Joker's Wild

Graveltooth has been invited to a tea party to discuss the acquisition of Ruin's Wake and is allowed to bring guests.

## Adventurers Attending

* Sharian Naetris
* Graveltooth
* Rain
* Karn Ironfist

## Mission Notes

Graveltooth receives a playing card through the entrance to his skin tent one morning, with a familiar clown image on, inviting him and friends to some tea and cake in Arigdon. Collecting Rain and Karn, and letting Sharian know where to meet them through talking to Fetch inside the guildhouse, they head to Arigdon to try and see why they have received this invitation.

Meeting Sharian at the local tavern courtesy of Graveltooth’s ‘magic’., Karn gets Sharian to sign a one time contract for freelance work for the Guild, given Sharian’s current expulsion. Whilst at the tavern, they debated with the owner around the Guild and why the new Guildmaster was here and not at the headquarters filling out paperwork and doing the admin they believed was needed to get the Guild back to order following recent events. After this, they are directed to a small top tent just outside of town, where the tea and cakes are being served.

Arriving at the tent, Karn gives Graveltooth a lesson on dying leather, with the tent being different dyed shades of blue, with some canvas gaps to allow for windows should they be needed. Being invited in, they are seated by some waiters and given some assorted teas and cake, being told their final guest will arrive shortly.

Rain and Sharian notice that there’s an area of the tent where people seem to be walking in and out of a portal whilst they wait, at which point a man dressed in smart clothing similar to the waiters, but with a faintly glowing dragon tattoo on one arm, and a large array of laughing and winking clown faces on the other arrives at the table, introducing himself as Buttercup.

Buttercup offers Graveltooth a choice, either pay up a large sum of platinum for Ruin’s Wake, or beat him in a simple game of dice for it. Questioning the legitimacy of the dice, Karn takes a look at them, finding no weighting to them on inspection. With Graveltooth questioning if they do indeed have Ruin’s Wake, Buttercup clicks his fingers, with a waiter appearing from the portal seen by Rain and Sharian earlier, bringing out Ruin’s Wake (or what appears to be). Seeing this, Graveltooth heads to get it, shrugging off Buttercup’s attempt to trip him up, leading to a confrontation. A small fight occurs, where one of the waiters attempts to kill themselves, denied by Sharian using a magical tattoo, and Buttercup being slain by Graveltooth, cutting off an arm which seemed to have a magical tattoo within it.

During the fight, it appears that one of the waiters holding Ruins Wake runs off, and that entrance to the hidden portal appears blocked by the party, with Sharian proceeding to identify this as a Magnificent Mansion.

Found a set of playing cards with assorted trinkets, weapons, and items within it, with some of them signed, with others not. Some cards are also left blank, with nothing on them. The most recent card with an image on them is one that looks like Ruin’s Wake, which isn’t signed.

Knowing the mansion has a time limit on it being cast, the party set up some traps waiting for the inhabitants to leave the mansion, with a bear trap, an alarm spell and a wall of stone created to ensure the party catches the group as they leave.

Some hours later, Karn hears the alarm go off, with noises indicating some people have come out and gotten trapped in the bear trap and the wall of stone, with them calling for the goods to be moved. Hearing the faint mutterings of a spell, Sharian creates a doorway in the wall of stone, allowing Karn to cast a counterspell to stop the chest from vanishing via Teleport.

Being questioned, partially via threat of violence and by a Mass Suggestion, the group reveals more around the Laughing Clown and their motives/methods, after handing over their spellbook with the location of the teleportation circle they were aiming for, along with what appeared to be Ruin’s Wake. Closer inspection however, identified this to be a +1 Spear, glamoured to look like Ruin’s Wake. The group then headed to the pub to continue the conversation with Sharian, Ruin’s Wake still out of the reach of Graveltooth…

## Loot

* Standard Session XP & Gold
* +1 Spear, glamoured to appear as Ruin’s Wake - Graveltooth
* Set of cards featuring rare weapons - Sharian

## Rumours

* Raid the teleportation location; where does this lead to and will Ruin’s Wake be finally handed over to Graveltooth here?

## Player Diaries

* Sharian's Diary
* Graveltooth's Diary