Fight Of The Bumblebee

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==Blurb (Short Episode Description)==
Fight Of The Bumblebee is an actual play podcast using the Exuviae mechanics. Join Bill, Sadie, and Nugh as they investigate a Bee murder in Hardingwood. What will they uncover?
==Non Player Characters==
* Lady Elizabeth Featherbottom: mayor of Hardingwood 
* Edward Hardingwood: summoned Bill, Nugh, and Sadie to respond to a threat to the town of Hardingwood. Warned Anne about being overly cavalier with her form of transdimensional summoning magic. 
* Richard Jenkins [DECEASED]: Killed during the Fall Ball festival. Head found by the FBK
* Sarah Jenkins [DECEASED]: Killed during the Fall Ball festival. Head found by the FBK
* Elizabeth Wellings [DECEASED]: Killed during the Fall Ball festival. Body with impalement wound found by the FBK
* Speaker Brigitte : Elder of the Beekeeper's Guild who has forgone their vow of silence. An agent in Hardingwood politics of significant enough power to oppose the will of Edward Hardingwood and push through a dismissal/banishment of Bill. 
* Keeper Sophia : Word spread that Keeper Sophia had been killed during the Fall Ball. Possibly the former owner of a glove found by the FBK near the murders of Richard and Sarah Jenkins and Elizabeth Wellings. If so, may be a bee person?
* Watcher at the Well: Magic user within the depths of the Hardingwood Mead Hall, guarding against intruders. 
* Misc members of the Beekeeper's Guild: 
==Plot Summary==
Bill, Anne, and Nugh have just been summoned by Edward Hardingwood to the woods outside Hardingwood, which is has just experienced a mysterious murder, just as the 400th anniversary of the beekeeper's guild has commenced!
On consulting with Edward, the party is taken to the scene of a horrible murder. Carnage, blood, viscera are spread around the clearing. On inspecting the area, the party finds 2 decapitated heads and one full body with a giant chest wound. There are some small, wiry finger-like appendages with spiky black fur on them. The heads belong to Richards and Sarah Jenkins, and the body belongs to Elizabeth Wellings. The three are known to each other, though aren't particularly close.
The crime scene is not far from the apiary, where the beekeeper festival is underway. The beekeepers are known to take a vow of silence, except the Speaker and Keeper, both of whom do speak. Bill investigates and find some depressions in the ground, like giant insects had landed, and a leather beekeeper glove caught in the trees.
Anne summons a bird through multidimensional space onto the branch to knock the glove free. It's tricky, and she feels resistance, so the bird arrives screaming and in pain. The glove drops to the ground, and Bill picks it up. It is heavy and filled with beeswax inside, with a curious pocket. The party fills it with water to freeze it and reveal its shape. It looks like a lumpy shape, not in proportion for a hand.
The headless bodies appear to have been struck by two blades independently, while Elizabeth's chest wound is wide, like a pole or a giant stinger.
Bill checks the area more before Nugh loads the bodies onto the cart to be sent off for burial, as they have been here for most of the day. Bill learns that Richard and Elizabeth were standing nearby, but Sarah is at a distance, and there may be extra footprints in the area.
At that moment, Lady Elizabeth Featherbottom arrives with an attitude and some villagers with torches. This makes Nugh very nervous and he backs away, triggering Bill and Anne to step forward protectively. Lady Featherbottom, mayor of the town, accuses the party of being brigands, and Nugh steps up to examine her for signs of.... insectness? No insect features, but she is wearing a honeycomb patterned dress and necklace with a kexagon pendant. As mayor, she is often in the company of the Keeper and Speaker of the beekepers guild.
The party heads to the apiary to question the beekeepers, to find out if they are willing participants. Although they answer him silently, Nugh understands their signs. While he is mollified that they all say they serve willingly, they do so using the exact same language and wording. Nugh's attention starts to annoy them. 
Meanwhile, Anne offers them a giant ranker bee, about the size of a small cat, which she summons from another dimension and which also arrives in pain and distress. The beekeepers react to this new creature with distress of their own and a great deal of agitation. Anne turns her back to use it to bargain for Bill to ask questions, and Bill offers his hand to shake hands in friendship.
While shaking hands, Bill squeezes a little hard and feels the beekeeper's glove squish and become misshapen. He pulls away, taking the glove with him, and leaving a waxy nub behind. The beekeepers pull back, while a faint buzzing noise can be heard and Bill notices some small shapes fleeing the glove. The beekeepers form up into ranks, protecting their own.
The party attempts to engage in some dancing in the smoke-filled apiary, in hopes of calming the bees down and improving their peaceful investigation. However, just as they are doing well, Lady Featherbottom arrives with the Speaker wearing a wicker mask with a honeycomb sigil on it. The Speaker speaks to the party, and Bill asks about the glove, but the Speaker rebufs him.
The party heads to the meadhall, where Anne tries to get some mead for her weird alien bee friend. The beekeepers surround her, carrying staves threateningly. We begin a fight, and one of the non-beekeeper civilians shouts that the Keeper is dead. Determined now to get to the basement under the meadhall, Bill physically moves beekeepers out of the way to make a clear path down the hallway. At the end of the hall, Anne checks for insight from the multiverse and senses the beating of angry, humming wings swarming around us. A red film permeates her vision, concentrated on the door.
Nugh tries to intimidate the beekeeprs, but they mount a defense and throw a kettle of boiling honey at him. It smashes into his face, causing severe burns. Thrashing and in pain, Nugh howls the way he used to before his voice was made whole.
Anne takes the opportunity afforded by the distraction to check the door, encountering magical enchantments, which she sets off! Chills and cold magic strike her, and she reaches for a blanket, shivering. 
As Anne and Bill enter the basement, they come into a room with honeycombed walls filled with larvae and eggs, some much larger than others. Some of the honeycombs are even filled with human babies, though only a few.
Nugh crashes down the stairs, throwing Anne off of him when she tries to help. In response to Nugh's obvious pain and suffering, Sadie emerges, giving him a morphine crystal to ease the pain. The morphine acts quickly, both as a pain killer and as a sedative, and Nugh crashes to the ground like a tree. Bill grabs his heavy, unconscious body and props him against the basement door, like a doorstop.
Sadie-Anne and Bill reach the bottom of the basement, where they are surrounded by honeycomb. The floor is waxy, and in the center of the basement room is a pool of deep red liquid, surrounded by arcane symbols.
A thin female voice calls out "I think that's enough of that!" and Bill and Sadie-Anne sink into the waxen floor past their nostrils. Before they lose consciousness, they see a frail, hunched woman, who pushes them further down, submerging them entirely in the thick wax.
The party members all awaken on the outskirts of Hardingwood. Dawn is rising. The Speaker, Edward, and Lady Featherbottom stand nearby. The Speaker and Lady Featherbottom admonish Edward and firmly insist that the party is no longer welcome to investigate or, indeed, to return to the town.
As the defeated group returns to Niqamui, Bill and Nugh share some words. Inspired by Nugh's poetry, Bill has written a poem of his own, which he reads aloud:
What is a Hero by Bill Destatueman
It’s the decision to reach out,
to hold a hand that trembles,
to speak truth when shadows gather,
to stand firm against the tide.
Each day offers a canvas,
painted with the hues of choice,
I will Choose acts of bravery,
like whispers of light in the dark.
Heroes are not born,
but forged in moments of judgment,
when they choose to rise,
to be a shield to the defenseless.
In the end, it’s the heart that leads,
not destiny or glory,
but the quiet knowledge
that by choosing to care,
I create ripples,
a legacy of good
that echoes long after.
In reply, Nugh pulls out Bill's journal on heroism, and says that he himself has made a few notes on heroism. Bill turns to the last page and, among other notes that Nugh has made, finds that the last thing Nugh has written on "how to be a hero" is one simple sentence: "Be like Bill."
Category:Episodes Category:Season 2024