Upon closer inspection, the Rovers deduced that the unusual magical inner pocket sown inside of the mundane pouch found on Darius Kensington’s person was sown shut via magical means. They were unsure how to open it safely.
Aengus received a telepathic message from an unfamiliar, gruff voice: “Tommy asked me to ask you, wtf did you do?!” Aengus gave no response, fearing anything he said would incriminate the Rovers more than silence would.
The Rovers began their journey to Shalako as outlaws by summoning/turning into horses. On the path, Tobias talked to Urs and said, with some apprehension, that Balador wanted to talk with Urs.
As they traveled westward on the road, they occasionally spotted parchment flying through the air, covered in text of various languages. They decided to investigate, leaving the road and tracking the source of the leaflets into the wilderness. Eventually they come upon a noxious, chemical scent. They found countless stacks of books and paper, including “Gnome Bucks” from the Shalako casino. Violent winds intensified as they pressed on, whipping the parchment into vortexes delivering painful paper cuts. Eventually, Vara and Desmond were both picked up by miniature cyclones which began to carry them away. Vara tossed a rope to Urs and Aengus, but they struggled to grasp it. At last, the grounded pair leapt into cyclones, letting the wind decide their fate.
The cyclones dropped their cargo at the mouth of a massive “cavern” constructed from piles of books and loose sheets, and within lurked a gargantuan dragon, apparently also made of paper, named Neenah the Woven.
“What have you brought me?”, the paper dragon demanded.
Vara responded defiantly and without fear: “We’ve brought you nothing since we did not intend to come. Why have you brought us here?”
Desmond interjected with a more diplomatic question: “Oh great dragon, what do you seek?”
The dragon: “I will speak with you and ignore the insolent one. My collections are vast, but I seek new knowledge and history. What do you offer?”
The Rovers, not being ones for reading (other than the wink-wink-ear-tugging kind of reading), looked at each other blankly. Aengus whispered out the side of his mouth to the others, “Well, I sure don’t want to give up this 6th level Magic Jar spell scroll we found…”, but the dragon overheard him, and Aengus quickly found he would need to give up the valuable item after all, playing the part of a supplicant. The dragon was pleased with this offering and told Aengus he could go, but each other member of the Wild Rovers still needed to provide their own gift. When it became clear they had nothing material to offer and that the dragon would not accept nothing, a fight broke out.
Aengus conjured a ring of fire around the paper dragon’s front half, but it quickly flew out of the flames and breathed a Cone of Post-It Notes at the party, dealing a major blow. Urs became frightened of the beast and was unable to approach it. Vara and Desmond laid into it, but they continued to take damage at a deadly rate. Desmond conjured a wall of stone to block the dragon’s next breath, forcing the dragon to maneuver around it. Shortly after Urs shook off his preternatural fear and dealt his own impressive hits, another breath knocked out Desmond and Vara, and nearly Aengus as well. They were truly on their last legs, but fleeing from a dragon that carried them here on the wind seemed hopeless. The dwarf brought Desmond back from the brink, and the druid transformed into a tyrannosaurus in a last ditch effort.
At last the dragon said, “Enough. You are stronger than you look, and you may prove useful to me.”
Aengus crept over to Vara’s body and brought her back to consciousness.
“Tell me, do you wish to die here, or to serve me?”
As Vara grimaced at the idea of serving such a creature and steeled herself to die fighting, Aengus quickly agreed to serve on the whole party’s behalf.
“There is a plague on this land which has driven me from my home. South of here, there is a great lake where once dwelt a creature that, until recently, was peaceful, but now roams the land in a mad frenzy. It destroyed my lair, and I was forced to settle here. Go, destroy it for me. I will be keeping an eye on you. You have one month’s time to slay it and return, or else I’ll finish what we started here. Bring me what knowledge you find in this creature’s lair; you may read it too, if you like.”
Aengus again agreed to these terms, and the Wild Rovers limped away.
That evening, Urs decided he wanted to reach out to Balador, so he committed cleric-assisted suicide and resurrection, but his god was not there to greet him. Before he repeated the act, Aengus suggests Urs go out to the forest and pray. Soon, a giant bear with glowing orange eyes appeared at the camp. It reared onto its hind legs, looked down on Urs, and back-pawed him across the face, calling him a fool. Looking to the group, Balador said, “I wonder if any of you have respect for life.” Turning to his once-favored champion, Father Bear said “You have preyed on the weak. You have failed, and you will be punished.”