Episode 20

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## Plot Summary

Bubo wakes up the next morning to find Nitsuj gone.  He, Ora, and Starheart find chests full of 600g; payment from Hush for killing Snips Cutlass.  Most of the citizens have been moved to the dungeon level.  The military and Klaxxon’s clockwork weapons are everywhere.  The Main Gate is being welded shut and the defense is focused on the Live Gate.  Kab is also stationed there.

In the crowd, Ora spots a homunculus.    She and the others follow it around the Residential level until it leads them to a run down, abandoned smokehouse.  Starheart enters the building and is restrained by a crap ton of homunculi.  She tries to make friends with them, and they loosen their teeth, but do not let go.  Ora shouts into the room that they knew a man in Raufel who made homunculi: Jerrot Valmir.  Something clatters but not one responds.  Starheart sees papers and clatters on the steps, as if a bunch of stuff was moved quickly and recently down them.  She also sees light coming from downstairs.

Ora comes inside while Bubo waits outside.  The homunculi try to attack her but she fights them off.  Starheart throws herself down the stairs and the homunculi panic and keep her aloft until she gently lands at the bottom.  There she sees Jerrot Valmir holding a giant book.  Ora and Bubo follow.    Jerrot is annoyed by their presence.  Starheart asks how Governor Urit Syle is and Jerrot explains that he was killed by an assassin three days ago.

Jerrot has come to Copperforge to lend his hand with healing.  Raufel is in disarray and if Copperforge falls there is nothing stopping the orcs from taking it.  He suspects the Queen might have had a hand in it because of the loan.  The entire mansion burned down, killing some orphans.  Arden Barlow is trying to maintain order, but is not as well respected.  He asks them to track down the records of the mercenary’s guild to see who hired the assassin.  He also asks them to find him more of his silver healing liquid, if they can.  He’s expecting a new shipment from his home nation of Quarry.  He sends a homunculus with them.

Starheart boasts about how sneaky she is, so Bubo suggests she sneak into the mercenary’s guild and steal the records.  Ora gives Starheart her hat of disguise, which Starheart uses to change into the Queen.  Ora grabs the hat back and Starheart tries again.  This time she is a very small rugged gnome with a limp.

They swing by the assassin’s guild.  Hush is waiting for them.  Hush suspects that Vor carried out the assassination of Syle at the behest of Snips.  Ora gives him the scroll with the location on the Sahlite’s arm.  He wants them to stop interfering in his mission to find the arm because he wants to protect them, but Starheart insists.  Hush admits that he likes them all.  Hush has to try to take control of the mercenary’s guild to keep the peace.  He also tasks them to find Vor.  They drink the wine that Hush had for them before they leave.

They head to the mercenary’s guild to find proof of who murdered Urit Syle.  Starheart kinda freaks out but the others force her to sneak inside.  She changes her disguise to be a very short 40 year old human with a big beard and some scars.  It looks like a very fancy bank.  Business is good.  Bubo and Ora walk in and cause a distraction by arguing about whether Ora can hit a high note, which she does using thaumaturge.  Bubo casts a fog cloud.  Everyone looks at them strangely.  Starheart walks unnoticed into the back room.  She looks through the recent records and does not find anything about the assassination.

Meanwhile, Ora and Bubo continue their ruse, making everyone believe the fog is fainting gas.  Some of the customers flee and a gnome brings Ora a fainting couch.  Ora pretends to faint on top of the gnome.  Starheart discovers a secret trap door under the carpet with a single book inside.  As she walks out, the guard notices her, but she is able to bribe him with 25g that she “owed” to Snips.  She tries to leave but Bubo calls her over to get water for Ora and a chiropractor for the gnome she fell on.  Starheart leaves as the gnome and Bubo carry Ora outside.

As they exit the building, explosions rock the city on every level.  Nearby, the miner’s guild is completely destroyed.  Pieces of the disc above begin falling down onto the lower levels.  Starheart rushes into the debris and finds everyone dead.  There are members of the Flintborne family present, but none she recognizes.  Ora sees that the disc above is still intact, but she knows that if the discs stop spinning it can overload the mountain.  She also sees that the bomb was rudimentary.

A guard runs up and asks if they know anything.  He just came from the Central level where 50 people are dead and many of Klaxxon’s machines have been destroyed.  Kab has been injured.  The Bowl was destroyed and some of the welders at the main gate have been hurt.  Ora sends out a message to the whole mountain letting everyone know that there was an attack from inside the mountain and to find who did this.

Starheart goes to check on her family.  She asks them about silverblood ore.  Silversheen goes to fetch some they have in the house.  Pyrus asks about the explosions and when Starheart tells him, Pyrus hurriedly arms himself.  He gives her armor made for her and tells her that she is one of them and that they will defend their mountain.

Ora and Bubo follow the guard to the Residential level.  The Tequila Mockingbird is still standing.  Bubo checks on Houn who is safe.  This bomb was placed in the middle of the market.  There are many injured.  As Ora tries to help, she is stabbed in the back.  The guard who led them there turns into a doppelganger (character drop).  It pulls a piece of itself out and it forms into a five-armed monster (monster drop).  Ora uses thaumaturge to shout “For Meno!”  Battle ensues and Bubo is taken out by the monster.

Minnow, Lynch and the Forgotten arrive via cables from the upper levels, as do the Flintbornes and the vampires.  Ora heals Bubo with a potion.  Minnow and Lynch attack the monster, taking off some of its limbs.  Pyrus, Silversheen, and Starheart arrive.  Bubo goes down again from the monster’s attacks.  Lynch is able to destroy the monster.  Bubo is able to finish off the doppelganger by shooting it in the area his dick would be.

## Fun Moments

Andrew is accidentally level 8 while everyone else in level 7.

Ryan calls the assassin’s guild payment hush money and they almost cancel the stream.

Danny cracks his neck and for a second they think he died.

Andrew’s description of his kill of the doppelganger is an arrow shot to the dick, but since he doesn’t have one, he shoots an arrow to where his dick would be.  The arrow creates a sort of dick that Bubo then breaks off and stabs him with, telling him that he’s been shafted.