Shenanigans: Episode 007

__NOTOC__
==Recap==
=== VOD PART 1 ===
Episode begins with Jack/Jill telling another Lasombra story “And then Lasombra says, but luckily her twin doesn’t feel the same way!” to the bar and Slade Milson the troublesome halfling rogue, Alejandro the buff human yoga instructor, and lastly Joaquin Santamaria the dwarven shield wall. Party seems to be a little downtrodden since Manuels untimely death, but soon enough a tall elven woman approaches them eager to find some meat to be thrown into a pack of wolves called a quest. The quest is to escort her to a city north of Bergshire which might take about 2 days, they try increasing their reward by serenading the elven woman with some jokes, but in the end they get same old 20 gold per day. She introduces herself as Santanus and they plan on leaving tomorrow at dawn, before she goes Alejandro manages to get her to blush slightly with a gentlemany kiss on the hand and then she is unfortunate enough to ask who is Lasombra which prompts Jack/Jill to start telling stories until she excuses herself. 
At one point Aristotel attempts casting a spell on Slade for not letting her lick his bacon grease, but unsuccessful, she ends up leaving in a huff. Then Krewbarb stumbles in, the kobold party took on as a slave carriage driver, and alerts the party that someone has stolen their wagon while he slept under it. Slade threatens the kobold with Krewbarbpie, but Jack/Jill takes the reins and leads the group to investigate the scene. Everyone cosplays as Scooby Doo gang and they begin attempting to follow the carts wheel tracks. Success evading them Joaquin grows disheartened and begins contemplating what sad fate has already befallen their carty friend, but Jack/Jill will have none of that and spurs everyone in action, Slade lays some wrath onto Krewbarb and has him beg for his life.  
Party splits, since Slade is Shaggy and Krewbarb is Scooby they go together with Joaquin as Velma tagging along. Slade pockets some Krewbarb snacks from Jack/Jill. Across the street there's a blacksmith and they get from the man that a big fellow with a topknot took the cart. They try to get Krewbarb to follow the carts smell, but since the cart doesn't have a smell of its own Slade takes a piss on the blacksmiths house for the kobold to reference. Krewbarb remarks Slades piss smells like mushrooms. Before they manage to go, blacksmith is unfortunate enough to ask who the prince of thieves is and Jack/Jill gives a lackluster performance about Lasombra.  
Jack/Jill and Alejandro explore the potters place. They get from him that someone apparently started a fire at blacksmiths shop earlier that day.  
Other part of the party trails out of the town due-east apparently locked on a scent. There's no guards to ask for information, but there are some people who live on the edge of town there. Alejandro notes a yellow house with some farm animals and couple of people so he asks them for any information. He gets that an overweight guy with a staff, padded armor and a lantern drove the cart and while the random farmer can't read, he does say there were a bunch of doodles all over the cart. Slade mentions it awfully sounds like Friar Morton Bixby. Jack/Jill theorizes it could be his evil twin instead. 
=== VOD PART 2 ===
Jack/Jill and Alejandro decide to go investigate the fire that happened at blacksmiths place, the guy says that the one who started the fire was short fellow, a cranky angry kid who insulted him and then kept going westward. Jack/Jill ponders whether it was an illusion, but they discard the idea, however it starts sort of sounding like Slade might have been the one who knocked over that oil barrel. 
Next the duo go by the market looking for any halflings and find one whose selling fruits. Alejandro gets himself some cucumbers to munch on while Jack/Jill mentions that stuffing cucumbers into pockets has the added benefit of enchanting your crotch size. 
Back on the edge of town Krewbarb has lost the tracks, but he deducts that the cart must have kept going forward. Slade and Joaquin wisely decide that it might not be smart to wander into the forest by themselves and then unwisely decide it's the cool thing to go alone and therefore they go off into the woods by themselves. Some poor perception checks later a vine wraps itself around Slades ankle and begins dragging him into a blackberry bush. Of course Krebarbs reaction is to scream and run back towards the town, Joaquin comes to rescue and chops the vines with his shields which frees Slade who angrily screams and the kobold and throws kobold snacks in the general kobold direction. Both of them notice that the blackberry bush that was grabbing Slade has had something dragged right through it.  They also notice a wagon wheel sticking out of a bush and they try dragging it out while vines keep coming at the two of them. It becomes a sort of tugging match between the party and the bush without much progress on either side. Party finally gets tired of the tug of war and they start slashing at the vines while lamenting about where dwarves come from and whether the dwarf queen lays dwarf eggs. 
In town the other half of the party comes upon a panicked Krewbarb screaming about vines eating people. Alejandro tries giving a cucumber to some random bystander who gives him the cold shoulder. Jack/Jill cajoles Krewbarb into leading the way back to the other half of the party with kobold snacks and to boost their speed Alejandro picks the small dog creature up and they run.
Slade gets lashed heavily by the vines, but being a hearty halfling keeps standing, some unfortunate rolls later though Slade is dragged into the blackberry bush with Joaquin doing his best to rescue the poor halfling. Soon Jack/Jill and Alejandro appear on edge of the forest, but not in time to save Slade from going down inside the bush. Hesitating only for a moment Alejandro also charges into the bush while Jack/Jill tries to understand whats going on, he does notice Joaquin. 
With his buffness Alejandro goes through the bush with ease and steps on the other side of it where he sees a giant venus flytrap in process of eating unconscious Slade. He throws the cucumber at it. Jack/Jill comes with an ingenious plan, takes out his bar of soap, spits on it, foams it and then misses the flystraps maw with it. Slade meanwhile is in process of being digested. Alejandro runs over to the flytrap and rips the maw open then Jack/Jill slam dunks the soap into the acid which begins bubbling. Accidentally Alejandro lets the flytrap go and the maw closes over Joaquin and Slade, but the brave dwarf rips Slade out of the trap. Despite their best effort though Slade does not make it.
=== VOD PART 3 ===
Ignorant of Slades passing Alejandro keeps pummeling the plant until it's destroyed and he is made aware of the situation. Joaquin explains how they followed  the tracks with Krewbarbs help and then how the vines ambushed the two of them. Jack/Jill decides that he will make the world's biggest salad out of the fly trap, to show the world where plants are in the food chain. 
Back to the mission, they inspect the wagon. The horse appears to be gone, but Joaquin finds a black/red tattered piece of cloth attached to one of the vines. While it appears the horse was eaten, the driver seems to have disappeared. They decide that the driver likely wasn't a Martha cleric, black and red typically not being colours they wear. Krewbarb sniffs around the scene and concludes the horse was on the track, but the fly trap apparently did not actually get it. 
Party grabs Slades body and with Alejandro pulling the wagon they go down the road until they came upon an exhausted looking Friar Morton Bixby, but with slightly off details such as a topknot, no rings, wrong colour robes. The suspicious Morton explains that he had to abandon the cart when the plant attacked and that he took it simply because it's sort of a communal wagon. Everyone obviously is a little on edge, so Jack/Jill asks the guy if he remembers who the prince of thieves was to which the fake Morton tells him Larumba. Party hundles and they conclude that it's Morton's evil twin. They wave him over and invite him to come back to town, on side of the road they also find the unconscious horse. 
Ready to be hauled home Morton sits on the cart where he notices Slade, but besides a few question seems pretty nonplussed. When party calls him out on not remembering who Martha is he immediately transforms into his doppelganger self and hauls ass away from the party. Joaquin shield rushes the creature in the back forcing it to the ground followed by Alejandro and Jack/Jill who kill it. The body then morphs back into the off-looking Friar Morton Bixby again confusing the party further. Party is a little concerned that the doppelganger might’ve killed Morton before taking his shape, but nothing can really be done about it so they put it on the cart and wheel it back home.
=== VOD PART 4 ===
Alejandro tries tugging on the corpses face, barely not ripping it off. Krewbarb remarks that the body smells like water. Party decides to burn Slates corpse and Jack/Jill loots it while a bonfire is built. Some copper is left in the bag. They even manage to make sure no buildings are lit on fire when the bonfire goes up.  
Now with the body of Morton on their hands they start pondering what to do with it, whether to go to church or just dump it somewhere. They go back to Shenanigans and ask Desmond whether he has seen Bixby around. Desmond tells them that he went to Kurshwikk and should be back sometime soon so Jack/Jill brings him out and asks what he thinks of the fake Bixby.  Desmond tells them that's it's a common misconception that a doppelganger turns into its original form upon death, however the fact itself there was one here bothers him, also that it choose Bixby. Gem of true seeing, magical detection and other magical means might help finding out doppelgangers, but otherwise it's a problematic to find one. 
They end up on a big commemorative salad. 
== Experience ==
* 450 XP to each party member
* Searching a bush with a cocumber is speed 3
== Significant NPCs ==
Santanus - Tall elven woman who wanted to hire party for an escort mission.
== Significant Locations ==
*Bergshire - Shenanigans
Category:Shenanigans Episodes