Last time on Dodoborne, We're gonna enter a bit of downtime.

I think Pistachio probably still has like some of their crafts and maybe has been working on a sweater to replace all of their little stuff that got burnt.

And so they have their little like knitting kits in the corner.

Just

knitting to get kind of the stress out.

Is there

any gambling in town?

There sure is some gambling in town.

You have eight gold.

You have eight handfuls of gold now.

And at that point, you see that the bartender cuts you off as the morning sun begins to shine over the horizon.

I'll go sit quietly with you.

Mhmm.

I feel like I had a different voice yesterday, but I don't remember if I did or not.

So this is my new voice.

That's okay.

And I just ask ask them questions every so often.

Very good.

You and Cerulean.

Spend pretty much all night going through it.

And for my next downtime activity, Pistachio, what is the second downtime activity you would like to do?

So I think Pistachio, seeing as Crank left and doesn't wanna be around them, and Kapi's gone until the middle of the night.

And they basically wake up by the alone.

They're, like, craving seeing their family, but, like, they should do something of worth.

So I think they're gonna try and go see father Charles and see if they can stumble into Hazel at the same time.

Very good.

You head over to the Algenabai Cathedral.

This nine spired cathedral has beautiful stained glass windows, each of them depicting the nine gods and their symbols.

Early in the morning, a lot of people are coming in to meditate, to speak to some of the clergy that are here.

And as you step inside, you do find father Charles in one of the side rooms.

And Hazel is with them.

And I'm curious, Pistachio, what do you find the two of them doing?

So I think Hazel, she doesn't have the farm duties anymore.

So she's probably taking advantage of the fact that she can learn things that are not firm related and probably more doctor related.

So I almost wonder if since the priests were established as like doctors, they're almost doing anatomy or like going through a corpse and like showing the basic system.

Okay.

Yeah.

You step in, you see that there is a cadaver on a table.

He's a wide eyed with wonder.

Father Charles is sort of pointing at things, saying, yeah.

So the thing is, if you send a bolt right through this portion of chest, right, it's not gonna kill them.

It's just gonna puncture their lung just right in such a way that they'll still be alive and you can talk to them, get some information out of them, but it's not gonna do a lot of lasting damage if as long as they don't pull it out.

Okay?

Number one thing, Hazel, remember, don't pull the bolt down by yourself.

You ever get shot with an air oh, Pistachio.

Hello.

Oh, hi, father Charles.

I was just speaking with your sister here, Hazel.

She's got a bit of a knack for this stuff.

Yeah.

Oh, hi, Hazel.

It's so it's so good to see you.

How have you been?

Hi, Pistachio.

Things have actually been really great.

I was speaking to father Charles yeah.

And I think he's gonna take me under his wing as it were.

Oh, that's fantastic.

You're gonna get the chance to really learn up and be awesome then,

I'm learning so much.

Did you know that like magical heal?

I didn't realize that sometimes if you heal things with magic, it goes a little awry.

It can actually hurt more than help.

Didn't know.

Wow.

I've never encountered that before actually.

Never at all.

Yeah.

You said I might even get to do weapons training.

Weapons weapons training?

Well, Hazel, we'll get there, Hazel.

Pessagio, yes.

Yeah.

What what do I owe the pleasure?

Is there anything I can help you with?

Anything new?

I was just, you know, coming by and to to to to help out, you know.

I wanted to see if you needed any help with the stuff here or if there was anything I could learn or glean from you.

No.

We can always use the help.

We kinda have it under control.

Hazel's really been stepping up recently.

So Fantastic.

Don't need.

Yeah.

You're more than welcome to help out.

I'm sure there's some Sure.

There's some bedding that probably needs to be changed.

Oh, yeah.

I am.

Yeah.

I could probably.

Yes.

She's got the the medical stuff.

Of course, she's got the medical stuff.

That's my sister, you know.

She's really great.

Yeah.

I'll, witch beds need cleaning.

I'll I'll work on those.

Sister Eleanor is outside.

You can definitely talk to her.

She'll be able to get straightened away.

Sure.

She might find her kind of in the balcony.

She might be up in the sky with some diamonds.

So just kinda take a take a look out for her there.

Okay.

Sure.

Hazel pipes up and says, Posecha, by the way, you weren't you didn't come home last night.

Was everything okay?

Yeah.

I'm surprised you noticed.

No.

Yeah.

We have some cots at the adventuring.

Yeah.

I didn't get you know, mom had said that you would came by like late late late last night but Yeah.

You stick around.

We had some news actually Oh.

This morning.

We're moving.

Oh.

We're moving?

Where are we moving?

Yeah.

Well, we have us we can afford a larger apartment Oh.

In sort of downtown El Genaabai.

Wally came back with got a big payday this week and so was able to afford it.

Wow.

What did he do?

Like, how do you how do you get it?

I don't know.

He just said that his, you know, his bosses at the docks really liked what he was doing and so he just got a big sort of bonus.

Well, good good for Wally.

Good for Wally.

It should be really nice.

And, you know, now we don't have to all pile on top of each other in the living room while mom gets the one bedroom.

Well, I might not be at home as often as I used to be now that she's got a bigger place and, you know, you can check on her, but I've got a you know, father Charles said that he's gonna start training me soon.

Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You should you should you're gonna go far.

You're gonna just go so far and you're gonna be a doctor or a priest or whatever it is that father Charles does.

Yeah.

So much better than being a farmer.

So much better.

Oh my gosh.

I never have to nut again in my life.

Well, you know, maybe if you want to.

If you want to nut, you can.

Whatever you wanna do with your life is up to you.

Yeah.

It's my choice if I get to nut.

Yeah.

It's your choice.

It's my choice if I'm gonna You do

you could nut if you want to.

The sun is king.

You can dut if you want to.

You you don't have to yeah.

Yeah.

So anyways, we were just talking about the best places to shoot somebody with a bolt.

Oh, right.

I should probably let you get to that.

Where is the best place to shoot somebody with a bolt?

I don't know yet.

I'm still learning.

Oh, okay.

Alright.

Well Well, it's all good to see you.

I'll see you later.

Yeah.

I'll see you later.

Let me know what the best place is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Sure.

Oh, Hazel, just also, Quackers came back.

You saw that too.

Right?

What?

Yeah.

Quackers is back.

You mean the duck?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I

What are talking about?

Quackers is back.

Quackers was hopefully following with me and I like turn around and be like, yeah, he's like right there.

Sure enough, there's a little like hole in the floorboards.

Mhmm.

And you see a little duck eye kinda pops out and then another eye and then he kinda like pops out a little hole, like the knot in the wood.

And he just kinda squeezes up out of it and stands there.

Yeah.

Quack.

There he is.

Quackers.

You remember you remember Quackers.

Right?

You see that she looks at father Charles who he just got a little smile and nods and says, yes, Hazel, that's Quackers.

Yeah.

Pistachios.

Friend.

My duck.

My my my duck.

Yeah.

Hazel looks so confused but just kind of nods and smiles and says, this must be some kind of magic thing.

Oh, I see.

Okay.

No.

That's really great.

Okay.

That's awesome.

A magic thing, Hazel.

It's a that's Quackers.

Quackers is not magic.

You could you could and pass it to Stachio will pick Quackers up like serendipitously and like throw Quackers like almost in her face like, look.

And they're like, kinda grab her hand and like

Oh, okay.

See?

Yeah.

Real.

Oh, yeah.

Very yes.

Yes.

Yes.

A duck.

Yes.

Very real.

Very real.

Really

fucked up neck.

Okay.

Well, fixed neck because that

was Fixed?

Well, yeah.

His neck got fixed that way.

It was the first thing of magic I ever did.

Remember?

Yeah.

Mom and dad and you were all fucking scared.

You remember?

Yeah.

I do.

Well, you know, this magic stuff is real new to me.

I don't know much about medical things, so I guess this is right.

I, you know Yeah.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See.

Yeah.

Father Charles puts a hand on your shoulder and says, why don't you go find

Right.

Sorry.

Yes.

You and Quackers can You can help out.

We're gonna go help out and make some beds.

Woo.

Okay.

Yeah.

And he kind of like pushes you out the door.

As they go.

Is there anything like reflective in the side on the path to go see?

Yeah.

You see there's like a little mantle piece where there's like a little mirror kind of I

think they like clock their own reflection and they like see from their little horn covers that there's like a point kind of coming out as if they haven't whittled down their horns in a while and they like quickly try and wrap that around and like touch it as if, oh shit, I gotta like file that down and then keep walking.

Nice.

Your antlers grow.

You go find sister Eleanor who is kinda just floating up in the sky, bunch of diamonds all around her.

Wow.

You are like in the sky with diamonds.

I am.

Wow.

You can call me Lucy now.

Why?

Well well

I've changed my name to sister Lucy.

Lucy, is that a different name than

Are you here to help with some

Oh, yeah.

I'm sorry.

I'm here to help with what what do you need me to do, sister Lucy?

I'm so happy you asked.

And Lucy puts you to work doing a lot more grunt labor than you're used to.

At this point, it seems less like first aid and more taking care of people who are bedridden and turning them on their sides Mhmm.

Replacing people's bandages, so on and so forth.

Go ahead and gain a hope.

Woo.

Gain a hope.

Alright.

As Pistachio is helping out there.

Cathy.

Hello.

A second downtime activity for you.

What would you like to do?

I think, well, you go Kapi gets ushered out of the salty salmon.

What was it called?

The salty salmon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's morning already and Yeah.

You know, he squints let his eyes adjust to the sun.

Well, I might as wait.

Actually, did you already did I already have my halberd back?

It's at the room waiting for you.

Okay.

So Kapi leaves the salty salmon and goes back to the adventuring guild and he sees his halberd there.

He's like, my halberd.

My halberd.

And he takes it and he runs downstairs and he's like, Michelle, did does Cyrus bring this by or

No.

Pistachio brought it.

They said

that it was at their place.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

Gotcha.

That's Michelle, Michelle, I love this thing we do, you and I.

What

the heck?

Anyways, I'll see you and I go out the door.

I I guess I'll for my second activity, I'll do a prepare.

I'm gonna go see the guy that we just talked to.

What was his name?

Dandy?

Dandelio O'Toole?

Dandelio.

Oh.

Dandelio.

Yeah.

You go over, you head to the markets.

The markets which is a place you can find anything that you need.

No role necessary.

You already met this guy.

You recognize his voice.

Sure enough, you see that there is a little shop, like a pop up shop.

Everything you could possibly need and you see Dandelio O'Toole, this coiffed elf wearing a blue doublet.

Says, hi.

Hi.

Sorry.

Hello over there.

Nice to see you.

How would you like some stuff?

Kapi points to himself.

Me?

Yes.

You do.

I would like some stuff.

What can I do for you?

It's it's tough.

It's tough trying not to have me accent.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I am who I am.

I am Dandelio O'Toole.

I can be no one else but me.

Yeah.

Mean Come on in, Tamisha.

I you.

Okay.

Come on in.

What can he do you for?

We have some magical items if he have.

We have all kinds of things.

What do you need?

What can I get you?

Are you looking to smuggle some art?

I can help you.

Woah.

Okay.

Ignore that last part if you're not into that.

Really not.

Okay.

Cool.

I need to figure out some kind of secret.

Anyways, go on.

Yeah.

What do you need?

So I have this weapon and I hand it to Halbert.

It has some kind of symbol on it.

I don't

Eve looks at it and his eyes go wide.

Do you know what this is?

It's a halberd.

This

ain't just any halberd old boy.

This be a weapon held by a high ranking member of the Scarlet Fever.

By the Scarlet Fever.

Scarlet Fever, one of the largest mercenary groups here in Altair.

Mercenary?

You mean to tell me you didn't realize what this was?

Who'd you get this from?

Did you kill somebody for this?

No.

What?

No.

No.

No.

I got this from a a respected member of the adventuring guild.

What?

Yes.

Who am I, Dandelio O'Toole, to question where some merchandise came from?

You're right.

That was a test and he passed.

Alright.

What do you need?

Do you need me to fence it for you?

I bet I can get a high price for it.

Oh, no.

What?

No.

I I just need to be able to I wanna be able to use it.

And this is not me, I don't think.

Are you asking to reform your weapon?

I guess so.

This is such

a gift that you've given me, laddie.

You see, the metal made of these weapons here is made of very malleable material.

Lieutenants of the Scarlet Fever and of the other mercenary guilds like the like the Azure Reavers for instance.

They come and go and so their weapons need to melt.

Happy is not listening.

He's like looking at things on the shelves.

As you can see, there's all kinds of thing.

We can reform this into anything.

So what do you need it to be?

Okay.

And so mechanically, Joe, hello.

Hi.

It's me, your GM Isaac Allen Burns.

We've come out of the game to talk mechanics.

You can change this halberd into any tier two non magical weapon.

Okay.

Can we cut while I So while you're thinking about that,

Crank.

Second downtime move for you, Crank.

What would you like to do?

Where would you like to go?

I think that the sun's gonna come up while Crank's on the roof

Too wild.

With Thirlian.

And they've just been, like, talking until sunrise about, like, magic, and, like, Crank's been reading this book and asking them questions, and it's been it's been kind of enlightening.

And Craig's been enjoying himself.

So I think the sun's gonna come up, and Craig's gonna go, oh, it's daytime now.

I have an appointment, but, you know, maybe you could just stay here at the guild, and I'll I'll come back when I'm done.

And

Okay.

Sure.

And I'll I'll get up, I'll go back downstairs, and I'll, like, go back to the room that I was sharing with them.

And I'll, like, kinda see if anyone's there while pretending like I don't care if anyone's there.

I'll just be like, okay, it's empty.

Alright.

Well oh, well.

I guess they have better things to do.

Oh.

So in real time, Pistachio left, Kapi walks in, leaves.

There was number Then

Crank walks in.

Just missed it.

Alright.

Well, I'll I'll be back since early in, but you just wait here.

Okay.

I'll wait here.

Okay.

And then Crank will just they'll leave and he'll walk down the street and he's going to the mechanic.

Very good.

Go to the mechanic.

The mechanic who you had the point with with.

You step inside.

And what does the mechanic shop look like?

It looks like any, like, car shop that you walk into that's working on cars.

It's got, like, the lifts.

It's very industrial.

You know, you walk in, and the person who's escorting you to the little coffee room says, you know, customer on deck.

And then, yeah, I just walk in and I see my mechanic buddy, and I wave.

I'm like, I'm here for my tune up.

He slides from under the carriage he was working on, the mechanical carriage that we described from earlier.

He's working on those.

He's he knows Novocyte technology just as well as anyone else.

And after the little halfling who comes in and yells, customer on deck?

And then walks away.

So he stands up, cracks his joints, and he comes over and says, well, hey there, Craig.

Good to see you again.

Hello.

Is is that that lift open?

It sure is.

Why don't you come on here stand here?

Lay on the lift as if it's a couch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He starts lifting you up on the hydraulic press.

I'm just gonna say,

you know,

I've been having a really tough time Really?

Lately.

Yeah.

Tell

me about it, Graham.

What's going on?

I don't know.

Like, good things are happening, but also, like, not good things are happening.

Like like, I learned how to do magic.

Oh, did you know?

Yeah.

That's very interesting.

You learned how to how did this come about?

Well,

it was don't know.

It was like, I had a vision of my old mentor who was a wizard.

Really?

And then I woke up from that vision and I could do magic, like, watch.

I'll hold my hand up and I'll shoot fire out of it.

Woah.

Fire.

Oh, goodness.

So I have to be careful with that one.

Sorry.

Oh, goodness.

But but, yeah, I learned how to do magic and then, like, I tried to share that with my friends and I don't even know if I have any friends anymore because, like like, at first, my best friend got a new best friend, and now, like, I don't even think they like me anymore.

Oh, don't say that, Craig.

I'm And then and then we saw another friend from back home who, like, pretended that I, like, she didn't know who I was.

And it, like like, I was I was nothing to her, and, like, she was very mean to me.

And then and then after that, Kapi and Pistachio's new best friend also became best friends.

So now I I like and I guess I I met another friend, but Did you know?

Don't know them very well.

Oh, yeah.

You should I'm feeling very alone and like I I can't share my my success with anyone and I don't I don't know how to how to deal with that.

Oh, I see.

This whole time, he's just sort like oiling up your joints and like, tightenings and loosening some screws and just That's really tough, you know.

Coming to a new place can be really difficult sometimes.

You meet a lot of different people, people tend to change, but that's really hard to hear about your old friend who has sort of left left all of you.

It sounds like she's moving on a little more quickly

than you would have liked.

Sad because, like, you know, we used to see each other every day, and, yeah, I was there for her when when she was feeling emotionally vulnerable, and I offered her fabric.

Like, not just anybody offers you fabric, you know?

Like, that's a very personal thing.

That that it is.

And and she's just like, she might as well just thrown it back in my face, and that that made me feel really bad.

That that is very hard.

That's very hard.

You were expecting to, you know, see an old friend and you just saw a stranger.

That's really tough.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I I guess I haven't been around for that long, or at least, like, conscious for that long.

There's, like, ten whole years I'm missing, apparently.

But

Yeah.

I remember we talked about that last time you had and I saw some some oddities in your sort of central processing care.

And I I just don't understand why people have to change so much.

You know, it's hard.

Things happen and, you know, people change, but, you know, sometimes it can be temporary.

Sometimes they might be going through things too.

Maybe they're having a hard time adjusting.

It was a terrible thing that happened to you and all your friends over at Bracken Road.

Terrible thing.

So but you need to certainly make some space for you in this moment.

Really let yourself feel these things.

I think it's very reasonable to feel hurt by what that person did.

And maybe after some time, you can talk about it with them and figure out maybe what was going on or why they did that.

Mhmm.

Yeah.

You're right.

Like like always.

Well, I don't know if I'm always right, but, you know, it is hard especially when people make new friends.

It's easy to feel like you're being left behind when other people are meeting new people and maybe they're having fun with those people.

But I'm sure they're still your friends, Craig.

I'm sure they still value you very much.

I don't know.

Well

It it just feels like I'm all alone, and there's no one here beside me.

Well, I'm don't you worry about it.

I'm right here with you.

And also, you're gonna feel a little ping again as I open up the back of your head here.

Oh.

Oh.

Okay.

Oh.

Alright.

That always feels funny.

I've never I've never used to that.

Crank, is there anything you wanna tell me since last time I saw you?

Oh, my.

What's wrong?

Oh, no.

No.

Is it?

Nothing's wrong.

It's just different.

Okay.

Mean different?

What does that mean?

You feel a little pain as he closes the back of your head.

He says, I really have to apologize, crank.

I was not prepared.

What?

Am I am I?

No.

No.

Am I disintegrating or something?

What what's happening?

He puts he puts both hands on like your upper arm and says, no.

No.

No, Craig.

You sorry.

My reaction was perhaps very worrying to you and I do apologize.

Apologize to come here to clear some stress and now I think I have more.

No.

Nothing to be stressed about.

It just last time I had looked back there, it was mostly mechanical parts with a little bit of, you know, Novocite, sort of lining the board and strips of it in there, right, as as we're used to.

It's in the manual here for Mark twos.

When I opened it up this time, there were wisps of, dare I say, pure magic in your mind.

Very different than what I saw before the Novocite was lighting up in sort of a way that I didn't see it.

It seemed the little bit that I saw, it seemed to be independent of when you were speaking and things you were saying.

So so I'm sorry.

I don't know if I'll be able to, you know, I I know I told you last time that I might be able to fix some of your memories but need a couple more tools, I'm really sorry.

Is there anything else I can help you?

Any other aches and pains that you have?

I don't think so.

I thank you for listening.

Of course, I'd feel free to sit, you know, I have no more appointments for the rest of the day, so consider I could sit right here.

Tell me about this new friend you made.

Oh, yeah.

Well, their name is Cerulean, and I met them at the end of an alley.

And they were being attacked by two burly guys, and I just launch into the whole story.

You launch into the story and you spend some time talking to your mechanic friend.

Yeah.

I'm gonna clear all my stress.

Go ahead and clear all your stress.

So, Kapi, you walk out of Dandelio O'Toole's shop who is saying, next time you come back, why don't you bring your friends if you have any?

I've got all kinds of magic items here that you see you can choose from, you know.

You got a quite a couple of handful of gold just looking at, you know, the amount that you just told me, which is about 11 handfuls.

You could probably afford at least two of these.

You know, I got this valor stone here you can attach to yourself, and it makes you resilient, very exciting.

I have this pendant here, a calming pendant, helps you not be so stressed.

Very nice.

Looks very good too.

I also have this here band bag of fickle sand.

See, the sand sometimes has a mind of its own, but he can talk to it and maybe give it some pointers and conversation.

Actually,

I do wanna do something.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna type it on my phone and hand it to you.

Oh.

Well It's a secret.

Secrets don't make friends.

Secrets.

Secrets.

But friends keep secrets.

Uh-oh.

Okay.

Uh-oh.

Sure.

Isaac smiled.

I'm worried.

Goes make it.

While I'm reading this, go ahead and make instinct check for me as well.

My instinct is a plus 14

with hope.

14 with hope.

You clock another item behind the desk.

You see this little compass set inside.

It almost looks like a stone casing with strange engravings all over it.

When you see that the compass is pointing in somewhat of a random direction, you kinda look outside and you see the sun coming up and on 14, that's, know, that's higher than the 13, you know which way north is and it is not pointing to the north.

As most compasses do, for you see in Altea, there is a magnetic north and the world that Altea sits in does have magnetic poles and so compasses do work.

But this one seems to act weirdly.

Yeah.

So like as he's talking to me excellent world.

Thanks so

much.

He's talking to me, yeah, like I I for some reason this thing catches my eye like maybe like the sun kinda like pings off it while he's holding the door open and I just kinda like peer to the side.

Yeah.

What's that?

He follows your eyes and he looks at you and he kinda smiles just alright.

Don't mind That old thing, it just be a broken compass.

Nobody wants this here.

Broken compass.

He's kinda looking from left to right

real suspicious like Well, Kapi wants it.

So You want all this old thing?

You sure?

Yeah.

And it should be pretty cheap.

Right?

Because it's just a broken old compass.

I mean, I he he certainly could.

Instead of one other item, you could purchase this here compass.

I wanna purchase this here compass.

Wow.

Alright.

Pull me arm, why don't you?

So I buy the compass and one other thing.

Do you ask him for that specific thing that you just showed me?

Yeah.

He smiles wide and says, do we have just the thing for you, laddie?

Cool.

Tell your friends about me, shop.

I'm trying to start something here.

Okay.

Yeah.

Dandelio O'Toole, merchant star.

Certainly not involved at all with the Confederacy of Armada.

Just a merchant.

Just selling things.

Okay.

You're Nothing suspicious here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sometimes I like to joke about things, you know, because I've got anxiety.

Oy Oy v Danilio O'Toole, a merchant with anxiety.

Yeah.

Who doesn't?

It makes me anxious.

I got quite a big family at home to try and take care of this.

Me wife and me wife's boyfriend and me's boyfriend and me boyfriend's son and me wife's daughter.

It's a big family, you see.

I'm the polyamorous merchant with anxiety.

That's right.

The more you know about me, the more you're gonna wanna buy from You should

put that on the side.

I heard that you should.

I should put me named Dan Delio O'Toole.

That's my name, my real name.

Okay.

And Kapi leaves and he's just looking at the compass the whole time.

You look at the compass, oddly enough it's pointing south.

Kinda Southwest, oddly enough.

Weird, It is weird.

And yet, Kapi leaves.

And those are our two downtime events.

We find ourselves back the adventuring guild.

The three of you step in serendipitously at the same time.

You see Michelle is in the office.

Oh, hey, guys.

Hey.

Hi.

How was your days?

It's good.

I I actually feel a lot less stressed.

Oh, good.

Good.

Yeah.

What about you, Crank?

Oh, I hung out with Cerulean all day.

Oh.

Oh.

Cerulean standing right next to Crank, just waves.

Oh, hi, Cerulean.

Nice to

Yeah.

See Yeah.

I changed a lot of bedpans.

I kinda need a shower.

I went saw father Charles, saw Hazel.

She's doing great.

She's gonna be a super cool priestess or something something not nut related at all.

She's getting out of the nut business.

She doesn't want anything to do with the nut business and that's that's so great for her.

Well, that's yeah.

That's what she wanted.

Right?

Exactly what she wanted.

Yeah.

You know, not mad at me at all for burning down our entire home and anyway, I smell a lot like pea, so I'm gonna get clean.

And, Kapi, do you have an extra dagger by any chance?

What?

Oh, just I'm just asking.

I don't have a dagger on me.

Sure.

Great.

Great.

Can I have it?

I promise I will give it back to you clean.

Okay.

As your boss Uh-huh.

I feel I have to ask what the intention of using the dagger is.

It is for shaving.

Yeah.

I'm not giving you a dagger, Pistachio.

Okay.

Okay.

But look, okay.

And this Pistachio kind of just like pokes up at their like little horn covers.

It's like, I just need I need, a little bit off the top.

So, I could do it with a dagger.

I just don't have my file here with me.

If, all of my files were at home.

Why are you trying to file

They're they're they get cut in my clothes.

So and that's uncomfortable.

That's that's really uncomfortable.

Okay.

Listen.

This is my daggers.

I I understand it's only gonna be used to cut my horns off.

Okay.

Take care of it.

Yeah.

I I understand.

And you have to clean it after.

I will.

Uh-huh.

And polish?

Yes.

Okay.

Shower.

Yes.

Michelle, do you need us for anything?

Or I run off and get clean.

I mean, well, kind of, but you can if you need to take like five minutes

Oh, yeah.

It'll it'll be real quick.

Great.

Okay.

Cool.

And they like run off.

Do do.

Do you think they're okay?

That that was a little weird.

Yeah.

I don't know.

They come back out.

Sorry.

Quackers will be here.

Oh.

And then lend back.

The duck right

And I

instantly Forget about the duck.

And I instantly get distracted.

Quackers.

Quack.

Yes.

Quackers looks at you, Crank.

I look back at Quackers.

What are you looking at?

Quack.

Being nice to Quackers.

He's staring at me.

Yeah.

Because he likes you.

Look at him.

Doesn't like me?

He likes everyone.

Quackers winks at you, Craig.

We're not friends.

Not yet.

You should spend some time with Quackers.

Well, if you like Quackers so much, why don't you marry him?

Quacker's just a duck.

Okay.

Doesn't seem to be stopping you guys from being best friends.

Oh.

You're jealous.

What?

I don't no.

Look at mister mister I'm not robot boy feeling things.

I'm not jealous.

Oh my goodness.

You love us.

What?

Are you

worried that the duck's gonna replace you?

Craig, look at this face.

It's the best face I've seen.

See, that's what I mean.

But it's not my robot friend trying to be a wizard.

Shut

up.

Pistachio comes out and like their little curls are like all damp and they've like rewrapped their horns back up and they're like, oh, I feel so much better.

Okay.

Thanks for watching Quackers, guys.

And they've like picked him back up

and Crank glance at each other.

What hi, Michelle.

What's going on?

Yeah.

I'm know, just got so John, did you enjoy your time off?

You have a good day?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Good.

Well, why don't we step into my office for a second?

This sounds serious.

She gets off of a big stool and like gets on the ground.

You really see how short Michelle is compared to all of you.

She kinda walks over to one of the rooms.

You recognizes her office.

She opens up the door, steps inside, letting the three of you in.

Oh, we're in trouble.

Oh, what do we do?

It's a small sort of office made for a small person.

So, Crank, you're a little a little crunched in there.

Oh,

shit.

Sorry.

I can only, like, suck it in so much because I'm made of metal.

No.

You're okay, Craig.

I'm really sorry about the size of the office.

You're like a big adult.

I'm like one of the tiny like toddler chairs.

I'm like You're sort of CD guys.

My

knees are all the way up here.

Yeah.

Michelle sighs heavily and says, okay, three.

So how much do you know about the Louvenhurst gang?

I've heard that name about three times the day before yesterday.

Yeah.

We've heard of about them a couple of times, but not much.

I don't know anything else other than the name.

I don't know if I've ever heard of it.

Well, so mostly by design.

You see the Luvenhurst gang sorta runs the underground here.

The peacekeepers let them be as long as their business doesn't really come into the public at all and harm any civilians, but for the most part that just means that they turn a blind eye to what they do unless they cause a big enough stink or if they impact someone that isn't already in their pockets.

We're the adventuring guild.

We don't We stay out of country's national business.

We stay out of the way of local governments.

But when it comes to civilians being harmed, that's when we act.

Luvenhurst gang is someone we've been trying to take on for a while.

They don't typically make a lot of big moves, really.

Most of the time they're smuggling contraband or, you know, running certain kinds of businesses, moving things along a black market, which makes finding them kind of tacking them down really difficult.

Don Luvenhurst is a man that's also tough to pin down.

He's a slippery bastard.

However, right now with all these refugees, information I've been getting is that they've been recruiting pretty heavily from the refugees particularly at the docks and they have some kind of new tech that hasn't been seen before.

Stuff that reeks of underground NovaSite technology.

I don't really know the specifics.

This is just the information that I've gotten.

Now, what I need from you three, I need somebody to get in there and figure out what they're doing and where their base operations is right now.

Ingeborg is our best but she's not exactly the most discreet and Callie can't do it on her own.

I need some fresh faces and you three, like I said, you kinda came at the perfect time for this job.

I need someone who can do this with a level of tact.

You said at the docks?

Yeah.

That's where they've been reported of moving quite a bit.

Well, however you do it, you need to do it quick, hopefully today, and you need to do it discreetly.

We don't really want Don Luevenhurst catching on.

You pick the right people.

I don't know how discreet I can be.

Well, like I said, I don't know how you're gonna do it but we just need to figure out their base operations and if there's something big going down.

So however you wanna approach the problem.

Though if you knock a couple heads, let's just not kill anybody, please.

That's a kinda that's a level of action that would alert the wrong

And Callie's gonna be with us?

No.

No.

Callie and Ingeborg are taking care of some of the other jobs.

We have some missing people's reports that they gotta take care of.

They have some stolen goods that they have to handle.

There's a enormous bird terrorizing the farms out west.

Enormous bird.

Yeah.

Just like a big bird.

They come every so often, especially nowadays.

A lot more monstrous creatures have been seen close to the city than we would have liked.

So those are Ingeborg specialty, honestly.

And truly Ingeborg is the only person Callie wants to work with ever.

So

Are they like, you know, a fake?

Or are they just like For

now.

Really good?

Callie herself is a bit of a lone wolf.

I don't quite know what happened, but ever since she got here from, you know, the Bracken Road branch, she sort of mostly just wants to work on her own.

But she took a liking to Ingeborg at least, and they, you know, they worked somewhat well together.

But you didn't hear this from me, but they have fight, like, all the time.

So I just don't think

Yeah.

I noticed

that.

I

don't know.

I don't know.

They they

had some bad communication skills.

They had a real bad fight last night.

What?

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah.

Well, you see, because I asked I asked them to let you all know about the news, and Ingeborg was like, Callie, you need to talk to Kapi and like do all this stuff and Callie didn't want to.

And so Ingeborg was kind of pushing her to talk to Kapi to sort of like, I don't know, men's some old stuff.

Apparently, has something against Kapi.

I don't know what it is, but

Well, I think we've heard all we need to hear.

Thank you, Michelle.

As always, Striking.

Love the place.

Love what you've done.

Alright, gang.

Let's go.

Right.

Let's go.

We're going yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Good.

Will.

Thanks, Yeah.

Yeah.

Alright.

Is Cerulean here?

Cerulean stayed outside.

He wasn't invited.

He's he's inside.

Yeah.

I'm outside the office.

I think I go out the inside the office and I, like, pull him aside.

Oh, hello.

And I'm like, do you have anything that could make me not look like this?

Oh.

Oh.

Like, apparently, I need to be more discreet.

And I don't really think this, and I just gesture to all of myself is in any way discreet.

Make them small.

Oh.

Make them small crink.

Make small crink.

Small crink the same size as quackers.

There you go.

Let me see something.

Then you could write quackers.

And like, Godzilla

versus Ride Ride quackers.

No.

I'm gonna fight them.

Or box the

Well Crank, you know, I do see some spells of the book of cedal, and it can change your appearance.

I think that would be helpful for

our current mission.

Right?

Right.

We should

If I do come

up with the plan real quick.

No.

I wanna see where this goes first.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh, Darby.

Now, I will I will tell you that typically, this spell is just to just to just to change my own appearance.

You know, perhaps I could have used it more walking around.

I just didn't think about it.

I was just so excited to be in such a anyways, but I can I feel like I can attempt to apply it to you, so just wait here?

I mean, they kinda pull out a bunch of stuff and they're kinda rummaging through it.

They focus out and you feel a bit of magic pushed towards you as Cerulean moves their hands in a magical manner.

And, Crank, can I get from you?

Go ahead and give me a knowledge roll.

I'm gonna have you roll for this to see if this kind of magic can grab hold of you.

22 with hope.

Oh, yes.

22 with hope?

Almost a crit.

Was a ten and eleven.

Oh, wow.

Oh, wow.

You feel magic pour through your body like a warm bath.

It seems to fill every nook and cranny of your body and you don't feel the movement of yourself to change, but you do see that you morph your shape.

I'm curious, Crank.

What do you look like now?

I think the only thing in my head is what's his name from the the manor?

He's engaged to Scarlet.

I think that's the first thing.

I love you.

I think that's the first thing that pops into my head, and that, like, that's what the image that I have as this magic is taking hold.

So I think I I I think, like, Crank, like, flexes his hands and, like, turns to everybody, and he's like, how do I look?

Hey.

It's a podcast.