All That Tit for Tat

## Synopsis

In Chapter 98: All That Tit for Tat, Orba was stopped short on her stroll through Na-Garwas by the man who organized last night's fight in Bosworth's Basement.  Hayden was on his way to the ports to sell off an item that Shekar had stashed in a drawer prior to his death – a Myconid Extract Capsule, which was of little use to the average citizen beyond its high monetary value.

Looking to offload the Ex-Cap as quickly as possible, Hayden was open to a trade – but in return he wanted a key he'd seen Erland loot from Shekar's body… so before an exchange could be made, Orba would have to consult with her companions.

The next stop was Donovan Ainsley's gatehouse where we were pleased to find his curse removal services free of charge – though as we'd grown accustomed to by now, the meddling gods and their clerics were always poking and prodding… and we left uncertain of Donovan's motivations or whether he had any sense of Orba's Reaper status.

Just a few blocks away, Graven was tackling the first of several Broken Crown contracts we hoped to complete before leaving the city – supervising a contract negotiation between Lem Stonehand and Mrs. Migalore.  To guarantee some additional hazard pay, a scuffle broke out between Graven and Mrs. Migalore's bodyguard – all according to plan, except for the part where Graven had to pull his punches thanks to his opponent's fragile stomach.

A loss didn't prevent Lem from upholding his promise of bonus gold, but it may have factored into his unwillingness to allow us to speak with Bremise Yorde – whose intimate knowledge of Nolan's Woods and the legend of Dimaasit was of particular interest to Graven.

At Battle-Ready, Safira got the bad news that Sarn Darrow was unavailable for further training – but he was kind enough to leave behind some written instructions that could help develop her skills as we traveled, provided we could locate a suitable spiritually-conducive environment.

On the other end of Navika-Pura, Erland's investigating took him to the home of Tessa Pleasance – whose name had shown up on one of Marvyn Bishop's diagrams and whose prickly demeanor was amplified by her displeasure at being outfitted with a Band of the Benefactor.

We learned that Tessa had been romantically (or at least physically) involved with both Marvyn and Rujeni Grahmari, the latter of which had developed a fondness that was not reciprocated, even going so far as to provide Tessa with a way to contact him when he was teaching overseas.

Immediately recognizing the communication method as another Mirrored Inscription spell, Erland was keen to get his hands on it – as well as the spectacles that Marvyn had commissioned from his blueprints – but the faulty glasses had been sold to Palomer Franco and Tessa wasn't going to give anything up for free to a complete stranger.

If we wanted the Mirrored Inscription page, we'd have to ease her debt – which meant paying a visit to Niels Bagas, who wasn't exactly someone we considered a friend.  As Erland took the Steederway back to Na-Upa to solicit Safira's help, Graven and Orba were working on contract #2 and managed to secure a sizeable reward from the bombastic Bruce Fitzroy – though it came at the expense of dipping deep into our magical reserves.

After agreeing to go in his stead, Safira was surely more welcome at Bottled than Erland would have been – but Niels was stubbornly principled about Tessa's Band of the Benefactor, refusing to accept a payment on her behalf.  We did get the sense that Niels's opinion could be swayed by perhaps obtaining some rare ingredients for his potions – but the only thing that came immediately to mind was pure Myconid Extract, which seemed difficult (if not impossible) to obtain on short notice.

Safira brought this information back to Erland while the others brought their spoils to the Broken Crown.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: one natural one was rolled in this Chapter, by John.