Episode 5 - The Three B's

## **Episode Synopsis**

### **Recap**

The team were in the locker room getting ready for the fight when Apophis showed up, beating everyone up then making his way to the baths. Zippy followed and befriended Apophis, learning his weakness to the cold and is the reason he has not been able to win any tournaments previously. Zippy was able to convince Apophis not to take the bullet pill and instead use some leg warmers to help him stay warm in the tournament. Norman warmed some of the competitors hearts with music and Dariun decided to not use weapons during the fights on instruction of Dracken. They enter the tournament and they fought gorhinos, a senior flaahgra and just as the last beast came out, a spear killed it. Bugs and insectoid creatures flew over hear and a tarantula hawk insectoid person beheaded King Veal. Most of the insectoids are heading to the castle but three insectoids landed in front of each of the team. A dung beetle faces Apophis and Zippy, a mage butterfly person is in front of Norman and Dariun is up against a bee swordsman with a stinger sword and honeycomb shield.

### **Episode Summary**

Zippy stands next to Apophis with a large dung beetle person holding a ball and chain. Zippy tells Apophis he will follow his lead so he tells Zippy to jump on his back. Zippy is on his shoulders and Apophis tells him his move to help inspire himself and they both flex, shouting kachow! The dung beetle watches them confused. Apophis moves, going to hit the beetle in the chest and Zippy uses enhance ability on him. Apophis slams into the chest of the beetle once then into its gut, pushing it back. The beetle laughs then whips the chain and swings the ball towards them and they both are hit and get thrown to the side. Zippy's armour is damaged and Apophis' fur cuffs are looking a little worse for wear.

Dariun faces the fencing swordsman working bee. He quickly dashes forwards, closing the gap. Dariun darts also forwards and side steps a stab from his blade, grabbing onto the shield and twisting, forcing the bee to let go of the shield and throwing it far away. Dariun can see now the shield was a part of the bee's arm and some honey blood seeps out of them. Dariun now goes to try and disarm the bee from his blade but they pull back and he misses. The bee's quick reflexes allow them to hit Dariun with his blade. Dariun pulls out the bubble cloak, boosting up his protection. The bee turns and elegantly tries to attack but Dariun's bubble clock blocks the stinger blade.

Norman looks to the mage butterfly, one hand holding their head and the other close to the book on their side as they hover slightly above the ground. Norman inspects the blue rose pattern in the wings and can tell there is some magic, illusionary or hypnotic based. Norman tells an extremely funny joke about butterflies and casts hideous laughter. The butterfly starts shaking with laughter and falls to the ground as they laugh uncontrollably. Norman uses the power from his Mir tattoo and casts faithful hound to create a phantom watchdog, naming it Smoke. In the midst of the combat, Dariun and Zippy hear something flop into the dirt around them. Immediately, the ground becomes cold and iced over. Smoke looks over in a direction, towards Zippy and Apophis. Some more thuds hit the ground.

Apophis picks himself up from the hit and Zippy asks Apophis to throw him at the dung beetle. Apophis doesn't need to hear anything else about the plan as he throws Zippy towards the dung beetle. Zippy flies through the air and he grabs onto the eyes to cover them and sits on top. Zippy casts hallucinatory terrain and creates a scenario making them seem like there are surrounded by poop and frozen zombies so the beetle won't become suspicious of the sudden cold. The dung beetle see a paradise of poo then, from their side, they see the zombies. The beetle starts to charge the zombies which, in the real world, hits Apophis sending him flying.

Dariun casts haste on himself and attempts for a second time to disarm the stinger and this time gets it, removing the stinger. Dariun triggers planar warrior and punches the now completely unarmed bee in the gut. The bee goes sliding back and falls prone, holding their stomach. The bee gets up and a blue flower just under their left armpit starts to grow.

Norman looks over to Zippy and Apophis and casts vicious mockery on the dung beetle. They are insulted and in pain as the crazy situation just keeps piling on them. The butterfly keeps laughing as the wings start to ripple and smaller, butterflies fly out from their wings and it swarms above them. Smoke smells something and starts to bark and lunges out to someone behind Norman as it bites into someone's leg. The chameleon shows itself, now holding their leg and trying to shake the dog loose. A bag appears near Zippy and Apophis which have snowflakes coming out.

The chameleon calls out and asks Norman to get his dog off him and tells Norman he needs to kill Apophis. Norman tells the chameleon that his friend has taken a liking to Apophis so that won't be happening without an explanation. Zippy is still riding on the dung beetle and notices Apophis starting to be affected by the cold sweeping through. Zippy whispers in the beetles ear to start rolling up a dung ball and it lets go of the ball and chain, causing it to go flying in the air. The beetle starts rolling the sand and dirt it thinks is dung, collecting the freezing bag on track to Apophis. It keeps going, Apophis is shivering on the ground and gets sucked up in the ball as he looks to Zippy for help.

The bee is concentrating and a shadow over heard starts to grow, Dariun looks up to see the ball and chain falling down on him and the bee. Dariun steps back but the ball lands on the bee and they fall onto their back. They keep focus, the blue flower growing larger. Dariun runs over hits the bee, right hook, left hook and a slam down, decapitating the bee. Dracken is stoked and tells Dariun to try the honey and he does. Dariun holds the bee up and yells out to the crowd in victory.

The chameleon remains behind Norman while the butterfly is still laughing. Smoke keeps attacking the chameleon, almost tearing off his leg. Norman commands Smoke to back off but it does not listen. He looks back to the butterfly and casts darkness where the swarm of butterflies are. He sees beams of light were bouncing off the wings of the butterflies but the light goes out when the darkness encircles the small butterflies. The butterfly person stands up, no longer laughing, looking around at the area. They pull out their book and teleport away.

Zippy is still on top of the dung beetle and pulls out his two daggers, the doorknob and a ring and ties them all together with rope. He casts heat metal of the contraption and throws it in front of the ball so it heats up the ball in the hope to warm Apophis up enough for him to break out. The dung beetle starts moving faster and the ball gets bigger and comes to Dariun. He jumps to the side, diving through the air and his legs get caught and he is put in the ball.

Dariun casts planar warrior and attacks the ball, slamming into the sand and he breaks it open, landing on the ground. The ball has been broken and Dariun can see Apophis still trapped inside. Norman glances around and cannot see the butterfly anymore. Norman commands Smoke again to stop attacking and it listens. The chameleon tries to go invisible again but can't seem to do so and Norman commands smoke to kill him if he does manage to disappear.

Norman runs to the dung ball and grabs Apophis and casts dimension door. They both go through and exit the ball. Zippy jumps off the beetle and he and Dariun book it over to Apophis. Dariun uses cure wounds on Apophis and some color comes back to him but he is still cold and sleepy. Norman recalls an item he received from the void chest in Valentine's shop, a small chest that will keep you warm as long as you are not wearing pants. Knowing Apophis is a Yuan-ti with no legs therefore no pants, tucks it under his armpit. Apophis starts to warm up.

The look around and still see many bug people flying around and some ant people come down into the ring. Zippy suggests they head to the castle to find Randy's fire. Norman suggests they take the chameleon and asks them why they don't want to be around Apophis while using his amulet to casts detect thoughts. The surface level thoughts are about his leg and how much he hates Apophis. Norman picks up the chameleon while Dariun carries Apophis.

They decide on another plan and Norman dumps the chameleon. Zippy casts jump on Dariun and Norman to get up the walls of the coliseum while Zippy uses his magic carpet with the chameleon to get to royal seating area. The dung beetle sees them jumping and turns and rolls towards them. Dariun holds Apophis and drops to the ground when he lands as haste drops and he is fatigued. Norman only is just able to grasp to the edge and hangs off the ledge. When they get up, they don't see the body of king Veal. They do however, see a door at the back of the seating area.

Zippy gets his carpet to restrain the chameleon before helping Norman up but sees the dung beetle hit the wall and the ball starts to lift. The beetle moves the ball up the wall towards them. Zippy hastily pulls Norman up and he tells them to get running. Norman casts darkness on them and Zippy drags the chameleon, still bundled up, on his back. Norman leads the pack with Zippy behind and Dariun carries Apophis at the back.

They get through the door and there is a long, narrow bridge leading from the coliseum to the ancient castle. They run and see citizens fighting bug people on the ground. They hear the wall of the coliseum explodes as a sand ball come chasing behind them. Dariun casts zephyr's strike to speed up and manages to run in front to lead the pack. Zippy trusts in his rabbit feet but it catches up to him and he and the chameleon are sucked into the ball. Norman keeps running, trying to stay out of the ball but can't quite make it and is sucked up. Dariun keeps up pace and sees the emrald entrance to the castle and he dives in. He goes sliding on the emerald, snake floors. The ball slams into the door and stops.

Apophis flops off his back and wakes up and is confused who Dariun is and asks where the lil' dude went. Dariun explains  what just happened. Dariun goes over to the solid sand and dirt ball. Dariun hears a clicking sound and walking towards the throne room is a large tarantula hawk with a blue flower tattoo on their back. It turns and looks towards them, Apophis remembers them and recalls they killed King Veal. Apophis slams his fists together and asks Dariun to get lil' dude out of there as he handles the tarantula hawk. Apophis charges and the tarantula hawk gets ready for a fight.

## **Quotations**

* Jacob "*When you work around the system you can get the bosses to fight for you!*"

* Norman "*Why do butterflies hate to vote, it's because they've always preferred a monarchy!*"

* Seth "*Next up is uuhh zipophis… or apophippy?*"

## **Featured Characters**

### **Main Cast**

* Norman D
* Dariun Branch
* Zippy Westborrough

### **Returning Characters**

* Dracken
* Chameleon

## **Locations**

* Tikul
* Tournament of Genala Coliseum
* Tikul Castle