Episode 8: Armaster, Part 1

Milla leaves to observe the blacksmith as he crafts her custom components: “backseat blacksmithing.”

Fan jumps at the opportunity to solve the missing persons cases and takes the party to talk to the missing Ring contender's parents, a gay elf couple. Romilda, the missing individual, was a dwarf who loved fighting. Her parents weren't keen on it because of the rampant disappearances among Ring contenders, but they supported her regardless.

The party takes the information about disappearances being rampant, questions the parents of Romilda's teammates (who are also missing) and obtains items belonging to the missing members of the Boar Crew team. Kika uses Bose to track the players using these items, finding disappearance spots for all three. Bose finds a note containing a description of Romilda at her disappearance location, and tracks the scent on the note to a lockbox on a roof adjacent to the Firetronics CEO's mansion, and an additional trail leading from the lockbox to the balcony of the mansion. The party now suspects the Firetronics CEO of foul play.

The party discusses how to gain access to/question the Firetronics CEO, Bolgr Nordberg. They come up with the idea of Ridley disguising himself as Bartholomew – whose appearance he is familiar with from his attendance at the Elderstones' annual winter party - to gain access to his mansion and give Kika the opportunity to stealth around and investigate. The party requests stilts for Ridley from Milla as he cannot make himself tall enough to pass as Bartholomew magically without them.

Kika attempts to steal, then buys, an invisibility potion from the alchemist at Vials & Stoppers.

Fan goes to speak to Arend, the blacksmith's son, who seems to be a fan of the tournament. Arend explains that almost every season, one or more people seem to go missing. The party notices that a large portion of the missing contestants were sponsored by the weapons manufacturing company Firetronics, seemingly confirming their suspicions about Firetronics. The party decides to go speak to the tournament's organizer, Grimlock Berbiss.

Grimlock is not available to speak but his assistant, Baldwin, is. The party inquires about information on the missing contenders. Baldwin agrees to provide information the next morning after he has a chance to look through his files, and the party goes back to the Spider to rest. Ridley tries out his stilts.