With “gift” key three in the bag, Windriver Co knocks off for the day and crashes at Vincent’s. Upon waking the next morning, Smoll discovers the persistent stench of rotting meat emanating from Togy.
The party makes a few follow-up inquiries of the Stone of Golor and learns things.
- Stone of Golor’s disposition is stoic.
- The most recent attunement with Stone of Golor was Lord Neverember.
- The three keys need only be casually presented at the vault beneath the converted windmill in the sea ward; no weird meta puzzle situation anticipated.
- There are no defenses, traps, or integrated dangers associated with the vault, as far as Stone of Golor knows anyway.
- Stone of Golor’s ambition is to gather knowledge and meet many people with knowledge to gather. Togy, coincidentally, feels an unrelated tightness in his chest.
The party hits the mean streets with the intent of pre-exploring the windmill scene while killing time until Barttle might be finished with the dwarven miner painting, a.k.a. key two, later this afternoon. Reade walks casually toward the sea ward. He soon notices three shadowing urchins whom Janky recognizes from the earlier apple cart heist outside Fenerus’s ransacked house where the party encountered Laeral Silverhand’s imposter. Reade surreptitiously observes the urchins surreptitiously observing Reade’s movement.
The party strategically redeploys with invisible Togy leading Reade and invisible Smoll trailing Reade toward the art district and away from the windmill vault. Vincent and local fisherman-disguised Janky bring up the safety rear. Reade stops beside a random building just outside the art district and conspicuously produces a “top secret treasure map” from one of his 100 purple pockets. He nods in dramatic satisfaction at the building. A lurker appears out of nowhere with a bump-and-lift of Reade’s map, Harper pen, and 5 gp. The party is on him like stink on rice and pursues him into an alley where he attempts to flee.
Vincent reaches out with a hypnotic pattern that halts the pickpocket. A pair of concealed urchins counterattack the party. Togy holds one urchin’s person and Reade incapacitates the other by quarterstaff. Togy makes a zone of truth, Smoll makes an intimidating block, and Vincent makes it look like Reade has just disemboweled an urchin. Janky interrogates the unnerved pickpocket.
- The pickpocket’s given name is Staann.
- The attacking urchins are Nat and Jenks. Third urchin Squiddly remains concealed somewhere.
- Staann works for Rongquan, theater owner and friend of fake Laeral.
- The urchins work for Rongquan as well.
- The murder of ravens gathering to observe on the rooftops work for someone other than Rongquan.
Vincent allows Staann to abscond with Reade’s fake map. Janky tries to boost Nat’s accountability by pretend-conking her unconscious. Jenk’s unconsciousness remains authentic.
The Windriver Basterds continue toward the art district as observed by the ravens. They stop for tea within view of Barttle’s shop. The sounds of an approaching Sea Maidens Faire parade are interrupted by a distant, but approaching, ruckus. The ruckus, an escaped yet expensive polar bear pursued by several panicked animal handlers, charges right past the tea shop. Reade stuns the bear long enough for Togy and Smoll to improvise a temporary tether that allows re-capture of the bear.
Sea Maidens Faire captain Zardoz Zord himself rides up on a fancy horse and spot-rewards the party with a handsome purse of [250] gold plus a reprised dinner invitation. Investigator Vincent investigates the bear’s timely and distracting escape and finds that at least one tether has been cut, perhaps deliberately.