Session 4 - Bedroom Talk
General Summary
Celeste follows Lady Bumbleford to her laboratory while chatting aimlessly about the noblewoman’s work. There, she learns a few things about what Lady Bumbleford has been working on and the nature of some of the oddities around this tournament. First, Lady Bumbleford explains the “bees,” or what is now known to the party as “Vespons.” The Vespons are the ancestors to the common-day bee family and were once extinct. Lady Bumbleford in her early research was able to revive them from extinction and breed them. Their honey is now one of the core ingredients of Honeyhive’s honeywine and possesses some healing properties, albeit dangerous unless properly handled and distilled.
When entering the laboratory, Lady Bumbleford makes it clear to Celeste that the door has been enchanted with an enchantment of Bumbleford’s invention called the “vampire lock.” Without her blood, or a clear invitation in, outsiders cannot enter referencing the legend of vampirism. After a clear invitation, Celeste is allowed to enter the laboratory and remarks on the clear dedication Lady Bumbleford has put into her craft. While not the most impressive compared to the laboratories that might be in one of the academies or the Inventor’s League—it is clearly full of present, in-progress work. The cauldrons are filled with bubbling, unknown orange liquid.
Lady Bumbleford tells Celeste that she was interested in Celeste’s past at the Cordilleran Inventor’s League, letting Celeste know that she was not as concerned about taking the necessary risks for change. She cares not for fickle ethics, and believes that all good science requires a few sacrifices for the sake of progress. Bumbleford’s magnum opus has been Ambrosia, a potion with the qualities to bring life to those who even divine magic could not bring back. Specifically, she cites animal tests which have worked as long as 48 minutes post-death and one test on a moral person, which worked in 13 minutes post-death. With just a little more time—a few more data points, perhaps this “Ambrosia” could be life changing. Maybe it could even bring back those long lost? She invites Celeste to become one of her partners in brewing Ambrosia, and Celeste readily agrees.
Back at the feast one of the familiar friendly lords, Bond Borsmount, is acting a little off. He did not greet the Partycule at the feast in the prior session and continues to throw them glowers and sneers. Calum notices this and sends Bond a friendly message, but Bond only responds with a tense: “Get out of my head.” Undisturbed, Calum keeps his head down, but keeps careful watch of the nobility at the head of the table. At the same time, Violet cannot help but seem to be a deterrent to the small Vespons that buzz around the feasting hall.
Bond Borsmount, however, seems less than pleased with the party huddled by the door. He walks towards them, requesting a conversation with Violet. Nervous, she bides by his request. She notices that, like her, he seems to repel the small creatures away, almost like they are scared of him. He’s quick to flick one of the bees further away, telling Violet that they’re insolent little creatures that she should not trust. After a brief chat, he offers her a glass of wine poured from a small, ornate flask in his coat pocket. Bond takes one drink of the flask himself before pouring Violet a glass. The sweet wine fills a hunger that Violet had not satiated in quite a while, but before she can interrogate him, Bond insists that she take his flask. He instructs her to never ask him about this occasion again, and to think of it as entirely forgotten.
Violet then returns to the group, acting strangely. Alastor and Asha probe for more details but Violet spins a tale which satisfies no one. Bond Borsmount takes the opportunity to return, requesting a tarot from Asha with the question: “Will I succeed?” When Asha pulls the lovers reversed, he quickly tells her to burn it before storming out the feast hall doors. Alastor is quick to follow. When the dust settles and it is just Asha and Violet, Asha is able to convince Violet for a small taste of the wine from Bond’s flask where she tastes a coppery flavor—one can only assume from there.
Alastor confronts Bond in one of the hallways. Bond, however, is having none of it. He seems to not recognize who Alastor is, calling him a squire that should return to his knight. Alastor is taken aback by the flip in character, further questioning Bond as to his whereabouts the next day, but Bond seems to have none of it. Bond tells Alastor that he has to correspond with his father and shoos Alastor away. Without possessing a high skill in stealth, Alastor returns to the party around the same time that Celeste and Lady Bumbleford return.
The Partycule returns to their rooms shortly after, knowing that they have a meeting with Lord Hemlocke scheduled that night to speak about the ongoing events of the tournament. They are all on edge as Lady Bumbleford can be seen walking Lord Hemlocke to his room. Alastor sends Celeste to try and listen in, and she’s able to hear Lady Bumbleford giving Lord Hemlocke the suggestion to: “Rest, trance for the next eight—no, seven and a half hours before awaking and leaving your room for breakfast.”
The Partycule muddles around the idea of breaking into Hemlocke’s door with thieves' tools, but quickly scrap the idea remembering Bumbleford’s affinity for charming doors. Alastor returns to his room while the others think of an alternative solution to their problem. Calum and Alastor have a short altercation which leads to Alastor grappling Calum around the throat. Violet is able to separate the boys but the situation leaves the entire Partycule tense.
When Calum puts his head out the window, he’s able to see that all of the guest rooms have their windows slightly ajar for the Vespons. Within an hour Asha’s familiar, Cocoa, had been transfigured to appear as a smaller creature with wings that could fly through and allow Asha to Misty Step into Hemlocke’s room. Calum peaks in on Asha’s ritual cast and sees Asha profusely apologizing while performing the ritual, but swiftly exits before she can notice him. Cocoa squeezed in perfectly through the window crack and the rest of the party quickly flooded into the room. Alastor is quick to wake the trancing Hemlocke with a smack to the face, which he also promptly heals with his first use of Lay on Hands.
Hemlocke, now awake, explains that he does not trust Bumbleford at all, especially with how she had used enchantment spells on him. Hemlocke is quick to ask Celeste how her conversation went with Bumbleford, and Celeste lies about the full details of it. She tells Hemlocke that she spoke with Bumbleford in her office, and saw nothing of importance. Calum, recognizing Celeste’s lie, begins to back her up, telling Hemlocke that he, too, had seen Bumbleford’s office. When Hemlocke calls Calum out for lying, telling him that there was no way Calum would have been able to get through Bumbleford’s door enchantments, Calum tries to keep up the lie but falls flat. Asha, Violet and Alastor all question the lies as well, forcing Calum to admit that he had been lying, and subsequently lead Celeste to confess as well.
Hemlocke, despite clearly not trusting the entire group, shares his information in the form of five letters that he had found in his mother’s office prior to her death. He tells them that she had died of some necrotic ailment, dying quickly within a day as soon as she had become afflicted. He explains that the late Lady Hemlocke had died on the same day he did. However, he had been able to be resurrected past a time where no one else since the death of Touarch, God of the Underworld, had been—13 minutes.
Report Date
11 Oct 2025
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