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You get out of your seat and take one closer to the strange man. An aura of resignation floats about him. You take up a conversation with the man and learn that his name is Plop.
"Plop it is, and don't laugh," he had growled. "I've had enough trouble as it is without people such as yourself mocking me."
"How did you come here in the first place?" you ask.
"I've been here a few months," Plop says, taking on the face and role of a storyteller.
"I've been here ever since my wife got pregnant. She had gotten pregnant with our first child. She sent me all over the place to find her all sorts of good things to eat, like peacock eggs, oysters, all sorts of things. Then my wife gets this incredible craving for fresh onions. It was the middle of the winter, you see, and she wanted onions. All we had were dried ones, and I offered those to her. She threw them out the window and sent me out of the room to go find fresh onions. We have a witch living right next to our little cottage in the woods, so I peek in there and see she's got all kinds of onions. Red, white orange - you name it, she had it. She had a lot of onions. I thought to myself, 'Self, she's got a lot of onions. I don't think she'd mind if I borrowed a few.' So I went right up to her door and asked if I could borrow a few onions.
"'Um, excuse me, madam, uh, I was wondering..., um.. if I could borrow a few onions? My wife, uh, Gertrude, as you probably know, um, is pregnant, so, um, she asked for some, uh, fresh onions.' I was extremely nervous at the time.
"'Do you plan on returning the onions, then?' she asked. I replied that I didn't, but would pay for them if necessary. The witch gave me the most sensible reply and her conditions for giving me onions.
"'Well, if you don't plan on returning them, it's not really borrowing, is it? You can HAVE a couple onions, but only if you get me something too. You see, MY husband is off on a business trip, so I have to just stay here and do nothing. My magic isn't strong enough to create a certain type of food. If you get me a nice big bowl of ginkgo nuts after you take the onions to your wife, you may take as many as you wish.' I stammered my thanks and promised her that I would get her some nuts. My wife was overjoyed at the fresh onions, and promptly made a French Onion Stew which she devoured half of, and gave me the other half to give to the witch who had been so kind. I took that over to the witch and set off to find some ginkgo nuts. I journeyed far and near, but I found no ginkgo nuts. Then somebody told me that ginkgo nuts were only found in Terrakesh. So I journeyed up to Terrakesh to find ginkgo nuts. Now I've found the nuts, but now I can't get down. I only made it up here because something or someone saved me. I had collapsed onto the path. Can you help me?"
You tell him about the balloon sevices that you heard about from Hakeem. Plop thanks you enormously and runs out of the bar at high speed. Then he rushes back inside.
"I just realized that I don't have any money! Woe is me, I'll never see my wife again!" You solve his problem by giving him ten gold pieces on the spot. You can always create more.
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What do you want to do?
Talk to the barkeep
Go to your room
