Episode 9 - Don't Split the Party

Recap
Zippy woke up in dream land where he found a door leading him into another dream area where he found Norman in a fishing boat. They both woke up in the mansion and Norman decided to cook tomato soup in an attempt to smooth over the conflict that was happening in the group. The gesture went well with Dariun but Zippy wanted more action to make up for what he had done. The team made up a plan to go to the castle in Aurum to find clues to help them find Colm. They particularly wanted to speak to Christopher who had delivered the information about Colm's kidnapping to Turi. When they got to the castle, Zippy split from the group to go to the queen's room undercover as a sheet maker. Norman and Dariun went to find information where they met Yogi, the royal aid, who offered then 300 gold bounty if they found Colm. Zippy used his magical doorknob in the queen's bedroom where he found a secret passageway.

Episode Summary
Norman and Dariun are with Christopher outside of Yogi's office but are unable to hear Ferryn Rise and Yogi arguing about the upcoming election. Dariun thanks Christopher for his help as he gets called away, leaving Norman and Dariun in a hallway on the second floor. They find a secluded part of a hallway and Dariun tells Norman he thinks they are in way over their head. Limbo and the obvious lack of desire for other nobles to help an heir to the throne add up to a dangerous situation. Daruin worries that they are opening a door to something they cannot handle and are putting a large target on their backs.

As they are talking, they see the grey skinned, black haired Genasi with the red blindfold walking aimlessly. As Norman asks the Genasi for some direction, his attention is drawn to Norman and he walks up to him. Norman can see now his clothes are ripped and ragged and he smells awful. The Genasi asks if he Norman is the one he is looking for but when Norman does not say yes, the Genasi says that someone is looking for him so he is looking for them. His cryptic answers to Norman's questions does not indicate who he is or why he is there and when asked why someone would be looking for him the Genasi says "Well that's the way it goes, I don’t know why people look for me, they just do and I appear. That's fate isn't it?". Norman asks for the Genasi's name which he responds he does not have one, so Norman names him The Red Bandit, which he likes. Dariun, while listening, gets an idea that he is clueless but not dangerous, possibly insane. Norman continues to try to understand The Red Bandit but his answers continue to be cryptic as he tells them he lets fate guide him to where he needs to go and he was sure he was meant to go down this hallway Dariun and Norman are in. Dariun pipes in and askes where The Red Bandit came from and once again he gives a cryptic answer.

Norman tries to ask about Colm but he did not have any idea. He then tries to ask if they can help The Red Bandit with anything but as the two of them don't know who he is looking for, they cannot help this Genasi. Before going their separate ways, Norman shakes his hand and notices his hand is ice cold and he asks what The Red Bandit's eye colour is. He does not know and does not wish to go against the stream of fate which confuses Dariun so he asks how looking at your own eyes would go against fate. The Red Bandit calls Dariun by his name before walking away. After The Red Bandit walks away, Norman thinks about what they possibly could have missed in that interaction. Dariun feels it was a bad omen as they see him waving and says he hopes they will see each other sometime down the line. They decide to head down to the lobby and they can see a large crowd rallying behind Bradley. They decide to head back into town to get Dariun's switch sword and gather information on Limbo and leave Zippy in the castle. As they are leaving they see Bradley who is wearing luxurious white and golden robe not looking very happy with a muscular goliath with a hat and moustache guiding him up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Zippy had just found a hidden passageway and sees a small hallway one way leading to a door and the other way is a staircase down. Zippy starts to make his way down the steps, walking for a while and eventually makes it to an open square room with stairways going down on each wall of the room. Zippy turns around and makes his way back up the stairs to hear the queen and her maids searching for Zippy. He then, when realizing a door at the top is connected to the queen's room, sprints back down the stairs and takes a left. As he makes his way down, he starts to hear voices. Zippy slowly makes his way down, as his feet echo, someone calls out for George asking him to help moving boxes. Zippy replies and despite no sounding like George, the people below buy his story. Zippy uses wild shape to transform into a mouse and continues down the stairs and hears that someone is coming from behind him. At the bottom of the stairs, he sees a whole heap of boxes and about 12 people carrying and stacking the boxes. Mouse Zippy makes his way into a cluster of boxes and tries to chew through and breaks off a little chunk. He puts his head through and sees a bunch of grapes but he notices they have a slight glow inside.

Zippy tries to open up the crate causing it crack and grapes start to fall out and a person notices a noise. He realises his mistake and Zippy runs away and a lizard man sees him. When the lizard man stomps on mouse Zippy, he reverts back to his Lapine form and everyone in the room starts scrambling towards him yelling out to stop the Greeder. Zippy runs to the stair case he came from and he hears that there are not only people following him up the stairs but also coming down the stairs. Hearing this, he puts the doorknob into the wall to his left but when he opens it, he sees another wall. Zippy tries the other wall and again, it's a wall of stone. Zippy continues to run up the stairs and is faced with a Triton with a sword drawn. Zippy swings his quarter staff, tripping the triton and uses jump on his head to push him down the stairs. Zippy continues running up the stairs and he sees a Loxadon blocking the doorway looking at him. The Loxadon slowly makes his way down and as Zippy stands there, the Loxadon grabs him and constrains him. It's fist rises and the Loxadon hits Zippy on the head, knocking him out.

Dariun and Norman make their way to the Two Balls Anvil and Norman asks if Dariun could get Ivan to give him some better armour to help him pull his own weight in the team. Norman gives Dariun a bardic inspiration before they head into the blacksmith. Ivan gives Dariun's switch sword back and expresses his thanks for letting him play around with the mechanos metal. Ivan explains that they have a method to get the tinder soul into a suitale form for his sword but there may be a risk to the gem. Dariun puts some faith in his ability and they will come back that same night to pick it up. Dariun purchases some studded leather armour for Norman for 75 gold, tossing it to Norman on his way out

The two then head to Pub G, a tavern, looking for some information about Limbo. Dariun makes his way to the bartender and cryptically asks about information while giving his 2 gold. After not getting the answers he wants, Dariun asks is he knows anything about Limbo, which he says no. The bartender points them to a guy with a frying pan and Dariun asks why the frying pan. He is excited by the question and tells them he beat a man to death with it in the war of his marriage. When Dariun asks about Limbo, the man also does not appear to know anything either. Dariun looks around to see if anyone is looking when he mentioned Limbo but it does not seem like anyone has. Dariun and Norman are aware that their time is limited with their meeting with Turi coming up soon. Norman isn’t convinced that the fry pan guy doesn’t know anything so tries to tell him that he owes someone in Limbo money and he needs to get there. He offers the fry pan guy, Lyall, gold if he can take them there but Lyall is sticking by the fact he does not know much about Limbo. With frustration, Norman asks what Lyall is not telling them and uses detect thoughts but all he hears is how keen Lyall is to cook some bacon in the pan. Norman turns to Dariun and concedes defeat in their quest to get information from fry pan guy. In the time they have left before meeting Turi, they go around searching for information and pick up bits and pieces and found out Limbo has been around for a while. They learnt that never used to be a threat but have become more fearsome recently.

Norman and Dariun make their way to the Speak Easy Speak Speak, a more upper class bar in Aurum. They see the bar is empty but they are directed to the back room to find Carol/Turi. Carol asks where Zippy is and Dariun tells them he is off getting supplies. Carol tells them they have been able to postpone the election and asks what the team's plan is for finding Colm. Dariun explains that Limbo is likely the one who has taken Colm and they are planning to gather up supplies and head out to find him. Dariun also tells them that it seems people are unconcerned about Colm's disappearance. Norman tells Carol that Ferryn and Yogi seem to be in cahoots, much to Carol's distaste. Carol gives them gold promised and Norman asks for 700 gold more for the travel expenses but she will only give it to them the next time they meet in 2 days. Norman pulls out the medallion under his shirt and asks if Turi knows this symbol, he recognizes it as the demon king's symbol, the lord of the Deep, Royce. He is deity but not as high a tier as gods like Turi.

They leave the bar and head back to Two Balls Anvil and get the tinder souls gem which has a small white flame inside. Dariun pays for the gem and they leave. They decide to head back to the castle to find Zippy but before they head up there, they hear Blackjack and Yogurt run up and tell them they have information on Limbo but they're in a bad spot. They managed to get a member and reveal a gagged Berryl on their horse. Norman angrily punches Berryl in the face and they run back to the stables trying to avoid the people Blackjack and Yogurt are sure are chasing them. They get on their horses and ride off to Gilbert's mansion as fast as possible and as they ride through the fields, they see 8 cloaked people on horses closing in on both sides.

Zippy wakes up, he feels he is tied to a chair and he can see he is in a cave near the sea. He can see across from him another man tied up in a chair and Zippy introduces himself. The man across from him, starts to fall asleep as Zippy tells him his whole backstory. The man introduces himself as Colm Alvero and as he does, a large bearded goliath walk with the Loxadon that knocked Zippy out, and he tells them that they are going to have some fun.

Quotations

 * Dariun "I've been around enough royal courts to smell a rat and there's something rotting."
 * The Red Bandit "Well that's the way it goes, I don’t know why people look for me, they just do and I appear. That's fate isn't it?"
 * The Red Bandit "Bad things happen when you try to take control. Bad thing happen when you go against the stream of fate."
 * Norman "You ever feel like something really significant happened in your life but you just really weren't catching onto what was happening?"
 * Jacob "DM PLEASE!!"
 * Jacob "I … am so screwed."
 * Norman "He's gonna be fine! Its Zippy Westborrough we're talking about, he's from the Bramble Patch!"
 * Zippy "Oh dear, all these dreams I've been having. I dreamed I was in this terrible staircase that just seemed totally designed to see me fail!"
 * Zippy "My name is Zippy Westborrough and I'm gonna become god of this world! Just kidding!"

Main Cast

 * Norman D
 * Dariun Branch
 * Zippy Westborrough

Returning Characters

 * Christopher
 * Bradley
 * Ivan
 * Carol/Turi
 * Blackjack
 * Yogurt
 * Berryl
 * Longface Cloppyhooves
 * Denmark
 * Tealeaf

New Characters

 * The Red Bandit
 * Lyall/Fry pan guy
 * Royce/Lord of the Deep/Demon King (Mentioned)
 * Colm Alvero

Locations

 * Aurum
 * Aurum Castle
 * Two Balls Anvil
 * Pug G (Tavern)
 * Speak Easy Speak Speak (Tavern)
 * Limbo Cave