Episode 34: Evil Blooms

**Episode 34: Evil Blooms** (1x34) - In an ironic twist, The Nearlies rush to the rescue of their would-be rescuers: Grandma Ninnian and the other Chimerites from Brill Thistle. All manner of deadly Fey swarm the village, killing any who resist and rounding up those who surrender. The Black Iron Fomorian stomps about in the dark and a gigantic Alraune invades encircles the town, invading and infesting the dead… soon to bloom into mindless killers as the evil seeds take root. Time is of the essence and time is running out. The sky fills with ashes and cinders, and the flame pixies wheel over head, filling the night with cruel laughter…

## Cast

### Nearlies

Josh | Xenator Brisbane
Kathy | Lavaleen Crest
Andy | Martin Sirque
Amanda | Gwendylyn Cloot
 Robbie | The Speaker
 Aaron |  Production & Sound

### NPCs

APPEARING
 Dodderfell
 Von Dark
 Grandma Ninn

## Synopsis

### Prologue

Molly Marrow knew that standing against Kell would be the end for her.  The skull in her teacup had become clearer and clearer over the past months.  She knew that she was going to die, but she was determined that the children of the village would not be harmed.  She liked the children.  They would leave flowers on her hill each month.  And each month she would collect those flowers and siphon up the hopes and dreams and wishes of the children that were left as residue on the flowers. And then she brewed.

Children in Thistleberry rarely came down with anything worse than the sniffles.  But the parents, parents that took out their anger on their children, found themselves quite ill quite often; every time they were cruel to their child.  She would not allow Kell to harm her children.

Another witch from her coven asked about her affection for the children, since the children she grew up with were not kind, and were cruel to her.  Molly explains that they were cruel because they were afraid, but she is not trying to repay past kindness, she is trying to spread future kindness.  They laughed at her for being so soft.

And now she was going to die, defending children that didn’t even like her.  So she sent out a spell, turning the children to Innocents.  Nothing in the Grimmwood would now harm the children, not even fire, and they no longer felt fear.  She was happy that the children at least would be spared.

Kell successfully pierces Molly Marrow with her spear.  She swelled, then burst.

### Episode

The Nearlies are sneaking towards the Stone Pub Inn.  In front of the Pub is dozens of bodies, crushed, torn apart, chewed on.  They spot Nozzie in the middle of the crowd, sobbing quietly.  Gwendylyn darts in to try to pull Nozzie to the relative safety of their hiding spot. The bodies around her grasp at her as the Alraune slithered into the bodies, animating them.  Gwen is too agile for them, however, and successfully grabs Nozzie.

Nozzie is sobbing over the loss of Loraloma. She berates herself of thinking that she could have protected her with cats, but then immediately credits the cats for her own survival, as they allowed her to escape from the Giant. She is able to tell the Nearlies that she saw a few Chemerites hiding in the barn.  There is the sound of fighting from the stables.  The three Chemerites are trying to fight off the Alraune vines that are climbing into the stables.  Xenator casts pig wall to stop their entry and the group chats with ways to get the Chemerites that are trapped in the pub.

Upon examining the pub, there is a large number of dead vilagers, including the Pickle Vendor, but they have been killed by more mundane means, not magical.  However, one of the very clearly dead villagers is moving.  The Alraune has infiltrated the bodies and are moving and growing inside of them.

There is different movement from behind the bar. Grandma Ninn is waving a white flag. She tells Val that the Chemerites that she had traveled with just went crazy.  They attacked Ninn and killed the villagers.   At that point Millgut enters the room, dragging a large Morningstar and chewing on a human arm.  Though moving, they are clearly infested by the plant, as one of them has rosebuds coming out their eye sockets. Gwen attempts to signal her grandmother with the Brillwhistle whistle.  She succeeds, but also succeeds in drawing the rest of the plant zombie Chemerites to her position.

Battle between the plant zombie Chermites and the Nearlies plus Grandma Ninn commences.  They decide to strategically run away to the barn where they rest of the non-Zombie Chemerites have been hiding.  The non-Zombie Chermerites come join them, and together they stealthily head back to Molly’s house.  Gwen sends off ghostly mist images of the party to send off in a different direction as a distraction and the group successfully makes it to Molly Marrow’s house.

Gwen shows her Grandmother Molly’s head and asks for her help in communicating with her.  She sends Martin to fetch her the bellows (a success) and a red potion on one of the shelves (less successful).  Martin comes back with a maroon potion, and not red.  Xenator stops him, telling him he grabbed the wrong one.  Martin is so sure that he grabbed the red one, but a maroon one is in his hand.  After continued mixups, Xenator finally grabs the maroon potion from Martin and pockets it to ensure he will stop trying to hand it to Ninn.  Finally, proper potion in hand, they swab the red potion on the vocal cords, place the bellows in correctly and act as artificial lungs to finally allow Molly to tell them what happened.

“I lost,” is mostly what Molly is able to gasp out.  The Nearlies then have difficulty figuring out what else she’s trying to say, only able to hear that she wants them to run, and perhaps also loot her shop for useful items.  Martin helpfully offers to take the head around the shop to find particularly helpful items. “You know what would be really funny?” says a voice.  Martin then kicks Molly’s head out a window.  The rest of the Nearlies stare at him in shock and he seems confused about what he just did.  This also alerts some of the Fey Knights to their presence.  While the rest of the Nearlies scramble to grab as many helpful items as possible, (except Martin who is smashing bottles on the floor), Ninnean pulls Gwen aside.

Ninnean tells Gwen that she can whisk the two of them away to safety, but Gwen refuses to leave without her friends.  Ninn is furious at Gwen’s defiance, however, offers two potions; one to whisk them off and help her be cured of her curse or, if she insists on being a hero, one to strengthen her powers so that she at least has a chance of surviving.  Gwen refuses to take either, clearly not trusting her grandmother’s motives.  This upsets Ninn even further.  Ninn is shaking at this defiance, Lavaleen and Martin bring the head back inside once they found it, and horns from the Fey Knights are blowing outside.

At this point Ninn pulls a third potion from her pocket, this one with a syringe and yells that Gwen has to come with her, as it’s for the best.  Martin, par for the course, tries to help and knocks the needle into Gwen’s back instead, although the plunger does not depress.  In a surprising move, Gwen uses her staff to physically knock her grandmother off of her back.  A very enraged rushes at Gwen, slips, and sticks herself with one of her own potions. She disappears.

Gwen is unperturbed, saying she’s seen this before and suggests that they get gone.  Before they can there is a voice outside, telling anybody in Molly’s house to “make themselves available”, identifying themselves as Kell of the Underwater.  This helps translate the earlier mumblings of Molly Marrow, but it does not help the Nearlies escape.

Swamp water is making its way in the house, and Fey Knights are stationed outside.  A plan of retreat is in order.  The back of the house, however, is covered by the Alrauane rose briar.  Val manages to calcify a portion of the vines with a Basilisk acorns to weaken it, but it will be slow going.  Lavaleen volunteers to go talk with Kell of the Underwater to try to stall.  She opens the door revealing a newly existing swamp.  “Well, well, of all the things that I expected to have walked out of Ms. Molly Marrow’s house, I didn’t expect to see you.”

### Epilogue

Ninn reappears in a swirl of transportation magic, several miles away.  She is furious, raging that ‘they took her baby away from her’.  She started running back to the village, certain she could get back in time and fix this, stop them from turning Gwen on her.  She was enraged that Gwen had refused to take any potion that Ninn had offered her, not one that would return them to the village, and not one that would increase her power to help make her safe.  Ninn did not find it relevant that both potions were actually mind control potions, she was angry at Gwen for not even being willing to listen to her.  She decides that Gwen is under an evil influence, turning on her grandmother so quickly, and is determined to get Gwen away from the rest of the Nearlies.

There was a noise.  Ninnean freezes, crouching low in the grass.  There are wolves prowling ahead of her.  Carefully she scuttles backwards and up to the relative safety of a tree.  She was tired.  The traitors from her village had made such loud sounds when she had attacked them  .Then she had to kill the townsfolk that had come to investigate the sounds.  One mass murder to cover up another.  Of all the nights for a Fey attack, and now wolves blocking her way.

There is suddenly another person in the tree with her. It was not one of the Fey knights, like she expected, instead it was a young elven boy.  Except he had no eyes, only darkness.  Ninnean hadn’t seen a demon wearing mortal skin for nearly 40 years. He wasn’t upset that she knew him for a demon, saying that it meant they could skip over a lot and that he was her new best friend.  Ninnean finds this hard to believe.  He sympathizes with Ninn over the abandonment of Gwen, and states that he has a friend in a similar situation, with a runaway daughter of their own, a red cloaked daughter.

He acknowledges that the village is pretty much a lost cause, but says it hardly matters since with their Sacred Curses, they can try again afterwards, even if they all die tonight, so Ninnean should just rest.  He introduces himself as Valscorath , and offers to solve all her problems.  It’s only a matter of time before a dark heart like hers finds a willing patron like him.  She should be proud that she lasted as long as she did.

## Notables

Episode 33
 Objects Acquired
 Spells Used
 Metamorph Attempts

## Quotables

Ninn: “You need her to see? I can’t regrow eyes, it will take days.”

Sirque: “You know what would be really funny?”

Martin. “I’m sorry.  Did I tell you I recently had my head cut off?”

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