DM Delmoth's Planescape

Game Master Delmoth

Rinika shrugs. "Wherever you wanna go."

Ah hello horseman, I find it quite interesting that you are talking instead of fighting someone, very unlike the centaurs I have encountered. And before it sounds like there are many of you.

Anyway, you seem rather busy, could you tell me where I could find more of you, if there are more in this town. I would like to sit down and talk to one of your kind.

Nik leans towards Jek and Rinika. He blocks the view of his mouth from Cr'gir with his hand as he whispers.
"Maybe we should just send him to talk with the drunk guy from the tavern?
Think we should include him in our trip to retrieve those squirrely tongs?
We could just visit the Tannery while he tries to wake up the drunk and find him after the skin is taken care of... I don't think I want to find out what he's like when he's angry..."

Nik looks towards the others expectantly for a moment before poking his head into the shop's doorway to look for Conor.

Jek rolls his eyes at the racism and whispers"Our drunk friend at the tavern doesn't deserve that."

Turning back to Cr'gir "We fought a small army of crocs earlier today and lost a lot of blood. Sound fun?"

"Half-giant half-orc takes too long to say, can I call you a gorc? What kind of giant anyway? Maybe we can work that in there"

Cr'gir looks confused at the army of crocs comment, why would losing blood be fun to him...oh well

Call me what you wish, gorc does seem a nice shortened version of half-orc half - giant though though. Either way I have no actual racial name, I can just tell you my parents were an orc and hill giant, so half-orc half-giant seemed a good description of me.

The Tannery makes simple leather goods from goat skins. A lumbering man named Bloi Nivin greats you, "Ho there! What can I do you for folks? Boy you're a big feller. What brings you lot into Crux?"

"Found some trouble, it brought us out this way. You get a lot of trouble round here? I did hear there's some squirrel issues and some lizard issues, you know anything bout either of those?"

Nik decides to add to the confusing string of questions.
"I thought the guy back there said that the lizards were never an issue?"

Then he remembers the floating monster with too many eyes that they skinned a few days ago and looks expectantly at Jek.

Jek unpacks the not-a-beholder hide and proudly holds it up for Bloi.

"This here's from a great floating eye beast. It's tough. We'd like to talk about having it made into armor. Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Conor leans against the blacksmith wall and listens to Jek and the giant Orc converse, choosing to simply listen (and ache, from his still all to fresh wounds) and watch.

He follows as the group moves on to the tanner.

The tanner smiles genuinely, ”If you mean the Ratatosk, yeah they’ve been acting strange lately. The worst of it is that one of them was hacked apart over by Dymvasis Ren’s storehouses. No idea who coulda done it neither. Poor thing was ripped to shreds. And the Khaasta well some of them are good customers of mine so no trouble to speak of from them.”

The tanner appraises the not-a-beholder skin, ”Can’t say I have sir! What a queer creature that must’ve been. You want studs or not in your armor?” He looks between the party members getting out a tape measure, ”Whose it for?”

"Could you make something for Jek that's... sturdier than what he's got?" Nik asks hopefully.

I am a bit confused, so the Ratatok are the squirrel creatures and the Khaasta are the lizardfolk?

Peruses the goods, what are there other than leather/studded leather armor? And does he happen to have anything large sized?

The tanner appraises the 8 or so metal discs that Jek is clad in and says, ”No sir. Not unless you got some magic spell that makes leather hard as metal. I can replace the straps holding them together though.”

He answers Cr’gir, ”Yes sir. Someone who’s squinting from a distance at a Ratatosk might think it's a squirrel. But they’re almost as tall as a man and smart too, and can get real protective of the tree. I don’t know how Marlus harvests wood from the tree without them bothering her, but she gets it just the same. The Khaasta have these crocodile-like heads so yeah I guess lizardfolk would be a good enough description.”

Cr’gir finds no armor among the tanner’s stock, it is mostly household items made from goat leather. Nothing is appropriately sized for Jek or Cr’gir.

"Oh well, I guess-" Nik notices Rinika wearing leather armor.

He sidles up to her "...did you need some new armor?"

"Huh, so I am! I guess, is it gonna be better than what I've got on?"

She's studded leather already, is there anything special about it being Beholder hide?.........Can he shrink it down and turn it into a hood, with the opening where the giant eye is? So it frames her face and she can constantly remind people that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

Rinika describes what she wants in the way of armor modifications, ”Yeah I think I could do that. I can probably make your set fit a bit better too. It would take me a week to get it done and I’d do it for 5 gold pieces.”

Not-a-beholder hide doesn’t provide any intrinsic value, but I would count it and the eyes as 250 gp worth of materials for a magic item enchantment purposes thematically associated with not-a-beholder. You could do the modifications now and enchant later if you wanted.

Conor transfers his slouching against the blacksmith wall pose to a slouching against the leatherworker's wall as the group discusses making armor from not-a-beholder hide, idly dreaming of more ale, food and a bed.

"When we are finished here, I suggest bedding down for the night and getting some healing done. Then figure out what to do next."

"I second that. Also, I'm not sure if we want to stick around Crux long enough for me to make a slow-rise shambler, but I'd like to do that at some point too, I think. Or should I just make Skellington the fifth?" Nik stares off into the distance, nodding to himself as the others finish up at the Tannery.

"Umm, sure. I hope that doesn't mean I won't have armor for a week." She'll hand it over if she needs to though.

"Yeah, a rest doesn't sound too bad."

"Sounds great!" Jek thinks for a moment. "I suppose there's enough extra material that we could get matching gloves, belts, bracers, or flipper cozies."

Jek walks slightly closer to the tanner and whispers "Ever made a bariaur saddle?"

"Well ma'am I would need access to the armor to modify it. But I could make a whole new set from what you got there. Wouldn't have any left over material though."

He leans in conspiratorially to Jek but speaks normally, "Can't be too different than a horse saddle." He pulls one out of the back.

"Horse saddle?" Nik asks, eyebrow quirked at Jek.

"Yeah, military grade with a couple saddle bags... oh, and one of those lance banners... Jek finishes up the transaction.

Jek coughs discreetly at Nik's comment. "Conor might have fallen off at a really bad time..."

"Why all the whispering?" Rinika pats Jek on the haunch. "You're looking to support your friends, there's no need to be ashamed about that." She can't help but crack a grin.

"I'm gonna head back to the inn and get us a couple rooms."

Inn seems good a place as any to go

Cr'gir really isn't looking for anything leathery

So Rinika where are you from? Who are your traveling companions?
You look kind of like a cat, and I've read about catfolk but never saw one, are you one? Are we heading to that inn you said to try earlier, the one with the cheap stew?

Rinika stares at him with suspicion for a moment then softens."I was a catfolk when I was born, sure. Then some bastard took me and stuck me in a box for like...for a long time. Blasted me with energy. Now I'm..." She trails off a bit as she reaches an arm out. She concentrates intently, and a roughly palm-sized area migrates down her arm and on to her hand. Wherever the spot moves, her fur thins out considerably and pallid skin is visible, discolored and decaying, paper thin and stretched taut over her bones and dessicated flesh underneath. As the spot moves, the surrounding flesh returns to healthy and the fur is shiny and full.
"I'm not really sure what I am anymore. Part dead, part alive, maybe both. But I still need food, and sleep, and so to the inn we head." The spot drifts off of its own accord and she pulls her sleeves down to cover as much as she can, and she starts walking again.
"My friends are a good bunch, all in all. The Bariaur you met is Jek, he's really funny and he's got a good heart. Sometimes I think he might be the only one in Sigil who does. The really pale guy is Nik, he's a necromancer. He can be a little creepy sometimes but he's probably the nicest necromancer I ever met. He's normally got a skeleton or zombie or two walking around with him, it's his hobby I guess. The cute fuzzy guy is Conor, we haven't known him very long now but he seems pretty nice and handsome and good with a sword. And the tattooed smirky kid is Ak..." She trails off forlornly.
"Anyway...here's the Inn. You wanna join us for dinner?"

Nik, as wise as ever, cups his hand over his mouth and whispers loudly to Cr'gir "By the way, don't ask if you can investigate her spot, she doesn't like that..."

Waiting outside the leatherworker's shop, Conor straightens up when Rinika and company wander outside and listens in on the conversation, when his name comes up he smiles broadly.

"That's awful nice of you to say, Rinika, I'm flattered.". Turning to the newcomer he remarks again, "Boy, you're awful big. Name's Conor."

He offers a hand and a friendly smile.

Then, looking down at his bloodstained armor. "Don't mind the blood, it's mostly stopped. We owe those damned lizards a debt of blood. Some day."

The tavern room is empty except for a human barkeep who is wiping down a wooden mug in her hand. The bariaur who was blacked out in the corner seems to have left. The barkeep says, "Welcome back. And you brought a friend. The ale is 2 copper per mug, mutton soup is 5 copper a bowl."

Let me know what your plans and how you act on them. If you want a hint as to where the rails are, I'm happy to oblige.

Rinika glares at Nik then shoots a beaming smile at Conor. "You can tell me how dreamy you think I am too."

As the group gets to know each other a little better and plans out their next moves over dinner, Rinika brings up hunting the squirrels, stalking the ratatosk, and pouncing on the rodents of unusual size several times.

Cat wants to hunt. But if that's not where the rails are supposed to be, that's fine.

Jek smiles at the barkeep and hands her a gold coin. "This should cover soup for all of us and a few rounds of drinks. Please bring it out to us. Let me know if we go over."

He waves the party over to a table. "Where to start? We should be feeling better by morning. Squirrels? Explore town? Crocs may still be keeping an eye out for us. Dwarven metal run?"

Squirrels may be the rails.. or Nik's book.. or an unvisited town location.. or something in the croc area.. it was probably that bariaur. Back to the Shadowknave?

When served Conor still slides over his own gold piece to cover his food and drink, but doesn't make a show of it.

"I'm just along for the ride at this point. Earning coin would be nice, be it here or Sigil. We do owe those Crocs a debt of blood, but we would need a plan, and an army, to even those scales."

"I...could try sneaking in. It would be very dangerous, but probably less dangerous than all of us charging in." She takes a drink. "I'd rather chase squirrels."

Rails were mentioned in these posts.

Oh yeah, the wood person. Yeah we should chat with her to find the ratatoskr and/or steal the tongs back from them xD
I don't suppose we're spending 16 hours at the inn, are we? :3
@DM_Delmoth: how many hours was it to take a check on the book, again? It was a lot of time, wasn't it? xD
Also, we've been traveling 4 days now, right? So we probably ate a 3*4 pounds of hobgoblin travel rations plus lots of soup right now plus what Jek eats over 4 days... does Jek pack feed?

Nik stretches and pretends to yawn after quickly eating some soup. "I think I'll take a peek at that weird tome and then get some extra sleep, see you guys tomorrow..."

It takes one whole minute to decipher a page of text with linguistics but the book is talking to you now. I'm not terribly concerned with you tracking your rations but if you want to track that kind of minutia feel free.

Rinika checks her note overnight and heads to the wood worker's guild in the morning to look for Marlus. "Hi, we heard you've been having trouble with some giant squirrels, and I happen to have a keen interest in stalking giant squirrels." Just the thought of it has Rinika tense up and wiggle her butt in anticipation. "Would you care to share all of the information you have?"

Woodcutter's guild

Marlus is a matronly middle-aged woman sturdy as the tree she lives on. Her graying black hair is cut short and wears a gray smock with a brown leather apron. She lectures Rinika and anyone listening beginning with a degree of reverence, "Here on the Great Lifegiver, that's the holy mother Yggdrasil, we have to learn to live with the ratatosk. They're the shepherds and protectors of the mother's will. But trunk and tree, they can be exasperating! No one can truly grasp the upper branches or the deepest roots of the World Ash. No one can know all of her secrets. She makes use of the ratatosk, the great eagles, the beetles, and even humble folks like us. I can point you to Glittereye, the leader of the pack that runs around here, but you have to swear on whatever you hold dear that you won't harm them."

"Glittereye? Nik, have you already been here?"

Jek looks around for useful tools or souvenirs.

Nik chuckles. "He didn't get the glitter in his eye from me."

Then he turns back to Marlus.
"Ok, I swear on my future immortality that I won't hunt any ratatosk on purpose as long as they don't pick a fight. I have a question, though. What if, say, one of my shambler buddies misinterprets an order and accidentally does something painful to one of those squirrels? What would happen? Should I take extra precautions?"

Rinika considers. "So...we just chase them, then let them go? I can work with that. Sure."

"Are you offering anything for the safe return of your tongs?"

The smith, Vargus, lost the tongs and he didn't offer any reward.

She shakes her head, "Leaf and branch. If you can find out what's bothering them, Mother knows I've tried. They don't usually make trouble in town." Marlus give you directions to a tunnel dug into Yggdrasil.

No reward? D:
And looking back I didn't see Cr'gir specifically offered a reward either xD
Myself and Nik assumed that the large cutter was taking on a paying job xD
(Also, never get between a jinkbasher and his paycheck, especially if he looks like he could be a mertbasher)

Nik looks to Jek and back to Marlus "Okay, I guess we can help out.
Got anything that might help us help out?" Nik asks hopefully.

She makes a couple of chirping and chittering noises and explains their meaning, "Hello. How are you? Where is the toilet?"

Jek nods at the chittering. "Could you or someone else who can speak that come with us?"

After a brief pause he continues with a question that's been bugging him since they arrived "With how large and old this tree is, how has it not burned down? It must have seen so many fires..."

Rinika takes notes phonetically as best she can but her expression is not full of confidence. She looks to the group. "Any other questions? No? Lets get going then."

She'll hang around if anyone does actually have any further questions, but not for long before she triesnto follow the directions to the tunnel.

Maybe we should get someone that can talk to these squirrels, or to nature, I'm not sure who Marlus is talking to honestly.

I was just gonna track them and take the tongs, but talking does seem easier if possible

Is everything wood, even the hearth in the inn...if so I think Jek may be on to something with his question about why the tree doesn't burn.

Eh philosophical stuff for later...let's get some squirrel