The Tinker's Wagon

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Two ways in:

• Zora at the Tser Pool Encampment: ask "Heard anything interesting?". At the end of her news she mentions Iosif, a tinker who used to be one of theirs, selling trinkets from a green wagon at the crossroads. Four travellers who bought from him never came past the camp again, and the wagon gets fatter.
• Iosif himself. Iosif the Tinker sits on the board of a green wagon by the signpost at The River Ivlis Crossroads from 8 in the morning to 6 in the evening. Talking to him starts the quest even if you never heard Zora.

Step by step

1. Go to the crossroads by day and talk to Iosif. He's selling pots, a doll from the Durst house and a music box that never stops, five gold each, and he never gets down off the board.
   
2. Work out what's wrong. Two checks, one try each:
   • Insight DC 13 (watch him while he talks): he keeps glancing at his left foot and mouths "don't".
   • Perception DC 14 (look at the wagon, not the man): the wheels are one piece with the axle, a shaft twitches, and a grey, wet chain runs from his ankle into the boards.

   A failure shows you nothing. Pass either one and a new option appears: (Go for the chain at his ankle.)

   There's also a way that needs no roll: ask him "Why don't you ever get down off the board?" He laughs and says he'll never leave the wagon, and something under the paint shivers. If neither check has passed, a new option then appears: (Pull the blanket off his knees.) So two failed checks don't leave you stuck.

3. Go for the chain (or pull the blanket off). Either way you pull the blanket off, the chain has grown into his skin, and the wagon stands up off its wheels.
4. Fight the Tinker's Wagon. The Tinker's Wagon is a Huge mimic: AC 14, 171 HP (110 HP if anyone in the party is below level 5), immune to acid. Each turn it lashes with two sticky pseudopods (reach 10 ft, grapples, escape DC 15) and bites; on a 5–6 it sprays a 20-ft cone of trinkets (DC 14 Dexterity save, 3d6 and Restrained); it shakes off one failed save a day and lashes again between your turns. With it come "trinkets", Mimics: one below level 5, two at level 5, three at level 6 and up. Spread out so the cone can't catch everyone, and keep someone free to pull grappled allies loose.
5. Talk to Iosif again. After the fight he's in the road at the crossroads at any hour. The chain drops off on its own.

Choices and endings

There's one ending. Iosif tells you to open the wagon's belly, and inside are 300 gp of travellers' money and a Gem of Seeing. Thistle (+2), Godrick (+2), Liriel (+1) and Kip (+1) approve. Iosif goes back to the Tser Pool camp, where he sits on the ground now (chairs have legs), and Zora counts him back in.

If you're stuck

• No wagon at the crossroads? Iosif and his wagon are only there between 8 in the morning and 6 in the evening.
• No option to go for the chain? It only appears after a passed Insight or Perception check. If both failed, ask him why he never gets down off the board, then choose "(Pull the blanket off his knees.)".
• This is a fight built for a level-5 party, harder than the region's level-4 average. Below level 5 it's weaker (110 HP, one trinket), but still a boss.

Rewards

• Gem of Seeing
• 300 gp

What your companions think

• Thistle: +2 you cut Iosif the Tinker loose from his wagon
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you cut Iosif the Tinker loose from his wagon
• Liriel Dawnsong: +1 you cut Iosif the Tinker loose from his wagon
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you cut Iosif the Tinker loose from his wagon

Fights

• The green wagon stands up off its wheels, and two of the trinkets on its hooks open their own small mouths., in The River Ivlis Crossroads: The Tinker's Wagon, Mimic. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Zora, Iosif the Tinker
• Places: Tser Pool Encampment, The River Ivlis Crossroads
• More in The Old Svalich Road: Called by Name, The Count's Huntsman, The Dancing Bear, The Grey Mare, The Hanged Man at the Crossroads, The Lantern in the Roadhouse, The Spiders' Gully