For The Trees Session 0

The main ideas from this information are: - The world is divided into habitable and uninhabitable zones due to extreme weather conditions. - The continent of Gray is ruled by the Gray family and has points of interest such as the city of Meshu and the Gateway mountain range. - The city of Baelmar in Gray has a small population and relies on farming and ranching. - A new teacher has been brought in from Stonesplit to teach in Baelmar. - Character introductions are made for Seraphina, Marjorie, and Idaho, along with their family dynamics and preparations for school. Oh, well, sorry. I didn't realize it was muted. I'm so ready, y'all. All right. Let's do this in 3, 2, 1... Go! Wow. I heard multiple bobsleds. Yeah, they didn't sound as good. I clapped twice. There was also a go? So... Well, we were doing it on go. I was ready to do it on mute, and then I remembered that we were split. On go. But I'm not going to say go. It's just going to be on the point we're going. 3, 2, 1, and then on the beat that we go go. Almost did it. Okay, ready? 3, 2, 1... That hurt. All right, cool. That one was better. All right. Okay. With that, I'm going to begin by... explaining the world overview. Are we ready, y'all? Later. Later, Ken. Ahem. We take us to the ancient world of Amber. Over millennia, empires have risen and fell. Scars have been left on this world, as deep as the great ocean crevice, and as high as the Black Ash Tower. However, the world has always healed itself. But these days, the world seems a little less large. The two poles of the planet have become uninhabitable, the north being entrenched in endless frozen night, and the south a blistering-near-impossible scorched wasteland. This created the Belt, a habitable zone in which the sun isn't present all day and all night, all year. However, occasional cold winds from the north or boiling winds from the south can strike, and make the world incredibly harsh to live in. On this continent of Gray, a further northern continent next to the aptly named Hurricane Ocean, and on the other side, the Spike Steer mountain range, and the madness to the south. This continent is ruled by the Gray family. The people within are almost entirely free to do as they please, and even are allowed to vote every five years to elect local government representatives that don't do much, but represent people. The Gray family is famous for their implementation of the great ice mines of the north, and the storage and handling through transport. Other great points of interest within their domain include the city on the verge of madness, Meshu, and the smaller and more beautiful mountain range, the Gateway. At said Gateway exists a small town called Baelmar, the City of Eternal Evening. Population? About a hundred. This city used to be gorgeous, but at this point it's been about fifty years since any tourists have come by. A lot of the town now persists on farming and ranching and logging, and just all the general things that small towns do. Not many teens have graced this town, but lately there's been a bit of an influx of children. A couple have lived here their entire lives, and a couple new ones have shown up. And so a new teacher, that has been professionally trained, has been brought in from the town of Stonesplit, to teach everyone. And with this, we're going to go to character introductions. Should we roll for who introduces their characters first? Sure. Alright, let's take the highest one. I'm really interested in this town of almost madness. Meshu, yeah. Alright. We're not going to worry about that. Helen! We're going to start with your character. Am I in character? I will set you up. And then you are free to do as you wish. So we take us to a scene just outside of the school grounds. It's in a small town. Helen, would you please describe what your character looks like? Yeah, so Seraphina has these relatively large, medium brown horns. And she's got dark red hair. Not like a natural red. She is a tiefling. And it's more like a maroony red. And these bright, huge purple eyes that are probably a little too large for her face. She's probably wearing some clothes to kind of run down. Too big for her. Kind of dirty. But not like stinky. She's very hygienic. She's just not the most... Not from the most wealthy family. And so she's probably just like sitting there, probably reading. And walking over to her is this large, burly human. Balding on the top. Big beard belly. And next to him is this small little one, two year old tiefling with these big, beautiful, magnificent horns. Just shining very bright. And the man goes, Oi. Daughter. Yeah? You ready for school? I am. I've been ready for like an hour, actually. Okay. Sure. Anyways, your sister wanted to say goodbye. So here you go. And then waddling over to you is your little sister. She looks up and she goes, Hi. Hi, Hope. I'm so sorry I'm going to be leaving you for the day. Okay. Now, we've talked about this. I'm going to be gone for about six hours. But you're going to be fine and I'll be right back as soon as school's done. Okay? I'll be fine. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. She'll be fine. She'll be fine. Anyways, I'm going to go drink. Have fun. And he's going to just start walking north to the local bar. Bye, Hope. I love you. Hope looks at you and goes, Okay. Bye. And she just starts wandering off into the streets. At least take your kid to the bar when you go in danger again, you know? And with that, you hear the school bell ring, signaling it's time for you to head on in. And with that, we'll jump on over to Carlos. So I believe for Carlos, we see a small ranch. And at the door of the ranch is a human? Yeah. Yeah. We see this human woman. She's got, like, a little lunch kit and, like, a little backpack. And she's, like, currently just doting over you right now. Can you please describe what you look like? So I'm a small kid with big, curly blonde hair that almost, like, covers my eyes completely. And just, like, a shirt. I got, like, my small backpack. But it's, like, surprisingly heavy. So when I put it on, I kind of lean back a second. I'm not very physically strong. Heck, yeah. She goes to, like, catch you and, like, help you back up. She goes, All right. Okay. You're going to do great, Marjorie. Okay. Marjorie Wilhelm. You're great. Everyone will love you. You're going to do awesome like you always do. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? Yeah. I mean, you know, I haven't really gone into town very much by myself. But, you know, I'll be okay. I think I know the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll be good. You'll be good. I can't leave the farm for obvious reasons. But you will do great. All right. Here's your lunch I prepared you. Here's your whistle to blow in case the other kids are being mean. That will attract an adult, hopefully. Here's your whistle to blow in case kids are being nice. That will make them used to the sound of that whistle. And here's another whistle. I have a lot of whistles. Okay. I have all three whistles in my hand. They're just a little too big. Yeah, they're just a little too big. So, when I was about to pause, I was like, I'll be okay. Talking to people can't be much different than talking to horses. No, it's the exact same. And I look at the horses and I walk away. Can you give me an animal handling check? Sure. I have minus one. Oh, boy. I am now horrified. You see, the horse looks at you and kind of, like, brings the hoof up and then, like, across their neck as if to indicate the horse will cut you. This horse is very mad. That was a two for our folks at home. I hold all three whistles really close to me now. Sweet. And as you're walking, you walk for how long do you walk for? Like a kilometer. It's a long walk for a kid. It takes a while for someone with legs as short as yours. And you hear the school bell and you realize you're still a little ways away, and so you have to start just absolutely running into town. Sick. Now, Sam, Wyatt, you both rolled the same to see who would say it first. So, which one of you wants to go first? We could maybe have had a sleepover. Would that be a thing that could have happened? Yeah, that's happened now. You, Sam, are you okay with that? Or is that nonsense? Is that nonsense? It means that I can't, like, you know. Right. No, but I feel like people have sleepovers with people they don't like. That's true. Our parents are friends. Maybe. Or, sorry, no, not parents are friends. Yeah, I don't have them. Yeah, no, that doesn't work. Yeah, I don't have them. Actually, I think maybe that does work. So, okay. Maybe it's a little bit easier than forcing this random bit to work. All right. Well, this still leaves the problem of which one of you wants to go first. Okay, I'm happy to go first. So, we're looking at Idaho here, who I think has the most bowl cut that anyone has ever had at this age. And I think he's a human. He's a little guy. And I think the shape of his face is so warped by the number of, like, ice packs being taped onto it at this point in time that it's a little bit hard to make him out. Sick. Yeah, and we see Idaho. What would Idaho be doing right before school? Was Idaho, like, up for hours or, like? I think probably up for an hour reapplying his ice packs. And I feel like Idaho has not been allowed to ever touch any kind of weaponry ever, being a kid and also being this particular kid. But I feel like he definitely has, like, a toy wooden sword that he's, like, sharpening and treating with the real respect of, like, a real sword. He's sharpening a wooden sword? Or, no, like a foam sword. He doesn't understand that sharpening it makes it worse. You know what I mean? He's just doing it for the sake of doing it. Yeah, gotcha. He's owning his craft. Sweet. So, we see – are you, like, sharpening it? Is that what you're doing right now? Yeah. I think in his room sharpening it with, like, a rock or something and just scraping off the foam. Hell, yeah, the foam's just, like, going onto the floor, like, in little bits. Like, it's not cleanly cutting, like, foam. It's not good. It's not recognizably a sword anymore. Yeah. And we hear a voice from downstairs go, Oh, Idaho, it's time for you to come on down. Mom, I'm not done with my sword yet. I need a little more time. Oh, oh, he's playing with your sword in your room. That's all good. Okay, well, school's soon, so just don't be late. Fine. And I, you know, I pack up my bag, I put it on, I strap my sword into my hilt, which is my belt. Your belt's a little wide. It's a little wide. It doesn't fit me. And I, you know, go down the stairs and I go over to my mom. And I think my face looks a lot worse than it did yesterday. Oh, your face looks so much better than it did yesterday. Thanks, Mom. Of course. I'm going to go to school now. Oh, wait, you just have the best day walking to school on your very own? Ah, so proud. Yeah, you know, it's like a block away. It's a whole block. Your father would be so proud. But he's downstairs and doesn't know you're leaving. I could go tell him, or should I? No, don't bother him. Don't bother him. He's got enough on his plate. Yeah, I don't want to. Okay, well, I love you, Mom. I'll see you later tonight. Love you, too. Give Mom a kiss. I think that as Idaho's face approaches his mom for any kind of physical contact, just the sheer, like, the bruising and so on, he's, like, bracing himself for pain a little bit. He reaches his head up until he accepts it, I guess. She kisses him on the forehead. You do have to wince a little bit as the pain just hurts a little more than it should. Turns out ice packs can only do so much. Ah, the love groans. I love those. All right, now you have a good day at school. Okay, thanks. Ow, ow, ow, ow. And I leave the house for my block walk. Heck, yeah. Yeah, you hear the school bell ring as, like, the moment you leave your house, and it's so close. It's painfully close. It's painfully close. I feel like I make this block long walk way longer than it has to be, though. Okay, I love it. I believe that brings us to our final character intro, Sam. Sam, what's Doran doing right now? Doran Raychild is just leaving his adoptive mother's home, his elderly adoptive mother's home. He's dressed quite well in some nice linen, matching pants and matching jacket, the nicest cloth that the village has to offer, really. And he's just leaving on his way to school. Okay, nice. Yeah, so Doran's just started the walk, the, like, 30-second walk it takes to get from the front door to the end of the gates. If somebody had, like, an aerial view of this town, Doran's house would probably take up, like, 5% of it, and then the rest of the town would be small little shacks pretty much by comparison. And Doran's heading out. Doran the gardener catches you leaving and goes, Doran, what are you up to? Just heading off to school. All right. Hey, you remember what I always say when you start getting up to stuff, huh? I know, I know. Don't get caught. Don't get caught. That's my kid. Well, not my kid, but not her kid either. I'm not going to worry about it. Yeah, don't get caught out there, eh? If they do get caught, say nothing. Of course. I'm not dumb. No, you're not dumb. Well, I'm going to keep gardening now. I think I'll just turn back to trimming hedges. Bye. Bye. As I'm leaving the yard, I use a little piece of cloth to pick up a dog turd that I saw. I'm going to put it in someone's mailbox. Okay. Can you give me just a sleight of hand for picking up a dog turd? Sleight of hand for picking up a dog turd? Okay. Yeah. So I'm going to roll a D20. Just roll a D20 and subtract one. Okay. Whoa. There you go. 17. A 17. Yeah. So you expertly, like, you've done this hundreds of times before. You pick up a little dog turd and just wrap it, like, neatly in this cloth. And then, like, is there a specific, like, authority figures mailbox that you'd put it in or? Yeah, the teacher. The teacher? Yeah. His house is on my way to school. I do this every morning. You do this every morning. Okay. Yeah, it's in the mailbox. The mailbox, you put it in. What do you do? I just leave it in there wrapped up nice for him. That's sick. That's so nice. So kind. You wrap that up real nice, and you head off to school as you hear the bell ring, and you're able to leisurely just make your way to school. Wonderful. We take us to inside the school now. The bell's rung. Some of you have run. Some of you have walked. And you're all varying levels of early to late, as the small classroom that has seats for six students is filled up right now with four students. And the teacher is at the front of the class. The teacher, being a woman that none of you recognize, this was definitely not the teacher that those of you who were here last year had. And next to the teacher is another kid that none of you recognize, except, of course, for Serafina, because this is Serafina. All right, class. Settle down. Settle down. I'm sure you have lots of questions for the new year. It's good to see you all. We're going to start with roll call. Mordred. Oh, here. Okay. Okay. Speak up so I can hear you. Doran. Doran, gray child? Here. Okay. Oh, a little slow, but that's fine. Idaho. Yeah, Idaho is here. Okay. All right. I've been warned about you. I've actually been warned about most of you. And Colin. And a little squeaky little kid in the back goes, I'm here. This kid's like probably most of you are like four feet tall. This kid's probably like two feet tall, like a little gnome boy. He's got like mouse ears and like whiskers on his nose. And you guys know this to be Colin, the kind of runt of the school. He's like three years younger than most of you. But he always is here. And with that, the teacher goes, all right. And we have a new special student today. Special student, would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Serafina. I just moved into town with my family, with my dad and sister and I. Yeah, I'm really excited to be joining your class. And, yeah, I really like reading and writing, and I love painting. So if you want to talk to me about any of those things, just come say hi. I'm going to make a big fart noise with my mouth. Give me a performance check. Oh, that would be a one. So not a natural one, correct? Not a nat one. Okay. You go to cup your hands to make this really loud fart noise, and just nothing comes out. And as you look at your hands, they're kind of wet. You don't know why your hands are wet, but they are. So, yes, again, no fart noise. Is there a different way you'd like to cause havoc, or would someone else like to do something? I think I should have taken that right here across the room. I'm just embarrassed by my failure. Yeah, I guess I'll just look over at the wet hands. You were probably trying to cause some trouble, and I'm like, what are you doing? Yeah, I am also looking at my wet hands. And Tina is also looking at your wet hands. And Tina is also looking at your wet hands. I'm also looking at my wet hands. I don't want to be the one. I'm going to go ahead and say it out loud. Why are my hands wet? You hear murmuring of agreement. Man, the high school mind is so fickle. It's so easy to lose your popularity. You have wet hands one time. It's over. You know what? I'm going to say, if you want, you can give me an insight check to see if you remember why your hands are wet. Oh, hell yeah. Okay, rolling a five. I guess a four. A four. Your hands are honestly a little more wet than they were last time you looked at them, and they're getting wetter by the moment. Hey, it's okay to be nervous. Everyone's first day. You don't have to get so clammy. I'm not nervous. Okay, I'm sorry. I just wanted to get bright red. You get bright red. Colin leans over from the back row and goes, it's okay. He's probably nervous. Yeah. I'm going to get up and try and wipe my wet hands on Colin. Heck yeah, you do it. Colin gets knocked back a little bit and goes, oh, why did you do that? Now I'm wet. I don't want to be wet. Why are your hands so wet? Shut up, pipsqueak. You hear the teacher from the front of the class go, all right, kids, cut it out. Do you cut it out? Yeah, I cut it out. All right, sit down. Another day at this fucking school. Colin sits back, like, rustles in, goes, my hands are wet, wet hands, under his breath. Seraphina's just going to walk from the front and take a seat between Colin and Doran and just, like, hand Colin a handkerchief. Colin looks thankful. And then, Doran, you want to try to, like, give a note? Yeah, I'm going to pass a note to Colin. Sure. Are you trying to intercept this, Seraphina? No, I just say, this better be an apology, and I pass it to Colin. Colin opens and reads the note. What does the note say? It's got a penis on it. Nice. Colin looks over you and gives a smile of respect. And that's how you get respect back in this fucking school. Colin puts it in his shirt pocket, and then it immediately just gets wet. I would like to point out that the note was damp when I handed it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, and actually, at this point, you do notice your hands are dryish now, now that you've wiped them off. Perfect. Yeah, the teacher begins to try to take control of the class back and goes, Well, wonderful, now that we're all good, I should introduce myself. Nobody seems excited about that. Oh, yes, you're all children. I always forget about that. I am Miss Farburn. I come from the nearby town of Stonesplit. She wipes some sweat off her forehead. I'm here to teach you all. I have been informed that your past teacher was bullied to the point that they decided to leave town. I laugh. Thorne likes that. Yes, quite mean, actually. I just want to welcome you all and to have you all get to know each other a little better and get to know me a little better. So everyone's going to say like a little fun fact about themselves and their name. How does that sound? That sounds good. Perfect. Let's start with you, the one who laughed at the old teacher being removed. Well, my name is Doran, and a fun fact about me is I hate teachers. Fun. All right. Next up, she's like really hurriedly trying to like gesture to anyone. Her finger like. My hand shoots up immediately after that one. I am at Idaho, and I love teachers. You love teacher? Teachers. No, no, no. Why did you say it like. Okay, someone else, someone else. You, the new one. No, sorry, yes, the new one. Sure. Fun fact, yeah. My favorite book is Of Mice and Mice. You see Colin smiles in the background and whispers. That's a good book. I like that book. Yeah, I heard that's based actually on my family. Yeah, you're related to John Steinstein? Oh, no. Well. That was wrong. I mean, hey, if it was based off of your family, I'm sure there's some sort of similarity. That's cool. All right, settle down in the back. You, points at you, Mordred. I think teachers are so, so. Not you, I'm sure you're great. No, but like, as a whole. I'm wiping sweat off my brow. Say your name. You also have to say your name. Oh, my name. But you took my name. But you just did didn't, so you should know it. Hi, I'm Mordred. Mordred, thank you. Finally. Oh, my God. How is there so much sweat? It is a damp day today. Yeah, the room feels very moist, I will add. All right. That's everybody. Sweet. So, this brings us to our first. Oh, me. I'm Miss Fairburn. I like spicy soup. That's my little fun fact. I'm a big soup fan. None of you seem interested. I'm also very pro teachers. Books it, books it. Books it. You? I don't. I think it's like a blanket phase. Inquisition, because you just said you were so. So bright. All right. Well, just a few notes about this year. Yes, the previous teacher, Mr. Squitter, left. This year, we've got a new sponsor, who's half the reason I'm here. I'm not allowed to say too much, but they're from Beshu. Ooh, spooky. And I have also been instructed that you all must stay away from the shed, because of dangerous tools in there. Yes, dangerous tools. And anybody who wants to can give me an insight check. Ooh, I'll do one. Can I also do one? Yeah, like as many people that want to. That's a 17. A 17 as well. Okay, two 17s. And one. Another 17. I love that she called the whole country spooky. It's a city. It's a city next to the madness, which is the whole country. Madness? Yeah. It's a country. You know, it appears to me that none of you know that much about the countries and geography. Today, I'll be teaching you about history. And she begins to teach you all about history. In fact, the first thing that she says is the exact thing I said at the very start of this, when I was introducing the world. Now, this class is going to take a little bit. Are there any actions? Everybody kind of gets an action or so that they can do during class. Anything anybody really wants to do? You bet your ass that my action is pay attention. Okay. Let's start with pay attention. And I'm not going to have you roll anything, because I'm sure somebody is going to distract you. I'm paying attention. I don't want to pay attention. What do you want to do? Yeah, I want to turn to, I think, Doran's beside me and be like, hey, do you know anything about the shed? Why do we have to stay away from it? With your 17 insight checks, I'm the person paying attention. You have never heard of this shed before. This shed must be new this year, because this is the same school. But when she said dangerous tools, you got a sense she wasn't lying, but dangerous tools makes you think of, like, farm equipment. It's probably not farm equipment. It's probably something else. I don't know what's in there, but I've got to get in there. I agree. Do you want to sneak around at lunch and see if we can find out what's going on? Sure. Do you think anybody else in the class might be interested? We might need some backup. I don't know. Don't invite Mordred. He's such a nerd. Okay, what about that Idaho kid? Maybe. He's a bit of a goody-goody. But we can try. All right. Cool. Lunchtime then. Okay. You both hatch a plan. What about you, Mordred? I'm going to cast my cantrip of druidcraft to see if I can create puffs of wind to see if I can dry off this room. It is really uncomfortable, the situation we're in right now. You're just trying to make it less moist. Can you give me just a roll? No, let's roll a 20. It is not working. Apparently these are illusionary harmless effects. The wetness is still here. It actually feels a little bit more moist in the room. It's so uncomfortable. You guys see Ms. Fairburn is now, like, actually sweating a fair amount. It's getting hot in here. All right. We're going to do an early break for recess. And just before the break, can I have a perception check from the person paying the most attention? Probably me. I'm going to say it is probably Idaho. Oh, boy, but do I ever not perceive whatever's going to happen? I got a four or a three. This is about what was happening in class. What were you actually doing? You were looking like you were paying attention, but what were you actually like? What were you thinking about or focused on? Okay, so I think that my focus is actually on the conversations happening around. The most important part of keeping order in this school is getting information. The first part of being a tyrant is having your spymasters, right? So I'm listening to all these conversations. And I hear these talks of people not being goody-two-shoes behind me here. And I'm mentally constructing a plan to maybe follow them to the shed if they end up going there. I like that. Yeah, yeah. With your four, you do hear the word shed still. But that's pretty much the only lead or clue that you've gathered. As she goes, all right, it's too hot in here. We're going to open up that window. And then you all get recess early. Just go for recess. And with that, you're all led outside into the big yard next to the school. There's various balls around. Oh, you also see she is out here with you guys. She is reading a book. So she's not paying the most attention. Next to, like, a pile of leaves. How in eyesight is the shed? Can Miss Fairburn see it from where she is? She's looking at her book. But she's facing you guys. So she has her back to a tree, a pile of leaves next to her. She's got a book in her hand. You're all in front of her. Okay. I'm going to grab Serafina by the hand. I'm going to say, come on, we've got to sneak over there. Okay, okay. And then I'm going to try and sneak over to the shed. Okay. And, Serafina, I imagine you're going with? Yeah. Can I have both of you give me a stealth check? Yeah, roll an 18. After modifier. And a 12 after. I'm going to say her passive perception isn't amazing, and she's already a little distracted with the book. I'm going to say both of you do manage to sneak over. But because everyone else has their heads up, everyone else does see that Serafina is heading over. But you guys do manage to, like, sneak around behind her. Is there anything you guys would like to do? I'm going to stick with you. I want to inspect the shed. All right. I'm going to have both of you do an inspection check, or you do an inspection check, and then everyone else can act if they want to after. 17. Oh, my God. I know. I got a rabbit's eye. Yeah, so there is a lock on this shed. It's an older lock, but it does seem, honestly, newer than the rest of the sheds. The shed is a little falling apart. Like, there's some small holes and stuff that you can peek your eyes through to try to see what's inside. Yeah, I'm peeking. I'm trying to see what's inside. I'm fully investigating. Are there any, like, little small slits of windows at the top or anything? Not windows as much as just, like, it's just like a wooden shed with a lock on the two double doors. So, yeah, so there are holes in the ground and stuff where, like, mice have gone through. I'm going to try and peek through a hole, and I want to remind you that I have dark vision. Sure. You peek through the hole with your dark vision. Even without it, you can see the glowing of what seems to be. And I'm going to have you do one last roll for this. Can you just roll an Arcana check? Sure. That is a 12. Okay. You're not exactly sure what it is, but it seems to be this glowing blue portal thing that's in the shed. And also there are a couple of rakes back here for, like, when the leaves fall. But there is the big portal. That's the main thing you notice. What do you see? What do you see? I don't know. Something glowing. Some kind of magic. What? Serafina gets down to also look through. You know what? I'll say with both of you looking, Serafina, you also notice something is that there's tons of water on the floor around the portal. Would I know anything, like, independently about this? Yeah. You give me an Arcana check, see if you know anything about this, and we'll find out if you do. They're, like, peeking through the cracks of the door, you said? Yeah, the cracks on, like, the side of the shed. That's kind of what's in my head. A 10. No, this is a weird portal surrounded by water and some pretty nice quality rakes. As I notice that there's two of the kids just kind of looking at the shed, I'm going to ask Collin and be like, hey, I think they're interested in farm equipment. I think maybe I can make some new friends here. I know tons of stuff about farm equipment, and I'm going to try to make them. But you have to keep an eye on her, and I point out to the teacher, and I want to make my way also over to the shed. And what do I get out of this? This, and I guess I want to try to create Druidcraft one more time to make a flower bloom and give him a flower. I think you just could successfully do that. He looks at the flower, he's going to roll it around in his hands and go, no one's ever given me a flower before. I'll take it. You have my undying loyalty. Okay, just keep her distracted. I'll be back. All right. And I'm going to go towards the shed as well. I feel like at this point I am seeing the nerdy kid going over to the and I'm like, okay, now I do have to get involved. Now you've got to come defend me. So I am following, I kind of let her down, like, oh, fuck me. And I adjust my multiple ice packs from doing this several times already this week. And I make my way over as well with my hand on my foam sword hilt. Okay, sick. Can I have stealth checks from both of you? Does a 9 get me there with Colin's help? I'm going to give it a moment. A 7? That's an 11 from me. A 7 and an 11. I'm going to say, as you guys begin sneaking over, Mordred, you step on a big crunchy leaf and the teacher's, Ms. Fairburn's eyes begin to look up from the book when suddenly you hear Colin go, oh, goody, I love the weather. And she just looks over at Colin just kind of like waving up at the sky, just doing his best to distract her, and I'm going to let you guys both roll again if you want. Nice. I do want, actually. An 11 and a 12? That would be a natural 1 minus 1, 0. Okay, I'm giving you advantage on this roll, so you'll take the best of the two. Okay, so that's my 11. Okay. I got a 12. Okay, those both beat her passive perception. You guys also sneak over to the shed while Colin is just doing this routine, and then she, like, shrugs and looks back at her book, and Colin goes to give you, like, a big wink, Mordred. I give him a big wink back. Yes! Mordred gets to the shed first, right? About the same time, but, yeah, like a couple seconds first. Okay, I'm going to turn to him and tell him to get out of here, loser. You're going to ruin this. Hey, fellas, I just thought, I didn't know you guys were into farm equipment. We got tons of tractors back at the farm. I just, and I'm going to keep walking towards the shed door. It's not farm equipment, idiot. Now go! I'm going to push him. Shh, shh, shh. You're going to be too loud. She's going to hear you guys arguing. I fall over instantly. I have no strength. Okay, I'm going to do what is a luck check. I'm going to just roll a, I guess it's a perception check for her to see if she hears you just fall right over. It's a nine. She doesn't. She's still reading the book. You guys got lucky this time. It's a good book. The moment, the moment he puts his hands on him, I have pulled out my foam sword, and it's at your neck. How dare you lay a hand on the downtrodden beast. You should feel ashamed of yourself. And to be clear, this foam sword, it's like almost a dagger at this point. You know? It's because it's so short, not because it's so sharp. It's so whittled down, yeah. I'm going to try and take his sword. Can we both just start grinding on this sword? Both of you just roll a d20. I feel like we're doing this fight as silently as possible. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like quietly struggling. I got a 15. I got a four. You end up with my sword. For a couple seconds, and then you take the sword. I guess the sword dagger. What do you do? As they struggle for the sword, I also just keep crawling over. Keep crawling over to them. I'm going to threaten them with the sword and say, get out of here, you're going to ruin this. I think Idaho is struggling a lot here with, there's two aspects to this, right? Like, you know, obviously I want to stay here and fight, but I think the issue is if I admit that that sword is not real, it can do a lot of psychological damage to me. So I have to, like, respect this foam sword. Okay. So do you want to do, like, a roll for, let's, we can have Sam do a roll, an intimidation check. I think my hands are up above my head. Okay, that's a 12. Sam? I feel like a 12 would be enough to, like. Okay. So I just want to take a second and sum up what's just happened. Specifically, Serafina and Doran, we're both looking at the shed where the other two start coming over. Collins just yells up into the sky about the weather. The teacher doesn't notice. You come over, you immediately, sorry, Doran, you immediately push Mordred and then just run up to him, Idaho, with the sword right to his neck. And then you both fight over the sword. Doran takes the sword and has it up to your neck. What has Serafina been doing? Yeah, I definitely would have gone over to Mordred and been like, are you okay? I'm so sorry about him. Oh, I'm okay. You know, it's just tall grass. But I think we should stop him. He's got a lethal weapon. No, I agree. I'm also convinced that it is at least able to do some harm. No, I agree totally. I help Mordred up. I don't know. You go for the big one. I go for the similar sized one. Okay, that's a good plan. We're all the same size. I begin to run to tackle whoever's holding the weapon. I did roll a 12 on intimidation. Yeah, so I think that I am backing away a little bit, like with my hands up, terrified of this fake sword that I believe is, I have to believe is good. It's a real sword. You have to. All right. So, yeah, so you're feeling like you've won this kind of right now, Doran. Can I have just an athletics check for the two trying to tackle? And I'm going to say if you roll sub five on this, she's going to hear you guys. 18. I think he does hear us. I have a plan. But it's okay. I got an 18 too. Oh, my God. So the both of you just quietly run up and tackle these two. Now all four of you are lying on the ground. The foam sword, can I have, Sam, can you do a save for me? Again, you don't want to get below a five or a five. That's an 18. You have the sword still in your hand with an 18. I'm going to whack whoever tackled me. It does no damage. Well, you got to hurt at least. Margin, you start getting whacked by a little foam sword. I begin to back away because I think this is eventually going to start doing some real damage. And I back into the shed door. Gustav, stop. As you back into the shed door, there's a loud thud as what's inside seems to sense your presence. And then you guys hear Miss Fairburn yell, hey, what's going? And then as you all turn to look at her, you see there's a fire next to her in the pile of leaves. And she doesn't seem to notice it yet. She's kind of looking over at you guys. She's like, hey, what are you all doing? So the pile's behind her? Yeah, it's behind her. Can I cast Thaumaturgy to make a noise of, like, logs breaking so she turns around to the fire? Right now, you don't have any spells. I thought that was a cantrip that came with me just being a tiefling. Oh, then yes. I can't argue that. I didn't check racial stuff. Yeah, okay, you have Thaumaturgy. Christian doesn't see race. I don't see racial benefits. Yeah, so I cast Thaumaturgy to make it sound like a whole bunch of logs are cracking and clattering to get her attention. Can you, yeah, just give me a roll for this would be performance. That'll be a zero because it was a natural one. Well, the key thing is that it's a natural one. So how does this, in the worst way possible, go wrong? And I have an idea if you don't. She deafens herself. I want to hear your idea. Deafens her as hilarious as you may, as you accidentally put it in the wrong spot and do it, like, right in her ears would be funny. The other funny thing is what if you did it behind her and it scared her and she fell backwards into the flaming pile of leaves? Um, I feel like both are causing me so much harm. Well, you gotta choose one. Um, let's deafen her. Okay, she's deafened. She's still, like, yelling at you guys, but it's coming out slightly slurred as she, like, can't hear herself make these sounds. Um, and, uh, are you guys yelling fire? What are the rest of you doing? I pull out my whistle that's labeled danger and I'm blowing on my whistle. She absolutely cannot hear it. Everyone else is now a little deafened. You guys do quickly realize as she's not reacting to the whistle that, uh, she must be deafened. Um, I'm gonna point at the fire. That's a good idea. Um, just, are you doing anything else or are you just pointing kind of almost right behind her? Well, I'm also yelling. I'm a technical, so I'm just yelling at everything. Okay. Alright, uh, I'm gonna say with you yelling and pointing, um, give me a performance check, or persuasion. Ooh, that's a four. Uh, she just thinks you were pointing and yelling at her, so she starts really, like, walking over to you guys. Um. Can I run over and try to grab her hand? Sure. You run over and you go to grab her hand. Uh, you have her hand and she's, like, looking at you. Uh, you, uh, okay, so she turns around. She sees the fire. Uh, and then she goes, oh my God, there's a fire! Uh, why did none of you say anything? I keep blowing the whistle. Um, uh. She doesn't realize she's been deafened. I feel like she has to realize it's a fire, right? Doesn't the world just go silent? Uh, don't worry about it. Sometimes a really good book is like that, though, you know? That's true. It's all been there. She's going to start screaming fire, fire, fire. Uh, the thing that you, Doran, have been screaming this entire time. And she's going to run into the building to try to get some help somehow. Uh, and she comes back out almost immediately with, like, a big bucket of water and just tosses it on the leaves. The fire's pretty much out, and she goes, okay. Woo! Must have been a brush fire. I'm going to look around for Colin. You see, uh, give me a perception or an insight check. You tell me what it is. Um, let's, I mean, right now it's the same, so let's, oh, shit, that's an at one. Cool. So you look around for Colin. Colin's disappeared. He was on fire. He burned. Do we know how this fire started? Uh, the pile of leaves is still there, but nobody said anything. I'm going to turn to Serafina and say, where's the shrimp? Shrimp? What do you mean? The little kid, Colin. I don't know. The last I saw him, he was talking about the sky, the weather. The teacher is going to come over to you guys and say, all right, now that that mess is out, everybody back to class, and we're all going to sit down. We got another lesson before lunch that we got to do quick. Come on, everybody back inside. Does Colin come back inside with us? Well, there's only the four of you out there right now. Or, like, when we get to class, is Colin there? As you guys, like, walk into class, you guys see Colin sitting at his desk? He goes, hey, I came back early. Figured I'd wait for y'all. Colin, did you start the fire? Colin looks at you and goes, there was a fire? Yeah, an entire, like, pile of leaves. My God, that's terrible. Was she at least, like, distracted? Among other things. Um, actually, I do need one last thing. Sorry, I forgot about this. As you guys are heading inside, from two of you, from Mordred and Idaho, I need perception checks. Everyone else is looking for Colin. You two are not. Solid 11 there, folks. 16. Okay, and 11 gets you nothing. What are you focused on, Idaho, that you're not seeing this thing? My eyes are on this shed. I don't know what the hell's going on in there. Okay. I'm going to say, you two got close enough that you probably noticed, like, at least a faint flow. But you probably didn't see what was inside. Sure. Mordred, as you're heading back inside, you see a different pile of leaves moves in just a specific little way that your eye just barely captures a humanoid shape covered in leaves beginning to get out of it and run away. And with that, you're back in class. Fair enough. Sorry, do you have a question? No, I mean, do I see this as, like, we're going inside? Yeah, as you're heading inside. You're, like, right in front of the teacher. You'd be, like, the last person to enter. Hey, is there, like, a new kid as well coming in? What? No, it's just the five of you. Oh, okay. That's weird. And with that, you're back in class. During this class period, is there anything that you guys want to be doing again? Any Inquisition, anything else? This is a class on physics. Is the room drier? The room is much drier, but. I would actually just like to focus and hear your lecture on fantasy physics. Yeah, sure. I'm interested in that. Cool. Sweet. So I need all of you to give me constitution saving throws to not fall asleep when being talked to about physics. The D.C. is 15. So you have to roll a 15 or higher. And we have no classes yet, right? That's correct. That's a 15. Ooh, boy. I guess I'll also pay attention. I'm out. Yeah, me too. Cool. Almost immediately does Idaho just fall asleep, just conk out. And everyone else, you may get a little bit further, but you're just not able to pay attention as you're slowly falling asleep, except for Doran. So you see the teacher, you know, gets up and goes, all right, now we're going to be talking about physics. Specifically, the physics to do with astronomical time travel. This is just a interesting, unique lecture that I, you know, was part of teaching. There's not too much too interesting with it. What can I say? Oh, yeah, we're going to begin with the initial point, which is string theory, why strings exist and how they create magic. And she kind of goes on and on with just boring physics stuff, or cool if you're interested in physics. And with your ability to stay awake, you do catch her at one point, say something along the lines of. And this, yes, this town itself is supposedly at an interesting point in the time scale due to the exact preposition of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then this town with its exact position kind of puts it in a unique spot where kind of people who used to do time magic would study here. Oh, shoot. I shouldn't be saying this. Um, never mind. Yeah, she looks around and sees three people are asleep. Are you are you like actively staying awake or. Actually, I'm going to cast fairy lights around her head. She sees the fairy lights that last there for a little bit before they fade away, I believe. What do you do while the fairy lights are active? Oh, nothing. I just wanted to mess with her lecture. I laughed. You laugh, which kind of wakes everybody else up. She goes, hey, stop that. But because of this, she did not notice everybody was asleep. All right. Well, it's about lunchtime, so I'll let you all go out and enjoy your lunch. Just be careful out there. It's really dry, I guess. And Carlos, on your comment on your comment about if it's drier in here, you notice as you wake up, it's a little wetter than when you started. But the only one really sweating is the teacher. She. She. And with that, you guys are let out for lunch. Most of you did all of you bring your own lunches or. I think I made my own lunch. A servant made my lunch. I also made something for hope and just left it in the fridge. Well, I think she got home. Great. Hopefully my dad doesn't eat it before she gets to it. Maybe he also got home. There's just two people wandering and wandering around the city right now. Yeah. Yeah. OK, perfect. Yeah, you guys all eat lunch outside. Just the five of you. I. I'm just kind of talking to the nearest person, I guess it would be, I guess, if we're all kind of together. And I go, do you guys see that guy outside? What guy? What guy? What guy? Not the guy. Not the guy. Not like the. Not like the leaves. But there was like another leaf guy. You saw. Saw a leaf, man. Don't lie. Well, no, no, I'm not lying. I saw a leaf, man. I saw him. He was covered in leaves and he, like, went at a point that way. And I point out whichever way he ran. He ran. So that would be north. And you guys are already pretty north in the city. So there's not much in that way except for more trees. The path up the mountain. I just pointed to the forest. Are you sure you didn't see like a squirrel? No. Squirrels can't be covered in leaves. Only man can be covered in leaves. Squirrels can. Have you ever seen a man covered in leaves? I've never seen one. I have. I saw him earlier. Was he covered in leaves or was he like made out of leaves? Tell us a bit more. I don't think he was. I think he was just covered in leaves. I don't think he was a leaf man. I think he was a man maybe hiding. I don't know. It was really weird. Why would a leaf man come to our school? Uh. I don't know. But business? Let's say I believe you. We should find this leaf man. Was he definitely like a big man? Not just a kid? He looked bigger than us. Can I have my sword back? Sure. Don't ever threaten me again. I am always like shocked that you would so easily give up a sword. I mean I don't want it. I believe you. Is somebody else here? I'm willing to find this leaf man with you. Okay. I don't know if we should find him. He looks scary. We should be careful. I want to find him. I'll add you guys are outside eating lunch. As you peer through the window into the classroom, you can see that your teacher is still inside eating lunch and reading her book. Okay. Well, I guess we could go. I do have my whistle still. So we can go that way and point into the forest. Let's go. Yeah. You guys start going. Just to clarify, four 10-year-olds start. Oh, and Colin, I guess. Do you include Colin in this? No. I give Colin like five more flowers. Understood. It will be done. My liege. I don't know what the right word is. That's my man right there. You're mine. And he disappears. He completely disappears. I'm a little freaked, but okay. Cool. You guys begin heading into the forest? Yes. What's the play the moment you enter this forest that starts going up an uphill? What are you following? The leaf. Is there like a leaf path or something? Somebody can give me a survival check. I don't really believe he's real, so I'm not actually looking very hard. I'm just here to say I told you so. I'm here just to be supportive of the kid that's getting bullied. I'm interested. I'm such a curious little kid. Nat 20. I got a nat 20 and tried to find where this leaf path went. So where did you go? You see a trail of, you see actually two things with a natural 20. There's a trail of like leaves that have clearly fallen off this person that's like the exact same color as the bushes. And then there's also like little singe marks in the grass here and there. In some areas it's like singed. In some areas it's actually a little wet even. With a natural 20, the issue is you find all this, and you're the only one that fully believes that they were real to begin with. He went this way. This is the way he went. Look, look, there's burn marks on the ground right there. Okay, okay. Whoa. Do we see these? Yeah. I guess someone was here. All right. He went that way. And I pared my whistle in my mouth and start running forward. Before I run after him, I find the biggest stick I can to use as like a walking stick and potential weapon if need be. Alan, roll a nature check to find big stick. Yeah, big stick. We've all done it. That's a 16. Oh, that's a good stick there. Good stick. Good stick. I draw my real weapon and I follow. I'm going to hang back for a second and yell because I'm a little spooked at this point. I think I really wasn't expecting someone to be there, and I am a little spooked. So I'm going to say, guys, wait, we should get the teacher, which is something I've never said in my life before. I've read all. Serafina turns around and goes, no, don't do that. And I run back, poke him with my stick and go, come on. Are you scared? No. Fine. All right. Let's go. Good. And I follow. Awesome. So I'll follow. As Margaret is just gunning it forwards and up. And you guys just lose sight of Margaret for just a second before coming back up and seeing Margaret. Margaret, what you're looking at is what appears to be this temple built into the mountain. This isn't something you've ever seen before. It's made out of, like, solid teal rock smeared with, like, dirt. And it's kind of built into the mountain. There's not a huge face to this temple, but it's just kind of, like, a nice-ish, or at least you can imagine that it used to be nice, what is left of it. There's a nice big double door that is open just a crack that you can imagine. And from your natural 20, you can see is where the leaves go into. I am suddenly petrified because before we were just kind of running through the forest. And I feel like I ran through the forest a lot being close to, like, kind of outside of town. And now I'm just kind of stuck in fear of this big-ass building. And then we'll kind of wait until everybody catches up. I think I'm following pretty close behind, so I'm kind of not really believing any of this is actually happening. And so actually seeing this, like, hidden temple kind of throws me for a loop. I'm going to catch up and stand there slack-jawed for a second and just gape at the temple. Yeah, when I get there, just like, wow, oh my gosh. Oh, yeah. We should call the teacher. Are there teachers here with leaf men? Well, but teachers, they know more than, like, we do. We can go get help for, like, you know, they're adults. They're responsible. They can handle hidden temples in the forest. Suddenly, as you guys are talking, debating what to do, the door creaks open a little further. And an old man, covered in leaves, pokes his head out and goes, Adults never know what they're doing. I scream. No, no, no, it's okay, children. It's okay. I live here. How about you, leaf man? And I hold out my sword. Did you break the fire, leaf man? No, that wasn't me. That was your teacher. What? What? Why would she do that? Oh, there's many things you don't know. I imagine you had figured it out with your childlike wonder. Come on in, come on in. He opens the door, and inside you guys see, like, this big cozy interior living space. He's like, do you all drink coffee or alcohol? Tea? We're kids. I'm not going in with you. Okay. He begins pouring vague, murky stuff into cups, puts it down on the table, goes, Now, where's my stuff? Where's my stuff? And he grabs a very big, very impressive, like, natural 20-level stick. What are you? I am Yanzamanel. I am the ruler of this here druidic temple. Why do you have so many leaves? I, oh, because I was spying on your teacher. I kind of perked up, being a druidic temple. So do you head on in with your perking up? I head on in, no. I've read a lot of books about druids. Druids are never evil. Yeah, come on in, we're never evil. Why were you spying on a teacher? That's kind of weird. Because I'm the one that brought your teacher here. I'm following SIA's instructions. You shouldn't, like, spy on women in bushes. That's not... You shouldn't do that. I'm... I'm 372 years old. Back in my age, it was okay. And she's, like, 40. Like, that's weird, man. Half your age. She's 3,000 years old. Wait, can you explain what's going on with our teacher, please? Sure. Also, do you know why she's so sweaty? Yes, that's part of who she is. Well, actually, it's the skin that's weird. Are you all in this house? I know... Has everybody gone in? Because my plan was to reluctantly follow once everybody had gone in. Yes, everybody has gone in. Okay, yes, come on in, come on in. Please take your shoes off, that's the only thing I ask. Only bare feet are allowed in the druidic sanctum. Shoes off, as I know this is druidic practice. I begin the long process of unlacing my fancy leather boots. As the sludge is poured and cups are given, and they begin talking, and they go, Yes, your teacher is an Elemental. Ooh. Okay, I'm getting the sense none of you know what Elementals are, so I'm going to explain it. They are a steam Elemental, so they're half water and half fire put into human skin. How'd they get into human skin? Well, they're steam, so in the ear. I didn't pay attention during physics, I don't... How did she make the fire? She is fire, she probably did it by accident. Well, I watched, I know she did it by accident. I guess that makes sense, why would leaf men make fires? What? I didn't, yeah. I was dressed in leaves, I didn't make fire. She's a melon? Elemental. Elemental, like she's a plant, she's a plant. What's an Ele-Melon doing here? Oh my gosh. The Ele-Melon, the Ele-Melon, ah, that stuck. The Ele-Melon, the Melon, she was brought here by me for reasons that I'm sure a bunch of kids couldn't understand. How old are you, 200 years, 100 years? I'm ten. I hold out ten fingers and say, this many. Ten hundred years? You betcha. Can I have a perception check? Seraphine is giggling under her breath. She thinks this is a funny little bit. This is seven. Okay, so, oh, ten years. Okay, that would make far more sense. How much do you know about time? We experience it every day. The teacher told us about time today. The small hand means it's the hour. And the big hand is the minute. Isn't it like a spice? The teacher said that this was a special town for time. Yeah, see, this one pays attention. I like you, what was your name? I'm Doran. I'm Doran, what's your name? You're the little shit that's been putting poop in my mailbox. That wasn't me. I'm realizing now. Somebody said the other day it was Doran. Hmm. You see, he's getting all big. The leaves are puffing up like a hair on a dog's back. Isn't poo good? Fertilizer. Depends on the poo. Dog poo? No. Bear poo? Mmm. Sorry, mmm? Like, yummy? Yes. Well, you know, where do you think a kid is going to get bear poop? He's just trying to be nice, obviously. And using what little resource he has. I didn't do it. Okay, so what's going to happen? I'm going to let Helen, so I'm going to let Seraphina do a persuasion check with disadvantage. As Doran keeps claiming that they didn't do it. Okay, that's going to be an 11 and then a... Ah, so 11. An 11, okay. You keep saying you didn't do it, Doran. But this old druid goes, ah, okay, it's fine. It's fine. But kind of still has this look of, like, anger towards you, Doran, and goes, Doran, you seem to know more about time than the rest of these. I don't think that the Ele-Melon should be telling you these things, but... If the Melon has told you, then she must sense greatness within you. All right. I will answer all your questions, but in exchange, you must come with me and I will show you time. And she points right at you, Doran. Okay, I guess. What about the rest of us? Nope. Should have paid attention in class, losers. I want to see time, it's not fair. I even have this that I pull out. I don't have my back book on me, I don't pull out anything. My mom said there's never an old man who wants to show you time in his back book. You're not supposed to say yes to this. What's your mother's name? Stop, nerd, I want to see time. Yeah, yeah, time, come on. All right, Doran, come with me. The rest of you, here. He goes into a room and pulls out a ferret and puts the ferret on the table and goes, there you go. And he begins taking you away, Doran. All right, I follow. Wonderful. Now, goodbye. So he takes you away to this room on, like, this big pedestal. He locks the door behind you guys, and the pedestal begins rising up. And you get the sense that, like, you're in the center of the mountain at this point. And as the pedestal rises up, he goes, now, you little shit who keeps putting poop in my mailbox. Time is so cool, isn't it? If you could know anything, what would you know? Okay, I want to see what I'm going to be when I'm older. Okay, what you'll be when you're older, you little shit, he whispers under his breath. And you see, like, movement starts occurring. Everything starts whirring around faster and faster as bright lights and images and colors show up. And you see you in a forest with a hole in your chest wide open as you're looking at the reflection of yourself. There's two of you with the same hole that's gone clean through you. And you somehow know this is true. You know this is the future. And you know the exact date and time this is going to happen. Specifically, this is going to happen in 11 years, 2 months, and 12 days. And whoosh, just like that, you're pulled right out of it. You are next to him as the thing is lowering, and he goes, Well, did you see what you're going to be? Uh, I saw myself. But I think I was dead. Oh, yeah, you're going to die. That's what you want, right? We're all going to be dead. I don't want that. Yeah, let's bring you back in with your friends. Don't worry, it'll happen. Next time, don't put poop in my mailbox. I won't, I promise. Good. This isn't fair. Well? Well, I guess they're gone. I wish I knew what time was. Oh, it's not our fault that the teacher's really boring and we fall asleep in class. Why are you guys friends with that? Why are you friends with this guy, Seraphine? This is not... He's such a... He's so mean. I just got here. I don't condone what he does to people. I just wanted to check out the shed, and he was the closest person to me in class. But I'm really sorry, Mordred, that he pushed you over and I heard that he took your sword. I don't think that was very nice. It's okay. My sword is a weapon of great danger. I feel like any smart enemy would take it right away. I just think that this owl and melon might not be as good as we think. It might have something to do with the shed business. I mean, I know you guys went up to it after, but did you see what was inside? I didn't see what was inside. No, I didn't get close at all. Okay, well, I don't know if Doran would mind or whatnot, but I don't really care. You've come this far with us. We saw some rakes, which were pretty nice quality ones, which, you know, Mordred, you might be interested in. But there was also this weird blue portal that was covered in water on the floor. I didn't really know much about it. I've never seen anything like it. But why would something like that be in a shed? In a school ground? A water portal. Is it maybe to summon more elements? Maybe, but she's a steam elemental? She has fire. They're making steam. There's a lot of ele-melons going on, you know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe the moistness of the classroom has something to do with the moistness around the portal? Also, I've walked down these paths a lot, and I've never seen this building before. You've been here before? Yeah, I mean, I have to walk through the forest on my way to school, but I've never seen this. It's just a big building full of stuff. What do you normally see when you go through the forest? Not a big temple. Fair. That's fair. Mostly just trees and squirrels. Do you spend a lot of time in the forest, Mordred? Just on my ways home from the farm. Usually, sometimes Mama has me go and pick up milk, or drop off milk. One of the two, really. Okay. Suddenly, the doors opened that previously closed as they walked through them. And out comes Amar- And Doran. What does Doran look like right now? Fucking shook. Pale. Shaken. Not speaking. The future! It's cool. Well, it's about nap time for me. I hope you kids had fun. Doran, are you okay? He's fine. Yeah, I'm fine. Okay. What did you see up there? Nothing. What do you mean, nothing? Nothing. I didn't see anything. Mr. Leafman, what did you do to Doran? I showed him the future. Same thing. I gave him everything he wanted. And, uh, with that, uh, yeah, so your teacher's actually pretty cool. That's the long and short of it. Uh, but she has steam coming out of her ears sometimes. Anyways. You just told us that she was dangerous and scary, didn't you? Before you go to sleep, do you know anything about a potential shed on the school grounds? Oh, you guys should not go through there. That would lead to incidents. You discovered Broader Forest. Yes. Why? And what happened to our old teacher? Your old teacher actually did leave town. That wasn't a lie. They got bullied into leaving. Um, but I don't think that's going to be a problem anymore. Right, Doran? I wonder who did that. No. Um, and anyways. Is this always just a long lesson for Doran? If it happens to be, that's good. Can I pick up the ferret? I feel like we really made a bond. I want to take him with me. Alright, you have the ferret as a friend now. Cool. What are you going to name him? This is Sprinkles. I love that. And with that, he's going to begin ushering you guys all out and giving you kind of a shoo-shoo as he goes, Alright, alright, get out. Um, yes, if you have any questions, I might be here, or maybe I'll be in your future. What a weird leaf guy. I don't like leaf people anymore. Maybe they're not all like that, but he's weird. With that, the doors kind of slam behind you guys as the four of you guys are outside. Five. Oh, ferret, sorry. Sprinkles. The five of you guys are all outside. Uh, I guess I'm going back to school. I'm sure we missed lunch. Yeah, yeah, lunch is over. I'm just going to quietly follow. Yeah, I guess I'm making my way down. Yeah, Seraphine is probably going to walk up beside Doran and just kind of go, Really, are you okay? What happened? I'm fine, just leave it alone. Okay, alright, alright. If you want to talk about it, you can talk to me, but it seems like something big happened. Seeing that Doran is like this, I think that Idaho is pretty psyched, like the balance of power here has shifted. Okay, sweet, so you're pretty psyched, you're just like, you're hop-hopping. I'm in the front of the group, I'm walking, my head is held a little bit higher. My sword is stashed, and I don't feel the need to draw it right now. My upance has come. Your upance has come. Uh, yeah, sick. Yeah, as you're all walking back to school, you guys get back to the yard, you're out of the forest, having met this weird old man. And as you all head back inside, you see Colin is talking the ear off of Miss Farburn. And he goes, yes, anyway, so yes, that's one of the 12,000 reasons why mice actually make better companions than dogs. Another one would be, oh, hey, you guys are here. Do you see Miss Farburn? Shout-out to Colin, a great distractor. Can I give Colin a high-five? Hell, yeah, he takes a high-five. His little wrist gets knocked back a little far, and it hurts him, even though you're also not very strong. And with that, you guys have a great day. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.