Jominda considers what she wants to tell Jorfa and what not. "But I won't be in that bed forever. And when I go out again I want to be protected. Who knows what else will come over this town after skeletons, walking dead and flying skulls. I want to be prepared."
Jorfa understands that. Who knows what weapons will help with all that spooky stuff. "In that case I can help you."
She lays out some items she thinks might be helpful. A light mace, a shortsword and a chain shirt. All in masterwork quality. As she doesn't do cheap stuff. "That would be a good base for all you mentioned. Some blunt weapon for skeletons and a sharp weapon for walking dead."
"Don't you have something with more protection than this shirt?" Jominda asks.
Jorfa picks up the chain shirt and hands it to Jominda. "Get used to this and if you think you can carry more and still move tell me. I'll take that back and give you something else."
"This you can wear even under you normal clothes without someone noticing."
"Wow is that heavy!" Jominda exclaims.
"If you want to try I still have chain mail here." Jorfa points to the armor Grergof brought. "And it's only that heavy in your hand. On your body it is bearable."
"I come from Cheliax, I was a Truth seeker for the crown. I used to use my magics to get the actual truth out of people and have seen many manacles in my day. I have never heard about ones that apply themselves and keep themselves on, would be a great boon to have vs a wizard like myself."
"Can you tell me more about them, I will buy the next round of drinks. Also about this prison you came from."
"May I try one on?" Jominda asks looking at the chain mail.
"Sure." Jorfa replies and points to the armor.
Jominda had hoped for some help for putting it on, or a dressing room but this seems to be no concern of Jorfa. She picks up one of the suits of armor. And it is really heavy. She puts it on the workbench separate from the others and holds it open to glide in with her arm and head and then the other arm. Picking it up again with her whole body she stumbles back under the weight. Finally it slides down into position. But even with the good fit of Jorfa's quality work she feels really hindered in her movement. "How can anyone wear this and still do something useful? It pulls me down and hampers all of my movements."
"There are such things as training and getting used to it. But as I told you: This shirt is a better fit. All vital organs are protected against cuts and stabs and you don't look as if you started a crusade of your own." Jorfa tells. "And you'd be able to move in that."
"Then the shirt has to do." Jominda sighs. She tries to take off the chainmail but that is easier said than done. bending forwards to let it slide off doesn't work as it would lead to her losing her balance and fall over. "Would you please help me out?"
Prison I came from? I'm not a prisioner... oh he means where the manticles came from.I wonder why he wants to know... could he be part of the Whispering way, or a servant of the lower planes?
You said was a Truthseeker. Do you no longer serve the House of Thrune? I imagine they do not let truthseekers go easily.
to see if I can detect any evil or hell bound motives for wanting this information...
Jorfa takes the chain mail at the rim and pulls it over Jominda's head. "Put on the shirt. And try if you can handle hat on your own. If not you need to find a squire."
Glad and felling light as a feather without that weight Jominda takes the shirt and puts it on. That is indeed much better and though it has quite some weight she can handle that. Even taking it off again works fine.
She turns around, unbuttons her dress and pulls it down from her shoulders and takes her arms out of the frilly sleeves. Then she puts the chain shirt over her undergarments and slips back in her dress. It is almost not visible. Only at the v-neck of the dress a bit of the metal shows. She tightens the laces of the dress a bit more to hide that. "You wouldn't have a mirror here?" Jominda asks.
"I left to pursue a place to further my investigative skills, my family was actually cast out of our title and fortune when it was discovered that my father was attempting to further his own agenda against the crown. I decided that it was best to leave."
Stam will take a drink of his wine
Jorfa crosses her arms in front of her chest. "No."
"Ok. And what does all of that cost?" Jominda asks.
"300 for the sword, 300 for the mace and 250 for the shirt." Jorfa tells.
"I'll take the sword and the armor then. Is it alright if I pay you tomorrow?" Jominda asks.
"That's alright. And because it's you I'll give it for you for 500." Jorfa replies.
Jominda takes the sword and hides it behind her crossed arms. "Thank you." She leaves and walks back to the apothecary. She sneaks in and back into her bedroom. There she locks herself in and goes to bed. The blade she puts under her pillow.
As Marta hears the lock turning she comes to take a look. Finding the door locked she calls "What are you doing in there? Why is the door locked?"
"Because this way I don't get stabbed in my sleep." Jominda replies.
"What? Are you nuts? Did you fall on your head last night? Or are you accusing me of trying to kill you?"
"That's it. I'm leaving. If you don't want me to help you I don't have to." With that Martha stomps out and goes to the temple to complain to Father Grimburrow.
Jominda waits a moment and listens hard if Martha is really gone. Then she gets up again to lock the front door of the apothecary. To be sure she locks her bedroom too again. As she lies in bed again in her new armor and safely locked in she relaxes. She lets our a sigh and falls asleep.
Ahh, I see. Inthat case...
He pulls out the rest of the pieces of the manticles and sets them on the bar.
What can you tell me about these?
"At least the cooking helps you cope. I'm sure it will all be over soon, and you can start getting your life back to normal. Well...as normal as can be. And have time to grieve your fathers passing. I'm sorry this happened."
Darius finishes up with a bow of thanks he takes his dishes to the kitchen and when he returns "Thank you for the meal Kendra. I hate to eat and run but since I won't be going to Harrowstone till morning I shall see what else is happening to my fellows in arms."
Darius cocks his head as if something he forgot just occurred to him. Then his eyes go wide.
"JOMINDA!! By an orcs balls I totally forgot! I must go see how she is doing after the attack. Sorry my dear, I will see you a little later. Thanks again!"
And with that Darius rushes out the door with an awkward smile and heads off to the apothecary.
"I am not detecting any magic on them and my knowledge of mechanical items is limited but the parts you have here look like normal manacles to me. What can you tell me of this Harrow stone?"
Kendra thanks Darius "You being here helps too. At least I have someone to talk to and someone who eats all the stuff I cook." But she harrumphs and gives Darius a stern look on mentioning 'orcs balls'.
As Darius knocks at the apothecary it takes a while until Jominda answers the door. "Who is it?" she calls from inside hiding to the side of the front door.
Well the Harrowstone was a infamous prision outside town. It used to have the most dangerous prisoners in all of Ustalav.
That was until a fire over a decade ago that killed most of the people there.
Since then the prison has been abandoned except for ghosts.
"Jominda? It's Darius. I've come to see if you're okay. I'm sorry it's taken so long."
Jominda opens the door but the door chain is still in place. She carefully looks out. "Hello Darius." she says with a smile on her pale face. "I guess I'm okay."
Jominda is hiding her short sword.
"If I may, you don't sound okay. And that sword you're hiding behind the door says differently."
Darius holds out his hands, open palms facing Jominda and a comforting smile on his face.
"I mean you no harm dear. If you wish I could leave. But from where I stand you look like you could use some company. Two swords are better than one should trouble come knocking."
Jominda closes the door unhinges the chain and opens the door again. "Please come in." she invites him. "I'm back on my feet again. I think that's okay. But I'm far from good."
"Thank you my dear."
Darius enters and takes a look around the room then back to Jominda with concern.
"So what seems to be the problem and how may I be of service?"
"Interesting, I should have done some more research about this whole area before leaving Cheliax. How did you come by the manacles from the prison? That that Church have them?"
We were asked by the town console to look into if the haunts in the prison may have had anything to do with the strange events that have recently started happening in town. In doing so, the manticles developed an unpleasant attachment to me, and we had to have Mistress Jorfa remove them by force.
He starts putting away the manticle parts.
So what brings you to town? This does not seem to be a common destination for wizards.
" You are right, I was passing by when Ned broke his nose ring on... well I am not sure really. Seeing as I could not fix it myself and I didn't want him to get sick I decided to come here to get it fixed."
"You know what happened to me?" Jominda asks only to answer the question herself. "Gibs came to the apothecary in the night. He stood in front of the door in his nightgown banging at my door. I thought he needed some medicine and opened."
"But he grabbed me, pulled me out and pinned me. And then he cut open my arm and I passed out. It was all so quick I couldn't even scream." she tells, stiff from head to toe as she relives the horror in her mind.
"As I woke up there was Father Grimburrow and the Sheriff and all the people from town. They were worried and helped me and everything was cozy and warm. And the Sheriff put Gibs to jail. It was safe again. It was just a scar on my arm." She sighs as if these were memories of times long gone that will never come back.
She leads Darius to the living room and takes a seat at the table where a mug of tea stands. It is almost cold already. She lays the sword on the table and takes the mug. "But Grergof came and told me that it might not even be Gibs' fault. That something from the Harrowstone forced him to do it. And that even Grergof was almost forced to attack someone. So it could be anybody. Today they are your best friend or family and the next day they follow some evil orders and stab you in the back." The fear is clearly showing in Jominda's eyes.
Darius gives a warm smile. "Grergif is right, he almost took my head off." He chuckles.
"But we overcame that, just as you will overcome this tragedy. We are close to solving this mystery and I believe we are close to clearing out all of Harrowstone as of today. By tomorrow I believe we can put this all behind us."
With that Darius reaches over and lifts her sword and gives it a look over before putting it back where she placed it sensing her nervousness.
"That is a really well balanced blade. Superbly crafted. You have training in swordplay?"
"It can't be that hard, can it? You just hold the pointy end in direction of the one you want to hurt right?" Jominda asks while she puts the sword out of reach of Darius.
"More or less." he smiles.
At that point he stands up from the table. "You look able to travel. And sitting here on your own letting the fear of what happened happening again does no one any good." he continues as he walks back to the door. "If you want, you're welcome to join me I'm heading out to find my friends and discuss tomorrow's plans for finishing off the evil in Harrowstone tomorrow."
He in latches the door and opens it and steps across the threshold before looking back at Jominda. "Fight back. We need the extra swordhands. And we can look out for each other. What's next is up to you."
He turns and leaves the door slightly adjar as if that punctuates his last comment.
Jominda takes a sip out of the mug and contorts her face. "Bah!" She puts the mug down and gets up. Which leads to her getting dizzy again. "You might be encouraging and all, but you're a lousy doctor!" Jominda calls after Darius.
After a moment the stars in front of her eyes disappear. She hides the shortsword in her sleeve and follows Darius outside. She thoroughly locks the apothecary. "Where do we go to? I would prefer some place where I get something to eat. I really could use a bite but I'm in no mood to cook it myself."
Darius holds out his arm. "Food is a great help in recovery. Point us in the right direction and dinner is on me this evening. See I'm a great doctor." he replies cheekily.
Jominda takes the offered arm with a smile. "You're a gentleman. But if I need a doctor's opinion I'll consult someone else." she jokes.
"I suggest we go to the Outward Inn. The menu is less ridiculous there." she says pointing across the town square at the inn.
The sheriff sits at his desk in front of his bottle watching over the town square. And he doesn't like what he sees. No matter what he does she ignores him. But this old geezer has her attention in no time. But instead of making an ass of himself again he decides to pour himself another drink on top of the three he already had.
Darius laughs. "To the Outward Inn then!"