Episode 24: Bats 'n Vats

**Episode 24: Bats 'n Vats** (C1E24) is the twenty-fourth episode of the first campaign of The Table is Yours: A Role-playing Adventure Show. Balthazar shows Codex an alternative way to achieving any wish...

## Synopsis

### A Blood Wish

Codex and Wash watch as eight feral vampires kill all in attendance after Balthazar said, “I’d like to make a wish”. Krenar uses the arcane to pool the blood on the table, and Balthazar gathers it into a chalice covered in runes. The blood of all of the dead fit into the regular-sized chalice to the surprise of Codex and Wash. Codex and Wash relay the events of their last mission to Balthazar: they encountered Othamir, Isa chopped Wash in half, Willow died, etc. Balthazar reveals he knows the Faded Fates are working with his sister and that Fiara wants to kill Zoh’arus, but he still wants to speak with Codex about her (and the Faded Fates’) other options. Balthazar again provides Codex with information she’s never heard before: he tells Codex he believes the Hexaleep was wished into her, but he doesn’t know when or how.

Balthazar pivots his attention and tries to convince Codex to use the chalice of blood to make a wish. He suggests to her she wish Willow back to life and tells her there will be no consequences to her wish, outside of the death which already occurred in front of her. Codex hesitates and decides against it because she didn’t know Willow and doesn't know if she’d want to be wished back after death. Codex thinks for a while and contemplates her options. She even asks Wash for his thoughts, but Balthazar makes it clear it needs to be Codex’s decision. Eventually, Codex attempts to undo the graduation massacres, and Balthazar scoffs and tells her she can’t make a wish to bring people back if their blood had been sacrificed for that wish. Codex can’t decide on a wish after the failure, so Balthazar wishes Willow back himself.

Balthazar tells Codex and Wash he gathered and was still in the process of gathering Zobrarian blood to make a large wish. Zobrarian blood, he explains, is potent and needed for the success of his wish. Balthazar wants to blot out the sun, over only Zobraria, so he can fix the Burg. Ever serious, he explains he thought that if he comes to power in the darkness he can eliminate those who abuse their power from the Fair Father and the general corruption in the Burg. Balthazar turns to Codex specifically and asks if she is willing to help; Codex asks Balthazar to answer a few questions, and he takes that as a “no”. Balthazar throws Codex and Wash out of the mansion, and they land outside of what appears to be an abandoned version of the same mansion.

### Don't Call it a Rescue

The Faded Fates arrive and find Wash, Codex, and an unconscious Willow outside of the abandoned mansion. Isa picks Codex and Wash off of the ground, heals them both, and follows Codex and Fiara into the mansion. The bodies of the people used in the sacrifice are there, seated around a dusty table, completely drained of blood and decomposed, as if they’d been there for a long time. Frustrated, Fiara suggests everyone head back to the keep. Shae volunteers to carry Willow as Codex sidles up with Isa. Codex starts telling Isa how she tried to undo the graduation massacres, but it didn’t work. Fiara asks Codex to stop talking about it and wait until they arrive back at the keep, both for privacy and so Codex doesn't need to repeat herself. Fiara starts studying Codex’s face as she says this and comments on a piece of jewelry Balthazar had placed in Codex’s hair at some point during her captivity. Fiara explains it is the di Marte family crest.

At a comfortable distance behind Fiara, Terrance slides aside Shae and confronts her about what happened with Rush and Willow while he was Terry. Shae confirms she instructed Terry to enter the arcane wind tunnel surrounding the diamond to attack Rush. Shae says Terry scared her in that moment, and out of fear, she sent him into the fray. She continues and says she thought the barrier would knock Terry out, but it didn’t. Terrance does not take well to this information, and he tells Shae as much. One finds Wash while the party finishes their walk back to the keep, and she debriefs Wash of their conversation with Fiara at the Neremont Society. Wash and One start to talk about what their next moves should be, but the party arrives back to their keep. Isa offers her bedroom for Willow, and the party takes a much-needed rest.

### Vats, Vats, We Find the Vats

Cazamir arrives at the keep after their rest, and he and Fiara lead a roundtable discussion with the Faded Fates. Codex and Wash describe everything they experienced at Balthazar’s mansion, but Codex leaves out the Hexaleep portion. Fiara suggests not to contact Balthazar further; she explains he is dangerous, especially after hearing “no”. Fiara tells them she wants Balthazar stopped, not killed. She explains he is too far gone to necessarily be fixed, but he is better alive than dead. Fiara says she plans to contain Balthazar but doesn’t specify how, which frustrates most of the party. She asks a bit more about the chalice he used to make the wish, because she believes Balthazar to be in possession of a diamond, and Wash and Codex remember it was covered in runes and had the di Marte family crest on it. Fiara suddenly recalls the moments after her village and family were slaughtered: she made a wish on a bird bath, covered in runes, that she and her siblings would make it out alive. She accidentally wished for them to be immortal. Fiara further explains to the awkwardly silent party there was a man there, by the bird bath, who made a wish for “more people to live in the light of the Fair Father”. The table theorizes blood and diamonds may have a connection, but there is no way to prove it other than using their limited data: Othamir’s diamond appeared after Isa spilt Wash’s blood, and Balthazar used sacrificial blood to make his Willow wish.

They solidify their goal: capture Balthazar and stop him from killing more people. And, to do so, they decide to look for the vats of blood Balthazar told Codex and Wash are placed across the Burg.