On their way out of the casino, Aengus noticed Mason entering with a hooded figure. Aengus asked Urs and Vara to continue to Kitty Korner where they planned to rest for the night, saying he would catch up. Mason sat down at a gambling table beside the hooded one. Aengus approached and started a conversation, hoping to dissuade Mason from indulging in his vice, but he quickly noticed that Mason was very nervous and uncomfortable; nevertheless, he continued to place bets. Unable to see the face of the hooded figure that seemed to be passively endorsing this bad habit, Aengus butted in and offered to shake the stranger’s hand for introductions. The figure’s hand was skeletal, and he explained he had recently befriended Mason, who was kind enough to overlook his appearance to help him navigate public life to have some fun.
Meanwhile, as Vara and Urs walked back toward Kitty Korner, a crowd in the street suddenly scattered, revealing a large metal spider creature. The spider paralyzed and grabbed Vara before climbing onto a roof and vanishing, leaving Urs behind firing arrows.
Unable to persuade Mason to leave, Aengus implored him to follow as he gasped him and his money pouch on the table while casting Dimension Door. However, Mason was unwilling, and Aengus found himself outside Kitty Korner alone, purse in hand.
Aengus then heard Urs shouting and ran that direction. Urs explained that the spider vanished with Vara, leaving no tracks behind to follow, and that Aengus needed to use magic to find her. Having nothing of that sort prepared, Aengus beseeched Moradin, “Help us find our friend!” A searing white hot heat pierced Aengus’s shoulder, bringing him to his knees, as a blinding light was emitted from the space before them, and Vara rolled onto the ground unconscious. Quickly Aengus healed her and noticed the chain she wore for securing Torm’s mortar and pestle was now broken, the artifact gone, and silent tears steamed down Vara’s face.
Before they could discuss what had happened, screams and flames erupted from the casino. People aflame ran into the streets. Aengus sent a magical message to Desmond, calling on him to come immediately. His Dream session with Tyresha was rudely interrupted. Acting swiftly, Desmond transformed into an eagle and took flight towards the casino.
Aengus stepped into the flaming building first to find Mason’s mysterious acquaintance, now unhooded, revealing his fully skeletal features, lighting everything ablaze with fire emanating from gems embedded in his eye sockets. On the ground beside him, with a hollow look of horror, was Mason, hurt but still alive.
Aengus tried Destroy Undead and Banishment with no effect. The stranger casually roasted a waitress and slashed at Mason, saying he was bored and needed to create some chaos. Vara struck hard, and Aengus finishes him off with a Guiding Bolt. The stranger took the blows with a smile and without resisting, then collapses dead into a pile of bones.
Aengus Revivified the waitress and another charred person. Urs backhanded Mason, demanding “What have you brought upon us? This was my favorite place!” Desmond conjured water to put out the fires. When a relative peace had returned, a gathering crowd applauded their saviors. Vara walked out, head hanging low.
Mason explained to Desmond that the skeletal figure appeared to him, telling him he had a choice: to embrace the chaos and take a risk, or watch everyone die. Mason tried to resist, but the stranger threatened indiscriminate violence if he did not comply with his request: “I love chaos as much as the next. Why don’t you take your money and try to double it. If you fail, I’ll have my fun.” Afraid and feeling he had no choice, Mason agreed. However, when Aengus later teleported away with Mason’s money pouch, the choice was made for him.
As Desmond helped Mason tend to the wounded, Urs and Aengus found Vara at her shrine to Torm, prostrate with tear streaks on her face. Vara explained that after her capture by the spider, she came to consciousness atop a precipice, surrounded by raw elemental chaos. How she came to be there was unclear, but, by Moradin’s grace, Aengus’s cry for help had brought her back from that otherworldly realm intact. Once again, her treasured artifact of Torm had been stolen from her, and this time they had no leads on how to track it down.