Episode 22 - That One Aladdin Song

Recap
The team have finished off Auto and they saw Auto's time burst has created clones of the Manasnow and Greeder survivors. They tried to debate and discuss why it would be a bad idea to go back to the town but the Manasnow people just wanted to go home. So the team helped the people get to Manasnow. Just before they got there, Harry the giant swept the team away to his cave and warned them that the  Competition Bureau and Flock were looking for them. The team jumped back on the Sparrow and started to head to the second grand treasure in Stroom's Hair desert. As they were travelling, Zippy was dreaming and helped the black ball bring a door up from the ground but he was woken by commotion on the ship. The blue flower appeared on Dariun's knee and Peterson's but cheek. The flower brought on extreme pain and knocked both Dariun and Peterson out. Zippy heard a noise outside the room during the commotion and went to find the black ball on the ship.

Episode Summary
Peterson is unconscious on the ground and Dariun on his bed with Dracken, Pepper, James and Yogurt all in the room trying to help. Zippy is about to go out of the room and asks if Yogurt and James are okay for a moment while he investigates someone in the halls. They give him the ok so Zippy heads out into the engine part of the air ship, following the sounds of clanging. He then sees behind him the black ball, opening the door to Norman's room. It goes in then quietly closes the door. Zippy rushed over, wanting to protect Norman. He opens the door and sees the black ball putting its hands on Norman's chest. The ball is startled when Zippy bursts in the room and retracts its hands. Zippy runs over and tries to kick it away but misses. The black ball cartwheels away and Zippy keeps trying to kick the black ball but it's too quick. The black ball is trying to signal to stop but Zippy takes it as an attack and misses another kick. The black ball slides under the bed. Zippy bends down and looks under the bed to see the black bunny doing horns then points at Zippy like they were doing in the dream.

Zippy grabs the black ball's hand and drags it out from under the bed. It tries to slap Zippy's wrist as he gets a chair and holds it down. Zippy tells the black ball to show him exactly what it is trying to say with only four signals. The ball shrugs, then points to Norman, to Zippy then it does jazz hands. Zippy is pretty well done so he gets some of Norman's clothes and wraps the black ball up. Zippy carries the black ball into the room with everyone else and asks for their help. Zippy starts opening up the wrapping and the black ball is gone. James and Yogurt are a bit concerned. Zippy runs back to Norman's room but the black ball is not there. He checks over Norman's body and sees nothing has changed. He rolls Norman onto his front and examines his back and sees nothing has changed.

Yogurt comes to the room and asks if Zippy is ok. Zippy snaps at him about the situation they're in and asks him to look around. Yogurt decides he's best to watch Peterson but Pepper comes in and offers her help. Zippy asks her to look around the ship as Zippy tries to think what to do. He rummages through his bag and pull out his bag of Ammow pills and pops a multicolored, cross shaped pill. Immediately, he feels the effects. He feels laser focused. He starts sketching out the black ball and searching around. Zippy spends the night hyper focused but paces himself and ensures he does not eat for 12 hours, as recommended by the Ammow company.

Meanwhile, Dariun has appeared in the white space and can see Paige speaking to Viso, the blue skinned, toga wearing god with his face on their torso. Dariun asks if Viso brought him here and Viso tell him no, he will only appear in the white space when he is sleeping. Dariun believes he was knocked unconscious and asks Viso if he can bring him back. Viso tell Dariun he can try but he won't like it. Dariun is ok to give it a go so Viso gets ready but asks Dariun to tell Zippy to come back so they can have a chat. Dariun agrees then closes his eyes. Viso shoves two fingers up Dariun's nose. He's lifted up and it's painful but Dariun isn't woken up. Dariun is not keen to give it another go and Viso recommends he will just need to wait it out. Viso reckons he'll head off but Dariun wanted to ask a question in return for passing a message to Zippy.

Dariun asks about the gods all meeting and if there has been much fallout since Turi. Viso says there has been and people have been off the rails and some have become more reckless. Viso believes order will be in place soon and he tells Dariun that he was the one who told Mir to spare them. Dariun asks if Turi is alive and Viso tells him that Turi is not completely gone but won't be coming back anytime soon. Viso says his goodbyes and goes through a door through the ground, leaving Dariun and Paige in the white space.

Dariun asks how everything is going in Aurum and Paige tells him it's great with Jezzy and Gallard. She asks if the team will be coming back anytime soon but Dariun tells her they are pretty far away and have some things they need to but he will need to come see Gallard soon. As they are talking, the black ball appears in the white space, walking towards them looking tired. Dariun asks what it is and Paige doesn't have much idea but thinks it's pretty cool. The black ball falls on their back to rest. Paige asks if Dariun wanted to play a game he used to play in the Feywild and Dariun tells her about stones, a game were you throw stones as far as you can. They start to play with Paige's shoes.

Eventually, Dariun comes back to, waking in his bed with a cold wet towel on his forehead. James is half sleeping in a chair next to him. Peterson also comes back to with Yogurt next to him. Dariun sits up and rips off the blanket to look at his knee. He sees a little bud with a bit of blue in the center. Dracken wakes up and asks how he's doing and Dariun shows him the tattoo. Dracken was aware and explains that the roots were spreading and they couldn't find a way to stop it but eventually it went away. Dariun believes they will need to use some magical means to stop this and they only lead he knows was with Gilbert. Peterson hops up and checks his but, seeing a similar tattoo to Dariun's.

Peterson tries to think if he knows anything about this magic from his teachings. He has not ever seen magic like this but he does recall other worldly magic that connects people acting like curses however, he has not heard of anything like this. Peterson explains how he believes this is a curse that connects them and as he is about to say the name of who he believes he is connected to, all he gets out is K and the tattoo thorns out and he is hit with another wave of pain, knocking him out again. Dariun decides to go and find Zippy who is at the helm.

Dariun stumbles out of the room and goes to the helm to see Zippy at the wheel. Zippy is in a great mood after taking an Ammow pill and is ready to push outside of his comfort zone and become a better person. Dariun stops his strange happy rant and asks Zippy to look at the tattoo on his leg. Dariun explains that he can't say much but asks Zippy to remember what happened in the cave with the snail. Zippy is a bit off his rocker and decides to take his green smoothie with an Ammow pill in it. Dariun asks that he focuses in and Zippy tells Dariun he does remember and asks what the deal is. When they've finally caught up, Dariun asks if Zippy is able to regrow limbs but Zippy isn't at that level yet.

Dariun explains that Gilbert had some magical artefact on his leg that seemed to stop the curse. Zippy has a short existential crisis about death and Dariun's potential impending doom but uses his spiral to try to convince Dariun to take a pill. Dariun refuses and Pepper comes walking into the room, running up to Dariun and hugging his leg. Pepper tells Zippy that she didn't find anything. Zippy looks out to see they have crossed the great planes and can see they are flying over the Stroom's Hair desert and they are getting very close to the second grand treasure.

Dariun steps out and tries to see any buildings, but he only sees deserts and a lot of sand. Dariun speaks to Zippy about getting to the grand treasure and potentially find information to help them with the situation on his leg but they may also be able to find something to help bring Norman back. Dariun goes to grab his gear and chucks and cure wounds on himself. Peterson comes to and Dariun recommends he refrains from saying anything about the situation going on and Peterson takes that on.

Zippy asks if Peterson knows anything about where the grand treasure would be and he recalls looking at maps before venturing out and knows they should head north. Peterson and Dariun decide to rest up a bit and as they are watching out over the sands. After a little while, they realize they are at the spot on the map they are meant to be but there is nothing below them. Zippy lowers the ship and Peterson pulls down his mask but can't see anything down in the sand. However, he and Zippy notice a person riding something across the dunes. Zippy suggests Peterson go out on the ramp on the side of the ship to talk to the person, Dariun accompanies him.

Peterson secures himself with a rope to an anchor point on the ship. They pull a lever to reveal the steel ramp walkway and Peterson carefully edges his way out. As they get closer, they see an orc with draping cloth covering their body and can see he is riding on a stingray across the sand. They look up and wave friendly to the ship. Peterson uses minor illusion to create a hand to wave and then tries to convey to stop so they can chat. The orc person pulls off his mask and Peterson introduces himself and asks for directions to the second grand treasure. The orc man says that's he's on the way there so they can follow him. Before they get going, the orc man introduces himself as Boar.

The Sparrow follows Boar on the sting ray and after a while they come over a dune and see a what appears to be a large slowly moving city of connected caravans and tents. There's a four legged moving building leading the caravan moving city.

Dariun asks if Zippy can get the airship moving idly next to the moving caravan city. Zippy reckons it'll be a tall order but he will give it his best shot. They fly a bit closer and Dariun calls out for some of the residents to held them tie a rope to secure the ship. The people throw Dariun a rope and he ties it to a secure part of the ship to help it float with the moving city. After Dariun gives the wind elementals a pep talk, he calls out to a tortle person and asks their name. The tortle person wears elaborate robes and ornate earrings and tells them to come down as there is plenty of room in Rasha.

Dariun uses the rope they just secured to slide on down and Peterson follows, much more timidly. Zippy also heads down after the others and when they get on the ground, they can feel the whole thing moving with wheels turning underneath them. The tortle introduces themselves as Alba and asks what they are doing here. Zippy tells Alba they are looking for the great library. Alba tells them many come here for this and the great library is the four legged creature they are following. However, people who go there but they do not often return. Alba explains that the people of Rasha follow the library and see the true knowledge is within the path is travels and the people here are humble followers.

Dariun uses detect portal and can sense one in the center of the city. Alba tells them there is plenty of trade here and people are non-judgmental. He tells them let him know if they need any help and the team thanks Alba for the help. Dariun believes Valentine may be a little ways off and as they are discussing, they see a pillow shaped person come out of a pillow shop next to them. The face cover comes off and Valentine is revealed, he greets his old friends. Dariun tells Valentine about his affliction and how he is unable to talk about it directly. Valentine assumes it's diarrhoea so he tells them they need to get to the shop quick.

They are lead to Valentines shop and Dariun shows Valentine the tattoo. He inspects the tattoo and tells Dariun it's definitely cursed but can't tell them much else. Valentine shows them the new and updated word doc of items for sale. Zippy grabs some goggles off the wall and Valentine tells him he found them with a note that they belonged to Grubby, a kenku scavenger. Dariun looks at a sword and asks Valentine what it is. Valentine tells him it’s the dancing sword which allows someone to throw the sword and it'll hover and attack an enemy with the commands given to it by the user. Peterson has a grabs the Voodoo doll, the also the Sovereign Glue, the circlet of perfection and the bag of beans.

To finish off their trip, Dariun and Peterson pull from the void chest. Dariun goes first and pulls out a gem encrusted cuirass which enhances your sense of smell for 1d4 hours whenever it knows you don't want it. Dariun sells it and notices Valentine has not been doing his laundry. Peterson pulls a sword cane which can be used as a club that can attract ghosts whenever it is lit on fire. Dariun goes for another and gets a pixie sized pendant which will vibrate slightly when you mention a weapon. Dariun sells the pendant and goes for one last pull and gets a wooden purse which produces a 20 foot stunning blast whenever someone thinks a positive thought about you. Peterson goes for his last pull and gets an acid edged pendant that will recites Joobilies Joobles children popup book whenever it is covered. Peterson sells it off and they decide that's all for Valentine do they head out into Rasha.

Out in Rasha, Peterson decides he wants to go to the armory. As they are walking, Zippy's ear perk up to a familiar voice. He hears the voice selling pills so he rushes over. He comes up to an area with a bunch of people sitting on pillows and one guy wearing a vest with a badge of the Ammow company standing in the center on a soapbox. Zippy recognizes this person as Chris, the person who came to the Bramble Patch and educated Zippy on Ammow. He is the person who kick started Zippy's career. Chris has slicked back hair and looks like the nicest human you'd ever see. Zippy calls out to Chris and the reunite.

Chris asks Zippy how he is going with the business seen as he's famous now. Zippy admits he's been slacking a bit recently but Chris reckons he will be able to use Ammow to help him get back on track. Chris suggests they do a number like the good old days. Chris brings Zippy over and they perform number 7, just like the good old days. They sing their song about how the Ammow pills helped them and about their leader Lou Blonger. The story tells them about how Lou ended up on an island after a ship he worked on was attacked by pirates. On that island he found a cave with a mysterious ingredient that allowed him to swim back to the mainland. He took some of this mysterious ingredient to make the Ammow pills.

After they finish their song, Chris tells Zippy he was surprised Zippy hasn't been doing so well with his business as he believed Zippy would be the new face of the company. Chris explains he won't be able to make the conference at Bayside in a couple days but he did get the new batch of pamphlets. Chris hands one to Zippy and can see it says ''Ammow! The newest pill, the next step for your health! It has a photo of Zippy with a thumbs up saying Hero of Aurum approved! Also, raider of the Beroger Spire approved!'' Zippy is speechless. Chris assumes that Zippy approved this and asks what Lou is like as he assumes Zippy must spend a lot of time with him. Zippy remains speechless and stares into the sky as Chris hands out the pamphlets.

Quotations

 * Connor "When there's a problem in front of Zippy he kicks it!"
 * Zippy "James I swear to god you and your sly comments..."
 * Zippy "Dariun would usually say some words of wisdom here or keep me on track or something and Peterson would… um... he'd say smething but then we'd move on."
 * Viso "I'm not gonna get into dream physics with you … we have a bad case of physics on this show I think..."
 * Alba "Rasha is less of a city and more of an idea, a gathering, a collective whole."

Main Cast

 * Dariun Branch
 * Zippy Westborrough
 * Peterson

Returning Characters

 * Dracken
 * James
 * Yogurt
 * Pepper
 * Black bunny ball
 * Viso (God of dreams)
 * Paige
 * Huri
 * Caine
 * Tor
 * Nado
 * Valentine

New Characters

 * Boar (Orc nomad)
 * Alba
 * Grubby (mentioned - kenku scavenger)
 * Chris

Locations

 * The sparrow
 * White dream space
 * Stroom's Hair Desert
 * Rasha
 * Valentines Cursed Curiosities

Music

 * Number 7 (Chris and Zippy Ammow song) 1:58:00