200: Abby, We Hear Your Face!

## Summary

Raphina has an encounter with a centipede that turns out to be Bernard in hiding, Gwen gets advice from her patron Moondreamer and the party spot another group of puzzlers who may have found a clue to the solution of their last puzzle.

## Synopsis

The waiter blusters into the fog and Will *prestidigitates* a fire smell to try and get the waiter to go out again. Instead though he drops the food he was carrying and starts running around the room looking for the fire. Raphina is dismayed by the sight of the wasted food, especially because it was going to be Will's first proper meal in days.

Out of the corner of his eye, Will notices a centipede is pushing the pen towards him. Will recognises it; it's very similar to the centipede that they saw on the Airship Goodberry and behind a rock on the way to Chilchirah's Lair. Kowl pounces on it and Dew intercepts to try and scoop it up in a glass, but the centipede escapes off the table. Raphina gathers some of the food off the floor and shouts at the waiter to leave and he is intimidated enough to do as he's told. They don't know if the centipede is still in the room, but Raphina casts *Speak with Animals* and pleads with it: *"Hey centipede, where are you? I'm going to protect you from the guy who's saying ridiculous things, but can you please come out of wherever you centipede'd off to? And I will make sure you don't get stepped on."*

Raphina's crawling under the table to look for it and feels a tickle on the back of her hand and the centipede is there, having crawled up onto her hand. The centipede speaks to Raphina *"I can only stay for a short time. But can I tell you a secret?" You can't tell Will.""* Raphina says *"Wow. How do you know who he is?"* *"I'm Bernard"* Raphina is stunned and asks why she can't tell Will. Bernard says *"What's keeping me here is very tenuous. It has to do with what's in him and what he believes. He can't know. I can only stay near for so long, but that's what's happening."* *"Do you need some help?"* Raphina asks. *"Will needs help. Help him and Batthwack. They're having problems"* says Bernard. Raphina asks about their crazy situation (depraved gods set loose, etc), but Bernard says "I don't know. I know very little. I'm sort of here and I'm not here. It's confusing, but I'm still tied to Will somehow, but it's very weak."

Batthwack collects the pen and paper puts them back in his pack. The centipede scurries along past Raphina and heads into a crack under the baseboard. Raphina concocts a story for the rest of the group, telling them it was a lovesick centipede who wanted them to write him a love letter, but she talked him out of it because the person he was in love with was too manipulative. Gwen apologises for getting involved in Will and Batthwack's argument and Batthwack says it was no problem, she was totally in line. Gwen excuses herself and says she is going to the ladies' room. On the way out, she puts a hand on Batthwack's shoulder and says in draconic *"Our pasts sound like they have some parallels and I don't know what you went through, but I really can sympathise. Some of the people among you seem to have a skewed sense of what's good. Just know that if you need me, I have your back."* Batthwack says he's sorry that Gwen might have experienced something similar. Will is actually able to understand some of this (after what happened in the Lizardfolk lair) and he catches bits and pieces of it. He hears Gwen say *"The past sound like, and I can be who you are. Some of the people you are with are slanted."* Batthwack: *"Glad to hear. Sorry about your past. I respect that.""* Gwen: *""I have your back.""*

Gwen goes to the ladies' room with Kowl and speaks to her. Gwen asks her for advice because she's not sure if she's doing the right thing, hanging around with this group. Kowl reminds her that the book in Dew's possession is important to her, she's been studying its symbols for a long time. Gwen asks Kowl to ask Moondreamer. *"They'll let me know what I should do."* Kowl's blue and yellow eyes change to rainbows and her voice changes as she channels Moondreamer. Gwen voices her concerns about the party and whether she's getting in with the wrong people. Moondreamer councils Gwen saying that all things happen for a reason and that even those without pure intentions can bring purity and do good. Gwen isn't fully satisfied by Moondreamer reassures her by saying *"These ones you found, these are agents of good. All of them. They are here in Six Rivers to bring about change. All of them."*

While Gwen is gone, the waiter comes back into the room and makes excuses for them to leave. Will doesn't believe a word of it but complies and goes to leave and everyone follows. Gwen meets them outside the restaurant. Will is still disguised as Leonard and doesn't want to look suspicious hanging around with the rest of the group so starts to head off in the direction of Celestial Confections (their current plan was to wait there for Ricardo to find them, instead of going to the Lichen Cave)

At this moment, Dew and Gwen notice something slightly out of the ordinary down the street to the south. They see a group of three people who are huddled together looking up to the west. Then they spin around and look to the east. One of them pulls out what looks like a spyglass and they whip around, looking left and then right. They look left again and pass the spyglass around amongst them looking very excited. Finally they huddle together again and then rush off down the street to the south. Gwen tells the rest of the group that she thinks this other group just solved the puzzle and they should go over and look where they were looking. Will, realising that no-one is following him ducks into another alleyway and changes his appearance to that of a very typical Cliffsider woman . He then makes his way back towards the party, but keeping his distance. Steed, who had been tasked with keeping tabs on Will, did not notice this.

The party go to where there group they witnessed were standing and try to see what they might have seen. They mimic what they saw them doing, i.e. looking left and right, but they can't see anything green or purple. The two Paper Mill smokestacks that they're now positioned between are the most obvious landmarks visible from here. The party wonders if they need to be able to see the smokestacks close up because the other group were using a spyglass and they suggest Will fly up closer to have a look. The question is, does Will seem like the kind of guy who would do something you ask him to? Even if you say please?

## Quotes

* *"Our pasts sound like they have some parallels and I don't know what you went through, but I really can sympathise. Some of the people among you seem to have a skewed sense of what's good. Just know that if you need me, I have your back."* - Gwen (to Batthwack)

## Trivia

* The episode title is a quote from Alex, messaging the rest of the players who were temporarily excluded from the game while Abby talked privately (and animatedly) to Eric. Though the conversation was private, they could still see her facial reactions on camera!

## Recap Song

Recap to the tune of *Paper Planes* by M.I.A.:

I fly like paper Ricardo threw a plane

Raphina catch me while the others run, how motherf\*\*\*ing lame

If you read the message, tell you go to the cave

Gwen tell you where it is, in a second if you wait

*x2*

Sometimes Will gets kicked out of bar

Every store I get to, the line’s too far

Everyone's a puzzler. We're almost done with that game

But the fourth brain teaser’s putting us to shame

*x2*

All I want to do is <crack> <crack> <crack> <crack> and <OpeningSepticTank.wav> and get rent money

*x4*

Post man's looking chubby

Will says he forgot his grubby

Searching turns out real lucky

Gerard’s address is in his cubby

*x2*

No one in the restaurant is in the room with us

Batthwack has some shit to discuss

When it comes to bubbly water Dew definitely mistrusts

Raphina uses fog to defuse all the fuss

*x2*

All I want to do is <crack> <crack> <crack> <crack> and <OpeningSepticTank.wav> and get rent money

*x4*

## References

1. ↑ 199: Will, You So Rarely Lie To Me
2. ↑ Listener, the last unsolved puzzle was: *"Look high and low, but mostly high. Add A + B with your eye to the green and purple sky."*
3. ↑ He's not wearing a jumpsuit though; Will has principles, listeners!
4. ↑ Listener, he's not really the kind of guy who would do something you asked him to, *especially* if you say please.