Season 1 - Episode 5 - I'm FLUSH with GEMS

Tuprix grabs her by the wrist that holds his dagger, and successfully casts 'inflict wounds' on Scarlett. A sickly green energy courses through his hand and into Scar's arm, then engulfs her body. Her normally sunset-orange skin turns a deathly black as she sucumbs to the agonizing pain and crumples to the ground.

Aggamir rushes up diagonally to Tuprix and lances out with his rapier, getting a good stab in on his shoulder. Tuprix yelps out in pain. Drusilla runs forward, puts her hands on Scar's face, and casts 'spare the dying'. Dru's hands start to glow and Scar's color returns to her body. She is now in stable condition. Saphina Thornbyrne backs up and takes aim with her thunder canon. Saph lets off a round that strikes him square in the chest, he lets out a wail, then turns to focus on her with rage in his eyes. Tuprix notices Saphina is wearing his amulet and casts the spell 'command' on her, commanding her to approach. Luckily she is able to withstand the mind control. Aggie lashes out at him again with his rapier and embeds it a few inches into his skull, slaying Tuprix, who slumps to the ground.

Aggamir loots his body and finds a secret pocket sewn into the breast area of his robe, that contains a bit of parchment. The parchment contains instructions on how to perform a 'returning spell'. It is a spell used to move objects from one place to another, with some sort of low-grade teleportation. The parchment also contains a small bit of writing that says, "don't forget to put the gems back." Aggie keeps this information to himself as Dru goes to use 'cure wounds' on an unconscious Scar. She manages to stabilize Scarlett, but notices that she's got some sort of necrotic scar on her arm now where Tuprix had cast his spell.

Aggie tries to sneakily sleight-of-hand the parchment to Scar, but Saph and Dru notice and stare him down. He notices them, fumbles and drops it, then picks it up and plainly hands it to Scar. Saph, not appreciating that she caught him trying to sneak something by her, quickly moves up to Aggie, looks up from her 4' height and playfully/sarcastically asks, "what's that?!" Aggamir claims to be unsure, so he asks Scarlett. Scarlett, now a little confused after reading it, suggests that it may mean the gems are somewhere. Saph's eyes light up at the idea of getting her sapphire back. Dru confirms this information as Saph can be seen running to the gem room. She grabs the sapphire and starts admiring it, then turns to aggamir and suggests he could sell the others to get a boat. Aggamir takes the emerald and ruby with dreams of big money in his eyes.

Unsure if there's anything left to discover in this tomb, having correlated the rumors of undead to Tuprix, the group decides to go up to the streets of Illar's Berth, to the closest tavern. Dru covers herself in her cloak and puts a fancy hat on Saph so she's unrecognizable.

Scar realizes at this point that she was supposed to meet up with her contact at the FE04 precinct that had sent her on this mission. They are supposed to meet at a nearby tavern. It's dusk topside as they make their way to The Belvedere Tavern, the tavern where Scar's contact said to meet. The Belvedere is a rooftop tavern sitting in a pretty nice part of Illar's Berth, and seems to be busy place tonight. Dru hears the live bard music coming from inside and is immediately disgusted. Saph loves it, but Scar manages to convince her to stay with the group. Dru ominously says she can take care of it by herself and proceeds to walk through the door.

Aggamir and Saphina make there way up to the far end of the bar and order some drinks. Drusilla joins them and orders two drinks for herself. The elderly Dwarven woman barkeep inquires about their menu choices. Aggie orders some ale, Saph some firewater, and Dru gets two cups of wine, one for the bard who's "doing such a great job." Dru slides one cup to where she plans to sit at the bar, and takes the other with her as she walks toward the bard. She sleight-of-hands some sleeping poison into the bard's cup.

The human bard is playing a hurdy gurdy (medieval rave machine). When he stops for a break, Dru approaches, clapping condescendingly. "What's a place like you doing in a girl like this?," he asks. Dru (and Emily) take a deep breath to stop her gag reflex and she hands him the drink. He flips his (f***-boy) fedora back onto his blonde hair as he thanks her and takes a big ol' drink (he also has a soul-patch...). He tries to invite Dru back to his place, unsuccessfully several times, before succumbing to the sleep poison and falling over onto his hurdy gurdy, breaking it.

Meanwhile, Scarlett heads up to the second level of The Belvedere and locates her contact, another copper mantle, Hadrian Morno. He is sitting, sipping from his cup. When Hadrian asks where Irzek Brightscale is, Scar claims that she lost track of him in the labyrinth of the catacombs, although she had looked everywhere. Hadrian offers to stay and wait for him a few more days, since Irzek knew to meet him here as well. When asked about what she found down there, she told him about "some really crazy guy dressed up in a skeleton costume" and the booby-traps. She claims they got separated because of the tunnels he built and that she doesn't know what happened to either of them. Hadrian suspects that Irzek went after the guy and says he'll wait around for him a little longer.

Hadrian orders a barmaid to fetch two drinks. She gets two cups of wine and places them on the table. He asks her to put it on his tab. After agreeing about how nice the "copper discount" is at taverns, Hadrian informs Scarlett that he's got another job for her. He says she's to go to the Illar's Berth Grodi Tower to meet Ulrich, who'll fill her in on the rest of the details. He said he'll send Irzek over when he sees him as well.

Saphina subtly converses with Aggamir, asking him about his plans to get a ship. To afford it, she suggests selling the two gems he has as a start, and asks about his experience with Toor. Aggie brings up that they used to bring supplies back and forth between The Harbor Coast and Iron Maw, but never really stayed for long. Saphina pulls out a letter from her breast pocket from her grandfather, shows it to Aggie, and tells him that she needs to get to Dom Mouldor to find someone. Although he's just started his financial journey toward owning a ship, Aggamir says he does have a lot of contacts and could probably book passage. Aggamir presses a little, asking if this has to do with her missing posters, to which Saph opens up about her missing grandfather.

Dru walks back to the bar very calmly, sits next to Saph and Aggie, and takes a sip of her wine. Some of the patrons gasp, other's clap as though they also wanted him to stop. The barkeep calls over the bouncer to remove the passed out bard from the tavern. There is absolutely ZERO acknowledgement from Dru as she just sits there staring straight ahead, taking the occasional sip. Asking what they were talking about, Aggie brings up the idea of selling these gems he has. He may not know a name, but he might at least know a contact here in Illar's Berth. Saph looks to Dru and mentions to admiration to her sleep poison handy work. Drusilla looks VERY offended, saying he just couldn't handle his liqour. Saph believes her.

At this point, Scar makes her way to the main floor and returns to sit with the group. She tells them how her contact believed her about everything and that she has another job. Scar asks Aggie if he wants in, mentioning that he'll get paid. Saph notices that he didn't get paid for this last job either, and questions if Scarlett even asked for money. Scar gets flustered and embarrassed, claiming that she'll get the money from their "other guy."

Scar brings up the new job opportunity and suggests they all come along. Dru makes it abundantly clear to Scarlett that she doesn't have much of a choice thanks to her. Saphina calculates her odds of survival by sticking around and realize they're pretty good. Aggamir just kind of agrees after he hears the word "money" mentioned.

They decide to turn in for the night and seek out Aggamir's contact to sell the gems in the morning. They rent one big room with one big bed.

= Fun Facts = --- Dru hates live music, very much like Emily. --- In honor of the late Peter Mayhew, who passed away just days before recording this, the group gives a heartwarming/hilarious goodbye to the great and mighty Chewbacca at the end of the episode.

The Peter Mayhew Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to the alleviation of disease, pain, suffering, and the financial toll brought on by life's traumatic events. http://petermayhewfoundation.org/ --- = Notable Quotes = --- Nova: "This is very important... Is there a live band?"

Nate: "There seems to be a live bard inside."

Emily: "UGHHHHH, Dru turns around to leave."

Nicole: "It's open mic night! Haha."

Emily: "OH GOD..." --- = Village Idiot =

Nathan takes this round having put the mad man, Tuprix, against 4 well trained, level one adventurers. Also, he named his NPC Tuprix... Who does that?