Riptide Episode 3: The Laughing City

"'The crew finds themselves jumped by and old man and then led to a town where everyone MUST be on the same joke.' – Episode 3 Official Description"

Summary
Chip, Jay, and Gillion, having landed on the island of Loffinlot, agree to perform some errands for the old man who greeted them in exchange for a stay at his inn. However, their arrival in town is far from ordinary as they encounter more townsfolk in constant laughter and witness a horrifying incident.

Episode Events
The episode picks back up on the crew’s conversation with the old man, who introduces himself as Earl, and says that he runs a bar/inn in the nearby town. After Earl continually begs for the trio to get him off the island, Chip attempts a bargain with him for lodging at his inn in exchange for passage on their ‘ship’ but ultimately settles with having the crew temporarily work for Earl to pay for their stay.

Upon being led into the Alleyway Town of Moornstead, Earl informs the trio that the island is named Loffinlot. The residents that greet the crew as they pass also seem strangely joyful, and laughter can be heard all throughout town.

Earl requests that the crew go pick up some oranges for his shop at two nearby stalls and provides them with the necessary coin. Chip and Jay are suspicious of the townsfolk’s intentions (though Gillion is oblivious to the abnormality of the denizens’ behavior), so Chip sends Gill to buy the oranges with the intent of abandoning him if things go wrong. Additionally, he and Jay notice a strange individual enter the inn.

At the first stall, Gillion is greeted by a humanoid fox with reddish orange fur, a split tail, yellow eyes and a green hooded vest who invites him to buy tangerines. However, the owner of the second stall across the street — a heavyset half-orc with braided blonde hair, a red and white flannel, and blue denim pants — insists that he buy her clementines instead. A distressed Gillion casts Minor Prophecy (a flavored version of Guidance) to help decide which merchant to buy from and finds that the fox, having hand-picked his oranges and exuding more passion than his greedy competitor, has the better product. Purchasing the tangerines, Gill returns to Chip and Jay at Earl’s inn.

Before going in, Chip deceives Gillion into thinking that he must slap Earl’s bald head as a respectful greeting. As the tavern turns out to be full of other bald old men when the three enter, Gillion once again casts Minor Prophecy and slaps the head of every single bald patron in the room — to Chip’s utter delight. The men erupt in laughter and one tries to drunkenly attack Gillion, but otherwise do not indicate the greeting was improper. Old Man Earl arrives and demands the oranges while warning Gill against attempting the ‘greeting’ on him, but Gillion nonetheless slaps the man’s head with full force. Earl does not retaliate, saying that he’ll let it slide because of Gillion’s prior jokes as well as the fact that he could kill Earl with another hit.

As Chip and Gill mop the floors, Jay approaches the individual she spotted earlier — a thin gnome man with jet black slicked hair in a pompadour style, who slides her a piece of parchment. The gnome, much like Earl, also insists that Jay get off the island through nervous laughter and asks that her crew meet him and his boys on the coast to take them away. As they talk, Jay notices a tattoo on the man’s wrist and asks about it; he dodges the question before excusing himself from the tavern.

Chip and Jay reconvene and she shows him the parchment she received, which contains a note reading:

“CATHEDRAL

PASS

SO THIS IS THE SUSHI CHEF WITH THE FOUR FINE FRESH FISH.”

While the crew studies the note, they hear a thud in the room and find that a woman has collapsed on the floor in laughter. Her voice gradually becomes hoarser and her breathing more hysterical until she finally goes still, dead. After a moment of silence, the room bursts into laughter as the tavern’s patrons exit and a burly man carries out the woman’s body. The session ends.

Transcription
A Google Doc of this episode's transcription is available here.

This was created by Cavebees and their transcription team on Discord.

Trivia
WIP