The Purple Lady

General Summary

The Muffin Men, having just dispatched the Fire Giant and his hound, took some time to recover while enjoying the relative safety of the high bridge over the rushing waters below. Gladstone alerted his companions to a man-shaped coffin or cocoon caught in the weeds on the edge of the river below. He rushed off to investigate, leaving the rest of the party to catch up. At the bottom of the bridge, the group were surprised to find a sentient, 8 foot tall mushroom standing under the bridge, equally interested in the cocoon in the weeds. Borgan immediately approached the mushroom and began to tell him his life story. Not having time for his blathering, Kaz investigated the odd cocoon in the weeds and found a mucus-covered young man inside. With the help of Borgan and his collapsing pole the two fished the cocoon out of the weeds and Kaz went to work breaking it open.
Inside the cocoon the Muffin Men find a very ill, and very nude man by the name of Artan Rossolio. Kaz, sensing the sickness within, slapped the Marthmammor Duin-loving shit out of the young noble, and with it the water sickness that was plaguing him. After recounting the little he could remember, Rossolio enlisted the party’s help to travel upriver to his home of Yartar, and to the reward he promised.
The meeting with Artan’s mother, Lady Dezhia Rossolio, was brief and pointed. Lady Dezhia had little time for her 4th-born son’s incompetence, and paid the Muffin Men a mere pittance of a reward (100gp). After learning more about how her son was found, however, Lady Dezhi made a request for help to the party. She offered 500 gp for information as to who was responsible for her son’s disappearance, and a further 500 gp if the party could locate and return the family amulet he lost. While she had no kind words to say about the casino or the people inside of it, she was able to identify The Grand Dame as the source of the golden goose logo.

Before making their way to the docks, however, the adventurers stopped by some of the local shops. Borgan found a fast-talking comrade at the blacksmith’s shop called Gnome Depot. Kaz found a friendly, young alchemist at Spoonful of Sugar. There, he showed her the sample of the cocoon he took from the river, and paid 5 gold for the alchemist to do some investigation as to the origins of the sample. The young woman eagerly accepted the job and asked Kaz to stop back by after some time has passed and she would tell him what she has learned. Those in the party of typical stature and size also stopped by to grab some finer clothes that would help them pass as patrons on the casio boat.

The Muffin Men tried to get the rest of their party onto the boat posing as an entertainment troupe. They approached the hiring manager on the docks and offered to demonstrate their “performance” in an attempt to be hired for the evening. Ophio prepared a magical light show while Borgan acrobatically tumbled to and fro. Tengo transformed into something that looked like a rabbit if the rabbit had been drawn by a blind man who had once had a rabbit described to him years ago as a child. Kaz, seeking to lend his own talents, prepared an aria in the key of belch, only to overestimate his esophageal sphincter and projectile vomit on the deck. Lucky to escape arrest or worse, they quickly retreated to formulate a new plan to access the inside of the boat.
Gladstone and Nike went ahead of the group, seemingly eager to try their hand at the gambling tables. Ophio, seeing no option to get on the ship as a crewman or patron, used his gaseous form spell to drift into the lower decks of the boat. Tengo and Borgan disguised themselves as patrons and headed up the gangplank, following a gorgeous woman in a purple dress and intricately-made octopus shoes. Kaz, meanwhile, doffed his armor and snuck around the docks until he happened upon a barrel of his family brew. Seemingly inspired by his luck, he hoisted the barrel on a hand truck and nonchalantly wheeled it up the ramp. Upon arriving on the lower deck of the Grand Dame, he tapped the barrel and offered it to the crew as a gesture of their employer’s good will.
Upstairs, Borgan and Tengo found their way to the gambling floor and spotted the purple lady playing a skilled game of Sava. After the game, Borgan surreptitiously quaffed a potion of mind reading and pulled a booster seat up the table to try his own luck at the game. The purple lady introduced herself as Lady Atalia, and accepted the challenge from Borgan. Thinking he was safe to probe her thoughts, Borgan concentrated and burrowed past Atalia’s surface thoughts only to be rebuked be her telepathically. Either the two of them had the same idea when it came to playing cards, or something about Atalia was not as it seemed. Atalia, before completing the game, telepathically told Borgan to follow behind her some distance after she left and she would “explain everything.” With that, the Muffin Men each found their way off of the boat… some more gracefully than others, and followed Borgan following Atalia up the dark streets and into a narrow alley near the market district.

Report Date

20 Dec 2019

Primary Location

Yartar