Episode 25 - Norman C

## Episode Synopsis

### Recap

The team was in Smiles' workshop where Zippy came back to the land of the living. Norman managed to modify Smiles' memory and swipe the beyond crystal. Smiles went berserk and they discovered the mask on his face was it's own being that was tethered to Sidgewick, the god of the quiz. They were interested in the dachshund Norman had but had no malice towards them. The team went back to the Sparrow and they reunited. Alexandre departed the team and went to check on his father as the team hatched a plan to get the piano key. Randy was designated the coordinator, James the driver, Bradley and Apophis as distractions and Robin as the lookout in the heist. They chose to get in with the pyre pitch team then take the mysterious yet most likely discreet route into the castle.

### Episode Summary

Dariun turns to Zippy and Norman, saying he wants to make sure he is at the top of his game before they go into the mission. He asks them both to join him to go to the workshop to get his eyes implanted and after a little discussion, they all agree to go. The team see a festival starting up for the pyre pitch team as they head to Wonder Works. Apophis, Bradley and Randy head into the festival as the others head to the surgery.

They are greeted by Gespatcho, who welcomes Patricia and his friends to the workshop. They walk through and they see the wall of dolls and the spinning cog wheel. They head into Grim's workshop and he and his apron excitedly tells him the eyes are ready. Dariun gets the tinder soul and the vial of Mir's blood for Grim and Zippy proudly tells him he is almost a doctor himself. Dariun breaks a sweat as Grim and Zippy start talking about the procedure and how Zippy will be an assistant. Norman gives Dariun's hand a squeeze of assurance.

Grim asks if Dariun has any preference and he tells him the tinder soul will be the right socket and the Mir's blood for the left. Dariun asks for only Grim will help, a request ignored by Zippy. Grim asks Dariun to take off his shirt and he declines but Zippy rips it off him. Grim smears varnish on Dariun's chest and the room starts to spin. Against his better judgement, Dariun allows himself to pass out. Dariun appears in the black space with the dream tree. Dariun's body is slumped in front of Norman and they all help to get him down on the table. Zippy asks if they can write on the eyes and Grim doesn't see a problem with it. They write on the Mir's eye '*Dear Dariun, I always preferred your bald ass head - Zippy Westborrough, ND*'. On the tinder soul eye they write '*Eye was here, so was Norman D and Zippy'*.

Norman keeps his fingers on his pulse and Grim gives Zippy a spoon to scoop the eyes out. Grim takes out the left eye and Zippy takes out the right eye. Zippy successfully takes out the eye however he hears a click. He looks at Grim who doesn't notice and decides not to mention it. The new eyes are inserted and Zippy lays his hands on Dariun's face and casts cure wounds. They look at their work, Grim's side looks much better than Zippy's but is an eye nonetheless. Grim puts his hand out to shake and both Zippy and Norman shake his hand.

They wake Dariun up and he feels a little pain. He sees blinding white light, the same as what he saw when he went blind. For a second he feels as if he is waking into a nightmare, seeing the moments in the prison before he went blind replay in his mind. Dariun shoots up and is covered in sweat. He has trouble finding his breath for a moment and Norman comes to him to try to calm him down. He tells Norman he hears Dracken's voice. Dariun looks at Norman with his own eyes but he notices only his right eye seems to have vision. The left one is not opening. Dariun frantically looks for a way to get it open and Grim says that it may be a fortunate accident as some intense magic power was coming from it. Grim tells him he will sew it shut and later today when they come back to get the wood harvested they can go from there. After the eye is sewn shut, Dariun wraps a cloth around it. Grim then blows a puff of soil in the tinder soul eye and his vision goes green for a moment. Zippy and Dariun notices a little green sprout grows out of the side of the eye.

The team leave the workshop and head to the festival. An announcer tells the crowd the Basement Broohahas will make their journey to the king. Dariun takes in the views with his own eye, seeing the festivities on the main island on Jadu. The team see the flags of the Basement Broohahas flying and people start fangirling as they see their wetsuits. They get escorted to the team who are not wearing wetsuits. They notice Robin who is talking to a tall, very colorfully dressed person. It seems Robin is catching up with who Norman recognizes is the Barron. The coach comes over and welcomes them to the team festivities. Two wizards, a blue bullywog and a kenku, with elaborate robes and large hats stand on a platform and quiet the crowd. Norman looks over and sees the Barron change into a skeleton person as they wave goodbye to Robin who rejoins the team. Norman asks who she was talking to and Robin tells him it was an old friend. Norman is surprised, asking if she knows the Barron and as Robin starts to tell him they go way back, she is cut off by the announcer.

The announcer points to the coach and Dariun who are ushered to come to the platform. The announcer asks for a round of applause and the crowd cheers. They ask how they got the team to win and Dariun sees the coach freeze with stage fright. Dariun takes the microphone, and tells them how they put together a great team with hard work and determination. The remaining team members, with Norman and Zippy, comes up to the platform. They head off, making their way onto the path to the wizard king's castle.

Zippy notices in the windows of the houses and in the sky are wizard guards with wands ready. He realises everyone is on high alert and he informs Norman and Dariun. They continue across a bridge then onto a cobblestone path. Randy tells then to wait until he gets Apophis and Bradley to cause a distraction before they slip off. As they are walking, the announcer tells them there are a few rules for the castle but he stops and sees Letisha coming towards them. She carries a large chain in her fist and they see bullywog goes over to Letisha. The team know this may be a good time to leave. Dariun shoots Randy a quick look to gage his opinion and he shrugs. They decide this is as good of a time as any to leave and Dariun casts pass without a trace.

Norman, Dariun and Zippy slip away into the woods. Zippy takes a glance back and he sees behind Letisha, the chain continues and he sees a lot of different people in null stone hand cuffs and muzzles. Zippy doesn't recognise most but he sees the Lemasu chained up. He realises the druids were found. Zippy hesitates and Norman and Dariun usher him to get going. Dariun tells him there is nothing they can do right now and Norman suggests they also will try to come back and help. Zippy asks them to promise that they will try and they both do. The team continue to make their way through and come to a clearing with a pond.

When they observe the pond, some ripples appear on the surface then two wizard guards exit, talking about finding the crystal. Dariun takes the lead and looks into the water. He sees some sort of a cave below the surface. Dariun pulls out a swimming cap and snaps it on his head, giving him ability to breath underwater. Dariun cleanly dives into the pond, swimming down into the narrow cave. He comes to a stone door and sees a circular plate on the ground and on the roof. Dariun swims back to Zippy and Norman and tells then about his recon.

As they discuss, they hear someone coming back to the bond, saying they forgot something in the cave. They hide in the bushes to observe. The bullywogs descends down and Dariun pokes his head under to see what they are doing at the door. He sees them pushing the plates at the same time and the door opens. Four different pipes coloured red, green, blue and black pipes appear and the bullywogs turn the black and blue pipes. The doorway opens up and Dariun feels a rush of cold water.

Dariun returns again, reiterating what he saw. They discuss their plans and Zippy polymorphs Norman into a dire seahorse before changing himself into a reef shark. Dariun follows them in and Norman offers him a ride. They ride down the tunnel and Dariun pushes the top plate and Zippy pushes the bottom one. The cogs come out and Dariun spins  the black and blue pipes and the door opens. They all feel the cold water as they swim through. They see some flames above at the surface of the water. The flames move like people are walking down. Dariun taps Norman and gestures up to take a look.

Dariun peers out of the water and sees a couple of guards looking through some crates, the same guards they followed in. The guards are complaining about the coldness as they discuss they need to keep Bubba cool. Dariun and Norman swim down and they decide to keep going through the water. They continue and the water gets colder so cold that they see ice chunks floating. Dariun hears Dracken's voice telling him to look up. Dariun looks up and he sees a blue floating shape above him. Dariun knows this is an arcane eye, despite knowing this is usually an invisible spell, he can see it. Dariun gestures to the others to quickly move to hide under an iceberg. Dariun tells them he can see an arcane eye above them. The eye floats by and Dariun feels a buzzing of his rockie walkie at his hip. Dariun hears Randy giving him an update, telling then there are arcance eyes everywhere.

The team continue on and come to a very large open water area. They hear footsteps of people on the path along the outside of the water. A set of stairs go up the dome ceiling to the top of the room. They see two more bullywogs walking down the stairs as they say they are ready to feed Bubba. The team hide behind another iceberg as the guards continue down to the water surface holding balls of meat, using chilled touch to make the meat as cold as possible. They hide and watch the wizards float the meat to the center of the water. Suddenly, hundreds of arcane eyes appear and large bullywog hands slam down on the walls at it climbs up the cave to the surface. The water becomes warmer and warmer as it breaches the surface and eats the meat. This is Jadu's security system, Bubba.

## Quotations

* Seth "*For listeners, Connor has been face palming this entire time.*"
* Connor "*Zippy truly is a psychopath.*"

## Featured Characters

### Main Cast

* Norman D
* Dariun Branch
* Zippy Westborrough

### Returning Characters

* Pepper
* Bradley
* Apophis
* Randy
* Gespatcho
* Water Cooler
* Grim
* Grim's Apron
* Dracken (voice)
* Robin
* The Barron
* Bullywog coach
* Letisha

### New Characters

* Blue Bullywog announcer
* Bubba

## Locations

* The Sparrow
* Jadu