A Murder of Crows

*One loose thread hunts another in the shadowed labyrinth of Scrum North, the erstwhile temple-cum-Kenku bandit hideaway. Blades in the dark. Betrayals remembered. Promises made. A new power dips a toe in the water. Can we escape our past? Would we even want to?*

Episode 11 of Rude Tales of Magic. The party discovers Stirfry's old gang and have to deal with their past and future.

## Summary

The party is surrounded by kenku who Stirfry identifies as his gang and family. They take the party into Scrum North to give them food and shelter, but there is clearly tension between Stirfry and his old crew. Stifry catches up with his old team with bittersweet feelings. He's happy to see his elder Old Deuterantagonist, proud to see that their youngest Egg has hatched, toys with a rivalry with their new leader Stripe, and flirts with his old flame Splish-Splash. The party realizes that these are the bandits they were hired to kill and feel uncertain at best about fighting Stirfry's old family. Flipcup is introduced to his extended family and Cordelia is forced to explain family, puberty and masturbation to him.

They find that Scrum North is a fortress and former temple to a forgotten minor deity. They are given rooms where Cordelia and Albee discuss Albee's plans for confronting Bellow about her feelings. Bellow attempts to talk to Old Deuteragonist about how he suspects that Albee and Cordelia have crushes on him. Frederick chases off Getouttahere and Amscray before singing to himself under the moonlight.

Stirfry fools around with Splish-Splash, offering to take her with him and have Frederick teach her to speak like he did. She confides that Stripe is not leading the gang as well as he was, so he goes to confront their new leader. Stirfry suggests they disband to avoid having to kill them so he can offer Scrum another person's head to claim it's their leader. Stripe takes offense to running off and begins to throw Stirfry's abandonment back at him. This quickly escalates until they take several attempts to attack each other. Stirfry ultimately storms off while mocking Stripe about his origins, implying he was a former captive to a wealthy woman before they met. He leaves Stripe in tears to go find Splish-Splash and leave with her.

The party finds Old Deuterantagonist dead in the hallway, his neck snapped by some mysterious woman. She shrieks and scales the walls like a spider while fighting off the party with her rapier, escaping through a narrow hole in the ceiling. She begins killing off the kenku to get to the party. She kills Stripe and Booyousuck, injuring the others on her warpath. The party finally catches up to her on the roof holding Egg by the head. Albee hits her with a gust of wind from her elemental magic, sending her flying off into the air. She attempts to flap her arms before she falls from the third story.

The party tries to follow up on their missing teammates. Egg calls to them for a while before his voices fades somewhere in the trees. There is no sign of the assassin and Bellow heals the injured Getouttahere and Amscray. Bellow tries to ask DeBonesby for advice on what to do with the remaining kenku, but the wizard finds himself mesmerized by Bellow's words.

Stirfry looks for any signs of Splish-Splash, but finds none. He mournfully returns to Stripe's room and cuts his head off to take back to Scrum, swearing that he will find Splish-Splash and teach her to speak like him. Her fate is left unclear.

Rather than the usual outro, "The Wings of a Gull" as sung by David Jones is played.

## Link

https://rudetalesofmagic.simplecast.com/episodes/a-murder-of-crows