Following the theft of Vara’s mortar and pestle and the attack on the casino, Aengus communed with his god to get some answers:
- Is the skeleton still out there? — Which one?
- The one from tonight, duh. Is that skeleton still out there? — It has been vanquished.
- Did it have anything to do with Luferin? — Sometimes chaos cannot be contained and just happens.
After a well deserved long rest, the Rovers reconvened, and Urs had an idea: Maybe the aligned drow and duergar cultists that Vara spotted at the temple were responsible for the metallic spider that stole her prized possession. The spider fit with traditional representations of Lolth, goddess of the drow, and its metallic construction could have been fashioned by the industrial duergar. It seemed Balador’s gift was already reaping benefits.
They learned from the townsfolk that Galin wanted to have a word with them, and that Tyrel Sackett wanted to host a dinner for them that evening. While speaking with shopkeeper Slim, Vara mentioned that the skeleton said something about starting the fire because he ran out of money. Slim said he bet it was Crenshaw McGee, the local ne’er-do-well, who took the skeleton’s money. Aengus thought privately that the skeleton referred to the coin purse he took from Mason and tried to defend Crenshaw against this slander without incriminating himself, without much success.
Suddenly realizing he misplaced the pouch during the chaos of the previous night, Aengus ran to the casino in search of it, thinking he left it next to an unconscious person on the floor. He found the place was being cleaned by a group of teens who seemed to lie to him about finding nothing during their work. Aengus convinced them to let him know if they found it for a reward of Gold Lite. Vara used Locate Object, gaining a bead on the pouch, and a spontaneous conga line formed as they sauntered over to it. One of the teen girls had just handed it to Galin, her uncle, who returned it to the Rovers. True to his word, Aengus happily handed over an excessive reward of 15 gold pieces worth of Gold Lite. Vara and Urs were sure Aengus was hooking up with multiple ladies at Kitty Korner, and, from the moment they walked into this scene, the niece also, despite Aengus’s protests.
After the horrible events of the prior evening, Galin wanted to hire security personnel for his casino, and so he asked the Rovers to help with his search.
With a whole day to spend in town before heading to the Lucky Y ranch, the Rovers each went about their business. Desiring to remove the Kensington emblem from the armor she looted off Darius, Vara went to Forge Ahead seeking Luke Strongarms’s expertise. As the armor was magical, altering it was not feasible, but Luke suggested it might be possible to transfer the powerful enchantment to a different piece of armor. He had heard that the great dwarven smith, Menthis, who died over 800 years ago, discovered a method for transferring enchantments, though neither he nor Aengus knew anything of the process. Perhaps Aengus’s old forge mentor, Horbrek Hardstone, would know something of this. Luke said that, provided they could find a text describing the process, he might be able to perform the transfer.
Using Luke’s forge, Aengus tried to craft a new holy symbol for himself in the form of a pendant. Lacking training or the slightest bit of natural talent in the finer art of jewelry making, it was rough going. To inspire him into doing his best work, Vara obtained a dwarven prostitute, Esmeralda, from Kitty Korner to be his cheerleader. This did not have the desired effect. Uncomfortable with this situation, Aengus treated her as an assistant. After several iterations and with a lot of help from Luke and Esmeralda, a satisfactory holy symbol was completed. Vara had paid for a full day of companionship with Esmeralda, so upon completion of the task the dwarven mistress expected more time with the Aengus. However, he deflected her advances onto Luke, who was more than happy to spend a night on the town with her on Aengus’s coin, as gratitude for use of his forge.
Desmond spend much of the day with Tyresha and searched outside of town for new spell focus materials, but could not find anything suitable.
Aengus arranged with Wyn, the corral keeper, to have a letter mailed discreetly to Lo’Thar, without the place of origin being divulged, within a week, with a magical receipt of delivery. Like many in town, Wyn preferred Gold Lite to real coin, so Aengus had to go to the bank for an exchange, where the banker seemed to make up the exchange rate on the spot. (As Kevin put it, “The economy where the money’s made up and the exchange rate doesn’t matter.”)
Aengus also bought a box of vials from the Neurotic Compunction, filled one with his magnificent beard oil, and gifted it to Urs.
In preparation for the evening’s event, Urs went to the bath house, where they had a special treatment for him. He then went to buy new clothes with some help from Kitty. Ever the trendsetter in minimalist garb, Urs purchased “The Kelp”, a biomimetic kilt-like pants-free garb made from kelp.
Bringing out a side of Vara never before seen, Tyresha dolled her up with make-up, and found a nice dress for her. For this last night in Shalako, they made plans to have a pajama party — no boys allowed!
In the evening, Urs paid a band to play the Rovers in as they approached the Lucky Y ranch. Beho and his metallic bull greeted them. Tyrel, Drusilla, their child, and several ranch hands were present at the dinner. Vara batted eyes at the ranch hands to practice flirting, and they tripped over themselves for her attention.
Beho said he had seen a strange mist creeping towards town regularly, as well as a figure resembling his old business partner Barnabas, who should be dead. The other farm hands dismissed this as another one of Beho’s crazy stories.
When Aengus asked Tyrel about offering part time work as casino bouncers to his employees, Tyrel suggested talking to Dutch Henry, who possibly could train some ranch hands.
After hearing about the loss of the mortar and pestle, Drusilla said she knew someone who could find arcane artifacts. About a day’s journey to the northwest, a hermit named Thales resided. Rumored to be immortal and to possess the body of a snake, he was a keeper of lore of great artifacts. Thales desired to eradicate evil, and his goodness drew evil seeking to destroy him, so the Rovers should approach carefully, Drusilla warned, and with humility. Drusilla had tried to learn from him for years but he rejected her again and again. However, perhaps for the Rovers persistence would pay off.
As the evening was coming to an end, Urs’s hired musicians approached Vara to tell her that her the pajama party with Tyresha was ready, and she invited Drusilla to join them for their girls’ night.