A Chef’s knife, symbol of Nessa - the party’s cook
We picked up Episode 2 in the tense scene with Jack[1]. Jin just caught Jack in the act of sneaking into the Nekogoblin camp, and was clearly responsible for whatever was going on.
A scuffle ensued, and the Springtime Voyagers quickly dispatched their foe. Soon, it became clear what was happening: in a somewhat macabe act, Jack decided to implant gold coins into the Nekogoblins as incentive for wandering voyagers to control their numbers. This happened after the Nekogoblins repeatedly trampled on his prized petunias, and he faced trouble convincing adventurers on his own to take care of the troublesome pests.
That taken care of, the party headed to Thurston to sort things out. They convinced Deputy, the town Sheriff, to take Jack into custody, and set in for the night. But, not before running into their teammate and town cook Nessa Cordin.
Nessa, it turns out, had overslept the first night. While she quickly set out to try and catch up, it wasn’t until Thurston that she finally managed to get back in contact with the party.
Fortunately, though, they managed to reunite at the Bait and Tackle inn. Afterwards, they brought Dr. Jenner, the town doc, to the Nekogoblin camp to help extract the coins. Things went smoothly, and as a show of their grattitude, the Nekogoblins rewarded the party with, as they called it, Magic Glow-y Dust.
From there, they returned to town. They decided to eat supper at the Bait and Tackle inn, where they met a mysterious figure - Tilly Trimblewaltz. Dressed as a stereotypical Anime magical girl, Tilly made it clear she was interested in the Magic Glow-y Dust the party carried, although she called it Moon Dust.
She made an exchange with the party - giving them a magic ladder that would never break and extended from a few inches long all the way to 60 feet long in exchange for the Moon Dust they received from the Nekogoblins. When asked why she wanted the Moon Dust so much, she said it made good glitter.
Coins, symbol of Jin - the party’s merchant
With that strange encounter squared away, though, the party went to sleep. In the morning, they found out that Jack had been sentenced to communal service, scooping Nekogoblin litter (a downgrade from the original proposal of becoming the tribe’s scratching post). They then stocked up on supplies, and set out again.
Along the way, they met the Ryuujin Senna, who told them she would help guide the party on their way. Before agreeing to help them, though - she asked the party a series of questions gauging what they learned from the Nekogoblin encounter, and poking at why they acted the way they did.
She seemed satisfied with the party’s answers, though, and allowed them to continue on their way.
We left off after the party reached the Bugeye’d Swamps. The party heard some cries for help, and went to investigate - only to find a Slime named Globella crying over her falling Splitster. Apparently, her father had a vendetta against the Gobraches[2] of the swamp after Globella was found to be in a relationship with Bugsy McRoach…
Glossary
[1] Jack: A lumberjack the party had helped out of a jam in episode 1.
[2] Gobraches: A race of sentient insects bent on making the world as dirty as possible. If you look through the VoD, you’ll see some cutesy bug emoji in chat deemed as the cannon visual representation.