One-shot: Perils & Princesses - The Snake Queen and the Moon Cat

Last night we played a one-shot of Perils & Princesses! Here's what happened.

The Kingdoms - three nations surrounding the central nation of the All-City - have come together as they do every 10 years to reaffirm the Naocomida Accords. See, in the Dark Times many generations ago, the Sucuri, a race of giant, intelligent serpents, fed on whatever creatures they could catch, and that included people. But then the Kingdoms and the Sucuri came together to sign the Accords, stating that the Sucuri would not feed on intelligent creatures or animals claimed by intelligent creatures (so, like, livestock and pets). Every 10 year since then, the Sucuri's monarch comes to the All-City, and the All-King, the Sucuri monarch, and the rulers of the surrounding Kingdoms sign the Accords once again. 

This year, the three rulers of the Kingdoms have brought their children or heirs with them:

• Prince Elwin of Midnight Castle was granted the Gift of the Wild Heart by his fairy godmother, an avatar of the moon. Elwin can speak to animals and is a skilled hunter and bowman.
• Princess Rosabelle of Lonely Acres is a stout, strong lass and the niece of the Queen. Her kingdom raises sheep, and Rosabelle herself is a gifted herbalist and healer. She also received the Gift of Healing Touch from her fairy godmother (she doesn't see much of her anymore; her fairy godmother is a silver mist that speaks in riddles).
• Princess Angelica of Whispering Peak is something like the eighth of fifteen children, and as such isn't gonna inherit anything. But Angelica prefers to dress like a peasant and be out in the world anyway. She has the Gift of Spritely Agility, from her fairy godmother, a spirit of the forest.

These three are in attendance in the Council Room, as is Jar, the All-King, and their royal parents (or aunt, in the case of Rosabelle), waiting for Queen Sorella of the Sucuri to arrive. And arrive she does! She bursts through the door, a serpent as big around as a horse at her narrowest point. She stares down the All-King in fury, and demands to know what happened to her eggs!

Jar is baffled; he had no idea the Queen even had eggs with her. The situation grows tense, Sorella's neck hood starts to show, but fortunately her consort and majordomo Eunectes is with her. He speaks to her in their language, which Prince Elwin can understand. Eunectes reminds her that the Accords are still in effect, and since there's no proof that the eggs have been harmed or indeed who took them, their theft doesn't violate the Accords. Sorella relents, but makes it clear to Eunectes that if the eggs aren't recovered the Accords aren't going to be renewed. 

Eunectes conveys the Queen's anger to Jar, and the adult rulers in the room start behaving like rulers - posturing, preparing, and so forth. But Princess Angelica steps forward and calms the situation, asking if there's anything she can do to help - perhaps she could find the eggs? Eunectes and the Queen agree (and the Queen storms out), and Angelica's father asks her what she's doing. She tells him that she doesn't want the Accords to fall, and he agrees and goes back to his courtiers to prepare armies and so on. This leaves the Princesses alone with Eunectes.

Eunectes, clearly the most reasonable person here, tells the Princesses that Sorella was traveling with her eggs because she laid them later in the year than is typical; normally they'd have hatched by now. He says that he and Sorella were off hunting earlier and the eggs were looked after by a guard, but when they returned the guard was asleep and the eggs were missing. The Princesses ask to look at the scene of the crime.

The Sucuri are staying in a huge tent within the castle walls, heated with a few magic stones in a hole in the center. Eunectes mentions that the Sucuri have to stay warm, otherwise they fall asleep. The Princesses see the pen full of straw where the eggs were kept. Rosabelle doesn't see any debris, anyway, so there's no evidence the eggs were broken or harmed. Angelica finds some condensation outside the tent flap, almost like the temperature dropped quickly - maybe that's how the guard was dispatched? Elwin finds tracks in the tent. They look feline, but they're huge - this cat would have to be the size of a carriage! Also, the tracks are extremely shallow. A giant cat that's light on its feet?

They find more tracks at the entrance to the tent, but these indicate the the cat jumped. They look up and see moonlight streaming down, but not evidence of a cat. Elwin whistles and calls up some hunting dogs, and asks them to sniff about for the cat. The lead dog, Horace, tells him that it smells like raspberries...no, lightning...no, dust! Dusty raspberry lightning! Anyway, doesn't smell like a cat, but he can track it. He snerfles around the tent, but the scent just disappears at the area where the cat jumped.

They trace the direction where the cat might have jumped, based on the tracks, and find a gate leading outside. They talk to the guard there, who hasn't seen anything weird, much less a giant cat, but did feel a rush of cold wind that made the torches flicker a while ago. He opens the gate for them, and someone brings Elwin and Angelica their horses (Rosabelle rides with Angelica). They tell the lookouts on the gates to watch out for them, and they ride out.

They look around a bit, but then the dogs bay! They find the dogs by the river's edge, and there's a patch of ice on the water by the bank. The dogs tells Elwin that the dusty raspberry lightning smell is stronger here, and the Princesses find a thin layer of sparkly dust. Angelica rubs some between her fingers; it feels like ground rock, but it glitters in the moonlight. She unwisely tastes it, and her tongue turns to rock! 

The petrification spreads to her lips and probably would have consumed her, but Rosabelle steps in and uses her healing touch to stop it. The Princesses aren't sure what this is, but it looks pretty moonlight-related, so Elwin looks to the moon and calls out for his fairy godmother. The moonlight coalesces and she stands before them!

The Moon Lady listens to what they've found, and realization hits her. There's a cat, she says, that lives on the moon. "A Moon Cat?" says Angelica, and suddenly the cat appears.

The Moon Cat is huge, big enough to chase down and catch a horse if it so desired. It has black, sparkly fur and it wears gold bangles on its legs, tail, and head, but the one on its head seems to be missing a stone. Also, Elwin can't understand the Moon Cat - it seems to understand them, but its dialect of the cat language isn't one that translates. 

Still, the characters manage to figure out a few things. The Moon Cat admits to stealing the eggs, but was blackmailed into it by...someone...who stole the stone from its circlet. The ask where the ice came from, and it leaps into the air and flies all the way to the moon, and then flies back and lands in front of them. When it does, a blast of cold air accompanies it and freezes the water in the river immediately around it. 

But where are the eggs now? The Moon Cat indicates that they are under the city. Who stole them? This requires a bit of charades with the Moon Cat, but it mimes something with arms but not legs. A little perplexed, they return to the city and speak with the guard.

They describe the creature that the Moon Cat told them about, and the guard remembers a story his mother told him when he was young. Supposedly, many years ago, there was a noble in the All-City who tried to stage a bloody coup and take over, but he failed and was cursed to become the Dragon Worm. The way the guard heard it, he would snatch naughty children, but he's heard other versions, too, where the Dragon Worm wants his own kingdom. Maybe that's why he stole the eggs, then, to make his own nation of snakes?

The guard shows them to a building that leads into the tunnels beneath the city, and helps them pry up the grate. He arranges for their horses to be stabled, and while Horace asks if he should come, Elwin says that it's too dangerous for him (Horace is totally down, though; we decided there's probably a game of Heckin' Good Doggos taking place in parallel to this game where Horace and his pack go on an adventure after leaving the Princesses). 

Rosabelle takes off her frilly, ruffly dress and descends into the sewers with her leathers (Angelica has long since abandoned her noble kit; she prefers to dress like a peasant. Elwin stays in his fancier clothes, but his are a little more practical for this). They descend into a big, round room with several exits. One of them has drag marks, so the Princesses head that way...but then a huge insect surfaces from the muck! It doesn't attack, but beats its wings together, producing a hideous screaming sound!

The Princesses resist the giant cicada's sonic assault, but it also acts as a signal. A bunch of little humanoid creatures carrying sharpened sticks appear and charge them!

Elwin roars at them and all but three flee into the sewers. The remaining ones attack with their sharpened sticks, and trade blows with the Princesses. Angelica spins with her battle-ax, Rosabelle bops one with her staff, and Elwin fires arrows point-blank, but the rot goblins give as good as they get. One of them cracks Elwin across the face and drops him, but Rosabelle mimics their form and drops a goblin! Angelica tosses a net over one, entangling it, and the last one flees.

They interrogate the captured goblin; it doesn't speak their language but points them toward the Dragon Worm. Rosabelle heals Elwin, but sees a bunch of white blisters around his mouth - the Rot Mouth Curse! Fortunately Rosabelle's magic tears can handle it ("quick, tell me something sad!" "You can't really pull off ruffles!") and cure him, and she even has a few tears left over!

The three of the sneak into the chamber of the Dragon Worm. It's curled up, asleep, in the middle of the room - humanoid on top, with two arms ending in wicked claws, and the bottom half of a great serpent. Angelica clambers up the sloped walls and sees that it's curled around the eggs, and all 11 of them seem to be accounted for. They try to rig up something with the net to get the eggs out, but the goblins ripped it up too much. Nothing for it but violence!

Angelica strikes the sleeping monster with her ax, and it rears up, roaring, and wraps her up in its coils. It bites her, and she collapses, wounded. Elwin whistles and calls up an alligator (they live in the sewers, everyone knows that), and it bites at the Dragon Worm, and Rosabelle dumps her tears on Angelica to revive her. The battle is joined, and although the Princesses suffer injuries, they manage to weaken the Dragon Worm enough that Rosabelle can kiss it on the snoot. This immediately calms it, removing the hate from its heart, and it's willing to talk with them.

It confesses to stealing the eggs and says that it wanted a family, which is nice enough, but then it mentions wanting to visit bloody vengeance upon the descendants of those who wronged it. The Princesses try to convince it to mend its ways, but the magic kiss is wearing off and finally Elwin puts an arrow in the back of its head. "Better this way," he says. "We were losing it."

The Princesses call up to the guard and tell him to fetch Eunectes and tell him what's happening. Moments later he and Queen Sorella arrive, and start moving the eggs out (Eunectes also tells the characters that they should walk away and not watch what happens to the Dragon Worm's body, as Queen Sorella begins to unhinge her jaw). 

A short while later, everyone reconvenes in the Council Room, and the Naocomida Accords are signed once again! The Princesses have prevented war between the Sucuri and the Kingdoms, and defeated an ancient evil! Time for a picnic!