Forgotten Realms Issue 11 – Triangles: Jasmine (Part 1 of 3)

As we join our intrepid adventurers, Foxilion Cardluck has performed an extreme makeover on our favorite paladin, Priam Agrivar.  It really is a different look for the paladin, featuring such bold color combinations as green and purple, a daring pink scarf, and topped off with a jaunty hat.

Needless to say, the rest of the Realms’ Master crew get a big laugh out of it.  Agrivar is anxious to change back into more subdued clothing, but Captain Omen insists they leave at once to recover the Horn of Valos from the nearby Sembian city of Saerloon.

The crew enters a local merchant’s shop hoping to purchase the horn.  They interrupt a transaction between the merchant and a young hunchbacked woman.  She decides to wait in the back room until the Realms’ Master crew finishes its business.  Agrivar is intrigued by her, feeling that she is oddly familiar.

 

Purchasing the horn goes off without a hitch, much to the chagrin of Vartan as he was hoping for a little action.  Captain Omen decides to oblige him, creating an improved phantasmal force of a beholder.  Ishi and Vartan leap into battle, allowing Agrivar to have a hearty laugh at their expense this time.

Back at the shop, the merchant and Jasmine, the hunchback girl, discuss business.  The merchant pays her to take a message to the Temple of Mystra.  Agrivar and Foxilion are watching through a window, and Agrivar comes to the realization that she looks like someone he knew back in Waterdeep. 

As she leaves the building, Foxilion suggests they simply ask her if she knows Agrivar, but Agrivar disagrees.  The woman he knew is dead, so he opts for caution and the pair follow her.  However, she is aware they are following and leads them through some twisting alleys.  Soon, Agrivar and Foxilion reach a dead end to find she has disappeared.

Meanwhile on the Realms’ Master, Captain Omen consigns the Horn of Valos to the Demiplane of Fear.  Still smarting from being punk’d by the beholder, Ishi confesses to Vartan that she now feels bad about mocking Agrivar.  Before Vartan can think up a smart remark, he breaks into prophesy about powerful magic at an establishment called Lady Rae’s. 

Captain Omen thinks it may be worth checking out and dispatches Vartan, Ishi, and Minder.

Having delivered her message, Jasmine is leaving the Temple of Mystra when she is spotted by Agrivar and Foxilion.  Deciding Foxilion may have been right in the first place, Agrivar decided to simply talk to Jasmine.  Unfortunately, he spooks her when he calls out to her and she flees into the town square.

Screaming for help, she accuses Agrivar of being the Zhentarim assassin who killed her parents.

This causes Agrivar to belatedly realize the reason Jasmine looks like his friend is that Jasmine is her daughter.  It is too late to do any good though because he now faces an angry mob.

Agrivar fights his way free of the mob, but not before tearing up the new outfit Foxilion made for him. 

Once Agrivar has escaped the merchants, Foxilion waves him into an alley.  Agrivar is annoyed that they lost Jasmine, but luckily Foxilion saw her duck into the pub Lady Rae’s during the commotion.

At this point Vartan, Ishi, and Minder arrive at Lady Rae’s.  The tavern turns out to contain only female adventurers, so Vartan is is in heaven.  Well, at least until he gets into a fight with the bouncer, who happens to be wearing a girdle of storm giant strength.  Minder intervenes with uncharacteristic hostility, leading to a full-fledged bar brawl.

On the roof of a nearby building, Foxilion and Agrivar have identified which room Jasmine is in.  Agrivar decides to swing in through the window doing his best Earl Flynn imitation.

Inside the bar, the patrons hear Jasmine scream as Agrivar comes crashing through her window.  Ishi recognizes Jasmine as “the flower” from Vartan’s bad poetry and runs to investigate while Vartan and Minder hold off the mob.  She flings open the door to find Agrivar, whose clothing is mostly shredded at this point standing next to a half-naked and winged Jasmine.

Unfortunately, for Agrivar, all Ishi seems to notice is that Jasmine is half-naked.

Notes

1. Foxilion’s new outfit for Agrivar was hilarious.  What is funniest is that I could almost see Foxy wearing.
2. I enjoy the developing relationship between Agrivar and Ishi.  Especially the scene where she feels guilty for laughing at his expense.
3. The series continues to build towards the Avatar Trilogy Tie-In.  Not especially subtly either.
4. On the other hand, I liked that Minder says that she “doesn’t like giants or their magicks.”  I know this is meant as another clue that she is a dwarf, but it is one of the better ones.
5. Unfortunately, I was completely spoiled on the fact that Jasmine had wings because of the Spelljammer house ads that were running at the time.