The Sun-Cake

Summary

The Baron wants a cake shaped like the sun for the festival, and his cook, who has made four hundred and thirteen round things, wants to make one that isn't.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Leontina, the Baron's cook, works at the long table in the dining hall of The Burgomaster's Mansion, on the north side of Vallaki's square, at any hour. Talk to her and the quest starts at Asked straight away. The Baron wants a great sun-cake for the festival, and she has baked four hundred and thirteen suns in this house, every one of them round. This one will have proper rays. She needs fresh eggs from Goodwife Marta, dark honey from Old Paraschiva at the camp, and saffron from Vadoma's wagon, and she can't leave the stove.

Ask "You sound like you have cooked somewhere grand." for her story. Before the mists closed the road she was third pastry cook in a great kitchen, and the white scar across her thumb came from a blade sharp enough to split a hair.

Step by step

You can fetch the three in any order. Each seller has a new option once the quest is at Asked. Each has a price, or a Persuasion check to get it cheaper. A failed Persuasion just takes you back to the seller's menu. You can't try it again, but you can still pay.

1. Eggs from Goodwife Marta. She walks Vallaki's market row and main street from 7:00 to 18:00. Pick "The Baron's cook needs eggs for a sun-cake." A dozen speckled eggs cost 1 gp: "(Pay the gold piece.)". Or try [Persuasion DC 11] "(Ask for them for the Baron's cook.)": on a pass she gives you the basket for nothing.
2. Honey from Old Paraschiva. Go out of Vallaki's west gate to The Vistani Camp. She's at the cooking pot by the campfire from 7:00 to 21:00. Pick "The Baron's cook needs honey for a sun-cake." The clay pot of heather honey costs 2 gp: "(Pay the two gold pieces.)". Or try [Persuasion DC 11] "(Ask for the pot for the Baron's cook.)": on a pass she tells you to keep your gold and sing her something decent at the fire next time.
3. Saffron from Vadoma. Her painted wagon stands by the lakeshore at the same camp, at any hour. Pick "The Baron's cook needs saffron for a sun-cake." Her last pinch came out of a dead gentleman's velvet coat, and it costs 5 gp: "(Pay the five gold pieces.)". Or try [Persuasion DC 12] "(Haggle.)": on a pass you pay 3 gp.
4. Bake it with Leontina. Go back to the dining hall with all three. The quest moves to Ready, and the baking starts at once. On the shelf are the battered round tin of four hundred festivals and an iron frame hammered into eight points. Pick one way to bake. You only get one try:
   • "(Let Ratatouille take over the dough.)", if Ratatouille is in your party: a perfect cake, no roll.
   • [Dexterity DC 12] "(Shape the cake with a steady hand.)": a pass makes a good cake, a fail makes it collapse.
   • [Wisdom DC 12] "(Judge the oven.)": the same, a pass for a good cake, a fail for a collapse.
   • "(Leave it to Leontina.)": the cake collapses.

The ingredients cost 8 gp at full price, or 3 gp if every Persuasion check passes.

Choices and endings

There are two endings, and both end the quest at Done. Either way the Baron tastes it in front of the whole household and calls it a triumph.

• A sun with points. The cake comes out a little lopsided, golden, and unmistakably eight-pointed. Baron Vargas Vallakovich calls it a masterpiece and gives Leontina leave to abandon the circle. She pays you 60 gp from the housekeeping purse. The whole party gains Heroic Inspiration. Ratatouille approves (+2), and so do Liriel and Kip (+1 each). Afterwards Leontina shows you her scar again: for the first time in twenty years, her old mistress would know her work.
• The Liquid Dawn. The points slump into a bubbling golden puddle. The Baron declares it melted from its own joy, names it the Liquid Dawn, and orders four hundred and fourteen more before winter. Leontina pays you 20 gp from the kitchen tallow fund. Nobody gains approval or Inspiration. Next week, she says, she'll hammer the frame into a simple square.

If you're stuck

• Goodwife Marta sells eggs only on the street, from 7:00 to 18:00, and she isn't out in a storm. In the evening she's in the taproom of The Blue Water Inn, but she won't sell eggs there. While the festival is under way she's hurrying to the square and won't stop.
• The pay options only show when you have that much gold.
• Leontina won't start baking until you have all three. Until then she just repeats her list.
• If you want the good cake without a roll, bring Ratatouille along.

Rewards

• 20 gp or 60 gp, depending on how it goes

What your companions think

• Ratatouille: +2 you baked the Baron's sun-cake
• Liriel Dawnsong: +1 you baked the Baron's sun-cake
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you baked the Baron's sun-cake

Journal

Related

• People: Leontina, Goodwife Marta, Old Paraschiva, Vadoma
• Places: The Burgomaster's Mansion, Vallaki, The Vistani Camp
• More in Vallaki: Black Roses, Emanoil Wants to Be Bitten, Lady Wachter's Book Club, One Lantern Too Many, Ribbons, The Attic Circle, The Bones of St. Andral, The Cat in the Window