Buggin' Out

*Live free or die? Eat or get eaten? Are you in, or are you out? It's a wild night in the Soaking Valley County Jail as our heroes fight for their freedom and their lives when a jailbreak gets out of control. Exits must be taken. And choices? Ain't so such thing as easy ones, and they all gotta get made, babeee.*

Episode 9 of Rude Tales of Magic. The episode involves the players infiltrating and then escaping prison in Soaking Valley.

## Summary

Albee, Bellow and Stirfry are escorted into The Soaking Valley prison. Their guard Kimrin explains that he doesn’t care about their actual crime, casually explaining the corruption involved in the local guardsmen. He escorts them past a massive sphinx and the city’s oldest criminal, Illegal Rinbecca, before locking them in their cells.

Freed from his own cell by Cheddar, Frederick sneaks through the halls to free Cordelia. He encounters a cell with a strange mass of flesh inside that begins to reach out for him. It molds through the bars as he realizes it is actually a swarm of lice controlling a half-eaten corpse. It controls the corpse’s vocal chords to demand Frederick’s bones, and in desperation he offers it a pinky. The swarm happily tears off his hand and absorbs it, using the bones to control its body more efficiently and thanking de Bonesby.

Realizing that he is powerless and that he has gained its trust, Frederick starts to guide it towards Cordelia’s cell. He eliminates several guards by luring them towards him and allowing the creature to eat them, making it more vocal and controlled as it gains more bodies. Legion grows fond of Frederick, spitting out his finger bones and calling him father. As the creature speaks with Frederick more, he names it Legion due to its great numbers.

Afraid that Legion will eat Cordelia as well, he distracts it with a dead rat to eat and runs to free his friends. He breaks out Cordelia, but her mention of the Witch Hunter strikes fear in de Bonesby as he realizes the danger they present as powerful and prestigious lawmen. They rush to their other friends where Bellow attempts to turn into a spider and escape. The anti-magic of the prison foils his transformation, leaving him in a disturbing halfway point. He manages to use his extra arms to punch down his bars. Cordelia rips down Albee’s bars as Legion approaches, giving her flashbacks to Casper’s death.

The party grab’s Albee to run, only to realize that Legion is only following them and not posing a threat. Stirfry is initially happy to see Frederick, but when he introduces Legion, Stirfry becomes violently offended. He explodes at de Bonesby for creating and helping another creature speak in his absence, which gets a similarly violent reaction from Legion. The swarm seeps through the bars to devour him, but the guard it absorbed has the key somewhere on its person. Reluctant to risk his hand while escape and his possessions are just within his reach, Frederick ultimately chooses to rescue Stirfry and reaches into Legion. He pulls out the key to unlock the cell so Stirfry can leap to freedom. Frederick urges everyone to escape before the Witch Hunter arrives, but Stirfry gathers Frederick’s clothes and things for him. He hands them to de Bonesby while solemnly telling him that this is the last time.

The party escapes the prison in the chaos, trying to plan their next step. Frederick wants to flee to avoid the Witch Hunter, but Albee still wants to find her parents first. The rumored Scrum Fabulous himself appears, a well-dressed toad man and professed “friend to criminals.” He invites them to visit “Scrum’s place” to perform a favor in return for freeing Albee’s parents. The party doesn’t trust him and Cordelia attempts to leave the group behind. Frederick stops her with what kind words he can muster and says that it’s their only clear goal for the time being. The party cautiously agrees to follow Scrum.

## Link

https://rudetalesofmagic.simplecast.com/episodes/buggin-out