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After trading a few mental notes, everyone joins Corona, Einn and Korug around the kitchen to speak with the cook, just as two more individuals walk up. One pushes right past you as if expecting you to have moved out of her way while the other follows closely behind, clearly not happy to be caught in the middle. The clearly noble woman looks at the cook, still mid sentence in speaking with you and butts in, “Where’s my breakfast? Is this what passes for service in your ramshackle excuse for an inn?”
The man near her, it seems the owner, "I'm sure you can see that things are a little different today,. . ." as he ducks his head to dodge a bit of broken pottery flying his way, "Please, milady, I'll make sure it's done right and out for you shortly."
The cook looks like he is about to say something in return, but the owner gives him a look, and the three continue on. She calls her servant back, the person that had left just as you had first approached, who again begins to dictate exact directions to the cook, while the noble woman and the owner step back to continue their conversation that seems to revolve around him being unsure just how far he is willing to go to keep her patronage.
Seeing that there is little you can do here, and with a few of the party mentioning they want to go look upstairs, where you have heard the dragons have made their lair, you begin to head that way to investigate.
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Upstairs
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Designed to emulate Castle Korvosa’s Seawatch Tower, this turret is cramped but has a high ceiling, with wooden rafters crisscrossing overhead. Slim windows offer breathtaking views of the city and beyond. The furnishings are covered with drop cloths, which are themselves bedaubed with many seasons’ worth of dragon droppings.
As yo reach the top of the stairs, it opens up into a small circular room with two doors. Neither is locked, (or trapped), allowing you to open them easily. Inside, you see the Pseudodragon's lair, and inside, standing guard, you spot a single Psuedodragon that glares at you defiantly, but says nothing. It doesn't act as you step into the room, nor respond to your communications, but you know you can't get too close or it might defend itself, and likely bring the others back to their nest to help out.
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Oblivious to the bits of egg shell on the floor, Corona almost steps on one before Korug points it out. "Whoops! Good eye, Korug!"
As Einn steps forward to address the lone sentinel, Corona listens with a similar look of awe on her face as when Emma spoke to her mind. "New friends, all of you are full of surprises today!" she whispers.
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As you stand there in the entryway looking over the room, the small dragon begin pacing, unsure what you are here for, but not wanting to take any chances. The suddenly, from somewhere up above you, there is a sudden flash of color, and it darts down and slams into Emma, knocking her back through the door into the staircase. You hear a lot of loud thumps as both go tumbling down the circular stairs, locked in mortal combat.
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The little dragon doesn't seem to respond, not reacting one way or the other, as if it's waiting on something. It paces back and forth in place, perhaps trying to decide something?
While most of the party watches on, Emma attempts to contact the beast through it's mind, but finds it to be a chaotic and instinctual place, and believes it to be unlikely that her telepathy made it through into the creature's understanding. It continues to try to wrestle against her.
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Einn glances over her shoulder trying to look down the stairs. "Emma are you ok?"
She tries again to speak to the dragon.
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"Um...it looks like you've made a new friend, Friend Emma," Corona offers, stating the obvious. "But I don't have a clue what he, or she, is!"
Curious, she stretches a hand out to see if the creature will sniff it or even let her touch it. "Are you related to doggies? You're sorta acting like a doggy..."
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It is indeed a Hippogriff, and from what you recall, it looks to be a small or young one. It continues to try to wrestle Emma, but the longer it does the more clearly it shows that it is simply playing. Unfortunately, it is too animalistic to for Emma's metal communication to work on it, or it simply doesn't understand, but it doesn't outright attack. Once it's had it's fun, it gets up off of her, panting but harmless.
After not hearing the sounds of a battle, the little creature waits a few long moments, before answer back to Einn, or rather, speaking directly to Einn's mind. At first it seems as though the little dragon is yelling, but after a bit, it's telepathic voice lowers, or perhaps it is Einn's mind's ear growing accustom to the cerebral interactions, "ONE OF YOUR kind stole our babies. My brothers and sisters still unhatched. I saw it. If you are not a FIREND OF THE EGG THIEF, than help us." As the rest of the group returns, with a new friendly pet wagging it's horseytail, the Pseudodragon calms even more, sensing some of the mental impressions it had managed to glean from you as you approached. "Last night, as we all slept, I was awoken by an odd noise. I looked up to see a man sneaking away. I only got a glance, and fell back asleep. The next morning we awoke to find three of our eggs gone. The thief had dropped one, which had woken me. But the others are gone!"
The Pseudodragon gives you a brief description of the man, a human, it had seen. A description that sounds very, very familiar to a cook you had just met. . .
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I was wondering what he was cooking that was so special, and took two people to decide how to cook.
Einn motions to her group to come close. "The description given by the pseudodragon match the cook. Should we confront him or talk to the manager about this?" she says quietly as to not be overheard downstairs.
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For the first time, Corona's normally affable expression darkens as they realize the description of the thief matches that of the cook downstairs. "He works here and he STOLE their eggs?" she fumes. "I think we need to have a chat with him!"
"But... Friend Emma might have a better idea," she agrees, relaxing just a little bit. She looks at Emma. "What plan are you noodling over? Is it a sneaky one?"
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Uldar, sitting on his wolf, finds everything that has happened very interesting. He will go down stairs to talk to the cook
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Although Corona isn't sure of how the missing pseudodragon eggs relate to the woes foretold by Zeeva's mysterious fortuneteller, she does know that the thief needs to answer for the crime. She's also extremely curious as to how a hippogriff fits into the whole tale as well.
With some of the party going to sit near the kitchen and others heading back into the kitchen she looks down at the hippogriff and shrugs. "This is all very strange, new friend. Do you belong to someone? Auron said something about you being hungry, too." She digs into her pack and takes out a small bit of dried meat from one of her trail rations and carefully offers it to the creature.
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Auron smiles, looking at Korug as they head downstairs.
"Quick to anger, are we? Sometimes, a more subtle approach is favorable. I surely hope that Zeeva did not see us as the Disaster to happen here!" With a soft clap on the back, Korug seems to visibly glow. "See? It looks like you are brightening up the situation already!"
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Everyone hears a great commotion from inside the kitchen, as various things go flying. Some of junior cooks flee, unsure if the place is now haunted, or if the Pseudodragons have now decided to attack the kitchen unseen.
Finally, the head cook barks from inside, "That's it! I quit!" and bursts out of the room, heading for the exit. This allows you the opportunity to search the kitchen, and after a few minutes, sure enough, you locate two large, leathery eggs stashed in one of the cupboards.
Returning the eggs to the Pseudodragon upstairs, he summons the others to him, since the eggs have been found. The communicate amongst themselves for a time without saying a word aloud. Two of the larger ones approach you, while the youngest one goes back towards the nest to retrieve something. The two elderly pseudodragons, likely a mated pair speak, cycling between the two, but also oddly altering between verbal speech and telepathic communication, "Thank you for returning the eggs. This is not the first time that someone has taken one of our clutch, but thanks to you, we now know who was responsible, and that he had grown so bold as to take all of them, we are sure that he might have tried something even worse next time. But, I we must admit, that some of this is our fault. The first time that one of our eggs was taken, in our haste, we stole an egg of our own,". . . making a small motion to indicate the Hippogriff, "thinking rashly that that would make things better. We know it was not, and so, we need to right that wrong."
The younger pseudodragon that had been left to guard the nest returns, struggling to drag something alone the way that's nearly as large as he is. It's a small statue, "We would like you to have this for helping us, and. . .", the young pseudodragon continues to crawl, dragging the statue all the way to you, but doesn't stop in front of, but rather moves to join you on your side of the conversation, "we where wondering if you might look over our son as you explore the wide world outside?"
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With one of the card's locations, the Frisky Unicorn for the Harrowdeck's "Unicorn" now out of the way, you are still left with two other clues to perhaps look into. You still have no idea just what the relevance of this location was to the impending doom related to the Green Market, but having picked up a new friend, perhaps it will all be revealed in time.
Someone had also picked up a small stack of fliers from within the tavern, which hadn't meant much at the time, but outside, seeing more of them posted around, you do notice a small difference from the ones inside, but also the small business card that Zeeva Foxglove had given to you when you first met. It seems that someone has altered them, adding in the line "Free samples to foreign visitors!".
That can not be coincidence, especially after the revelation that all three of the Harrow Cards suggesting tragedy on the horizon had also included some sort of fruit, which you vaguely recall Zeeva mentioning she had given to the travelling Varisian caravan as a gift for their hard time, which is what had led to the free reading in the first place. . .
The pseudodragon, suggests that he did notice a woman just yesterday come into the Frisky Unicorn and drop of a stack of the fliers, but didn't know her and hasn't seen her since.
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"Well...that was interesting!" Corona comments brightly once the business with the pseudodragons is finished. "I still wonder where they found the hippogriff egg, but I suppose some things must remain a mystery! And sometimes it's more fun that way," she chuckles.
"New friend Quete says he saw someone come by and drop off those fliers, right? Maybe someone is trying to get back at Zeeva for something...because she can't let every foreign visitor have samples, that wouldn't make her very much money," she frowns. "New friend Quete, do you remember what she looked like? Maybe we can track her down or find someone who knows her."