In short
Quill turns up at the Thundering Lizard in a dressing gown and bunny slippers. Nala takes the bad news about the dye master and pays out 20 gp plus two magic items. Quill gets dressed again, and two bets go down on next week’s dinosaur race. The party spends the night at the plush House of Repose, where Lord Alistair hires “the famous scholar Quill” to find his missing courier. Everyone levels up to 2.
Quill returns
It is evening, still Day 1 in Port Nyanzaru.
- Elias has been on the Thundering Lizard’s stage all afternoon, drunk, playing to a full room. He is up to his knees in brassieres, although no one in Chult seems to wear them.
- Gimbal has left Marta safely at the temple and joined the others.
A divan appears at the end of the table, and on it is Quill:
- a very fluffy dressing gown and bunny slippers
- his feathered hat on over still-wet hair
- a biscuit in one hand and a dainty china cup of tea in the other
His kit turns up beside him in a giant drawstring bag. A drunk half-orc promptly passes out on the divan.
Quill’s account:
- He spent the time at “my grandmother’s or something” (Syndra’s house).
- He apparently has a deathly fear of teleporting.
- She “lulled me into comfort… drugged me with tea and biscuits” and sent him through without warning.
The party fills him in: the pirate job, the guide hunt, the dye works.
Nala pays up
At closing time they bring Nala the signet ring, the ledger, and the news that her friend came back as a ghoul. (“Was he more than a friend?” — “No, you bastard.”)
- The dye works must be sealed. The Dyers are a family business. One son went north to Baldur’s Gate, and another may have joined the Flaming Fist. Nala will contact the family herself.
- Reward: 20 gp (Kintergas carries it) and two items. With nobody quite remembering the full list, they choose:
| Item | Carried by | Short version |
|---|---|---|
| Mask of the Venom Eater | Gimbal | Advantage on saves against poison and resistance to poison damage. Immune to inhaled toxins, gas and stench. Once a day, can draw poison out of a creature within 5 ft. Looks like a chopping board with a face cut into it. |
| Gravewearer’s Shroud | Kale (worn under his clothes) | A shroud that keeps a corpse safe from necromancy for 7 days and blocks the smell of rot. In an emergency it can cast Gentle Repose or Sanctuary (against undead). White above the waist; bloody and muddy below it. |
-
Quill gets a new outfit:
- a neon-yellow and electric-magenta silk tunic
- a split iguana-hide kilt for riding
- dinosaur-leather boots
- a heavily waxed half-poncho that smells overpoweringly of candles and keeps a clear bubble of air around him free of insects
He keeps the bunny slippers.
The big race
Back at the Lizard, one corner has become a betting ring for “the biggest dinosaur race in the history of Chult”, three days from now. A halfling oddsmaker in thick glasses gives Gimbal his reading of the field:
| Racer | Beast | Rider | Odds | Oddsmaker’s view |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Iron | Allosaur | Kwalu | 7–1 | Fast but bites everything. Once ate an old lady. |
| Mountain Mover | Triceratops | Titan | 3–1 | A tank. Nothing stops it. |
| Jungle Lightning | Deinonychus | Taya (crowd favourite) | 2–1 | Very fast, but loud noises spook it. |
| River Runner | Hadrosaur | Moon | 5–1 | Reliable. “Too safe.” |
| Red Death | Dimetrodon | Slick | 10–1 | Dark horse: slow, but takes sharp turns. |
Bets placed:
- Quill put 2 gp on Big Iron (two gold coins he unexpectedly found in his pocket).
- Gimbal put 2 gp on Mountain Mover.
- Kintergas flipped Gondolo 1 gp to bet with. Gondolo once lost everything except his boots.
Gimbal also eyes the bookmakers’ bag of gold behind the bar for a long, thoughtful moment. Nothing happens. Probably.
Drinks and a meal for everyone cost 5 sp. Elias drinks, eats and sleeps free as the act. The party leaves him there and asks the barkeep to tell him where they’ve gone.
Kaya’s House of Repose
Gondolo points them to Kaya’s House of Repose, five minutes away in a wealthy quarter near the Grand Souk: clean paving, silk instead of cotton.
- An open courtyard with ferns, a trickling fountain and incense burners. Two tabaxi play Chultan harps.
- 1 gp per person per night. Kintergas pays for himself and Quill.
- A suite of two bedrooms and a washroom with two steaming, incense-scented baths.
- Laundry is collected and armour polished overnight.
- The robes provided are very short, sleeveless gauzy silk.
Kintergas practises sword forms in his robe and orders red wine. Thinking it over, he concludes that Port Nyanzaru is not run like Waterdeep. There are no magistrates or predictable patrols. It runs on leverage: monopolies, rival merchants and shadow societies. His vow isn’t about gold; its real target is the corruption feeding on the city.
Kale tries the house special: tej (honey mead) blended with mulled wine and aged. It smells of oak smoke and kicks like whiskey. He decides he could get used to it.
Gimbal follows a group of foreign explorers who were trading maps back to their room, to no result.
Lord Alistair’s job
Quill walks into a group of strangers and joins the conversation until someone has to acknowledge him. He introduces himself as Quill, a very famous scholar (Persuasion 17).
Lord Alistair, who represents Amnian merchants and trades in information, decides that Quill looks like someone who gets things done:
- Three nights ago one of his couriers was ambushed outside the walls “near the old city, by the Tiriki Anchorage”.
- The courier was a Chultan man of ordinary build, travelling under heavy guard.
- He carried ledgers with sensitive diplomatic contracts.
- He was taken along with the ledgers.
- The guards, the princes and the Flaming Fist all say it was a robbery or undead. Alistair thinks it was a plot.
- His suspects are the Ytepka Society and Merchant Prince Zhanthi, possibly working together.
- He’ll “make it worth your while” and will leave a forwarding address at the desk.
The party notes that the job may tie in with the trip south anyway.
A long rest, and a dream
The party sleeps well, except Quill. All night a fluffy pink axolotl plush pleads with him in the voice from his pocket: “Come play again… I just wanna play.”
Everyone wakes up feeling level 2.
Loot & items
20 gp · Mask of the Venom Eater · Gravewearer’s Shroud · Quill’s new wardrobe · betting slips (Big Iron, Mountain Mover, Gondolo’s)
People met
Nala again · halfling oddsmaker · House of Repose hostess · Lord Alistair · named: Zhanthi, Ytepka Society
Threads opened
- Lord Alistair’s missing courier
- The big race, in three days
- The Dyer son who may have joined the Flaming Fist
- Glimpse wants to play.