#32 Found Family (in More Ways than One)

Party's next stop is a town mostly inhabited by tieflings, where Mylz's partner and her partner's husband live

Mylz leads them to a house with a massive, exotic garden and Doug, the husband, answers
- Skjorn immediately gets blushy at the new hot man in his vicinity
  - Shoor repeats an offensive stereotype about the tiefling and Zaz is surprised that he's racist for some reason
  - Skjorn gets on Shoor's case, but the latter just says, "Stop ganging up on me, can't you take a joke?"

the back door slams open and everyone hears Elwyra before they see her

Elwyra bursts into the room, her arms full of poisonous plants, and she is introduced as Mylz's partner
- Elwyra and Doug are in an arranged marriage and are friendly with each other; all of their children are grown and have moved out
Skjorn asks if he can eat Elwyra's plants, which prompts her to infodump about all of the side effects and why that's a terrible idea
to prevent Skjorn from killing himself, Zaz asks if there might be edible snacks

while Elwyra goes to the kitchen, Doug entertains everyone with a story about his day - the most exciting part being when he bought toothpaste

Shoor feels like he's being tortured and Skjorn is no longer attracted to the boring man

Elwyra returns with tea from her own garden, taking notes on the minor magical effects it causes (it's all safe, she assures)

Skjorn's hair turns bubblegum pink while Mylz's skin turns blue
Dibrael levitates an inch above his chair and Zaz's wings turn invisible
Derendil's crown grows big enough to fall down around his neck, like a necklace
Jorlan casts Blur, causing his body to become blurry and appear to waver for 1min
Doug laughs and his voice sounds like he breathed in helium
after seeing the effects on everyone else, Ront refuses to drink any

Shoor's tea accidentally charms him to Skjorn for 1hr, causing the drow to believe Skjorn is his true love

Elwyra is apologetic, explaining that that wasn't supposed to happen
Skjorn takes advantage of this, happy to have Shoor finally return his affections
- Skjorn asks Shoor to sneak him one of Elwyra's forbidden plants while everyone is distracted; the plant gives Shoor a rash and Skjorn feels bad

meanwhile, Mylz gives Elwyra the books that she'd saved about Underdark plants

Elwyra is also interested in Zaz, having never met an avariel elf before, and asks lots of questions

as night falls, everyone prepares to head to the inn, but Elwyra stops Mylz for a private chat about a mysterious backstory character

Skjorn wants to snoop but is immediately caught; Mylz is uncharacteristically upset with his antics
Shoor offers to listen in, but he doesn't know the language they're speaking in and only picks up words that sound similar to Undercommon (something about gingerbread?)

after getting set up at the inn in town, Mylz steps out to train by herself to work through her emotions

Party continues their travels, this time heading toward Dibrael's home village

along the way, Ront veers toward the ruins of his own village; there's nothing left, and he's quiet for a long time
Ront feels like he was a coward to leave his tribe behind, and Derendil asks Zaz to translate a message: "Live on for them."
Mylz offers to perform a funeral ritual and Ront accepts

Location: Glade's Fall

Party finally reaches the outskirts of Dibrael's village

the farmers see the drow first, who had been having an endurance race up the hill, causing the humans to panic
Dibrael and Mylz appear and quickly explain that they're friends and therefore safe
- the humans are unsettled but deal with it because of Dibrael & Mylz's reputation

as Party moves further into the village, the villagers treat them with a sort of invasive, fake kindness

the villagers also get uncomfortably starstruck by Mylz
Skjorn introduces himself as "just some noble," but this angers the poor farmers and they complain about nobles stealing their food
- Skjorn drops them a few coins as an apology

Dibrael leads Party to his dusty little cabin, which he is embarrassed by

as nobles used to much larger accommodations, both of the drow ask where "the rest of it"
Skjorn asks Dibrael if he'd like some gold
everyone helps clean up and Themmie plays pest control

while taking a break, Dibrael answers a knock at the door

it's Dibrael's penpal, Ruriok, and they're very happy to see each other
she's immediately worried about his leg and asks if he'd like some help around the house

Ruriok enters the cabin, and as she rounds the corner, she makes eye contact with Zaz

it's dead silent as they stare at each other... then Ruriok starts sobbing and rushes forward to hug Zaz
Zaz thinks he's hallucinating and no one else understands what's going on

Dibrael explains that Ruriok is his penpal, and Ruriok reveals that she is Zaz's mother (previously thought to be dead)

when Ruriok heard about Dibrael's boyfriend in his letters, the descriptions sounded familiar and her suspicion grew; she had to see him
Mylz steps out of the room to give them some privacy; Shoor follows and Mylz entertains him with a dice game

Zaz and Ruriok awkwardly try to talk to each other but Zaz says he needs to lie down

Ruriok fears that he doesn't want to see her, but Dibrael explains that it just takes time for Zaz to come around

Ruriok requests to have proper introductions with Dibrael's friends, so Mylz & Shoor return

Ruriok thanks Mylz for watching over her sons (including Dibrael) and also the other young adults in the group
Dibrael recounts their adventures, making Ruriok realize that she nearly lost both him and Zaz several times and never would have known
- it's all too much for her, and the exhausted woman decides to retire to the inn for the night; however, she promises to bring over breakfast in the morning