
You want stick figures? Because this is how you get stick figures!

Red Markets is a TTRPG about zombies where the real monster is poverty. So I made a character I intended to be a gag character - an annoying HR employee who talks like a Linkedin lunatic.
However, I found out the GM wants to run a more serious game, so I kept her personality the exact same but am planning on playing more tragicomic, highlighting how her mind has been so thoroughly broken by the zombie apocalypse that she’s become disconnected from reality and simply pretends everything is normal.
You can tell I made this pic when I still intended her to be a gag character lol.
I am in the process of trying to wrap this fic up. As with other fics, my goal here is less to get to a happily ever after, but rather to reach a new stable status quo. I’m assuming there will be lots of adventures for these lot after this story.
I have at least one more chapter but possibly two more to finish this story out. I’m hoping the other two fics (Woeful Shadows and Honmoon Shadows) will be able to wrap up in a similar length followed by a long one-shot epilogue showing board game night. Anyway, the chapter notes get more into that.
Hope Shadows - Chapter 9 - Thrythlind - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]
The prior night.
“Sorry about this, Rumi.” Kara tried not to eye the wound on Rumi’s shoulder. “I know we’re all tired but. They’re asking me about getting training. For fighting, you know?”
“Who’s ‘they,’ Auntie Eliza?” The imp glanced past Kara toward the group talking together.
“And Alex, and Lena.” Kara sighed and shook her head. “Dean Winchesters had some choice words to say. Anyway. The thing is. I’m… starting to see how they’re right.”
“Okay,” Rumi sighed and considered the situation, licking her lips slightly as she thought about it. “I… might have someone I can reach out to.”
“I should probably start right away, shouldn’t I?” Kara wasn’t entirely sure whether the weariness she felt was about more things to fill her schedule with or just more of the aftermath of the fight.
“Hold on.” Rumi started to hold up her hand and winced as she jostled her own shoulder. Kara winced and reached out reflexively but hesitated as the imp held out her good hand and shook her head. “I just forgot, I’m fine.”
“Okay then.” The nephilim was unconvinced but reluctantly let it pass. “What did you want to say?”
“You might not react very well to them.” The imp spoke low and soothingly. “But we don’t have many options for teaching you how to fight.”
“It can’t be that bad.” Kara laughed lightly and wearily. “Thanks”
Kara stared at the Dragon on her doorstep and blinked. “You’re who Rumi was talking about?”
“Is there something I’m missing?” Lena crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, drawing Scarlet’s attention.
“I have only encountered Ms. Danvers once before, but if I were to make a guess based on her reactions at that time, I believe she finds my approach to handling an intra-cult morality crisis … distasteful.”
Kara’s eyebrows rose up and she tilted her head to the side. “It’s not exactly your approach. It’s the glee you have carrying it out.” Lena gave her a questioning look. “It…” The nephilim glanced down the hallway and shook her head, gesturing for Scarlet to enter the room. “I’m not talking about that in the hallway.”
“Excellent.” Scarlet smiled and stepped into the room waiting for Kara to shut the door behind her. “Ms. Danvers and I met recently at a meeting between her cousin’s polycule and myself. At the time I had relayed my recent handling the punishment for certain members of my own faction who had engaged in practices that are both forbidden and unnecessarily cruel. I will not deny a distinct joy that comes to me when I have dealt with such individuals.”
“She was bragging about killing like thirty people.” Kara explained.
“Over thirty slavers.” Scarlet smiled. “Once you’ve willfully decided to deny someone else’s personhood, you’ve revoked your claim to it yourself. Dealing with such scum is rather satisfying. Like properly tenderizing meat or draining pus from a wound.”
“You can’t revoke your own personhood.” The nephilim protested.
Scarlet laughed and turned toward Lena. “Your lover is delightfully unlike an angel.”
“I have received significant testimony on this fact.” Lena added.
hehe i’m glad you like her—i sure hope there’ll be more in the future!! your character sounds awesome too!!!
<3





Some of the NPCs I drew for the Dazzling Dungeon Decks collection which is live now on kickstarter. They are 3 decks, over 300 cards total, of on demand NPCs, creatures, and items for ttrpgs :) Great for when players go in unexpected directions and you need a quick npc and a side quest to keep them occupied

Logo i made for my Masks Game that I stream on a friend’s twitch channel at www.twitch.tv/burnoutvaughan so if you like Leftist superhero content inspired by dispatch, come check it out!
Written 05 Mar 2026, shortly after listening.
This is a live show non-canonical prequel to Amnesty, featuring Clint as Chaz Maestroberger, Justin as Stephanie McDuggins, Griffin as 11-year-old Griffin McElroy, and Travis as the Game Master. The game system is called, “oh dang, Bigfoot stole my car with my friend’s birthday present inside”. (I think it’s a Lasers and Feelings reskin.) It’s set in 1998.
[[MORE]]Chaz is driving a limo with Stephanie in the passenger seat, and Griffin in the back with Bigfoot. Stephanie is Griffin’s 19-year-old babysitter, and she’s really into the true crime chatrooms. Chaz is a limo driver, and hates his job. Griffin has chosen to give himself the powers “smooth” and “athlete” to be accurate to his 11-year-old self (that may not actually be accurate).
It’s September, a crisp, cool evening. On a highway in the woods of West Virginia, Stephanie is driving Griffin to a birthday party across the state. The birthday boy has a semi-famous cousin Griffin’s hoping to meet. In the distance, they see a log fallen across the road. Stephanie sends the athletic Griffin to move the log. When he gets out, he hears a voice telling him not to turn around, turns around, sees Bigfoot, and uses karate on him.
He does a good karate chop, except Bigfoot was out of range. Bigfoot goes around to Stephanie’s side, apologises, and introduces himself as Barclay. He says he’s lost his bracelet that lets him take human form, and he needs to borrow the car. Griffin sneaks up behind Bigfoot, and slaps a slap-bracelet on his wrist, declaring him banished. Bigfoot turns around with a gun, and says he’s being chased by the Forest Rangers and really needs the car. He says he’ll leave it at Amnesty Lodge in Kepler. Griffin makes some annoying comments, and Stephanie tells Bigfoot to take the car and Griffin with it.
Barclay gets in the car, drives around the log, and disappears. Griffin kicks the log and hurts his foot. As they ponder what to do, a black limo comes down the road, driven by Chaz. Chaz stops and asks what they’re doing. They explain Bigfoot stole their car, and ask for a lift. He agrees to take them to Kepler, to retrieve the car and the birthday present in the back (it’s “Now That’s What I Call Music Volume 1”).
As they set off for Kepler, the gas tank is low, and Chaz starts looking for a station. Stephanie gets out a book she needs to read for class and a booklight. They pull up at the Stop ‘n’ Pump ‘n’ Shop, which also sells artisan soaps and such. Griffin goes for a pee. Chaz tells Stephanie she has to pay for the gas, company rules, but she doesn’t have the money, so Griffin smooth-talks the cashier, offering an endorsement, and the cashier challenges him to one-on-one basketball.
Stephanie reassures Chaz that Griffin gets into one-on-one basketball games all the time. Griffin asks her to use magic to pump up his sneakers, and Stephanie admits she can’t actually do magic and has been pretending every time to give him confidence. A massive basketball court is revealed round the back, and Griffin rolls very well and dunks on the cashier while also filling the limo’s tank. The cashier also marks where Kepler is on the map for them. After the very strange encounter, they ask if the Stop ‘n’ Pump ‘n’ Shop will disappear as they leave. Driving away, Griffin keeps watch behind them, until a hill blocks his view.
They continue towards Kepler, and a motorbike with a flashing light and Forest Ranger livery signals them to pull over. Chaz and the rider shout at each other, over whether the Rangers have jurisdiction if they’re in a forest but on the highway, and the Ranger says they’re hunting a guy dressed as Bigfoot. So Chaz pulls over. They argue about jurisdiction some more, and the Ranger explains the guy dressed as Bigfoot has been causing problems. Stephanie and Griffin explain about the car being stolen (and also the gun), and the Ranger accuses them of aiding and abetting. They decide that if the Forest Rangers catch up with Bigfoot, they’ll impound the car, so they start racing the Rangers on bikes to Kepler in their limo. Griffin pours a can of the energy drink Surge into the gas tank, and the limo speeds ahead, overtaking the Rangers, until it sputters to a halt in front of a building.
The limo’s headlights also go off, but Stephanie has a weak booklight to illuminate an “Open” sign, and they enter. There’s an older woman surrounded by weird displays and spooky decorations. The woman says she wasn’t expecting anyone that evening; her name is Victoria, and this is the Cryptonomica.
Young Griffin is scared of the exhibits, but Stephanie rubbishes it. Victoria rambles about thinking of giving up the business, and Barclay the Bigfoot steps out of the back room. He tells them that he got stopped by the Kepler Police and had to abandon the car, which has now been impounded, along with the present and Barclay’s gun. He does have a friend who can smooth things over and get the car back, but he’ll need help getting to Amnesty Lodge. Stephanie and Griffin are not happy, and Chaz tries to get a fee out of Barclay, who says his friend at the Lodge can pay. Chaz then challenges Barclay to one-on-one basketball, and gets dunked on hard.
The limo is still suffering the aftereffects of having Surge poured into the tank, and Griffin siphons it out, ingesting a little Surge-petrol mix in the process. He feels energised and bottles up the rest of the mix. They set off, hit a bump, and have the moment from the opening of the show. They drive through the alleyways of Kepler with the lights off to avoid attracting attention, and go to the funicular, where they leave the limo to head up topside.
The funicular is being watched by Officer Zeke Owens. Griffin claims Chaz is his father, Stephanie is his babysitter, and Barclay is their dog, and they have a reservation at Amnesty Lodge they have to get to. Owens says he’s got a promotion coming up so he wants to do a good job on guarding the funicular from the guy dressed as Bigfoot, but Griffin says they passed the guy dressed as Bigfoot at the Stop ‘n’ Pump ‘n’ Shop. Owens leaves to investigate the lead, and they take the funicular up.
At the top, there are several Forest Ranger vehicles heading towards them. Griffin chugs his Surge-petrol mix, and it’s too dark to tell for sure if he changes into a car, but he speeds off at great speed. Chaz pulls out (I wish I was making this up) a toy Star Trek communicator to signal the Enterprise to beam him to the Lodge, and Stephanie uses magic to make it so. Then Stephanie and Barclay just run and hide in the Lodge.
The owner, Madeline Cobb, lets them in and Barclay runs to hide. She stalls the Forest Rangers at the door for a bit, then lets them in. The three come back together, and are greeted by a normal looking man, who says he’s Barclay in his human disguise. Then Madeline takes them to get Stephanie’s car back, dropping Chaz off at his limo, and Griffin gets to the birthday party and gets to meet the minor celebrity. Chaz is fired from his limo company. Officer Owens arrests the basketball ghost at Stop ‘n’ Pump ‘n’ Shop for embezzlement and gets promoted to deputy. Andrew somewhere in Kepler, twelve year old Duck Newton sleeps, oblivious.
The problem I had with this one is, it’s chock-full of American 90s references that I, a Brit who scarcely remembers the 90s, have no context for. I am sure that for Americans a decade or so older than me (such as the brothers McElroy) it was a delightfully nostalgic romp. I was not the target audience for this one; I cannot expect to be all the time.
My other complaint would be that it got too unhinged in the last few minutes with the turning-into-a-car and the starship Enterprise. I think they were running out of time.
Still, it was quite pleasant. Clint playing a driver again was amusing. Griffin playing a highly fictionalised version of his younger self was a laugh. Justin’s long-suffering babysitter…possibly drew on his own babysitting Griffin during their childhood.
Playing basketball for a tank of petrol was wacky, but an interesting way out of the we-have-no-money dilemma they created for themselves. The Cryptonomica’s cameo, that was nice. Future Sheriff Owens, I liked his appearance. And the Forest Rangers having the kind of power Duck tried to give himself so many times…
Overall, it was decent. From my perspective. I’m sure to the right audience it was better. Worth listening to, regardless.
TAZ Amnesty Episode 36
TAZ Amnesty Masterpost
TAZ Amnesty: The The Adventure Zone Zone
I played DND (modern setting) for the first time today
I accidentally ripped off someone’s arm, got into a car crash and took 3 points of damage by hitting a window with my fist
Needless to say, it was awesome


The Six Fangs are given a candid conversation with Lord Rosewall and the Grand Magus. In hopes of a future, they must move on. Our extra video goes live for our $10 tier after the episode is out. See you there!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/152147592
Art by BlueKazenate: https://bsky.app/profile/bluekazenate.bsky.social and Keyink: https://bsky.app/profile/keyink.bsky.social)
ALTThe Hellfire Crisis has laid waste to the land as much as it has the people of Andoran and Cheliax. Play through the aftermath and rebuild hope and glory with the new Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Ravages of War—Available for PRE-ORDER!
Hey, Footfall officially has an adventure. It’s got maps, handouts, character art, the works.
It’s investigative, social, roleplay heavy, and ends with an awesome set-piece moment! Plus, it’s on a train. If that sounds like your jam, you can find it here: https://rotten-shotgun-games.itch.io/haghorse-run
A blog post from Jaina follows. A note: polyhedral dice have traditionally been banned from prisons because they could be used for gambling (according to DOC policy).
Back in 2023, Washington DOC put out a memo declaring that role playing games are allowed to be played.
Of course, people had been playing them already, because the books were always allowed, and the general practice (at Stafford Creek Correctional Center prior to that 2023 memo) was that a stack of RPG books at a dayroom table with 4 people quietly playing a game using hand drawn dungeon maps and shoddy paper dice was not problematic, and would not be addressed as such.
After the 2023 memo, there was a great deal of confusion regarding what exactly the memo was authorizing. The gaming community was ecstatic at first, but it soon became clear that the Department of Corrections was not going to make any significant difference to what it would and would not allow inmates and their families to purchase, most specifically polyhedral dice.
Some inmates worked with administrative staff to facilitate the donation of polyhedral dice to be kept as unit property, of course hundreds of factory produced polyhedral dice existed throughout the facility already, which was likely due to inconsistencies in the application of policy by mailroom staff over the years. Regardless, dice came in through donation, as well as things like Magic the Gathering cards, which also already existed across the facility due to inconsistencies in the application of policy, as well as inconsistent interpretations of the 2023 memo which had some facilities allowing dice and magic cards to be purchased, which through facility transfer eventually spread them out across every facility in the state.
None of this caused any fights, or infractions for bartering these items, or otherwise using these items for any purpose for which they were not intended by the manufacturer.
A few days ago (in March of 2026), administrative staff at SCCC informed inmates that effective immediately, factory produced polyhedral dice, and Magic the Gathering cards would be confiscated on sight and during cell searches, and that all the donated dice and cards would be removed from unit game supplies.
People’s families across the state were allowed to spend thousands of dollars to donate gaming materials with the understanding that these materials would be available for inmate use, to play games which DOC itself has cited as having positive pro social impacts on the incarcerated.
Now, those materials (as well as materials DOC allowed in through their mailrooms) are being confiscated as “contraband” as if they pose some sort of security threat. Ironically, no DOC employee/Contract staff in the entire history of the Department of Corrections in Washington State has submitted a logical fact based report supported by any professional scientific medical mental health or educational studies that prove or even demonstrate the likelihood that these items could ever present a safety and security concern to either staff, incarcerated individuals, or the orderliness of the facility.
It is also ironic to note, that the Department of Corrections provides six sided dice (available to any incarcerated who wishes to use them), and these dice are most widely known for their various uses in casinos around the world. In addition, the Department of Corrections provides (to any inmate who wishes to use them) decks of poker cards, which are used in casinos and poker tournaments around the world as a source of entertainment through gambling.
In addition to pointing out the absurdity of DOC’s backtracking on this (after years of allowing it) I ask the following question: Where do you think all of those nice sets of dice and magic cards purchased by our families are going?
As a final note, I’d like to point out that this is happening right after multiple staff were removed from DOC employ at SCCC for bringing in drugs and cellphones through the facility’s Property department.
But, nerds and their dice are what we’re really concerned with.

Great news, Explorers! Episode 8 is now going live on Youtube and Twitch. The Six Fangs get some much needed R&R.
Join us now! YT -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3qVxNofF7ZrPonwWgjZGZQ | Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/explorersofeardsihimmle
Art by BlueKazenate: https://bsky.app/profile/bluekazenate.bsky.social and Keyink: https://bsky.app/profile/keyink.bsky.social)
For reference, My two characters in the campain ive been posting about.
My main character, Sydris, the Kobold Jinxblade Witch (homebrew class).

She’s a serious sort, who takes her duty to others extremely seriously, she used to be a member of a mercenary company who took on small missions like dealing with bandits etc. She became an adventurer after her company were killed, mostly to apologize to her old mentor, who she had a fight with about becoming a mercenary in the first place, saying nothing good would come of it, her recent disillusionment with those currently in power have basically shifted her from lawful good to neutral good. These days she’s spending a lot of time as an ancient crystal dragon.
On the other-hand, there’s SHKR-90 or “Shrike” as she styles herself, a Warforged Artillerist Artificer forged by the ancient Druzst people,

When she woke up without her memories (as all current warforged have) Shrike decided to live life to it’s fullest, she does whatever she feels like at any given time, flirting, fighting… breaking into a government facility to rob them… In fact she started to help the rest of the party without knowing the fate of the world was at stake for quite a while.
When she began to regain her memories, the Original SHKR-90’s personality tried to assert herself and they fought, but now they both share the body in something that might maybe approximate harmony.
They even discovered how the warforged were made, souls forged from shepherd, the odd beings that form the laws of magic and the universe. SHKR-90 now knows her origin was as the flames of hellfire that surround portals to hell.



What secrets hide in this seemingly peaceful place? Beautiful lofted terrace overlooking the sea. Somewhat overgrown, could this be it hasn’t been cared for lately? I hope nothing too sinister lurks in such a lovely place.
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Relatively normal session that dragged on a bit at the back half once my little heist began. I tried to plan it in such a way to try and make sure everyone present had a relevant job to do, but the DM pulled out an actual module that he was reading from directly and even he admits that that slowed things down a bit as he’s experimenting with his pacing and speed of doing such things. A quick example is my character not really caring about pillows and statues but since they’re highlighted in the module it’s a sign that there’s something relevant about them but really I’m just looking for jewelry and gems. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I kinda put myself in a corner when Dakota has to have two very candid conversations back to back. First with the team’s Paladin, Zaria, who likes to pretend hasn’t done crime. In fact it’s in our bingo card.

Selling the job to Zaria was indeed a chore as it was very much a “are you kidding me” kind of vibe. The player made it very clear that she’s a hundred percent down with shenanigans but still had trouble parsing the internal logic. The DM points out again that her god isn’t really the anti-crime crusading type, but there was a larger point in play. He spent a few minutes describing the types of arcs characters must go through, often to benefit the party. This paladin’s arc is more internal, where she has to become closer to her God through prayer and deeds. My character is based around making a name for herself in the underground which in itself may open doors and benefit the party in the future, and this is a logic that could scratch the back of her mind as her God subtly and kindly reminded her that she stole a shield for herself and even got her to admit that she simply “wanted” it rather than the justifications that she was trying to assign the action.
Eventually she conceded, with the added threat of “pulling one over on me”. Which is not the case. Dakota, in the spirit of team cohesion, has been quite forthcoming about the job and the whole concept. Honestly her actual secret has already been outed on accident so her activity as a criminal is a step down from being an ex-devil. Dakota sold the job to her sort of on the “this will benefit us as well” logic. Eventually it was a sort of “just don’t fuck me over” situation.
Next came a conversation with Whistle. Ever since the revelation of Dakota’s origins Whistle’s been kinda mesa-aggressive with her so once the party started heading to bed we had a bit of a sitdown. Dakota just wanted to touch base in a sort of “hey, this problem is rather one sided and I think you’re kinda chill”. But putting everything on the table in the spirit of honesty she did admit that she had considered selling off Clank at one point but over the course of the adventure, she figured there was some actual real sentience from within him and decided against it which was proven at one point when some cult leader actually offered some hundreds of gold for him. And we killed them all. The player made a humorous logical leap of ‘Oh I like how she’s admitting wanting to sell my friend and then asking for forgiveness…’ but the truth of the intent is a lot more nuanced. The player was only awake for a few minutes and had trouble buffering a response so everyone talked about Fallout for twenty minutes. Eventually she responded with some long winded flute toot… to which I rolled a natural 1 in discerning the intent thereof so they parted ways with Dakota just as confused to where they stand.
Some of this was remedied the next morning. I was actually offered the magic brooch so I could feed hit dice into it and get a portent. I had been actively avoiding it cos myself as a player knows hit dice are a relatively important resource to fully heal up during short rests, but the DM made a point that our characters only have a vague idea of what that would mean so I misunderstood. I thought every day, people were electing to let their life force be sucked into this thing only to be recovered on a long rest. Unfortunately my character is not truly aware of this so in the spirit of cooperation, she accepted the brooch, thinking it a sort of olive branch from Whistle. But more things happened.
Dakota got a flash of memory, that this very brooch was a point of pride within a treasury of her past Devilric employer. She also gained three third level spells, not permanently I’d wager, the power being tied to the item. I also lose four of my hit dice instead of two and I’m not entirely sure why. Only the DM knows. I did ask if this was devil-made and the answer was no so I’m not sure why this brooch decided “exhaustion be upon thee in particular >:)” so maybe some day we’ll have an answer to why it just reacts differently from party member to member.
Either way she’s got a decent boost in power. The day following we do a brief shopping trip. We failed a collective group investigation….

This is not a smart group. I wanted a sort of primer on the Elvish language cos without her mentor she can’t passively learn the language, so she needs some manuals to continue studying. Didn’t find any. Unfortunate. Clank wanted some…thing. Star charts or whatever, to sort of prime his eventual subclass switch, as Clank is beginning to really contemplate the cosmos a bit. Either way we both couldn’t find shit, but he got some tools out of it.
We move on to the blacksmith. Zaria had ordered some armor a while back but since the town we were in was under threat of invasion we had to bug out to this town, but the DM did retcon a refund as the very blacksmith travelled with us, didn’t have a chance to work on it. So Zaria ordered a one-up set of armor to be measured and worked on. I also planned on getting a breastplate which offers an extra AC for 400 gold. Hefty, but then the DM presents to me with a new alternative, and this partly highlights how intensely rich I actually was. A 1200 gold Mithral plate to be fitted and crafted to me for the following day which is actually a +2, which would bring my armor up to 17 instead of 15 (or at least 16 which I planned originally).
I mentioned in my addendum post that the DM specified that enchanted gear is just in general pretty rare and his campaign is based more around looting dungeon chests rather than converting everything to gold and visiting some big city magic shop. So imagine the hilarity as my party watches Dakota, without help (Zaria offered some gold to pay for some Mithral, a boosted rogue is very useful to a party), and takes a not insignificant amount of time emptying her pockets. Indeed, since she had -made- like six hundred gold since some of them last saw her, she’s putting down boxes and bags they hadn’t even seen before. It spawned a whole discussion about wealth in this world, about how much Dakota could truly buy with that. Start a farm, or a trading caravan. With my ~1400ish gold she literally could have jumpstarted a legitimate business. The DM even toyed with the fact that a Stardew Valley esque campaign is completely doable for him, as he’s got mechanics and encounters for farm defense gameplay.
So while I don’t have that as of this session, it will be available after the coming heist. Success or failure.
After that we spend some time ironing out some details of the heist itself. One aspect of it went out the window immediately as Zaria elects to go inside the literal kitchen window. I pitched the main gameplay loop of the Thief Simulator games, because, uh…

Anyway in those games you have a car or van. We didn’t spend a moment to buy a cart especially after I tanked most of my cash on armor and also I think hauling a fucking cart around city streets post-curfew may have added complications, even with the druid preparing Pass Without a Trace for us. Still, I originally assigned Zaria to be our makeshift “van” and sort of babysit any pile of goods we escort from time to time. Like large tapestries or chests of gems or whatever. I wanted Whistle either in the house with us or being the lookout to sound a musical alarm. I don’t know Whistle’s full kit but I know they have access to “Friends” and stuff, I just don’t know what she has. Either way those roles were immediately reversed so Whistle is outside the kitchen window babysitting our eventual pile and Zaria is just hanging out with me inside.
This is where we got to the unfortunate part. The DM is reading directly from a module. I don’t know which one, that knowledge is not in my head. So the gameplay slows down significantly as he very meticulously describes items and locations that I feel are irrelevant. Sure, I took a smaller tapestry but I’m not sure what kind of money I’m going to get from some silk pillows and I certainly can’t haul a giant marble statue out of a kitchen window so other than describing them as a set dressing, why are you asking me if I want to investigate them? It’s because he’s just reading from a module and there may be some lore about its craft or whatever, it’s still irrelevant to what we’re doing. I was also a bit suspect of the time invested in investigating a bunch of jars of spice and ingredients but this whole affair became a very Dakota/Clank focused encounter, as he had wild shaped into a cat (and also needs to stay within 30ft of anyone trying to remain sneaky).
So I felt kinda bad at a certain point as we got two players twiddling their thumbs. So we’ve come to a compromise. The DM is gonna have another side-session with just the two of us as we just loot the place and if anything particularly bad happens during, then we can resume with the appropriate reactions in a couple weeks time. DM has something else scheduled for the upcoming week, so my brother and I may still have a special one hour session sometime in this week to fuel another addendum post as I just loot the place and hope nothing goes too wrong. This way, half the party won’t be sitting there bored to tears but they’ll still benefit from the general earnings. Dakota will be carrying the cash but since they just kinda let me drop 1200g on my armor without contest, I’ll of course be willing to share in future upgrades.
That is also something I need to wrap my mind around. The DM is giving us money to actually spend, not hoard. A lot of my experience is watching liveplays like Critical Role and a couple others and it just seems like a lot of their gold is collected to visit the nearest Pumat-Sol type. However, in one campaign I’m watching they’re spending a lot of their gold on tonics, torches, and general gear and I need to wrap my head around that. It does NOT mean I’ll stop harvesting mobs for their random bits and parts, because the DM keeps introducing goldsinks like 400g vitality potions. Dangling in front of me. So we need at least one loot goblin present to help fuel these things.

To which I say; You’re welcome.