Session 67

*** Live Notes ***
Pippy hears the voice in her head, Baoth, speaking to her. She hears "I have a favor to ask. This is going to be the biggest thing I've asked of you." She asks if the task involves a reward and he asks what she would want. She thinks and says that her biggest mission is to bring Lehroth back to which Baoth asks if she'd like him to interviene or if she wants knowledge. SHe ask for him to intervene and he states that it'll take 2 favors. IN that moment, Pippy feels a burning sensation inside of her as her head is filled with knowledge.
Geomafrey meanwhile is asking the group if we need anything else. Karis picks a fight with him and tries to get him to punch her but he weakly does so and she bats it away. She then says that she gets to punch Geomafrey but Vaan says no. Geomafrey then turns his attention to Pippy's halfling undead puppet being dragged behind her and asks what it is and if it's alive. PIppy snaps out of it and says that it's her pet then goes right back into a trance until her conversation with Baoth completed. Vaan then asks Karis where his buddy Jim is and they think about it and remember they tied him up outside of Thug Dennys. Vaan asks GEomafrey to go find him.
Snow then asks Pippy if she thinks her undead puppet can shapeshift into anything or anyone and Pippy says she thinks so but it could be dangerous to do so as she isn't sure how much control she has over it. The party then continues to discuss their next move and they decide to help Vaan break into the castle. Pippy will make those going inside invisible and will telepathically link everyone together. Meanwhile Snow and Wi Po will make a gift basket and cause a distraction to get us in. THere is a lot of distrust from Vaan in regards to Karis coming but she eventually gives in.
Snow and Wi Po run off to go make food for the food basket and Snow brings Wi Po to a spot that is a little cozy hole in the wall food place, the only sign just has the letter "B" on it, it's a tea shop. Snow explains that this is where he first met Yatish and is where he likes to disapear to when in Grandia. Snow goes to ask the female elf working if they can use the kitchen. Wi Po goes to their kitchens and starts to cook, giving the spatula to anyone nearby to lick and give their thoughts on. Eventually the gift baskets are complted and Snow asks what they owe her. She says nothing, meanwhile Wi Po has bassed around muffins to everyone in there and left a basket of them out for folks and Snow decides to leave a gold coin on the counter. Wi Po goes to leave and says "we're off to not storm the castle". Snow sighs and ushers him out. As they leave they see Geomafrey dragging Joe by a rope down the street. He sees them and says "Oh I found your guy". Wi Po says that he has muffins for them and Geomafrey tries to explain he can't eat unless he's on a break but Wi Po interuppts and says that his break is now and shoves a muffin in his hand. GEomafrey gives in and drops Joe, pulls out a chair and sits and eats the muffin. Wi Po offers another muffin and repeats that they are not storming the castle. Wi Po asks Joe if he wants one, he says yeah and asks for it to be placed on the side of his face and he will try to get it in his mouth (as he is still tied up, laying on the ground). Snow says to keep Joe with him as it'll be just like old times when he had a friend and GEomafrey just glares at him.
They make their way back to the gate and meet up with the rest of the group. Snow and Wi Po gives everyone a muffin. Pippy is on the ground, grinding up eggshelss for her spell and eventually starts to cast it on everyone. She starts with Karis, rubbing the eggshells into the side of her head, bonks her forehead lightly with her own and whispers and enchantment. When Karis is linked she says "cheking testing, 123 cheese" and PIppy responds "cheddar cheddar 123". She then goes through and does this to each memebre of the party. Snow hates it immedeitaly and Vaan is very against it but eventually allows Pippy to cast the spell on her.
Snow and Wi Po make their way to the castle gates with their gift basket along with the rest of the party. On the way Snow asks Wi Po if he noticed anything while in the little cafe. WI Po says he seemed really focused on the Elf and Snow gets a little choked up. Pippy then takes the group and makes herself, Karis, and Vaan invisible. They assume Zandro can make themselves inconspicious. As everyone gets closer they realize that this castle is unusually quiet, earily quiet. Snow and Wi Po approach the door and for the first time they can hear the wind swirling around the tower and the sound of their own footsteps. Snow says to Wi Po "Here's my idea, I'll talk, you show the basket and then we'll be in smooth sailing". Snow walks up to the door and knocks on it and introduces himself. HE says that they heard the king wasn't doing well and they thought they would bring a gift basket as a sign of good wishes. Wi Po adds that they brought muffins, homemade muffins that are still warm. Wi Po goes to put the basket down at the door, as Wi Po does so and starts to walk away a creaking begins as the door opens. Wi Po look sbehind and sees that there is no light inside and it is very dark. Wi Po and Snow decide to go inside and bring the muffins in.
Vaan, Karis, Vaan, and Zandro sneak in through the open door and Wi Po and Snow follow behind. When we walk in the door immedietly shuts. Wi Po produces a flame casting some light around. Karis and Wi Po look around in the light and notice that no one is behind them but the door has shut. They turn their gaze and notice something float away, a figure, towards where the stairs are. Wi Po calls out to it and asks if they should follow and it floats on. Pippy, Snow, and Vaan didn't see this entity. Vaan is talking to team invisible is going to go down to the dungeons cause she thinks that there is a good chance that someone could be down there. Team visible is going to follow the entity that Wi Po saw.
Vaan and Pippy come across a door that looks rather bulky and it leads down. They assume this is where the dungeon would be. Pippy and Vaan argue about who found the door but Karis just repeats over and over "is it locked?" eventually Pippy jumps up and jiggles the lock and it is locked. Karis then instructs us to scooch over and unlocks the door. She goes to open the door and it doesn't move. THey try to team up to open the door and...
... we jump to Snow and Wi Po. They are up in the tower near where we used to stay. THey look around and notice that every door is shut. They notice someone at the bottom of the steps with green skin and purple hair. Wi Po calls out to them, thinking its Nioza, and asks if she wants a muffin. She doesn't look at them but floats up the stairs. Snow is perturbed by this. He calls out internally "I don't like this I don't like this" and the rest of the party hears and he fills them in on Nioza.
Back to Pippy, Karis, and Vaan pull the door open and they feel some sort of energy burst out but they all amange to move out of the way. THere is a magical essence to it and the door creaks loud enough that Wi Po and Snow can hear it. They check in with the group to verify that it was them and then leave the invisible group to go back to "creepy Nioza". The description of a creepy floaty Nioza excites Pippy and Vaan thinks Nioza must be dead.
Wi Po and Snow are up by Bethrynna's desk and can see that the King's chamber doors are open for the first time. Nioza is sitting at Bethyrnna's desk and Wi Po greets her and asks if she wants a muffin.
The invisible group make their way down to the dungeon, down to the barracks and where the cells are. The further we go down the darker it and more humid it gets. It's pretty crummy and there is a stench in the air. Smells of mildew and copper. They make their way to the cells and within each cell there are candles lit up. We look around and see bodies, we can't tell how long they've been down there. We then hear something big walking around. Karis looks over and sees a creature on 4 legs that is blue with a long tail and has a collar around it's neck. She notices a long corridor and there is a makeshift door torn down that was once blocking a tunnel that leads to a different structure. Karis is the only one that notices the monster and the door. Vaan notices something weird with the bodies, some of of them appear to be sculptures. Karis and Vaan discuss this and Pippy puts the pieces together that this is the basilislk from before and panics. Snow hears.
But Snow is preoccupied with Wi Po and the floating Nioza. Nioza is now talking and asking if they want hugs. She xplains that this is something the spider taught her how to do. SHe asks why they are there and Wi Po says they brought muffins and are not storming the castle. SNow explains they heard the king wasn't well and decided to bring him some muffins. She says thats nice and asks if she can pat Snow on the head, like old times, stopping hugging Wi Po and just starts patting him on the head. Nioza stops and says "oh you like chin scratches, that's right" and goes to scratch his chin but Snow is weirded out and says it doesn't feel right. Wi Po asks him whats wrong. Snow explains telepathically "This is not Nioza and I don't know who it is". She looks for confirmation that this is what she's always done, and grabs Snow by the chin and pulls him in closer and says "you have something I need" Wi Po says "Is it muffins? we have muffins" and Snow tries to pull away from her. This Nioza says "I need you to show me that werewolf form really quick". Snow informs her that she didn't know about his werewolf form. The moment he says that, the disguise goes down revealing that it's actually Bethrynna. She looks very different than before. Wi Po says "Oh you look differnt, I thought you were Nioza" and offers her a muffin. She says that she would like ti better if Snow would turn into a werewolf. Her skin is pale, her arms are more skeletal, her eyes are sunken and have a green flame to them and she says "where are the rest of them?" Wi Po says that they aren't here and that Snow should only be a werewolf if he wants to and that it may take more than muffins to fix this. Bethrynna doesn't believe him and says to call them and bring them here. Wi Po starts calling outloud. Internally Snow calls out and informs us about Nioza being Bethrynna and that there is something wrong with her.
Vaan is too concerned about looking for someone, Pippy is urging them to leave, Karis is just looking around. We notice that there are some individuals with things carved into their skin, some look like their blood has been drained, they look unlike anyone we've seen. Pippy looks at the markings and recognizes them but is unsure of what they say but she knows that she has seen them before. She can't recall where she's seen them.
Snow and Wi Po are upstairs and Snow says that if he turns into a werewolf would she let Wi Po go. Bethrynna agrees and lets Wi Po go. Wi Po asks Snow if he'd like to come with but Bethrynna has a deathgrip on him. Wi Po goes to leave and makes his way but stops in the hallway far enough away to not be noticed but close enough where he can race back if needed. Snow says he's going to turn into a werewolf for Bethrynna and that we should leave if we don't hear from him. He then turns into a werewolf and starts to transform. The moment he does that Bethrynna pulls out a knife and says "give me your hand I just need to see something really quick". Snow explains whats happening and Pippy starts to panic, putting pieces together of what she knows, and says to not let her get his blood, it'll be bad news and likely make her stronger. Snow listens and says we are running and suggests that Wi Po wild shape into something strong. Snow then says "break" and then runs as fast as he can to escape. We can hear him running as fast as he can in werewolf form. Bathrynna is chasing after him but is not as fast. Wi Po shifted into a guardian wolf and runs along with him when Snow passes, trying to keep pace but Snow is FAST but slows down enough for Wi Po to run with. They make it to the door, opens it, and leaves. Vaan says she doesn't see the people she was looking for and agrees to run and the basement group runs out as well.
Outside we see an elf, a female elf, who only sees a werewolf, a wolf, and a giant weseal run outside. She freezes as they run past and we hear Snow saying "shit shit shit" over and over in his head. Wi Po asks whats wrong and Snow stutters and directs us to join together in the alley. Pippy asks what was going on in the castle and Snow explains what happened and Pippy explains how there is some crazy magic that involves blood that she's read about. Snow then gets really concerned and rummages through his stuff and pulls out some papers he has that were of Bethrynna's work. He reluctently hands them to Pippy and she begins to obsorb them, trying to understand the magic at play here.
Meanwhile Karis stopped at the elf woman, still invisible, and then when Pippy drops the spell she suddenly becomes visable, scaring the elf woman. The elf woman reaches for a weapon and Karis introduces herself and offers her hand but withdraws it because the elf woman was cruel. The woman then says that Karis is weird and asks if she's seen a tabazi and a leonin. Karis then asks back if she owns a tea shop. She says yes and Karis gets excited and says "aha I found you first! I have this friend, Vaan, who loves woman and I wanted to warn you about her." She wants to know how Karis heard about her and she wants to know who. As she says that Karis hears and then sees Snow walking up. Snow is wearing a different outfit, mainly just shorts on. Snow is confused and concerned about what he sees and says "why the fuck are you here " directed to Karis who is about to get into an altercation with the elf woman. The elf turns around and looks Snow up and down, he then realizes that he's practically naked. Inside all of our heads we hear Snow yell "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK" and the group starts to ask whats up but he ignores everyone and starts to make up an excuse as to why he's practically naked (he was swimming). Karis interupts him and offers him some clothes - a baggy flannel and some bootylicious pants. Snow asks why she's there and the elf woman says "I'm here to watch you not storm the castle" and Snow says that they didn't do anything but Karis starts to ramble about how they found a basilisk and some dead people, etc. The elf woman lifts her eyebrow and directs her attention to Snow and asks him "How does Karis know about me?" Snow explains that they were talking about their favorite places to eat and drink and that he brought up her place as it's always a good time. She makes to leave and head back to her shop and Karis says "oh and he wants to see your bedroom". Snow's jaw drops and internally he hears "I am going to kill everything you love" and Karis responds that she was being his wingman. The elf woman gives some side eye and walks off. Snow and Karis then make their way back to the group.
Snow sits down grumplily and asks if Pippy discovered anything about the papers. Pippy says that there was a lot of noise in her head and asks if Snow wants to talk about it. The papers show that Bethrynna was trying to find a way for imortality and she was coming close to this. She was infusing her blood with that of vampires. She sees that Bethrynna isn't a college student but has been around for a very long time. She notices the names near the formulas and recognizes three very familiar names - the names of Keyleth's pets that were actually his friends that died adventuring (or so we all thought). Pippy pieces together that Bethrynna has been at this for quite some time and when Keyleth was tryin gto warn us about Castle Rainfall he was talking about Bethrynna as she's been sacrificing many to try to become immortal (without being a vampire). The one piece she was missing to become a lich was werewolf blood. She also see's Ra's name listed with the words "son of hof?". Pippy figures out that Bethrynna is the owner of the basilisk and has been conducting experiments. There is some writing on there that isn't Bethrynna's, but Bimp Knotton's - she wrote out notes on stopping Bethrynna. On that page is a note that says "if I am lost, return to my happy place". Snow then ponders and Vaan explains that Bethrynna was pretty beaten up from the meeting. Snow thinks on this and then realizes there was a chance that the Bethrynna that was beaten up that it wasn't the real Bethrynna. Pippy asks her pet if they were at the meeting and it shakes it's head yes. She then asks if it was pretending to be anyone there and he shakes his head yes. She then asks if he was acting as Bethrynna and he shakes his head yes. In that moment Snow gets an idea...