8/27 Session: The Great Shoppening Prologue: Kalael's Virtually Unused Familiar Saves Everyone From a Mind-Controlled Daisy After a chance encounter involving the party both fighting and talking their way out of a Shadowfell trap, the party met with the leader of the guild to discuss their newfound ally?'s warning of trouble to the Gnome King. After a long discussion, the party headed to Mercuran, the great city of buying things, to, uh, save the Gnome King, yeah! Chapter 1: Welcome to Mercuran Kalael, Mavaeth, Daisy, and Hanbou go through portals to reach Mercuran, where the party get themselves acquainted with the guild's local members - namely Fred, with a surprise appearance from Skye - while checking the situation of nearby guild-folks. The four separate ways for a short while: Kalael to converse with other guild members on the current situation, Daisy to check out the upstairs stashes of goods, Mavaeth to find a bar, and Hanbou to go shopping. The party eventually regroups, just in time for utter chaos as Mavaeth drags a newfound fellow to the guild hall, Hanbou discovers the joys of CAIPHON bucks, and a prominent guild member by name of Aeon enters the guild by portal, horribly wounded and wracked with a tragic tale. Great commotion occurs as everyone tries to both save Aeon from the throes of death and figure out what caused him to arrive in this condition, deal with the intrusive newfound fellow - soon recognized by name as Rifkin - and attempt to figure out exactly how to describe CAIPHON bucks' drinks outside of just "wriggly". Chapter 2: Always Separate the Party After some time, the group manage to piece together Aeon's misfortune, host a most uncomfortable meet-n'-greet with Rifkin, and drink or completely refuse to drink CAIPHON bucks. Locked in a situation where guild members are being ambushed all over the place, the party decides to take a bit of time off to let out some steam - Kalael heads to patrol the city with Skye, Mavaeth stays in the guild to host a nice chat with Rifkin, and Hanbou takes Daisy out after a while to go, uh, look for Kalael, once he realizes that the CAIPHON bucks next store has run out of its wares. Hanbou and Daisy do not end up finding Kalael, and in fact end up separating after Hanbou gets a bit too interested in market rituals. Hanbou does end up buying a ritual, though despairs upon realizing that the gold spent on buying a toy puppy for Cabbages has left him with insufficient funds for buying any rituals of his choice. Chapter 3: The Line at CAIPHONbucks is Long After a fair amount of time spent window shopping and perusing through the various wares in Mercuran's market, Hanbou takes Cabbages to look for the rest of the party. Even with the usage of several portals and sending rituals, Hanbou cannot find any of them in the local vicinity - a sudden sight interrupts him, when he sees a CAIPHON bucks on the corner of a street! This store is unlike the other - they are, of all things, organic! There is a long line, but Hanbou is a patient man. Once in the front of the line, a wave of generosity overtakes Hanbou, who orders a round of drinks with intention of bringing them back to the guild. Due to the prior round of post-drink responses, he makes sure to ask for large drinks that are only half-wriggly, in case the wriggliness was what overwhelmed the other flavors of the drinks. The size of his order and special requests make the wait for the drinks especially long, but this was okay, Hanbou was on a stress-relief trip just like the rest of his guild members. During the wait, Cabbages notices a possible way to maximize drink carrying efficiency, an act of perception that particularly impresses Hanbou! He also notices a figure on a nearby rooftop - a perfect entry point for Hanbou to teach his son about the various jobs of the world! Eventually, the drinks do come, and the father-son duo carry them back to the guild. The sheer amount of drinks does prove too much, though, and Hanbou is forced to call an unseen servant to help them hold some of their beverages. Back to the guild- but no one's there, none save Fred and the now-resting Aeon! All is well, though, as they eventually return, and Hanbou shares his round of drinks! Chapter 4: Other Lesser Happenings in the Meantime Mavaeth spends time in the guild hall seeing visions of other guild members, trying to figure out where they are and if any of them are in trouble. Eventually, he and Rifkin head out to locate them, the former out of worry, the latter rather dragged along for the ride. They eventually find Daisy, who plays a long game of tag with Mavaeth, and after a time do manage to locate Kalael and Skye - just in time, too, as the two have been following a suspicious figure in the market square, one holding an emblem of their very own guild. The suspicious figure is confronted, and the situation escalates almost immediately as several halflings with wands announce their enmity against the guild! Thanks to the quick actions of the various guild members in the proximity, half of these would-be terrorists are scared of, while Rifkin unleashes a bolt of magic to finish off the remaining halflings! The suspicious figure herself makes an earnest attempt at escape, but is caught on a rooftop by Mavaeth, with Kalael flying along behind him! Together, they restrain the figure, and, by tradition, converse with her long enough to turn her from an unwitting foe to an unreluctant ally! Welcome to the guild, Callia the Mul who also happens to be blessed by the air elementals and so semi-kin to Kalael! Coincidence! Pure coincidence!
