"Try is the key word" Nasar smiles before glancing off towards Marissa "Almost wish they would, then we can really see what she's made of. But I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, we can keep our eyes and ears open for this guy while we have free time. I can wonder the...less savory parts of town and see if I can scrounge up useful tips on this guy when I can spare the trip."
Lily starts to muddle over the options, Yes trying to gather some intel would be smart. Though I don't think we will find much on this Caprise character. Might help to try and find info about his gang. Maybe it'll open up some opportunities for a little infiltration and we can work our way up the chain to figure out just who the mob boss really is. Her eyes shift back and forth in suspicion over the subject. When your able Nasar see if you can't find anything out from the local folk. I'll pester Deetrium for any details he can spare since he and his brother were the only 2 to really communicate with Caprise. He's not a fan of divulging info which is either because he dosen't remember and dosen't wanna say anything. Or because he's stupid amd dosen't know. Speaking of stupid here he comes.
Deract walks over with a stick filled with roasted meats, he munches away happily and swallows before looking at his friends. Lilith I do say its been half a millennium since I've had mortao food like this and I must admit it is everything I hoped for! Roasted squirrel on a stick is just so divine! Hello Nasar and Marissa my you do have a different demeanor about you my lass... did you change your hair.
Marissa nods as she acknowledges the black tips of her blonde hair that surfaced that night.
Lilith motions to head off. I'll finish buisness here you guys head back to the guild then. Start packing too since we will be out in around a week.
”Good afternoon Deetrium.” Nasar turns back towards Marissa ”I guess we’ll head back then? I don’t really have much to pack since everything i have is...in my pack. But I would assume you would have more to get ready then I do.”
Marissa shrugs, A few things here and there. I don't leave much in my room for the fact that Kami and Gunther use them sometimes. And trust me you don't wanna share hairbrushes with a greaseball like Kami. Ughh
Deract looks to Nasar, I say Nasar weren't we set to do something today? I'm a big fuzzy on the details but thats why your here! Shall we head off to do... whatever it is we said we were doing? he's reffering to the training.
Nasar looks back to Deract as he begins making way back to the guild ”Yea you wanted me to train you in the ways of a thief. We can start training once we make it back to the guild. I have a couple things I want to cover today in particular.”
Deract nods as they head back to the guild. They both are in the room as Deract searches through his bag. I knew I was trying to prepare for this! Here it is! and he pulls out a shiv and a bobby pin. The perfect tools to bring to the game huh? It seems even royalty has its bouts of obliviousness to certain things...
Nasar walks over and plucks the two items from Deract’s STOOPID hands ”Oh yea! These would be great if we were trying to bust our way out of a prison camp and once the pin broke we could end it all with this disappointment of a weapon.” Nasar gets out of his street clothes disguise and takes out the bag that has the kit and lock in it.. ”We are skipping past that bush league level of gear, this is what you need to get started. Go through these items and get acclimated to them.”
Deract pulls out a zigzag shaped tool and accidentaly flicks it across the room as he tests the tensile strength of the pick. Oops. he scampers over and picks it up. He looks at the tiny pry bar that goes under the pick. Ok so where do I start!
Nasar goes into the bag and takes out the starter lock that Nasar could open while blindfolded, on fire, upside down, in zero gravity, while retelling the story of his people. He takes the key and tosses the lock to Deract. ”We’ll start with this one here. Shouldn’t take you too long to pop open. You do know how to use a lockpick right?”
Deract scrtaches his head, Kinda reminds me of when I used to jam locks with my nail. and with that he places the tool down and fiddles with the lock with 2 of his claws.
He looks very determined as he prods the innards of the mechanism until finnaly it clicks open and releases. He smiles and hands it back to Nasar. And just like that its done.
”Good work, took you only two minutes. Means you have some potential at this.” Nasar clicks the lock back closed, takes out his tools and pops it open within a couple seconds as this lock is below his level. ”A lock like this will need to be something you can open easily, it’ll get your muscles used to the motion of picking so practice on this until you can open it casually. This helps get your head used to thinking mechanically, it helps when trying to disable traps while on the fly. If you have any questions we’ll move onto a more combat oriented part of training.”
Deract takes the lock and practices for around an hour and manages to get the simple lock to pop in a few seconds finnaly. A very sweaty and frustrated demon calls Nasar to look. He pops it open in a few seconds with his claws as tools. There, even royalty has a knack for petty larceny. and he tries to hand the lock back to Nasar. Whats next?
”Well next is more related to fighting. Based off your...unique personality I think you’d be apt at fighting below the belt. Besides when your life is on the line there isnt such a thing as fighting fair. Thoughts?”
Deract smiles smugly, I agree one hundred percent, I was never one for fighting fair. In my hay day I scratched a guys eye out during one of the big wars in the Shadow Plane. And he bacame a prisoner HA! he puts up his fists and wiggles his fingers around. Well you wanna see if I've got a knack for snatching!?
"Sure, show me what ideas you have for fighting dirty, then I'll give you some tips on things to do."
Deract fists raise and he looks Nasar over. He dips to the side and attempts to grip up one of Nasar's smokesticks on his person.
Nasar slaps his hand away as he reaches for it.
Deract tries once more after shuffleing back and forth trying to throw Nasar off. As squirrelly as Deract is Nasar can almost keep up with the imp. He reaches for a tanglefoot bag hanging off his side pack.
Nasar grabs Deracts arm and shunts him away as hes unable to steal the item. Deract huffs from being tired of doing the equivalent of suicides around Nasar.
Nasar sees Deract scamper around Nasar and his tail attempt to wrap around his legs but Nasar sees the attempt. Its in perfect stepping on position in the spilt second Nasar can finnaly react.
”You’re pretty quick Deract, most other people would have lost some gear by now and would be flat on their ass.”
Hey Club, I guess this is a good time to try but can you react to my thoughts, if so, now would be a neat time to come out and try and cause Deract to slip.
Deract tries once more, I'll catch you off guard just watch.
Club manifests without hesitation and greases the area around Nasar brefily. Deract is standing right next to him as the grease manifests and he struggles to keep his balance.
Deract slips and lands flat on his back as he splats into Club.
Deract sits up placing a hand behind him as he sits in the puddle, Really? Your shadow is an Ooze?
Nasar nods "Yes this is my shadow named Club. It's been a while since I called on it to come out for an assist. Since I'm not looking to cause any harm I figured this would be a good time to try out something new." With Deract now on the ground and in an unfavorable position, Nasar takes this opportunity to give Deract some wrestling experience by locking him into a grapple.
Nasar dares to jump on Deract but Deract curls his tail under him and turns into a humanoid spring board as he launches Nasar off him, Nasar lands on his feet on the other side of the grease. Oh your one of those with a namesake for your Shadow. I just stick to being the Joker of my theme no name no shame is what I say. And my insolent brother is the King. And the Queen and Jack and so on.
He stands up and dusts himself off and goes for another tail grab.
His tail finnaly manages to wrap around Nasar's leg and pulls it out from under him sending Nasar to the ground butt first. Deract stops and raises his hands in victory, FINALLY!!
"You finally landed that trip, but there are more moves than just tripping and stealing. When I say fighting dirty, I mean doing anything you can." Nasar goes to stand up while talking so if Deract WANTS to AoO, that'd be a dick move. "Things like raking the eyes, kicks to the groin, glass to the face, pantsing your opponent. Things that hinder or delay your opponent in combat. Anything to slow them down gives you AND your allies the advantage."
Deract winces, Ohh a kick to the family soul gems wouldn't be good your right... ok uh... He surveys Nasar in thought. He gets a bright idea and jumps up to meet eyes with Nasar, Like this!? he goes to slam both his hands against Nasars ears.
Nasar manages to raise his arms in time to protect his ears from the move. To the touch Deract is very warm, which Nasar has never really felt before since he has never had to hold Deract.
"Thank you for NOT trying to kick me in the bait and tackle, and good you are getting it. When it comes to fighting dirty, being creative is good. Keep an eye out for your surroundings that you can use. Like if you are in the desert throw sand in the person's eyes."
Deract nods, Got that. he stretches and scratches his head. Well I think I am about done for now. What do you think?
Nasar stretches before yawning, making his way towards his bed. "Yea this seems like a good stopping point. I haven't gotten much rest because of the whole purge thing so I need to rest. I think sleeping for a couple hours until dinner should do the trick. Would you be able to wake me by then, ore have someone wake me. I don't want to completely botch my routine." If nothing else is needed from Nasar, he sleeps until someone wakes him up for dinner time, or if no one wakes him I guess about 8-ish hours from now cause the guy probably could manage a full sleep if left undisturbed.
Nasar takes a wittle nappy wappy and wakey wakeys for dinny winny. He heads on down to the mess hall to find all his acquaintances sitting around the usual table, surprisingly enough Gunther is not at dinner tonight. Nasar grabs his food and once sitting down Lily promopts him happily. Hey Nasar! So I finished talking to the rest of the team about that plot. There all for it and they've all just given me their share of the plot. You have your 1100?
Nasar shoves some undisclosed food into his food hole and nods. He goes into his bag and puts his 1100 gold in a separate bag to give to her. ”There’s my share for the place.” Nasar goes back to eating some of his foor before prompting the group ”So anything interesting happen while I was resting?”
Genesis and Marissa glance at eachother, Genesis looks to Nasar. Gunther left to his hometown for... a funeral, a rather large funeral in fact.
Chak-Chak who is sitting next to Marissa chimes in. Mhm... Whole village... dead by daylight... rough...
Deract shakes his head. Rough indeed, but thats life.
Lily is still reading over the paperwork she recieved and she looks at Nasar and places a small drawing. The drawing depicts a monster that looks like a Hag. So this gang I got intel on. This is a Hag that belongs to a coven thats in with the gang. Apparently she supplies various services to a few teams within the gang. And according to this theres a whole system of gang teams that all specialize in various things. This is our first target. She and her coven can give us what we need to know about maybe finding someone higher up the chain of command.
Nasar doesn’t give the comment about Gunther much of a second thought, sucks to suck. He picks up the picture while chewing some food, then speaks after swallowing because he isn’t a savage. ”So do we know where to find this coven or are you telling me to look into this coven and see what info i can find?”
Loly muddles her hands in uncertainty, Ehhh I mean there definitly not nearby. Hags have a tendency to love out of society due to their... hagness. So maybe just gather some intel though itd be hard to tell exactly what coven is our coven we need.
Marissa cuts in. We cant just go cut up every coven we find until we get the right one?
Genesis pokes at a pea with her fork. Eh thats not very efficient.
Lily starts tucking the info back into the scroll canister, I can try and set up another drop to get some more info but our contact already only had this much info. Any more and he could get targeted. Nasar feels a thought pop into his head in Lilys voice. Also, we need to fix Deract. I can't stand waking up every day and figuring out which Deract he is. We can discuss it tommorow when you come with me to drop the money off at the laborers guild.
Deract looks at maps of the surrounding area. I think I'm goimg to pursue a mission from the guild tommorow. Maybe help a team clear a crypt or take a trip with the Gethembror guy and his pet cacaodemon.
”Just dont get yourself or the other two killed. And if you get plane shifted again I’ll-“ Nasar stops himself before he says something he really shouldn’t ”Just stay safe.” He finishes up his food and cleans up while mumbling in draconic ”Yea just volunteer me to go, if you’d ask me to come along I’d have said yes but now you’ve turned it into a chore.”
Lily gives a smug grin to Nasar as she cleans up her plate and takes Deracts as well and heads back to the room. Everyone goes away to do their own thing and Nasar is left to finish his night as he pleases.
Nasar heads to where he knows Genesis usually can be found, maybe this time she wont be busy LYING TO HIM and they can actually have a productive development of character.
Contrary to popular belief Nasar finds Genesis at the guild library. She waves Nasar over to sit with her as various other guild personnel read up on scrolls and tomes. I've been looking into different spells to add to my roster. What are you up to?
Nasar comes over and sits next to her ”So many...Oh I was uh I was looking for you Genesis. I havent been able to really be alone with you and just...talk. I’ve had that with everyone else so far and the last time I looked for you, you were busy with soul gems. So here I am!” Nasar starts briefly looking at what she has out right now, careful not to disturb her pile of scrolls and books.
Genesis shuffles to the side to allow Nasar some room, Well by all means sit on down I'd be happy to have a study partner. This is usually where I hang out at before I do my nightly cleaning routine. I couldn't be more thankful Nasar for everything you helped me with. Freeing me from the wretched dungeoun, getting me housing here and work to keep me busy and clothed. And for inspiring me to actually apply myself to something! Never once did I expect to find myself looking at magic. she shows Nasar a depiction of a fire mage setting off explosions a plenty. This could be me!!
Nasar looks at the image and grows visibly excited "YOU COULD DO THAT?! THAT'S SO COOL!"
Hey jackass, you're in a library why don't you calm down
Nasar clears his throat as he chills out from his outburst "Well Genesis, with each mission you keep proving to me that saving you back then was much more than rescuing some 'damsel in distress'. You've become quite invaluable to this team."
Genesis blushes, Aww shucks stop it, she continues reading. So like how the heck do you plan to use those soul gems? From what I've seen from Gethembror they have quite a few uses. she opens another book and points at a few pictures. From magical item creation to using it in place of spell components the uses seem pretty creative. Demons can utilize them as healing items as well in a pinch.
Nasar takes out the the talisman and looks at it under the table "I honestly haven't put much thought into it. When I used it in the plane of fire that was the first time I have ever done it. I really only thought of it as another source of money. Unless you can get some use for item creation, I dont think I'll need them for that. I have a business partner that specializes in magic items but...she'd definitely frown on the idea of using these things." He fumbles around with the talisman some more, deep in thought "Did you get one yourself or were you really only curious about them?"
Genesis chuckles as she reaches into her shirt and pulls it out as a necklace. She flashes it to Nasar before dropping it back in her shirt. Had to see what all the hype was about. Plus maybe I could study them and find an extra use for them. she reads up on a few more spells and they small talk for another half hour or so before Genesis starts packing up her books and scrolls in preparation to leave. Giving Nasar a chance to have any last memorable remarks before they head off of the night.
Before they go their separate ways for the night, Nasar pulls her to the side looking a bit more serious after being all giddy watching her study magic. "Thank you for everything you've done for me Genesis, like making sure nothing happened to Bean when he was just an egg and for joining the team when given the chance. It was like divine intervention that you were put in my path as our biggest struggle was with magic and around the time of that realization you had picked up studies in the arcane arts. You also seem to have grown close to Lily which I'm certain aided in her decision to stick with us. For that, I feel indebted to you in a way. So if you need help with anything, even if it's outside of the team's mission, just let me know. It's the least I can do."
Genesis smiles from all this heartfelt conversation. Of course Nasar, and it's likewise. If you need my magic for anything all you gotta do is ask. and she raises a hand for a high five.
After Nasar and her go seperate ways Nasar goes to the room to find Lily once again toiling over the pot and Deract asleep. Lily looks to Nasar. Nasar you got something you don't want anymore? Something mundane no magic stuff.
While we may never know if Nasar and Genesis did finish that high five, Nasar digs through his bag and takes out a silver necklace that has been in there since before Deract was apart of the team. ”Will this do? What do you need a mundane item for anyways.”
She tosses it in the pot with a Plop sound. I think I found the real thing behind this pot. It changes the properties of things. Lets see what we get out of this. and with that she boils away the water and is left with a chunk of metal. She picks it up and examines it before prompting Nasar to take it back. It's cold iron! It changed the metal to a different kind. Though it seems to have lost some value from the fact this only worth a few gold pieces versus the jewlery.
Nasar takes the chunklet of cold iron and plops it into his bag. ”That’s...weird. Do you think this thing would be able to change a weapon’s metal without ruining to blade? If it just turns it into a chunk of new metal with a handle wont be that useful as a sword.”
Lily mumbles, A club never hurt to have. but she writes in her note pad. Im still testing this pots capabilities out. Given I don't have the original user I don't have the best inklings on how to do it. But I'm sure I could figure it out. Maybe if I perfect the process I can turn things into actually usable objects. That was just crude processing of different materials. Maybe theres some art of exchange I'm still needing to figure out. No clue yet. Gotta gather more mundane crap and run tests. Thanks Nasar I really appreciate the on the spot clutch. I'll let you head to bed.
"Don't stay up too late Lily, we need to take the gold to the laborer's guild tomorrow. Figure we can do that in the morning then figure out what to do after that. Maybe look into some sort of solutions to the insanity issue, I would think that there could be a magical fix since it was caused by that black book tome thing." Nasar gets himself ready for bed so they can set out tomorrow morning.
Nasar heads to beddy bye and wakes up bright and early before anyone else awakes with Lily to head off to the laborers guild. They arrive after a nice early morning walk with Lily through the streets of Magnimars more wealthier districts. They arrive and head into a large guildhall adorned with wonderful masterpieces of statues made from marble and other decorative materials. A really nice chair awaits the 2 as they are walked to a side room by a dwarven man. Lily explains the plot and the last little details about the house before handing over the final payment of the currency. They leave as quick as they came and stop around the market area. People are starting to come out and set up their stalls. So that black tome... how the heck are we supposed to figure out what exactly is afflicting him? Maybe magic gave him another conscious, maybe its acting out of another soul. Hmm... she looks for any sort of help in figuring this out.
”It could just be insanity brought on by the book. We can see if Genesis knows of any magic that can undo insanity, or...we can take the book ourselves and see if it has anything useful for fixing his broken brain.”
Lily smirks, Yeaaaa taking the book sounds more our style of things. Lets check it out. she readies to head back home to check out this popular tome.