Session 12: Debate and Dinner

People present: WHOLE PARTY!
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The cafe is super quaint and cozy, Vorach and Serafina enter and are greeted by the cafe's keeper, who is a slightly older dwarvish (?) woman. She's a very nice lady, and offers us a lot of choice, but doesn't know about drinking chocolate. Instead, she orders a tea and is given a basic green trea, which she does NOT approve of (she's very Simon Cowell about all of this). Vorach asks for a double brew because it's a little weak for him.
 
She brings us cake which Serafina ALSO disapproves of the cake, as she thinks it's really poorly made. Vorach, who's never had chocolate in his life, adores it, and happily takes her seconds. Unfortunately the double brew is strong for his first time ever having coffee and chocolate, and when the GM rolls a nat 1 he looney tunes sprints out of the cafe (after paying!) to race for the loo with Serafina helpfully calling out the right door in his wake.
 
Zeal sings happily on his way to the Lawkeeper with Sidna, and after the guards are made squeamish by them waving around the bandit hands, they're ushered in (bullying this poor guard by pointing and patting him on the shoulder with the severed hands of the bandits). The Lawkeeper welcomes them into her office, and Zeal happily announces they're here to claim a bounty (and deal with corpses!) She's a bit skeeved out by this, but after he re-phrases it from "give me your corpses" to explaining the druidic cycle behind it. Now more convinced, she's happy to take him up on that after some paperwork.
 
Now on to the bounty, the party puts four hands on the table, palm up, and while the goblins aren't worth much (only 5 each), the more human hand nets 25, and Zeal collects before divvying up (and collecting his cut, ofc). Zeal mentions we have plans to take out the camp entirely in the end, but it may be a bit. Sidna points out the bandits aren't "that strong" and that if the bounty was more advertised, it would probably be dealt with faster. She says that she can't spare the guard though, and the current state of affairs is a good thing to hope for.
 
Zeal also asks after Vorach's mum for him, but beyond a few raiders, the only orc woman she can remember was about a year ago, when a very large orc woman went through town, with a spear. Sidna asks if the spear was ornate, but the Lawkeeper doesn't know. Apparently this orc got into an argument with a potion seller name Girot. A halfling, apparently! At that moment, the door swings open, and who else should arrive but another halfling with bright red hair: WILLOW HAS ARRIVED!
 
She looks nervous, and stammers out a greeting to Sidna even as Zeal realises a grave social faux pas from ages ago and introduces himself to the Lawkeeper, who introduces herself as Ruthwin. Willow walks around and puts an exceptionally large, green hand on the desk. Willow's worked for her plenty before. She found this while looking for us, apparently! She was doing some detective work and stumbled upon HIM near a bandit camp, which Zeal is happy to hear and wants to get the information about. Sidna mentions how late it's getting and asks a final question, asking for the information that was gotten from the bandits before they died.
 
Rothwin pulls out a map and asks Willow to show her where the camp was, and she agrees (it's not that far away! Maybe a day there and back with Willow leading) before Rothwin starts to give over the info they got from the hanged bandits. The bandits have switched tactics, she reveals. They're starting to use their goblin servants more in fights. Numbers revealed, it looks like they'll have about 16 regular bandits and 20 or so goblins at their disposal. Willow says she can sneak in, but there's not really many who could follow her. Zeal suggests he change into an animal, and as he's pondering Willow suggests maybe a squirrel? There's lots of squirrels in the forest. Zeal tries to flirt and call her a snack, but she doesn't take the flirt right and instead makes him cover up his shirt and hopping on Nibbles.
 
We ask where Willow is staying and find out she's been roughing it, and the two both offer her to come along and stay with them. As they're about to leave, the Lorekeeper calls for them to wait and Zeal turns to see her handing over a writ that will allow him to collect the bodies legally.
 
Making her way back out of town, Serafina arrives just in time to see an exhausted Vorach exiting the outhouse. She offers him sympathy and takes their stuff in, while Vorach moves to the stables to wash up before heading in - being briefly interrupted/met by a homeless man who keeps muttering how the chickens are evil. Heading back in to tell the party, Vorach doens't realise that Serafina was spying on him and saw him do a pseudo-sexy emo boy hairflip out of the water barrel. Scandalous!
 
Inside, we divvy up drinks and food, with Beans unimpressed by the coffee and dumping it out - calling Vorach a wuss when he says he got an upset stomach after having it for the first time. So obviously Vorach cast sleep on him, grumbling. Serafina and Vorach talk for a little bit, with Serafina finding out that Vorach's dad is rich and his mom is awesome, and Vorach finding out that Serafina doesn't think we'll get to the south to have a chance to meet her parents. Beans wakes up shortly after, though, and the two quickly convince him that he passed out eating subpar chocolate. Sera asks after chocolate connections, and Beans tells her that in this area she's likely to get ripped off for any good chocolate, and the best thing to do would be to check the ports. He's got Terminal Sleepy Boy disease, however, and passes out. We decide to get dinner and meet up with the rest of the party entering the tavern!
 
We share coffee and decide to grab food, the party trading information:
- Zeal tells Vorach about the potential trail to his mum
- Willow's family are a bunch of farmers, she's the first person to get wanderlust! She doesn't know Girot.
- Silver Mountains is the furthest south Vorach's been, no idea of what's beyond that
- Willow left to take care of some business. It may be the last time. If not, the next will be the last time, and she said it OMINOUSLY.
- Feelings SUCK, we're going to eat food instead!
 
We find out that Lucy is Edaline's daughter...mostly because Zeal immediately turned the flirt up to 10. Just like. Naturally. Until he opened a button, then it was intentional I'm pretty sure. Either way, we pay for our dinner and breakfast, and then start talking. Svenna and Willow will talk to share info and make sure that we have a good layout before making any battle strategies in the morning. As food is ordered, Zeal and Willow drink heavily (Willow holding it much better than either Zeal or Serafina), the former drinking wine and the latter drinking ale.
 
We start talking a bit about our pasts as we make sure everyone's on the same page, as Sidna starts to press Willow on where she's been with the latter trying very hard to make her way out of things, and eventually fleeing the table after scarfing down her dinner - assaulted both by Sidna's probing and Vorach's insistence that (despite having only met two days ago) she should rely on her "tribe" and not just her own strength. Dinner both is and is not the place for deep conversation!
 
She gets her own room and hides away, and the party is soon to follow, though Sidna stops Vorach and demands information on chocolate in a strangely passionate fashion, showing more emotion than normal. She also says that Vorach shouldn't call her ma'am, she's not his mother. He hurriedly corrects himself and says "Yes, sir." She is not bothered by this at all, seeming a little bemused, and nods, composing herself and making her way upstairs. With the rest of the party leaving, most to rooms but Zeal to roam the streets, the beer in his head making him strive for chaos.
 
Serafina keeps Vorach trapped upstairs awkwardly flirting for an hour before Beans pushes him inside and slams the door - gods bless grumpy kobolds for saving us! He flops into bed and Vorach writes a note that he slips under Willow's door (he found it by smelling the doors and finding the dog smell).
 
Meanwhile in the girl's room, Sidna has dressed down and is kicking her legs and twirling her hair while she writes furiously in her journal, but Serafina does not say anything because she's sulking over Connie not noticing her. Svenna doesn't notice either, too busy comforting the poor girl and her heartbreak. Sidna comes out of her own stupor and tries to comfort her, but it's Sorrows Sorrows Prayers, and ends up with her asking if Serafina's ever tried women. Unfortunately she's too deep in her feels and it doesn't help.
 
Swapping back to Zeal, he finds himself in an alley with a bunch of ruffians and thugs, still pretty buzzed. He feels right at home! Unfortunately the rest of the people in the bar he enters doesn't seem thrilled at his entrance, starting a brawl and causing him to mouth off, getting him into a fight and causing him to escape through teleporting with his crazy fire lady and hopping over rooftops to get him out of town, blinking past rooftops while being carried over her shoulder. Arson makes a man sleepy!
 
He passes out in the room, scaring Vorach shitless, and we all - eventually - get a restful sleep.