Ep 65: "Yoth's Big Sin"

Yoth went to Green Iron Village for dinner the evening of Wearis 7th. Boss showed off two colorful blunderbusses that caused paint to appear wherever the barrel was pointing when the trigger was pulled. Yoth requested a commission from them in the form of staining color bombs. His intended targets: the cowboy and his group.

Yoth met with Lark at the goblin village and collected his commision from Boss. Boss retrieved a covered wagon, which contained a large brass and porcelain statue of Boss in a bathtub. Touching the sculpture caused Prestidigitation to be cast, cleaning a person and their belongings. His plan was to sell them to the city to provide free laundry/bathing services.

The morning of Wearis 8th, the rest of the group went about their mornings like usual. Pip slept in. Nyx, as Bridget, worked for the Inverted Cups doing odd jobs. Mari worked at her shop.

Oisin spoke with Pinból regarding closing the portal and the potential ramifications. The consequences included: the Nocturne would stop working, creatures from the Shadowfell would be trapped on this side, the remaining members of VKTR may begin to age, and The King of Secrets would have fewer points of access to the Prime Material plane. Pinból also stated that he would not be able to assist in closing the portal, as the temptation to use the power it grants would be too great for him to overcome.

Nyx, as Bridget, and Yoth were the first to arrive at the Beer Forge. He asked her about her skills in lockpicking. She said she was good and joked that her safe word was “apples”. Lark arrived just before and handed Bridget a drawing of apples after hearing that.

Conversation ensued and the group decided to head to Pinból’s library to do research. The Cowboy’s mercenary gang began to show up as the group departed. Yoth purposely got the attention of the Cowboy’s group, then threw his paint grenade at the table and ran out the door to follow the others. They did not know what he had done, since they had already left and been walking down the road. The group well away before anyone could try to catch up.

They found a prime numbered sewer grate, Lark shouted “ballyhoo” and jumped, landing at the bottom of the pipe rather poorly. It seemed the portal to the library had not appeared. They decided to continue to Pinból’s to see where the library had gone.

At Mo’s, Pip made Black Mac-gic for Yoth, which ended up being squid ink mac & cheese. Everyone went into the library to conduct research and discovered several important things. They learned that extended periods of time in the Shadowfell would saturate people with negative energy, doing more damage the longer people stay in the plane. Also, there was a guardian of the Shadowfell called Trandulud. It hated its existence on the plane and was constantly looking for escape. They also discovered that creatures native to the plane were weak against the influence of positive energy.

Ezra arrived with Pinból and Nyx quickly turned into a half-elf persona named “Dell” to hide. It seemed that Ezra was there to research how to remove a foul stench and stains that had been inflicted on several people, articles of clothing, tables, chairs, and floorboards. Pip assisted by giving a home recipe for removing the smell.

Ezra also asked Oisin about Bridget and Oisin, sensing that Nyx was avoiding Ezra for some reason, was evasive and agreed to tell “Bridget” that Ezra was looking for her. It was also revealed to the group, by a reluctant Yoth, what had happened at the Beer Forge. They were less than pleased that he had chosen to attack the other group inside of Ivy’s bar.

As the group left, they encountered a hawk behaving strangely and tried to speak with it. Eventually they left and encountered Tybalt. He was headed to Reynard Manor to take a look at the restoration being done by the new owner, Anica Chin-Raton. It was also revealed that Primeheart would be able to keep his camp in the forest due to having claimed the land prior to the King’s demise.

At Reynard Manor, the hawk was seen landing on one of the pillars at the gates, which stood open. Tybalt walked straight onto the grounds, followed by Pip, Mari, Lark, and “Dell”. Anica greeted Tybalt and Pip, and ended up offering Pip a job as a chef. Introductions were made with those whom she had not met.

Meanwhile, at the gate, Oisin spoke with the hawk. It accused them of being false and a cheat. Oisin attempted to detect magic, but didn’t glean anything. Yoth departed, getting unsettled by the hawk. They could both tell something strange was going on with the hawk.

Yoth arrived at the house of Eriss, the braith monk. He asked for “conclave”, which was a method of communing with fellow braith. It was like a melding of their minds that shared their memories and helped them think more clearly. As a result, Eriss learned that Yoth was in a great deal of pain, and offered to assist however he could.

Back at Reynard Manor, Oisin grew irritated that the hawk was not giving answers, and grabbed it in a rage. The hawk warned them three times to let go, which they did not. The hawk then  turned into a triceratops on top of Oisin.

The rest of folks at the Manor arrived quickly to help. Mari demanded that the transformed creature reveal itself, which it did. It was Ezra, and he was furious. He demanded that Bridget reveal herself and answer for reneging on her agreement. Dell refused and feigned no knowledge of the situation.

Ezra, fed up, cast Moonbeam, which revealed Nyx’s true form. Nyx was aghast that this had occurred and immediately turned back into the Nyx-default form. Ezra used Zone of Truth, with the end result being that Nyx was revealed to be Bridget. He then produced a beetle, which burrowed into Nyx’s flesh, essentially cursing them and limiting their abilities.

He called it, “A lesson in humility.”