The Great Bakery Fakery

Episode 180: An adventure starring Runii, Pugsley, and Gatsby.
Teaser: A new bakery in Niqamui has the Bakers Guild worried, but are their concerns just sour dough? Runii, Pugsley and Gatsby investigate, but are they bready for what they find?
NPCs
* Sinestra Talia
* Sebastian Glomgold
* Olwen "Crumb" Lauge
* Kōnane "Flakey" Pinelopi
* Improbus Shackleford
* Felix Padeiro
* Alette Thibaut
* Tony Pirinka
* Woromir Daggerfall
Plot Summary (Spoilers Ahead)
Another Thursday starts in the guild hall for the Firebreathing Kittens. Rumours of growing tension between Guaso and Albien are discussed in murmurs and the embargo of luxury goods from Albion are of particular concern for some. Of even more concern is the uncertainty of how guilds may be considered for conscriptment should war actually be declared. To avoid such an outcome, most guilds have shuttered their services and temporarily closed, leaving the Firebreathing Kittens as one of the last remaining sources of adventuring and other guild work. 
As people murmur, a man enters the guild hall looking for adventurers. Gatsby, Runii, and Pugsley decide to hear him out and he fetches the true employer, a wealthily presenting man named Improbus Shakleford. He is the head of the Baker's Guild in Niqamui, which trains bakers and controls the prices of baked goods within the city. Apparently, an independent baker named Felix Padeiro has begun to sell bread and other baked goods at a lower and more affordable price, thus stealing customers from baker's guild members. Improbus is willing to pay 200,000 gold for the adventurers to convince Felix to be an official baker's guild member or to cease and desist. Gatsby, Runii, and Pugsley take the job, with Gatsby negotiating half pay up front. 
The Kittens, of course, do their due diligence and test the quality of many of the official baker's guild goods (for free, obviously) and arrive at Felix's bakery, Bread, Broth, and Beyond, right before closing. The store is indeed packed and the baked goods are delicious. The three Kittens approach Felix at closing to talk to him about an "investment opportunity". Runii walks around to disguise her casting of Detect Magic while Gatsby chats up Felix. She senses a magical presence from the backroom and asks Pugsley if he can investigate. He agrees to and she use the Invisibility spell on him. When he enters the back, he's shocked to see a dead tabaxi woman on the floor. He immediately retreats and tells Runii about what he saw, who then sends a Message to Gatsby about it. Gatsby eventually gets Pugsley and Runii an opportunity to enter the back of the bakery with Felix, who collapses in shock and despair as he sees the woman dead on the floor. 
The woman is Alette, a journalist for the Niqamui Gazette and a regular customer at Bread, Broth, and Beyond. Apparently, Felix had rather strong feelings for her but hadn't shared them with her, leading to his despair at seeing her dead. He begs the Kittens to revive her somehow, and as he is asking for their help, Gatsby walks into the back with Jenny! She tags along as Gatsby casts Speak with Dead on Alette, who reveals that one, she also has feelings for Felix, and two, that she was murdered by an informant of hers named Tony, a former Safiosi mafia member. 
At this point, Felix reveals that he hasn't been baking his own goods, but has instead been using a strange magical artifact which was embedded in the walls of the store. The ring reverts anything that passes through it to the condition it was in 24 hours ago, though he hasn't tried it with anything other than old baked goods but is willing to try it with Alette. Jenny tosses Alette in and everyone is shocked to see Alette alive! Though for some reason she believes it's Wednesday rather than Thursday. While Felix and Alette talk about what happened to her, Jenny, Gatsby, and Pugsley get to experimenting with the magical item. They toss Pugsley in twice and discover that he now believes it's Tuesday and is told that Jenny is his granddaughter. Meanwhile, Runii tries to get the team back on track with magic, but their determination to experiment is quite strong. Alette is the one who finally manages to get the group to help her find answers, stating that she's going to confront Tony with or without them. 
Tony is lounging at Willy, G., and Sun's Haunted Tavern and is incredibly surprised to see Alette berate him for killing her. As she leaves, he gets up to follow her and Runii traps him in Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, preventing him from leaving as she and Jenny interrogate him. He finally reveals that he was hired by Woromir, a "pet shop owner", to get rid of Alette because she was snooping too much into the pet shop's less than legal operations. He'd also been hired by Improbus to get Felix to stop selling his baked goods, so Tony placed Alette in the bakery to frame Felix for her murder. He tells them that if they want to know more, ask Woromir to see the pythons. The Kittens then roll Tony to jail and head to the pet shop. 
Felix and Alette remain at Felix's bakery while Gatsby, Runii, Pugsley, and Jenny enter the pet shop. They immediately speak to Woromir and ask about the pythons. He asks who sent them but the Kittens don't say, so he leads them to the backyard and ambushes them with a pack of hell hounds. Pugsley and Jenny take shots from the roof while Gatsby and Runii handle things from the ground. Gatsby eventually creates two Arcane Gates to that cause Woromir and his hounds to continuously fall, allowing the other Kittens to finish off the hounds and get the truth of the matter from Woromir. It turns out that due to the embargo against luxury Albien goods, the Safiosi have been smuggling in diamonds and selling them at inflated prices. Gatsby then tosses Woromir towards the ocean at high velocity, and after some of the Kittens play with gates, Pugsley discovers that the central building in the backyard of the shop contains a mound of diamonds. He and Jenny scoop them up before the Kittens head back to Felix and Alette to tell them the news. 
In the end, Felix decides to discontinue baking and to start a new relationship with Alette; Alette and Gatsby publish articles in the Niqamui Gazette about the whole fiasco, leading to Improbus' resignation as head of the baker's guild and the Safiosi lying low for a time; the Kittens get the rest of their payment due from Improbus; and they have a new magical artifact to play with and study. Those are some pretty good outcomes for some bakery fakery!
Category:Episodes