Kleptomania in Hommlet

There is a meeting at the town hall (#9) that is going to start in a few minutes, and our party has been invited. Don’t panic, this shouldn’t be anything serious. If it was then there would already be a riot going on outside. That might change however, if we don’t handle this delicately. They want to know about what happened in Sardik’s city, with a mind to prevent a similar event in Hommlet.

Hmm, I guess I’ve gotten ahead of myself slightly. You should know what lead up to this situation. After visiting the general store and paying their abysmal prices this morning, I wandered over to the druid’s grove for some conversation. Being one of the spiritual centers of the town, it seemed likely that the druid there might have some information that would be useful during our upcoming excursion into the temple of elemental evil. Jaroo Ashstaff, The druid didn’t have much to share, but he did mention that while he knew the general location of the temple, as do we, the entrance is hidden and unknown. Seeing that I wasn’t making much headway on the temple, I moved over into some small talk about that drunkard that you mentioned greeting you at the entrance to this inn, Elmo. It turns out the story was true, Elmo had made a bet that had conned that party we rescued out of half of their magical items with Jaroo acting as a neutral third party.

Figuring that Elmo would be looking to sell his newly acquired goods, I set off for the farmstead he lives at. I was greeted by his parents at the door. An older couple, they likely hadn’t done any farming themselves in some time. The property was large and well tended however, so they likely hired helpers to work the farm or rented out the land. They called Elmo to the door when I mentioned his name. He came with a clatter of tankards and followed by a haze of booze so think that one could get tipsy just standing near him. After I mentioned the magic items that I believed he had acquired through a bet, his mother exploded at me in hysterics. Apparently she… disapproves of his lifestyle choices. Before she could finish shouting me down into my boots, Elmo’s father, being as wise as his years, suggested that they go check on the cows while Elmo and I talked.

Elmo was drunk. Probably still is. Our conversation sloshed back and forth like the ale in one of his tankards, going nowhere. I’d press him on what kinds of items he had and express my interest in buying some of them, and he’d go on about how he has lots of magic items. I was about to leave when he motioned for me to go see them. Following his serpentine stumble back to his room, he told me to open up a barrel. It was like a fountain of rainbow colored light erupted out of the barrel. Magic items, of all shapes and sizes filled the barrel to the brim. Turning toward him in surprise, he just grinned at me with a smug, half-drunk look and motioned to the other fifteen barrels in the room. Every single one of the was lined with lead and full to the brim with magical items, except one which was mostly fully of a foul smelling ale and the rings from the adventuring party we had encountered earlier. Elmo was particularly excited about that one barrel.

Elmo then wanted to know if I was willing to take the wager as well. The wager the other adventures had died trying. He bets everything in his room against half of a person’s magical items, that they can’t go to the nearby Dwarven ruins and return within a month without dying. When he said this I almost choked on my own tongue. There must be a catch, I told myself. We were just there. Maybe he triggers some kind of trap or curse that kills off the adventurers? I gently reminded him that we should get the druid involved as a neutral witness to the wager. Constantly full of surprises, Elmo summons the druid by walking over to the window and yelling the druids name over and over and over. A bird flies into the room and transforms into Jaroo.

Elmo informs him of our wager, he is confused at first, as he knows that we were just at the ruins, but I was able to convince Jaroo with a few gestures to let the matter drop. The deal being sealed and Elmo still carrying on about how no-one ever comes back, I stomp one foot and materialize at the bottom of the ruins. I pluck a scale off of the dragon’s corpse as a souvenir, then teleport back to town. A short walk later I’m back in Elmo’s room facing the furious drunk and a mildly amused druid. Strangely  enough, now that I’m thinking about it, I believe I heard us leaving the caves just as I was teleporting out. What a weird place.

Elmo can hardly stutter his frustrated anger past his drunkenness as I remind him that he had never asked me if I had been there before, or anything else of that kind. Jaroo agrees that I had fulfilled the letter of the wager, although he was less than thrilled that I hadn’t told Elmo about my advantage. Jaroo also insists that I get everything that was fairly won, and forces Elmo to reveal the even larger cache of items he had hidden below the floor. Jaroo then shaped the wooden walls of the room into a cart (they were a part of the room, he insisted) and summoned two horses to temporarily pull it. The druid also informed me that the leaves of The Tree in the grove were grown so that their veins are a living record of all the items Elmo had collected, although they wouldn’t be much help for identifying individual items. As a final act of generosity, Jaroo helped me find a temporary storage location for the cart, until I can move the magic items to a more permanent location.

In a fit of generosity, that I’m now beginning to regret, I warned the druid of Duke Lupic, Prince Rel, as well as what happened in Sardik’s city. Elmo’s brother, Otis, works in Duke Lupic’s city so considering recent events it is likely that he is in some degree of danger. Jaroo took my statements seriously and has asked that we come and speak to some of the cities notable figures. Namly the City Elder, Druid Elder (Jaroo I think), Head Priest of St. Cuthbert, Burne & Rufus. Like I said before, I’m the one who made the comments so don’t come if you don’t want to. If you do come I ask that you let me handle any questions about….. the companion we lost in the Dwarven ruins and that you don’t bring him up. Araja, I also think we should avoid talking about your two favorite people if we can help it.