TBD stood before Muk, hands at their weapons ready to act upon the revelation that Muk had his own vendetta against the royals and that he revealed himself to be able to shape shift thanks to a magical ability obtained by a powerful entity. Muk was thus interrogated, Argento managed to calm Baelon enough to hear the grung out. Muk explained that the royals were cut him a deal years ago. They would pay him to lease out a section of his land to establish a safe trade route and build a bridge over a river on his land. For awhile they held to their word but after some time, they stopped paying him all together. His family struggled because of this. His frustrations grew and grew and eventually boiled over when a mysterious figure introduced themselves to Muk, offering the power to get his revenge on the royals who stole his land. Though he had gained new found abilities such as being able to shape shift into similar sized creatures he struggled to get the revenge he sought. This is partly why he joined up with the group, to gain access to the royals and uncover more about their treachery.
This was enough to ease the tensions in the abandoned inn. Baelon apologized for his misgivings and for the fact he had attempted to kill him in the streets a day or two earlier. The party agreed to help Muk in his struggles but with caution. Raul then asked for someone to examine the blank paper he had found from the Wo Ton Clan float a few days earlier. Using heat as a source Bertold was able to reveal the hidden message, “We need to met and talk about our proposal” marked with the same sigil of the faceless mask. The party decided that they need to first inform Lord Mendas that Spades needed to be formally added to their group. As they headed toward the inn, an essentric Tiefling recognized by Baelon as Pinnacle Madress, approached the party demanding to talk with Baelon about the Belly Up Inn Wine Contract. Bertold quickly took the mans hat frustrating the Teifling. Baelon agreed though to speak with him. For 55GP he would tear up the contract with he Belly Up Inn and allow Pinnacle to take the business back. He agreed so long as he got his hat back, he did.
As the party met with Lord Mendas he treated them to a lunch with the other royal families. While having Mendas alter the paperwork, Raul began to speak about the Wo Ton Clan, but Mendas and Baelon shut him up before he said something that could be seen as slander. Argento tries to ask Muk aid he recognized any of the people at the table as the royals who betrayed him. Muk ignored him completely though. Mendas complete the paperwork for the party, and the they decide to begin their investigation into he Cursed Ring Merchant. Argento agreed to meet the party at the fountain, after he dropped his gear off at the barracks. Before heading off, Muk gives Argento a note and some gold and asks him to stop at the smith to get some nails for him.
While Argento was at the Barracks he runs into his former Lieutenant Aryn Sparrowhawk a lively and robust Aarokocra. He hands in his resignation, leather armor, and maul, says his farewells and she mentions that should he find himself in the Strapol Empire up north in Catal to say hello to her clan. The rest of the party heads into the busy section of Boulder to find the goblin sneak Griggs, perhaps he knows or has seen something about this ring merchant. They have little luck in the busy streets and decide a better starting point might be near the actual jeweler in town. While near the jeweler they see two hooded folk in the ally way behind the jeweler. They position themselves in a way to surround the two figures in the ally, Bertold decide to talk to the 2 figures. He runs into one a flirtatious woman named Farah and the other Tash. Bertold laid on what charm he could, as uncomfortable as it made him, to learn that there is a merchant named Valarie down in the Bazaar of the city selling some odd rings. Bertold its a card on where to meet the 2 women again and leaves. They decide that they should disguise Muk and Bertold as one super tall Grung in a cloak. This long legged grung approaches the jewelry stand, but Val is not there. Rather it is a trifling named Felicity. She informs the prospective buyer that Val is on lunch and should be back soon. When she gets back Val sets up her booth and shows some of the jewelry to the self proclaimed “Jasper” (Muk on Bertold’s shoulders). Her body guard Fenic, a bugbear body guard approaches to keep an eye on this very strange looking individual. Val opens up a chest with more jewelry in it, but Jasper asks to see the merchandise that is truly secret. She gets nervous and whispers something to Fenic, and agrees to talk to Jasper in a private location, her storage shack. While in this secluded areasve informs “Jasper” that the inventory they seek is supposed to be a secrete, and she has none left. A cloaked little figure in a mask is who gave it to her, promising her a rare jewelry collection and some platinum to just sell those certain rings to the royals around town. “Jasper” asks for some money to keep his mouth shut and she gives him a jade necklace and a couple wooden rings in a trade to keep his mouth shut.
From here the party meets back up with Argento at the fountain. On the way to the fountain a drunk Goliath punches Raul saying that he slept with his wife, but the party tricks the Goliath into attacking another Dragonborn in the crowd and the party manage to circumvent the whole situation. TBD exchanges notes and agrees to discuss their findings with Lord Mendas…on their way to the keep, a familiar goblin face runs into Baelon and passes him a note saying…lets meet tonight…and the whole time Marvin, the Unicorn was quite and well behaved just as Baelon asked him.