Luculla giggles and hums a tune to provide music as they dance around the kitchen. The baker improvises a few twirls, seeming to enjoy being in close contact with Adolina. As the dance finishes, she looks up at the taller woman. "You're so light on your feet. I feel like I'm a clumsy oaf in comparison!"
"It'd be a pleasure to fatten you up a bit," Luculla says, poking playfully at Adolina's belly.
"They're fine, don't worry! I have a keen internal clock. Another five minutes, then we'll take them out and let them cool."
Indeed, after a few more minutes of banter, the baker removes the tarts from the oven. They smell delicious! "Nicely done for your first attempt!"
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Adolina grabs one and then puts on an impromptu display of juggling, hissing "Hot! Hot!" as she flicks the pastry from hand to hand, trying not to hold onto it for too long!
Eventually she cools it down enough to split it in half, one half goes in her mouth with a look of bliss and the other is offered gently to Luculla.
"Thanks," the baker says as he takes a bite. "Mmmm! Oh, you've got a bit on your lips there," she says. She takes a gloved finger and rubs it slowly across Adolina's lips, then makes a show of popping the blackberry juice into her mouth.
Luculla leans into the kiss, closing her eye as she wraps her arms around Adolina's waist. "Mmm... You taste even better than the tart," she purrs.
"I'm glad you liked it. Well, it is getting late. You probably need to get home. Unless you'd like to spend the night? It's no noble's chamber, but my bed is pretty comfortable..."
"It's a date, then," Luculla says. She gives Adolina another kiss. "Have a pleasant night, dearest."
"Take a whole tray," the baker says, handing one to Adolina.
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Adolina would skip out of the door, but that runs the risk of upsetting her precious pastries, so she contents herself with giving the baker a kiss on the cheek and leaving more demurely.
And then stopping outside the pub and balancing the tray on a post so she can eat two 'for the road'.
As she heads home she starts deciding what wine to take on their next date. Something fruity I think, that would go well with blackberries and other fruit pastries.
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It ends up being a simple matter for Adolina to purchase the land Octavio mentioned - since the plot has sat vacant for nearly thirty years and its in the already slum-ridden district of Old Kintargo it sells for a song and Adolina sets to work on a new 'charity initiative'.
"It's a disgrace." She tells a meeting of the wives and daughter of the noble families. "That we allow areas such as the 'Devil's Nursery' to grow in our fair city. It is our duty as good citizens to reach out and help those people in the poorer areas of the city, This so called 'rebellion' can only flourish because people are desperate and fear for their families. If we act now, in the right way, then we will demonstrate how people can trust us, the nobility, to help them and safeguard Kintargo."
"To that end I have purchased a plot of land south of the river and I intend to set up a shelter there from which we can distribute clothes, food and other necessities. The first step to helping people is giving them the room to find work to earn money. I would appreciate any efforts you fine ladies can make to aid in this endeavour." Adolina concludes. "I know you are all true patriots and together, our efforts can make Kintargo a safer place for all of us!"
Workmen, hired almost exclusively from the residents of Old Kintargo, are scheduled to set to work within the week!
The charred ruins of the Lucky Bones stand at the southwestern edge of the city, surrounded by warehouses. The ruins themselves are picked over—very little remains but rubble, a tangle of timbers, and three partially collapsed brick fireplaces. To casual observation, the ruins look entirely abandoned, but in her surveys of the site, Adolina has noticed a partially hidden trail that winds through the rubble. This trail leads to the southernmost and largest ruined fireplace, where a hidden trap door that opens with surprising ease on oiled hinges.
After spending a few days establishing your cover for being in the region, Adolina leads you towards the ruins to begin your exploration. As you are passing by an alleyway nearby, though, a drunken sailor staggers towards you, singing an old Chelish sailor’s song in a terrible off-key voice as he stumbles along: “She promised me/To faithful be/But all that changed by morning/I went a-deck/A drunken wreck/Her new red smile, a warning.”
Adolina can sense something is off about this man...
The man lunges for his blade, but Seraphina is quick to react!
Before heading out for the day, Seraphina ensures to snap links onto each of her allies should trouble arise at some point.
She walks alongside Farrina, behind Tanjona and Adolina and makes idle chat about finding some sweets. For some reason she can't get her mind of pastries!
When trouble arises, she says a quick prayer to bless the party and then gets out of the way!
The man draws his sword and slices into Adolina's chest before she can react!
Seraphina takes some of Adolina's wounds, but it will take a moment for all of them to transfer.
She then takes aim with her crossbow and fires at the man assaulting her friend.
While Adolina is hob-nobbing with the elite, Farrina is spending time arranging the beginning work in the small specialty shop she's encouraged to branch into a more ... exclusive market.
As if to demonstrate, she's arrived for their new exploration in her normal riot of colors with one addition - a pair of tightly-laced leather boots. The material has been carefully dyed a dark crimson and the tops of the boots end at about mid-thigh. The lacing on the outside is open from the ankle upwards, exposing pale skin all the way up. While the height of the heels seems anything but practical, she seems to be well practiced in maneuvering in them.
"What do you think?" she asks Seraphina as they meet up to explore Adolina's latest acquisition. She holds her blue and green skirt up and out of the way to display the new purchase. "These are enchanted, but the non-magical versions are selling like fried dough."
"Gods, you're attempting an ambush and that's the best doggerel you can come up with? I swear, we are surrounded by amateurs."
The entertain stands back, convinced that her armed companions can easily handle this interloper.
When he's not eating, Tanjona is back to doing rough physical labor - indeed, he seems like exactly the kind of person that Adolina's new initiative would reach out to, a grubby ex-sailor who hefts boxes for pennies.
Once the team assembles to visit the burned-out wreck that might become their new home, he cloaks himself to avoid drawing too much attention. A trident could maybe pass scrutiny, if one is spear-fishing, but mithral? And a shield? That means someone's looking for trouble. Tanjona has enough trouble with the authorities as-is, being a dark-skinned foreigner with a predatory mein. So he sticks to staying as low-profile as possible.
All of that changes when the other "drunken sailor" makes his move. The cloak fans out to one side and Tanjona snarls as he moves into a position opposite Adolina, making a powerful, leaping thrust as he goes.
Seraphina lands a hit with her crossbow, but neither Adolina nor Tanjona can replicate the feat. The sailor sneers, then suddenly his face peels back on itself, revealing a grotesque and unsettling mass of whorls and slits instead of actual facial features! The creature's skin is leathery and rubbery, and its arms stretch to impossible lengths as it lunges at Adolina again!
Tanjona's seen worse maws when he looks at his reflection in the water.
Seraphina sends a blast of positive energy among her allies, restoring Adolina's lost life.
"Ok, not a run-of-the-mill scumbag. You're a magical scumbag. Here's how we deal with those ..."
Farrina moves to get a clear shot at the shapeshifter and the sends a ray of fire at it.
Farrina's scorching ray goes wide, but both Tanjona and Adolina land their hits. Adolina's is a critical strike, leaving the creature badly wounded. Despite its injuries, it continues to attack, but she parries its blows!
Adolina's strike finishes off the strange creature, which crumples to the street, bleeding out. Around its neck hangs a brass key, as well as an amulet with a symbol depicting a bejeweled skeletal hand.
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"Seraphina, do you know what this is?" Adolina asks, tugging the holy symbol from the body and flicking it to the oracle. She examines the corpse for any more clues but comes up empty.
"I don't feel like that was random..." She comments, frowning. "Is it because of where we've been drinking, or something else?"
"Possibly industrial espionage," Farrina says with a glare down at the defeated creature.
"What?" she questions, noting the looks she's being given. "My designs are proprietary and very valuable."
The oracle takes the symbol when it tossed to her and pulls it up to her eyes to look at it. As it dangles she tries to place it, but ultimately can't. Shaking her head no, she says "I do not, sorry."
Handing it back to Adolina, she asks "Adolina, why did he attack you?"
Tanjona pockets the brass key that the critter was wearing and says, "Maybe I can track it back?"
The creature’s trail, surprisingly, leads back to the ruins of the Lucky Bones, and to the trap door hidden in the fireplace. Below the trap door, a flight of stairs descends into a partially collapsed basement. The air is thick with the cloying reek of garbage and decay, and clouds of fat flies buzz about, making it doubly unpleasant to breathe within the dank chamber. A wooden door, reinforced with rusting iron strips, sits in the eastern wall.
The door is locked, but the key the creature had unlocks it!
"Convenient."
"This is ominous." Seraphina adds unnecessarily.
"So not industrial espionage," Farrina snaps with a dismissive wave of her hand. She sounds slightly disappointed. "So what died and brought all the flies? Please don't tell me that we're going to open that door and be confronted by a bunch of corpses."
The stink in the air comes from sewage, waste, dead animals, and other garbage left strewn about this place. There's no indication as to who piled them up or why.
"Seems that something awful has turned dis place into a lair," says Tanjona.
You use the key to unlock the door and proceed down a flight of stairs to a large hall. Twin rows of stone pillars support a shallow vaulted ceiling ten feet above the floor of this wide room. A number of wooden doors hang half open on rusty hinges to the north and south, and fragments of tables and chairs lie in various states of ruin throughout the room. To the west, a stone stage stands empty, while empty torch sconces line the walls between the doors. Images of a one-eyed insectile face, smeared on the walls in what appears to be blood, decorate the spaces between sconces.
You can see flickering lights coming from four of the nine rooms adjoining this hall.
Although you don't need to talk, your footfalls still make noise. Adolina's and Seraphina's boots squeak on the stone floor as you creep towards the nearest door, alerting the occupant of the small bedroom to your presence. A woman sits on the bed here, wearing leather armor. She shouts in alarm as she sees you! You note that her eyes are mismatched, one yellow and one red, while her nails are wickedly sharp. She is a changeling!
It's weird to have you in my head with all of the other voices, Adolina. Can you hear them too or only mine?
To which a sigh resonates with much exasperation in her head. Silly girl, they cannot hear the voices in your head. You should be focusing on remaining silent anyway.
Biting her lip she nods to a non-existent man in her head and moves along with the rest of the party. When trouble is found, she casts bless on the party, helping ensure their attacks will land against the nefarious changeling!