Cloudfall | 16 - Do it for the Hollygram
Last time on Cloudfall. The party escaped lore before it crashed. They got into a well timed taxi And that's where the party finally got some rest. A pretty intolerable Tabaxi named Timothy Matterfax introduced himself to the group and underscore the importance of politeness when visiting Baxy and introduced them to recorded visual content called holograms. Now the party has landed in a new Skyland, Backsy, the island of fame, fortune, and feline adjacent folks.
Tim / GM:Count me in.
Maggie / Poppy:Unhand me.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So, the 5 of you are in the security checkpoints of Baxley just coming into the island straight off the docks. Erin is kind of standing separate from the party. She never really gave them a clue that she was part of the same group. So she's not being arrested right now.
Tim / GM:The other 4 of you are, and the wagon has been separated from you. They're investigating that separately. Poppy, a member of the brass, an officer wearing a jet black coat with, kind of, you know, brassy colored metallic lining is standing in front of you and it just unwinded this stick, this flimsy looking toy maybe with a dangly little charm on the end of a string. And he dangles it in front of you, and when you do, you feel the world kind of fade around you, and the only thing that's important to you in this moment is that little toy. Oh,
Maggie / Poppy:wait. Put it down further.
Tim / GM:Give me a wisdom save.
Maggie / Poppy:8. Okay.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you are under the effects of a conundrum dangler. You are overwhelmed with the urge to touch the toy. You are also simultaneously you just can't bring yourself to do it, and this guard has you enraptured in that. Wherever he brings the toy, you just follow along obediently.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, no. I'm
Tim / GM:The guard who's, not taking care of Poppy looks around at all of you and says, this is not a good look. I suggest you all comply.
John / Doran:Is she okay? What have you done to Poppy?
Tim / GM:She's fine. She's just a little distracted. Are you all gonna come quietly or we gotta dangle all of you?
John / Doran:Thank you. No one's going to dangle me. I will come quietly.
Tim / GM:You see them kind of like they were halfway to unraveling their dangler toys, and then they just kinda stop and squint at you. They look at the rest of you. Jurney and Doran, are you getting the same vibe? Are you gonna come quietly?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Jurnee doesn't quite understand, incarceration probably, so this she'll go with the flow.
John / Doran:K. Darren will also be cool with this. Okay. So this is all about the mining gear. Right?
Tim / GM:Yeah. That's the long and short of it. Okay. K. We got word that, well, something bad is happening.
Tim / GM:We, other islands, and they've had some real challenges lately to do with these miners stealing the bismide out from under them.
John / Doran:Yeah. We have a lot to share about that. Did that word not come from us?
Tim / GM:No. I don't know who any of you are. Refugees. Yes. But
Tara / Journey:I mean, it doesn't seem logical that individual miners would be able to take enough bismat to herd a skylund, but
Tim / GM:We don't know that. We don't know that at all. We know the laws have changed on the mainland. They're all over here. The last few days, we've seen an influx of ships like we've never seen before.
Tim / GM:Something big has changed. There's these new craft. Never mind. You don't need to know any of this. Listen.
Tim / GM:I need you to stop asking questions, fall in single file, and follow me. You got it?
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. Alright.
John / Doran:Very well. Soon, we will clean up this whole misunderstanding.
Tara / Journey:Poppy, are you alright?
John / Doran:Yeah. I don't think that's necessary anymore. I think Poppy's calmed down.
Tim / GM:He's still kinda leaning in towards Poppy. He's like,
John / Doran:I don't know. She seemed pretty, agitated. K. Well, let's be polite, I guess.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright. You're just gonna let me be here? Conundrumed.
Maggie / Poppy:Aaron is seeing this all go down and is getting a little more more worried as they start seeing, shackles come out or, like, any sort of, like, tie up situation, nothing like that?
Tim / GM:Hasn't quite gotten to that. Okay. Because of Doran's, quick words here and Guy's agreement to comply, it's de escalating pretty rapidly. They're able to just kind of pull them away, but they are rapidly moving towards a, you know, utility road. They're moving away from you, Erin.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Is there, like, a parked cart somewhere with, like, a larger thing that I could quickly duck behind nearby? Covered wagon? Like, the rolling pin?
John / Doran:There's the rolling pin, for example.
Maggie / Poppy:Sure. The rolling pin.
John / Doran:Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Can, I get behind it quickly and just be out of sight of most people?
John / Doran:For sure. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Give me
Tim / GM:a stealth check just to
Maggie / Poppy:check here. Okay. Oh my god. 26. Wow.
Tim / GM:Alright. Erin turns invisible. Yeah. You duck behind the shop and kind of on your way out there, you're taking note of where everybody's looking and kinda what they're paying attention to, where the crowd is moving. What that tells you is everyone is looking at this altercation.
Tim / GM:They're all looking at Papi who just got dangled. They're looking at the rest of the group, these mainlanders from out of town. You see a crowd of onlookers that they're more excited than anything. And more than a few of them are holding out these cloudy quartz crystals with flat faces, flickering the silvery light, pointing at your group. They're eating this up.
Maggie / Poppy:We're gonna go viral.
Tim / GM:The brass spend another second in a tense standoff looking at all these onlookers, and then they give the group a gentle shove. You know, start walking.
Maggie / Poppy:At that moment, Aaron is going to shift into a giant loxodon male, which is an elephant race Yeah. Humanoid that looks like an elephant. Yeah. And it is as fat as possible. And I'm gonna step out from behind the cart after changing kind of closer to this group of the altercation happening and step out in front of everyone and say
Maggie / Poppy:that's my
Maggie / Poppy:elephant noise? I don't know.
Tim / GM:That's great.
Maggie / Poppy:How do you do an elephant noise?
Maggie / Poppy:That was terrible. And, you see the locksmith on clutch at their chest and take a few staggering steps. Help. Help. And And it starts to fall down on one leg and grabs one of the guards, and looks like they're having a medical situation.
Tim / GM:Sure. Okay. Give me a performance check, Aaron.
John / Doran:This is the old Pierce Hawthorne trick.
Tara / Journey:Classic. Good god.
Maggie / Poppy:A 12.
Tim / GM:A lot of the onlookers kind of spin around to point their crystals at you, and they see you fall to your knees and kind of grab onto the one of the guards who's quickly trying to get out of your grasp and take control of the situation, but they back up. They see you're in kind of dire straits. Please help me. He doesn't seem to have a lot of urgency to him, but he goes, we need a medic over here, I think.
John / Doran:I can take care of this. This looks terrible. Doran steps out of signal file and tries to help this creature. K.
Tim / GM:Yeah. The, the platoon kind of stops and you hear the main guard that was bringing you away goes, hey, hey, hey. No. No. No.
Tim / GM:I'll be right back.
John / Doran:You can you can dongle me if you want. I'd whatever. I go over to the loxodon, and I'm gonna try to perform a, medicine check. K. 21.
Maggie / Poppy:Can I do something as Doran's doing this?
John / Doran:Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:As I'm, like, down on one knee and Doran approaches, I'm going to touch, my shoulder where Doran had the tracker earlier to try to signal that it's me just to give him, like, a signal of some kind that he might recognize. I don't know if he will, but trying to be like, hey, idiot. It's me.
Tim / GM:That's fairly subtle. Doran, why don't you give me a straight up intelligence check?
John / Doran:Can I argue insight? Yes. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:That wasn't arguing. Yeah. Can I argue?
Tara / Journey:Sometimes we statement. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I think David insight.
John / Doran:One second. One second. One second. Okay. It's gonna be 17.
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Not only do you find that there's nothing medically wrong with this loxodon, but it's also not a loxodon. Some of the details look wrong. And on top of that, you see them do this kind of suspicious motion a little too smoothly for the situation that they're in and catch on.
John / Doran:Okay. Erin, you got everyone's attention. So what's the next step?
Hannah / Eryn:Please. I need help, doctor.
Maggie / Poppy:And my elephant stump hand kinda clobs door in the head. What do you have hands? I can imagine my locksmith on how I want my locksmith on. Tim did say that there some features that were inaccurate. It's just a stump hand.
Maggie / Poppy:No finger.
John / Doran:So with that gesture, I'm going to try to, like, grab the arm and try to, lift up the locksmith on. Okay?
Maggie / Poppy:I go with him just, like, acting along with it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're able to, raise them up. You're kind of, stabilizing the locksmith on a little bit. The the guards are waiting with, very little patience, and they're like, they see you kind of moseying with the locks and they say, no. No.
Tim / GM:No. You're with
John / Doran:us. Well, this this Loxodon clearly needs some help. Is there a clinic nearby?
Tim / GM:I mean, yeah, in the suburbs, but we're not gonna we can get a stretcher or like a, I don't know, a truck.
John / Doran:You know what? We'll just leave it here to die. How about does that make more sense? I can
Tara / Journey:I can carry heavy weight? Can I help?
Tim / GM:You hear one of the guards say, well, it actually is preferred that they would die outside the gates of vaccine because you're not supposed to die in vaccine.
Tara / Journey:That's horrible. I'm gonna help. Dorn, let me help you. And Jurney can lift like she is a large creature Okay. Because she's a furbolg.
Tara / Journey:K. So she can carry quite heavy things. So she puts her shoulders under the other arm and heaves upward. Would I, perchance, feel anything unusual in handling this loxodon? Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Kind of in the same way that that Doran noticed, you know, that some things are just not right. Like, it doesn't feel quite the same weight, maybe not in the right places. You know? Like, it its upper body seems strangely light, and it seems like it's put all of its weight in its feet. So there's some density issues, but you're not getting any, like, immediate read.
Tara / Journey:Okay.
John / Doran:Doran says to Jurnee, the air in this place is suspicious. And then I give a wink.
Tara / Journey:Journey is not smart. Can I roll an intelligence to see if
Tim / GM:I got that?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. That was
Maggie / Poppy:a good that
Maggie / Poppy:was a good try.
John / Doran:Product expiration with that?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Here you go.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh. Oh, no.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Tara / Journey:I rolled an 18 into 20. So my low roll is 18.
Tim / GM:You get caught on Doran's phrase a little bit, and you think that he just said Aaron halfway through. And you're like, what about Aaron? And you're like, oh, this is probably Aaron.
Tara / Journey:I did not get the pun, but I but pattern recognition works. Right.
Tim / GM:1 of the brass is exceptionally close to you now, and they say, let me take a look. I've got a medical background.
John / Doran:I'm glad we're finally able to address the elephant in the room here.
Hannah / Eryn:Please help me.
Maggie / Poppy:And it was just racist. God. Is the one with the medical background approaching me?
Tim / GM:Yeah. The right in front
Maggie / Poppy:of me.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna fall onto him k. And try to crash him with my body.
Tara / Journey:Oh my god.
Maggie / Poppy:Do I need to roll something?
Tim / GM:Another performance. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Yeah. 21.
John / Doran:What kind of role is this?
Maggie / Poppy:Performance. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You fall straight onto them. They try to scramble out from underneath you and are not able to. You're just kind of on top of this person. You've got their legs, you know, kind of crossed underneath you.
Tim / GM:So they're not dying, but they certainly can't move on their own power. The rest of the brass behind them is like, woah. Woah. Woah. Okay.
Tim / GM:Circle up. Everybody out. We're clear in this area. You 4 with us.
John / Doran:Us 4?
Tim / GM:Pointing out at the 4 of you again.
John / Doran:I did all I could with my medical abilities. Doran, you were supposed to hold on to that. You messed up, guy. I'm sorry. Well, I only hope this does not count against our permanent record.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my gosh.
Tim / GM:They, they've got the 4 of you kind of following 1 of the guards. Aaron, you're still on top of this one brass member, and he's just kind of, like he's looking at you incredulous. He's like, please, just just roll over. Please, just roll off of me. Please, just roll off.
Maggie / Poppy:You just hear an elephant noise out of
John / Doran:the trunk.
Tara / Journey:So Journey's gonna help, quote unquote, help push the Erinfant off of the cat person.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:And, while she does that, she's gonna whisper in Erinf's very large elephant ear, find us later. Figure out where they're gonna keep us.
Maggie / Poppy:I flap my ears.
Tim / GM:Journey, you feel us, somewhat strong hand on your shoulder kind of pulling you up and back.
Tara / Journey:I I put my hands in the air to indicate I'm me no harm.
Tim / GM:Yeah. And
Maggie / Poppy:then I wave them
Tara / Journey:like I just Like I don't care.
Tim / GM:Poppy, the guy that has been holding the dangler in front of you has sort of lost focus on what he's doing. You slowly kind of come conscious again. You see this guy getting crushed by a locksmith on. You were kind of vaguely aware of all this stuff, but you weren't watching closely until now.
Maggie / Poppy:As I'm coming into consciousness, I think I would try.
John / Doran:Yeah. Make it a consistent
Tara / Journey:role of the campaign.
Maggie / Poppy:And in that half state, I would try.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Make a most important role of the campaign.
Maggie / Poppy:Abby wiggles their butt in
Maggie / Poppy:the air. Nope. That's 6.
John / Doran:Do you I'm
Maggie / Poppy:gonna miss. I'm very short. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You, like, jump for it and the guy just pulls it, like, straight up like a pinata, and he's just like, woah. Woah. Woah. Too not so fast there.
John / Doran:Puffy, do you want me to grab that for you?
Tim / GM:No. The 4 of you are being kind of pushed such that you've got about 15 feet between the Loxodon and you now moving down this, service road. It's not quite inside the gates of Baxi. You're staying out, and they're trying to separate you from Erin.
Tara / Journey:I I hope you feel better. Friend, loxodon. That's Journey's best performance.
Maggie / Poppy:Did you make a new friend?
Tara / Journey:This kind fella was having some trouble with their health.
John / Doran:They do not seem long for this world, Poppy. I would not get too attached.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. They don't look too good. Will someone be taking care of my cart?
Tim / GM:As you're walking away, Poppy, you mentioned the cart and you start looking at the people who are closest to your cart, and you hear I'm going impounded. No. No.
Maggie / Poppy:No. No. That's my home. Hang her
Tim / GM:at the docks. There's plenty of room for it.
Maggie / Poppy:I can't afford that.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're being ushered out of earshots by the guards. Again, you never quite made it into the gates of Backsy. You instead diverted into a hard to notice service road kind of off to the side. And from this angle, you can kind of see the tops of beautiful immaculate buildings in the distance.
Tim / GM:This, like, sprawling castle like compound with white walls and brightly colored roofs, and a tall twisting cherry blossom tree that shimmers in the wind. But all of this is away from you. It's beyond this gated community that you're not allowed to enter right now. In this slow, windy, solemn walk, Doran, you start to hear things. Actually, hold on.
Maggie / Poppy:I don't
Tim / GM:know if you hear both of these right away. Give me a perception check with advantage.
John / Doran:29. Well, shit.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright.
Tim / GM:So you do hear things. You hear a mechanical whine, a sort of It's burning of some sort, a rapid burn, and it's quite far away at this point. But the other thing you hear is this click that you can't really make sense of, and it comes one after another. And when you hear this, Doran, it makes you feel sick. It makes you nauseous to the point where you stop walking and you start looking for a wastebasket.
John / Doran:I don't I don't feel so good. Can we stop for
Tim / GM:a sec? We've heard that one before. Come on. Make him do a god save.
John / Doran:No. I I'm not messing around. I don't I'd rather get there. I I stop for a second, put my hands on my knees, and take a couple deep breaths. Do I still hear this sound?
Tim / GM:You still do.
Tara / Journey:Dorn, are you a rat?
John / Doran:Do you hear that?
Tara / Journey:Can I do a perception check?
John / Doran:Yeah. 25.
Tim / GM:Wow. Journey. BD perceiving. You don't hear it, but you feel something, a sort of rhythmic pulse,
Maggie / Poppy:a
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. It's there's something. I I can feel it.
Tim / GM:Come on, buddy. Just puke on yourself if you're gonna puke. I don't really care. We gotta get going.
Tara / Journey:I'm so sorry, sir, but there's something happening.
Tim / GM:He kinda looks up at the island of Backstage, and he looks down at you and he goes, yeah.
John / Doran:I I I think I'll be okay. We we can keep moving.
Tim / GM:Oh, thank god. And he kinda turns around and has you all follow after him. And what you come across first is a great brass pipe that's embedded in the rock wall. Huge, huge pipe, like like 15 feet across. You see a small handful of other people waiting there.
Tim / GM:You see 3 older gray Tabaxi women, and you see this gruff looking black and orange Tabaxi with this visible saber just, like, hanging out at his side. We're gonna jump back to Eren. You've been kind of, like, helped up to your feet by some of the people there. The guy finally got you to roll off of him. What are you doing at this point?
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you. Thank you. I don't feel very well. I should lay down.
Tim / GM:The guy that you are crushing is kind of ushered away since he's already been injured here, but a couple other Tabakse guards here, the brass, kind of bring you over to a bench and have you sit down there. They seem to not have a lot of patience for you, but they are taking you seriously like you've got some concerns. They seem to be waiting for someone else to show up.
Maggie / Poppy:I think Aaron will just shut their eyes and pretend to rest for a while.
Tim / GM:K.
Maggie / Poppy:And just listen to the sounds around them. Yeah. And then say, is Elk coming?
Tim / GM:Yeah. We got somebody coming. Just give it a couple minutes. Yeah. The other guy says, I actually gotta get going.
Tim / GM:Can you just handle this? I yeah. I'll see you. And he walks away. It's down to just the one guy, and he's like, we've got a professional that should be here shortly.
Tim / GM:I'm I'm really not great at this kind of stuff. Are you gonna be okay?
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you so much for your kindness. I will be fine.
Tim / GM:Okay. Okay. Good.
Hannah / Eryn:I just had a spicy meatball at lunch, I think.
Tim / GM:Oh my god.
Hannah / Eryn:But honestly, I'll wait for the professional. You're good. Thank you.
Tim / GM:Okay. Sounds good. Alright. Be well. I'll I'll see you, some other time.
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you.
Tim / GM:He he turns and walks. The place they've got you at now is very much out of public eye, you know, kinda under some trees. They wanted you to get some shade and get some rest away from the the crowd of onlookers and recorders.
Maggie / Poppy:As soon as they're gone, Aaron's gonna shift, into a Tabaxi.
John / Doran:Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:I think I am going to just do kind of a generic, Tabaxi woman.
Tim / GM:K. Just
Maggie / Poppy:kinda middle class, super super normal looking. Tabby cat.
John / Doran:Normal middle class cat person.
Maggie / Poppy:As just like nothing. No, like, special spots or anything. Just super plain. Right in the middle. Like brown.
Tara / Journey:It's your average man. Class.
Hannah / Eryn:Just The
Maggie / Poppy:most average looking cat you can see.
Tim / GM:Cat ass cat. Yeah. Alright.
Tara / Journey:Cat is cat that's ever catted.
Tim / GM:Garfield is walking down
Maggie / Poppy:the street.
Tara / Journey:Hates Mondays.
Tim / GM:So what is your mission here?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I'm gonna try to follow my friends stealthily.
Tim / GM:Alright. Yeah. Give me a, stealth check with advantage for the most average looking Tabaxi.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know if I need advantage.
Maggie / Poppy:Only if I know all of them.
John / Doran:And the 20 is bad.
Tim / GM:It's like, wow. If you aren't the most average looking Tibetan I've ever seen.
Maggie / Poppy:My first role was an 18 plus my 10 stealth. Good Lord. Okay. 28 stealth.
Tim / GM:No problems there. So, the party.
Maggie / Poppy:But excuse me. I just need to know, where my cart's gonna be because that's kinda my entire life.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Well, likely, it'll be impounded. So, Baxley actually works on an auction system. So
Maggie / Poppy:Please, is there a way to make them not sell it though?
Tim / GM:Oh, it won't be sold for probably a week at least.
Maggie / Poppy:Do you think I'll get out by then?
Tim / GM:Definitely. We can only detain for 24 hours. Oh.
John / Doran:See, Poppy? The system works. So wait. Hold on. So we have to buy the wagon back?
Tim / GM:That's right. But you don't really have any reason to worry.
Maggie / Poppy:You don't even own it. Well How can you do that? That seems, unjust and and and corrupt.
Tim / GM:Well, here's the thing. All, unregistered vehicles, when the owner is taken for questioning. The vehicle is technically considered an enemy of Baxi, militarily speaking, for the time. So they do own it for that time, and they set up an auction. If you come back to claim it before the auction results, you can get it back for much less.
Tim / GM:But, yeah, Baxseed owns your wagon now.
Maggie / Poppy:Doesn't make any sense. That's so unfair. I bought that with my own life savings. How could you do that? You don't even know how to bake.
Maggie / Poppy:What would you do with a a roaming bakery?
John / Doran:Poppy, this this, gentle cat doesn't make the rules.
Maggie / Poppy:You smell terrible.
Tim / GM:Poppy. A lot of the guards kind of like look absolutely taken aback. And you see some of the guards kinda like put their arms down so their armpits aren't like out at all.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm sorry. I'm I didn't mean it.
Tim / GM:They all go kind of silent. The 3 older women kind of move away from your group a little bit so as not to be near you. Mostly Poppy, they make a circle around you so that nobody has to be near you.
John / Doran:We're gonna die now, Poppy. Thanks.
Tim / GM:You all see you all hear, like, the scuffling of feet on gravel and look up to see the most invisible, ignorable, basic ass Tabaxi you've ever seen
Maggie / Poppy:in your life.
Tara / Journey:Our eyes pass over a cat.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. You're
Tim / GM:like, whatever. I've seen a 1,000 of
Maggie / Poppy:these cats. That's the most boring
Tara / Journey:fucking cat.
Tim / GM:In that same moment, this brass pipe in front of you, you see gleaming double doors open, and you see this big crowd of laborers and city workers and serious looking city officials step out onto your platform and kind of rush by you in a crowd. You hear the main Tabaxi guard that had brought you along suddenly pulls an echo bell up to their ear, and they go, hold up. Yes. Yes. Okay.
Tim / GM:Standing by. He gestures out to all of you and goes, don't get in.
Maggie / Poppy:What?
Tim / GM:Yes. Hello?
Maggie / Poppy:Is he
John / Doran:talking Okay. To us?
Tim / GM:Okay. Alright. We've got a 19:30 upstairs or on the Glamour boutiques. My my mystique is buried up to the eaves. Yeah.
Tim / GM:We're gonna need probably all of you. Alright. You 2 bring them down. The rest of you go with me. You see this group of guards break up such that only 2 are left with you out of the 6 or 8 that came with you to begin with.
Maggie / Poppy:Was it something I said?
Tara / Journey:What what seems to be going on?
Tim / GM:I I don't I don't know. I didn't really hear. It was, what
Tim / GM:did he say? A 19 13? 1930. 19 oh,
Tim / GM:okay. So that's an ash evacuation. So they must have, ashed out of a pipe when they didn't mean to and buried a store.
Tara / Journey:What? In a in ash?
Tim / GM:Well, yeah. We're on a volcanic island. Ash management is a very big part of the city maintenance.
Maggie / Poppy:We're what? Do are we safe?
Tim / GM:No. You're totally safe. We just sound like it's gonna blow or anything.
Tara / Journey:For sure. If there's ash, doesn't that mean it's an active volcano?
Tim / GM:In some senses, yes, but it's really not. It's actually, we have a special connection to another plane that serves the the whole heat side of this reaction.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh. Oh, it's amazing. Okay. Cool.
John / Doran:Erin Sounds hunky dory.
Tim / GM:Erin, as you pull up to this group, you see one of those older Tabaxi, one of those old ladies. She's got like this hooded cowl on, and she looks up to you and says, Good day, little bird. And I want you to make an insight check.
Maggie / Poppy:6.
Tim / GM:Oh my gosh. Okay. You've heard people call you that before, little bird. It's probably nothing.
Maggie / Poppy:Aaron has heard people call them that? Okay. Do I recognize this Tabaxi?
Tim / GM:No. Like, bud or
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. You've rolled a 6.
Tim / GM:The, elevator has completely emptied out, and the 2 brass guards that are still with you kind of gesture you into the elevator platform. Just as you're moving in there, you can see all of the canvas screens around you light up again with a new image, except this time it's just showing kind of a silhouette with a big question mark over it, and then there's text flying across the bottom of the screen, and it says, be on the lookout, a shapeshifter, a changeling, mass murderer, island destroyer.
Maggie / Poppy:That's
Tim / GM:This sounds
Maggie / Poppy:That doesn't sound like anyone we know.
John / Doran:Well, Poppy, I was kind of thinking that it sounded like
Tara / Journey:Oh, like, maybe one of them creatures that we saw on lore that ate up all the bismat.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, you were were talking about those.
Tim / GM:Oh, yes.
John / Doran:Yeah. The one that is responsible for this whole mix up we find ourselves in.
Maggie / Poppy:Not any other shape shifting
Tim / GM:No. The guard goes, what?
John / Doran:Yeah. I'd be well, I I can't tell the story. There's the this guy who ate all the bismide, and the island fell out of the sky. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I saw him. He had big blue eyes.
Tim / GM:So you encountered the changeling?
Maggie / Poppy:Maybe. I don't know.
Tara / Journey:How would we know? He wasn't a changeling.
Tim / GM:What's that on the screen? The other guy goes, yeah. It it said on the screen, changeling.
John / Doran:It said it said it on the screen, Journey.
Tara / Journey:Right. But someone is controlling the screen, telling the screen what to say, and they could be wrong.
Tim / GM:Yeah. What? The news, of course. Yeah. Right.
Tara / Journey:And the people who make the news could be wrong, right, because they're people?
Tim / GM:No. They just report facts so that everybody knows the facts.
Maggie / Poppy:Hey. My mom says that everything you hear in the news is true.
Tim / GM:Yes. But
Maggie / Poppy:she hasn't been wrong yet.
John / Doran:Why are you so confused by this journey? About this particular matter your mother is correct. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:I just I I I feel like there's something wrong with
John / Doran:Anyway, the man did change forms, did he not?
Tara / Journey:Right. But changeling is a type of people, and they aren't they can't do what this creature did
Tim / GM:and Journey. In the middle of thinking, in the middle of speaking, you feel this.
Tara / Journey:What is that?
Tim / GM:And, Doreen, you don't hear anything. None of you hear anything. None of you feel anything, but Jurney stops saying what she's saying.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, no. I think the smoke thing happened again.
Tara / Journey:What is that? Are we in something You're
Tim / GM:in an elevator going down. Sorry. Yes.
Tara / Journey:I reach out my hand to the wall and touch the wall.
Tim / GM:You feel it louder. You feel it more intense, this.
Tara / Journey:Where where are we going?
Tim / GM:We're going, to the dungeons. I'm sorry. It's worse than it sounds. It's actually pretty, hospitable as far as dungeons go.
Tara / Journey:Right. But are we going down?
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's it's actually pretty close to the core. It's nice and warm.
Tara / Journey:Core? This feels weird.
Tim / GM:Oh, You all hear this? And the doors spread open. When you walk out, the atmosphere here is so much darker because now you're under 2 layers of clouds. You look around and see a permanent dusky blue surrounding you, this whole place has the stark silence of a quiet winter morning. There's only a few somber folks walking around and just a few orange feeble lamps glowing in the heavy dark here.
Tim / GM:It's actually much colder down here, you feel a little uncomfortable when you're not near one of those brass pipes that's kicking out so much heat. This part of the skyline seems to be made of darker volcanic slate, and the neighborhoods here are winding canyons and chasms of wild rock that's shaped by fresh magma and strong wind. But at the heart of all of this, you see warehouse like buildings, and you hear the harsh grinding of industry not far from you, And, Doran, you can hear that whining again, that mechanical burning. From Journey, that rhythm hasn't left you, that feeling. And, Erin, as you take a step off the elevator, your ankle hurts.
Maggie / Poppy:Sorry.
Tim / GM:It's the smallest thing, Erin. It's really it's a nothing issue. It's a nothing detail. Not so much that it's gonna hold you back in combat, not so much that it's gonna hold you back when you're climbing a building, but your ankle hurts. It was that final attack on Diver when you jumped off the cliff.
Tim / GM:You landed so hard you didn't notice in the moment, but you did screw it up a little bit, and it probably hurt for a long, long time, and it has you thinking about Diver. You see a memory for just a moment, and we see an impossibly beautiful woman speaking with an older man who seems delighted to be in her presence. We're in this dark room with a a lit fire, and there's some documents in front of the man, and this beautiful woman on the other side. The old man kind of looks up smiling deeply, and he says,
Tim / GM:I don't really need to read this whole thing, do I darling? Can't you just tell me what it says on the paper? Let me know if there's anything important?
Maggie / Poppy:Aaron, transformed as this beautiful woman, takes the paper for a moment and says,
Hannah / Eryn:I could read it to you, dearest, but I I really wanna hear you read it to me, please.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:I long for your voice.
Tim / GM:Certainly.
Maggie / Poppy:And she strokes his cheek a little.
Tim / GM:You seem kind of like Flash a smile.
Tim / GM:He says, I understand in the he looks at you unlikely event of my death, that you would become the sole inheritor to my wealth and assets. And that's exactly what I'd want. My my darling, I thought you dead for so long. I thought you gone. I thought I had to say goodbye to you forever, but but I'm so glad to have you back, my dear.
Tim / GM:I'm so glad to have found you again, of course. Of course, I'll sign it.
Tim / GM:He puts it on the table and signs his long signature on it and he hands you
Tim / GM:the paper and he says, our family legacy can live on forever. Forever.
Maggie / Poppy:And she takes the paper and folds it gently and tucks it in her pocket.
Tim / GM:And there's a long pause as the man is trying to make sense of the knife wound on his neck. He's looking at you with curious eyebrows. He opens his mouth to speak, and he seems surprised again when nothing comes out. There's a slow gurgling as he drops to his knees and reaches up for help. And, Aaron, you're just kinda getting your things together.
Tim / GM:The beautiful woman melts back into Aaron, and Diver comes through the door. Took you fucking long enough.
Maggie / Poppy:I got your stupid paper and slams it into Diver's chest and walks off the door past him.
Tim / GM:He kinda, like, takes it in his chest, and he reads over a little bit, and he says, how is that worth getting beaten over twice? Goddamn you, ungrateful Sprite. Get rid of the body. And we're stepping out of the elevator. Your party led by the 2 guards that, seem to be looking over their shoulder all the time now.
Tim / GM:You're passing through this dark neighborhood cast in quiet blue, and there's a a village center here that have built around a twisting leafless tree in the cold. There's cobblestones laid in circles around it creating this big kind of bull's eye effect, and it's very quiet down here, practically noiseless, you see little piles of ash built up in the cobbles and in every corner of the street, and you see this tunnel entrance that starts in the rock wall here, pointing towards the core of Backsy, leading in deeper. And, Dorian, you're starting to hear that noise louder now, like it's getting to point where it's unlikely that anybody else couldn't hear it.
John / Doran:Journey, this is what I was talking about.
Maggie / Poppy:Can you
Tim / GM:hear it?
Tara / Journey:And I still can't hear it. I can only feel it. Right?
Tim / GM:You can't hear anything. And right now, Journey, you don't feel anything either. Nothing for the moment.
Tara / Journey:It's it's gone now, Darn, but I I could never hear it. I was only feeling it.
John / Doran:K. Can can the guy do a smell check?
Tim / GM:Sure. Yeah. And take advantage on that
John / Doran:guy. Oh, yeah. Natural 20.
Maggie / Poppy:Woah. Woah. Woah.
Tim / GM:Alright. So, Guy, you can tell that indeed this is a volcanic area. There's this sulfurous fume in the air that you can get no matter where you are. You can smell the literal you can smell the literal heat coming out of back seat, this, like, molten rock deep within. You can smell that there's some life around here.
Tim / GM:There's some people. There's some cooked food, but not a lot beyond that. What are you aiming for here?
John / Doran:Well, I noticed the other 2 are talking about some weird things that guy doesn't notice. So plus, I thought near the core of all volcano, it would smell funny.
Tim / GM:It does. Confirmed.
Tara / Journey:Confirmed. You said there was a tree?
Tim / GM:There's a leafless tree in the center of the little village square here.
Tara / Journey:I would like to use speech of beast and leaf. Interesting. It just allows me to talk to plants and animals. They can't necessarily, like, talk talk back.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. It's not
Tara / Journey:a spell. It's just something that's because of my verbal nature, and I'm so surprised to see a tree in the center of this column of rock
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:I guess. So, yeah, journey just takes, like half a second to just kind of look over at this tree with no leaves, just kind of a trunk, are there branches?
Tim / GM:There's branches, it it looks like a tree in another season, actually, compared to what you had seen upstairs.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Tim / GM:And you're wondering why that is.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I just kind of reach a hand out and a couple of buds kind of swirl around the trunk of the tree, and I whisper at it, hello.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you notice immediately one of the guards kinda turns to you being the closest to the guards, and they say, hey. Hey. What is she doing?
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I have no idea. She's just kind of eccentric.
Tim / GM:The tree's not gonna, like, reach out and grab us, is it?
Maggie / Poppy:Probably not. She's never done anything like that before.
Tim / GM:Jurney, your Feybuds circle around the tree just one pass, maybe 2, and then come straight back to you and they kind of report back what they find, what they hear from the tree and they say, scared. The tree is in its final winter, and it fears it won't come back.
Tara / Journey:Journee nods to herself and then, kind of shuffle steps to catch up to the guards up
Maggie / Poppy:front.
Tim / GM:Yeah. The one of the guards gives you a very, like, disapproving impatient look and kind of, like, scowls at you after you rejoin the group.
Tara / Journey:Sorry. I I mean, you can't fault fault me for my nature. I'm sure you don't get many furball out here, but, you know, we're we're close with the the plants and the animals.
Tim / GM:He just goes, uh-huh. It's seeming very tired. I'm just trying to get you to move on.
John / Doran:Say, when do we meet with the folks who we can prove our innocence to?
Tim / GM:Hopefully within 24 hours. That's as long as we're allowed to keep you here, so, the brass leads you down that tunnel just a few dozen feet and turn to this giant circular iron door, heavy as hell. You hear one of them say, Go ahead, radio up. Not exactly sure on the rules with mainlanders, but overnight is no problem, so go ahead. The other one says, where'd you get that wagon anyway?
Maggie / Poppy:What? Mine?
Tim / GM:Is it yours?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Where'd that come from? It's pretty cool.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, thanks. I bought it on the mainland.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh. And I put in a bunch of blood, sweat, and tears and turned it into a bakery.
Tim / GM:Well, you're definitely gonna wanna stop by and get it back as soon as possible.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I I know.
Maggie / Poppy:I put my entire life savings into it. Thanks. He he
Tim / GM:looks at you kind of conspiratorily and he says, it's not very fast, is it?
Maggie / Poppy:No. Oh, good.
Maggie / Poppy:Why is there a a rule?
Tim / GM:Oh, no. It's just they would definitely bring it into the races if it was fast. It would get bought, like, immediately.
Maggie / Poppy:The races, you say?
Maggie / Poppy:Well, I don't know about that life. I just bake I bake really good cookies.
Tim / GM:He looks kind of interested and his eyebrows kind of go up, like, he's about to ask more questions, and then you hear the other guard fiddling with their belt, getting a ring of keys, and is about to undo the door. Doran, that noise becomes a lot louder and it is now unmistakable, a burning bismide engine, a spark engine. No doubt about it. Journey. You feel a sudden pulse, and you can suddenly see everyone around you in your mind's eye, and you realize the pulse is coming from you, and in the center of this vision is yourself.
Tim / GM:In your mind's eye, you can see all of these little signatures of people around you. You can literally feel them around you Your friends, the guards in front of you. You can feel this average looking Tabaxi that has been following your group at a distance for a while now.
Tara / Journey:Such a normal cat.
Tim / GM:You can feel almost a 100 feet away a couple of the other Tabaxi that had followed you down here, and you can also feel the person floating against the ceiling in the same room that you're in right now. Sure. Because Journey, Ganymede helps you feel things. And as an action, you can feel everyone around you within a 100 feet, and you'll know the exact position of people you've met before.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna throw up.
Tara / Journey:The fear in my heart in this moment is
John / Doran:unreasonable. Maybe one of your friends is floating above us.
Tim / GM:Arryn, you see a glint of something, a a sort of bluish greenish sparkle out in the distance. You turn and look and see Eren 1500 feet away almost more than a quarter mile actually. You see this thing hurtling towards you trailed by blue and green
Tara / Journey:fire. My hands are just sweat suddenly. Like,
Maggie / Poppy:Aaron's gonna dodge out of the way?
Tim / GM:I mean, you dodge out of the way, but it's still thousands of feet away from you. So far from you. It's not even a threat to you, Erin, but you can see so far away with such great detail because of Ganymede. You're not in in danger yet, but you're about to be. You see the guard fiddling with the door and he's like, ugh, god.
Tim / GM:It's not this one. What is it? Come on. Not this one. Not this key.
Tim / GM:Come on. What key is it?
John / Doran:So you guys caught us and thought we were minors. And so then you brought us down into the Skyland. But the dungeons are protected.
Tim / GM:We're not bringing you straight to the core. That would be silly.
Maggie / Poppy:Is there any sort of side nooks?
Tim / GM:Yeah. You can, like, duck off to the side for sure.
Maggie / Poppy:You all see this very super average cat, Maxi, run up to your group and say, we need to take cover now. And I'm gonna push Poppy and Journey I don't know you. Into a side alcove, like, down a hallway off to the side as far as we can. Yeah. Now now listen to me.
Tara / Journey:Journey's overwhelmed by all of the beings that she can suddenly feel Yeah. And has focused up Yeah. On the being up above them
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:And is just completely, like, unaware of anything else that's happening physically.
Tim / GM:Sure. When you look up, Journey, you, for just a split second, can see him floating above you. He's got dark, gray, ashy skin and you can see these waves of cinders coming off of him. And then all of a sudden a Tabaxi, this super average looking like 5 out of 10 Tabaxi just crashes into and, like, bowls you off to the side, and you can all hear this as this hulking mass of metal just shoots into this room with all of you. He comes hurtling into the scene, smashing into the guards.
Tim / GM:You see a complicated hulk of dark metal hurtling towards you, drawing a trail of blue flame and a downpour of green sparks behind him. It's sir Bo, and he's going way, way too fast. Mhmm. You hear it. Doran.
Tim / GM:And he just crashes through this room in an explosion of violence.
John / Doran:Oh my god. Wow. That was quite an entrance. Serbo. He crashes up against the wall.
Tim / GM:You see machine parts kind of flying all around. 1 of the guards is knocked unconscious against the wall. You see like a little blood spatter where he hit and just slumps to the ground. Serbo turns around and goes, I'm sorry. Do everyone And he grabs the other guard and starts kind of jumping up and down with him.
Tim / GM:You see Serbo's jets keep inverting and he can't control his flight. He's powered by Bismite now because somebody gave Rune Bismite. Sir Bo spins in a rapid spiral holding one of the guards by his pants and just takes off with the guard. Are we supposed to follow you? He disappears.
Tim / GM:1 guard unconscious, 1 guard disappeared with him. The guard's pants still on the ground.
John / Doran:Well, this isn't gonna look good, so we might as well just roll with it. Doran is is the tin man we met back on Dawn's Edge. Back in Farewell, actually. Back in Farewell is what I meant. Yeah.
John / Doran:Yeah. I have a lot of questions. Are the keys nearby?
Tim / GM:Yeah. The pants on the ground still have a belt with keys on them.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna go attend to the knocked out guy and make sure he's alive.
John / Doran:He's probably sleeping. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna go feel for his pulse. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Give me a medicine check.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay.
Tim / GM:Doran, looking after him. You can see that Serbo has continued to jet around to fly away out of this village once again, still holding on to that other guard. You can hear him shouting, Doran. Doran. And he just jets off the island up up up up and away.
John / Doran:Hey. This is a weird day so far. How's he looking, Poppy?
Maggie / Poppy:Like a rolled a 7.
Tim / GM:Judging by the violence of it, you would assume I'm dead.
Maggie / Poppy:I can't feel the pulse. I think he's gone. Oh, what do I do? I I've never no. I'm not a doctor.
Maggie / Poppy:I didn't go to medical school.
Tara / Journey:Alright. Alright. Alright. Uh-huh. I go over and I cast cure wounds on the poor Tabaxi.
Tim / GM:K.
Tara / Journey:Wasting a spell slot on a stranger.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my god. Did I kill him? Is there blood on my head? Okay. No.
Maggie / Poppy:I didn't. What do I do?
Tim / GM:You see the the Tabaxi brass officer kind of shaking his head and coming to you, and he says, what what happened?
Tara / Journey:He gets 6 HP.
John / Doran:Sir, you saw how we are not culpable on any of this. Right?
Tim / GM:I was, looking at my superior officer that I was out cold.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Something slammed into you. It just flew right into you, and then it was gone. And it took your boss with him, and we're gonna try and help figure this out, but you just stay right here because you got a little bit shook up.
Tim / GM:Oh, gosh. Yeah. I better radio for backup and get you guys into the dungeons.
Tara / Journey:Oh, that's alright. We don't need to do that. And I, try and grab the the echo bell.
John / Doran:While this is happening, Doran's, like, trying keys.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Give me just a straight up luck check 1 d 20. 2.
Tim / GM:Not that key.
John / Doran:Key number 2. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Can Aaron stealthily, hit him with a rock?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Alright. So, Journey, give me a contested dexterity to grab that echo bell.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Why'd you heal him?
Tara / Journey:Just dex?
Maggie / Poppy:Yep. 18.
Tim / GM:Okay. You got the echo bell.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I have it. I didn't want him to die.
Tim / GM:He goes, hey. And then
Maggie / Poppy:You see a very average Tabaxi just hit this other Tabaxi with a rip. Alright.
Tara / Journey:Thanks, I guess.
Maggie / Poppy:I didn't see you there.
Hannah / Eryn:You guys, don't heal the people that are trying
Maggie / Poppy:to put you in prison.
Tim / GM:Erin, give me a 1 d 6 1 d 4. Sorry.
Maggie / Poppy:A d4.
Maggie / Poppy:It's a 1.
Tim / GM:K. You smash the sky in the face with a rock and he goes, oh.
John / Doran:She gets or did they get sneak attack? Oh.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, yeah. I get sneak attack.
John / Doran:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:No. You get sneak attack.
John / Doran:3 d 6. Right?
Maggie / Poppy:Yep. Terrible.
Tim / GM:Does it bring him back? Oh my god.
Maggie / Poppy:He's an NTC.
Hannah / Eryn:10.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. He's out cold. Yes, man. You see him just slump to the other side.
John / Doran:Rain check on that dungeon. Sir,
Maggie / Poppy:Well, I'm
John / Doran:fumbling with the keys. I'm gonna say, as a party, I think we need to figure out, you know, just, what our stance is on killing versus not killing.
Maggie / Poppy:And, like, you know, causing a ruckus the first time we get to the island.
John / Doran:Well, that wasn't our fault. Is this cat part
Maggie / Poppy:of our group now?
Tim / GM:It's dead. Well, that cat, that
John / Doran:I mean, based on its rock throwing ability, we probably know it already.
Maggie / Poppy:It's me.
Maggie / Poppy:Hello. Nice to meet you.
John / Doran:Oh, Air Aaron.
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. I suppose we need to come up with some sort of, symbol or something, for future use.
Maggie / Poppy:Can I make a suggestion? I think Aaron needs one of the echo bells.
John / Doran:Sure. We got, like, a 100 of those.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. We got, like, 50.
John / Doran:Can I roll for keys again?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Oh, gosh.
John / Doran:6. No.
Tim / GM:Not at all. Keys are on this? It's a big key ring. Alright.
Tara / Journey:Alright. So, something just happened to me. I was able to feel everyone around me, and there's something and Journey kind of looks up a little bit.
John / Doran:I'm not religious, Journey.
Tim / GM:You immediately hear, oh, okay. Yeah. So the jig is up. Alright. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Got it. Good. Good. Good.
Tara / Journey:Journey looks up. Who are you?
Tim / GM:He's floating against the ceiling absolutely silent. He's got gray black skin, and it ripples with these thin waves of bright cinders like slowly smoldering paper. There's this distortion around him from heat. He begins to slowly cool down. And as he does, he slowly drops back to the ground.
Tim / GM:And his body kind of turns upright. He's standing before you now, an athletic looking Air Genasi. He says, hello. I'm Oscar nominee. Do you wanna not go to jail?
Maggie / Poppy:Aaron has their crossbow bolt pointed at this person.
Tim / GM:He looks up at the crossbow and he says, I understand. There's a good reason for that, but I'm
Tim / GM:on a quest for love.
Tim / GM:You see? And he puts his fingertip on the bolt of your crossbow and kind of, like, pushes it down out of the way.
Maggie / Poppy:Did you say not go to jail? I think I like that. That sounds good.
Tim / GM:Correct, young lady. Not going to jail, not any of us, not never.
Tara / Journey:Who are you?
Tim / GM:Like I said, Oscar nominee. Nice to meet you.
Tara / Journey:I don't understand.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Poppy. I don't think we've met before.
Tim / GM:We have not. He kind of bends over like all the way down to you and he goes, it's lovely to meet you, Poppy.
Maggie / Poppy:That's my name.
Tim / GM:Well, like I said, I'm on a quest for love. Don't got a lot of time. So if you wanna come with me, I can get you out of here. You guys could probably help me and we can all get out of this together.
Maggie / Poppy:Why are you here? Why are you following us?
Tim / GM:Oh, I'm not following you. I was trying to get into the core, and then they were gonna unlock the door, and that was gonna make it real easy for me. So that's why I'm here.
Tara / Journey:So do you wanna go in there or do we all wanna leave?
Tim / GM:No. No. No. I wanna go in there. You can leave if you want to, but I wanna go in there.
Maggie / Poppy:What's in there?
Tim / GM:The core and my ticket out of here without any of the heat on me.
Tara / Journey:Is there a way for us to get out of here too?
Tim / GM:Well, let me ask. Do you wanna disappear like a magician with no trace of where you were and no way to find you?
Maggie / Poppy:Forever?
Tim / GM:He points out at you and he goes, no.
Maggie / Poppy:Not forever.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Good. Because I have
Maggie / Poppy:a reputation and I I'd like to maintain it.
Tim / GM:No. Reputation's good, but we're gonna make it a good reputation. Not a he looks over at the battered police officer that may never recover from the recent head wound.
John / Doran:Oh, god.
Tim / GM:Oops. Not that.
Maggie / Poppy:Let me guess. There's bismite behind here.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Whole lot of it, but, I'm not here for the bismite.
John / Doran:Insight check? Yeah. 23. Cool.
Tim / GM:He isn't there for the Bismite. He's smiling through this whole thing. He seems to have gotten lucky, and he's kind of riding a high. He's eager to go, and he's gonna try to move on without you if you don't wanna go with him. Okay.
John / Doran:No. I Oscar, pleasure to meet you. I hear what you're saying. There's a lot of keys here. I'm working on it.
John / Doran:But, quest for love, you said? Yeah. And you're gonna disappear?
Tim / GM:Right. At the end of this. Yeah. See, I'm an ash worker. I I deal with the getting the ash out where it needs to be or getting it out of the city.
Tim / GM:Right. So I know the pipes here. I know the pipes better than anybody else. So you follow me, you're golden. He taps on the brass pipe next to him.
Maggie / Poppy:Actually, I think that's
Tim / GM:brass. Oh, thank you. I wasn't a waiz.
John / Doran:It's a very similar color. That's true. Would we be able to pick up puppies' carts along the way?
Tim / GM:I don't know what that is, but categorically, no. There's not gonna be time for much of anything else.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, then I'm sorry, but I'll have to decline.
Tim / GM:Well, then it's very nice to meet you and goodbye, Aldias. And he turns around and tries to open the door and it won't open.
John / Doran:Hold on. I'm working on it, Oscar. Say, I know you're in a hurry. Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:But do you know a sound that's kinda like a
Tim / GM:I don't know what Listen. Listen. Listen. Yeah. Clickety clacks.
John / Doran:Yeah. Yeah. I love charades.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Probably, it was the racetracks. It's like horses or something like hooves. Right?
John / Doran:I don't know. It it it's, like, unsettling, though. Like, it seems bad.
Tim / GM:Okay. Make with the key while you're talking, at least.
John / Doran:I I okay. Here. Let me try again.
Maggie / Poppy:Can Aaron assist him?
Tim / GM:Not that key, Doran. Yes. You can assist. Give me a a roll, Aaron.
John / Doran:I think I tried this one already, actually.
Maggie / Poppy:I should
John / Doran:probably be keeping track of this.
Maggie / Poppy:What is it? A straight d twenty? Or
John / Doran:This one looks like it should be the right key, but it
Maggie / Poppy:13.
John / Doran:Doesn't seem to be working.
Tim / GM:Aaron, it's not that one either. You're, like, trying to show Dorn which is the correct one and you're wrong also.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Well, okay. I'm now
Maggie / Poppy:I'm curious about your plan. So once you're in there, what happens?
Tim / GM:Okay. Well, on the other side of this door, we're gonna go right past the dungeons. Okay? We're not gonna mess with that because it's dungeons. Right?
Tim / GM:I'm not going in there. Past that, there's this big terminal at the end, and it's got a whole bunch of pipes around it. That terminal is an ash trap, and that's my specialty. All we gotta do is get into the access tunnel from there, we go down, we go through a little tunnel, we go back up, and then we're in the core. Simple as that.
Tim / GM:Once we're in the core, I just gotta take a picture with this, and he shows you his, Venus crystal that he's got, his own little recorder, and then we're out. One more pipe, and we're straight into the upperbs. Nobody's gonna find us.
Maggie / Poppy:And and they won't
Maggie / Poppy:come looking for us in the upperbs?
Tim / GM:No. There's no cameras down here. This is all service. This is all utility. Why do you want the picture of the corps?
Maggie / Poppy:You said this was for love?
Tim / GM:It is. I gotta go to the core. I gotta I gotta get up to that bismite, and I gotta show her that it doesn't matter where her heart is. I'm right there with it.
Maggie / Poppy:That's beautiful.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Oscar, what's the name of your love?
Tim / GM:Well, a lot of people call her Lady Luck, but, to me, she's always gonna be little Mabel maybe.
Maggie / Poppy:That's so cute.
Tara / Journey:While they're talking, Journey is looking around to see if anyone is watching them.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Give me a perception check. Not with advantage because your thing is feeling.
John / Doran:Journey's gonna feel if anybody is looking
Tara / Journey:Unnatural 20.
Tim / GM:Okay. The fuck? You just kind of look around taking account of people who had been near you recently. So, you do see those older Tabaxi ladies, but there's only 2 of them. You also notice Oscar is wearing one of the cowls that one of those old ladies was.
Tim / GM:If you had to guess, Oscar's been with you in disguise for a little while now.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Can I do an insight check on those ladies to see if they have any, like, interest in us?
Tim / GM:Sure.
Maggie / Poppy:18?
Tim / GM:Yeah. That's pretty, insightful. Looking at the ladies, they're now kind of parked on a bench sitting beneath a glowing orange lamp, squinting at them at a distance. You can tell they both are asleep.
Tara / Journey:Great. I'm gonna cast pass without trace on the group.
Tim / GM:K. Alright. At that moment, Doran, Oscar points to one of the keys that says, dungeon entrance. Try that one.
John / Doran:Okay. Fine. Alright. I'll Yeah. Okay.
John / Doran:I try that key. Okay.
Tim / GM:When you do, you turn the lock and you press the door and sure enough, it opens, but there's no click. There's no noise whatsoever because pass without trace, it's doing its job. This is weird. I love it, Journey.
Maggie / Poppy:Does that affect a number of people?
Tara / Journey:Or Everybody.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Everyone within a radius?
Tim / GM:Yep. Mhmm.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. It's so weird. You can't even hear Guy creaking anymore.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. His joints. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Guy, you try you try hard to get Gus to rattle and you just can't do it.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Y'all just have to stay kinda nearby, not super close, but just don't don't stray too far. But, yeah, otherwise, we're we're good to wander on.
John / Doran:Great. Say, Oscar, is there a place where people that aren't necessarily from here tend to congregate?
Tim / GM:Yeah. There's there's a whole lot of people that are not from here. I mean, backseat is a pretty hoppin' joint.
Maggie / Poppy:What about, where they have auctions?
Tim / GM:Auctions?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:What? Like the impound lot they were talking about?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Because your wagon's gonna get sold?
Maggie / Poppy:Well, don't rub it in.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. No. It's in the hangar up at the docks. That's where you're gonna find it.
Tim / GM:But he's right. You gotta get there faster. It's gonna get mondo expensive.
Maggie / Poppy:And if I try to buy
Maggie / Poppy:it now, it'll be suspicious because I'm not in jail?
Tim / GM:Well, I don't know how good their record keeping is. I wouldn't take any risks. Go straight there when you can.
Tara / Journey:They never took any information about us, really.
John / Doran:See anyone writing anything down. We don't have any of our mining gear on us still, do we?
Tara / Journey:No. They took it all off.
Tim / GM:They did confiscate that. Alright.
Maggie / Poppy:I did write my name and crayon on the rolling pin, though. Yeah. So that you know it's mine.
Tim / GM:That could be damning. That door opens, and you all move through. You see this foreboding dungeon entrance that leads down these stone steps to this place that you certainly don't wanna be whatsoever, but you walk right past it.
John / Doran:Before we leave Yeah. Before we shut the door all the all the way, I'm going to, cast healing word on the tobacco that's on the ground Okay. And then shut the door and
Tim / GM:lock it. Nice. Okay. Yeah. He you see him just barely kind of rousing as you close the door, and you hear nothing from him.
Tim / GM:Alright.
Tara / Journey:Dorn and Journey have the same alignment.
Tim / GM:Temporarily evil. Doran, moving into this room, you were so
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:You you see a brass badge. It shows 3 pipes, and one of those pipes is not colored in. 2 of them are. 2 out of 3 pipes, whatever that means.
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:You also have a conundrum dangler. One of those toys.
John / Doran:I'm trying it on Poppy right now.
Tim / GM:Poppy will make a wisdom save DC something.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my, it's worse this time. That's 3.
Tim / GM:Wow. Okay. Yeah. Poppy eager to get back into it. Poppy is enraptured by the toy.
John / Doran:This feels mean. Okay. I bring it down. Yeah. Poppy, you need to get better at this because this is gonna they're gonna keep using it
Maggie / Poppy:on us.
Maggie / Poppy:Why would you do that? You already know I'm susceptible.
John / Doran:Yeah. I was testing you. We gotta we'll work
Tim / GM:on it. Among that belt, you also find, another brass echo bell, one that receives messages from brass dispatch. You've got that key ring. There's also a wand of levitate and a wand of magic missile. What?
Tim / GM:Each have just one charge per day, but, finally, a Venus crystal. 2 of its 3 slots are already used, but it's a visual recorder. It can record little 6 second visions.
Maggie / Poppy:Can I see that?
John / Doran:Which one?
Maggie / Poppy:The crystal, obviously. You don't
Maggie / Poppy:know how to work this.
John / Doran:Alright. Fine. I hand the crystal over.
Maggie / Poppy:I want to watch whatever is recorded.
Tim / GM:K. Alright. The first video, when you play these back, you can either see them in the crystal on like a tiny, tiny preview screen in one facet the crystal, or you can turn it around, and it will actually project the light onto a surface. Which one do you wanna do?
Maggie / Poppy:Are there any good solid
Maggie / Poppy:surfaces? Yeah.
Tim / GM:Just on the floor works. Sure. K. So you all see a video of a pizza pie. I don't know if you've ever seen this before necessarily all of you, but a simple pizza pie, a dough circle with some cheese on it, couple toppings, but then from the top of the screen, suddenly, an entire pineapple drops from the top of the screen and smashes into the pizza again and again and again, and you hear a voice from off screen say, see?
Tim / GM:It's ruined.
Maggie / Poppy:I don't really get that.
Tim / GM:The next video queues up immediately, and you can see the guard that had gotten blasted out of there by Sir Beau. He's showing himself and he says, hey, this is Whack Willie the Brass Ass. I'm about to pull a prank on the sergeant. He shows his other hand and it's holding a jar of glue, and you can see him walking towards this huge, buff, glorious, long haired Tabaxi, and he goes, hey Sarge, and you see him throw the glue, and it lands on the sergeant's back and their head and their mane. You see the film point towards the ground, and you hear this deep growl, and you hear the filmer go, oh, shoot.
Tim / GM:The crystal's already used double.
John / Doran:I like this one.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my god. Am I able to concentrate on resetting the ripcord belt as we're walking through this tunnel now? Or can you not walk and concentrate at the
Tim / GM:same time? It's probably gotta be, like, a short rest. It's very delicate handwork.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. I just wanted to check.
Tim / GM:Yeah. He moves all of you past the dungeon entrance out to this promised brass terminal. It's a room that is surrounded by brass pipes on the walls, and and then a terminal of brass pipes in the very center of the room that are popping straight up to the ceiling. He looks at one of these pipes, and he goes, damn it. It's that one.
Tim / GM:The map really made it look like there was a way to get into that pipe, but I I don't see it. You see, this one's hollow. It's not for anything. It's an access tunnel. This one just goes down.
Tim / GM:That'll get us in, but I can't see a way into the pipe. Damn it.
Maggie / Poppy:I would like to look closer to the ground.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Give me a perception or investigation. Do perception.
Maggie / Poppy:Unnatural 20. Okay. Plus 4. I wasted it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So what you can tell, Poppy, is that there is a sort of metal collar to the pipe near the floor. And just based on the way some of the dust has settled here, some of the ash in this room, you can tell that this pipe actually rotates somehow, but you don't know how to rotate it.
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. I see. You have to turn it. Well, that's all I got.
John / Doran:If only we had our mining equipment, we could break our way into the pipe.
Tim / GM:Wait. You guys were miners?
Maggie / Poppy:No. No.
John / Doran:We found some dead miners.
Tim / GM:Oh, okay. Yeah. Good. I can't believe this. We're so close to the core.
Tim / GM:I mean, look. Look here. He, moves over to the wall and you can see this little hatch. This circular hatch. A little, maybe watermelon sized opening.
Tim / GM:He pulls a clasp on it and opens it up and it's looking down this long, long pipe. He puts his face up to it and he goes, yeah. Yeah. I can see it. Look.
Tim / GM:Guys, look. And he's pointing at this opening in the hatch.
John / Doran:I'm I'm getting a little worried about this whole plan. We're going into one of these pipes?
Tim / GM:No. I mean, not like this pipe, like that pipe.
John / Doran:Much bigger. What are we looking at?
Tim / GM:Do you want to look into the pipe?
John / Doran:Yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:It's a little hard to tell, but you're looking through a sort of telescope down a long, long pipe, and on the other end is a cavern, a glowing cavern with orange firelight and a thick haze of smoke in there. And through all of it, you can see a cluster of bismite unlike anything else you've ever seen before. It's hard to tell with the distance, but it could easily be the size of a church. And it's so complex with spiraling crystals bursting out in every direction, charging, stampeding near the bottom of your vision, and then it's gone. And I think we'll end it there.
Maggie / Poppy:Thanks everybody for listening. I've been your GM Tim. I'm Hannah playing Aaron.
Tara / Journey:I'm Taryn. I play Journey.
John / Doran:I'm Thomas, and I'm Guy. This is John playing Doran.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm Maggie. I play Poppy, and I'm nervous.
Tim / GM:Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you in the next one.
