Favor, Episode 17: Stitched Together

## Starring

Sage Stafford as Aoife Flannery
Naseem Etemad as Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
Katie Budabin as Lluvyras 'Lu' Ssath
Celeste Conowitch as Dungeon Master

**Episode 17: Stitched Together** *(2x17)* is the seventeenth episode of the first arc of the the second Venture Maidens campaign.

## Synopsis

*At long last we get a close look*

*At the tragedy of young Rook*

*But on we go as the time grows small*

*To heed the wyrd sisters beck and call*

### Fresh Air

The night air floods the Maiden's lungs as they throw the sewer grate open, breathing in the crisp early morning air. Finally, they have a moment to collect themselves and Lu looks around, realizing that they are in a district she is vaguely familiar with. She stops Bartleby before they go their seperate ways and demands he uphold their deal.

Bartleby sets down the Living Spellbook and pats at his waistcoat, pulling forth a red silk satchel, handing it to the drow. Lu goes to put it in her bag, but decides against it seeing the condition her bag is currently in. Feeling the satchel, Lu quickly realizes that Bartleby has gifted them a Bag of Holding containing their payment.

The Living Spellbook takes this opportunity to introduces herself as Index and thanks the Maidens for saving her. Aoife asks her how she wound up kidnapped in the first place and she admits that she does not know, and Bartleby reiterates that there has been a turf war between his people and the Sovereign Courts.

He says that the Courts will pay for it, starting with the death of the Duke of Pudding, assuming that they will take note and think twice before sending another to his city. Aoife catches herself against a building, wondering to herself what they have gotten involved with and thankful that they were not in Coven at this moment. Bartleby is pleasantly surprised with the turn out of the evening and admits that he is impressed with the group. He pulls a hat from his pocket and places it on his head, shifting forms into a chisel-jawed Eldrin man. He offers his arm to Index and they stroll off into the night.

### Bubblebaths

Aoife asks if Lu knows of a bathhouse nearby but Lu tells her that they are all public and probably wouldn’t let them in in their current condition. They do a walk of shame through the streets, smelling of feces and sewage, and arrive back at Buccatini’s in short order. Some lights are still on inside, but the shades have already been drawn and the sign has been flipped to Closed. Lu pulls her key from her pocket and commands her friends to not make eye contact with anyone and just make their way upstairs.

Once upstairs, they enter the living room of the apartment to see that Frieda is still up with Rook, who is looking much better than when she was bedridden. Frieda is knitting and Rook is stuck holding a large ball of yarn for the old woman. She tries to extricate herself as Frieda asks how everything went, but is quickly pushed back into holding the yarn when the woman sends Lu and the Maidens off to have a bath.

Lu fills the tub with hot water and bath salts as Aoife fills some buckets full of hot soapy water and begins to scrub herself on the floor. Lu sinks into the tub and tosses her clothes into a pile, swearing to never wear them again. They clean themselves in silence, focusing on the most important matter at hand until they are feeling more like themselves.

Frieda gathers them pieces of clothing from her various children’s rooms since they didn’t bring anything of their own from the Chicken Hut and set them aside for them to get dressed. They save Rook from being Frieda’s personal yarn assistant, but Frieda makes them swear to at least stay for breakfast before heading off. She bids them all goodnight and heads for bed.

### Girl Talk

After Lu’s mother leaves the room, Rook turns on the group with wild eyes. Having only heard bits and pieces when she was going into and out of consciousness, she demands to know what they have been doing. Aoife tells her that they managed to get the ingredients for the Chicken Hut ritual and an additional two hundred gold pieces. Rook is pleasantly surprised until Lu mentions that the Slithering Court was involved.

Aoife explains that they went to the club called Soul and met Mr. B, who knew everything about the Chicken Hut, and Rook. She tells Rook that Mr. B is a Knowledge Demon, which explains how he knew so much. The Slithering Court and Mister B got into a tiff and took his Living Spellbook, so Mr. B hired the Maidens to escort him to the handoff, but the Duke of Pudding had other things in mind so they killed him.

Rook is shocked that they managed to remain alive in a fight against a Courtier of the Slithering Court. She apologizes that she wasn’t able to be there to assist them. She asks if they got the hair and they assure her that they pulled them from her hands when they found her on the front porch. She thanks them for not leaving her behind. She knows that she has not always been the easiest to deal with and appreciates what they have done for her.

Lu, sensing the emotions of the moment are making Rook uncomfortable, moves the conversation along by asking the bounty hunter to answer some questions. Aoife tells Rook that her sister, Tandy, says hi and that she misses her. The room is stunned into silence and Rook asks if Aoife told Tandy about her. Aoife assures the girl that she didn’t tell her, but she saw a portrait of them together and asked Tandy about it, but didn’t mention that she knew Rook.

Rook steels herself before admitting that she is glad that her sister is doing well, but does not want Tandy to know what has happened to her, or where she is, to keep the Dryad safe. Aoife is still confused as to how Rook went from being a Dryad to being a human as she was now. Lu reaches under the pillow of her bed and grabs a flask, passing it to Rook, and says that Rook needs to start at the beginning because nothing is adding up.

Aoife asks if this is a Phoenix situation and Rook admits that it is a very similar process. She ages a year every single day, but she is still new to it and it has only happened a handful of times. She tells them that it is a messy and painful process that she prefers to deal with alone, and is one of the many reasons they should never go in her room. She admits that she has made a lot of enemies, and there will be times when she is useless and vulnerable and will need their help, though is is loathe to admit it. If people know what happened to her, and know that she would be defenseless given time, she has no way of protecting her sister and that it is best of the Dryad never found out about her.

Rook tells them that she wanted to be mortal, and the Wierd Sisters granted her that wish. They had given her lifetimes and lifetimes and lifetimes of mortality. Lu asks what Rook had given them and the girl admits that she paid her price, refusing to elaborate further. Toni asks if she always ages to the same ages before reverting and Rook tells her that she has only been through the process twice at this point. The first time she made it to nintey-four and the second time to one hundred and four years old.

She has never been human before, and is overcome with hormones and emotions and the need to always eat and defecate. Lu admits that most mortals find it exciting, but that is because they only have to go through it all once, and she does not envy the woman that has to repeat the cycle. Rook refuses any help they offer in regards to her transformation into a baby because it is humiliating for her since she remembers everything, even as an infant and could not live with the shame if they were to see her in that state.

She reckons that they have about fifty good days left before she reverted back to a child and Lu suggests that they do something fun before that time comes. The drow reasons that Rook has been afflicted this way for less than a year, and that there has to be a way to fix her condition.

Toni, breaking conversation, asks what the Chicken Hut ritual involves and Aoife tells Rook that they buried the Corellan Bell miles outside of the city to prevent it from being tracked to them. Rook tells them that it was a good idea that they didn’t carry them because those bells are wildly powerful artifacts, handmade for each Corellon, and have dozens of magical sensors for Scrying, which is probably why Whistler had left the bell inside of that fey.

Lu takes a moment to reach her arm into the Bag of Holding and pull out the ingredients for the ritual. She pulls out a small wooden crate and as she slides it open, she finds some strange lumpy candles that smell wierd, golden needles, and neatly labelled muslin bags of herbs. The wierdest thing in the crate is a glass vial with a stopper containing silvery white strands of hair. Rook looks it all over and determines that they have everything for the ritual.

The drow asks who’s hair is in the vial and Rook admits that she doesn’t actually know, but it is definitely the most expensive ingredient they have. The bounty hunter turns to Aoife and asks if she would be able to perform the ritual, since she is the only one among them familiar with magic. Aoife questions how Rook was bonded to the house if she couldn’t perform the ritual and Rook informs her that the hag she won the house off of had bound her.

They discuss their next course of action, but Toni cuts Rook off to tell her about the vision she had of the Wierd Sisters asking her to return a favor. Rook, having not known of Toni’s deal with the Sisters, admonishes Toni’s decision to enter a favor with a fey and asks what she got in return. Toni tells her of the animals being tortured and that one of the Sisters had come to her in a dream to offer her aid in finding the animals so that she could free them.

Lu tips Rook’s flask, urging her to take another drink and to calm down because they don’t have a choice in the matter at this point. Aoife asks Rook what they should do with the hair that the girl had gotten back from the hags that had stolen it, and Rook says that it doesn’t matter as long as they still have the hair in their possession. They continue running down their list of plans for the following day before heading to bed.

### Familiar Melodies

In the middle of Lu’s Trance, she can hear the sounds of her sister’s high heels entering the apartment before feeling the tiefling’s arms wrap around her and give her a goodnight kiss. Normally Lu meditates on her family and things that soothe her while she is in a Trance, but being him and being in her room has unsettled her from the memories of Jada and their last time together. She spends her Trance avoiding thinking about anything and trying to center herself.

In her Trance, just at the edge of her consiousness, Lu can hear the familiar song of the giant smokey fey that they had pulled the bell from. As she focuses on it, her consciousness shifts and she finds herself dreaming again. Images form around her and she finds herself in a greenhouse. Diffused sunlight trickles through shaded glass windows and all around her grow edible plants. She swings her head around to see that the giant they had saved is somehow sitting in the greenhouse with her.

Even though the giant does not have a mouth, she can feel it smiling at her, and it reaches its hand to her. Lu reaches out her hand to meet it. The giant leads her down the paths of the greenhouse, and speaks to her through its melodic tune even though she cannot understand it. They wind their way to the center of the greenhouse and stand at the base of a huge tree with the most vibrant leaves and multicolored fruits hanging from its branches.

The giant lifts Lu to the tree so that she can filter through the branches. She is looking for an ingredient that will allow her cooking to stand out in two realms. As she goes through the branches, she is keeping her eye out for a fruit with a specific taste in mind. She feels them, and smells them, and continues to search until her hand touches something wooden and manufactured. She pulls it towards her and from the branches she pulls a wooden bird cage. Inside are a tiny Toni and Rook, holding at the bars and yelling to be let out.

She rips the lock from the cage door and a flash of golden light spills out as Toni and Rook turn into small golden birds that fly out. The surrounding melts away and Lu hears a voice that asks her if she knows what kind of bird this is, telling her to remember its name because it is important.

Lu wakes up from her Trance and she can hear people walking around the kitchen. A glass marble rolls across the floor and between her feet. She reaches down and snatches it up, holding the previous marble up to find that they are identical. Lark is still passed out on the bed and Lu shoves the blankets on top of her before tiptoeing into the common room. She heads to the bookshelves and searches for something to make sense of her dream.

### Familial Goodbyes

Toni and Aoife wake up in time to hear the banging of a wooden spoon on a metal pipe from the kitchens below, a clear sign that Frieda is ready for them all to come down for breakfast. They get up and rendevous with Lu and Rook downstairs. Staff members are already there getting things set up for the day, and have set up a small buffet for everyone to enjoy. Rook is sleepily pouring coffee for everyone, still exhausted from being woken in the early hours by Frieda.

Lu excuses Rook and takes her place as Frieda comes out of the kitchen. The small woman hints that she likes Rook while elbowing Lu in the side and waggling her eyebrows at her, but Lu pushes her off with a stern “no”. The drow tries to get her mother to sit down and eat, but reflects on the fact that she has never seen her mother eat or sleep in all of the years that they had been family.

Eventually they all get settled in and enjoy breakfast. Frieda asks Lu if she needed anything and Lu tells her mother to keep an eye out for the Correlon, but she would be in touch if she needed anything. They all share a sentimental goodbye, and Lu knicks some knives from the kitchen to replace the ones she lost in the sewer.

Before leaving, Toni tells Frieda that she intends to keep her daughter safe, but she will need a new shield in order to do so, and asks if there is anything the woman could do for her. Frieda says she can probably find her something at a great rate, but offers a generic shield to the fighter in the meantime. Lu begs Frieda not to use her favors needlessly and the woman pats her arm.

They manage to leave after promising to write back soon and Lu gives her mom a sloppy kiss on the cheek. They return to the Chicken Hut, applying more of the chicken shit mixture to their eyes to see the house. Everything looks the same as they left it. Rook asks if the Wierd Sisters gave Toni any way of getting back to them, but the fighter supposes they will have to get back the old fashioned way.

### Binding Ritual

Rook makes her way around the room in preparation for the ritual, as if she is looking for something, until she steps on a creaking floorboard. She pulls the board up and pulls out a dusty shoebox from within. She hands Aoife the dusty scroll contained inside, and the satyr begins to read while the bounty hunter looks over her shoulder.

They get the ritual set up and Rook pulls some canvas, stretched taught inside of an ivory hoop, from the box. She sits in the center of the ritual space and threads the white hairs from the vial into the golden needles. Aoife reads out the instructions and they all light the candles and incense. The smells of autumn waft throughout the home and Aoife reaches a point in the ritual in which the candles and the fireplace burn low and dim, like the flames are being repressed.

The chalk circles around them begin to glow and Rook hyperfixates on the cross-stitch she has been working on. She stitches a resemblance of Aoife and reaches the thread over for the satyr to prick her finger on. The white thread stains crimson as she finishes, followed by Toni and Lu in succession. The cross-stitch shows the Chicken Hut with a banner above it reading “Home Sweet Home”, and Rook, Aoife, Toni, and Lu are lined up on either side of it. With the final word spoken by Aoife, the flames in the house go out followed by a moment of quiet.

They all feel at home now; a feeling of peace and rest. This is where our adventure comes to an end, until next time. -Venture Away!

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Aoife
* Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
* Lu

### Non-Player Characters

* Frida
* Index
* Mr. B
* Rook

## Locations

* Eldrin Empire
	+ Chasiana

## Inventory

Lu replaced her lost knives

Toni replaced her damaged shield

## Quotes

“Fiends over Fey, any day.” -Bartleby

“I’m fucking sorry I wasn’t there to help, and I’m glad you’re not dead.” -Rook

“I wouldn’t say trust. Everyone is nice to you when you have something they want.” -Lu

“Wait…a favor? How many favors do you owe them!?” -Rook

“Yeah, well, Gordon can suck it.” -Rook

“I hate dreams. Why aren’t they literal? That would be so much easier!” -Lu

“She’s really good looking, but I don’t think our personalities match, so don’t talk about it.” -Lu

“If you are in trouble, you come here. Ma will take care of you.” -Frieda

## Trivia

Toni took the Sentinel Feat when she leveled up to level 4. Her HP increased to 48 and her base AC increased to 12.

Lu’s Dexterity Score increased to 19, increasing her AC to 15 and her attack modifier to +6.