Basil and Klyto's strikes are shockingly similar, and both crunch into the dirty tile on either side of the goblin.
Another crossbow bolt whizzes past, this one dangerously close to Edie's wing.
"Sorry 'bout that! This is why I hired adventurers!" comes Jeron's voice.
The goblin, who may as well have been elsewhere physically as well as mentally for all the damage he took, snaps back to reality.
Seeing two longspears, a crossbowed dwarf, an angry ghost, and whatever the angel-demon-thing-woman with the big claws was, he simply raises his hands and drops his bow at his feet.
Edie is still Angry
It's hard to come down from such fury, with a core of infernal furor and a silken glove of celestial guidance. The tiefling isn't even trying yet, instead looking for the entrance that the goblins came in to see if there are any more combatants that need to be RENDED into Goodness.
If she were a bit more calm, she might have started a whole new trend by ripping off her shirt to tie up the surrendering goblin, but alas, the anger of both Heaven and Hell is a hard thing to stop.
Keeyan moves forward, unloading his crossbow and slinging it over his shoulder since it is no longer needed. "Stabilize? As in the divine magic spell? Nope. But if they have any sort of thing that their wounds could be bound with, we might could save a couple of them...."
He glances over at Jeron, "Any chance I can get some more bolts for my crossbow to replace what I shot here? I only saw 10 on the shelf, but maybe I missed some?"
Bella sighs and moves to the nearest goblin, using the goblins own clothing for bandages she attempts to stabilize the poor creature,.,
No further goblins burst onto the scene.
Most of the goblins take well to the bandaging, although a couple are rather goriously ruined-- unmistakably Klyto's handiwork. The one with his hands up bleeds droplets of goblin blood onto the floor, looking uncomfortable.
Jeron steps over a few goblins and, uncertain of who's in charge, settles on shaking Klyto's hand. "Well done, well done! I was hoping to do this in a slightly more, uh, organized way like, but regardless, problem's solved and you solved it."
He puts his crossbow back on its spot and smiles a wide grin that bristles his short mustache against his broad nose. "So! Naturally I'm looking to compensate you, but I'm not sure this is the best place to do it. Y'all wanna come back to my office?"
Keeyan shrugs and smiles, "Sure!"
Bella casts Prestidigation to clean herself up and says,"Lead the way."
Edie is winded
With few to no opponents left to bear and no hidden threats lurking the tiefling slowly cools down from her frothy moment, wincing a bit as she takes up the axe carefully and retrieves the cart with the other items in it.
She then slowly follows the train of the rest of the party while catching her breath.
While the otrhers get ready to move on Basil stays put, "So what happens to these buggers now?" He points at the surrendering goblin with his spear. "Can't just leave them here, now can we? How does this work with authorities and the like? If it wasn't clear already, Basil's ignorance regarding the rules of the adventurer's life became all to clear.
In the past he'd always left intrusions and weird occurrences to security and very few messed with the golems most museums used (let alone the Egyptian wing of the British museum which was guarded by a mummy that hadn't been able to let go of the duties he had in life. So he also still worked as a barber on the side).
Jeron shrugs. "If you can shoo 'em out the door, I can lock up behind 'em. They'll avoid coming back 'round here since y'all are here to bring the hurt," he points out.
Once that's done, he leads the way to a little room in the back. As he's expected to stay on his feet and out on the floor more often than not, the room is small and bears almost no personal touches, save a photo of Jeron in casual clothes next to a broader dwarf with a strong resemblance.
He waves them in; there aren't enough chairs to go around, so he stands in respectful solidarity. "So, my hands are a little bit tied on what I can offer as compensation here-- in the past, I'd offer gift cards, but we don't accept those anymore. Buuuut..."
He reaches behind the desk and produces a 12-pack of Coca CLoWa. "So, I was gonna offer 100 gold pieces for this job, but as there's six of you that can benefit from it, I was thinking of giving you 20 each, plus this 12-pack to split between you. That all right?"
Keeyan doesn't even glance at the others, quickly responding "Sounds good. What's the job?" He reaches for the Coca CLoWa and packs it away unless he gets blocked by anyone.
Edie is Conflicted
Still unwinding from the rush/terror/rage/calm of combat, Edie is about to just let things go, then considers something given her retail experience. She doesn't want to extort Jeron, who is a Good Guy in her book... but this is also the Sad End for a retail store, and this sort of opportunity does NOT knock very often.
"Would it be possible to ask for a donation to a worthy cause? I mean, to starting adventurers? I found a nice set of horn armor with a clearance tag on it, but it's missing a few pieces and is probably going to cost as much to get it fixed as it would to buy it? I'm still willing to pay the discount price if you say no." the tiefling offers with as earnest a smile as she can manage without it looking like a toothy grimace of hunger or anger.
To Jeron: "Can I get LaCure instead?"
To Klyto:,"Sure is there a job? Is just training? And you should apologize to Starwing herself."
Jeron's lips push up into his beard as he considers, tapping his finger on the desk a few times. "Mmmm..."
"Yeah, I can write it off as damaged. That's from the Wuxia collection, i'nit? I think I know the one you're talking about."
He turns to Bella, then shrugs. "I can toss two bottles in, but that's about as high as I can go without violating store policy."
Edie is Victorious!
"Yeah, it's a Wuxia Horn Lamellar UPC Zero Seven Six Nine Zero Zero Zero One One." Edie offers with a conciliatory tone.
"Thank you very much!" she beams as she gives Jeron a hug. Highly unprofessional and possibly inappropriate, but that just made her day and helps her settle down the last butterflies from the after-action dropdown.
As Jeron mentioned he could only give two bottles of LaSource Basil nods, "I'll just pass on the CloWa then. I'm not so eager to end up with cirrhosis of the liver. The sweetener used here means you trade healing now for potential heavy damage later."
He paid very little attention to the haggling. He'd always learnt it was dishonorable and he just wasn't very good at it.
Jeron offers a smile to the bunch. "I'll call that a deal, then; I'll have Josh grab some LaCures for you while you're on your way to checkout," he says.
He pulls out a drawer that jingles with coins, scraping his hand through it and, with expert practice, quickly assembles six piles of 20 gold pieces on the adventurer's side of the table, with the 12-pack box resting behind them.
You all clamber into the line of an acne-ridden tiefling with a nametag that reads "Josh" on it, per Jeron's instructions. He seems to have gotten a little confused on the math, though, as he adds a two-pack of LaCure to every order for free.
Keeyan pays and packs his goods away, waiting on the others to finish up and leaving with them. "You know, that was almost fun. But I misunderstood what the manager was saying. I thought maybe he had another job, not just compensation for this one. Any of you know of any 'adventuring type' work around here? Otherwise I guess I'll just go back to check the boards again...."
...That reminds me, I should see if they have a pick here.
They do!
"A mine? Could be interesting. How far? Should we bring camping gear? Meals and a canteen or two of water? If you're planning on mining wouldn't that require special equipment, for separating the rare metals from the rest of the ore?"
"I don't know much about mining. Went to one of those tourist trap places where you buy a bag of dirt and rock and they show you how to 'pan' it to clear the dirt from the 'valuable' rock. Supposed to be jade in it. I saw lots of rocks in it but I missed the hunk of rough jade until a guy pointed it out. Fairly big piece, like my thumb nail size but just looked like a slightly green rock to me. Even then it turned out to be poor quality and not worth much, not even what I paid for the bag of dirt!"
"I know those woods well...I think I know the cave we are talking about. Though I have not been there in like 20 years. For my sake we will need to avoid the elves from the traditional commune."
Basil was just about to comment he'd tag along when Belladonna made the remark about the elves. "What? How do you mean? You are an elf yourself aren't you? What did you do?
Those of you who know your geography recognize at least some of what Klyto is referring to. Although the land he refers to is only 70 miles south, getting to North Carolina from the Hampton Roads area requires a small amount of tracking inland first, and so the journey will likely constitute a few hours of driving.
DC12
Passing the above check allows you to attempt a DC10 Knowledge (history) or DC12 Linguistics check (autopass if you know French).
"Great! Sounds like an.... interesting weekend. How close can a car get? And can I get a ride with someone. I'd likely get fired if I tried to sneak down the coast in my Geek Squad mobile! Besides, it wouldn't carry more than me and one other, little person. I'll chip in for gas."
"Hmm. If we're going to be tracking through swamp maybe some waders would be a good investment? I wonder if they'd have any and what the price on that would be."
"Hmm. If we're going to be tracking through swamp maybe some waders would be a good investment? I wonder if they'd have any and what the price on that would be."
When Keeyan gets around to looking after the conversation, he'll find that a pair of wading boots are 35gp with all sales included.
Edie is getting swept along. She's not sure if she likes that.
After settling out for the axe, daggers, and rope (The armor already being accounted for) Edie finally catches up.
"Hold on. If we're going into a swamp... I'll be right back."
She heads inside to get a couple display trays of bug repellent, the non-Deet stuff that still does a really good job of driving away bugs and is waterproof. She should be able to afford at least something like that given the deal on the armor she secured.
She also grabs a wicker farmer's hat or a bug hat if such are available, and a couple of heavy wool blankets. And a backpack to put it all in.
"Okay, I think this might help if we're going into a swamp."
She doesn't bother with waders, though. She's hard-pressed to find shoes that would fit her feet under normal circumstances.
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You all hear the sounds of the GM frantically cramming a bunch of papers back into a folder labeled "Swamp Shenanigans, Levels 1-4".
Keeyan drops the waders and grins. "Good! Even marked down these were too expensive. Besides, I can use magic to clean my shoes. But wet feet are uncomfortable!"
"My parents disapprove of certain life choices I have made...I rather just avoid that. Getting a camper and going around that swamp is probably the better idea...that swamp has...bad magic. Many strange creatures dwell there."
Basil nods at Bella's comments about her parents, "I think I get it. My parents weren't very happy when I moved to the States and they can't help but comment about that when we speak."
At the comment about the cars Basil turns to that conversation, "I have a car. I brought my mini hatchback with me from the UK when I moved here. It's from 2002 though so pretty old."
Bella thinks...
"I know this goth band than is not on tour right now...I and my girlfriend might be able to persuade them to loan us their tour bus. It is pretty comfortable. But I dont drive at all. So any of you can drive something that big?"
Edie is thoughtful.
"Do we need someone that has a commercial license to drive it? I don't have one, I'm just trying to figure out what we might need to get it on the road. Failing that, is there any sort of public transportation that'll get us close enough we can walk?"
Keeyan perks up when he hears about the tour bus. "The bus would be really great if we could find somewhere close to park it. Give us all a place to crash at night rather than sleeping on the dirt near the mine. Wouldn't need to rent a camper! I've never driven anything larger than the Geek Squad mobile though. Klyto? How about you?"
Let's say that anyone trained in Ride is able to drive a bus.