Ep. 71 - 80 Bellmare Arc

WARNING:   "That's for me to know, and you to find out!"   This article contains spoilers for The Bannermanes, Episodes 71-80

 

SUMMARY

 

Ep.71 - Loose Ends

 

Kaladai

  With their business in Wati finished up and Heatfang's various body parts distributed amongst the party as trophies, the question comes to which direction the adventure will now take. While the funeral for Ord remains high on the list, the party decides instead to travel by portal and train to the shining city of Kalidai - Swift Sail being very eager to turn the scales of the newly slain dragon into an appropriate garb befitting his ever growing list of formal titles.   At Kalidai while disembarking the train, the party witnesses a group of paparatzi following what appears to be a celebrity in the world of fashion as she quickly dismisses the onlookers before boarding herself. Swift recalls his knowledge of socety and informs the party that this is the designer known as Nettlekiss, while unintentionally causing a distraction. As he is a shiny gem pony, the flashes of the cameras turn into blinding flares and take the attention off the fashion designer. Evidently thinking that Swift is a Kalidai resident, as a thank you for getting the press away she gives him a recommendation for a well-booked tailor - evidently not thinking highly of his current adventuring gear, though Swift brushes the possible deridement off.   As Swift continued to ply his charisma trade, buttering up the papartzi who are now fully infatuated with this new shiny stranger, the group notices signs along the way prominently feature a large crystal dragon who is the local Mainstitch; the dragon Koh-I-Noor a.k.a. 'The Gem of the City', and an ever present group of formally dressed individuals wearing Bannermanes badges of a crossed quill and sword - the Caligraphers chapter.   Upon arriving at the tailor, whose sign makes it clear they work by appointment only, though the recommendation from Nettlekiss fortunately encompasses all of the party should they wish for new, finer garb. The tailor shows great enthusasim for the material she has to work with - both the actual, physical materials as well as the ponies she is going to create the garb for. Less enthusiastic about playing dress up is Triple, who instead claims to need to use the restroom while in reality wandering off to learn more about the crime in the city. After a day of downtime, the party then returns to be outfitted with their new clothes, whereupon they put on an impromptu fashion show. Impressed with their performances, the tailor hands them both her card as well as an invitation to some sort of party to be held in the future in Kalidai, though Swift pockets it before anybody has a chance to read it.   Moon Planter then expresses a wish to see the Mainstitch, though he is informed that a personal meeting with her just off the street is extremely rare. However, Swift is able to sweet talk one of the Caligraphers, named Marvelous, into upgrading the invitation from the tailor to also allow the party to speak with Koh-I-Nor at an unspeciied party in a month's time.   With their business in Kalidai wrapped up, the group heads back to Wati and avails the services of a Goldenport skyship to get them to their next destination: the lair of the bronze dragons Hubby and Kaffe. The dragons are finishing up torching the ever living daylights out of kolbolds who had the misfortune to come near their lair when fleeing Wati, then greet the adventurers upon their arrival. The two groups exchange pleasantries before some kolbolds in service to the dragons drag in another koldbold holding a wrench. The newcomer says his name is Lagarto and merely wants to work for the dragons - while Moon Planter doesn't buy the story, Kaffe is willing to bring him on - so long as he goes into Bleakburn and appologizes to everybody impacted by Heatfang's actions. As thanks upon learning that Kaffe's horde is secrets, he confides one to her in thanks for not eating him, followed by Fortuna also telling Kaffe a secret, before the group begins their new escort mission by rendevouing with the airship in the air with extremely convenient timing.  

Bleakburn

  As they travel to Bleakburn, the party decides that now is this is the best time to induct Duk into the Bannermanes proper, while also informing the party members who have yet to meet her about Duk's origins and her current status running a crowdfunded bakery known as 'Star Duks'. At the same time, Swift briefly leaves the party to go to Elianor's, but instead investigates a rustling bush along the way to find a terrified Ping Wing. Ever the wingman, Swift takes the hipogryph over to the tavern to pick up a picnic basket for the date planned between the wizard and the diminutive baker. Ping Wing continues to fret over talking to a girl while the rest of the party, having joined him and Swift, offer words of encouragement and advice.   Ping Wing goes to invite Duk on the date, while the rest of the party make use of Electra's Invisibility Sphere to watch. Mustering all his courage, Ping Wing is successful in asking the baker on a date, along with presenting her with a badge to officially denote her status as a full fledged Bannermane. Meanwhile, Triple learns through Sarsparilla's connections that there is a criminal element in the capital consisting of the gobbos, but it's more of a protection racket to ensure Star Duks remains the only bakery in town. One that Duk is entirely oblivious to the existence of.   While the bird horses are off having a picnic date, the party goes to deal with other business. Madam Fortuna goes to the local bank to exchange exactly 3,105 gold coins for their equivelent to copper, but her efforts are thwarted by the elderly banker who has to count each piece individually and she is forced to settle for exchanging one silver for ten copper. Triple escorts Lagardo around to appologize, with overall very mixed results. Meanwhile, the bulk of the party goes and pays Dr. Amden a visit to inform them of Duk's new status as one of their organization, with Moon Planter also explaining his plans to establish a Bannermanes Museum and a medicinal plants library that is personally funded by himself. During the discussion, Swift is reminded that Ord's will stipulated he has to wear a rotten shrigma cap on his head for a week. He reluctantly dons the mycilla to which Amden possibly has a ghost of a smile for the first time in the campaign.   After that, Moon Planter secures his museum by showing the librarian Heatfang's head and Tangent does some collection for the local charity. The next day, the team flies to Brashville.  

Brashville

  The scene found upon arrival is the local Bannermanes wrestling with Chafuer, while the town's makeup has changed significantly from rebuilding efforts. Moon Planter solemnly informs Mainstitch Bradley Fastener of Ord's demise, whereupon Bradley had the dragon retrieve a large whiskey keg before requesting use of the airship.   Tangent and Moon Planter don shrigma caps alongside Swift, in honor of Ord, as the group sails on their airship south of Brashville, to the coast. As Bradley reveals, the 'proper' sendoff for a Brashville Bannermane is to stuff the body in a giant keg of alcohol, as those who knew her say their final words before placing hooves on it, and then by the music of bagpipes, Charufer takes her to the waterline and sends the fallen warrior drifting to the sea. Moon Planter speaks a heartfelt eulogy in her honor, then everybody got hammered on copious amounts of Kirin Special and smoking Flayleaf.   Except Triple, who was off doing his own thing between practicing forms and his painting, looking very despondent. He admits to a semi-inebriated Moon Planter, and Lagardo who turned out to still have been with the party, that he's trying to take Ord's final words to him; to 'stallion up'. After failing to fake-drink an Ord-sized tankard, Triple is convinced through peer pressure to drink as much as he can, and then is handed Ord's personal tankard - ten times the size of a normal tankard - by Manestitch Fastener. The following morning, once everybody sobers up, Fastener tells the party that they should carry her beloved sword Ol Betsy with them as the worst fate that can happen to a sword is for it to not be used.   With all the active side quests sorted, the party then returns very briefly to Bleakburn to discuss the matter of bringing along plus ones, which leaves Swift flustered with no less than three kirins - Jinx, Misty, and Fireheart - vying for his side. Fireheart does end up being Moon Planter's plus one, while Misty is dramatically upset about not being Swift's plus one (all the while Jinx celebrates as a sibling would), even though she's basically Sarsparilla's plus one and is going anyway.  

Bellmare

    However, upon entering the hotel lobby, the party encounters one Bellmare who, unlike every single other identically dressed waitstaff mare, does not have the same chipper attitude as the rest. She seems surprised to see the group, before declaring the party is late and immediately pushing them somewhere deeper within the hotel.  

Ep. 72 - Belle Hop

 

Welcome to the Crescent Wing Hotel

  The Bellmare very hastily brings the party to the hotel lounge, where the stage has been set up with a harp and piano, along with smaller instruments and even a pie on top of the piano. Evidently, whoever the scheduled entertainment originally was is late and figuring that the group didn't look like the usual Bellmare tourists, she effectively wants them to take their place to do a 'comedy skit' before then departing on the premise of handling the party's luggage herself. Tangent and Moon Planter immediately take the initiative, the former pulling out a lute while the latter launches into a stand up comedy routine. He then gets the pie launched at him by Wicker Wind, but Moon Planter catches it mid-air and returns it to sender, to the amusement of the drunken lounge patrons. Then once his stand up routine finishes, Triple does an aftershow with some very impressive 'magic' card tricks.   Sarsy, meanwhile, sneaks away on the hunt for alcohol and runs into some Bellmares, along with a Misty who is crying about Swift not making her his Plus One. Sarsy reminds her that she is her Plus One and drags her along to the bar, ignoring Misty's obsession with Swift. Tangent, following a quick dip in the hotel pool, finds them having very quickly become tipsy and with no intention of stopping the indulgence of alcohol, with Electra joining them in short order.   The party members that are still in the lounge start noticing that something is going thump on an upper floor, disloding dust that lands on their table, electing to regroup with the others in the bar. They end up bullying Pushpin (Thumbtack) around for a little bit. A discussion with the bartender Bellmare leads to her dscribing, slightly spitefully, the Bellmare from earlier is named Belle, disclosing that if they want to confront her that the mare in question is in the hotel's boiler room for some reason. The group plays some pool, with the ever increasingly drunk Sarsparilla cleaning house, with an ever increasingly number of Bellmares peeking into the bar to see what the commotion is - while the bathrooms become vacant and Fortuna takes the advantage to finally dunk the miniature bird into the toilet for the long overdue swirly. She fails, with Pushpin activating her giant magnet in his escape and causing a bit of a comotion in the process.   Wicker and Balcony Blitz end up wandering away from the group, being non-drinkers. Having ventured into the boiler room, Wicker tries opening a door to only find it partially bloked by a desk - a familiar voice on the other side stating that 'Ghost Hunting, Inc.' is at his service. Belle, horrified at realizing it was one of the Bannermanes, starts begging Wicker to shut up while the ruminant starts talking endlessly on the subject of ghosts, ultimately handing over 8 gold to get him to stop talking, effectively bankrupting herself in the process, It is revealed that Belle Hop knows the party are Bannermanes due to the most recent issue of the Kalidaily, using pictures that were taken when the party visited Kalidai a few days prior. Belle then takes the pair of deer to the mail room, not realizing she took them to nirvana, but agrees to make arrangements for the mail-obsessed ruminants to stay in the mail room as their accommodations instead of a normal hotel room, taken aback by the pair eagerly accepting the role of unpaid mail interns because that basically is their lives anyway.   Reuniting with the rest of the party, Belle Hop agrees to be their personal on-site Bellmare, tip free, in return for the Bannermanes helping cover the lounge entertainment, in lieu of payment. After finally introducing herself to the group as Belle Hop, she escorts them to the penthouse suite via the service elevator - a top of the line model from Dark Sun Solutions.  

Stargazing

  On the way to the 46th floor, however, it experiences some trouble with flickering lights and slowing down momentarily, and then an unplanned stop on the 6th floor which nobody appears to have summoned the lift. No further trouble is encountered as the party reaches the luxurious private penthouse Buckback allowed the party to use, and Belle Hop ends up joining the group as they party the night away and later go stargazing.   During the latter, however, a still drunken Sarsparilla overhears an argument and for the briefest moment sees a flash of red before a window is slammed shut. While the rest of the party wants to brush it off, Sarsparilla opts to investigate. She lands on a balcony and looks inside the darkened window, witnessing what appears to be an elderly individual having an argument with red entities before suddenly exploding in a wave of fear-inducing energy with a shout of 'THAT'S TOO DAMN BAD!' Moon Planter flies down to check Sarsy is alright, the two rangers agreeing to take note of the strange occurance but otherwise returning to the rest of the party on the roof.   However, upon their return, Belle Hop accuses the Bannermanes of stepping on her turf to investigate the ghost issue, stepping on her turf for paranormal investigation, and unintentionally revealing that a whole floor of the hotel started being haunted a day before the Bannermanes showed up. When the Bannermanes reaffirm that they are purely here on vacation, she panics because the hotel staff were not supposed to tell guests about the haunted floor. Taking the active group down to her office/appartment in the boiler room, talking about how much she hates the Bannermanes all around, Belle explains the paranomal activity that the hotel management is desperate to not let the public know about.   The manager/owner of the hotel; Mr. Bossman, called Belle Hop to inform her that the hotel's little ghost secret had gotten out of hand. Normally, the ghosts were contained and kept to themselves on the 13th floor, but they had suddenly broken out and trapped him inside his own apartment on the premesis. So he reached out to Belle Hop because of her side business in ghost busting. She had been scared that the party, being Bannermanes, were there on behalf of Bellmare's own local branch of theorganization and would likely both steal her job as well as shut the whole hotel down in the name of consesrvation so it could become some kind of ghost sanctuary. She also appologizes about her actions earlier, admitting that she forced them to be the loune entertainment to buy herself more time to look into the hotel's haunted floor. The party agrees to help Belle Hop deal with the ghost problem.   They stop by the mail room to pick up the deer, everybody astounded at how the duo reorganized the whole mail system in the vein of a certain purple unicorn from a popular children's TV show. At the same time, some other party members discovered unspeakable horror in the employees only bathroom. Sarsy uses the distraction and the party's departure to the 13th floor to cause chaos in the mail room and undo all of Wicker and Balcony's hard work.  

Crescent Wing Hotel - Floor 13

  The Bannermanes and Belle Hop arrive at the 13th floor, finding it the complete opposite of the rest of the hotel as it looks like nobody has touched these walls for years. Tangent immediately takes her flying broom and dusts away the cobwebs, sending 'hand sized' spiders scattering in Sarsy's direction much to the Scarlet Trickster's extreme discomfort.   As the party slowly explores the floor, Electra, Wicker, and Duk uncharacteristically start showing signs of rage towards being required to spend their vacation in a terrible part of the hotel. As party cohesion slowly starts to break down, Electra outright smacks some cobwebs around, followed by an immedite shout from another room demanding to know who is smacking 'their' cobwebs. Meanwhile, Tangent opens a chest full of torn photos that according to Belle Hop show Mr. Bossman shaking hooves with various unhappy people, dating between two and three decades ago. Belle Hop reveals that Mr. Bossman's grandfather originally built the hotel as a manor, but when Mr. Bossman inherited it he quickly expanded it into the form it takes today. Ever since those expansions, the thirteenth floor has been occupied by ghosts for unknown reasons. Accompanying newspaper clippings also seem related to various stages of the hotel's expansion.  

Laid to Rest

  As the thirteenth floor does not have a working electrical anything, the party returns to the Boiler Room where Belle calls her boss. Some arguing over the phone later, with Belle Hop trying to swing a promotion along with offering a solution to the ghost problem by Mr. Bossman signing Floor 13 entirely to the ghosts, seems to go positively on both fronts. Belle informs the party they are free to return to their vacation as she'll handle the paperwork, while the deer are distraught that somebody went and destroyed the mail room, immediately getting back to work at fixing it. Belle then escorts the party, sans deer, to their bedrooms. However, when the party retrieves the party members who have been on the roof the whole time, Sarsy expresses her distaste for her hotel experience, hands Misty her pass and Belle a 100 gold tip, then bids the party farewell by diving off and flying to the beach, with Thumbtack flying off to join her. The pair have a wild night of discovery on the beach while the rest of the party enjoy a well earned rest in Bellmare's finest accommodations.  

The Beach Episode

  The party starts the day with nothing amiss, several party members going into town to buy swimming oufits. Belle Hop inserts herself back with the group, making an executive decision to take a day off. Tangent, for whatever reason, convinced Triple to go take a ride in the laundry room wheelbarrow.   But after milling about in the early morning, the Bannermanes make their way to the beach and marvel at how good they look in their swimsuits (or are Fortuna, who went to a mechanic shop and had her outer layer of metal skin removed), before finding Sarsy passed out on the beach adorned with the treasures of her previous night's adventure: lime green boy swimtrunks, an oversized white T-shirt with "I SAW THE BIOLUMINECENT PLANKTON AT BELLMARE BEACH" printed on the front, and near her a party drinking helmet with two depleted wine bottles. Thumbtack is in a half-collapsed plastic cup sand castle nearby.   The party enjoys a nice, relaxing, problem-free day on the beach. Eventually, Moon Planter decides they need to make a bonfire, upon which he cooks Heatfang's heart and it is distributed to the few ponies who are interested enough to try it. As not everyone took part in eating dragon organs, the party heads into the city for a real bite to eat, ending up at a 'clockwork friendly' establishment that is staffed entirely by Clockwork Bellmares. To Sarsparilla's chagrin, it turns out that she and Thumbtack had visited the establishment the previous night and out drank the local legend Big Larry (who was sulking in the corner despite the record resetting every 30 days). Sarsy then re-orders everything that she and Thumbtack had ordered the night before.   The party continues talking about various topics, ending up on the topic of Snippstone and how it's the holiday capital of the world, along with the mask wearing shark named Santa who lives in the waters around there. They then retire to their respective rooms, a day of vacation well lived.    

Ep. 73 - Blue Flowers, Red Thorns

 

The Morning After

 

The Beach Episode Pt. 2

  The party returns to the beach, with Grot joining in with the deer to build sand castle fortresses, managing to completely outdo Wicker Wind.   Tangent, meanwhile, finds a flower bed while looking for a shady spot to sleep in. Her Nature check indicates that the flowers smell like catnip, and Balcony pressures Wicker into using his curse of life to get the flowers to grow back bigger and stronger after Tangent picked them, before promptly picking them up and handing them out to everyone. For a little while afterward, everybody continues having fun and nothing seems amiss. But then a pair of Bellmares show up and inform Belle Hop that Mr. Bossman wants to see her in his office immediately. Belle optimistically hopes that this is about the promotion that she asked for while resolving the haunted Floor 13 problem       Back at the beach, the rest of the Bannermanes start to realize something funny is going on with them individually.   On a hunch, Moon Planter takes one of the flowers that Balcony handed out earlier and gives it a closer inspection - it’s Poison Joke. He immediately tells everyone to get away from the flowers, but it's already too late.  

The Temple of Soft Whisper

  Reluctantly, Belle Hop informs the party that they have to go to the only infirmary in the city: the Bellmare chapter of the Bannermanes, located in a temple dedicated to Soft Whisper. Tangent experiences literally every inanimate object, from Bellmare hats to the literal doors in buildings all having conversations or saying banal, inane things. After Grot knocks on the door with her head, a stallion behind the door starts asking what everybody’s afflictions are - One by one, the party lists what Poison Joke did to them:   Ailments:

• Grot turns red
• Wicker sees hovering banners above everyone around him that describes their occupation.
• Moon Planter became a mare
• Fireheart became a stallion
• Shabaka turns into a kirin (and then later also turns into a girl)
• Tangent starts hearing voices coming from every inanimate object around her.
• Thumbtack grew to the size of Ord
• Triple’s horn slowly but gradually continues to grow bigger and bigger
• Ping Wing swaps bodies with Gunter
• Duk swaps bodies with Dolan
• Belle Hop impulsively says things that she only wants to say in her head
• Balcony perceives everyone’s line of sight as bright headlights (deer in headlights) and is hearing mechanical (car) horns when people talk.

  However, the pony opens the door further to reveal that it isn’t just the party, but a growing number of people in Bellmare being affected by a growing Poison Joke epidemic - Shabaka reckons between 25 - 30 people, getting ever desperate to stop turning into an ‘inferior species’.   Fireheart, in light of the situation, opts to change their name to Firehearth. Wicker then realizes from his affliction that they were in fact talking to the local Bannermane Mainstitch. The Mainstitch reveals to the party that there is no more remedy, and the key ingredient to make it; the seeds of the Poison Joke plant, were stolen. Grot sniffs the box and detects the scent of other gobbos and leads the party on the hunt.   What she finds is the hole in which the gobbos broke into the temple basement, with the basement laden with the usual crude traps their kind leave in their wake, triggering one while discovering the symbol of the Spook Snakes gobbo tribe. Outside, Moon Planter takes on the temporary name Luna Gardner and embraces the new discovery that eating when distressed helps curb her runaway emotional feelings. Balcony finally realizes that he sort of caused everyone’s problems by handing out flowers that, as a druid, he should have known were Poison Joke. Belle, meanwhile, deduces that a team of four gobbos broke into the Bannermanes HQ.   After unanimously voting down Grot’s suggestion of taking slaves and sending them in to trigger all the lethal traps in the basement, a handful of the party goes into the basement proper to look for further clues as well as clean out the nasty surprises the gobbos may have left behind. Grot is able to disarm over half of the traps before she gets a little too cocky and critically fails, forcing the team to flee while the remaining explosives daisy-chain themselves into oblivion. Triple tries to fix it with his infinite water flask, but he only makes it worse because the explosives were based on animal grease. Shabaka finally calms the fire with a Flask of Winter, ending the fire but the destruction eliminated any real traces the party had hoped to find. Fortunately, Belle Hop is able to deduce the source of the animal fat as a region south of Bellmare, but that the Gobbos had been raiding the Bannermanes building repeatedly over time as well. Luna Gardner is able to then find the tracks of Gobbo hooves and the team follows them south out of the city.  

Ep. 74 Spook Snakes

Bellmare City Outskirts

  The episode picks up with a small subset of the heroes, as most of the party had to chase after Luna Gardner who was having another manic episode of runaway emotions. Those not following the batpony leave the city in a southwardly direction, fiding more explosives at the end of the tunnel the Spook Snakes used to infiltrate the city. Grot is, luckily, able to disam these.     What the now awakened party discovers is that they had a visitor in the night, with hoofprints all over the camp which will make their tracking significantly harder. But neither those nor obviously recently placed traps are able to stop the adventurers on their quest. That night, Triple asks Grot how she became a Bannermane, which Grot explains was her trying to kill Dr. Amden, but then saving him and he made her a Bannermane in turn. Belle Hop is incredulous at the low initiation standards for the Sacred Schines.   On the fourth night, Tangent with her night vision goggles does spot Gobbos in the distance trying to cover their tracks. Tangent wakes the party, and Grot tries to sneak closer. She accidentally steps on a twig, attracting attention, but she utilizes her freakish speed to run and remove all the twigs to mess up the gobbos plans to plant traps. She fails, dumping all the sticks, causing more gobbos to chase Grot. Utilizing the distraction, Triple takes the initiative to construct a bomb snare in the hope it will tie up the gobbos. After some shenanigans of Gobbo nature, the inevitable battle doesn’t take long, with one of the gobbos captured alive and conscious, to which interrogation attempts are made. When intimidation doesn’t work directly, Belle drags him near Triple’s improvised explosive device - to which the gobbo is if anything quite impressed. The gobbo agrees to provide information in return for teaching him how to make the bomb.   Further intimidation by Grot with her gobbo ways gets the captive to explain why the Spook Snakes stole the Poison Joke seeds - they need it for some kind of celebration, evidently. After some more minor details are divulged, the party gags the gobbo and then retreats to hide nearby, to await the approaching gobbo reinforcements triggering the bomb. While the bomb ultimately does not have the full desired effect, it provides enough of a distraction that the party and their captive gobbos take their leave. As the next day dawns, Grot convinces the talkative captive to lead them to his tribe’s camp.   After another night where Triple and Grot disarm a path through a minefield of what looks like the training grounds for gobbos learning the explosive arts, the party arrives just outside a fenced area where a horde of gobbos are evidently blowing themselves up in celebration. Grot, a gobbo as ever, ends up running into the festivities when a big piece of meat is offered as a reward for an unnamed task.The gobbos dare her to kiss a very sick looking dog, which she does to much raucous celebration from the gobbos at her success - and she does indeed get a comically large piece of meat. The shot caller of the group then asks if she will face Gromp - to which she immediately agrees. She is tasked with bringing back the eye of Gromp, she claims she’ll bring back to, but then the shot caller laughs before a very crude gobbo drawing is brought forth - the drawing is of a cyclops.  

Ep. 75 - Grib Grob

 

The Gobbo Camp

    After finding out that the Gobbo Warboss has already given a ‘trick’ to Grot, the party enters to try and join her. Along the way, Wicker’s active Curse of Life triggers the Poison Joke seeds to sprout slightly and glow in the pouch on the warboss’s waist. Noticing this, the warboss does formally challenge the ponies to do what they’d gone in to do - take on the giant cyclops known as Grib Grob (or Gromp, as he was known in the previous episode).   While that is going on, Triple manages to find more seeds stored within the Gobbo camp and makes off with some of them without setting off an alarm.   Meanwhile, Luna Gardner’s continued attempts at a straight chicken-for-seeds trade fail and Grot gets threatened before Triple freaks them all out by appearing out of thin air by disabling his invisibiilty rune. He declares that he can trick the Gobbos in one second. But in turn, the Gobbos have to leave Grot and Bellmare alone, along with stop planting Poison Joke. The warboss cockilly accepts the terms, and Triple merely replies by saying ‘geyser’, activating his Decanter of Endless Water (hidden underneath the Warboss) to perform a hydraulic push at the Warboss which sends him flying. The Warboss, after recovering, throws two small satchels of seeds as a reward in addition to what he promised earlier.   The party now has enough seeds, collectively, to cure their party, but not to cure the afflicted populace of Bellmare. Through collective pooling of their knowledge (and some telepathic screaming from Balcony through Wicker messaging him), the party decides that trying to artificially raise Poison Joke flowers to harvest is too difficult and their only recourse is to take on the cyclops and get the rest of the seeds from the Gobbos. The warboss points them south to caves a day’s travel away, putting a condition that the party must return with a trophy of the kill - the monster’s tusk or his eye within three days. Quest in hand, the party departs, though with a group of gobbos following them as the night watch holders observe.  

The Cave of the Cyclops - exterior

  During the next morning, Triple decides to join Tangent in religious meditation in worship of the sun gods. Luna Gardner forages for breakfast and Wicker prepares protective talismans for the party.   Resuming their journey, the Bannermanes encounter a deeply cut ravine they need to scale to reach the ground. As most of the party have wings or otherwise are capable of flight, this challenge is quickly overcome with little issue. However, no sooner does the group reach the entrance of the cave then they fall afoul of a pair of dragon like foes - Chimeras, one with the power of a red dragon and the other of a white dragon.   While Triple immediately uses an invisibility rune, with Tangent following suit, Luna Gardner applies Hunt Prey against the monsters but initially tries a more diplomatic approach with an offering of meat. He gets swiped at and combat starts.   One Chimera is cooked to a crip by Tangent while the other is sent crashing into the cave through a natural skylight. Combat finished for the moment, the team patches themselves up of any remaining damage, Wicker also saying a prayer for the slain beasts, then they proceed into the cave proper. The stench of Memory Mycena hits Luna Gardner as soon as they reach the mouth of the cave, warning Tangent and Wicker as this could be detrimental to the spellcasters in the fight to come.  

The Cave of the Cyclops - Interior

  The cave is lined all over the walls with the giant mushrooms, glowing with memories, with smaller ones leaning slightly towards the direction of the new arrivals. Luna Gardner reminds the party that cleaning out these mushrooms could bring ‘guardians’ so to be cautious around them as they begin tracking where the cyclops is hiding. Tangent tries using her Poison Joke ability to speak with inanimate objects on the mushrooms, but all she finds is the mushrooms sound like tired old people who sleep all day and yelling at them does not yield any help.   Luna Gardner does find tracks, which suggests the monster is a very large, cloven beast, but they also think they could speak with it. But then Wicker points out the cyclops is chaotic evil which makes negotiation pointless and violence the only option.     The Cyclops seems to defy death at one point, but ultimately succumbs without having killed anybody, and so the rest of the fight is spent mopping up the mushrooms.   Once they finish that task, Luna Gardner insists the party explore the little alcove of the cave they hadn’t explored yet, which proves to be fruitful as they find a stash of gold and Triple identifies a skull of an ancient dragon. Grot also learns the definition of the word ‘kidnap’ as meaning ‘stealing gobbo from clan’ and expresses an interest in trying this with ponies at a later date. Then together, the team decapitates the dead cyclops and begins the trek, but not before availing themselves of the dead chimeras - Luna Gardner skins the unburnt Chimera while Grot eats as much of the charred Chimera as she can.   The trek back takes roughly two days, speed hindered once again by the abundance of dodgy practice traps laid by careless gobbos. Once in front of the Gobbo Warboss, Grot presents a pile of all the eyes she collected (and upchucks an additional eye she’s previously eaten) before dropping the Cyclops head on top of the pile of eyes. After the intimidated Warboss gets mocked by his own tribe in light of this ‘trick’ being performed that he never could, he frantically gives the party all the remaining Poison Joke seeds in a bid to get the potential ursurper - Grot - to leave.  

Ep. 76 - Closure

 

Back to Bellmare

  After another four day trek, slowed by once again watching for Gobbo traps, the Bannermanes make it back to Bellmare which is still suffering from the Poison Joke. Belle Hop’s runaway thought-to-mouth problem nearly gets the better of her when she accidentally blurts out she was fired, which would prevent her from getting back in the city, but some quick thinking from Luna Gardner on a cover story about Belle being a probationary new recruit for the Bellmare Bannermanes (much to the Bannermanes-hating Belle’s chagrin) fools the guard.   Upon entry, the party finds Balcony Blitz literally running into the, having somehow gotten out of the hotel room Wicker originally left him in for his own safety (which apparently was also full of honking horn noises to Wicker) and then in short order Firehearth. Once the party reaches the Bannermanes HQ, they find an angry mob accusing the people inside the building as ‘having done this to them’ - many of the mob members showing obvious abnormalities with a clear disproportion of mares affected over stallions, indicating loving husbands unwittingly giving Poison Joke flowers to their partners. Unable to get through the mob, a message to the Mainstitch suggests using the gobbo hole on the side to sneak in, but Belle Hop almost jepordizes everything with another runaway thought remark - fortunately she only just gets a verbal reprimand from one mare who decides she needs to give some stern words to the Crecent Wing Hotel’s manager.   With Thumbtack too big to fit in the Gobbo Hole, he readily volunteers to make a fool of himself as a distraction so the mob doesn’t notice the others going in the recently added side entrance to the Bannermanes HQ. They meet with the Mainstitch who is grateful at the amount of seeds provided, with Wicker, Luna Gardner, and Belle Hop volunteering to help.   The group is successful in brewing the cure and both Belle and Luna Garnder (with Firehearth in short order) ready to be test subjects and return to normal as soon as possible. Almost immediately, Moon Planter and Fire Heart are back to normal, and Belle’s mental sanctum is secure once again.   Before long, all the party in the temple have been restored to their regular selves. Except Triple, who in the end still got a little of what he wanted as his horn doesn’t shink down to its original size, but rather it is now 20% of its original pre-Poison Joke length, just long enough to be visible through his bangs.   Moon Planter makes a point to a kirin named Karen, whose bossy prima-dona nature gets turned against her when her de-aging charm is unintentionally exposed, and she realizes that the Bannermanes who got the cure for Poison Joke are a wholly different breed than the Bannermanes of Bellmare she’s used to. Disarmed, she’s forced to be more polite to a clerc that’s keeping the temple in quarantine in order to leave. As she does, the party sees that the mob is kicking a sobbing Thumbtack. At the same time, Moon Planter - with assistance of the party - get the mob to form an orderly line.   Belle decides to try calling in some backup to provide free refreshments to keep the mob calm, and finds the rest of the party still lounging around the hotel pool. Using the unlimited free drinks from the All-Access VIP Passes that Buckback gave the party, Belle Hop takes great pleasure in bossing around Jane - a Bellmare who was snickering at Belle getting fired a week earlier - and making good on her earlier threat about making the Bellmares have to serve Belle as a guest.   Eventually, the angry mob disperses and the epidemic ends, leaving the Bannermanes HQ relatively quiet once more. Due to a concern that any large food he may have eaten could potentially make him explode at his small size, Thumbtack excuses himself before sounds of wretching can be heard from behind a wall. He then returns to get the antidote, quickly restored into his usual self and immediately denying he was an emotional wreck in front of literally everybody else for the past week because he hated being big.   With the dust settled, Moon Planter and Triple haggle with the Mainstitch on payment, citing how their payment was ruined in part due to the fact the Bellmare Bannermanes didn’t protect their stores well and that was how the Gobbos got the seeds in the first place. While the Mainstitch doesn’t offer gold, he does offer a bag that was found when they cleaned out the basement.  

Vacation's Last Gasp

  Belle Hop visits Mr. Bossman when she remembers she technically didn’t even own the clothes on her back she’s been wearing the whole time. He sells it to her for 5 Gold. However, Jane arrives right as Belle Hop is leaving, to which the ex-Bellmare overhears Mr. Bossman giving Jane a pay cut likely as a result of Karen the Kirin from earlier.  

The 13th Floor

  As a result of no longer being an employee of the hotel, Belle Hop can’t legally operate the hotel elevator anymore. None of the Bellmares are keen on helping Belle, but when the latter points out she needs to train her replacement, Jane begrudgingly accepts she has to be at Belle’s service again for the second time that day. When the party boards the elevator, she simply asks that they don’t drag her along with them into the 13th floor itself.   The sounds of vivacious jazz can be heard even before the elevator comes to a full stop at the haunted floor. A large persian ghost, in full stereotypical bouncer garb, blocks the way complete with an equally spectral velvet rope, and initially denies the group entry without an invitation, even after Swift explains they’re on good terms with Grandpappi. Suddenly, the huge ghost himself appears and joivally pulls Swift right through the rope. The arrangement the hotel has set up is that the ghosts are free to utilize the entire 13th floor as their own eternal party, to which they have very much made themselves at home and, because the party chose to work with Grandpappi instead of fighting him, they have freedom to come and go as they please.     Grandpappi then pops in and lightly mocks Ord for the anti-magic oath, before just as quickly leaving having had his fun.   Moon Planter then asks Ord what she wants done with her sword; Old Bessie, but Ord gives the same general answer as her Mainstitch. The sword should be used on adventures, though she’s a bit more lenient and ‘once a month’ it can be displayed in Moon Planter’s museum. Swift swears he’ll make a legend out of the sword since Ord had willed it to him. Ord also meets Belle Hop for the first time, then has an awkward reunion with Duk who is convinced the big ghost was going to eat her. After the shorthooves is placated, Duk promises to make lots of songs about Old Bessie. Ord then hoof wrestles some of the party, which ends disasterously for the glass-boned Ping Wing when Swift tries to play wingman.   Changing the subject, Triple asks Ping Wing if he knows anything about the alleged troublemaker from Aerilon that the rumors were about. The bird suggests it might be one individual who got expelled some years ago for unauthroized summonings, while Moon Planter’s interest is piqued on the premise this is somebody who needs to be tracked down for a bounty. He asks Belle Hop where the nearest bounty board might be, but due to Bellmare’s vacation-y luxury resort nature, the troubles of the world generally do not make it past the city gates. They elect to visit the guard station the next morning as the most likely place to find this information.   The Bannermanes bid goodbye for Ord, then retire for the evening, with Moon Planter trying to make his move on Fireheart. His inexperience and nervousness, unfortunately, makes things super awkward, and Fireheart admits that she’s been a fully equipped stallion for the past week and only wants to go to bed. Moon Planter tries to play it off with a feebly admitted “I’m a virgin” and kills the mood, failing his mission to get lucky.  

The Next Morning

  As the party makes preparations to return to the adventure, Moon Planter finds the bounty board at the local guard tower.   He finds that most of the criminals listed are relatively petty crooks and not very high value bounties listed for them. The exception, of course, happens to be a somewhat older posting - buried under some more recent wanted notices - for a wizard by the name of Babbage. A 100 platinum bounty sits on his head, with a specific callout of him being wanted in the cities of Aerilon, Blackburn, and Dakalai.   At the mention of his name, Triple is able to recall that Babbage summoned some really bad things to the point parts of the Aerilon school needed rebuilding, with his expulsion coming as a result.   Moon Planter takes the bounty on Babbage as a passive quest as they focus on their main quest of setting up a teleportation network around Astilon. Jinx and Misty, however, opt to stay in Bellmare, and take their leave of the party. With a new sidequest and ex-Bellmare in hoof, the Bannermanes boards the airship for their next destination; Dakalai, to investigate a cave near the city.   Also leaving the party is Shabaka, who is taking his share of the Wati haul to Kalidai to handle some personal affairs, and Mubarak goes with him.  

Ep. 77 - The Moonlight Three

    As the party is heading out of Bellmare, Wicker is met by Misty who hands him a letter. She instructs him to deliver the letter to her sister; Jinx, in at least one week’s time, but it’s not time sensitive. The fact Wicker does not know where Jinx is going to be in a week does not seem to concern Misty, or Wicker after five seconds. She then walks away with a smug expression towards Swift who is with Jinx at that moment.   Jinx mentions that Trickster’s Trove is coming up - the real one and not the Gobbo version - while she and her sister are requested by Buckback to return to Dakilai as their vacation is over as well.   The captain speaks with Moon Planter and suggests an alternate route to get to the caves - the ship can fly to Holbeck and the party jumps off halfway to visit the caves, before they themselves hike to Holbeck. Wicker Wind supports the original plan of going to Dakilai so he can make use of the portal network and drop off some mail, with Swift inviting the kirin sisters along since they’re headed the same direction.  

Dakilai

  The three-day cruise is largely uneventful and the party arrives safe and sound. The mail deer avail themselves of the portal in the High Roller’s HQ, where they then go to Bleakburn to visit Amden’s office - which they find closed. Amden reluctantly opens the door when he hears that he had a letter from Duk. It is during this visit that the deer end up getting Amden to admit he's been running Duk's bakery part time in her absence, before shooing them out lest they start asking questions about it.     The newly revealed room is blood red with an even deeper red ritual circle in the middle, with the middle occupied by a ghostly elderly unicorn whose weeping is identical to the ones heard earlier. Triple, with some encouragement, goes in and says hi.   She turns to face Triple, and Belle recognizes this is the last of the Moonlight Three from the picture book, with their symbol on her chest, and all can see that her eyes are pitch black as if they were voids. As she talks with the party, it’s revealed that the other two mares were her sisters in bond but not blood, and moreover they were deeply faithful followers of The Nightmare. However, she feels the other two forgot their pact and so she waits for them. Wicker asks what their pact was, but she doesn’t elaborate. She does explain that The Moonlight Three were notorious hustlers of Kalidai’s casinos.   Triple asks if she could impart some tricks onto him, but when she offers a deal, he heeds the warning from Tangent and Moon Planter and turns the offer down as his soul is not for sale. Moon Planter asks about a map they found earlier in the house, and after instructed to apply a little heat, reveals a mark on the cave that the party happened to plan on visiting later. The mare explains one of her sisters is likely to be found there. After Swift accepts the side quest to reunite The Moonlight Three, Triple asks that she tone the hauntings down, with the promise that any guests of the house will stick to the lower floors. The mare is appreciative of it and in parting says her name is Crescent. As Belle Hop declares a team meeting outside the house, Triple finds and takes a note from Sarsy that was left inside the kitchen.   Outside, the deer return only to be sent back to Bleakburn by Moon Planter to drop off his Poison Joke notes at the Museum of Natural Remedies. As Wicker prances off to repeat the journey he just completed, he overhears a conversation between Misty and an unidentified other party, about the latter not telling a third party, before the two grow quiet. But observing a code of honor, Wicker does not investigate and completes his mission.  

Trickster’s Trove

    Once the party finishes the cakes, Ivory reappears and reveals the mirror’s purpose is to scry on Amden to see his reaction.     But they still had an adventure to follow through and once they recovered, the party reunites with the airship captain and take him up on his earlier offer to be carried over land before dropping off the ship where the cave lies. Wicker and Balcony say they have mail carrier duties to cover and they’ll catch a train to meet with the party in Holbeck.  

Marlton

  The party, sans deer, arrive in the town of Marlton to prepare to head into the caves directly north of the town. The small town seems on edge, with the guards only placated by the team showing their badges.   Moon Planter forms the group into a posse to help gather information from around the town. From what they gather, it seems the roads outside Marlton have been plagued with ner-do-wells that are nabbing innocent civilians or paying protection fees, with the town of Arkala having sent only one Bannermane to deal with the trouble.   The party then checks in with the local sheriff: Balimar Richy, who confirms the rumors and that most of the local Bannermanes are a bit skittish to involve themselves with the situation, claiming typical excuses like needing better equipment. He also posts a bounty for the leader of the thugs - 500 gold alive, 200 dead. He says the local Bannermanes are known as the ‘Hobos’ and the entire contingent is currently out on business somewhere. So the party goes into posse mode again to figure out where the Hobos can be found. The only thing they really find out is they hang out at the tavern getting dunk a lot, but Swift asks the local barkeep of the Crooked Troll who says they went north. But they have been gone for a week.   Duk then reveals she’s still with the group and provides a little insight to where the alleged Highway Mares are hiding out, and suggests the party disguise themselves as traveling merchants to bait the goons out. Fireheart opts to remain in the town to send a message to the party in case something happens while they are out.  

On the Road

  For two days of travel, the disguised bannermanes don’t find much on their way to the cave, other than a single abandoned cart. Moon Planter notices that the tracks around the cart seem to have been left by things of a skeletal nature. A set of large, perfectly circular tracks lead off to the north, too perfect to have been left by anything other than a machine. The party votes to go off the road and follow the mysterious tracks.   During the next watch period, Triple sees a lone traveler on the road give him a wave - except it appears to be none other than Babbage, whose wanted poster was picked up back in Bellmare. Triple immediately wakes up the party. Pretending to be oblivious to his identity, the party invites the stranger - who introduces himself as ‘Fibbage’ - to share a morning fire and coffee, while Triple does Triple things and investigates his pockets, but nothing incriminating is immediately found. He continues searching and does find a pocket watch - one that contains a picture of Fibbage and a pony who looks like an identical twin. Further casual conversation with the pony has him say Babbage is his brother and knows of his crimes, with a distaste for both. While the group has mixed feelings on the situation, they have no reason to suspect the pony is lying and they let him go on his way. However, Moon Planter requests and gets a lock of Fibbage’s hair, as if Fibbage was lying, Ivory Drop can track him down.   Back in Dakilai, Wicker delivers Misty’s letter to Jinx, who reads the letter and immediately turns red in the face with rage.     The undead foes prove to be a challenge, but one that the team are able to overcome with the help of the unnamed Bannermane from Holbeck. Once the bones have been relaid to rest, the zebra introduces himself as Stockades and mentions he left Holbeck three weeks prior. While he does start walking in by himself, he happily accepts the offer to team up with the rest of the group.   As soon as they enter the cave, they easily pass through an illusion of a fake rock wall, revealing the cave network goes far deeper into the ground with what looks like the remnants of a fortress of some kind. Moon Planter sees an unwelcome but familiar sight of an Anubis like machine standing inert in a corner. And then they hear somebody cackling about having stolen money from people, hinting the party has found the Highway Mares.  

Ep. 78 - Gibbous

  The party, after deciding that they were not quite ready to just jump into action after having licked their wounds from the previous encounter, backed up to the mouth of the cave to make further preparations. They were joined by Grot, who had somehow smelled Moon Planter’s ‘Friend Chicken’ from wherever she went after Bellmare and had rejoined the party once again.     However, as soon as the party steps away to discuss their next move, Grot and Tangent open nearby barrels to find them full of alcohol and also some kind of weird pink goo. More resource barrels are found in an adjacent room, such as valuable black powder and Purple Worm Repellent. Further exploration results in a few skirmishes with iron golems and what Triple identifies as ‘Witchwyrds’, but what really scares Triple is the discovery of ‘in-house’ Crimin Isile locks on some of the doors, which ‘strikes fear in his heart’.   After a map is found, of a similar age to the one found in Triple’s crash house, some intuitive thinking by Triple in using cold magic gets it to reveal a circled hut in a swamp area. The party continues through the hallways, eventually discovering a room with a green glow with an elderly looking mare performing some kind of alchemy.     With purpose, Stocks makes his way into the dungeons, whereupon the party encounters gravestones with the names scoured out. Using the Wand of Ghostly Tragedy via Fortuna, they witness the spirits re-enact the last moments of a couple and their young daughter who are slain by unseen assailants. From the scene, Moon Planter and Swift recall the story of ‘The Terror of the South,’ a legend used to scare children, which seems to have some relation to the tragedy they just witnessed.   Proceeding further into the dungeons, the party hurriedly gets though a torture chamber that reeks of death and defecation. As soon as they clear it, they hear a voice calling out, and soon enough they find Babbage begging for the vegetables.     They escort Babbage out to his machine, but Triple has a backup plan - while being all chatty with Babbage to keep himself around the pegasus, he sneakily crafts a bomb snare with the available black powder and plants it in the machine’s cockpit near where Babbage would be sitting.   Unaware the bomb has been planted, Babbage turns the machine on and, together with help from the party, their combined efforts force the heavy portcullis up and out of the way. The graveknights are already en route, but then Babbage and Commonplace start losing their composure and reveal the whole thing was a trap to catch the Bannermanes. To which Moon Planter sums up:   “YOU SONS OF BITCHES!”  

Ep. 79 - Babbage

    But as soon as the Mechanubis falls, Commonplace reveals himself to be a blue dragon as he shapeshifts into his true form. Swift is absolutely delighted at the opportunity to kill another evil dragon.   But even with a dragon to hide behind, Babbage finds himself getting knocked around as Swift makes a point with his sword to land devastating blows against him and, eventually, decides that he has other places to be and abandons the dragon and graveknights, much to the dragon’s rage. The dragon appears to straight up just dig himself an exit from the fight, much to the party’s disappointment both high value enemies escaped, and have to contend with the Graveknights who are starting to get past the portcullis. During the fight, Moon Planter uses rope in his bag to wipe up some of Babbage’s blood from his sword, as this will allow him to track the necromancer later.   The Dragon then resurfaces, punching one of the barrels from earlier to release the pink ooze, then makes a break for the exit as the ooze forms a Carniverous Blob. However, Fortuna pulls off a hipshot Scorching Ray that somehow his the dragon’s funny bone, which makes the dragon start breaking down in uncontrollable laughter, which delays him long enough for the Inevitable Disaster she cast on him earlier to come to pass. And so the dragon literally shits himself to death because she warned him about what he ate. The blob gets the absolute crap disintegrated by Electra, setting a new record for damage in single attack with 246 damage to a single target. Eventually, with the help of Ping Wing’s ghost charges, the party lay the remaining Graveknights to eternal rest.   Once the fight ends, Gibbous appears. She advises Moon Planter to not wear or to sell the armor, as well as implying that the dragon itself had been raised from the dead by Babbage. Stockades figures out that the armor is inlaid with the ‘Graveknight’s Curse’, which condemns any who put the armor on into becoming undead abominations. She also gives them a key to a side passage that Triple unwittingly finds has Indiana Jones style death traps.    

Ep. 80 - Childs Play

  Triple is successful in disarming the trap once he finishes taking a breather, managing to narrowly pick his way through a high level Crimin Isle lock multiple times. Ping Wing then steps in to handle an arcana based lock. However he fails due to Swift trying to help and becomes roast penguin, with Swift’s name added to The Bully List in retribution.   The suffering of the penguin horse was worth it, as the party discovers a cache of very valuable and useful equipment that requires quite a while to sort through. It also is fairly clear that all this treasure used to belong to the travelers who tragically were cursed to become the Graveknights.  

Marlton

  The party heads back to Marlton where they inform the Sherrif of the likely tragic fate of the town’s Bannermane chapter. They are then approached by an unusual Kirin whose horn appears to have been broken at one point but then regrown into a pair of twisted spires. She introduces herself as Ophie and was on her way to Wati, so she stopped off in Marlton to help the local townsfolk. When asked about her credentials, she shows a Bannermanes badge with an odd design with three question marks - Moon Planter recognizes it as being from the Bannermanes chapter in the town of Why.   The party successfully returns some of the treasure, specifically some gems that were family jewels, but the majority of the treasure can’t be given to their proper owners and are retained by the team.   Moon Planter tells Ophie about how there seems to be trouble in Holbeck, but she is not deterred and expresses a desire to journey with the party as a new member.   During downtime, Moon Planter and Fireheart have a chat about dragons.  

Arkala

  The Party has an uneventful trip from Marlton to Arkala. When they arrive at the city outskirts, they are stopped by the town guard. They check in with the town guard captain to turn in any missing goods and to report the fate of the missing people. The captain also mentions the mail service has not come to collect the town’s mail in what seems like an age. He also informs the party that some of the treasure they recovered looks to have been stolen from Holbeck by its own Bannermanes, showing them an official notice with that chapter’s symbol on it, but the thefts seem to have been trying to save the items rather than plunder and profit. Stocks was unaware as the list of missing items were, to his knowledge, still in the city when he originally left a couple of weeks prior.  

The Road to Holbeck

  After leaving a good impression in the city, the party gets informed of ‘small green ponies’ that could threaten them on the way to Holbeck. Indeed, echoes of Bellmare ring as traps from the Spook Snake tribe are found on the path being traveled. They find an inverted gobbo trapped on a road sign and surrounded by pointy traps. They free the gobbo, learn his name is ‘Based,’ and generally tell him to behave before moving on, but the gobbo thought Duk was the sexiest thing alive and so during the night ambushes Ping Wing in a bid for dominance - Moon Planter pulls out a sap and beats the crap out of Based. The Gobbo runs off, but encounters a gobbo mine and blows up, whereupon Moon Planter catches its decapitated head and then dumps it in Ping Wing’s tent. Noticing bite marks on the bird, Moon Planter hands him some antidote to ensure the caster doesn’t catch some horrible disease.   The next day, they encounter a trio of ruffians trying to tip an outhouse with a trapped pony inside. Swift immediately takes up the challenge while Triple works his trade and purloins from the lead goon a collection of stolen mail. After driving the ruffians off, the party finds a pony hiding in the outhouse with a golden vase. He claims to be a Holbeck Bannermane, complete with a badge, but Moon Planter intimidates the truth out of the pony.   He claims the city has been taken over with its Bannermanes largely missing in action, that some pony from the Curators of Holbeck’s museum gave him the badge and the vase and to not stop running until Dakilai. Moon Planter does not believe him and puts him in manacles. Ping Wing, meanwhile, nerds out about the vase as he believes it was used by Nevermore in the rituals that sealed the four horrors. The pony restates that he simply was told to run the vase to Dakilai, with explicit orders to hand it over to Tabu - Mainstitch of the High Rollers. His consistent story wins the party over and they release him from the manacles, and he warns the party to not use the main roads because ‘they’ are watching, some group with a “J”.   While keeping watch, Swift finds an abandoned bag that contains a set of keys on a ring along with a treasure map. He informs the party of his findings in the morning and since it’s on the way to Holbeck, the party plans on the detour.