Session 3: A Day At The Zoo
General Summary
About one week after the party returned with the mysterious materials from the jungle, the party is still laying low in the resistance hideout. Needing to stretch her legs, Soleil takes a trip alone into the city. On her first stop on her day she travels to a small bar. There she learns of Riordan's most recent declaration. The Bhalrooz Public Zoo is nearing its 80th anniversary, and in recognition of this Lord Riordan has declared the zoo will no longer be open to the public; effectively turning it into his private menagerie.
With the information about the zoo in mind, Soleil starts to head back to the hideout but decides to take a detour see what has come of Kairon's smithy. She enters the storefront to be met by two humans who are surprised by her arrival. The first human, Harjap informs Soleil that they are not quite ready for customers yet, but will be open within the week. The second human, Setal, enters from the forge in the back holding a strange stone salamander. Setal lets out a disdainful remark on the "junk" left over from the previous owner and tosses the salamander on the floor. Soleil innocently inquires about what happened to the previous owner to which the dwarves let her know Kai has been implicated in the death of a group of Riordan cultists and has been declared a wanted man. Soleil excuses herself and prepares to leave, but not before offering to purchase the stone salamander to which Setal quickly agrees.
Soleil returns to the hideout and relays all she learned about the zoo and Kai's shop. Kai is heartbroken at the loss of his livelihood, but has a brief moment of relief when Soleil reveals the salamander idol she recovered from the shop. Kai happily takes the salamander but does not elaborate on its importance, merely implying it has a special significance to him. Soleil asks the group if they would like to accompany her on a trip to the Zoo, and Vidrohi and Lucky agree but Kai declines in order to dwell longer on the revelations of his forge's fate and stay hidden now that he's a wanted man.
Now about the town, Soleil, Vidrohi, and Lucky arrive at the Bhalrooz Zoo. Moving through the busy crowds, they first visit the butterfly pavilion where they are informed that Tabaxi like Lucky are not allowed to enter without first putting on a provided harness. To her dismay, Soleil applies the harness to her party member and guides her through the pavilion and admiring the butterflies, on their exit Soleil takes the offer to purchase the commemorative harness as a souvenir. Along the rest of the zoo they admire great jungle cats, elephants, okapi and more. Notably, the boar exhibit has been empties and the creatures are nowhere to be seen. The trio explores the zoo in full and notices that several buildings are marked off limits including a large palatial building far at the back of the park. Finished at the attraction they exit through the giftshop where Soleil and Lucky purchase packages of laddu deserts and Riordan bobbleheads to compete for Sarasi's affection.
Meanwhile at the hideout, Kai is keeping his mind of his troubles by making small equipment repairs for Sarasi and the enclave. Kai mentions his loss of a forge and how he will be needing a new one to get back to smithing instead of small repairs, and Sarasi muses that having a full forge within the hideout would be immensely convenient for her and shares her support for the idea.
The zoo trio arrives from their trip and present their presents to Sarasi, who quips that they beat her to the news. Sarasi explains that the details are ready for their next mission, they will be breaking into the zoo after it closes. An informant in the zoo has leaked details that magical creatures are being kept in an off-limits building at the zoo, and a magical creature breeder has offered to support the resistance in exchange for releasing the creatures from the zoo.
The party takes on a mission to heist the zoo.
Missions/Quests Completed
1. Scout the zoo layout
Character(s) interacted with
Harjap and Setal, the new appointed owners of Kai's former smithy
Created Content
Bhalrooz Zoo
Report Date
04 Nov 2021
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
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