Shaka Khan disappears with his newfound Sheebus-worshipping comrade. Where did they go?

While waiting for the Dimmesday market, the party carouses in Gosterwick. Summer’s Eve gets a regrettable tattoo (“Summer’s End” tramp stamp) and Bucky has a wild fling with the tattooist. Dodger’s innocent druidic nature worship is grossly misinterpreted by the local constabulatory, and she spends a night in jail for lewd behavior with a protected tree. Thud abides.

On market day, the party wanders among the various merchants, minstrels and street urchins, looking for wares and more specifically, Dodger’s stuff. They ask around about her silver mistletoe coronet specifically but find nothing but dead ends. Thud meets a dwarf selling weapons and gets a few bucks for a crowssbow he’s been dragging around and kicks the tires on a Mace of Freezing, but it’s too expensive for a humble dirtbag.

A silver goods merchant (an Imperial Goblin named Blaazek) says he has not seen the crown but will keep an eye peeled. He has a shop in Newmarket named Blaazek’s Wares if they’re ever in the neighborhood. Bucky unloads a silver plate and the party spends a bit of time surveiling Blaazek. Sure enough, they spy him having a quick whispered conversation with a mysterious leather-armored stranger. Gold changes hands.

That night, the party finds its way to The Bailiff’s Truncheon, where it is rumored that enterprising adventurers might partake of bare-knuckle fights and wager on the same. The flat-nosed proprietor is unimpressed but gives them the nod anyway and they head downstaris to find two very active pitfights (two gnomes scrap in one ring while two soldiers knock each other senseless in the other) and a nonplussed oddsmaker who sets Summer’s Eve versus Drogar Son of Drogar at thirty to one. Summer’s comrades lay down hefty gold while Drogar meditates and practices his kata.

Interestingly, they spy the same leather-clad stranger from Blaazek’s stall watching them from the bar.

The bell rings and Summer cold cocks Drogar with a surprise left, her ki flowing from her fist and rendering the larger (and frankly, way more skilled) monk completely stunned. She kicks him in the face one, two, three times, teeth, blood and spittle raining on the crowd while Drogar falls in a heap.

GM's Note: Drogar is several levels higher than Summer and I had every intention of teaching Jim a lesson about reckless play. He won initiative, rolled a 20, and per the S&W rules, that's a critical AND a stunning blow for a monk. Godammit, Jim.

The party collects their winnings in the form of small 100 gp rubies and hastily beat feet, feeling suddenly very rich and very vulnerable. The stranger tells them he’ll meet them at their hotel. Nobody thinks to ask how he knows where they’re staying. They take a serpentine route home, hoping to ditch any potential tails, and when they get back to the Yellow Cloak Inn, the stranger is waiting for them.

He informs them he represents the Benevolent Brotherhood (the well-established thieves guild with outposts around the empire) , and it has come to his attention that the party was robbed. To his knowlledge, none of the Brothers has recently stolen anything like the items described. He asks for details about the crime and says he will return in a couple of days with more information.

The party thinks to tail him, but Margot the Red stops them. That’s Anders the Snake, she says. Tailing wouuld be at best futile and at worst, very dangerous.

While they wait, Bucky’s dreams of fine dining in a bespoke suit are dashed against the shoals of the medieval supply chain and a very unimpressed tailor who ordinarily works with the aristocracy. The party weighs a heist of fine clothing against bribing a maitre’d.

Anders returns and tells the group that nobody in Gosterwick, Newmarket or Deepton has reported a score off a druid, which means either someone is thieving outside the guild or someone’s not kicking up their take. Either way, the Brotherhood will provide a tracker if the party wants to chase down the guilty parties.

The party agrees and plans to begin the hunt the next day…perhaps Shaka will have returned by then.