Session Zero Heroes - A TTRPG Actual Play Podcast
Speaker B: Jasmine, oolong, green and white. Long ago, these four teas were skilfully brewed at the Blissful Brew. Then everything changed when the shop's popularity threatened its existence. All Mr. Okeron, the shop's owner and tea master, could do was to recruit four teenage orphans to learn his trade and staff his shop. A year has passed since the orphans were hired, and although their skills have progressed, they still have a lot to learn before they can brew anything. But I believe that they have the potential to make the Blissful Brew the greatest tea shop in the world.
Speaker A: And welcome back, everybody, to ah, season two, almost at episode two, season two of Benders and Brews. We did it. We, I was going to say came back. We did it. We got it. Okay. Awesome. So glad that you can be here for season two. We're super excited about the show and, where we're going to go with the second part of this story now that Mr. Ochron is dead.
Speaker C: What?
Speaker A: Oh, sorry. Michaela wasn't there for that. No, I'm just kidding. Everybody was there for that. We hope you were there for that also. Yeah, if you didn't listen to season one, that's a problem. You should jump back there and do that before you jump into if you listened to the season two, episode zero episode, you had a warning there, and now you're getting another warning. Yeah. And if you haven't listened to season one yet, then you're just ignoring everything that we're saying to warn you about spoilers. Anyways, all right, so let's get started into, what we usually do, which is, before we get the episode kicking off and start playing, we're going to go around and ask everybody a question. Kind of a fun little question. We're going to take a page out of one of my favorite tabletop, role playing podcasts out there, which is Dungeons Daddies. so I'm going to go around the room. Rather than posing a specific question to each one of you, I want you to just tell me an interesting, fun fact about your character. Something that we didn't necessarily know or wouldn't have been able to gather necessarily from just listening to the show. I'm going to kick things off with Connor. All right. So, for he's according to his character description, he's a pretty beefy boy. He's a big. Yeah. Yep. So how he does that, I mean, I'm sure everybody's wondering, how does he maintain that? Physique? So he is able to make his own workout equipment and gear just through rocks. Right on. And he doesn't even need to do any exercises because he can Earth bend the weights down to just add resistance. So he can just do it all. He could do it all with some pebbles if he wanted to. I've never even thought of it. Oh, he's like increasing the density, weight, science things. Increasing the resistance. For a guy that's real. Just brawn. He's also got some brain, apparently. Well, only when it comes to that. Working on. Right on. Okay. Okay. Dave. Dave, what do you got for GuoHan? So GuoHan really likes when it rains, but not for the reason you might think. it's because it makes mud, which is really great for making fake footprints. Back at the carnival, there were rumors going around about this giant, absolutely huge penguin seal that would get into all sorts of trouble every time it rained, but really was just GuoHan walking around with some giant penguin feet he fashioned out of some stone or something. Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. Wonder who started the rumors. Cameron, tell me something interesting about does avatar have, like, normal weeks, like Monday through Sunday? I think so. I mean, I'm sure they'd have, like I don't think they mentioned it in the show at all. Yeah, you'd know, if you watch they didn't talk about this. I say as I'm sitting here having watched it, and I can't I'm not 100% I would assume so. Yeah. So we're just going to go for sake of argument? Yeah. Monday through Sunday. Okay, sure. Every Thursday night, bill sneaks away to meet, up with a group of, elders. What? they have a local, I think I'm going to quote this correct pi show gathering where they play pi show as a group. And Bill really enjoys the game, so he sneaks away to play with them, play, the game against them and stuff. And he's gotten really good at the game, but he doesn't like to tell others that's what he's doing. So he just kind of sneaks off. If anyone asks, he just says, oh, I was off, like the library or something. Okay. But he's playing pie show. He's playing pie show with old people. And he's kind of embarrassed about yeah. Is it like in, New York or like in the parks? Yeah, he's playing, like, basically those old guys who just play, like, chess. Hustlers. But he's playing, like, pie show hustlers. Pie show hustlers. 100% that exists. Oh, yeah, probably. Yeah. Pie show hustlers. I love it. I was really thinking that for a second there, you were going to say he sneaks out and he meets up with a group of people and plays dungeons and dragons. And I was going to be like, I see what you but no. Pi show makes the closest thing. Yeah, that's how Pi show works. I play the white lotus fighter rogue. All right. M Michaela, what's going on with Mika? What's something interesting?
Speaker C: well, when she was very little, she used to carry around an egg.
Speaker A: And then and then ah, yeah. Suspense is killing me. Egg girl. See, if she wouldn't break it well.
Speaker C: She carried it around because she really wanted a pet, and she was told she needed to show some responsibility.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: So she carried that thing around forever. And one day, she was out flooding around with the penguin things, and her egg broke. But in her defense, the egg was rotten at that point, so she's had it for a pretty long time.
Speaker A: Oh, gosh. So she's just, like, laying there in the snow with, like, rotten egg all.
Speaker C: Over sometimes, you know, she can get a little bit emotional around broken eggs, but no big deal.
Speaker A: She doesn't like she's like, tea shop. I could deal with anything to do with breakfast. Mr. Okeron's dead, but this eggshell brings back memories. Mr. Ogron's laying there with a knife in his back on the floor. And then she looks over and there's an egg that got flipped over on the table and shattered on the ground. And she just starts bawling. And everyone's like, it's okay, we're going to make it through this. And she's like the egg. And they're like, what are you talking about? The egg is broken? Wow, that's dark. Is it? It's an egg.
Speaker C: It was her first pet.
Speaker A: So it's like a pet rock.
Speaker C: But it was it was her pet.
Speaker A: She's giving her a pet rock. Mika's got a lot of intense feelings about this. Don't get me started on egg. All right. interesting fact about me. I'm Skyler. I'm the DM. And I don't know, I sliced my finger open while making fried rice this weekend. But it was good. It was worth it.
Speaker C: And I didn't finger making rice.
Speaker A: well, first of all, it was fried rice, and there were, like, vegetables involved. And I had one of those, like, you push the slice to slice things. Yeah, like a mandolin. And, I don't use it very often. I'm pretty good when it comes to cooking with a knife. Like, chopping stuff up and not hurting myself. But I'm not used to the mandolin. And I thought, oh, this was, like, a much easier way to chop up these onions. And since I'm not used to it, I got my finger in there. And here we are. But it's all good. It's wrapped up. It looks funny. And yeah, no stitches. Well, that was by choice, but I digress. Did that Scotch tape around your finger? I put some on to hold the bandaid in place because it would, like, slide because it's on the tip of my finger. So it's, like, hard to keep it covered, but then the bandaid wants to slide off. I don't know.
Speaker C: Sometimes your best just isn't good enough.
Speaker A: Got me there. And with that, we're going to jump into season two, episode one. And ah, with that, we're back season. Why are we laughing? We're kicking things off in a yeah, this is a four time relax.
Speaker C: To get through their grief.
Speaker A: Okay, that's true. The scene opens on all of you standing inside of a large room. Various, pews lining. I say pews benches, whatever you want to call them, lining the sides of this, interior space. large windows have sunlight shooting in through it, but it's kind of a deep orange sunlight as it's kind of nearing towards the afternoon. The late afternoon. Yes. The golden hour. Exactly. your now dead friend Mr. Okaron lays I don't know there wasn't a better way to put that lays motionless inside of a stone casket at the front of this indoor space. And, the rest of you, as well as a number of community members, are all lining these benches that I previously mentioned. And a man at the front of the room is finishing up his long winded speech about Mr. Okaron and his service to the community and the amazing tea shop that he ran and just how generally nice of a guy that he was, how kind hearted he was, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know if any of you might have gone up to say anything. You don't have to, like, on the show. You don't have to do that right now. But if anybody would have no, I'd say GuoHan would not have gone up in front of the crowd. Okay. I think Brock would have, but it would have been a very short winded speech. Right. What would the tone have been? Would it have been, like, angry, or would it have been sad or in form of sad? I think it would probably be a combination of sadness and anger. Okay. I would think so. Okay. Right on. so as he finishes, this man that's up there finishes up his speech, the doors of the area suddenly swing open, the big, heavy double doors or whatever, and you all turn because it's quite loud. And there's Madame Yang standing there in the doorway, and she says, Is the ceremony not over yet? And turns to let the door close behind her. And, so the door closes behind her as she exits. you could see that as she was turning, she had kind of a smirk on her face almost. it stings. It definitely stings inside. Just seeing her and maybe feeling some sort of resentment like this might be her fault in some way, shape or form, whether you have proof or not, there might be thoughts in the back of your head that might be thinking in that direction. But whatever the case, the service comes to the end, and probably a number of people probably come and maybe shake your hands or if you let them give you a hug. Not Mika. Mika did not, whatever the case, just kind of going around kind of stemming off of what I asked how's how's each character really feeling emotionally in this situation. Connor, you said kind of a mix of anger and sadness. Mix of anger and sadness, because he died during the fight. And, feel like Brock is feeling a bit remorseful in that he felt he could know helped Mr. Okeron as well, during the fight, but he was just too tunnel visioned on the Coyote boars. Sure, sure. Maybe some of that anger is sort of internal. Kind of almost angry at himself a little bit. Yeah, it's mostly at himself. Gotcha. Gotcha. what about GuoHan? what's GuoHan feeling right now? he's definitely feeling sort of almost regressed, I guess. He's feeling sort of regression, like he's closed off right now. like feeling a bit lost. Okay. because this was, like, father figure to him almost. And then now he's gone. Where's he going to go? He doesn't have somebody to kind of help lead him through life, but, he's angry and more confused than angry. Like, just doesn't know what direction to go or where to direct his emotions, really. Sure. No, that makes sense. Bill Dore? What, is Bill Dore feeling right now? Like he's a failure. Okay. That's probably the biggest emotion. yeah. He swore to himself he wouldn't let something like this happen again, and now he's going very much on a slippery slope. but unlike last time, he actually has someone that he can lash out on other than himself. And so, in a very unhealthy way, he has very much been secretly plotting and making moves to try and get back at the Wild Coyote bars, without the others knowing about it. Okay. But if they try to talk to him, he's very closed off, and he hasn't actually said a single word to any of the other three since it's happened. Okay. I'd ask what those moves were, but I almost want to find out along the way. I think that might be a better way to kind of reveal those things as they happen. I'm kind of intrigued. So we'll leave that, kind of a bit of a mystery to see later on. what about Mika? I mean, Mika's kind of been a little bit offish, I guess you could say, between her and Mr. Okran. I know she's kind of had this hesitance to trust him and see him as much of a father figure as some of the others have, or even just a close friend. So what is her feelings right now that he has passed, away?
Speaker C: I would say that she is definitely feeling different emotions on the inside than she does on the outside. she's probably closer to Mr. Oprah than she let people believe.
Speaker A: Sure.
Speaker C: but I would say on the outside, she's more stoic, kind of I don't know. And then on the inside, I would say she's pretty much just, like, in denial of the whole situation.
Speaker A: Right. It just hasn't really set in so much, or she's not letting it set in, I guess.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker A: Okay. All right, so there's definitely a lot of pain and a lot of anger going on between all of you. And, like, I said, as the people come around, kind of say their, what's a word for that? People kind of at funerals. I know there's a word for that. They offer their condolences. Yeah, there we go. Okay. I think it's indulgences, their indulgences. They offer you indulgences, they hand you a piece of paper. Oh, thanks. You've been forgiven of yourself. No, they, offer you their condolences and such. And a lot of it just kind of in one ear, out the other. For a lot of you, it doesn't mean much. I mean, you see a lot of friendly faces. You see a lot of people that you recognize from the city of Gaoling, people that you remember Mr. Okaron helping or talking to or being friends with and stuff. So to some extent, there is a little bit of comfort in the fact that they're here, they're with you. You can see the pain in their eyes and kind of share with that a little bit. But of course, at the same time, you guys had a very different kind of connection with him, obviously. And as this is all finishing up, people are leaving, heading out, and so on and so forth. You guys all obviously kind of stayed behind because given your closeness to Mr. Okran, practically his children, there's a little bit of responsibility on each of you when it comes to this funeral. a man approaches you and let's see, where is it at? There we go. A man approaches you. You see, Madame, yang actually comes back into this funeral space. And a man approaches you, and he begins to tell you, or talk to you all, and he says, yes, hello. My name is Father Bart. Father, are you sure your friend has gone to heaven? Oh, my. Okay. Perhaps you could assure yourselves by buying these indulgent they're back. No. Get out of here. Beat it. My name is Mr. Wu, and, I actually represent the shoot. I don't know if there's, like, an office for situations like this, but, I represent a government office that's responsible for, items to be it's sort of a law office, essentially, items to be passed on to others when someone passes away. And, I just wanted to talk with all of you because it sounded like you four were the closest to Mr. Okaran. given that he owned a tea shop and had a number of tools and utensils and etc, as well as, of course, the building space itself, it, seems that it's a little bit up in the air as far as, who it's supposed to go to. unfortunately, we couldn't find a will inside of the house when we checked things. did our investigation. I don't know if any of you know of this will that may have been written out existing. I feel terrible about this because, as I mentioned, you four were from what I was told. Practically his children, to some extent. but legally, speaking, I can't technically hand off anything to you that was his. Well, what's going to happen to the tea shop, then? well, the tea shop and all of the assets within it, in a week's time, will have to be auctioned off unless document, can be brought forth. That shows that Mr. Okaron wanted that ownership to be left to someone. Think I think he told us something, about a will. it was in the shop, but the place got ransacked, as you can plainly see. So, if you could just give us a couple of days to sort of sift through all the damage, and we can get it to you in a couple of days. Well, of course, since you all had lived there for quite some time, and obviously he had you all living there, you have again, until the end of the week if there might be some chance that there's a document that exists, as you said. Oh, absolutely there is. Okay, well, we just got to get all of our are they just ducks in this universe? Are they like turtle ducks? I know there's turtle ducks, but I could have sworn that ducks might have been one of the animals. I don't know. There's definitely turtle ducks. We got to get all of our turtle ducks in a row before with this situation here, before we can go get that. Yes, of course. Again, I sincerely apologize. I don't mean to bring up such an ordeal, but I know it's obviously important for all of your well being, and I want to see that the right people have access to it. the lady over there, and he points over to Madame Yang, and he says, she was inquiring about it as well. It seems that she has some interest in possibly purchasing, the building itself, the tea shop, and the various resources within. So, again, I just wanted to let you all know if a document isn't presented by the end of the week, everything, well, if you have and she's old, look at her hair. She's terrible. I try not to make judgments based on age or hairstyles, but again, if you do find anything, please do let me know, and, we can get this all sorted out in the most official and appropriate way possible. Thank you. And he, kind of gives you all a bow, and then he walks away and heads out the doors. following, this, madame Yang approaches, and she well, well, one week's time, eh? I suppose I'll be seeing you all. Then she turns and starts to head towards the door as well. She's got pretty good hearing for an old person. And she turns ever so slightly. She just glares at you with an icy, death glare and then turns back and continues on her way. That's right. Keep walking. And she does, and she walks herself out the door. Brock, what were you saying about a will? Oh, I made that up. I had never heard anything, but I figured we could probably find something, though he has to made something. I was just trying to buy his time.
Speaker C: Yeah, we can't have Maddie Yang take over. She was probably in on it.
Speaker A: Yeah, she was speaking very cryptically. Bill, you doing okay? Guess suddenly you, from one of the corners of this I don't want to call it a church. It's not really a church. I guess you could say temple, maybe. you hear a voice from the darkness, the darkest corner of this small temple area. Go over here. I'll go investigate. Sure. All right. you start to approach, and sure enough, there's a man in a dark cloak mysteriously sitting in this dark corner, almost invisible. If you didn't maybe see or hear him go to investigate, get close enough, and then maybe see him wave a little bit or something. Like you almost wouldn't have even known he was there. can I help you? he takes off his hood, and he kind of leans forward so that a little bit of light kind of reaches him. he's got long, dark brown hair, very masculine features, nice, thick chin. And he's got a little bit of kind of not like a heavy beard, by any means, but like a solid what do you call that, bristle? Stubble. Yeah, stubble coming down. And, he says, my name's Otra, but most people just call me Strider. Cool. Bro, why were you in the shadow of Strider? Just where I thrive. are you okay? Do you need a doctor or something, man? No, I'm fine. I, was actually a good friend of Ugarons. Oh. yeah, he, wanted me to give you this, and he hands you a piece of paper. Did you just say who's? He said ukara did he say oh, it's just my accent. Okay. What does he give me? He gives you a letter. It's like a sealed envelope with a wax seal on the back. Any idea what this is?
Speaker C: Might as well just open it.
Speaker A: He said to give it to the four teens at his funeral if anything were to happen to him, which he kind of implied in the letter that he sent me. When did he send you this letter? Well, I received it about three days ago. Okay, I'm going to read the letter in front of him, so I can still converse. Can you? That's a question for Broccoli. Can you? I think I can. Worst case, if I can't read it, I'll just sound out the words. Yeah, then it'll just be strider will just become so frustrated, he'll just take it out of me. Let me read it to you. Gosh. No. Can I just do that to all who it can read. That's my name. Rock. just give me the letter. I'll read it myself. Except this one, I think. Who's Bill? That's, the guy over there. The very stoic man with this specific one is for you, and he hands you a note. but the main one, it's just a letter to all of you. it basically talks because I didn't write this out. I did write out the other one for Bill. but it basically just talks about how much he cared about all of you. He felt that there was something that might happen that might cause him harm or possibly death. And he wanted to make sure he was scared to keep the will in the house or in the tea shop, and so he's hidden it, and he wants you all to find it in order to make sure that you guys get his stuff. Did the old man really give us.
Speaker C: A map, like a treasure hunt?
Speaker A: A treasure hunt? Yeah. I mean, there's this, and then there's the paper ah. That he gave Bill. I'll read it for you. Bill definitely would not want me to read it. She's leaning over his shoulder. He would kind of pull it away from her.
Speaker C: Okay, I'll just give you a nice hug.
Speaker A: I'll read it for you, Bill. I can read. Does he read it out loud? Does Bill read it out loud? Yeah, I guess it's spoken to us. Why would he read it out loud? Not at no, he reads it quietly to himself. He doesn't read it out loud.
Speaker C: Okay, I'm going to read it out for sure.
Speaker A: No. Yes. And there's a map potentially not on.
Speaker C: Yours, on the main one. Yes, there's a map.
Speaker A: That's all you gave us.
Speaker C: Well, we don't know what's on yours.
Speaker A: I guess this is the wait, the Wills hidden somewhere in the house. The letter that you guys got that Strider reads to you, explicitly says that it was in the tea shop, but he has since sent it somewhere or taken it somewhere and hidden it because he was worried that somebody would come after him for it. And that kind of obviously sparks the thoughts of how the tea shop looked pretty ransacked. So you wonder if maybe somebody was, in fact looking for it. Well, Bill, what's your letter say? Some sort of it's some sort of riddle. Do you want me to read it? No, I can read well, it's not that I thought you couldn't. I just figured I offer. I mean, I can read it out loud. Free service. I offer, I guess. I can read it out loud. I can charge for it, I guess. Yeah, go for it. Are you going to stand here? Wait, I can leave. This is all I had to do. Okay. all right. Nice meeting you. And Strider leaves. I got that guy's deal all mysterious in the shadows. I've got some short benders to go. Right. I've never thought I'd meet someone edgier than Mika. Take to the fiery mountains of the Fire Nation to drop a necklace into. You're just remaking. I'm glad this character is gone. Now there's an earthbender that makes his own legs. His name is Legless. Really good with throwing rocks. Okay. Anyways, go ahead. This corner is pretty drafty. Can we go somewhere with better lighting? Sure. What's it say? I can read it while we walk, I guess. Back to the shop. There you go. It.
Speaker D: Says, Are you, like me, a fan of piracy or privateering? out in your DND campaign. Well, check this out. We have been working on a brand new airship combat system. That means you and your privateer crew can now take to the skies and pillage at new heights. Within this system, you will get three dimensional dynamic movement and combat rules. You'll get a brand new updated air crew system, as well as brand new spells, items, creatures, and example airships for you to use in your campaign, as well as crews to put on them. But I think the coolest part about all of this is we have a custom shipbuilder application that will allow you to customize and build your very own airship. It means you and your team can have exactly what you want as you take on the skies. If you're interested in any of that, check out our Sky Zephyrs Kickstarter here at Hermione and the.
Speaker A: Dude. Snyder's return is a tabletop roleplay interview and actual play podcast. We chat with content creators from both mainstream and indie publishers, and we release actual play episodes of systems like our, City of Misgame, Meddlers Monsters, and, Mabin and more games coming in the future. We also have a TTRPG review show on YouTube. Fly like a d six. Come and check us out. You can find us on Twitter at return snyder instagram snyder's underscore Return. You can find us on YouTube at, snyder's Return Discord, and everywhere you get your.
Speaker B: Podcasts. Hey, everyone, skyler here, your friendly neighborhood game master. I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that we at Benders and Brews have been working our creative juices extra hard and pushing our artistic skills to the max in order to bring you some sick Benders and Brews merch. That's right, you can head on over to the Tea Public shop we created where you can snag shirts, stickers, mugs, and so much more with your favorite BNB characters on them. Grab a Chibi Mika baseball t shirt. Or maybe you want a broccoli mug designed with the employee Blissful Brew Tea Shop logo. There's all of those and more and even more down the road when we come up with ideas. So head on over to Tea Public and search for Benders and Brews. Or you can follow us on social media where. We'll post the links that will be easily available to all of you. And of course, if you get some of our merch, be sure to tag us in a photo of you with the respective b b swag, because all of us at the studio would love to see it. Thanks for listening.
Speaker A: Let's get back to the show. Bill, my boy, you're tried and true. I now bestow a gift to you when on the seas, a ship we met, and a pirate ship we were beset. You and I were taken captive on an island where we adapted. Although in danger, we resided and quietly. Our time abided until the moment of opportunity. You and I escaped in unity. Return yourself to island shores and the next clue will soon be yours. Return to the past. Look through the back. Use the flame in your heart to reveal the map. And once you arrive, don't forget about the tea. Bill, you remember where you were on the boat with me. You created a combo so strange in my mind it did in print. So look to your creation of mango and mango and that's where it stops. Lime. No, it's definitely mint. you just didn't add it because it didn't rise. Well, no, it doesn't say anything. it stopped with mango and but I remember that day. And, I came up with the concoction of mango. Man you guys saw it in the shop. Mr. Okaron named it special number three. Oh, that's where that came from. Yeah, it was definitely for me. It was two down from that one tea. What did he call it? Mambo number three. But yeah, I came well, I came up with this the first day I met Mr. Okeron. He asked me to make a tea combo, so I did, and that's what I came up with. So if he wants you to return to an island, do we need to look where? Because he cuts off before mints. Is there a mint container in the tea shop that might be able to scrounge up, maybe hit something in there, maybe the next clue somewhere? I guess we could look for the mint box or something. I don't know. Yeah. All right, so you head back to the tea shop and things have been picked up a little bit since everything happened. Obviously when you guys walked in and found your friend on the floor, guards were called, an investigation ensued. Not much had come from it. You guys got everything ready for the funeral? They had the funeral. And in the meantime, during that time, you cleaned up, in fact, community members, because know a lot of the people in Gao Ling really supported and loved Mr. Okran. So a lot of people would come by, they would help clean up. They'd bring you casseroles, as people do in, whatever the case. I mean, for the most know, there was a really nice support from the community. so things are mostly back to normal. So if you're looking for something or whatever, it's probably back in the place that it normally was that you guys would know pretty well from working in the tea shop. Well, Mika and I aren't going to be too much help because we're just always washing dishes. So where do you guys keep the mint? Don't you guys help make the dishes? I just do dishes. Mr. Okran made all the tea. Well, he kept all his no, I helped sometime. It's right over. And you withdraw a container of some dried mint leaves. I just gotta pop this bad boy open. Just dump it all over the counter. I, popped, like, the cork off the top of it.
Speaker C: Guys, we should just drink the mix.
Speaker A: Of mango and ah, good. It's a good combo. Mr. Okron said so himself. He probably was lying, but, you know are you going to try? No.
Speaker C: Cheers to Mr. Okron.
Speaker A: Oh, no. He knew how much I hated tea. Pour it out for him for the homies. Pour one out for Okra, the legendary special number three. Guo is digging through the mint container, okay? Trying to check if anything bless it. He grabs another an empty container and empties it into it. Okay, so he's taking the tea out of one container into he wasn't finding anything right away, so he just transferred the mint all into a different container. Okay. He's looking inside the container to see if there's anything in the bottom or anything. Okay, as you do this, it's starting to get dark outside. And obviously, given the technological situation of the world of Avatar last airbender during the 100 year War, somebody, I would assume one of you probably goes around to start lighting candles inside of the space. Okay? All right, sounds good. So that way you guys can have some light, maybe some of the tables. nothing is inside of the mint container, unfortunately. I don't see anything in here, guys. Bill, what does your letter say? Doesn't say we have to go to an island or something, like, return to the shore where it all began or something. So it's kind of a long story, but I guess you, guys should know the full story to be able to help me with this, because I'm completely lost, honestly.
Speaker C: Just look through Mr. O'brown's stuff. It talks about a ship, an island. Look at his personal belongings and see knickknacks, you know, maps or ships in a bottle or something.
Speaker A: I guess you could do that.
Speaker C: You can say I'm right.
Speaker A: It's okay. Okay, I don't think have you ever had a ship? Well, we were captured by pirates. Mr. Okeron and I were, when we first met, actually captured the wrong word. We were more part of a trade deal. Yeah, that's about the right word. Yeah, that's true. It was a weird trade deal is what happened to us. And we got traded with pirates to let the rest of the crew go, the rest of the passengers go. it was some fire nation general that organized the whole trade deal as well. And it was weird. But anyways, we got put on a pirate ship and then we helped the pirate crew for a day. Mr. Okra made them a bunch of tea and I swabbed the deck and also knocked out a guy with bow staff, so always been good at that, I guess. and then we escaped on a dinghy with a bunch of his tea and we landed on the shores not too far from here in that dinghy. Now I don't know what Mr. Okron did with the dinghy itself. Maybe he left it there all these years. I've never returned to that spot. But I don't know. Just reading this, it says, return yourself to island shores. And the next clue is still new. So part of me thinks that if we went back to the exact same spot where we washed up, that might be where we go. But then talk to Matt about a map and I think that might be where we find a map. Oh, maybe, here. I'm going to assume that you guys are all I'm going to hand it to Han. Okay. The riddle not Mika. I'm going to assume you guys are sitting around one of the tables discussing this at the tea shop. And as you go to hand the piece of paper, you can kind of feel a little bit of the heat from the candle in the middle of the table that's giving you guys light. And as the map passes by and that heat kind of emanates towards it, you notice some sort of scribbles on the back of the paper of the letter. It's not actually on there, Dave. Sorry, those were my personal scribbles. But I'm just saying in the game you notice some scribbles on the back suddenly sort of appear. Guys, it smells like lemons. Okay? Like lemons. Wait, there's something on the back of this. Or is this just the trick of the light? It is in fact not the trick of the light. What does it say? Well, it's only a fragment. It looks like just, like I said, a few scribbles of lines at the moment. No, it does not say that I had it upside down. It's just a message from Mr. Ogron that says whoa, you a sussy got him. No, hold it closer to the flame. Catch it on fire. Catch it on fire. you bring it a little bit closer to the candlelight and more of this mysterious situation sort of starts, to grow across the page, almost like filling itself in. And you realize that on the back of this page is a map leading to an island, shows where you guys are at from Gao ling all the way over to, an island that you guys maybe have heard of. I, feel like GuoHan probably definitely might have heard of because he's traveled so much. But, it is an island known as Whale Tail Island. Whale Tail Island. it's right off of the shores of, the Earth Kingdom, kind of, I think it's at the bottom there. Sorry. We have a map on the wall. Yeah, that's where they sold Aang they were bringing up. Yes, but they, so that's where this map seems to be leading you. Well, I, guess we got to find a boat. Should we head down to that shore, see if we can find anything?
Speaker C: Do we have enough.
Speaker A: Time? How long does it take to get to Whaletail Island? Game Master do you have that? I could, but I feel like it might be something you'll have to ask a character. All right, well, I figure we head down to the shores. There's probably some sailors, fishermen we could talk to. Maybe we can try and commandeer a boat. How long does it take to get there again? Well, we got to ask one of them. They'll probably know. Oh, man, looks like we're going on a trip, guys. I got to go pack a bag for Dilbert. I was going to say before we left, someone's got to feed him. I don't think he's eaten this entire time. Oh, gosh, poor guy must be hungry. That poor little cephalopod. whatever the case, you guys spend the rest of the night planning a little bit prepping, packing, and obviously feeding Dilbert. you wake up the next morning feeling rested and ready to go a little bit maybe nervous, probably. And hopefully, to some extent, this has reignited some of the fire that might have been lost by, the depressing circumstances. But whatever the case, you head out and one place that you know of in town that offers sort of travel assistance, it's located kind of on the edge of Gaoling. I don't know. They have a couple of, like it's basically like, what do you call them? Travel agents. It's like a travel agency. And you're like, okay, well, I'm not necessarily going on a paid vacation, per se, but I'll go check it out and see if they can give me information. Maybe, you arrive and there's ah, the lady at the front desk, but there's somebody talking to her. And rather than her greeting you, this person just turns around. It's an old man. He's crooked, almost at a 90 degree angle of his back. Turns, around and sees you all and he says, where are you three go, four going, where are you headed? Are you going on vacation? We're going to the island of Nunya. Nunya? I've been to Nunya. I'm sure you have. it's quite a place? Yeah, that's where we're going. So where are you actually.
Speaker C: Going?
Speaker A: Whaletail island. Whale Tail Island. We don't really offer much of, water travel here at our agency, but, we could get you across the mountains to the shores. It's? right over by Chin Village. That's where you want to go. Oh, was he the travel agent? Yes. Oh, I thought he was, like, an old man that he was helping. I like to think I'm more of a guy. I thought the person behind the desk was helping the old crooked man, and then the customer asked, that's why I said, nunya going to blow this random guy off. And then it turns out it's like he's actually the guy. I'm so sorry. I thought oh, man. So you're a guide? Yeah, I'm a guide. I can get you across the mountain. There's mountains that you're going to come with us? Not, all the way to Whaletail. Like I said, I don't offer, water, travel. But I can get you down across the mountains. I know that area real good. How long does a trip like that take us? Oh, if you go my way, usually it only takes about a day. I like that we only have six, so we got to make it down and back in that time. Wow. You guys only have six days to make a whole big trip by the magic. What's going on? Is someone dying?
Speaker C: Yeah, somebody died.
Speaker A: Not anymore. Bring that up. I'm sorry to hear that. Do you offer, Bereavement discounts by chance? I do not. how much does it cost for the shot? Do it for 100 yuan a day. What? okay, man, what about how.
Speaker C: About some nice mango mint tea?
Speaker A: That what who came up with that? Special number three. What specials? One, two, cherry, lime, raspberry. Hibiscus, I will take either of those over. Special number three. Come on. Special number three is not that bad. It sounds like it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker C: So what you're saying is you'll take it instead of the 100?
Speaker A: You got it. Okay, I'll do a, bereavement discount. I'll do 50. You ought a day. That's not bad. He's got to make a living somehow.
Speaker C: We're, angsty.
Speaker A: Teens just died. How much living does he have left to do? I hurt people. Their earring is supposed to be lost, not enhanced. I mean, we did kind of shake down the coyote board, so it's not like we're strapped for cash. How much do you get from them? We still have the thousand we were supposed to give them. I mean, we don't most of that's stuck in repairing the shop. Yeah. So we had one, thousand. Yeah, the, Blissful brew that got ransacked a couple of days back. Did you buy it? No, we worked there. He, like, squints his eyes, and he gets real close. He goes, oh, yes, I remember you. Yes, I've seen all of you going down. Wow. Okay, if you guys are involved with Mr. Okaron, the late Mr. Okra okay, well, then, yeah, I feel a lot better about the Bereavement discount. What a guy. You said you can get us over the mountains in one day? Yeah, by foot. Yeah. why? Do you not like walking? Well, you see yeah. because me and my friend here, we're both Earthbenders. Is there a quicker way we can go through the mountain? Not currently, but, there's people working on it. That really chaps my khakis. What are khakis? You're in ancient times, sir. It's just a phrase. It's just a term. Oh, you're starting something new. Yeah, I hope it catches. I like to think I'm streets ahead. You wouldn't want to be caught streets behind that's right. All right, guys, well, this is an emergency, so let's just pay the man what he needs. Yeah, pay the man what he needs. Yeah, Brock, pay the man what he needs. All right, fine. Apparently well, if anyone would protect the money the best, it'd be you. Okay, that's fair. All right. You would steal I have been whatever extra you'd be slowly siphoning the account. Which one of us ran the register? Okay. Yeah, glo did. I've been keeping track of our finances throughout this adventure. So we can afford I have it all tallied down here. Does anybody else have it? No. Okay. Yes, we have enough. Gohan only works with the money when he's on out, when he's on the clock. Combined, we have more than enough to cover. So we'll pay you the 50 and can you start taking us there now? Yeah, of course I can. I'm ready to go. And since you paid my fee, that's what, hits me at the point where I will introduce myself to you. And he holds out his hand to any of you, I guess, and he says the name's Rooney. I'll, say, there we go. A big strong man shaking hands with little old Rooney. Tall is this guy. Well, that's the tricky. So, like, he looks like he could be like maybe upper five foot, like five foot 910. But like I said, his back is so messed up. He's at like a 90 degree angle. He's like 3ft tall. He got a cane. He's 3ft. Or is he just like no, he's just still walking walking. And he got it as an L. Yes, he's a walking walking seven. If he turns both of it. If he lays his hands out flat and turns them in opposite directions while he walks, he's like, mark their sevens with the line in the middle. What he would look like when he wants to get maximum speed. He puts his hands on the and starts crawling. Oh, gosh, that would be terrifying. Yeah, he's just running in all if he starts running, he puts his arms behind him. And he's always naruto. Would that make him like a capital T? Yes. What was this guy's name? Rooney. Rooney. Rock. Doesn't know how to read, but sure knows his letters. Yep. I can sound out letters pretty well. There you go. as you guys are walking sorry. You guys start following him. He starts leading you. He's like, all right, you guys are all packed? Yes. Good. You're going to be glad you did. All right. On our way. And he starts to lead you guys through. And it's a pretty straightforward shot to the mountains themselves. lots of hills, lots of ravines. it's pretty uneventful until about like four or 5 hours through, maybe six maybe 6 hours in. And you guys start, to notice that there's like a pathway that started to become carved out into the mountains. It's, a pretty wide pathway. And he's leading you through an area that's like, alongside of it, but not actually on the pathway itself. Do you think is a little bit maybe strange? Why, aren't we walking on this path? Why are you taking us over here? Oh, yeah, it's under construction right now. See, just up ahead and he points and you can see some dust that seems to be rising like a dust cloud. kind of further down you can't quite see because it's over a mountain hill, but there's a dust cloud kind of starting to rise up. And he's like, yeah, they've been working on this path. That's why I kind of made that comment earlier about they're working on a way through the mountain, but it's not done yet. Can we go check it out anyways? There's not much to see. It's just a bunch of guys earth bending their way through.
Speaker C: Sounds like a waste of time.
Speaker A: I agree. It's a big waste of time when you got guys like me that can get people through the mountains, easy peasy. But could we, in theory, get through quicker if we talk to those guys? Like I said, it's not done yet. I mean, you'd get so far and then it would just be back to bear walking the mountain. Well, I mean, why would it be brought up if not some sort of adventure? We're on a time French frog adventure. Yeah, we're on an adventure. We're on a freaking treasure hunt. All I will say is, how much adventure do you need? Sounds like a cool thing. You do eventually come up to where the cloud is kind of rising from. And sure enough, there's a bunch of what look like Earthbenders that seem to be like stomping the ground and moving rocks and stuff out of the way as they're making this pathway through. there's a main guy with like a fancy outfit on and he seems to be kind of directing people. And you guys are kind of coming up alongside of this whole little construction situation. Man, these guys always sing the catchiest tune. Yeah. Don't make me have to go find music. It's very rhythmic work. It is very rhythmic. There's seven different octaves being sung at the same time. It's fantastic. And they all somehow sound like Skyler gorset. Oh, god. sounds like the Dwarves from yes, the Hobbit. That'd be awesome. yeah, that's the scene that you see as you guys are walking on by. Why would this be brought up if not for interactions? That's all I'm saying. Is this Connor talking? This is breaking the fourth wall. Why would this be happening? That's so narcissistic. Sorry, broccoli. Would this be happening if not for us to check it out? No, it's fine. If you guys want to keep going, that's fine. Just keep going. I mean, if I'm getting outvoted here, you're definitely getting outvoted here. I want to see a bunch of guys push rocks. If we're, like, walking, kick right past it. If we're walking, like, right past it. Can't though. It's not my power. Yeah, you're pretty, like, alongside. Like I said, you guys would be kind of like up on a hill section overlooking their progress that they're making. It looks like they're doing good work, but not complete. How long have they been working on this for? Oh, man, it's been about maybe two years I think now. yeah, they weren't going to finish today. Brock they're about halfway done. I think they've really plowed through the center of the mountain, practically. It's, something about trading with a fire nation and something I don't know what they're trying to do, but make, it easier, I guess, with Galwing. Yeah. Try to get me out of a job, that's for sure. I guess we'll just keep going. How long have you been doing this route? Me? Oh, man. I found this route when I was growing up in these mountains as a boy. That was long before I was bent at a 90 degree angle. Oh, so you weren't born that way? No. Did you think I was born that way this whole time? I don't know. What do you take me for?
Speaker C: An l name a seven.
Speaker A: A seven. That's better than an ah, lucky number. Yeah, that's right. I like to think I'm quite lucky. I've been making my way through this mountain pass and surviving all the dangers, minus the one that put my back the way it is. Just, rock fell on me. Wait, something happened? Oh, no. Just a rock. Really big rock fell on me. yes, my back stayed this shape, but I can still walk around. What happened to the rock? it fell off me and it hurt. Well, not the rock I hurt. And then I crawled back home. Crawled back. and I don't know whatever happened to that rock. I'm sure it's off happy with its rock.
Speaker C: Family go like a healer.
Speaker A: Went, to a chiropractor it did not work. Yeah, we're walking and talking. It's not like we idly stand there. We wait for the dialogue box to continue these mountains. As you guys are leaving the scene of the construction work in your wake. You suddenly hear a huge explosive sound. And you can feel the rocks and such around you rumbling. And Rooney seems very surprised. What is going on? And all of a sudden you start to hear shouts and screams coming from over in the construction area. We got to go see. Everyone's okay? Right. I don't know. We maybe should just get out of here. There could be an avalanche. Wait, those aren't seem like an avalanche.
Speaker C: Mudslide seven could just have more friends. Need start a gang?
Speaker A: No, he has a job already. He doesn't need to start a gang. Why are you talking about starting a gang? You ever heard anything like this explosion? It sounded like more look like it sounded like something was crawling out of the mountain. What crawling out of the mountain? Is he hard of hearing?
Speaker C: my fox dog starts running towards it.
Speaker A: Okay. Oh, there goes the dog. There he goes. You're going to lose that fox dog. Gilbert's riding it out of his squid bottle and just there goes the squid. Why are you so familiar with all the animals? Oh, there goes that. I've seen an animal or two. We've been with this man for 6 hours. Practically is our uncle at this point. All right, I'll run after it. No one else will. I'll save. There goes the big guy. No, I'm running after. There goes the little guy. You guys saying no I'm already there goes the only girl. just you and me. Let's go check it out, I guess. And you head off. Yeah. Be mindful of your back. Well, as you start walking he says and there goes the guy. And here goes me. And he just starts heading forward very much. Beelim. He's like a pointer dog. There you go. He just moves in the direction that his entire body is pointing pretty much. as you guys make your way up towards the construction site, you see before to you a giant collection of rocks that seems to all be combined to itself. As if a humanoid shape with two arms and two legs. No real head per se. but on the top of where the head would be is a small red gem that glints inside the sunlight. And it seems to be swinging and smashing down towards this construction crew who is all jumping and leaping out of the way. Some of them look injured. They look like they've had rocks fall on them. they're not in an L shape but I digress. And that's the scene that you see before you. And as Rooney approaches and you guys are all seeing this happening below you in the ravine where they were digging out, he says, oh my gosh, it's a mountain spirit. And with that, we'll come back to the mountain spirit next time.
Speaker B: Thank you so much for listening to our show. Of course, don't forget to follow or subscribe to our podcast through whatever podcast site that you're using, such as itunes, Spotify, YouTube and others. Additionally, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Just look for the social media icons. Following us on social media gives you access to all news, announcements and of course, new episodes as they are released. You can check out our website, Bendersonbrews.com, which will feature all of our episodes as well as news announcements and even cool character and player profiles. It's a great hub of information for the Benders and Brews podcast. And finally, we would be truly humbled if you would be willing to take the time to leave us a review. If your podcast site allows you to do so, such as on itunes or in the case of YouTube, you can hit the like and subscribe button and drop us a comment. Tell us about what you thought about our podcast episodes. It sure would mean a lot to us. Avatar Legends is a tabletop role playing game created by Magpie Games, nickelodeon, Avatar and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International, Inc. All rights reserved. I also want to thank the following artists who you can find on Fiver for their amazing creative work on this podcast. Character art was done by Alicio Papadra. Background art by Konichi. Music by Joe Tims. Two one, five. Thanks again for listening and we'll see.
Speaker A: You on the next episode.