Episode 33: After the Flames

**Episode 33: After the Flames** (C1E33) is the thirty-third episode of the first campaign of The Table is Yours: A Role-playing Adventure Show. After stopping Balthazar di Marte, The Faded Fates help clean up The Burg from the undead army. They go on their own healing journeys over the course of the next few months...

## Synopsis

### The Immediate Aftermath

The leader of the Volguard present at the scene picks up the tome and confirms that there is a self-incineration spell on page four, so it is to be assumed that all three di Martes are dead. One, along with Shae, attempt to persuade the Volguard that their best choice is to allow The Faded Fates to be in possession of the tome, for the time being. Isa chimes in to mention that her father, Salvador, was the previous Bull of the ‘tide Thorns. This convinces the guards to pass the book along to the party and specifically Isa. The head guard continues to ask One questions about Balthazar and the undead army, specifically where they are hidden. One, knowing that the vats are located in Murkside, thinks it best to lie, so she tells them the undead originate from the Ninth, Fourth, and Eighth Precincts. Before the guards can press further, Maude appears to work her magic and smooths the situation over. She explains that The Faded Fates just prevented a major catastrophe and they should be given some time to rest before being interrogated any further. The Volguard agree, and the group begins to gather themselves and head out.

Isa pauses for a moment and walks over to Guy’s body. She stands there for a moment as tears pool in her eyes. It is One’s hand that reaches out to comfort her. One shows sympathy, telling Isa that loss never gets any easier, time helps, but it doesn’t remove the pain in your heart. Isa tells her that they never had a real memorial because there was no body, so she didn’t really believe that he was dead until now. Isa starts rambling and convinces herself that Guy’s soul is trapped somewhere because the sun wasn’t in the sky when he died, again. One cuts her off. She tells her friend that she is spiraling, which is okay, but maybe not there. What they can do is assure that his body is taken somewhere so that she can have a real memorial for him. Isa wipes a tear from her eye and says she likes that idea. One asks one of the guards to take care of Guy and have him cleaned up for a service. The guard agrees, and One ushers Isa back to the keep with the rest of the group.

There are Volguard everywhere trying to fend off a seemingly endless army of undead servants, but the Faded Fates continue home. Upon returning to The Pale White Castle Keep, One stops them all. She asks them to call her Connie from then on; she doesn’t feel the need to hide her identity anymore. Plus, they are all friends, and she wants them to call her by her real name. The party agrees before heading their separate ways for much needed rest and recovery. The next five months consisted of undead cleanup duty and fighting alongside Volguard, and everyone healed at their own pace.

### The Aftermath

#### Codex

Codex was fairly banged up after the fight with Balthazar. Not too long after the fight, she realized she could no longer conjure any magic. She didn’t know much about the Hexaleep, but that probably wasn’t a good thing. She had trouble sleeping, and nightmares that she couldn’t put into words when she woke up kept her awake. For the first month, when she wasn’t helping the rest of the group with their assigned tasks, she simply tried to recover. There was a large scar on her chest from the outburst of energy that she caused during the fight and that took some time to heal. She felt unhelpful without her magic. It wasn’t until a couple months into this time that she felt the nerve to speak up about her worries. Her neighborhood threw a block party to celebrate Codex and her band of merry adventurers. The group was happy to take some time off and enjoy some quality time with friends and family. They all met Codex’s other dad, Safi, who ran an art supply store. He was loud, boisterous, and overall fun to be around. Codex loved seeing her family so proud and seeing her friends enjoying the neighborhood that she grew up in, but something was still on her mind. She pulled Wash aside as the festivities were closing down for the evening and confessed, “I think I should leave”. Wash looked confused and asked if she meant the party, but she said no, The Faded Fates. He let out a scoff and told her no. She got a bit frustrated; she called him Felix and told him that she was useless now. She couldn’t do magic anymore and she could barely defend herself, so why should she be a part of this team? She thought she was just putting everyone in danger and only making things worse. He told her that being in a group with those nutjobs meant that they would probably always be in danger and even if she couldn’t fight, she had something valuable to give to them. Codex asked what that was. Wash told her that she cared about each of them, more than he understood, and if it weren’t for her then they would be much worse off. She asked if he would help her learn to defend herself. He explained that none of them would want her to leave and if training her in combat was what it took to make her feel more useful, then he would happily do it. She smiled weakly at him, and he smiled back. She told him that she would stay, but it was his fault if that broke bad. He accepted that burden, and they all made their way back to the keep.

#### Connie

Connie, with her newfound identity, threw herself into work whenever she wasn’t cleaning corpses with the rest of the group. She spent most days in the forge, sweating over whatever item one of the party members asked her to make or whatever took her mind off the possibility that the di Martes were dead. She sent a message to her sibling, Axel, letting them know that Lady Serafima knew she was alive and that she was kind of working for her. She never heard back, but she hoped they knew what to do with that information; she just wanted them to stay safe. On one of her free days, she went to the Echochamber to gather her things from The Lost & Found since she didn’t need to live/work there anymore. As she was packing up, there was a knock on the door. She looked up to see Darrien standing in the doorway, and they asked what she was doing. She explained that she had a new place topside that she would be living in for a while, that and a steady job. Darrien figured she wouldn’t be coming back, but they admitted they were sad to see her go. She paused for a moment and asked if it was because their favorite plaything wouldn’t be available anymore. Darrien, sensing the sudden hostility, asked what that was all about. Connie told them that she wouldn’t be working there anymore so she figured their “relationship,” or whatever it was, was over. They sat down in a chair and asked Connie if that was really how she thought of what they had. Sure, they paid for her services, but they also had a genuine connection, at least a friendship. She told them that she just assumed they didn’t care about her, which they quickly shut down. Darrien told her that they only set her up with this job because they found her alone after being kicked out of her home, and she clearly needed a place to live and a means to get by. They did that because they felt sorry for her, but they stuck around because they genuinely cared. Darrien was fine if she wanted to end things, but they didn’t want her to think that what they had was nothing. Connie asked if they could start over as friends, and Darrien agreed. They also asked if there was someone else. Connie blushed and told them she wasn’t sure, it was complicated, she wasn’t used to caring about people, but now she had a whole group that she truly valued, and then some. Darrien nodded and smiled, they told her she was always more of a Topside girl anyway. Connie laughed and agreed and told them she would take them out sometime, up top, her treat. With that, she gathered the last of her things and returned Topside.

#### Wash

Wash spent most of his free time bonding with the party the only way he knew how: by getting drunk with them. Well, he wouldn’t get drunk, but he enjoyed being in the company of his drunk friends. He would train with everyone, who all suddenly wanted his help with learning hand-to-hand combat, and spent his evenings smoking on the balcony. When he finally had the time, he asked Codex if she wanted to go with him to the Ninth Precinct to visit his sister. Codex jumped on the opportunity to learn a bit more of Wash’s backstory. He took her to the Steel Daffodil, an artificer shop, run by his sister-like-figure, Lily. As they walked in, Lily did a double take and ran up to hug Wash. When they parted, she feverishly started moving her hands. Wash, who apparently spoke sign language, responded to her. She was asking where he had been, he told her he was in an adventuring group now. This made her laugh, she signed that everything had been so crazy with the undead, but thankfully that adventuring party stopped it from getting worse. She paused, looked at Wash in bewilderment, and asked if he was a part of that adventuring group. He shrugged. She shook him by the shoulders and then suddenly realized there was someone else in the room. Lily looked at Codex and waved politely and then signed, who is this? Wash explained, gently, that she was a part of the group and also someone he had feelings for. He respectfully asked her to be chill. Lily was not chill. Wash said, out loud to Codex, that his sister could hear she was just mute and still not very subtle. Codex introduced herself and Lily taught her how to spell her name in sign. Codex picked up pretty quickly when Lily and Wash were talking about her because Wash would blush and Lily would give her an awkward thumbs up. It was a little weird, but Codex also enjoyed seeing Wash like this. He seemed much more relaxed around his sister. The three of them went out to get lunch and it continued to be awkward, but in a pleasant way.

#### Isa

Isa had a hard time coping after the fight with Balthazar. She had seen Guy and fully accepted that he was dead, but that didn’t help with the grief that she was already trying to deal with. When she wasn’t helping the group, she was lazing about the house trying to distract herself. She was also having a hard time sleeping, so at one point she asked Terrance if he could make her a “sleep serum.” Luckily the mushrooms he was propagating caused a sedative-like reaction, so they helped her stay asleep, but they didn’t get rid of the nightmares. She realized at one point that some of the guilt weighing on her shoulders was probably brought on by her ongoing lie to her parents. She decided that she would meet them and tell them the whole truth. She met with her parents at LaGuardia for dinner and spilled everything. There was a lot that they didn’t know, going as far back as Guy. She explained that she wasn’t actually triple-majoring and that her credits were falsified by the Red Raven Adventuring Guild. She also told them about Guy; who he was to her, what happened to him, and why because of what happened she wanted to stay in this group and help others. More than anything, she didn’t tell them before because she didn’t want to disappoint them. It was her mother, Elena, who broke the silence and told her that she did, in fact, disappoint them. She was disturbed that her daughter was such a liar and besmirching the Ballador name as she was. After some more scolding and berating, Isa’s mother left in a huff.

Isa and her father, Salvador, sat in the aftermath of her mother’s words. Isa asked why he put up with her, how he could just sit there and let her talk to Isa that way. She knew in her heart that he didn’t agree. Salvador sighed and explained that it was complicated, her mother was complicated. He loved her, but she could be difficult. Isa rolled her eyes and asked why it was so hard to defend her. He took a deep breath and began to explain why it was so, well, complicated. He wasn’t originally from Zobraria, he was from what was once known as the Coshanan Empire, now the Kingdom of Vallas-Kahn. It was a land plagued by a deep and powerful entity that caused everyone who lived there to live in fear and paranoia, the country went to war with this entity in order to exorcize it. After that entity was removed from the land, he worked very closely with the new queen, Iris, to reestablish peace. From there he traveled to Maerlion, where there was yet another war with a being that wanted to eliminate all magic from the country. He aided with that fight as well. After this, he was contacted by members of a guild that seemed to have a hand in many world altering events, The Voltiac. They told him he had the blood of a hero, apparently he was distantly related to the founder of said guild. This founder was a purple tiefling, which explained Isa’s race. Salvador explained that he never told her mother this information and just let her believe it was a sign from the gods. After he came to Zobraria, married her mother, and became the Bull of The ‘tide Thorns he had so much riding on him. He simply didn’t want to be a hero anymore, but he still felt the drive. He believed that drive passed on to Isa and he hoped that she would do good with it. He told Isa he would work on her mother, hopefully she would come around in time, but until then he wanted her to know that she had his support. Isa felt half content with how the conversation ended. He even gave her his prized possession: his greataxe but modified for a bard, which he explained and told her he had eyes on her the whole time she was at Providence and with the Guild. Isa was confused and upset but shrugged it off. She was obviously still upset about her mother, but she felt okay knowing her father was in her corner. At least, for now.

#### Shae

Shae had a lot she wanted to do in the months that passed. At one point, she left the group for an extended period of time to visit the pockets she was familiar with, which was most of them. She did this to pass along runes to expel the undead if they had a problem with them past the blacklights, but also to catch up with some shady folks. The rest of her time was spent going on little adventures in the shadows when she wasn’t assisting with the group’s main tasks. She spent time with her fellow party members and trained with them when they all had a moment to spare. She was having trouble connecting with Connie, though, so she popped into the forge one day to have a conversation. Connie was in her own world, focusing on whatever she was crafting, but Shae managed to pull her away for a moment. After beating around the bush for a bit, Connie eventually asked what Shae wanted. Shae told her that she met Harrison, Connie looked surprised, this wasn’t a name she had heard in a while. Shae also passed along the message that he gave her: “it’s all your fault”, and asked what that meant. Connie asked if she really wanted to know or if she was just trying to get more information on her. Shae was shocked by the sudden hostility and asked what the issue was between them. After their last fight, it felt like nothing really changed, Connie was still upset about the money being withheld from the party and the fact that no one knew anything about her. Shae told her that she gave them the money, but Connie knew that wasn’t true. What Connie didn’t know was that, due to her upbringing in The Grove where money wasn’t a factor, Shae didn’t fully grasp the value of currency. She hid the money all over the place just like she would with her other trinkets, because to her it was all the same. Connie accepted this answer and told Shae that Harrison was her late brother’s boyfriend and he didn’t like her very much, so his message made sense. Connie and Shae exchanged secrets about themselves like currency, both exceptionally protective of whatever they were sharing. Connie admitted that she didn’t like Shae, but she wanted to, she was just as much a part of this team as any of them. Shae agreed to be a bit more open in the future. The two continued to talk for a bit and Connie did learn some things about Shae’s history, so it seemed that the rapport between them was mended for the time being. After this and throughout the next few months, Shae would bring Connie gifts to decorate her forge. Connie didn’t understand why she did this, but appreciated the sentiment nonetheless.

#### Terrance

Terrance had to cope with a lot during the undead cleanup, mainly the fact that his serums (or the bastardization of his serums) were what caused the deaths of a lot of those people. It weighed on him, but he tried not to bring down the morale of the group, especially when everyone else seemed to be having a hard time, especially Isa. He focused mainly on experimenting with the Blue Caps he found past the blacklights and making a serum that would help his friends sleep. He, himself, didn’t sleep much either, but that wasn’t new. He tried to make time to hang out with everyone individually, but he had a hard time reaching Isa. He felt that there was a wall between them that wasn’t there when they first met and he wanted to fix that. He asked her to talk after she had finally started to leave her room again. They sat in his room with some tea and he asked blatantly if they were okay. Isa asked what he meant, but she knew. He explained that ever since they were hired by Fiara things had been different between them, and he understood why she would be upset with him about everything involving Guy and his serums, but he just wanted to hear her say it. He brought up the day she passed out before they went to find the beast in The Wilds; that day she looked like she wanted to kill him. Isa rubbed her temples and told him that she did. She wanted to kill him because The Scarred Warlord was invading her mind and making her angry. He had shown her a vision where Terrance had no remorse for what he had done and she just got so mad that she killed him and when she woke up, the real Terrance was standing over her, so she pushed him away so that she wouldn’t do something worse. She said all of this with her head in her hands, but she looked up to tell him that she didn’t want to feel that way because she knew he was a good person. Terrance paused, dissecting what Isa just told him, and said that he wasn’t a good person. He wanted to believe that he was and he wanted to try to be one, but he wasn’t. The serums were his life and he knew when he started working for Vorano that he was probably going to use them for something bad, but he didn’t care because it gave him a reason to work. If Vorano didn’t threaten his mother’s life or try to claim his creation for himself he probably wouldn’t have left. Terrance had done horrible things and he wasn’t a good person, but he saw how he hurt people and he continued to see it every day. He wanted to change. Isa asked why he still took the serums if that was the case. Terrance explained that the serums were the only thing he had ever accomplished, if he gave them up he would have nothing to show for his life. Not only that, but he liked feeling strong, strong enough to help people who couldn’t help themselves, people like him. He asked if Isa was still mad at him. She said she wasn’t mad anymore, just sad. Terrance agreed. He wanted her to understand why he worked the way he did, but for now he settled for an uncomfortable hug and a promise that they could be friends again.

### The After the Aftermath

Near the end of the five months, The Faded Fates had cleaned up the city of the remains of Balthazar’s undead army. In light of their heroic deeds, they receive an invitation to a banquet intended to honor them. It will be hosted in the Fifth Precinct by the king. They spend the last month preparing for their meeting with the king. The night before, they are all gathered in their dining room when there is a knock at the front door. Connie makes her way to the front and opens the door to reveal a seven foot tall firbolg accompanied by a small white duck. He has a big grin spread across his face as he says: “My name is Finley Daeigh Gallilaiegh, and this is Cinnamon, we are here to take you… wait that sounds bad.”