Check In Question: If you could play any instrument (besides the one you already play) what would it be?
- Miranda: Erhu, the Chinese violin. It’s a beautiful instrument and I love it. Plus, more string instruments for me to play. Lysithea wants to learn the electric bass so she can play metal.
- Justice: I would love to be coordinated enough to play the Theremin correctly. Golag of the Goretusks, from the Law Offices of Timbleton, Rockford, and Golag: the Kagh-ophone, an instrument of the Goretusk tribe (think a dented old sousaphone but twice as big).
- Liz: I wanna play piano real bad. I’ve never been able to coordinate my hands to work it. Octavia already plays lute, so her voice. She has no singing voice, so that’s the instrument she wants.
- Kevin: Mine would be piano. Gobbles’s would be the banjo so he can be a one man band with his 2 instruments, Banjo-Kazooie.
- Ian: It’s between piano and guitar. I think it’s a pretty solid tie. Professor wants to play the pan flute.
- Cordelia: I want to get better at piano. Surina wants to learn to play the Dragon Flute.
When we last left the party they were sailing in Rouge Hareng’s ship on their way to the music festival at Ryphyet. They had a brief run in with an island and a shadow cow that had some beef to settle, and came back to the ship to find lava lizards all over the ship. Draggy immediately adopts one.
As they are sailing along a bird flies towards Rouge, who is captaining the ship, with a message in its beak. Most of the party is chilling on the deck, so they see the bird deliver the message and fly off.
Rouge: We gotta make a quick detour.
Octavia: What kind of detour are we talking about?
Rouge: Just a quick trip to Doompit Falls to pick up something.
Lysithea: Great…
They dock outside of Doompit Falls and take rowboats to the isles.
Rouge: Y’all wanna come with? I need to pick up some crates they’re shipping out of here. Supposedly they’re doing a massive sell off of the Beauregard mansion.
Gobbles to lava lizard: Let’s go.
Thistle Winkle Frost: *tap tap* I’m over here. This place was so nice last time we were here.
Gobbles: It sure was, what with all the attempted murders.
Thistle Winkle Frost: That was part of the fun!
The party gets on the rowboats and row to the isle of the Beauregard mansion. There are lots of workmen packing and moving things. The atmosphere appears sunnier and cheerier than before. All the expensive looking stuff, the items of real value, are being packed into boxes.
Lysithea: Why are we here?
Rouge: Well, they’re selling things off, and they need me to carry things. Ship things to Ryphyet and other places.
Lysithea: Don’t you work for us now?
Rouge: We’re partners in this right? I’m part of the guild.
Lysithea: Yeah, but we aren’t part of this. *gestures around*
Rouge: Fine, fine, fine. *sigh*
Rouge starts lugging crates by himself. Gobbles takes the smallest items he can find and carries them to the ship.
Gobbles: I’m helping!
Some workers start coming down the stairs, carrying a huge, ornate chest. Following behind them is a very upset Gnome dressed in white robes.
Gnome: No no, no no, that is not for sale! Stop them! They’re going to sell that! This is not for sale!
Lysithea: Hey, you guys should probably stop.
Worker: He just showed up and started shouting. We don’t know what he’s talking about. But you all can take care of him.
The workers drop the chest and walk off. When the chest hits the floor the lid pops open and books fall out.
Lysithea: Books? Books!
Lysithea runs over to the books.
Gnome: Stop, stop. Not yours.
Lysithea: *pouting* But books…
Octavia: Always wanting the books, Lysithea.
Gnome: This is the property of someone else, not them.
Lysithea: Aw man…
Gnome: This is property of The Neighborhood Library.
Lysithea: The Neighborhood Library?
Gobbles: The Libary?
Gnome: This is our property. They were going to sell them.
Lysithea: So take them.
Gnome: That’s what I’m trying to do.
Professor: Who’s they?
The Gnome points to workers and everyone around, and then to a portrait of Nathanial Beauregard.
Gnome: Their legal fees need to be paid. Their debts need to be paid.
Lysithea: They have no money.
Gnome: These are our books, everyone’s books.
Gobbles: Oh! *takes book*
The Gnome slaps Gobbles’s hand.
Gnome: You have to check out first. But they stole a lot. Nathaniel Beauregard tricked us. We trusted him. See, it’s one book per person, so he sent all his relatives to check one out. But now they’re back!
Lysithea: Congratulations.
Professor: Did you need our help or something? I’m confused.
Gnome: No, you stopped them. Good to meet you.
Professor: Yes…
He says a little prayer and suddenly flashes of lightning, cracks of thunder… and the chest poofs out.
Professor: By Grabthar’s Hammer!
Lysithea: *sad* Books….
Gnome: If you’re ever in The Neighborhood… *hands Lysithea a card with an image of a trolley car*
Professor religion check (adjusted 20). The Neighborhood Library is a sacred library that stores all written knowledge of the land. No one knows where it is, but the entrance fee is 1 book that they do not already have. The Archmage Frederick is the head of the library. The back of the card reads, “If in the neighborhood bring a book to be welcomed.”
Gobbles: You know what book they don’t have? Whatever book we write that is 3 words long.
After the Gnome hands Lysithea the card (arcana Professor 24, Lysithea 23, Octavia 11, Surina Nat 20, Gobbles 17) the card turns into 5 cards and flutters into everyone’s hand. The party feels a wave of good emotions as the fluttering card lands in their hands. Then the sky turns dark, even darker than before, flashes, and a door appears in the middle of the yard. It opens, and an older gentleman wearing a sweater, black slacks, and tennis shoes is standing there.
Frederick: Good day. We haven’t met.
Gobbles: Hi, I’m Gobbles the Goblin!
Frederick: It is a pleasure to meet you, Gobbles.
Gobbles: What’s your name?
Frederick: I am the Archmage Frederick.
Gobbles: Roger.
Professor begins aggressively shaking his hand.
Professor: Ah, Archmage Frederick! It’s a pleasure to meet you! I’ve been wanting to meet you.
Frederick: You are the zealous one. I have a feeling we can help each other. You’ve already helped us get our books back, and I think you can help us again. We have a problem, you see.
He just seems so nice.
Frederick: See, we were going to have a great music festival in Ryphyet…
Gobbles: Were?
Octavia: I have a bad feeling about this…
Professor: We bought tickets!
Frederick: You can still get in. But it has changed from a festival to a battle of sorts.
Lysithea: Why?
Frederick: Well, some evil has come about, I’m not sure where from, but this happy music festival we were going to have, with everyone trying their best on their instruments, has become this horrible battle. I promised I would never get involved with a battle, but I loved attending the festival, and they have me now as a judge. When I judge everyone will get a fair grade because everyone will try their best. I just feel something terrible is going to happen and I can’t do anything about it.
Lysithea: We can help with that.
Professor: Which part, the terrible part?
Lysithea: Well, you know…
Frederick: Wonderful. Now, to really help you will need to take a band’s place. Because one band, a great band, is leaving.
Professor: Which band?
Frederick: It was this nice fellow, Dave. He said he signed up for a festival, not a battle. He said he never misses a festival.
Octavia: I still have that bad feeling….
Lysithea: Um.. Will we actually have to play?
Frederick: I’m sure you all are talented in your own rights.
Octavia: That’s the concern.
Gobbles: You mean do we get the opportunity to play!
Gobbles pulls out his kazoo from his tiny kazoo sheath.
Frederick: Wonderful to meet you all. I hope you can come to my library one day. It’s a wonderful neighborhood.
Surina: Does anyone want to talk about this?
Professor: Sabrina, what do you think?
Frederick: I need to go feed my fish.
He turns, walks through the door, and the Gnome runs after him.
Frederick: Good day.
He politely shuts the door and it disappears.
Lysithea: Man, I wanted to go to a festival, not be in it. I wanted to relax after all this nonsense we’ve been through.
Thistle Winkle Frost: Hey, hey new friend! That guy was magic!
Professor: Yeah, no duh.
Thistle Winkle Frost: Very powerful. It might be good to get him on our side.
Professor: Who are you?
Thistle Winkle Frost: I’m Thistle Winkle Frost *his name appears in rainbow letters* and my new friend Gobbles!!! *rainbow letters*
Professor: By Grabthar’s Hammer. Great Odin’s Beard!
Lysithea: Okay… so I guess we need to come up with a band. Gobbles plays kazoo, Ocatavia plays the lute.
Gobbles: We can be a name that encompasses all of us: Gobbles the Goblin and Some Other People!
Professor: How about Bang Bang Grabthar’s Hammer Smashed Down Upon His Head?
Lysithea: That can be our song. How about the B-Sharps?
Octavia: How about Surina’s Misfits?
Gobbles: Now on stage, Infinite Cheese!
Rouge Hareng comes downstairs looking for the party. No one else noticed anything that just happened.
Rouge: Are we just sitting around?
Gobbles: Yes.
Rouge: You all wanna sail?
Lysithea: Yes.
Rouge: I got everything loaded while you all were just standing around.
He heads back to the rowboats.
Lysithea: Let’s go I guess. Get me away from this island
Professor: What about The Offspriggan? Hmm… I’ll think of something.
The magic cards are still providing a great feeling to the party, but as they approach Ryphyet everyone else seems to get angrier and angrier. They realize these magic cards are protecting them from something.
Gobbles: Let’s try to raise these people’s spirits! *kazoo solo* (performance 6)
Gobbles is standing on the deck of the ship as it pulls into the dock playing his kazoo. People on the dock just stare. Rouge, who has been nice up until this point, shouts…
Rouge: Stop that infernal racket! I’m trying to steer us in to port!
Surina: *nervous laughter*
Everyone on the dock is arguing and fighting over dock fare and what not. They begin walking through the city and the whole mood is dreary and glum. Outside the city a huge stage has been erected. Before there were several smaller stages, but now stands 1 huge, giant stage. There’s still vendors, tents, concessions and the like, who decided to stay despite the lack of a festival. Perception (Gobbles 24, Lysithea 14, Professor 15, Octavia 23, Surina 14). Gobbles and Octavia see that they are building a curtain out of chainlinked metal to stop people from throwing things at the bands. There’s a big board by the stage with a bracket posted. One name is scratched out.
Lysithea: I guess that’s where we are supposed to go.
As they approach the bracket they come across a very ornery person in a red robes speaking to a small group of people.
Woman: Dave Matthews dropped out! I don’t understand why he dropped out! They’re just going to hand the win to this Snoop Blink Doggy Dog! Find me another band!
Professor: Excuse me, I have a band.
She turns around.
Woman: Who are you? When did you get here? Where are you from? Why are you here?
Professor: By Grabthar’s Hammer….
Octavia: Lady, your asking an awful lot of questions very quickly.
Woman: Well this is my festival.
A person behind her whispers in her ear *battle*.
Woman: This is my battle!
Person: Ma’am, he says he has a band.
Woman: Are you good?
Professor to Lysithea: Are we any good?
Lysithea: We’re good enough…
Professor: Good enough!
Woman: Gustavo!
A Dwarf runs over.
Woman: Take them to registration! Get them registered and get them a tent.
She walks off in a hurry.
Surina: There’s tents?
Octavia: This place has a very tense feeling about it. Does anyone else feel that?
Lysithea: Oh yeah.
Gustavo gives the party a wink. He’s not as angry looking as the others.
Gustavo: This way please.
He merrily strolls along, taking the party to the registration table by the stage next to the MC.
Gustavo: Register here and I’ll lead you to the tents afterwards. *whispers* Welcome to the Neighborhood.
Surina face palms.
They come up to the MC, who was the one they delivered the instruments and dead bodies to before (see Session 14).
MC Phil: What are you doing back here? You left us with lots of things, right? I remember, the dead bodies.
Professor: I’ve seen a lot of dead bodies. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
MC Phil: What are you doing here?
Lysithea: We’re here for the battle.
MC Phil: Band name?
Surina: Uhhh….
Gobbles grabs Professor’s Spider-Bro.
Gobbles: What do you think our band name is?
Surina: Uh….
Lysithea: We are Surina and the Crystal Gems.
MC Phil: Okay, your fist battle is tomorrow. Y’all are late.
Gobbles: If it’s tomorrow aren’t we early?
MC Phil: You won’t have time to rehearse.
Gobbles: Who rehearses?
Lysithea: What are the rules?
Professor: Are we fighting or playing music?
MC Phil: You play your song and you get judged. Go now, we’re busy.
Lysithea: He seems a lot less easy going than last time.
Professor: Somebody put a rock in his shoe.
They follow Gustavo to the tents, which are separated by chicken wire fences. They are not letting any of the bands close to each other.
Gustavo: Very suspicious things happening. If you could investigate, it would help us a great deal. We stuffed your tent with all manners of instruments. We didn’t know what you played. The Archmage said you are wonderful at what you do.
Gobbles: If you keep it vague like that then yes.
From the outside the tent appears to be small, but they enter into a huge, spacious room with comfortable looking beds and couches.
Octavia: We’ll I’ll be. You don’t see that everyday.
There’s every instrument you can imagine. Lysithea grabs a mallet, pulls the Yoshi cowbell out of her bag (see Session 20) and hits it.
Lysithea: Found my instrument.
Professor: Well, we’ve got percussion covered.
When she hits the cowbell music notes fly through the air, and they quickly realize it’s magical. Lysithea can use the spell “Needs More Cowbell” and feels that this is a charged instrument. It can be used 4 times, and can be recharged. That one tap she played did not use a charge.
Professor: It seems like you can only do that about 4 times a day.
Gobbles: We need to go collect our camels before we forget!
Professor: Jesus no!
The camels are still there. Sir Eagle is still pink (see Session 14).
Gruff Stable Hand: So, you’ve returned finally! We’ve been taking care of these and feeding them. We’ve been charging people to see the pink one.
Professor: I’m sorry, are you upset about doing your job?
Stable Hand: We need money!
Lysithea: Didn’t you just say you were charging people to see the pink one?
Stable Hand: Yes.
Professor: Then where’s our cut? (persuasion 17)
Stable Hand: Fine, here’s your cut. Just take them away.
Professor: Woohoo, free camels!
Dark clouds start swirling over the stage and an image of a ghastly, huge female screams out a banshee-like wail.
Female: THOSE WHO PARTICIPATE AND WATCH SHALL BE CURSED FOREVER!
Surina: AHHHHH!
Professor: Death Eaters!
Female: LEAVE NOW AND ABANDON RYPHYET!
There are screams heard from the city as 2 minotaur skeletons rise from the earth, along with 4 ghouls. They are very angry looking. Off in the distance other skeletons are rising and attacking. Some people are running away, some are fighting back. The entire city is under attack, not just the party. Initiative (Octavia adjusted 20, Lysithea 17, Gobbles 17, Professor 15, Surina 13).
Begin Skeleton Battle
The four ghouls move forward, but do not make it into attack range. Octavia casts Hunter’s Mark on the ghoul to the left, then shoots at it. The ghoul takes 15 damage from her attack of 13. She shoots again and hits with an adjusted 20 for 8 more damage. Gobbles moves forward and casts Dissonant Whispers on another ghoul, which fails it’s saving throw.
Gobbles: Those guys behind you might be giants…
It takes 8 psychic damage and runs 40 ft away from Gobbles. Lysithea casts Fireball, which lands on 2 ghouls and both minotaurs. Both ghouls fail their saving throw, but both minotaurs succeed. The ghouls take the full 27 fire damage and go up in flames, while the minotaurs take 13 fire damage. Professor runs next to Gobbles and casts Arcane Weapon as a bonus action on his crossbow. He shoots Fire Bolt at one of the ghouls but misses with a 10. He then shoots with his crossbow, but misses with a 9. Both minotaurs charge forward but do not make it to attack range. Surina moves in and swings her sword at one of the remaining ghouls. She hits with a 21 and does 5 damage, sleighing the ghoul.
Surina: Goodbye Forever!
Octavia’s Hunter’s Mark transfers to one of the minotaur skeletons upon Surina defeating the ghoul. The last ghoul moves in and attacks Lysithea with its claws, doing 7 damage. She makes a constitution saving throw (24) and is fine. Octavia shoots her longbow at the minotaur, hitting with a 26 for 13 damage. She shoots it again but misses with a 10. Gobbles fires two Confetti Eldritch Blasts at the ghoul. The first blast hits with a 15 for 5 force damage, but the second blast misses with a Nat 1. The Nat 1 blast does a few loops de loops, circles back, and then hits Gobbles in the face as a pie.
Gobbles: Delicious.
Lysithea shoots Magic Missile at the ghoul, doing 12 damage. Professor steps back a bit and shoots at the 1st minotaur skeleton, but misses with an 8. He casts Fire Bolt at it and hits with a 25, doing a total of 17 fire damage. The second minotaur skeleton charges at Gobbles to gore him, hitting with a 24 and doing 14 damage, plus an additional 8 damage for charging. Gobbles succeeds his strength saving throw (adjusted 20). The first minotaur charges forward to gore Octavia. It hits with a 16 and does 13 damage, plus an additional 5 for charging. She fails her strength saving throw, gets pushed back 10ft, and is knocked prone. Surina moves behind the first minotaur and swings her sword after casting Hunter’s Mark. She hits with a 22 and does 10 damage. She swings again and hits with a 17 for an additional 12 damage. The ghoul turns around and attacks Gobbles twice, missing both attacks. Octavia stands up and shoots at the minotaur. She hits with a 24 for 12 damage. She shoots again, hitting with a 13 for an additional 11 damage. She defeats the minotaur, which collapses into a pile of bones. Her Hunter’s Mark transfers to the other minotaur skeleton. Gobbles Confetti Eldritch Blasts the 2nd minotaur over his shoulder, hitting once with a 15 but missing with an 8. His attack does a tiny 2 damage. Lysithea casts Firebolt as a Twinned Spell. Her first attack hits the ghoul with a 24 for 7 damage, defeating it. The second bolt hits the minotaur with a 15 for 15 fire damage. Professor shoots his arcane bow at the skeleton and hits with a 21 for a total of 3 piercing and 5 fire damage. He casts Fire Bolt again, hitting with a 21 for 26 points of damage. The minotaur is nothing more than charred bones.
Professor: Oh my goodness, excuse me.
End Battle
The party was the fastest to beat their mob, but others are defeating the skeletons throughout the city. There’s commotion coming from the band area. The party rushes to check it out. Phish is gone! Their tent has been ransacked and their tridents are everywhere (merpeople). They have been kidnapped! There’s an announcement:
BANDS PLEASE GET SOME REST! THE BATTLE WILL START FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!
Professor: Was that a test?
Gobbles: I know you said it was a battle but jeez…
Professor: Some people are missing!
The Ryphyet guards are clearing the area.
Guards: Okay everyone, just get back. We’ll take it from here.
Lysithea: I guess we should go to our tent.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE INVASION. WE HANDLED IT.
Gobbles and Professor: We handled it.
Professor: Jinx!
NOTHING WILL STOP THE BATTLE TOMORROW.
The party returns to their tent and attempts to rest (wisdom saving throw Gobbles 8, Professor 9, Lysithea 19, Octavia Nat 1, Surina adjusted 20). Lysithea and Surina get a long rest, sleeping angelically in their beds. The rest of the party gets a short rest. While none of the negative energy affected their sleeping, other people around arguing and other noises through the night kept them up. The party is fully healed, but Professor and Gobbles do not have their spell slots back. Professor decides to just sit outside the tent with his crossbow to keep watch. He hears howling, and in the distance he sees a tent that is larger on the outside than the inside of the party’s tent.
Professor: Yeah, there really are giants.
What we know so far: There’s a banshee making threats if the battle happens, undead appeared and attacked after her threat, the people in charge are saying everything is fine, a band is missing, and there’s negative energy everywhere.
Gobbles: We have to band together to stop them.
Morning comes.
WILL ALL THE BANDS PLEASE MEET AT THE STAGING AREA.
Lysithea: I guess we’re technically a band… of… something. We should go.
Professor: Crystal Gems out!
All of the bands are gathered by the stage. There’s a group that was not seen before, They Definitely Are Giants, and they are giants.
Octavia: They definitely are giants.
Lysithea: Aw, too bad K’un-Lun is not here. He would love to see the Warrrghestra.
Standing on a raised platform is the woman in charge. Next to her stands a figure with long blond hair, a cane with an ornate design, button up shirt – imagine a more stuck up version of Lucious Malfoy.
Woman: Welcome competitors! I am Councilwoman Madora Cammish. Thank you for agreeing to compete in the inaugural battle of the bands.
Professor begins to clap, then slows to a stop when everyone else no one else claps. Everyone else looks angry.
Woman: We hope to have an amazing competition, starting today. One of the bands, unfortunately, had to drop out last minute as they are still not around. But trust us, we are doing all we can to find them, because we understand they need water to survive. But, if nothing else happens, we will have amazing concerts. Each group will go up against the others in a single elimination group contest. The winner will receive a large, gratuitous award. And to tell you how we will be judged in this inaugural event is our head judge, Lord Archibald Bickerford Pembleton!
He clears his throat, then taps his cane and starts talking through it via thaumaturgy, which no one saw him cast.
Archibald: Judging will be on a variety of things, following this rubric. We are judging you on style…
Professor: Uh oh.
Archibald: …musicality…
Gobbles: We won’t get that one.
Archibald: …tone…
Lysithea: Nope.
Archibald: …and appearance.
Gobbles: We go for style.
Professor: Probably our best bet. *pulls out fancy lady hat and puts it on*
Gobbles: It’s a lock! That’s half the criteria right there!
Lysithea: We’re doomed…
Archibald: Any extra theatrics are not appreciated. Standing over here are our other judges, who will be accompanying me. We have the illustrious Golag of the Goretusks. He is from our great law firm, Law Offices of Timbleton, Rockford, and Golag.
A large orc wearing a 3 piece suit and tie just grunts.
Archibald: My other judge, Councilwoman Medora Cammish, formerly Medora Ablegham. The mysterious and beautiful Lady Pippa Vilyalinde.
Gobbles starts hearing a drumroll on his head as a beautiful woman in a green dress walks forward. She is surrounded by butterflies.
Professor: Paula Abdul.
Archibald: And always, our guest every year, who never misses a festival and has agreed to judge – the Archmage Frederick of the Neighborhood Library.
When Frederick speaks his humble voice carries over the entire city.
Frederick: I’m just happy to be here. I hope everyone does their best today and we just have fun.
Everyone, no matter how angry they are, claps for Frederick.
Archibald: So we will be judging starting now! We will start with our play-in brackets. Unfortunately Phish dropped out…
Professor: We thought they were kidnapped!
Archibald: …Dropped out because they were kidnapped or dead or we don’t know…
Professor: Wow…
Archibald: So there will only be one play-in bracket, and that will be Snoop Blink Dogg vs. Surina and the Crystal Gems.
Lysithea: Oh no, that’s us.
Archibald: This battle will be a one at a time battle.
Lysithea: I hope they go first.
Archibald: First will be Sruina and the Crystal Gems. Please take the stage.
Surina happily bounces onto the stage. Octavia has her lute, Gobbles has his kazoo, Lysithea has the magic Yoshi cowbell, Surina is going to sing, and Professor brings a double bass and a stool to stand on. Their song is “Bang Bang Grabthar’s Hammer”. Surina, upon realizing she has to sing, becomes nervous. They look out at the audience and see a HUGE crowd. There’s bard groups, and vendors, and others that look like they came to have a festival. It looks like it was going to be Woodstock but now it’s a battle. No one looks happy. Surina ducks behind some speakers.
Lysithea: They’re going to look even angrier when we’re done.
Surina: That’s why I want to run away!
In front of the stage is a long table for the judges. The 5 judges are sitting there, there’s birds flying around Pippa, the definitely Fae judge. Archmage Frederick has sunbeams on him even though there’s no sun to be seen in the sky.
MC Phil: We here at Ryphyet want to welcome everyone to our inaugural Battle of the Bands. We would like to thank our sponsors, the Ryphyet City Council, Acrael Shipping Co., Archibald Bickerford Pembleton, Esq, the Law Offices of Timbleton, Rockford, and Golag, and The Archdiocese of St. Warrrgh-ustine.
Notice how he left out one of the sponsors…
MC Phil: So now to kick things off, we have a new band that nobody has ever heard of, and we’ve asked around – Surina and the Crystal Gems!
Octavia: Rock and roll! No?
Nobody claps. There’s clinking as the metal curtain gets pulled up in front of them. A barker yells out “Tomatoes, day old tomatoes!”
Lysithea, beginning the song by hitting the cowbell “Bang Bang”, casts Needs More Cowbell (everyone will get advantage because of the spell for the entire length of the song) (performance 17). Gobbles casts Bardic Inspiration via kazoo solo to inspire Surina, who is very nervous (performance 10). Octavia is behind Surina plucking gingerly on the Lute following what’s happening around her (perception adjusted 20). Professor hops off his stool trying to do a back to back guitar thing with Octavia (acrobatics 19). Surina starts singing (performance + bardic inspiration 25). The party averaged out to the roll of an 18.
The crowd is not booing or throwing things. They still look miserable, but the party is doing well for their introduction. The crowd is hooked and wants more.
Coming up to the end of the song Lysithea stands deadpan as she “Bang Bang”s on the cowbell (intelligence Nat 20) – she is nailing it, perfectly hitting the beat. In an unbridled sense of confidence not hearing “boos”, Octavia jumps forwards and slides on her knees “YEAH” (acrobatics 23). Gobbles provides rhythmic backup to the lute playing, transitioning from solo kazoo to rhythmic kazoo (perception 24). Professor throws his bass bow in the air and casts Dancing Lights (performance 13). Surina pumps her fist in the air for the big finish (persuasion 21)! The party averaged a total of 21.
Professor: I think it’s best we retire now. We’ve peaked. I’ll take the check.
At the end the judges hold up their score cards. The Archmage holds up a 10…
Lysithea: He’s going to hold up a 10 for everybody.
Lady Pippa holds up a 9.5, Golag holds up an 8.5, Councilwoman Medora holds up a 9, and Archibald holds up a 7.
Gobbles: 7…
They scored a total of 44. Snoop Blink Dogg hazily walks on stage with what looks like a billow of smoke trailing him. He starts singing “Drop the Heated Metal” when halfway through the song…
Snoop Blink Dogg: Hey, where am I anyway?
…and walks off the stage. Everyone looks confused.
MC Phil: We’re still going to judge based on what we heard.
The judges confer. Everyone holds up a 0 except for Frederick, who holds up a 10.
Frederick: Well, he looked like he was having fun. I hope the poor fellow finds where he’s going.
Lysithea: See, told ya.
MC Phil: Congratulations to Surina and the Crystal Gems for moving on to the next rounds. We will now continue with the actual rounds. First up is Arrowsmith vs. Imagine Tarrasque!
Arrowsmith wins the first bracket. In the next bracket, Golag gave the St. Warrrggh!-ustine Choir a perfect 10. They went up against Earth, Wind, and Fire Elementals. A wizard walked on stage, opens an old, frayed, waterlogged spell book, and from it summons the three elementals.
Professor: I do not want to go up against that guy.
The St. Warrrggh!-justine choir ended up winning the bracket.
Mythrilback, in a major upset, beats the Fae Fighters (perception Gobbles 9, Octavia 19, Surina 19, Lysithea 21, Professor adjusted 20). Everyone but Gobbles noticed that the Fae Fighters, when taking the stage, were fighting even more amongst themselves than the other groups and did not play together at all. The last match in the first half of the day is Josie and the Tabaxi vs. They Definitely Are Giants. Giants have to play farther away from the crowd, but their music still booms across the entire city. They sing their hit song, Putbaat (Was Creek Ruptzz City). History (Gobbles 8, Professor 26, Surina 17, Octavia 18, Lysithea 7). Everyone except Lysithea, but especially Professor, knows this song. He can sing the song and knows all the history behind it. People known as the Layards, were the ones who renamed Creek Ruptzz City to Putbaat when they took over the city. There’s a big commotion when Josie and the Tabaxi are about to go on. They are saying someone messed with their instruments. They are arguing backstage that someone snuck into their tent and snipped their strings. Professor offers his bass to them.
Josie: What, really? Thank you!
They graciously take it and go perform using Professor’s double bass, beating They Definitely Are Giants.
Professor: Good, now give it back.
They give back his bass and thank him again.
Professor: Sick.
MC Phil: Because they played first, Surina and Lycan Park will be the last 2 groups to perform. We will take a break before the second half of the day competitions.
Everybody Take 5. End Session…
Check Out
Spotlight on Another Player:
- Miranda: Ian, for coming up with “By Grabthar’s Hammer” as a replacement swear for this world.
- Kevin: Justice for coming up with Dave Matthews Band and all the other bands.
- Liz: This was tough, but the band names are what got me!
- Justice: I still like Cordelia having fun. She really seems like she’s having fun.
- Cordelia: Gobbles playing the kazoo.
- Ian: I know it’s supposed to be on another player but I actually rolled really well.
A Challenge/Something Learned:
- Miranda: Typing. I need to find a better way to take notes.
- Kevin: I’m a bard without Perform proficiency and probably, maybe should have thought to ask if I could use proficiency bonus anyway since I’m proficient with kazoos.
- Liz: Stop. Overthinking. THE GAME!
- Justice: Keeping everything a secret.
- Cordelia: When Surina was afraid to sing.
- Ian: Challenge is being better at puns for band names.
Hope/Prediction for Next Session:
- Miranda: I’m just excited to see what bands make it to the finals, if there is a final.
- Kevin: I hope for more of everything that took place this session.
- Liz: I hope we kick bumm at the next band battle!
- Justice: That now that you have hang of what I’m making you do for your band’s performance you have fun with it. And that you solve the mystery.
- Cordelia: I hope everybody thinks of a new song.
- Ian: My prediction is that the Magic Man, Mr. Rogers, is not really on our side.
Analysis: Yet another great session with Cordelia being herself! She’s still not too vocal as her character, but she’s definitely roleplaying! She actually hid under the table when Surina was afraid to sing. We are just in love with her new battle catchphrase, “Goodbye Forever.” As you can imagine, this session was full of music puns that went over her head (much laughter was had amongst the adults) but she had fun anyway. She did catch the music pun Justice put in for her (her favorite band is BabyMetal). Her confidence is growing. Let’s hope it continues.