As suspected, DM is undeterred by his earlier failure, or in any case not willing to give up quite yet. In the process, he delivers valuable lessons in two important fields: marketing and accessorizing.
Concerning marketing, he’s just covering the classic bases of how-to-motivate-players-for-DMs-101. One of the pillars of that trade is waving monetary rewards/ treasure/ magic items in the party’s faces, and the other pillar is attempting to appeal to their better natures by offering an opportunity to aid the innocent/ helpless/ needy. Which one a DM resorts to first mostly depends on their opinion of the players in question, but when it fails, the default reaction is then to switch to the other one. And if that fails…well, probably a combination. A starving mother who is also a rich merchant, and offers the party 10.000 gold if they can recover the 50 gold a thief stole from her, which she needs to pay her taxes on her tiny hovel, which the king is taxing highly so he can give a big tax-cut to rich merchants like her. But DM isn’t quit there yet, he’ll probably try the straight approach first…
To keep with traditions, DM assumes a shapely female form to plea for the party’s assistance. And at first he also goes with the classic accesory for that part, but then suddenly remembers why he stayed single all of his life, and that he has zero experience in caring for an infant. And children are losing in popularity, anyway, so a basketful of kittens should be just as, if not more, effective. And very suitable for a magic-user, anyway – should one of the kittens be all-black, or black-with-a-white-pentagram-shaped-spot, he can keep it as a familiar.
More on Mon…uh, Thursday.