Chapter 2

Not wanting to wait until tomorrow to get the ingredients for the Chimera’s Bane, the adventurers make their way to the apothecary, Scribbles & Nibs. It’s not much to look at from the outside, not even a sign with the shop name, just a plain old dirty door with “Enter” printed across it.

Entering the shop, they find it to be dark, dusty, and uninviting. A raven is perched in the corner, silently judging them as they each peer about the shop at jars full of unknown slimy contents, cupboards hiding who-knows-what, and open shelves with various trinkets. No one else is visible, yet they soon hear the ceiling boards creaking from someone shuffling about the floor above them. A voice calls out from upstairs, “be down in a minute.” Assuming they’re not being watched, Dolor begins searching the dark corners for anything special and Xantic excitedly casts Detect Magic on his forehead so that he can see anything revealing itself to be magical.

A human male, whom they presume is the owner, makes his way down the stairs and takes up residence behind a counter that’s slightly taller than Xantic. Xantic pushes a box over to the counter and stands on it, attempting to look at something glowing behind the counter. The owner says to him, “no kids on the counter top!” As the conversation ensues, the shopkeeper, Halodreth, reveals himself to be quite the snappy character with a particular affinity for his raven, Herbert.

After a few rounds of inquiries for specific ingredients, Gven suggests that Grindlefoot hand over the written list provided by Cindel so that the apothecary can review it a bit more easily. It turns out that he has everything they need except for two that he hasn’t heard of, muckroot and goblin knot.

Xantic asks to see any potions that are available. Doubting the apothecary’s potion-making abilities, he purchases a potion of healing and, to the surprise of everyone, promptly stabs his own foot! He quickly downs the healing potion and his foot magically heals, at least partially. Although painful, he wanted to test the quality of the apothecary’s wares. Everyone is incredulous at his behavior, yet can’t deny that the test was authentic. Xantic loudly exclaims to Grindlefoot, “I had confidence that you could heal me if the potion didn’t work.”

The party purchases all of the ingredients for 4 silver, except for the two not recognized by the shopkeeper. Before they leave, Halodreth offers them 50 gold for each chimera egg they bring to him, apparently they have magical properties—and also make a tasty omelet. Xantic posits that Cindel might have been lying about the Chimera’s Bane since two of the ingredients were unknown to an obviously capable apothecary. They head to the Buzzin Bee Inn to find Cindel.

Exiting the apothecary’s shop, it’s early evening and the sky is darkening. The inn is only a few doors away from the apothecary and they pass a lady who is closing up her flower store for the day. Xantic eagerly knocks on the door. She tries to ignore him, but he jumps up and down yelling “I see you!” She unlocks the door and cautiously opens it a crack, allowing Xantic to ask if she sells any muckroot. The florist says they’ve never heard of that plant and asks if he means milkroot, which can be found along the river. She then quickly shuts the door and engages several locks. Xantic passionately waves goodbye and gives the florist a double thumbs-up with his very large tooth-filled grin.

Approaching the Buzzin Bee Inn, the door is slowly closing after a patron enters and they hear the crowd inside yell in unison, “GORM!” Entering the large inn, the party finds it to be livening up. A bard is tuning his lute off in an area that appears to be a make-shift stage and a human female in her early twenties with long red hair is tending the bar and chastising the regular customers for various transgressions. There’s a younger version of the woman, likely her sister, serving food and drinks to the tables. You note that the patrons treat the younger woman with respect, not the typical bawdiness you might encounter in such a crowd.

Dolor sees Cindel sitting with a small group of mercenary types at a large table. Cindel notices the group standing by the door and waves them over to their table. “Well, I didn’t expect to see you folks again, you must be braver…or stupider than I thought.” Dolor asks Cindel if she can provide more information about the Chimera’s Bane and verify the ingredients. She agrees to do so, but first introduces them to her comrades, The Low Elves. Sitting next to her is Grak, a goblin with the whitest teeth imaginable and dressed in a very fine and very frilly outfit. Next is Preet, a human male dressed in pink and blue silks, caressing a fine looking lute leaning against his chair and skeptically eyeing the bard on the stage. Last is Elve, a human male dressed in plain armor and a calm demeanor.

Grindlefoot hands the ingredient list to Cindel, telling her that the apothecary had trouble with some of the ingredients, would she read through them and verify they’re correct. Going through the list, Cindel admits that her handwriting lacks a certain finesse, by which she means legibility. Sure enough, “muckroot” should have been “milkroot” and “goblin knot” is actually “goblin snot.”

Xantic and the others begin to question Cindel more about Chimera’s Bane, how it works, and her experience with it. Cindel doesn’t know much more than what she’s already told the adventurers, her information came from her parents who used it and are still alive, which proves its effectiveness. Meanwhile, Elve sidles over to Gven with a wink of his eye and says “how you doin?” Gven responds nonchalantly with “we’ll see.”

Grindlefoot then asks Grak if he’d be willing to give the party some of his “fluids.” This confuses and offends the goblin, who stands up and brandishes his sword only to reveal that he isn’t wearing any pants. Cindel shouts “where are your pants?” and he replies, “I never wear pants, you know that!” After some back and forth—and comforting from Cindel—Grak calms down and tells them that he can’t provide the amount of snot they need. He derisively suggests asking the goblin tribe that lives up in the hills and then quickly takes offense once more at some other benign comment. A feisty little well-dressed goblin.

Now that the two groups are settled in around the large table and being friendly, Cindel offers to buy them a round. She introduces her group as The Low Elves and asks, “what do they call you?” Xantic, Grindlefoot, Gven, and Dolor look at each other quizzically for an uncomfortably long pause, then Gven says “the Mixed Nuts.” Cindel shoves her tankard into the air and boldly shouts “to the Mixed Nuts!”

They order food to go with their ale and enjoy a tasty meal before Dolor engages one of the locals, Devin, in a dagger-throwing contest, where Dolor loses the first match and wins the second. The group pays up for their dinner and drinks then secure two double-bed rooms for the night. Xantic and Grindlefoot are unexpectedly very excited to sleep in big-to-them human-sized beds and cause quite the ruckus celebrating in their room. Dolor has to knock on the adjoining wall and threaten them with “don’t make me come in there” to get them to settle down.

Long rest….

In the morning, Xantic applies his artificer infusion to two things (which lasts in perpetuity until he infuses something else):

• The ability to immediately load his crossbow
• +1 to the damage on Gven’s longsword

The group meets in the central room for a lovely breakfast of eggs, cheese, warm caramelized apples, bread, and coffee, provided by the younger sister. They enjoy chatting with her and appreciate all of the local information she provides. Gven tips her an extra silver for her help and kindness.

• Mount Question is the “big” mountain they see off in the close distance.
• That’s where the goblin tribe can be found.
• The local river runs along the lower edges of Mount Question.
• Follow the Ha-derech West and then take the Big Trail to get to Mount Question.
• Don’t take the Little Trail, it goes somewhere else.
• Don’t confuse the Little Trail with the Other Trail, which is on the East (opposite) side of town.

The adventurers leave the Buzzin Bee Inn and head West on the Ha-derech, towards the Big Trail and Mount Question to search for milk root along the river and the goblin tribes mentioned by Grak.

It takes a few hours to reach the Big Trail and then the river, where they soon discover some small footprints. Dolor and Gven believe they belong to 5-10 goblins. The group follows the trail of footprints while Grindlefoot is preoccupied with finding the milkroot along the river bank. A short while later, he discovers the milkroot and suddenly the party is surprised by five goblins, one of which is carrying a large golden chimera egg.

The goblins are defensive and antagonistic in their behavior, untrusting of the group of adventurers, yet don’t immediately attack. Dolor’s charismatic negotiations keeps things peaceful, but aren’t getting the group any closer to the snot they need. Out of nowhere, Grindlefoot offers up a shiny trophy he’d won for a prize pumpkin at some point—a story for another time. The head goblin agrees that this is worthy of the respect they deserve and orders the other goblins to provide their snot to Grindlefoot. Unfortunately, they take the order literally and begin blowing it directly on to him, which he finds disgusting and quickly redirects them to use a container. Eeewwww.

After they receive enough goblin snot, the group turns to head back to Wayside and suddenly two arrows come out of nowhere to hit one of the goblins, killing him. Looking across the river, silhouetted by the sun shining over Mount Question, stands Cindel with her bow held up majestically and cloak billowing out behind her. She cries out “huzzah!” with a look of confident righteousness in her actions.

The adventurers are still hesitant to engage in unnecessary battle, so they prepare themselves but hold back for the goblins to initiate. It only takes a few seconds and the goblins charge the group with fury in their eyes and scream “betrayal!”

Fight choreography

• Dolor kills a goblin with an arrow.
• Gven cleaves a goblin in half with her longsword.
• Grindlefoot and a goblin exchange comedic misses with their weapons.
• Xantic enchants a goblin with Frostbite.
• Three other goblins come over the top of a distant hill, running towards the fray.

• Dolor kills one of the advancing goblins with an arrow.
• Cindel misses with two arrows.
• Two goblins attack Gven, but she skillfully dodges their weapons.
• Gven subsequently misses both of the small wiry goblins with her longsword.
• Xantic casts another Frostbite spell, but misses.
• Grindlefoot sees his advantage with the frostbitten goblin and goes to attack. On the move forward, he stumbles over a bare spot in the trail and flings out his hands, trying to catch himself as he falls. His hands hit the goblin, pushing it over where it lands on a sharp rock and cracks into pieces, dying.

• Dolor kills another advancing goblin with an arrow and turns to Cindel, “huzzah!”
• Cindel kills the last goblin and rebuts Dolor with her own “HUZZAH!”

Dolor rifles through the goblins’ pockets, finding only twigs, rocks, and something very slimy.

Cindel is impressed with the group’s prowess in battle and offers to buy them a round at the Buzzin Bee. With the sun’s light beaming on her from atop Mount Question and her majestically billowing cloak, she says “It’s a good thing I came along when I did, or this could have been.” “…peaceful,” interjects Gven.