Episode 10 - Demon Squirrel

## **Episode Synopsis**

### **Recap**

The team travelled to Manasnow flying throw a mammoth herd meeting Harry, the giant, who helped them arrive into the snowy town. After arriving, they were greeted by the Greeters Guild, shopped at Valentine's shop and went to the mountains guide shop to find someone to help them up the mountain in pursuit of Felix. Instead of going with Shamus, the seasoned mountain guide, the team went with the trainee, Leslie. The young tiefling offered his service for free as he searches for the love of his life, Lara, who is a Greeder that left with Felix a few months prior.

### **Episode Summary**

The team just left the shop and Leslie tells them he will prepare his stuff for tomorrow morning when they will leave at first light. Dariun has a look around the town and sees people in their houses and some sipping coffee on their porches. He does gather that some shops may not have the correct permits despite what was said in the Greeter's Guild song and some people are doing sneaky deals but overall, it is a friendly and social town. Dariun walks over to someone who was making a shady deal and says he has some information and believes this guy can help him out. The shady guy tells Dariun there are 2 to 1 odds on Crampus for the mammoth bowl. Dariun asks about the odds on Lightfoot which the man tells him its 200 to 1 odds on him. Dariun puts 10 gold on Lightfoot and learns the mammoth bowl ends when the loud romping about sounds stop. Zippy is baffled why Dariun just looked around and immediately went to go gamble. He feels Dariun may have a problem.

Peterson looks around for a potion shop. He spots Selina's Solutions and heads in with Dariun, they are both immediately hit with a strong smell of herbs. He notices multi-coloured bottles on the shelves, a counter and curtains behind a human woman, Selina, wearing purple garbs and a vale over her head. Peterson asks for some healing potions and other stuff that is listed on a word doc which was an idea she got from someone else that she now patens. Peterson purchases 6 healing potions from Selina and he and Dariun head out of the shop. Dariun walky rockies to Zippy to find out where he is. Zippy tells him he is looking through some stuff but doesn't need any help and advises them to go to tavern.

Just before, Zippy looks around town for a library but he can't seem to find exactly that. He sees a shop called Old Goat's Books but is not interested in that. He sees the Mayer's house and office named the '*Isenberger's house/Mayer's office*' and reckons this is where records where will be kept. Zippy knocks on the door and it opens revealing the Mayer, a large goliath with a huge beard, who is confused why Zippy is here. The Mayer tells him if he wants his job Zippy will need to arm wrestle for it. Zippy asks if they have a records of who has been born and died in his town. Zippy is invited in and follows the Mayer down to the basement. He sees two desks, one with an orc girl with a name placard reading Keisha The Assistant to the Mayer. The other desk is empty and has a placard that says Bill Isenberger: Mayer. Bill asks Keisha about their genealogy records. Keisha unravels a long scroll that rolls out onto the floor however, it does not involve the people who have died on the mountain as they are unconfirmed. She tells Zippy that they also have a missing persons scroll and Keisha rolls that one out as well. Zippy also asks for an alphabetical list of everyone who has been born. He now has a list of who has been born, died and gone missing in Manasnow over the past 25 years.

Through Zippy's investigation, he can see that people have been going missing at either two phases of their lives, at around 20 years old presumably looking for adventure or when they are older, around 60 to 70 years of age. It seems to be majority of lives lost at the ages of 20 or elderly are usually on the mountain. The youngest who died on the mountain was 9 years and the oldest was 84 years of age. Zippy discerns that many people have lost family members to the mountain and believes he has all the information he now needs so he says his goodbyes and leaves the Mayer's house. Zippy heads behind the building and casts animal messenger and conjures a squirrel. Zippy instructs this squirrel to go all around town to every house and say "*your loved one has died to the mountain*".  He believes that there have been enough people in this town have been affected by the mountain that it will put the town into a bit of turmoil. The squirrel runs off and starts his work. Zippy heads off to the bar to meet with Dariun and Peterson.

Dariun and Peterson are in the lively bar, it's warm and jovial. Peterson orders a spiced rum and Dariun asks for some schnitzel, a potato, bacon and cheese pierogi and some Manasnow ale. Zippy heads in and orders carrot juice infused negroni. Peterson and Zippy notice a red skin genasi walk in and looks shaky. He comes to the bar and orders a scotch and immediately downs it. They can see the genasi is crying and he tells Fritz he was visited by a demon. The man was in bed takin a nap when the demon knocked on his window with an acorn and it spoke to him. The demon told him that his loved ones died on the mountain and he never even had any loved ones. Zippy comes over and consoles the man, known as Roger to the townsfolk. Zippy asks if a lot of people have lost loved ones to the mountain. The lively and happy bar saddens and Zippy says he may be able to help everyone here. He asks if everyone had heard about what happened in Aurum and Zippy explains that he and his friends saved Aurum and could help here two. Zippy is sure this town has a curse on it and he believes it's time to get rid of this curse once and for all. The bar rallies behind Zippy and he asks if there is any way the town people could help. Zippy asks for food and snow shoes and people in the bar start offering their help. They offer food, climbing gear, lighting equipment and different survival gear. Zippy also asks for a bit of gold after they complete this mission and they all agree. Zippy cheers to Manasnow and they leave the tavern to go back to the airship for some sleep.

When they get back to the airship, they explain what the plan is to Yogurt. At first light, they will gather supplies and head up to the mountain chasing Felix. They will need James and Yogurt to stay on the ship but they will take the horses up. Dariun thinks about if the horses will survive the journey and is unsure if they will but gathers they may be okay with some coats. They recall there are some horses in Manasnow that have thicker coats that are more acclimatized to the weather but go against using them. As they are discussing, Dariun hears murmuring from his bag of holding and he pulls out Dracken. Dracken tells them their plan to go up the mountain is ridiculous. Dracken claims himself as the leader and asks what the end goal of this adventure is. Zippy explains that the goal is to bring Norman back, find the reason Felix was here and gather treasure on the way. Peterson asks if Dracken knows anything about the mountain and if there actually are any spirits. Dracken tells them ghosts can happen but it is rare and it's unlikely that all the red lights are ghosts. Dariun asks how people could become ghosts when they would be either sent to the heavenly realms or the deep. Dracken explains sometimes there is something that ties them down, there is a brief moment when you die and get sent, and that moment is when you can grab it. Dariun agrees to keep Dracken as his hip before they all head to bed, Dariun meditating.

Zippy falls asleep and appears in the white room with Paige. Usually they stay far away from each other but this time, Paige comes over to Zippy and tells him there is something here. He looks over to see a black ball bouncing, about the size of his head. Zippy goes up to the ball and watches and listens to it bounce, he notices it is slight elastic. Zippy grumbles for a bit then kicks it over towards Paige. It stops moving forwards and then the momentum stops and it continues to bounce in place. Zippy goes over and grabs it but he feels a large pull down to the ground. It slips form his hands and bounces on the ground and into his chin. Zippy asks Paige to come over and lay down under the ball. It hurts her and she disappears from the white space when she wakes up. Zippy huffs and sits on the ball, it's kind of hard to stay on. He sits there for a little while then he wakes up.

Dariun, Zippy and Peterson get prepped and leave the airship. Peterson asks if he could borrow Denmark but he is not very keen to go in the cold. Longface Cloppyhooves and Tealeaf are happy to go in the cold. When they ride into the town, they sense a very sad mood in the town. The townsfolk have made a giant bonfire and everyone is gathered, crying. Selina walks to the flame and throws some dust causing the flames to go a bright red. Bill comes up and pulls the team into a hug. They give the team supplies and they head off into the mountain, lead by Leslie. They see Harry who gives them some good luck after telling them he ate some strange squirrel that morning.

The get to the Liminster Woods and start to make their way in. Leslie tells them they need to get through here to get to the mountain and find the Greeders and Lara, his one true love. Peterson pulls down his make for the journey and he notices that every few trees, he can see a strange blue symbol but he doesn't know what they are or mean. Leslie leads them all in a friendship song but all of a sudden, they hear a loud crack and a tree fall in the distance. There are some sounds of footsteps coming towards them. Dariun can see the tracks of 5 winter wolves that were in the area within 5 minutes ago. Peterson jumps off his horse and he climbs up a tree. Zippy tells the horses to lay down and he kicks some snow onto them before following suit and climbing up a tree. Dariun and Leslie seeing them go up the tree, also scurry up a tree.

Underneath, 10 winter wolves run past, seeming to scamper away from something more ominous. They hear stomping and trees cracking. Peterson pulls his mask down and can see almost all the trees are covered in the blue symbols from before. Dariun can tell something with white fur is making its way through. He recognizes it as a yeti as it throws a winter wolf through the winder woods. The yeti sees them and goes to attack.

Peterson casts toll the dead, a bell rings out and the yeti holds its head in pain. The yeti runs at Peterson and smacks him, causing him to fall to the ground. Zippy decides to cast polymorph on the yeti and turns it into a penguin. It looks at its flippers, then at Zippy and it starts slapping him. Dariun hops down and asks if they should just keep moving. The penguin tries to slap Dariun and it falls on its face. Peterson attempts to calm the penguin down. It beckons Peterson down to talk to him then it slaps Peterson in the face. The penguin tries to slap Zippy so Dariun gets fed up and grabs the penguin and tosses it into some snow so they can ride away.

They continue on into the forest, Peterson still sees the blue symbols on a lot of the trees. They reach a sign which says '*Left Waypoint. Right Mountain Trek*'. Leslie is fairly confident that they should go right but he isn't too sure without his map. They ask if he has the map and Leslie tries to change the topic. They decide to go right and they hear some rustling in a bush nearby, and a small snow bunny jumps out of the bush. Leslie stops them and tells them not to touch or look at it because it's a baby and the mother is much bigger. They all look away and it hops along. They continue on and they come to another cross roads, now three paths with no sign. They see the mountain is getting close and they are almost at the edge of the forest. Leslie tries to remember and suggest maybe left. Dariun has a look down the left and can see the trees and woods get darker and would probably lead them further away from the mountain. Peterson can see through his mask that in the middle of the crossroads, beneath the snow is a circular stone floor with similar symbols he had seen on the trees on the way. There are 4 symbols are on the stone floor at different areas on the outside of the circle and one in the middle.

Peterson informs them of the symbols he can see and they get to clearing the snow. It reveals the stone floor and he can see a rain cloud on one symbol, a sun on another, a snow flake and a wind gust. The center symbol appears to be a regular circle. Peterson can see the glowing symbols however, none of the others can. Peterson traces the runes with a chunk of charcoal so they can see them. Zippy thinks they relate to their personalities. Zippy will stand on the sun cause he is happy and bright, Dariun will stand on the rain cloud because he is a wet blanket. Peterson will stand on the snowflake because he thinks he is so special with his mask and Leslie will go on the gust of wind because he seems easy to fall over. They all just go and stand on the spots but nothing happens. Peterson inspects it closely and knows that the runs need to be magically activated, potentially with the elements depicted. Dariun pulls out his wind fan and uses a gust of wind, hitting Leslie causing him to fall over. Peterson can see the rune has stopped glowing. Zippy huffs, a little grumpy that he will have to use all his spell slots. He uses his druid craft and creates an orb with a cloud and snowflakes falling, the snow symbol fades. Zippy then creates a orb of light and the sun symbol fades away and finally he creates a raincloud making the rain rune fade.

There is only a circle left in the middle and they wonder what will activate them. Peterson draws some blood and drops it on the circle. It pools in the middle and they hear a crack as the stone floor moves and creates stairs down. Leslie is very against going down but the rest are keen to go. Leslie is persuaded by Dariun to stay above ground and watch over the horses. Dariun, Zippy and Peterson descend down into the cave they have just discovered.

Meanwhile, the yeti penguin has just been able to get out of the snow pile and is searching around for some berries. All of a sudden, the winter wolves surround it. The leader of the winter wolves pounces on the yeti penguin. Lelsie hears, from above the cave, the great yell of the yeti.

## **Quotations**

* Dracken "*Cold alone doesn't make ghosts … I make ghosts! By burning them with fire!*"
* Dariun "*One of these days I'm gonna hack and slash your face off Zip.*"

## **Featured Characters**

### **Main Cast**

* Dariun Branch
* Zippy Westborrough
* Peterson

### **Returning Characters**

* Leslie
* Selina
* Fritz
* James
* Yogurt
* Pepper
* Denmark
* Tealeaf
* Longface Cloppyhooves
* Dracken
* Paige
* Harry

### **New Characters**

* Shady mammoth bowl better
* Bill Isenberger (Manasnow Mayer)
* Keisha (Mayer's Assistant)
* Roger (Red skin genasi)
* Black Bunny Ball
* Lara (Lelsie's Greeder love - mentioned)
* Yeti/Yeti penguin

## **Locations**

* Manasnow
* Selina's Solutions
* Isenberger's house/Mayer's office
* The Sparrow
* White dream space
* Liminster Woods