El Taco Libre

El Taco Libre — Ch 2.4

The same festival morning dawns again, and this time the band knows the tune by heart. Wake a friend who won’t wake, turn a saboteur’s own curse against him, and rig a children’s mud-wrestling bracket with a masked luchador who is definitely a real contender — all before eight o’clock, when the director wants a word. But what’s that circle of woven string hiding under Wolfgang’s collar, and why does a dead man keep falling out of the sky? Somewhere in the crowd a sleeping wizard is still leaving them breadcrumbs. Follow the music, and don’t look at what’s behind the curtain.

Chapter / Episode	2.4 — El Taco Libre
Arc	Battle of the Bands (inside TBD’s Dream)
GM	Chris
Date / Duration	2025-01-03 · ~4h (gameplay from 00:03:57)
Party	Xeros (Dave), Nortle (Steve), Basil (Brin), Foulclaw (Jesse)
The Dreamer	TBD (Chris) — comatose; appears only as a stage apparition and breadcrumb scrolls
Ends on	Basil glimpsing the [[The Dreamcatcher

Synopsis

The dream resets one more time, and the party wakes in the ticket line at eight in the morning, wristbands still on, memories of the last loop intact. They are old hands at this now — the whole day of the Battle of the Bands in Magus laid out ahead of them like sheet music — so they set about it as a to-do list of good deeds, each one a bar of the melody that might finally wake TBD. First stop is the Main Stage Tent (Tent of Holding), where a sound-check victim has been turned into a frog by a cursed microphone and LaDonna herself is found crouched over the poor amphibian. Nortle befriends the frog by retracting into his shell and belly-flopping down to its level; Xeros pitches blessing the mic with Comprehend Languages so it can sing in frog; and Basil pockets the Cursed microphone with a careful sleight of hand — which immediately backfires and turns her lower half into a frog. Business as usual.

From there it is a tour of the fairgrounds’ rolling disasters, each solved by doing the obviously-chaotic thing. At the food court the crew heads off Bacon’s cursed-sugar catastrophe before it can birth a Soup Golem — Basil snatches the poisoned “sugar,” and in the scuffle the cursed mic goes off again, this time turning Bacon himself into a frog, so the party bless the whole truck and run it for an hour as a “holy soup” stand to balance the karmic books. Foulclaw slips into Jimmy Eccentric’s hotboxed tent and comes out with an autograph and a tampered vial of Purple Filth, which Xeros promptly haggles her out of. And when the disgraced bard Nick Dagger plummets dead from the sky in front of the mud-wrestling arena, Foulclaw robs his corpse and finds his secret weapon — a folded-up cheat sheet of dance moves — which she flings into the mud.

Then comes the main event, and the episode’s namesake. Denied entry to the world-famous Choldreth mud-wrestling ring for being too small, Foulclaw is Enlarged, disguised, and fitted with a hand-stitched luchador mask by Xeros, who christens the creation El Taco Libre and slaps three thousand gold on it to win. Each of the party pilots a wrestler — Foulclaw as El Taco Libre, Basil as Amla, Nortle as Gangsta’s Purgatory, Xeros as Tiny Dancer Feet — through a gloriously stupid bracket, but the reigning monster Big Maja Jaja bulldozes the field. When a flung trinket clips announcer Ringo Shard into the pit and shatters her cage, the champion breaks loose and goes for the kill. The party rallies: Xeros Reduces her and pelts her with daggers, Nortle swings her by the ears, Basil drops a Wall of Force to save Ringo Shard, and Foulclaw slides underneath, releases the wall, and drives a frost-charged fist up through her thorax until she bursts. In the gory aftermath Wolfgang himself glides over to invite the newly-solo Xeros to the finale — and Basil, sharp-eyed, catches the woven circle he’s hiding at his throat right before TBD’s apparition sparks to life to hand them their next scroll and one more push toward the truth.

🎵 Song Recap (rhyming — drop into an AI song generator)

Scheme: AABB verses + chorus. Suggested vibe: circus-punk luchador hype anthem with a creeping minor-key bridge.

(Verse 1) Eight in the morning and the loop starts anew, Same crowd, same wristbands, same day to get through; A frog on the mic and a star kneeling near, Do a good deed today and the exit gets clear.

(Chorus) Ohh — El Taco Libre, mask on the mat, Three thousand gold on a wrestler like that! Bless the bad soup, take the curse for a ride, There’s a wizard still dreaming, and he’s leaving a guide!

(Verse 2) Bacon gets froggy and the soup pot goes holy, Nick falls from the sky and gets robbed nice and slowly; A vial of the Filth and an autograph score, Then it’s off to the mud where the Choldreth roar.

(Verse 3) Big Maja Jaja’s the champ of the day, Till her cage cracks open and she wants to make prey; Reduce her, and swing her, and wall off the pit — One frosty right hook and the monster gets split!

(Chorus)

(Outro) Wolfgang comes smiling with a string ‘round his neck, And a ghost on the stage says there’s more left to check… El Taco Libre — the crowd’s on its feet — But the dream isn’t done, and the day’s on repeat.

📋 Point-by-point breakdown (player catch-up — everything that happened)

1. 00:04:08 · 📖 Recap — Basil rewinds: last loop the party did enough good deeds to briefly break out, but the day time-warped them right back to the 8 a.m. ticket booth outside the Battle of the Bands. They keep their memories; everyone else resets.
2. 00:16:01 · 🎭 RP — At the gate, ticket-taker Fran confirms the party’s wristbands still work despite the reset; Xeros does a warm-up good deed, tossing gold to a woman failing to push through the festival’s magic barrier.
3. 00:30:40 · 🧭 Travel — The crew enters the Main Stage Tent (Tent of Holding) — a small tent that’s two football fields wide inside — as the omnipresent holographic host drones the School of Magus students’ promo.
4. 00:32:19 · 🎭 RP — They find LaDonna the Kalashtar superstar crouched over a frog: a performer transformed at sound check when a hooded saboteur rigged his microphone with a curse.
5. 00:36:24 · 🎲 RP — Nortle befriends the frog with an Animal Handling check by retracting his limbs, waddling, and dropping flat on his belly to its eye level.
6. 00:37:44 · 📖 Lore — Xeros floats blessing the Cursed microphone with Comprehend Languages so the frog could “sing in frog” and still be understood; the GM likes it as much as the arena’s anime-vision tech.
7. 00:40:12 · 🎲 Mechanic — Basil lifts the Cursed microphone off the stage (Xeros Helping on a nat 20); seconds later it fires inside her pack and turns her lower half into a frog.
8. 00:42:00 · 🎭 RP — The dwarf roadies Ron, John, and Don pitch the “Roadie King” game (grand prize: backstage passes); Xeros flatters their beards and neck tattoos for intel.
9. 00:43:58 · 🎲 Mechanic — Basil persuades LaDonna (DC 17) to reveal her schedule: an 8 p.m. signing and a limited-edition shirt at the merch booth, where Van Illa pines after Fawn Butterface and Selfie keeps skipping her shift.
10. 00:53:05 · 🎭 RP — The party crashes Jimmy Eccentric’s hotboxed tent; Foulclaw lures him out with halfling weed, spots a purple vial on his vanity (Perception 21), and trades an autograph for it.
11. 01:01:36 · 🎒 Loot — Foulclaw emerges with the tampered vial of Purple Filth; Xeros immediately haggles “tradesies” for it with gems and gold.
12. 01:11:10 · 🎲 Mechanic — At the food court, Nortle flops for Bacon’s attention and steals a fistful of the cursed spicy soup on a nat-20 Sleight of Hand — then shrinks on the spot.
13. 01:19:45 · 🎲 Mechanic — Basil sneaks into the truck, uses Detect Magic to find the mislabeled poison “sugar” (a callback to Kuzco’s poison), and pulls it — jingling a ladle and getting caught.
14. 01:21:51 · 🎭 RP — Cornered, Basil blasts the Cursed microphone at Bacon, turning him into a frog and averting the noon Soup Golem before it can form.
15. 01:23:56 · 🎭 RP — To offset the bad deed, the party bless every ingredient by The Church of ITYS and run Bacon’s truck for an hour as a “holy soup” stand, Basil barking up a crowd (Performance 18).
16. 01:31:20 · 😅 Mishap — Foulclaw, on kitchen duty, shrinks to thirteen inches; the party keep frog-Bacon in a jar and press on.
17. 01:52:02 · 🎭 RP — Outside the arena, the stinking, skinny bard Nick Dagger falls dead out of the sky with a splat; Nortle IDs him (Perception 22).
18. 01:54:47 · 🎒 Loot — Foulclaw stealthily searches the corpse (Stealth 18) and finds Nick’s grandma-signed “special dance moves” cheat sheet — then throws it in the mud.
19. 02:07:11 · 🎲 Mechanic — Denied entry for being under the height limit, Foulclaw is Enlarged and Disguised by Xeros into a masked Choldreth luchador — El Taco Libre; Basil charms the sign-in attendant, and Xeros bets 3,000 gold to win.
20. 02:33:50 · ⚔️ Contest — The bracket begins: Foulclaw as El Taco Libre, Basil as Amla, Nortle as Gangsta’s Purgatory, and Xeros as Tiny Dancer Feet wrestle through best-of-five rounds. El Taco Libre takes his opener as the opponent mysteriously shrinks (Enlarge wearing off).
21. 02:39:24 · ⚔️ Contest — The grotesque reigning champion Big Maja Jaja steamrolls Gangsta’s Purgatory 3–0, prompting Xeros to publicly switch sides mid-match.
22. 03:12:34 · ⚔️ Combat — A flung object clips announcer Ringo Shard into the mud and shatters a cage; Big Maja Jaja breaks loose and attacks. Initiative is rolled for real.
23. 03:15:31 · ⚔️ Combat — Xeros Reduces the rampaging champion; Foulclaw wakes furious over the lost bet, and the party trade misses against her AC 15 natural armor.
24. 03:20:19 · ⚔️ Combat — Foulclaw lands a Firebolt (Wild-Magic boosted); Nortle grabs Maja Jaja by the ears on a nat 20 and swings her nunchuck-style.
25. 03:31:30 · ⚔️ Combat — Basil drops a Wall of Force beneath the spider, shoving Ringo Shard to safety and cracking her armor so every attack lands with advantage.
26. 03:41:56 · ⚔️ Combat — Foulclaw slides under the suspended champion, releases the wall to drop her, and drives a frost-charged fist up through her weak spot — Big Maja Jaja is obliterated, her frozen guts showering the pit and steaming off the hot-skinned Xeros.
27. 03:45:38 · 🎭 RP — Wolfgang approaches the gore-drenched party, greets Xeros by name, name-drops his old manager Sa-Muhell, and invites the newly-”solo” bard’s crew to the finale — meet him at eight in the big tent.
28. 03:50:36 · 📖 Lore — Basil (Perception 20) catches a circular, dreamcatcher-like pendant hidden under Wolfgang’s clothes — the Dreamcatcher — which he quickly conceals before walking off.
29. 03:51:36 · 🎲 Mechanic — Xeros casts Suggestion on Ringo Shard (fails his save), convincing him the betting slips burned in the chaos; Ringo hands over a trophy, which Xeros engraves “The Fastest Knockout in Mud Wrestling History.”
30. 03:54:17 · 📖 Lore — TBD’s apparition sparks to life with a scroll — his Swollen Wastes field-study, describing a grove where time flows differently and Bullywogs warned him off. Nortle recognizes the Goliath rune; Basil reads it as simply the letter “I.” TBD’s song echoes out, urging them to keep searching. Session ends.

Player Characters

Character	Player	Race	Class	Note
Xeros	Dave	Tiefling	Bard	Solves everything with gold, charm, and a well-timed cantrip; stitches El Taco Libre and goes solo
Nortle	Steve	Tortle	Monk	Befriends frogs belly-first; swings a spider by the ears on a nat 20
Basil	Brin	Harengon	Fighter	Pockets the cursed mic (twice froggifies things); Wall of Force saves the day. She/her
Foulclaw	Jesse	Owlin	Sorcerer	Becomes the luchador El Taco Libre; lands the killing frost-punch on Big Maja Jaja
TBD	Chris (as GM)	Goliath	Wizard	The comatose dreamer; appears only as a sparking apparition and breadcrumb scrolls

NPCs

NPC	Role	Note
Wolfgang	Battle of the Bands director	Slick Aasimar who invites the party to the finale; caught concealing the [[The Dreamcatcher
LaDonna	Kalashtar superstar	Foulclaw’s idol; found tending the cursed-mic frog backstage; not competing this year
Bacon	Goblin chef	Cursed-sugar soup would spawn a Soup Golem; turned to a frog and his truck run as “holy soup”
Nick Dagger	Disgraced dance-bard	Falls dead from the sky by the arena; his secret is a written cheat sheet of dance moves
Jimmy Eccentric	Hotboxing performer	Trades an autograph for halfling weed; source of the tampered Purple Filth vial
Ringo Shard	Mud-wrestling announcer	Knocked into the pit, triggering Big Maja Jaja’s rampage; saved by Basil’s Wall of Force
Sa-Muhell	Xeros’s former manager	An old associate of Wolfgang’s; Xeros is now pursuing a solo career away from him
Van Illa	Merch-booth simp	Pines after Fawn Butterface; runs the limited-edition-shirt case
Fawn Butterface	Tiefling bartender	The unattainable crush at the heart of the merch-booth subplot
Selfie	Merch-booth slacker	Keeps skipping her shift, jamming the Fawn/Van Illa situation
Penelope P. Chris	Festival-goer convert	Won over by Basil’s scripture and gives up her wristband to make a pilgrimage to Father ITYS’s city
Ron, John, and Don	Dwarf roadies	Vouch for the party and run the “Roadie King” backstage-pass game
Joey Chestnuts	Hot-dog champ	Glimpsed relishing the mud-wrestling carnage from the stands

Factions

Faction	Note
The Church of ITYS	Basil’s dream-loop religion; she proselytizes with scripture napkins and blesses Bacon’s “holy soup,” converting festival-goers

👹 Monsters

Monster	Threat / Role	Note
Big Maja Jaja	Boss / rampaging champion	The grotesque reigning Choldreth mud-wrestler; wins the bracket, breaks her cage, and is destroyed by the party (Xeros Reduces; Foulclaw lands the frost-punch kill)
Choldreth	Arena combatants	Spider-humanoid wrestlers (AC 15, daggers + webbing); the party pilot four of them, and El Taco Libre is a disguised one
Soup Golem	Averted threat	Would have climbed out of Bacon’s cursed-sugar soup at noon; prevented this loop by exposing and spilling the tainted batch

🎙️ Notable Moments

00:36:24 — To calm a panicking frog on the main stage, Nortle decides the fastest route to a frog's trust is to become as frog-like as possible.

Nortle: I squat down and retract most of my limbs so it’s just my hands popping out — then I waddle a little bit, and I just drop straight down on my stomach in front of him. GM: He starts shaking his tail… Nortle: Dirty twenty! GM (frog): I can talk! What the heck — I’m a frog! What’s going on here?

00:37:44 — Faced with a performer who can only croak, Xeros reaches for the most Xeros solution imaginable.

Xeros: If he got up and sang in frog language into a microphone that had been blessed with Comprehend Languages, would he be able to sing and have people understand what he was saying? GM: That sounds like a good idea to me. That sounds about as cool as anime vision, pretty much.

01:09:09 — Escorting the transformed frog-performer through the fair, Xeros keeps meddling with him — and, called out for it, blurts the party's entire operating theory out loud.

Xeros: Look what I did! Look what I did! Foulclaw: You made it worse. Great job. Xeros: I’m just trying to get help points! I know if I do good deeds all day long, I can get out of this Groundhog Day loop.

01:20:28 — Isolating the poison someone slipped into Bacon's soup, the table finds the perfect frame of reference.

Basil: Is Kuzco’s poison in there too? GM: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Xeros: The poison that killed Kuzco.

01:58:05 — Robbing the corpse of a bard famous for his stage moves, Foulclaw uncovers the ugly secret behind the magic.

GM: You found dance instructions on a piece of paper — the moves he should do on stage, written down to remind him. Foulclaw: And I throw it in the mud.

02:18:25 — The moment a tame Choldreth becomes a legend. Foulclaw, too small to compete, needs a little faith — and Xeros needs a bet.

Foulclaw: Xeros, do you believe in me? Xeros: Okay — I’m gonna slide the twenty gold, and I’m also doing a three-thousand-gold bet on El Taco Libre.

02:35:18 — In the ring, El Taco Libre's opponent inexplicably shrinks (the Enlarge spell wearing off), and Xeros instantly spins the coincidence into the luchador's legend.

GM: Strangely, this Choldreth shrinks to about half its size — which nobody was expecting to see. Xeros: That’s right, Choldreth! It’s the magic of El Taco Libre! Nortle: Taco! Spicy — they’ve got lettuce in them! Xeros: Yeah! You go, taco!

02:46:07 — Knocked cold in her wrestling match, Foulclaw still finds the strength for one gesture toward Nortle.

Nortle: She’s still unconscious, but she still manages to flip me off. GM: It’s like twitching.

03:15:27 — Rampaging champion Big Maja Jaja looms over the downed announcer and keeps whiffing wildly; Xeros can't resist heckling the grotesque, oversized brute — then makes the insult literal.

GM: It whips out its dagger and swings down on the prone Ringo Shard — and misses. Goes back again, and misses the other side of their head. Foulclaw: This is just the blood of God. Xeros: Yeah! Eat a salad! GM: Xeros, you’re up. Xeros: Excellent — I cast Reduce on Maja Jaja. Shrink her right down to small.

03:41:56 — The climax. Foulclaw positions beneath the suspended monster for the finishing combo and there is no more banter left.

Foulclaw: Kill this motherf— okay, hold on. (She releases the Wall of Force, drops Big Maja Jaja, and drives a frost fist up through her weak spot until she bursts.)

03:46:17 — Fresh off exploding a giant spider, the party is greeted by the festival's director as though nothing is amiss.

GM (Wolfgang): Xeros! My goodness, you’re covered in guts and gore — I hardly recognized you. Xeros: I know, I just was heading in… yeah, it’s a long story.

03:59:07 — TBD's scroll bears a single Goliath rune, and Nortle — who insists he studied this — cannot read the letter "I."

Xeros: How did you graduate Animalia High School? Did everyone just give you a pass? Nortle: Oh, no. I gave the passes. I was the captain of the football team.

🗺️ Locations

Place	Note
Magus	The city of magic; the whole dream loop replays its annual Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bands	The festival and fairgrounds; wristband-gated, with an 8 p.m. finale in the big tent
Main Stage Tent (Tent of Holding)	Thousands of bags of holding sewn into one venue; the cursed-mic frog incident happens here
School of Magus	The magic school whose top students built the tent’s illusory light shows
The Dark Woods	The abandoned forest behind the school where Wolfgang summoned the The Dreamweaver; looming offstage
Swollen Wastes	The far-off swamp of TBD’s field study, source of the arena mud and the Chronomancy discovery
The Rookery	Source of the dated scrolls (and the sports almanac) the party use to read the loop
El Cinede	Credited as the origin of the arena’s anime-style close-up projection tech and printing press
Greenport	Home of the salty-spicy “cracker of long rest” the party carry over; tied to the Temple of Selûne

🎒 Items

Item	Note
Cursed microphone	Puffs green smoke and turns a singer into a frog; Basil pockets it and later fires it at Bacon
Purple Filth	A tampered, impure vial lifted from Jimmy Eccentric’s vanity and traded to Xeros
Sports almanac	A Rookery scroll listing six months of contest winners; a Back-to-the-Future betting edge
Moon-touched rapier	Xeros’s magic rapier (1d8+3), carried by Basil, used to help finish Big Maja Jaja
The Dreamcatcher	The woven circular pendant Wolfgang wears and conceals — the relic tied to the dream loop
The Good Book of ITYS	Basil’s scripture, used to convert festival-goers and bless the “holy soup”

⛩️ Pantheon & Lore

Entry	Note
TBD’s Dream	The repeating festival day; the party keep their memories and break it via good deeds and TBD’s scrolls
Father ITYS	The demigod Basil worships (and invokes in the ring); said to have fought in the war against The Forgotten
Selûne	The moon goddess Basil channels to finish a foe; tied to the Temple of Selûne of the carry-over crackers
The Forgotten	A past conflict — “the battle against the Forgotten” — referenced in Father ITYS’s lore
Kalashtar	LaDonna’s race: human-looking, white-haired, no pointed ears, born of the plane of dreams
Goliath	TBD’s race and written script; his scroll’s rune is a single Goliath letter
Aasimar	Wolfgang’s angelic race; the party joke a falling body could be “the angel”
[[Zen au Kouréas	Zen]]

Cliffhanger

As the party leaves the fairground, Basil catches a glint at director Wolfgang’s collar — the hidden Dreamcatcher — and TBD’s apparition flickers at the edge of sight, urging them to keep searching. Something about this festival refuses to end. The day is not done with them yet.

Transcript

Full cleaned transcript: 250103-ch2.4-el-taco-libre-transcript · bundle on the tedit scratch SSD.

Related

Echoes of ITYS · prev: 241219-ch2.3-glizzy-up-the-girl · next: 250131-ch2.5-lil-in-justice · TBD’s Dream · Battle of the Bands · Magus · El Taco Libre · Big Maja Jaja · Wolfgang · The Dreamcatcher · The Dreamweaver