We start this episode with a vignette to two months ago, to Soto’s mountain temple. He has just awaken in the temple’s main hall with amnesia, a strong headache, and deep, burning rage. The walls are sorched, and on the stone floor in front of him there is an alien-looking seal that must have been recently cast because it still has flames coming off it. Between the seal and him he sees his temple master’s sacred tuning fork, and his magical staff broken into two. There are fresh blood splatters everywhere, it looks like a butchery has taken place, but there are no corpses anywhere. Soto explores the whole building and the temple’s grounds but finds no one else. Everybody has suddenly vanished. After eating the half-cooked meals in the kitchen, he brings the broken staff to the master’s room and, lost about what to todo, leaves the temple in search of an explanation.

Back to the present, the party is at The Laughing Keel, the main tavern at the Wicked Whiskey Wharf where a brawl just started because Klik and Klak have pissed off an orc warrior. In the ensuing fight, XV-7 turns invisible and disappears, the other warforged start hitting pirates, Ike almost strangles to death a poor old pirate who lost use of both his legs during the fight, Lyra single-handedly knocked one local unconscious and magically leveled up because of the raven card she pulled in the last episode, Brand tried to avoid violence reaching too high levels, and Soto defended his young goblin trainees against the furious orc to the tune of a music band who sounded pretty much like Depeche Mode. In the end, the heroes and the warforged won over the locals, looted them for enough silver pieces to pay the barmaid for the furniture destruction and then stayed to discuss what to do next. The locals who got their asses kicked left threatening the heroes with future revenge.

While they’re recovering from the brawl, the merchant who had accompanied them tells Ike that everything is ready for his wedding but that he needs to pay him 30gp for the arrangements. Ike refuses to pay in that moment because he wants to buy his wife at the auction. The heroes try to convince the merchant to see the bride before the wedding but the merchant is adamant against that. After this, Ike asks Nemo to get a suit painted on him with soot, but Nemo refuses to paint any lower than Ike’s hula skirt. Then they go to the market to buy a top hat and rings for Ike for the wedding, and check what and who’s at the market.

Soto and Nemo see the merchant around the shops and decide to sneakily follow him as he goes talk to someone at the market, and then heading to the Sunken Shrine of Tide. The Shrine dedicated to Fharlang, the goddess of the seas, has partly sunk into the land, its old stone walls and pillars corroded from the cursed water that bathes these lands. Soto then approaches the temple as the merchant is talking to a sea elf and her helper while Nemo, surreptitiously approaches the shrine from the back and peeks into the covered box inside. He sees the puppet that Ike is going to buy as his wife and after a quick glance, leaves in a hurry.

The air genasi and the gnome get back to the rest of the party and tell them what they found. Nemo persuades Ike to look for a different wife who doesn’t look as cursed as what he saw and will probably be cheaper. Ike agrees.

At the market auction later, Ike is bidding for the puppet and the old pirate that he almost strangled is the only other bidder. Bids go 2gp and 5 sp for Ike, 3gp for the old pirate, 3.5gp for Ike, 29gp fr the pirate. The merchant, from a corner is signaling Ike to what the hell, bid 30 gp, but Ike playfully refuses. Eventually the old pirate is granted the puppet. Completely confused, he’s talking with the merchant and the puppet owner. A small leather bag exchanges hands and the pirate then loudly makes the payment with such leather bag and leaves, without the puppet.

The merchant furiously scolds Ike who explains he’s changed his plans and sorry but that’s it. The merchant promises revenge and leaves.

After the auction, the party starts exploring other parts of the pirate town. They first go to the Fog Bell where they find Old Peven, a halfling hermit who lives inside and explains what happened to the town that stood where WWW stands today and the demise of the Abbey in the northern island. The hermit also explains that he’s started hearing very strong and deep noises coming from the island. People don’t normally go to the island anymore, but he recommends them to talk to the woman who cares for the acid gardens.

They find her tending to a fenced-off stretch of land where warped, waxy plants grow in shallow pools of corrosive sludge and small, sickly looking insects that fly around. The woman presents herself as Velka Rootmire, a botanist and a zoologist, from the area. She explains how she’s seen Bert Ratsworth, a handsome pirate, and his friens, carry crates to the island at night. She has no idea what they’re for but the deep noises that the hermit head only started happening days after the crates left the WWW. Lyra casts elementalism to summon a beautiful sunflower that makes the botanist cry with joy. Lyra promises to go visit her and cast it again while she’s around and Velka is deeply grateful for it.

After the gardens, Ike insists to go to the brothel to spend the 30gp he no longer has to spend on his wife, but the party first goes to the wharf to arrange for transport to the island. The episode ends as the party hires a light galley from a local called Paco, and his crew to go to the island the next day.