Quick facts
Campaign: The Wonders of Arlia (Campaign 1) · Where: North City, the Cackler Barrel, the Collector’s Mansion · Previous: C1 Chapter 07 · Next: C1 Chapter 09
Back in North City, the Cacklers set out to free Sophie and Oolong’s sister Tala from The Collector. They became fugitives, faked Sophie’s death in the newspaper, found a home under the Cackler Barrel, and finally killed the Collector, with Terra Misu fighting on his side until the last moment.
Back in North City
Bulma’s capsule dropped everyone into her ex-boyfriend’s home in North City, and she promptly called him an “unbelievable asshole.” At a bar, two men investigating a breastplate that went missing at the tournament asked pointed questions about a “big large black bird,” and Oolong quietly tucked his polymorph wand away. Bulma Briefs gave Juliette a glove set with a blue crystal that let her cast Bulma’s Voltaic Bolt.
The Collector knew Emerald and Obsidian had been “gallivanting in Parmesan Diego.” He listed Emerald’s failures, from complicating King Piccolo’s release to interfering with a meeting with a high-ranking Rose Ribbon official, and sent both back to their barracks. Obsidian hugged Oolong for a long time and told him, “no matter where you go, we are family,” leaving a feather behind.
Terra Misu Umber, briefly back from a Collector assignment, told Bulma, “I just want to be the baddest bitch in Arlia.” Bulma promised to help, and also took a sudden interest in Greene. Her advice on Piccolo: “stay the hell away from West City.” Jebidiah’s establishment turned out to be the surprisingly influential Cackler Barrel. Oolong’s captive sister, Tala, held by the Gem Sapphire, sent him their clan’s promise: “No bird left behind.” The party also learned the Mafuba technique would likely kill whoever used it, as it had Master Mutatio.
The breakout
The Cacklers decided to get Sophie and Tala back immediately; Terra was “long long far away” and couldn’t help. Meanwhile Oolong scared the elderly owner of Walter’s Watch Warehouse into a heart attack, stabbed him to make sure he got a prized bow, disguised himself as an innocent “bimbo,” yelled “Please!” at the onlookers, and fled.
Near the stadium courtyard, the Gems Sapphire and Ruby ambushed them, and their psychic attacks tore through the party. Sophie raised her hands and offered herself to the Collector to save her friends. As the Gem went to snap the bracers on her, she turned into a Tyrannosaurus rex. She bit Ruby’s upper torso clean off and swatted the last enemy into a tree with her tail. “Let’s get out of here!” Juliette screamed.
Sophie rampaged through the city. An airborne enemy dropped Greene with an ice storm until Obsidian, keeping the oath, leapt off the T-rex to land the killing blow. The T-rex turned to Greene and screamed, “You better fucking get on. Get right or get left, boy.”
Killing Emerald on paper
The next North City Times carried Emerald’s face and a 50,000 gold bounty from the Collector, charging her with destruction of property, kidnapping Obsidian, and murdering the Gems Ruby and Sapphire. Sophie vowed to get the “stupid ass bracers” off Terra so she didn’t have to do this “bullshit for him anymore.”
So Oolong disguised himself as the Collector, others as the Gems Amethyst and Pizzazz, and “the Collector” told the paper’s reporter that Emerald had been “taken care of.” He suggested they print that they “killed her in the streets.” The reporter, who only ran the ad because he didn’t want the Collector to “slit my throat,” bought it.
The war room
At the Cackler Barrel, Jebidiah hugged Greene, offered the party residuals, and gave them a refitted storeroom with three bedrooms beneath the Barrel as a war room. He would back them but not fight: “I don’t want to die.” When the Collector dropped by, the Cacklers plotted to kill him and “weekend at Bernie’s” the body, but he only discussed “Ginyu Force flavor” franchising and praised the name. After he left, the paper ran an update: Emerald was dead, killed by Amethyst and Jasper, her last words “You’ll never get away with being a slaver.” The owner sold the paper to a shell corporation.
Furious at being made a liar, the Collector sent a mental threat: “first I will break your heart and then I will break your body.” Sophie answered, “I’m just going to say fuck you. You pompous little kitty tiger.” Terra, reached by message, was stuck in the “fucking FeyWild.” Her job for the Collector had taken her, the Gem Amethyst, and two genasi helpers, Masha and Vath, from Beerlia through a portal into The FeyWild in pursuit of Max the Andalite, who had been transformed to look like Oolong.
The showdown
The Cacklers snuck into a side room of the Collector’s Mansion. He was waiting. A portal dumped them into a scorching place of smoke and lava, where the Collector stood with Amethyst, a mysterious man, and Terra, drawing a glowing greataxe. “Well, well, well. We meet again at last. I believe that it’s time that we settle this.”
He caged Oolong and Obsidian in force, joking he’d “kill two birds with one cage.” Terra charged with white, lifeless eyes and a single tear on her cheek, and the party’s magic slid off the Collector. Pinned under Terra, Oolong pulled out a mud doll of her and dispelled the bracers. They fell off, and her sorrow turned to pure rage. Masha and Vath, whom the Collector had collected from the FeyWild and brought through his teleport for this fight, turned on him and fought with the Cacklers. Reese’s daggers dropped Amethyst. With a nod from Sophie, Terra cleaved the Collector’s head clean off. The Collector, Amethyst, and Pizzazz were dead. Before he fell, the Collector had laid his curse on Vath, as he had on Greene and others. The party grabbed a glowing blue box the Collector had stolen from Max, and Sophie threw a capsule.
No rest
They landed in Bulma’s ex’s dark bedroom. Greene overheard him on a sending stone stalling for a Rose Ribbon patrol and struck him in the temple a little too hard, killing him. Captain Barqs was in a cell: Greylock had usurped him, and Ibeesee had imprisoned them both and handed the Rootbeer Float to Captain Rootbeard.
Nobody could sleep. Greene dreamed of tubes full of floating bodies and an orange-and-black striped monster roaring, “You are fucking around with things you don’t understand.” Oolong dreamed of a lava pool and falling. Terra dreamed of beheading Sophie while a voice whispered, “First, I will break your heart.” Exhausted, the party split up: some to hunt for the Rootbeer Float in Scotch on the Rocks, others to find a cleric.
Previous: Chapter 7: West City and King Piccolo · Next: Chapter 9: Rootbeard and the Silent Vaults