The 'R' Guy

A strange vagrant that wanders around Rearton, the locals call him 'the R guy' because the only thing he seems to say is 'arrr.' He is "hermit-like" in appearance.

The party encountered him twice in Rearton, once when he was babbling nonsense about a honcho, powerful connections, and ranting "get the wheat" over and over. The second time, he grabbed James and asked "Do you have it?" When James asked "what?" the R guy said "The *wheat*."

James actually taken some wheat, and handed it over to him. The man then leaned in and whispered "Arlis of the whispering mind." No one had a clue what he was talking about, but maybe something clicked with James - he seemed to think it had something to do with Jessie. The man wandered off, perhaps never to be seen again.

Except he was seen again, on the party's second mission on Bol. After finishing things at the Rogue University of Skulkery, he came up to the party crying out "Spheeeereeee, spheeeereee! Give me the round!" over and over. He seemed to specifically be asking Juice, who was in possession of the TA's trap-nullifying sphere. Initially uninterested in giving it to him, Juice changed his mind when he reasoned he had little use for it and likely couldn't sell it for much back on Shipton. In return, the R guy just said "the'll be coming to take it back."

With that cryptic note, he was gone again. Juice wasn't even really interested in pondering who or what he was talking about.

The third time he encountered the party, he asked Dave for a twig in his typical grating sing-song way. Dave tried to find a twig but didn't see one, and as Jeff pointed out, they were going to a forest and could get a twig there. On the way back to Shipton they encountered him again, and Jeff offered him a twig he'd gotten from the Thimblewoods. It was rejected, and finally James handed over the twig he'd received from Vasqar Fellows and the Tree of the Thimblewoods. Satisfied, he looked at Dave and said, "Don't be the nail." With that, he was gone again.

Once again, the party encountered the R guy in Rearton after completing a mission delivering cheese. He came up to the group and asked for "A vial of green, a vial of blue", which coincidentally the group had found a way to obtain without being asked. Kyrek, not one to be intimidated, pulled out his dagger but stopped short of doing anything else at James's prompting. James handed his half of a blue vial over at once, no hesitation, despite the group spending a very long coach ride arguing for him to give it up in circles in the first place. Bo handed over the green vial he had found in the basement laboratory of the Astarlin Wildlife Clinic, and to everyone's surprise the R guy held out gifts back for both James and Bo. In either of his hands was a white pebble and a black pebble, that he offered as a choice to both.

Bo chose white, and the R guy gave him a sliver box. James took the black, and was given a wooden box. Inside the silver box was a magical bangle that confused the wearer and all those around the wearer, and in the wooden box was a pair of earrings of listening, which work essentially as a one way radio within 30 feet. Once they had accepted their boxes, without a word the R guy stepped forward to trip two cloaked figures in green and grey that had been menacing the group from afar the entire time.

The next time the R guy was encountered, he dismissed Gerard (an outsourced contractor there to protect Qorn) and asked Jeff this riddle: "Silence is the key but I need a shard of myself to see." Margie brought him back a shard of one of the mirror creatures they defeated while on the mission, and the R guy rewarded Jeff by giving him a pouch full of (presumably magical) powder.

The R Guy, who had previously only been seen in Rearton, mysteriously showed up to visit Rory in his cell of the dungeon of the Ruby Palace. What they talked about only Rory knows, but the R guy was able to leave the cell and escape captivity by walking through a wall. Rory was able to also leave his cell via a secret exit into the next room, and likely owes this escape to the R guy.

Furthermore, Rory also came to possess a rune that binds the power of the scepter to the royal family, most likely from the R guy.