C2 E19

It is good to be naughty sometimes. Being good gets so boring and often being good doesn’t really get you the change you want. Just as a history book. They will tell you. Least, that is what R’Ork says when she breaks a rule or two.

## **Story**

### Long Story

At the end of the last episode, R'Oarc received a message, via her new Sending Stone, from Lucee, instructing her to meet her at ~~midnight~~ 3am at the graveyard, located behind the Temple of Reya. It's far to the northwest of town, so R'Oarc will have to make a trek out there. She waits until dark, and then prepares herself. Better to be safe, right? She takes with her a knife (with another knife attached to it), and 5 sausage rolls (two for her, two for Lucee, and an extra, just in case). She also decides to leave a note to T'Chuck, telling him everything. She even says that if they do end up going to a secondary location, she will try to leave a note for him there, as well. This is all pretty responsible. If you have to break the rules, this is the way to do it.

With all of that preparation complete, R'Oarc sneaks out of the house, and across town. She's careful to look out for Wally Bonebraids, the "unusual fellow" who serves as Rimeford's grave-keeper, and who lives in the shed by the temple. He's asleep now, though, so R'Oarc makes it, undetected, into the graveyard, where she proceeds to wait for Lucee. After a while, Lucee finally appears. Mostly, the two just chill, like a couple pals just shootin' the ol' shit. Lucee asks R'Oarc to join the resistance against the Order, and when she agrees, Lucee comments that now there are two of them. This tells us that there is not, in fact, some other group that Lucee is a part of. This "resistance" they keep talking about, is, in fact, just Lucee. Lucee also offers R'Oarc a cloved cigarette, and since R'Oarc has never smoked before, she eats it.

Lucee continues to be a bad influence, asking her to do a spell. R'Oarc is hesitant, not wanting to continue doing bad things, but reluctantly does turn her hair ~~bright~~ dark blue using *Prestidigitation*. Lucee is impressed. They are unable to do magic directly, but can do things that are "like magic" using the Theonite. Also, Screech is brought up. He hates magic, so they should refrain from the magic-talk around him. But you know who's cool? That Drop Bear guy. They can trust him, for sure. Anyway, Lucee asks if R'Oarc wants to go back to her place, at the White Spire. Again, R'Oarc has a bad feeling, but agrees. Before they go, however, R'Oarc leaves a note, like she promised to do, telling T'Chuck where they've gone off to. And way they go.

The White Spire is in a state of disrepair, as it is (officially, anyway) uninhabited. A chunk of it is missing from the top, and some of the windows are broken. Lucee uses one of these windows to get in, and R'Oarc is able to follow suit (despite being more than twice Lucee's size). Inside, the Spire is all dusty and "spidery". Lucee's been living out of a fort that they've built on the side of the room. There are drawings scattered about, a workbench with various gadgets and projects on it, and a spiral staircase leading... somewhere up. R'Oarc touches nothing, but hover-hands over some of the tinctures Lucee's been working on. This prompts Lucee to show off their latest invention: a ring made of Theonite that Lucee says is for "protection". They offer this to R'Oarc, who, again, is nervous about doing it, but, again, agrees to take it. It is exactly what it says on the tin: a Ring of Protection, but one that won't be caught by *Detect Magic*!

Finally, they turn their attention to the spiral staircase. Lucee says that they've never gone up there, and has no idea what they might find. R'Oarc draws the line, suggesting they come back another time with T'Chuck. But Lucee shuts down, negging R'Oarc and suggesting that she doesn't want to hang out with them anyway. And so, R'Oarc changes her mind, and agrees to go up. But, she insists, they only check out one room. One room, and that's it, no matter what. And so, side-by-side, they climb up the staircase...

The Next Morning!

Screech Echo woken from his chambers in the keep. A servant named Saul brings him what Saul believes to be Screech's favorite breakfast: runny eggs. Screech does not like this, however, and requests a sponge. To mop up the eggs, you ask? No, of course not. To eat. He eats the sponge. That's his breakfast. The eggs, he throws out. Alright, sure. Screech decides to go check out the White Spire as well. This actually isn't metagaming at all, because Screech wanted to go check out the WS at the end of Episode 17, but got distracted. So, he's just doing it now. He dons the Drop Bear costume and heads out.

Meanwhile, T'Chuck wakes up, around noon. He had previous woken at 4am for his nightly pee, but didn't see R'Oarc's note. Now, he wakes up, with a bad feeling about this. He goes to check on R'Oarc, but OH NO! She's not in her room! And what's worse, the note that she had left is gone! Oh, this is bad. This is really bad-- actually wait, R'Oarc is here. Everything's fine. She made it home last night, and got breakfast ready: Breakfast burritos with bacon wrapped around the outside. She ends up telling T'Chuck everything that happened, which he's angry about. So angry that he grounds her from performing, and telling her she has to stay home. He storms out, grabbing a burrito and burning his hand as he does so, and heads over to The Goblin Pit. There, he meets Selene.

Selene had a hard time sleeping last night. She's exceptionally nervous, and tried to read her favorite book, The Crimson Courtesan, before having a panic attack and trying to pace around the room. Eventually, she just got up, so now she's nursing a large mug of coffee, and jumps to meet T'Chuck as he enters. They discuss the current plan: to have Lucee use the ants to attack the Adepts when they arrive. But to guide the ants to the place the Adepts will be, they will need to be led with raw meet. That's a gross job, so T'Chuck gives the duty (and the meat), to Selene. And now, they need to talk to Lucee, but T'Chuck refuses to go to the White Spire. Instead, he tells R'Oarc to call Lucee on the Sending Stone. She does, and they all agree to meet by the broken ~~elevator~~ lift by the waterfall. Also, while this is going on, Ratma Ritmo is laughing at all of them.

Meanwhile again, Screech is grapple-swinging his way through the forests, on his way to the Spire, when he comes across Lucee. He tries to land behind her, but ends up falling hard to the ground. Anyway, Lucee notices him and asks what's up. Mostly, it's all just information being exchanged, but Lucee does tell Screech that they're going to meet the others at the waterfall. Screech decides to follow. He tries to get Lucee to look away, but they refuse. So, Screech throws some dust in their face and vanishes back into the treetops. He follows Lucee as they make their way through town.

Eventually, Lucee makes it to top of the waterfall, and the others (sans Screech) meet with her. They go over the plan again: using the ants to fight the Adepts, perhaps luring them to the Theonite caves. Either the ants will kill the Adepts, or the Adepts will kill the ants, or the Adepts will just run away. Whatever ends up happening, it will be good news for the Rimeford-ians. Lucee considers this plan, and then agrees that it will work. But in order for it to work, they will need to know when the Adepts are coming. Selene suggests having someone be on lookout, to tell them when the Adepts are approaching. R'Oarc suggests Drop Bear do it. That's when Drop Bear appears, having thought they were meeting at the bottom of the waterfall, and had to climb all the way up. Anyway, they fill him in, with Lucee giving Screech their Sending Stone to communicate with the others. R'Oarc suggests making armor out of Theonite so that the Order can't detect them using magic, but T'Chuck refuses to have that stuff touch him.

Lucee turns to the camera and says "This plan might just work..."

### Short

R'Oarc meets up with Lucee late at night, and agrees to join the resistance, which is just the two of them. They go back to White Spire, where Lucee gives R'Oarc a Ring of Protection, and then they go upstairs to check out what's up there. Cut to the next day, where T'Chuck finds R'Oarc back at home. He grounds her for leaving to go meet with Lucee, and then asks her to call Lucee again, to meet up with everyone. After some shenanigans, they all meet up at the waterfall, and go over the plan: Lure the Adepts back to the ant cave, where Lucee will use the various bugs to attack the adepts. Lucee also gives Screech their Sending Stone to communicate with the others.

## **Trivia**

* Day ~~6~~ 7 of the campaign.
* In the graveyard of Rimeford, there is a monument to Screech Echo's family, as they own the mines.
	+ This monument is R'Oarc's favorite spot to loiter.
* According to Lucee, the Ordinatio Theonitus has rounded up all of the unicorns, and killed them all.
	+ Also, according to R'Oarc, her third cousin was killed by a unicorn, and so their family has not been a fan of unicorns since. Comments made by T'Chuck (who wasn't there), indicate that this is not true.
* The Ring of Protection that Lucee gives to R'Oarc is made of Theonite, and since Theonite isn't technically magic, it won't be picked up by the spell *Detect Magic*. This is despite the fact that T'Chuck cast *Detect Magic* a few episodes ago. Oh well, what can you do

## **In This Episode...**

### **Cast and Player Characters**

* Michael DiMauro - *Dungeon Master*
* Tim Lanning - T'Chuck
* Jennifer Cheek - Selene von Esper
* Nika Howard - R'Oarc
* Mike Bachmann - Screech Echo / Drop Bear (Screech)

### **Non-Player Characters**

* Lucee
* Saul
* Ratma Ritmo

### **Locations**

* Drunkeros
	+ Whispering Peaks
		- Rimeford
			* The graveyard
			* The White Spire
			* The Keep
			* The Goblin Pit
			* The waterfall

### **Quest Log Updates**

* [NEW][Active] - Survive the impending attack from the Order
* [On-Hold] - Investigate the mysterious goings-on in Rimeford
* [Selene] - ~~Investigate the light in the window of the White Spire~~

### **Quotes**

* **"...young R'Oarc, who in my mind is, like, 15-16 years old, but in the game is, like, 28-29..."** ~ *Michael DiMauro*

* **"I promised I'd only ever wear one ring, and that's the Ring Fit, from Wii..."** ~ *R'Oarc*

## **Rolls**

* **R'Oarc** rolls *Performance* to look cool when she smokes - 13
	+ She doesn't embarrass herself, but doesn't feel cool

* **R'Oarc** rolls *Perception* while leaving the graveyard to go to the White Spire - 8
	+ She sees the White Spire with a big chunk missing from the top, which is actually normal

* **R'Oarc** rolls *Acrobatics* to enter the White Spire through a broken window - 23
	+ She does it successfully

* **R'Oarc** rolls ~~*Sense Motive*~~ *Insight* to see if Lucee is being truthful - 12
	+ She thinks they're telling the truth