"Alright, let's use this time to quickly decide if there should be a greater threat in the village or not... let's weigh the pros and cons..."

Histoire sighs heavily as she mentally goes through a checklist; she herself knows this is a terrible, terrible idea, especially since she's looked through so many forums about being a Dungeon Master during her free time over the weeks. Although, the entire game is about 50% improvisation, her basic plan for this village was to simply be a skeleton fight, but that might be a bit boring for them, then again, does it need to be exciting?

"If I were a player to my own game, would I be excited for this? It's ... extremely difficult to judge that since I have the bias of being the DM... Oooh I can't even imagine being both a player and DM..."

Shaking her head a bit, the main issue is how to introduce this adversary, if she would go with it, and how difficult should it be? Should it be a simple beast? Suddenly a synapse in her head connected that cemented her decision to ensure a wild mutated creature should be here. The first encounter with the gemstones had a beast who dug it up, hence it wouldn't be too out of place to have a beast. She nods, convincing herself that this is a good idea.

"I should look up a creature while they're still discussing Uni's adventures... maybe it doesn't need to be from the book, but I'll just make one up, based on another creature..."

Just as Histoire was getting comfortable with her thoughts, she hears the a set of footsteps headed towards the kitchen. She looks out and sees that it's Uni on her way to the kitchen. Histoire looks around almost as if trying to hide notes that were never there, seeing that there were none, she composes herself.

"Miss Uni, is that you?"

"Ah, Miss Histoire, yeah, it's me, just getting some water to clear up my thoughts."

"Yes, making sure you're properly hydrated is important. Anyway, I shouldn't interrupt your thoughts. I'll be heading back to the table now, don't take too long."

"Okay Miss Histoire."

Histoire leaves the kitchen and returns back to the table where the rest of the goddesses are chatting about their week before the game. She's hearing small quips about a burger chain in Lowee and Neptune dreaming about turning into a frog. After a few minutes, Uni returns to the table, which Histoire takes as her cue to start the game proper once more.

"Okay everyone, let's get back to the game. Well, actually more for Miss Uni. Okay, Poppy is currently in the mayor's office, where she found a lot of debris and trash, but oddly enough it looks like things are organized even though it's all made of trash."

The table quiets down and Uni nods before speaking. "Okay, Miss Histoire, I didn't encounter a skeleton when I went here right? If so, I wanna keep observing this general area, see if there someone or something comes here. Actually let me disorganize a few things here, something obvious... uh, let me open the drawer and pick out the largest thing there and put it on the table."

Histoire tilts her head slightly. "Okay, Poppy picks out the largest piece of junk she can find in the drawer and places it on the table. Is that right?"

"Yep! Then I want to hide maybe by the rooftop of this building and keep track of who or what will enter, is there a spot I can also see the inside of this place?"

"Well, since the village itself is dilapidated, then there's a hole by the roof that allows you to easily see the inside of this room, but not fully though."

"Um, can I see the table from that hole? Actually, maybe I can make my own hole on the roof."

"If you do that, I would need you to roll a... um, stealth? Wait... I guess the closest would be move silently...? Go ahead, roll a Move Silently."

"I got a 9, for a total of 21."

Histoire nods. "Alright, Poppy makes a small hole in the roof of the office, ensuring that she can see a good amount of the room without being spotted."

"Hey Histy, how is it that Poppy can just move around the roofs of houses without being seen?"

"Well, without a sudden noise from above, think about it, how often do you actually look up while walking around?"

The table perks up slightly, and puts on their thinking faces. After a few moments, Neptune shrugs. "You're right. I don't exactly look up, in fact I'm more concerned about the ground so I don't trip or fall..."

Histoire chuckles a bit. "See? There you go. Moving on, so Poppy just keeps observing until something happens at the office then?"

"Yeah, maybe if there's like a large gathering of skeletons somewhere suddenly. Last time I was here I was just scouting from afar right? Now I'm in the town itself. I'll use all the chances I have to gather as much info as I can."

"Poppy skulks the mayor's office roof and observes the town. After what feels like hours of nothing happening, she notices a skeleton shuffle into the building she's in."

"Has any other skeleton shuffled into a building? This one or otherwise?"

"Yes. Poppy has seen skeletons randomly moving about but it didn't seem different to her in comparison to when she was scoping the place out, it would go to a building, but just stand there, and then move about somewhere else. This skeleton in particular is shuffling towards the office with purpose, or atleast that's what it looks like... uh, would there be a door... erm, yes, I would say there was a door to the building of the mayor's office."

"So, this skeleton opened the door? I guess that's really suspicious and very different. Okay, what does the skeleton do? Let me spy with my lil' eye into the office."

"Poppy peers into the peephole she made for this exact purpose and sees the skeleton stay in the office. It turns its head around the room, seemingly looking around, looking for something. It turns towards the table, and walks towards it. It puts its skeletal hand on the table, and it slowly moves it in the direction of the large piece of junk Poppy took out."

Histoire glances at Uni and sees her eyes are growing ever slightly larger. She smiles to herself as she continues the description. "The hand lands on the large piece, and it picks it up, or tries to. After flailing about with it but failing to properly hold it for one reason or another, it decides to just open the drawer, and push the item into the drawer. The skeleton then closes the drawer, afterwards, it looks around a bit more, a few slow minutes pass of it looking around, before it shuffles out of the office."

Histoire finishes her description, as Uni's eyes suddenly widen, her lips thin and she puts both hands on her head, while mumbling something.

"Oh no, no no no..."

"Miss Uni, is there something wrong?"

"I just realized something... what if this skeleton communicates to the others that his stuff was moved? What if they think that someone else is here and become even more vigilant? Oh no... maybe I shouldn't have moved it..."

Uni continues to mumble to herself while Histoire thinks about what Uni said, realizing that she never even considered that possibility, and now that it was said, she should probably do it. Histoire looks back to Uni and she's still mumbling to herself, it reminds her of Noire somewhat. Knocking on the table she brings Uni out of her mumbling stupor.

"Miss Uni, well, now that you've realized what you've done, what else would you like to do? The skeleton is still shuffling out of the office, if you want to do something about it, or would you simply let the skeleton shuffle away?"

"Um... if they're cognizant enough to realize that something was moved to move it back ... if I take this one out, they'll probably notice this particular skellie is gone, and then it'll just cascade from there. Aaaaaaahhhhh...!"

"Well, um, Miss Uni, we can't dawdle all night with this decision, so if you can't make one, I'll have to say the skeleton slowly exits the office. What else would Poppy want to do?"

"I'll ... mark that skeleton, and see where it goes. I'll follow it around, from the rooftops."

"Okay, in order to properly mark your target without losing it in a crowd of literally similar skeletons, I'll need you to make a spot check." Histoire doesn't have a solid number in mind, but any high number should be fair enough for the roll.

"Right, spot check, that's +8 and ... oh no... I got a 4 so that's only 12 in total... Would that be enough?"

Histoire looks at the result, and even she wouldn't really let that fly, although it would be moving quite slowly. Perhaps, it might just be barely enough. "Alright, Poppy keeps track of the skeleton. It's shuffling slowly and seems to be minding its own business."

"Does it go anywhere in particular, a congregation of sorts? Maybe inside another building?"

"Poppy keeps her eye on the skeleton go about its business for the day. It brings Poppy to a different part of the town, it's near the opposite border of where Poppy started from. It's quite far from the camp. The skeleton is moving back and forth, almost unsure of what to do, it looks like it's about to exit the town, but suddenly goes back in the town, it does this for a few times. After a while it slowly shuffles back into town, and makes its way back to the office."

"Let me peer into the office, what does it do?"

"It once again looks around, and it returns to the table. It opens the same drawer, and it pulls out the large piece of junk. It's having issue picking it up, but eventually it's able to pick it up with its two arms. Two skeletal arms. After that, it slowly makes its way back to the edge of town, where it did an about-face. It now continues to exit the town, while still holding on to the large piece of junk."

"Um, Miss Histoire, did that particular skeleton bump into other skeletons, and if so, did the other skeletons do anything?"

"Erm, it did pass by other skeletons, but it seems like they all kept to themselves as far as you can tell. They seemingly turned their heads towards the one you've marked, but nothing more than that."

"Miss Histoire, I think you mentioned something about the whole area making me feel faster right?"

"Yes, that's how you're following the skeleton easily."

"Are they not being affected by it? You've been saying that all of them are shuffling slowly."

"Ah!" blurts out Neptune. "Histy, wait, you know how in our bodies, muscles are attached to our bones which give them movement right, and basically that's the limiting factor of our bone movement, oh and friction, I guess, but anyway, since skeletons are moved by magic, what exactly is stopping it from going insanely fast?"

"... Neptune, let's not go there, unless you all want to fight skeletons who do exactly that. Anyway, Miss Uni, you don't know if it's being affected or not."

"So, it's highly possible that these thing can go faster or not... or maybe they'll go slower!" says Uni, optimism brimming in her voice.

"Continuing on, Miss Uni, the skeleton continues moving out of the town, and into the forest. Does Poppy continue to follow it? It's already out of town."

"Yes. I want to know where it's taking it and why it's taking it there. Um, would I need to roll another check?"

"No need. You've already rolled quite well. Okay, Poppy continues to follow the skeleton into the forest. The forest gives her better hiding spots especially with her small stature. After a long while, the skeleton is shuffling quite slowly still, it eventually reaches a clearing. The clearing looks like it's been dug around, a lot of displaced earth, dirt, soil, and barely any grass, all concentrated around this rather large clearing. The skeleton is at the edge of this clearing and shuffles towards the middle, then abruptly stops."

"What happens next?"

"What happens next is... the ground begins to shake slightly."

"Miss Histoire," says Vert, "do we feel the ground shaking from where we're at?"

"No, Miss Vert. As the group in the camp goes about their business, they do not feel the ground shaking."

Vert nods, "I see. So it's not that powerful of a shake. Okay, I just wanted to know."

"That's alright Miss Vert, okay, carrying on. The ground shakes, and from the middle of the clearing, a gigantic worm like creature crawls out of the ground."

Histoire waves her arms around and conjures what might constitute as a horrid creature from the earth, that's been mutated by uncontrolled magic. A worm like beast, with 4 mandibles by its mouth, and its insides protruding with sharp teeth.

"Wow! Histy, that looks like that thing, from that game, with the graveyard boss fight, where using Acid Rounds against it was the most effective way to win, because you totally got enough Ammo Powder to create the Acid Rounds! Too bad it wasn't in the remake."

"That's ... uh, somehow really specific yet vague, Neptune. All the same, the creature emerges from the ground, then the skeleton hastily puts the large piece of junk it has been carrying around down, and backs away. The creature lunges forward and devours the piece of junk, it takes a full minute for the entire body of the creature to be underground once more. Afterwards, nothing else happens, and the skeleton leaves the area. Does Poppy follow the skeleton back or what does she want to do?"

Uni's face is frozen and her mouth is agape. Noire lightly taps on Uni's face with her palm to get her out of her stupor. Uni shakes her head and turns red. "I'm sorry about that ... um, uh... what should I do? Do I investigate this place but... if I do, then I'll alert whatever that HUGE creature was! It'll eat Poppy for lunch! Um! Poppy will... will! Just return to base camp! And tell everyone what happened here!"

"Okay Miss Uni, Poppy, goes back to the base camp, as fast as she can within stealth limits, which means a leisurely walk back. Due to Poppy's previous high rolls, she makes it out of the town safely. Are you sure you don't want to go back to the town and observe further?"

Histoire almost instinctively looks at Vert, who's almost failing to keep a straight face, especially when Uni was asked if she was certain that they didn't want to go back to town. Histoire notes an almost primal instinct being observed in Vert of wanting to go back in town, most possibly thinking, something has to be there, 'why would Lady Histoire suggest such a thing without something being there?' or at least that's what Histoire thinks what Vert is thinking.

"Um ... no, Poppy will, just ... continue to go back to the base camp and let everyone know what happened here. Am I back in the base camp? Does everyone know what happened now, because Poppy told them?"

"Hm..." Histoire is thinking about whether making Uni relay the whole town visit in her own words, or should she just let the fact that everyone was here to listen in to the whole event be enough. "I'd say, yes, the group does know the details of Poppy's ordeal."

Suddenly as quiet as the whole table was during Uni's solo expedition, it exploded to the complete opposite direction of silence. Histoire can hear Neptune rambling about the giant worm creature, Rom and Ram is in awe about the skeletons in town, Vert is saying something about needing another scouting mission, Noire is telling her sister good work, with Uni happily reciprocating, Nepgear looks to be thinking about something along with Blanc, perhaps how to take down the large worm creature that was shown at the end.

She lets them all talk over each other until they all naturally quiet down. It takes them a while but eventually the din of their conversation dissipate into silence. As the table calms down, Histoire clears her throat and obtains the attention of everyone at the table.

"Alright then, everyone's reactions and chitchatting over Uni's solo adventure took quite a bit of time, but I'm glad that it seemed to have been received positively with everyone. I was worried that this wouldn't be taken too well since it was only Uni getting the attention, but it seemed to have gone well."

"Yeah, that's alright Histy, it was fun hearing how things go, finally without Sir Puddington in danger, hehe."

The rest of the table share the same sentiment, clearly enjoying Uni's adventure, and the discovery of the secrets of the town. A weight is lifted from Histoire's shoulders seeing how well everyone took the session.

Histoire happily claps. "Alright then, it seems it's nearly time for tonight's session to be over, so next week, we can all discuss what you'd all want to do."

"I definitely would like to take down that giant worm creature," says Vert. "Even if it's unrelated, we can't exactly report that we left a creature of that magnitude alone."

"But Vert, what if that creature keeps balance to everything else here?" adds in Noire.

"What exactly can a giant worm like that balance?" states Blanc. "Looks like something that's actually causing a lot of damage."

Histoire meekly whispers to herself, "Or perhaps right now is alright too..."

The table erupts into another din of noise, discussing what they all want to do about the skeletal village and the worm. Nepgear is vehemently suggesting a scorched earth policy and just burn everything down, then sift through the remains. The others haven't been so accepting of that, but it's still on the table. Vert states another scouting mission would be best, at no risk in general, stating as well that they're not in any sort of time constriction. Neptune says that maybe they can somehow get the skeletons to be on their side, somehow. Rom is asking how effective melee attacks would be to the worm, and Ram is asking would punching the worm defer any kind of detriment on Paul's hands. Uni voices her worries that they may have lost their element of surprise and may suddenly be attacked at night. Noire eases her worries, or tries to.

The discussion continues for a lot longer than Histoire expected. As much as she would've liked to continue the discussion, she raised her voice and immediately the table quiets down.

"Thank you for that everyone. I appreciate all of you being enthusiastic about the game, but we're already quite past our usual end time. Miss Rom and Miss Ram, I know you may not feel tired but it's past your bedtime now."

"Oh, Histy's right, maybe we can just talk about this during the week, that's no problem, right Histy?"

"Um, no, not really. So I guess if you all want to still continue actually ... um, I'll be needing my own sleep," says Histoire with a slight yawn.