shifty louts

Tiny Fables Session 12 - Bad Times at the Lady Twiggler’s Apartment

Players

Summary

Month of Star. The First Fair of the Tenth Week

In the bitter cold winter morning, the exhausted mice dock the SS Depression in the quiet, foggy docks of the Fae Village. It is near-silent, with no fae flittering about.

Streamers and banners announcing tonight’s Winter Cotillion are everywhere. The theme: the Cold Stroke of Midnight. Displays of clockwork gears made of ice dot the plaza. An ice sculpture of a fawn that glows with a strange inner light dominates the plaza.

The mice seek out the first door they find and find Nettle clearly upset at returning to the Fae Village, telling of when he and his mom fled and hid in the cattails along Heartache Lake to the north. His mother never returned. Cherry and Jack comfort Nettle, with Jack giving him his Rainbow Trout cloak for warmth.

The sound of fluttering wings, both fae and bumblebee, is heard as the group finds an alley, hiding. A patrol of four soldiers inspect the strange ship, and rumors of Merfolk being seen are overheard. Three soldiers return to report to Captain Aphid, wanting to keep the evening’s Winter Cotillion safe, while another is told to watch over the ship till more soldiers arrive.

Dill hatches an idea to lie to the fae to buy time for the rest to escape. Dill plays drunk on dandelion wine, hungover and shocked at his “transmogrification” as a mouse by the Lady Twiggler. The fae soldier is surprised, but gets his report under the assumed name of “Pickle Rick”, believing the ruse as Cherry, Jack, Cornelius, and Nettle plunge further down the labyrinthine alley.

The fae soldier calls for backup through a seashell-like phone, and Sergeant Niels gives a smoky business card to Dill if they should remember anything else of the two Merfolk that obviously saw. The rest of the fae soldiers poke fun at Dill as another lover/plaything of Lady Twiggler, who has been spotted visiting the sept of the Royal Advisor Tylwig as of late.

soldier

Jack, Cherry, Nettle, and Cornelius stumble further in the alley. Lost and cold, Cherry asks Nettle if they remember anything from when they still lived in the Fae Village. Nettle only remembers an uncle named Tryst-about-Town but can’t remember where they live and begins to cry.

Once comforted by Cherry and Jack, the group comes upon a fae hobo, passed out drunk from a bottle of dandelion wall. Above the homeless fae, the scrawl of graffiti: one shows a fae with a trunk-like nose peeking over a wall, and another shows a mother and child embracing; underneath, in Fae Runes, read “Remember Lillies-o’er-Heartsight and XXXX”, the last name, chipped and scrubbed away.

Cherry believes the child to be Nettle, but Nettle can’t even remember his mother’s face anymore. Dill rejoins the group, inspecting the defaced portrait, but cannot make out the name of the child, but clearly sees evidence of the mural being defaced. Cherry attempts to wake the hobo, demanding answers about Lilly, who mumbles and belches about Queen Lilly being “gone or dead, it doesn’t matter”, before passing out once more.

nettle

Without many options, the group begs the hungover and heartbroken Cornelius to take them to Lady Twiggler’s apartment for shelter. With a force of intensity and speed never before seen. Cornelius awakens from his stupor, dashing to his “beloved Queen’s” apartment.

Displayed outside is a frosted crystal birdbath, surrounded by alive white-plumed birds made of ice who begin squawking at Cornelius, who tells Winslow, Rigby, & Oswald to pipe down. Cornelius produces a comb, fussing with their fur, and knocks on the door, announcing themselves, having returned with his “retinue from Thimblewood”, proving himself to be “of means and grace”. The door is opened by the Butler Hickory, who shuffles the group of “servants” down a long hallway to the servants' quarters to rest as Cornelius disappears to be with the Lady Twiggler.

The exhausted, heartbroken, injured mice rest over the course of the day, awakening in the evening to hear the muffled sounds of merriment from a distant room. From a window, they see bumble-bee-drawn carriages arrive at Prince Sylvester’s palace for the Winter Cotillion as Fae Nobles emerge in icy-blue and gold clockwork-gear evening wear.

faeparty

Famished, the group splits up and finds various strange food stuff across the expansive apartment, which seems to be bigger on the inside than the outside. Jack finds copper-colored, coin-sized beans; Dill finds dried flecks of something salty. Very chewy; luckily, it has a toothpick, as Cherry finds a strange pink mince in chartreuse jelly that's imbued with dandelion spirits.

Month of Star. The Second Fair of the Tenth Week

Overcast morning light streams through windows as the group attempts to find where the sounds of the party came from, heading westward from the servants' quarters.

The hallway has sumptuous red velveteen runners, and torches illuminating their way. Dill leads the group as they turn right to the north, surprising an origami tiger feasting upon a dead fae servant. It dashes to the mice, as Dill readies his Nettle Sword, while Jack and Cherry are caught on the back paw.

Dill’s Nettle Sword is useless against its swiping paws, while Jack and Cherry fend it off, away from Nettle. Cherry drives her spear into its neck and head as it unfolds flat. The group, scared at the sudden attack, leaves, plunging past many doors and into a T-intersection. The north and eastward hallways are blocked up by mounds of apple seeds.

The group proceeds west down a long hallway. The red velveteen carpets are covered in thick layers of dust that swirl like snowflakes. The doors become less prominent, and the torch sconces less, until the Dill is forced to use their last remaining torch.

The group plunges onward, finding the hallway continues north and east. To the east, a pin-prick of light is seen on the other end, while northward, the doors become like memories of a door, handles “no-clipping” into the floor, at odd angles, and the like.

The hallway terminates into a cavernous space. A giant bird-bath bowl filled with red liquid. A body floats within it. Nettle is terrified, while Dill, Cherry, and Jack argue over whether to leave this place or press forward with only one torch left.

Cherry inspects the body, finding it to be Claire Witter (a previously played PC that drowned early in Session #1).

The group decides to head back, passing back over all they have seen. The apple seed piles have begun to sprout as they reach the servants' quarters once more as Dill’s torch sputters out.

The group heads north back to the foray entrance; the overcast light pierces through the windows. A grand blue carpeted staircase of clockwork gears and icicles ascends to a second level.

The group heads up and finds a landing with a mirror that shows only the reflection of Nettle. The ground leads down the leftward hallway, finding a bathroom with an imperial topaz clawfoot bathtub with a mirror that shows only the reflection of the mice, and not Nettle.

Suddenly another door opens as the Origami Tiger appears, skittering across the ceiling. Dill readies his spear, but it cannot reach the ceiling

From its neck, a fireball-like bolt shoots out towards Nettle. Jack throws himself in front of the fireball-bolt, rendering him unconscious. However, Jack is unable to protect Nettle, who lies also unconscious. Cherry grabs Nettle, dragging him to the bathroom, as the Origami Tiger follows them. Dill is able to stab it with his spear as it enters the bathroom, but is unable to hurt it. Cherry runs to save Jack, dragging him to the bathroom too.

The Origami Tiger drops down to the floor, grabs Nettle’s body, and ascends the ceiling once more. Cherry finds Nettle’s slingshot and hits it, but the creature continues to skitter away back to the door it burst from.  Dill throws his spear, missing the creature, but continues after the Origami Tiger.

Cherry hits the Tiger once more with Nettle’s slingshot, dropping the lifeless body of Nettle to the floor. Dill manages to catch up in time, hitting it with his Nettle Sword, but once again to little effect as both watch in horror as it drags Nettle through the door and disappears!

Aftermath

Treasure Found:

Foes Encountered:

Rumors:

Deaths:

XP Awarded:

Notes

1d12 Rumor
1 Sylvester isn’t the true heir to the throne. The lost child, Wine-by-the-Goblet, of King Nectarius is the rightful heir.
2 Prince Sylvester killed the Former King Lord Nectarius, his wife Lillies-o'er-Heartsight, and child, Wine-by-the-Goblet, by drowning them in honey
3 The Fae prince’s “lost love” smelled like fish and brine. Some think she was a merfolk in disguise.
4 I’ve seen the Merfolk building a ship! The Prince just keeps throwing Cotillions instead of doing something!
5 A fairy of high nobility, Lady Twiggler, tends to steal other people’s mail.
6 Captain Aphid, Commander of the Crabapple Garrison, has clashed with “Queen Madeline” and her Red Rats. I’ve heard the Captain petition for more reinforcements at Court.
6 The former king’s crown has been lost. No one can name a new king until it's found.
7 The Merchant Daffodil, Lightly-Come-Softly, has seen shades move all their own in the woods. Folk tell of their shadows going missing and nightmares made real. Has Mab, the Shadow Thief, really returned?
8 Royal advisor Tylwig’s jewelry is fake.
9 Something strange that lives in the water. I’ve seen it follow me while I was collecting honey. It smelled of rotten fruit and curdled milk.
10 The winemaker has been secretly spiking the barrels with cheap moonshine, made by mice.
11 The Lady Twiggler has been seen visiting the Royal Advisor Tylwig’s Sept late at night. Perhaps she’s taken a new lover? plaything?
12 Royal Advisor Tylwig is plotting to overthrow Prince Sylvester and take the throne for himself. I heard it from Tylwig’s nephew, Milton Silver-and-Quicksilver

notes

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