After quite a bit of travel the party arrived in Erest with Red. She put everyone up in a far too classy 5 star hotel (the name of which is merely “The Establishment”). She ran off to the palace to go turn in the writs and requisition some gold. Dreadtooth met Wolfram, the Head of Security and a rather large green dragonkin covered in weapons, and finally decided he was able to trust that the party’s belongings were safe. Geordi and Solben went to the local university for some research (with Geordi heading to the library and Sol heading to the music department). Lily and Agatha went out for some girl time to go shopping and gambling. Hooper went to do a bit of shopping as well but managed to hear a rumor about a guy willing to sell some black market goods.

Hooper, Dreadtooth (now back in his dress after receiving a special delivery to his room), and Asza made their way to The Floppy Tit bar to meet with Cyrus using the pass phrase given to him by the leatherworker he met earlier. After a brief conversation and round of drinks the trio returned to the hotel to gather their weapons and equipment before going to the designated meeting place by the zoo. Red managed to catch them and passed on an invitation to dinner.

The trio arrived early to meet with Cyrus who was getting his goods organized (a “dragon” hide and 2 yards of bulette hide). Asza insisted that the “dragon hide” was probably naga, definitely not dragon, and Cyrus reacted poorly. Dresstooth repeatedly shoved him, Hooper kept threatening to dog pile him, and Asza kept trying to convince Cyrus to lower his prices. Red showed up and after a brief confrontation (she accused the group of being late for the dinner even though she was 15 minutes early herself), Cyrus finally agreed to just give Hooper everything (including an allegedly magical toad eye) for a mere 100g.

With the purchase complete, the party reunited at The Establishment and then went to the restaurant. Queen Sardani Redscale and two body doubles joined them for dinner, but then a strange magical cloud began to seep from the ceiling. Asza shoved the Queen(s) out of the way to safety, and a strange monstrous human with two snake heads and four arms leapt down to attack.