Episode 2 - In Loving Memory of HotBox

## Episode Synopsis

### Recap

Dariun, Norman and Zippy are outside Aurum, wanting to get in to join the Greeder's guild. They begin with a group of bandits lead by Berryl and plan to raid caravans travelling with nobles to find passes that will get them into Aurum without having to pay the fee. Their team including Blackjack, Yogurt and an odd, blood crazed Tiefling named Eelon, each managed to get their hands on a pass. They were betrayed by Berryl but were able to escape into the Golden Road Woods. The team were attacked by a green eyed ape and ran into some members of the Greeder's guild who were on the hunt for someone who had poisoned the king of Aurum.

### Episode Summary

Stretch, the Greeder who ran into the team, tells them all the help finding their culprit they can get would be good. Dariun, Norman, Zippy, Blackjack and Yogurt all decide to follow Stretch. Dariun and Blackjack jump on a horse and Yogurt gets on another horse after some arguing as to who would be on the horses. Zippy decides he can't get on Yogurt's horse due to Yogurt's massive ass which hits his self esteem pretty hard.

Dariun takes the lead to ensure they follow the right path and explains that they want to join the Greeder's guild. Stretch tells them about how the king of Aurum was poisoned and a note was left with the king saying: "*Felix, come to the Golden Road woods I'll be waiting* " and ended with the fact that who ever wrote the note had the cure. After they ask, Stretch explains Felix Pearson is the number 1 Greeder. Most of the Greeder's guild, including Felix, is off finding a grand treasure but the ones left over were tasked to find the cure for the poison.

Dariun finds some rough tracks to follow and they make their way through the forest. They come up to find a clearing of grass and see 5 other people wearing Greeder's Guild cloaks and see across from them are 2 apes with steel helmets standing in front of a coliseum. Stretch calls out to the people and the team introduces themselves. Seeing the two apes, Blackjack and Yogurt are not too keen to join the team in any fights but Zippy convinces them to help them with fighting and with his stern words.

Zodiac, a human Greeder, expressed is distrust against these new people despite Stretch vouching for them. Stretch suggests Bondo, an apeling, could check their minds to see if they were trustworthy or not. Zippy is more than happy to let this happen and Bondo sees the raid, doesn’t care, and is happy he is clear from being a suspect of the king's poisoning. Dariun and Norman on the other hand, are very against having their memories checked and try to convince them they do not need to check their memories. Despite this, Zippy tries to plead that the boys that they should have their minds read. Norman tries to summon mage hand to pull Zippy's tail to get him to be quiet but Zippy jumps and dodges. Zippy, in retaliation, casts hold person but Norman shakes it off and his teal tattoos shimmer. Dariun settles them and steps forward to have his surface memories checks. Norman also settles down and lets Bondo check his memories. Bondo states that checking Norman's mind was a little different, he shakes off the comment.

Dariun calls for a team huddle with him, Norman and Zippy. The three huddle for a second and Dariun asks that the other two stop fighting or casting harmful spells on each other. Norman apologises and opens up that he grew up on an island under master Matsumora. When he did something Matsumora didn’t like he would hold person on him, hence the reason he felt he could shake of Zippy's spell. Zippy also opens up, telling them again how he is from the Bramble Patch and he wanted to make something of himself in Aurum. Before they leave, Zippy wanted to do the bramble seal of friendship with Norman which went:

Zippy: "*Bramble bramble it's the patch,*"

Norman: "*Bramble bramble it's the patch,*"

Zippy: "*Here we go friends forever,*"

Norman: "*Here we go friends forever,*"

Zippy: "*Zippy that’s me,*"

Norman: "*Norman that’s me,*"

Zippy: "*Together, we make a team!*"

Norman: "*Together, we make a team!*"

Zippy and Norman: "*Yay team 8!*"

Dariun: "*Yay... team 8.*"

By the time they finished the pact, Bondo had checked Blackjack and Yogurt's memories. Zippy laughs as he tells Dariun that the pact was all made up and he found it funny. Meanwhile, Norman feels like he's made great progress with his friendship with Zippy. The other three Greeders are introduced to the team as Mr frosty, a giant green orc man, Hotbox, a gnome who only speaks his own name and Mooch, the other human they had seen the night before. They look back to the apes and Norman recalls some information about the green eyes of the apes and how he had heard of an amulet that could control beasts.

The plan was to go pass the apes cautiously but Hotbox runs towards the apes but as soon as he gets between them, the apes smash their fists crushing Hotbox. Zodiac is distraught but Zippy suggests trying again the same way as Hotbox however, suggested using pass without a trace. Norman suggests using ranged weapons instead to kill the apes easily with lower risk. Zippy tells them about the Greenhairs family, that didn’t have green hair, but somehow was relevant to the pass without a trace spell. They decide to flip a coin and Norman's plan wins against Zippys.

Mooch states he has a great shot so he, Dariun and Norman use their ranged weapons on the apes. Mooch, despite talking himself up completely misses multiple times but Norman and Dariun hit all their shots. When they are hit, Zippy can hear the apes say to themselves "*only let Felix in*". Norman wins 40 gold with a bet against Mooch, who despite his many claimed bullseyes from the day before, did not hit a single target. The two apes are killed, opening up the mausoleum entrance and they all follow in. Before they do, Norman and Zippy investigate the mangled body of Hotbox and he takes a broken glass pocket bong and Zipppy wears the Greeder's cloak Hotbox once wore.

They catch up with the rest of them but Zodiac notices Zippy is wearing the cloak of his deceased best friend and attacks Zippy. Dariun steps in-between them and Stretch suggest Zodiac leaves with Mooch. When Dariun asks if Zippy had to wear the cloak Zippy tells them about the Bramble Patches waste not, what not attitude and tell them about how they even eat their dead.

Dariun leads the way down a stair case and Zippy picks up a hat of the drunkard. Continuing down they see a feint green glow and eventually find one chimp with a bowtie, slicked back hair and a clipboard. He welcomes Felix and tells the group he is there to guide Felix through. When the room splits, Norma, Dariun, Zippy, Blackjack and Yogurt follow the chimp and the remaining 2 Greeders investigate the other path. Norman passes off as Felix which the ape does not question.

They come up to a door to enter a large room and see a large see-saw with a key hanging from a bit of a string hovering 50 ft over one of the sides. The ape says Felix needs to play just like he and the Master used to and get the key to move on to the next challenge. They try to devise a plan to get the key by weighing one side down and Norman go up to get the key. Norman uses his mage hand to grab the key and they complete the puzzle. They go through a locked door which brings them to a trial of combat. They enter into a clearing and see a giant dead tree ent, around is a coliseum with thousands of chimps in the stands cheering chanting for Felix. The ape announces the trial of combat and the crowd goes wild.

## Quotations

* Zippy: "*This is what they call pulling the carrot from the root! And I'm about to tell if it's rotten or not!*"
* Hotbox: "*HOTBOX HOTBOX*"
* Zippy: "*As soon as any of our kin die… we eat their bodies right away!*"

## Featured Characters

### Main Cast

* Dariun Branch
* Norman D
* Zippy Westborrough

### Returning Characters

* Stretch
* Blackjack
* Yogurt

### New Characters

* Felix Pearson (mentioned)
* Zodiac
* Bondo
* Mr frosty
* Hotbox
* Mooch
* Clipboard chimp

## Locations

* Golden Road Woods
* Coliseum