Favor, Episode 19: Nine to Five

## Starring

Sage Stafford as Aoife Flannery
Naseem Etemad as Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
Katie Budabin as Lluvyras 'Lu' Ssath
Celeste Conowitch as Dungeon Master

**Episode 19: Nine to Five** *(2x19)* is the nineteenth episode of the first arc of the the second Venture Maidens campaign.

## Synopsis

*To find an archfey long lost*

*Our heroes must pay great costs*

*Will they lose to such extortion*

*Or somehow increase their fortune*

### Fortuitous Letter

The Maidens arrive back at the Chicken Hut, still mulling over their new quest to hunt down the Enigma Codex and Penny within the next month. Aoife picks up a light blue envelope covered in stickers from the porch and opens it up, reading:

*Hey Marnie, Saoirse, and Frannie,*

*We sure have missed having you around the Witch’s Brew the last few days. Hope you didn’t get eaten by a troll or anything like that! If you didn’t get eaten, or maimed, I’d love if you drop by soon.*

*We’ve had some nice weather lately, and watching Marnie do all of this hard work on the cart has inspired me to think about working on something of my own.*

*I’m opening up the old Community Garden behind the tavern and I thought it would be super fun if you wanted to grow herbs or food back there, or whatever. The previous owner had a lot of great stuff planted there, so if you can dodge the feral squirrels and feral weeds, you might even find some rare magical plants or spices!*

*Anyhow, come by and check it out, and bring a machete. Oh! This is Tandy by the way! Kisses!*

The letter is not signed, but a small baggy is taped to the paper. It is filled with leaves that emit an intensely dank odor.

Rook is the first to speak, saying that there are a few people in Coven who might know where Penny is, but she is open to ideas. Toni agrees that they should start in Coven and they all quickly agree to head there for research.

Rook, appearing to be thinking about something else, half-heartedly commands Gordon to take them to Coven before heading upstairs to her bedroom. Toni, stressed by everything that has happened, heads to her own bedroom to play her guitar.

Lu heads into the kitchen to make a soup stock and discards all of the waste into the pot that they got from the Duke of Pudding’s sewer. When she opens the pot she can see the green film that was in there before has begun to coagulate and grow.

Aoife goes to her room and tosses her bag onto the bed. She quickly changes clothes and goes back into the hallway, placing her hand on an available doorknob. She thinks deeply for a moment before turning the knob to reveal a new room of warm dark-panelled wood. A large window covered by lace curtains adorns one wall, allowing light to spill across a heavy green rug. She has decided that this will be her workshop since Mistress Silk has charged her with making the next line of clothing for the fashion showcase. One bookshelf is full of empty journals, and the other is full of completed journals, overflowing with her completed designs and sketches. She sits at the drafting table and takes in the replica of her grandmother’s crafting room before getting to work.

Before they know it, the Chicken Hut comes to rest outside of the Woodlands, nestling down amongst the yellows and reds that mark the periphary of Coven. They have twenty one days to find all of the information on Penny and the Enigma Codex that they can and discuss their plans moving forward.

Lu wants to take a little time to work on her food cart while trying to find out more about Penny’s location and the purpose of the Enigma Codex.

Aoife, inspired by the statue of the woman that they saved from eternal life in the Demesne of the Wierd Sisters, wants to work on drafting a design for a dress. She uses this as an excuse to go see her new boyfriend, but also makes Rook and the other Maidens come to lunch to meet him. She also wants to spend a little bit of time working in Mistress Silk’s shop to expand her connections.

Toni, excited to play with the herbal kit her mother sent her, spends a little bit of time crafting up potions, helping Tandy with the Community Garden, and to find a job to make a little money to aid in their new quest.

Rook, currently in her prime, decides to pick up a few bounties to pad their coffers.

### Week One - Lu

Lu begins her search for information in an antique store. She is looking to track down one that specializes in unique goods that can’t be found anywhere else. She wanders through Coven, finally arriving in an older part of the town where she discovers two bits of information. While she is going from shop to shop, she learns that there is a rare antique bookdealer in Coven, who has been in Coven hundreds of years longer than anybody else. His name is Mortimer, and has long since retired, but Lu manages to get his address. After a few days, Lu also learns that there is a legend around Penny, who is thought to be dead or vanished. She finally learns the Archfey’s full name, Penny Dreadful.

### Week One - Aoife

Aoife spends the first week digging up as much information as she can by rubbing elbows with the important people of Coven. She calls in her favor with Mistress Silk to take her on as her personal valet for the week, allowing her access to all of the events and parties that Mistress Silk has access to.

She attends a fey babyshower that mocks the mortal custom. The hedonistic event is crowned with a mimosa fountain and balloons that pop to reveal pixies or little dryad toys. Mistress Silk has been attending this same babyshower every day for the last four weeks, waiting for the next Fey to go through the Sprouting process.

Aoife learns that the shower is being hosted by one of the thirteen witches that make up the Witch’s Council of Coven. The witch, Urma Nightdabble, hopes for a daughter to leave some of her magic to, and has spared no expense in her efforts to procure this child.

The satyr speaks with the other witches that were invited from the council. She realizes that none of them seem to know who Penny is, but when she talks to the oldest members, so learns that Penny Dreadful was an Archfey that was interested in mortals and Changelings, and spent a lot of time talking to the Witches in Coven. She called the town her home for a time because they were already seperated from society, but she didn’t stay for a political reason. She had a deep and obsessive love for literature and books.

A lot of people believe that Penny Dreadful was killed by mortals and some think that she is not around any longer because she had gone into the mortal realm and stolen a powerful magical book and vanished with it. Before she left, she spent most of her time in a town full of Changelings that had banded together after being tossed out by their Fey parent, and this town is called Storyville. There is no news or knowledge if she has been there in recent memory. Her first week in Coven ends with a lavish masquerade ball.

Aoife finally returns home, desheveled from a week of partying, and is met by a mothering Lu with water and a greasy egg sandwich to help absorb all of the champagne she has consumed. They discuss the information about Storyville and Lu mentions that there is a retired rare book collector named Mortimer in town. She assumes that they might be able to trade for one of his books, and then trade that book for the Enigma Codex. Aoife also suggests reaching out to Mr. B for information on Penny Dreadful, since he is a knowledge demon and is bound to know something. Toni argues that Mr. B might become interested in the book and strike up a deal to take it for himself so they agree not to involve the demon. Toni asks if either of her friends had found out how long ago Penny vanished, and Lu guesses that it would have had to have been several hundred years ago since the only people that remember her are extremely old fey. She notes the group’s dwindling funds and suggests that they all find a way to bring in some more money to purchase a rare book from Mortimer.

### Week One - Toni

Toni heads for the Witch’s Brew the following morning to talk to Tandy about the overgrown garden. She can hear people moving upstairs, and a strange bubbling whistle from the kitchen, but nobody is visible in the front room. Toni calls out for Tandy and is greeted by red tentacles coming from around the corner of the hallway. An octopus head topped with a chef’s hat quickly follows and babbles in a language that Toni does not understand. She greets the chef, introducing herself as a friend of Tandy. She asks if she can take a look around the garden, answered only by the dead eyes of the octopus. It reaches back behind the door and pulls out a compostable flower pot sprouting a bit of greenery. It offers the pot to Toni, who thanks it excitedly, before stretching its long tentacle down the hallway and to open a door into the garden. Toni thanks the creature, asking its name, but it babbles a response she still cannot understand before heading back for the kitchen.

Toni heads down the hall and into the garden, discovering that the Witch’s Brew is much larger than she originally thought. She finds herself in a large square courtyard, but it is so untended and overgrown that she assumes there must be other entrances leading off into it. The plants and weeds reach up to Toni’s chest, and are so overgrown that some have begun to tear down roof tiles. Beautiful dots of color mingle within the garden, met by the openness of the clear autumn sky above. Even though the challenge is nearly overwhelming, Toni is excited to begin working on the beautiful space. She takes out her sword and cuts a path into the garden to give herself space to work. At some point, one of the plants wraps itself around her boot in protest, trying to pull at her and growling. She calls upon the Charm of Plant Command that her mother had sent and walks to the center of the courtyard. She tells the plants that they need to clear a path for her and her equipment because she is there to help them, but she is willing to cut them all down if she has to.

As the plants begin to move out of the way, Toni sees a lot of paved pathways cutting into hexagonal potting areas with pillars towards the back of the courtyard that provide shade for a seating area, with an outdoor bar space next to a fire pit. She spots trellises and raised garden beds nestled among the overgrowth and fountains that have not been cleaned in decades. The voice of Tandy breaks the peaceful moment, and the dryad appears at the doorway in a nightgown. She asks if Toni just got here, and if she had already taken care of all of the plants. Toni explains that the octopus let her in and Tandy tells her that his name is Chef and nobody really knows what he is saying or if he is even speaking a language.

They discuss the neglected space and Tandy admits that she bought all of the tools a while ago but stopped when she realized that gardening is hard work. Toni offers her assitance to help with the garden and to turn it into an entertainment space, which takes Tandy by surprise because the thought had never occurred to her. She asks the fighter how much to hire her to clear the garden before offering 100 gold pieces a day. She asks Toni to wait there and disappears into the bar once more. Eventually Tandy comes back and thumps a burlap sack onto the ground in front of Toni. She explains that the last mortals that came through were obsessed with the bag’s contents, so she kept ahold of it after they all died. She offers it in payment for the work. Toni opens the sack to find solid gold bars stamped with the seal of the Royal Faelin Treasury. The half-orc points out the seal but Tandy has no idea what it is, so Toni explains that they are official royal treasure gold bars from the Eldrin empire, and she has no idea how Tandy got ahold of them, but people would be pissed if they knew about it.

Tandy wants to know if Toni would like to come back after the work is done, with “Marney”, because the drow chef is interested in business strategy and keeps asking when Tandy wants her to work, but if she can put the girl to work here it would just be easier. Toni agrees and Tandy tells her to ask Chef if she needs anything before the dryad disappears again. Toni looks over the gold bars and determines that she can sell all ten bars for 50 gold pieces each, but she would have to find a buyer outside of Coven to do so since the fey have a very loose and uninterested grasp on the concept of money. She immediately launches into clearing out the garden and spends the rest of the week making the space usable.

### Week Two - Planning

Lu and Rook decide to take a trip in the Chicken Hut back to Chasiana to fence the gold bars through Lu’s family contacts. Toni requests Lu give Frieda a big hug from her and Lu asks if the two staying behind will be alright. They assure the mothering drow that they will be fine and will stay at the Witch’s Brew while the Chicken Hut is away. Toni tells Lu to come back with something, because she is going to use most of their remaining funds to buy ingredients and reagents to make healing potions. Lu tells Aoife that she will be meeting her boyfriend when they get back, no matter if the satyr wants to or not.

Aoife decides to take the week off to recouperate from partying and spend the time designing her clothing line and making mockups while Toni makes potions. This is the end of our adventure, until next time! -Venture Away!

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Aoife Flannery
* Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
* Lluvyras 'Lu' Ssath

### Non-Player Characters

* Gordon
* Mistress Silk
* Rook
* Tandy

## Locations

* The Wildes
	+ Coven
		- The Witch's Brew

## Inventory

Toni got a bag of gold bricks from Tandy.

## Quotes

“If I didn’t have white hair, I’d be getting them, so let’s just take a moment.” -Lu

“Hey Tandy, baby! It’s your favorite soldier Toni!” -Toni

“Oh my god, no they don’t. They like really…I kill everything, which is, like, so wierd right? Because I’m, like, a tree person. Isn’t that wierd?” -Tandy

“We’re all just vibing. We’re all just living.” -Tandy

“Who is Tandy? What the fuck!?” -Lu

## Trivia

Time, gravity, and space are maleable in the Wildes, so the Chicken Hut moves much more quickly there than in the mortal realm, where there are laws of time, gravity, and space

The In Between is not controlled by any fey and is home to the wild fey or fey that have no ties to any of the Courts.

The Demesnes are claimed by the Courts, and can appear anywhere in the Wildes.

Dwellings are cordoned off kingdoms where the Archfey live, and are built by the Archfey to keep their power contained to a small area.

Toni propogates the dank herbs that Tandy sent them with the letter.

Coven does not have a public library

Fey are not born. There are only a limited amount of Fey souls in the world, so when a Fey wants a child they have few options. The first option is to steal a mortal child, and if they keep them in the Wildes long enough, exposing the child to the environmental magic, they become a Changeling. Due to this magical transfmormation, Changelings are not able to return home. When a mercurial Fey grows tired of their child, they are thrown out into the world to fend for themselves, and most do not have happy home lives up to that point.

The second option is known as Sprouting. The Fey create an elaborate effigy of a desired body, spending a vast amount of time, money, and energy in the process. When a Fey soul dies, it is hoped that the soul will choose to live in the best effigy and will come to life, fully formed, though there is no guarantee what they will look like upon melding with the effigy. The more eleborate the effigy is, the more likely it is to sway the Fey’s appearance.