Echidnacht

**Echidnacht** is an episode of the Penumbra Podcast in the Tales of the Second Citadel series. It is a bonus episode released in season 4 to celebrate Halloween. It is set after The Ocean Oracle (Part 2).

## Overview

Echidnacht is the holiest day for monsterkind, the day when monsters ply each other with spooks and sweets and a monster's favorite pastime of all: competition. It is also a day for tales of terror, like Caroline is telling the head of WEP security on this particular Echidnacht evening -- a tale of three great monsters of Silvershore and the only creatures fearsome enough to defeat them.

### Trigger Warnings:

* Sudden loud noises
* Violence and threats of violence
* Desecration of graves/bodies
* Depiction of drinking and drunkenness
* Depictions resembling xenophobia/racism/antisemitism

## Episode Summary

Caroline tells Cobbleston the Clock Tower Guardgoyle the tale of how she and her compatriots obtained three fingerprints required for a set of forms Cobbleston gave her.

In the past, Caroline argues with Rilla, Olala, Talfryn, Ale, Arum, and Angelo about how to proceed, whether Damien is a turncoat or a prisoner of Sir Tristan, and what to do about Sir Marc's allegiance to the monster killers headed by Sir Galahad. They can all agree that they need to plan an escape route out of Silvershore, and Caroline wishes to take advantage of the monster holiday Echidnacht, which involves children and adults alike challenging each other to games, contests, and fights--often in costume, and often for sweets.

Caroline, having figured out that the wards preventing people from exiting the city into the Mirrored Plains (back the way part of the group came) are maintained by Wayward East Press, makes a deal with Cobbleston. She gives her a bottle of stone polish, which Cobbleston gets drunk on. They chat companionably until Cobbleston gives her a few copies of a form, saying that if she can get fingerprints from the three "Echidna's Favorites," champions of last Echidnacht's contests, Cobbleston will give her the exit pass she needs. Caroline proposes her company splits up and seek out and beat the Nosferatu, the corpse-golem, and The Wolf.

Ale and Olala go looking for The Wolf, a fighter banned from the arena after biting an opponent. They discover he's set up impromptu, unregulated fights in an alley, and Ale gleefully charges in. The Wolf, who looks "like some human dude," appears to swordfight. Ale beats him with help from dryads. Olala tries to take his fingerprint, but Ale relishes a greater challenge and allows the moon to come out, believing it'll be cool to fight a werewolf. However, The Wolf is actually a were-beaver, and The Wolf is a stage name because he works alone. They re-engage.

Meanwhile...

Arum and Talfryn seek out the corpse-golem, a Frankenstein's monster-like being who continues to stitch replacement parts in herself. They find a laboratory with a thunderstorm localized above it. Arum terrifies Tal by speculating it may have a torture chamber, before knocking on the door. The corpse-golem greets them and, in a chipper, friendly country accent, invites them inside to take a look at the form. She tells Arum she replaced the torture chamber with cozy furniture--it's an armchair chamber now. The thunderstorm is a decoration, because she's hoping to win a prize. In her lab, she's making animated artificial feet. Unfortunately, she can't give them fingerprints because her fingers have all worn out. She can make more in her lab, but she needs corpse fingers to start from. Arum volunteers them both to, as she puts it, "defy the natural order and commit abominable crimes against nature itself."

Meanwhile...

Angelo, Rilla, and Caroline discover that the Nosferatu, in their long life, has accumulated many trophies for winning games. Caroline, to Rilla's annoyance, observes that Nosferatu are reputed to have a weakness for young women, and Rilla might be effective bait. The Nosferatu appears with an Oligarchy set, and challenges them to a match. He suggests they wager blood instead of play money. At Caroline's prompting, Rilla flirts badly with the Nosferatu, who takes offense, saying "seventy" is far too young for him. Rilla says she's "twenty-eight," disgusting him. Angelo lets slip that they're going off myths from the south, which the Nosferatu rejects. Having lost his enthusiasm for spending the evening playing a game with them, the Nosferatu offers to trade a fingerprint for their babysitting services for the evening. He hints that they might not survive the night, and the candles blow out. Rilla and Caroline realize Angelo is missing, as they hear the vampire babies laugh.

Meanwhile...

Ale and The Wolf fight for a time, but The Wolf uses his beaver teeth to chew a tunnel into the wooden buildings framing the alley to cheat. He threatens to bite into Ale's throat, so Ale, at Olala's urging, uses his powers to create a wall of wood. Olala transforms into a cloud to cover the moon, so The Wolf turns back into a man, breaking his tooth on the wood. Ale apologizes and asks for the fingerprint. In the present, Cobbleston suggests this is cheating, but reluctantly agrees with Caroline that they simply beat The Wolf at his own game.

Meanwhile...

The corpse-golem is delighted to restore her fingers with Arum's delighted help (and Talfryn's horror), even charmed by the finger that was accidentally attached backwards. Unfortunately, her rotting fingers give poor prints, so Talfryn--sick of grave-robbing and flesh-stitching--suggests they take a print from her foot decor creation instead. In the present, Cobbleston again nitpicks the validity of the print, but Caroline points out she never specified they had to be *from* the Favorites' own fingers.

Meanwhile...

Rilla and Caroline search through the house, only to discover Angelo has been happily telling the vampire children a bedtime story, complete with silly voices. The Nosferatu is delighted, and gives his fingerprint. Cobbleston is disappointed nobody has actually been defeated, and Caroline disagrees: She has defeated *Cobbleston*. Cobbleston growls, but produces the pass. At the last second, she refuses to give it over, since it's against the rules. Caroline tells her one last story, this one about herself and Cobbleston, painting Cobbleston as a dishonest cheat, and saying the guard would not survive her third mistake. She draws her sword. Cobbleston believes she can take Caroline in a fight, but all Caroline's friends from her stories emerge from adjoining rooms and attack her for the pass.

## Cast

* Melissa Ennulat as Rilla
* Noah Simes as Lord Arum
* M. Sutherland as Angelo
* Leslie Drescher as Caroline
* Marge Dunn as Olala
* Jason Mellin as Sir Talfryn
* Kate Jones as the Guardgoyle
* Peter Staley as The Wolf
* Sara Morren as the corpse-golem
* Cam Cronen as the Nosferatu