Renard chuckles as at least three bottles of healing are held out to her. She grabs the CLoWa and smiles.
"Thanks," she says, popping the tab and taking a few big, long chugs.
Her tail looks... better. It stops being so 2D, but it's still clearly broken.
"I'll probably need to get a medic to look at it," she sighs. "They haven't figured out a way to put Restoration in a can yet without charging a few months' paycheck for it, and I've heard it tastes like goblin ass."
"Alkimen didn't hear that, right?" she chuckles weakly, then shakes her head.
"Right-- up we go. Got a lot of incident reporting to do," she groans. Baylor offers her a shoulder to lean on, and Chief Renard gladly takes it.
"Dunno how you tailless folk do it," she grumbles, "but walking around with a tail in this shape is worse than being under the influence."
Renard waves it off with her non-Baylor-leaning arm.
"Appreciate the help, but this is more of a balance problem than a weakness issue. I'll be fine... and Baylor can catch me this way if I'm not," she says with a tired smile.
"Appreciate the irony in you all coming to find me after I came to find you, though."
Keeyan shakes his head as he tucks the bottle away. "I'm sure he didn't intend on shaking the mine. His spell was just transport, not earthquake."
”Does seem like causing earthquakes deep underground while you’re in a mine would take some particularly bad planning,” says Fregna.
Edie is curiously thoughtful.
"You said 'this form'... can you change forms to one that doesn't have a tail? It might be awkward, but it would be better than hobbling around with a broken one?"
The tiefling looks around. "Is this area known for having a lot of earthquakes? I'm having a bad thought right now..."
If pressed...
"Well, we woke up the wizard... what if there's something else down here that was bound and is now trying to break lose and that's what's causing the tremors?"
Renard affixes Edie with a look that lets her know that she has asked after a Sore Spot, and after a moment the Chief speaks:
"Never could do that," she says. "Genetic condition, they say. Happens to one in a hundred kitsune, doc says. I'm lucky to have my little glow orbs."
There's a moment, and then the kobold speaks up.
"Not a lot of earthquakes around here, but I'd wager that recent one was an aftershock from the first one," says Officer Fregna. "It was a lot less strong, anyway."
[Edie is properly chastized!
The tiefling's tail droops a bit and the winglets sort of slump after that revelation. "That was rude and presumptive of me. It's hard when a body isn't shaped the way that everyone else thinks it's supposed to be. Even worse when folks insist on trying to fix something what ain't broke. Or when they get in the way when you try to fix it, if it can be made to match what your head and heart think. I apologize."
After that admission she lets the matter drop rather than push it further -- it's hard enough keeping the div in check without the holy fire holding it at bay, and even one more word might have been enough to turn an honest act of contrition into a seething sarcastic remark.
Edie is therefore thankful when the topic changes back to the tremors. "Keep on keeping on, then?"
"Well, if Chant's magic had anything to do with the first shake I guess we can be glad he left the area. I say let's continue. We came here to check out the mine. Now that the kobolds have departed, along with their 'legal' claim, the way is clear for a bit more before we lose the rest of the day!"
"Apology accepted," says Renard.
Eventually the group reaches the room with Alkimen in it; the Chief nods at Keeyan's enthusiasm. "You're welcome to check out the mine... just, you know, try not to get lost," she warns.
She sighs. "May as well get used to walking," she says, slowly easing off of Baylor and taking a few steps that wouldn't be out of place on the wrong end of an episode of Cops.
"Ma'am, can I get you to walk a straight line?" quips Alkimen; at a withering glare from Renard, his grin widens, and her grumpiness breaks into a laugh.
"**** you, Alkohol," she shoots, limping over to a barrel and gingerly sitting down on it.
"I'm going to want your reports of the incident before you leave town," she requests, "but you should be able to find the Department phone number on Google if you forget."
Fregna smiles, and whispers something up to Edie in Draconic.
Edie is nervous!
The tiefling gives a bit of a nod and is thankful the party managed to get the Chief back. She kind of 'absorbs' the banter back and forth as it makes her feel pretty good about accomplishing things, and then Fregna walks up to her. She can't hide the betrayal of her emotional state as her tail dances a bit.
She leans down slightly to reply to Fregna with a nervous smile.
Then, as if motivated by a second wind Edie straightens up and cracks her neck. "While it is kind of dark down here, daylight's burning and we've got a mine to explore."
The group, once they're all set and ready, either have enough pickaxes already or find some scattered around the room-- though they look... quite old. Still, they should do the job.
As they head back into the mines, however, they notice a particular problem:
The mine has many branches, and the walls are no longer lighting up in Keeyan's presence.
How do you plan on moving forward?
As the group sets out down the tunnel, (heading back along the first track to gather up the remaining ore?) Keeyan realizes the obvious. "I know we can all see. But without light we'll miss details in the walls, possible other veins of ore? I didn't prepare a light cantrip. Does anyone have a light source?"
Klyto, ever the resourceful one and good at finding things in his native dark, is quite capable of keeping up with his own markings.
It takes hours once again, and they pass by the fallen undead elves (who do not smell any better than they did the first time), but eventually they find their way back to the cavern with the big chunk of adamantine ore.
Edie keeps an eye out!
As the party advances, Edie keeps an eye out for anything else interesting besides the fortune of skymetal that the party is heading towards. The wizard is probably down here somewhere, as well as the smolfrens.
She does have a bone or two to pick with the wizard despite the nice portal back up top, and likewise wants to reach out to the little dragons -- however, she is ALSO getting a bit anxious because she has a coffee time lined up with Fregna and she doesn't want to miss that!
Glad to let Klyto take the lead, Keeyan watches for any dangers along the way, or at the site where they'd gathered ore before. Once they find the pile he starts gathering what he could carry, and helping with the stronger party members. "Another load here should be fine. Are we planning another return trip tomorrow? Perhaps to scout the tunnel walls for a vein closer to the entrance? For that we really should have some light to better example the cave walls."
Bella looks around the caves in a kind of wonder...not acting like at all a surface elf in a cave. She looks around looking to see if there in anything else of interest...and not helping.
The group gets to work breaking up the adamantine chunk.
After a few minutes of sharp clink! noises of pick hitting hard stone, one of those noises is suddenly muted, as if they had struck something... soft.
Chipping stone away around it and being somewhat cautious not to break it, Klyto soon begins to unearth an object hidden in the ore.
It seems to be furry, dark gray... and when freed further, has a ringed tail.
It's a coonskin cap!
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Edie is curious!
"Is it magical? Almost have to be, to be preserved in the ore like that... but why was it there? What does it mean?"
The tiefling is absently wondering how Bella, Klyto, or Keeyan would look wearing it, with a stray thought of Fregna wearing it creeping in... for some reason.
"And... is there someone else with the hat... or anything else in there if we found a hat?"
Setting aside the pick and moving over by Klyto Keeyan quickly casts his Detect Magic cantrip and studies the cap. "I had scanned the area here for magic earlier, but I guess the ore masked it. Unless it isn't. Now let me see...."
The cap appears nonmagical.
As for anything else, you don't find any more trinkets or clothing in the stone that used to contain Chant... and, apparently, a coonskin cap.
Edie is ready to wrap up.
"Well, we've gotten what we were looking for and then a hat. Do we want to keep exploring or call it a day?"
Between not wanting to be overburdened in the event of running into someone and meeting someone, she doesn't want to get tied up in the mines too long, and it's going to take some time getting back to the surface...
Edie lives dangerously?
For at least the trip back up to the surface, Edie will act as the transport for the hat unless someone else particularly has a desire to do so, by wearing it upon her head.
She won't fight or argue with any other team member that expresses an interest in the raccoon chapeau, if someone else wants to wear it.
The lot of you return to the surface once more, Edie having wedged the cap between her horns. Nothing bad happens, as far as any of you can tell.
Loading the rest of the adamantine into Klyto’s van—now alone in the parking lot, as everyone else has gone home or back to work (or maybe to a hospital, in Renard’s case)—you notice that Klyto’s back bumper is now only a few inches off the ground.
It’ll be fine!
Probably!
Edie has time to get cleaned up for coffee!
"Yeah, we're going to have to redistribute that... I don't trust the bumper being that low on rural roads."
Though tired and dusty, Edie will help Klyto make some adjustments to the load to balance it before the party leaves the mines to hopefuly mitigate some of the bottom-dragging dangers of an overloaded vehicle.
The tiefling will make her report with detail but also expdiency that's not 'rushing'. Not so much as to give an impression of 'holding things out' or 'hiding something' but 'have coffee to get to'.
Edie hustles into the shower, gets cleaned up, and wears a nice dark grey blouse and practical rugged black utilikilt/skirt, and begs Keeyan (or someone) to Prestidigitate the hat. With pink scales, wearing any significant color would cause signfiicant clashing, after all.
"I'll pay for it out of my share, I might be giving it to someone because I think it would look neat on her."
If it turns out Fregna is still tied up at work, Edie will get the coffee 'to go' and bring it to her.
It's not like it hasn't happened with her work before...
Bella, reflexively, checks around for her bird... and finds two likely-looking specimens sitting in a nearby tree. Starwing caws at her and does a couple of hops, as if imploring her to come over.
Bella will go over to her familiar....
Starwing tilts its head toward the other bird, and speaks something in crowed Elven.
"Either way, better than raven-friend asking every shadow they see if they want to be their friend!"
Bella responds in Elven,"Okay...did you reach my home? How is everything there?"
Starwing flutters its wings and shuffles.
She shuffles again; it's not hard to tell that she's hesitant to continue speaking.
In Elven," And how are the Silvertree lands?
Bella sighs, "How bad?
Bella quotes the hero from that new history docudrama on Netflix in Elven, "F&&$"
She turns back to the others and says, "We need to go rescue some backward elves from some backward orcs.!
The rest of you recognize just enough Elven to recognize that was probably a cuss word.
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When asked Keeyan tries Prestidigitation to adjust the hat to whatever Edie asks....
Reporting to the Sheriff's office Keeyan fills out his report as simply as possible.
"While reviewing the documentation I was temporarily possessed by an ancient wizard that went by the name of 'Chant'. He directed me to lead our group deep into the mine to recover his body. Apparently his body had been in stasis for about two centuries. Once we arrived at the container for his body he took control of mine again to complete the ritual to transfer his spirit back to his body. He then opened a portal back to the surface where he gathered the kobolds (apparently his minions) and departed the area."
"Note: I think the whole Kobolds from Canada owning the mine was just a ploy to get Chant back to his body. But I'm not a legal expert so cannot state that for certain."
Keeyan, the police will have a follow-up question for you:
"While Chant was possessing you, were you able to gain any insight into his motivations/history?"
Keeyan thinks for a moment before answering, "Hmm.... Well, not really. He was pretty focused on getting the group to his body. I think he realized that I didn't have the experience or power to handle the dangers that might have been in the way, so he worked to lead them in. At those times I didn't have any say in what my body did, or said. He was in control."
"While the others in the party asked questions Chant did give a little more information. He gave his full name as Chant des Fuilles, and also asked about 'an old aquaintance', Sir Richard Gath, or more likely Richard Gaphael, or R'gaphael, the Premier of Quebec and possibly a Brass Dragon. ??"
"But again, his motivation seemed to just be to get his own body back. His apparently rather elderly elven body...."