The ordeal in Folendemkar over, the party plans their next move. kaea's body is buried, although Halt makes a necklace out of some of his teeth for Fluffy Fluffy. pomin and a host of orcs will head north to the capital, where they can run recon on the blight infestation there. Dave the Average, Fluffy, and Halt, however, will head east with stol to the port city on the coast, aiming to charter a ship east to the islands. There, they can try to make a deal with the dragons to join them in their war on the Blight. They are given the food they need for the journey and money for an inn in town. The port and the surrounding areas are rocky and non-arable, meaning food only comes into the port through trade. The party is given instructions to meet with a merchant named pan who will provide them with funds for a boat in exchange for finalizing a continuing trade deal of mushrooms with Folendemkar.
The party returns to the surface to begin their trek east. The Blight spores are few and far between now, spread thin across the land and unable to secure a hold in the rocky, plantless ground of the eastern coast. Any spores which they see keep their distance from the dagger gifted to them by kidal. They rediscover Stol's cart, two dead horses still hitched to the front. They convince Stol to sell the contents at the port at significantly less than they would fetch at the capital. Fluffy transforms into a horse, and she and Dave drag the cart east, with Stol occasionally hopping aboard when he gets tired.
One night, Fluffy again feels an unfamiliar wave a drowsiness. She manages to fight the urge to sleep, but does briefly doze off several times, during which she appears in the endless black void where she first met moktan. She sees a figure in the distance, but while last time it was shadowy and hard at work on an anvil, this time it is seated on a throne, its edges illuminated faintly in a soft purple glow. She sees nothing more.
They arrive at the port city by early evening. Parking the cart out front of the Sea Badger, the inn they were slated to stay at, they go inside to check it out. Dave asks saen the innkeeper if the inn has any barns they can stay in. She says it doesn't, but says there is a barn in the market district. Rather than spend their 4 gold allowance on the inn, the party decides to camp there for the night.
Before meeting up with Pan or finding the barn, the party decides to try to sell off Stol's wares. They don't sell for as much as they would have in the Capital, but with Stol's expert salesmanship, a smaller party, and equal split of profits, everyone manages to bring in a handsome 50 gold each.
Pan takes a bit to find. The place circled on a map they were given was out of date, and his stall had been moved a bit of a distance away. He's a produce seller, distributing foodstuffs shipped in from other places. When they do find him, he and Stol briefly hug and talk about merchant things as Pan goes over the contract they brought along. Halt says he brought along some of the "awesome shrooms" if Pan wants a taste, but Pan says firmly he's only interested in selling mushrooms that can be used as food. As Pan and Stol continue to talk, a face pops out from the stall's tent, whispers "Hey man! Did I hear you mention the good shrooms?", and beckons them inside. Halt enters, Dave waits outside, and Fluffy, still a horse, pokes her head in to listen.
She introduces herself as Pan's assistant, tael, and says she's interested in branching out on her own into the psychedelic drug business. Making sure they're far enough back in the tent not to be overheard by Pan or Stol, she asks to try one of the samples Halt has on him. She breaks off a tiny piece and pops it into her mouth, closing her eyes and nodding vigorously in approval. Halt lays out his plan for how they will hide the psychedelic shrooms in the regular edible shroom shipment and coordinate with partners in Folendemkar to keep the psychedelic shipments coming. Around this point, Fluffy wanders off to go shopping. Tael yells out "Hey, man, your horse is getting away!" but no one seems particularly worried.
Tael is on board with Halt's proposed plans, but she's unsure of their ability to convince the orcs. Pointing at Dave, she says "He's a representative or an emissary or whatever, right? What does he think about this plan?" Dave, who had been listening, simply sticks his head into the tent and nods his head.
"Okay," says Tael. "So I'll pay you half price up front for the shrooms you have with you now, with the rest on first delivery. You know, as a security." Dave takes a dagger from his belt (does Dave even wear a belt???) and casually moves his hand into the tent. "Okay, okay, I don't want any trouble!" Tael stammers out. "Full price now!" She hands Halt 10 gold in exchange for the shrooms, and Dave puts his dagger away.
"Well, looks like everything's in order!" Pan calls back to them. "I see you met my assistant. I hope you were nice to them, Tael!" She smiles. Pan goes to give Stol a handshake, but Stol, trying to live up to his new adventurer cool guy persona, grasps it and gives him an awkward shoulder bump instead. As they party walks away with their commission of 500 gold, Halt takes one last piece of shroom out of his pocket and tosses it to scath, who was fed a decent amount of the drug on their trip and was looking longingly back at Pan's stall. He yips and begins rolling around on the ground, and Halt has to half drag him along.
Fluffy, meanwhile, had been shopping. Still a horse, she stops in front of a clothing shop and asks in a whinnying voice to purchase a T-shirt. The shopkeeper, confused and unsure of what he had just heard, shakes his head and continues to help the customer next to her. Clearly unable to get his attention, Fluffy transforms into a bear, scattering the shoppers around her in the process. The shopkeeper falls back in fear. "I would like a T-shirt," she requests in a deep growling voice. The shopkeeper, still terrified, asks "Is...is an extra extra large okay?" "I want a medium," she responds.
The shopkeeper grabs a plain black T-shirt off a rack, balls it up, and tosses it to her. "How much?" she asks. "It's...it's free! Just take it!" he responds. "Thank you," Fluffy says. "Do drugs." She then ambles off, shoppers clearing a path. "'Do drugs'?" the shopkeeper asks himself. "I did weed a week ago, but that doesn't explain this!"
The commotion caused by Fluffy's transformation had attracted a nearby guard, and he makes his way over to her. "Hey!" he shouts. "Come back here! How did you escape from the barn?" Halt catches up to the guard and asks what he's chasing. "That bear!" the guard says, looking back at Halt and pointing. But by the time his gaze returns, Fluffy has transformed back into a horse. Confused, he runs over to where the bear was and looks around. "I did weed a week ago..." he says to himself. Halt puts a hand on his shoulder. "You know, there's stronger stuff than that," he says, advertisingly.
By now, the sun is set and merchants are closing up their shops. The party approaches the barn, a large structure surrounding by a fence. A gate in the fence displays a sloppily-painted image of a bar of soap. Stalls selling face soap, body soap, hair soap, morning soap, evening soap, and soap sculptures sit on either end of the gate, each also bearing its own version of the soap symbol. Halt walks through the gate and begins pitching a tent.
"Hey, I haven't seen you around here before!" a nasally voice shouts. The woman behind the soap sculpture stand looks indignant. "Card carrying Guild members only!" Halt continues pitching his tent. "Hey, you, listen to me!" the woman continues. "Under section 5, subsection b of Guild law, only members are allowed beyond the gate without an escort!" Halt ignores her. Dave and Fluffy walk through the gate as well.
Dave decides to check out the inside of the barn. The door is unlocked. Inside is practically a menagerie. Animals of all kinds are housed here in close quarters. A family of rabbits sit in a pen across from a stable of horses. A bear roams the inside of a cage further in. Hundreds of birds roost in the rafters above. Numerous hands run to and fro, shoveling feed and manure into and out of enclosures. The one nearest to Dave approaches him, speaking in a nasally voice "Hey, man, you're not allowed back here!" Far too intimidated to pick a fight, however, he just grumbles to himself and goes back to scooping muck.
The party of four settles in for the night. Before sleep, they gather around to write a letter to karen convincing her to begin hiding psychedelic shrooms among the normal ones in their regular shipments. Dave writes it in orcish, while Fluffy dictates, Stol advises on business matters, and Halt inserts occasional facts about drugs he picked up from his days pushing mirror_weed to help boost their credibility. They all sign it. Fluffy signs with her paw.
Dave, Halt, and Stol sleep outside the barn, listening to the sound of animals and nasally voices cursing those "damn squatters." Fluffy explores the inside, eager to study the animals there.