The last time we saw the Worst Party, they had broken free of the mysterious castle in the fog but not without leaving their marks:
1. A big pile of hidden treasure dragged out in donation-bin-clothes from the secret treasure vault and left in a hallway. 2. A now-entirely seized-up large, expensive multi-functional gatekeeping machine in a room that was locked (clearly to indicate that it should only be handled by trained personnel), with large gears cracked by who knows what kind of misuse. (The company that makes those gears may have gone out of business centuries ago! Good thing the reserves weren't taken.)
Despite a rickety drawbridge and some slime, the PCs made it out into the surrounding wilderness, where they ran into a weasel. Oika, being part of the burrowing animal network, had a chat with it about local happenings, which lead them to a small underground complex occupied by a cloister of relatively friendly heucuvas who were devoted to The Wheel.
Faced with finding other lodging or spinning the Wheel in exchange for getting a free night in a beds unlikely to be stumbled upon by monsters, with mixed results including:
- Getting the chance to win a bastard sword by guessing its price (and failing) - Getting the chance to win a golden shield by guessing its price (and succeeding) - The party losing all of their money - Summoning an angry young dragon
Despite setbacks like the dragon sending some of the party to the familiar space next to death's door by spraying a jet of acid on them, the PCs found a way. Awnzo cast Permanent Parrot on it, changing it into at least something the size of a parrot, and soon they trapped it in a cauldron. After some high-tension discussion about what to do with it, they closed it into the Lich Bros. bounty return envelope, which promptly vanished.
