Stonemantle bids you “Cheers, then!”
“Oi! If yers need a place to rest up at any stage, might pay to come back ‘n see me ‘ere. The ‘ole west wing is sleeping quarters. It’s ach’lly pretty comfy-like.”
“There’s a downside but.” Eurdan rubs his craggy jaw. “The more time yer give Tygora to prepare, the ‘arder it’ll be to defeat ‘er.”
“There’s not a doubt in m’mind she already knows you’re ‘ere. Yer jus’ can’t keep a secret in Crystalcrag.”
♨ ♨ ♨ ♨
Following Eurdan's mud map brings you to a wood-and-stone set of structures that sits on a busy street corner. The shoppe-front’s red and orange paint brightens the whole street. A sign depicting colorful vials and a beaker hangs above the door.
In the courtyard of the compound is something of a scene. An oread stands on the stoop, protesting loudly as two armed men of the same race as the gate guards douse the shop in oil.
"You can't just burn my shop! Stop that! I want no part in this madwoman's war! Leave me alone!"
Other oreads walk hurriedly away, eyes averted.
Seeing you approach, one of the antagonists steps in your direction. "Halt, Company of the Fox, Snake and Cat! Keep your distance! Do NOT DARE interfere with the Emira’s justice!"
The enforcers of the Emira’s Law are Ifrits.
Ifrits are a race whose ancestry includes beings of elemental fire, such as efreet. Ifrits have pointed ears, red or mottled horns on the brow, and hair that flickers and waves as if it were aflame.
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Wow, we got a name...like an official Company name. Coolio!
Wembly is not about to see the shop burned...there may be other goodies, and besides, oppressing shopkeepers is poor form.
Who us? Interfere? We would not give it a second thought.
However, we have business with this shopkeeper, so we just ask you to hold off on your 'justice' for a bit, you know...
until we are done. We promise to make it REALLY quick.
Wembly will get ready (delay?) to cast haste on the party if/when any hostility is launched upon or by the hot-headed guards.
“Really?” The red-faced one doesn’t look convinced by Wembly’s words.
His pal pipes up, “Maybe this lot is different from the Company of the Purple-Haired Black Dragon Knight Archers?”
☀ ♞ ♐ ☠
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"Now now, there's no need for hostilities here, but we're going to have to ask you to hold off on your actions. Besides, don't you need a writ? some kind of written authority to take such actions? I don't see any of you carrying one... I suggest you produce one, or leave and procure one immediately before you risk breaking the law yourselves."
The pair look scornfully at Hakime. “Hold our actions? Writ?”
“We do what the Emira tells us to do. And she wants buggerlugs’ shoppe torched and anyone who tries to stop us dealt with -- permanently!”
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Turning sideways to gain partial cover from the corner of the shop and sliding them onto view, Fool extends his thumb and forefinger, closing one eye as if to aim.
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The White Hot Fuzz *yawns* as Fool comes in to view. But to Toro’s surprise, the witch’s performance fails to send the man to sleep.
Red takes a 5’ step to the south. He brings his opposing finger tips lightly together, before moving them apart rapidly like they’ve been burnt. A gout of flame issues forth from his hands onto the oil-soaked buildings, causing Jadeglow’s shoppe’s name of Everlasting Fire to assume a more literal meaning.
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"I clearly said to wait til you produced a writ giving you the authority to do this... You should have listened..."
Hakime draws back her bow and fires off a pair of arrows in rapid successions (flurry of arrows) at white, warning him if he survives, which she clearly expects him to do..."Don't add more flame to that fire. consider these warning shots."
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Rising off the ground as if a balloon, Fool glides up almost two rods in height and over Dusk's head.
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Dusk will move SE, E, E, E NE to get adjacent to the fire.
"Instead of destroying this building and the supplies it contains, the Emira could use them to benefit herself and this town. Help us extinguish the fire, and let us discuss a better solution. Saving this building will help the Emira."
Dusk quickly looks around for something he can use to smother the fire. Glancing up at the roof of the building, Dusk wonders what those roofs are made of. Maybe a large section of the roof could be pulled down to smother a larger area of fire....
To his companions, "I believe this fire will quickly get out of control unless we focus on it. Does anyone have a good way to extinguish the fire?"
Fool ably demonstrates that hot air rises.
A couple of oreads move in closer to watch the battle pointing up at the halfling exclaiming, “Witch! Witch!”
The Divine Hunters combine to *ahem* fire three shots across the humanoids’ bows. Their arrows lodge in the store frontage, adding more fuel to the conflagration.
Dusk stays out of harm’s way, and finds plenty of sandy soil he can shovel by hand onto the fire. A flaming barrel is extinguished due to the Snowcaster’s actions.
Buggerlugs the oread cries as he moves towards the shoppe front, looking for a way to help Dusk fight the blaze.
He calls out to the Slayer, “Thank-you, Ser! Are you the one they call ‘Fool?’”
Refreshed after his *yawn* and s-t-r-e-t-c-h, White steps 5’ up to Hakime and unleashes a flurry of blows. “I’m dun gonna KO you, Bossy Britches!”
“Profound apologies, Boss. I should have realized …”
The oread points at Toro. “Clearly that fellow is Fool!”
The alchemist backpedals giving the slayer’s equipment a once-over. “In fact, you are known as 'Double-Slice Dusk … the Tall and Quite Helpful Badass' in village. I think I know your brother … he looks a bit like you, yeah?”
"What do you have to help put out this fire? "
“I shall simply follow your inpirational leadership, Doctor Double-Slice!”
Wembly instructs Whiskers to advance, looking to speed up proceedings.
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Extending his arms after levelling his flight, Fool holds up two fingers in front of one eye, closing the other. Lining up the lawless lawman between the upper and lower fingers, then smashing them together repeatedly, saying something you can't make out over the rush of the flames.
Red is fascinated as he watches Fool’s fingers and lips move up-and-down.
What is that fool up to? And flamin' heck, suddenly I've got the mother of all headaches!
But the witch's actions again fail to put the humanoid to sleep.
⛲ ⛵ ⛲ ⛵
One of the oread sticky-beaks asks her neighbour, "If we chucked yon Fool in oasis, do yer reckon 'e'd float?"
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“Profound apologies, Boss. I should have realized …”
The oread points at Toro. “Clearly that fellow is Fool!”
The alchemist backpedals giving the slayer’s equipment a once-over. “In fact, you are known as 'Double-Slice Dusk … the Tall and Quite Helpful Badass' in village. I think I know your brother … he looks a bit like you, yeah?”
Dusk's eyes widen in surprise for a second. "Thank you. That may be the best name I have ever been given! That fellow over there is Toro."
To the party:
"I will try to save the building. I am concerned about the fire spreading."
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"I don't think I can put out these flames alone. Companions, can we please focus on the fire first? If we work as a team, we can put it out. Even if we take a few hits while doing so, I think that saving this man's livelihood is worth a few extra scars. Once we save the building, we can all focus on one of our opponents."
As Fool told it later, "The strange snake man tears his shirt asunder, charging headlong at the fire. "Die fire! Die!" he shouts as he does a spectacular interpretive dance in the flames. "
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The oread villagers *gasp* as Toro tears off his shirt, huddling to whisper rapidly to each other in appalled voices.
“Well I never! Have you ever seen such a thing?”
The snake shaman’s shakin’ causes both Squeeze and the fire to follow his lead, before the results of some high kicks extinguish another group of flames.
♨ ♨ ♨
Red scowls at Dusk and Toro. “You are interfering with a sworn Fire Marshall’s discharge of his lawful duty, as defined in the Bill of Fights.”
He then points an accusatory finger at Hakime and Sif. “And you two aren’t helping! You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
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Red scowls at Dusk and Toro. “You are interfering with a sworn Fire Marshall’s discharge of his lawful duty, as defined in the Bill of Fights.”
"You will not destroy this man's livelihood, but you do not have to throw your lives away. Stop attacking us, or the length of your lives will be measured by the flickering flames."
"Where I come from, Fire Marshals put out fires, not set them.”
The archer’s statement clearly rocks the pair’s world. It takes a few moments for White to respond.
“Well how come they’re called ‘Fire Marshals’ then? Shouldn’t they be called ‘Water Marshals’ or something?”
Red is even more deeply affected. “Lady Hakime, though your compassion is legendary and your stories have been re-told by countless parents to their children in this village for hours, I promise if you do NOT stop telling big, fat whoppers, Old Deadeye will surely strike you down!”
Red takes a shot at Dusk as he tumbles past.
Once in position, the elf slays a larger chunk of the fire than last time.
“Stop attacking us, or the length of your lives will be measured by the flickering flames.”
The pair’s response is a defiant: “Whatevs.”
;
Buggerlugs moves south, past his fellow villagers to check on Toro’s progress in fighting the fire.
White stands his ground and hits Hakime and Dusk with burning hands.
Hakime’s readied action is triggered, but the monkadin’s arrow shoots up into the air, flicking Fool’s trouser leg as it continues it journey to the south-west.
To buggerlugs’ distress, the flames adjacent to Dusk spread a little further to the north.
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Wembly gasps as the fire continues to grow and more flames burn his friends.
Hey! That is not helping! You need to stop with the flames already. Whiskers, get them!
Wembly, cut off from the flames, calls glitterdust (DC17) upon the two closest to him then sends Whiskers to maul red.
Whiskers
for
Whiskers
for
Whiskers
for
Whiskers
for
Whiskers
for
Toro, can that big snake help wrap things up here?
Hakime is barely singed by White’s fiery spell.
In the confusion of battle, Wembly hits Red AND Buggerlugs with glitterdust.
They both manage to blink the worst of the dust out of their eyes.
Buggerlugs calls, "Don't shoot, Mr Wembly and Poodle! My name is Morak Jadeglow. I'm friendly - ask anyone!"
The Battle Cat connects with Red only once, his fangs missing a vital artery by ... a whisker!
Dusk dodges most of the flames that sprang forth from White’s hands.
Fool maintains his hover and *snaps* his fingers ...
Leading to Red shaking the cobwebs from his head briskly, before putting thumb-to-nose and waggling his own fingers at the witch.
Red: –Blake
Jadeglow calls back to the Summoner, "No harm – no foul, Mr Wembly! Oh, and please call me Morak."
The fiery humanoids shrug off the grapple attempts from both Toro and Squeeze.
Believing Dusk’s kindly actions to be of most harm to his standing with Tygora, Red steps 5’ around Jadeglow and continues to duke with Double-Slice Dusk (the tall, quite helpful badass).
White stretches out a hand in the tiefling’s direction. “Yeah, talk to the hand, Lady H. ‘Cos the f...”
THWAP!
THWAP!
White *screams* as Hakime’s arrows lodge painfully in his side.
Red: -Blake
White: S. Mitch 2 go
Dusk’s heroics in willing to lay down his life for a stranger have impressed them all.
Red shakes his head at Dusk. “Are you seriously going to keep shovelling dirt onto the fire right in front of me?”
More of the flames are extinguished through the Snowcaster’s selfless actions.
Red: –Blake
White: S. Mitch 2 go