Episode 2: Follow the White Rabbit

**Follow the White Rabbit** (C1E2) is the second episode of the first campaign of The Table is Yours: A Role-playing Adventure Show. Codex, One, Wash, and Shae go below the "topside" of The Burg where they're instructed by Darrien to go to Vorano's warehouse and find out more about those green serums...

## **Synopsis**

### The June Box

The episode opens with Codex, Shae, One and Wash continuing towards the June Box, a dive bar in the shady part of the Third Precinct. The whole way there, Codex and Shae try getting answers from One and Wash, and vice versa; neither pairing offers information. Upon arriving at the June Box, Shae walks in with an air of smug familiarity and confidence. Codex, on the other hand, seems very out of her element, especially dressed in her Lightfoot uniform. She senses government officials aren’t welcome there, so she tries to stay close to Wash, who seems to fit in the most here, to Codex, anyway. The first people to greet the quartet are Disa and Dasa, twin lizardfolk women, green and yellow respectively. They are bartenders at the June Box. The party eventually meets up with Carlilse, who starts to question One and Wash about the stragglers they brought along, until he sees Shae and smiles, offering a friendly greeting. He mentions he hasn’t seen her in a while. This gets under One’s skin a bit. One begins to talk about what happened, but Carlisle stops her and asks if they should talk about it somewhere else. One responds with a gesture to Codex and Shae. Carlisle declares Shae is fine and looks to Codex. He tells her they are going somewhere she cannot tell a soul about, and, if she does, it will be her head and his. Codex nods quickly in a nervous agreement. Carlisle smiles and leads the group out of the June Box to a door around the corner, guarded by a man who doesn’t speak. Carlisle looks to Codex and mimes zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key as the guard opens the door to reveal a gruesome sight. On the other side of the door are dozens of tongues hammered into a wall. Codex’s eyes widen as the group begins their descent.

The group travels downward on a spiral staircase with tight walls, which eventually open to reveal a whole city. Carlisle explains that this is the undercity, or Murkside. He says they are specifically in a pocket called the Echochamber and that Zobraria is built on top of itself. The old city was left down there to rot, so some creative businesses decided to move there because officials couldn’t, or wouldn’t, interfere. Codex asks if people live down there, and why it is so dark, and what kind of businesses Carlisle means… Carlisle cuts her off and tells her to shut it and just listen. As he does this, in a flash, his skin turns gray, and his hair and eyes turn white, but then, just as quickly, he is back to Carlisle. He takes a deep breath and continues; he tells her there is a lot of illegal activity, and some people live down there, but only in pockets like this one. Shae chimes in to say there are pockets in almost every precinct, all but the Fifth, which is where the royalty live. The city outside of the pockets is mostly unexplored and assumed to be uninhabited and dangerous, but no one knows for certain.

As the group reaches the bottom of the staircase, they look up at a three-story bar, with a glowing green sign that says *The Lost & Found*. They are checked at the door by a man named Gresh and, once inside, Carlisle tells One to meet him in room five, and he walks away. The group settles in, and Codex is introduced to Big T, the owner of the bar who clearly knows Shae. Shae tells the group she used to frequent that pocket, but she hadn’t been there in a long time. As One heads upstairs to meet Carlilse, the rest of the group stays and discusses the day’s events.

One enters room five to see a changeling, referring to them as Darrien, and they refer to her as “Cornelia”. She hands over the vial of green liquid she obtained at the Arcadian Summit University massacre, and Darrien holds it up to the light. They tell her it is supposed to be orange, so the vial she provided is something new, and that is bad. One looks confused, so Darrien elaborates and asks her, “where have you seen this color before?”. One shrugs, not understanding Darrien’s hints. They sigh and explain that Big T is the one who distributes neon, and if someone is stealing from him, that means big trouble in the Echochamber. The orange stuff looked different, self-contained, but Darrien theorizes a component of the neon green came from Big T’s supply, probably stolen off of one of Big T’s clients and not from Big T or the Echochamber directly. Darrien assigns One a mission: take the others , find Vorano, and figure out his plan with the green serum.

One heads back downstairs to rally the troops. She tells them what the plan is, in a manner that makes it seem like she thought it up, and tells them they will all be paid for the service if they are successful. Codex eagerly asks how much they will be paid, and One tells her it is a sliding scale based on skill and experience. Codex sighs and asks if she can change out of her Lightfoot uniform first. One tells her to make it quick, as they are heading out soon. One says Vorano has a warehouse nearby and that's where they can make their move.

### Terrance & The Rescue

Meanwhile, at Vorano's warehouse, Terrance stands nervously as Vorano questions him about the events at graduation. Vorano holds up the green vial, and Terrance tells him all of his serums are orange and he doesn’t know where the green one came from. Vorano asks Terrance if he has a secret ingredient he uses in his serums, saying a person named Visrai told him about it. Terrance knows Visrai is another lackey of Vorano’s who tried to duplicate Terrance’s experiments, but he was never successful. Terrance assumed that whatever happened at the graduation was because of a duplicate serum made by Visrai in an attempt to make the effects last longer. Terrance had already given too much information to Vorano at this point, and giving up his secret component would mean his life’s work would now be in the hands of a crime boss. He tells Vorano “no” for the first time and says he isn’t going to tell him about the secret ingredient. Terrance continues and tells Vorano if he kills him, he won’t have access to the orange serums because he doesn’t have the recipe. Vorano shows his teeth, pats Terrance on the shoulder, and walks towards the door. Vorano smirks and says to Terrance as he exits, “your mother’s name is Estella, right? Maybe I’ll pay her a visit”.

Terrance goes straight to work after Vorano leaves, shaking off the threatening comment about his mother. After writing frantically, he holds up the vial labeled Formula B, and the liquid is slightly glowing. He smiles wildly and drips some of the serum into the mouth of a rat, who triples in size and yet remains calm. Terrance runs a few tests on the rat, making it perform some tasks, and its size and strength remain. A squeal from another rat triggers something and causes the test rat to tear the other one to shreds, and, after a minute, it returns to its normal state. The faint sound of Terrance’s mad laughter echoes through the lab as the party arrives at the warehouse.

One, Wash, Codex, and Shae approach the warehouse after entering Murkside through the Echochamber. They discuss ways to get into the building, and they realize there is only one entrance that they assume is guarded. They spot a window on the roof, and Shae says she can get in to do some reconnaissance and, just like that, she vanishes into the shadows only to reappear on the roof, and then into the lab, right behind Terrance. Terrance is so focused on making as many vials of Formula B as he possibly can that he doesn’t notice Shae until he almost crashes into her. He, not so calmly, asks her what the fuck she is doing in there. She asks him if he is Vorano, and he pauses and says yes. Shae isn’t sure whether to believe him or not, so she questions him further. Eventually, one of the guards outside the door yells through to ask Terrance who he is talking to in there, so Terrance gives up the lie. He tells Shae who he is and that Vorano is holding him there to make the serums for him. Terrance pleads that he can be useful, and he needs to get out of the lab. Shae says they are working on it and then vanishes into the shadows, leaving a very stressed Terrance alone in his lab.

Shae returns to the group and tells them what she learned. They decide to try and climb up to the roof and help this guy escape. Meanwhile, Terrance is losing his mind and packing his things. He paces around the now empty room and decides to ingest one of his serums. Wash gets about halfway up the wall before the group hears an “OH YEAH!” and a crash coming from inside. Terrance crashes through the doors of the wherehouse, now eight feet tall with grotesque muscles and wild eyes. Shae shouts down to Wash from atop the roof and says he didn’t look like that a few minutes ago. The rest of the group scrambles to chase after this hulkish figure and tries to divert the attention of Vorano’s men. Shae and Codex attempt to lead the guards away while Wash and One chase down Terrance. The group realizes he is headed up the spiral staircase to topside. Terrance is just trying to keep it together, but his brain is fuzzy, and all he can focus on is getting away from the lab. They all manage to get topside and continue to chase after Terrance. Codex uses magic to distract him, telling Terrance to “follow the white rabbit”, and keeps him out of the streets. Varano's guards catch wind of the commotion, notice Terrance is gone, and begin to follow the group. One fires off a shot to stall for a moment while Wash tackles Terrance around the ankles, taking him down. Somehow, Terrance manages to stay calm, and Wash eventually lets him go. Terrance says he isn’t going back down to Murkside while they are looking for him. One tells him that they have a safe place for him down there, but Terrace declines. Codex says she knows a place topside they can go to rest for a moment, and Terrance agrees to go with the white rabbit. Codex takes them to Val’s Patisserie, where they go into a back room to hide out for a bit. They have some tea and cookies from the shop, which looks ridiculous given the state of the group and, eventually, Terrance returns to his “normal”, smaller state.

### And Then There Were Five

The now fully-formed party decides it best to head back to *The Lost & Found* where they know they will all be safe. Once they are back, Carlisle pulls One to the side and asks how the mission went. She tells them that they brought back the guy who was making the stuff for Vorano but that Terrance is pretty freaked out. Carlisle tells her to get him set up in room eight and that he will get him to talk. Carlisle also hands One money to distribute to the rest of the party. One escorts Terrance to room eight and tells him to try and calm down, he is safe there.

She leaves, and a bit later another woman walks into Terrance’s room. He isn’t really paying attention; he is more focused on documenting the results of his most recent experiment. She speaks to him about the events of the day and asks him what he plans to do, since Vorano is pretty scary. Terrance says he will probably flee the country and that as long as he can continue his work, it doesn't matter where he is. She tells him she can help him escape, and he says that would be great. The woman seems disappointed and asks if he would really give up this easily. He shrugs, and she sighs while running her hands through her hair. As she does this, her skin turns grey and her hair goes white, revealing Darrien. Terrance chuckles as he writes and says no, he won’t give up this easily. Terrance says he just doesn’t trust a random person who walks in and starts to question him, clearly with good reason, as he glances over at Darrien. They look at Terrance and relay that he will be paid if he helps this group figure out who Vorano is working for and what they’re trying to accomplish with these serums. Darrien holds out a bag of gold coins, and Terrance agrees to the proposition and takes the money.