Paper Kingdom

A familiar face with light fingers shows up in Hardy Town and has taken something Hardy wants back. Some of our adventurers are on hand to help get it back. Strap in for a journey to recover Hardy's book and a paper genocide.

Watch on YouTube

## Paper Kingdom

###### ***Characters:***

Jordyn Silver, Lavender*,* Tantra Raven-Blood and Eve

###### ***Locations:***

Hardy Town (Eternity), MordWell Forest, (Eternity), Pick Pocket Hollow Tree (Eternity), Scafidilus Supreme Wizard book

###### ***Encounters / Enemies:***

Pick Pocket the Nilbog, Paper Mache' People, King Tomas Treebeard

###### ***Notable Moments:***

Bowling for guards, Hardy's Diary, Pickpocket needing concussion protocol, The massacre of the paper mache' people

###### ***Episode Synopsis:***

It is a normal afternoon in Hardy Town, finding Eve in the woods on the south side of town looking for herbs to stock her Apothecary; Lavender working her essential oils MLM in direct competition to Eve (and Hardy loving every minute), Jordyn keeping to herself on the north side of town so no more "accidents" happen, and Tantra coming out of the armory, as she had to replace her shield from all the bug juice that ruined it. A commotion is heard...a voice calls out "Somebody stop him!" and running footsteps pound the street. Eve just sees the back of an armored guard running; Tantra peeks out a window and sees the guard run past. Lavender and Jordyn see an obnoxiously tall stack of books weaving through the street, followed by the guard. Jordyn grabs a round stone, and rolls it like a bowling ball at the legs of the thief. The thief is magical, however; and leaps right over the stone. The guard is felled and knocks himself out. Tantra tries to identify the creature, and remembers stories of similar ones in Reality...in fact, in Vha Elunore, one impersonated a District Attorney. This one looks a bit different, and is found only in Eternity. Tantra moves to help the guard, while Eve runs up and tries to push the stack over. She manages to dislodge the top quarter of the stack, but the creature does its best to flip the toppled books back on the stack faster than Eve can snag them. Lavender tries to help, too...but only gets 3. Jordyn tries to heal the guard, as she feels bad about causing the injury, even by accident. She and Tantra try to move the guard off the street, while the creature has recovered all but three of the books, restacked them, and with shouts of "Mine! Mine! Mine!" is off running down the street again, out of town. Lavender tries to shove Eve out of the way, so she can get to the creature first, but Eve stands firm. (in real live, Lavender and Eve are sisters. It's hilarious!!) Eve taunts Lavender to use her essential oils to heal the guard, so Lavender dumps some oil on his head while sneakily trying to heal him with a spell. The oil runs in his eyes, but Lavender assures him in two days, there will be no more headache!!

During this disturbance, the creature makes it to the outskirts of town. Jordyn tries a last ditch effort to slow it down, but it creates a portal. Her arcane projectile hits the portal instead, and causes an explosion of papers from one of the books. They hear the huffing and puffing of an out of breath cat coming around the corner...it's Hardy, and he is very upset about his missing books. Jordyn asks if he knew the creature, and Hardy says yes. He needs the adventurers to get his books back! But it popped through a portal, how will they know where to go? Hardy responds that it's just a local jump portal, nothing fancy. The creature, named Pickpocket, lives in Mordwell Forest, just beyond Jordyn's campsite. Just follow the path, he doesn't hide very good, you'll see him right away. Are there other Nilbogs around? No, Pickpocket is an outcast. Most nilbogs steal valuable things; Pickpocket is basically just a hoarder. Hardy says one of the books that Pickpocket took is very important. It just has a name on it: Scafidilus. It is a wizard's book, perhaps with some doodling on the pages, but still. Tantra is not enthused, as her last trip was to the wrong tree; Jordyn hasn't gotten paid for her last job, but they agree to help. Lavender and Eve also agree to go while Hardy and Denis/Dumak check on Brandon...Hardy can't afford to get sued, but at least he knows a couple of good lawyers.

They head down the path Hardy indicated, and for the first time, truly leave Hardy Town. The forest is not like on QuelDoras in Reality...colors move in the shadows. But as they continue, they come across a bottle cap in the path. then an old boot, then crumpled up newspaper...they must be getting close to Pickpocket. They come to a fork in the path: to the right, the path breaks from the forest and heads into an open field; and to the left it goes down into a darker section of the forest, with a large tree. In front of the tree is a small sign: Pickpocket Hollow. Surrounding the tree are piles of garbage. Can it be this easy to find him? They hear a crash from inside the tree; perhaps it is. They devise a plan for Eve to lure him out of the tree so the others can find the books. She starts saying loudly: "What shiny gems!" To which Pickpocket responds: "Yuck!" Eve then tries "Ooh look at all the dull metal! Oh it's a rusty nail, I hope I don't get tetanus!" Now that grabs Pickpocket's attention. Eve starts skipping happily towards the open field, and Pickpocket manages to fall out of the window onto his face, but gets up and starts running after Eve. Jordyn, Lavender and Tantra follow the plan and enter the tree...to find that it is massive, and covered in junk. To the left they discover a stack of books and start searching. Tantra finds a recipe book and Introduction to Trigonometry (which she tosses back), and Lavender finds a small but weighty book with "Name: Supreme Wizard Scafidilus" on its cover. Success! Jordyn finds Hardy's diary and snags that, too. As they celebrate their success, they become aware of an awful stench hitting their noses. They should go, NOW, and make sure Eve is okay.

Pickpocket has caught up with Eve, and she deftly redirects the conversation for a bit, but then Pickpocket realizes he saw her in Hardy Town. That, and the remaining crew come running out of the tree holding books, and he's mad. "Thieves! Thieves! Tricksy Thieves!" he yells, and runs over to stop them. Casting a spell of Feet of Snakes, ropes reach out to Lavender, wrap up her ankles, and pull her down. He does the same to Tantra, but being a warrior, she keeps upright. She tries to drop her axe on Pickpocket's head and lands it, but he doesn't go down. Clutching his head, he cries "Ooh that's a boo-boo!" Seeing what Lavender has, he runs up snags it back from her. Eve runs up and clubs him on the head. In shock, Pickpocket flings the book up in the air where is opens, turns over, and a well of magic explodes out, hitting all four adventurers. They blink, and they are on top of the book...shrunken down to a miniature size. The words on the page appear and disappear; words and paragraphs move...this book is brimming over with magic. In front of their eyes, in a swirl of magic and paper, the pages folds onto itself and becomes a paper castle. More paper from the book becomes people, the same size as our crew, and carrying paper swords. Pickpocket can be seen outside the book, lying unconscious on the ground...still full sized.

Two paper soldiers approach, saying the adventurers are under arrest. Eve figures the dungeon is probably made of paper, too, so she is not concerned. Jordyn, however...hates paper cuts and contemplates a fireball. Since they are walking on paper, they decide to go along with soldiers for now and meet the King. In about 3 steps they do: King Tomas Treebeard. He says they have committed crimes against the Tree People by entering his realm. Just visiting the realm is illegal, and only the Supreme Wizard Scafidilus can visit the paper kingdom. The King will help them leave...by dying! Eve says she is Scafidilus..she's a shapeshifter, so this is what she looks like now. King Tomas has doubts, and calls for the Handshake of Supreme Wizards. Tantra suggests that maybe it's Rock, Paper, Scissors (which completely stops David in his tracks with the great guess). King Tomas calls for combat, and Tantra is first. She wins scissors over paper, and a paper guard bursts into confetti. Jordyn is next, and loses with rock over scissors. Another row of soldiers pops up. Lavender is next and loses with paper over rock. The book is now covered with paper soldiers, and King Tomas calls for them to attack. Tantra notices Pickpocket starting to stir, but then they are surrounded by soldiers. Lavender decides to tear a soldier right in half, from top to bottom. Jordyn decides to light a match and flick it into a crowd, and it incinerates one soldier. Fearing this is taking too long, Jordyn uses her telekinesis to tilt the book, hopefully so they can escape. Unfortunately, as the paper soldiers start sliding, they hit an invisible wall that surrounds the book. King Tomas runs up to attack Eve, but doesn't even leave a scratch...his paper sword just bends on her. Tantra grabs her metal sword and swings wide, cutting seven paper heads from their paper bodies. Eve now shows true genius: she approaches a decapitated soldier, and while maintaining eye contact with the King, heals one soldier...and then tears the head off again. All while maintaining eye contact. King Tomas is horrified. Then they all see a very dark shadow moving slowly towards the book; something huge with yellow eyes...they realize it is Hardy. He raises a paw and starts squishing all of the paper solders. Hey Hardy! they say, sounding like chipmunks. Hardy saved the King for last, and squishes him, too. Hardy casts a spell where they blink, and are normal sized again, sitting on the ground surrounded by junk. But where is Pickpocket? Back inside his tree, holding a frozen steak on his head. Hardy asks how many books they got, and they said 2: the Scafidilus book and the recipe book. Jordyn stays very quiet about the diary, but mentions the horrible smell. "Yeah he rooms with a churb, a giant fish person. Very stinky." Jordyn asks Hardy what he uses the book for? Why did he need it so badly? "Oh this is a very special book" is all Hardy will say. They return to town, where they see Brandon the guard with a large bandage wrapped around his head. Hardy suggests they put a spell on their personal items, as Pickpocket could return...and some of the adventurers look a bit shady. Have you met Laima? Most definitely a criminal, maybe. And this adventure is concluded.