Legends of Avantris - Vagabond's Heart: A Dimwood Tale | Ep. 7 | Bayou Boogie

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

The Riverfolk Company has just turned the tide of the war in Muckbed Creek, and now the vagabonds search for the relic hidden in the shadows of the swamp.   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/G9nyNDc29Tc?si=v71F3SyvxzBxJFtk

This is Mikey Gilder, and you're listening to Vagabond's Hearts, A Dimwood Tale. Here's what happened last time. We went to the first ruin, with fairness. Do you intend to secure the rest? We're going to try. You are heading to Ribelle Falls. I have an old friend there who may be able to help you. You may take off your blindfolds now.

It's a good thing that you waited for me to enter the room, the rook-roost order of the COVID conspiracy. You will need to experience what the king of the forest experienced. The four of you alone in front of these large ruins through this forest, where the true forces almost seems to have grown into and through. You arrive at this knotted maze. Oh Facy trees

Oh facie trees How lovely are your branches As you continue to sing The branches Part their ways The amulet continues to glow A knotted pedestal Wrapping around it

Is a crown Oh you did it I knew you go ahead and face the whole time I believe this Shark pick it up Pick it up You make your way to the that first ring of trees and you,

Casal carrying the crown, all around you, after but a moment, you pause, and you're in a huge clearing in the forest. You are sitting in the office of President O'Donnell, the president of the River Folk Company. He is finishing up his sandwich as he wipes a few crumbs off of his otter paw, As he turns around,

he's in his large plus chair in his office, all of your chairs drag up to the window. He turns and looks at you and says, Tom, what do you think about that? Pretty impressive. I took one bite of my clam-trip sandwich and left it on the plate, and then I'm just, uh,

well, that was, uh, quite the display, I'd say. I'm obviously better. really? Oh yeah, I've seen at least four or five times more birds killed in one fell swoop. Ah, literally. Horrific. They all swooped into a glass door.

I didn't really know that it was going to happen, so it was surprising. Mr. O'Donnell, sir, please. As you know, I'm from this area, and I've always respected the others. very, very deeply. I hope you know we will always be on your good side. No matter what, you call on us any time, and you let us know what you need because we've seen you at your best.

Well, are you saying that because you're truly a trustworthy recum or is it because you're terrified right now because you witness the kind of murder? Can we say a little column A, little column A, little column A? Well, that means that you're smart. and you care about your well-being, which I can trust. Like I said, I trust vagabond more so than most of these folks. Well, you just know will help you out with anything you need.

Well, I guess the Marquis Day is going to be marching in here within the next day. I don't know if you're going to wanting to be meeting the vice royal when she comes in, or if you're just going to be heading out of town. But you're welcome to stay unimped. unimpailed by Crossbow bolts. Oh, thank you. No, absolutely. I would like to very much stay until the Vosthroid arrives

so that we can get credit for making this all happen. Credit. Okay. But you know, I would like to help you out a little bit right now if I could. You eat a lot of clam sandwiches or whatever. So you must have got a lot of shells hanging around them. They've got to get in the way. So I'd like to take them off of your hands if you need someone to dispose of them.

Oh, then what you do, moonlight is the shell inspect them? No, I don't want to inspect them. I just want to take them off your hands because I'm sure, you know, they don't make your plates clean and a unclinly place makes a bad business practices. Well, you know what? Rhonda always just yell at me for leaving clamshells all over the place, so I think that would be a huge help. He pulled out a trash pan, a bin from beneath his desk,

and it's just completely piled with up. filthy clam shells. And he... I just opened my bag. Wow, this is very unorthodox. Like, are you... Are you the help? Like, what's happening?

Okay, this is fine. It's just the frog thing. Well, you know what? I've known a lot of good frogs. Okay, and he pours the entire bin of clamshells into your back. And

it fills up. You have a large supply of clamshells. I tip my bonnet to him. maybe what are you going to do with those? I'm going to, you know, take them dispose of them for Gene O'Donnell. I don't know if you can compost clamshell. I don't know. You can smash them in the dust if you want to.

They make a great fertilizer for your garden. It would be nice. I'd like some, like, earrings made of clamshells. Yeah, there might be a store down the way. You could buy something like that. Um, this, this has been lovely. Uh, very, very deeply touched by your hospitality. Um, is there anything else that you might need from us for the rest of the evening?

Oh, would you ask me to make you some clamshells? Haunted when I'm post. Okay, you know, you just wait a minute. I'm going to pull two out. I'm going to start looking clamshell earrings. You do that. You do that. And he said, oh, well, actually, oh, hold on.

Hold on. Hey, Booker, you loved it being from, from, uh, from Muppet Creek. Look, I think one thought he got away. Hold on, turn, turn, look, look, look. And you see that there is a wounded soldier flying away. And then an otter leaps down from the tree with a knife, and there's a splash of feathers and blood. Hey, pretty good, huh?

If a raccoon can look pale, Booker does. You look... No, great, great show, great show. That's the whole race of war out there, Booker. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna push myself. So, as I was saying, if there's anything, And I just kind of like slide mind to grumly as well.

If there's anything that we do for the rest of the evening, we'd be happy to. Otherwise, I think that we'd like to just have a nice relaxing evening enjoying the Muckbed Creek. Well, are you asking for permission to leave? Yes, absolutely, sir. Wow, that's an interesting smiling at there, friend. One might call it desperate.

Are you there? Are you feeling desperate right now? Are you feeling intimidated? It's one word for it. He leans forward. His jowls and his whiskers totally coated in bread and sauce and clam bits. As he taps his fingers together and trucks and nod, okay, you can go. But just call on us any time.

It's been a very long time since I've been here. Any recommendations for an end? Well, I mean, it depends on you. your budget we've got the we've got the briny carpenter they got some good clans and wasted there

we do have a taste for the finer things if it's available no we don't really need that though if if you if you if there's low tide that's not very nice but you know you look like you might fit in it might be appropriate

and if you want to house of gambling there's the voracious gloom I do like to gamble Oh, Louis runs that place? Runley, have you ever gambled? Um, I think I've played some darts a few times, nothing more than that. Well, I can certainly teach you a thing or two.

You'll be a probing no time. Well, isn't it just wasting money away? Not if you win. But the odds are against you. You never really win. That's what a loser would say. Will's got some more. What would you recommend as, for groups such as us, you choose for us, and we will go.

I don't know. That's a lot of pressure. I mean, I don't like to endorse. I mean, I haven't made any endorsement deals. I don't want to have any conflict of interest. I'm a very powerful honor. I hope you know this. That me giving a five-star recommendation for any one of these establishments is a conflict of interest with some of my contracts and deals that I have.

If you're looking to dance the night away, there's the shimmy and shank. He might not die there. Oh. we'll go to that first one you said the brian carpenter yes that's the one why's it got carpenter if it's a man

it's made of wood maybe yeah no it's made of wood yeah most of these buildings made of wood actually oh we could go somewhere else I'm open no that sounds lovely

shall we go take a look I'd like to yes me as well beggy I'm currently sitting on the floor in front of the door with my legs up on it. And I'm looking through a small glass tinkering with the shells trying to make earrings.

Um, yeah, baby. Are you all right? Are you good to go to the end? We should have finished. Oh, okay. Nice for me. You know, I saw on a document one, how they make jewelry. Really?

How they make ring. Do you feel out of documents? I can't say that I have. I don't do a lot of reading. I've never heard anyone refer to it as seeing a document. Wait, is that now that I'm how you... No, I think it's more like you look at a document, or you read a document. I thought on a document one.

I think that sounds. You hear the door jingle as... And I would like to use perfectionist, clear your exhaustion track when you sacrifice others' interests to complete a project or craft. Yeah. Yeah, you get that. And when you catch up, I hand you some earring. Thank you.

They're really ugly. And they smell like bed. They do. They smell like, yeah, they smell like low tide. As he, Wayne is going to, well, you know, I'm not going to debate about this. You know, then a trivia game, although it could be. No, no debate.

If you like games of chance, perhaps we could throw down. Maybe I'll take you up on that sometime. What's that mean? Throw down. That means to play a game. Have fun. See what you do. Throw down.

Throw the dice. See where they fall. Brow some guards. Hey, Zulma, get out of my office. And the rest of you, get out. All right. Join your friend. See you.

Okay, boy. Goodbye, Mr. Rodal. You all leave. The door closed behind you. You meet up with Peggy, who hands over the earrings. They are shockingly pretty for being from the trash. Oh, no, they're gross. They are, but they're also.

It's a clam meat on them. There's some, like, mother of pearl in there, right? Yeah, I mean, it's just a pearlessed line. to the shelves, right? And you all make your way. You were joined by Vinny and Benny, who escort you through the large headquarters of Beaverberop Company down to the main storefront.

And you see that there's a huge variety of items line all the way down the street almost, waiting to trade in the goods of this company. As you see around, there's a large docks. As far as you can see, going out along the wide river bed, as the tide here is very low, and there's a lot of exposed bank, and it kind of smells mucky and scummy.

As you see, however, on the woods on either side of this clearing, the large lake to the north. And you can see, as you're making your way, way down, that there seem to be boats that are heading to Whartwallow, potentially filled with otters doing who knows what to the Erie soldiers and Whartwallow. As the, as you are now in the streets of Muckbed Creek, you see a great number of, I think it's a fox clearing, a good number of foxes. You are in the streets of Muckbed Creek. You see the sprawling wooden buildings all build up on top of each other, a little bit ramshackle, but there's a coziness to it.

You see a great number of otters running around, cleaning up the bodies of all of the dead eerie soldiers, just kind of kicking them into the river and watching them drift on down. And all of the denizens seem to just be looking at this. They're like, they're not super impressed, and they just go about their business. What do you do? They got what they deserved. I guess, but that was really something to watch. So Vinnie and Benny have escorted us.

They've escorted you. And they're gone. And as he stops, as they stop and they're getting ready to leave, Benny has some of the leftover clam strip sandwich that he managed to sneak and he's his munching on it. And Vinny turns and looks and all, he's like, if I catch any of you messing with our business? I'm going to tell the boss.

Why would we do that? You're looking real nervous, friend. No, we're happy to help. I'm an hinged. He turns out of life. That's what that guy's problem. What a nutcase. Well, he kept saying he was an hinge.

I'm guessing he's an hinged for somebody. Who does that? Who says that over and over and over again? It might be the mercury and on a seafood. I don't have any claims. That's what the hell is mercury? I don't eat clams at all, but mom said, I don't need a lot because you get the clam crazy,

and I think he's got it. Yeah, that's what they say, you'll be mad as a fisher. Yeah. Well... Is that what they say? Well, anyway, there's... There's supposed to be ruins around here. And we haven't heard of any...

We haven't heard of any kind of badness or craziness around... There is... There is... There is. Okay. Had there been any kind of whisperings of, like, stuff going on? You just arrived, so you don't know. You know that the author isn't mentioned.

anything, but... We've got to be careful. What if the clams are crazy, too? Because the relics underneath. And it's making all the water folk crazy. Oh, maybe that's what act so weird. To be fair, I really think it's just that one guy. You know, the other one, they seem perfectly normal.

I don't know. I mean, Gino, like, just killed everybody in this town. Like, it was nothing. That seems kind of a pinch to me as well. You know, and I'm not quite sure either, because that round of gosh, she looks going to use that. That's true.

That's not very nice to say. I wasn't going to say it. It doesn't make it any of that's true. But to be fair, we were all thinking it. You guys need to learn some manners. I should take you all in New Felicia and take you to Cotillion. I'll enroll all of you. We could have gone, but instead we just witnessed them.

The bloodiest thing I've ever seen in my whole life. It was awful. Oh, that's nothing compared to war. Imagine that happened in the both sides at the same time. Well, they'd be twice as bad. Why would I want to imagine that? I'm just saying, that's what it was like. What have we gotten ourselves into?

This was a lot cleaner. It wasn't very honorable, I guess, but I'm a vagabond for Pete's sake. Ah, well, all right. Can we just secure ourselves some sort of lodging so... Yes. I can just take a rest for just a little bit. And let's keep an eye out or in ear out for any kind of news of living trees. Are you living reeds or living fish?

Or crazy clams? You know that fish is alive all the time. What do you mean? You said keep an eye out for living fish, but they're born alive. No, they aren't. Fish aren't alive. They're just like they just blub around in the water. They can't talk or anything.

Yeah. You think they swim. Well, because they're like, they're foods. Are you trying to tell me that you eat fish because you think that they're not alive? they're not like, do not like, people. Next time you eat one, I want you to think of it screaming. They can't scream, they just blub around in the water. All right, I'm going inside and I go outside.

I just got to follow them on when. You make your way through. There's these narrow winding streets that open up into, open into long, uh, wide thoroughfares. All of these, uh, wooden boardwalks with a great number of bridges, rope wooden bridges across the second and third stories of buildings crossing these channels and rivers and large bridges, draw bridges

going up on a larger barge needs to make its way through. You see, oh, it's a large barge, barge, barge. As you see down towards the southernmost edge of the clearing, towards where the forest, where the clearing ends and the forest kind of starts to give way towards the swamp of the mouth of this forest. The mouth of the river, you see a large structure that seems to be built out of the remains of an old riverboat that has a large gaudy side and lights are shooting from it and called the voracious gloom. as you see, it seems to be a casino, as you make your way away from it towards the briny carpenter, and it seems to be a modest, a modest joint that is not quite as low as the low tide or sketchy as the shimmy and shank. But you, it's relatively nice.

You kind of get away towards like the sketchier areas that you're familiar with, Booker. and you are met with a single-story room in this large, large, large tavern hall that has several bars. There seem to be three walls that are totally lined with bars and many tables in the middle, with several stairways going up to the various rooms above. You see a number of otters, and probably Otters and Fox is walking around with drinks and food. What do you do? Oh, right, you're from here? Yeah, I guess that's the truth.

Yeah. Why don't you just start, like, asking around for any kind of goings or? Can we just please secure a room first, and then we can discuss all we'd like? Booker, are you okay? I'll be fine. Are you sick because of the clowns? I might be. Or is it because of all the vicious murder?

I wasn't going to say it, but it's the vicious murder. Okay. You could have given me your clams. I did. you just stopped them down before you even blinked you didn't even chew did you why would I have to chew because then you're thrown up and then you're

wasted as long as I'm wasted let's not throwing it up that's just saving it for later anyway can have a room please you you see a an otter walk up and an old otter

as he walks up to you and he says, Oh, how many rooms will you be needed? Just one, please. This one. All are you going to fit, we have some very small rooms here.

Nah, if we won't fit in one, we'll take two. Well, you can get into me if you want. I just didn't want to presume. Well, take two. You, uh, we'll probably just give up one to K in order to get two rooms. And, uh,

you, he hands you the key. One to K total? Yeah, one to K. I'll take, I'll, I'll, I'll put a coin on the, on the desk. He swipes it up and he hands you two keys and he tells you the room number. Thank you, good, sir. And you're free to

mill about here or head up to the room and discuss. What do you do? Quick, quick, let's just meet in one room and then we can do whatever the hell we want. All right. Let's go. You're all right? You're right. We'll just pick one of them. Yeah. All right.

I'm worried. I've always liked the otters. They're good people. They're hard workers. I'm just worried. that this guy, he finds out about this ruin. We might be on our own here. He's a very powerful man. How's he going to find out about it? Well, we can't just go ask it around and have an information slip into the wrong hands.

He finds out that there's some sort of relic that could sway the tide of this battle. I mean, he already owns this clearing. The odds are very ambitious. Let's not ask a man. Let's just find it on the road. I'm just worried. That's all. I'm concerned.

Well, don't you know to hold CD in the belly this place? Unfortunately. So you must have a contact or two. Well, I might, but I have to ask the Game Master. Oh, go on and ask the Game Master then. I don't want to be so presumptuous. Wasn't there someone in your backstory? I haven't talked to Benny in a very, very long time.

Benny, Benny might kill me if he sees me. Wait, Benny, De Honoured that we just met? No, it's a different Benny, believe it or not. Not the same Benny. But also, Anada. I hadn't decided that thought. It'll be up to the Game Master, to be honest. I didn't really picture him as an honor, but I suppose that's totally impossible.

You know, with a name like Benny, it sounds like he'd be more like a beaver. He might be. Oh, yeah. That would make more sense than Leonardo, frankly. All I'm saying is, you know, I don't even know if he might be in my name. He may have been being this clearing anymore. Well, I mean, maybe we don't go looking for someone you know. Why don't you show us around some of the places you know?

Maybe this has been under your nose a whole time and you didn't know it. Well, I imagine you're probably right. Now that we know that, you know, what to kind of look for, that things are getting old wonky around the relics, maybe it would stand out to you more. Good note. At least we can do is now that we've had a minute to rest, we can just go around the clearing and take a look at things

and show you around and then see some of the sites and some of the entertainment and keep our ears out for, whatever my whisperings might be happening, but we shouldn't mention it to anyone, is all I'm saying. I just don't want us to get, you know, like the eerie. You look over and see Petey making a sign that says, has anyone

seen a relic site? So you don't think this is a good idea? I would burn that immediately. I was going to put it on and wear it on my front end again. Hey, it's your funeral. Well, maybe save it in case we do need it. So I change relic to relish. You know, I shouldn't waste anything.

It's true. They won't show hot dogs around here, so relish might come and handle it. What's a hot dog? It's like, it's a new Felicia thing. Oh. We could have gone. We could have gone. We could have gone, but we didn't have time.

This is far more important. We just helped the Marquis-Aid take back two clearance. It's pretty big stuff. I wonder if that's going to tip the scales a little too much for the old crows we met. Well, I think that they just want balance. Otherwise, they should be happy. They don't seem very ambitious and a power little control kind of sense. I agree.

Well, why don't we go, take a look around, maybe check out, maybe around the gambling tables we can nonchalantly ask around Let's see if there's been any word. At the very least, it would be a lot of fun. Maybe take our minds off of the dark recent events. Nice guy. Peggy, what are you going to do with all those clamshells? You know, I got some plans for them, but it's going to take a little bit of work.

You know, it'll be really neat. If you took a couple of those and you made them into like a little clamshell purse, would not be neat? what would you do with a clamshell purse? It's not like it's going to fit very much in it. No, but you could put like, say if you had a bunch of berries rolling around in your bag and they were staining everything awful because they kept getting crushed. It would be a really nice thing to have a clamshell purse.

You know, I've never put berries in my bag for forever because there's no point. Like, why would you do that? We'll make the berries what do you get. Why would you ever take more berries than you needed to eat it one time? That seems like a waste. Or would you ever need back up berries? How would you ever need back up berries? This is a very specific conversation.

Wait a minute, do you want me to make you a purse? Oh, I mean, that would be so kind of you. You know, I bet there's a store in town that sells a purse. I bet you could sell a purse in town. Oh, so you want me to make a purse that you would want, but I'll sell it to someone in town? Yeah. All right. No.

Oh, no, you confuse me. These berries. All right, let's go. The voracious gloom. I was set to work on making a little purse. As you make your way, you leave the end, you leave the briny carpenter, and you exit, you see that across a large rope bridge is the kind of besie the underbelly that you're familiar with, Booker.

And you head away from that area to this edge of the clearing, and you see that there is a large stand with a variety of fruits, and you see a fox behind it, and you see that there are these crates and crates of berries. And it says, Sherry's berries! You want some berries? No, no, we're not buying it.

But I would like to assemble one. We don't give free samples. What kind of business marketing is it? How do I know if your berries are good? Because of Sherry's berries. You want some berries? You keep spitting on the face when you say Sherry's berries. I know.

Nothing I can tell from your spit that the berries are no good. It's sour. I can taste it you speak. Well. I could be swayed. Perhaps I was wrong. But I'm going to try to persuade an MPC. I would really like your berries, please.

What are you trying to persuade him? I'm trying to persuade them to give me a sample to change my mind that they are. Okay. Persuade an at D.C. It's five plus one. A charm. I am. That's a six.

Well, you know. What do you have to get to be successful? These berries don't look very good. I'm telling you, the only way would be to have to taste one for sure. Otherwise, we'd have to tell everyone in town that Sherry's berries suck. Oh, I know. And I'm going to give a plus one. And that's a success, right?

And it's, uh, they're, oh, they aren't sure. Right. You give the information to know what you need to say. Well, I guess if we go into an arrangement where every establishment you go, you mention sherry's berries and how big and delicious and juicy they are. I'll give you a free sample of sherry's berry. Oh, all right. Well, what kind of berries do you?

have. Sherry's berries. Don't ask questions. All right. I guess that doesn't seem too of imposing for our journey, does it? Just try a damn berry. All right. One Sherry's berries, please. Okay, here. She reaches in.

Do you do the chocolate? Pulls out a plump purple berry with one hand and then reaches down. and pulls out this large bit of wood with rope attached to it. And as she hands it to you, or before she hands it to you, she shoves it on and you realize it's a sign on either side.

The sandwich board, the sandwich board. What did you? Oh, my acorns. This is so great, because you know, we look exactly the same. I have, has anyone seen the relish? And you have something about berries. Yeah, this is great. Um, cause now maybe we could just walk around and

get all sorts places under the premise of advertising for Sherry's berries and Spanish. We're going to get mugged. All right. I will spread the news of your berries. You want to buy the berries now that

you sampled it? Are you just going to walk around after having one of Sherry's berries? I'll take a little nibble. I'll just need a little bit more time to decide, but I'll be back. It's a pretty big berry. You can't finish it all in one bite. That's my new slogan.

Write it on there. I'll take some of the berry juice and like some brought onto the sign. Shearries, beer and backwards. I'll try it down. You can't finish it all on one mic. Hazel, I think you might have, you know what, never mind. And if you want some relish, go to O'Donnell's Deli down on 42nd Street. Where?

The O'Donnell. How else do you think he started his empire? He's rich? Well, another sandwich, a Coutrema, yeah. So he's running at Delhi. Well, that's how he started. It's his family's deli. Interesting.

Thank you. That's enlightening. That explains all the sandwiches. Yeah, yeah. That explains it. What are any good? I'm fine. Use food.

To the veracious. just gloom. Thank you. And don't forget to eat Sherry's berries. They're delicious. I mean, if you're not even buying Sherry...

I'll walk out. You walk out with a big sandwich board sign that says, eat it, Sherry's berries, you can't finish in one bite. And the relish and the berry signs all walk out,

walk down the street. You've seen any. relish. You make your way and you see an old fox kind of saying, Oh, I think I saw some relish. What was it? Oh, God, I can't remember anything. Oh. And then they just walk on. Have you seen your house? As you make your way through the streets of Muckbent Creek, you eventually arrive. You hear music, jazz music, blaring. from this large casino that is, it's three full levels built into the remnants of this riverboat.

And you step inside and there is plush purple velvet, carpet, and upholstery as far as you can see. All built in, table games, a variety of machines, roulette wheels, cards. And there's a number of, you actually see that there is a small, little dugout in the center where there are these large swamp what do you call those water striders skating across and they're racing and people betting money on betting on these things I mean they're they're small not a giant but they're about like yay big and they're betting and you see the whole this place is packed compared to the rest of the town that you've seen what do you do this guy's crazy Have you been here before, Booker?

I would say probably, yeah. Absolutely, my friend, and it's always happened. No offense. Wait a man, was that the kind of frog joke? It wasn't a joke. It was just a turn of phrase, but I was worried every time I use a turn of phrase, you tell me that I'm doing something wrong, so I was just trying to be preemptively apologetic.

I don't know what you're talking about. Perfect. Take a look around. There's plenty of things to do, drink, eat, play games. But just be aware, it costs money, and you'll probably lose it. Gamble. Well, generally it depends on the game that you're playing, but you make a wager. You're wagering on something to happen. You want that thing to happen in your favor, and then you get free money. You just get free money? Well, if the thing that you're wagering on happens, otherwise they take your money. So I'm hearing free money. If you win. Let's go. The first table that I see.

You walk up to a card table. This seems to be an equivalent of blackjack. And you see that there is a foxy young lady who's a fox. And she's very well dressed and she deals out a hand of cards. And it'll be one to K to play.

I'll play one game. So you are dealt a number of cards and please make a what is it called? Trust fake role, please. Oh. That's my

worst one. I can shoot in, you can get a minus, if you have a plus one, that's great. It's a minus one. Oh, damn. Well, you got, yeah. Okay.

Okay. With that, you manage to get two decay back as you actually win the hand. I don't know. Basic moves. That was her. As you,

as you win, you win the pot of this, of this game. And however, there is a sly look on this fox lady's face. As she kind of narrows her eyes and she whispers to a frog that's walking by. And it's not long, it's not long until you're sitting there playing the game and you see a large figure heading towards you.

This is a reptilian in look, dark green scales. a purple suit with a top hat as he almost waddles up to you. He's almost bursting out of this thing as he steps along the side of like, well, well, well, I don't recognize any of you. You look like you're from New Money. Part two?

What's that? Welcome to the voracious doom, friend. Gloom. See, I'm... Mr. Pinkertons. Yeah, where? You want his pinkertons? You see as an alligator in a top hat,

leans forward and extends his hand and says, name is Louis Ruger. Pleasure to meet you. I'll take my hat off me. The name's Booker, sir. I'm from around here, but my friend's on, and I'm just trying to show him a good time. Put the hat back on.

I think you confused your name in a clearing. I'm from new Felicia. not new money. I've never heard of the new money clean. I could see how that'd be confusing. He smiles and he shoots you away, and I can see I was right. Now what brings you around these parts? Y'all don't look very native besides from you with the patchy clothes.

Yeah, I'm really dirty, and my name's Peggy. Do you know where I can find some swamp water that might have some grass in it? There's a swamp right behind the casino. Okay, I'm going to go out there. It was nice meeting you. Please don't steal all of his money. He's really stupid. We have bass if you're filthy as well. No, I like it this way. I think better. And I want to hop outside. Okay. You hop outside.

Well, that's down to three. The rest of you got money to spend, right? Well, absolutely, of course. We're just, again, we're here for some entertainment. And this is a lovely, lovely establishment. But like I said before, we're just a bunch of vagabonds. We've been called that quite often. And we're just passing through, looking for work, you know, whatever we can do. Looking for work, huh? Well, if we want to have coin to spend it, this lovely establishment, we've got to make some. You know what just happened earlier is a change in management coming to this clearing.

Yes, that was quite the display. Is that favorable for your casino? Well, if you're a dog and the cats are coming marching in, I see that there. there's a bit of an arrangement I'm sure we can make. If y'all got contacts, and I don't see many dogs around here, and whenever there's a dog, they are licking the boots of a cat.

Well, I don't think that that's necessarily fair. It's not the boots, per se. It's more the cause or, you know, scratching behind their ears or... It's just being your... Royal servants, of course. You have it wrong with having honour? Well, why don't you put in a good word for old Louis?

When they arrive, maybe I'll give you drinks on the house for the evening. No, we'd be happy to, right? Of course. Three drinks. We'd be happy to. We'd be happy to. I suppose, I could. What kind of word should we give? Well, we're going to give them a good one. We're going to talk up how awesome this place is.

It's a fantastic... Not happy. Yes. A good time. The best time. You can't go wrong. Glu. Broom. Glu.

Don't worry. I'll do the talking. Don't worry about it. Have you tried Sherry's fairies? Oh, no. They're delicious. Would you like for example? As you can see, we've already found some work.

Darling, if you got hoodwined by Sherry, I don't even feel like. like there's any sport of taking money from you. Well, that's just very kind. They are delicious, though. If it's some time you stop by, tell him that Hazel sent you. Come on, darling, you can do better than that. Let's try one more time from the top.

I'll try really hard to wink and then trust to get me through. Roll to trust vaid. Roll to see how well I winked like an idiot. Not very well. It goes about as well or slightly worse than last time. Actually, that's six isn't terrible, but... No, no, okay.

I was going to say, like, how do you even help someone trust fate, right? He pauses a moment and chases that, now I suppose there's two I can talk, too. Well, I'm just saying, if you don't mind, put it in a good word. And if there's any kind of special favor, I'm very well connected with the denizens here. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, like I said, of course we would be happy to put in a good word.

And I'm sure when the time arises, we would be able to call on you for information or a favor. Information, that is something I have in spades, my friend. I knew it. You look like the kind of person who knows what's going on. Well, maybe if you give us information, we'll put it. a good word. No, no, Grimbley. Are you trying to make a deal with me, Fram? No, no, no, no.

See, now I like the sound of that. Oh, goodness. Especially with a dog who looks as intelligent and sharp as you, Fran. I did just polish me on. Are you that and it is shiny indeed, almost as shiny

as my toothy green? Well, Greene is very shiny as well. And what a curly tail you have, I must say. A wonderful fashion and sands. What information do you seek from? I look at the book,

The bottom line is that we don't know yet. We're here looking for work. We're happy to put in a good word for you. Do we have any idea when the cats of New Felicia will be here? Do we have a sense of... I think he said tomorrow morning. Well, would you look at that? Tonight, we're just trying to have a good time,

look for some work. And like we said, when we uphold our end of the bargain, we'd be happy to trade you for, um, you know, whatever might come along. Well, I suppose that depends on the nature of the word that you put in. Oh, it will be the best. Very good one. The best word that I can possibly think of. When I have come back in from now.

I would say, we're going to cut away to you now. I'm just collecting swamp grass. Yeah, so yeah, you would have come back in at this point. As you hop in, you see... I'm covered in swamp water and swamp grass, and I sit down. on like the plushest couch. Completely soaks. There begins

algae, staining the old straight, there's mud, clopping. And you see his eyes just dart over to you, and then he just darts back. He's like, for a moment, like, he's just weighing in his option, and he's like, that's fine, that's fine, fine, fine.

I don't know, I have a lot of frogs in my employer. They are fine folk. Are there a lot of lots? of frogs. This is a good number of frogs, yeah. There's a good number of frogs down here. What might that set they sound like? It's a dialect.

Yeah. Anyway, my friend, as I was saying, a lowly wandering patchwork a drunk as myself, well, you know, just wants to show his friends a good time for once. We've been traveling far, far. And as soon as we put in that good word

for you, I'm sure, If there's information regarding work, we will come and ask you for it. And I'm going to use a desperate smile by like abasing myself, calling myself, you know, this like patchwork drunk to try to like convince him. Yes, you D&D do look like a patchwork drunk. I just like take the hat off and I do a little like, you know. Look at what the dog drug dragged in. You know, in a literal sense.

It happens quite often. He's very drunk. you have to drag him physically. Okay, easy now, grubly. I'll roll whatever. Roll whatever. Roll your dice. Roll more on the dice.

Uh-oh. I should have a day. I got a six. What is it? I will give you help. No, it just trust faiths, but I get to use charm instead of luck. Oh, okay. I can help you.

I mean, it's... What? I can help you with two. I don't even want to, like, sort of pass, but... Well, it's constantly the same. What are you attempting to do? I was trying to just abase myself and trust luck that he would see it our way and basically, like, let us leave for the night.

Are you going to help him? Yeah. I'm going to do that. I should have stuck with ease. Yeah, you threw me off at those space switch days. I suck a lot of me. Oh, that luck out. Yeah, now they're never going to roll up a three.

Oh, jeez. Oh, I just feel so heavy in this sandwich board. Oh, I just wish I could have some fun. Maybe playing a game would get some wind flowing under the board, make me feel better. I just feel really stuffy around here. There's just so many people standing so close to me. The top pets blocking the wind.

In such. What is she saying? I think she's just trying. I think I'm having a sandwich flash. She wants to play some games and she needs to learn how, and I'd be happy to teach her how to do it. You feel a long snout against your ear, says, friend, I do not know what she is saying.

I'm going to take my leave. Please take her far away from me as quickly as you can. When you have a chance to put it a good word with the Marquis-A, come back, and I will give you whatever information I am able to provide. Consider it now. And he tips his top hat to you And he pulls out his cane And he spins it as he walks away

Oh What do you think he's got under that head? It's a hat Scows? Yeah, his head His head is under the hat He's head? You think he goes all the way up there?

Have you never seen... He's an alligator? Have you never seen an alligator before? I guess not. I don't know. It just seems an awful big hat to not have anything in it. Oh, my acorns.

Okay, let's just try to lay low for the rest of the evening. Let's discuss our options. And then tomorrow, we can see what the situation looks like when the Marquis 8 rolls up into the clearing and we'll go from there. Does that sound all right? Oh, God, Peggy, what have you done to the couch? Do you do that? Oh, the water was on there when I sat down. Oh, that'd be sense.

I don't believe you're even one bit. Yeah, I don't really know. I didn't look at it. What happened? How was this one? Oh, you know, it stunk. Were there any bloody bird corpses in there? Oh, yeah, tons of them.

Oh, no. Were you looting their corpses? No, when they do that, that was horrible. I made sure that all the ones that got caught inside of the, you know, the weeds, the seaweeds, I just took the seaweed and let them put back out to the water. Oh. I wish you'd said something. Because maybe I couldn't lose it.

There's bloody factors all on the whole street. What an absolute disaster. Oh, hey, I could use that. I'd pick them up and put them right back. Yeah, no, you could look at number. Good quills, yeah. Well, I think we should go. We didn't even play any games yet.

I'll play the game. I made my money back and more. I didn't get any money if you got money. Did you try to play any games? Well, no. What's the first step? Did you want to play too? I'll bet I'd win.

Oh, well. You want to play a game, Hazel? Why are you looking like in that? I wasn't. No, no, I had some, a little bit of flam in the back of my throat. I'm saying it's fine. It's like your face with the shadows. I'm allergic to myself.

I'm no deal. I'm terrible. If you'd like to play a game, I'd be more than happy to oblige. I want to play one of their games, though, not one of yours. Oh, oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, whatever you say. Okay. What should we play?

You're like making me make shit up here. I don't fucking know anything like this. You know? There was a card game and then we're serving else. Something I'm really, really crazy. Yeah. Go for it. You're from here.

You know what games they got. I'll bet you my new earrings. One of my new ears. You know what? What? They poker. Yeah. We could sit down and play some poker.

But here are the rules to Boko. Okay. Anytime, well, what's going to happen is there's a dealer. I mean, they're going to shuffle up some cards and deal them out to everyone at the table. All right. What you need to do is, but you can't tell anyone, secret, working together. Any time I put a lot of money into the middle of the table, and I give you a signal. And the signal is going to look like this.

All you have to do is push your cards to the middle of the table. middle of the table and say I fold. Oh. What's that doing? Well, that's how you win the game. Oh. That doesn't sound like much of a game. Oh, no, it's a blast.

Absolute blast. All right. We'll just play a couple of hands. Okay. We proceed to do so. I'll just, okay. Maybe it's just a one to stop. Sure, we can just play one hand.

All right. So you are all dealt a hand. There is a frog working this as a dealer. This is a dialect. It's a pegy can understand. It's a very thick frog accent. And it's no one else here can understand them. And he deals out the cards.

And why don't we just do a trust fate to see how good your hands are? It's going to be better this time. You're rolling two in a lot. I got an eight. An eight. My hair is terrible. You, you, you, you're like a seven and a four, and also,

you have, you have two cards of the same one in your hand, and they're both really pretty ladies on it. And they both have a cue on it. And Booker probably puts it in, well, you know, I'm basically, I'll just, Oh, okay, well, there's a betting phase, so I'll put in, uh, I'll put in two coins. How many coins should I put in?

Well, you have to put in at least two, but if you're very confident in your hand, you can put in more. How do I know if I'm confident? How do you feel right now? I feel pretty. I feel pretty good. You can put in four whole coins then. Cool? Yeah. All right.

Four coins? There's a lot of coins. Only if you want to. It just depends on how confident you feel. You seem pretty confident. I mean, I like my cards. Do I still have to get rid of them, though? No, not, not till I give the signal.

All right. Okay. As soon as she puts the four coins, and I go like this. You see, yeah. No, it's iPhone. Oh, iPhone. Oh, unbelievable.

Well, I just put my cards to place that on the table. There's one of the first. He's an old He's an old honor His whiskers are great Like, ah, that's too rich for my blood You take it, young, young man Oh, well, thank you, sir.

Great hand, great hand And I just like pull all the clams like in, you know Poker! Well, how did you feel about playing your first game of poker? Your first hand? Hey, what did we win? Oh, well, no, I mean, I won. No, because you said that it was a team.

teams four. Oh, oh, right. Well, here's one. You win one. Well, I think it was split the pot with it evenly. Well, four divided by two is what? Yes. Now, I think you're wrong. It's in this moment I'm going to walk over. I just wanted to say that I made that purse that you wanted. You did. You see this clamming on the inside. I even stitching the cute little berry for you, so you always have a place to put your berries. That's the nice to say in the house. I know. I'm going to hand it to her and I'm going to wink at Booker. I love it. I'm like shuffling money.

Well, my money. What money? Oh, you're going to pay me for that purse? Okay, it's four coins. Pay them a one money. Here's your coin. You win. Here's your one winnings.

No. I put in four and you put in two and that guy put in probably two as well. Peggy, how much for the first? So I'll get four and you'll get four. Four coins. All right. What do you want me to pay her?

I'll guess you. All right. And I give, I give Peggy all four. This is very hard-coons. Peggy, all four of hazel's coins. That's pretty good. I'm going to put all the rest of my berries. So you like...

I can't send back to you as she's putting berries on her back. Oh, so Peggy, at this point, you were so focused on on collecting the pond scum or whatever you were doing. Yeah. and untangling the bird corpses, you had almost forgotten. But as you were in the water beneath the, you swim around, and as a frog, it's very easy for you to swim around. You're towards the edge of this clearing in the marshy water as it opens into the swamp in the forest. And you're just remembering in this moment, as you had been collecting around, something caught the corner of your eye.

and you looked up and you had seen what looked like a shadow that was the silhouette of a person or something very tall and slender and then it just moved

and disappeared as soon as you looked but it seemed very suspicious and you're just recalling this in this situation having dove in the water behind the river boat all right well if you're all done losing your money to a con artist then I think that we should head up to

Are you around? All right, when we get back, drinks are on me. And then we can relax for the evening and have some nice conversation. All right, let's go. You lead the way. All right. Dinner too. Homeboy.

Dinner. Dinner's on me as well. Yeah, because you're the big winner and I helped. Yes, you did. You're a very good card player. That's right. I'm a good friend. But for the record, don't play, don't play cards with anyone else if I'm not around.

Just don't. Because it's like a team thing. Right, right. I can't do it with my partner and cry. Because we're friends. Exactly. Friends are always friends together Nice to each other

What was that last point? Yeah, they're always nice to each other Yes, friends Which is why I'm buying everyone Dinner and drinks When we arrived back at the end I would never do that It would never swindle anybody

I'd purchase everybody A lavish dinner and drinks You can stop the voices in my head I don't have killed As you're walking back You see Sherry lean over and say, hey, no one's using your affiliate link for Sherry's

berries. Oh, I don't need one. What do I free sample? You better buy a box of berries. Oh, no, I'll just keep trying. We only hit the one place that just went to go, go, go, go. Sherry's berries. And I'll just scream it up.

And you are. It's over there. It's a disaster. I'm going to reach over with one of my quills and change the sherrys on the back Aries. So it says Harry's berries. So you do that. And there's very clear

Harry's berries now on it. Just on the back. The front still says... It's a same thing of Harry and you draw a little squiggly hair on them. And it's spelled like hair. Not like Harry Potter, but like Hairy ball drop to you

too. I'm sorry, MacBuff. Sorry for what we've done to your day. I'm so soon. Tis is a silly place. You arrive back. Booker buys you drinks and dinner at the briny carpenter. And you see that there's along with the beaver, along with the otter, there's also an old beaver that seems to kind of co-o in the place.

And there's a little carpenter, carpentry bench in the back and some little woodworking things along with, along with oysters and clams and the like. and it's hearty seafood stew and that sort of biz. And you're enjoying a meal. What do you do? Can we find a, I don't want to say like secluded and quiet, but like if we can find a portion of the bar area or this dining area where we're like kind of more alone. Yeah.

Yeah. There's a little busy busing. There's a little. It's not, it's not that busy. It's, you know, after the kind of like a horrible event from earlier, like there's blood being mopped up right outside by a few officers. but so people have lost their appetite. However, the casino was still out.

But we haven't. You haven't. You have. This is delicious. The dinner suits your taste, I suppose. Oh, yeah. This is wonderful. Yeah, but you know, I have something important to say.

So I was swimming around in the water full of blood and beaks and feathers. And I was looking for some seaweed for things, of course. And I think I might have found a lead towards the. Relish. Really? I don't really know. It just made me think about relish. Maybe I was just hungry at the time.

Relish. Oh, but do relish? The relish that we're looking for. Right, so I was in the water and there was like a tall, thin figure that was like out of place. And just to me, that said, like, well, you're on the right path, Peggy. There's obviously relish in here. So it was just something weird. I mean, like, what kind of weird?

Well, I just told you it was like a tall thin figure in the water. It wasn't a frog. Yeah, but what does that mean? Well, that means that there was something in the water that shouldn't have been, Booker. Was it like a person? Well, I don't know. You'd have to ask the game master. Was it moving around?

Yeah, it was definitely moving. It was like, Dan, and then it wasn't. But it wasn't a frog, and it wasn't in order, that's for sure, I think. But you'd have to ask the game master. It was a very vague description of what I saw. Should we go back? It was a tall, tall, dark figure. Yeah, it was a tall dark figure.

figure that didn't look like a Toll Dock Otta. It was a figure. Yeah, so it could have been like a person moving, or it could have been like a figurine, like what you would see on a relish. Could it be like one of them fish? No. I feel like we've gotten slightly off topic. You know, I'm just going to say it right out.

No. Well, maybe it's, maybe that's the direction of the next relish. How deep were you? I would say that you were collecting a lot of like swamp biz, and so you were pretty far off into the reeds, into the swampy bit, but you were still, like, the, the, uh, the voracious gloom was probably about a hundred feet out, and you were, uh, off towards, like, the swamp area, uh, in the back. Yeah, so that's, you know, that's what it was. I mean, I can swim a little bit, but not great. A boat, maybe, maybe we take a boat.

Where can we get a boat? It sounds like that Louis Gar knows a lot of things, too. He probably that's what's what. I'm just very hesitant to say anything to anyone. This is a place where, you know, there's a lot of people who do a lot of things for power and unscrupulous people. I don't think I want to take anything from him. That's all.

We might not have a choice. I just think he wants money, don't you think? What's he going to do with the information? We don't even have to say why we're asking. We can just say, has there been any weird stuff going on in the swamp? any weird shadowy figures. But what if he already knows and then he thinks,

I mean, like, maybe he just knows and he's real grifty. He's grifty? Maybe. And crafty, but also possibly grifty. Wait, crafty or grifty? I don't know. Maybe the second fits as well.

Well, Peggy's really crafty. I don't really see him as a crafty time. I haven't seen him make anything. That's true. Besides deals, I guess. If you're a deal maker, if you're a deal maker of deals. Oh, that's probably true.

And just Jim Rosalow. Are you talking about the alligator guy that was inside that place? That big old alligator guy. Oh, yeah. I don't know. He doesn't seem like he knows much. He was like, what, the cook? He was the fanciest cook of them ever seen if he was to cook.

I don't think he was a cook because he wouldn't even try more berries. I mean, but they did kind of look like they had mold on them. Well, I just ate a little bit of it. It wasn't moldy. I swear it. They're really. I don't think Sherry gave you the best berry. I don't think any of a barric.

It was a little bit hairy. It did have a hair on it. It was frankly no scary. That's not me to be contrary, though. Oh, Miss Barry. You know, I can't help it. It's a good thing I know how to parry. Oh, do you really?

Oh, I haven't taken that skill yet. That's next. I don't need the parry. All I do is hairy. Oh, you can Harry? Yeah, I could really use some dairy. Does no one want to go get us to milk? You don't want to play a right-name game?

Fairy. Actually, let's just get it. Hang, if there is a fairy, that might be helpful. Well, I think we'd be better off just trying to borrow or rent a boat because I don't think we want anybody to know that we're going out there, and we're not going very far. And if we had to pay someone for a ferry... You know what we could do?

which could be really cool. What's it? We could find like a door, like a wooden door, you know? And you could all sit on it, and I can get under the water, and we could strap some weeds to me, and I could swim and swim and we wouldn't go anywhere

because then that movie's strong. You know what? I don't have a door, but I do have this big hideous sign on you that's kind of like a door cut in half. I don't know what they're just for the second. We could try and find, maybe we could find some proper fish,

and you're well and full of air, because obviously they don't have any lives. They're already dead. So we just find them and we just, you know, if they had lives, we'd take them. And then we fill them full of air and we keep the Sherry's Berry sign buoyant and we float on a raft down the water. And then we don't have to tell them. Or you can all just swim. Well, it just depends on how deep it is. I know that you can doggy cattle.

I've seen it before. I've got a lot of armor on me, though, so. That would be a wee bit tough to swim, don't you think? So you're not strong enough to do it? No, no, I'm definitely strong enough to do it. I can, have you seen how strong I am, please? So you're trying to tell me that you think that your arm is stronger than you are? No, it's not.

I can swim no problem. Who needs a stupid boat or a raft? Please don't let him drown. I don't let him drown. So you don't think he's strong enough to do it either. Wow, you swindle your friends and you don't even have faith enough. I'm not even going near that. The bottom line is we need a boat.

Well, what else could we make a floaty out of, except all the puff of fish? Yeah, I don't know. What about all dead bodies? They seem to float about. Sure, I can round them up and strap them to a, so you wouldn't sign, but then that's your call. Well, honestly, this sign is pretty heavy,

and don't tell my manager that Sherry's fair. very suck. And so I'd rather just not have to carry this sign around. So if we can make a raft out of it and maybe we could just paddle instead of you having to pull us all, I'm sure we could do that, maybe. Did it seem like it was near the shore? Yeah, it wasn't in the water. It was kind of off just towards like the murky dark trees. You know, so we could also do this thing when we walk around and then like I just get in the water and see what I see. And then if you need to come in, if there's something down at the bottom, a boat isn't going to help us.

So, you know, if it's down in the water, you're going to have to get in the water. I guess we could just stomp our way through the swamp. Doesn't sound very pleasant, though. What if we get stuck like we did in the quick sound? Then I'll probably just pass out, maybe die. Yeah, that was probably... You'll definitely drown out.

That was true. Other way, often would you get some sleep? We talk to the markies 8 in the morning. We'll put in the good words. I think we try to learn from this Louis guy unless we should just go explore the swan profoundly in asking him. I was almost thinking under the comfort of darkness.

Oh, not tonight. You want us to go out into the water tonight, whatever that shadowy... Okay, I'm in. I don't want anyone seeing us do any of us. I'm very concerned. We can at least look around. Maybe that's a good idea.

And any others won't know what we're up to. I'm very stealthy. Yes, you're very stealthy. I'm very stealthy. I can't beat my finesse's plus one. I can't be seen by anyone. That's true. Let's just take a look and see what we can find.

All right. Well, Penny, you've got to look away. Show us where you saw the thing. Yeah, all right. I'll do my best. All right, let's go. Stealthy. After finishing your meal,

enjoying a drink. And dessert. And dessert. And dessert. On Booker's done. It's on Booker. Only kind of sort. Oh, no.

You make your way out. And as you're still wanting to sign, right? Mary's Barry. You, as you're making your way through, you turn around one corner and Hazel, you're in the back as Harry's berries is displaying

proudly on the back. And you hear a voice call out. Hey! Oh, no! I don't remember making any partnership deal with a strange-looking chipmunk. You turn and you see there is a hair with crazy white hair and large spectacles and big butt teeth behind a fruit cart that says Harry's berries. Oh, no.

Hi! Are you plagiarizing my marketing materials? This is a horrible, horrible coincidence. How could this have happened? What is you talking about? I may have changed the name on the back of your sign from Sherry's Ferry's Ferry's to Harry's Ferry's because I thought it was funny at the time, but I'm not finding a comical now. Oh. Hey, turn around and face me, a coward!

Go ahead, Haysa. We won't let anything happen. I'm going to turn around and... Hey, why are you really the sign of my greatest enemy and competitor? Sherry. I think you're mistaken. Oh, Sherry's berries. It says Sherry's berries right here.

But on the back and says my name in very clear membership. I don't see that. I don't see that at all. I'm going to hold the sign and spin within it, so it's like I'm looking at the back when he still sees Sherry's berries. See, it just says Sherry's berries. just like this. This is the back.

I'm very confused now. My name is Harry. I sell berries. Would you like to buy some and maybe enter into partnership? I don't know. I really, you know, can't enter into that kind of a thing

without at least two or three several ways. Wait, if you're working with a sherry, I should like to poach and also hire you. Oh. How much are you offering? You know, the chip looks are the most dangerous game, they say. She would love to work for you. How much are you offered it?

Oh. Are you her... I mean manager? Yes, I'm a manager, exactly. Look, are you not more manager? Yes, I am. Quiet, how much do you... How much do you want...

How much do you want to... Sherry's paying us five gold pieces a day for her to wear that signboard. Oh, it's true. Five... Gosh, what she made of Barry, buddy? Only you can eat Barry. Clearly.

Are you trying to tell me that you're not? You're going to let Sherry want you like that. How is Sherry doing so good I demand to know her business practices? It's the advertising, my friend. Businesses. a 5,000% I recommend

me see please for the love of God! So I roll with charm which means I got a 12th thousand percent

well if if Sherry's gonna try to want to bet she didn't even pay any any eerie taxes I bet she's a filthy tax evader

you know you know Harry Wyatt Hensie always He's peases tactives all time. All right, all right, fine. And I start to take the sandwich board off of Hayes, and I'm like, do you have another one of these? I don't have that at all.

Just fix the partnership on the other side. Damn it, no, I flip it inside out. I get you got any paint? Oh, I guess I have berry juice. Oh, I can do it. No, no, no, no. Just let Peggy do it this time. Can you, can you write nice?

And so it's not upside down and backwards? Yeah, I'll cuff the shit out of that sign. Then I start taking my hammer and a jizzle, and I start curving in hairy. berries, like beautifully calligraphy. Fill it in with the berry juice. That's not even

my, that's not even up to brand standards, but heck, it looks so good I'll just take. So tomorrow morning, after we've done advertising all night, we'll be here to collect our employment. Six gold coins, I guess, you tricked me to do that, sure. Done. Hey, just, hey, just stay away from while you're out there. Don't go by the

horrible movement of the woods. I've told you What? But I hope you don't know any cannibals. I have a phobia of that. You know, I have a great idea for a new slogan for you. Harry's Berriest for the Marriest of Jerry's. I don't think I've ever met anyone named Jerry before.

That just doesn't. But you know, if you ever did, he would immediately be like, I need those berries. Do you have any demographic, Dayton, to back up your claims? No, not at all. I'm in. Just stay away from the evil woman of the woods. That's my only advice. Is this like some war that I would have heard of, like, being from here, or is this guy absolutely insane?

He sounds insane. You've been here in a while, though. You can ask him more. I'm too confused. Yeah, who is this witch in the woods? Is she a woman in the woods? witch and her woods. Or a bit of wounds.

Would she ever be like inside of the water? Well, I don't know if she's the water. I know she's, well, they say that basically if you go wandering towards the woods and you see ghostly light and then you see her own shadow move and then you never return. Oh, that seems terrible. And so, I mean, it sounds like she's a horrible, vicious blood-sucking hag, but enough about my ex-wife. I knew it was coming, and I just didn't want to play into it at all. You son of a gun.

You can ask him more, of course. All right, all right. This has been lovely. This has been really... But there's a woman of the woods. I'm pretty sure she's a cataple. Well, this sounds really scary. Well, we will make sure to not go there at all.

It's all folklore. definitely don't go there. I don't think anyone would care for any of Harry's berries, especially if she eats flesh. She wouldn't care for better unless she wants to care for your berries. I think I've got a new slogan

to play off of this film in fear. You can say Harry's berries, it's better than eating people. Yeah, that's much better than the one about Jerry. Is it? Is it really?

Berries. It's better than eating juries. Oh, that's good too. Berries, berries, better than a witch jiggling your balls. Well, that really took a left turn. I lack all of it. We're getting to eat a bigger sign. We'll just put them on rotation.

You make the signs and we'll rotate through throughout the week or something. I'm sorry, Macbeth. Thank you, Macbite. I think you, Macbite. I think they're like, subscribe. Well, um, uh, good evening, uh, Harry. Have you ever rid about swap play?

No, no, no, no, no, we're not doing this. Come on, come on, come on, come on. I try to grab a hazel by the handle, like, pull it on. But you didn't even get us pain? Tomorrow morning. Why, if he's not here? I don't know, we'll find him. And you better negotiate at least a berry for me.

He's the least about worries. We're selling berries. Let's find this woman in the woods. Don't really want. I thought we were... I thought we were... I thought we were... She's...

She's now match for us. I want to see you try to eat my jiggling ball. I'm not scared at her. She's got to relish. I know she does. I swear he doesn't even hear the things that come out of his mouth. To see her eat my jiggling balls. The swamplugs, I hope I don't get that.

Oh, God. I was having a lot of time for me. I was having a long time following his logic. But there was a shadow and then you disappear, but then something eats you. I mean, are we just done with the swamp then? We're just going to, we're going to head off into the woods, chasing a ghost story? No, we're going to go in this swamp. Oh, with Grubbley.

I think that guy's crazy. No, I'm not saying he's crazy at all. I'm saying that there's probably a woman in woods. She probably has the relish, and we'll just take you from. Oh. All right. You think that he was being honest about the swamp? because to be quite honest I was really deep in that smart today.

Well if it exists you're probably screwed but let's just hope that he's crazy. Do you're your skin usually all green like that in Bumpy? Yeah I'm a frog. Are your eyes usually all big like that? Yeah I'm a frog. Are your feet usually all flopping like that? Yeah, I'm a frog. Okay, I think you're all right then.

And I have these really thick fingers. Is that normal? Don't, don't you dare. Don't you dare. Don't you dare do it. Yeah, I'm a frog. even do with those fingers? They make a lot of things with these fingers.

Well, that seems like a good place to leave their time. I turn. I'm like walking. He's saving the ground. Brumley, what are you doing? What is he? What is it? I just start walking you off. Mom is, I'm on the trail. Are you guys coming or not? We're going to farm this relish.

Yeah, well, right behind you. I do love a good relic. Oh, dang it. I forgot what we were talking about. all right what do you smell it Peggy you should probably lead the way I don't know

I'm going to go ahead and lead the way and I'm going to jump forward Booker you don't really think I have big old frog eyes green skin or warts a big frog feet do you?

No I mean not in any kind of you know in a way that would make you insecure I'm right because you know Hazel really just made me think a lot about myself well she's a lot like Brumley

sometimes I don't think she thinks about the things that she says before she says them. You do. I think you're beautiful. Well, thank you, Booker. I don't feel the same way about myself sometimes, but I know you thought I was going to say you. I caught you.

She actually had me going to this moment. I was convinced that that was going to be a real singer. You hear one final on the way, my expectations were swimming. You just got Ryan Johnson. I think it's this quick. guys? I always hang you with that buzz. Uh, you see a little, uh, orange mouse

is just, Ryan's Johnson's and he sold hot dogs. Not dogs, I don't you guys. I usually have been still murder on the mouse. On my shirt is reconchamatic. They taste like shit. Mushby is my favorite. Uh, all right. Yep.

All right. Can we get on with this fight? Right. No. As you walk by, can we get on with this fucking heist? As you see Vinny and Benny over to the side, and they're all like pulling masks

over their head, and they're making their way out towards the lake, as you see them heading out. And you make your way tour through the streets, and you're not impeded by any more ridiculous NPCs. Are you sure?

One more. As you make your way and you hear, although a lot of the town is kind of calming down in parts as the night has settled in, you are under the cover of darkness, and you remember a lot of the clearings that you've been to have been relatively well-lit, large street lamps, but a lot of these stretches of water and boardwalk

are very dark. You see, however, the glowing beacon at the edge of the clearing, the voracious gloom, almost kind of rocking with the music and the dancing that's happening within there. However, all around it, it's almost as if the gloom of the swamp is almost trying to engulf it. As you make your way, you make the wide breadth around this casino. As you see that the very, very, very top of this casino, you see that although all the, all the floors of people dancing and celebrating, there's a single window, the very tip

top, and there's a light on. And you see, as you're making your way slipping through the darkness, you see a silhouette, dark silhouettes, long snout on the top hat, walk by and turn out towards your direction. You may not are able to dart out behind a barrel, and then it turns back, and it disappears. As you make your way, you see the looming trees of the swamp, and you stare, and you stare at the stare off into the darkness. You hear the chirping of crooked, and

the swamp is directly ahead of you. You're in the darkness. What do you do? Do you think we're getting close? Oh, you're talking to me. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, definitely think so. Well, I'm not going to make you go down there by yourself. Oh, no, I'm just immediately go back down there.

Okay, good, because I was going to convince Hazel of Joyner. You jumped into the water and you land the splash and you're able to swim and it's only about probably a 20 foot gap with water before you're able to swim out and you're actually find that through the reeds you're able to make your good grounding on mud it's a bit it's a bit soft and your feet kind of sink in a little bit but uh you get the sense that that that your friends would be able to walk along here uh if they made that 20 foot uh jump through the water oh head back yeah if you make it like a 20 foot jump through the water

you can stand in some mud and i like that. to stand in mud, so I think you should join me all right, and I'm going to head back out there. If we don't have to dive down, I can swim out there, no problem. Doggin't swim, no problem. Very strong. Maybe you need to lose the arm of the first. I just start leaving into the water.

Oh, no. And then I'm going to stir as soon as the water. You immediately sink into the water as soon as you in your armwork just sends you to walk along the bottom, holding my breath until I feel that I'm going to get Pirates of the Caribbean style You see, as all of you make it over, you swim on over,

and you see little ears pop out of the water and slowly walk out and completely soaked, Grumly, you step out of the water. Wow, I thought he was going to die for sure. I didn't seem very smart, grumly. I'm fine. I'm going to get wet, but... What can I shake?

And you're all scrape of water. I was. Not most. I don't see the shadows down there, so I don't know what you're so scared about, Peggy. I don't think to Peggy's scared. Can you even see in the water? You just walk in straight with no idea where you was going. I have my eyes closed, I guess, but I just went straight.

And here I am. It's a literal miracle you've made it this far in life. Well, just a little bit of luck, although that's my worst stat. Let's go. Let's go into the woods, into the swamps. All right. Where did you see the shadow? Down in the water?

Oh, I thought it was like standing up out of the water. Oh, I don't know. I, too, thought it was under the water, to be honest. There's a reason why I asked what the depth was like four times. That's why it was swimming down into the water. It was through the trees in the swamp. Oh, yeah, let's get out of the water in the swamp. Well, I must say, I have a little bit of a confession.

Oh, no. What's that? You're the witch. in the woods and you're going to eat Grimley's balls. You almost had me for one second. No, no, as much as it just pleases me to say so, I think that that crazy, hairy guy might be tell him the truth. Why you say that?

Well, I just, I completely misunderstood what was going on. I misread the situation and now I worry that there might be some truth to what he was talking about. You think that's the witch in the woods? Yes, in which case, Crumley, protect your balls. Oh. All right. I will protect him.

as carefully as I can. I think he's got a pretty well-cover. Now that we're all on the same page... It's a false out. Nice. Glove, glove. Ooh, I'm going to take it. Now that we're all on the same page,

I suppose, we go find this spooky apparition or whatever buzz you might have seen. Didn't they just see somebody walk into the woods with a top plate? I think he could have been that weird guy, the cook from Ovid, what's it called? Oh, most certainly. But he wasn't a cook. He owned the establishment.

Who did? I thought he was up in the window. The alligator. He was in his river boat. Oh, I thought he was in the woods. I said, I don't really do it. I think he's got the Calamacrisies, everybody. No, I think I got the rivermucks thickness.

Oh, no. Oh, no, there is pawn, a lot of illness. I have swap play. Oh, no. It's just another thing that Harry was right about. And to think we dismissed him as an absolute fool and a buffoon. And he's basically clairvoyant. Oh, no.

Oh, no. We're Harry knows all. Well, I'm not scared of no woman in the woods. So then why don't you lead the way? I'm a little bit scared of a woman in the woods to be. I don't stand behind me. I'll cue anything that crosses up there. Maybe I don't put it right away just, you know, in case it's like Jericho or something.

him? I wouldn't kill him, but any other bird, I'll definitely kill on site. Follow me. And I'll start starting under the woods, just... Are you going to have a light source?

Ooh. How well can we all see in the dark? I imagine Booker could see pretty well. I don't know how well dogs, frogs, and artichotes. Frogs have really great dark things. At the very least, then, for now, we should keep out any kind of light source.

We don't want to scare this thing off. right and then if we need to we can always we can light of course but maybe you just trust peggy and i lead the way and we'll see what we can see and then keep a low profile i'll use my nose to stevie but you good to larsely lead away what i'd be able to see if i'm like a burling animal like maybe not as well as yeah you'd be able to see decently enough probably i think midbooker probably would just want me to hold on your tail don't you you better not touch me oh should as you make your way through the swamp it gets darker darker and then you kind of see the clouds above you part and a nearly full moon beams down through the boughs of the swamp and as the moonlight shimmers down you see movement to your left

as your as your attention is drawn you swear you see a figure shadow move across a tree And then disappear. Peggy, did you see that? You know, I'm going to say it was a shadow moving across the tree, but I've gotten a lot of facts wrong recently, so I don't know for sure. No, that's all right. That's all right. So the two of them would say not.

No, I think that it was the moonlight. Oh, no. You know what Harry said. Once you see your shadow, you're dead. Wow. I know, we all dead. I really don't want to go out this way. Maybe, maybe if we're trying to get to the bottom of this, we should walk towards it.

I can't believe I'm saying this. You should head in its direction. Oh, great. It's leading us to relish. Are we sure it was not just our shadow moving across the tree? You know, Hazel, I'm not sure of anything anymore. The shadows are behind you, not in front of you. So if our shadows are inside of us, we're definitely going to die to a niche.

A witch is going to eat all of our balls. I don't know. I'm not an expert, but I would say it's where the light sources come in from. You know, I've gotten a lot of things wrong recently, so I don't really know Hazel are right. You gotta keep pointing it out. Can we just, can we just get on with this ice? We begin to lead the group towards where we saw the following it.

Just to try to follow it or like get a, you know. You make your way through another 10 minutes and suddenly you see a dart of movement. And you see across one tree, another tree, another tree, this dark shaped move. And it moves off in one direction. You follow it. Then you continue deeper and deeper into the swamp. and then you see it again. And it seems to be very much deliberately moving in a direction,

almost leaning you deeper into the swamp. And then, once you've been traveling for about two hours, you peer to the darkness of the swamp. And you see faint, flickering light far off in the distance. It seems like a small firelight. Oh, I'm thinking. God, there's a light here. I was starting to get worried that all of its predictions were coming true.

That's the ghost light. He said about it. We're dead. We're going to die now. I can still feel all of my voice. Well, just hold on to that because the light, the flickering ghost light was one of Harry's predictions. Oh, shoot, I really am getting everything wrong.

He said it was a ghost light and we're going to die. We haven't, we've come this far, right, Brumley? Well, yeah, I'm not scared of that. It's probably just our natural phenomenon. into swamble. Those words are far too big for you to be saying. You're going to go in there and kill whatever it is, right, Grumley? That's what is you, you're all right, Grumley? And I get behind and I start pushing him, like, towards the light. Keep your eyes peeled, Brumley. You never know what might strike? As you push Grumley, Grumley, you are walking a wall, and you're growling,

and you're in your stuff, you're growling almost in fear. And so your, half rougher, your boot catches something. And you stumble forward and fall into the muck. Huh! And... Harmley, I didn't mean to push you. Are you all right? Why were you pushing me?

Well, no, it was a gentle movement in the right direction. I'm sorry. And I'll try to help them up. You help them up. And as you're helped up, Gromley, you see what you tripped on. It was a large stone block almost sunken into the muck. There's a large stone block almost sunken into the muck. What's crazy?

What is that doing? This is what I've clicked on. Does this look at all, like, any of the other things that we've seen? I'll get closer to what to see if it looks like it's not natural to the swamp. You look, and it seems to be, you see that it's almost like a stone slab of a structure that is sunk into the swamp. You see the construction and the jagged edges. This seems to be a very similar, familiar construction. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon.

Come a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Aventris and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud over salt marsh. You can also go to the crookedmoon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tone for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.

And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. Well, we're too late. What should mean? It's been lost to the mud. This is just one stone. What if the rest of it's all underneath? Well, it's not lost. It's just under the mud. And how are we going to get it out of the mud? You know, I know someone who is the best digger in the whole world. All right, I'll do it. And I pull out the contraption I've been working on. It's a long, almost square looking thing held together with wood, and it's got

clamshells all along it and a small crank so that I can put it in in the mud, and it basically, the clamshell, shovel the mud and don't find. Shovel the mud and don't find. That's a crample! And I just crank it and start shoved it, and mud is flying everywhere. As you crank deeper and deeper and deeper water, starting to

kind of settle in a lot. bit, but the mud is going away. And as you get further down, this seems to be a large pillar, as you're buried in excavating this, and you get deeper and deeper and deeper. You start to see a bit of mural emerge.

There's more. You're doing it. Keep going. Keep going. A scene. I'm going. I'm going. Emerge. An armored stack, large antlers, and twisted oaken crown,

folding a flaming sword with an a medallion, and holding a banner. And beneath the banner, you see that it casts a shadow along the ground. And the shadow of the banner, but then it stretches out in multiple directions, a shadow that shapes and moves in humanoid, critteroid-looking shapes, that spread out and move, and you see that there are creatures. As Peggy's excavating along this pillar, that you see a savage-looking bear holding an axe, a barbarian that you had only heard of in legend, a brutal-looking boar,

as they're all cowering of these shapes made of pure shadow cast by this banner. Never seen anything like this before ever. Does this look like those shadows that have been moving around on the trees? To be honest, I just kind of thought there might be tricks of the light. I haven't gotten a good look. Peggy, the one that you saw does it look like this? Here on this mural. Yeah, it does look like it.

But I've been wrong about a lot of things tonight. The game master says, yay! Oh, did you hear that? Peggy, you are right about this. Oh, no. Oh, do we really do have that swamp gas. Oh, I think you... Oh, no!

Oh, no, sorry. It's got fun of fish. Oh, well, that thing's not alive anyway. Well, that means that the band is probably nearby. And then there all just trips played by the next artifact. I mean, relish. Yeah, well, then, yeah, don't say that word. Relish?

Relish. Yeah. Why? Anyone could be hearing us. We got to make sure we want to call it. Are there still lights off in the... You see that you've gotten closer, but there's still a flickering light off in the swamp.

It's hard to tell from this distance. But then as you kind of look through, you see that the shadows are now starting to move and coalesce and take shape and dissipate. All along the bits of lights cast by the moon on these tree trunks. And you now see that there are flickering bits of stone columns, bricks emerging from the swamp above you. I'll look left and right, and then I will pull the amulet out and just kind of pull it in the air and just see if anything happens.

Okay. So as you had all been taking your time, as you had all been taking your time digging this out, you hadn't really been noticing that it had been getting darker around you. As you notice that the moonlight on the trees all around you had been getting blackened by shadows. as you see all around you as almost these moving silhouette, long spindly fingers, hands all around you, starting to reach towards you. And then as soon as Grumley pulls out the amulet, all of them move, shoot their arms back as it seems to repel the shadows that had been encroached. Nice job, Brumley, nice job. Quit thinking. Let's all stay close. shadows. That's horrifying. Let's just stay close to grumbling. And just like before, we try to navigate through and figure out where these shadows are coming from, right? The banner, right?

You know, just in case they have access to one of those phone books, we should call each other by co-mates. Like what? Like, you should be grubbly, you should be good guy, should be piggy, and you should be hazel. That's my name. Yeah, I know, but if they get you, that's the least of our worries. Oh, no. Oh, it's on a zone. That's a great. one, let's do that. All right, Katie.

Right, verbally. Now listen to the booker. I mean, buga, fuck. Well, I'm as good as dead now. Let's all stick together. Does it look like

they're coming from, like, just all sides evenly or any, like, direction we can go in or, like. I would say that as you're noticing, that the shadows had been darting from the swamp. But as they all shoot around

and our burst back, you kind of get this direction, the shadows have been coming from behind you. As you see the light flickering off in the distance, the shadows that had all been encroaching are all cowering back and dissipate. And I'll say that as you turn around with the amulet to look behind you, you see the faint flicker of, you'd seen just simply the silhouette of a long, spindly hand,

but you then see this very brief silhouette of a head, elongated snout with the top hat before it disappears into nothingness. Tell me you all saw that. Yeah. I did. I think it's a very good thing that we haven't mentioned this to anyone, and we've stumbled upon it in the middle of the night, because I think that there could be eyes and ears everywhere. Oh, that could have been bad. Well, good.

Enough of that. Enough of that. Enough of that. Do we follow? Kind of. What do we do? I mean, we got to pick a direction. We got to pick a way to go. I'll say we just go towards Delah and keep our eyes over our shoulder. All right, all right. Then what I'll do is you keep walking forward.

I will walk with my back towards your back, and I will try to keep an eye on what's going on behind us. Everybody else look to the sides, maybe, while Ronald has got the front. Can you walk backwards very easily? Oh, I'm very dexterous. Very dexterous. Are you sure? I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life. You back home, they call me the sidewalk and extraordinary so I'm good on the side.

Look at that. All right. All right. You say so. Nice and easy now. All right, and I'll start marching towards the light. Okay. As you're marching towards the light holding the amulet,

radiating that orange glow, that seems to just be keeping the grasping hands of these shadows just barely at bay, as they all seem to coming the direction of the town, not this hut up ahead, as you make your way closer and closer to the source of this light. And you see now up ahead that the ruins that you are walking through seem to rise up a little bit more. And there is a row of stone monoliths. And in the very center, you see a hut. A wooden hut and where firelight flickering from within tiny windows, almost a warm, inviting glow with a thatch roof, a bent tin chimney billowing with smoke as you, as there seems to be this warm glow that this hut is also raised on. a what seemed to be two uh the two top two halves of trees with long roots that almost look like

chickens feet how's it going why why we stopped i just a woman in the woods um it's not i don't want to take my eyes off of what i'm looking for because i don't want to get jumped you tell me what we're what we're looking at you're a lot bigger than i you know with that another frog joke what no no no no like a mugging, like an attack. Grumley, what do you see? I hate it. Hold on. You're right.

We have to make sure that we keep all of our eyes everywhere. Here, take this rope. As a lot. What? Okay, I feel it. Now, pass it back to me.

And I grab it and tie it. All turn around. Come on. No. Hey, hey, hey. Smacking, but the hazel on the brothus, we fall down, phase versus in the lock.

Easy, easy. Brumley. What are you doing? This ensures that we always have eyes in the front and back of us. It's a little tight. I don't. Gotta stay secure, you're dangerous, times. Okay.

Is that the woman in the woods? I can't see it anymore. Oh, my. You should just not want to do and ask. That's kind of ominous. I guess we could ask, but if we think that this is the source of love with the shadows, we don't want to cause any trouble and be eaten alive.

Well, maybe it's just a nice old lady. I'm not the fear than nothing except everything, but you know if I'm going to die, I'm going to do it because I fucked up real bad, so let's go. Okay, but send Brumley first, but maybe untie me before you send him into danger.

I'll turn back and I'll just start walking. No, no, no, no, no, untie. I said untimmy. Drop him Brumley. Drumley, untie. As you approach this hut, it gets larger and larger an interview, and you see that

the thatched roof comes down and there's something tied above the door that there's a row of stairs that lead down to this ground level from the trees that it's built up onto to get out of the swamp. And you see that hanging above the doors are these large peppers that are tied up by ropes above this doorway as you approach and you are staring directly up at it. As you look up, you hear

movement. Sounds coming from inside, clattering the pants, the scuffing of feet on wood. As there seems to be movement, dark shadows, dark across these glowing windows, it's hard to see, try to make out the silhouette as it crosses the window

and you see a single shape moving around inside. What's going on? What's going on? I don't want to turn around. I want to keep my eyes out there. It's just somebody moving around. He's probably cooking dinner. We should go say hi. I think that's probably a good idea, especially if we get safety from whatever's out here. Right. Do you think Betty, should we knock on the door? Yeah, most definitely.

Okay. Go for it. Well, no, you're a talk off, and you should do it. Well, then we should turn around at once. On the count of three, We'll trade places. Look away. What? Just in case it comes up, I'm kind of hungry, okay?

Okay, no, go. Okay, on the count of three. Hazel, one. Wait, on go, we're on three. It'll be, it'll be, it'll be, I'll count to three and say switch. Sound good? And we'll switch when I say switch. Wait, on three or switch?

No, on switch, we will switch when I say switch. Should we do switch this one? No! All right, all right, all right. Nobody moved. Let me just survive this. I'll take a few steps up the steps. I'll walk up the steps.

I'm back. You take a few steps and the clattering inside gets louder is shuffling about. You see a few black feathers hanging around from the tops of the roof as well as you arrive at this door. with one shaky paw I try to rap loudly on the door With one shaky paw You lean in

And suddenly your paw gives way As the door flies open Ha! You see the light burst forth from this hut As a silhouette is standing there wearing very simple robes

As an incredibly voluptuous black chicken As she stares at you And says I'm sorry. My name is Booker. It's a pleasure to meet you. I take my hat off and I say, we were just, we're looking for respite, for some sort of relief. She waves a wooden spoon at you. She points it at you. Are you with the alligator man? No, no, no, no, we're just, we're vagabonds, we're just passing through. We, we've wandered

out into the swamp, foolishly, and now we're here. No, we saw the shadows of the alligator man in the swamp dough. Is he with you? No, he's not. He's a thief. Are you things? thieves, you say you're vagabonds, you're coming to take even more of the relics? We don't want to take anything. We'd be happy to explain everything. The alligator man seems to be pretty dangerous

and we have nothing to do with him. Chris Wade and then he's zero. Wait a man. Did you say that the alligator man took one of the relics? I mean relish? I mean relics. In 11. She turns to you, Peggy, and says, I did.

and you look old too stupid to be torsied by him get in here you'll catch a death in the night yet thank you and she weaves you in it's the swamp playing real we've been in the swamp for hours I'm in the door

as she hears that she leans in her waddles hanging seductively seductively it twitches seductively It graces Peggy and Booker. Oh, you must not have seen us there. Oh, okay.

All right. All right. As it leans towards you gromily, he says, Are you afraid of a swamp plague? Well, we heard of that there may or may not be a swamp plague. Does it exist? But you know it does? The clam crazes.

I knew it. I told you. Oh, no. I took one by that stupid clan sandwich. Wait, how do you get... You ate three whole clam sandwiches. I did. I ate three whole clans from Rubin. So it looks

like you've gone mad. Oh, no. And so do we explain all the things that we've been seeing. I'm going to have to put them down. Oh, no. Am I a danger to my fellow vagabombs? How do you care of it? You are stupid...

Sit down! Sit down! And she shuffles over and you see that in this hut, there's a large stove that's connected to the chimney up at the top and there's a large cauldron on it and it's bubbling with this brew and you see there's a wide variety of peppers

that are hanging from the ceiling dry and fresh in a variety of different ways and she immediately leans forward and fills four bowls with soup and sends it all in your direction on this table and she sits you all down

well this is very very hospitable of you thank you You know what is this? This is... My special brew. Cheeks. You smell really good.

Oh. I've got some berries. Did you want some of those? And some pies? Cherry pie? I don't have to check. I don't recall. I may have eaten that one already. But you can have to have to do that for this. She takes it. She even walks it down.

I haven't had food from the sette in the song. What are you doing that in my swamp? All right. I suppose we should just explain everything. It seems like you know what's going on, and quite frankly, we're all a little confused. So you said the alligator man. He stole some sort of relic. I. We stole them.

Yeah. He has... He does. He's been using it to make dark deal. Swindle people out of their money. When they catch rise, they die horribly. I knew I had some sort of bad feeling about him, but I never could have guessed it was that sinister.

We almost made a deal with him. I think we might have, didn't we? I guess we kind of sort of did, but it wasn't... No, no, I told him that we would have to see what was going on. We didn't make any deal. Oh, that was pretty lucky. I'm not going to lie. We didn't give him anything.

And all he said is that he'd give us free. drinks if we gave him a... We don't have to give the word. We don't have to put in a good lord for him. I mean, not that we would anyway. Now, but... No, but course not. We don't have to do any kind of bargain.

Okay, that's good. Makes me to feel bitter. So why are you living out here in this swamp? This is your swamp? This is your swamp? Hey, this is my swamp? No one else had any... The chicken breast to live out here?

Keep an eye on the standard. Until I got... stone for me. So why do you need to keep an eye on the stand dead, though? So you're like it's Godian, but why? Because when I was a young chick, I wandered out

into the swamp, and I saw a growing glow out in the distance. And I wander through, in the shadows. They all lingered around me, but they did not strike. And I saw it rising out of the muck of the

the swamp. And I saw the beginning of the forest, the beginning of everything. And I knew I'd become the crazy old woman of the swamp until the alligator man knocked me out, stole the standard. And now I can't leave of the shadows of turn me apart. How did you make it this far? We tied Booker to Grumley's back And that seemed to work for some reason or this It's like the shadows wanted to stay out of our eyesight They were always in the corner of our vision Yeah, that's true

Also, I'm confused, what's the standard? It's the banner It's like a flair Why didn't they just call it the banner? I couldn't tell you It's more like an official sounding name In an army, a standard is like the... Is it built to like a standard size?

well it's more of the official thank you for the 5-1-13-3 it's more like if you're in the army you have a standard for like a unit for instance and it's very important because it identifies that that regiment

and so it's more important in the battle it's more important than a flag it's a standard and if you lose it or you drop it it's very desirable while we're on the topic of these things, you wouldn't happen to know what constitutes a deal with the alligator man. Did you shake his hand?

I don't think we did. Well, that's kind of my thing. I always offer a hands shake. It's what a gentleman does. It's also, well, anyway, to be fair, I've been up a long time, and I've seen a lot of things tonight, and I'm not so sure what I might have done. He might be doomed. right now. Well, what's the worst that would happen? I mean, would we all die? Would it just be me? Oh, fucker. If you shook the alligator's hand.

I can't remember. The inviting smile. No. The alligator as you swam through the shiny teeth. Stop! You're dead. Just me or all my friends, too. You'd be more scared if I said your friends would die too?

I think I would be more preferable. I don't want to die alone You will die alone No That's so much worse And unloved Oh Fix it

Is there a way to undo Unddeal We have this And I blow up the annulam I know Where did you get that? We found it Can it

This is how we got Through the woods This is what kept the shadows At bay This is why we weren't torn apart Yeah, that's right I don't want to die. Can we use this to make sure

I mean, Booger doesn't die? His name's Booger, not Buggled out. It's a mis- So you stop calling me Bougar. This is how I go. Are you saying you're willing to go against the shadow?

That doesn't mean I don't have to die if we beat him? If you beat him and take the banner back. Oh yeah? I. Hi. Right?

Consider it done. Don't touch me. Ooh. You gotta grab my wattle. No, no, I would never even think about you. No, no, don't even. It's been a long, lonely life out in these woods. Absolutely not.

Don't even think about it. She's so lovely. She might appreciate it, nice little. Just grab it. Just for a little bit. Never. Not even once. I'm not making any kind of weird deals with anybody else in this, God for a second.

What happened at this? place of the time that I've been gone. That shit? Yeah, you're from here. You know, always. I've always been, no, people in the swamp. Not that I'm aware of. Not that you're evil, but they're evil.

So how do we go about fighting the shadow thing and getting the standard back? Do we just walk up to his place of gloom and just go in there and just be like, hey, fuck you, give us the standard? Or do we have to, like, go do a dark ritual where we all take off our clothes and dance around in the moonlight chanting and sacrificing goats? Like, what do we have to do? That seems... Ooh. Like out, something I want to do. I know, I don't want to do either one of them.

Maybe we could like chicken. Chicken? No, no, I'm just pardon. That was rude. Oh. Wait, wait, I mean, I want to know the answer to Peggy's question. It sounds like there might be something specific. What do we have to do?

What do you want to do? Do we have to cut our fingers off? Oh, it's going to live? I just want to live. I don't want to do that. I know. Do you want to chick the hell heater man? Yeah.

Oh, that would be a little. I want to take the standards from the alligator man, so what do we have to do? She wants to steal. Stand it. Yeah. So we have to make a batch of mashed potatoes, put it out in a can of stand, step on it in the moonlight so we don't turn into wolves. That seems kind of fun. These are all very specific things.

You keep saying, Maggie. Do you want to die? No. All right, then let me ask the hard question here, all right? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You. God.

That is up to you how you get it back. if you're looking Do we have to give ourselves a wedgy and walk through town and act as if we don't have one Oh, it's too hard I know You have to give it to him he's doomed I'm sorry

Bucca Just give it a little phone No Can I try to figure her In my horrible Confucii With your wedgy You're fearful

Yeah I think Figure someone out is a better way to go here Oh, it's charm. You got this, you got it. I got a... 8 plus 3 is 11. Yeah. So I get to hold 3.

Okay. And while interacting with them, I can spend my hold 1 for one to ask... Is your character telling the truth? Absolutely not. Okay. What is your character really... What is your character which I do? She was...

If you were going to funnel that waddle. And then... Hold it, too. And then how can I get your character to tell the truth? If you fommeled her waddle. I'm noticing a feeling. This was the most unfortunate set of circumstances that I could have. I know you're lying to me.

I know you're lying to me. You still want to finally do, aren't you, Bougar? It's Buker with a K. I'm going to pick you, Bukkah. I don't care for it, no. Can I have some soup, please? Death by Alligator, man. Stupid shite.

Death by alligator man might be more preferable than this. All right. So if I do this, you'll tell me the truth on how to get the better back. Why don't you find out? Give it a fun of that, boo. You can't lie to me now, right? No. Okay, all right. Very hesitantly. Oh, no, I feel as though history is repeating itself in some weird parallel time frame.

I reached out, I funnel her wall. Oh, no, dear gods, it's all gross and slimy. She ruffles her feathers and some black feathers, some giant feathers shake out. Oh, my. I don't want to do it in a variety of ways. I have some sort of. special brew that's not soup. What is it?

Is it Kauai? Fucking stupid. All the ones I've met yet. But there may be some intelligent ones. No, no, tell, no. It's something you put in a pot and... Where did you find her?

But you can put it into a pipe. You know, I asked probably the same thing on the way here. And I peddled some boundaries for a little while. For shirri? She's still wearing the sandwich board. Only it's flipped inside outside of says Harry's Barry's. Oh, Harry's a mad man, but he knows more than he lets on.

I've seen him from afar. I've tried to beckon him. You know, he did kind of tell us about you, and we all thought he was crazy. Oh, no, I saw his terrible relationship with his wife, so I sabotaged it. That's pretty dark. That's an awful thing to do for Sherry's awful thing. I'm shaking in a hundred of small. Wait, is Sherry's own wife?

Did you know? Oh, no. She wouldn't even give me, well, she did give me a sample, but she wouldn't give me more than one very simple. She did suck, that's why the relationship lasted as long as it did. Oh. I don't care for that. I can't talk.

Oh, no, this makes me really nervous because you know what he said about you? He said you were going to eat the balls right off of the guys. Oh, no. Brumley, specifically. Yeah, are you going to eat Grumley's balls? Brumley said he'd like to see you try. Don't please don't get a ball. She turns and looks at a great.

What did you say? Good suit this. She struts over. Do you judge my power? No, no, no, oh. You seem very powerful with your cooking abilities. That's true. It's very delicious.

Are you going to cook his balls? Are they're balls? No. Yes. All right told us those things weren't great. Oh, Fitch Titty. The Clam Crazy is real. I don't believe you.

No. Did I actually get something wrong? Just open. No. Okay, so if we've got the clam crazies and we've got the swamp, like, what do I have to do to get rid of it? The Banner. We need the Banner. Yeah, okay.

So to get the banner. Oh, that's right. You were talking about it. Do I have to go outside? Do I have to walk on my hands? And as I'm walking on my hands, I'm also trying to suck on my toes. And then when I'm doing that, I'm going to spin around 14 times. exactly 14 times.

But when I get halfway towards the 15th time, I'm going to flip over onto my back, scream up at the sky in rage. What are you going to scream? Well, that's how you summon an incubus. I know. Well, I got to go, guys. No, hold on. I'll join you.

I'm going to die alone in the swamp. I loved. The three of us eat soon. I don't want to you go out in the swamp. It's not going to fucking freakiness. And that's the end of the campaign. Thanks for coming out. Folks, it's been fun.

How are we? So, and we all get sucked to him. Oh, yes. What's your name? My name's Piggy. And this is grubly, and this is Booger. It's Booker.

We are. And this is, um. Zulnut. Zulnut. Yeah. Okay. Oh, hey, Zulnut. Booker with a K.

That's a stupid name. Oh, no. Um. My name is Bridgett. Oh. Not Brigitte. I'm glad you made that strangely specific clarification as if we might make that mistake from some of the parallel world.

With a deed. Don't Bridgett like the name. I can't cross the bridge. Yes. You know, that would make it a lot easier for people to get here. Because you know you're in a swamp and you're really high up in the market. You just made a bridge. And people could come visit you all the time.

And then you wouldn't have to put people's balls in your soup and you wouldn't have to have weird raccoons with a wedgy fumble your waddle. Do you think if you get rid of the alligator man, I can visit Harry and enjoy his berries? I'm sure you can.

I'm very uncomfortable. Assuming that the curses is lifted and you're not stuck here forever and we're not going to die alone and unloved, then yeah. You probably still will, curse, but not. Anyways, I think some of Harry's...

I take four injury. Yakes. Ouch. I guess we gotta find a new bugger. It's booker with a kid. I have enough peppers for one brew. All right. I got my famous Bridget love potion.

My famous Bridget Boom potion. Boom. Boom. Oh. Oh, I thought you said bone. Like, you put bones in. I thought he said boom. No, that's the little one.

The bone potion. Oh, no. So you take him to the bone zone. Oh, no, I was going to ask if you were talking about a dick, and you were. Well, no, I was talking about one makes you follow love, one makes an explode, and another gives you a bonitis. What's not? The bones turn to jelly. Oh, that sounds kind of...

Oh, never mind. What kind of jettling of what I thought was going to do? Like a bone marrow jelly, have you ever had that? It's delicious. Can we get it in grape? No. So what you're saying, though, is that we could firebom the hell out of the casino. I don't see why that was a ridiculous question.

So does boom jelly and bone jelly and... And... And... Why don't you name them all with bees? It seems really weird that one of them would be named with a now. Bone. Boone. B-O-N. B-O-N. That's the love one now.

Oh, born, boom and boon. So you got two bones and one boom? Yeah. I really hope we don't mix those up. You can get one. I'll make one. We'll take the bone one. Wait, wait, no, what do they all do?

What do you mean? Love makes you fall in love with someone? No, but like... We can literally firebom his ass back into the... I need to live here. He needs to drink it. That's a little bit more tough. So, can you explain what happens when you drink each one of these jellies?

you just did. Why aren't you listening to one minute? No, like, in more detailed than a single word that starts with a bee. How much more detailed than you need than your bones didn't... It's what it says on the tin, you dumb fucking dog. It says it makes you go boom, like, Twitter painted, like a figurative sense, like a metaphorical boom. Or do you mean, like, boom when you're bumping uglies?

Oh, like... Oh, like, boom-boom. Or do you, like, literally explode? And it's... For some reason, I'm feeling like every single one of these is a fuck juice. And with the rage... attitude, they could be. I feel like at the end of the day, we just have to get him to drink this, which means

we're in trouble. You don't know. He's in a casino and he offered his drinks. Why don't we just go kill him? That would be great, so we could go to the casino. No, but that's right. We could go to the casino and we could ask him if he wants a drink. That's not out of the ordinary.

He's just the cook. I don't think he's to cook. What if? What if? We've already gotten Hazel two jobs. We get her one more. All we have to do is get her hired at the casino as his personal assistant and she can poison her. Oh, you know what?

Because Havel's not a frog. I was just going to say. Maybe we should get Booker hired at the casino. I'm not a frog either. We could disguise you to look just like a frog and you blend in with all the other frogs. I know you're not much of a thinker, so I'm going to let that one slide. The point is I want to see that scaly. Baster explode into visceral all over the side of his, inside of his casino.

I don't condone murder, but I need to live here. What happens when you drink the boon juice? You turned into viscerer inside of a casino. You dumb fucking bug. That's what I was banking on. I'm not a bug at all. You bug. Or did you say pug?

You're a bug now. Oh. Well, I'm squushed you like a little bug. You know, I actually really like you. I thought we were going to walk in here and you was going to sever our bodies from our bodies. Well, the night is still young. I mean, someone did call you a cannibal.

Yeah, Harry. Harry did call you a cannibalism. They call you everything. But I guess if you do what you want to to, you could kind of call it cannibalism. Oh. That's my special move. Gross.

A cannibal? Never mind. I didn't ask. I. We don't need details, please. The manager. I don't like the way you're looking at me. Oh, right, where does he keep this banner?

When is he in his boat? She clucks. She clucks. Is his banner in the boat? I don't know. I don't fucking. Is it offensive? Anyways.

We'll take the bone potion. The one. Can we be a little more? Are you talking about the fuck juice? Because I don't think that's a good. The one that turns in the jelly? Yeah. Booms.

What is that going to accomplish? One, I think it would be kind of neat to watch. And then two, we could just kill him easy. Well, you know, it'd be really funny if he was just trying to, you know, well, gone everything. Or that would also be funny. But if he's just, if he just turns into like a gelatinous puddle, then what? Well, then we can say, huh, can't do anything now.

Where's that? And then we still have to kill him, right? I mean. Well, maybe we don't kill him that way. Maybe he just, like, flops around on the ground and we take the banner and we just leave. Maybe he'll just slither to wear the bird. Can you talk if you didn't have a jawbone? Does it turn your jawbone in the jelly?

Are teeth bones? Do they turn the jelly to you? Bones are bones, yes. It's disgusting. He's just a business man. Clearly not. He's got shadow people at his beck and cold. And you said he kills people too? I. They are destroyed and ripped apart by the shadow monsters. Oh no. Can I try to figure her out?

I see if she's telling the truth. Seven. So I think I get one. You're one. Is she telling the truth? Yes. Well, she believes at the very least. I've seen it.

The body parts buried in the swamp. Well, he's just saying, if we get the love potion, then we can charm it easily, and he might just tell us where it is and hang it over. So who are we going to make him fall in love with? Yeah, how's that work with the brew? Like, who does he fall in love with? The first person he sees what he drinks him. I am out.

No way in absolute, nothing in this God-fusaken woods would ever convince me to get anyone near anything like that. I still vote from exploding him into viscera. Can't handle little of alligated love? No wonder you're going to die alone. Yeah, I mean, that's a given. We're going to be here arguing until we all die alone. What do you guys think we should take? I'll just be.

I vote for exploding him into vizzer. What is wrong? I want to pay back. I'll still call out the jelly bones. It seems a little more shuttle than blowing him up. Yeah, like, with the jelly bones, we don't guarantee he tells us anything. And then if he's like, oh, I'm not going to tell you. Or also like, oh, but the eye locked it away in the place where the only way you can get it, if you utilize my alligator body.

And then he's blown to Smith and the reeds, we can't get it anyway. And if these jelly bones, he won't be able to move towards it. So the only way to do that is to make him fall in love with Booger. I think that's right. We'll take the love potion. If it won't be me, I'm telling you, I'm not going in there. Yeah. And you literally can't make me.

You can take the love potion, but I'm not going to be the one to deliver. He knows what I look like. Because I don't like it when we fight. He knows what we all look like. Good luck getting close to him. We'll offer him a drink. He didn't know what we're up to. Oh, my Lord.

She's nearly starting pulling some peppers. Do you see what I'm working with here? Do you see this? Do you hear these things? You know, it's fine. I'll make him fall in love with... Well, we. That sounds fair. Let's go. She matches it up in a mortar and a pestle.

And, oh, with a poof of smoke. And she pours it into a jar and seals it up. And she hands it onto the table. Like, well, this is all I got. Good luck. That was really nice to you. Well, please get the banner back so I can leave my fucking hut

it's kind of a nice hut well thank you very much I appreciate you lying to me I love your hut oh thank you very much I think we should go she clots so if we all

calmly take the potion well thank you we will head back right away and we will offer this to him and hopefully get to banner back very soon And maybe you'll know if the shadows are seed and you're able to leave this, God for sake. Yeah, and you know, we'll make sure to let Harry know that there's no better place for his balls than out in the middle of the forest with a weird chicken. Oh, I appreciate that.

Now we'll send him your wife. And if you want to come back, you smell like berries. Did you want to take a lick of my side? It's got some of the berry juice, isn't it? A lick of what? The sign. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you right.

A sign. That's still fine. and don't you forget that waddle fondle was strictly business nothing else business you fuddle one waddle now where have I heard that before

I have a strange strange feeling deep in the pit of my stomach it's almost as if this was unavoidable like no matter what I'd done fate would have led us here Sage is very real. Looking out of my fucking hunt! Bye.

The door slams. Thank you, Bridget. And the door slams behind you and you make your way back to the swamp. The shadows once again creeping in the long, jagged fingers attempting to claw you, but the

amulet protecting you. It takes you another two hours to get back as you leave the ruin city behind. You leave the stone monoliths and all of the remnants of this ruin. And you make your way through the swamp and you see the back of the voracious gloom, the large riverboat casino built up on this deck. You see that there are three tiers, but that fourth tier up ahead,

which had just the one window on either side where you could see the silhouette of the alligator man. But you don't see it right now. What do you do? I'm going to ask a question. What if I happen to the big crown here? You got it. I think you have any of your pack.

Oh, I do. Your gigantic backpack you've got there. Oh, good. I thought. I hope you didn't lose it. I don't think that. I did it. I don't know what you'd say that.

I've got it. Don't worry. I certainly. You don't sound very confident. No, I've got it. I just, um... With a giant, whooping crown in the day. I forgot.

Should we have, like, shown her that we had that, too? You think that would have made a difference? No, but I am concerned about the fact that she thinks were bringing this thing back to her because we're not, right? Like, why would we bring this thing back to her? I think she just wants to be let out of the swamp because he's going to keep it in there because of the shed. She kept

saying, well, here's this so you can bring it back to me and we were all like, yeah, sure. Oh, I didn't really think as long as we just say, hey, here it is, we're going to take it, but you can leave the swamp now. It's a fair trade. We can deal with that way. We don't know if she'll be

able to leave the swamp if we take it with us. That's true. I think she can. And if she can't, she can't ever come after us. That's true. Yeah. So that's why I'm thinking we don't take it back to her, like, period. Because then if we take it back to her and she's like, no, you can't take it unless you

bottle my wand all. I prefer, yeah, to never go back. Yeah, we just not go back. It's kind of my thought. But we can cross that bridge. Well, she doesn't have a bridge outside of a house is the thing. Yeah, that's true. Actually, I don't know if you were busy pulling your underwear's out of your butt crack,

but I did have a long conversation with her why I talked. where she could use a bridge. Yeah, he's not listening to me again. I don't know how we're going to get this guy to drink this thing. I thought I had an idea, but then I realized it was a really stupid plan. Well, what was it? Maybe it was just stupid in your head. And then we can, like, we can work on it.

Well, you can just call me stupid, maybe. No, I wouldn't do that. He might. Well, he did say he wanted to play games. It's true. It's casino. I don't know many games. Oh, oh, what if we were?

like played a drinking game with him? Well, I thought about that, but the problem is that we still have to get him to drink the thing. And so I was thinking of like a shell game. Have you ever seen a shell game? I've got a lot of shells in my pen. Right, right, right. So imagine those shells, three of them, and there's a ball under one of them, and you show them the ball, and then you cover it with the shell, and three identical shells, and you shuffle them around. The person has to try to guess which one it is, but that didn't really work either. And then I thought maybe just like challenging him to some sort of a game of, well, we put the thing in and we just want to

and saw him to drink the thing, but that didn't work, that wouldn't really work either. I mean, like, why would we ever convince him to risk his life for something? Well, why has it got to be risk of life? Why can't you just say, you lay down two shots and you do the game, but you make him lose, you know, how you do you. Well, of course. And then, you say, oh, you lost, take a shot. You may be, you know, you pour a little something else for you.

you lose first to get him off his guard. Or what we could do is we can get completely naked. We could go into his room when he's sleeping. Oh no, please, don't stop. Yeah. We could go into his room when he's sleeping, all right? And then naked, because then he wouldn't hear us at the entire point. We just cry his mouth open.

And I have this puffer fish. It's dead. It was born dead. So, okay. checks out. You just fill it full of the love potion and we just squeeze all of the juice deep into his body while we're naked.

I don't know why being naked comes in play with that, but I'm willing, I'm open to the idea. If there's a purpose, I suppose. I really want to circle back to the mashed potato idea. Yeah, but that was more for a thing. I don't know. That was just something I came up for me. Do you just go numb?

What? Maybe we just do that. It would just walk up and be like, now, I'm going to down. You want to post him? 20 drinks in your own care. That we did drink the potion because it'll be a lot of dinner. I already told you that I'm not going to be the one there when this happened.

The delivery? Oh, that was really good. That fucking got me, man. But you have to be the one to trick him with the game. Your whole thing is tricking and persuading people. The problem is we don't even have a guy. game to challenge him to. And again, how do...

I mean, I like... I just laid out a very well-thought-out game. I don't know if... I don't know. I believe in you, Bucca. I could help you. I need time to think. Oh, you know what we could do?

Well, you know, I'll show up completely naked. And then say what you said. I think that that actually might work as like a destruction tactic while he's trying to guess the game. I don't see the connection, but I'm not very... I just think the... One of this is if we all work together a solo

You know what we can also do It has nothing to do with being naked, all right? So just listen to me on this one. We could go in and we can show on the amulet and say, hey, we'll give you this if you drink this potion. You might. I actually don't hate it. What if the potion doesn't work?

What the fuck that we should get naked run? Just don't shake his hand again. Well, too late for that, my friend. Your good friend Booker is not long for this world. We won't let anything happen to you. Oh, maybe we offer him a berry and it can be a stuffed berry. That's the best idea we've got you so far. That's a great idea.

The guy to see berries? We'll bring him one of Harry's berries because Sherry's berries are shit. That's right. Harry didn't give me any berries. We'll go get one. He's your employer. We have to pick up the money anyway. Yes, true.

I also have a bag of exotic berries that I found out in the woods. Well, either way, Gromley, I think they're on to something. Oh, you can start an entire new place called berries. Hazel nuts berries. Now that sounds horrible. Nuts and berries. Oh, and every employee can be naked. That sounds great.

That's great. And you don't have to worry about stains on your clothes. That's how I like to work back at my workshop before all, you showed up and decided to take it up space. Sorry. Sorry. It's easier to carry your tools when you're wearing clothes. All right.

Well, I think we need to figure out what our plan is. Well, how are we going to get the love juice into one of these berries? How do we guarantee that he eats it when he bites into it and all the juice spruits all over his mouth? Why did they continue to chew? How do you just go flop out of his mouth because they have to chew like that? What if he just eats it in one bait? He's pretty big. He's bigger than grumbling.

He's a big guy. He's very much if he's got to drink all over the pot. What if we convince him that we found something really cool, right? And we tell him like, hey, look, we found this juice that's like it'll make you super strong and everyone will love you. And then we say, but we want to drink it, but we thought we could really use money more. So do you want to play a game to see who gets to drink it? We make it seem like we want to drink it. And then we challenge him to a thing that we lose on purpose.

I know it's really hard for you, Bukka, but you can. got a try. And then he has to drink and you all look so sad. Oh no, we really wanted to drink that potion. And then he drinks that he falls in love with you. So pretty good idea except for the last part. Okay. Then we'll look really

happy and say, oh, yeah, you got the potion and then he falls in love with you. That's the second to last part. You know, it really depends on your mask. So? I don't know. So we put the potion in a berry. It's not what fit in a whole berry.

How much potion is there? It was like a jar. Pretty big berries. I mean, massive berries. You did not inspect Harry's Weirys. Barry's. Harry's wear. That's true.

I suppose worst-case scenario, we go by in the morning. We see if what Harry's wares are. And if we don't like the look of his berries, we can go check out Sherry's berries. What if he's on to us and you've seen us out in the woods? I don't think we should wait. let's just put it into Sherry's big shittyberry and I'm give that to him

yeah I can't come up in fucking anything I think we should do it I'm just trying to take my clothes off oh we weren't going to do that part of the plan well you know at this point I'm getting pretty desperate so maybe anything at this point might have more let's just do it

I think we should do it I think we should strike now while the ions are as they say at the very least he'll just be very confused and Grumly can hit him over the head. And we can just force it down his throat. How about this? Why don't we get two glasses in a bottle of whiskey and we'll spike one of the glasses with the potion?

But we're fucking up when we give ourselves the potion. Well, nobody could be that stupid. You're right. I like that idea. And we challenge him to a drinking contest. Clearly booked his most experienced drinking, so he will challenge him to a booking contest and

he will drink it and then he will fall in love with one of us. Doesn't matter who. Whoever he sees first. That's true. Doesn't matter and it will be like, hey look, if you want to have a good time later tonight, then take us to where their batteries.

You know, we heard about it. We didn't really think that through either because just because he falls in love with us doesn't mean he's in until it's where they're band is. I think it will. We probably should have exploded his gut. Well, then we wouldn't know with dinner and iron

It's almost as if I had suggested that Yeah On the time, you should have done jelly bones Well, it's too late now All we've got is this bones bounce Well, I like your idea Let's do it So which one of us is gonna fuck him

I'm not a while Well, I already called no, so I don't have a no I can't play this game It looks like Peggy's warning Oh, no. Well, let's just go do... All right.

Get your bottle of whiskey ready. Wait, I thought we were spaking the berries. Well, not even on the same page. Oh, no. We're going to spark a glass of whiskey, and we're going to challenge him to do a drink in contest. Why wouldn't he just grab his own bottle of whiskey? Why is he going to take a bottle of whiskey? We have to offer him something he doesn't already have.

Then berries sounds fine. So... You make your way to Harry's berries? No, we have the berry from Sherry. The shitty berry from Sherry. We might as well swing past him. See, we've got to check out Harry's berries. No, we don't.

You got to see what he's hanging with. We'll be a little bit nice. Yes. Worst case, Sherry, we'll steal from him. We're already screwing everything up. We might as well fucking steal Harry's berries. So that's the plan. Yeah, we're going to swing by some he's got.

So, you make your way through the town. Despite it being pretty late, there are a few bars and taverns that are still open. There are people walking around. Once again, you kind of stay a wide bit away from the voracious gloom. And you walk past like a bar fight. People are beating the shit out of each other. And then you eventually make your way to the old fruit stand that says, Harry's berries.

And it's very late. and all the stores were closed over right behind the food stand is this ratty-looking tent. And you hear a... Yeah, we should just steal some berries. All right, Hazel, we need you to go in there as quiet as you can and steal as many of Harry's berries as you can. Put all of Harry's berries in your mouth, but don't squish them. I'm always very gentle with berries. You know that.

Except for the ones that were rolling around in my bag, but now I've got the clam-house for the berries. We just need a couple of them in good shit. If many as you can get... All right. Harry seems to be asleep, so just snatch his berries and get the hell out of them. All right. Any particular kind of berries?

The plumbest and juiciest Harry's berries you can find. You can see on the sign that Harry's berries are the plumpest. And not hairy like sherry's hairy berries. Right. Don't get few sherry's hairy berries with herries berries that are plump. Don't forget juicy. safely even. All right.

I'm going to see if I can sneak up. Attempt for Hoby's Feats. All right. I'm going to sneak up on my little, I'm going to take my shoes off, so I've got little pitter-patter feet. You have pitter-patter paws. I got pitter-patter paws.

Sticky fingers. Nine plus finesse? Yep. Uh, 10-1-12. 12, so you pick one. Don't have a clear path of escape. Use up some resources you lead evidence. I'll leave some evidence.

Okay. So you make your way to creep up, and you see that in this rickety tent, you see two long white ears sticking out and you hear snoring. Oh, I sure. No one takes my second compartment, baby. God, no. This is an absolute nightmare. Family and Lou. Oh, boy.

You make your way, and you see that there's a good number of berries. They're all plumb. Some are hairy, some are not. They all look delicious. However, there's one in the back. And it's this large, plump-like blueberry. Secret compartment berry. And there's an actual hole in it that seems to have like a little reservoir in the center.

Like a gusher. A gusher is literally a giant gutter. We're going to give him the post. His head's going to turn it into a banana. And it says, and it says, uh, the prize of the Anseys

in this little pedestal. Uh, and you managed to take it. And as you're turning to go, you, uh, your, your tail actually switches out and it knocks over a huge tray of berries and it scatters the costs.

Uh, and most of them just completely splat. and are completely destroyed, covered in, like, wooden splinters, a couple hits and rusty nails. And you wait. Harry should really clean up his shop. And he continues asleep. Gosh, I'm sure glad I just sleep makes my undefended kind of.

Are there any other berries available? There's a good number of berries. Untarnish. Untarnish, yeah. I would like to take, how many berries are there? There's a lot of berries. A lot of berries. There's many berries, there's a variety.

I'd like to take about a quarter of his berries. Oh, man, I hope I at least have 80% of my berries. Shubbing berries, you're really surprised by how clairvoyant. This guy is a moose. And spot on as you shuttle all the berries and you manage to scamper. But it's very clear that he's been ransacked. And you manage to scamper. Man, I can't wait until that chipunk brings me all sorts of business.

I just quietly wait outside the tent for a combat. Bam, I should have called the secret compartmentary and gus her. And she's back. This is perfect. This is actually perfect. We keep your sign facing the way that it is, and all you're doing is we're bringing him a sample of Harry's berries. And that they're the best berries on the planet. You're an employee of Harry.

The berry man. Yeah, you can even add, because I don't know if you heard him talking really loudly and asleep about that compartment berry that's a family heirloom. You bring it and say, this is a one-of-a-kind family heirloom berry from Harry's berries, not to be confused with Harry berries from Sherry's berries, which are shitty berries. It's vintage one-of-a-kind only, and you're bringing it to him in honor of Harry's berries, not to be confused with Sherry's hairy berries that are shit. And you want to give it to him. That sounds to eat. And it's like a gushab in his mouth. And that's it.

That's all we got to do. It's just have you deliver the berry on your employer's behalf. Yeah, and then, when Harry wakes up and finds out that it's been consumed, you can blame it all on the alligator because technically he did drink it. Eat it. I feel like, but if it's so wonderful kind, I should have it. No, no, no. No.

This is our one chance. We finally found a clear path of escape here. Yeah. But it just seems like he doesn't even really like berries it much, and I love berries. And I already have it. So it seems like it just be easy if it stayed like... Hazel. Hazel, we're talking about my life here.

I need the banner. I don't want to die. Why don't we just say so? He's a starry alligator man with a shadow army, and you think he's just going to give that up. Maybe? No. I haven't ever seen like a compartment berry before. Well, can I at least see the compartment berry?

No, because you're going to take it. I'm not going to take it. My brother used to do that. Do what? Don't want to take my berries and say, hey, I can I see it? And I'd say, you see it with your eyes and then I'd hold it up and you take it anyway. I just want to see. I forgot if that's my brother's name.

If the compartment can hold a whole vial potion, that's old. I know you just can take it anyway. You can have it. I'm keeping the rest of these, and you guys can have any. And when I make a delicious tart, you can't have any. That's fine. Because it's always, Hazel steal this, and Hazel give up your berries. And I won't do it forever, but I'll do it this time because I guess I don't want

Booker to die because he's my friend and I wouldn't. Thank you. I take the berry. Does it feel like it? It feels like it's exactly enough room to fill up. is a secret Martin Barry you bomb the cork and it pours in and it pours in

and almost as soon as it fills up it just seals and it's like this delightful like gummy gusher biz so first thing in the morning no we should go right now it's probably asleep yeah that's the best time we wake him up and say

hey we're all naked and we got this ill Lou Barry I think it's slightly more believable if we just go first thing in the morning because Harry's berries, nobody gets up earlier than Harry's berries to deliver a delightfully new rare berry. The rarest of berries. Yeah.

Maybe you should like town cry ahead of me. Why? I can give the bear. For what? Can't cry what? I mean, just like advertise it ahead of me. I mean, we've been up all night. But you know, I think that we got to be careful because if we get up in the morning and Harry

finds out that his cons been ransacked and he starts telling us. people and then we show up with Harry's very much. And the market is going to start marching into town it'll be a whole mess. Look why are you so tired? You don't think that this is already a mess. Well, it's already a mess, but it'll be more of a mess. All right, fine. We'll go awake and go up

and give him a berry. That's not suspicious at all. I know it's fine, but please, are you ready, Hazel? We can call it midnight berry special. I think that's fantastic. Somebody put ocean. You're done. You're done. So I shouldn't eat it.

So I shouldn't eat it. No, don't eat it. No, definitely do not eat it. Put your hairies, berries, hair, it's hat on. I don't think it gave me a head. They said you had to pay for your own uniform, and I didn't want to. So who's going to take their clothes off first? I don't think anyone has to take the clothes off.

That would I all stop you. Hazel's going to act as a representative. So who's going to jump out of the cake? No one's... We don't have a cake. Oh. Hazel, you were honestly able to steal an employee's necktie that is a bunch of different berries all over it.

Wow, where did you find that? It looks very official. Well, yeah. I took it. She thought the berries on it were real. I did. And it smelled like berries from being near the other berries, and I just got confused a little bit. But I do look nice and a kerchief, so I thought I would just hit it. Well, then we best be making our way then.

We should go into a rainbow, but. What time is it, Mike? It's probably like 2.30 in the morning. Fantastic. We've got to go because it's like 30 minutes after they stop. fell in Alki Hall, so. All right. Okay.

So you make your way into the hopping, Veracious gloom, and it's still going pretty roaring. The crowd's thinned out a little bit, and you make your way in, and you see that several of the table games have been shut down, but there's a good number of, there's a good crowd

around all the games that are open. The races of the water striders, the water bugs are still going. And as you make your way in, you see a looming figure walking along the second floor of this casino, the tall top hat and the long snout, as you see,

what the hell did I name? Louis, Louis Ruger. The hell did I name him? Louis Ruger as he walks along. As he's, as he's, you see him moving something in his hands and there's a pair,

large pair of dice that seems to be a hand carved out of bones. He just kind of runs it through his fingers. as he surveys the scene walking along the rail line. All right, all you got to do is just tell him it's a gift from Harry's berries, get him to eat the berry, and then we'd just get him to tell us for the batteries. All right.

Should we, like, get him kind of alone so he doesn't just fall in love or someone random on the floor? Well, yeah, I mean, he's up there right now, right? Yes, so come with me, though. No, no, no, absolutely not. I'm not an employee of Harris Barry's. You're the employee of Harris Barry's. We should all go. She makes danger breaks out.

I see, like, be a couple steps behind me. What if he tries to eat her? You don't think you do that. Well, then as long as she's holding the berry, we'll be all right. He's not capable. But then he could walk around and phone

with one of these other frogs, and I'm the only naked one in here. Well, hopefully that will draw his attention. You're perfectly in plan. Oh, you're only looking at him. Are you sure? I'm not. I actually kind of like the distraction tactic.

I think it's fantastic. His eyes will be thrown directly to her. Then you can pick them off. be incognito. We've got to look nonchalant. I don't know what any of that means. All right. You just tell me when and I'll drop my row. I'm going to start going up the stairs. Okay. You make your way up the stairs. The rest of you follow?

Yeah. Okay. I'm hiding behind the girl. I'm standing right next to the table. You make your way up the stairs and it's not long until Louis turns and he sees you. And he says, well, for being so chummy with the Marquis-Zae that's supposed to be here early in the morning. You're all doing. What are you all doing? I'm so late. I poke my head off from behind, grandma, and say, well, we found some work.

Go ahead. Hazel Tell them. Yeah. We got something special for you. We do. After your horrible disdain for Sherry's berries, I realize that your topic is so tall because you're so smart. And I flipped sides. And I went over to Harry's berries. And then while she's giving this spiel, I reached out behind Grumley and I just take one of her shoulder straps and, like, lower it. And then I, like, put back behind Grumley.

Please stop pimping her up, Brad. No, I'm like, oh, fucker. He looks and he blenner, so y'all didn't want to spend time in my casino, but y'all working for that old hell. Well, no, you see, the problem is that we didn't have all that much money, to spend in the casino before, so we thought we ought to get a job, and that way we could come support your business. Exactly right.

Harry had a great job, I mean a great idea while we were there, and he thought maybe it would be fun to send you over a gift as a means of making a friendship between your two local businesses. So he has sent me over with a very, very, very rare, hairy, very, very, berry. The veriest of Harry Berries. The very rarest of Harry Berries. It's an ear. It's an heirloom berry.

It's like really old, but not in the rotten kind of way. Well, like a vintage sense. But like in the vintage sense, you know what I mean? Because he said that you were the coolest person in this entire place, and it would be an honor to give his oldest and least rottenest berry to you. And he just really hates Sherry. And he just, when I told him what you said about Sherry, he was like, oh, I really respect that man.

He's trying to get one up on the competition. You have to respect a move like that. That's right. What day old said. He's going to run her out of town. And he's going to be the only place to get berries from. And you know, you want to be in line with a guy with the biggest, do you see a split to his berries.

Crushing the competition. Yeah, he's crushing berries. So peace offering from Harry's berries. He said that I wanted me to hand this to you with, utmost respect and watch as you enjoyed the most wonderful rarest of Harry's balance. At no

cost at all to you. It's a gift? Yeah. Anything more would be as of disgrace. And the longer we talk to you, the least less suspicious as yet. I would do trick

or persuade an NP state. It depends on what's that. Charm. Charm is better. Sorry, no, I just need to make it. Oh, you're trying to leave me. No, no. No.

Okay, oops, that didn't count. Oh, we should count. It didn't. I wasted one. It's okay, if you need it, I'm giving you one. Okay, so I am pleased. I'm going to assist. I'm not going to all.

Yeah, you all definitely can easily use it. I don't get to roll. I don't get to roll. I'm fucking. She's just in a fear. that's not very good. Five plus one is six. Yeah.

Plus one. We still can't. No, we have a seven. A seven is all we need. No, it's not ten. For persuade, we find out what we need to do. I mean, my question was going to be, though, and not that I'm opposed to what you're going,

can more than one person assist? Yes. So if you all want to assist and you want to use a twist. Three, four. Yeah. And we still have an assist for like two sessions ago. So then it would be, we'd all have. have to mark what one decay?

Yeah, or one exhaustion. One exhaustion. Okay. And then use our routine. And that would make it exactly a 10. Yeah. Well, as he reaches out, you handed out over and he says, well, I suppose I am a bit pickish.

I've been working all day and I have a big morning wheeling and dealing and dealing. with the Marquis Zid and the vice rule when she arrives. Thank you, darling. And I immediately step in front of Hazel, take off my other strap and my everything just falls down and make it in front of him. I'm waiting for this. Wait, can I make a prediction? I'm waiting for this to be delayed and, like, not actually take effect right away.

So they'd be like, what the hell are you doing? That's what I'm waiting for. That's my guess. Wasn't that delicious? Mmm, mm, mm. It's a little bit of spice to that, a little bit of kick. I don't have a taste of a dairy that.

You know, it's really cold. What the hell is your monomile? Anyone taste metal? And he blinks. He looks at you and he says, well, my, my. You ever seen a pair of frog legs on a lady? like me. I ain't never seen a pair of frog nothing like what you got.

You want a sick of standard in this frog body? I'll do whatever you say. Let's make sweet music together, darling. All right. That's a great way to you keep your battle standards at. I've got a fetish for battle standards and legs that won't quit. I got a battle standard. Lead me to it, honey. I'm in full mast. I need my friends with me though, because when I go down with the ship, they need to go down too. I climb up

on, like, Rumble's back, and I'm like peeking over her shoulder at this point, like watching this on the point. I am all four of them, I ain't much in the king, but I'm open mind for you darling. I've got eyes for crocs as you can see my eyes a lodge. I am

my private quarters leave the way. I was like rolled back in his head. I'm like off a long make it. They're doing it. Keep it up. Go! I slap growing up the back of the head. Go follow it.

And you follow behind as he leads you to a back door. All of the staff that's like a waker looking, but they don't want to interfere because they see that he's clearly leading you. And I'm clearly native. As you're clearly naked and they're just like as they shrug. And there's a small door in an end of a long hallway. He pulls out a key and unlocks it. And he opens the door.

And there's this swanky bachelor pad. There's this low glow over the light With a very large bed Plush plush pillows And you see them I immediately jump on it and like lean to the side And stretch out my legs I'll take off this bonnet if you get that battle stand it honey

Well Leaves much of the imagination Donne I suppose I could if that's your thing If he walks over I almost like I'm not even confused trolling. It definitely done more

than me can bomb up. It's rot in his brain. We've got to burn the end of a severing. It's a little bit

of leakage out of like one of his year olds. Oh, God. This is works in film.

Is this a hot jelly? As he walks over to his as he walks over to a large

cabinet, a whiskey cabinet. As he says, I hope you ain't afraid of the dog, though.

And he pulls aside the cabinet and shadows explode from a chamber, completely darkening the entire room. I love nothing more than shadows. You better hand that over the grumly so that we can get down the business. The only way I can do it's in front of a battle stand. So I'm whipping out the amulets soon. As soon as the amulet comes out, I want to like that. I start making...

Doesn't this... ...old the ban on what? Yes, he is. Get over here. The shadow explodes and through him darkening it, and it turns a pitch black and you pull out the amulet.

And there is just an orange glow around you, and an orange glow deep into a chamber. And you see, outlined the... A battle standard, and on it, a blazing heart with antlers and a crown around it.

And it's standing there perfectly stills all of these shadows he radiating out of it cast by the gloves, orange glove, a similar style to the horn and to the amulet. And you immediately darted and you grab it. And oh, ho, oh, well, there, little fella. I pick it up. Oh, hey, are you joining in too? I'm taking my bonnet off now.

Oh, darling. Come here, let me see what you look like without that bonnet on. I think my bonnet off and my eyes go cross-eyed. He stung up over and he collapses on top of you. Yes, this is just the way I like it. Is there any like, is there any like anything from the band? I'm able to like control it.

As you, as you grab it, as you grab it, you pull it. And it seems as if the banner has these long castles that are all top, that are, it's not fully unfurled. And, or rather, it is, it is, it is, it is fully unfurled, but there seems to be tassels down that you can tie to, pull it up and hide it. I try to start rolling it up and seeing if I can. As you start rolling up, you hear these strange kisses.

As you feel a crocodile, an alligator's now, kind of like, sloppily kissing. Let me get my bag, I got something you'll really like. Lay there, all right? Oh, yeah, whatever. you say. I start taking the seaweed and I start tying him to the bed. Oh, I ain't never

done this before. Oh, you just, wait, you're going to love all of this and I take two clamshells or three clamshells. I put one over each of his nipples and then one over the junk. And then I get off, you guys ready? And so as you're rolling it up, you hear low shrieking as

all the shadows retreat and slither back into the rolls of this banner. And as you roll it up and you seal it, it and all the shadow disappears into the banner, and it's just glowing orange. Ha! ha! ha! I got it!

You silly, son of a bitch! I've got it! But hold on, all right, and I'm going to... Is he going to hit me with that? Yeah, hold on. And I'm going to go over, and I'm going to get a little bit of berry juice from hazel. I'm so sorry, but I need this,

and I'm going to write, um, hairy's berries, best berries, not sherrys, gross disgusting hairy berries on his stomach. All right, I think we're good. Shadar. Oh, sense. Okay. put him to sleep for the night.

Yeah, sure. I smack him in the head with the back end of my halberd. Oh, I mean, this could be my king. We did it. We've done it. His eyes full bag. There's a bunch of, like, a bunch of, like, pink stuff leaking out of his ear holes.

You've all saved my life. We have to get back to... Do we have to go back and, like, potentially free her? I don't know. Well, no, because I think that now that you rolled it up and all the shadows have go the way, I think that she's probably for you to leave. That's what I think, too. I hope so. I just don't want to just leave her out there, I guess.

She helped us. We can tell her that we've recovered it, and that we will be all birded into bed just like that fucking I will keep saying. Do you think that our plan was successful? It was more than successful. It was a rousing success. I could kiss you. You saved me. I think I've been kissed enough tonight.

I'm going to pass this sign, but you know. Did you put your clothes, big one? Oh, I have to? Well, no. We got to get to fly here. We can't stay here. Before we go, I want to see what kind of misdeeds he was up to. And I was sort of tearing through his desk and look for, like, contracts and to see what he was up to, you know?

See if I can get evidence of his... So you tear apart his desk and it's not hard to find that he's a number of contracts that he made. that he made deals with wealthy people from both the Erie and the Marquisade and other powerful denizens of blackmail, things of adultery, tax fraud, and things that he was keeping on people. And there were also instances where he would keep ledgers of people that would pay him. And whenever they would stop, you see him kind of draw a strange, shadowy shape and then a big X. And sent that that was like his ledger to kill people with, with the magic. of the shadow monsters.

His death note, you would say? I will take all that. I will take all of that. You take all of that and you shove it in the bag. Is there any, do I look around, find anything valuable? You look around and I will say that it's not,

you don't even need to roll for it because he's knocked out and tied up with seaweed. And make it. And make it. Clams. His alligator junk is hanging out. Well, it's covered by clams.

Oh, it's covered by clams. That's true. I think of seeing an alligator. daily nils, so I don't know how big of a I clamped his ween before we... You'd be like two penises or something? Whoa. How much research did you do for cramming?

Wow. So you find that there's... Thank you, Matt. There's a very expensive. You find this beautiful velvet bathroom that he has. And you also find a secret, a chest that seems to be locked and find the small key and works with it. And there's a large satchel.

of coins. All right. I'm going to take that. I am clutching the standard, like, like not letting it go. Do you think that the deal is done? I'm safe now. Like, or if it falls back into his hands ever,

am I going to die? I'll think it's over. We have the banner. He can't use this magic anymore. All right. That's right. All right. Do you know how long he's going to be in love with me?

Because I don't think I thought that through before we decided to do this and I got naked. I'm sure we'll eventually. Yeah, I hope so. And if he's still enough, you won't be here when he wakes up. All right, well, let's go then. How large is this thing? We're not going to be able to, like, keep it hidden.

It is probably about, like, yay large, that there is a pole, but it seems that most of the power is actually just in the actual banner. You feel like you could detach the top part from the sticking bits. All right, well, if you don't mind, I'm going to take this rolled up standard, and I'm going to keep it in my pack because, God forbid, it falls into the wrong hands, and then I die. It's cold under that, and we'll just make sure that we go back into the swamp and we tell Bridget.

Then we just like send her a note or something. We can send her a letter. We don't have to go back there. No, we should let her know. What if she takes it from me and tries to kill me? She's not going to take it from you. I'll stop off. You know, and if she does, we can all just get naked and ask nicely to not take it.

I don't think, I mean, she's just a chicken. We could eat her. But not in the sense of what just happened here. All right. All right. Let me get a hold of myself. Well, that actually might be a girl late again, what we want. If you think it's right and we go back to the swamp in the morning, I just, I need to lay down for a little bit.

A lot has happened. We've been up for her a long time. We should go to sleep. I've seen a little rest. All right. All right I guess try to sneak out without being too

or casually walk out as if we didn't do anything like. Okay, I would say someone may an attempt druger speech or trust fee. For what are we doing? We're just trying to get out of the casino. I'll do that. I'll walk out. I'll show you out. All right.

Thanks for the fun, honey. I'll see you later. And then I just walk out. Oh. Can I work an exhaustion? Attempt for his feet. It's what? Oh, it is?

Then that's a nine. I will mark one. Good. Okay. You can pick one. Oh, there's evidence all over the plane. Oh, yeah. The room is torn apart.

He has clans on his junk. Yeah, that's very... That would happen anyway. There is evidence. As you walk down and you strut out, you see two of the Fawesley. Just another day that ends in wine. And you all manage to leave. And as you make your way back to the end, it's very late now.

It's probably about 3.34 in the morning. as it's not too much longer until sunrise. And you notice something in the tree line near you. As you see the rustling in the trees. And for a split second, you see a flash. And you see very quickly a feathered winged shape flying away. And you see a face for a moment, a heart-shaped barn owl face. with a scarred eye

as it flies off in the direction of Drake Smith to the south. As you make your way back to the... If you make your way back to the briny carpenter, you settle in for the evening

and it was anything else to have to do before you would sleep. I get a stiff drink. Yeah, it is provided for you. Oh, and I'm going to enjoy that. It's going to taste sweeter than any booze Booker has ever tasted in his life. But it won't be sweeter than paris berries. Yeah, sure.

We're not going back to collect the coin. I thought it would be an easy mark, but we tore his place up real good, and we've done him enough trouble, and we stole his family heirloom. I'm laughing, but I'm not laughing. I'll feel really bad. Don't. We're alive. But I do feel like I should get someone to take my post over and advertise for him.

We can leave the San Francisco. board outside of his ramshackle tent for all I care. Why would you need a tent? I mean, a slime right out in front of it. No, I'm saying so he can give the damn sandwich board to someone else. I was thinking maybe I could just prop it up here in the inn, like a sandwich board. Sure. If that would make you feel better, Hazel, then by all means.

All right. I'm going to divide the sign in half and put one, like, up on the wall, like, laying it up against the tavern. With which side out? Yeah. The Harries. Okay. I'm just making sure?

Fuck, Sherry. Mary all the way now. Harry all the way now. You go to sleep. Yeah. And you wake to the sound of marching. No. As soldiers march all around you, you look out the windows as armored.

You look out the windows as armored, and armed cats marched through the gangplanks of Muckbed Creek. As you make your way down and you see a large ship gliding through the river, and it has a large sail. And on the sail is an emblem of a cauldron and a broom. As you see it's sailing towards the headquarters of the River Folk Company. And you see, you see

Gene O'Connell standing there with Vinnie, Benny and Rhonda at his side as he awaits as the Marquis Zate march in and you see that there are town criers that say the Marquis Zate take Whartwallow

and an incredible route and as the ship arrives the the gate plant lowers down and you see a cat emerge onto the deck

and that is what we're on the session. You all take four reputation with a Marquis A and six infamy with the Eerie. Wow. Six infamy.

Sugar. Love that. That old... Wow. All right. I'm going to bar your pencil when you're done there. What does infamy mean? It's like the...

The opposite is a good mutation. We should get out the impression. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventras podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the Pearl Dolphin Tier higher to unlock shroud up or salt marsh. Patron exclusive campaigns set on the high seas.

You can find that at patreon.com forward slash Legends of Aventrists. If you want to chat about the episode with the Aventrous community, join us on Discord at Legendsbovantris.com forward slash discord. We also post content nearly every day on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, so make sure you follow our socials at Legendsbavantris.com forward slash social. And make sure you check out The Crooked Moon so you can terrify your friends with a folk-for, 5E supplement published by us. Get your own copy at the crooked moon.com.

Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.