Goblirita Spills

Our heroes, the employees of Griana's Meats and More, get in their C.A.R. and play their Hairspray tapes while racing back to Troutbeck to see if it has encountered certain doom. We make more friends, enemies, and mud dolls.

Summary
Our heroes stand at the base of a fallen, cursed tree, with the dead body of Belgren Property at their feet. Zil and Griana investigate (mostly loot) the body for clues. They find some gold, a couple potions, and most importantly a wanted poster bearing Orund Othelm’s name. It reveals that he is known to wild-shape into a black cat with green eyes, and he is wanted for murder, high treason, and known affiliation with the Despara. There is a reward for ten thousand gold for anybody who turns him in. Griana notices that Belgren’s body seems to be in an advanced state of decay, despite having been killed only moments before. Zil takes his bag, giving the team a useful new bag of holding for carrying the meat around.

Feeling unsettled, they examine the surrounding area to see if any more clues have been left behind. The ring of leaves has been scattered about, no longer holding its shape. The decay in the tree has increased considerably since they last looked at it, beginning to move in a pattern northward out of the forest and toward town. With no time to lose, they head for the town hoping to be the heroes who save the day with all their might and all their meat. The withering decay continues in patches on their journey back to Troutbeck. During a brief stop on the way, Kai notices an abandoned wagon similar to theirs that has been hidden in the brush just off of the trail. She casts Speak With Animals and sends Cooper to examine the scene. He returns very shaken, describing the scene as having numerous dead bodies, which Kai relays to the groups. The Kai and Griana investigate further, discovering carnage similar to the fate of Belgren Property. The wagon lies near a hastily hidden campsite, which features a strange drawing carved into the ground. Kai recognizes it as a map of Troutbeck, with the book shop near the center of town circled. Meanwhile, back on the road, Phibi and Zil are vibing. Zil is blowing on their bubble pipe to calm down, and Phibi makes them a mud doll. The two of them begin some drawing lessons in the dirt, and Zil draws a pretty decent house. Their lesson is cut short by Kai and Griana’s return, describing the gruesome scene and urging them to get back to town. Phibi recalls that Arthur lives with his mother above the book shop, which means they have no time to lose.

Oddly, as they near the town they see that it looks completely normal. Unbelieving of the peace, they make a beeline for the book store. On their way into the door, Zil clumsily bumps into an elven woman coming out of the shop who quickly apologizes and shuffles off. The bookshop is crammed full of books, antiques, and trinkets of all kinds. There is no sight of Arthur, but they find a woman with her feet propped up behind the counter, drunk and mostly unconscious. Zil knocks her feet off the counter to wake her up; this knocks the bottle from her hands and causes her to groggily and grumpily look up at the group. They quickly learn this is Arthur’s mother, though she isn’t sure where he is. She eyes them suspiciously, asking why a group of adults are asking after her young son, and Griana assures her that they are safe and just want to give him the flower. Unwilling to listen to them any longer, she ushers them away, and Zil tries to give her a vague warning about coming danger on their way up the stairs.

Zil approaches Arthur’s room grinning, holding the flowers out to him. In the cutest way imaginable, he tears up and excitedly gushes about how cool Zil is for going all the way into the forest. In a last ditch effort, Zil takes out the dog statue and asks if he knows what it does. He says he does not; his mother said he could have it from the store, and he named it Betsy. Too focused on the flowers to continue with this topic, Arthur says he has to bring the flowers to his crush Becca and asks the group to come with him. Most of them agree, and Kai decides to hang back to keep an eye on the store. Before departing, Arthur shows them his favorite part of the store, which he explains is the section full of things his mother says nobody will be interested in. Kai finds and pockets a book titled A Very Dark History of the Elves and from Whence they Came. As the rest of the group heads out, she also finds a decently priced lantern filled with a swirling, glittering substance.

On their way to Becca’s house, Griana spots the elven girl they bumped into at the bookstore. She has joined an elven man near The Green Egg, and the two seem to be counting buildings. Zil splits the party further by saying they’ll accompany Arthur to Becca’s house while Griana and Phibi keep an eye on the elves. They follow the elves into the pub, sitting nearby and noticing that the two of them sat at a booth on the same side. The elves sit for quite a long time but never appear to speak to each other, and Phibi suspects they may be speaking telepathically with each other. Griana casts Detect Magic and senses a dark purple energy around them, exactly like what they saw in the forest. With scant ideas about how to approach the elves inconspicuously, Griana orders a giant, flaming, blue goblirita and sets up a clumsy fake-fall in front of their booth. It makes a large mess, especially given that there was fire involved. The blonde woman leans out of the booth after exchanging glances with her partner and asks if Griana is alright. Griana’s performance does not appear all that convincing as she slides her way into their booth, and Phibi tries to cover it up by saying it was her poor attempt at flirting. Through a series of babbling, they mention having spent time in the Vertrivian Forest, which the elves seem to take notice of. Unfortunately, the elves don’t take kindly to Griana’s questioning, especially when she brings up counting the buildings. The woman says she works for a noble in Langdale who wants to know about how the town is doing, but Phibi can tell immediately that this is a lie. The conversation grows more and more tense, until Griana becomes pointedly accusatory and she and Phibi leave. “Enjoy your night!” the elf snarkily calls after them on their way out.

Trivia

 * KM brought in real flowers for everybody in the studio this episode, in honor of them finding the Alorea flowers!
 * To cover up accidentally calling their wagon a car, Griana says that their wagon is named C.A.R., which stands for Controlled Automatic Rehicle.
 * Though most modern technology does not exist in this setting, the crew listens to Zil’s tapes on the ride back into town. They listen to Cher, and later Hairspray. Hairspray is one of the most famous traveling theatre troupe’s song and dance shows. It features a young orc named Maurice Murnblad finding himself on a journey to grow facial hair. Kai has a routine to track number eight, titled “Just Be Yourself.” Maurice’s love interest is named Cher.