The party continues walking down a mostly empty street at a little past midday. Marva begins to feel a bit uncomfortable from her hooded dark blue cloak. Getting too irritated from the scratchy sensation, she takes off the cloak, turns it inside out to reveal patches sown into the inner gray fabric. Each patch has a different design, and she finds one of them hanging from a single thread. On a closer examination, she accidently rips the patch from the cloak. Marva turns it over in her hand revealing what appears to be a upside-down wooden bowl with ...flat spoons? The moment she blinks, the pattern vanishes from the patch leaving it blank.

!!!CRRAAASSSH!!!

 A upside down rowboat appears to have slammed down on the cobblestone in the middle of the street 10ft from the party. Fortunately, no one was hurt-

 "Hello? ...Is-is anyone there?", says a high-pitched muffled voice coming from inside the boat.

Cutscene:

 A three foot tall gnome spots the party and makes his way over.

"Oie! Tall-folk! Would each of ya do me a kindness and help lift this boat off me friend?", he askes, "and before ya ask. No. I don't know where it came from.".

Marva looks back and forth between the patch and the boat multiple times, her brain trying to explain what just happened. There seem to be a lot of odd things going on today, from the healing frost on the horse earlier to the burst of radiance on those rats. Now boats are falling from the sky. After a bit of delay from the shock, Marva says quickly to the others, “Let’s help them with this boat. It is possible that I did it.” She limps over, still a bit injured from the rat bites earlier, and tries to lift the boat off the unlucky (lucky?) gnome.

(After the boat is dealt with, Marva really wants some time to study the cloak and maybe get a short rest to mend her injuries. Could she sit in the wagon as they continue to the bakery?)

Mio already has her bow out in one hand and an arrow ready to fired with another as she quickly scans her surroundings, trying to see if the boat being dropped from nowhere was some ill-aimed attempt at a magical assassination on Gundren's cart. She is already looking for anyone who looks like they might have been an assassin fleeing the scene.

Perception: 10

Landrae blinks as the boat lands and starts to chuckle as she overhears the conversation between McKay and Rodney. Landrae's face takes on a look of confusion amusement at Marva's comments, "You might have had something to do with conjuring a boat out of thin air? Now that is certainly something I want to hear!" Picking up on Marva's discomfort, the bard hums a few chords, and sends a light magical weave over to Marva, mildy 6 restoring her. 

To the gone, Landrae turns and comments, "Always happy to help those souls suffering with naval trauma in the middle of a city! Did I hear you mention my friend Grogahla in your conversation?"

As Marva feels the healing effect of Landrae’s music, she says, “Oh! That feels much better! Thank you, Landrae. And yes, there seems to be something odd about this cloak that I bought from Patti. I’ll explain after we rescue poor Rodney.” 

Mio turns away from looking around for possible magic assassins to Marva. "The cloak? You think the cloak summoned the boat on top of us?"

"Well, if we are ever in a situation that we need an upturned boat to fall on someone, at least we know where to come" She winks at Marva and starts trying to use the oars to leverage the boat up and rescue the little folk trapped underneath. "At least you didn't land it on anyone's head..."

Alongside the cart, Sir Seigfryk had been explaining the minutia of knighthood to Landrae (how most of his daily duties revolve around training and ceremony, and how the combat he had previously been called to was a brutish, undignified affair, not worthy of a poem), when the loud CRASH! of the falling boat interrupted his conversation.

"By the sweet ships of the sea! What manner of beast hath bestowed this bothersome boat upon us!?" Seigfryk reels with surprise, his hand on the pommel of his sword, but relaxes slowly as the aftermath of the boat's appearance unfolds. He listens to the gnomes conversing, and goes to assist in lifting the boat.

Athletics - 18

Once the boat is up, Marva wants to examine the cloak more carefully. She tries to remember if she has ever read about a magic cloak with patches that cause boats or other objects to appear.

(Would this be Arcana? If so, 13 )

"Thank ye for the help tall-folk." McKay says as he makes his way back to the boat. He turns to Landrae, "So, you've been to Brandy's, eh?", he askes with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, well, I'm afraid me friend's caught the "tall-folk-fever".", he explains with air quotes then lets out a long sigh.

 Landrae and Sir Seigfryk lift the rowboat with little effort off the waiting gnome. "Oh! Greetings!" he addresses the party then turns to the McKay, "That was fast! Lucky they were not here early to hear my-", pauses to clear his throat, "...little misunderstanding.", his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

 "Suuurre.", McKay says as he rolls his eyes, "Come along, Rodney." He turns to the party, "Thanks again for your help, but we should be off."

 Rodney and McKay continue their journey down the street in the opposite direction.

 Rodney: "So, about my plan!-"

 McKay: "It's not going to work."

 Rodney: "But I haven't even told-"

 McKay: "Still, not going to work."

 Rodney: "But!-"

 McKay: "Its. Not. Going. To. Work."

 Marva rests in the wagon while the party continues their journey to the bakery. (Marva can take a short rest.) She inspects the cloak to find 10 more patches. Each patch with a different image of: 2x puppies playing, a gray door, (2x patches) a horse with a saddle, (2x patches) brown(wood?) ladder, a magical scroll, 4x vials of Healing Potions (with a 13, understand what they are), and a ram's head on a pole?

 After the inspection, Marva tries to remember about an item she has read about before in a book once (written by Mormesk?, Wormusk, ,Warmess?). Unable to remember the author, she is able to understand that this cloak has a magical form of storage. Only, she is unsure of how it works. Maybe if she ripped off another patch?

Landrae whispers to Seigfryk as the halflings walk off, "You missed Brandy's... Groggahla is a very lovely half-orc. I'd pay good coin to watch how that little scenario plays out."

As they mount back up on the cart, Landrae takes up the reins once again and drives the cart through the busy streets. Every so often she hums a few bars, or mutters a few words under hear breath, until by the time they are closer to the bakery she starts singing in a hushed tone; anyone sitting close to her would just make out some of the lyrics.

Mio is still slightly paranoid of the mission going sideways so she still has an eye out for assassins that might attack the cart while it moves through town.

Mio keeps a eye to the shadows, 13 but is not aware of any threats.

Marva rests in the wagon and studies the cloak, careful not to pull any other patches off. She examines each of the pictures and remembers the first patch with the bowl and spoons. Was that actually a boat and oars? She thinks about that book by -- what was that author’s name? Marmest? Morworst? Wastmoor? Drat! This is going to drive her crazy! Anyway, the book had a patched robe or cloak or something that held items in magical storage. Could this cloak be similar? Did the boat appear because the patch came loose? The way to test it would be to pull off another patch, but which one should she try? She doesn’t want another boat crashing down in the middle of the street. She decides to try the patch with the image of a scroll - that wouldn’t be big enough to hurt anyone. She rips it loose...

Sir Seigfryk walks alongside the cart with his squire, his head swimming with daydreams. He imagines the gnome climbing a step ladder to plant a kiss on Grogghala's cheek. He briefly wonders if his old warhorse (gods rest his soul) would have enjoyed these errands and escort missions more than he had battle... but Seigfryk quickly turns away from such melancholy thoughts.

Eventually, his mind clears, and he falls into a sort of trance. Hypnotized by the rhythmic clopping of hooves, and the occasional hummed note from Landrace. He is oblivious to danger.

Marva rips the patch with the image of a magical scroll and watches the pattern vanish a second later. A scroll blinks into existence in midair and casually floats down into her waiting hands. She now understands that the cloak is indeed a form of magical storage, but returning the item back into a patch is beyond her understanding.

 Attempting to read the scroll only leads to confusion. The scroll's writing is in gibberish. The snowflake amulet around her neck begins to radiant a cold aura. She touches it, and a freezing pain rushes down her arm, but soon the pain fades into a sensation of pleasure, power, arrogance, and unfathomable cruelty. Marva is overcome with a need to hurt-, no. Punish! All who are inferior! Her enemies will cower in fear of the wrath of-!

 ...the sensation passes. Marva returns to her senses and finds she is able to read the spell scroll. 1st Level Spell Scroll: Detect Magic

 Meanwhile...

The party moves further down the street and enters into the gnomish district of Neverwinter. Gnomish shops and housing make up the majority of the city block with book stores, tinkering shops, magic emporiums, and a bakery that seems strangely out of place. A sign with bright purple, green, red, orange, and blue writing displays:

MILLHOUSE THE MAGNIFICENT'S BAKERY EMPORIUM AND SPECTACULAR SWEETS!

(Need a new marching order on who going first-to-last. Marva will be last since she is resting in the wagon.)

Marva studies the incomprehensible scroll, feels the rush of powerful emotions, and closes her eyes to shake them off. As calm returns, her eyes fall on the scroll and she finds that she can understand the meaning of the arcane runes. She whispers to her amulet, “Who are you?”

After taking a few minutes, she calls out, her voice a little shaky at first, “Hey, Landrae? Mio? It was the cloak! I’ve read of something similar. When you rip off a patch, an object appears. It’s so strange. I don’t know how Patti didn’t realize that it wasn’t an ordinary cloak. Although, I suppose I didn’t notice myself at first. I’m glad that no one was injured when that boat appeared!”

Mio is relieved by this revelation. "Ah so that means there isn't any magical assassins after Gundren's cart. It means we haven't had any complications with the mission yet."

Landrae looks a little surprised at Marva's claim that the cloak had magicked the boat into existence, then chuckles at Mio's words. "Magical assassins? Your imagination may be more vivid than mine Mio! Though were I ever to be hunted by such, then I'll take the sort that try to drop a boat on my head over sending a fireball at my sleeping form any day." She winks at Mio before turning back to Marva, "That could be a handy thing, if you can work out what each patch actually does... Wouldn't want to create a create a flood when all you want is a glass of water."

As the party approaches, they hear singing from inside the bakery. Sir Seigfryk opens the door to find three identical gnomes doing a song-and-dance number around a dwarf with his hands over his eyes. All three gnomes have white, unkempt hair with a long wizardry beard with its length dragging on the floor. They have long, pointed noses and faded purple robes covered in flour. All three gnomes look at the newcomers.

 "Oh! More customers!", they shout in unison.

They gather around the party and hold out their hands. A dazzling array of flashing, colored lights shoots forth from the three identical gnomes' palms.

27

Sir Seigfryk is blinded! and Marva is blinded!

"Welcome!," sings the first, "Welcome!!", sings the second "Welcome!!!", sings the third. In a harmonious chorus they sing, "WELCOME TO MILLHOUSE THE MAGNIFICENT'S BAKERY EMPORIUM AND SPECTACULAR SWEETS!!!"