A Dungeons & Drag Queens Live Stream to Benefit the Bail Project

PreStream Screen

> "*I have one drink ticket, that I stole back from the racist man at the castle*"
> ― Londyn Bradshaw
>
>

**Nocturnal Emissions Presents: A Dungeons & Drag Queens Live Stream to Benefit the Bail Project** is a special live stream event hosted to raise money for the Bail Project in honor of the Black Lives Matter movement. It aired June 10th, 2020 on both Twitch and Youtube. The live stream brought together queens from several cities, who journeyed together to help a disenfranchised group be liberated from the terror of a Dark Lord.

## Synopsis

Duchess Mullwind of Daggerford hosts a dinner party and hires a group of drag adventurers to perform. As the queens settle into dinner at her Keep before their show, the Duchess approaches, out of sorts.

She tells the performers a group of travelers have moved in just outside the keep and are ruining the neighborhood. The queens instantly reject her prejudicial beliefs, but she says they will only be paid if they agree to get rid of them. The queens begrudgingly agree, and she asks them to introduce themselves.

KaiKai Bee Michaels describes herself as a wizard who likes to burn things and stands with those who make racous music. Jo Mama is shocked by seeing this side of the Duchess, which brings out her fighter spirit. Londyn Bradshaw, Queen of Chaos and Destruction, warns folks to not walk over her rocks. Luncinda Stoolonica (Lucy Stoole) touts her resistance poison.

The Duchess asks the queens to lipsync, with Jo outdoing the others, gaining a boost to charisma and constitution.

After the show, Londyn asks the Duchess for a drink ticket. She gives her one, with hesitation. Lucy asks about payment.

The group decides to gather info before going out to deal with the travelers. They decide to not trust the bourgeoisie guests and ask the bartender as they cash the drink ticket (one mead, to share). They also get some pheasant to eat. The bartender is also prejudiced against the visitors, having heard that they are aligned with a Dark Lord. Londyn asks for a manager to learn more about the Dark Lord. As she says that. Everyone in the party stops and stares.

The group decides to head out (Londyn stealing back her drink ticket). Outside, they find three wagons around a campfire. People are drinking out of flasks and wineskins. The queens greet them and an older man approaches. He says he is Sunmeer (he/him), and introduces his daughter Damia (she/her, they/them) and son Rakda (he/him, they/them). Sunmeer explains their relationship with the Count of Ravenloft has kept them unwelcome in most places. They have traveled here before and the Duchess was violent against them.

Sonameer invites the queens to stay with them and travel to meet Madame Ava, their leader. He offers a story (as the queens flirt with him). As they settle in, Sonameer sprays a mouth of wine at the fire. It leaps up green and shows scenes from his story. Their people have been forced to wander for ages. Once, they nursed a wounded noble who came into their midst, but who wouldn’t tell them his origin. Enemies hunted him as they took him home, and he fought to protect them. When home safely, he offered to let them stay on his land as long as they wished. The fire settles down as Sonameer explains that nobleman has transformed into a tyrant. They travel now to search for a cure. The queens accept the offer to accompany them to their home in Baravia.

As the evening winds down, KaiKai talks to Sonameer's daughter. JoJo snoops in the caravan for more information, finds nothing as these people cant read or go to school, so have no documents.

After a couple uneventful days of travel, a mist comes out around the caravan. A cold, depressing feeling comes over them. They eventually reach a camp of tents and more wagons near a lake. A path heads away between a river and forest. Twelve people are at the camp, including a man telling kids a story. Londyn casts speak with animal to talk to the horses, but her low intelligence roll causes the horses to not take her seriously.

Entering Ava’s tent, she greets them and claims she had a vision of their coming and a message from the Dark Lord inviting the queens to his castle. The group questions why. Ava explains that the mists block people leaving the land, as the Dread Lord is looking for someone to break the curse, or survive as his consort.

Jo asks if they have anything that can help them. Ava gives him a blood dagger. Jo performs a weapon bond ritual (via asmr) so she wont lose it. Ava goes on to discuss how the Count grew jealous of his brother's engagement and made a vow to darkness for the power to kill his brother. It turned the count into a vampire, immortal, but only by drinking blood.

Londyn asks about remedies (offering her drink ticket). Ava explains the Count’s hatred imbues the land and he can control everything. Nothing of the land can stop him. Kai Kai looks around the camp. A washer woman tells her a rumor that the count was keeping magic items locked up in the castle that could kill him, hidden but not easy to find.

They ask the storyteller for his story. A wizard came to the land once and rallied the peasants in an army to go against the Dark Lord. The peasants were never seen again. The battle of the Wizard and Dark Lord spread over the mountains. Rocks tumbled down onto the wizard, but his magic struck the Dark Lord. The storyteller watched the battle, and searched the river Elvis looking for relics of the wizard but found none. KaiKai asks the storyteller what he would have done. The storyteller says he would have tried to bring brightness to the Dread Lord to combat his darkness.

The group (after struggling to find containers in their inventory) try to search the river, and find nothing. As they head along the river, they come to an old gallows, and a crossroad. The northwest path to the camp they were at vanishes.

A cold wind comes up and a group of undead soldiers come towards them from all sides. Lucy sends out her unseen servant to test them, but nothing happens. KaiKai casts *dancing lights* to illuminate the area with rainbow lights (but they aren’t that impressive). The queens perform a lipsync to try and distract the undead. Successful, the zombies leave them alone.

The queens continue on and reach the castle as rain pours down upon them.

BREAK

Having rested on their way to the castle, the queens are freshly prepared. KaiKai prepares to knock, but realizes the gates are broken. Jo and KaiKai find nothing strange about them. Lucy sends her unseen servant ahead to knock on the door until the group remembers they were invited.

They enter and find Great Hall is littered with broken glass. Organ music plays in the distance. They debate looking for the powerful objects they heard about as Londyn realizes there are a lot of spiders around. She asks them where the music and the Count are, where the hidden weapons are, and where they got their spider ugg boots. The spiders suggest the Dining Room for the Count, and thinks there are drafts sometimes from solid looking walls.

KaiKai casts detect magic and is drawn to the arm of the throne and touches the arm as the others fail to find other sources of information. The throne vibrates, moving aside. It reveals a box with a sun emblem. Inside she finds a glowing amber stone, and a boost to her constitution.

The group splits up with Londyn heading downstairs as the others keep looking for weapons. Londyn finds a wooden door at the bottom of a dark spiral stairwell. She hears gears and something snap as the floor and ceiling move, trapping her.

Meanwhile KaiKai finds a library with a figure crouched over a desk. He doesn’t move. Kaikai sees his book is covered with magical energy. She pulls it (and the corpse's arm) free, and finds it is the Tome of Strahd, which bears the sun crest and the history of the Count. KaiKai casts *find familiar* to try and send her owl to find Londyn, but the room is sealed up tight.

Jo and Lucy decide to investigate the organ music. As they head towards the sound, they are greeted by a tiny greasy goblin servant who leads them down a hall towards his master. They find him in a large hall playing a power ballad on the
organ.

Londyn finds the ceiling growing ever closer to her. She investigates, and cant find any mechanisms. She casts *erupting earth* and disrupts the mechanism, and then *detect magic*, but finds nothing. Londyn leaves in a huff to wait in the foyer, deciding he has learned to not split the party. KaiKai joins her, and they head down the hall and find Lucy and Jo.

Jo and KaiKai peruse the book quickly, but find it is an ancient, unknown language. They enter the Dining Hall where the organ player is. The figure stands, throwing off his cloak, revealing fishnets and heels. He introduces himself as Count Strahd (he/him). The queens flirt, but Lucy finally asks why they were brought here.

He says he is looking for someone who can take him down a peg. Lucy distracts with a shoulder reveal (gaining charisma) as the others realize the book tells them to read the Count to filth. They all take turns reading him. The Count drops to his knees and sun streams into the chamber, bursting him into flames.

Triumphant, the group leaves. Having freed the land, the travelers return home, and the Duchess pays them their coin. Equality, free health care, and gay marriage come to all in the land.

### Characters

#### Party

* Jo Mama - half-elf fighter
* KaiKai Bee Michaels - high elf wizard
* Londyn Bradshaw - firbolg druid
* Lucy Stoole - hill dwarf wizard

#### NPCs

* Duchess Morewind
* Bartender, Musicians, Party Guests
* Sunameer, Damia, and Rakda
* Madame Ava
* Horses
* Spiders
* Goblin Servant
* Count Strahd

## Episode Notes

### Lore

* The Count of Ravenloft once was aided by a group of travelers. he offered them free reign of his kingdom. However, when the Count turned to dark magics, turning into a vampire and terrorizing his people, the nomadic group began to be hated across neighboring kingdoms for having once supported him.

### References

* Doctor Dolittle
* Mahershala Ali
* Grandpa Simpson
* J.K. Rowling and Hogwarts Houses (and dragging her)
* Zoom
* White Claw
* Pandora’s Box
* Toph – Avatar the Last Airbender
* Louis Vuitton shoes
* Payless Shoes

### Name That Tune

* Poor Unfortunate Souls
* Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga
* Edge of Seventeen – Stevie Nicks
* No More I Love You’s – Annie Lennox
* Die Young – Ke$ha
* Unbreak My Heart – Toni Braxton

## Behind the Queens

* The stream came about as a result of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests happening nationwide, protesting police brutality in addition to many other forms of systemic racism. Some of the themes and motifs of the adventure were tweaked to fit these ideas.
* This adventure was based off of the DnD campaign "Curse of Strahd"
* This was the first time queens from more than two cities came together in one game. It was going to include four cities, but at the last minute Kamaree Williams from Minneapolis was unable to attend.
* This marked the first time that a drag artist DMd, and the first time neither Matt nor James were present in game (although both were present behind the scenes and in the chat).
* According to a July 2020 QoA Live Stream, Londyn texted with DM Matt during this stream to make sure she could do certain things with her character within the rules.
* The VOD can be found online here: