Challenge 1: Garig the halfling uncle: Gariig (Ribble’s Elder Uncle) had locked himself in a storage room underneath the choir balcony along with all the Orcish ceremonial drums. Unfortunately for the party the storage room has been carved by dwarves into a massive piece of stone that the church sits on. (Too expensive to remove, might as well make it a feature of the church). The door to the storage room is of excellent craftsmanship and the seams are so tight they can barely be seen, but the door is locked tight (and appears to open out). From inside the room the party can faintly hear the sounds of cursing, crying, and occasional drum strikes.
After some yelling through the door and threats from Garig to cut the drum tops, Andoryx uses “Knock” on the door and it opens after a too complicated series of locking mechanisms work themselves open. King Knut rushes the door but tries to push instead of pull. This was fortuitous as it bonked Garig on the head as he was leaning on the door as it unlocked and moved outward an inch or so. The door was opened the correct way and the party was able to walk in to find Garig tied to two drums with a knife poised over the drum head.
Cardigan used Hold Person, and the party calmly and quickly rescued the drums, then tied Garig to a chair to have a little conversation. A few minutes of conversation revealed that Garig was distraught over the impending nuptials and all the additional diplomacy that it would entail. His best bud in the whole world (Ribble) never had time to hunt and drink any more! Ribble was always too busy dealing with the orcs or “attacks in the villages” or some such. Maybe if the wedding was ruined Ribble would have more time for his dear old Uncle Garig. Garig seemed earnest but also enormously drunk.
With a little prying the party learned that Garig had been bought drinks a few days ago at the Sniveling Snail (Or was it the Salty Snail? -Travis) by some men in brown and yellow who kept cheering the name “Plymer”. (Kymar Cultists) They had mentioned that the wedding being a disaster might be good for old Garig since Ribble wouldn’t be burdened with all this Orc stuff, and so his plan was hatched.
Garig agreed to go off quietly and skip the wedding if they buy him a day’s drinks at The Snail, and a room for the night in a “Nice hotel!” So Ur picks Garig’s pockets, and uses the proceeds to pay for his bar tab and hotel room (at the Luscious Lantern).
Challenge 2: As the exchange is happening at the front of the temple, the party noticed a rising susurrus in the back close to the bar tables set against the back wall. They weren’t supposed to be serving drinks yet, but someone had decided to get drinks started early.
As the party approached they realized that 30 or so guests were in a huddle, excessive PDA everywhere, with another small (but growing) group around Ulag the Handsome an Orc in all his finery who was happy to let a band of admirers drink in his visual delights. Cardigan quickly cast Calm Emotions, and succeeded in getting roughly 2/3 of the afflicted guests outside the temple where they could be reigned in a bit more without disturbing proceedings, though once the spell wore off they were right back at it. Luckily Ur was on-hand to organiz an impromptu signing event for Ulag and began ushering the new admirers through a line (and collecting some coin) to keep them occupied while the effects of the potion slowly wore off.
Back inside, Hasselhoff, King Knut, and Andoryx interrogated an obviously guilty waiter who had poorly hidden an empty potion bottle right behind a few open bottles of wine that he had poured a love potion into. Thankfully no one got a full dose. The clueless waiter revealed under some quick and quiet questioning that he had been approached by an older half elf (“or maybe full elf, it was dark!”) with salt and pepper hair right outside the union headquarters and offered him 2 rubies upfront and a small bag of gold after the wedding if he spiked the drinks with a potion. Seemed like some harmless fun so he said yes!
The party calms the remaining PDAers and lets the idiotic waiter resume his duties after ensuring there were no additional potions to be poured. The party seemed interested in tracking down these people who seemed to have set in motion the problems they’d been solving. On the way back in to the temple a lone man sat drinking at the bar (despite telling the waiter explicitly not to serve anyone yet. A very friendly fellow in a fine dark green suit with long straight hair and a penchant for over-long eye contact, and a toothy, almost predatory grin.
Challenge 3: The party was alerted to a hawk harrying the pigeons up on the roof. After rushing to the rooftop, the party spotted 10 small cages with several pigeons in each cage. A hawk flaped away from a crenellation nearby as the party gained the roof. Andoryx sensing an opportunity, whiped out his hand crossbow and took a shot, missing. The hawk banked with an angry screech and dive bombed one of the cages, grabbing it and quickly flinging it off the rooftop to crash on the street below, killing the pigeons inside. Horrified, Geo used Eagles Sorrow, and a giant sticky tongue lashed out from the spear, missing by millimeters. Next up Hasselhoff took advantage of his open back Dressuitkilt and utilized a massive Flying V tattoo on his back. Flames lept from the tattoo and dashed against the hawk singing it badly but just infuriating it further. A boomerang hit from King Knut and a missed firebolt from Cardigan brought us to Ur who cast Spike Growth on the outside of the cages.
As the surprisingly resilient Hawk circled back for another grab, Andoryx missed again and the hawk snatched up another cage, the unseen magical spikes dug into it’s flesh as it screeched. Undeterred, the hawk struggled on but took more damage than anticipated. Simultaneously, King Knut lunges out with his Trident as the bird leave his reach and stabbed the fell beast right through the chest. As the hawk died from the spikes and trident it’s form burst apart, and the body of a massive Giant Eagle crashed onto King Knut. He cried out in happiness and began devouring the portions he could reach with his mouth. Thankfully Cedric was on hand to prestidigitate the blood stains off his suit before the going back inside.