Mayday Plays - Chapter 7: "Worse Than Happy" | The Happy Eater | Tales From The Wildsea

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

The fleet sails south, and the crew of the Godsinger is running out of time to figure out where they stand. Kezza, Bebo, and Zin press Happy on his motives and get an answer they didn't expect. They broker a tentative alliance, hatch mutiny plans, and somehow end up singing a monster to sleep. Ahead lies Ragged Wood, uncharted and unforgiving. This episode is the key to understanding Rivenwake and what's coming for the reach. Disclaimer: This episode contains profanity and violence. Viewer discretion is advised. CAST • Darryl Dorsey (he/him) as Zin (he/him) • Allison (she/her) as Bebo (he/him) • Caleb James Miller (he/him) as Kezza (he/him) • Sergio Crego (he/him) as The Firefly VIDEO, MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Recorded, Edited, and Mixed by Sergio Crego • "Uncharted Passage" written by Sergio Crego and composed by Kyle Moore • Epidemic Sound • Soundly • Envato • Beneos Battlemaps WILDSEA LINKS • Get your copy of The Wildsea today @ https://myth.works and use promo code: MAYDAY for 20% off! We're running a WILDSEA CONTEST! To enter, do any/all of the following: - Subscribe to us on YouTube. - Leave a comment under an episode (video or audio). - and/or mention the show on your socials (Reddit and Discord count). If you've already subscribed to us, that's fine, you can still send us proof by DM'ing us or emailing us @ [e-mail] Runner up will receive: A 100 card set of Skwirl's Primal Menagerie, a DnD 5e supplement with stat cards from every beast in the monster manual plus original art by Aaron Miller. Third place: Physical copies of the scenarios One-armed scissor and Red Right hand plus the supplement Ship Gardens. Second place: A set of Cthonic themed dice and a Mythworks totebag. First place: A hardcover copy of The Wildsea core rulebook plus a folio screen. Good Luck! -- 👕 MERCH: http://ko-fi.com/maydayrp & https://mayday-merch.printify.me/products 💵 Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/maydayrp 🌟 Other Socials 🌟 🐦 Twitter: http://twitter.com/maydayroleplay 📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mdrp.gram/ 🔴 Website: http://maydayroleplay.com/ 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maydayroleplay 👾 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/maydayroleplay Thanks for your support! #mayday #roleplay #actualplay #ap #ttrpg #thewildsea #wildsea #fantasy #indierpg #tabletoprpg

Oh far uncharted passage to Fahmaca, reaching foot and sea, tracing was a while. Tales from the Wild Sea is sponsored by Mythworks. Visit them at myth.works and use promo code Mayday at checkout for 20% off. We're also sponsored by our Patreon. You can join at any level and receive early access to add free episodes. Behind the screen content and merch discounts. Join the fun at patreon.com forward slash Mayday RP. Thought I'd write up a little something about my last job with the godsinger. Keep track of exactly what went down before I had to, you know, find my own way, get out of there. I figure this might make a good parting gift for Bebo or Zen. I guess we'll

see how they take it. Where was I though? Right. I, I, I, I had just worked out on the observation deck with the help of the captain, the perfect location for the trap to be set. The postmasters Caldera, a little tribute to our letter carriers out there. It's no leviathan hunting, but it's honest work. With the perfect spot, we were ready now to set it all up. A host of the conflagrant swarm munching on a shitload of Cres on the surface of our dinghy with Lee and Bebo aboard. A ship stranded and broken and made for picking apart. Now, during the setup, I never fully realized how close Bebo and Lee Revenge Captain were getting.

If mushrooms had hips, they'd be attached to all of them. I mean, Bebo wouldn't shut up about the guy around me. I'm beginning to suspect there might be more to it, but I don't want to jinx it by thinking about it too hard. So we hid in the fog and bided our time. And before long, it was on the horizon. Not the happy eater, but almost as good. Screw loose. That big hulking machine come to eat us.

whole. We were sure the trap had worked, or at least I was. That was until it worked too well, and it decided to forego the meal entirely. That is until my man Zinn stepped up and projected his mind into the belly of the ship and communicated with it. He was able to draw out the coordinates of the Happy Eater that way, but it drew them on us. Appearing from below us in the fog, they beat the fuck out of the godsinger, and captain took a nasty bit of broadside to his broadside. I did all I could think of. We winched Bebo and the dingy back into the singer, and we hit full throttle into the passing storm in an effort to escape.

Zin, to give us the lead, took out his rifle, and posted on the back of the singer to take aim at the screw loose. Without any doubt, he was able to pick off their pilots like it was fucking nothing. We were going to make it out. We had the lead, that is, until the little rascal appeared on the fucking horizon. Exhausted and burnt, the singer relented, gave up the ghost. The captains of the rascal and screw loose boarded,

and we were treated firsthand to the effects of whatever the hell had burrowed into the back of their skulls. Their crew were totally unaffected and filled us in on the changes, and we agreed to go peacefully to the happy eater. On the deck of the happy eater, we met face to face with man we'd been hunting, only to realize he had been fully changed.

Captain Oric was now happy, a creature that had overgrown through the deck, of the Happy Eater and was looking to do a lot more than that. I mean, Happy really wanted only one thing, some nooky. I mean, which, can you really blame them? Looking to win out the affections of a beloved by sacrificing a fleet of fucking ships. I mean, I'd be doing it too, right? We agreed to help him for as long as it took to blow the fucking thing sky high,

but I don't think he caught on to that. He introduced us to his first mate on deck, Sphirna, a person we all, all agreed was the most beautiful Carchabara we'd ever seen. We managed to talk to her and the rest of the crew into the only thing that matters when your captain becomes a ravenous fucking freak, mutant. Now we're moving to the ragged wood.

And the ship has gone eerily quiet. All of us on top deck because there is no bottom deck when it's become a fucking monster. We're all trying to roll play out our new positions on the Shep, but constantly looking over our shoulders at Happy, the strange dictator at the head of this vessel. The ragged wood is in the horizon, and we are on the top deck at the stern, meeting in secret, in plain sight, and checking in on the next plans. Tired, paranoid eyes looking between all of us, the last job of the Godsinger, and the last crew of the

happy eater, just moments before the tension breaks. A call rings out from the crow's nest. Something flying in from the south. Keza's going to move from that little conspiratorial circle that he had formed what Zinn and Bebo, as they had just been going over plans again for how this mutiny was going to take place. He looks south. He wants to see exactly what's out there on the horizon. A human-sized insect is flying towards the ship.

These large scythe-like arms, green plating on its body, and just when it appears like it's going to get too close, one of Happy's massive tentacles whips into the air, wraps around it quickly, and then pulls it towards its maw in the center of the ship, quickly stuffing it down its gullet, And these enormous pincer-like jaws munch it down. Bebo standing next to you as Captain Oric and he...

Excuse me. Bebo wipes some of the detritus from the munching off of his brow. Ah, it's okay. He must have been hungry. The ectus standing next to you, Bebo, kind of relaxes and says, Yeah, that's pretty much been our job. for the last month and a half is keeping this thing full and it eats a lot. I guess that's why they call it the happy eater, right?

Bo. Bo. From the crow's nest. More incoming! And sure enough on the horizon seems to be a swarm of these things. Captain Oric, oh goody, I haven't had breakfast yet. Are we just going to allow them to be captured in Eden, or are we in fear of them attempting to,

I don't know what a insect that size would want to do? I think it's a double-edged sword here, Zinn. Without the happy eater here, I'm sure they'd be eating the godsinger. It might be good that this thing is snatching them out of the sky, save our hull from any more fucking damage. It's right around that time that one of the sailors aboard the Happy Eater standing next to you, Zinn, suddenly disappears in a green blur, and what's left is a trail of blood on the deck of the ship as one of these insects has snatched him up and taken him into the sky.

More of them entering the field of the Happy Eater, its tentacles grabbing one or two of them, but it's not enough. And you hear the crow's nest, It's an attack! Oh, fuck! You were saying, as I put it... Kill the fucking things! All of you make reaction rolls

as the deck is suddenly swarmed by these human-sized insects. Vibbo, Zinn, you see these insects incoming and are able to roll out of the way to avoid getting snatched by them. Zin, what's the twist? In our...

In our dodging, Captain Oric instead is the one that gets tackled by one of the... one of the insects, because technically that's not the real captain. Happy Eater is. So the body doesn't react as quickly as the tentacles are reacting. Oh, look at that one. And just immediately gets pulled off the deck of the ship. Keza, you have a...

similar fate. You look up in time, but there is this explosion of green and these shards of exoskeleton kind of ripple along the deck, and this insect snatches you up and pulls you into the air. You're now off the deck flying above Captain Oreck in the hands of another one of this creatures next to you. This is fun. What's the twist, Keza? Keza was in the motion of hitting that power button on the side of his sheath and the saw was coming out with him. And so as he's sort of hurtled into the sky with that massive insect, the saw comes up at the same exact time. And rather than gliding with the beast, he cuts it in half and is now hurtled forward onto Oric. and basically hitches onto Orricks belt

and is hanging from the captain now. And they're both sort of weighing down this big locust that has kept them both up fighting to get back to the ship. The locust is no longer able to get higher in the air and is now slowly descending as it's desperately trying to get you off. Bebo in a panic yells.

And you can see all of his crevices open in kind of the Edward's, monk scream face with the little O mouth, as his whole face reacts. He runs up to the railing and kind of runs along the edge of it where he's just got all of his limbs dragging behind him to not catch any wind or resistance. And he follows you and then reaches into his pocket and grabs the wooden pulley that he had stolen much earlier from one of the air pirates. And with one of the hands kind of dragging behind, he'll tie it to the banister. And then with the other hand, kind of lasso it up towards you, Keza, to try to either throw it to you or to snag it on to

something of yours. The pulley wraps around Keza's leg and begins to pull. It's just too much force for this man-sized locus and immediately begins hurtling towards the deck of the ship, crashing towards the stern, uh, hard onto the... deck. What's the twist? The twist is where it lands, some of the wood splinters, revealing a new part of the creature below that we didn't have

eyes on before. Keza, you roll off of the part of the deck that you landed on and when you look, the crack in the wood reveals a massive red and gold eyeball that is now swirling around looking

where before it had no vantage point. Oh God! And then he looks up and sees that he's still holding on to Oric, who is looking back in him. No, it's normal. It's normal. And he like scrambles back and is now trying not to make eye contact with that new thing. In terms of perception, I'm looking up and trying to see if the swarm is subsiding or coming back. There's easily a dozen plus of them swarming the deck of several sailors pulling out their Jags series and their blades and battling these things as happy is occasionally grabbing one and shoving it into its gullet.

Keza runs to the siding of the ship here, running off to port. And from the port side, he manned one of the large ballista that sit on the side of the Happy Eater, this very large dynamite shooting crossbow off the side there. He positions, guides it in. It's been a long time since he,

he's used the sights on these things, but he flips up that big rectangular site and fixes a locust in between the sight lines and calls back. Everybody, duck! And fires. The dynamite flies into the air and lands right in the center of about six of these locusts

that are hovering above the deck. The explosion fills the air, and when the smoke clears most of their chitin plate, collapses to the ground along with the guts and the gore that remains. Most of them have been handled by that. What's the twist? The twist is as that that kite is falling down those shards of bug's skin. There's one particular piece that falls directly in front of the ballista, just in front of Keza. And it must be the pearlescent wing skin.

of the bug, but it is particularly very shiny, very hard. And Keza tucks that into his coat the second he sees it before Captain Orrick can get his eyes on it. Add a shiny wing to your inventory. I have holstered my pistol and taken out the rifle, and not moving from the spot that I rolled to, have just begun shooting out anything that comes comes close to me.

I hate to be a negative Nancy, but you might have a cut on your rifle because I cleaned it. Thank you. Cut of one, thanks two, the last time it was used. So the gate the six, but I believe I still had a five. Firing into the sky, one by one, you're picking them off until one of them appears behind you. It's scythe-like pinchers. Reach for you, not knowing that you aren't even organic and scratch you.

is tearing up the back of your coat, you're going to take one aspect damage. Not the coat. Not the coat. Being so particular about cleanliness and his things, this coat is as much a part of him as his weapons. When he is particularly serious, his eyes go red instead of the low yellow, and now they go red as my Meyer activates. I'm essentially in actual kill mode and I'm going out of my way to maim anything before I

like I'm not even trying to kill things I'm now just trying to cause them pain before I actually kill them Most of these locusts have been killed Some of them have caught a prey or two And the rest are beginning to fly away This one that attacked you Zinn Begins making its journey across the deck to fly away with its allies

Try to catch it by the leg And snap the leg off Roll Easy enough as its wings Unfirl and it begins to hover Above the deck You grab the leg and just Cruely snap it off

It cries out in this insectoid scream And kind of stumbles Not able to gain the altitude That it wants It's still within reach Oh no, did I hurt you Hmm Let's continue that

And then I shan I stomp on the other land. Oh, well, it's in, buddy. I think you got it. No. It harmed my coat. It has to suffer. Bebo's watching through his fingers.

I do what I need to do. And then finally, I end it. The deck is littered with the bodies of these large insects. Quentin. the first mate of the little rascal stands up and says, well, at least meets back on the menu, and everyone, yay! Begin gathering up the corpses. There is chitten plating, littered about the deck,

chitten shards, clawed wingtips, and lots of corpse blood. Bebo will go around picking up the clawed wing tips and putting them in a small pouch that he has dangling at his hip. Like, with very much the attitude of someone collecting seashells at the beach, You hear him humming to himself and skipping around, jumping over the puddles of blood. Oh, this is a shiny one as he puts it in the pocket. A whisper comes to your minds in. Freedom denied.

Captain Orrick finally stands up and dust himself off and says, Well, that was fun. Shall we continue? Yeah, yeah, let's be feet. I want to see this partner of yours. I mean, you haven't told us anything about them yet. Captain Or you're keeping that a little secret to yourself, huh? Oh, well, she's a bit of a secret to me too.

You see, I've never met her myself. Oh, oh. Sort of like a mail order bride thing, huh? Maybe. I don't know what mail is, but I know that I love her, and I know that I need to impress her, or else she'll eat me. Yeah. That's how love gets, huh?

Um, how exactly do you love her if you never met her? How do you know her in the first place? Ooh, and he goes over to his throne, his makeshift throne up at the helm and sits down. It's at that point that you realize the pigeon that you had sent off, kind of hops over and hops onto his shoulder and is now kind of his makeshift parrot. And he begins to recall to himself, It's a bit like, you know, it's something I feel in the pit of my stomach. Like I need to do it because it's a, it's natural, you know.

It's kind of like that feeling I had before I became big. You see, it all started when I had this feeling that something was coming, something scary. And it kicked inside me to get motivated to impress my missus Because whatever it is, it's more dangerous than me or her And it's coming for all of Rivenwake I knew that before whatever it is comes I need to get with my mrs so we can make other little babies other little babies other little little happy's you see yeah so you you dreamt of this thing coming to the

Rivenwake bigger than you lesser dream and more a feeling you know like I said like my love for the missus it just comes natural like okay so just on instinct you felt the world ending that's good Bebo skips over, jumping over a big pile of blood to land both feet just right in front of the conversation crew and looks up and he's like, Yeah, you know, this instinct thing, it might be like what you think you need to do, but maybe you could choose a different path. I mean, look at me. I'm a gal. I'm supposed to be under the ground, under the roots. But I'm here. And the wild sea is the best thing that I've ever been doing. And I wouldn't have never done it if I followed my instinct.

You can choose a different path, he says, and looks back to the path where he has just walked through the blood. See, anything is possible. You can forge your own way forward. That's exactly what I'm doing, forging my way to my love. I'm hungry again. and his tentacles begin reaching out into the sky. Shit. Peevo just looks up at Kessa and shrugs.

I mean, I tried. Yeah, it was pretty good, Beeps. I mean, it was worth a try. Carter, a member of Screw Loose, kind of gives you a nudge, and he says, I've been talking with the other sailors. How about we have a parlay tonight aboard the God Singer as we're resting? Yeah. Yeah, totally.

We can cook some locust and wrap. Sounds good. We'll just keep appearances up for now, and he scuttles away. Just, he catches him right on the edge there. Does this thing sleep? He definitely sleeps, and best of all, he likes to be sung to sleep. Oh, so we've got like a choir concert before we have our meeting. Yeah, we've kind of run out of tree shanties, to be honest with you.

So if any of you think of any, please speak up. Bebo is made for this. Knows every shanty there is. Good. We're gonna need it. Zin appearing out of nowhere quietly, so quiet, and it's unbecoming for someone who says. I agree. Bebo often sings to the heart of our shit.

Yeah, Zin's got a voice too. It's beautiful. I put my hand on your shoulder. Are you trying to be humorous? Almost always. It's a little harder when your eyes look like that. Ha. Ha, ha.

Buddy, is there like something wrong with the switch here, or is this just a new color you're trying out? I'm quite upset about my coat. The other sailors aboard the Happy Eater go back to their stations, doing what they do best, keeping the ship afloat. Sphirna is standing by Captain Oric and the Captain Turin. the captain turns to her and says, Sphirna, do you think it's Tom? Tom again? And Sphirna says, well, it depends on the question you have.

And he says, um, could you find out if these new people are going to become my best friends? And she says, yeah, yeah, I think I can figure that out. her hammerhead like visage. One of the eyes is actually capped with a metallic sort of tin that has been painted to match her color and her eye color. And she lifts it up,

revealing a heavily scarred eye that is glowing green. Whoa. The trinkets all along her neck, she snaps one of them off and begins to break it over her head. turning it into a fine powder that begins to slowly drift down and her glowing eye kind of emits almost like a holographic projection through the powder.

And it displays the three of you, Zinn, Bebo, and Keza, sailing valiantly north. Sphirna quickly puts the cap back on her eye and blows the dust away and she looks at you, with her one good eye, and then looks to Captain Oreck and says, yeah, they're your friends. Maybe keep them close. Keep them real close. This is, oh, that's good because I like them. I want to keep them close.

And Captain Oric opens his hands to Bebo for a big hug. Come on in. Bebo looks between Zinn and Kaza and then Zin and Kaza. And then steals himself, pulls his hat down tight on his head so you can't see his face, and walks forward all his arms kind of pinned it aside and just moves his body slightly inwards towards the body of Captain Oreck, making no motions to hug him and just stands there, wincing. He pulls you in and gives you a strong hug much longer than is appropriate before letting you go. With the squeeze, all of these little spores shoot out from his entire body in one big poof.

He lets out a chuckle and says, continue on to Raggedwood. He says weekly. What the hell was that? I say to Kesa. It looks like we won. Sphirno walks over and says, My abilities are complicated. They show wants, they show needs.

They don't always show the truth. It's the trouble of being in our. Argonaut. It's a finicky thing. She kind of goes back to staring out into the ocean, the verdancy. He looked straight at sin. She's a... Did you? Did you hear?

She's a fucking iron. I heard the part about it, not always showing the truth. So... Don't worry about that. Did you catch what she called herself? I'm 100% going to worry about that. Someone has to, because of. I've only ever heard stories.

They can do... All sorts of shit. Captain Zenko said that the engine to the godsing was made by somebody like her. But apparently they are not able to get off of the ship controlled by a gigantic monster. Without even turning her back, she says, maybe I've decided I want to be in this area. You ever think about that? She turns kind of slyly to the two of you talking.

Up until the mate comes along and eats him. Yeah, that is the wrinkle in all my fun. Maybe you can jump ship after we, uh, you know, do what you showed us in the dust. Nothing better than knowing there's something else on the horizon. Didn't think I'd have something in common with a Ketra. She smiles, big, sharp teeth. I mean, there's plenty. We probably have so much more in common than that.

I mean, oh, come on. I'd walk away. Bibo actually perks up at this exchange, and he is, up near the throne, looking over the railing, kind of having his hands perched on underneath his chin. And he's watching this and he's clocking it. Hmm. I see something happening here. Maybe Keza will stay for someone else. And then I get to be with Keza. So you've got like this power thing. You're the name. You're one of them. That's huge. I've never met one.

An Orkanaut, you mean? Yeah. It's really not a big deal. It's something I've been doing my whole life. You're a creator. You make things like out of thin air, right? Sometimes. Every orcanaut's a little different.

Me, seems my gift is precious, seeing into the future. Whoa. Can you do it for everyone? Like at any time? Pretty much. But the problem is, is, uh, I can't do the same thing twice. So usually I can't look into the future on the same subject.

So if you were to look into the future on Keza, so one-time gig? Depends on the question. But I don't like to just give out my abilities for free. You're going to have to earn it. She looks you up and down. I can earn it. I can earn it.

Okay. To himself, Thio says, Oh, he's going to need a lot of help. I'm going to help him for. sure. From where Zen is leaned against the side of the ship. Bebo, what did you do to my rifle? Oh,

he calls down. Do you like it? In the words of your best friend. What the fuck? Peebo just says, and immediately ducks behind the railing and scuttles behind the throne. One of his red eyes begins to flicker like it's about to go out

and that is how he has an eye twitch. You get to pass this time, Bebo. And then I go back to cleaning my gun. Let's take a break to thank some people. First, there's Benio's battle maps. They were cool enough to allow us access

to their entire video and audio catalog and some of their amazing assets are sprinkled throughout the show. If you want to blow your players' minds, Benio's has you covered. With stunning animated battle maps, fully prepped intro sequences, location-specific ambient sounds,

animated tokens, custom spells, and magical items, all rendered in Unreal Engine 5. And it works online or right at your table. If you're not convinced, they offer free stuff to sample all the time. Subscribe through their Patreon for instant archive access or shop individual releases at benio's battlemaps.com. We'd like to also tell you about Charsmith, the only app Mady uses to play the Wild Seat. Charsmith is a web app built by two developers who fell in love with the game and kept adding features until it became a full campaign support tool. If you want to run WildC and don't want to deal with a full VTT setup, Charismith is your answer. Character creation, ship sheets, dice rolling, random tables, a full compendium and GM focus tracking, all in one place, all shared with your table in real time.

You can start your free account today by going to wildsea.charsmith.com. And if you love it as much as we do, you can support them at patreon.com forward slash charsmith. Kindred, this is a call home. We built it as an escape. A beautiful place to disappear. Ocean views. Empty rooms. Old money.

The dead came here to rest. but something has changed. Omen stir here. The rain won't stop, and something waits for us. Beneath the waves, a city of elders with no answers. That is why I need you. Welcome home, Port Argent by night. A play-by-post VTM Chronicle.

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So subscribe now and send in that proof. Special thanks to MythWorks, sponsors of the show who provided these amazing goodies. Good luck. And now, back to the show. Zinn, Captain Zanko approaches you as your cleaning your weapon, and he says, Zin, when you get a chance, let's the four of us get to talk. And there's a couple things we need to know about Ragged Wood. Very well.

How are you feeling? I'm okay. have felt better, but I'm still able to fight. Have the parts that you lost respawned? No, I did lose an arm in that explosion, but I'm sure another one will show

up eventually. I am surrounded by freaks. I look at my handling. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you ever wanted to see the amber? Pretty sure I've seen real amber, yeah.

Some real, real amber, because we've got this spot planned for After Happy. Somewhere nobody's been before. All right. I guess one person since they charted it, but somewhere only one person's been before. Hmm, one place with a lot of amber. Shardfall?

I guess you'll have to stick around and find out. She looks at your ship painted blue, and she turns and says, so that's the deal, huh? You deal with Happy and, they cover the costs of you traveling shardfall? Yeah, we need the prowess to climb the amber and happy's the price to pay it.

It's our last job. Must be nice. It's nice enough. It's been a sweet little deal. I'm sure you'd like it. It's a great ship. There's room for you. We just added Lee, so maybe you two can bump up.

Slow down, sailor. I was going to say it's, nice when you don't have any responsibilities to help other people. Oh, oh, you're talking about the responsibility that we have to other people. Hey, I feel like I'm doing my part here on the ship. You were about to feed Quentin to this fucking thing in a couple days. Had we not come along?

You're not wrong. And then I think Keza walks away on a line he knows he hasn't fucked up. and does not allow himself to keep talking more. He rounds up the stairs and goes and finds Bebo and immediately, like, collapses down by Bebo. Oh, shit. Okay, that went okay. Anymore, and it would have been over for me. Oh, yeah. You did great, Bebo says and punches you gently on the shoulder.

Captain Zenko sits down besides the three of you. We've got ourselves in quite a pickle, haven't we? Yeah. Yeah, we're about to be the pickle if we stick around longer. Hmm, good metaphor. Listen, I think it was worth mentioning to you all what to expect. I suppose none of you have gone to ragged with before, huh? I have no idea.

I feel like a few ships of mine might have passed near it, but they always turned around. You wanted to come here, right, Bibo? Oh, yeah. I mean, I love all the places of the world that no one's seen yet. Just got to keep moving through them and just soaking in. There's so much magic everywhere, even when it tries to eat you. That's a positive outlook, Bebo.

Listen, I've sailed the green stream before. It's a pretty common thing when you're heading to Red Crown, but we're going to do something a little different. You see, the green stream flows southwest, and if we're going to go into Raggedwood, we've got to cross it and head straight south. Let's just say going in any other direction is a challenge, The green stream is different than the timber flow.

It's a little more broken up, and so there are pockets where bloom tides can push through. There are these very powerful gusts of winds. So not only are we going to be pushing against the current, but we're also going to have to either avoid or take advantage of these massive upswells. It's going to be quite chaotic. And then on the other side, Raggedwood, it's completely uncharted territory. territory. I've never been there myself. So we really need to be on guard. Anything's possible out there. By my projections, it's about a three-day journey starting today. I hope the singer's out to it. It's

beat to shed. We will have to repair it whenever happy is asleep. That'll help. And we'll also all want to be on board when we cross the green stream. I was also thinking if we needed to, maybe I could drum up a distraction long enough that he'd stop the ships and we could get a repair. in. I've been thinking about telling him, what's the one thing you do when you're about to have a blind date? You pick some bad fucking flowers. Maybe we could get him to pull over to the side of the road and convince him to build a gift for his beloved. Well, uh, you all sneak back to the singer and get it back in working order before we have to cross this green stream. I think that might work. He seems very motivated about this beloved. Just wondering if there's a lot of gunpowder around.

Perhaps we could make a makeshift bomb and simply blow his brain out. I have seen cannons on the deck. I can work with cannons. Yeah, he's got those trebushite, er the ballista, too, that shoot the bombs I was using him on the locust. Yes, I will just simply have to retrofit one to the ship, so when we get enough distance, I can do what I do. It reminds me.

I saw something. When Bebo saved my life earlier. Thanks, Bebo. Of course. Anything for you. Okay, take it down. I'll not bebo. No, that's okay.

I gotta like it. He cuts himself off a little bit. When I landed back on the deck, touched something slimy, turned back a few, was his eye. Could be good in a pinch to target. You know, that's interesting

because, well, Something I know about myself is I have a variety of ways I see, feel, look. It doesn't really matter what I look like any given day. I can still function. So maybe this creature is the same. Saw those bugs without really seeing it. It must have some sort of sense other than that eye. I wonder why it has an eye.

Perhaps the tentacles can taste and or smell, and that's how he knows. Personally, I was thinking that the goliest parts of me are the parts I don't like being stabbed. So that's where my head was. I wonder what else is down there? Kid me. Spleen. Oh, my favorite part, the part in between the toes. Zanko says, well, I think that's about the most useful conversation we're going to get out of today.

I'm going to try to get back to the godsinger. I don't trust these guys sailing it without me. Well, we'll meet you there tonight after choir service. We're going to have a little, uh, uh, all hands. I was just going to say, Keza, respectfully. Maybe someone else should talk to him about wooing a woman other than you. Uh, why are you? What? What do you mean? No reason. You did a good job. He punches you softly on the shoulder again.

Uh, ha, ha, ha, bebo made a good joke. Okay. Quire break on three. He puts his hand in. Bibo puts five hands on top, slapping them down like a little flapjack stack. A single finger right on top. Just one, two, three, Godzinger, break. Godsinger! And then Ghezz is going to walk down the stairs and go back to acting like he's working on the ship. Bibo leans over to Zinn and says,

I think the plan is overall good, but he's missing one piece. He's not very good at this romancing thing, so I'm going to be. to help out in that department. I cannot smile, but know that only inside I'm doing that. Please, go ahead with that plan. I want to know how it turns out. The day progresses, and eventually the sun begins to set. The happy eater towards just that twilight period

comes to a stop in the south southern Mesiraya, The other ships encircle it and form camp. The sun disappears, the stars reappear in the sky, and evening comes. The crews begin the process of making their meals, cooking some of the locust, passing out rations, getting into their hammocks and resting, seemingly an average evening for them. I have begun making a few repairs to the ship should we need to beat a hasty retreat, or at the very least, so there's not a bunch of holes in our ship. Describe what cargo you're using and make a roll for it.

I will use some of the pre-verdent coinage since it is metal to try and patch what holes I can. Bit by bit, these coins, gold, silver, various metals are placed in all of the random holes and patches that currently exists on the godsinger. Whether intentional or not, the godsinger's beginning to look an awfully like the rest of the crew with shiny bits on the exterior of the hole. And you may clear a mark of rating damage. Kesea, how long before the meeting? They said right after the lullaby, so it can't be much longer. For now, let's focus on making sure that the shit, that the Yotsinger is at least workable. Let me go take care of that then.

And Keza goes to Pat, Zinn on the back, remembers boundaries, and instead pats the air around him. Hope the eyes come down, buddy, and he starts walking away. And he's going to take some time before the choir to try and acquire. acquisition, some siding, metal, anything he can kind of swipe his hands away from on the Happy Eater without being noticed for stealing. Build a pool to do this stealthily with ease as everyone is busy going about their business, getting battening down the hatches and getting ready for the evening. Keza, you're able to slip around the ship without an issue. Roll a D6.

There is lots of metallic sighting and pieces of metal. Unfortunately, they have all been very tightly bolted to the sides of the ship in places that would require quite a show of you dropping down to gather them. He passes by, frustrated at not finding anything he could actually take back to Zinn. and he walks past that portion of the eye and finds it looking at him. And for the briefest of moments, he considers, I bet there's a bunch of shit down there, isn't there? And he looks briefly for any amount of stairs down to the lower deck.

Anything that looks like maybe an entrance that isn't blocked by happy? Like a traditional galleon, there does appear to be a door. that is currently shut that on a typical galleon would lead to the lower levels. He does that bit that every two-bit criminal will do before they're doing something they know they're not supposed to, and he rounds about that staircase quite a bit, just sort of meandering and leaning against the railing closest to it. And then when he's sure that Zinn isn't watching, and he's sure that Bebo isn't around a snitch, He calls out as if to no one. What's that?

Downstairs? Yeah, I'll check. And he opens the door and he's going to ease down the stairs just to see how far he can get into everything before something goes catastrophically bad. The first step suddenly cracks. There are two more steps before it ends in a shattered staircase and a pale flesh. is kind of throbbing, but it does appear as if there is a small passageway between flesh and the hull in which you could go deeper into the hold. In this same time frame, Bebo has been sitting behind two barrels and a big crate in this

small nook that he's made for himself as he is good at finding places to hide, even in plain sight. There's a shadow that he's casting from himself from his very opaque. spores that are kind of clouding the area, making it look like near shadow cast from the boxes. Where he sits, much with the energy someone has when they're doing a craft project, humming to himself, his legs splayed, all of these little hooks that he's collected earlier, these clawed wingtips that he picked up. He is kind of taking threads of his own body, stretching out the mushroom flesh and like tying them around the end of the wingtip, creating a bunch of little ornaments that are dangling from him in various places. And he's practicing, retracting them inside,

and then ejecting them. So he becomes a little spinefish as all of these things kind of poke out of his flesh at once. And he's just humming and enjoying himself. And with his other hand, he is, he's writing a letter in very dark ink from the satchel, his postman's satchel. And he's, he's pausing, you know, occasionally like putting pen tip to mouth and thinking and then writing something else. Oh, that's a good one. I like that one. As he continues writing. And he hears Keza's announcement and says, oh, oh, no. As a practiced stowaway shakes his head vehemently. That is, no, no, no, no. And he begins kind of gathering up his supplies and pokes his head over the top of the barrel at the moment that the stair cracks. Keza immediately wheels around breaking the

step and shuts the door behind him and returns to the deck without going any further. He comes back out and he just puts his back to it like he was leaning against it the entire time, completely untoward in his dealings. And then he catches Bebo looking at him from over the bear. Hey, Bebes. Hey, there. Nice night, huh? It's fresh, yes.

It's a delightful evening. What brings you to these parts, Kazar? Um, uh, taking in the, taking in the sights. It's a nice ship. He leans all of his elbows up onto the barrel, so he's got this action, but with like six different fists leaning onto his face. And he's like, are you sneaking without me? No, no, no, no. I was just, I was working with Zen.

I was trying to bring back some goodies for him. and I found no goodies, so I gave up. Hmm. It seems a little premature to give up when you find such a wonderful entrance. You wouldn't go somewhere without your sneaky

buddy Bebo, would you? No, no, I wouldn't, although I don't know if we would want to go down there after what I just saw. What's down there? Big, fucking pink guy. Throbbing. pulsating flesh, big muscle, cut through the ship.

Unless, of course, you wanted to go down there. I can try. I can be pretty small. Hey, you used to stay on a ship like this, right? Oh, yeah. I've stayed on ships of all kinds. Does this feel like home to you then? This is sort of like, remind you a place where you grew up.

Baby Bebo? You know, I don't remember in the dark. All I remember is being up here in the light and being on the ships. But I do remember being in holds, many holds, in many different cargo bays. And so, yeah, every ship feels like home. And the crew always feels like his voice drops a little, like family. Yeah, but they're not really family. I mean, no could really be family other than family, right?

Yeah, I guess you're right. I had a mentor that talked to me a lot about other gal he's met on the ship. He was an archonaut, too. He knew a lot. In the ragged, you were supposed to come out here, right? Yeah, he had a final letter for me. Delivered out this way. Didn't really explain why.

It's important. to him. He's dead now, but he taught me a lot, and well, he was like the best family I ever had, so yeah, I want to try to figure out what to do with it and do right by him, you know? Maybe after we, maybe after all this, we can make a little stop. I don't mind dropping off a letter before we go after the chart. I mean, it's only fair. Okay, yeah. That's great. That's something to look forward. forward to. I'm excited to to finally find out what

what's it all about. And, and close up the chapter. Close everything up. Really, the last, the last ride of the Gadsinger, right? Yeah. Put a nice little bow on it. Give you something to remember us by.

Right, he says, and he dangles a few of those hooks out of him and, like, the flesh twists and turns into a little bow tie with like little gleaming hooks at the bottom. We'll get that going then. Maybe we'll go down there soon. And I think Keza, with permission, will move up and pick up Bebo and sort of just carry him,

almost like fireman's carry over his shoulder there as the choir is getting closer to starting. And just sort of taking the silence for a moment with his buddy moving towards. moving towards the grouping. Mibo definitely allows it, but there is one of his limbs that stretch Armstrong stretches out behind as he's picked up

and surreptitiously picks up that letter that he was working on, kind of folding it in a one-handed fold and putting it into the pocket of his backpack there, trying to keep it out of sight from Kesa as he begins humming the tune of the singers as they get closer.

The majority of the Happy Eater's crew have formed a kind of semi-circle around the gaping maw of Happy. Their hammocks set up, many of them holding firefly lanterns to give some light to the deck of the ship. Many of them have pulled out trisk guitars and jocorians, various instruments, and some of them have broken into little bits of improvisational music. but they all seem hesitant to go straight into a song. One of them calls out, anybody know anything new? Captain Orrick sitting there amongst all of them says, Yes, I wanna hear something new. I think Keza is in the middle of setting up his big camera apparatus

with Orich sort of sitting right there on his throne and all of us surrounded in that little performing, half circle. But he does look up from the sort of like camera hood of it all and say, you know, Bibo was a stowaway. I'm sure our little guy's got something, right? And he looks down to Bibo. As does the whole crew.

Bibo takes out the acarina that he found in under duress when he was out in the brambles and plays a tentative test. note just to like set the tone for himself and then begins to tap a few of his feet slapping the wet rots of his mushroom soles onto the deck with a squelch and just goes what shall we do with the deep root mangrove what shall we do with the deep root mangrove way hey and saw the branches and just starts singing bebo the crew pick up what you're putting down and little by little they start coming

in with their instruments and their voices it's a common tree shanty that they've heard before but maybe didn't think to sing to happy and before long the entire crew have picked up and Captain Oric instead of excitedly

dancing along slowly begins to lull to sleep and before you know it is lying down alongside next to Happy's Ma and has fallen asleep. As I finished what few repairs I was able to make with the scant material, I pause as I usually do and scour my mind thinking over what Happy said something bigger than him. And I try to remember something that I can't quite grasp. And during the course of that, my eyes begin to flicker back to yellow because I can't hold on to the rage up anymore. In your time sailing, you've heard lots of legends.

There's the conflagration far to the north, the fire that never stops burning. Even mentions in Red Crown of the gods returning, there have been terrible catastrophes in Splitspeer and Red Crown and all over that. signal something else outside of Rivenwake. But what Happy could be referring to, you have no idea. I do not like not knowing. This is a problem. But so is happy. Oh, God, does that be those singing?

That makes me. The crew continue moving on to something else that they would prefer. And there is a general feeling of calm and merriment. Sphirna comes over to you, Bibo, with a plate of the locust meat. She says, do you eat? I do. I enjoy food very much. Here, enjoy, and she hands you a plate.

Thank you. Oh, uh, Spirna, I, uh, well, I'm a postmaster. He says, gesturing to his bag and, like, looking for Basu hurriedly, points him out in the distance. I'm a legit. I'm a legitimate postmaster. A word bearer, yeah, I figured as much with all those bags of letters you have. Oh, yes. As such, I wanted to deliver one for you, actually.

I have one for you. Interesting. To deliver. Hmm. Oh. It's funny you say that. I've only known personally one other Arcanot. He told me to come out to Ragged Wood a long time ago,

said that one day there'd be. be a reason I'm out here. To put my abilities to good use. I didn't really believe him. Oh, he pauses rummaging in his bag. He has one of those simpering smiles on his face as he begins to look. But as she says that, he pauses and looks up sharply. Wait, another archa.

Wait, what was his name? Voltaire? Know this person. When, when did you see him? Why did he send you? tell me everything. He begins to tremble and his hand kind of like shakily closes the bag and looks at her with rapt attention.

She seems to have a similar reaction, kind of wonderment. And she smiles, a toothy grin and says, Voltaire, that sneaky son of a bitch. Hmm. He told me to come out here and said I'd know why when the time came. Looks like meeting you three was, uh, was that time. What did he tell you to give me? to you, you're the, oh, I guess I have two letters for you. And he looks into his bag, kind of rummaging around with glee, all of the energy of a kid

ripping open Christmas presents on Christmas Day. Just papers and small bits of debris and treasures that he's found are flying everywhere as he looks at the bottom of the bag and pulls out two items. One is the recently written letter that he was composed. earlier. And the other is a small figurine, very delicate and has all of this kind of padding around it so that it can sit comfortably in this chaos of a bag without breaking. Well, first of all, here's your letter. It's written by Kezi. He wanted me to give it to you. Oh, really? Yes. Very important. And, well, equally important is this figurine?

And Voltaire gave it to me to deliver to someone in Raggedwood. And, yeah, I mean, same thing. He said I'd know when the time came. She first opens the letter and says, my sweet sphere. Oh, yeah, no, I'm going to save that for later. No, that's important. You should read that. That's really important.

Hmm. I think this is a little more important. She points to the paper, Michelle doll. The poem in the middle is worth it. He just tried so hard. I'll read it for you. How about that? Oh, thank you, Svirna. She puts her hand out.

He kind of looks at the figurine reluctantly. I've held on to this for so long. You know, Voltaire is no longer with us. I didn't know that. I'm sorry. It sounds like you two were close. We were. He was like my family.

My family. It leaves a lot, I guess. He wanted me to give it to you, so... This is the last thing I have of him, but this is also the last thing he wanted. Here you go, he says, and just sticks his hand out with the figurine and looks away. Sphirna hesitates and puts a hand on your arm and says,

if it makes you feel any better, it sounds like Voltaire really wanted me to have this, and you're kind of completing his legacy. But if you want, you can hang on to it, If his Arkhanaut abilities brought us both together, surely they'll hand me the paper-machet doll when it's time, when I really need it. Okay, yeah, that sounds right. He takes it back and cradles it almost like a little doll. I'll know when it's time, and now I know it's for you, and that's part of the mystery.

I suppose the mystery's been solved, huh? Yeah, most of it. But I'll know why soon. Thanks, fear enough. Thanks for explaining everything. It's nice to have some certainty in a world that's always shifting on the sea. She looks to the sleeping Captain Oric and then back to you, and she says, Bebo, I'm telling you this because you seem like a member of the godsinger that, well, seems to care about others.

And he's not all bad, happy. He's just trying to do, like you said, something that comes instinctually. I don't want any harm to come to him. And I think if we play our cards right, he won't let any harm come to any of us. It's just we've all been wrapped up in this weird mating ritual of his. But he's not a bad guy. I think you've been able to see that. I think so too.

I mean, he looks like a bad preacher. but we're all still alive as far as I can tell. I'll try to tell the others. I have one friend Zinn who really has it in his heart to blow up happy as soon as possible. So I'll probably talk to him first. I can't control you. You're all your own ship, but just give me my two cents. You'd be killing quite a unique creature.

And she looks over to the gaping maw of happy. Have a good night. You too, Spherena, I'll make sure to relay the message. Because I'm a word bearer and all. And he yells at her back. Speaking of messages, don't forget to read that note from Kessa. It's really important. She stops, turns around, goes back to the crumpled piece of paper,

and picks it up, and then walks away. He turns around and just goes, It's around that time that the three of you hear, the soft, whistle of the god singer. I'm currently still on board, so I just make my way to wherever the captain blew the whistle from. Kese is marching down the gangplank with his camera gear in tow and shortly joins them there at the helm.

I'm setting everything down. Hey, gang. Mibo's head pops out of a hiding spot that he's quite often and he slithers out. does a little salute. I'm here as well. You find Captain Zanko with Carter and Quentin

of the other ships. Just for my own peace of mind, would you all mind showing me your necks to make sure that happy is not amongst us? Quentin rolls his eyes. I thought we already did this

and he shows his neck as does Carter and sure enough, there is nothing on the back of them. One cannot be too careful. After all, none of you actually saw when it happened to your captains. They sort of just disappeared and emerged as parts of the collective. Totally fair. Carter steps up and says, well, I guess I might as well kick it off.

I don't want to waste too much of your time, but we just wanted to get across that we're appreciative that the timber flow mercantile sent somebody to help. We just, we find yourselves in a predicament. We like our captain. We want to try to keep them safe if we can manage it. But we also understand that the crew of the happy eater, like Captain Orrick the way he is. We don't know how to help with that situation, but we can agree that we'll help you however we can to get as many of our sailors safely away from whatever happy is bringing us to. But we don't want to spill blood to do it. That's all we have to say.