Session21

Side-Questing in Rowen: The Elixir Man
The gang returned from the Perpetual Forest and took a much-deserved rest at their old haunt, the Mugwump Inn. Once they were recovered, they spoke to Mr. Mugwump, who had received two letters for them while they were away. They took the letters and headed to Rindle's Tavern, where they could have a drink and relax. Lady Caraga opened the first letter, which was from their old friend Tomas Tennon. He wrote of a travelling salesman in town, calling himself "The Elixir Man." According to Tomas, villagers who had purchased seemingly too-good-to-be-true potions had found themselves instead the recipients of some fairly nasty side effects. Tomas implored the adventurers to investigate the Elixir Man, possibly bringing Tomas some of the potions for analysis, and to turn him into the authorities. Tomas also mentioned that the Elixir Man had been leaving his tent every night around 6 p.m. to visit Rindle's Tavern, and suggested that this was the best time to sneak into his tent.

Looking down at his time-piece, Taargus realized that it was exactly 6 p.m. at that moment. The group panicked slightly, and, if the Elixir Man had been in the tavern at the time, he would probably have found the whole thing quite suspicious. And the Elixir Man may have been in the tavern at the time, but as nobody in the group knew what he looked like, they would never know if he did, in fact, find them suspicious. They un-suspiciously exited the tavern.

They soon reached the tent, and knew it belonged to the Elixir Man due to the giant sign that read "The Elixir Man" hanging above the flap. They entered the tent and looked around, noting shelves and shelves of nondescript potions. Digging around a bit, Cora found a crate of brightly-colored potions set apart from the others; the crate was marked with large red warning label, reading "EXPERIMENTAL - DO NOT DRINK."



The reverie was broken by the sound of flapping wings, and the adventurers looked up to discover a large bird had entered the tent. The bird eyed them disdainfully, and then began squawking, "Intruders! Intruders!"

Before anyone could react, the tent around them began to change. They suddenly found themselves in an immense, dimly-lit chamber. To the north, there was a large body of water, and a couple of doors and a mouse hole could be spotted in the hall leading to the water. About two hundred feet above them, there was a balcony ledge, but there was no obvious way of getting up to it. The nearest door had six mysterious, cube-shaped holes in it, but it unfortunately was locked. Looking around them, they noticed that the experimental potions were the only things from the tent that traveled with them.

Twitch immediately rushed to the potion crate and swigged back one of the potions. When he sprouted wings, the rest of the adventurers raced to get their own. Cora shrunk down to the size of a mouse, Fausto became invisible, and Caraga developed gills. To their disappointment, Taargus and Sebastian's potions did not cause any immediate effects.

Twitch utilized his new-found ability first. With a shout of, "See you, suckers!", he flapped his wings and made off toward the balcony. Upon landing, he found himself on a ledge, facing a door guarded by two gargoyles.

"Hello!" the first gargoyle greeted him.

"Welcome to the balcony!" the second added. "Are you a gargoyle too? This room we are guarding is only for gargoyles. If you're a gargoyle, you can come in!" Twitch assured him that he was, in fact, a gargoyle.

"Well," the first gargoyle said, "what's your name?"

"Gargoyle," Twitch uncreatively answered. "What are your names?"

"I am Gula!" the first gargoyle responded.

"And I am Goji!" the second chimed in. "'Gargoyle' is a really great gargoyle name!"

"You don't seem to be made of stone," Gula commented. "What are you made of?" Twitch muttered something incoherently, which the gargoyles seemed to accept.

"Can you do this?!" Goji asked excitedly, doing a backflip in the air. Twitch assured him that he could, and then tried, but failed. Despite this, the gargoyles were ready to accept him as one of their own, and allowed him to enter the gargoyle-only room.

Twitch entered a room full of spikes, which he had to aerially navigate around until he found a chest, which thankfully was located on solid ground. Inside the chest was a pair of winged boots and a glass cube full of feathers. Twitch took both and exited the room. When he saw the gargoyles again, he taunted them, telling them he stole their cube and that he wasn't even really a gargoyle. For some reason, he was trying to pick a fight, but sadly for him, the gargoyles were pacifists. Instead of fighting, they both broke down into tears.

"We thought you were cool, man," Gula said mournfully.

"We just wanted to be your friend," Goji sniffled. Twitch left the balcony feeling quite guilty.

Meanwhile, Cora utilized her size to enter the nearby mouse hole. She found herself in what was probably a normal-sized bedroom, but to her, it seemed enormous. On the floor in front of her was a conveniently mouse-sized length of rope, which Cora grabbed. A chest was visible on the other side of the room, but she decided to use the rope to climb the furniture first, hoping to find something of value.

She climbed the dresser first, and found a piece of fish on a plate. She opted out of eating the fish, instead taking it with her for later. She made a spectacular leap from the dresser, landing in a graceful pirouette on the ground, and proceeded to climb the potted plant. There, she found a sprig of mint, and was beginning to plan out a delicious soup with her new ingredients. Finally, she climbed the bookcase, where she found a shiny ribbon, which simply did not fit in with her soup plans, but she kept it nonetheless.

She finally reached the chest, and opening it, found a glass cube full of what appeared to be hair, and also rat-form armor. Excited about her new find, she slammed the lid of the chest closed, awakening the cat that had been sleeping on the bed the entire time.

Thinking quickly, Cora dove under the bed, just barely escaping the cat's first pounce. The cat reached a paw under the bed to swat at her, but was fortunately too fat to fit under the bed himself. A careful peek from her hiding spot allowed Cora to read the name tag on the cat's collar: Murray.

Cora waited until the cat was distracted elsewhere, and then stealthily made her way from under the bed to under the dresser. When she was sure she had placed enough distance between herself and Murray, she made a dash back to the mouse hole, narrowly fleeing the room and making it back to the initial hallway.

Meanwhile, Taargus and Sebastian were attempting to figure out what effects their potions had. Taargus opened the door on the left side of the hallway, and was instantly greeted by six angry cyclopses. He slammed the door, but not before being slightly bruised by the cyclopses' attacks. He wondered if perhaps he had been given a love potion, and swept Sebastian up into his arms, planting a passionate kiss on his lips. While the kiss was magical, it had nothing to do with the potions, and the gentlemen awkwardly untangled themselves from one another's arms. Sebastian thought that his potion might be super strength, and he attempted to lift the much-larger Taargus, which ended with both men in a painful heap on the floor. They had yet to figure out what their powers were...

Fausto, now invisible, had observed Taargus enter (and quickly exit) the room with the cyclopses, and he thought it would be a perfect place to test his new ability. The cyclopses did not notice when he entered the room; four were sitting at a table in the center playing a card game, one was eating next to a snack table, and the last was drinking from a keg. He moved stealthily through the room, knowing that despite his invisibility, the cyclopses might still sense him if he got to close or made too much noise. He spotted a chest in the back corner of the room and headed for it. On his way, he very nearly slipped in a spilled puddle of ale, but saved himself with a spectacular flip. Had he been visible, he was sure the cyclopses would have rated his act of gymnastics a "10".

Despite the snacking and drinking cyclopses moving around the room a bit as they mingled, Fausto reached the chest with few problems. To ensure they did not notice him opening the chest, he threw his voice, making it sound as though there was some strange, unknown species of own on the other side of the room. The bird call, at the very least, succeeded in confusing the cyclopses, and one of them did go to investigate. Confident they were distracted, Fausto opened the chest, finding a glass cube full of mist and an Elixir of Invisibility. Despite his best efforts, however, opening the chest alerted the cyclopses to his presence, and suddenly all were on their feet and on their guard.

At this point, Twitch, who had returned from the balcony and was looking for something to do, burst into the room in an attempt to help. He thought that he could fly in over the cyclopses' heads, but severely misjudged how tall cyclopses are, and how low the ceiling in the room was, and he was grabbed by the foot and dragged to the ground. There, he was mercilessly pummeled by cyclopses. While this did take some of the pressure off of Fausto, now all six cyclopses were blocking the doorway, which Fausto had planned to exit out of.

As Twitch crawled his way across the floor, away from the door, Fausto leaped over the center table, hoping to get out of the room quicker. His landing was flawless, but unfortunately, a cyclops which had been pursuing Twitch sensed a second presence nearby, and made a lucky grab. Fausto struggled against the cyclops' grasp and managed to free himself. He ran to the doorway and back out into the hall, and the cyclopses did not follow. Twitch hobbled out soon after, no worse for wear (all things considered).

Meanwhile, Caraga entered the pool at the north end of the hallway and acclimated herself to the strange sensation of breathing through gills. She swam to the bottom of the body of water, where she encountered three mermaids outside of a large sunken ship.

"Ohmygosh, hi!" the first mermaid cheerfully greeted her.

"Would you like to go into our boat?" the second eagerly asked. Caraga for sure wanted to enter that boat, but the third mermaid stopped her.

"If you want to go in, you need to do something for us first - we need to be complimented, of course! Flattery will get you everywhere," the mermaid assured her.

Caraga wasted no time. "Your shell-bras are great," she started, "and your voices are pretty, and you have such nice hair..." She could have gone on, but the mermaids were clearly delighted already. They thanked her, and the first mermaid handed her a mirror.

"Thanks, and have fun on the boat!" she called as Caraga swam off to investigate the ship. Inside, she found a giant octopus; each of its eight arms was blocking one of eight doors. The octopus looked sad, and stared at the mirror she carried longingly. She held out the mirror, and the octopus instantly snatched it in one of its giant arms. Now unable to block the door with this arm, Caraga was able to go inside. She found a dressing room with a vanity - atop the vanity was a necklace in an open jewelry box. Caraga took the necklace and brought it back into the ship's hallway, where the octopus again looked at her item intently. She offered this item too, and soon another room was available to her. She made her way into each of the eight rooms like this, always offering the octopus an item that had been found. After she had given the octopus a vase, an ancient coin, a bottle of wine, a glass bowl, a trumpet, and an elephant tusk, all eight of its arms were full, and the octopus looked positively chipper. Entering the final room, Caraga found a glass cube full of water and a set of coral armor. Waving goodbye to the octopus and also the mermaids, Caraga paddled her way back to the surface.

Meanwhile, Taargus and Sebastian were still trying to figure out what their potions allowed them to do. They were running out of ideas. Seeing that the last time he had opened a door, everything had gone swimmingly, Taargus decided to try the door on the right side of the hallway. This time, however, it proved to be to his benefit. A wave of heat radiated from the doorway, but Taargus' new-found heat resistance allowed him to pass through unharmed. He miraculously walked into a jet of flames coming from the floor, but remained unsinged.

The next obstacle he encountered was a blast of ice, coming from jets in the ceiling. Thinking perhaps that he had extreme temperature resistance of all types, he sauntered on through, but ended up taking damage from the cold. He was hesitant coming upon steam vents, but was able to pass through them without difficulty. He next came to a large pit of acid, which he decided to attempt to leap over. He could choose to leap to the right side, which would allow him to continue down his path, or he could leap to a small ledge on the left side, where he spied something shiny. He successfully leaped to the left, and acquired 10 gp. Unsure if he could make the entire distance of the pit, he jumped back to where he had been before, and then jumped to the right.

Continuing to navigate the maze-like room, Taargus next arrived at a sheet of ice. He mustered up all of the grace he had, and was able to glide carefully to the other side. He could finally see the chest ahead of him, but first he had to navigate a static cage. He attempted to deactivate the device, but was unable to decipher the controls. Ultimately, he was forced to power through, and made it to the other side despite some electrocution. He reached the chest, and found a glass cube with a magical flame inside, as well as a cloak of survival. A door opened up next to the chest, and he was able to get back to the hallway without having to maneuver back through the maze.

Meanwhile, Sebastian was still desperately trying to determine his power. A tiny voice in the back of his head told him that perhaps he had gained the ability to phase, and that he should attempt to walk through the wall in front of him, though he was not sure he should trust this instinct. He tried to ignore it, but the voice got louder and more insistent, and became many more voices, and began chanting that he should walk through the wall. So he did. And it worked!

Sebastian found himself in a room without any doors. He peered down an empty hallway, and correctly assumed that there were more doorless rooms bordering the one he was currently in. He walked through another wall, and found himself on a ledge overlooking a pit about 20 feet deep. In the center of the pit was a raised dais with a switch on it, attached to the ledge by a thin rope. Above him hung another rope. Sensing an urgent need to pull the switch, Sebastian attempted to tightrope walk to the dais, but fell into the pit. Dusting himself off, he climbed a latter from the bottom of the pit back to the ledge, and tried again. And fell into the pit again. Increasingly bruised, he climbed the latter again. And tried again. And fell again. At this point, he was beginning to feel quite a bit concussed. But he was determined to make it, and, as they say, fourth time's the charm. Reaching the dais, he pulled the switch, though at the moment was unsure what effect it had. Unwilling to try to cross the tightrope back to the ledge, he voluntarily jumped into the pit, ignoring what were surely broken bones at this point. Climbing up the ladder one final time, he phased out of the room and into the room directly across from it.

The second room was pitch black; Sebastian could not see a single thing, but could hear scuttling noises all around him. He kept a hand to the wall as he slowly made his way about the room. After only a few steps, he became tangled in what felt like a giant spider web. Fortunately, he was able to disentangle himself quickly, and felt his way to the switch on the wall without further incident.

After pulling the switch, Sebastian phased into the adjacent room. It was empty except for a few stones on the ground. When he looked up, he saw gold coins littered on the other side of a glass ceiling. He grabbed one of the stones and threw it at the ceiling, causing the glass to shatter. He rolled to dodge the falling glass, not wanting to injure himself further. As he began to collect the coins that had fallen, the room began to fill with poison gas. Noticing the air becoming thick and foul, Sebastian grabbed what coins he could, and then pulled the switch on the far wall. Unbeknownst to him, the final switch removed the metal sheeting that covered the walls of the final room, allowing him to phase into it. The final room contained a chest, housing a glass cube with a stone inside, and some breaching armor. Taking his items with him, Sebastian phased back into the main hallway.

The adventurers gathered together in the hallway, studying their cubes. One by one, they put the cubes into the corresponding cube-shaped holes in the main door, unlocking the door. When they opened it and stepped outside, they were back in front of the Elixir Man's tent, and the tent was indeed a tent again.

While most of the group dutifully sought out Tomas to tell him of their findings, Fausto and Taargus went back to Rindle's Tavern in search of the Elixir Man himself. Fausto tried to get an upgraded invisibility potion, but the Elixir Man feigned ignorance of that particular concoction. However, he did convince the two of the benefits of his other wares, and Taargus purchased a potion for erectile dysfunction. Fausto then sought out Gregg Rindle, who was more than a little miffed that Fausto had not kept in contact with him after the kiss they shared. Rindle outright refused to bargain with Fausto for drinks, and Fausto left without the honey ale that he would have liked.

Side-Questing in Rowan: The Travelling Circus
After spending the following day visiting with local merchants, the group finally got around to reading their second letter. It was from Brayden Drover, who (as Mr. Mugwump so helpfully reminded them) was the captain of Rowen's Guard. The letter was brief, simply asking the group to come meet with him to discuss some business.

"Hello, gang," he greeted them as they entered the guard outpost. "You may remember that the last time we met, I had a terrible accent! Fortunately, I just had a cold at the time, and am better now." He got right down to business, explaining what he had summoned them for. It seemed as though a travelling circus was in town, and one of the circus performers had turned up dead. Brayden suspected that one of the other performers was responsible, but they had not been cooperating with his investigation. Sensing something fishy was afoot, the guard captain asked the adventurers to go undercover, pretending to be interested in joining the circus, in order to gain the trust of the current performers and hopefully uncover the murderer.

The adventuring group was not fully convinced they should get involved, and asked Brayden to provide some further motivation. They struck a bargain: every member of the group would receive 120 gold upon finding the culprit, except for Fausto and Twitch, who would instead receive 80 gold and one honey ale each. Shaking on their agreement, they got to work learning the facts of the case.

Brayden admitted that he did not have much to go on yet, but told them that the deceased woman was a tightrope walker named Jolee, and gave them a list of names and occupations of possible suspects. The adventurers would have to determine the relationships of the suspects to the victim and find out where she was killed. Brayden suggested not to mention the murder right away so as not to make the circus performers suspcious, and the group was off.



Upon arriving at the circus, the adventurers were greeted by a dwarf named Voade. He introduced himself as the circus's ringmaster, thus making him Jolee's boss. He explained that the circus was not open, but seemed delighted when the group inquired about auditioning. He pointed out the large tent that served as the main arena, which is where auditions would be taking place, as well as the sideshow tent, the animal pens, and the midway. The group then formulated a plan and split up, each heading to a different area.

Sebastian and Caraga went to the sideshow tent, where the sideshow performers were holding a trivia contest. Armed with their large brains full of knowledge, they not only won the contest, but they won the trust of the sideshow performers as well, who began to reveal some details about the murder. The bearded lady defended the circus clown Hoswen, her friend as well as Jolee's, informing them that he was in the sideshow tent at the time of the murder.

Meanwhile, Cora traveled over to the animal pens, where she encountered the fey lion tamer's assistant. He was busy tending to an ill lion, and Cora offered her assistance. Unfortunately, Cora was only able to succeed at annoying the assistant with her questioning, and thus came up empty handed in terms of clues for the investigation.

Meanwhile, Fausto decided to do some private investigating, and sneaked into the "employees only" section of the circus. He poked around the performers' personal trailers, as well as the equipment and costume trailers. Through his snooping, he discovered that there was a male performer in the equipment trailer at the time of the murder, and this individual was not as close to Jolee as the juggler was. He also discovered a grey back of tricks, which he thought to be too valuable to leave behind, and he pocketed it. Fortunately, he made it out of the off-limits areas without being caught.

Around this time, Cora headed back to the main arena, where she met up with Twitch and Taargus. The three of them attempted to chat up some of the circus performers outside of the large tent, but were unable to get them to open up about the murder, and received no further clues. Entering the tent, they introduced themselves to Gessa, an acrobat who was in charge of the auditions. They gave it their all for the audition: Taargus put on his best strongman act, lifting heavy objects and bending steel bars, while Cora used her natural acrobatic talents to impress the judges. Twitch relied on his newly-acquired winged boots to ensure he didn't fall while swinging from the trapeze. (Sebastian was relieved that he had decided to sit the audition out, as the thought of using a tightrope brought back some painful memories.) Ultimately, Gessa decided that they had the necessary skills, and welcomed them to the circus. They learned shortly afterward that Gessa and Jolee were coworkers, but they were not very close.

Happy to be official members of the circus, but still in need of clues for their investigation, they proceeded to search for answers. Trying to make things right with the fey lion tamer's assistant, Cora offered to find food for the animals. She, Caraga, and Fausto went foraging for vegetables and leaves for the circus's horses and elephants. The lion tamer's assistant was very pleased with this, and revealed to them some crucial information: the lion tamer, Asalaria, was Jolee's sister, and she was not in the costume trailer at all the day of the murder, which is where Jolee's body was found.

Meanwhile, Twitch, Taargus, and Sebastian headed to the midway, searching for clues (or maybe for carnival games to play). Taargus dominated the Test Your Strength machine, nearly breaking the bell at the top. Sebastian tried his hand at the firewalk, keeping a brave face on as he walked the hot coals. When he was finished, he figured he deserved a break, so he headed to the Kissing Booth. It was a tough decision, but he chose to kiss the dog-faced man, who told him that it was the best kiss he'd ever received. Cora, finished with her foraging, joined the rest on the midway, and adeptly played the ring toss game. While the games had been fun, the group also managed to overhear some gossip on the midway, and discovered that Jolee's significant other, who is not the circus clown, was in the arena when she was killed.

Feeling they finally had enough information go to on, the group went to work solving the mystery. Using logical deduction, they determined that Gessa was in the costume trailer when Jolee was murdered, thus making her the killer. They returned to Brayden Drover, giving him the evidence, and left the men of Rowen's Guard to make the arrest. Brayden doled out the rewards promised, and the group headed back to the Mugwump Inn for a rest, only slightly wistful they wouldn't actually be performing in the circus later that night.

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