Shades of the Great Houses - Chapter Two

> "*I'd better be in front of a jet or else I am out of here!*"
> ― Arson Nicki
>
>

**Shades of the Great Houses - Chapter Two: "The Tavern of the Hung Man"** is the third episode of Queens of Adventure. It consists of the party's first break, their first time playing at the table, and their first level up.

## Synopsis

After traveling west for about a day from the smoking ruins of the House of Wunderbred, Copper Top and his carriage deliver the newly forged adventurers to a small village and the Tavern of the Hung Man. There Rickus the innkeeper, recognizing Copper Top, leads the group to a trapdoor basement. As the group still looks ragged from their last adventure, Rickus inquires about what happened because he's known a lot of folks who have gone to the manor, and none have come back.

The group recounts random details of their adventure. Copper Top asked what happened to Edith, and how they got away from her power. They explained that she likely died in the fire and collapsing house, oh and they threw her Pomeranian into a fire, shocking Rickus. He leaves them to go upstairs.

Copper Top asks them what loot they had. Butylene reveals the copy of The Rise and Fall of the Great Houses, and her mushroom covered scroll. Fraya pulls out her locket that helped them defeat Edith, but realized she lost her trident. Harlotte retrieved a gem from the librarian's staff. Arson looks in her bag and remembers she found nothing. Copper Top recognizes the book, and finds a section detailing the secret language of Draglish and copies the details down for each of the queens, allowing them to learn it.

The chauffeur proceeds to direct each queen to a place they could take their new items. The gem, he suggests, Harlotte might want to fence. She reminisces about a young man she met, son of a noble thief and leader of the Thieve's Guild in Sknorf. Copper Top suggests Butylene look for a run down shack on the outskirts of town, and use the password "I hear you have a humongous fungus" to meet someone who could help the alchemist identify the mushrooms. For Fraya's locket, he recommends a local water temple. As Arson only had a brush with death, he suggests she use a dark, spider filled room in the back of the tavern's cellar to meditate and recover. The group decides to part ways for a few days.

Harlotte sets out for Sknorf. She recalls more about the man she is planning to meet, Ramshackle, and his family. As they meet, he insists on hearing all about her travels as they sit down. She obfuscates her reasons for leaving town before bringing up her gem to fence. Ramshackle recognizes it as an artifact that will allow one person to unlock their hidden potential every hundred years and to prove his trustworthiness says he wont try to take it from Harlotte. After they reminisce over champagne, Harlotte goes off alone to attune with the gem. From it she gains the power of Mage Hand and a cunning action in battle. She asks her former beau what she can do to thank him, and he says her company is payment enough. He watches her leave with a sigh.

Meanwhile, Butylene reaches the outskirts of town and finds a rundown hut under an old willow tree. There he meets a short, disheveled woman named Granny, and after saying the passphrase, is welcomed in for some Eye of Newt soup and a look at the scroll. Granny leads Butylene to a secret laboratory in her house behind a shelf that she called her 'real kitchen'. As she prepares the mushrooms, she asks Butylene for how she found them, and the tiefling spun a story about being taken to a backroom of Twice Told Heels bookstore and was given the scroll after selling the shopkeeper psychedelic mushrooms. She then shares some possible details about how she learned alchemy while part of a traveling caravan (she wanted to know what was in some drugs she was given as payment). Granny recognizes the scroll as a recipe for a formula. Her lessons teach Butylene *swift alchemy* as they prepare the formula. It is a powerful mutagen, which will unlock the beast within for one hour. Granny also teaches Butylene the formula for *talk to animals* and tells the tiefling she owes Granny a favor*.*

Fraya travels to the nearby water temple outside town, cool and dim inside with waterfalls and pools. Everyone stares at her, but in a central courtyard a tall cleric steps up to her. Fraya explains she was sent on a journey by her mentor Pisseidon to seek her powers, lost after losing her virginity to an Angel. The cleric asks her about her religion, and she describes her goddess, Aphroheidi, also known as Cher. Fraya shows her the locket and tells how she found it. The cleric explains that they worship a different water god, but that there is only one great water force, and directs Fraya to a reflecting pool to teach her how to appeal to the divine. This teaches Fraya several new spells and abilities.

Lastly, Arson sought a chamber in the bowels of the tavern, and find a fairly comfortable corner with cobwebs all around. She settles down and falls into a trance, recalling how during the period of time during the final battle at Wunderbred Manor when she nearly died, she heard the voice of her patron telling her she had to stay alive before manifesting before her in the form of Samantha Jones, and creates the environment of a hot tub to provide Arson comfort for their conversation in the middle of a twilight forest. Samantha asks Arson to recall the first time they met, when a meeting was arranged, under the guise of a hookup, via her bugbear servant Scruff. They bonded over their mutual sexual interests. "I come bearing gifts," Samantha says, wanting to offer deeper connection with Arson. The warlock chooses several power ups to her spells before waking up in the cellar covered in spiders.

On the appointed day, the queens all return to town to meet. Harlotte and Butylene meet on the road, and find Fraya not far from town. Arson crosses the town square to greet them. They hear shouting inside the tavern, and not of the Woo Girl variety. Inside, four bandits with black vests bearing an emblem of a red fist are ransacking the place, one trying to shake down Rickus. They accuse Harlotte of being terrible for hanging out with a pack of animals. They fought the bandits, tried to negotiate, and ultimately dispatched them in order to defend themselves and Rickus.

After the battle, Copper Top arrives, with good news: He's booked a new gig at a nearby venue and escorts them back to the Capybara drawn carriage.

"Did we at least get the drinks before we left?" Fraya says. Rickus comes up to the carriage on rollerskates and hooks a tray with their order to the carriage window before they pull away to their next adventure.

### Characters

**Party**

* Arson Nicki - drow warlock
* Butylene O'Kipple - tiefling alchemist
* Fraya Love - water genasi cleric
* Harlotte O'Scara - human rogue

**NPCs**:

* Copper Top
* Rickus - Innkeeper of the Hung Man Tavern (Debut)
* Ramshackle (Debut)
* Granny (Debut)
* Samantha, Arson's Patron (Debut)

**Monsters/Enemies:**

* Raiders of the Dry Fist

## Episode Notes

### Inspiration Earned

* Butylene: "Please welcome to the stage: Justin Time!"

### Memorable Quotes

* "I am familiar with those traveling caravans and of course I know, I don't know exactly what you did there, but if it's the caravan I'm thinking of it wasn't dancing." - Granny
* "She's not a dancer, but she's not *not* a dancer." - Arson Nicki
* "Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while." - Butylene O'Kipple
* "One day you're in, the next day you're a clam." - Harlotte O'Scara
* "Don't slightly inconvenience me, bitch." - Fraya Love, after learning Destructive Wrath
* "I'm damaging your ends, I'm damaging your reputations... with an additional roll." - Arson Nicki
* "I want my money back. I didn't pay cover for this bullshit!" - Arson Nicki
* "It was like DayQuill but with a little more uppers." - Butylene O'Kipple

### References

* "Do I have something on my face?" Drag Race contestant Pearl Liason.
* Common Podcast sponsor products including Squarespace, Sheets, Squattypotty, and Blue Apron.
* Disney's Aladdin
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the character of Angel
* Heidi Klume and Project Runway
* Drag Race queens: Chad Michaels and Mrs. Kasha Davis
* Leigh Bowry

### Name That Tune

* "Love Shack" - the B-52s
* Various Cher songs, including "G\*psys, Tramps, and Thieves" and "If I Could Turn Back Time".
* Final Fantasy final battle theme.

## Behind the Queens

* DM Matt explained in the intro to the episode that this was their first time playing at the table and as such they had to edit a lot out of the combat at the end, as well as play very loose with the rules as they were still learning.
* Many of the details the queens gave about their backstories are either unsupported by later explorations, likely because these were early ideas that were later refined, or could in-story be cases of the queens lying to the people they were talking to in this episode.
* This episode was previously episode two of Season Zero before the March 2020 podcast renumbering.

**Greetings From Fire Island**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - **The Show Must Go On**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Operation Watersport**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6 - Ch7 - **Trials**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Ghosts of the Coast**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - **The Devil's Due**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Special**: The Story So Far
**The Beautiful Place**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6 - **A Dance in the Dark**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Drama in the Deep**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6 - **Whispers From the Heart**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6
**Danger Rangers!**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6
**Mist Connections**: Ch1 - Ch2
**Unreleased**
Lost: Camp Crystal Light - Pax West 2018 --  vs the Lizard People
Live Shows: Seattle Style -- Minneapolis Style