Into Thin Air

## Premise

For a “perfect city”, Wellspring City has sure had a lot of missing pet posters over the past few days. Where could so many animals even go? It's up to our heroes to find out!

## Cast

* Zen (DM)
* Nikola N. Change (Authorticity)
* Shaun (Verl)
* Brittney Megan Bronson (Tala)
* Tailwind (Tallest)
* Kat Afka (Lordlyhour)

## Notable NPCs

* Sentry (bird-dog stealing pets)
* Yllwyll (mad scientist experimenting with Catalyst-V)
* Factoid (the slime-and-paper monster introduced in First Day on the Job)
* Perspicuity Witt (owner of the 8-12, helped return pets home and gave Nikola some advice)

## Plot Summary

### Part One

Several days have passed since the events of A Watershed Issue, and life in Wellspring City seems to have gone back to normal. The group is all hanging out at the 8-12 convenience store, where they notice an incredible number of missing pet posters on the bulletin board. Everyone agrees to search for the missing pets together. Kat examines the missing posters in search of a common thread, and discovers that while they have gone missing all over the city, most of them were smaller pets that were outside or near a window. The group discuss how to go about this, and Shaun suggests Kat put on cat ears to act as bait.

Kat runs ahead of the rest of the group to seek out the missing pets on his own, and Brittney lures him back to the group by insulting his favorite anime. Nikola has Kat and Shaun hold their hands while Brittney walks ahead where Nikola can keep an eye on her. The group head to the dog park where some of the pets went missing, not wearing their hero costumes. Shaun and Nikola notice some claw marks in the dirt at the dog park. Nikola suggests Shaun acts as bait, since he's one of the most durable members of the group, which Shaun eventually agrees to. He turns into his slime form and shapeshifts to look like a dog, then runs around in the dog park. Nikola prepares Mind Spike for anything that comes after Shaun, and Brittney prepares Maximilian's Earthen Grasp.

While Shaun runs around pretending to be a dog, a large creature dives from the sky and attempts to grab him, but fails. It turns out to be a mutant creature that looks like a giant bird of prey with a dog's head. Nikola successfully Mind Spikes the creature, which allows them to know its location, and Brittney restrains it with a tentacle. Kat uses Speak with Animals to talk to the bird-dog and ask why it's taking pets, and it says that "the master" has ordered it to take the animals for his work. The bird-dog flies free of the tentacle, and Nikola uses their mental link with the mutant to follow it.

The group put on their hero costumes and follow the bird-dog across the river to Endsville. The mutant leads them back to the same subway entrance they used to escape the laboratory where they got their powers. The group head down the stairs, where Brittney and Kat spot the bird-dog mutant and a mad scientist toon in the lab. Tailwind interrupts the scientist as he talks to the bird-dog and attacks him with their gauntlet. The scientist shrugs off Tailwind's electric attack and turns to confront them, but Tailwind manages to convince him they're a Health and Safety inspector. Shaun melts into a puddle to hide while Nikola and Brittney also pose as Health and Safety inspectors to talk to the mad scientist.

The trio manage to convince the scientist to let them look around his lab and get the name of the bird-dog, which is Sentry. Kat sneaks into the room while the scientist is distracted. Nikola finds about half of the missing pets in some cages against the wall, and a bucket holding the remains of the slime from First Day on the Job. Nikola starts questioning the scientist and finds out the scientist's name is Yllwyll. Yllwyll has been kidnapping pets, exposing them to the Catalyst-V compound to mutate them, and then letting them loose in Endsville. While Yllwyll monologues about Catalyst-V's properties as an unstable mutagen, Kat stealthily steals pets from the cages. Nikola figures out that Yllwyll is the same toon whose outline they saw stuck to the wall with dried Catalyst-V in Superhero Fast-Track.

Brittney asks about Yllwyll's future plans, and he says he plans to send mutants into Wellspring City to see how they do in an "uncompromised" environment. Yllwyll also talks about sending the paper and slime monster, Factoid, to Wellspring City. Brittney and Nikola start talking telepathically and agree that they need to beat Yllwyll up. They decide to sneak attack him, grab the pets, and run. Brittney says they can threaten to kill Yllwyll in order to get Sentry to obey. The two relay the plan telepathically to the other three. Kat says that it's probably a bad idea to fight Yllwyll, since he had so much more exposure to the Catalyst-V. Tailwind hits Yllwyll with Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Nikola prepares Mind Spike for when Yllwyll recovers. Everyone but Nikola grabs the pets from the cages, Tailwind grabs the bucket holding Factoid, and everyone runs out of the lab. As they reach ground level, Yllwyll recovers from the Hideous Laughter and shouts "After them!"

### Part Two

As the group run out of Yllwyll's lab, Sentry and some other mutants (a two-headed dog and some mutant birds) chase them onto the street. Sentry dives toward Tailwind and fails to hit them with its talons but does bite them. Shaun rages and attacks Sentry with his claws, but really doesn't want to hit Sentry and misses. Brittney casts Dissonant Whispers on Sentry; Sentry makes the save and only takes half damage. The mutant parrot circling the group tries to dive at Nikola but only catches their blanket cloak. The two-headed dog bites Brittney, and Kat goes to protect her and slashes the dog with his katanas. Nikola reflexively casts Infestation on the parrot that attacked them, but the bird makes the save and isn't affected. Nikola is confused and upset by the sudden appearance of the bugs. The other mutant bird, a seagull/goose, tries to attack Kat but fails. Tailwind hits the seagull with a fireball and then hides behind Shaun.

Sentry attacks Shaun with their talons, and Shaun hits back with his claws, doing almost no damage. Brittney restrains the dog with Maximilian's Earthen Grasp, and Kat hits the restrained dog. The mutant parrot successfully attacks Nikola, who tries to Mind Spike it, though it makes the save. The seagull joins in on attacking Nikola, but is ineffective. Tailwind goes to help Nikola and hits the seagull with Shocking Grasp. Tailwind backs up, and the parrot tries and fails to peck them.

Sentry and Shaun attack each other again, and Brittney crushes the two-headed dog with her psychic tentacle. Nikola implores Brittney not to kill the dog, and Brittney says she wasn't planning to. The parrot fails to hit Tailwind again and crashes instead. The dog bites Kat , and Kat knocks it unconscious and goes to help Shaun fight Sentry. Nikola tries to cast Toll the Dead on the parrot, which rolls a nat 20 to save. Brittney directs Nikola to walk 10 feet away from the parrot, and Nikola takes an attack of opportunity from the seagull, which pecks their ankles. Nikola reacts with Hellish Rebuke and the seagull waddles away to peck Brittney's ankle for max damage. Tailwind hits the seagull with another shocking grasp.

Sentry turns to attack Kat but misses, only biting his smoke trail. Shaun hits Sentry, knocking them unconscious, and then pats them on the head. Brittney hits the seagull with Dissonant Whispers, knocking it out by insulting its feathers and earning Inspiration. The parrot pecks at Tailwind, and Kat hits it with his katana. Nikola casts Toll the Dead on the parrot, which rolls another nat 20 save. Tailwind hits the parrot with Shocking Grasp, which it narrowly survives with 1 hitpoint. Shaun hits the parrot with a nat 20 and knocks it unconscious.

Nikola seeks a hug from Kat, who obliges and also comforts them with the animals in his coat. Brittney checks that the seagull is down, and Tailwind tries to get the group together and moving back to the bridge. The group debates whether it's kidnapping to take Factoid with them, but ultimately decide to. The group carry the unconscious hostile mutants with them; Nikola and Shaun team up to carry Sentry, Brittney and Tailwind team up to carry the dog, and Kat takes both birds. Nikola warns Brittney that she should keep her father out of conversation if they wind up going to Nikola's apartment, and Brittney says they should call her Jack while she's in her incognito citizen disguise so their grandparents won't realize it's her.

Kat casts Cure Wounds on Brittney, Tailwind, and Nikola. While he's healing Brittney, he notices something which is not revealed to the audience. After the healing, everyone heads to the junkyard to drop off the mutants and rescued pets. They all change out of their costumes, and Tailwind calls Perspicuity to come pick up and return the found pets. Nikola swaddles Sentry in a tarp and tries to befriend them with snacks, but is not successful. Tailwind lies to Perspicuity, saying there was an automatic pet-attracting machine set up in Endsville that caused the pets to leave their owners.

Perspicuity gives Nikola and Sentry a ride into the city to Nikola's grandparents' apartment building in his pickup truck. Nikola asks Perspicuity how he runs such a unique store and keeps his independence, and Perspicuity answers that it's because he has the support of others. Several of Nikola's grandparents help carry Sentry inside and Nikola heads inside. Brittney ditches the junkyard to go to a party. Tailwind sets up a movie night at the junkyard for themself, Kat, and Shaun. They also transfer Factoid into a glass jar and set it in the window so it can also watch the movie. Nikola warns their grandparents that Sentry may bite, and then calls to check on the others. Kat invites him to movie night, and Nikola joins the group several hours later after getting lost. The gang at the junkyard fall asleep in a cuddle pile watching the movie.

## Notes

Nikola establishes his hero name: Omen.

Nikola attempts to name the group the "Brittney Correction Squad"

Zen saying "you legally can't say sneakers" is a reference to Zevo-3, the show the campaign is based on, which could not mention sneakers at risk of being deemed a commercial and taken off the air.

Kat has been trying to talk to animals for years, but it only started working after he was exposed to the Catalyst-V.

Nikola's Grawlix sounds like banjo music.

The seagull shouldn't have been able to react to Nikola walking away, but Zen forgot about Shocking Grasp preventing reactions.

Immediately after the break, Author accidentally refers to Nikola as Gloo a couple times, confusing him with their other character, Rubberandyoureglue.

## Session Recording

Part One

Part Two

## Art Gallery

Title card for the gameYllwyll, the mad scientist (drawn by Doc)Various doodles of Sentry drawn by kt