High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Lunar New Year Special | The Jade Emperor's Invitation (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

Gong xi fa cai! Kim has prepared a Lunar New Year special one-shot for a team of questionably prepared adventurers in The Jade Emperor's Invitation! Want to play this for yourself? Support Kim on her patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/nanosounds Support the un-homed and elderly with #kindredpacket that lasts the duration of Lunar New Year until the 26th of February 2021 here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/kindredpacket Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. You can afford to hoard because IKEA is priced for student life. Shop everything you need for back to school at IKEA today. Need a great reason to get up in the morning? Well, what about two? Right now, get a small organic fair trade coffee and a tasty bacon and egg or breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. Hello and welcome to a very special High Rollers D&D. Welcome, my name

is Kim Richards and I am your Dungeon Master for today and first of all, happy Lunar New Year! Hey! I am running today's events and I am joined by my friends and players. What? Woo. Hello.

Welcome to Rhiannon. Hello. Katie Trott and a very special player today. Who's this fresh boy? Mark Sherlock. The wonderful easiest Sunday ever ever it's been great i've just been chilling out having a lovely time it's been well as i mentioned today is going to be a very special lunar new year one shot written by myself um and just to make a kind of a disclaimer, this is a Lunar New Year one-shot,

and it is based on Chinese tradition and Chinese mythology. I just want to acknowledge that Lunar New Year is celebrated by several ethnicities around East and Southeast Asia, but my celebration today will be based on the way the Chinese celebrate it. So yeah, I just wanted to make that little distinction. Chinese celebrate it. So yeah, I just wanted to make that little distinction. So the party have been invited to the reunion feast, an important celebration on the eve of Lunar New Year, where friends and family travel from far and wide to come together and eat a grand meal to see the New Year in. This party in particular are gathered together, nowhere specific, When suddenly in front of them, several large animals wearing very stately court robes, black and blue court robes and small circular black hats appear in front of them.

In front of Mark's character, a tiger appears. In front of Katie, a horse in front of Tom, a monkey in front of Ree, a rooster, and in front of Trot, a Chinese dragon. And they're all decked out in this court regalia. Each of them bows to you

deeply and unveils a scroll, a beautiful gold and red scroll with your individual names written on it and beautiful calligraphy you have been invited to the Jade Emperor's reunion feast to be held at the immortal peach tree the animals all give you these scrolls individually they bow and they disappear we are going to jump forward a little bit as you find yourselves in front of a gargantuan peach tree

crowned with beautiful pink blossoms, branches reach towards the sky, stretching towards the heavens. Enormous thick roots dig deep into the earth and delicate petals drift down like a gentle rain embedded into the trunk is a pair of enormous red doors with black calligraphy painted in a vertical line down each of them the paint strokes flow and look like they're moving into different shapes they're beautiful and have a sense of life and motion to them at this this point, I'd like you to all introduce your characters

and give us a quick little description of who you are, starting with Rhi or Oboe. Hello, I am Oboe, a loxodon bard. So Oboe is quite a large creature. She's about seven or eight feet tall with this huge elephant head and this humanoid body but also with the

same grey coloured elephant skin. Huge hands, big old elephant feet and her tusk has these rings of gold bangles around them. She's wearing a very loose and relaxed white, I guess, cotton tunic with a leather breastplate over the top.

And on the tunic, there's gold filigree of elephants dancing and various different musical instruments on it. And she has lots of wind instruments on her back lots of like pipes and flutes and all that stuff she's here to sing a song or two that sounds amazing and for the podcast listeners in the audience what class are you she is a bard i mean i i'm we could probably have guessed from the wind but yes just to confirm

Tom why don't you go next I am Asius a minotaur a minotaur very very large minotaur I am a level 3 ranger level level 3 barbarian.

And he is just a big, huge horned Minotaur covered in kind of Greek regalia, I suppose, with the cloak over the front and toga. And just imagine what would happen if you were to mix Asterius and Theseus together from Hades. And you'd get Asius. Does he have, like, a cool haircut? Like, he's got, like, a cool pompadour haircut?

Oh, yeah, he's got, like, flowing locks. Yeah, all the way down. And just a fair warning, his charisma is five. Has he got like the little Greek short skirt? Has he got like the little Greek skirt or has he got like trousers on? Like the rows of fabric. There's a little

skirt thing, yeah. And a massive belt. Very important detail. Okay. Casey, why don't you go next I am playing Lollipop Lollipop is a halfling fighter she has sort of chain mail on

which is sort of silver in colour with a blue like sort of a dark blue tabard over the top and a dark blue cape. And then on the top of her head, she has a mane of bubblegum pink hair that is sort of half up in sort of a half up ponytail, half down. So sort of from the shoulders down, she looks like a very tough fighter, but from the head up, she looks a little bit whimsical

and, yeah, bubblegum pinky. Litter. So that is her. Is she related in any way to Sunshine? She might be related to Sunshine. She does have two other sisters, so, yeah. She's one of three. Excellent. Trotot you go next i am playing a character that was created entirely by mark yesterday by random entirely at random by mark

yesterday i put my entire fate of my character in mark's hands. He's very happy with what D&D Beyond came up with. I am Meepo, a little red kobold artificer, and he's a little greedy boy. He's got a little boomerang that doesn't come back when you hit.

A completely randomized weapon. His spells, everything randomized. He's got grease spells. He's got like a bandolier of a variety of different colored vials. Some are swirling with energy. Some look really disgusting. And he kind of smells a little bit.

I have a feeling he's trying to grow a tiny little goatee beard on the front of his face. But it's not going very well. And yeah, that's Meepo and yeah that's like his little companions he's got a yes he has a homunculus uh companion a little tiny bot uh steampunky kind of bot which is almost as tall as him i'd say he's a very small little cobalt does he ride it he could ride it yes that's probably good i'm willing to take on board any additions to this character as we go oh and last but definitely not least mark nice uh all right i i i'm gonna need i need i'm still working on her voice. I need to get her voice right. But I am playing Mara Moonshimmer, who's my burrow folk bunny wizard.

She's like a bunny person. She's a wizard. She wears this kind of very ostentatious white and purple outfit with a giant wizard's hat that her bunny ears stick out of. She's got gray, sort of like white gray hair, a big pair of gold spectacles um she's very very fabulous um and yeah dressed dressed all up with all sorts of like constellations and stars and moon symbols like on her outfit and things like that as well um and yeah it's uh

kim has very kindly let me play test some homebrew stuff uh so this is my homebrew borough folk race um and she's yeah she's a bit of a uh would very much like to be a famous wizard one day so she's working on a couple of her own custom spells and things like that to hopefully be up there with tasha that bitch uh and more than kind that's that's very much where she wants to be one day. Bless. Yeah. Well, so we find this eclectic party of an elephant, a minotaur, a kobold, a rabbit, and a brightly coloured halfling. And some cotton candy. Some cotton candy, yeah.

Some walking candy. It's not on candy. It's some walking candy. Stood in front of this giant peach tree and stood in front of these red doors with this beautiful calligraphy painted down it. As you approach the door, the calligraphy... Oh, God, I can't speak today. What a day to not be able to speak. able to speak the calligraphy shifts and moves with purpose and flows down the door and forms into pools in front of you swirling around for a minute it then forms up into two tall imposing humanoid figures both wear ornate gold scaled armor and wear elegant headpieces trimmed with fur and jewels.

Rich golden belts are clasped around their waist, held shut by carved jade foo dog heads. One of them has a fiery red skin and the other a deep blue. Elegant strips of brightly coloured cloth coils behind their bodies and floats behind their head as if always in flight. They wield beautifully forged golden blades inlaid with gemstones gold lotuses um on the hilt and they are alert but friendly and the red one steps forward looks you all up and down and uh just goes hello hello hello what's going on here then

not what's expected unexpected hello hello hello what's going on here hello hello I think Lollipop will go hi we have invitations that's as may be but do you have proof of such an invitation

um uh uh somewhere step forward and take off a hat and say of course my dear guardians and then reaches into the hat and pulls out the the red envelope that we were given by the uh the visitors uh when they approached us with the the invitation the seal and just say like, of course I'm expecting Mara Moonshimmer will be invited to the most grand of places. You look fabulous, by the way, both of you. And she's admiring all the gold and jewels as she places the hat back on,

just kind of examining how much these ornate weapons and things might be worth eventually. But yeah, I'll sort of hand that over. The blue guard steps forward and he hasn't said anything yet, but he gives quite a cold look and a thorough scan of your invitation, looking at you, kind of observant, you know,

sort of, you know, waiting, waiting for a moment of deception or, you know, um, alright, alright, it seems to be in order here, what about the rest of you? I'll hand over, like, my invitation has been, like, really screwed up in my pocket, so she's just trying to, like, straighten it out

and then just hands it over. Oh, looks like it could be a forgery, Miss Lollipop, is it? No, no, no, I'm really sorry. I'm just really, I'm, I just, I'm not very good at keeping things nice and clean? No, no, no. I'm really sorry. I'm just really... I just... I'm not very good at keeping things nice and clean and stuff. Sorry. It's really nice. It's a nice invitation, though. Sorry. You are aware that

the heavenly and reverent Jade Emperor himself pens these invitations worth quite a lot, you know? Oh, well, perhaps it's... I'm trying to smooth it out. It's, um... It's not oh actually try and smooth it out it's um it's it's not

that I'll be honest with you I usually lose everything so the fact that I've still held on to this proves that it's really really valuable to me I promise I promise I promise

alright alright I'll let you off with a caution what about the rest of you sorry lot I mean auspiciouspicious-looking lot. Yeah. The tiny little kobold that barely wears a loincloth and a bandolier starts patting himself down frantically.

And he's looking around for this ticket. He kicks this little rusted steampunk-style autonomous thing, and its head pops up. And you can see the top half of him jump in, his legs wiggling around. And he throws nuts and bolts and stuff like that out. You hear these little horrible noises, like echoing, reverberating from this homunculus.

And then you see a hand pop up, and there's this really scrunched up ticket. And then he hops out, and then just presents it, looking up at this guard. What do you think this is? Ah! Ah!

Am I to believe that this is the invitation that the Grand High Royal Jade Emperor made himself and had his royal guard deliver? His little forked tongue licks his hand and then just straightens out his little goatee beard. And then he stiffens up and puffs his chest proudly. I am uncertain as to why the Jade Emperor would invite someone that looks like a little demon.

We don't like little demons, do we, Yulu? And Yulu, the blue guard, kind of just very solemnly crosses his arms, looking very threateningly at Meepo and kind of narrows his eyes. And the redguard continues, in fact, that is why we are here. We are the door guardians.

We are not allowed to let evil spirits into this place. In fact, we like feeding evil spirits to Tiger. Should we feed you to Tiger, little evil spirit? No. No. I'm going to use my action. Grovel, cower, and beg. This is a kobold racial ability.

Yep. Which essentially is meant to be a distracting thing, but you literally see Meepo fall to his knees and just start weeping and just begging that please please let me in I'm not a demon at all please well it's quite pathetic isn't it really lollipop will go over and be like oh no no no no no it's it's okay oh he's really upset he doesn't mean it he doesn't mean it look sad i'm not a demon hey don't worry about it this guy he's not evil and even though this part of your looks looks pretty delicious anyway here's my invitation is he speaking a different language to anybody else is is am i is this is this some sort of

language just like you which you can't understand me anyway. This guy, he ain't evil, right? Anyway, here's my invitation. I hope you enjoy it. Can't wait to meet you, James. I'm so glad you went with that idea, Tom. Both guardians stare at Meepo groveling on the floor, kind of enjoying it. They're quite poker-faced, but you get the sense that they are enjoying this display of...

What's the word? Like, patheticness and groveling. Supplication, yeah. Supplication, yeah. The blue guard, Yulu, takes Asius's invitation and starts inspecting it. Again, giving that same kind of treatment where he's staring at the invitation and staring back quickly at Asius. Kind of, you know, almost daring, like daring. That's me. It's an invitation for Asius.

It's going to get worse as this adventure goes on, I know it is. Subtitles. You need subtitles. Anyway. I didn't prepare my spell to understand languages today. I didn't think we'd be needing it. Well, really, well, really, I speak just like you. It's a unique speech pattern, that's for sure. Yeah, just a little.

And what of yourself, my dear elephantine friend? Oh yes, and Oboe will like, Oboe's trunk will go down to a little pouch by her side, and she'll delicately pop out

the little invitation, and then bring it over with a little monolic her side and she'll delicately pop out the little invitation and then bring it over with a little like melodic she's doing it I can't do this campaign are you kidding it's the best good thing it's not a campaign Troy it's just here for two hours that's it

and then it's done we can forget about this I want Oboe to be Rhiannon's next character in the third main campaign. I love it. I love Oboe. Oh, my gosh. The Red Guard, Shentu, when he reaches out for the invitations, it floats over. He actually gives Oboe a very kind of appraising look,

a raised eyebrow of approval, and he gives you a slight nod, a reverential nod. And he's like, ah, Madam Oboe, you are most welcome here. Of course, I can understand why the Jade Emperor... I've changed my voice again. I can understand why the Jade Emperor invited the likes of you here, reverential your kind are. And you, Miss Moonshimmer.

Sorry, apologies. Of course, yes. Hey, what about us? I did look a bit offended. Is there something wrong with the mandatory? Is there a problem, or what? No. I keep changing my voice again.

All right, my dear fellow. You're pretty good as well. This me-po, though, I'm going to need... Do you not like me? Is it because I screwed up the invitation? I tried really, really hard. I promise I did. Oh, Rainbow said this would happen.

A word to the wise little miss. You are fine, but I would say just show a little bit more respect for things that the wise little miss you are fine but I would say just show a little bit more respect for things that the Jade Emperor gives you he is a deity after all but I'm going to have to have you guys vouch for this one and he points to the kobold maybe

get it wipe his feet I could would it help if I cleaned the little creature I can clean him up a little I would certainly feel that that is a Would it help if I cleaned the little creature? I can clean him up a little. I would certainly feel that that is a good thing to do. That would be me doing my duty. So I'll gesture, Mara, I gesture,

kind of creating these geometric shapes and these little kind of like sparkles of stars and moons appear over Meepo and I'm going to use Prestigitation to clean at them because he's less than a cubic foot so i'm just sort of like cleaning him and like pulling away dirt make him smell nice uh clean up his like little like you know hissing face and yeah stay still stay still should i pick him up my trunk and like hold him still my trunk yeah oh thank you dear oboe. Yes, thank you. Oh, not a problem. He's like pointing at his homunculus

and pointing at oboe and you see this tiny homunculus come up and just start like dinging on your trunk or your leg, whatever it is. With a tiny hand. These big round legs. You can barely feel it.

Barely anything's happening. Oh, what a fuss. Don't, it's just a clean, don't worry. Kill! You'll feel better for it. Destroy! Anyway, as I was saying, he ain't evil. He ain't a demon.

He ain't gonna hurt anybody. There we go. Smelling fresh as a daisy and should be much more should be much more clean this does all seem in order I am happy to permit you all entrance into

the Jade Emperor's Palace now a word to the wise I would suggest that you all are respectful this is a grand feast do not do anything that you will regret. Of course. A good day. And as he says that,

both guards clap their hands and the red doors grind open. Do you enter? Yes. If I'm still in Obo's trunk, then yes. Are the guards

still beside the doors when the doors open? Yes, so each of them takes up position. So if you remember when they formed from the calligraphy, each one of them takes position. The blue one, Yulu, takes position in front of the left door

and Shentou takes position on the right side of the door and both kind of stand there welcoming you to come in. I'll follow after everyone else but I'll be like bowing at both of them as I walk through the door and like trying really hard

not to trip up whilst doing so, but she's trying to really overcompensate for the fact that she screwed up the invitation thing. I don't think there'd definitely be a tip of the hat. The red guard, Shentou, gives you all a nod and kind of welcomes you in. Yulu, the blue guard, he is kind of still stony-faced, you know, waiting for you to just trip up or just, you know, mess around or something

like that. But you notice as you go past them and you enter this dimly lit stone corridor, you notice that actually the doors start to grind shut and as they do, both guards disappear again and reform as this calligraphy this beautiful calligraphy decorating the front of the doors um as you walk down the dimly lit stone corridor um you enter a courtyard that opens up into an impossibly large hexagonal open air courtyard strange given that you've just walked in you've essentially just walked into a giant peach tree. Looking up, you can see a cloudless blue sky and the smallest sliver of a moon breaking through the daylight, framed by the huge branches of the peach tree.

The courtyard itself is a large open space carved from stone and marble with low, intricately carved fences lining the pathways. Opposite the entrance, so directly opposite from where you come in, you can see a series of short stone steps leading up to a white marble platform. On that platform sits a large ornate pavilion. Red wooden pillars hold up elaborate double eaves painted with intricate patterns and topped with two tiers of curved yellowed tiled roofs ferocious looking roof gods sit on top of the roof tiles in the courtyard

large brass incense burners are dotted around giving out a fragrant scent of sandalwood a small altar sits in one corner uh containing small bronze statues of various deities. And everywhere in the courtyard contains several clusters of long tables covered in red and gold cloth, holding plates of food, delicate porcelain teacups and pots, and small plant pots holding kumquat trees with red envelopes tied to their branches. It is beautifully decorated. There is also, if you look in the northwestern corner of the courtyard, there are various circular platforms that have been erected in front of the main altar.

The courtyard itself is currently full of frantic activity. You see several of the Zodiac Guardians that came to you before to give you the invitations, and they are rushing around in a panic. If you look closer, actually, those decorations that look beautiful to start with are kind of a bit tattered and raggedy, some of them falling off of banisters and walls a large kumquat tree has been pushed over and its sport soil spills all over the floor out of tune music is being played by a small dejected looking band in one corner and the

instruments are clearly untuned or torn a large pig dressed in court robes lies on his back in the middle of a central table surrounded by greasy empty dishes snorting happily. And if you sniff, you can smell the faint smell of burning coming from somewhere. Shouts fill the air with short-tempered replies and the mournful yowling of a large cat. And watching over all of this this standing at the balcony in front of the pavilion is the Jade Emperor now normally he would be in a state he would be graceful and serene but you find him in a state of great anxiety he stands on the balcony outside of the pavilion rapidly pacing backwards and forward calling out orders to everybody who he hopes will be listening to him.

What would you like to do? This is the guy, the guy we came to see, the great J.W. Brew. Everyone bow, be respectful. Remember, R-E-S-P-C-T. No thanks. I think Oboe would go and pick up one of the fallen comquattries of her trunk,

just gently lift it up and put it back in place. Just be like, what happened? What's going on? Meepo would just be mumbling to himself. Meepo, I don't even know why Meepo's here. Stupid

god invitation. Meepo's busy. Meepo needs coins and stuff. Maybe Meepo needs coins and stuff maybe meepo fine coin here nice definitely is going to go well for meepo i think this adventure i'll see what lollipop's doing what is lollipop doing a thing i think lollipop is um probably hanging back a little bit because she's like be respectful take small steps don't do anything don't even look at someone wrong be polite don't cause a scene so she's she's very much just like she's probably looking at mara as well

because she saw that mara and obo both seem to have impressed the guardians back there. So she's like, what, what, what? I appreciate it. Mara, Mara. Oh, yes. Oh, look at you. Aren't you just adorable? Thank you.

I'm just, I'm sure. Thank you. I'm just, um, I'm sure. What does one do in this situation so that one doesn't get, you know, hurt by a very powerful emperor and a lot of guardians who seem very, very important and stronger than me? Oh, well, aren't you just adorable? First of all, the first thing you should do is just try and copy everything that I do. I'm an expert at navigating these fancy courts and powerful figures. I've worked

for many kings and queens and very important people, so you just follow me, sweetheart, and I'll kind of ruffle her hair, like treating her like, oh, bless. And then, yeah, I'm gonna start making my way towards the balcony where the jade emperor is like very sort of head held high looking very like i'm about to go and meet an employer almost like i'm gonna make a good impression yeah um lollipop's gonna hold her

head high and and and try and try and do what hold herself in the same way that Mara is. She's like... And the rest, how do you follow, or how do you conduct yourselves if you do? Well, Meepo, after a while of this mumbling, will be like, no, stupid Meepo! And he starts punching himself in the head. No! Can't think of grain, can't think of coin! God, be serious!

Stealthy, and then steal coin after being good, Meepo! And then he puts his hands on his hips and then bows like everybody else. Yeah, I think after picking up the kumquat tree, Oboe will twat as delicately as she can, just follow the rest of the group, being very aware of how she's carrying herself and her size, trying not to make more of a mess,

just like tiptoeing around. I guess every time I bow, my horns, they're pretty big, so they're like swinging just very close to Meepo's head. Oh, hey, sorry, I'm just

trying to respect the Jade Emperor. If I hit you that's my bad my bad okay it's gone sliced alone to texan it's gone from like understand me now and he's like hitting everyone's horns uh yeah and just like yeah oh sorry i want to wrap my back or i want to come on down he's pushing your horns away all right i ain't gonna work i'm way way bigger than you he's like doing this like the classic boxing like come on in and then he stupid dumb meepo bow respect not to me i will leave these guys behind

as i make my way forward with love the three of us like just leaving those two to their um and yeah when we get like to within sort of like hearing distance of the jade emperor um and like we can see him above maro i will bow you know properly kind of like regally bow and just kind of say something like your most exalted royal majesty it is thank you so much for your invitation and then she'll try

and think and remember some stuff that she's learned about the J.W. would I know like some of the greetings because I know you sent us some stuff but would we know that that's applicable here or is that something we should know? I would say that it's treated like a language. Like if you were to know, like say Elvish or anything like that.

So like imagine like your character maybe knows a few phrases to like pass. So yeah. Yeah, I would have done some research before coming here, I think, with Mark. She's a wizard. So I'd say, all right, and I'm going to butcher this,

but I'm going to try and say it, and as part of the grid, I'd say, Your Most Exalted Royal Majesty, Gong Chi Fa Chai, and then just kind of very elaborately bow, and there's like sparkles and magical effects overhead. The Jade Emperor pauses in his rushing around and takes up station in the middle of the balcony,

looks down at this beautiful bunny wizard and bows back to you and says, Ah, Kongsi Fachai Maramunshima, is it? At your service, Royal Majesty. And before you, you see a tall man who appears youthful but has an air of maturity his very aura is ethereal regal and commanding he wears heavy rich golden robes embroidered with dragons clouds symbols of longevity and prosperity um the sleeves of his robe are long sleeves that hide his arms and he has sashes, Chinese knots and tassels that hang from his jade belt. He has long black hair and a long moustache and beard that hangs down to his chest. His head is crowned with an intricate square

headdress that hanging beads sway from. And when you look at him, every single one of you, even the ones that are bickering and plotting to steal things, you know to your very core that this person in front of you is divine. And you get a sense as well that he is old. Perhaps even one of the oldest deities out there. the air around him shimmers with a faint glow and every moment movement he makes is both delicate and meaningful uh trot i don't know if you have like the full art um that we have here by tessa like if you want to show because i know there's some beautiful detailing that tessa did um there amazing so if you imagine his super cool so yeah this is art done by tessa chen um and yeah it's a watercolor that she painted it's absolutely gorgeous um so

yeah imagine that this man stands before you and even though he has this aura of gracefulness he does seem a bit red-cheeked and he does seem a bit flustered. I am so grateful that you have all attended my summons. It is a pleasure to see you here. I hope you have not traveled far. I'm afraid, though, you find me in a mild state of, how shall I describe it? Panic? Yes, panic, I think is the word. As you can see, several disasters have befallen us. Perhaps you can help. After all, you are early. Yes, the sun has not begun to set.

But first, introduce yourselves to me, please. I know, of course, who you are, but let's get the formalities underway. Who are you all? All right, without missing a beat mara goes first like this is like she's very much uh in her element of speaking to royalty and so yeah like uh she will again sort of bow deep um and uh with a flourish uh i will actually probably use minor illusion to kind of cast almost like uh spotlights that kind of shine down on her, and there's like little pieces of musical fanfare

like a... that kind of shimmer all around her. The grand illusionist, principal advisor to many kings, queens, and mages around the world, I am Maramoon Shimmer, at your humblest servants, Jade Emperor. And just kind of bow.

Sparkling eyes. I'll reach up and turn one of the spotlights onto me and say, Oh, hey, I'm Asius. I didn't realize we were this early. We can leave if you want. We can just go come back when it's time. I clang the lights off. Halfway through.

That is okay, my dear Asius, is it? Perhaps it is fate that you have come here early. I feel that you can perhaps help me get this reunion feast back on track. But first, Oboe, is it? Please tell me a little about yourself. Yes, Oboe will do a deep bow. I am Oboe, as you mentioned, yes. I am a musician, travelling musician. I come from a long line of the Trunksong lineages. We travel far and wide

playing songs and music for many, many occasions and many people. It's an honor to be here. And she'll do another bow again just to make sure she's being as respectful as possible. And the Lady Lollipop is it and yes yes your your excellency yes and she will bow and um it's it's wonderful to meet you and she'll bow again but like she'll just keep bowing so if nothing is said she'll bow again and just overcompensate massively. Xinyan Kuaila, Lollipop, please, no need to bow so much. You are going to make yourself quite dizzy. Thank you, thank you, Your Excellency. My little kobold friend, hello and welcome.

Cobalt friend. Hello and welcome. Oh, honorable, powerful and rich emperor is I, Meepo. Truly a blessing upon our cobalt kind is Meepo,

collector of trinkets, builder of that thing. And I'm here because you asked me to be. And he bows. Welcome, little meeper. You are indeed a talented creator.

Thank you. To that end, I think you are perhaps the perfect group of adventurers to come and help me. As you can see, my court is in a state of unrest. I am uncertain why my royal guard, my zodiac guardians, appear to be so worked up. It must be the sign of a bad omen. Perhaps something inauspicious this way comes. We were ready for the reunion feast. In the villagers the local villagers and monks are soon due to arrive soon

But pig has eaten all the food dog has destroyed half the decorations Some of the guard have disappeared. I'm not sure where they've gotten to It is so terrible Normally my guardians are well behaved, but there's something in the air that I think has brought out the worst in their personalities. Sorry, that was probably me, Poe. I doubt that, Meepo. I think there is something far more dangerous on the horizon.

Well, Your Excellency, this is clearly something that a court magician would be most useful in dealing with, and perhaps you do not have one now, but I, Mara Munchim, am more than happy to try and lend my aid to solving whatever problems these are. Just very sort of like, in, I want a job. Yes, yes, if there's anything,

if there's anything at all, we can help with anything. We can, I might need someone to give me a boost if I was to help with the decorations, but it's definitely doable. I can do it, I promise. I'll make it look real good.

I'm a booster, I can boost. He is a booster, Your Majesty, yes. It is true, Your Excellency. He is quite the booster. Best is for him to be on bottom, then it's top. You do appear to be descended from the lineage of ox and of course it is a very auspicious year ahead for the ox in fact ox seems to be one of the few of my zodiac guardians uh who are unaffected you can see him down there and um the jade emperor gestures uh to lower down in the courtyard where you can see him down there and um the jade emperor gestures uh to lower down in

the courtyard where you can see again this very large box um dressed in these um these these robes these black and blue robes um and he's sort of wandering around near where you saw the pillars um that was set up trying he's trying to corral um animals as walk past, as they rush past, but none of them are listening to him. The Jade Emperor also gestures. Hey, hey you! Jade Emperor says you're killing it! He says, shut up, later, later. Let the Jade Emperor speak.

The ox doesn't reply. He's too busy trying to get Rat to listen to him. And then the Jade Emperor gestures to the east where you can see several animals throwing food at each other and having a little bickering fight and just, you know, mucking around. And he's like, as you can see, there are several of my Zodiac Guardians here that may be available to help you.

I must say, there is a bit of a time pressure. The reunion festival, the feast, needs to start soon. So I beg you, please, there are several tasks that need doing. Food needs recooking, decorations need rehanging. I need you to find Snake and Horse, who disappeared to the studio of exhaustion from diligent service. I also, they ran away with the ang paus as well, the red envelopes. Cat has disappeared with the fireworks.

Tiger, oh, Tiger is behind me in my pavilion of heavenly tranquility. And they appear to be sick for some reason. And I have no idea where Dragon, Dragon, my most favoured of the Zodiac Guardians, has disappeared somewhere, but there appears to be some sort of burning smell coming from the gardens. Please, if you can, it would do me a great honour if you could help my guardians get things back on track. Just to check there, Your Excellency, just to check that I have an exact number of exactly what is going on.

The food is missing, the decorations need repairing. You say that your guardians Snake and Horse have these red envelopes and they are missing, yes? They were last seen heading towards the studio of exhaustion from diligent work. Okay. I'll try and remember that. Tiger is sick, and then Dragon is missing. Those are all the tasks that are outstanding, yes?

Yes. Oh, and Rat and Cat were bickering over the fireworks, I think. I heard them bickering in the courtyard over there. Fireworks. In the southwest, of course. Fireworks. All right. That is me physically writing a note and doing a Kim there,

a sit that we need to do. Can I just, unrelated right now, Can I just, um, unrelated right now, but I think that you picked the people who gave us their invitations by the years that we were born. Is that right, Kim? Yes. Dragon! Awesome. Yeah! I knew it!

I knew it! That's such a nice joke! This girl did some research, y'all! Yeah, I love it. This girl stalked your birth years. yeah i knew it that's such a nice joke this girl did some research y'all this girl stalked your birth years hell yeah amazing well it seems that there

uh it seems that there is a lot for us to be doing so we should really get to it for the jade emperor's sake right everyone we want to make a good impression for the jade emperor yes so heavily this is all Jade Emperor's sake, right, everyone? We want to make a good impression for the Jade Emperor. Yes? I don't know why you're hinting so heavily. This is obvious.

Yeah. Good. Good. All right. And then I'll just, I'll basically just be like, well, and then bow to the ground. If there's nothing else you need from us, Your Excellency, we shall go and attend to these problems as fast as we can. That will be all for now. I must have some matters of my own I must attend to these problems as fast as we can. That will be all for now.

I must have some matters of my own I must attend to. But if you have any questions, please ask the Zodiac Guardians. They may be out of sorts, but they should be able to assist you in any way they can. Good blessings upon you and see you. I warn you, the feast will begin in about an hour and see you. I warn you, the feast will begin

in about an hour and a half. And that is when the villagers and the monks will arrive. Good luck. The fate of this feast depends on you all. And with that he gives you a deep bow

and he disappears back into the pavilion behind him. Meepo puffs up at that knowing that this entire thing is down to us. Specifically Meepo. And that it will all be fixed. Yeah.

Alright well it looks like me and this walking cotton candy here, we've worked out our little dynamics. So is there anything that was particularly high up on the booster, remember? Well, we need people to fix the decorations. I think we're going to need to split up.

The food's important. The food is so important. Well, does anybody know how to cook? Does anybody know anything about food here? Meepo. Oh, I hate to believe that he's telling the truth, but all right. Meepo will leave the food in your care, I suppose.

And he goes to his homunculus and opens the head lid again and starts rummaging around for stuff. Let's see. I can try and track down the missing envelopes and some of the people, maybe speak to some of the guardians. I'm not very good with it. Can anybody determine, does anybody know anything about medicine? Why this tiger might

be sick, maybe? Meekbob, shut up! You're dealing with the food. Medic! Fine. What else? Oboe, Lollipop, Ascius. What are you doing? What do you want to do? Well, I can...

I can... If you give me a little boost, I can put up the decorations again. I can do that. I know how to do that. I'll make it look really good. Really good. Promise.

Real good. All right. Well, Asius and Lollipop, you deal with the decorations, and then maybe see if you can speak with the other Zodiac Guardians and see if you can find out where the snake and horse might be, or rat and cat as well. Robo, you're good with music, right?

Yes, well, try and find the dragon, and then also maybe the musicians sound like they're a bit out of tune. Maybe you should go and speak with them as well, and see if you can get that fixed. In that case let's get to it and then i will uh just basically head out to try and fix problems

okay pick up lollipop um so where where are you each heading so just um just if I could paint a picture for you. So immediately in front of you, you're in the middle of this courtyard, and the pavilion is behind you. If you look through the pavilion where the Jade Emperor walked, you can see it's an open-sided pavilion. If you imagine, so I've based this off the Forbidden City in Beijing, which is where the Chinese emperors lived and

ruled from so the architecture is very much the same so an open-sided building with these red pillars holding up the roof and if you look through in the shadow you can see this ornate shape of a large throne and you can just about see the sleeping form of a tiger resting in front of it. To your north, well, just nearby to you, actually, in the section of the courtyard with an altar and the sort of circular platforms, you can see ox roaming around sort of in a mild state, like trying to be calm, but sort of, you know, just dithering a little bit. be calm but sort of you know just dithering a little bit in the uh right of the courtyard so the i can't do my directions northeast um you can see sheep rooster and monkey and they're all just bickering with each other and throwing food at each other and just clambering around and all the

the tables were ruined already it looks as though pig maybe got to them um but they're just kind of throwing the remnants around at each other in In the lower courtyard in the southeast, you can see Pig just lying in the middle of a central table, just like snoring and snorting to himself. And nearby is Dog. And Dog is just rolling around in a pile of red and gold paper. It looks like the remnants of some decorations, and he's just like happily snapping away and like,

just tearing things up in the lower courtyard on the west side you can see some large crates um that have been set up um and a cat a large cat in robes um is sleeping on top of them um and then, if you sniff, you can definitely smell burning coming from the west. If you look to the west, there's a large gate, again, a beautiful gate, that is topped with these kind of sloped, yellow-roofed gateway, with some beautifully carved pillars depicting a dragon and a phoenix. And it seems to lead through to another part of the palace. Similarly, where Ox is, where the platforms are, the circular platforms,

there is a small building there as well, kind of like a smaller version of um of the pavilion yeah sorry i forgot one last thing there is another building far east which is also um a similar a small pavilion um and uh if you squint you can you can see some sort of movement coming in from in there as well uh i think uh mara would head to uh monkey rooster and sheep is it um to try and get some information out of them about you know what's gone on why why aren't they working and stuff like that so i think that's where she's gonna start heading off um having felt that you know she's probably gonna have to chase up a lot of these things um later on so i'm gonna start making my way over there going over to the decorations was that pig that was tearing stuff apart?

Decorations is dog. It's all over, I'm gonna guess. Yeah, it's not really a dog. We go there. Eat the corn. I will follow. Okay. Uh, Rhi?

I will go over to, uh, was it the band that were playing out of tune um so the band um have actually stopped playing um you heard the music coming from the building on the east um yeah so kind of near where dog is there's a building. If you follow the pathway, yeah. So these pathways are kind of lined by these low, maybe kind of hip height, white marble fences that are carved with all the creatures of the Zodiac. And if you follow it, it leads you towards this eastern building. And that's where you heard the music when you came in.

Okay, cool. Okay, in that case, I will go... I'll go see how tiger's doing i'll go up okay uh sounds good what you feeling so by the time everyone's kind of left the middle bit meepo finally from rummaging around inside his homunculus little robot uh makes a little exclaim like a and then he sticks up some sort of box uh throws it down hops out puts the lid down and then realizes that there's no one around and he'll wander up towards the closest thing which is the ox that looks a bit aimless over here oi excuse me i can't cook stuff yeah i guess we'll start with trot then so the ox looks down at you um and yeah he's wearing this black robe that has a square so on on his back, it has a square on it that has an animal embroidered into it.

And he's wearing a circular hat that has a black rim and a red sort of a red center. There's actually a picture of the Zodiac Guardians, if you want to bring that up now, if you want to see the kind of style of the Zodiac Guardians and what they're wearing. And he looks down, so this is what the Zodiac Guardians look like. That's the sort of robe that they're wearing.

Cool. Yeah, each of the patches in the middle of their robe denotes their hierarchy. So if you were to look into it, the patch on the ox's robe denotes that he's second in the middle of their robe denotes their hierarchy um so if you were to look into it the patch on the ox's um robe denotes that he's second in the rankings and he looks down at you and and and kind of shakes his head as if trying to figure out are you a demon little thing no not a demon no not a demon he starts crying again everyone thinks i'm a demon i no, not a demon! He starts crying again. Everyone thinks I'm a demon, I'm not!

You look like a... Emperor, invite me! You look like a little demon. Ah, yes, I oversaw the invitations. You must be... Meepo? Meepo! At your service, ready to cook!

I've got the box! Ready... Ready to cook I've got the box ready ready to cook oh the Emperor must have brought in reinforcements I don't know what's happened to my guardian friends they all seem to be in a state of confusion an ill sign is coming as you can see pig has eaten all of the food. We cannot feed a village without the food.

I can get it out, Pig. Ah. Oh, no. I think... Little arms getting anything. Probably best not to interfere with Pig. We Guardians do not like being interfered with. I suggest if you want to help with the feast, perhaps we should collect Pig and head towards the kitchens.

Don't you think so, little demon? Yeah, I'll follow you you know what you're talking about and with that Ox will start walking towards where Pete is at the central tables whoa whoa

feel free to ride upon my head yeah he's already climbing up he lowers his head down Feel free to ride upon my head. Oh! Yeah, he's already climbing up. He lowers his head down, and you can sit in between his horns and hold on to his horns. This reminds me of the old days. And he'll carry you over to pig. But just before we get to that, Mara heads over to Monkey, Sheep and Rooster,

who are all basically just mucking around, you know, causing a bit of a kerfuffle. And they ignore you to start with, Mara, as they're having too much fun throwing food at each other. That's not going to last long. So does it look like they're just like bickering and like playing and they're just mucking about basically like they're just not doing anything yeah so it'll probably start it doesn't seem yeah it doesn't seem to be um an air of animosity it just seems to be like friends bickering and just like having a bit of a food fight and just slacking off and lazy so there's probably like an attempt of like um kind of like uh hello excuse me excuse me hi uh excuse me hello i'm like trying to get their attention and then if they ignore her

if they continue ignoring her then i'll do something uh you'll hear this heads up and then a splat as uh an orange kind of bounces next to you and almost explodes a little bit, kind of, you know, splats on the floor next to you. I really don't like being ignored. And I'm going to cast in a 20-foot radius sphere directly around them. I say, like, I really

hope that this works this time. And then I'm going to, she starts, like, drawing kind of shapes and things and, like, gesturing in the air. And then she just says, Symphony, please! And then I'm gonna she starts like drawing kind of shapes and things and like gesturing in the air um and then she just says symphony please and then i'm gonna cast mara's cacophonic symphony to try and basically snap them out of their play fighting and like cause enough noise to make them kind of like oh and shock them into realizing that they need to pay attention to me so what does this spell do like this is this is one of mara's own spells so what it is is it's um you conjure a phantasmal orchestra in a 20 foot radius point uh uh sphere a point you choose

the orchestra appears in any form but it's see-through and creatures can move through it without penalty it plays loud terrible music that can be heard for up to 300 feet away any creatures within the area cannot hear anything except the music and are considered deafened, and they have disadvantage on concentrating on spells in the area. But I'm going to basically play it for long enough until they're, like, holding their ears, and then I'm going to cancel the spell.

So I basically want to, like, shock them into, like, you know, paying attention to me, basically. So this loud, discordant cacophony of out-of-tune music. And all three of the guardians just like, My ears are bleeding! And then once they've had enough, I'll cancel the spell, basically. Sheep's probably up first and is like, What? What was that? That was awful!

What? Monkey's just clutching his head, shaking. I can't hear anything! Well, now that I have your attention, everybody, we need to get things moving. The Jade Emperor is very unhappy with what's been going on here,

and there's a big list of jobs to be doing. So what are you all three doing exactly? Who are you? Mara Moonshimmer, I've been brought on as the new coordinator for the reunion feast. We've got to get things back on schedule. People are going to be arriving very, very soon. We've got to get things back on schedule People are going to be arriving very very soon Sheep looks at you like

Are you a Family member Related to rabbit You look like a rabbit Yes I am I borrow folk Well I suppose maybe I am But still come on people We've got snake and horse are missing with the red envelopes

Rat and cat are missing Dragons missing Have you seen any of them where are they Come on people. We've got snake and horse are missing with the red envelopes. Rat and cat are missing. Dragon's missing. Have you seen any of them? Where are they? Come on. Excuse me, Missy, but who gives you the authority here? We are the Royal Zodiac Guardians. Excuse me. The Jade Emperor himself.

Oh, wow. The Jade Emperor. He's in one of his moods again. What's wrong with a little slacking off? Pig started it. Well, Pig is being dealt with by Ox right now and some of the other coordinators who have been brought in. And I don't mean to tell you this, but the Jade Emperor is very, very unhappy with things are progressing.

We have guests arriving momentarily. So you've had your fun and now it's time to get to work. Bark, bark, bark. And Rooster's kind of looking around really nervously, kind of, bark, I suppose, I suppose, the sun, sun, sun, sun. You seem to know something, Mr. Rooster.

Hi. Now, I'm sure that a cunning and wise and smart guardian such as yourself, Mr. Rooster, you've no doubt seen one of these missing guardians, right? You know where they are. Uh, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I It's hard not to flatter somebody as special as you. Oh, you mark. Roll a persuasion check for me, would you? That is a 21. Yikes. Blink my big blue eyes

at him. Or them. I don't know. Yeah. He's not rooster-sized. He's probably, yeah, he's a big boy. So if you imagine quite a large, maybe like, I guess, all these animals, like they're bigger than their normal kind of real-life counterparts.

So you imagine this beautiful rooster with long tail feathers, and if a rooster could blush, he would be blushing right now. I suppose I could tell the young lady. I saw, I saw, what did I see? I saw horse and snake. They were talking something about a sway demon who was hiding in the theater. And yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. They took all the angpaos, the red envelopes.

They were meant to be in charge of that. They're in the theater. Well, that's so helpful, Rooster. And I'm sure that if we can get things back on track, I can put in a really special word with the Jade Emperor just for you. You didn't happen to see where Dragon was by any chance? And at this point, Monkey, who's been kind of sitting in the middle of the table scratching himself, he's like, Monkey here, I am the monkey.

Dragon likes to hide off in the gardens when they're done with us. They find it quite peaceful. And dragon's the in charge, would we say? Oh, no. Don't you know? Don't you know? The rat's in charge. Rat is in charge.

Dragon's like fifth or something. I don't know. I never listened to dragon. All right. Fantastic. And do you know where Rat is right now? Ah! Probably fighting with Cat.

Right. And I think we know where they are. Vaguely where we saw them. Alright. Well, we have some people. I think that Ox and one of my other companions is going to be dealing with the food. We're trying to fix some of the decorations. Please do make yourselves presentable, everybody.

We want to make a special impression, don't we? And I'll kind of wink at Rooster when I say that. And then I'm going to start disseminating this information to my companions. So I'll probably head off and start telling everybody, like, right, okay, Dragon's fifth in charge and is probably in the gardens chilling out. Apparently there's something called a sway demon in the theater.

We should go and deal with that. That's going to be a problem. And, yeah, and then I'll start kind of sharing that information out. But also trying to get these three to stop mucking about and help out, basically. Yeah. I guess, yeah, you probably hear as you walk off, the three of them start bickering again.

It's like, you're the one who started it. No, you're the one who started it. off, the three of them start bickering again. It's like, you're the one who started it. No, you're the one who started it. And they're just like bickering over. And they do start kind of clearing up and start, you know, getting out, using magic to clear up the mess and fix the tables and clean the plates and maybe use mending to fix the crockery and things like that. Great. okay. And Sheep will run after you

quickly and go, oh, excuse me, madam. Madam, what was it? Yes, dear Sheep. Mara Moonshimmer. Apologies there for our previous discretions. You won't mention it to the Jade Emperor, will you? I will look

at sheep and say well you know there's such a long list of things for us to do if only somebody could find rat and cat and help figure out what's going on with these fireworks I wouldn't have so much to do

I mean I'll look at it look at sheep i suppose i could rally the troops with monkey and rooster here we could the other one you could do is i don't fully trust the person that i've put in charge of the food so maybe check in with ox and pig and make sure the little demonic little thing isn't causing any trouble. Like, I'll look over towards Meepo like, well, he keeps getting mistaken. He's a kobold.

They're basically the same. Well, you need to tell us what to do. What would you have us do? We can only really achieve one. We come together, you see. tell us what to do. What would you have us do? We can only really achieve one. We come together, you see. Go find Rat and Cat. Go find Rat and Cat.

And figure out what's going on with the fireworks. Rat and Cat. Right. Okay. Yes. Yes. Roger, Roger. If a sheep could salute, I would be saluting right now.

Right. Come on, you horrible lot. And she turns and shouts a rooster and a monkey and yeah they start disappearing uh over to the other side of the courtyard uh who was next decorations um so lollipop and assius. Wow. You head over. Weird pronunciation. To what? To the, it's cultural,

southeast of the courtyard, where, I have too many pages up. You head over and you see this large, glossy-coated, dark brown dog. And somewhere in my notes is what dog is doing. And they are surrounded. They're on a pile, basically, of shredded red and gold paper. And they're kind of having the time of their lives, just tearing it up and pulling things down from the walls.

You notice that there are more of these orange trees, these kumquat trees with red envelopes tied to them that have been knocked over all over the place. And basically, it's a mess. It's an absolute mess. And Dog just seems kind of a bit oblivious. She's just running around. She's barking. She's, you know, joyfully just chasing things. I think Lollipop's first sort of thing is,

oh my goodness, look at the dog! So cute! Hi! Hello! Hello, who are you? Who are you who you you look like friend I play with your friend yes yes friend yes friend hi I'm lollipop hi hello hello I like you you're a nice friend I like your hair your friend is cool your friend yeah here your friend your hair is cool yeah who's your friend? Who's your friend? Who's the ox? Are you ox? Are you ox's brother? You said I was, I guess, kind of.

I'm Acius. I hear the help with the decorations, but you've made a real mess. What's going on here? Me? Mess? I haven't made a mess. I haven't made a mess. Look, they're fine.

They're fine. They're fine. Oh, no. Yeah. As you say that. You really messed it up. Doc just looks around and almost seems to realize, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, I've had one of my moments.

I have one of my moments. I keep playing, I keep playing, I keep playing. I keep playing with things. Things are so shiny, shiny, shiny. I want to take them. Look at the red, look at the red, the red. They're so delicious. They are very shiny. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. No, it's okay.

He's so caving. Angry at me. I have a headache. Shh, shh, shh. It's fine. Can I pat the dog? I imagine the dog's probably quite big in relation to Lollipop. Probably, yeah.

It's bigger than the normal, yeah. So Lollipop will pat the dog and be like, it's bigger than the normal yeah um so uh loypop will pat the trunk be like it's okay you can't be blamed they're really really nice decorations it's okay because we're gonna fix it but you can't eat any more of them okay you can't eat more because then then we won't have anything to work with we can fix this though what we'll do is we'll take the ripped up ones and we'll make it we'll make it like a feature we'll we'll tie the pieces back together and and we'll make it work we've got a lot of red a lot of gold um it'll be okay but can you maybe help us did you did you do this anywhere else is it just these ones here

ah and dog nervously looks around and you can kind of see like um most of the decorations are kind of fine in the courtyard but there's definitely places where um banners have been torn off the walls um the the decorations on doors kind of lie on the floor um there's there's a whole um so they they haven't been kind of um put out yet but near to dog is these vases that are just full of squashed flowers and yeah and and some squashed red lanterns as well so it probably looks like you're gonna both need to mend or make some new decorations and you're gonna have to like spend a little bit of time hanging them up and hanging up don't worry. Don't worry about it, guys. I'll just pick up a scrap of this.

I pick up the red and gold, and I throw them into the air. Beautiful. The dog immediately starts trying to... Nope. What did we tell you? How about

we can find something else to play with but once this part is done I'll play too. I'll find something great. But for now, we need to fix these. Is there any other paper? Do you know if there's more paper?

Yes, yes, yes. In that box there. And you can see there's a few crates nearby, like next to the wall. And it looks as though they have art supplies in there. There's more paper. There's paint pots, ink pots. And there's more of these orange trees, but they haven't been decorated yet.

And Dog will be like, we need certain things. We need certain things. We need red lanterns. We need fresh flower arrangements. We need to tie the red envelopes to the orange trees. Red paper cutouts. You see, they're really delicate.

You cut the little shape and you can cut the shape of a dog in it. And that looks good. And we need the foo hanging. The foo hanging. It's a square and you hang it on doors. And there's a big calligraphy on it That means luck and and and you you have your luck and red. They must be red Oh, okay

No, no, no. You need to hang up the... Please, please hang up the decorations on the trees. Hang them up. You can pick up the trees that have fallen over. That would be helpful. Please, please. I'll make the new ones.

I'll make the new ones. It'll be really fun. We can make a little production line, and we can make loads of them, and then... I'm gonna lift a tree then we can both hang them up because you can help me i gotta lift the tree i'll lift the tree okay thank you um molly pop will say is that getting the paper out of the art supplies and and start to to make

lanterns and whatever she can make from those. And is there any particular skill? Do you have any spells or any methods? Also, do you have any proficiency, like, say, in calligraphy or anything like that? Or are you literally just putting these things together? Barbarian. The barbarian ranger and fighter. Like, got axe, got fist.

But because I'm a halfling, I'm lucky. I've got the whole, if you roll a one, you can roll it again, you're lucky. I don't know, luck seems like a valid thing in the whole Lunar New Year tradition. So I feel like she's a lucky little halfling and she's got spirit. And you know what, Katie?

You wore red today. No skill. I did. That counts as well. I wore red. So I would say if you could make me a... Yeah, what about you, Tom?

Big old minor tool. Some of my special skills here. Hello, cat my special skills here hello cat you do have a cat i have a cat now uh can the cat do anything okay plus 10 plus 10 to everything um all right easy yeah but have you got any creative okay i. I'm a fey wanderer. Make me a straight up dex roll. Dex? Straight up. Oh.

Straight up. Because you've got to be dexterous to, you know, cut these paper cutscenes out and paint some of the calligraphy on it. 19 plus 2, so 21. Woo! Okay. 15. 15, that's actually not bad. Yeah, that's not bad.

So, under the guidance of Dog, who is calming down now that she can see that you are helping and she can get this under control before the Jade Empress sees, you spend some time cutting up the paper cuttings into cute little depictions of animals. You spend your time cutting up the paper cuttings into cute little depictions of animals.

You spend your time painting calligraphy onto the foo decorations to hang on doors. You decorate the orange trees and collect some flowers. And yeah, you actually, after a while, you end up with these fairly passable decorations that you hang about. And I think given that we've got a minor tour here, providing a little booster seat, there's no problems in hanging them up and decorating the place. But it does take you some time. But yeah, you manage to get the decorations under control. I'm just imagining Lollipop is just making all of these decorations.

I'm huge and just hulked over this tiny little thing trying to really get a pair of scrolls. Yeah, it's kind of like we're at like... You know where you're at a nursery school or something and you've got the kids table of craft supplies. Lollipop's sitting there quite comfortably and it's like he's the adult that's sitting with his knees like up at his chest yeah very much the whole time we're gonna be when we do the the flowers the whole time she's probably gonna be talking um to asius about how oh oh my sister's a druid you know she's taught me all about these things

yeah rainbow knows all about all of these different flowers and she says this one is her favorite and so we use these ones we don't you think? They look great. Wow. Wow. Yeah. No, keep going. Keep going. Okay. This is her second favorite. She said that this one used to be her favorite, but then it got downgraded and she found

a new one that she liked a bit more. And then this one, oh, that's her fifth favorite flower, so it's not quite as good. I can't tell if Tom is getting annoyed or if he's just playing the character it's a blurb i was listening as much as asius was um so i was just thinking decorations done to the next cross yeah decorations thinking, before we get on to the next challenge, I was thinking, shall we take a quick little break because it is 6.30 and that's...

We do not take a break because this is time sensitive. I don't want a break. I just want to get it done. You want to game it. You do as we say today, Mark.