The man looks up at Impy
what? No..stay away the man cowers in fear of Impy
Impatiens raises a skeptical eyebrow but otherwise says nothing.
She then performs her own inherent tiefling magic by bellowing "More beers!" over her shoulder at the bartender.
Somehow Espy's words calm the old man down he asks for a drink and a seat.
Balthe rises drunkenly and dramatically points to himself.
...burrrrp...
"Yes more fire water."
The newcomer, noticing Balthe identifying himself goes to the table
Yea best be soberin' up by mornin' the church sent me ere ta give ye this
He hands a message to him sealed by the church of Besmara. He then goes to the bar to order a drink.
the letter seems official enough, at least the best you can tell considering you state of sobriety.
Your presence is requested for a matter of delicate handling you will be compensated as well as any you choose to bring to accompany you. come to the temple by noon tomorrow.
the old man accepts any drink offered to him and seems completely unaware of what happened. you can notice that the glaze in his eyes is now gone. amny if not all of the cuts on him are healed.
I thank ye fer all that ya done. don't right know what happened. but I be sure that me Cap'n be willing ta thank ya proper considerin ya kept his lookout alive... I know what ya be thinkin' an old goat like me bein' a lookout. well I can tell ye now, these old eyes are still as sharp as they ever be. at least now that they ain't all clouded wit devil curse an what-not.
He takes a swig of his drink.
just go an see Cap'n Fenn, tell em Old Pete sent ye
Delicate matter. Compensation. Companions. It would seem that Besmara has called me to her service once again. Who will come? We shall be paid in coin and glory!
Balthe cries out as he ever so slowly leans sideways and collapses to the floor.
"Sounds like a job...."
"...assume we need tah be sober."
"Can't eat glory. Can buy glory with coins. Coins can also buy food and stuffed animals."
"Why not"
With that the large tiefling shrugs and resumes playing softly
Performance
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Epsy claps for the Tiefling barbarian. Wonderful, you've got a hold of that tune there so well. As for going.. well it sounds dangerous.. probally going to die, captured by cannibals who are going to torture us and slowly boil us in oil, eating parts of us slowly to keep the meat fresh and not kill us yet. It'll be painful, hope crushing, and then eventually we'll be eaten.
He pauses for a moment.
When do we start?
"Exactly! Spoken like a hobgoblin."
after a few drinks Old pete thanks you for helping him and leaves the tavern.
impy: your playing has attracted a little crowd and you manage to make a hual of gp. you can't help notice that across the room there waas a female halfling playing a fiddle and many of her admirers migrated to you. after a long litany of curses in several different languages she storms out of the bar saying something about the Formidably Maid.
The next morning the group, now led by Balthe go to the Temple as requested. there you meet the head priest and you present the message delivered to you.
Ahhh glad you could make it. a few days ago the church was handed a little gift and we are unsure what was to be done about it. It would seem that Besmara has seen fit to have a little girl left in our care by an unknown person.
he pauses to signal an acolyte to fetch the girl.
Our best guess is she was the child of a sailor and a local woman, when she could care for her no more she left the child in our care. Ahh here she is now.
the Acolyte escorts a young girl maybe 8 to 10 years of age. she wears a tattered black dress and carries a teddybear.
Her name is Kimberly. now what we have been able to figure out is that she has family in the village of Haanex. A man by the name of Veoden. We would like for you and your group to escort this girl to Veoden in Haanex.
He hands Balthe a srcoll sealed with the church seal. give this to Veoden it will explain everything and validate what we are asking of you.
There is a ship, I believe scheduled to depart with the evening tide. The Albers. perhaps you could barter passage with them.
He then hands you a small box. you open it to find enough gold coin 100 gold each.
I hope that this is compensation enough for your troubles.
The little looks up at the group.
Are we going on a Pirate ship?
Balthe nods bruskly to the cleric.
Little one we are going to go on a ship. I do not know whether it is a pirate vessel or not but no pirate would dare cross swords with one so formidable as you!
Balthe bows to the girl and offers his hand to shake the paw of the teddy bear.
The hobgoblin looks upon the little girl knowing full well what would happen to her on a pirate ship, the only thing worse would be captured by orcs.
"Not if we can help it."
Grung looks at the gold and nods in acceptance before placing the coins in a pouch. He offers the box back.....
Kimberly smiles at Balthe then places the teddy to her ear.
Teddy says he is very pleased to meet you
She looks at Grung {b]Are you an Orc? I heard stories of orcs some are not very nice.[/b]
once again she holds her teddy to her ear. she then giggles
teddy says you seem like one of the nice ones. maybe if you had bows in your hair you would look prettier
Balthe guffaws at the comment about bows.
He then launches into a song with improvised lyrics about the mighty warrior Grung who wears bows in his hair.
As he sings he reaches down and, assuming she does not struggle or avoid him, picks up the girl and teddy and dances around the room with them.
"And now I must sleep with one eye open so I do not end up with bows in my hair."
Impatiens, who in point of fact does have a bow, says "Bows make everything prettier, don't they?"
She squats down to the girl's level, gives her a candy and says
"Some of us may look scary, but that's for scaring bad people. Our hearts are not scary."
Assuming that the extremely strenuous personal interaction is over, Imaptiens leaves in search of a blunt weapon.
After she finds her blunt weapon, she will search for a bath. When she finds the bath she will see to it that both Kimberly and herself have a bath.
@Kimmy
"I be a habgoblin."
@Espy
"I got tah spend this new money so I can find some more."
Kimberly laughs and enjoys the dancing and when its finished she picks up her teddy.
Addressing Grung
a Hob...goblin? is that like a goblin only bigger? you are too big to be a real goblin. or you are a Hob goblin becuase its your Hobby to be a goblin.
she looks ant Grung with a quizical look and you can almost feel that Grung and Kimmy are going to best friends by the time the jouney is over.
"Goblins are yer size, but they would be likely to eat you and like it. Hobgoblins err like distant cousins, kinda like orcs an half orcs....what they might do is worse than that."
"Stick to tha rule, if it looks like it might eat you chances is good it will."
At the end of you trip to the market as you gather together to head back there is a sudden commotion scross the square. carts are being turned over and several people are scattering in different directions.
As you investigate you see a man running through the market apparently being chased by two other men one armed with a long sword and the other with a bow.
the mman being chased at first appears to be elderly but as he gets a bit closer he isn't as old as you would have thought. he appears unkept and his beard is ungroomed and scraggly. he is definately unarmed.
the armed man with the sword leaps over an overturned fruit stand in pursuit of his prey. while the archer stops and nocks and draws his bow. STOP! he hollars.
It is at this point that the man being persued is no more than 15 to 20 feet from where you stand. and upon seeing your group Help me please! and he starts to head in your direction.
You think you have seen this type of arroe before. it appears to be an arrow ladened with a sleep gas bomb. only ver skilled archers have been known to be accurate with them at this range.
Down! Balthe shouts to the man, hoping he drops prone.
Balthe sweeps his arm across his chest at the archer.
Besmara will not permit this violence. Cease or face her wrath!
From his arm a burst of storm winds leaps racing towards the archer
We shall settle this with words not lethal force!
Impatiens moved quickly drawing her great sword, Daisycutter, and stands ready to smite.
Edited to reflect the current reality and conceal the player's error.
"Tis a sleep arrow they mean tah capture not kill."
"Town guards err comin."
Grung's instinct is to not interfere and maybe be left alone as well, but with Balthe already jumping in he has little choice.
The angry men could very easily turn their anger upon his hobgoblin hide!
Grung steps up to the fleeing man and attempts a quick punch.
punch
non-lethal
the two men appear to belong to a noble house (but you are not sure which one) from Blood Cove. You have heard stories that a Baron's dauaghter was raped and the perpetrator escaped. from the description you read, the man was about the same build as the one you see on the run here but you don't remember anything about a beard
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"Well this isn't too good. Not sure who's side to take in all this.."
he moves to get between the man and the hunters. "As My cleric friend has stated, Let us finish this without violence. If you're from the barron's house, the perp never had a beard. Luckily, I have a shaving kit so we'll solve this simply by unbearding the man, and if its the same one, we'll see about returning him to his punishment."
Diplomacy
the air blast pratacly disarms the bowman taking him completely by surprise. but as he goes to nock another arrow the swordsman stops him.
Grung sends the running man to his knees with a punch.
the swordsman looks back to see the militia approaching. he gives a wave of his hand and they stop. stepping back but hands on their weapons just in case.
I don't know who you think you are, but I know better than the cross swords with a priest of Besmara in a port town. especially one with allies
he sheathes his sword and approaches the group.
If you would be so kind as to hand over Vincez we take him into custody and deliver him to the magistrate in Bloodcove for his sentencing.
The man on the ground, whom you can now guess in vencez, looks up at the group Don't let them take me please, I am innocent, they have the wrong man
as you listen to Vincez claim his innocence you sense a shift barely noticable in his voice, or maybe it was a twitch of the eye. either way you realize you are dealing with a man that makes a living by manipulating others you sense , in his voice that he may not be as innocent as he claims
the swordsman looks to the half-elf
you should listen to the elf and leave Vincez to us
Vincez starts to stand mumbling arane words as he stands
he is casting scorching ray and appears to getting set to aim it at the archer
Vincez is consider casting melee and you may take attacks of oppurtunity sisnce he was not considering you guys as threats.
Whatever you are doing stops now Vicenz. This will be dealt with in the appropriate channels
This will be handled by the appropriate authorities. I will take him there myself.