Episode 22: Letters for Harengon

**Episode 22: Letters for Harengon** (C1E22) is the twenty-second episode of the first campaign of The Table is Yours: A Role-playing Adventure Show. The Faded Fates have a night in the Pale White Castle Keep after the events in the Midnora Pass...

## Synopsis

### An Accepted Apology

The Faded Fates arrive back at the Pale White Castle Keep thanks to Howl’s Teleportation spell. Everyone is feeling a bit worse for wear and are still in shock. Howl is unsure what to say or do, so he eventually makes his way out and tells them he will be in contact if he hears anything from Rush. The party disperses to cope. One and Wash go to the bar after depositing Terrance in his room. Isa follows behind them after Shae and Codex reject her attempts to heal them. Codex goes to take a bath, and Shae steps out for a moment. Isa, Wash, and One sit in awkward silence in the bar for a while. One gets more and more drunk, and eventually Isa speaks up and apologizes to Wash for killing him. He accepts her apology and tells her that she shouldn’t dwell on it because he knows that it was out of her control. After a while, Wash carries a very drunk One to her room. She looks at him with glossy eyes and asks if they can be friends and says that she wants them to be friends. Wash tells her they are friends and plops her down in her bed and makes his way to get some sleep himself.

### Decisions, Decisions

Codex is in the bath house giving herself a once-over to make sure she is okay when she hears, or feels, someone say her name. Already convinced that the bathhouse was haunted, she calls out to whoever is trying to communicate with her. She hears the voice again and is told to come to the front door. She sneaks her way to the main entrance, trying not to alert anyone of what she is doing, and opens the slat in the front door. Through the crack she sees a very tall man in a dark leather duster holding out a letter. She leans down to get to an angle where she can see his face only to immediately regret it. This figure has sunken, hazy eyes, a pale gaunt face, and wet hair. He is staring straight forward at the door and looks very dead. Codex conjures her mage hand, which takes the form of a rat that scurries down her arm and snags the letter from the corpse. Once the letter is out of his hand, the undead person turns on his heels and walks away. Codex decides that she will finish her bath before dealing with the letter delivered by a dead person.

Shae decides to go on a little adventure of her own. She goes into town to visit a shop she used to frequent called the Dark Turn. She ducks down a few alleys and eventually finds her way to the shop. Inside, a humanoid figure in a dark cloak sits behind the counter. Their face is shadowed, but their eyes glint in the candlelight. Shae tells this person that she wants gauntlets made using jewels that she has and that the jewels are connected to a pocket plane and will allow her to conjure her weapons from nothing. The figure reaches out their hands which are wrapped in cloth and are a strange blue-gray color. They grab the jewels in one hand and leave the other one open to ask for payment. They tell Shae it will be 300 gold pieces if she wants the item in three days. She puts the gold in his hand and asks how much it will cost to get the item in two days. Another hand emerges from the body of the figure as they respond with 400 gold. Shae agrees and tells them she will be back in two days.

### The PWCK is Not Secure

Back at the keep, Codex finishes her bath and keeps the letter in her pocket. She makes herself some food and returns to her room where she opens the letter alone. As she opens it, an arcane burst emanates from the letter as well as the voice of Balthazar di Marte. He is inviting her to his estate for a soiree of sorts the following night. He tells her it is located at a stone and brick mansion just south of the White Horse Tavern and that she should wear something nice. Codex folds up the letter and immediately runs to Wash’s room. Wash groggily answers his door to see a panicked Codex, who quickly explains what is going on. She tells him she is debating on going alone, but she is afraid of what will happen if she does. He tells her that they will figure out something as suddenly the letter starts to pour out red smoke. They try writing on it, talking to it, and burning it, but it isn’t until Codex puts her hand on it and says “I’ll be there” that the letter does something. It doesn’t stop smoking, but it does wrap around her and form a red “B” on the back of her hand. She screams and tells Wash they need to find Isa, who hears the commotion and is already making her way towards them. At the same time, Shae returns from her outing. The smoke from the letter is pooling on the ground and forming a figure; Codex haphazardly explains what is going on as the figure of Balthazar takes shape on the stairs.

Balthazar greets the group in front of him and explains that he didn’t intend to invite all the Faded Fates to his gathering, but he supposes that they can attend if they really want to. As he says this, red arcanic “B”s form on the back of everyone’s hands. Wash steps up to Balthazar and says that no one is going to go to what is obviously a trap. Balthazar looks him up and down and says, “What a shame, Dave, I think you should come”, as his eyes flash green and Wash is charmed. Wash now wants to go with Balthazar and starts to leave with his new spectral best friend. Codex jumps in between them and offers to go his stead, but Balthazar simply charms her as well. Isa wants to fight for their friends to stay, takes a swipe at the spectral Balthazar and even puts Codex to sleep, but Shae worries that they will be charmed too, or worse, so Shae forces Isa to let them go.

The next morning One and Terrance are in the kitchen, unaware of everything that happened the night before. Isa and Shae join them just as Terrance notices the B on the back of his hand and asks what the hell is going on in their Pale White Castle Keep.