A Nice Lunch

Year, Season, Month, Days: 5990 F.Y. Frinle, Ospal 2-4

The party arrived at the castle and Ruth pulled some strings to stay the evening in one of the servant’s quarters. After spending some time with the heist’s spoils, the party found them to be valuable but non-magical. The next morning after sending Tektun to select a job from The Vast Tapestry, the party decided to send Molly and Felicity to hawk their 55 pounds of moonstones in exchange for a Handy Haversack and a small Bag of Holding, while Ruth unintentionally disguised herself as a recent domestic abuse victim with her dwarven child.

Whilst at the bazaar the party encountered a decrepit elven man who traded them for the entirety of their stones. After returning and speaking to Ruth they were asked if they verified the merchandise, after a moment of pained realization, they discovered the Bag of Holding to be fake and full of feces. The duo abruptly about-faced and aggressed the individual at the stall, who was a different person with no understanding of what transpired. Felicity found pieces of fake flesh scattered on the ground and asked around the bazaar regarding the mysterious elderly elf, through paid information they found the location of a hidden lair and the name Everett Pauil.

Molly unlocked the door and Felicity ripped it out of the wall in a fit of sheer rage. They descended into the mildewy dark stairs and found a blob of slime with two eyes suspended within that looked back at the intruders. After asserting they were Everett, the blob stood up awkwardly and pulled the fake skin on like a banana unpeeling itself, and began eating a moonstone. The creature immediately caved and gave the duo two Handy Haversacks in lieu of the Bag of Holding it did not possess. Felicity and Molly give Everett back the shit bag and he crawled in; upon realizing the bag was full of his shit Felicity tied the bag into a knot and left the bag hanging on the broken lair door. The two managed to reclaim 40 pounds of moonstones which they promptly sold to a stall at the first price given, however, before selling them all, from sheer curiosity Molly swallowed a moonstone.

The group divided up the spoils and discovered Ruth’s secret wagon hiding place before embarking on Tektun’s job to rescue missing children who were abducted and turned into bandits via some compulsion. During the journey, Felicity shared her history of being sold into piracy, ascending the ladder of power, and subsequent dethroning and mutiny. Molly shared her backstory of subterfuge, torture, former guild destruction, and a burning desire for vengeance; she was also raised by nuns.

Roughly an hour later the party arrived at the home of Theresa, the job poster. The moment the voice of mourning was heard, Molly immediately checked out to sit in the wagon. Felicity managed to learn there was an abundance of bats that appeared about a month ago and a total of 48 children were missing from the village. They likely took up residence in the old mines to the south. Molly and Tektun disguised themselves to look like children before venturing cave-ward.

Felicity and Ruth opened a bottle of wine before sending their “children” to go play in the abandoned mineshaft, like responsible parents. Having chosen to open Molly’s brain wine, Felicity had a sip and then thought aloud that she and Ruth should have trailed Molly and Tektun as they could be taken and Felicity and Ruth would never know. The two then tracked the child-impersonators to the mines and kept watch outside.

Within the cave and exploring further, Molly slipped on a slick slope of the cave but managed to catch themselves and have Tektun feed them a potion of Spider Climb. The two decided to slide down and explore further, finding an array of gaunt and scared children.

Meanwhile, Felicity noticed the sound of a flute and murmurations of bats moving towards the cave which coalesced into two humanoid forms, with the assistance of brain wine, she remembered a folk tale that spoke of creatures such as this. Upon hearing them discuss eating a child, she jumped down and engaged with them to stop their advance.

Molly and Tektun, hearing the scuffle, scrambled to the entrance of the cave to assist. The party managed to take them down between furious slashing and explosions even with sharp claws and compulsion against them. They managed to save all but 6 of the children, as well as acquire the lockboxes and locked leather journal. Felicity was incredulous at the pay of 40 silver and the broken spyglass but was luckily bribed with the promise of a good tuna steak and bottle of wine.