Legends of Avantris - Once Upon a Witchlight | Ep. 42 | All Dolled Up

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Processing their grief, the Krew meets with an unlikely "ally"...   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/6PuWff7x9bg?si=XCPIYwCfKQDYwc6k

Welcome to Legend of Aventress. I am Grico Grimgrin, and you are listening to Once Upon a Witchlight. Here's what happened last time. What do you know? We would benefit from your knowledge. Okay. Here. And she pulls out a black iron key. Oh. Oh, her special thing she puts in the room over there.

Did you see a very fine purple top hat with a nice silk ribbon around it? I did see a hat float through here. Oh. Three hours ago. For a second, you are able to see the form of this shadow. This is a person that you have seen before. Sitting downstairs with Babylon of Lightstri as you speak is the eldest Darkling sister. The shadow is an exact replica of her visage.

Off to the corner, a tall top hat. Nestled next to it is Twig, completely blue in the face as she's struggling to breathe. There is no air in here in this space. No, no, no. You use your entire action to move as quickly as you can. Oh, what's going on, man? Can you get him out of there? You say to him, I think he might be okay.

Please, please, please work. Let's go, Frost, Twig, and I'm gonna try to pull them out. Look up to Gideon's pained face and you don't want to be lumped down what you see. As you turn towards the frog and decide it is best to pull frost from the abyss. This is the son of a man. You need to stop. What do you mean, man?

She's gone, Keith. What do you mean she's gone? She's dead. It's her only first adventure. Gang, you own on her! Death comes for everyone at some point in their life. Fuck, man! Not everybody survives their first adventure.

You exist in shire. in shadows. The dark and creaky attic spreads out before you, cluttered and stretched to accommodate years of refuse. Light pierces through the gloom and dust from a lone and broken window on the north wall, and yet you are shrouded in darkness. The shadow you had fought moments ago leaves no trace

that had ever been here at all, but the blood already beginning to clot on the surface of your wounds claims otherwise. Yet none of you feels the sting of physical pain. Laying in stillness, the tiny smile still etched on her frozen lips, is the body of a brownie, a sister, a friend. Twaig rests at the feet of those she loves, and the silence is louder than the collective crack of your many broken hearts. And so you feel no physical pain as the grief numbs you. Her fist clenched as if in silent determination, a simple sign that she faced death as she faced life.

The light attempts to pierce the darkness of the gloom, but drowned in the shadows of grief, none of you can see it. What do you mean we need to leave, man? Where are we supposed to go now? What are we supposed to do? Got what we came here for. You got it, right, kid?

Still got your hand on it? This stupid piece of silver spool? Exactly right. That's it. What the hell is this supposed to mean? What even is this? Bears, man. And I'll toss it to Torbett.

Torbem's got it. I'll reach out my figure. Look at him. Look at all of those. You want to end of black twig? We're just supposed to let her get away with it. She killed our friend, man. We just told her we wouldn't leave her in the Faywild.

She wanted to come with us. We're just supposed to walk out of here. I actually think we should run. I'm not joking. I look at the state of Grico. Look how close to death Torbeck is. Whatever that shadow creature was after, I think it satisfies what we were looking for on behalf of the king.

If we can get twig out, there may be a chance, but if we stay here, we're likely to make some foolish decisions. What do you rather do, get? I'd rather fucking rip her in half. We don't know how strong he is, she is. And once she casts a hex on you, freezes you in place, and rips all of our intestines out, does a little dance with it, and snaps an ex.

But then. Gandyhan, Torbeck is sorry, he's not better at fighting. Boundarychus. I got nothing left. You know how much I want to... Keep the hag, but pretty's right. I say we take Frosty's pad, go back to bloody toes, give those little fuckers to her. Get Hootsey and fly off the balcony.

We get... And I'll point to the deer skull. We had clap of claw. His head back. And we just get the fuck out of here. Are we sure this is all we need? I have no fucking idea. No.

We probably can't come back if we're wrong. It's a metaphor, right? He just said a trinket made to the present. The present of Fred that's uncut represents the present, right? Frosty. I'm sorry? You smart, doesn't that you, did that track? I, uh, silver Fred.

I mean, thread's a time. It's like a same, right? I'm trying to think about the steps we need to take in order to get out of here. When in some ways we are trapped, I don't know if this pad can carry all of us. And if we can't go down the side of the house out the window, we're going to have to go through the same room in which we were shrunk, in which Bavorna and her guests, are. Yeah, I'm not sure what we do now. Do we even worry about? Clap the claw. We can worry about fucking bloody toes and these little fuckers. Hooties with bloody toes. We need to go back and

get her. Oh, fuck. I was glad she wasn't here. And you bring her with us. Twig? Yes. We're not fucking leaving her here. We've got to bring her with us. We got to get her someplace nice, man. You see what the fuck she does to anything that's dead and this place stuffs it and puts it on a mantle puts it behind a piece of glass it's not fucking happening to twigsie you're right doesn't feel right like putting in a bag or something you gotta get the fuck out of here although I'll pick up my hat sort of seeing maybe where she was like trying to like scratch out of it as she was dying trying to get my hat back I'll sort of brush it off she did this all for us

who was just trying to help she was just trying to get my hat back It's all fucked up, don't you think? All she ever wanted was to be a part of the team, man, but she was. She didn't have to do all this. She didn't have to prove anything. Do you have any kind of way to bring it back? Can primal spirits do anything? No.

It's a natural cycle of life and death and rebirth, but not just... Oh, never mind. No thank you. Rebirth in terms of a natural world. If there's any place where there's a chance that that might be possible, it's here in this place. I don't mean in this hut. I mean right now, right now, if there's any chance of anything bringing it back, it's going to be that. The point at the mechanisms on Torbeck's back.

No, no, no, no, no. There's no way. Well, it's too dangerous. We don't even know what it is. I saw your fingers turn into some sort of fucking twisted syringes, Torvac. You're gaining some kind of control. Torvac doesn't know how to use it. Well, now it's something to try, man.

I mean, nobody's done more drugs than Twig. She's licking frogs and drinking mushroom liquor like it's going out of style. Something could go horribly wrong. Something's already horribly wrong, man. on the ground dead. But is it worth if she comes back different? That's the risk that you're taking if you wanna do that, Cremay.

I mean, Torbick seems not that different. Did you die, Torbeck under the knife? Torbeck isn't sure would Tormec be here if Torbeck had died? Torbeck may not be different, but his other is very different. I'm just saying, there's a chance that we want to fucking take it. Five needles in the heart of that shit. I wouldn't be surprised at the bottom right back.

We don't know that it's going to work out, man, but we don't know that it's not going to work out, so we're just going to not try? I don't know if I'm in for trying, but I don't think we try here. The creature downstairs, the guest. She knows that we've killed her shadow. I'm sure of that. We have very limited time to make a decision here. I don't know how time of fact is in here.

After death and all. There's no way that pumping twig full of this horrible serum is going to do any good. It was created by horrible, evil nobility, torturing and Tolbeck. He can't even control it. And it turns him into a monster, no offense, Tollback. Oh, no dang it. Grigo's right.

It's not natural like Griggo was saying. What if to help her, she has to stay uncreggia. I mean, that's a fair point. I don't fucking know guys, but what are we just doing nothing? We're just getting out of here. We just sling her dead body over our shoulders and walk out the fucking steps without trying anything at all, because maybe it won't work out. I think we've done enough here. It's over here and here, forever.

to go to the... We do... You picked the wrong accent for this game, man. Oh, no. Mom couldn't afford speech therapy, and so Uncle Gorbo did it, and he was worse than me. But the point is, is what he said, Gideon,

that's, yes, there's nothing else left to do. If you have more vote, we go to the window where you saved the little cute little plant sunflower folks and did no harm and only did good and then we all get on frosty's lillipad if it can fit us or at least one at a time we go round of the balcony where that satyr was we go give these little fuchs to bloody toes and exchange for a way to get to use the mirrors to get to uh

uh vizvv that's not bad and we just one wrong move and we're in deep trouble but that may actually give us the best chance for twig

for her sake I can't think of any other solution that I think will work or won't cause more harm than good it may feel crude or crude or cruel to you, but we will be respectful. We can get the fuck out of here.

Get somewhere else. There's no other option. We get her somewhere next. But at some fucking point, this is all going to come to a head. I just need you guys to know that when it does, we kill the fucking hag. No deals. No talking.

We just fucking put her down. That's it. What if she can bring Twig back? What if Torbeck can bring Twig back? We didn't even fucking try it. You want to make a deal with the hag that put her in the ground in the first place? I can't even dance, Kremie. I know.

You're colorblind, probably. Nobody even knows what the hell's going on with you. Grico's not even a little bit funny anymore. And you want to make a deal with the hag for Twig? I don't. I'm not saying I do. My point is that when Twig came with us, she knew the risks. She wanted to go on an advantage. She knew they were dangerous.

But does that mean that the second she goes down, that we just give up? We don't use the options we have to bring it back. At least try? There's nothing good. I could come out of any end. this, Kremie. How do you know? Have you been with me this whole time? You look at his fucking horror show? She's made a different stuff. She's of the Faywild. You don't know how it's

going to react. It dragged his ass off the fucking material plane. Maybe that's why it's mutating him like that. I don't disagree that it might be worth trying, but I do not think we should do it here. Again, we may have minutes before Bavlornna's guest tells her that we're up here. And there's just nothing but a trail of evidence that we've been doing, nothing but disturbing and destroying her things, going through everything, finding her secrets, going through her chests, locked things, secrets.

There's no way to spin that in our favor. And if we try to make a deal with her, look at what happened to the Triton that we met, who had lost all emotion. Eladron The coral eladron Look at the elandron we met That should tell you everything we need to know

About what would happen if we tried to make a deal To bring back twig With this hag I didn't a fellow this wasn't savvy of making deals He got what he asked for You think you can outsmart A fucking hag Cremie

I can certainly try And then what If it all goes south I can't even fucking stand My daughter's in the kitchen With a bunch of dead vultures and shit I don't Torbeck's almost dead

Yeah Torbeck doesn't feel very good Like you say yourself If she snaps her fingers And she sends Gideon to The other room Locks them up So have us for supper

Bave of our entrails We've no reason to believe That she'd attack us on the side. You have no reason to believe she'd kill us just for talking to it. I don't want to punch first. That's my point. Because I think that we can try to get out of here.

I wouldn't be surprised if she knows exactly what the fuck we're doing right now. It's like Frosty was saying, man. I mean, that other, uh, that other dark lang or whatever was doing sketchy shit up here the whole time. She was probably covering her tracks, our tracks. Probably has no idea we're up here. Regardless, man. Shit is bad enough as is

Twigs down Can't lose you too Torbeck maybe Not you No no Not Torbeck We're not losing anybody Not even Torbeck

All right he was here too I just want to bring it back Not for me But for you That's why I want to try We're going to try We can solve this It's just another puzzle

But I agree Let's get the fuck out of you Why don't you collect you? Do I see looking around Any evidence of The combat Beyond stuff that we would have done Like is there shadow marks

Or shadow stuff like a body? This room is so cluttered It is It is true to its name It's an attic And it is filled With years and years of collection But not just

not just trinkets and relics of the past, but similar to things that you saw downstairs. Dirty dishes and disgusting stuffed taxidermite abominations. Scraps of cloth are laying everywhere. And the dust is settled on everything. So looking around, as the dust has now begun to settle, it is beginning to cover up the footprints that you have. had made. And you imagine that in a short amount of time, there would be no way to tell whatsoever that anything had happened up here. I will try to stand up and kind of stabilize myself and

reach an arm out to Grico. Let's Orbeck help. And as you reach to grab his hand and you'll see that the flesh that's near the tubes is kind of receded a little bit. It's a little bit more visible and gross. It might have been from attempting to use it, the wounds that Torbeck had sustained in battle, but it looks even worse than normal, as I'm trying to help me. I'll take your hand. Come on. Not so tight, not so tight. Not so tight. Oh, what heaven? And I'll kind of stumble forward and like very clearly needing to like stabilize myself, not able to stand on my own. Proposal. Yes. We get twig situated.

we make it as though we haven't been here as much as we can in this space I have this strange cube thing I'll keep that in my pack we take any other trinkets that we can as we make our way to the window at the window we all need to get out of here I am not confident

our lily pad will carry the six of us we have the charm of the monarch each of us short of time to fly perhaps make it around Down the side of the building, we get and retrieve Hootsey, but I do not propose we make it to the mirror. We continue flying down.

I agree. And if we can find Clamper Claw's head, clamp or Glock can lead us to thither. Right there. Oh, how convenient. We have more focused on the shadow of the darkling. Can you get it down with your mind? Can I get it down with my mind?

All right. I go over to Twig, take her glasses off, fold them, put them in the crux of my shirt, take her, if she has her bag on her, I take her bag off, and send her over my shoulder, and I pick her up in my arms. You pick her up and you're looking down at this tiny cold body. Her arms fall limp at her sides and you notice that one of them, you notice that one of them, is open the one that had reached out and clawed at and pulled at Crumie's hat. The other one is held tightly around a small piece of parchment.

What was the parchment say, Nikki? Are you gonna look? I'll look at it. Yeah, I'm torturing you. I'm not bad. What you see is a small drawn image of what is very clearly the very first night that you all met. Now there is no Torbeck in this image as he had not arrived at him. But it is all of you laying by the fire around Hootsie in the living room area of the inn. And it was clearly drawn by Twig.

And at the top it says, my family. And as you stare down at her form, you hope for the rise and fall of breath that does not come. But what you do see is something you don't expect. Her skin, which had begun to change due to the means of her death, you remember the soft blush of pink right beneath the surface, is now masked by a soft brown. Strange lines begin to form, and her body begins to get heavier and heavier and heavier. And she began to notice that her arms, where her elbows had been,

now appeared jointed. and slowly appearing at the ends of each of her fingers, long threads of rope. And at first you don't believe what you're seeing. But it all begins to come into focus over the course of one minute, maybe two, five, ten, where once had been the body of twig is now a small marionette in twig's form. Her arms still limp at her side, but now dangling from them are the ropes that attach to on each one two crossed wooden beams that would use to puppet this toy. She looks exactly the same.

Nothing else has changed. Her eyes open, beautiful green, but now edged in wood. And as you stare even more at them, you begin to see the twisting bits of what appears to be twigs at first. But they're not. They're stems. of roses. Wooden rose stems that curl out of her eyes, and where her eyes had been,

you now see two beautiful blue roses. What's happening here? Look at Twig. She's not her anymore, I don't think. What? Fuck. What the hell? Some kind of hack trick.

You think this is the hut or something? Or this, I mean, what, what's happening? What is this? It's still her? I'll lean in very closely, and having Greg and I, being the two actually handled the marionette with the sun and moon face in the previous room, does it look like the same make to me? Roll a perception check. Can you just give me the information right away without that? No.

Oh, not bad. 19. Looking, you move closer, and immediately you catch. the scent of the twig. She had a scent about her that was earthy and autumnal and happy like a cozy fire in autumn. And this puppet, this marionette,

that smell is just emanating from the wood as if it is one and the same. And as you begin to look at it, you see that the carving of this wooden figurine looks almost exactly like that of the one that you have in the pack. I don't know how this could be. She's transformed into a marionette, like the one we found inside of the chest that you broke. Oh, it's got to be hag magic. Something is wrong! What the fuck, man?

She's turning people into marionettes. Does that mean the thing that you have is somebody? Who the fuck cares about that even? What do we do about this? Oh, Mr. Mooney was someone who was alive and got killed by... Wait, what the initials and the one you found? It was Enderlin. You saw what you saw, but you saw those and they looked like they had been carved in act through the fact.

Not necessarily a maker's mark, but one of the hags marking their property. I would say you could try to... and look further. On the bottom of the shoe. Yeah, on the bottom of the shoe. You could try and look further to see if you could see any additional, like a maker's mark or something. Whatever made that other marionette, however it came to be, may have very well been the

same magic that's affecting Twig now. This really surprises me, though. This doesn't feel like Mavlornah. Toobach, can you get Mr. Mooney out of your trench coat? Yeah! And I'll like go into my filthy sack and I'll like pull him out and like to give him up a show guy He's gonna click click clang clang clack like like I'm like pulling him out to keep him stuck on the sack I'm trying to pull him out And I like walk him over to Grico and I guess what is he like close to your size

Is he like close to your size or a little shorter? I imagine it was kind of like a football and so I'm like what three and a half Yeah okay so he's like a third of your high yeah I walk him over to you side well twigs a little bit of yeah Yeah, she's like kind of two feet. Yeah, it's a foot tall, the marionette. Okay, so I walk him over to you and he's like, you know. It has a face on either side of its head, so he's got a face on the front and the back. Oh. One face is the moon and the other is the sun.

Here he is, Grico, still creepy as ever. Frosty, why don't you take a look? I'm starting to see double. I don't know if I'm gonna. I walk him over. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. that him over to...

I'm doing that. It's very weird. Oh, sorry. Does hand me the marionette? I don't think any fellow's gonna look like that, though. That's probably just a puppet. We got a brief glimpse of Scabatha. Didn't she look Mooney? Scabatha?

No. And, Mandolin? I wouldn't say she looked Mooney, no. I got a glimpse. I was the only one. You saw one of her, one of her, her familiars. Her familiars.

And they were moose. It was a moon face. I don't know if anyone else saw that. Did it cook later? I think it may you described it. I described it basically it was the sow pig, it was a little fucker and it was the uh when you were like stung. Yeah, I was like in like the shadow realm when they just took a frog say yeah yeah Lauren Lang it was a Laurenling it was the saut pig and then it was the uh like it had a moon mask. It was like a child or something with a moon mask. I can show you the photos if you want to see them. Yeah you just yeah give me a second. To order me would like to see you

It may have been months ago, but I vaguely recall it. And Dormack was somewhere else. This mirage is no mirage. Dawn its horn with two or three wings to run it bronze. That character resonated with Dormack. Dormack misses her. So these are the three things. Oh, yeah.

Holy crap. Based on Grico's decision, or the ability? And I would say you could use your druidic magics to replicate images of what they look like, so you all have a clear picture. Does the Mirren end? I'm sorry. So the Lauren Ling is this one.

And this is the South Pig. And then that's, you don't have a name for this. No, no, no. Based on what I know from Graco's description of the Crescent Moon-Faced servants of Definitely. Ender. Endler.

It's a Dyer. Oh, so we can just call her creeping away. Does this feel like a Mariannettified version of one of those servants? Oh. Oh. Does this feel like a Mariannettified version of one of those minions? That feels different. I don't think we're going to solve this.

We're wasting time. I don't know what's happening here, but we need to get out of here. Maybe just getting them is far away from the hut will help. It's a start. Wait, do we think that Endelin made that doll? Based on Griko's description of the creature that Arborah appeared to him when Hootsie was taken during the carnival, there's a very parallel look and feel. I don't think it's an accident that the moon is a symbol of this hag.

Look to see if there's anything else, like a secret compartment, like something beyond the EM. And give it back to Torbeck when you're done. Thank you. He knows how to pilot it better than me, but I will... Maybe it's like a puzzle box. Roll an investigation check. And for the record, Torbeck does not pilot it very well. He just tries.

Oh, really? It's not good. Mine was getting all twisted up and doing my... He just kind of like, Torbeck just like... You know, McDonald's openly. He does not do that. Turn back, wishes he did. Investigation?

I'm going to 26 this business. Oh, shit. Let's go. You look over the doll, and you do once again see the spot where it was very clear that Endelin had carved her initials into this, marking it as her property. But you continue to look over the doll, the marinet. to see if you can find any maker's mark whatsoever,

and at first you find nothing. Until you notice that it is possible to move back a small part of the carved moon on the front of the face, and you see that right on the inside of it is a maker's mark. Is no fun, is no Blinsky, too. Hmm. It says, is no fun, is no blinksy, blintzy. Blinsky? Blinxie. Blink-blink-by. That means nothing at all to me, Frosty.

What's that? That's perplexing. What's stupid fucking saying. What a thing I don't even know about. Torbeck's not very good at grammar, but I was going to say the exact same thing. There's some words missing. Maybe it just doesn't fit on a marionette. Maybe doesn't like contractions?

Two. Well, it feels like a dead end. given it as thorough an investigation as I possibly could with perhaps one point of exception. What's that, man? What did you check? Oh, I rolled a 19. I could have gotten a 20. Oh, uh-oh. I thought you meant like there was one spot on them.

Let's get the fuck out of here, right? Now were we in agreement? Should we endeavor to go through the mirror or should we? No. One thing at a time. This is fucking important, man. What this means is that. It's not somebody else made.

It's not like handling turned twig. I don't think. Just wait, does Twig have the same fucking thing? Take a look. I start checking Twig for moon marks and... Your role in investigation. The Marion that I was handling with delicate. What the fuck?

What's happening that bitch? Oh. You look over Twig's body. You're doing your best to be respectful. noticing that I will say that the DC has lowered a little bit as you have a rough idea of where a mark like this would be. And you move towards the back of twig's neck. And where there had been hair on this little body, there is now a wig firmly attached to this wooden marionette. And you lift the lower part of the wig cap and there are no marks.

She's got nothing on her. That's a weird phrase. raises, no moons. I'm actually not sure if that's a good or a bad thing in this place. What the fuck knows, man? Maybe that means she's not some sort of horrible construct. It was a whole fucking horrible contract the whole time. That seems unlikely.

I mean, I want to imagine that it's some kind of transmogrification. I mean, we've been huffing witchlight for how long? and we're transforming and we're becoming different people. I mean, look what it does to Taubeck. Do we think that because Twig joined the adventure and all the effects, it's like

when you die, oh, you become a puppet suddenly. This feels different. It's just like another cruel fucking joke. Perhaps in 10 minutes, she'll be back to her normal old self. But we have to assume that won't be the case.

she suffocated in there and we both nearly did. Well, I guess that strikes off my idea. I don't think sticking syringes in what's going to do any good. Thank the gods. Well, Cremie,

we don't think that Gideon's punchy, Biz, or Frosty's, brain and beans, and Torbeck's juice, and certainly I'm out of juice.

What about the Shadow Man? No right to ask him do anything about that. Even if I fucking dead. Shadow Man deals in life, death, non-death. No re-brose.

That's not how that works, Griffith. Once you're dead, you're dead. We'll have plenty of time to discuss this when we're alive and away from here. And sorry to be the pragmatist here, but we have to move. This is not the time to be emotional. Frosty, you have the skull, don't you?

It's on my back. We have every, oh, isn't there like a helmet here over that spooky? He's a very charming, uh, I can't remember the name in my brain fog. we need to hide. The creature. What act of desperation compels you to enter my home, little darlings? Are you fucking kidding me? This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon.

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You hear a soft step after another as Bablornah has clearly made her way up to the attic. She is in the room you were in previously, the one in which you had rescued the twig blights that had been suffering from dehydration, the one that you had just left to chase down the shadow that has now found oblivion in one way or another. And all of you freeze as you listen to the sound of the creaking wood, As step after step, Bavornah slowly makes her way towards the room where you now reside. Idiot. Please don't make Hootie an orphan. What a do, Ms. Blackstraw. How you doing this lovely evening?

You hear the creaking stop as Bavornah waits for a moment, clearly thinking. Interesting. Come, my friends from... the cooking show. Let us have tea and cakes downstairs in the parlor. Yes? That sounds lovely, fellas. What do you think? There's no need to stay in an old woman's dusty ediva. Who'd love to join you, of course. Please do lead the way. I would not do something so crass. You are guests in my home. You first.

Got my cane? I'll walk. I'll... I'll lead the way down the stairs. I'll proceed to. Blood completely cold, Torbeck will have shrunken down and is like quickly following behind Mr. Kremi? Yeah, hold up and I'll stumble. I'm just going to be face first. My hips are bent, and I'm just like this on the ground. Can someone give me a hand, please? Frost, you? Yes. I can't use my... Hold on, hold on. Hold on.

I'll hug this. I'll unfurl like a map the Lellypad. And if you hug onto it, you can sort of float and just let your feet skip along the ground. Just think where you want to go and lean forward and do it. Yeah, yeah, there, there, there, there you go. All right. All right. I'll stay with Greco. My mind being... I'll leave the way and I know exactly where she drinks or tea is all over there down there. You make your way out getting... Well, I'll linger for just a moment.

And in the darkness of the room we're in, would illuminate briefly and softly as flames would start to roll up the back, like as I'm facing her. So not that she would see, but if you're paying close enough attention, it would push light very briefly as I do everything I can to control a rage that's roiling within me.

She's like out in the other room waiting for us, right? And so we haven't come out yet. No. As I am thinking about the little fuckers, I'm thinking about Blvlornah, and realize that this lily pad is her, like, car. I'll be like, rush it. That's probably a bad idea.

What is? We stole this from football. Well, we found it at a pool, and it happens to float. I don't know if it's hers in that way. Is that what you mean? We should hide it. I'm... This is I'll get out of jail free ticket, firsty.

I have clamper clapper claw skull strapped to my back right now. Should I hide that too? I'm just going to shove it. I'm just going to shove it in the frost. robes. Turnback's limping behind, Mr. Hurdle. Roll a deception check. I would say disadvantage because you have two strengths. So you're going to have a hard time hiding them. It's going to be like, oh boy. I would like to twist it if we don't mind. Same. I'm going to do one more twist. And if it's fate, it's fate. Yeah, no, it's not good.

I think that is a 12. It is a 12. Okay, thank you. Perfect. As I'm sort of leaving the room and walking down the hallway, I would sort of kind of very subtly, just sort of peek in the corners of the rooms where it's the darkest in the shadows,

just to see, make sure I don't see any movement of the shadows themselves. Role perception check. Oh. And I would say, just given your dealing with shadow, you may roll at advantage. I'm the shadow man. I work with my hands. You glance around the room, and the only shadows that you see are those that are attached to each of you. It is very clear as you look around that whatever shadow had been here you have dispersed with, or you have dispersed.

I will feel a little more confident as I walk forward. and you will see crummy shadow. Maybe flickers a little more than it should in the, as I proceed. You are the first person to make it out of the storage closet and into Bablornah's bedroom proper. And you see that she is standing there in a patched work dress that hangs well past her thin and frog-like legs. As she is almost in a squat position, the top half of her body looking like it is almost cumbersome to carry on the tiny stick-like legs that protrude from the bottom of this night dress that she is sewn together. All down the front are stains from meals gone by. And she has the pungent smell of swamp water about her.

but carried in her spindly arms, you see a silver tray laden with bird-shaped cookies. They are steaming as if they've just come out of the oven. I have brought a little present for my guests to help make you feel more at home. Come to Mommy Lorna, have one crammy. I would like to hear from a real chef how you like my recipe. Am I still standing? Yeah. Do you mind if I sit first and just get relaxed?

In my bedroom? She motions towards the bed. You may sit on the bed if you would like to eat cookie there. Well, I'm presuming this is where you want to have tea if you're off from his scone. I can't eat the scum without tea. To help you get down to the room, you look like you've had quite the night. Well, certainly smells delicious.

I can take it for now, or maybe save it for later. What do you think? We can wait until downstairs, but you will try. I would love to try. With some tea. We will wait for the rest of your friends.

It's just that, you know, When I eat scones without tea, it gets stuck to the roof of my mouth. These are cookies. I have a lot of beefs. And a lot of teas. You probably don't need all of the teeth. Well, I like to, you know, hold on to them. Maybe it's an option.

I am a collector, too. Mm. Yep. Just stand here next to me. We will wait for each of them. to come out on their own time. She smiles wide and you watch, and you see that when she's not

speaking, her mouth hangs agape as flies dart in and out of it. I would absolutely be next. Having been trying to follow close behind Cremie and as Torbeck is slinking and kind of limping and coming

around the corner, he'll look over his shoulder and say, okay guys, remember, don't touch the lamps. Oh, hey. Oh, oh. You are so much bigger than I remember. Oh, remember. You look so, so.

Oh, well, no one's ever told Torrubing that before. You would make a great coat. And then, like, as quickly as limping Torbeck can, he'll, like, shuffle behind Cremie. And it's almost like, even though he's so much taller, much taller. He's like trying to hide behind, credit for protection. We will wait for the rest. Yeah, no, I'm fine. I'm sure

to be right here. Torbeck, would you like a cookie? Oh. Actually, that sounds pretty nice. Stormbeck's on a pretty rough day. Does he make you feel so much better? And she hands you a cookie that is clearly the bottom portion is a pigeon.

and the top portion is a vulture. That's what it's shaped like. But it's a cookie. Oh, a pigeon. Does it smell like a cookie? Would Torbeck think that this is anything other than a cookie? No. Torbeck eats the cookie.

Go ahead and benefit from a long rest. I immediately perk up, baby. You take a bite, and it is delicious. There are notes of cinnamon. There's a creaminess. and as you bite into it, you immediately see the flash of iridescent rainbow colors

and you realize that there is somewhere in this recipe, Beaselberries. Oh, this is the best cookie Torbeck has ever had. Very welcome, Borderbeck. Mr. Cramm, did you try one of these? No, I'm saving mine. I'm fatigating later.

Oh, Torbeck might have seconds, even though it's kind of ruined. food and greedy. I did make extras in case Thorbeck headed and behind. Oh, thank you. Oh, come there's an entire tin downstairs with your name on it. Then she pinches your cheek. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.

I guess we're putting all of the things that we've stolen into as many Heidi huddles as possible. Um, I'm gonna keep, uh, at my side, accessible to the square cube that I found when I was inside of the fish's mouth and do my best to fold and pack and put everything in a way that looks like I didn't steal anything from this person. And then I will do everything that I can to support Grico. All except for which was placed upon your person by Grico in a haphazard way. Yeah. Okay. So it's just like underneath my armpits in a very obvious way. Okay. That's fine. Go on Grigo.

Thank you. The two of you. The two of you. you shamble out and into view of Bavlornah. She stands there in her in her filthy night dress as Torbeck gobbles down a cookie and Kremi looks on suspiciously.

She doesn't look directly at you, at least not with both eyes. One of her eyes is watching Torbeck as he gobbles down his cookie happily. The other eye however moves on its own accord and follows your movements into the room.

It looks like Frost has my lily pen. You found it. I'm so happy. Yes, we found it. It has been missing for a long time. Yes, I believe that it was clunged inside of your bath. You see her face changed almost immediately. You mean my bath has clogged?

It had clogged, actually. There was a terrible creature. inside a bit. I don't know if you knew that. Was it some kind of pet, perhaps? It was this large word. We took care of the clown for you. With a strange jerky movement, she tosses the tray of cookies onto the bed

and rushes towards you faster than you would expect as she clasps her spindly hands around your arm. You have done Lord a great favor. Do you see the cracked and broken skin? I can hear it. Yes. She rubs her finger along it, and you can hear the way that it, the dry skin as it rubs against her yellow nails. I have not been able to bathe properly for a long time, for it aches my weary bones and my tight flesh.

Oh, speaking of the cookie heeled Torvex gone. Fuck! Torbeck's teeth looks great. Well, how did that happen? I got a delicious cookie. I see. Yes, and she quickly moves back in her strange, jerky way and picks up the tray of cookies. You both look like you could use a little bigger up her place. Have one of my cookies.

They're really good. Yeah, I could use a cup of coffee. Do you got that? We have tea downstairs. Just to drink the tea. Torbeck, are they... Torbeck good, or are they good? What does that mean, Frost?

They're good cookies. I remember back at the carnival, I once want you empty out a trash can. Pour the water in the bottom into a flagon and drink that. Dormac fails to see how that's relevant. I gag. Torback doesn't bring up every time you get a hairball frost.

Well, they're inevitable. It's a supernatural part of life as opposed to drinking garbage water. I guess I'll have one of the cookies. This one is for you. And she hands you a cookie that is the bottom portion of it is an owl, and the top portion of it is a bluebird. You're skilled and creative,

Bavlornah. And it tastes delicious. There's a hint of citrus. Is it good or towback good? It's good. And you benefit from a warm rest. Should I eat it? If you don't, I fear that you will

not be long for this world. I would say that it is, is more rejuvenating than a cup of coffee and quite flavorful. See, Torbeck told you guys? I just don't trust you about food, Torbeck. Which one is for, he's having trouble lifting his arms. Which one is for Grico? This one is for Grico.

And she hands one that is the top of a toucan and the bottom of a parrot. Oh. You don't have to lift your arm. I'll chop a good punch. I'll mind if you want it. Just open wine. Here comes the toucan. That's, you.

humiliating. Give it. I can... I can... What's a two cans? I can do it. I catch it. You want another go? No. Ugh. Oh.

You don't get the sound frost. What sound? What does a toucan sound like? Oh, I was going to do... When do we want cookies? No. That's not what a chicken bear. It sounds like an old. And you enjoy the benefits of the long rest. I suddenly just like inflate.

Wow. Cremie, these actually, they're full of a spark of life that I can't quite articulate to you at this time. No, I see that. No, I definitely see that. I'm fully rejuvenated in my beans. You understand? You understand all the problems that we could have? All my powers are back. bank when it's almost as if I've had time for breakfast is what I'm saying it's full of energy you eat the fucking cookie can I respond

yeah yeah well number one you're always ready for breakfast for us but number two I mean yeah just because it's good doesn't mean there's not going to be some sort of horrible side effect after an hour too certainly you're going to wait for an hour to see if we just deflate I'm just going to have a nice cup of tea

okay if a battle breaks out you better chump this down good. We'll do. Frosty, you said this was quite good? You should have said it's more than good. It's great. It is great, isn't it? Great, great is the word that I should use.

That it is great. Really. That really rolls up. Yeah, you really undersolved that way. It is quite good. Your terrible bird sounds are. sod. You trod.

I'm no bird quill, bird, bird, bird, I don't know the word

for it. I don't care for birds. We all know a toucan sounds like a, uh,

is that what they sound like? Yes, obviously. I don't know who's closer. What would an owl bluebird sound like? Oh,

Torbeck can do that one, too. And how about the, what was it, the vulture pigeon, the pigeon, the pigeon old you'll be surprised to know. Torbeck can do that one. All right, let's hear it. I rush out of the room. What's happening?

Is she cutting Torback? Oh, no, no. Torbeck is doing animal impressions. Look at these lovely cookies. I am not hurting anybody. They are simply in brutic cookies. You take this long rest. One for you two, Gideon, and one for Twig.

I don't eat cookies. I'll give one to the brownie. I'm sure she would enjoy it. We will late. Uh, she has one for Twig? Mm-hmm. Curious. What do you mean?

The Brownie. Your little friend, the one that helped you at the cooking show. The one that follows behind. not quite one of you, but still families? Well, we could take it for them. We will wait before we go downstairs. These rooms can be quite dangerous. Oh.

Well, maybe Gid if you could present twig. Present twig. Shorn her twig, man. It was a fucking marionette. I don't think she's gonna eat a goddamn cookie. You want me to take her mouth and go like that, right? You're doing it's that what you're doing their damn I am. You want to use her mouth like a marionette mouth and just chond of a cookie?

I see a common. I was thinking more like a duckback. He says cold. He says calling. A little bit of lever action on the back. Where am I supposed to find the fucking lever, man? On her back? You want me to just insert a lever into her back so I can open and close her jaw so she could eat a fucking bag?

Something happened to the little lot. Can you just give us a second? We're in a dispute. Yes, please. No need to raise your voice. We're all friends. It was my normal talking voice. I apologize for him.

Sorry about that. No, apologize for me, all right? Sorry. Sorry about that. Look, he's the thing. Do you mind if we just have a quick sidebar? Just open the corner of the room? No, not at all.

Please take your time. I will talk with Torbeck, Griko, and Frost. Yes? Yes. Look. Do you see some other way out of this situation again? What's even happening right now? Look, I don't think she's going to let us leave

until she knows where the fuck Twig is. She wants to make sure that there's no brownie sneaking around a fucking bedroom. And I'm supposed to show her that Twig is dead in a marionette, and she was in the frog's mouth? Well. And we dragged her out and she's not breathing? You'd rather say, oh,

she's dead, and she didn't make it and we don't show her the puppet. Or maybe we say she's not dead, but she got mysteriously transmogrified into this puppet thing. You don't have to give all the fucking details, but we're going to have to explain her away somehow. Show her twig.

She doesn't anything fucking weird with it, like adding the lever to her back or start carving her name into her. I'm gonna fucking go crazy. I'm gonna tackle her. I'm gonna punch her. Just don't let her hold her. Just, you know. Oh, look her fucking weird arms, man. Hold on a twig. I'm just saying if she

rushes me. I'm gonna get a little fucking crazy. No, no, dude, kid, look. Unless you physically fucking arms. You understand? I'm just saying if she gets within striking range. No, no, no, no. If she moves that, man. She's a little skittish.

She kind of has, like, bitty, like old lady. Oh, I hate that creepy old that shit, man. Oh, hell, people. I don't like when they come here. And they walk up. Sometimes they just move real quick, you know, and you're like, what the hell? Where'd that come from? It's a possibility.

I mean, you've a reach of five fucking feet. You know how far that is? Yeah. It's that far, man. It's exactly that far. Well, look, all I'm saying. saying is please don't cause a ruckus unless she fucking means us ill and so far the fellas are rejuvenated with these fucking cookies so why don't you have a cookie and I think

it feel a lot better. I'm eating any of this ugly dumb haggs cookies, alright? But I won't cause a ruckus. I cannot however promise that I won't start a kerfuffle. As you guys are done your sidebar and you like come back, you hear Torback talking about about warna. And then the licorice that Torbeck ate wasn't

licorish at all. It was a rubber oh! And Torbeck's pretty sure there's still some inside of Torbeck. Do you want to have it inside there? Do you want to have

it out, you port it? Torbeck isn't different. Did it taste nice? Yeah. Dormac didn't stop. Oh, hey guys. I've been just sitting there completely silent like looking at them

Oh, as soon as you both arrive Actually, thank you for coming back and interrupting Torback I did have one question The eye's ability to look around Were you born naturally with that ability Or is that something that you trained over time? Yes

Oh, Frost, you can't just ask people that It is okay We all raised in. Mom? What the fuck is going on? Even tourists! Yes! That's rude! And I'm from the small! It is okay. It is quite useful.

Hmm. Look, what get meant to say early is that he loves cookies. I've never seen him turn one down, but he's going to save his for Lady 2 if he don't mind. That is all right. Now we will wait for the brownie. Here she is. She immediately drops the tray again and skitters towards you.

She's up. Why are you moving so quick? It is a puppet and marionette. Wazy. Yeah. I don't know. She'd something weird to happen. Now she looks like this. But she can do this. She died in the toe. But you know this. you know this already. Scabethers.

You're saying it's not your fucking toad? My wicked sister is a horrific top. Horrific scapher. That bitch. Fucking scapher. I'm not like me. Crenny. Crenny, nor lorna, mommy lorna.

I'm very kind. I bring cookies. But my sister is wicked. The evil and twisted. Wait, wait. So wait. So, which sisters? sisters on this toe? Skiptha.

Scareph. So you're saying it's scabatha. Scabath. The one that lurks within Thither. Not And Ganylund Moongrave. No, this is Skipatha's work. Skavatha and not Andalun. Skipita is the toy mistress.

This has the toy mistress. This has the markings of her toys. Well, what are you saying that? Who would have known? Can this be undone? I imagine it can. Fucking imagine it a little harder. I mean, what the hell, lady?

You might have to travel to Loon Lurch if you're going to find out what my wicked sister has done. I have simply stolen the to hold. I had not quite figured. I had three scrolls around here somewhere. that I was going to use on that toe to figure out how it would work. Ah, we can see the scrolls. It's fine. I'll find them eventually. Um, I was trying to noddle on the, like, kick the broken chest with the whole of it.

Behind some like, like, the arpages or like files and clothes. Oh, do it. Slide a pan, please. It's just nice, like his nice shoe and just slowly, truly there's like near my tabling, like. Yeah. There we go. Good news. You're easily able to, as she goes to pick up the silver tray,

where she's going to pick it up from is really close to where the broken treasure chest or the broken chest was. And as you see this, you move forward to kick it, but she stumbles a bit and you hear the silver clatter on the ground and all the noise is able to mask as you kick the chest beneath the bed. She writes herself and arranges the cookies. Let us continue these conversation downstairs. No, yeah, absolutely. Let Mommy Lorne try to help the precious boys. We could use it. You first, please.

Yeah, absolutely. I think I know the way. And she motions for you, for the sake of brevity. You're all able to make your way out of the room and downstairs quickly. She did not seem to notice the clapper-closed skull that you had hidden on yourself. And she made no motion to take the lily pad away from you, at least not as of yet. Do I remember who has the squirrels that she was looking for? I do.

Grimy. I wanted to remind myself of that. But I do have also this strange cube thing. She didn't seem to notice, or if she noticed she didn't care about the things that you have. She's just mad, I'm moaning through all of it. Like, it's a complete X-ray. And she, you begin to make your way downstairs, and you are met with the sight of this place. A figure is seated in a time-worn armchair, tall, lean woman of great.

complexion dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat obscuring her eyes. This room is filthy. Dirty dishes and bits of discarded food lie everywhere. The furniture was perhaps once of fine quality, but now stains of mysterious origin model every surface, and the upholstery has been patched numerous times. Set, with its back to the wall in one corner is a hulking wooden cabinet. Sturdy legs support the bottom of the cabinet six inches above the floor, a decrepit wooden staircase, which is the one you're on, climbs up the wall. And that is where you hear Balwana. She shuffles down the stairs behind you, one foot after the other.

Loud, clanging sounds as she shakes the silver tray. And motions for you to take a seat. Please, take a seat next to our guest. She is not the one for talking. You know, what a do, Miss Lady? The name is Permanel of Cruz. It's pleasure to meet you. Are you standing in front of her?

You are standing in front of this figure, and there is no motion. She does not raise her arm to shake your hand. She does not even tilt her head up to look at you from beneath the brim of her large hat. I will say one thing you do notice is that even with the amount of light that's spilling out in this room, she has no shadow. All right there. That's no problem. That's no problem. And I'll just, like, find a seat.

D'Eeportico will also find a place to sit and not address this person seeing Cremie's failed attempt to get any kind of communication from them and we'll just find a place to sit. Did you see as well? Can I like someone like these scowling and I don't know, I'm going to go to the look at the other person and scow at her? Do I get any kind of sense of like what's her deal? What's whose deal? The other guest. And in what sense? Like what's wrong with her? Is she anything wrong? I Can Roll a

Sense check Let's roll an insight check You'll see how insightful You can read about the situation Natural 20 Oh Oh Oh

Oh Hold on Oh Not extras Her hat is Widebrimed And it Obscures most of her face

So it is It is hard to tell You can see, you can't really see her face. You may be low, but you still struggle to see her face. What you do notice is that she is almost completely unmoving. No, she is completely unmoving. You don't even see a rise or fall of her chest. Oh, my God, this is not good.

Does it basically, does Mikey get in the sense, or Grigiel get the sense because we killed the shadow? It's the same woman, right? Because we killed the shadow, we killed her. I would say you would have no idea. Quite weird, but okay. Anyway. I'm just seething.

I'm absolutely seething, and I will just, I will take a seat. I'll just take a seat. I seeing Grico's behavior and seeing how all of this played out with the guest, I would imagine that I might not notice all of those details,

but in my mind, this is the person responsible for Twigs' death because... It was the shadow form. And I'll take a seat. Lorna walks over to the coffee table in the middle and begins to pour each of you tea.

One, two, three, four, five, six. cups of tea. She pushes the tea towards each of you and then places one directly in front of the other guest, the darkling elder that sits here with all of you. For you too, she puts a cookie on the saucer of each of your teacups and then for you as well Torbeck she places three cookies. Yay! And she slowly sinks into her her armchair, her stained and malt-eaten on her Her body sinks down into it where you can tell that over years of use, the padding inside of this has become

matted and separated as the springs are worn and rusty. It creaks under the weight of her body as she settles in and she pulls her thin legs up off of the ground and tucks them under her body as she sits there her mouth agate the flies flying in and out as she watches you She'll occasionally pick up her teacup and with shaking hand, brings it to her lips. And as she pries back her lips, you can hear the cracking of her skin, her dried frog-like skin. And she takes the cup and just pours it into her mouth and one fell swoop and gulps it down before refilling it again. Please drink your tea and have your cookies. It will make you feel so much better. I'll take my teacup.

Torbek is such a good little boy. Oh, thank you. I want to smell the tea. What does it smell like? It smells like Bergamont. I'm not touching it. It is the rough It's the rough approximation of Earl Gregg.

There's fucking human teeth in my gums. Fuck. This old man's sweat. In the rim of a martyr. I'll have a little sip. It tastes like tea. There's a saucer of cream. A bowl of sugar cubes.

So, have you? been spending a couple days I think since we last chatted. You missed the dinner that we had the scheduled, but it's fine Lorna holds no crutch. The heroes of Downfall, the winners of the competition are clearly new celebrities in town and too busy to come up to a hot-in-him dinner with an old woman. To be fair, we lost the time. You lost time. How unfortunate. No, it would have come. I specialize in the finding of lost things like time.

Hmm. We forgot to beware the forest mushrooms lost our three days. I know. You should beware mushrooms of all kinds, especially here. How much time can you find? Depends on how much time you have lost. Torbeck's missing a considerable chunk! Then we should talk, Torbett.

Okay. Well, I mean, in terms of what? Like, you know, world history or, I don't know, current events? Have any kind of celebrity magazine subscriptions that you keep up to date on? We should talk about depressing issues at the head. Oh, World events. All that. What do you think, Jones?

Okay. The new government that was just installed seems to be doing pretty well. What do you think? I think they're doing a great job. Yes, their tax policy is sound. Why don't we ask Charm how she feels about the new events that are happening, Charm? I'm sorry she can't talk when she's dead. Well, oh, this took a turn. Good riddance.

Seems that you were upstairs exterminating a pest. Why don't we talk about those current events? Eat your cookies. All right. That's all the business between you. Jury is still out on if the transition from a heredital monarchy hereditary monarchy to a constitutional monarchy to a constitutional republic, who succeed without a drastic shifted culture for the bloody wugs.

I do you eat the cookie? I do that. You benefit from a long time. Eat your cookie. You look very, very sweaty. Damn it, those feel good. I'm full. Thank you. I stare at her.

And I don't drink the tea, I don't eat the cookie, but I'll put my hand on the teacup. and I start twisting it while I look at her, when I twist it counterclockwise. I just keep doing it. No! I'll figure out. I don't do anything but look at her and twist my teacup counterclockwise. She at this point doesn't seem to notice.

Oh, my God, I'm so much. You should eat the cookie, even if you are feeling a fool, it will make a little in the healthy boy. Do I notice what good names to me? Rule of perception check. I use this big boy. Oh, you know. That's really good.

You know what? Acceptable money is Derek. As Derek. As Derek might say. It's you guys. Yeah. I got it. I'm in your fucking head.

This role. This role is fair compensation. It's meaningfully important. All that to say. I get a 17. Yes, you are able to see what he's doing. You watch as he reaches towards the teapot. Having said that he was not hungry, you sense the anger. It seems strange to you that he'd reach towards the teapot with no intention to drink it.

And you see his hand rest atop the lid as he begins to spin it whitterships. Then I also turn to get a clock was. Can you remind me when Frost learned the Witter Shins information? I'm trying to recall exactly what that laid out. What do I mean? I just spent like five minutes not R-Ping going through my notes looking for the word Witter Shins and I did not write it down. It was the King of Hearts.

The King! It was the King of Heart? She's allergic. She's allergic to people walking Wittersheds. I couldn't remember who is sooner than that or Fitterson. Walking Wittersheds? Yes, so it's not just Wittershins in general. to people walking in Witteridgeons.

So if you were to stand up. But it does seem, it's a very threat, what you were doing is a very threatening move. Oh. Okay. That's for sure. It's a show of power. It's a show of power.

Okay. Seeing that, I will start to stir my tea in the same direction. I'm happy to go over the favors we've done out of the, you know, generosity of us. If I am thinking about this correctly that you have unclogged my drain. Yeah, yeah, yes we did. You have found my lily pet. You did?

Certainly did. You have disposed of the sneaking shadow that attempted to steal from me. It was... And in doing so... shed light on an individual sent by my sister to thwart me. Oh. For this wreaks of Indolin. Endlund, definitely sound like.

You think your sister sent this shadow that was snooping around? Who else works in shadows like Indolind? Scavifer, maybe. They're at her theater high in the mountains. Oh, the mountains, huh? You should add to your famous book. Play with shadows. her little scissors that will sneak the shadow from your very body.

What did you say about my book? I've heard a lot of great things about your book. I feel like you should add this transgression of that book. My book is missing. What? What do you know about the location of my book? In child, if I were you, I would not lie to me. Can you describe your book for me?

She roll a persuasion check. Beck begins to sweat. If I have an opportunity to send a message with my mind, I will start spinning fast. It's pretty good roll. Spinning it so fasters, it's pretty good. I'm going to play and go to you.

Just like we drew it out. It's 22. It is a book bound in human skin. It is large. And inside. inside in the beautiful script are written on mothal pages all of the grievances

I have against anyone didn't those darklings try to sell us that book that's exactly right we were visiting the you know now that you mentioned that that sounds awfully familiar

we uh we were looking around the shop with the big thunder cloud balloon that looked kind of like She did. The balloon, a charm arrived. I should have known the thunder clouds. The lightning, just like the lightning rods in yon. I think I saw a book that was big, it was colored in human skin.

Is there a chance that they stole? She pilfered my book when she came to have tea. She's been here every single day, telling me, varsity about my sisters getting on my good side. All the while, she rummages through Poverbaughanna's things to cake what does not be long to charm. And one of those things was my book. Should have known. If you want us to go down there right now, kill them and get your book back.

We're happy to do so. No, this is fine. Priplornah is capable of getting old book back. Well, man, it seems like you're not. sister's up to no good. She's stealing your boat. My sisters are always up to no good. Whether it be whether it be skeptical or whether it be Italy, it matters not. I'm sorry about all that. Family drama. It's tough to deal with some time. It's a little awkward. It's difficult being the only sister worth her lit in salt. This only got to deal with two of them.

Three, unfortunately. Oh, you have three? sisters. Is that right? Good, I thought we had heard that you have two sisters. We don't talk about the baby. The baby? Oh, younger sister. Last Child Syndrome sort of thing. Skibisa, however... Skibbiza. She is a thorn in your side now, as well as mine. You have done me a great service, times three, it seems. The bath, the book, and the bitch. Or the betrayer, maybe. Now, I like my work better.

Just to be fair, we also help make dinner. They'll have clear that beehive out. I don't know. It's all bees. The beehive may have been something she wanted to have around. Oh, we didn't be going to do. So it seems that if you are looking for help with your marionette problem, maybe let Mommy Lorna help you.

I'd be open to hearing what you could offer. with no guarantee that may then come to you know, agree with the terms. I could bring your little friend back for you. Stop spending the cup. What are you talking about?

I thought you said we'd have to go to Yon or wherever. Yes, you will have to go there if you would like to find out all of what's happened, but for the meantime, I could bring her back for you. Bring her back, how? Like, as some kind of

creepy one of these things you got to run around He learned, like, no, they do not contain the souls of the living or the former living. They are simply creations, like a warlock would create. I'm sorry, too close to home, but they're familiar, you see. They are like my familiars. I said sorry. So, theoretically, if a smash woman brains out with a giant metal boot, it's not like a thing, it's more just like a...

It is sentient and has spheres. but it has no soul, so once it is dead, it has nowhere to go. Like a Tomogachi. Tomahaguchi. Tom, who now? Tom from out? Tom the banjo player?

Everyone just went to the drawer where they left the Tamagotchi. It's just running out of battery. 14 poops on this side. It turns out the only emotion they can feel is fear and pain. It's abandoned motion. That's interesting.

No deal. It is not to say that there would not be issues. Something like this is difficulty, soul, coming back from the other side. She might be scared or weakened, but she would not be evil. She would not be different. She would be nothing other than quick as you knew her. So what you're saying is that the soul's current. and you can bring it back.

It is not inside the deep puppet. I am... I'm... I don't think so. But nothing would make me happier than for you to go to theater. And I could help you get there and give you the information that you need. All I require is one additional thing on top of what you've done for me already, because this is a difficult thing to bring back.

the bringing back of a life. Deep in the heart of Lomarch, a giant oak that has fallen onto the ground in the heart of fever. This tree is where my sister lives. And at the very heart is a circular room. A room with portraits of all of the sisters, Pavlona, Endelin, Skepitha, and Tha and Natasha. And in this room,

I would like for you to take my portrait wine and bring it back to me. I do not want my visage hanging inside of her home for her to do unknown and untold deception Smith. She should not look upon these beautiful days.

Oh, it's... Okay. never mind. Wait a minute, Tasha? Mm-hmm. Block that hot robot from the carnival? I remember the stancho. Is that what you're referring to?

Maybe Tasha's a common name. You know, tree by. You're talking about just that thing that sat outside of the, like, all the mirrors or so? It was like the first thing we did and walked in the carnival. We saw that little half-in' fella.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He saw the last one. and we looked over and it was like an overwhelmingly hot inanitasha. Oh, Turbank misses all the good stuff. Wasn't it just a statue in the robot? It was like, eh, I thought. Are you asking me?

Yeah, I'm asking you. Oh, if you're asking Nikki the DM, Derek. Yeah, it's like when you see those old carnivals and you're like Zoltan and it's like an animatronic, it was a I thought it was just a, I was born in 400-logged cabins. She moved like, for both frail grisle grisle grigler. Yes. I remember the robot now, although I didn't call it by that name at the time. That's your sister? She did a Wishlock Carnival?

As a robot stuck in the cage? I imagine it was sort of like an idol to Tasha. Topic it hand, he skimber and indolm. I don't think she wants to talk about Fult sister too much. Let's not push it, tennis. What do you think? Now it seems that Endlin sent this person here, this dead woman. You did not kill her, by the way.

Let your conscience remain clean. I did Blen on asking how you did it. May of my ways, but I will not sell your image of me by telling you. I look at the bottom of my deemps. he leaves, like, you see a grim. So I have my issues with Indlin. Who knows what part she has to play in all of this? But if you are looking for revenge for what happened to your little one,

it is scapeza. Scavitha. Who you need to seek. For it is her told that it has done this. their wicked ways. So you're saying you can bring Twigsie back. We go over there, take a portrait off the wall, get it back here.

It is all I ask. It is a simple bargain. I get what I want from a place I cannot go. And you get what you want from a place you cannot go. That's pretty cool. Gideon doesn't just for that reason. Oh, hell, I'm confused me. Oh, damn, man, that's not.

Hell, you want to get over. And that's it. There's no other strings attached. I've looked him. There are other strings attached. And. I offer you a deal that is this good only because you have already shown your kindness and support of Lorna. Yes, good.

We have. It is clear that you are friends and not false. Yes? No, absolutely. We are allies now. We happen to hell. Against my wicked sister. It's terrible.

Sist. You're not scabry. Oh, there's nothing worse. And I think that they stole a whole lot of other things. We should probably also get back from them, if you wouldn't mind. This charm has been here. here day after day. I have no doubt that the balloon is filled with my balloons. Do you have any plans for Charms' body? I don't know what I'm asking.

It doesn't matter. I'm just really creeped out. I will take her insides out and toss them into the swamp below. Oh. stuff her body, redress her in finery, that suits the type of woman that she was. And I will deliver her as a gift to her sisters when I take back my book. See, aren't you glad I asked? No. We have some business to finish up here and downfall.

It shouldn't take too long. But if you're willing to move us on along to Veda, we would certainly appreciate it. Do we have a deal? You will procure my portrait for me from Lundlurch? Deep within the heart of Cedar? Yes? So all we gotta do is steal one fucking portrait from a creepy hag? Now be careful. I have been kind to you.

I cannot promise my sister will be so nice. You are now friends of one of her most haze. of her most hated sisters. Well, no, clearly you're the good one. And so I'm sure the others are very little. This is true. Mm. What do you think?

That sounds easy enough, Mr. Crammie. I mean, if she can do what she says she can do. What the hell? Why the hell not? We gotta see that that'll work before we go all the way out there, though. She's got to show us something. something. Right now we got nothing. That's part of the deal, right? You're going to bring it back right now. I will bring her back to you right now. And all I do is steal the portrait. We have a deal. You will travel into the heart of Bloom Lurch and you will steal a portrait

for me, the portrait of me, and bring it back here. And in turn, I will return to you. I'll leave it up to you. Fine. We're going to do this thing for you. She reaches out her long hand. Take my hand, Gideon. We shake on it. Place her on the table. She clears off a bunch of things on the table, and she looks over Twig, and she begins to mutter words that you have never,

that you've never heard before. Even those of you that speak Sylvan do not understand the words that she's saying. It sounds like some guttural chant that comes from deep within her as she moves bits and parts of the body. And then she moves towards the hearth that sits in the corner of this room where you see a medium-sized cast-iron cauldron that's bubbling with a dark green, thick and viscous liquid. She takes a vial and fills it quickly. She jerkly moves back towards you, almost as if she's skipping. It's like if you could visually see a CD skipping is how she moves.

It's if in one moment she just disappears for a second and into another. It's horrific in its motion until she is over Twiggs body. And she tilts the jaw open and begins to pour the viscous liquid down into her throat. Breathe now, little one. Return to the one's love. You are commanding. You wait a moment, too. Nothing happens.

And then you see the arm begin to move. Oh, I'm so tired. And you watch as twig moves. But there is no twig body. It's the body of a marionette that moves before you.

As she moves her arm, you see the ropes slide off the table, and the wooden crosses clattered to the ground. The two blue roses that had formed where her eyes were, the wooden roses are still firmly fixed in place. I can't see anything. Why? Hey, I'm right here.

I got your glasses right here. Does she have eyes? No, where her eyes had been, two blue roses had grown up out of them. And they're wooden roses. part of the marionette facade, but there she has no eyes in her sockets. Oh, fuck. That means road blue roses mean nothing to me. Very peculiar. I take the glasses off my shirt and hesitantly, I go, here, try these.

You put them onto her and immediately hear, oh, that's so much better, hi, Gideon. Oh, hey, Twazie? How are you feeling? You still stare into the two blue roses, but apparently she can see you. A little still. Yeah, oh, well, you know how on these adventures always things are happening to us? Yeah, I took a nap. Where do you think she is right now? Well, man, she's kind of sitting right there.

What do you mean she's right behind you? Right behind you. You're a lovely guess of Babylon. How are you doing, Twig? What a do. No, no, no, no, no, hold on. I thought I do you have a third time she's still going to be here? She's going to be there.

Yeah, eat it. Eat a cookie? Can I have a cookie? They're pretty good. She reaches out with her jointed fingers, and you can hear all of the mechanisms

in her body moving. The metal piece is sliding against metal, the dragging of the ropes as she moves her hands forward, and she reaches out and grabs a cookie and she begins to chomp away at it, her wooden teeth, grinding up the pieces of cookie as she chomps it down and as she swallows, you see the bits of cookie just flying out of the sides of her jaw.

She has no stomach. There's nowhere for this to go, but she seems to enjoy it. Like crumbs are just... She's a cookie monster, right? Yeah. That was delicious. Oh my gosh. Oh. That was good, huh? Yeah.

How are you feeling? stiff. Oh, it's been a crazy day. I've really longed up and a super weird dream. Yeah, what was that? I don't remember it anymore. I just remember waking up going, well, it was a weird dream. And now I was freaking out because I couldn't see anything.

Well. I could hear someone breathing really heavily over me. Was that you? It's probably a torment, but. Oh. Oh. Oh, this hot debate has made me so hot. Oh, I'm not.

to cool down with a popsicle. Do you mind? And I'll like, all screens, scoge out my chair. Do you mind if I go check for popsicles of sea cucumber rubber, rectangle trousers? What are you trying to ask me? He would like to go in the kitchen. Oh, you should not leave this room until we are finished. Just to, just, oh, I need a popsicle though. You will wait for popsicle. Okay.

I have done what you asked. I brought Twig back. You did, I see that. Yeah, yeah. You said as we knew her, when she's currently made a wood. Well, from a certain point of view. She didn't say from a certain point of view, man. She just said she bring her back as we knew her.

And personality-wise, she's exactly the same. I mean, that's, you've got a fair point. The spark that is twig resides inside this little. The wooden girl. And the soul's the most important part, isn't it, right fellas? I'm glaring it, crummy. Oh, great job! Thank you so much!

So now, we must talk about what will happen next. Do you know how you will get into theater? Do you have plans? We have a few ideas. We'll not go on the front door, probably. The prismia does not quite work that way. You have to have a guide to get you into Caesar, and not many know the way. There was a creature once.

It was a little scarecrow. I cannot remember its name. We did wonder here from Cedar if you could find the little scarecrow. Oh. Maybe they could attack you. We will seek out this scarecrow. We will keep an eye out for that. That was going to be you.

suggestion of how you get us there was finally scared crow child yes one one more thing of delicious tropical punch cookies that are great yes may I ask something we're gonna do such a great grand quest for you can you throw in one more thing most likely not as we are this show and I've already done my part, but you may ask, little green one. The name of the goblin currently known is Jingle Jangle. Yes. And like not having a bewitching obsession with keys.

She's just had a rough go of it. You know what I mean? And you know, I feel like she's had enough. You know what I mean? You got that long around. I don't know what you're asking. You're telling me things I already know. You're not asking a favor. Could you like just, you know, give it back, give her back a name, give it back her old life? The old life where she was horribly afraid of being locked behind the doors.

Well, she lived in fear every single day of her life. She was miserable and sad and she came to Lorna for help. You want me to undo what has been done? You want me to bring back the fear. You know, this is one of those from a certain point of view situation, isn't it? I was just, I was checking. I was just, I was just checking. That's all, I just thought of it.

Oh boy, gosh, we can all go for a popsicle right now, right now. Oh, it's a little hard in here, we could all cool off. Well, Aqualove for sure. Yeah. Take up any more of your time. We can certainly find... Hot tea, cold popsicles.

That you believe that you have everything you need to succeed, you know how to thwart my sister, what our witnesses are. And by all means, please. Oh, no, no. I mean, if you have that information, please. Any information at all

that you're willing to share to defeat your terrible sister, that would be, that would be fantastic. You seem like you're in a rush to get popsicles, so I would not want to hold you behind. I mean, I could just go and get popsicles for everybody. I mean, I don't mind making a popsicle run. Whenever everyone's, whenever anyone's like, hey, we need a popsicle. I was like, oh, that's me, Gricko, they call me the Popsicle guys.

So I could just, I can just jet. All the time we say that. Yeah, right, Frosty, yeah. I'm Mr. Popsicle. It really is always talking about popsicles. Yeah. Almost of the time. They're just very nice on a refreshing. I will give you one more thing

before you live because I do wish for you to succeed I would not have made this deal had I not Torbeck have another cookie and she passes you another cookie Okay Crum-com Good boy

Crum's also flying very much like when Twig ate the cookie Skibbeth a nightshade is the hag of the past She deals with those Who are haunted by it Wanted by regret? Gabitha is a good liar, much better than the rest. She does not wear her heart on her sleeve, like Lorna does.

She is part toy, and lodged in her back is a key. The motion of the key will tell you her true feelings. That is all I can give you the rest you will have to discover on your own. But notice the key in her back, or it will let you know if she means, what she says she means. For I have no doubt to get to the portrait, you will have to talk to her. And under no circumstances, will you let her know that I sent you? Do you understand? Torbeck have another cookie.

Okay! No, no, no. No. No. Do you saw I'm clear. This is scap with the night. Scabbit. Scabbit.

Sorry. That's right. Plan it to have a good. All right. I mean, anything else? I mean, you know, things we should know about Vila, a Lumer, to the tree, or anything else. If you would like to stay the night,

I have a guest room. You are welcome to sleep. No, no. We got something. I will be spending most. We already paid for the night when we're going to stay. I would be spending most of the night. night in my bed, but you are welcome to use my home. And even if you find yourselves looking

for a night of rest, come join me. It will be lovely. Oh, no, we had a big tropical crunch cookie earlier, so we're just, mm, you know. You just invited the five of us to your bed? To my guest bedroom. Oh, yes. Okay, I just, it sounds, okay. I misread that. I'm sorry, that's awful. Firstly, what the fuck? Was that your car? I'm just a good thing.

Oh, that's thinking wishful. I just have one question. You said we gotta get over there, we gotta get the portrait, we're definitely gonna have to talk to her. Not gonna let us just take it off the wall and walk out of there. What if we have to deal with him?

What if we have to? I would take the time to think about what you could offer someone like Skippy Thun. Or she will be like me. and she will want a deal but you don't want to lose in this deal. I gave you a good deal because you had already shown your loyalty and your honor. Well- you cannot do that for Skebiza. For you belong to me now. You are my loyal friends, not skebizabeth. I'm a certain part of you.

Dormack means... Have another cookie. Okay. Torback means we can just get close to the portrait. Mr. Krami has said in several different contexts that Torbeck has sticky fingers. That is true.

We'll get the portrait no way. Get the portrait, no problem. I don't have any concerns about that. But, you know, while we're here, before we leave, I just want to put in a good word for the chef. I mean, Bloody Toes is doing a great job. She makes a mean student. She's amazing.

She's really the best. You know, if you, you know, I have a budget for. There is a reason I have kept her around and have not gotten rid of the little thing. She deserves a raise. I mean, you got it. She does not get paid. She is really nice freckles.

I've not seen. Well, maybe you should look sometime. You should also let her go. We need her help. No, I need a chef. You have had enough. We know the best, second best chef. In downfall, his name is Pierre.

And he would love to trade places with bloody toes. I talk to him. I talk to him. I talk to him. after the show. Oh, no. And after he survives, a five-star is a five-star problem.

This is awful. After he survived, after he survived his being accident. This dude's life is just gone from bad to worse. I'm a picture of Bavlona sitting down next to a hospital bed and he turns like two-faced from- Oh my God. Presuasion.

Yep. I can't believe you're doing this to this guy, Mike. 19. About east little bully line. I'm sorry. He was the one that was harmed in the competition. Yes, and that's the only reason why he lost.

He's a master chef. He cooked for the king himself. It doesn't get much better. Why have old bloody toes with her nice freckles and everything else? You don't need... You can have... She's cutting up vultures.

He will... He'll feed you the finest... Beasel berries. Beasel berries. And the... The most of the... succulent, what did not people? Frongley. Froglet. Froglet.

Froglet. Froglet. Froglai. Fraglay. Cavia. Oh, caviar. Faves. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And a suflea. And breakfast. And the coral fish. And much coral fish stew as you could possibly eat. So. I will have a word with the king. And you can just. If I can make a trade, bloody toes for Pierre, I will do so.

for you all right. I am the Lord of Lightstrel. And I deserve the best chef. And the best. And Pierre, let me tell you, he's good. He's real good. He'll make a very small portion of something, and then he'll put a really thin, long chive

right on the top, just balanced perfectly. You'll love it. That sounds delicious. We saw him try to serve foam. I'm speaking in Torbeck's mind as we're all trying to keep the mood light and doing whatever we're doing. Dormick, if you're offered another cookie, no, I'm whispering in your mind. Don't react. I've done this few before. All right.

If you're offered another cookie, don't take it. Do not take the next cookie. You've had seven. Torbeck have another course. Okay. Don't do it. Don't do it. You're full.

You're full. You can't. This one has extra frosting on it for you, Thorback. No, no, no. Okay! Oh, that one was free. I can tell. You look a little heated and flushed.

I need to cool off a nice popsicle. Oh, that's going down. That Dormex's going to be honest. I'll be it like we all need to cool off of a Popsicle. Well, it's that time. the old dusty trail. Thanks for having us, Madalana, and we'll give you that portrait, lickety-quick. Now, if you want to get me a second portrait, we could talk about another deal. Oh, all right. Well, we're going to be in the area. I mean, what about stuff that...

Seversa has had my portrait for too long. I would like to have hers as well. you said you lost days if I give you three days back will you get me the portrait I see it could you throw in

the color of my eyes and kids ability to dance and false a few and a hundred thousand gold pieces everything else no

I don't like that this is a pretty good one I didn't I didn't trade for anything Everything else that was stolen by those terrible minions of Scabify, please. Yeah, we were scammed too. We were scammed. And- And-

I cannot do that. You have made a deal with them. Give us Torbeck's years back. I could make... You don't have years? No, I think... No, I think... No, years.

They hate Torbeck. They're getting in years. Time. It's so hard to tell between all the method first. I can make a sum of a lot. I can make one deal per portrait, and I only want one. Do you want your days back?

Or do you want your debts? You can choose. Oh, but dang, it's easy. I don't care about the days. Well, hold on. Why don't we get everything that we lost five things? She scammed us. She said she's not doing it. She said she's doing one thing.

For clarification, didn't Frost give up something with fear. Mm-hmm. Oh. Oh, that's right. That's right. Just so you're not missing out on potentially getting something back, not to stir the pot over here.

Don't mind me. It was something emotional so he doesn't care. It's not a trophy. It's not a to- fear or something that could be wrong. Oh, mine door back. Mine door back. Yeah, it was abstract, an ounce of fear.

Thank you, chap. And it was something you were really afraid of. And you weren't afraid of it anymore, which is kind of nice. Uh, what if we say everything that was scammed with by bubble, charm, and trinket? I remember the names. Vile minions of scam, if I'll get you over the other portrait. I feel like it's a nice package, you know? And you do not want your days back, and you do not want his years.

back. Well, I mean, what is him getting his years back? What does that look like? Mm. Long and painful process. Yeah. That's probably fine, right? DORMEC is out. That's gonna be an O from Big Torbeck. Bodacious D's saying no.

Oh, come on, Big Brown. Yeah, Big Brown, come on. Tormec's pretty happy where Tormec is right now. Torbeck's not ready to reopen those ones. Well, it's your call, I guess. I just thought you'd want to crack the mystery of what's going on with you. But if we say, oh, he gets his years back,

and then he gets slooped away to whatever, you know, horrible lateral floor experimented on him, then that's no good. I don't think we need to entertain any more deals. As kind as your offer is, Bavlorna, and as important as those things that we've created away are, we don't want to find out that we are similar to our lovely twig here in a half-measure sort of way, and it becomes a twisted

monkey's paw and a nightmare. You know what I'm saying? You're saying you're not smart enough to make a deal without any strings attached. It's pretty funny. I think we've all Had a lot happened today. We're all a little hot during this heat wave. Why don't we all just cool down with a nice popsicle? It's all I'm going to say.

It is time for Mommy Lorna to make her way to her bath. My cracking skin is in desperate need of lubrication. Yeah. So I will take my leave of my new friends, and I will see you again with portrait in tall That's perfect Well, should we

I mean, I'm happy to exchange the three days for the portrait I think that's totally fair What do you think though? The second portrait You will do? Absolutely Then we have a deal

Wow, well hang on man She reaches her She reaches her hand out to shake your hands It's a frosty What if it's like three days from your childhood You're just a deal You're gonna be filled with regret If you make this deal

Making deals is fun. I'm not, I'm not... You're a little addicted to making deals, man. Just one more. We did okay with twigs. He just, oh, I'll push the chips across the table. I'm not in. I don't agree.

Whoa. Big words for... Salapultus for them. You all have stops to say to me. He's right. Do whatever you like. Frumstee is wrong. I'm not interested. He's kind of a sound. He's a sourpuss, but he's right on this one.

But he's a sourpuss for good reason this time, finally. All right. I am willing to be overruled on this one. Don't y'all forget it. Torbeck is so happy. It didn't come down to a timebreaker. Torbeck was really worried for a second there. You can really remember this, but it's not like you're doing us a favor not making this deal. We all are in this together.

I'm saying if we went out of town, I'm gonna say, I told you so. Please go moisture ice. We said I will take my leave. It was a pleasure having you all over for tea. Especially you, Charm. And she begins to once again the jerky movement that seems to almost whip through time and space. You watch as she makes her way towards the spiral staircase, or towards a spiral staircase that leads somewhere down beneath her. Oh boy, I can't wait to get a popsicle. I sprint to

the kitchen. As I see Grego sprint away, I look real quick to see if there are any cookies left. There are four cookies left. And then to Rebecca will follow after. And you all make your way towards the kitchens? Come on, Twagsy. Let's go get a pops. Okay. Hey, get in. Yeah.

Come on right on your back. Yeah, come on up here. She sits on your back. Four of these. Oh, what are you talking about? How come I made of wood? Oh, well, I'm not going to sugar. with this.

You died. We dealt with a hag, and now you're made a wood, and that's kind of the whole thing. I thought it was maybe I had an old man. Was it in a rule of space filled with gold and a bunch of stuff

and Cremies's dirt old hat? Well, I mean, you know, yeah, you were in a room. You were filled with, you know, it's filled with gold. I think some kind of cube. Grimmie's hat.

Yeah. My band, like if it was on the ground, maybe. Yeah. So here's the thing. I just, I kind of want everyone to look at me. And she waits until the rest of you leave the room. It's just the two of you in there and maybe crummy. Yeah, I, go, here's the thing.

I just kind of want everyone to look at me and go, good job, Twick. You did something really cool. And we really appreciated. And I really felt that way until I couldn't breathe. And I thought, okay, well, just get out. And then I thought, oops. And that was kind of the last. thing I thought about outside of

and Gideon, don't tell anyone else this, okay? To me as well, I'm not going to tell anybody else, but you've been doing really cool stuff this whole time. Thanks. Remember when we almost all died on the braves and then you shot everybody in the crotch and killed like four people and for whatever reason? You got them clean the half right at the

Jimmy John, you know? That's when you guys told me that was a war criminal. That was so fucking cool. Yeah, you're a war criminal. You're a goddamn war pig, you know what I mean? You just blah, blah, blah, man, we're throwing punches. The rabbit was movement. He was zipping and diving and dodger.

I could touch him. You were just in the back, everybody was dead. She started to like waving her arms around and keep getting hit in the side of the head with the handles of her, handles of puppeteering. Yeah, and remember that other time you, like that for home? Oh, yeah, I remember lots of times. Like, fox, I don't have a tongue anymore.

So We'll figure that out Guess you can't do that no more Anyway, the last thing I thought of And you can't tell anyone This was I love you guys And that

You know, at least for a while It just felt really nice To be part of something, you know? Something bigger than a twig Twig. But guess what? What? Now I'm not even twig no more.

Well, you're kind of even more Twig like this. I know. Now a lumber. Now my name's Lumber Toad Spring. No, it's not. It's still twig. Well, yeah, I think that's fair.

I wasn't going to say it, but when you said it initially, I was on that corner. I thought it sounded really cool in my head, then said it out loud and thought, nope. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue. It's not like Twigs. It's got a certain, like, thing. Yeah, you can't call me Lumsy. That feels weird. It feels definitely weird, you know.

It has certain connotations. I'm not sure what they are, but it just feels like it has certain connotations. Lomsy I don't know Who has that Yeah I don't know how all of this happened But thanks for putting me

Back into I don't know The world I guess Yeah I mean It's no big deal That's what you do for family You know I would have done it for

Crammy I would have done it for Frosty I would have done it for Little Green I want to done it for You know Big Tuna

I would have done it for Are we missing somebody? What do you mean? I don't know. I mean, I would have done it for like jingle-dangle or that would you think. Maybe it was what I was thinking. Oh, what about the king? No, the eating's kind of a little weird.

Oh, maybe Snappled 2. Oh, yeah. Pretty cute. I love crocodiles snoo. Yeah, snapletooth. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I would have made certain deals for a snapple to.

I mean, definitely not more ago. I mean, she was depressed. Hey, everybody. Yeah, I think we're really checked the box. Oh, I know exactly who you're talking about. I can't believe I forgot Hootsie. I would have done for Hootsie in a heartbeat. Are you kidding me right now?

I can't believe you almost forgot. I haven't eaten bopsicles kind of this whole time. It's been a lot of stuff going on. It's weird. How could you ever forget her? I know. I mean, she smells kind of great. You know, I don't even think she smells weird.

Yeah. It was kind of weird memory. I can't smell anymore. Yeah. I'm made wood. Yeah. Boy, you can't smell anymore? Nope.

Ain't smelling nothing. Well, that's gonna help out here because it smells like shit. Torback! Damn it! Torback! That's where I was missed. Some part, tourbeck's like, ah, dormant senses and normality.

You know what I also realized? Not only can I not smell. And then you could walk into the kitchen. And as you make your way into the kitchen, It is loud in here. You see that Hootsie is absolutely annihilating an entire bowl of food scraps. She's got rats and vulture parts

and coral fish bodies. You can see that there is an array of meat to try to. She is just, that she is just. I will just lunge forward and just like, almost like tackled. You're gonna make your way back into my kitchen, and trail your mess about. You better have been bringing me

some of them lornalings to destroy. Oh, thank you. I have such good news besides Hootsie being okay. Did Arity do you? Of course she was okay. What do you think I was going to do?

Make an Albert or something? Oh, I'm not a complete to do that. Oh, I don't know. This is the best day of my life. I was so worried. Hootsey. I thought you were going to be turned into some sort of horrible

like a half-stitched miniature war game. Do I remember that Gideon still has a pot on his back that's filled with two lornlings and a dead lornelling? Oh, did I see bloody toes take good care of you? See, gosh, you're all you're working... I was sitting like this at the D-D-D-Rae. Yeah, it's outrageous. And bloody-toes.

You're just like, don't equip it in here in Victoria. Miss Toes, I have such great news for you, too. Thank you so much for taking gear of Hootie and finding the C-C cucumber, rubber, rectangle, trousers, popsicles. Not quite sure what you're talking about. But... And we've got to get you. We got you a new job. You're out of here. What you mean to match? You're out of here. You're going to go walking the castle. Don't play games with Mom. No, no, no. I promise. I promise. You're going to get out of here. You're going to live in a castle. It's going to be great. Some shitty gardener Pierre is going to take your place. Yeah. And he's going to be the one who's changed. I'm not under the heel of that

Hagel. No. Ever. No. And we were... Those little frog fuchs to kill. No, those little fox. Oh, and Gideon's bringing you little frog fuchs.

I mean, one of them's already, Dan. But you got two to smash. I'm talking about the Lorne Lims. My favorite thing to do before I got here was to kill Bollywugs. I'm finally going to get to smash the heads in night after night after night. Oh, we know.

Yay! You don't need to tell us any of that. You know, no, no, no. I have a thirst for blood, and it sounds like they're saking it. No, you keep that inside. She walks towards you and grabbed your hands. I think you and I are a kindred spirit. You have a deep-seated hatred inside of us in a lust for killing.

You were unlike anything I've ever met. And if I had to have romantic bone in my body, I'd smooch you right now. Oh, no, that's too far. So I won't. I'm kind of busy being a single dad is kind of a full-time job, and I'm having a wild adventure. I just wanted to know that the sentiment was there, even if I'm not going to go ahead.

Oh, no, I appreciate it. I really appreciate you. You're very nice freckles, I will admit. But I mean, we all have thoughts that we think of that we would never plan on acting out. I talk about most of my thoughts, because 99% of them are about killing. And we obviously don't act on those.

What you're saying is true. If what you're saying is true, this means that I'm going to be able to wet my cap every single night for the rest of my life from a certain point of view say psych right now I'm sorry, say it! Well, Gideon leave the pot I don't know if you're here yet Oh, hey everybody, what have we been talking about?

Oh no, no, we were just going... We were just going... We were just talking about how did bully words? It's going to be fun! We've overfroned their totalitarian heredital remarkable monarchy, and we've established a constitutional republic, and everything is going to be fine. Well, that's fantastic. I mean, you know, I stepped in here thinking that we were going to mess things up, but everything we put our hands on is going to be in just uniformly positive direction. Oh, you're right.

It's just another common W for us. Yeah, you know, I was really believing we weren't here. weren't heroes, you know? Now I'm kind of fagin, like, maybe we are heroes. We're doing a lot of road stuff, guys. Yeah. Yeah. So, Miss Toast, it was very nice seeing you. I'm sure we'll exchange letters at some point. Enjoy your new job. You don't need to tell us about it. You're nothing.

Make sure to send you letters. Oh, yeah, you can do that if you wanted to. I'm a great pen pal. Yeah, I mean, I don't know where I'm gonna be. Life on the road, single dad, full-tonged dog. There are fake creatures that will be able to find you no matter where you are, what the kind of existence you find yourself on. Oh, no.

For the rest of our lives, I'll make sure that we're in constant contact. For you've done something, you've done a great thing for me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, no. Now, as we take a look at the Lornellans

to make sure that they live up to the deal. Oh, yeah. what she needed to be told. There you go. Here's this giant pot for squishing Lauren lens. If that's your one, I'm going to go eat a pops. She opens it. You see a big grin stretch across her face as she closes it.

Those will be for later in my alone time. Oh, that's cool. We all have hobbies we like to do. Our friend is dead and hit. We're going to take this last box. Did you not want the my part of?

of the deal. You brought me the Lornellins and I was going to give you information about Beaufortable light straw that would help you. Oh, I don't really. Yeah, I mean, sure. Yeah, yeah, we'll tell you. It's been a crazy day. Right.

Well, I never, I never forego on my end of a deal, so I'll tell you, but Vornah has one weakness. She's allergic to saying anyone run Wittershins. That's counterclockwise. Oh. Hear her. Such a sight causes her causes the hag to sneeze uncontrollably. And she can't function.

Okay. That's all. Okay. Okay. Well. That's not something he would have been able to find out for anyone who lives here. Let me know. So we're really lucky for you that you followed through on the end of the deal or you'd never have that information.

I know this wasn't part of the deal, but are there any burritos in this tent? You're going to have a hard time finding a burrito in this place. That's what I thought. Well, um, thank you for the critical information. We are going to file that away is important. We'll circle back to that. Enjoy your job.

You were a good friend. We'll take these popsicles and the hot to go. And I think it's about time we hit the old dusty trail, big red. This was lovely to meet you. I hope that you have safe travels. And if we

ever see each other again, just know that Though I don't have friends, you're the closest thing to it. Thank you. I have friends starts to kill you on sites. Thank you, Miss Toes. Yeah, thank you, Miss Toes. It's been a pleasure. Do you have any bird feathers for the road?

There's an entire basket by the door. Oh, thank you. Just a touch before we go. Nice move, a little roadie, Mr. Torbeck. Torbeck is ready. Okay. How do we get the fuck out of here? It's jump.

I should fly at it. Is there a basket? I went to go out onto the patio, or onto the landon with the stairs, and it looks like they've completely blown away. Your only chance is going to be taking the, yeah, the stairwell downstairs to the bathing room and out the front door. Well, a bathing room is occupied, and I'd prefer not to see that again, so... Why don't we all take wing and fly?

Should we use one of our monarch charm uses? We only have free, free. Each. Well? Yeah, but I mean, this seems like a waste to walk out the front door. Well, what if we, uh, wasn't his name? Isn't there like a giant cable that runs to the ground?

Oh. You can zip on down there? Yeah, maybe I'll like swing the chains over them. Everyone hangs on, and we just kind of like, zip towards the ground. I could lily pad. So to get to one of those, you're going to need to need to take the stairwell downstairs and go through the bathing room and head out to the front lawn where you'll be able to take one of the wires back down to downfall. We just go real quick. How bad could it be?

Nobody look. I swear to you, it is unlike anything you've ever seen. We'll go quick. We'll come. We'll seal our eyes. You can move quickly. Can you use Lily Padd us down one at a time? That's probably for the best. I don't think that you want to see what I've seen. Well, no, I'm just to the second, to the next floor. I think we just walked down the fucking stairs. Fair enough. Yeah, let's walk out.

No, don't follow me. Don't, I just kind of, oh. I felt like I was picking on a vibe. Was I totally way off on that? I mean, you know, I don't know. Oh, gross. Like invitation by omission. Yeah.

Didn't she literally just say like, oh, there's a bedroom and maybe I was just just, even know how to close that person. Horrified by sitting next to that charm creature. Trusty, I mean, I would normally, I mean, normally I would question you because you would try to fuck a swan boat. Yes, I feel like I'm very good at picking up on clues. But this time you might be right. Did you? Well, Miss Ito's, it's been a pleasure.

I'll call you, whatever we may be. You can go ahead and get out of my kitchen now for all of cooking to do. Okay. Good back. We got the heart, we got the skull. Okay, goodbye. Do you go down the stairs? You make your way down and you're down the stairs.

And you enter out into the room. You can hear the sounds of splashing as Babylona and the lornellings. Very many lornelings splash about in the pool. None of them, well, none of them seem to notice you. Or if they do, they don't seem to care. as Bavlornna baths. I would say, for the sake of it,

one of you does get a little curious and looks. Bevlorna is dressed in a bathing gown and is not, she's not nude, but you can see that her skin is no longer cracked, but has the subtle, wet sheen of a frog. And she looks,

happier and younger as she bades in this water. Mickey and Pictoreback, I was gonna ask if I could roll regurgitate every cookie that I saw all the feathers and everything. But getting in offer, so we're good. We're good. I just wanted to let you know what would have happened. You know what they say?

Any lily pad in the swamp. Yeah. And you were able to make your way outside without fucking a hag. You know, once you please, luckily we don't have a bar. Yes, that is fortunate. I'm covering Hootzie's eyes.

And you are able to make your way outside. The wind is picking up here, but you do see the single clothesline that stretches all the way down to downfall. There is no bucket like there had been when you'd come up. You remember that that head made its way back down to the base after you had vacated its premises. But it is there if you can find some means of taking it. Hey, weird guys. You still down there? Try taking the rope.

There must be a way to call the bucket. Hey, no, I just thought maybe, you know, like, I just thought, no reason, no reason. I just thought, you know, maybe they'd hear it. I don't know. It's very trainee. Are you fucking kidding me? What? It actually takes a while, but it seems.

like it works. It's eventually out of the clouds, you don't see a bucket begin to move up the wire. I work. I do it. Nice job.

Well, you know, sometimes you just got to get him a little bit of the old tug. Dolly know it. Well, here we go, everybody. The bucket's up. We just pile on it. Head down.

Wow. Let's go find. Clapper. Claw. Clap of clob. And That depressing guy. Yes, yes.

Let's make that as brief as possible. Do we have to? I forgot about that guy. Maybe we can go in the middle of the night and just like leave his heart of the doorstep and leave so we don't have to see how it works out. Oh man, he's got the right idea. I hate that guy.

You all say this as you embark upon your journey, down from Valvornna's hut. You had made your way to this place with the expectation that leaving it, there would be one less hag in the paper world. And yet, somehow, you were leaving it

with your very best friend in puppet form, having just suffered a horrific death and a deal with this hag, now aligned with her in some way against her sisters. And how this will fare for you, it's hard to

hell. As you all take most of this ride in silence, thinking about the events that have unfolded, what is laid out ahead of you. And you do eventually arrive at the platform, the tower, at the base of this rope. And there are no bullywugs to be seen. Whoever sent this bucket up toward the house is no longer present, but you're able to disembark and make your way wherever it is that you choose to go within town. All right. Leave the way... That really got out of hat.

I'm just going to say it. That escalated quickly. Dormac found a grenade. What? Hey, what'd you put that hard in, by the way? Oh. I put in my heart in, by the way. pocket. It's got a hootsy hair. I don't feel like that's, uh, that's gonna work. You didn't

leave it in the box? Yeah, didn't last time I'm turning into a Grico soon? Yeah. She will have picturing and deliver things to people? Hell yeah. Can Vige, do you take the heart? Yeah, I'll wrap it up in a box or some. Oh, that would be amazing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think for the sake of brevity, we might as well just do it that way. What do you think? Yeah, I think that's great. Yeah, yeah. What is you picture in your look like now? Well, I don't know. I haven't seen her say, woke up. I'd need like 10 minutes.

We could take 10 minutes. Yeah. Can I even do it? Do I even have affiliaries anymore? What if I'm just a wooden twig? Oh. Oh, no. Are there any wildlife around?

Yeah. Squirrels. Swarm squirrels. Why try blowing up that squirrel over there? I would never. You can pick any target and try to blow it up. It doesn't even be a live thing. Perhaps that's-

Or that possum over there. What do you think? I like possums. Wait a minute. Who's that in that boat playing the fiddle? Is that Jeremy? You get your Jeremy? Oh, you want me to shoot it?

That's a potato over there? Yeah, he's way too big and photo realistic for a fantasy adventure. I don't like bugs. And you want to buy in the next. You sure? Yeah, take him out. Take the shot, Twigsie.

Sing them. Twigsie, sing them. The natural 20. Oh, Jeremy. With the natural 20, twig begins to channel our magic, and at first you see nothing. But eventually, you do see the swirling

green magics that twig has always channeled. The swampy, murky magics that she twirls beneath her hands as she shoots out this blast of Eldrish magic, or in her case, Faye magic. And you watch as the splinters of the boat fly up into the air, and Jeremy says, finally alone. Where I can play my music best.

as I went down to the fucking bitch Go! Crutch, too. How is that better than the squirrel? Oh. Oh, he's not Witterspins anymore. Yeah.

No, he's shitterwins now. I saw right before it hit he had those brown pants on. You're like unzipped his caribus. You see a A fiddle floating in the water. Oh, there it is. Oh, there it is.

Oh, gosh. Oh, Mrs. Jeremy's going to be so upset. Oh, I don't think that was. Oh, Mrs. Jeremy. Give me the guy's got a date in 30 years. He was just married to his music and his swear words. He didn't have any personality at all. He's a mean old bastard.

Oh. Well, I feel like we've come full circle. I feel like we really got me. Okay, by the way, here's a pig, Tudia. Look, she's a stuffed. As opposed to a real pig. She's not stuffed in the house. Yeah, she's a stuffed pig.

But don't cut her up and cause your stuff means gonna fall out and then I have to summon her again. Hey, Cooney, are you able to deliver these things to the people that we don't want to RP in a meeting? So, wait, so you want me? Oh, yeah, speaking of not having to RP with people you don't want to have to RP with. Yeah.

I could deliver that skull or a clapper claw because guess what? I know how to get to thither because of my inn. Yeah. That would be so narratively convenient. That's really clear. That's really clean. I couldn't take you there the day that we met if you just asked me nicely. Did we not?

It would like the first words out of our mouth. Like, hey, we're trying to get to thither. I'm distracted by sober and destroyed my inn. So, me, broken. To be fair, I hold equal blame is tallback for destroying your end or transformed into a zug-z-z-z-z-w. That's true if you were with that. I zugged, I zugged and I zugged. You destroyed that T-Cap, but I'll keep going at it, yeah.

Lockedaro God. I'm sure that we don't want to talk to Clamper Gwai. I feel like I had many questions about Gahanna, especially, and I feel like there's a whole war dump that we met. Clappercloth is like the one NBC I did want to tell you. I have a feeling. We'll see Clapper Claw again in the future. Bap, blah, Bap, blah.

Blah. Clap Claus sitting with dangling feet out off of a dock and Samuel Jackson walks. It says hyper-realistic Samuel Jackson. Oh, God. Screen, screen, man. All right. Right, well, this all seems like a very tidy, to be completely honest.

Yeah, it makes it really narratively convenient for the god of the world. Yeah, I mean, it's already been 42 sessions, if you can count it in that, and we're only in the first world. And I read a story once where someone did this with their group in five sessions. Is that true? That's impossible. I don't know you a helpbook. Well, okay, Big Tunea, here's a giant.

Stagg's skull, and he is a beating heart that's very cold. You got that? You got that? Looks like she's got it. Do we just have to send her on her way? Well... Is there anything else we need to do? No. The day just went really well. I mean, everything just kind of came up Torback. There's no way this could ever go wrong or end on a cliffhanger.

I agree. Perhaps could we send Pigtonia after she delivers the gifts to grab the small crocodile that's owned by the king? Or is that right out? I mean, I feel like that. We'd have to R.P. And then that wouldn't be narrowed to the cane anymore. Snail number two. You've been waiting this whole time. There's snoodle on your bag.

Snail number two. Okay, we're going to go on an adventure, but you're too big, so I'm going to grab this saddle. It's like Mario getting damage. He turns real small, and I'll just pick them up. Okay. You can sit on my shoulder. Right. Does that happen?

No. No. Oh. Uh, very quickly, should we go and kill Pierre so that bloody toes to What the hell why did you kill Piero? Because, because then there will be no one to replace Bloody Toes and she won't go on a killing spree, probably ending most of downfall. Why would she do that? Because she's a murderer. You didn't hear her before you came back, but Bloody Toes is a fan of kill.

killing Bullywugs. It's all she's going to do when she comes out. Oh, man. What are the chances? This is a very interesting place for her to be. I'll do it if we can do it in a West Anderson-style, fantastic Mr. Fox comical high scene where we put on silly mass and we sneak in and we brutally kill chickens, right? But instead of chickens, it'll be Pierre. I remember we'll have a wacky, comical escape. Can we have a quick Pierre-killing montage?

like to do? Torbeck's not so sure. Torbick ate a lot of cookies. And I'm standing there, like, huffing. There's, like, there's colorful ice cream stains running down out of dumbballs.

I fall in. I also just a little bag of popsicles. I don't think I'm up for a highest. The color palette starts getting really warm. All of a sudden, we're in a perfectly straight line or symmetrical. Yeah. We're a full-out scheme. Oh, God.

We don't do that. We don't. Instead, we. You send the gifts out to coral hearts, right? To coral hearts, Ray, and to Clapper Claw. And you know that you don't need to wait for Pig Tuna, that Pig Tuna will find you. But you do have a choice to me. Do you stay another night in downfall or do you begin your journey to thither now?

I'm going to waste a lot time. A lot of nights. We know. We only have limited days left to do what we need to do for the King of Parks. We made a deal. And we've been making a lot of those and I'd like to keep all of our promises. Also, can I just say, it feels like we're really, like we're doing well. I feel good about what does happen.

But does anyone else have the feeling at all that we just keep kicking the can down the road where we got into this mess for making a bad deal with Mr. Guru? And so to help us with our deal with Mr. Guru, we make the deal with the King of Hearts. And then that gets all fucked up. And then to help it with our deal with the King of Heart, we make the deal with Beauvolna. I feel like we're in like a multi-level marketing scheme. Don't forget the deal you made with Madrick Roslov. Oh, the deal with Maddox Roslo!

to do with Mr. Guru, and then to deal with magic glass, love is the king of hearts, and then the whole king of heart, it's Bavlona. When does it end? I tried to end it with Bavlornna. We were talking about removing, ending all of our various deals with the darklings.

We could have gotten 100,000 gold and just been on our merry fucking way. They don't deal on gold pieces, E Frost. That's not their style. I don't know, Babylon would probably have... It's like... The ability to conjure gold is... I don't know.

It's like we're in a multi-level marketing scheme. It's like when Neil hit me up and wanted to hang out and talk about chocolate bars. I hadn't seen them, and I'm like, oh, don't be nice to get it up with Neil. And it was like, oh, that's a great business opportunity. Don't you want to hustle and get rich? You can get a car. Any second deal we did with that. That's awful.

That would have ended in more twistery. It also sounds like we'll have to avoid a deal with scabbat. Before we steal the paintings back. Maybe that one we can kill here. Yeah, well, I really need it. I need some kind of outlet. We can kill her the crazy fucking. We'll kill her first, and then we'll shenan again the rest of the dungeon.

Yeah, I really think that that's going to work. I appreciate that approach. I have a feeling that the portrait of Babylona is going to be extremely hot. She loves all things ugly. She thinks of herself that way. It's probably like a reverse Dorian grace in our years, don't you agree? I don't know what that is, but... Like she hates it because it's basically a pin-up picture.

Exactly. Oh. And you know, Gideon, I agree that you do need an outlet. So before we go, why don't we just swing by an establishment? We can go to Wendy's. Wendy's. Yeah, we can... What do you mean?

Go ahead and do what? At Wendy's. I was just checking... What do you mean? What am I saying? He said Wendy's. No, he's saying Wendy's. Wendy's.

Go by Wendy's. I thought maybe just in case charm dying, maybe anyway. Never mind. Let's go. Let's go to Dizzer. Let's go.

Thank you. We're going to go there now? I was excited about Wendy's. If you have the ability to transport us there via your end the road. Yeah, I mean, it's going to take some time because the inn's got a walk,

but yeah, we can go. Wait, is the end unchanged since you're tragic death? I don't know. Can I have a bad? back, kiddiam? Oh, yeah, here you go. I'll take that, sir. Are we ready?

Do you have anything else in mind? No. More goes fine, the king's fine. I ain't got nothing up there no more. That goat guy's fine. And whatever happens with bloody toasts out of our hands and it's nobody's fault. What the fuck are you talking about?

No, I got it. Yeah. Smash a smash room. We couldn't save Pierre. With that, twig opens up the acorn satchel, and you watch as in front of you begins to unfurl the inn at the end of the road. The long roots that stretch out beneath it, that propel it forward, like legs of its own, propit up above the murk of the swamp. And the door swings open invitingly. immediately met with the smells of the end, Twigs Inn, that same autumnal, cozy scent that you are so

familiar with, and the warm glow of the hearth is already burning, as Twig ushers you all into her home, and you spill into it. You make yourselves cozy for the trip, and you watch out the windows occasionally as downfall rushes past you, as the Inn at the end of the road propels itself forward, much faster than you expected it to, is when it came up to you initially, it was moving slowly through the muck, but it is moving with a haste you didn't expect it to have. And all the while you enjoy tea and more cookies and stew as twig in her puppet form, in her marionette form, bounces about her kitchen as if nothing at all was a miss. and you all relax for the first time in a while

until eventually the signs of the swamp begin to fade away. It is no longer the swamp that you see outside of the windows, but dark looming trees. Been at first, one large tree here mixed in between the mangrove trees. still embedded a little bit in a swamp, yet somehow thriving and then eventually more and more as they get thicker and thicker until you find yourself looking out in what appears to be a dense,

deep, dark forest. You hear the sounds of birds, another forest life, completely different from the swamp. You can hear the sound of the wind rushing through the leaves of the trees and the crunch of branches and twigs beneath the movement of the inn. One of the windows opens a little. You can feel not the wet, hot, almost oppressive air of the swamp, but a nice crisp air, because it blasts in through the open window and chills your skin for just a moment. The heat from the fireplace helps to keep it at bay. And eventually, the inn comes to a stop. Well, looks like we're here.

The inn's not going to travel much further into thither. It's more acclimated right now with the legs, as you see, to swamp terrain. So we're going to have to go on foot for a while. gonna need at least 24 hours for the end to acclimate to thither before we could use it in this way again for trouble but we're at least here right on the edge right on the border you see those two trees there those two really big trees

with the faces carved in either side of them one one is wild man I guess they have a name for many names and the other one is well The forest maiden, they have names Er too. The way they stare at each other across this path, that's the demarcation line. We have to walk between their gazing eyes to get into thither. Oh, did that? It's not pleasant here. Isn't that weird?

Look at all of the moss. It's jumpy, kinda. You can bounce on it, almost like a tramboline. A lot better than the swamp. Right work, Twazzy. Thanks. I didn't make it up, Spryke here. What was the name of the maiden you mentioned? Oh, I just know her as a forest maiden. She's got many names, but the people of Vithering will be able to help you with that more than I can. Forest Maiden in the... She's symbolized by a moon a lot of times, and he's symbolized by the sun.

Oh, oh, sun and what? Moon. It's kind of like that doll. Yeah, Torbett. Oh. Oh, I wonder if that don't... Good me. As you see, a resemblance from Mr. Mooney?

I would take a look at the faces on the trees and see if it, you know, sparks any recollection to the marionette in my... There are definitely similarities. It doesn't look like however these trees were created, whether they were carved or not. It doesn't look like it was the same artist, but you imagine there was probably inspiration drawn. Dormack is getting a heavy sense of impressionism with the art piece in his sack. What? What? That's what I called Mont, too.

Torbeck said what Torbeck said. That's a very cultured of you, Tobik. With that, twig ushers you all out and closes the door. Goodbye, and see you later. Goodbye. And with a snap of her finger, the inn turns into a satchel that she puts. What's over your shoulder? So, well, I guess the only way to go is forward.

Yeah. Those trees? Prudeau's trees. Trudeau's trees. Ah, we forgot to reunite Willa with all the other ghost kids. You know, I knew there was something bugging me on that dream. Well, you gotta go back at some point. Just tell Pigtonia to do it.

Rats. How are we gonna do that in the first place? I'm pretty sure we made some sort of promise. promise well I'm sure we'll still go back to it won't we have to kill Babylon to do that from a certain point of view there's always time it is there's always God the calendar man I mean we'll clean up one we'll probably deal here we'll go to the third no deals left boom boom boom yeah this is like you know it's like a donkey Kong 64 adventure there's a lot of backtracking so you know on the way back

It's all downhill. You take them all down on once. Yeah. Oh. Fish up. Okay, but are we ready? Oh, yes. Yeah.

Pucci, you ready? Okay. Can you guys follow me then? Just one foot in front of the other until we get past those two trees. And Twig begins to walk. There is a mist accumulating at your feet, and it has been for a while.

As you get to the point of intersection between hither and thither. And you make your way past these trees. And as you do, the mists part to reveal a primeval forest. Fragrant breeze waffes between the enormous trees, sending moats of pollen dancing into the air. Patches of sunlight, kiss the forest floor

and the sweet melody of birdsong echoes all around you as you all begin to change. your bodies begin to shrink and twist you watch as twig looks at you in concern and horror as all of you are now staring eye to eye with this marionette girl Gideon you look towards Cremie

and where Cremie had stood there is now a mushroom man a man made of fungus a toad stool cap. Cremie, you look towards Torbeck, and where there had been fur, there is now just fungal flesh. And I'll say, for the sake of ease,

you would all know what these creatures are. A campestri. Mushroom kid. All of you have become one. And that is where we'll end the session. Oh, we're mushroom people. And you're level four. Oh, we did.

We did! Power Spine! You will all have for the next session a new stack block to account for the fact that you were all Kempestri. No way. Kempestri. Kempestri. Kempestri.

Kempestri. Kempestri. Kempestri and soda. Wow. Only 160 hours of being played in order to be in order to be able to. You're all of a lot of cookies, though. I did. Easy money.

Easy money. I do. I do. No. If you don't start next session by saying we all look like a bunch of fun guys. Ricko. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventra's podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session.

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