Fennimore's Guide: The Tser Pool

Summary

Ambrose Fennimore is writing the definitive guidebook to the valley and is not sure the Tser Pool camp's famous plum stew is really plum.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Ambrose Fennimore stands by the signpost at The River Ivlis Crossroads from 7:00 to 19:00. The first time you talk to him he introduces himself and his guidebook, nine hundred pages so far, which gives everything in the valley a rating out of five stars. Ask "May we see the book?" He reads you a few entries, ending with "Tser Pool Camp: three stars. The plum stew is excellent." He has underlined "plum" twice, because his tongue says onion, hare and something much older than fruit. Choose "Can we find out about the stew?" He'll pay ten gold for the real recipe. The quest starts at Asked.

Step by step

1. Go to the Tser Pool camp. Travel west to the Tser Pool Encampment. Old Dorina stands at the iron pot over the coals beside the bonfire, at any hour.
2. Ask Dorina about the pot. Choose "What is really in the pot?" She lists what went in today: plums, four onions, a hare Radu caught, salt, black bread and herbs. What was already waiting in the iron, she says, is another matter.
3. Taste it, or ask gently. Either way gets you the truth:
   • "(Taste the stew.)" needs no roll. Under the plum, smoke and onion there's a heavier taste, older than anything grown this year.
   • [Persuasion DC 12] "(Ask her, gently, about the bottom of the pot.)" gets the story straight away. On a fail she snaps that you're like clerks for the devil up the hill, counting every onion. The option is then gone for good, but "(Taste the stew.)" is still there.

   Then she tells you. The pot has hung over her fire for sixty years and has never been emptied. Each morning's stew goes in on top of what's left of the last one. Her silver wedding spoon has been at the bottom since the night her husband was carried home. The quest moves to Known.

4. Report to Fennimore. Go back to the crossroads signpost by day and choose "We found out what is in the stew." He's delighted. He rewrites the entry as "The stew is plum, onion, hare and sixty years. Ask for the bottom." and pays you 10 gp. The quest ends at Done.

Choices and endings

There's one ending: 10 gp, and none of your companions react. Afterwards Fennimore stays by the signpost and rates the weather instead (one star). You meet him once more, much later. When every hero in your party has reached level 10, he's on the cliff road outside Castle Ravenloft, the Gates, writing up the castle from outside (two stars). Tell him "We're going in." and he puts you in his appendix: travelling companions, five stars, no notes.

If you're stuck

• Fennimore is only at the signpost from 7:00 to 19:00.
• Dorina's "What is really in the pot?" only shows while the quest is at Asked, so talk to Fennimore first. Eating a bowl from her pot ("What's in the pot?") doesn't count.
• If you asked Fennimore to visit the boy at Krezk (Dumitru's Visitor), he leaves the crossroads. You'll find him inside the gate of Krezk once it's open. He comes back to the signpost when that visit is done, and you can report to him then.
• Old Dorina is only in the camp while the Vistani are at peace with you. If you've fought the camp or drawn steel on Madam Eva, she's gone.

Rewards

• 10 gp

Journal

Related

• People: Ambrose Fennimore, Old Dorina
• Places: The River Ivlis Crossroads, Tser Pool Encampment
• More in The Old Svalich Road: Called by Name, Radu's Unsellable Horse, Stanimir's Fire, The Count's Huntsman, The Dancing Bear, The Grey Mare, The Hanged Man at the Crossroads, The Lantern in the Roadhouse