Session Zero Heroes - A TTRPG Actual Play Podcast
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. Okuron, the shop's owner and tea master, could do was to recruit four teenage orphans to learn his trade and 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. Imagine, if you will, a story. But not the usual story, which steps in through your front door, but rather through the back door. I'm talking about a back story. But back doors won't be the only doors discussed in today's episode. No, not today. We will be looking into the story of Bill Dor, an unsuspecting child living a seemingly normal life in the Fire Nation. Unsuspecting of what, you may ask? Unsuspecting that he is about to enter the prequel zone. Ash? Ash, where are you? I can't find you. I'm dead. Ash. Help. It help. It hurts. Oh, you look like you've experienced quite the dream, my child. Are you all right?
yeah, I'm fine.
I have some tasty lavender chamomile tea for you if you'd like. Could add a little warm milk, mix it in. Should help you get a peaceful sleep if you want.
No, thanks. I'm not really a fan of tea.
Not a fan of tea. Apologies. I don't think I could be friends with someone who doesn't like tea.
That's fine. I'm not really on this ship to make friends anyways.
I was kidding. But, I tell you what. you take your chances with my tea, and I'll take my chances with being your friend. What do you say?
Sure. I don't see why not. I don't have anything else better to do. But don't think you'll get me to start liking your tea. I'm all for learning how to make it, but actually liking the stuff, well, that's a different story.
M all right, fine. That works for me. You get some rest, my child.
Welcome. How can I help you?
The name is General Wang Long. Are you Jasper BERTNEY?
That's me. Oh, and this is my son, Ash. He's just stopping in to hand off my lunch. I forgot from home. What can I do for you, sir?
I hear you're quite the engineer.
Well, I do what I can. What can I do for you, General?
I'm in need of a weapon.
Okay. What kind of weapon?
that's what I'm not sure about yet. Something big, something powerful.
Is there something specific that the Fire Nation needs it for a, specific purpose, yes.
I'm trying to take out an Earth Nation village with it, so it needs to be able to withstand and bust through rocks, dirt, that sort of thing.
Wait a second. An Earth Nation village? I'm confused. Are we at war?
War? No, not currently. Just need to test out the Fire Nation's capabilities, determine how capable we are should we need to go to war in the near future.
And you want to do that by testing out a war machine of my design on an Earth Kingdom village?
That is correct. Why do you make it sound like that's a problem?
That's a war crime. You must be joking, right? this can't possibly be sanctioned by the Fire Nation military.
I beg your pardon, Jasper, but I am, a representative of the Fire Nation army. Consider my orders as if they are coming straight from the lips of the Fire Lord himself. Now, can you make me my weapon or not?
Whether I can or can't is irrelevant, because I won't. I won't allow my designs to be used in the prospect of attacking the lives of the innocent. Now, if you don't mind, General, I have a lot of work to do. If you need me to get the door for you, I can, but otherwise it's behind you. If you would be so kind.
This is not the end of this discussion.
I believe it is. Good day, sir.
Dad, is everything okay?
I'm not sure, son. I've heard others speak of similar things that have me concerned about the priorities of our Fire Lord.
In school they said we should never question the Fire Lord.
I know they do, son. But just remember that sometimes what society deems correct isn't always so. It's important that you always remember to think for yourself and think critically. Never take things at face value. And of course, always stick up for what's right, no matter what. Protect the innocent. Guard those who are weaker than yourself. Do you understand?
Yeah, I understand, dad.
Good boy. Now head on back home. Your mother is probably wondering where you got off to.
Yes, sir.
Well, it looks like you managed to get a good night's sleep after all. No more nightmares.
No. And you're kind of creepy. Did you watch me while I was sleeping or something?
No, but, I did grab you breakfast before it was all gone, since I knew someone decided to sleep in.
Thanks, I guess.
So my name is Mr. Okuron. Or at least that's what they call, rope. Your name is Rope?
No, it's door. It's a door.
Door. All right. Is that your first or last?
Last. It's last.
Well, thank goodness. What's your first?
what are normal first names?
Normal first names? I don't know. tau? Pima? Akota? Yuka. Bill. Oh, Bill.
Yeah, it's Bill. It's Bill.
Your name is bill, Dor.
That's right.
Well, nice to meet you, Bill. Door.
What do you mean we're behind schedule? I have direct orders from the Fire Lord himself. If they are not followed to the letter, there will be hell to pay, and it will be paid with your head.
Oh, crap.
What's wrong, my boy?
Nothing. I just,
Damned captain has no idea how to sail a ship. Unforeseen delays, my rear. Hey, boy, come here a moment.
Yes, sir. What do you need?
Take off your headband. I want a better look at you.
I'd rather not, sir.
I am a general in the Fire Lord's army. You will do as I say, and you will look me in the eye when I speak to you.
Well, you see, I got a really bad haircut, sir, and I'd rather not. No one see it, and I'm awfully embarrassed about it.
Come here. there. Yes, you look very familiar. I'm sure I know you from somewhere.
you must be mistaken, sir. I don't know you.
I've never seen you before, so how.
Could you possibly recognize.
Ah. general. you found my grandson. I've been looking all over the ship for him. There you are. Bill, come help me finish prepping the tea. just because we haven't opened our tea shop yet doesn't mean that we can't get some customers as we travel.
This your, my grandson?
Yes.
You two run some kind of tea shop, eh?
Oh, that's. Oh, rather. We will be opening it soon. We're, headed for Gao Ling now. I'm still thinking of a name, but I'm leaning towards the Blissful Brew. Ha.
gao ling. That's an Earth Kingdom village? Yeah.
yes, sir.
I'll give you a piece of advice, old man. You'd be better off heading back to the Fire Nation and opening up a hot leaf juice franchise. Not much stake in starting a business in the Earth Kingdom, I'm afraid.
oh, well, it's funny you should say that. I actually just quit working for hot leaf juice.
That was a foolish decision, old man. Hot leaf juice is the best damn tea in all the land. But, hey, it's your life to throw away.
Well, I'll keep that in mind. I appreciate the advice, General. Have a nice day.
Hey, boy.
yeah?
What's the best tea you and your grandpa make?
mint mint mango. Yeah, mint mango? Yeah.
Mint mango. I've never thought of that combination, but.
Could be worth a try.
We could make it the special back at the tea.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
I just don't know what to do, Margaret.
I don't understand how he can do this. It's your factory. You don't have to make them what they want.
I know, but he's a general. In these days, that means a lot more than it used to.
I just don't understand. There hasn't been a war with the Earth Kingdom in years. The Fire Lord hasn't even announced there has been any sort of incident.
It's an unprovoked attack. For what reason, I can't imagine. But my factory and I will have no part of it.
I'm proud of you love, standing up for your principles.
Well, someone has to. I've made things for the Earth Kingdom. They've always been good customers and they're good people. I won't be a part of needless violence against them. They sent soldiers to my house.
What could they want?
I'm not sure, but it can't be good.
You're going out there?
I must.
Jasper.
Grab her, too.
Stop. What is the meaning of this? Leave, my family alone.
I'm afraid we're far past that. You see, as I had mentioned earlier, I am on orders from the Fire Lord himself to procure weapons in order to successfully take over an Earth Kingdom settlement and turn it into a prison camp as part of a great conquest plan the Fire Lord has in place. Now, I'm not going to be the one to upset the Fire Lord when he finds out that one of the best engineers in the Fire Nation won't make him what he wants. So I give you the opportunity to make this easy on me and on yourself. Agree To begin design and manufacturing of the weapons I want, or I will be forced to take drastic measures.
I will not make your weapon so you could attack the innocent. I will not stand for unnecessary violence.
that is quite unfortunate. Then I must do this the hard way.
Leave her alone.
Stop.
Oh, but you're doing this to her, not me.
Enough of this.
This is between you and me, not her. You have a problem with me?
Then we will deal with it.
What? You want an agni kai ha?
My sources tell me that you're not even a firebender. It would be a pointless endeavor. No. I like my way much better. So here's how this will work. I won't harm you or your family if you simply do as I ask and allow us to make use of your skills and factory to make what we want. Deal? That doesn't sound like a yes. Your wife is quite beautiful. It would be most unfortunate if her beauty was tainted by a burn scar.
No. Stop.
You're a monster.
Like I said, you're the one doing this to her, not me. I've made a very generous offer. I'll even throw in a little extra. Agree to my terms, and I won't.
Send another soldier into your house to.
Rip your children from their pets and teach them not to play with fire. You've already lost one son to the plates, have you not? Shall we make it another?
Fine. I'll design your damned war machines. Just leave my family alone.
See, I knew he was a reasonable man. I expect to see the designs completed in two months and a first prototype in three months after that. I know your team works fast, and I expect that same speed as I will be heading out after I get this. The settlement we have in mind should be the perfect opportunity to see how capable your machine is. It's a fairly small village, after all. Even if your weapon is a flop, it won't take much for us to overcome the farmers that live there.
You know, I'm not trying to get all up in your business or anything, but, I couldn't help but notice that, the general sure seemed to recognize you.
Well, whether he was about to or not doesn't matter.
We tricked him. That may be true, but, I fear that he still seemed a bit suspicious. He might not be as fooled as we hoped.
Well, I'll figure that out if it comes to that.
Well, if I might be so bold as to ask, why does he recognize you?
Why are you so interested?
Well, I figured that now that you're my grandson, it sure would be nice to have a bit of honesty between us all.
Ah, right.
Yeah. Fair.
My real name isn't actually Bill.
Oh. Well, I figured that much out already. What? How? Well, firstly, neither Bill nor dor names I've ever heard attached to anyone I've ever met in the Fire Nation, and I grew up there.
Oh, you did?
And secondly, the combination is one of the worst fake name attempts I have ever heard of.
Okay. That bad, huh?
Well, the worst one was Pippin Padalopsacopoulos, but we, can keep your Bill door disguise going.
I greatly appreciate that.
So, the general, he's not looking for you, is he?
No, he's not looking for me. It's just purely coincidence. He's about half the reason why I ran away.
Ran away, you say? what's the other reason?
I don't really want to talk about that.
Of course. No pressure. Your life is your own. I'm simply an old man trying to help.
I appreciate that. I've, been meaning to ask you.
Ask away.
Well, given that the general is on this ship with us, and M, like you said, he seems to be suspicious of me. And it's not like I'm really doing anything anyways, just on this boat here.
you want to work with me and maintain your cover so he doesn't catch on to your identity.
Yeah, that's what I was meaning, if that's all right.
Oh, Bill, my boy, I wouldn't have it any other way. Now, if you're going to be my grandson, I'm going to have to teach you how to make tea.
I brought you your, lunch again today, Father.
Very good, son. Now run along home. The factory isn't safe for you anymore, not with all these soldiers around these days.
Dad?
Yes, son?
You don't want to design these weapons, do you?
No, son, I don't. They will only bring harm to those they're used against.
Then why are you doing it?
I thought you said always stick up.
For what's right and never back down, no matter what.
I know, son, but sometimes you're put into a position where there are two right decisions, but each have a bad outcome. And there's not much you can do but pick the one that has the closest impact to you. And in my case, I chose to protect my family because that's all I have control over.
Are you saying that if it wasn't for me, mom, and my brother, you wouldn't be able to stop making these machines?
It's not that simple, son. And don't blame yourself or anyone in our family. This is a choice I had to make for me. And General Long is the one choosing to bring harm to.
Well, Mr. BERTNEY, I just got back from the testing range, and I have to say you are absolutely the designer they say you are. Those machines pack quite the punch.
I'm glad you're satisfied with the product. Will you be on your way so that my factory can go back to the manufacturing we are quite behind on.
Now, whereas I will be heading out for the Earth Kingdom. Unfortunately, your factory will need to continue manufacturing more of my weapons.
What?
That wasn't part of the deal.
Well, that's just the thing. I had sent word to the Fire Lord that your machines were functioning up to, if not above expectations, and he insisted that he have more made for each battalion. Learn to take a compliment, my friend.
This is my factory, and I will make no more of your machines.
You could take the designs elsewhere and.
Have another factory work on them for you, if you like them so much.
That would slow production down by months. No. We will continue here until further notice. And you will continue making them that. Or must I pay your family another visit?
Fine.
Good. I'll be heading out, but I'll be sure to check on the progress once I've conquered the Earth Kingdom village and finish building up the prison camp there. I'll be sure to have any passing generals stop in and experience the capabilities of your machines. In the meantime, I'm sure they'll be quite eager to include one of them under their own command.
You need to go home, Bill. It's not safe.
Yes. Yes, sir.
last, call for all passengers heading to the Earth Kingdom.
Let's see. I've got the money, the new clothes, some food from the market. I don't think I forgot anything. It'll be a couple days before they realize I've left the island, and by then, it's too late. I'll, be one less thing forcing dad to do the wrong thing.
You got your ticket, boy?
yes, sir. right here.
No adults with you lads? No.
I'm off to stay with my mother. she's an Earth Kingdom noble woman.
Oh. And where's your father?
Eh, well, after mother got caught, him with a young nomad woman, she divorced him.
That's plenty of details for me, thank you very much.
I'm sorry I asked.
The sleeping quarters are in mid deck, and breakfast is at 06:00 a.m. Sharp every morning. You're welcome on the main deck anytime, and especially so if you start to get seasick. Welcome aboard the Wavering. All are aboard. Crew, lift the anchors. We're off to the sandy shores of the earth kingdom. Bill, wake up. Something is happening on the deck. I think we're being boarded.
Boarded? what do you mean?
Pirates. All right, everyone up. Hand over your valuables, please, sir. this is a passenger ship. We have nothing of value. You shut your mouth, old man. My sources have assured me there's something valuable on this ship that's being transported. The weapon. What was that, boy?
nothing.
He's hiding something. Men, get over here. Grab these crates here. Oh, wait. No, please. Those are my tea ingredients. Oh, yeah? Any of them rare? Incredibly so. Perfect. No, please stop. You could damage them. I need them for when I get to gaoling.
What is the meaning of this? I don't take kindly to pirates, especially when they're on my ship.
You're a ship? I thought this was a passenger ship.
Let's just say the fire nation army is making use of it to remain incognito.
Oh, we didn't sign up for soldiers.
I figured as much.
Don't move.
Abbaso, what do you think you're doing?
You wouldn't want me to hurt these innocent passengers, now, would you?
I wouldn't lose any sleep. Over.
Okay, okay, but, what if this whole ship went down?
What are you talking about?
well, if this is simply just a passenger ship, then I doubt you have any sort of weapons on it. My ship, on the other hand, is well armed with cannons, ready to fire. Try anything, and I'll give the order to shoot.
All right. So it seems we have a standoff. What do you want?
Our sources told us that this ship is transporting something incredibly valuable.
I see. And who is this source?
Oh, I'm not telling you.
Let's make a deal then. My soldiers and I will let you leave completely unharmed and with whatever supplies you can carry in one trip. In addition, I will give you this. All you have to do is tell me the name of your informant and where I can find them, and we'll just pretend like this whole ordeal was just a misunderstanding.
All right? Deal. But we are taking the boy as well. If anyone tries anything in the meantime, I'll just feel a whole lot better having a hostage with me. Wait. No.
Quiet, old man. Agreed.
All right, you bunch of salty sea dogs, grab a creative loot and let's get out of here. His name is Chang Sanani. He's the owner of a traveling carnival. We came across them as we were leaving the Western air temple. He said they had just come from the fire nation and saw a production factory producing some kind of special new machines. And that one of the prototypes was being loaded onto the ship.
I see. And did he say where he was taking his carnival next?
I believe he said they were sailing for Senlin village now.
Sen lin village, you say? how perfect. this gold has been well earned, my friend. May the ocean waves be in your favor as you travel from here.
Yeah, sure. Whatever. Have a nice day. All right, men, let's go back on the ship. Please, sir, you must take me with you. What kind of operation do you think, Abraham? No, I'm no passenger ship. But, sir, the boy, he is my grandson. Then I'll be sure to train him up into a fine member of Mikru. Well, then, let me join your crew as well, sir. What? We don't have much need for fat old men on my sheep. I'm a master of tea making. A, master, you say? Well, there's no prize awarded for humility, I suppose. I tell you what. I've been having some pretty nasty nightmares lately that have been keeping me, up. You come along and make me a pot of your best nightmare deterrentee. And if I get a full night's sleep tonight, you could stick around. If not, well, then I throw you overboard. That sounds like a fair deal to me. And with that, you find yourself being called aboard the pirate ship as the crew tosses their loot onto the deck, releases the ropes from the passenger ship you were just on, and sails into the night. So, Bill Cameron, as bill, you find yourself, on board a pirate ship. You and Mr. Okaron both, they've just stolen a bunch of his rare, tea ingredients, crates of them. So, those are on there with you. They're currently, putting those off to the side, kind of where they keep a, handful of other boxes of who knows what kind of stuff they've looted or supplies or whatever the case. you and Mr. Okaron are standing there on the front deck. the pirates are all fairly well armed with swords and, other potential weapons. definitely not a situation where you feel like if you tried something, it'd be tough to get away with it. Potentially. So what would you like to do?
are they directing us anywhere?
as it currently stands, you have one big guy just kind of standing there next to you. they don't have you tied up, though. again, they have their weapons out. They assume that you're smart enough to know don't try to run.
Yeah, I guess I would just follow them and see where they lead me. I figure they're probably going to take me to wherever they keep hostages. I don't know.
Sure. yeah. So after a couple of minutes of standing there waiting, as kind of the crew gets everything together, the, captain actually runs over. When you first got on the captain ran over to the kind of main, steering of the ship and was basically just he looked a little nervous in the sense that, he wanted to make sure that you guys were well away before he decided to come and deal with you guys. Essentially, he didn't want to be able to see the ship that you were just on because he was know, what if Wang long tried something or whatever the case? So, as you guys are waiting, you eventually get out of sight of that ship, and, he comes and he approaches you, and he, well, well, two new members of the crew. Well, what should I do with you, eh? And Mr. Okaron says, well, I could, start getting that tea ready for you if you show me to the kitchen or whatever it is that you usually prep any meals in. He says, Ah, yes. You can head down to the next deck, and you'll meet Cookie. He's the one. He's our chef down there, and he can get you all set up for whatever you need. I expect that tea in my hands in let's see, the next 20 minutes or so you should have a pot of boiling water ready for you. So that's one step you don't need to deal with. Mr. Okaron turns to you, and he says, well, Bill, I suppose we better do what he says.
I guess so. Do I have to go there?
Oh, if you want to go to your room I can show you to your room instead.
Will I get a room?
Yes. The two of you will be bunking together.
Cool.
well, as long as he can follow through with his promise. Otherwise, it might be a room just.
For you, milad, because you're gonna wait. What?
Well, if Mr. What did you say your name? Okran. Well, if Mr. Okaron here can't help hold his promise and help me get a good night's sleep, well, I'll be sending him to be feasted on by the bull sharks. Oh.
Well, then, Bill turns, look at Mr. O'Hara and says, well, you better, make a mean pee or else, you'll be in big trouble.
I've helped people before with calming, soothing teas to help with a good night's sleep. I'm not worried about my skills. if you just need to rest, that's fine with me, Bill.
So, wait. There's teas that help with sleeping?
Sure. There's teas that help with a lot of things.
I may have to try one of those someday.
Oh, sure. Are you having trouble sleeping, Bill?
Well, sure, but I don't think now's the time to talk about that.
I tell you what I mean. I usually make things in bulk. So I could bring you a cup of tea if that's all right with you, Captain. Sure. It makes me feel a little better that you wouldn't try poisoning the boy with the same tea you try poisoning me with.
I mean, I'm his grandson, after all. You won't just try it. You'll give me the good stuff.
Oh, I would hope so. I'd, be a little bit concerned of your family dynamics if, he tried to poison you. All right. Follow me, boy. And, you Mr. Okaran. Like I said, next deck below, you'll find Cookie, you'll find the kitchen. Get to work.
Well, I'm no help in the kitchen, though.
No, I just mean okrat.
Oh, okay.
You can come with me, and I'll show you to your room. Oh, okay. Sick.
Yeah, that works.
so he takes you and, so basically, on the sort of second or yeah, second deck, front end of the ship. I don't know the terms of the four sections.
There's a poop deck, and there's the.
Spear and the starboard. Yeah, all that stuff. I don't know ship terminology. Maybe I should have studied up on it beforehand, but whatever the case, in the front most portion of the ship, that's where, the crew sleeps. it's also where you have the sort of port colors that open up for the cannons and things like that. I think that's the correct term. so, basically their thinking is if things were to happen and they needed people to be on the cannons, like, ASAP, they'd be right there, and it would wake everybody up, too. That would that's right. in the back section, on the other hand, that's where they've got, like, the kitchen and everything else. So Mr. Okaron follows you guys down the steps into the second, deck, or whatever. He goes one way, you guys go the other way. the captain, he leads you over. He opens up a door, into a room. It's a pretty crammed room, and you kind of assumed as much you've been in, obviously, you were just in the other ship, and it was pretty crammed space. just more because of the amount of people that were there. This one's more crammed because the space is limited. But basically, it's like two to a room. It's like a dormitory, maybe a little bit smaller than that than a college dormitory. it's quaint. So he says, all right, there you go. There's your room. Have yourself a good night's sleep. But I expect you up in Atom in the morning at the break of dawn, helping out with the ship.
Oh, yeah, sure.
All right. Do you have any prior experience with boats, my boy?
Yeah, I used to work on a boat back, in the day. well, not really. It was a family boat. all they had me do was mop.
Well, perfect. Then I guess I know exactly what to have you do here. Perfect.
I'm good at that.
There you go. I like the spirit, but I better see you in the morning or I'll be pretty dang. Upset I have to come wake you up myself?
Oh, no. I usually wake up pretty early. I thought you mean I was going to jump off. And I'm like, I'm not that good at swimming.
Oh, no, I'm not too worried. It's going to be quite some time before we even reach land.
Where are we going, anyway?
A small island right off the coast of the Earth Kingdom. It's, well, I don't want to spoil the surprise, but it's a little hideout us pirates use. Also. It's close by the not too far from the port where we usually do a lot of the trade. And from what we steal and loot. Oh, you like stealing and looting, don't you, boy? Well, as much as any pirate, that's what I like to hear.
yeah.
All right. You get some sleep, lad. You've had a long day getting kidnapped and all, he says as he closes the door behind him. And there you go. you're at your room on your own, chilling.
And just like that, I have another, one of my, characters. I've played RPGs as that is a pirate.
Yeah, just like that, you've got another pirate now, another pirate character. You've solidified the pirate title.
yeah, I guess I would just is it late at night?
Yeah, I'd say it's. I mean, you were sleeping when you guys got boarded. So, I mean, yeah, it's probably pretty if not early in the morning.
Honestly, I would lay down. I was just in the middle of sleeping. This probably whole situation has probably been like 30 minutes. So I'm probably still tired.
Oh, yeah.
So I'll just go to bed.
Okay. All right. as you fall asleep and maybe 30 minutes or so in, you hear the door to your room open. I don't know if it necessarily would awaken you or not. I don't know how deep or light of a sleeper that Bill is about.
Middle if it's quiet, he won't hear it.
I would say, it's just enough noise to kind of like pull you out of whatever cycle of your REM that you're still know you got your eyes closed. And it would take you a half a second to just drop back into sleep. But basically, you just hear Mr. M. Okaron, come in. you hear him set something down on the there's like a dresser next to your bed. You hear him set it down there. It clinks, so you assume it might be like a cup of tea and like a little saucer or something. and then you just hear him, ah kind of some rough rustling of cloth as he changes into something else. Or just gets into bed and gets under the covers. And he too, goes to sleep on his own bed, on his own cot.
Or whatever they have anyway.
yeah. And then otherwise, you wake up the next morning and, mr. Ogaran is still snoozing, but it's pretty early, or at least you assume I can't really see because you're inside of the ship. well, I would almost argue you open up the door and they keep the port colors open because the waves weren't super heavy. So obviously water wouldn't have been splashing around inside of through the windows. And yeah, there's just like a very orange light kind of starting to come in. So you know that it's about dawn and, you look back, you see that yes, indeed, he did bring you a cup of tea, last night. But by this point it's probably reached lukewarm temperatures. but otherwise, yeah, it's dawn.
All right.
Ah.
Bill swings his feet around and off the bed and he's just sitting there waking up. He starts just kind of talking himself under his breath. M. So looks like they didn't kick the old man off anyway out of it. The tea must have been good enough to, well, not have him sleeping with the fishes. And Bill leans over at the cup and he like, sniffs it. What's it smell like?
trying to mean, do you think Bill has ever smelled like at least lavender before?
Yeah.
Okay, so it definitely has like a nice lavender scent to it with something else that you're not entirely sure. just because it's something that's probably very tea oriented and since you're not somebody that likes tea, it wouldn't have necessarily caught his nose.
It just catches lavender.
Sure. Definitely lavender.
He, picks up the cup and he just takes a sip.
Okay. Like, I said, it's reached lukewarm, so it's not hot or cold tea, which is normally the two types of tea that a person would drink. But, it's pleasant. It's pleasant. It's very peaceful feeling. I'm not going to say that you get overwashed with a sense of just peace and soothingness or whatever, but it's a little bit relaxing.
But does it taste like tea?
Yeah. And as you do, you know, kind of jolts awake and he says, I hear someone spitting out tea. oh. Bill, you're awake? Yeah.
This tea really woke me, up.
I tell you what, I had not got enough sleep. My 8 hours is really thrown off. Do, you know what time it is?
Best guess around seven.
Seven.
I usually always just wake up around then.
Oh, okay. So probably about dawn. I suppose it's about time wake up.
When the sun comes up.
Yes. well, I suppose we might as well get at it. Were you tasting the tea? Yeah. Well, what did you think?
Tastes like tea.
Okay. Wasn't fond of that's a very broad statement, Bill.
I just don't like the flavor of.
It.
Did feel it did feel a little, I don't know, soothing. So maybe if I'm having a bad dream or something, I could drink that. I'd probably choke it down. But, I mean, if it helps give you peace, then it'd be like taking medicine. Sometimes they taste a little bad, but it helps. Okay, I don't know if you have medicine.
No, absolutely, yes. I've used it myself.
Honestly, when I ever got sick, my mom would bring me this weird soup thing, and it was, like, bubbling, and it tasted funky. And I would drink it.
Tasted awful.
I'd have to hold my nose and everything, but believe it or not, next day I felt right as rain. Brand new. Bill it's amazing the things that,
A good hot liquid can do, or.
Soup or whatever the case, whatever magical soup, or in this case, your magical tea that keeps you on this ship due to a man.
Well, I would say there's no magic in it, Bill. But, you know, tea is a mysterious thing, and I've spent my whole life learning it. And I have to say, there might just be some sort of a magic to tea. I truly think so.
Is it because your secret ingredients love?
It very well might be, Bill.
Okay, I'm going to tell everyone. And ruin your secret?
No, that's all right. Well, like I said, I suppose we better get moving before the captain wakes up and gets mad at us. I don't know what they've got planned for us.
I'm going to be swabbing the deck.
Okay.
I don't know what they're going to do. Probably have you make tea all day.
That sounds fine to me. Bill, I hope you feel the same way that I do, and that, we probably can't stick around on this crew if, the opportunity arises.
I think I have a plan. Okay, so, while we were talking, you were gone. I talked to the captain by ourselves, right? And he started talking. I asked him where we were going, and he said we're going to, like, a pirate hideout right out it's, like, on an island right outside the Earth Kingdom.
Oh, okay.
And so I was thinking, well, since we're going to both get to the Earth Kingdom, you could just stay with these pirates till they get to the hideout, and then, I don't know, maybe make a break for it, then find out if we're at the pirate hideout. There's probably going to be smaller boats or something, and we just get our way to the mainland. He said it was close enough that they could go to a close dock, do trading on the mainland. So that's my plan.
Okay. Yeah, no, that sounds good.
Until then, we just bite our time, I guess. Make friends with the pirates. Make them think we're not trying to run, so that if we do run, they won't expect it as much.
Sure. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan to me. All right, well, let's get to it then. Yeah. All right. you just find me probably in the kitchen and if you need anything.
No, yeah, I'll probably be in the know getting my food.
All right, sounds good. And, with that, you guys both kind of split up and, Mr. Okaron heads back over to the kitchen, assuming that's where they want him. And then you head up to the top of the deck to wait further orders. so as you arrive up there, you see the rest of the crew all seems to be kind of gathered around and they're all whispering amongst themselves. Seems like something might be off. And, as you approach them, you start to hear some, of what they're whispering about. And they're like, I don't know where he is. he's always out here, he's never late. he's very punctual. And so I don't know what it is that, why he wouldn't be here.
I'm laughing because a pirate just used the word punctual.
He's very punctual.
I was like, what kind of pirates am I surrounded by?
Well, what's that pirate game we've played like a few times with, forgotten water for on water? Yeah. There's all types of pirates. True.
There's the spoken pirate.
Yeah. The one that's like, well, I'm a college educated, but you know what? This is the job I found.
I'd rather be a pirate.
Sure. Exactly.
So that pirate's on this yeah.
He's like well, he's always quite punctual. I don't know why he wouldn't the.
Other pirate looks at him, goes, punctual. What does that mean?
Why he hasn't been stabbed before? Well, I mean, he has, but not lately. He said what? No, not punctured. Punctual, you dang college grad, you. I can never understand what you're saying.
Anyway, that's what you hear, Bill. Just kind of if there's like a group of them, he's going to try to slide into the back of them and just kind of like, listen in to what they're saying. Try to figure out who they're talking about.
Okay.
He doesn't see the captain, right?
Correct.
So he might be assuming that's who they're talking, right?
Right. Yep. And after a couple of more whispers between them, you do catch somebody say like, well, I don't know what to do. If the captain's not here, where are we supposed I mean, I know where we're going, so I guess we'll just keep I don't know. the first mate seems to be kind of like leading this charge. So he's the one talking. He's like, I don't know. I don't know where the captain is. I'm not going to go barging into his room and wake him up if he's sleeping. And someone's like, well, what if he's dead? And they're like, wait a minute, the tea m. There must have been something sketchy about that tea. okay, I'll go check on the captain and the rest of y'all head down to the kitchen and grab that tea maker because obviously he's up to something. And they're yeah, yeah. And they start getting, like, kind of up in arms. They're all getting their swords up. Let's get the tea maker. He poisoned the captain.
Bill's going to be like, there was.
Nothing wrong with that tea. But all of them all kind of turn to look at you and they're all kind of glaring at you and they're like, it's the new boy. And the first mate guy, he says, well, what do you know about the tea?
Well, a couple of things. First off, I know the old guy. He's my grandpa, so I know he wouldn't poison anyone. And second, he gave me the same tea. so the tea is fine, honestly.
If I was to take a best.
Good guess, the tea is to help with sleep. Maybe he's just having a really good sleep.
the well spoken pirate off in the corner, he says, well, I believe, m, that he might just be in cahoots with the old man.
Yeah, he's my grandpa. Not really cahoots, though. I mean, go check on him.
He's probably asleep. And the first mate's like, all right, that sounds fair. All right, everybody wait right here. And they all watch as he because obviously the captain's got his room right up by, the top of the deck, kind of by the steering wheel. I feel bad. Someone's going to be like, you idiot. That's not what it's called.
I think it's just called a wheel.
A wheel?
Yeah.
So, he knocks on the door and there's no answer. And he tries the door and it's locked. And he jiggles it a little bit and he goes, okay, one, two, three. And he just slams himself up against the door, knocks it wide open, and he stands there for a second. He's like, Captain, captain, are you all right? And all of a sudden, the captain comes walking out, pushes past him. He says, Why'd you break open midor? I was having the nicest rest I've had in quite a long time. And you come breaking in my door. You burst in here, making all kinds of noise, waking me up. What are y'all doing standing around? Get to your jobs. You know where we're going. You know what you do. And everybody's just kind of like, awkwardly with their mumbling and stuff. They just start to disperse and head off to their jobs. And the cats who comes down, he's like, well, I definitely won't be throwing that tea maker overboard. I tell you what, he's a stand up guy. Made the best tea I've ever had. You that boy.
sir, yes.
well, where's your grandpa?
He's down in the kitchen.
well, I'll have to go down there and thank him. what are you up to?
I mean, he'll probably make you a morning brew, too.
yeah, that sounds good. I wonder if he does coffee.
He does everything. I bet he'll make a great one that wake you up, give you spirits for the day.
Yeah, that sounds good to me. What are you doing, boy? have they given you your mopping bucket yet?
No, I was waiting for anything.
You there, calconi, give him his mop and bucket. We could do the well spoken yes, Captain. I'll get him his mop and bucket right away. Follow me, child. And the captain kind of goes walking off down towards the stairs to go, you assume, to talk to Mr. O'gran. This, new guy, Calcone. He, approaches you. He's a built man, but, he's kind of dorito shaped where you can tell he kind of skipped a lot.
Of leg day, but he doesn't he.
Skipped all the leg. He's got scrawny little legs, but he's got, like, big built arms. if he was any more muscular, he probably wouldn't even stand on his legs. He'd just, like, walk around on his giant arms, do a mug shot. and he's bald. He kind of looks like one of those early English boxers.
Giant mustache.
He has a huge handlebar mustache. He looks just like in the posters, those guys that do the box fisticuffs. And he says, well, boy, since you joined our crew, he said mopping bucket. Yeah. Follow me. And he starts walking away with his big arms, and you find this little closet. And, he opens the door, and he just kind of shows you in. And he's like, well, I can't get it because, my big shoulders. But if you want to go in there and get your mopping bucket, couldn't.
You just turn sideways?
I could try.
And he turns sideways.
And you hear, like, the sound of the frames around the door is, like, creaking as he's trying to fit himself in there. And he's like, I got it. you ever put your hand in the cookie jar and you grab the cookie and you can't get your hand out? I feel like that's where we're at right now.
You can get back. I'll get them.
All right. I feel like I keep accidentally doing an accent.
this guy, he's a half pirate.
Half strike, and it just slits into exactly. So, he lets go of the mop, and he pulls his entire self out of this closet. And, kind of looks a little embarrassed, I guess, as you'll just kind.
Of slides by him and grabs the bucket and mop.
He says, well, it usually takes about a day to start, at one end of the deck and end up at the other end of the deck. And, mop your way from there to there. oh, breakfast. Yes. that'll probably be ready here in about ten minutes.
Okay. I just figured I'd follow the crew.
Okay. Yes.
well, what do I use for the water?
Oh, yeah. See, all you do is you take a rope and you tie it around the bucket, throw it overboard. don't lose the bucket. We lose a lot of buckets, throughout an entire journey.
Got it.
And, for different reasons. And, mopping the floor should not be one of them.
Okay.
And then you just pull it back up and you dump the water on the ground. You just start swabbing.
So I just use seawater?
Yeah.
Okay. I can do that.
All right. I mean, it's clean enough. The salt really, helps to disinfect things.
You're the professional here.
There you go. if you do need soap, which you usually don't, we've got some in the closet there. it doesn't take a lot. Basically just kind of wash your hands in the same water and then it'll kind of set it up and then you just go from there. Okay, I can do that. All right. Good to hear, boy. if you need me, I'll be around.
Oh, and the name is Bill.
Oh, Bill. Oh, yeah. Nice to meet you. like the Captain said, my name's, Karconi.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too. Glad, to have you on board. We're pretty rough, but, I think all things consider, we're a pretty good gang of pirates.
I'm going to be the best pirate.
Oh, lad. Little cheeky, cheeky lad. You. Yeah. All right, well, I'll see you later. I got my own work to do. And Bill, don't lose that bucket.
Bill grabs the bucket them up, and then also some rope that's in there and heads up to the front of.
The boat, I guess. All right.
And just gets to swabbing.
All right. Ten, minutes later, breakfast gets brought up. Mr. Ochron is with the, cookie. Yeah, Cookie, who you meet who's a big burly guy. Real, ah, rough and rowdy looking. Looks like he probably hasn't bathed in quite some time. Kind of smells like he hasn't bathed in quite some time. big old loppy chef's hat on his head. Big old gross looking apron. Like, he wipes his like the apron.
Has more food on it. Absolutely.
And, they just kind of serve things up. And I don't know if there's anything you needed to do during that.
Otherwise, just grab a quick bite of these.
Okay.
If there was tea, he would not drink it.
That's fair. If there's water, he would drink there's water. And then there's obviously some form of the alcohol ale or grog or something.
Along those lines, he would just grab the water.
You can tell that, just something that you point out. a lot of people grab the grog. And then, mr. Okaron kind of like you see him, he gets kind of pushy with the tea. He's like, just go ahead, take know, try it, whatever. And you actually notice that a lot of people, after they try the tea. They're like, oh. And they'll put their grog down and then go back for either a larger cup or like a second serving of the tea or whatever the case. So it's definitely a pretty popular choice. Okay, so, otherwise you get back to work.
I have a feeling that in this whole campaign, this whole Sea series, that, Bill might be the only person who will not like Mr. Okran's tea.
It's very possible. It's very possible. I mean, at least everybody drinks tea. So it's like Mr. Okron can take their favorite tea and make it in such a way that's, like, it's just.
Funny that every single character we've met has enjoyed the tea. And then there's just Bill, one of the people who works there. He's just like, I'll like it.
Yeah, well, hey, that's, you know, the fun character. Troy is an interesting character. Exactly.
He's the only person in this whole universe that doesn't.
I'll take a water. Let me dip any leaves in that water. No, just water. Just water.
Fresh water?
M, that's right. So, over the course of the day, you see mostly just water as you're mopping. But as it gets later into the afternoon, you start to see land and someone shouts out, island home. And, by the end of the night, once you pretty much finish swabbing the entire deck, you guys eventually make landfall at this island that they've, kind of called their base. And just off into the distance you can just see the sight of land poking up over the waters. what you assume is the Earth kingdom. Kind of where that all begins. Everybody kind of starts, working to get off the ship. They're mostly hauling stuff. The, captain comes up to you and he says, good job, boy. I see that you made it all the way across the deck. Very impressive. you can stash that back over into, the closet where you got it and then, just grab a crate and start bringing it onto the island. We're going to unload all this loot and then we'll restock whatever we need to as necessary. Okay.
So are we at the island then? Yes, we're now not parked, but like anchors Away the dock.
At the, island, there's a little dock that it's kind of janky built. You could tell the pirates themselves probably put it in, for their ship, but yeah. Okay.
So Bill is going to, when the captain walks away, right?
He wants to look over the side of the boat. Is there land there?
Like directly over the side of the boat? Yeah. so there's that skinny dock that I was talking about and then that connects to the yeah.
So there is no land there, right?
Not directly next to the boat, no.
Okay. When Bill was in the closet getting the mop and stuff, was there multiple mops or just this one?
yeah, I'd say there'd maybe be maybe two or three.
anyone? Is there a side of the boat that no one's on, so it's probably turned sideways?
Yes.
Okay.
So yeah, most people would be getting off on the one. So if the boat is facing this way, most people are over on this side where the dock is next to it and they're getting off. So this whole side of the boat over here probably doesn't have very many people on it, if any at all. Okay.
Bill's just going to take all that in and he's going to start walking back to the closet. And when he gets to the closet, he, is going to.
Shut the.
Door behind him and the closet.
Okay.
And he's going to take the mop and set it down, turn it, and then take his foot and he's going to snap off the end of it.
Okay.
the bow staff. He is making a makeshift bow staff, which is his weapon of choice, which he did not bring with him because it was at his house. And he skipped that step to come straight here.
Right. Well, you didn't think you'd need a weapon. Correct.
He thought he was going to be fine and they figured he'd get a new staff at the ah, because like I said in the way back in, the main story, I said he never named it. So it wasn't like close to him. It was just he likes having a staff with him. That one wasn't like his lifelong one. It was no new one he got.
Sure.
anyways, he breaks it. He makes a makeshift bow staff and then he kind of just like tosses it on his back. Just kind of puts it he doesn't have a strap for it like he normally does, so he can keep some M back. So what he does is he kind of just slides it to his back, like, through his shirt and slides it also down his pants as well that he's wearing. So then he's just got this giant stick that's just like all the way running from the leg up to his back.
Okay.
He's going to have to walk a little stiff legged, but he doesn't want anyone to know that he's got this right.
Okay, that makes sense.
And then he peg leg walks because now he has a stiff leg that he can't bend. And he's going to try and nonchalantly walk over to the rest of the crew to get, one of those packages sure. He talked about.
Yeah. Okay. So yeah, you're able to get over there, although be it, pretty awkwardly, grab a box and then start kind of heading off. It's definitely very awkward getting off the ship on the ramp. Oh, yeah. No, that's very hard.
They definitely, probably are giving him weird voices.
They are. They are. And the one well spoken pirate guy, Carl Coney. he comes up to you, he says, I say, boy, what seems to be the problem with your leg? Oh, your ligament.
My life? Yeah. It's ligaments.
It's stiff.
I have not worked on a ship in a long time. And the waves and the movement and.
This leg is just real sore.
I kind of slipped with it earlier on some rope.
First day of pirate life.
First day of pirate life. And you, get stiff.
All that swaying back and forth while you swab the deck. I tell you what, it does a number on you.
Some good sleep. And I'll probably be right as random.
That's right. Maybe, your grandpa can make you some nice tea.
Oh, tea.
I don't like stuff, really.
I know he makes a m mean tea. I've heard. personally, I'm not a fan of.
Tea, but I don't know. But I guess more for us.
Yeah, more for you, exactly.
All right. Fair enough. Well, yeah, after a few days or so, I mean, you'll be back on land anyway, so I suppose it'll probably all wash away here soon. Yeah.
Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to go. This box is rather heavy.
Oh, sorry. Yes, of course.
And Bill just kind of keeps hobbling his one leg forward down this ramp.
You're really pulling the pirate look off.
He really does look like a pirate because he looks like he's got an actual peg, a foot instead. But he's not bending his leg.
He has a third pick, like tossing.
It in front of him as he's walking.
so after a few goes or so, you eventually get all the boxes off the ship that they're expecting to and, you guys kind of head in and you find that there's actually, like I don't want to say, like, a whole village, but it definitely looks like maybe a small village had abandoned or maybe the pirates had run them out. Who knows? And so they've kind of taken over. So there's some actual housing structures and stuff like that. And, what happens is a lot of the pirates, they start a big fire in the center of the little village. Mr. Okaron's out there, Cookie has like this giant looks like, some sort of a porcubore or something, over the spit. And he's just like, roasting that up for everybody. So a lot of people are playing some instruments or dancing around. Just kind of having a good time. We made it to port.
We got some good loot.
Wasn't as everything we expected, but we're here. It's kind of a home coming home. So, everybody seems to be in pretty good spirits for the most part. The captain kind of just sits by and watches. He's sitting over by the fire, just kind of laughing. He's having some drinks. He's talking to. A couple of the crew members, things along those lines. Okay.
Bill's going to make his way to wherever he's probably following someone ahead of him with a box. And he just follows him to wherever that is.
Right? Yeah. I mean, they put all their boxes down. This is all after yeah, all the boxes are kind of so after he.
Sets his box down, he's going to see if there's an opening for him to kind of, like, slide away into the shadows behind the building.
Okay. Give me a push.
Your luck.
Okay. So basically, you successfully are able to sneak behind one of the buildings. But as you do so, you can hear the Captain, say something to the effect of, you there, Mr. Ogron. Where's your boy, your grandson? So basically, you know that they might be looking for you to some extent, in the near future, but as of the moment, you are out of sight.
So they know I'm m not there to some extent.
Like I said, I mean, you could be in one of the buildings. It's going to take a while for them to look around the immediate, like.
Where we might think I'm still on the ships.
Exactly. Yeah. It could be either of the thing. Okay.
well, when I sneak past the buildings, I wanted to look around.
Okay.
Just get an idea of where it is. My goal is I'm looking for, like, a dinghy.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
from this island, can we see the mainland?
So you can just barely see the mainland kind of peeking up in the distance. you know where it was. You could see it from the ship pretty well. you kind of look around. So for the most part, outside of this little village, let's call it, which is not too far from the docks, it's pretty well like jungled and things along those lines. but you do eventually, I mean, you kind of make your way back over to the dock. And you do notice that near the dock, they have a handful of dinghies, little rowboats or what have you, that are stationed there in the sand, kind of tied down, just really simple. Just tied to, like, a nearby tree or something like that, so they don't float away. If the tide were to come in.
A little high, bill's going to make his way over to those dinghies.
Okay.
And then just slide into one of them. He's going to just take out his bow staff and slide it into it. Just kind of just lay it down.
Okay.
And then he's just going to go back to the, pirate where everyone else is.
Okay. So as you walk in, the pirate Captain, he sees you and he says, oh, boy, I was wondering where you were at. We were just looking for you. How was your first day on the crew?
They'll grab to the back, and he's like, I'm awfully stiff to be.
He's got his sea legs coming in. I see. Well, that's too bad that we came aboard, onto the shore, because, usually if you stick around on the ship for a few days in a row, it makes it a lot easier to just fully transition in real quick. But, not much we can do. Unless you want to go sleep on the boat now.
I'm fine out here.
All right. Well, anyways, we are just having some fun. no responsibilities, too much in the morning. We're, planning on just resting up for the next day or so, and then we're going to take our spoils over on the schooner over to the mainland, and we'll do some trading. I wasn't sure if you wanted to come along for that.
Oh, that'd be cool.
Yeah. Yes. Learn a little bit about what it is to sort of negotiate and, maybe intimidate some of the businessmen over there into giving us some pretty good deals. Yeah.
I mean, I want to learn everything on how to become a pirate.
That's my boy. Well, all right. Well, you just, enjoyed yourself. Have some, fun at the party, enjoy some of the food. your grandpa's making tea, but I know that's not really a thing from what I've heard. so just, enjoy yourself, boy. you've earned it. I'm pretty proud of Ginyon for a kid that we found on a passenger ship and kidnapped. I'm pretty impressed by how well you've taken to this, by the way, boy. Where's your parents?
Dead.
Good.
Yeah, I'm perfect for a pirate.
That's right. You have such a good spirit about it that you're almost freaking me out. You're so cool with it.
It happened a long time ago.
Ah.
I was living in an orphanage in the Fire Nation, and then I got sick of it. So then I wanted to try something new, so I was going to the Earth Kingdom. and honestly, being a pirate is something new, I guess.
Well, we're happy to have you. Like I said, I'm pretty impressed by how well you've transitioned into it. All right, well, everybody have your fun, have your good times, and, we'll figure things out tomorrow morning.
Now. Did Mr. Okeron hear that?
Yes.
Oh, okay.
Anyways yep, like, I said, people kind of continue to party. Mr. Okeron just kind of sitting by a big old pot of tea. He's just keeping stirring it, pouring it for people as they come. Know? He seems really excited when somebody comes to get a little cup of tea.
Bill just kind of chilled by the.
Fire with Mr. O'gron, or kind of.
Near Mr. O'ron also near Cookie, because he wants some of that fish. Not the tea, but the fish or whatever he was cooking.
Yeah, it was like, a wild boar. Yeah. You absolutely can get first pickings of that. Oh, yeah. You watch him as he just cuts off a big chunk and just starts handing chunks out to people and stuff like that.
And he's kind of know, doing what Bill kind of does, where he kind of stays quiet and he just sits back and observes everyone. He's like, taking in the moment, the music, the, watching people coming to talk to Mr. Okra and stuff. He's trying to kind of pick up more on too.
Oh, okay.
Just observing him. Well, if there's anything, this is the guy he's claiming to be his grandpa. Probably should try and figure out more about him.
Sure. Well, if there are any specific questions that you want to ask, you could definitely do an assessment. Sure. Go for it. Watch.
I'm going to fail this. Rolling. You went blind? No, I, actually rolled a ten.
Oh, wow. Okay. So on a ten plus, you get to ask two of, the questions and you also get a plus one ongoing when, acting on any of the answers for whatever that might entail.
These questions are a little weird for this situation because they're usually like, if.
You'Re in trouble right. Yeah. Feel free to kind of reword them based on whatever is that you're kind of looking for.
But I will say that these are kind of important because Bill is currently also Wallace in here and they're doing all this. He is scheming on how he's going to escape. he's trying to figure out how he's escaped. And I think his first one is, what is his biggest threat. So if at any moment he's planning on running with Mr. Okra, what does he think will be his biggest threat to stop?
Sure. I, would definitely say that if the crew were to find out too quickly, he would worry that given the time it's going to take for him and Mr. M Ogron to row to the shore, once you get there, you're probably okay, you can probably find some way to either hide or get away. But if you weren't able to row there fast enough before the crew figured out that you were gone, I mean, their ships are much faster, whether it be one of their schooners that they use, or whether it be the main ship, which you doubt they would probably use.
Well, when Bill heard, the plan of them going to the mainland, they can bring Bill with them. I was thinking that would be a better chance to break away because they'll be in a know, he can just hide between like he can just run off and hide between buildings and alleyways and stuff. And it'd be a lot easier for them to get away on in the city than row into the city.
Sure.
his biggest worry right now is Mr. Okuron. He knows he's young and nimble and can get away quickly. But he's not so sure about an old dude, right? Is he going to be a liability? Can you bring him along and stuff?
Okay. Yeah. Okay.
I'm going to ask, what here can I use to escape?
Okay, so obviously you have the dinghy. if you were to do it that way, you know that they have a schooner. And you know that schooners, based on whatever amount of knowledge Bill might have about ships, he knows that it's a small, vessel with sails, so it's a lot faster comparatively to most things. It's a very speedy boat. so that would be really useful. let's see. Obviously, you've already kind of come up with the idea of just waiting until they take you along in the first place. let's see, what else could you use to escape? you know, in the back of your mind that if it came down to it, you could also if you just needed to lose them or maybe create some sort of a diversion or distraction. If you were to run into the woods, you wonder this island based on cleaning the deck while you were cleaning the deck on the way over here, you kind of got a glimpse of a pretty decent amount of the island. It's a fairly large island, so it would take them quite a while on foot, which, you know, is kind of almost like a weakness to these pirates. They're not on their ship. They're not where they're experienced. If they're just running around an island, they might know the island pretty well, maybe. but whatever the case, if you could sneak into the woods and hide, it would take them a long time to probably try to find you amidst the jungle. I would say that's a pretty solid overview of the things that you could potentially use.
Okay, that's it.
All right.
Just sit there and take in.
Sure, sure. honestly, some of these pirate guys are willing to party pretty much almost the whole night through. I don't know how much you might hit a certain point. Mr. O'gron, he hits a certain point for sure where he puts out the fire, and he's like, well, the tea here in the pot should be good for another, maybe one to 2 hours. So feel free to enjoy it. until then, fill your own cups. I'm going to bed.
Bill would join him.
Okay, sounds good. So Bill kind of falls after him, and he's like, well, Bill, what are you thinking as far as a possible escape?
Well, there's two ideas, okay. And I'm going to pitch both of them to you, because, honestly, both ideas stem from you.
Sure.
The first idea is, we're going to the shore tomorrow. At least I am I'm not sure if you are. I'm not sure if you talked to the captain yet. He wants to bring me along to train me.
Right. I did talk to him. he said he was a little bit concerned at my, motives and didn't really want to bring me along. He's worried I might try to run off.
I suppose maybe you could tell him you need some specialty ingredients.
Well, m maybe, yeah, I might.
Be able to I mean, I bet that would work.
That's true.
But then while we're there, we just take off and leave. We're on.
Off. Right.
Hide in the city. Find somewhere to building to hide in or something. my worry for that plan is I don't know how good you are at running and escaping and stuff.
I like to think I make do, but, I'm sure within the city, there'll be options. Maybe we can, see something. Sure, yeah. Grab a cart.
Yeah. I mean, I think I'd be strong enough to pull you in, like a ripshaw or something.
Maybe there's a way. I mean, I'm not usually one for theft, but if we're stealing from pirates, I suppose that's a different I mean.
We'Re pirates right now. I think we're allowed to steal right now.
I suppose that's a fair way to put it. but I was thinking maybe if we could, maybe find some money over here that we could use to buy a horse and buggy or something along those lines, and then we could just ride right out of town. Or even just a pair of, man, I can't think of what they're called. Ostrich horses.
Ostrich just says I have money. I don't know how much money that is.
Oh, yeah, because he said he grabbed somebody, I don't know, like ten gold or something.
Would that be enough to pay for a cart?
I don't know if it'd be enough to buy one, because I have.
Money and I have a ticket, so I didn't use that money for the ticket.
Right. It might be enough to hire, somebody to take us somewhere. I don't know if it'll be enough to buy it, but maybe that's all we'll need. If we can get to, like, a nearby town or something like that yeah.
And then we could just hide away.
Yeah. Yeah. And figure know where to go next. The one sad thing, of course, is I don't think I'll be able to bring all these ingredients with me. But I suppose there's not much we can do about that.
I mean, with the rate the pirates are going right now, these ingredients are going to go fast anyways, so if we stayed here, your ingredients wouldn't last long.
No, you're right. You're right. Bill brings a tear to my eye.
But it's replacing hey, at least they're enjoying in the oh, that's true.
That is true. Yes.
Well, and the second plan, you've already seen Gung Ho for the first one, so you're probably not even going to like the second one. But if we're worried about getting caught in the city, we could wait until everyone's asleep and take a dinghy and.
Rode a boat shore tonight.
Tonight? I already have a dinghy ready.
I mean, that's not a bad idea either. I mean, everyone's either drunk or asleep or both. Yeah.
There might be a lookout, though. But I could knock him out.
All right. if that's the case, I mean, I could go load a couple of my crates onto it.
Yeah, that way you get some of your stuff.
That's right. I suppose it's tough. Well, I tell you what, I tell you what. If they catch anyone, they'll be catching me. And there's a chance that I might not be able to go to shore for the time being anyways. Yeah, but I mean, you could still get out of here when they take you to shore. So I mean, we could give this a try. And if it doesn't work, there's still hope for you to get out of here and then I can figure something out in the meantime, I suppose.
Are you sure about that? I don't want you to be put in danger or something. I mean, they were just about to throw you overboard.
Yeah, that's true, I guess.
How much do they like your tea and want to keep you around?
That's true. I mean, at the very least, I feel like if they kept me trying to escape, they'd just make sure that I couldn't do that anymore.
They just chain you to a wall.
And make you keep make tea all.
The is that what you want?
It's like Michael Jordan. Yeah, Michael Jordan, but with well, HM. Making tea is my life dream, but I'm not sure if that's the conditions I'd want to do it in. I don't know. What do you think Bill should be again?
My plan stems from you. Because I don't want to say the.
I don't know what the word would be for it, but basically you're the, liability in this case.
Because either way, I know I could.
Probably get away fine. Like, if I went to that boat by myself right now, I don't think they would catch me missing. I know I'm strong enough. I could get away, right? Or if I wait till morning, that's.
Probably what I would do without you.
I would wait till morning and just take off in the city. I know I'm fast, I know I'm quick. I know I've, got street smarts. Sure, I could get away. It's just you. And the thing is, I'm not trying to be mean and say you're like no, I'm just saying I know you're older and I know we have to work around that. No, the last thing I want to do is abandon you. You helped me back on the bow, and, now I want to help you on this bow.
Sure. Well, let me ask you this, Bill. How confident do you think you could take out a.
Have a how would you say? I've been training with bow staffs my whole life, and I've made myself a bow staff, and I can get it anytime I want.
All right, well, I may just be an old man, and, I understand that, but I want to make sure that you have a chance for sure at getting out of this. pirates are no place, for a kid or an adult, for that matter. But I'm going to help. Let's try the dinghy, and if it doesn't work out, there's still an option for you.
You'll take the fall.
Sure. Of course.
Are you sure?
Yes, I'm sure. I'll figure something out afterwards.
All right, well, you get your crates.
I will.
All right, I'm going to go knock out a lookout.
All right, sounds good. I'll start loading up my stuff, and then, yep, just meet me at the dinghy when you're ready. And with that, you two split up in the dog of the jungle. Okay.
So Bill's goal right now is he wants to get to that dinghy.
Sure.
And, he wants to get to that dinghy and get his bow staff.
Okay.
But also looking for the lookout, because he figures there will be a lookout, maybe one or two. And he wants to find the lookout that would be on that side near the boat. Probably would even be on the boat. If Bill's thinking like that, he doesn't really know pirates and how they do it, but he figures they would be one on the boat. And since the boat's near those dinghies, he would have to get to that boat.
Right. Yes. And you're 100% right. So you run back to the dinghy, you get your bow staff, you hurry over to kind of the main section of the little dock. And on the deck of the ship, you see there's a pirate. He's kind of slowly drinking his way. It's the well spoken pirate.
Why not?
He's fun. He's up kind of like hanging off the side of the deck with his legs kind of dangling there, sitting there. he's having an occasional sip from, his bottle of grog or whatever the case. Just kind of keeping an eye over the dock, keeping an eye over the waters and stuff. And, you see, at the moment, he seems to be shouting back and forth between Mr. Okaron, Mr. Rokuron standing there with, so a lot of the crates are kind of stacked up right there by the dock.
Yeah.
Off the sand, off the beach, but not too far from the ship because they just kind of wanted to get it off and have just leave it there. Right.
So they can then move the schooner.
In the so, you know, Mr. Okran's.
Standing there, and the guy's like, what.
Do you think you're doing? And he says, oh, well, I'm just, moving some of these crates around to a different position. Don't mind me. You go back to whatever it is that you're doing. He says, oh, what the hell? that's not even the voice. That's his drunk voice. That's right. Yeah. As long as you're not taking a ship, I don't really care. And he's like, all right, well, you have a wonderful night. And he's like, I will. And, Mr. Okran, like I said, you just see him take, his crates and start moving them over towards the area with the dinghy. And he's kind of looking back like, oh, boy, this is a little bit awkward. So he just kind of like, starts moving. He's more just reorganizing these boxes so that his stuff is in its own pile so he can quickly just start grabbing them and loading them on. But he's not entirely sure what he's going to do because this guy is.
Kind of he's just kind of getting them ready. But he's not moving.
Right. Because it would look really suspicious if he started throwing them into the is.
he the only lookout Bill can see. There's none on the land. Just this.
Right, right. Okay.
And of course it's he's bill is going to start hobbling up the because he's now stashed his bow staff back into its now hobbling pirate wobble.
Hey.
Thankfully, this is the one guy he already had this cover so he can get away with it. Hobbling up to the boat.
Cal Cody sees it and he says, oh, my gosh, boy. Back again with those sea legs. What are you doing here?
Well, I was talking to the captain, right? And he asked me how I was doing day one.
Right.
And I told him I was rather stiff right from the sea.
I can see that.
And he said a pirate usually gets over their sea legs quick. If they don't get off the boat, that means they're always on it. They're sleeping for the first few days. I'm sure that happened with you, right?
yeah.
So I was thinking about that, and I was like, you know what? It'd probably be better if I slept on the boat than out there. Sure, it's probably going to be rougher than the nice beds on the land, but at least I'd be on the water. And then my sea lathes would come in.
Faster, sleep on the boat. I can dig the initiative. I've got no problem with it. I'll be on this boat myself. In fact, all right. Okay.
Bill's just going to kind of walk past him and he's going to make his way over to, the closet.
Okay.
And he's going to go, hey, Cal, come here. What is so wait, I forgot to say before he did that he's going to take out his bow staff and hide it around the corner so Cal can't see it, but he can quickly grab.
Sure, sure. All right. So, yeah, Cal comes hobbling over to you. He's not, like, super drunk, but you can tell that every once in a while he steps he looks a little bit like a slight sway. Yeah, exactly. A slight sway. And he says I say, Boy, what is it that you, need?
Well, look at this. And Bill points into the closet, and he's pointing at the broken mop head that's just laying there.
I said, don't lose the buckets. And here we are. We got a broken mop. It's a good thing we got three.
And when Bill sees him leaning down to look at it and stuff, he's going to grab the bow staff around the corner. Okay. He stands back up. Bill's just going to take a giant crack at the back of his head.
To knock him gosh. Okay. All right. So we're jumping into a this,
Combat, or would this be more like, rely on my skills and training because it's not technically a combat?
now.
If combat.
Yeah, no, I'd say that's a fair point. Yeah. Let's try to rely on your skills and training. See if you can really knock him in the head with your bow.
I mean, I've practiced.
Sure.
Let's see if my okay, well, I just rolled a natural twelve. You whack it right over the head.
At the mix of between his drunkenness and the direct hit right onto the back of his balding noggin. He goes, oh, my. And he falls in. But it's so awkward because, like I said before, his body is just massive or his upper body is, I guess. So he's kind of, like, awkwardly stuck, like, kind of wedged into the door. But he's unconscious.
So when Bill saw it was Calconi, he really didn't realize that he needed to like, if after he knocks him up, he's got to tie him up and trap him and stuff. And he realized this guy couldn't get into the closet. So if I got him into the closet knocked out, how would he get out?
But I mean, like I said, he's kind of jammed into the doorway, push.
With his foot, just try to get this guy right through the door.
I think over some time, you're finally able to get him jammed into this little closet, and you could tell that when he wakes up, he is going to have so many kinks in just every part of himself. It's going to hurt so bad. He's going to have so many bruises.
Partially because you had to kick him in. Probably the dog. Massive, big old concussion on the back of his head.
Concussion. And this guy's not in a good spot.
Right, bill, once he's fully in, he's going to push his legs in, which is not going to be as hard because those legs are tight.
Right?
The legs are tight. So he's not going to jam anything in the door. He doesn't want to hurt him, right. More than he has. and he's going to grab, the mop head that he broke off, and he's just going to set it on top of his bald head.
To give him hair. He's got, like, white dreadlocks now, and.
Bill kind of just does, like, a slight smile. And he's like, sorry, bud, but I, had to knock out someone.
And he just shuts the door. All right.
He thought about tying him up, but then he was like, this guy was so hard to get into this that if he does wake up, he's probably going to be stuck in here anyways.
They're going to have to cut him out, probably.
Yeah, they have to. Two guys grabbing legs and pulling poor calconi. and then Bill grabs his boat. Well, he still has it, but he shuts the door and takes off down the all.
right. Sounds good. So, yeah, you get off the ship and you run down, and Mr. Okron.
Is like, oh, clear.
Great. And Mr. Okeron comes out, and I'd say between the two of you, quickly loaded up onto the dinghy.
And then Mr. Okran hops in, bill unties the rope, and then he gets in the water and just starts shoving.
Yeah, yeah. And it takes a little bit obviously, it's a bit weighed down now, with the ingredients. But sure enough, you get it onto the water and you guys start rowing. Rowing and rowing and rowing. And you're getting tired, but you're rowing and rowing. And then, honestly, with nobody, everybody's either, like I said, asleep or partying or drunk or whatever the case, or in a closet. That's right. I mean, there's nobody to really come after you guys. in the back of my mind when I wrote this, I kind of thought to myself how cool it would be to have a ship chase. We can save that for another day. I guess so, because all things considered, you guys took care of pretty much all your bases. And, you row up to the shore by early morning, to the shores of, this little, Earth Kingdom City, where you can tell that it's kind of especially the area where you row up and your dinghy seems like a pretty rough and rowdy kind of space, obviously, because they've been trading with pirates and stuff like that. But otherwise, you guys get there and, within the next couple of hours, you're able to find somebody who's willing.
To, give you the next city over.
Take us to the next city, and then from there, you guys can make your way over to Gao Ling.
Okay. Then we give a little tip to the one guy to be like, you didn't see us this morning.
That's right. That's right. And he's like, I was just hauling. Supplies.
There you go.
Which wouldn't even be a lie because you guys put a lot of supplies in there.
We appreciate it.
All right, well, you guys have fun.
And I guess we go on our way to Galling then.
All right, sounds good.
Cart to cart, I guess.
Cart to cart. Or even well, I guess you guys can't really go on foot because you got a bunch of ingredients. But, I'm sure there'd be a few times on your journey where you guys stop and you'll throw together a little pop up shop or something. And Mr. O'Connor will make some tea with some of the ingredients so it gets a little bit easier as time goes on to get where you're going. But, you make some money from the pop up shop, you use it to pay for the next cart. Yeah, exactly. And then eventually you guys make it there. And, here he has a building all picked out that he's, already discussed with somebody, probably by mail or by messenger hawk or something like that. So, you guys are about pretty much ready to get moved in. And actually what he does is, he leaves you there to kind of get things all set up and things. He has to go and run out a couple other errands, to kind of procure more ingredients and get some more supplies and things like that. All of which will work into how he meets some of the other members of, the Blissful Brews crew.
So while I'm setting up for the Blissful Brew and getting everything ready, I'm guessing the building is a little abandoned kind of thing. So Bill basically just took it upon himself to fix everything and Mr. Okran left him some money.
Sure.
Buy supplies to fix everything.
Absolutely.
So in these it could be months, I think we said, like Bill, was there for a year before, other people showed up.
Definitely before everybody showed up.
Yeah, he was like a year. So in this year, Bill just basically turned the Blissful Brew into like the.
Nicest establishment he could.
Awesome. And then I guess do all three characters come at once?
so the order of which they would have come and joined Bill in getting this place ready. So obviously we would have started off with Bill, next it would have.
Been if it was Brock, that would have been great. A very helpful hand to help out.
I think Guo would have come pretty hey, he would have helped, right? That's right. Brock would have come third and then Mika would have been the final.
And would she have come, like, probably when we were finished with it?
Probably, yeah. she pretty much just kind of joined as part of the staff right off know, working right off when she got yep. Yep. Okay. Yeah.
I guess Bill would know Brock and Gua Han more than Mika.
Yeah, quite a bit.
Which would make sense because Gua Han and Brock both are more open about their past than everyone else, but Mika's more closed off, which makes sense because she's the newest of the group.
That's right.
And then there's Bill, who's the oldest in the group, and it's still probably the most closed. Right.
So, yeah, he talks about current things and stuff. Not so much like, here's my whole past and my backstory and where I came from.
The players do know that he's from the Fire Nation and he was the first one to meet Mr. Okeron, right?
Yep.
But that's all they know about him.
Exactly.
And for some reason, I don't think any of them have questioned his name. Unlike Mr. Okaron.
Yeah, exactly. They're like Bill dor.
There's a guy named Brock Lee in our group.
That's right.
Like Bill Door is nothing compared to that.
Nobody knows how to.
Pronounce.
So yeah, awesome.
There it is.
We got it. Bill's prequel. There's bill's prequel. Thank you everyone for listening to our first prequel episode. We hope you enjoyed it. And before you go, I want to say a massive thank you to all the following voice casts that we procured for this episode and how you can find and support their amazing talent online. All of these people are all accessible on Casting Call Club, which is an amazing network of independent voice actors and other talents available to anyone looking to get into the entertainment industry, or those looking for talent for their productions. Here's our cast list. Wang Long is played by Hitoshura, Jasper Burtony by Chaz Ravenell, Margaret Burtony by Yumafusion, the Ship captain by Festive VA and Blaze Burtony was voiced by FM M voice Acting You can find all of their credits and links to their profiles on Casting Call Club in the description below. So please make sure to check that out and support them because they did an amazing job. of course, Bill Door was voiced by Cameron Hoganike, as per the usual, and all other vocal parts were supplied by myself, Skyler. Next time we're going to be sitting down and listening to a particularly spooky prequel episode in light of the upcoming Halloween 2022. What's that? Spooky prequel, you might ask? That's right. It's Wohan's mysterious backstory as he travels along with a crazy cast of characters in his traveling circus. So be sure to tune in next week for that. See you all next time. M 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 ah, 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 O Tims two one five. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.