Session 57-A: Feather in Their Cap

## Key Plot Developments

Trix and Tremble, separated by the drow, trade sendings. Once they hit their limit, Tremble sends a letter to Trix (Bogtooth vandalizes it in case it’s intercepted) and tries to send Snik-Snik, Pyrite’s familiar, as a courier.

Trix waits for Tremble with Scout-Commander-Friend. When Tremble arrives, the Bregan D’aerthe operative bonds with Jimjar’s ward. Snik-Snik delivers Tremble’s initial note (after Tremble already got there) and the group leaves the bazaar to finally meet Jarlaxle, Bregan D’aerthe’s leader.

They go to the outskirts of the city, near the secret entrance. A drow house stands alone and forlorn with its back against the west wall of Menzoberranzan's great vault. Its towers are dark, its walls crumbling and in desperate need of repair. The old fortress has the countenance of a haunted ruin, but here and there, there are signs of life: drow in black leather armor standing guard in the shadows and magical flames dancing in the stone braziers that flank the entrance. As they are led inside, a pillared hall strewn with broken statuary looms all around them. Leaning against a cracked pillar is a drow with an eyepatch and a wide-brimmed hat. A saber hangs from his hip, and he cuts a dashing figure.

Jarlaxle is a bald, eyepatch-wearing drow with a plumed hat and flamboyant clothes—a sharp contrast to his fellow dark elves. He speaks perfect, unaccented goblin. As they speak with Jarlaxle, they realize Scout-Commander-Friend’s performative buffoonery is a calculated ruse to throw other drow off the trail. Bregan D’aerthe, a faction of renegades, is scarily competent and intentionally behaves in a way to make their countrymen underestimate them.

Jarlaxle, master of a spy network, offers the team advice and assistance (new clothing, good food, and scrolls of greater invisibility). He helps them plan the theft of the grimoire and teaches them drow sign language to make breaking into the drow school of magic less dangerous. He also offers Tremble membership in Bregan D'aerthe and pledges to help the gobs escape the city, if necessary, by staging an improv show as a distraction.

As the group relaxes, Bogtooth and Pix get a message from Dulcinea. They accepts it and are transported to a vision.

Just like before, when Bogtooth enraged his patron, he sees a vision of lifeless winter. This time, Dulcinea isn’t angry—she’s desperate. She indicates that the Demogorgon is getting closer to her grove. The prince of demons has allowed some fey to escape the destruction of their groves to spread the word: he’s going to burn down every grove until one of them grants him access to Elysium.

Every grove is a nexus between the Feywild and the material plane. Because of the friendship shared by certain archfey and goodly deities, like Dulcinea and Garl Glittergold, there are routes to Elysium through the Feywild. If the Demogorgon has his way, he’ll tear through Dulcinea’s grove, get to the Feywild, and end up taking an army of demons to the upper planes. Dulcinea is terrified of this possibility. She reveals that one of her precious changelings—Maerad Dawnshard—will be killed at this grove if the Demogorgon isn’t stopped. Maerad Dawnshard was one of the Knitting-Club Heroes!

Bogtooth realizes what the Demogorgon’s been doing since long before they met him in Sloobludop: he brutally destroys an area and kills every creature but one (what he intended to do with Trix in the kuo-toan town). That lone creature (like Trix and Briar) survives and becomes a vengeance-seeking hero. If they end up dying a hero, they’re likely to go to somewhere like Elysium. As Pix explains, the longer people stay in Elysium, the more likely they are to lose their fighting spirit (like Grandpappy Droop). This means that the Demogorgon has been grooming generations of heroes to become heavenly delicacies for him to easily consume—if he ever makes it to the upper planes.

Dulcinea begs for Bogtooth’s help. Bogtooth agrees—as soon as they finish in Menzoberranzan, he’ll go to the surface. (This may end up hindering their plans to stop Zuggtmoy’s wedding.)

Tremble wears Pix’s hat of disguise and turns into a drow to meet Wilenet in public. They catch each other up on their lives. Wilenet, a budding priestess of Lolth, informs Tremble that Lolth has seemed very happy with recent developments.

She gives Tremble a fast hug--a dangerous hug. It’s odd that a young priestess of Lolth would physically embrace a male in public. The two don’t understand the implications of this public interaction…

Trix, undisguised, runs afoul of drow guards. Finn steps in and accepts a public flogging.

Pyrite goes shopping. She seeks magical items to help to travel the planes; she’s still intent on getting revenge on Glyn for his destruction of clan Demonbane.

## Memorable Quotes

**Tremble:** “Hi, bro! I will try to be brief. Yes! We are safe. You met a member of Bregan D’aerthe? I would really like to meet them. We met Matron Baenre. She is scary. We are—"

**Pyrite:** I have a snake that can probably slither faster than we could walk.

**Tremble:** “Hey bro, this is Tremble. I just had a really important thought. When we stopped, they could see us, but we could see them and I thought that was bad. You said you were with a member of Bregan D’aerthe. I know that being secret is really important to them. It probably makes sense that a bunch of people are following us now. Signed, Tremble, your little brother xoxo.”

* **Bogtooth:** Yo, what if I added a little extra spice to that so that no one else can understand it?
* **Tremble:** Why would they be confused that you drew stick figures over words?
* **Bogtooth:** They think we’re stupid brutes so we’re gonna give them stupid brute talk.
* **Tremble**: They think we’re stupid brutes?
* **Bogtooth:** Yeah. It’s what I’ve gathered from a lot of different drow?
* **Tremble:** Do you think the K’gausts think we’re stupid brutes?
* **Bogtooth:** Well, they probably think I’M a stupid brute.

* **Bogtooth:** You know what, that’s fine… but next time we’re going the crazy way.
* **Tremble**: I will not agree to that at this time.

* **Tremble:** Put the letter inside the snake’s mouth—
* **Pyrite:** NO!
* **Snik-Snik:** What are we doin’?

* **Snik-Snik:** Vibing out. Gonna go to the bazaar. Find the short one.
* **Tremble:** You could do it with a map, right?
* **Snik-Snik:** Mmmmmmap?

* **Trix:** Please, no improv….
* **Scout-**Commander-Friend: You recognize the drow’s disdain for improvised performances! Here, we will perform in the square!
* **Trix:** No…we have to be low key, right?
* S**cout-Commander-Friend:** You’ve passed yet another test!

* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** You can release a couple bangers, maybe a month apart.
* **Trix**: What does that mean in drow?
* **Scout-Commander-Friend** A particularly valued performance.
* **Trix**: Hmm, I guess I’ve seen my sister perform a couple bangers…

* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** Sometimes… [Two hours of dramatic pausing ensue.]
* **Tremble**: So…how long have you been with Bregan D’aerthe?
* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** I--Ugh! I was having a moment— never mind, let’s try it again………sometimes…………..[Even more pausing ensues.]….It’s how we deal with…what was the thing about cards??
* **Tremble:** Oh, oh, oh! It’s not the cards we’re dealt, it’s how you play them!
* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** Just when you think you’ve played the cards right, they shuffle the deck. Well met, Tremble.

* **Scout-Commander-Friend**: Tremble, now is the time to test your skills of improvisation. Because right now, drow in this bazar will be wondering why I’d shake a goblin’s hand.
* **Tremble:** Okay, you start us off.
* **Scout-Commander-Friend: V**ery well. GOBLIN, WHY IS IT THAT YOU HAVE GRASPED MY HAND IN PUBLIC?
* **Tremble**: Well, because my master asked me to find a person of lowly status because you are a man, to help with her errand and I chose you because you look like you do errands a lot.
* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** YET STILL YOU HAVE GRASPED ME. ME! A DROOOOOW! I MUST TAKE YOU TO MY MASTER!
* **Tremble:** You are right. I have broken the social contract of this great city of Menzoberranzan, and I should go see your master so I can be punished properly?
* **Bogtooth:** Let’s go, other slave goblins!
* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** We must away!!!!…. (You must away as well.)

* **Trix:** Oh, it’s you.
* **Snik-Snik:** I have a name…..Snik-Snik.
* **Trix:** Can I pick you up?
* **Snik-Snik:** Those are not my orders.
* **Trix**: You wanna crawl up me again??
* **Snik-Snik**: Yesssssss.

* **Scout-Commander-Friend:** You are Tremble. But I must introduce myself to you. I am known by many names. I am a scout, a commander. To Jarlaxle, I am a friend.
* **Tremble: I** am called Tremble sometimes, I’m called Tremble the Destroyer sometimes, and I’m called Tremble the Creator by accident sometimes, but they really mean my sister, and by my master I am called the above average artificer.

* **Jarlaxle:** Well met!
* **Tremble:** Well met.
* **Bogtooth**: Well met.
* **Jarlaxle:** Please, come inside.
* **Tremble**: Excuse me, this might not be the right time. But are you Jarlaxle?
* **Jarlaxle:** The very same.

**Jarlaxle:** Tremble…thank you. I spoke with Jimjar. He loves you. And as far as I can tell it’s because you are a remarkable person. Now I’ve learned that for some of you, not all of you…it’s best to get know you through a game!

**Jarlaxle:** I spent some time with the Troglodytes. In their tongue it’s YatZEE? It translates to “The Dice of Fate.”

* **Jarlaxle:** So, in your own words, why have you chosen to come to me?
* **Trix:** We’re looking for the grimoire of Baenre.
* **Jarlaxle:** What do you want it for?
* **Tremble:** To save the world.
* **Jarlaxle:** I'd like to save the world. What are we saving it from?
* **Bogtooth:** We wanna send get rid of all the demon lords. Minus two or three.
* **Jarlaxle:** Why?
* **Bogtooth**: We sent some of them back already.
* **Jarlaxle:** You…sent back…two or three demon lords?

* **Jarlaxle:** You’ve spoken with Matron Baenre, yes?
* **Bogtooth:** Yeah, fresh out of it.
* **Jarlaxle:** She’s going to kill you eventually. You know that, right?
* **Pyrite:** I suppose she’ll try.
* **Jarlaxle:** She’ll kill you. She’ll blame you for the theft, and then offer you as sacrifices.

* **Jarlaxle:** Where are you getting away to again?
* **Pyrite:** Why should we tell you?
* **Jarlaxle:** Because then we can’t clear a path for you to get away.
* **Tremble:** We’re going to this place called the Tower of Vengeance which is run by a drow who we don’t entirely trust—
* **Pyrite:** He’s going to try to betray us.
* **Tremble:** Yeah. We’re trying to find a way to get around that.
* **Jarlaxle:** Vizeran DeVir? You are right not to trust that relic of a bygone house.

* **Jarlaxle:** Tell me, Tremble. When you and Jimjar spoke…did you see eye to eye?
* **Tremble:** For the most part, yeah! If anything, the only time we disagreed was when he was pushing me to believe in myself more!

* **Tremble:** Without people you can trust, there can be no city.
* **Jarlaxle:** I like that answer, Tremble. I think you could do well in joining, even for a little bit….Bregan D’aerthe.
* **Tremble:** Me? I’m just a little goblin.
* **Jarlaxle:** Race doesn’t matter.
* **Tremble:** But I’m also—
* **Pyrite:** A child?
* **Jarlaxle:** Age does matter…but experience matters more. Tremble…Jimjar said that you were a hero. And now I believe you are a hero. No one has forced me in a late game Yahtzee in a very long while.

* **Tremble:** Um excuse me, Scout-Commander-Friend?
* **Scout-**Commander-Friend: Yes…can I help you? By the way--those are all things that I’m called, not my real name. My name is Krileyn H’Kar.  It is important not to let everyone on the outside know who you are.

* **Tremble:** I can be Quiver!
* **Jarlaxle:** That’s an excellent name. Is that what you’d like to be called?

* **Pyrite:** You got holy water?
* **Duergar:** What religion?
* **Pyrite:** I don’t CARE…
* **Duergar:** ….okay…we’ll just go good aligned. This one here is essence of—
* **Pyrite:** —Thank you!

* **Bogtooth:** Alright--this improv comedy thing. Seems like a pretty good skill to have.
* **Jarlaxle**: Improv comedy is three things: It is a fantastic form of entertainment, it is a great front, and it is deeply insulting to drow houses. If you are truly interested in improv…we meet once a week, we call ourselves the under-groundlings.

* **Gnome:** You look like a thousand platinum pieces!
* **Trix: Y**eah, but they really got all ratty.
* **Gnome:** Ooof, planned obsolescence.
* **Trix: Y**eah, you’d think they wouldn’t burn so easily.
* **Gnome:** It’s all a scam.

* **Trix:** Tremble…if you DON’T wanna act… you don’t have to. You’re safe here. You don’t have to act!
* **Tremble:** For everyone here, it seems like acting brings them a lot of joy and I’d like to take part in that joy.

**Jarlaxle:** You might be thinking how we can do this on such short notice, and to that I say…it’s a spontaneous event!

* **Dulcinea:** Hello, Bogtooth.
* **Bogtooth:** Hey, Lady D!
* **Dulcinea:** Bogtooth, I’d like to think that I’ve been helpful to you
* **Bogtooth:** Totally!
* **Dulcinea:** And, Pix, a friend of mine says that you’re a very helpful person in your own way.
* **Pix:** I hope, yeah!
* **Dulcinea**: I need your help…. I know what you’re doing is very important. I know you have a prophecy and everything. Bogtooth—I don’t know what to do.
* **Bogtooth:** What’s happening?
* **Dulcinea:** The Demogorgon has been destroying many groves, killing many fey, and he’s finally saidwhy. He’s given his demands.
* **Bogtooth:** What does he want?
* **Dulcinea:** He wants access to the Feywild. He and his army. And he wants to use it as a bridge into Elysium…

**Dulcinea:** Hyrsam, the Prince of Fools is leading the charge. I can’t let that happen! I have friends, I have fey, who live in Elysium. If the deities of the upper planes intervene, the deities of the lower planes will, too!

**Dulcinea:** Bogtooth, remember when I talked about that family and their child. Her name is Maerad. He has a wolf named Fox. I don’t want them to die. That’s where the Demogorgon is going next. He’s going to destroy their grove.

* **Pix:** He wants to go to Elysium and eat up all the goodness! It’s cruel!
* **Dulcinea:** It cannot happen, we have to stop him!
* **Bogtooth:** Lady D, this probably isn’t the best time, but on my adventures, I met a fey. He was eaten up by a demon lord. His name was Briar.
* **Dulcinea:** Briar Thistleblossom? This is a lot right now. I will deal with Briar Thistleblossom on my own time…

* **Dulcinea:** I will have an army to fight him. And I was hoping I’d have my most powerful friend to help me…
* **Bogtooth:** Peter the Pear?
* **Dulcinea:** Bogtooth, I’ve said this from the start: you’re the leader.

**Pix:** It was hopeless then but we’re stronger now.

**Dulcinea:** Thank you…for doing the right thing, Bogtooth.

* **Finn:** So, like I was saying, I’m really socially anxious in large crowds, so what should I do here?
* **Bogtooth:** Do the right thing, Finn.
* **Finn:** Oh that’s really..nonspecific? I was hoping for some actual advice?

**Lemon:** I’m the leader! And it’s time… FOR A FOOD FIGHT!

* **Trix:** Jimmy Sugarpop…
* **Lemon:** Frederik von Yogurt.

* **Tremble:** Sis, do you still have that hat?
* **Pix:** Absolutely! I think it’ll look great on you!

**Pix:** So, I met grandpappy, and he was really funny, but kinda not. He’d do this impression. He thought it was really funny, but I think he was making a harsh generalization about a group of people. Besides that, grandpa told me about his friends in Elysium and his adventure and the people he’d meet. And he had this great laugh, and it felt really great to be connected to mom and dad through him. The clan is so big. Spending time with him made me feel like we could do anything it’s hard to put into words. It’s weird being dead…but it was such a joy.

* **Pix:** You look so handsome!
* **Tremble:** AWW YOU’RE EMBARRASSING ME IN FRONT OF OUR FRIENDS!
* **Pix:** SOMEONE’S GOTTA DO IT, OUR PARENTS ARE DEAD!
* **Tremble:** You’re the best, sis!

**Pix:** Always remember that everyone who’s gone is still somewhere doing something.

**Scout-Commander-Friend:** It is very important that when someone chooses a new name in Bregan D’aerthe, we write a form of poetry. I suppose you could call it a rap.

**Jarlaxle:** Practice makes perfect. Even in games of luck.

* **Wilenet:** I couldn’t do that before!
* **Tremble:** Wow, how did you learn to do that?
* **Wilenet**: I don’t really know. Recently, my powers have gotten much more...well …powerful! And Matron Mother’s and my aunties’. Everyone, really! We think it’s because Lolth is just very happy right now!

**Wilenet:** Papa says I’m not to go out there alone….But I’m a priestess, so I shall do what I want.

* **Tremble:** I can do magic now! I learned from my friend Misu, she was an artificer, and she taught me a bunch of stuff. Like a build a friend named Ralph, and he can say his name like Ralph!
* **Wilenet:** You can do magic now? Maybe when you come back and I’m even more powerful, we can combine our magic and turn my stinky brothers into mechanical driders and they can do all our chores for us!

**Drow:** Good! Darkling blood, goblin blood. It’s all the same, isn’t it?

* **Trix;** I’m so sorry, Finn!
* **Finn:** Don’t worry. You’re a tricky guy, sometimes it’s a trick, sometimes it’s a treat, don’t worry about it….
* **Trix:** But that guy was right about one thing. Darkling blood and goblin blood are both the same.
* **Finn**: Is that like…for a blood transfusion?
* **Trix:** No, it’s supposed to be metaphorical!