Episode 8 - Whole 'Nother Level

## **Episode Synopsis**

### **Recap**

Dariun and Zippy, now accompanied by the goblin Peterson, explore Lundy and Dariun detects a portal within the town. The team decide to explore the portal where they interact with some cat cultists before they enter a wide basement where they look over a balcony where they see a 40 foot drop and a large pink being. After interacting with the pink goo, it tries to trick Zippy who resists and uses control water to bend the pink goo and eventually get some of it into his bottomless bucket. Zippy then uses his control water to create a trench in the pink goo where they saw some cat cultists and treasure. Peterson went down on the flying carpet to collect some treasure where he only have 15 minutes to grab all he could before Zippy's spell runs out.

### **Episode Summary**

Peterson is diving down into the trench on Zippy's magic carpet and lands in an open cave area with pink walls sounding him. He sees cabins, hammocks, treasures and tabaxi cultists, two of which stand in front of him holding daggers. Peterson pulls his mask down and casts burning hands killing one of the cultist but the other is singed from the fire. Peterson uses primal savagery on the remaining cultist killing them too. Zippy and Dariun are watching from above and Dariun asks what is down there to which Peterson explains there is a lot of treasure and he will need some help carrying it up. Dariun decides to leap into the pit and he uses Fey step to teleport onto the ground safely. He runs to Peterson and casts pass without a trace to hide from the cat cultists in the area.

Zippy and Yogurt look into the trench contemplating if they're okay. As they look down, Zippy hears a voice in his head again saying Zippy scooped some of 'him' up in the bucket. The voice says Zippy is very interesting and he's bringing some enjoyment to the voice's boring life. The voice asks Zippy to a bet, using the voice of Zippy's mother and Donny Quacker. Zippy agrees to the bet only if the voice stops using the voices of people he knows. The voice in his head asks to bet on Dariun and Peterson and Zippy agrees immediately. Zippy is happy to bet with Dariun and Peterson's lives in exchange, Zippy wants the voice to inform them where Felix is and to give them treasure. The voice asks Dariun and Peterson to assassinate an orc barbarian in the time Zippy has left of his spell and if they can do that, they will get the information and the treasure. Zippy also asks that Dariun's sword be taken away as it will make the bet too easy. The voice instructs Zippy to release his spell that his holding the pink floor open and if they can complete his challenge, the voice will spit out his friends. Zippy is given a mirror so he can see Dariun and Peterson in the pit.

Dariun and Peterson are shovelling treasure into Dariun's bag of holding as they look up to see the pink trench close. The pink floor beneath them starts opening up and they fall through into a pit. It smooths out and they start to slide ending up in a town with a watchtower, cobblestone houses and people of various races walking around. The pink slime starts forming into a pedestal in front of Dariun and Peterson which indents to create a sentence saying '*10 minutes, kill the orc*'. Dariun and Peterson look up to see a young orc holding some books and wearing nerdy glasses running house to house. Dariun asks Zippy if this orc boy is the one they need to kill via the rocky walkies and after consulting with the voice, Zippy reckons it is the orc and they should kill him or they will die. As they are deciding, they see some cat cultist making their way in looking for the intruders.

Peterson decides they have no choice so he creates a fireball in his hand and shoots it at the orc boy. The smoke dissipates and they see a shield of pink protecting the orc boy and Zippy hears the voice in his head laugh. Above Peterson and Dariun, a large orc drops, yelling about his poor boy who Peterson just tried to kill. Dariun activates his bubble cloak as the barbarian rages and pounces at Dariun and Peterson, clotheslining both of them. The floor beneath all three of them opens and the land in a boxing ring made of the same pink stuff. A pink sign appears with the words '*Round One*' indented on it. As they wait there for a moment, the pink slime tries to grab Dariun's sword but he is able to get away and keep his switch sword.

The voice asks Zippy how he can distract Dariun to grab his sword but Zippy doesn't really have much to go off. The voice says he'll have a look in his memories and in front of Dariun appears a pink, fleshy version of Caspin, Dariun's father. The pink Caspin tries to grab at Dariun's sword but he is again able to get away. The voice gives up on trying to take Dariun's sword and instead gives the orc a great club. There is a timer counting down and a bunch of the townsfolk appear around the ring to watch but they are all very confused as to why they are there. Peterson gets a hit on the orc using inflict wounds and Dariun activates the steam gem but misses two hits at the orc. The orc hits Peterson with his great club, throwing him into a pink wall that shoots him back into the ring. Peterson casts fire ball on the orc, exploding and dealing heavy damage. Dariun goes again with his buster sword and gets two hits on the orc, slashing and cutting him deeply. The orc looks at Dariun and Peterson begging them not to kill him but Dariun has no mercy and hits the orc with two swings of his sword. They look and see the timer that is now reaching zero, Dariun and Peterson feel a rumble.

Yogurt and Zippy are watching and are wondering if they killed the orc. The orc is flipped on his back and he coughs and calls out for his son. The voice in Zippy's head isn't so sure that they completed to challenge. Peterson doesn't know if they've done it so as a precaution, he grabs Dariun and uses dimension door to get out of there. They appear in the air between the balcony and the pink stuff. Zippy sees them so he uses control water, parting the pink floor again causing them to land back on the treasure floor. As they discuss if they cheated, the voice shows that the orc bled out and died but isn't sure if it counts. The voice reckons they should let the orc boy decide who wins. Zippy and the pink stuff will speak to the orc boy and his decision will decide who won this challenge. The orc boy is also given a mirror so Zippy can talk to him.

Zippy speaks to the boy telling him he is the god of Zippy land. He explains that the pink stuff has kidnapped and trapped him underground. The pink stuff also told them they had to kill a big ogre and they didn't have a choice. The fireball shot at him was not meant to do any harm. Zippy says to the orc boy that one day he may be able to free him and give him all the ice-cream sandwiches he wants if the orc boy allows Peterson and Dariun, aka the mean men, leave. The pink slime now wants him turn so he cuts Zippy off. The slime can't speak to the boy so it creates another pink pedestal and makes writing on it. The slime reads '*hey what's up Howler, it's your god Level here*' and goes on to say he had a bet with some guys to kill possibly his dad and considering the 'bad men' tried to kill him, Howler should allow Level to kill the mean guys. Meanwhile, Dariun is still shovelling gold in his bag of holding and Peterson is looking at the huts and picks up a notebook.

After Level brings his case forwards, Howler thinks about if he should go for the bunny man with lots of ice-cream sandwiches or go for sweet revenge. Howler decides to go for Zippy Land. Level admits defeat and he leads Peterson and Dariun out of the trench on a large pink platform that goes up to the pink floor. The trench is closed and the giant eye looks at Peterson and Dariun. All around them, the pink stuff starts to create holes and all of a sudden, treasure and loot shoot out and fall. Zippy hears Level say their goodbyes and the pink ground disappears and turns to dirt creating a dirt cloud. Dariun senses the portal closes as the dust cloud begins the settle along with the gold and treasure. Zippy jumps off the ledge to get down to where Peterson and Dariun are with the treasure. Peterson attempts to catch Zippy but isn't strong enough to get him so Zippy lands face first in the floor that is now dirt. They see many items around them and they picked up:

* 5 white quartz
* 2 potions of healing
* 3 vials of holy water
* 4 bolts of linen cloth
* 4 flasks of alchemist fire
* A bound script for a tragic play
* Set of thieves tools
* Felt tapestry,
* An onyx circlet
* 3 pounds of exotic spices
* 10 bottles of common wine
* A polished large wooden bracelet
* A glass mug
* A flute
* 5 blue quartz
* 3 arcane scrolls one of protection, another of see invisibility and one of eagles splendor
* A potion of bark skin
* Dust of tracelessness
* A robe of scintillating colours
* A tiny ring with a red eye in it
* A golden mask
* A children's story book
* A random foot ointment
* A half eaten ice-cream sandwich
* A bestiary of common local creatures of the free planes
* A long sword with some white lining suggesting white steel from Pokarok
* A girdle
* A goblet
* A full set of cutlery
* A blender dagger
* An amulet form the cat cultists
* Some quills and ink
* A total 7080 gold

Among all the treasure, at the bottom is a book with the name 'Felix' on it. Zippy takes the book and opens it up and the first page reads, '*To Zippy, from your pal, Level*' and is written in pink ink. The first and only chapter says:

*Felix is a human, 5 foot 10 very average looking with permanent bed head, brown hair and pretty hazel eyes. Looking at it from a distance, he looks like an average guy. He's slightly overweight but he is no less of a legend because of it. Felix was anonymous until the age of 19, when he killed a beast of creation, named Cricket, on his own. After slaying the beast of creation, all of the god’s eyes turned to Felix but nobody could touch him because he has this gold coin. This one gold coin that he is constantly flipping and tossing. This gold coin is a grand treasure from none other than Aurum’s grand treasure. Originally it was Monty who owned the coin. He was a rogue kenku and who was part of the original greeder team that went to the first grand treasure. While everyone was looking at the giant pile of gold, only Monty realised that this wasn't the actual grand treasure. Within the pile of gold, there was one coin that special and this gold coin not even I, Level, know what it does but it seems to make everything Felix want, become reality. The guy is a legend and he seems to be just really driven and focused but Felix is kind of a ghost and no one has seen him for longer than a day. He's always on the move and he always has a goal. He has been inside me and he's the only one that I have not been able to takedown or make a deal with. He is a jerk in my opinion. He kind of just rushed into me but that was a long time ago, I'm still recovering emotionally. Felix is a legend, nobody knows how many grand treasures he has found or if he has actually found any at all. All we know is that he has the first grand treasures magic item and maybe that means that all the grand treasures have a magic item or something equally powerful in them but, nobody really knows. Felix may have these answers. Regardless of that, the way he became the number one greeder ever is because of his many treasure hunting feats such as looting the vaults of Arboreaor, swindling Belvade from his illustrious gems or finding the one of the kind toucan man and convincing him to take him to his family and then he got his tea set! This all is granted him create tonnes of titles such as the sun thief, the toucan man's son or simply, the number one greeder. I know you asked where he was and honestly I couldn't tell you however, I do know there is going to be a meeting where you might be able to run into him. It's not going to be for a while but the meeting won’t happen until the second moon shows itself and you'll never be able to see that from where you're currently standing on Ome. You're going to have to wait until both moons are up and you're going to have to go here on the map* (location of map is shown in the book pointing to the bottom left near the White Wall where there are four small islands)*. This is where the top ten greeders are all going to come together to open a grand treasure, together. Felix is invited but who knows if he will show up or not. Regardless, all the other top ten graders are going to be making their way there when the two moons are shining. Anyways, hope that helps and by the way Zippy, round two?* (The book gives them a name of the Museum of audio)*.*

After reading through it, Zippy closes up the book and joins his friends. He explains most of what is in the book and that they may not find Felix in Manasnow but they should go there. He also explains the meeting for the top 10 greeders when the two moons are shinning but they all do not know when this will be. They discuss if it is worth trying to figure out how they can get to this meeting and they may be able to connect with Odin and Kendula to get some sort of reference to get in. They may benefit from seeing a grand treasure being opened but Zippy and Dariun can't conclude on a way to get in safely. Peterson pipes in and suggests that the second grand treasure may be like the first grand treasure and could have something in there that is a powerful item or book that no one has found. Zippy latches onto that idea and reckons they should check out Manasnow to find some traces of magic from Felix's coin and they may be able to use that same magical energy signature to find a similar item in the second grand treasure.

They land on their decision and exit of the cultists lair. They make their way through the town and notice some very depressed Tabaxi's who didn’t get any tang. They get back on the airship and set it up to get ready to head to Manasnow.

## **Quotations**

* Zippy "*I believe in my friends, they can do anything! As long as I'm up here, believing in them and they believe in me I think we got this!*"
* Dariun "*I kinda want to forge our own path, I think we've got the luck and the knowhow that we can figure it out.*"
* Yogurt "*I have seniority, I'm the Norman technically!*"

## **Featured Characters**

### **Main Cast**

* Dariun Branch
* Zippy Westborrough
* Peterson

### **Returning Characters**

* Yogurt
* Dracken
* James
* Pepper

### **New Characters**

* Orc boy/Howler
* Orc Barbarian
* Level/Pink Slime

## **Locations**

* Cultists Lair
* Level
* Lundy
* The Sparrow