Awaiting darkness to cover the unremarkable alley they were told hosted the Night Market, the party entered a nearby tavern to pass the time. After some touch-and-go moments with some racists, the party found they could enjoy the high-end liquor Tenli stole out from behind the counter in peace. After a while, the crowd dispersed. Night had come.
Outside, the alley across from the tavern was unrecognizable. Floating orbs lit the buzzing market in glowing purples and greens. Hawkers sold all sorts of treats - Sven partaking in several armfuls of fried potato curls. And, the psychedelic scorpions of the Night Market proved potent.
Once the vendor figured out how to get the scorpion to sting in between Sven’s scales, the trip was on. Beorn acted as sober sitter, which proved helpful, as the rest of the party went to outerspace. Tenli couldn’t stand. Sven walked like a beaver or something. Uncle Iroh just made tiny little baby steps.
The incapacitation might have been more fun, if they didn’t bear witness to an abduction at the end of the alley. The party tried to find out what happened, but it took more than an hour to hobble all the way to the end of the alley. No worthwhile trace of a scuffle could be uncovered. While they searched, two men approached.
They invited the party to the estate of Tergid Vexman for a business proposal the following day. Coming down off their high, the party decided to barge into the home of a humble carpenter guy and make themselves comfortable for the night after Tenli hit him with a charm.
The next morning, they sought out Vexman at his manor. They were treated to lunch as Vexman put forth his request: prove Lord Duskfallow is a vampire. With proof of his vampiric affliction, Vexman wanted to rally the forces of Daros against the mayor and take the rule of the city for himself. In exchange for their assistance, Vexman offered riches, the stolen dispatch of a courier meant for Duskfallow, and a mysterious egg.
Beorn felt it might make more sense to just kill Duskfallow outright. So after leaving Vexman’s, the party stocked up on vampire-killin’ tools. In the herbalist’s shop, they learned about a string of disappearances happening at the Night Market. Iroh also learned he appeals to older herbalist women. After equipping themselves, and possibly rekindling some kind of romance between neighboring storekeeps, the party set out for Duskfallow’s estate.
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Before they could reach it, two more people approached our adventurers. These men seemed more pleasant, more eager to carry out their jobs than the men in the alley the night before. They issued a request for the party to join Lord Duskfallow for dinner at his estate.
Using their brains, the party made a stipulation that the meeting take place in a public place. The attendants agreed heartily and gave directions to a lovely dining establishment near the estate. The party was even encouraged to bring their weapons if it made them more comfortable.
With some time to kill before their meeting with the mayor, the party approached Duskfallow’s estate to enact a plan. While Tenli played a song to the late afternoon crowd, Beorn shapeshifted into a mouse to explore the estate.
He skittled in, little paws clicking from room to room, searching for something, anything interesting. Here, the DM failed an imagination check, and didn’t make this clever plan reveal much of anything. EXCEPT that when Beorn skittled into the study where Duskfallow was working, the vampire immediately recognized the druid, and asked him to wait patiently for their meeting.
Beorn returned to his party, where the crowd had pitched in a few coins for the free music. They gathered up their things, and entered the eating hall where their meeting was to take place. The maitre d’ ushered them into a private room, filled with luxurious eats and wine. And seemingly from nowhere, Lord Duskfallow appeared in the room with him.
His plea: don’t throw your lives away trying to kill me. Instead, rob Vexman blind and end the nuisance of whining nobles hindering Duskfallow’s custodianship of the city. Duskfallow admitted his vampirism openly to the party, even the part he played at the behest of the Death Head to shore up support for Reagent Vester. However, he claimed the Death Head’s own goals now fly too wide of his own alignment. He wants to simply continue taking care of Daros, and told the party he had broken ties with the Death Head.
In exchange for their help, besides keeping the spoils of their robbery, Duskfallow promised more information regarding the assassination of King Thad, as well as his own support for their journey.
He suggested a good place to start on their quest to break Vexman’s vault might be the Vexman majordomo, a man named Coover. Rumor is, he’s rather unhappy with Tergid Vexman. He therefore might help the party past the guards into the vault.