Drinking Problems

Tadley tells the Soup Troop the main event of the night is a team drinking contest, the Grif Fest Chug A Lug. Last year's champions, the Rowdy Boys, will be returning to defend their crown. After some consideration, the party agree to partake. Bliss grants some divine advantages, and the challenge begins. Kinna, then Ghorza, then Brodo, then Bliss and back again will have to drink the potent, magically intoxicating Dwarf's Bane Ale faster then the other team. On the first leg, the Soup Troop pull ahead of the Rowdy Boys. On the second leg, Bliss, Brodo, and Kinna all succumb to the ale and become very drunk, but they manage to win the contest, including a bottle of Dwarf's Bane Ale and a mysterious box not easily opened. The party band, Gaslight 69, begin playing and dancing commences. Brodo starts a mosh pit and Bliss and Kinna dance together. After some time, Brodo and Ghorza hear a commotion outside, where Beefo is watching some teens fight while the fog becomes denser and denser. They start to hear wings flapping, and Bliss comes out and detects desecrated beings. Tan leathery flying beasts, weredactyls like the ones Bliss encountered during her time away from the Soup Troop, attack. Brodo charges out into the field to bag one and werewolves flank him and knock him prone. There's a gruff voice in the mist, talking to Bliss. They say they came for the empty land, but finding Bliss Vindicta here, they will kill her as revenge for all the ones she's killed before. Bliss fires back, calling the voice "Slimy Joe", but she knows who it really is: Vios, the leader of the werefolk. The party slay the attacking werebeasts and Vios calls out again, threatening Bliss' family. He jumps off the roof of the barn, surprising the party and dips out when he realizes he's outnumbered. For the safety of the folk in the party barn, everyone decides to stay the night and party until dawn.

Meanwhile, Sirrias, Courtney, and K'harth ride to Fort Maw after separating from the rest on the road. K'harth and Sirrias have a heart-to-heart. When they arrive at the Fort, they find statues commemorating the Soup Troop are being erected. They head to the Master Arcanist to try and remove Courtney's age curse, but he says it will take a long time to fully correct. K'harth and Sirrias decide to work on using their Shards. They find their way to the Tymora dimension and speak with Tymora and the Raven Queen together. Tymora congratulates them on collecting the Shards, and tells them the last two are no longer on the prime material plane, explaining why they disappeared from the tracking map. She urges them to complete the circlet of Shards. She can only speak to them for so long, as it takes a lot of energy for them to intervene in the world. Sirrias asks about his sister who sent him on the Shard quest in the first place, and Tymora doesn't know. She tells him the Shards were scattered by the gods, and reuniting them will form a new whole gemstone, combining the god's power. If they fail on this quest, she fears fire will consume the world. The Raven Queen implores them to unite the shards and in so doing, destroy them. When the time is right, she says, gather all their friends and call the gods again.

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