A Quick Coin

Our story takes place in the town of Emberwood. This a small farming village and a lot of the residential homes are scattered around the nearby countryside. This is where people come to drink, shop, trade, stuff like that. There are one or two bars, a few general stores, an inn or two for travelers, and a few other buildings. Amongst these establishments is Zazzle’s Arcane Attic, which is sort of a thrift store for magical wares. A lot of the locals don’t have much of a need for magic items, so a lot of the store's business involves collecting items and shipping them out to buyers. Each party member has seen a flyer posted by Zazzle’s Arcane Attic asking for aid in moving around some boxes. The job is also offering 50 gold pieces per person, which seems like a nice payment for a short day's work.

As they approach, a sign on the door reads, “All the goods you can imagine, and many you can’t!” and in smaller text beneath it says, “All sales are final. Curses are the responsibility of the new owner.” The shop is filled with lots of useless but also interesting odds and ends. The shelves are lined with things like potions, waterskins, hats, blankets, packs, uncured leather, alchemy supplies, tinkering wares, a wheel for a cart, a random key, some farming equipment, a copper kettle a wad of string, a rag doll, a few weapons, a jug sealed with a large plug, and other various things. Lots of the items are laid on the ground, making the walls feel almost like they’re closing in.

After entering and having a brief interaction, Zazzle pops up from behind the counter "Ah, welcome friends! Can I interest any of you in my Zazzletastic wares today?"

The party says that they are here for the new job, and Zazzle responds with excitement and ushers them into his office. Hayfield attempts to steal some mysterious potions off a shelf before entering, but Zizzle, Zazzle's pet rat, is sitting on the shelf staring down at Hayfield with a "don't even try" expression.

Entering Zazzles "Office," more of a storage room.. The party is interviewed with questions like “How are you with animals? Are you particularly flammable? How would you overcome unforeseen magical dangers?

After answering quite well, Zazzle offers them the job,  and takes them outside for instruction. On the way out Hayfield opens his shirt and sweeps the entire shelf of potions into his hay, including the rat. Zazzle points to a spot on the map a few miles south, a cluster of caves in the first. "The transporter was too lazy to bring it into town, apparently. Follow the map, and you should see it around here! Thank you dearly, I just don't have time like I used too, ha!"

After Zazzle enters his shop, Zizzle the rat jumps out of Hayfield's hay, biting and nibbling on his arm. Maxwell, taking a fondness for Zizzle, picks him up and sets him on his shoulder, asking Zizzle to join them on their quest. Zizzle agrees, and the group heads out. Along the way, Hayfield kills a few crows to sacrifice in a burning ritual.

The party travels for a few hours and approaches an opening in the trees off the road. They Look to see a mossy grove, where there's an upward incline to the mouth of a cave draped over with vines. A small stream is trickling down the incline, and there are some rocky outcrops. Figuring out this is the cave where the cargo should be, they attempt to climb the incline. Even though it isn't too steamy, the wet moss proves quite slippery. With some ingenuity, rope, magic, strength, and teamwork, the group gets up.

The cave is pretty damp and wet but relatively warm, like a humidity you'd find refreshing in contrast to the chilly day. As they proceed deeper, the cave starts twisting in many directions, and they light a torch to see ahead. After about 4 minutes, they come to a part of the cave that has a significantly taller ceiling. They notice a ledge up at a higher outcrop of rocks along the wall and catch sight of a rope hanging very slightly over the edge. Using some skillful climbing, Mintin gets to the top and discovers that the rope is a rope ladder. He drops it down for the rest of the group. On their way up, Zhor notices scratch marks along the wall's surface. Maxwell has a bad feeling about this area, and decides to stay back to guard the area they climbed.

The party rounds the top of the stone to find themselves in a much wider, almost circular potion of the cave, almost like a small room. It is significantly warmer; objects are scattered around the floors, and a few rocks are set up like tables. They find silver-plated silverware, some jewelry, an animal hide fashioned into a ball, and old tattered parchment with what looks like a crayon drawing on it. It depicts a stick figure holding hands with a scribbled red blob.

Edmund rounds a corner in the room to discover a body twisted at an unnatural angle, very obviously dead. It has scratch marks on its body, but they are actively bleeding as it seems they were cauterized by gnarly burn marks. Touching the body, Mintin concludes this was recent. Suddenly they hear voices coming from another entrance to the room, "Cmon' pull! We got to get this back to the ship, quickly!" and another voice says, "But it's so heavy, I don't know how we're going to move it!" 

The team calls up Maxwell, and sends Edmund to sneak around the corner and investigate. As he gets closer, he hears chains raddling. "Wooah, settle down now!" And the THWAP of a whip, then the pained sound of an animal cry. He rounds the bend to see a small red dragon, chained the tail and legs, with a metal brace around its mouth, struggling against his captors. Edmund reports what he saw to the rest, and they wonder if this dragon was the "cargo" Zazzle sent them after. They rush to the scene and get in position to ambush.

The party readies their ambush while Maxwell steps toward the group of mercenaries to question them. They seem surprised to see him, and ask what he's doing there. Maxwell asks them the same question and threatens them to let the dragon go. While he distracts them, Edmund sneaks up behind the dragon and slowly gets near its face. The dragon's eyes widen in fear when it sees him, but he doesn't resist as Edmund picks the lock at his maw. The moment the restraints unlock with a CLICK and hit the ground, the dragon opens its mouth and lets out a massive burst of flames, turning up the heat by 30 degrees and incinerating two mercenaries. 

The room explodes in chaos as Edmund fires off an arrow, spearing their leader through the shoulder, and turns to pick a second lock. Mintin jumps down with a swarm of keys circling his body. They shoot out of their swarm toward the enemies, shredding through their armor like the shrapnel of an explosion. Hayfield's eyes go wide in fear at the sight of the fire as he jumps into the small underground pond and exchanges blows with a mercenary. Zhor drops down and tanks through the mercenaries, snapping their shortswords in half and letting his arm cannon shoot holes through them. Billowing shadowy smoke peals itself off Maxwell and rushes across the room, forming itself into the echo-knight of Maxwell and striking at the foes.

The mercenaries are quickly dispatched, and the dragon is freed. It frantically backs into a corner in a defensive stance. It doesn't attack as it recognizes they helped him, but he doesn't trust them yet. They communicate telepathically, saying they come in peace and ask if he has a name. It responds out loud, in perfect common and a young childish tone, "I can speak common ya doof! And I'm... SCORCHER!" as he puffs out a small bout of fire to show off. Hayfield dives down into the water "NO NO PLEASE NO FIRE!" and he starts shoveling water onto his body. 

The party calms Scorcher down, but he keeps repeating that he doesn't feel safe and wants to go to Corvus. They discover Corvus is his human friend, who seems to have set up this cave for him to hide from other humans. They discover from Zizzle, who is still with them, that this dragon is what Zazzle wanted them to get. They do not reveal this to Scorcher and discuss privately whether they should take Scorcher to Zazzle and get their money or if they should help this dragon and take him to Corvus. They decide to take Corvus to Scorcher, because they don't feel good about handing over Scorcher to Zazzle.

...Though the party does not know, Zizzle telepathically communicates this to Zazzle, because he is Zazzle's familiar...

They take a short walk to Corvus's home, which is an adorable cottage in a field of wheat. During the journey, Hayfield kills and burns 2-3 crows. Outside of the cottage is the 4-year-old half-elf twins Elara and Selene Whisperleaf. When they see Scorcher, they jump up in excitement and run to him. Scorcher begins to play with them while Corvus, a human in his 60s, comes out to meet the group.

The party explains what happened, and Corvus seems very distraught and concerned. Martin tells Corvus that it was the Arturo Mercenaries and tells what he knows. He assumes they wanted to steal and sell Scorcher. Corvus is not surprised because such a young dragon is a rare find and could be easily molded and trained to be a killing machine. They enter the home, where they meet Corvus's wife Lola, an elf. They sit down for a wonderful home-cooked meal. Corvus and Lola talk about how they met, "I worked at the Rosewood Inn, and Corvus was a regular. He was so smitten by me that his flirtations began to win me over. The rest is history!"

They also discuss some of Corvus and Scorcher's relationships. "I was out playing in the woods as 12-year-olds do and came across Scorcher. At first, we were both scared of each other,  but our mutually childish curiosity got us playing together. Soon, we were nearly best friends, playing out in the woods all day, every day. Dragons age slower than humans, so Scorcher is still very much the same kind, playful, immature dragon he was back then. I've done all I could to protect him, and I honestly see him as a brother." 

After one of the party members relieves themselves in the restroom, Zizzle sneaks out of Maxwell's coat. Corvus asks who that is, and they mention how they came across Scorcher and that the rat is Zazzle's pet. Corvus stands up in fear, telling them that it's no pet. It's a familiar. They rush outside to Scorcher to see Zazzle coming up the path, hobbling with his cane, smiling at the sight of his delivery safe and sound in the front yard. He expresses disappointment in the group for not bringing Scorcher straight to him, but says it's of no worries and approaches to take Scorcher. The entire party stands in front of Scorcher and says to leave him alone. Zazzle gets mad and chugs down a RAGE potion as he grows in size, and he rips off his cloak to reveal a glistening row of abs and muscle-bound arms "LOOKS LIKE WE'LL BE DOING THIS THE HARD WAY!"

The party enters combat against Zazzle. To aid him in combat, Zazzle turns all the furniture inside the house into Mimics which start attacking the family. The part splits up to defend the family and defeat Zazzle. There are a few close calls, especially when the twin's teddy bear grows teeth and fights them. Zazzle also shoots off huge, deadly, magical beams of energy, but he is defeated with the help of Scorcher. Hayfield burns his body along with Zizzles. Martin steals a magical key from Zazzle's pack and uses it to open a dimension door to return to the now-empty shop. Zhor gets Zazzle's Great Staff. 

The party returns to the store to take care of the now unoccupied magical items. They find the place completely emptied, and a note saying "Great work, guys. -Mintin" and a pack of 50 gold for each of them. It turns out Mintin beat them there and stole all the items.

Mintin Delware

• After clearing out Zazzle's shop, Mintin sold all the magical items and kept any key ones for himself.

• Mintin continues to search for the key that will "unlock" the answers behind his powers.

Hayfield

• Eventually Hayfield will become doomed to being the god of birds because of all the angry bird souls he kills.

Zhor Shock

• Zhor hunts down the remaining Arturo Mercenaries in the area.

• Zhor continues to find where his dad was taken, in hopes he's still alive.

• Zhor's story continues in Gloom and Gleam,

Edmund Thorne

• Edmund continues what he was doing before, which is taking jobs to make money and pay off his debt.

• Edmund's story continues in Gloom and Gleam.

Maxwell Dralheart

• Maxwell was distraught over Hayfield killing Zizzle the rat. So, Hayfield gave Maxwell a nearby field mouse. Maxwell named it Henry.

• Maxwell and Henry now travel the world together, making money and taking on quests. 

• Maxwell's story continues in Gloom and Gleam.