Balm Bitdoom
Role: Head of the Sewer Tinkerer’s Society Status: Ally (the party owes him a debt)
Head of the Sewer Tinkerer’s Society. Gifted Bodius Tea his Hyperspectral Peddler’s Cloak. Also gave Bonzo a feather that, once eaten, lets Bonzo turn into a raven 3 times per day. His society operates in the sewers. Seems to know more than he lets on.
The Debt: Balm Bitdoom named the real remittance: retrieve the Kilburg Card Deck from Ras Nsi’s pocket within 3 months. In return, the party can keep Balm Bitdoom’s gifted items, except for 1 item. If they fail, Balm Bitdoom says he will kill one party member. Clearing this is an active goal. See Active Goals.
Current status: the party realized the clock matters and entered the Xibalba sewers to make contact. Faf popped a manhole and hopped in “Tallyho” style; Bodius followed with a billowing Hyperspectral Peddler’s Cloak entrance.
Xibalba Sewer Cottage
The party found Balm Bitdoom himself in a cozy sewer cottage behind a hobbit-hole-style door with smooth jazz leaking through it. Tomatoes were cooking, pasta was prepared, and Balm Bitdoom was reading in bed under covers.
Appearance in Xibalba: bald, long and gangly, giant goggles, mustache, with pots hanging all over him. The general sewer-tinkerer vibe is Kamaji from Spirited Away.
Balm Bitdoom somehow made it to Xibalba extremely fast. He gifted Bodius a Pipe of Smoke Monsters after Bodius produced a perfect smoke figure with a d20: a ring in a ring in a heart hit by an arrow, transforming into a phoenix that flew back into the pipe.
Isilrod and Bonzo began an epic duet for him.
Balm Bitdoom was impressed, but could not accept the song as remittance for the party’s debt. He did, however, give Isilrod a piece of glowing parchment: an invitation to Midsommer Night’s at Old Tin Tops Juke Joint and Casino in 5 nights. Balm Bitdoom said the casino is somewhere in the jungle.
Debt terms clarified: Balm Bitdoom wants the Kilburg Card Deck from Ras Nsi’s pocket within 3 months. If delivered, the party can keep their Balm Bitdoom gifts except for 1 item. If not delivered, he says he will kill one of them.
Trust read: Balm Bitdoom seems extremely nice, but increasingly suspicious. The party held a whisper conference and considered that he may be big-bad-adjacent or worse. Current possible plan: level up, return in 3 months, and maybe kill him instead of handing over the deck. Bonzo asked for the contract in writing, and the party got the full bargain written down.
Before disappearing, Balm Bitdoom said: “Don’t forget — the Symposium is always watching!” Then poof, he was gone. This strongly ties him to the Symposium / algiz-rune mystery around Throbbin Willowmist’s murder.
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