"We even found jasmine candles in the forest too," Fluff Fang gestures with a spin toward the shops jasmine scented air. "It isn't common and there is so much here."
Fluff Fang gives a flip of their cape and puffs out their chest as they declare, "I promise by my honor I'll do all I can to support you. I have seen many people have jobs and I'm certain I can find you another. However, we only have so many friends and we don't want to lose them."
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"I...well, I've never done much cooking but..." Galan hesitates and then seems to come to a decision, "...but it's got to be better than drowning in jasmine day in and day out, right? Oh, but look at the time, it's nearly lunch. So I think what I'll do is go and take my lunch break at the tavern down the street and think about your very generous offer...and if I just so happen to overlook some small, easy-to-miss customers when I leave, well, things happen, don't they?"
The young shopkeeper pulls an 'Out to Lunch' sign from underneath the counter and heads for the door. "Not like it'd be the first time," he mutters under his breath. "Not my fault people don't pay attention to where their children are."
Moving to the front door Galan makes a pointed show of putting his sign up in the nearby window and then glances over his shoulder at you. "If you really could use a sous-chef and don't mind dealing with a beginner, come find me in town later on. And either way, I hope you find your friends."
With that, Galan steps out and carefully shuts the shop door behind him, leaving you alone and free to get back to your investigations. Having already been told that Darius is working down in the basement, you carefully ease the door open and head down a small flight of stairs. A wooden table covered with crystals of various size, including three particularly large ones measuring nearly four feet in diameter, sits against the southern wall of this storeroom. A wooden door is tucked into the wall to the southwest.
Fluff Fang gives a bow to Galan before heading into the basement room, navigating around the perimeter heading to the table with crystals. They take a look up and over the table and study the crystals, focusing on the largest. Fluff Fang's mouth moves silently as they write the plot of this delve into the mysterious basement.
"Do you think these crystals could have led them to our forest and to capture our friends?"
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“Given the name of the shop, I think he does something to the crystals and then sells them.”
Scary Gourd goes over to the door and checks if he can hear anyone behind it. Entropy follows along.
Chef tries to discern what's being done to the crystals in the shop:
Then she moves toward the door!
As Fluff Fang begins to move towards the table with the crystals, both Scary Gourd and Jackpot get a funny, uneasy feeling and quickly indicate that their companion shouldn't get any closer than they already have. They're not entirely sure how but there's something not quite right about the three large crystals that sit upon the table, something that could be dangerous if one gets too close.
Now on edge, Scary Gourd edges around the perimeter of the room to the door in the western wall and presses their head to it. From the other side they can hear some shuffling sounds, along with what sounds like someone humming. They can also just barely hear a gentle bubbling sound.
Already intrigued by the crystals and now even more so after Scary Gourd and Jackpot's warnings, Chef Popcorn edges a little closer to get a better look at them. It's difficult to tell from a distance just what Darius has been working on here, but as she watches she suddenly realizes that the crystals are vibrating ever-so-slightly. With there being no obvious external noise or disruption as the cause, she has a hunch that either there's something inside the crystals that's responsible for the vibrations or magic is at play. Or perhaps both.
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Chef stands back. Jackpot, Fluff Fang… you can do it!
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"Alright, that humming does seem a bit too ominous, but maybe..." Fluff Fang trails off as they wave their hand a moment before beginning a melodic cadence.
"When we delved deep below the shop, we found crystals singing a song of doom and gloom." They wave their hands while drawing magical signatures in the air, trying to use the bardic magic to take control of the tones resonating within the crystals toward a less destructive end. Slowly changing their singing pitch, "with a careful step and a trembling voice, we told the crystals the reason we came, the friends we had lost, and the crystals singing changed..."
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"Wait, are we talking doom and gloom? I know all about the doomiest and gloomiest of circumstances!"
Picking up Fluff Fang's story, Jackpot continues. "...to the softest of lullabies. The music poured over the crystals, gently settling their restless rocky souls. Light still shimmered through them, sparkling rainbows over distant walls, but the crystals realized that they had each other. They were a family of sleepy friends who were content to settle down, sparkle rainbows at each other and then go to sleep."
Scary Gourd pets Entropy as Fluff Fang and Jackpot try to tell the crystals a story.
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As Popcorn and Scary Gourd look on, Fluff Fang and Jackpot begin to tell the dangerous and volatile crystals a story. It's a story of sadness and woe...but also a story of hope. Hope that resonates with the crystals; they have each other and now they understand that there's no need to stand in the way of the four brave leshys who want to find their stolen kin. Slowly, slowly, two of the crystals cease their gentle vibrations and lapse into peaceful silence. Only one remains...
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Jackpot's finale to the story is evidently just what the last crystal needed to 'hear' - a single low, pure note emanates from within and then it too joins its friends in peaceful slumber. The two bards feel confident that the crystals won't pose a problem for them or anyone else now. Even better, it looks like now you could take some of the smaller crystals scattered about on the table if one wanted a little extra coin.
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Being told that the crystals are now safe, Scary Gourd goes over and looks through them. Finding a few red and orange crystals, they take them and arrange them inside their gourd and then adjust the wayfinder so it shines through them.
Not having a mirror, they turn towards the group and ask “How does it look?”
Shiny!
Once Scary Gourd is finished adjusting his new crystals and everyone else is ready, Jackpot boldly steps up to the western door and opens it. The concentrated smell of flowers in this spacious laboratory is somehow even stronger than it was upstairs. Long wooden tables along the south wall are covered with candles. A large, unlit stone fireplace takes up the room’s rounded southwest corner. The north wall features two rounded tables, one holding a cauldron of stew and the other riddled with burn marks and covered in wax. Similar scorch marks and splatters appear on the floor at the center of the room, beneath a massive cauldron of gently bubbling wax. Next to the bubbling cauldron, a towering set of sturdy wooden shelves are laden with a hodgepodge of tools for candle making and alchemy. Two other doors lead out of this room, one along the east wall and a third in the northwest corner.
More importantly however, you're not alone. As Jackpot opens the door you see Darius, the red-headed man who matches the description Glimmer gave you earlier. He seems to have been waiting for someone, though judging by how his eyes widen at the sight of Jackpot he probably wasn't expecting a leshy rescue squad.
"What!? How'd *you* get here?"
A small, empty vial can be seen in his hand; he drops it to the floor and grabs a strange contraption made of metal lying on the table in front of him. "Well, no matter. Looks like it's pumpkin pie for dessert tonight! Hammer, Dragonfly - get 'em!"
At Darius' command, two...sentient candles?...leap off of the nearby shelves, ready to rumble!
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Scary Gourd
>Entropy
Chef Popcorn
Jackpot
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Hammer Orange
Dragonfly Blue
Darius
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Fluff Fang
Active Conditions:
Environmental Conditions:
Scary Gourd, Chef Popcorn, Jackpot may act!
Entropy licks their lips and goes bounding through the doorway. He is ready to bite the hammer!
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As part of his performance, Jackpot acts way braver than he really is. "There's only one Master Chef here, and he'll make mince meat out of you!"
◇ Lingering Performance
◈ Inspire Courage
Then he pulls his rapier and moves, preparing to enter melee next turn.
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Fluff Fang admires Scary Gourd's new sparkling addition with a nod. They is follow behind the party as they mutter to themselves about if they should make the story of the singing gems into a wholly new tale or if it still fits with the current story they are building.
In their pondering about passing and plot, Fluff Fang is slow to leap into combat.
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Pun[pkin pie!? PUMPKIN PIE!?] Popcorn flies into a rage! As her war flail lights up green vines wrap around it, extending her reach! Then she moves onto the room.
Scary Gourd is quick to react; they add a little magical sharpness to Entropy's bite before commanding the leopard to go on the attack! Entropy is eager to oblige, deftly slipping past Jackpot and moving into the room to attack Hammer Orange. As the leopard moves in, he's hit with a powerful stench of lavender fragrance that leaves him feeling rather sickened - but not badly enough to keep him from chomping down on the candle and leaving deep gouges in its waxy form!
Jackpot puffs up and pretends to be brave, using his performance to inspire his allies, before drawing his rapier and moving into the room.
Terribly offended by the threat to her good friend Jackpot, Chef Popcorn flies into a fearsome rage! Vines extend from her form and wrap around her weapon, providing her with a longer reach than she'd normally have and she hustles into the room, ready to crack some skulls.
Not happy with this large, fearsome leopard up in its grill Hammer Orange attempts to bite back! (Why does it have teeth? A mystery for aged sages.) The candle manages to sink sharp little teeth into Entropy's leg and while it doesn't seem to hurt the leopard too much, proximity to its open flame sets the leopard's fur alight! Hammer then turns and dashes away, circling around behind the large cauldron of wax.
Dragonfly Blue grabs up little handfuls of hot wax drippings and begins furiously flinging them at Jackpot! Luckily Dragonfly seems to have pretty bad aim as the first two globs of wax splat against the floor or the far wall. The third attempt is better, but still sails over the cheery leshy's pumpkin head.
Darius steps in front of Jackpot and pumps the strange metal contraption in his hands. "Or maybe I'll just put all of you into the wax! I could use some new candle scents in the shop!" As he speaks, Darius squeezes the handle on his contraption and sprays a jet of hot, melted wax at Jackpot and Entropy!
You dodge the entire spray and take no damage! Yay!
You dodge the worst of the spray but still take 2d6 fire damage.
You end up mostly covered in hot wax. You take 3d6 fire damage + 1d6 persistent fire.
Ouch...you end up covered head to toe in hot, melted wax. You take 5d6 fire damage + 2d6 persistent fire.
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Scary Gourd
>Entropy
Chef Popcorn
Jackpot
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Hammer Orange
Dragonfly Blue
Darius
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Fluff Fang
Active Conditions: Inspire Courage +1
Environmental Conditions:
Fluff Fang is up at the bottom of Round 1 and Scary Gourd, Chef Popcorn, Jackpot are up at the top of Round 2!
Entropy howls in pain as he is covered in hot wax.
The wax is burning the skin under Entropy’s fur. This makes for a very grumpy kitty.
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Chef dashes around the table and strikes the flanked Darius twice!
I bet you'll smell real good when YOU'RE on fire TOO!
+ 4 Fire
+ 4 Fire
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Fluff Fang is able to put their thoughts toward plotting to a rest for a moment as they dash into the room.
"Weaponized wax? Both in making minions and in your spray? Is it only a tool to hurt, can't you find some good use for it? Maybe if you stopped putting teeth on candles, maybe you could have been a friend!"
Fluff Fang is going to work magic to soothe the pain from the deluge of wax that was dealt to Entropy. The bits of song relieving a bit of the pain.
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Jackpot catches fire, and the smell of cooked punpkin and hot wax is in the air. "YOW!" He continues to offer Popcorn a flank, and stabs the candlemaker with a rapier.
Then he spends two actions patting himself down furiously.
"When I said that I wanted to blaze a trail through music, this is not what I meant!"
Entropy howls in pain as the double-dose of hot wax from the candle and then the wax sprayer leaves him terribly hurt. Scary Gourd attempts to come to their friend's aid and tries to help pat out the fire, but to no avail.
Chef Popcorn has already had enough of this garbage and barrels around the table, war flail whipping through the air...
*CRACK!*
...as it connects with Darius' right knee! The leshy brings the weapon around for a second strike...
*CRUNCH!*
...that slams into the redheaded man's elbow and practically shatters it, from the sound of things. To make his day even worse, Chef Popcorn's latent draconic instinct allows her to channel the power of fire through her weapon, burning Darius' skin with each strike.
Jackpot also suffers from the spray of hot wax but fares somewhat better than Entropy, at least. The brave pumpkin retaliates with a well-aimed strike from his rapier that slips between Darius' ribs! With a strangled cry he collapses, empty wax-sprayer clattering to the floor beside him!
Jackpot then frantically tries to pat out the fire on his clothes, to no effect. Luckily Fluff Fang is there, swooping in to heal all of Jackpot's injuries! This also, thankfully, puts out the flames.
The two candles shake their tiny fists angrily as their master falls! Hammer Orange takes a moment to dunk itself into the cauldron of bubbling wax, which seems to heal all of the damage it had taken earlier. It then flings a glob of wax at Popcorn, but misses the mark. Dragonfly Blue also tries flinging two handfuls of melty wax at Popcorn but can't seem to hit the mark either. Blue then falls back a few paces.
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Scary Gourd
>Entropy
Chef Popcorn
Jackpot
Fluff Fang
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Hammer Orange
Dragonfly Blue
Active Conditions: Inspire Courage +1
Environmental Conditions:
Everyone may act!
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"Only CHef gets to burn!"
+ 4 Fire
+ 4 Fire
+ 4 Fire
Entropy gives Scary Gourd a weird look, but is in enough pain that it obeys in hopes it hopes it will help.
The fire goes out.
Chef Popcorn continues to roar and rampage, swinging her war flail at Orange and flattening it with a single blow! She follows this up by advancing on Blue and circling around behind it before taking a swing at it, too...
*SPLAT*
Popcorn's flail connects with Blue and quite literally splatters the second candle all over the room! And just like that, the battle is over as silence falls over the workshop.
Realizing that it might be a good idea to make sure Darius doesn't bleed out, Scary Gourd uses a bit of their magic to stabilize him before commanding Entropy to stop, drop, and roll to put out the lingering flames. While even this doesn't immediately put out the flames it does dampen them enough that after a few more painful seconds they finally burn out.
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Scary Gourd immediately tends to his friend, Entropy.
Their magic is able to completely heal the wounds. Then there is just the matter of apologizing to the cat for the pain that it suffered. Scary Gourd spends the next ten minutes tends to the cat, telling it how proud he is of Entropy and how magnificent the animal is.
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Jackpot pulls rope out of his adventurer's pack. "Let's get him tied up before we heal him completely."
Clearly, Jackpot's heart was not in the healing this time, as he treats the chandler only enough to wake the man. As the chandler comes to, Jackpot asks with a dagger to the man's throat, "What did you do with the leshies you captured?"
[ooc]Afterwards he would also like to take an additional ten minutes to refocus.
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"You are very good with that flail Popcorn. It makes sense though given how quickly you got that bridge built. You are great at building things up, brining things down, and cooking things through!"
Fluff Fang joins Jackpot in accusing Darius, "you were spraying a lot of wax before, now it is time for you to unleash some answers. Why did you take our friends?"
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Darius rouses up thanks to Jackpot's (very basic) healing work and his eyes grow wide with fear when he realizes the predicament he's in. Anyone watching closely, however, gets the feeling he's more terrified of Popcorn than Jackpot even though Jackpot is currently the one holding a dagger to his throat.
"L-look, I'll talk, I'll talk, just don't kill me, okay?" he stammers. "It was L-Lady Constance that wanted it done, Lady Constance Meliosa! She said she wanted l-leshys for her party that's happening tomorrow, right? I didn't much like the idea but I thought maybe if I did her a favor it'd get me an 'in' with her and her friends. Hah!"
His eyes dart around and take in the wreck that is his workshop; the splattered wax, drips of blood and green plant juices, and the two destroyed candle homunculi. "I didn't even get so much as an invitation! Now I've got nothing to show for all that trouble except the mess you've made of me and my workshop...and poor Hammer and Dragonfly...man, it took me ages to build those two..."
Here, Darius finally turns his attention back to Jackpot and the rest of the group. "Who even are you lot, anyway? Lady Constance didn't tell me there were leshys like you running around - if she had, I never would've taken the job in the first place!"
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"Wait. You kidnapped sentient beings to get a party invitation? What sort of a jackass does that?" Jackpot loses his temper. "And what do you mean, 'leshies like us?'" His knife stays near Darius's throat. "What, did you think we were all empty-headed?"
Then Jackpot pauses. "Okay, so I actually am, but that does not mean that I'm not filled with ambitions of my own. I'm a Professional Actor! Popcorn is an amazing Chef and a badass! Fluff Fang is a dashing spy, the likes of which few have seen! And as for Scary Gourd, he's a demonic expert who has been working on clearing the forest of abominations. Abominations like you."
Jackpot is a chubby little leshy who looks adorable when angry. But he continues. "Stay away from our forest, Chandler. We will defend it. Now... tell us where this party is. NOW!"
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Chef blushes; she almost felt bad for knocking this fool's skull in, but less so now.
Yeah! What Jackpot said! We got a party to CRASH!
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"Well I'm sorry for Hammer and Dragonfly. Still we fight to save our friends and hope you can help us. You can tell Jackpot and the others are very much broken up about this. I would like this to be a happier sort of tale." Fluff Fang pulls their cowl close as the keep near Darius and Jackpot.
"I'm sure things can be brought better again if you help us. Where does Lady Constance reside? Do you know why she couldn't just send an invitation into the woods for them to join?"
"Rosentry! She lives in Rosentry, the party's in Rosentry!" Darius yelps, clearly in no mood to test the group's patience or goodwill any further. "It's the next town over, just down the road a ways, you can't miss it! She just said she wanted some lavender house plants as the centerpiece for her garden party - she never said anything about any of them being like...well, people!" He cringes after speaking the last few words. "I just thought I was bringing her something like a cat or a dog, except in plant form. I had no idea leshys could do so many amazing things!"
Darius then stammers out an address and some directions to the Meliosa estate and follows it up with, "And if you don't believe me, you can check my ledgers, it's all there, the address and everything! It's in the desk over there in the bedroom!"
While the others stand guard, Scary Gourd and Entropy move to the other door set into the eastern wall and carefully open it to reveal a small bedchamber. The fine furnishings and imported Qadiran carpet in this bedroom are marred by soot and wax stains. A desk sits nearby.
Just as Darius said, Scary Gourd finds a number of shipping manifests and ledgers. Among the meticulous descriptions of crystals, candles, and alchemical concoctions, one entry stands out: a recent order for “house plants—lavender” made by Lady Constance Meliosa, successfully delivered very recently by hand to her manor in the nearby town of Rosentry. These same notes make clear that this order is to be a centerpiece for an upcoming gala hosted in her estate’s garden - with the event date set for tomorrow at noon.