your mom says stuff Yeah. Just, like, flip it around. It's like

You should trust everyone

I mean

and give money to people who won't work for it.

You're right. Maybe that doesn't work either. I don't know. I'm just just kidding. You know, we'll just table that mom conversation. Yeah. I don't know.

Oh, we we don't

have to talk about her

at all. It's fine.

Well, I

mean, you

I'm an adult. I make my own decisions, and I make cookies whenever I want them.

Very good. Speaking of cookies, do any of them potentially help with this invisible monster that's preventing us from finding a place of safety?

That's, hold let me just take a second to look at all of the recipes I know.

So we have Lenati, and we have this invisible beast, and we have Smilgrin. What do we want to do? Hubert, you've been here longer than us. We're not eager to kill, but Smilgrin is a danger to everyone. Could we potentially look for him and then make our way for the tower, Deal with the beast if we have to.

Why are you even taking it upon yourself to seek out this Smialgrin, Doran? Escape. Escape this place. That's what we must do.

Yeah. Well, Smialgrin We'll be back for us.

Then let him find you when he does. Do not go looking for violence, Doran.

Doran, I'm the first person to go to violence, but I agree with Huber. I think Smile Gren will find us I think we get back to our own plane, our own ship, our own place, and let them come to us.

Okay.

Because right now, we're in their court.

Yeah. I think that makes sense. Being somewhere where we have the edge, it's gonna make a difference.

K.

Hey. Don't think I have anything that will help, but I can I can make people blind and deaf or make one person super invisible, or I have a cookie that lets you pass through things like a ghost?

Okay.

Oh, what's in the tower once you get in there? You said you've been through it before?

Gosh. It's so foggy.

Grab grab

some

Wow. What a tall tower it was. Wowie.

Where did it begin? Do you want me? It it's really unique, not like anything else I've really ever seen. It's a bit like being inside of a tree on some level, but it's all made of obsidian and stone. There's vines grown on the inside, climbing all the way up along the staircases. It's been years, but it's quite a sight. Totally desolate. There's nobody there. Not a lot of signs of travel either. You know, I I was young then.

It is really scary.

I wonder if this friend of yours controls the tower. It seems odd to me that this place would have such an easy exit.

Well, the fey lords probably needed an easy way to get to our world. Maybe that's what they used it for, built it for.

Doreen, you are thinking back through your memories of that tower and the variety that you see during that 3 mile climb, straight back to the clouds, you see these destroyed wild rooms full of black glass, and stone, and vines. Crawling through those farther up, you start to see what looks like civilization, rooms leveled out and shaped all of this stone into places of control and command. But then crawling farther up still, you find wild caves of raw bismide, colorful and powerful to the point where it affects your breathing, to the point where it affects your heartbeat as you move through that room, your every thought painted on the walls. And finally, when you reach the top, the gatekeeper. The one that judges who enters the clouds, and who is rejected to the Feywild below.

Shit.

Uh-oh.

That's why you don't like Kree.

And, uh-oh, there's no Kree anymore. Oh, no.

Hi. I'm Korg. Kree used to be up here, but they let me do it now.

Like, say, do you wanna be your own boss?

Yeah. I'll stay there.

Do you wanna make $50,000 a year from home?

Do you wanna guard

a tower for the rest of your life?

So, yeah, the all that. Journey? Yeah. Mentioned you had fairy fire.

Yeah. I mean, it's hard to use it without knowing where to aim it.

Right. And you can say no, but do you wanna try to be bait for this invisible creature?

Sure.

What the what what is wrong with you? Stop making weird, chaotic decisions.

It's not sorry. The 3 of you. I I made these charms, one for each of you. They'll help you resist the effects of of the fey magic that controls people here. Journey, Kai.

Yeah. Yeah. Of course.

No. What's up? The other one's for Poppy. Here, Poppy.

Why is mine different?

Oh, I you just you wore a yellow dress when you're on law, and I had yellow twine available.

Oh, that's so thoughtful. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you, Hubert. Very cool.

I'm back to your crazy plan.

I'm just holding it. I haven't put it on yet.

I I take out my stick and look over at Hubert, squint my eyes a little bit.

Your wand?

No. Like a a stick. I'm like

You said your stick like you had one.

I grabbed

I grabbed a stick.

There's no sticks here. Can I roll for a stick?

Just this little stick. Just plenty of sticks. There's all 12. Okay.

Yeah. So invisible creature. If we run into Maeve, you know, all bets are off on what we do. Chances are that it'll be part of our journey to this tower, but that's confusing. Portraits of words. Journey goes ahead. If we can find that invisible beast, you can at least cast fairy fire on it, then we can kind of come out and, try to take care of it.

Yeah. I I guess I have a question, Doran. When you were here last time, were you able to figure out if that invisible creature was a fey creature? I mean, I I would assume it is because it's here, but, you know, it could have fallen too. It could have been an bepelled animal.

It wasn't here last time.

It wasn't.

This is new.

Not that you saw anyway.

I mean, it's invisible. Well,

It wasn't something I had to face coming through.

Hubert told us about this creature? Mhmm. How does he know it's there?

Evidenced by the giant claw marks on Tully's back. They were both, assailed by this thing. Oh,

shit. Can we take a look at those claw marks, see if what sort of creature this might be based off of that?

Certainly. Yes. Tali, he's coming back just now. Tali. He, Tali's lumbering in with this huge load of of, chopped birch wood in his arms, and he kinda drops it right next to the fire. And he, ambles up towards you, and he says, how can I help you?

Can I

your shirt off? Alright then.

I'm

just picturing a turtle, like, with a shirt on.

A shirt off. Turtle with a t shirt trying to take his shirt off. It's a turtle shirt. Yeah.

So I'm I'm wondering if I can use my favorite enemy feat. I have Faye as one of my favorite enemies, and it says I have advantage on intelligence checks to recall information about them. K. So I'm wondering if I can do kind of, like, like an investigation or something. I don't love investigation. To understand what sort of creature would make those marks.

Okay.

In nature?

Yeah. Knowledge, nature, or survival will get you there. Yep.

Oh, you got advantage already?

Yeah. Because of my favorite kind of me. Cool.

Can I give Bard and spell?

Yeah. Okay. Here you go. You see Journey kind of contemplating, and then you're like, oh, shit. Like,

what am I doing?

I know a couple of songs about animals.

21.

I think you know everything around this creature. You don't know that you've seen this before or what it is, but you can tell that these were, claw marks. These aren't bite marks. You can tell the relative size of this thing. It would be, categorically large, meaning that its shoulder height is roughly 8 to 10 feet, meaning that this thing is a formidable foe no matter what it is.

Blade like.

Blade like.

Yeah. Okay. Kinda thing. Is there anything else that I can tell, like, by the number of claw marks, do I know kind of what sort of Definitely. Pause or something it has?

You see an x pattern of 2 singular lines, meaning that this thing almost has hooks, mantis like, scythe like arms.

Okay. I kinda have an idea of what this might look like. I couldn't tell you what it would be called or anything, but I don't think I've seen anything like it before. But I think it has basically 2 big blade like appendages.

Do we got any jars that would help us with this hooper?

We have scarce few here that we've gathered. Some had fallen around this area that we had collected. Some quite interesting. Others, tax information. What a loss.

Someone just uploads all of their passwords. This is

my tax returns for the last 6 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think having me as bait, just getting the opportunity to try and light it up so that we can do some damage, it's not a bad plan.

Will I have your back?

You want my shield?

Are you planning to go now? Am I going with all of you again?

I think all of you would come with, but stay far back. Right? Because you wanna get out of here too. Of

course, we do. I I'm just not a fighting form.

I if you 3 can stay with me, I can do my best to keep you safe.

Well, could we bring some of this white fire with us somehow, like a torch?

Indeed. A torch we can. However, it burns quite quickly. Only to bring a good supply, and we will run out.

So we use it sparingly?

I think so. And we should take that fruit with us. Yes?

Yeah.

Fruit? Ah, the pink meridian.

Yes.

Ah, you're going to take it with you?

No. You're coming with us.

Well, I'll share it, I suppose.

I just need some seeds from it. I mean, ideally, the whole thing would be great because I need it. But but if I have seeds, I could figure out how to grow it. That's fine too. Right.

Of of course. You can have the seeds. Yes. Of course. Well, as far as eating it goes, we'll we'll have that conversation when the time comes. Right.

I wasn't even gonna eat it.

Molly.

Tully. I wish to speak of that other plant you grew, that hallucinogen.

Oh, other plant? Yes. Hallucinogen? Which one?

It was the one you showed us before the fruit.

They were like blue flowers?

Blue flowers. Quite dangerous. They whisper to you.

I didn't didn't hear any of that, but I was wondering if someone here might be talented enough to make use of it for our 2 archers. You see, they might be able to dip their weaponry in this, hallucinogen and, use it against our enemies.

Mhmm. Interesting idea. Perhaps I've not the skill.

I might be able to figure it out.

You should try.

You might wanna wear earplugs or something, puppy.

Sounds good. Could I could I have a couple?

Sure.

Okay. Like, right now?

Of course.

Okay.

Can you please use pinch as ear plugs? Like, pull

off these headphones. That's a great idea. Okay. This is not the first campaign where you've told us to put bread in our ears. Me? Yes.

You walk up to pinch, and he holds out his arms for uppies, and you just reach down and tear his arms off.

For Uppies. Could I do some, like, investigating on this? Like, Arcana?

Yeah. Yeah. Doing our, Sue. Think Arcana is great. Yep.

Okay. Any additional support would be great.

Oh, yeah.

Poppy. I'm just so impressed that I can't.

Clouds. Yeah. 24. Wow. 24.

I make 2 jars of it and sullenly hand them off to Journey and Erin. Thanks, Poppy. Are you It'll get in their heads.

Are you okay? I'm fine.

Bobby, this could be a really helpful thing. Thank you.

You're welcome. And I'm gonna go sit and stare at the glowing bugs in the pool.

It's the pout pool.

She's usually more excited when you get to eat one of her creations.

I wonder. Should I check on her?

Poking bugs right now.

Why don't we just give her a minute? Alright.

Do we even know if, this plant would work on a creature that isn't humanoid? I guess we don't know if it's not entirely

would I know that just from the

It seems based on the way this works, like, anything that, like, has thoughts would probably be affected. Sentience? Yeah. Okay.

So it's not, like, necessarily that it is whispering words. It's that it's kinda getting into their head and making sounds or effects that would disturb it.

Yeah. It's it's, yeah, it's cognitively antagonizing. Okay. Yeah. Sitting around camp still, at some point, you all see Tully, stand and, moves to Poppy's shield. Is it still on your back, Poppy? On your person?

Probably.

He says, what's this?

Oh, sorry. It's a shield.

It's big for you? You're so small.

I mean, someone much bigger than me gave it to me. So it's done okay.

May I hold it?

Oh, sure. Take it off and give it to him.

He holds it and kind of, like, puts it on his arm like an actual shield. He puts it on his back like a shield like you had it, and then he kind of looks at his shell and smirks to himself. And then he walks over to that pond with the shield, He kind of dips it under the water, and you see a bunch of that water kind of, like, flow into the basin of the shield, and he's using it like a bowl. And he kind of, like, stands and lifts all that water out, and he kinda walks back towards you holding this big sloshing basin of water.

I'm I'm sorry. Do I do you Do I smell?

Walks right past you. Oh. Couple more steps towards that white fire. Stop.

I'm going to use a command.

Hold on.

I don't know if stop is a appropriate word. Halt. That'll be, wiz save 16.

K. As he walks towards the fire, you see a small twine charm unravel from his back and fall to the ground.

Shit. You hear it.

Oh.

As the white fire suddenly goes out and this whole place goes black, you all see smoke intermingling with the shifting of a changeling. What? And I think we'll end it right there. No. No.

I fucking knew it. Hubert is weird, giving us little charms bullshit. Goddamn it.

Thank you everybody so much for listening. I'm Tim, your GM.

I'm Hannah Plain Aron.

I'm Tara, and I'm Journey.

I'm Thomas, and I'm Guy. I'm

John. I play Doran.

I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy Kenmore.

Thank you

all so much for listening. Share the show with people you love, and we'll see you next time.