Ratatouille

**"Ratatouille"** is the fifth episode of the *Once Upon a Dice Roll* campaign Derlussy.

## Episode

### Recap

Previously on OUADR, our party found themselves in the middle of a jailbreak. Their small friend Cork was about to meet an ill fate at the hands of the queen. The party snuck into the jail under false pretenses and successfully broke Cork out of the jail, but there were a few fatalities amongst the guards. Our party followed Cathleen back to her mother’s home in Lower Derlusk slums. While there they learned of the true fate of Cork, who made an ill-fated deal with a hag and has been forever turned into a mouse. When footsteps approached, the party decided to hide in a cellar inside the home. When the door opened, in walked Alurand holding Cathleen’s mother unconscious and passed out. We return to our party….

## Story

### Cathleen’s Family Home

Peeking out from the cellar door, Cathleen sees her mom unconscious and panics, asking Alurand what happened? Alurand asks Cathleen “What are you doing here, and why did you come back here of all places?”. Lyrican slips out from behind Cathleen and sees her mom, noticing how much she’s been struggling and notices the strong smell of alcohol coming from Jane. She reassures Cathleen that nothing is wrong with her mom, other than being passed out drunk. Cathleen eventually notices the smell once she settles down and tells Alurand to put her down while she tries to find something to cover her with. Amuriel notices Cathleen looking around for something and takes off one of her scarves and lays it over Jane, using the end of the scarf to tap at Jane’s sweaty, drunk forehead. Alurand places her down on the makeshift bed, tucks extra straw under her head and goes to get a cup. Cathleen notices he seems to know his way around her house, but focuses on her mom. Amuriel sits down against the wall near Cathleen and starts humming a lullaby that Jane used to sing to Cathleen. Cathleen asks where Amuriel knows that lullaby from, but Amuriel replies that she’s never heard it before. Cathleen tells her that her mother used to hum that to her to calm her down when she was a child and Amuriel says “hmm interesting, must be the place”.

Alurand walks back over with a cup of water and a rag that’s been dampened before stepping outside to get some firewood to stoke the fire back from its embers to warm up the room. Cathleen is perplexed and tells him to “make yourself at home i guess”. Myrtle asks if anyone is sick which makes Cathleen nervous. After being told that Jane is drunk, Myrtle casts healing wounds on her and tells someone to get a bucket. Jane wakes up and vomits into the bucket, and with everything else going on, Cathleen snaps and yells at everyone trying to figure out what is going on. Amuriel offers to loan Cathleen some of her books if she wants to learn about magic and explains that the reason Alurand knows his way around is because he’s obviously been there before. Cathleen apologizes for the outburst when Jane wakes up and starts talking and tells Cathleen she was having fun at all the bars. When Cathleen asks if she knows who brought her home, her mom says “it was Al.” Jane notices there’s other people and asks who everyone is. The party goes through and introduces themselves. Cathleen takes Jane to get cleaned up.

Cathleen questions Alurand if this is what he meant by taking care of her family. He explains that he has been to her mom’s house many times and explains that he came by many times to make sure her mom was ok while she was training and making sure the collectors don’t collect from her house. She goes over to Myrtle and apologizes for losing her temper. The two of them have a bit of a heart to heart and share a laugh over Myrtle swearing at Cathleen. Amuriel mentions them being wanted for treason which snaps them back to reality. Alurand reveals the queen has requested their presence and that, as of right now, no one knows it was them who killed all the guards and broke Cork out. He reveals there were only two witnesses to what happened. The two bandits the party captured were in the same jail, and broke out after all the chaos, so it would appear they broke Cork out and killed everyone. Alurand gives Cathleen 3 gold and tells the party to go to the Cast Iron Casket. The party decides to go stay at the Cast Iron Casket, except for Lyrican, who’s going to stay in the forest at her home village.

### Elven Village

Lyrican returns to her home village and goes to a hunting cabin outside of Taonor’s homestead to get some food before she turns in for the night. As she drifts off to sleep, she falls into a dream of being on a hunt with her sister Yallis as they hunt a boar. Both draw their bows to shoot the boar, with Yallis firing first, wounding the boar, and Lyrican firing second, killing it. The two of them have to gut the boar before taking it back to town, so Yallis tells Lyrican to slit its throat to make sure it’s dead before cutting into it. As Lyrican finishes slitting the boar’s throat, in a puff of smoke, the boar turns into Yallis, gasping for air. This incident snaps Lyrican awake. At the crack of dawn, Lyrican sneaks out from her homestead in the trees to head to Cathleen’s family home, before she’s stopped by the whining of a horse. She heads to the stables to find a horse had given birth to a foal that looked like the horse from her dream. She tells the foal that when it’s healthy it can come with her but until then it needs to stay there.

### Cast Iron Casket

The rest of the party arrives at the Cast iron Casket, with Myrtle calling out for Penny, letting her know they return. Her and Amuriel discuss if they’re actually going to see the queen in the morning and where to go instead. Myrtle decides to head into the kitchen to make some food before bed. She tries to find Penny, but Penny is nowhere to be found. Grig walks in to deliver some crates of vegetables for the next day and sees Myrtle. He asks Myrtle what she’s doing in the kitchen, telling her she’s only allowed in the kitchen when Penny is here and that she’s away right now. Myrtle takes a jab at Grig’s cooking and he challenges her to taste his stew, which is a family recipe. He tells her he serves it with lavender bread. After trying the soup, she checks the bread to see if it’s actually lavender, or if it’s mold. She notices mold, which can be used for medicinal purposes. She realizes he’s been using lavender mushrooms.

Amuriel tries to find an empty seat, and starts pulling out books and an egg shaped object she took from Muddock’s home. She notices while holding it, that it’s warm, and realizes she’s holding a dragon’s egg. Myrtle comes out of the kitchen to see Amuriel nose to nose with the egg, talking to it. Myrtle picks up the dragon egg and asks where she found it. Amuriel flips through her journal and says it was from Muddock’s house. Myrtle tries to put it back in her back to hide it and tells her that having it out could get her killed, because people want dragon eggs. Myrtle tells Amuriel she wants to see the egg in the morning. Amuriel and Myrtle decide to go to sleep early, hoping to wake up and leave before Alurand shows up.

### Cathleen’s Family Home

Lyrican arrives at Cathleen’s family home to find Jane working outside on the small garden.They have small talk and Jane apologizes for the horny joke and asks if Lyrican is staying for breakfast. Lyrican tells her that she’s here to see what Cathleen decided about their plans for the day. Cathleen wakes up and sees Lyrican and asks why she’s here. Lyrican tells her she was here to find out their plans, which Cathleen tells them they’re running. Cathleen asks where Cork is. They look around to find him, but Cathleen finds a note from Cork that says “Cathleen, I’m really sorry but I have to find a way back to my sister. My presence…I can’t risk you being caught. I’ll see you around.” They have a bit of small talk about Cork seeing his sister and realize they should get moving before Alurand shows up at the Cast Iron Casket to collect the party.

### Cast Iron Casket

Amuriel and Myrtle wake up early thanks to Amuriel’s collection of clocks and alarms. Myrtle wonders where a dragon egg comes from. Amuriel asks if Myrtle wants to say goodbye to anyone before they leave but Myrtle says she just wants to see the egg one more time before they go. She investigates the egg but, while noticing it has a unique pattern, doesn’t recognize anything special about it or where it may have come from. She gives it back to Amuriel and tells her to be careful with it. Amuriel shoves it back in her back, much to the panic of Myrtle. Myrtle asks again if she found it in Muddocks home, and wonders why he would have had a dragon’s egg. Amuriel mentions she also has a book she took from the house as well and that she may have an idea for how to open it, but they should get going. They decide to hide and wait for Cathleen and Lyrican but keep an eye out for Alurand. Amuriel decides to hide in a barrel with Adaira and Myrtle realizes she can’t hide anywhere, so she tells Amuriel she’ll leave quickly and give a signal to alert her.

Cathleen and Lyrican arrive hoping to avoid Alurand. They discuss a plan on how to get in and find the others without being noticed. They decide Cathleen will climb through the window Lyrican snuck out of before while Lyrican keeps watch. Cathleen climbs up to the window with ease thanks to Lyrican’s directions. Lyrican goes back to the front to keep an eye out for Alurand. Inside, Cathleen sneaks around to not wake any of the patrons that are still sleeping. She heads downstairs to see if Myrtle is in the kitchen, only seeing the candle light in the main area. Myrtle see’s her creeping and heading to where Grig is and calls her over. She asks where Amuriel is, who pops out of the barrel she was hiding in. Grig hears someone and thinks they’re wanting something and says he’ll be right there. Amuriel tries to climb out of the barrel, but falls over, spilling out. Grig runs out of the kitchen after hearing the barrel. Amuriel yells that the inn is being robbed before trying to run out, thinking it’s a better story than they were running from the guards. Amuriel’s cloak gets caught under the barrel causing her to trip, and Cathleen ends up being clotheslined by the cloak trying to run by. Lyrican hears the commotion and peaks in to see what’s happening and see’s Amuriel and Cathleen are on the ground while Myrtle is hobbling over. Amuriel gets up and gets her cloak out from under the barrel, goes over to the kitchen door and uses prestidigitation to distract Grig before telling them to get going. The party safely leaves the inn while Grig is distracted. They spot someone coming and take off in the opposite direction. Lyrican tells them she knows somewhere safe they can go, and leads the party to the forest. While searching the forest for a safe place to hide, Lyrican finds a cave that her and her sister used to hide in and finds a small doll inside. She tells them this will be safe as no one knows this place.

### Forest Cave

While Lyrican recognizes the cave, Myrtle and Amuriel notice this cave used to be a dwelling, noticing the old furniture and linens as well as the doll that Lyrican passed by. Amuriel goes over and finds a flat surface to lean against and asks Myrtle if she thinks they’ll be here for a while. Myrtle says probably, so Amuriel decides to pull out the book from Muddock’s house. She casts knock to unlock the book. The book makes a loud knocking sound and opens, letting out arcane whispers. Amuriel notices the hand she’s holding the book in starts to fade and become necrotic. Everyone watching sees her hand go black, as well as her eyes, before seeing the blackness retreat from her hands. Amuriel snaps out of it and says “Huh, I guess that’s why they keep books like this locked in the library, huh?” Everyone around is at a bit of a loss for words. Amuriel tries to read the book before it closes, and notices it’s in dwarvish. As she goes to close the book, the whispers intensify, stopping once the book is closed. Amuriel asks if anyone knows dwarvish to try and translate what it said, before going on a ramble about learning another language. Myrtle tells Amuriel “Please don’t ever open that book again” to which Amuriel replies “Can’t promise that.” Myrtle rephrases her statement, saying “Please don’t ever open that book again without a plan.” Cathleen asks what it was and Amuriel goes on a ramble about it being from the school of necromancy, the whispers being weird, and how useful learning languages as spells is. Cathleen asks why Muddock would have a book that dangerous, then remembers she has a scroll with blueprints and that Amuriel has some stuff as well. Amuriel pulls out the dragon egg, saying she took that as well, telling the party what it is. Cathleen questions if the egg, book and blueprints are connected. Cathleen notices that the grass and ground around the book dies and becomes scarred. Amuriel wraps the book in a scarf, but when she picks it up she hears more whispers saying “The ones who seek me cannot be found, for we are not buried in the ground, we rise from ashes when called, from the graves your soul will be hauled.”