Campaign 2, Episode 10: Cold Call

Episode 10: Cold Call (2x10) is the tenth episode of the first arc of the the second Venture Maidens campaign.

Synopsis
Our heroes return for the day

But who can really say

What fresh dangers unfold

Out there in the cold

Regroup at the Chicken House
Toni, having just finished saying goodbye to her new friends, heads quickly back to the cottage to avoid being caught in her lie. Lu and Aoife take their captured bounties to the jail and fill out the required paperwork. Aoife is surprised by how effecient the normally mercurial fey are in Coven.

Aoife kicks in the door of cottage, yelling with excitement about their first successful job and wanting to tell Toni everything that happened. Toni finishes chugging her beer as she listens to Aoife’s excited word vomit about Bert and Ernie, and Lu fetches wine.

Toni asks about the sacks around their necks as Lu drops it on the floor. The sacks emit a terrible odor and Lu explains that Rook gave them the sacks to ward off the hags until they can be dealt with. Toni asks if there is one for her, and Lu assumes that Rook can whip one up. She offers to make Toni some brownies to comfort her during her period.

Toni says that she too met a wonderful couple and Lu asks if someone came to the hut. The half orc looks around to make sure that Rook isn’t present before admitting that she lied and went to the races, but she didn’t ask them to come along because she didn’t know if she was breaking any rules and didn’t want to get them into any trouble.

She fills them in on her adventures in the Midnight Quarter and gushes over meeting the Alicorn. Aoife, hanging on every single word, reaches into her bag and whips out her sketchbook, demanding details of the creature as she begins to draw.

Lu’s lips are pursed. She is glad that Toni is safe, but would prefer to have the choice to follow Toni and to be kept in the loop, because something could have happened to Toni and they never would have known. Toni apologizes, but she didn’t want Lu to lose the taste of sugar. This causes Lu to pause for a moment, as that would mean fey courts were involved and Toni admits there were, but she didn’t break any rules because her eyes were still yellow.

Lu grabs two bottles of wine, tells Toni that they have to be open and honest if they are to travel together because otherwise she will panic until she dies, and then heads off to take a bath. While Lu is in the bath, Aoife whips up a tray of chocolate chip cookies for her as a gift.

Lu’s room is right off of the kitchen. It could easily be mistaken for a pantry if not for the entryway to brush off your shoes before entering. The room is double tiered with a claw foot bathtub in front of the fireplace. Antique lined armoires cover the room and a four poster bed is nestled amongst them, with the silkiest sheets imaginable. Off the bedside are bookshelves full of all of her interests and a work table teeming with bits and bobs that she has saved. The house, sensing her need to feel useful, allowed cracks to form in the wall that she could fix in her own time.

Frozen Pumpkin
Toni composes a letter to her brother about the Alicorn and asks if he could send her a drawing of how he pictures it. An enrobed Lu exits her room and bounces between the fireplace and the kitchen, prepping food for the following day. After a bit, it dawns on her that there are no pumpkins in the living room.

Lu knocks and opens up Aiofe’s room to find the satyr sprawled across the bed, sketchbook on her chest, with the light still on. Lu puts the sketchbook on the nightstand and covers her friend with a blanket before turning out the lights.

She moves to Toni’s room, who is still awake, and lets her know that Rook still has not returned and she can’t find Gordon. They agree that it is strange and Toni recalls that she hasn’t seen Gordon since having her dream with Selene. They search high and low for pumpkins but cannot find any.

Lu doesn’t feel comfortable leaving Aoife behind to go and search for Rook and Toni brings up the fact that Rook already told them that she would leave them behind if they weren’t back by a certain time. Lu is not Rook and refuses to leave her behind.

Toni attempts to put the magic of the chicken hut to use and imagines a letter in a drawer that tells them where Gordon went. She opens some drawers and cabinets but sees no letters. In one cabinet she sees a cold empty glass milk bottle. She grabs the bottle, still covered in frost, and shows Lu. She asks if Lu tried knocking on Rook’s door to see if she was home and Lu admits that she has not.

They go and knock on the bounty hunter’s door but get no response. Toni guesses that Rook is probably at a bar somewhere. Lu ponders the meaning of the bottle and heads for the ice box. She opens the lid and sees a sad withered pumpkin that has been shoved inside and covered in ice.

Lu scoops him out and sets him near the fire, asking him what happened. Gordon informs her that fey creatures came in through the window and shoved him in the ice box. Lu had assumed that Gordon could do practically anything, but she never took into account that he was technically a vegetable and did not handle the cold well.

Toni notes the weakness and catalogues it for later reference. She asks if Gordon has seen Rook or if he knows if anything happened to her. He says that she is not in the chicken house, but she is alive. Lu asks how he knows and Gordon says that he has to know because Rook is the master of this place.

Lu asks if the fey that came through the window is involved with any fey court, but Gordon says that he doesn’t know, but they were in Toni’s room because she let them in. He tells them that the fey had stars in their eyes, and that was not good. Toni insists that she closed her window and doesn’t know how they keep finding her.

Gordon informs them that the fey should not be able to find them and that they are tracking Toni through her dreams. Lu tosses a blanket over the pumpkin to calm him before questioning Toni. The fighter explains that she has been having dreams of one of the Wyrd Sisters and that she guided her to the Alicorn.

Lu fills Toni in on the penthouse room from the hotel she and Aoife had to go to during their hunt. She describes the “wormy things” on the walls and ceilings and asks if that was what the dream fey looked like to Toni. She suggests asking Rook about them before telling Toni about finding the broken glass marble before they had even found the chicken hut, and yet they were all over the floors of the penthouse suite in the hotel. She says that she wants to go to the library soon to do some research on everything that has been happening and then heads to bed.

Package at the Door
Toni eventually passes out on the couch near the warmth of the fire, but is jolted awake by the sound of scraping metal and a thump on the other side of the front door. She looks out of the peephole and can see something slumped at the foot of the door, but can’t make out what it is. She goes and fetches her sword from her room and waits to see what happens. After a few minutes, she checks the peephole again to see that the slumped shadow has not moved from in front of the door.

She asks Gordon if he can tell Lu that something is at the front door, or if he has a way of seeing what is out there. He asks if she wants him to go outside and check because he would really love to go outside. Toni adamantly denies his request and clarifies if he is able to see what was outside of the hut from inside. Unfortunately he cannot see anything outside unless he is outside himself. Toni sends him to fetch Lu.

Lu hears a thumping on her door and she drops our of Reverie, grabs a knife, and opens the door to see Gordon. He informs her that she is needed at the front door, but he would be happy to go out and check on whatever was happening. She tells him to stay inside and goes to meet Toni in the living room.

She rounds the corner to see that Toni has her sword pointed at the door. Toni explains the noise she heard but doesn’t know if she should go out and check on it. Lu, thinking of a quick plan, suggests that they wake Aoife up in case something is on the other side of the door to hurt them and the satyr could heal them if necessary. She ponders if it is Rook on the other side of the door as she shakes Aoife awake.

They ready themselves and Lu flings the door open, but it only opens a few inches until it hits something and cannot open further. She can see matted black hair and a crumpled figure on the stoop. Lu pushes the figure with the door until she realizes that it is Rook.

The girl is barely recognizable under the bruises and scratches covering her face and ruined armor. She can see that Rook lies in a pool of her own blood and some of her weapons are missing. She appears to be clutching a piece of wrapped fabric to her chest but is unconcious.

Aoife immediately pulls her needle and thread and sends a magical Cure Wounds into Rook to stitch some of the wounds, but the damage is extensive. She manages to staunch the bleeding so that Toni and Rook could lift her and carry her into the living room. They notice that the girl has grown older, appearing to be the same age as Aoife, with sharp angular features.

As Toni goes to lift the girl’s arms, she can hear a crunched ripping sound from Rook’s shoulder, which has been pulverized. Lu takes in the full extent of Rook’s injuries. She knows there is no way to set the arm in its current pulverized state, but Rook is going to need a lot of rest to even begin to recouperate. Toni pulls the cloth from the girl’s grasp and unfolds it to reveal three locks of hair, once from each of them. Aoife begins to cry. Toni runs to the cupboards and begins to think of various herbs and first aid items and they attempt to make the girl as comfortable as possible.

Aoife gingerly removes her damaged armor and gets her settled on the couch while Toni and Lu set to cleaning the blood from her. Lu knew that Rook was growing quickly, but hadn’t thought that she would become an adult at some point. She suggests that they assess the situation after Rook wakes up and is willing to continue rubbing chicken shit in her eyes if they needed to buy anything for Rook.

Aoife points to the handkerchief and asks if they should throw it in the fire. Lu suggests that it is odd that Rook didn’t do that herself and to hold off until the girl was awake so that they could get a clearer picture.

I Was Never Meant to be Here!
Lu heads into the kitchen to prepare breakfast and coffee. They hear pitter patter from the hallway as the firey eyes of Gordon come into view. He gleefully asks if they think she is going to die. Lu refuses to believe that and Gordon says that if she does die, then he will be free, further cementing Lu’s drive to keep the girl alive. She commands Gordon to go stand in a corner.

Aoife asks Gordon why he hates Rook so much and the pumpkin whips around to cheerfully exclaim that he wants them all to die. He yells that he was never meant to be here before rolling off into the hallway.

Toni contemplates shoving Gordon back into the freezer but decides to go back to bed instead. She is joined in slumber by Aoife, but Lu remains awake to look after Rook. She takes the time to clean and braid Rook’s hair to keep it out of the way and untangled.

After a while, Lu catches a glimpse of a silvery light outside the window, but dawn is hours away. She looks out but can only see a silvery mist that emits a soft light has settled on the house, heavily obscuring her vision. She continues to watch, banking on the fact that house is supposed to be invisible to the naked eye.

Who's That Peeping in the Window?
Something smashes against the glass, causing the drow to jump back in surprise. She can see the familiar scuttling insectoid legs and serpentine body, with a beaked face and fins coming off the side of its face. It opens its beak and shoots out a lizard tongue as it attempts to figure out a way inside.

Lu attempts to shoo it away and calls for Gordon to check the windows. The creature is following Lu’s movements as it continues its attempt to enter. She hears another thud, and then another, until it becomes a mass of snake like creatures landing on the house.

Lu calls out to the house to move, but it does not budge. She straightens her nightgown and wakes up Aoife and Toni. They can all hear the tapping of beaks on their windows and Toni realizes that this was the type of creature she had previously seen in her room.

Aoife panics, wondering if they knew that the guy was in jail and if they came for revenge, as hundreds of these creatures crawl across the exterior of the house. Toni suggests that they close all the drapes and turn off the lights, but Lu throws up her hands and retrieves her armor, which she puts on over her nightgown.

The ground begins to shake as something massive takes a step outside. They see the creatures withdraw from the windows before resuming their attempt to enter the house. Toni attempts to slap Rook awake, but only gets a groan in response.

Lu flings the curtain open to see a thirty foot tall creature with rubbery, transluscent skin and digitigrade legs like a satyr. The torso moves up to a triangular shaped face with no mouth or nose, but silver eyes and large antlers. It is hard to tell what the creature is made of aside from amalgamated mist. A black corruption spew down its front, beginning at its neck, thick like oil. It shakes its head, as if confused, and lets out a reverberating sound of dread and anger. Its eyes scan the area until they settle on the house.

It begins to charge, leaping across the clearing, as the snakelike creatures continue to frantically attempt to enter the house. This is where our story comes to an end, until next time! -Venture Away!

Lu and Tandy's Letter Exchange
This section shows the exchange of letters passed back and forth between Lu and Tandy at the end of the episode.

Tandy's First Letter
HEY FRIEND!

''Congratulations on the first bounty! Bert and Ernie send their congrats too. There has certainly been some buzz about a cute little drow and satyr couple dragging a pair of criminals through the streets, so I'm sure you'll get more inquires in no time.''

''OH, this letter is for Marnie by the way. Did I mention that already?''

''Anyway, MARNIE, so I know you mentioned you couldn't work at the Witch's Brew full time because of bounty hunting and blah blah blah. BUT I just had this wild idea and was wondering if you'd want to do some contract work for the restaurant.''

''A while back I bought this totally cool covered wagon thing and I think it would be great if we could turn it into some kind of portable kitchen thing. So we could do food and drinks for parties, festivals, and farmer's markets and whatever. And since I LITERALLY cannot leave the Coven Town Square (its a whole dryad tree thing...oh, this is Tandy by the way. Did I mention that?), I thought you would be the perfect person to run it!''

''Your chef special was a huge hit, and you seem to carry a lot of knives, so I figured you would probably be great at that sort of thing. You could make whatever menu you want, and we'll fix the cart up however you want, and really, you can work whenever you want (or not, I'm totally chill).''

''Anyway, that's everything! Let me know what you think and we'll groove from there.''

''YAY! xoxo''

[The letter is not signed, but there is a little doodle of a flower pot at the bottom]

Lu's Response Letter
Tandy,

''Thanks for your letter! It’s still deeply unclear on how this mailing system works, so I hope that this finds its way to you.''

''I hope that bounty is the first of many. We really couldn’t have made that connection with Bert and Ernie without your help, so I appreciate your hand in making that happen. Honestly, I’m just grateful that Sersha didn’t get a scratch on her! She was so shaken up after the first bounty we ever did and to be honest, I’ve been worried about her ever since. She’s got a strong spirit though, I can tell-- I think as long as we stick together she’ll be just fine. But there I go, worrying again.''

As for your inquiry on this covered-wagon-portable-kitchen thing, I have an itemized list of concerns that I’d like to review with you before officially accepting this offer, which can be found below in order of apprehension, starting from least, ending in greatest:


 * 1) Would I be getting paid for my time? There is something important I’m saving up for so I’d love it if we could settle on a set wage for my time. (This isn’t sarcastic, but I just want to be clear that I don’t accept rocks as payment unless they are precious gems. Or yarn… Actually can we just specify I only accept gold?)
 * 2) Did you get a liquor license for the wagon? Do those exist in the Wildes? I’d really like to be able to offer drink pairings.
 * 3) Will I have a staff that will come with me to events? I’m good but I’m only one woman and as of right now the only cooking skills I can confirm as far as my companions are concerned is that Sersha can peel a potato. Franny strikes me as someone who eats a lot of jerky.
 * 4) Speaking of staff, I know you have a chef at your brick and mortar and I would really love to get some insight on fey ingredients that I’m not confident with. What I had before was absolutely delicious, but I’d have no idea where to look for any of those ingredients or any special preparations they require.
 * 5) If I can’t cook from the wagon and serve the customers hot food, I’ll have to decline. If I can, what’s your plan for that because generally you can’t use fire in a covered wagon. That is a hazard.

  ''If you could clear up those questions, for me I think the answer is going to tentatively be yes! It sounds like fun and a step in the right direction for me. I’ll stop by soon to chat more!''

  Sincerely,

  Marnie

Tandy's Second Letter
Well hi again PARTNER!!

''I am so glad you are on board! You can totally get paid for this, I figure you could keep...what's a good number of gold ? You know w hat why don't you just keep all the gold the client pays. Right? That makes sense to me.''

''Oh my god, you absolutely have to do drink pairings! Though I have no idea what a liquor license is. Can I give you gold to hunt one down for me? It sounds like a good time so I am ONBOARD.''

''You can totally bring anyone who works here if you want. Party wagon!''

''And I am sure Chef (that's what we call them, I have no idea what their real name is) would love to help with whatever...probably! And you'll def be able to cook hot food in the wagon, honestly we can make it do whatever you want. And also we can totally put water buckets in there, for fires and stuff.''

''YAY! I am so excited that you accepted the job. SEE YOU MONDAY, hahah!''

PS. Don't actually come in on Monday, I am totally hoping to get the day off.

LOVE, your new B.O.S.S.

[The letter is not signed, but there is a rainbow sticker on the bottom]

Player Characters

 * Aoife
 * Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
 * Lu

Non-Player Characters

 * Gordon
 * Rook

Mentioned

 * Aero
 * Beasley
 * Lorenzo
 * Selene
 * Tandy

Locations

 * The Chicken Hut
 * Coven
 * Twilight Row
 * Bounty Office

Inventory
No significant changes to the party inventory.

Quotes
“Nah, you can stay inside motherfucker.” -Lu

“Mmm yes...she’s so close....she miGHT DIE, SHE MIGHT DIE~” -Gordon

“I want you all to die! Ahahahaha! I was not meant to be here~ I WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE HERE!” -Gordon

“Keep the windows closed~ I warned you! I warned you!” -Gordon

“Do you think they know we turned in that guy and now they want revenge!?” -Aoife

“If you don’t wake up right now, we are gonna get smashed. Wake the fuck up Rook!” -Toni

“If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna see it coming. What the fuck is that?” -Lu

Trivia
Gordon appears to be weak to the cold.