Mary goes to the floorboard that Finley pointed out and retrieves the sword and the pouch of cash. The pouch she drops into her backpack, but she takes her time examining the sword. "Wow! Your grandmother's sword is quite an impressive weapon, Finley. I'm certain that we'll be using it in action very soon." She looks up at the ghost. "I don't know how tied down you are here, but we'd be happy for you to join us if you like. You can see how we use your grandmother's sword to slay monsters."
Mylos, who has been silently observing adds "We can use this fine weapon as we build our heroic and adventurous tale. You may rest easy, friend. What comes after is not so frightening."
Albrecht examines the sword carefully. He draws it and checks it's balance. "It is indeed an impressive weapon. I'm sure one of our ladies would be most pleased to wield it in your grandmother's stead." He hands the sword to Marysiel.
As Albrecht examines the sword it is clear that his slightly deformed right hand has trouble holding it firmly enough to use it in battle. A quick glance at the grip of the rapier at his side shows that it is oddly shaped in order to accommodate his disability.
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Mylos does not connect immediately with Finley, but he does believe that ghost stay around to finish their business. Which in this case seems to be putting grandmother sword to good use, potentially in adventures.
Finley nods his head and smiles, he begins to vanish and on the handle of his grandmother's sword, his image is burned. And burn mark of Finley winks to Albrecht holding the weapon.
You take the sword and leave through the main door on the porch, Albrecht is first to spot the trap. Old wooden planks could break when anyone would step on them. It looks like some carpentry work (crafting) or survival could do the trick. Albrecht also saw something glimmering under the planks. He spots +1 dagger there.
You head towards the last door and open them.
This square room holds shelves of boxes and stacks of crates. Nets, gaff hooks, rods, and other fishing gear hang from the walls. The filthy wooden floor is strewn with ragged scraps of sackcloth and gnawed bits of wood.
Soon you see creatures moving in the corner, a pack of rats is looking your way.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Albrecht
➤ Mary
Red dotted
Green Dotted
Blue Dotted
Bonie
Flory
Arity
Mylos
Red solid
blue solid
green solid
red dashed
blue dashed
Mary looks longingly at Finley's magical shortsword but realizes that the swashbuckler could probably make better use of it than she. She passes the weapon to Arity. "Here you go, Arity. I think you're the best person to wield this fancy blade. Make Finley's grandmother proud."
Mary sees the rats and scrunches up her face in disgust. "Ugh! Rats! I hate rats." Seeing that she has the drop on them, she crosses the room, whips out her blades and brings them down on the quickest looking of the rats.
-
-
-
-
Nimble Dodge (↺)
Trigger A creature targets you with an attack and you can see the attacker.
You deftly dodge out of the way, gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the triggering attack.
Albrecht enters the room, draws a bottled lightning from a belt pouch and hurls it at the largest cluster of rats.
Mary moves into the flank feeling all invincible and strikes at two creatures, taking them down.
Albrecht throws his bomb at rats hitting the red rat.
The other rat moves at Mary and bites her
Despite Mary's dodge, she gets bitten twice.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Albrecht
Mary
Green Dotted
➤ Bonie
➤ Flory
➤ Arity
➤ Mylos
Red solid
blue solid
green solid
red dashed
blue dashed
"Aaah! Another spider!"
Bonnie will cast shield, enter Arcane Cascade, and then instantly appear next to Mary, swinging at Dotted Green.
plus
Feeling confident, Mylos strides into the room and projects a Burning Hands at the 3 rats in the corner.
Arity will stride in and stab at dashed red
<>stride
<>stab at dashed red
<>Stab again
Flory summons an animal that attacks rats, hitting each time
Bonnie moves in and attacks the green rat, taking it down.
Mylos attacks the rats with flames
Two rats get immolated, while the last one is badly burned.
Arity moves in and stabs red twice, only due to venom does she hits her second strike which takes down the vermin.
Blue rat strikes at Arity
But the rat misses three times.
The other moves and tries to bite the one attacking with flames
Here rat bites Mylos once.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Albrecht
➤ Mary
➤ Bonie
➤ Flory
➤ Arity
➤ Mylos
blue solid
blue dashed
With all the rats dying around her, Mary swiftly moves into position to attack one of the remaining rats.
Bonnie moves up across the rat from Albrecht, turning around and stabbing at it with a fiery sword.
plus plus
<>Arity will try to tumble in, then out of the square with dashed blue in it.
<>Stab at dashed blue
<>stab at dashed blue
The closest spider is too wary for Albrecht to find any sort of opening. Instead he moves to provide medical assistance to Mary.
"Hold still. I can't bandage you properly."
Mylos reaches a dark-energy infused hand at Solid Blue.
Then he punches it as it leaps at him.
Without much trouble, the heroes take care of the two rats. Only silence accompanies you in that room as you begin to search.
You find a couple of fine planks that could be used to repair the porch, as well as to fix some of the doors and walls that were damaged through the years.
You also find five, finely crafted long tools (a sledgehammer, a shovel, a hoe, and two axes) . In addition, one of the crates holds a repair kit.
With doing that you believe to have cleared the fishing camp.
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Flory holds her hand out to the spider she summoned, who comes to her in the hallway. She curtsies to it and says, ”Many thanks, good sir knight”. It clicks its chelicerae twice, and bows to her. A hole opens up in the floor, and it crawls in, closing up behind it.
She makes good on her promise to Finley, magicking away the dust and cobwebs in his room, and fixing his tattered bed linens. She also straightens up the kitchen, setting aside the biggest pot she can find.
Arity’s joy at clearing the last of the spiders quickly turns to a frown.
”Oh by Shelyn! We actually have to fix the place up now don’t we? Oh the spiderwebs alone in the foyer will take. . . Oh dear. I’m a seamstress, I don’t know about construction!”
Mary cleans the rat entrails from her swords and resheathes them. "I hope that's the last of the vermin in this place." She looks over the rat corpses and thinks about all the spider corpses in the other rooms. "Looks like we've got some work ahead of us. Maybe we should build a big fire on the beach to burn off the bodies and other old junk piled up everywhere."
She steps back into the main building and calls out down the hallway. "Hey, Olli! You can come out now. We got rid of all the spiders and rats."
"We should probably take a day or two to clear the mundane stuff and bodies out. See what we have of value and visit Otari." Mylos looks around. "I'm not actually much use in practical crafting tasks."
Bonnie collects all the edible spider and rat carcasses and makes dinner.
"We used to call it Bilgewater Stew. Ship rats cooked in brine, the key is the little bits of seaweed, they give it a real umami flavor."
Then she checks out the suspiciously labeled boat to see if it is seaworthy.
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Flory takes a heaping bowl, and bows her head. ”Praises for this bounty, my liege”, she intones.
Then she looks at Bonnie. ”A lovely bit of supper”, she adds. ”We gladly feast on those who would subdue us”
Afterward, she takes Mary’s advice and builds a trash fire on the beach, occasionally howling at the moon.
Arity’s joy at clearing the last of the spiders quickly turns to a frown.
”Oh by Shelyn! We actually have to fix the place up now don’t we? Oh the spiderwebs alone in the foyer will take. . . Oh dear. I’m a seamstress, I don’t know about construction!”
Albrecht grins crookedly. "Fortunately I know my way around a toolkit." He turns pensive for a moment. "I suppose I'll need to purchase one of those soon."
Olli do come out actually, and gladly flots around your fishing hut.
"Ha, You really did it. The spiders are no more. What smalls so nicely?" Olli checks on Bonnie's stew "That tastes delicious. And there is certain karma in it, to eat the ones that tried eating you."
Olli does stick around and help you chase away small vermins from the building, at times to clean some places. He seems excited to share the place with you, and every now and then he even goes to catch some fish.
You spend some time fixing the place and resting after the tasks.
Maybe three days later, a courier comes
"Oloria Gallentine of Gallentine Deliveries, spoken with Tamily about you, and would love to discuss certain business with you."
Says a relatively young person in a courier outfit holding to his horse.
Flory greets their visitor, her spider perched on her head. ”Not just fish we’ve caught in our nets”, she says. ”Come into my parlor”
Albrecht chuckles at the witch's greeting. "You know Flory, if you were a different person that greeting might sound just a bit ominous."
Courier looks at Flory and keeps holding his steed even tighter like he was afraid of something. It is not clear if those are spiders or witches.
"Eee... thank you for the invitation, but I have a busy day today. Plenty of travel to travel, eee. You know." he begins to get onto his horse
"Please visit Oloria Gallntine of Gallentine Deliveries" he says in a well-rehearsed voice, as he said that a lot already in his life already.
At a suitable time, you head to Gallentine Deliveries in Otari. At her large shop on Roseguard Road, the efficient and energetic Oloria welcomes the heroes. Her eyes wide with anxiety, she speaks rapidly and breathlessly.
"Thank you so much for responding! You made an impression on Christoff whom I send to you. And I start to see why." She eyes you and your belongings
"Look, I’m very concerned about one of my couriers—she’s long overdue. Her name is Narala and she’s a centaur. She’s extraordinarily fast, and she was supposed to come from Absalom down the Granary Road two days ago. I hope she was just delayed, but it’s not like Narala to dawdle. I fear she might have been robbed, or worse, and in need of help. She has an aggressive streak and would be all too eager to fight. I need your help to find her, and her packages, and get everything back on track."
"Oh Gallentine, don't be so formal, it's me, Arity. The tailor shop has ordered so much from you in the past years, we're practically relatives!"
After hearing the news.
"Hmmm, That sounds bad. The journey from here to Otari should take less than a day if you're a human, let alone half-hor . . . I mean, if you are a quick centaur. What do you think gang? Wanna go find this missing courier?"
Mary nods a greeting to Oloria. "Hey, Oloria. How you doing? Been a while since I last did a job for you. Been out to sea for a while, but apparently I'm in the fishing business now, so you'll probably be seeing more of me around town." After hearing about Narala's disappearance, Mary shakes her head. With little real concern, she says, "Sounds like Narala may have run into a spot of trouble. Them's the breaks when you're a courier. So what's it worth to you for us to track her down?"
Oloria looks at Arity "Yeah good to see you girl, You're looking good, life of a fisherwoman serves you well?" she smiles and turns to Mary
"Somehow I don't see you with a fishing rod, I wonder why..."
Oloria listens to raised question about money
"Oh, there is money there. but here me out." she points to a set of chairs and sits herself
"I've sent Narala to Absalom to pick up three parcels for people in and around Otari: one for the brewer Magiloy, the second for Klorte Hengus the former gladiator and current lumber foreman, and the third for the herbalist Abanye Nianna. I think you should know them all. I don’t know what these parcels contain. But I assume nothing particularly valuable, but I could be wrong. Maybe Narala have been robbed for something specific in one of the parcels. I think it could be a good idea to speak to Magiloy, Klorte and Abanye. For me the most important is making sure that Narala is ok, if you find her with the parcels, help in the delivery please. They are paid on delivery so you can hold the money. I hope everything is fine, and this is nothign serious."
"I've seen a lot, but I've never seen a centaur in person. You're right, we should find out about the packages." Mylos makes sure he gets a drink and a snack whilst in town. He would like to build good relationships with those in town.
"Somehow I don't see you with a fishing rod, I wonder why..."
Mary grins in response and flashes her teeth. "I take a more comprehensive view of the profession, Oloria. Not all fishing requires a rod, and fish are not the only prey out there. So, tell us about this centaur courier of yours; perhaps with the right bait we can fish her out for you."
When Mylos suggests finding out about the packages first, Mary shrugs; she's not convinced. "The packages don't seem that important. Assuming that Narala didn't just abscond with them, then my guess is that she was likely waylaid on the road and robbed." At least, that's the way I'd do it. She pauses a moment to think. "The fact that she hasn't hobbled back into town under her own power does not bode well. She may well be dead or dying in a ditch somewhere near the road; the longer we wait, the more likely it is to be the first."
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"It's possible the packages will give a clue to who did it - if they contained, say, bat guano, we'd know to go looking for older mages.
But Mary's right - we should find out what happened before we start investigating why it happened. For all we know, she just tripped and broke her leg."
"Bat guano? Yeah, we had packages like those, the worst if it was not dried properly. One day, someone will invent a material that does not let smell out, and they will make a fortune." says Oloria
"But let us go back to the matter, Narala is big, even for a centaur. She traveled really fast, so was one of my better couriers. She had long braids of bright color. No, not white like Mary, more like you Arity. She was a quiet type, not saying many words. She should carry a satchel with the packs."
"If she has been missing for two days already then an hour or so spent questioning the package recipients is unlikely to make much of a difference and has the potential to be quite illuminating."
You head to find Magiloy, one of the recipients of the packages.
You know her as easygoing, confident, elderly tengu—a humanoid with distinctive crow-like features.
"Arity is that you? Ha, I haven't seen you for the past few days, I heard that you've been clearing the fishing shack on the river. And here is Mary, Albrech, Bonnie, Mylos and Flory. How is the fishing camp? Up and running? Do you need some potions or just a beer?"
You head to find Magiloy, one of the recipients of the packages.
You know her as easygoing, confident, elderly tengu—a humanoid with distinctive crow-like features.
"Arity is that you? Ha, I haven't seen you for the past few days, I heard that you've been clearing the fishing shack on the river. And here is Mary, Albrech, Bonnie, Mylos and Flory. How is the fishing camp? Up and running? Do you need some potions or just a beer?"
”Actually Magiloy, DARLING, we are here on business. We were wondering if you had heard anything about that statuesque centaur courtier that Oloria has employed? Apparently the poor dear has gone missing and Oloria is ever-so-worried. Do you know anything? Has she talked to you?”
Mary raises her hand to greet Magiloy. "Hiya there, Magiloy. How's it going? Yeah, we're still trying to pull the old fishing camp back together but it's pretty heavy going. At least we've cut down the bug and rat population to a manageable number."
She then shakes her head. "Nah, we're not here for any of your potions or a beer." Her eye lingers on the tap with a touch of sadness, belying her words somewhat. "We're doing a little job for Oloria. Apparently one of her couriers has gone missing; a centaur called Narala. We're trying to figure out where she's got to and it sounds like she was handling a package for you. You have any idea what's happened to her? How about the package she was picking up for you? Anything that might explain her disappearance?"
Bonnie is about to say something disrespectful in response to Magiloy's obvious insult. How dare she insinuate Bonnie is a fisher! But cooler heads prevail, and Bonnie lets Arity and Mary talk as Bonnie stews in the background.
"Ask her where the package was coming from," she recommends to Mary.
Magiloy serves Flory beer (small one) and anyone else who also requests it.
"Narala has gone missing, that is not good. I was expecting to receive some rare and unusually spicy peppers from a trader I know in Absalom, I doubt that any alchemists or chef would try to intercept the courier. It could be regular bandits, wild animals, odd creatures, and such. You know, you have been around sufficiently long"
Magiloy throws after a moment of break
"When you will find what have happened to Narala and deal with this parcel business, I might have some small task for you as well."
"I'd like a beer too. I'm also intrigued by the peppers! We'll get to the bottom of this."
"I think we had better hold of on a relaxing beverage for the time being. We still have interviews to hold and a missing courier to locate. Time is of the essence. We should move on and speak with Hengus."
Mylos gets his beer, while Albrecht recalls for a moment.
He knows that besides his cousin's lumberjack business there are also:
- Chertel Timber
- Inkleholz run by half-elf Alymora Inkleholtz
- Giant's Wheel which is where Klorte Hengus (half-orc) is working.
Albrecht do know Klorte, who is a relatively known person in Otari.
With regards to the road, you do know that it can be everything you know of wild animals, centaurs, and bandits being spotted on the road fairly frequently . As well as some other odd creatures.
So without any clues, it is hard to say.