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Actually .... I am .... quite limber
And he proceeds to demonstrate.
"Yes," Bee cheers. "That's the spirit. Now we just need to draw you a crowd. Make it the biggest shindig in town and Stella will come to us."
He says to the dock worker, "I'm sure we can find some pub around here. If you see Stella come by, tell her to come find us. She won't want to miss out on this."
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Tsojmin the harbormaster is totally taken in by Bitty's wide eyes. "We-el, for you, young lass, I'll tell ya. Stella's at The Last Catch! When ya see her, tell 'er that she still owes me her docking fee!"
He turns to Dar Lek and growls "Stop tryin' to break my docks! Gowan! Be off with ye all!"
Turning around toward the harbor, the you can clearly see that one of the docks leads out to a small islet. Walking down the dock, they find themselves at an open-air tavern with a large open space facing the sea. Several fishing boats have docked directly at the restaurant, unloading both ingredients and customers. Many of the patrons appear to be amphibious or otherwise from aquatic ancestries, and a few enjoy their drinks while bobbing up and down in the water off the pier. In a corner, you see Stella polishing off an absolutely massive plate of what looks to be calamari.
As you enter, Stella notices you and beckons you to her table.
"Ah, you’re just in time! Like little baby cleaner fish, not knowing that the shark might decide it wants a meal more than sparkling teeth. Let’s see what we’re dealing with. But first, a toast!"
Stella orders a round of drinks and offers them to you. Who partakes in the toast?
You slug down the liquor. The alcohol powerful, pungent, and has an aftertaste not unlike very old tar.
Stella knocks back the cup meant for you and calls for a cup of Besmara's Brine, which she sets before you. This drink—a potent combination of ghost pepper, ginger, and bitter herbs, all steeped for days in seawater—is a Port Peril “specialty” often imbibed as a dare or for losing a bet.
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A bit more used to the slower pace of the mountains, Ashun is a bit overwhelmed by the folks of Port Peril, but decides to take a sit and toasts with her, taking the drink, and at the first gulp, he very visibly finds the drink awful, but tries to keep up his appearance. "Oh, uhm, wow. This is... overpowering to say the least. Good stuff, but I am not there yet." and trying his best to not make a face.
"And before we forget, we got something for you." as he looks towards Bee.
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"Ah, you’re just in time! Like little baby cleaner fish, not knowing that the shark might decide it wants a meal more than sparkling teeth. Let’s see what we’re dealing with. But first, a toast!"
Stella orders a round of drinks and offers them to you. Who partakes in the toast?
"Ah, there you are indeed, m'lady."
At the mention of drinks, Bee politely mentions, "I generally try to avoid alcohol." So instead, Stella orders him a Besmara's Brine.
Bee takes a whiff of the drink as it is set before him. He grins at Stella and comments, "Ah, punishment for keeping my wits about me, ummhmm. Very well."
Bee gets about half way through the drink before it fully hits him. He has to stop and goes into a coughing fit - sweating profusely, and his hair begins rapidly changing to a mix of lime green and bright pink.
After about 10 seconds of panting and mentally preparing himself, he attempts to finish the drink anyway.
Barely managing to choke down the last of it.
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"Your offer is generous! I'll gladly toast! What would we be toasting to, who knows? Perhaps to friends of new and old alike!" Cath grabs a mug and raises it before emptying the contents. Setting the mug down, she feels her body shiver from the strong tastes and even stronger alcoholic content than she was used to.
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Bitty presents the bottle of Southern Squall rum. At the sight of the bottle, Stella's eyes light up. "Now there's something ya don't see everyday!" She casually dumps out the contents of the tavern's rotgut on the floor and pours each of you a drink.
Stella takes her place at a line on the floor in front of a dart board and challenges you to beat her at darts.
"I like some entertainment while I'm conducting business"
You can attempt ranged attack rolls using your best proficiency with a weapon in the dart or knife group, or using a spell attack roll with a spell such as telekinetic projectile that could propel the darts. The game is played in three rounds, and a different person must attempt the check.
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Bitty, who was raised in Cloudspire, remembers the drinking toasts of the traders who came to drink with the m'beke.
"May you sail with the wind at your back
May your mates offer whatever you lack
May the sea buoy you before you drown
May your knees hold you up as you drink this down!"
Then she scrunches up her face as she downs the Southern Squall and tries not to cough.
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Bee is still trying to get his hair to be a more sane color as they all line up at the dart board. Not one for passing up a competition of any sort, he grabs a dagger from his boot. But in reaching down for it, a wave of dizziness and nausea strikes. He also remembers what may be at stake for this particular competition.
Quickly he comes up with a believable excuse. "Dar Lek, this is supposed to be your party. Go take a turn. If you don't have a knife, you can borrow mine."
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As Dar Lek is making his calculations, Bee downs the Besmara's Brine Stella offered him. This drink—a potent combination of ghost pepper, ginger, and bitter herbs, all steeped for days in seawater is extremely pungent and Bee is left in a coughing and wheezing fit. Stella roars with laughter before turning back to the task at hand.
Dar Lek's knife also hits the mark. Stella's throw is only slightly higher. She grumbles again, muttering that the "metal man is cheating"...
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Getting his nerves and stomach settled a bit, Bee takes his dagger back from Dar Lek and steps up.
"OK. Let's see what I can do."
Bee hiccups, nearly sees his drink again, and nearly flubs his throw. He catches himself and keeps his dagger in hand. He tries again after some slow breathing for a couple seconds.
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Bee takes his dagger back from Dar Lek and concentrates. He sends the knife at the target and strikes the 10-ring. Stella growls in irritation and throws her knife. The blade sticks and quivers in the wall inches from a patron's head. Stella snickers and says casually "Oops"
Stella takes you back to her table and says, "You're good with darts, and you can hold your liquor. You'd make a good pirate. Tell Valsin that I'll honor the original terms of the deal. In exchange for slaver movements, I'll help with the blockade."
She removes one of her gloves and pricks her finger with a knife. She writes her name in blood and rolls up the contract. After handing you the contract, she looks around suspiciously.
"Never can tell who’s watching—the Free Captains have eyes and ears everywhere. Best to be sure that if these lot remember anything about this night, it’s not that they saw us here together. Good night all!"
With that, Stella Fane sweeps her hat off her head in an exaggerated bow. As Fane bows, she extends a leg behind her, tripping a nearby server. The server drops a plate of exquisitely prepared crab and raw fish, which lands across the faces of a nearby table of fishers—the same ones, in fact, who supplied the bounty used to prepare the dish. Enraged at the waste of food and livid with hunger, they lunge from their seats, inciting the rest of the tavern’s patrons into a raucous fight. One of the fishers, bits of sashimi stuck to his face, sees you and bellows in anger at the waste of good food.
"OY! We WORKED for this! You'll be sorry you CAME here!"
You can use a reaction when they are targeted by an attack roll from an enemy you can see. If you use the reaction, you stumble just as the attack is made, gaining a +2 status bonus to your AC against the attack.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
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Those with ** may go
**Dar Lek - AC 17, 17/17
**Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
Blue
White
Thull Ashun - AC 14, 14/14
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Last Catch
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The crowd ignores the Dalek...
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
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Those with ** may go
**Dar Lek - AC 17, 17/17 (1 action)
**Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
Blue
White
Thull Ashun - AC 14, 14/14
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Last Catch
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Stella takes you back to her table and says, "You're good with darts, and you can hold your liquor. You'd make a good pirate. Tell Valsin that I'll honor the original terms of the deal. In exchange for slaver movements, I'll help with the blockade."
Bee grins and hand her the contract.
She removes one of her gloves and pricks her finger with a knife. She writes her name in blood and rolls up the contract. After handing you the contract, she looks around suspiciously.
"Never can tell who’s watching—the Free Captains have eyes and ears everywhere. Best to be sure that if these lot remember anything about this night, it’s not that they saw us here together. Good night all!"
With that, Stella Fane sweeps her hat off her head in an exaggerated bow. As Fane bows, she extends a leg behind her, tripping a nearby server.
Bee nods knowingly and carefully takes the contract back. He spends a few seconds tucking it away where it won't be seen or lost. When he looks up, Stella is no longer in front of him and the tavern has erupted into complete chaos.
A wide grin spreads across his face. he yells, and grabs something off the table.
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To Bitty he says, "I would love to hear about your grandparents. I haven't met any other Gnome made of clouds and with a tail like you have. It sounds like you have quite the interesting family."
Bitty pulls out Egg, and cuddles him as she sits on the sandbar, drying out from all the splashing she did with Ashun's little dinosaur and prepares for storytime. "Grandma Beryl and Grandfather Ifekube raised both me and my twin brother, Barak, after our mom went off adventuring. So it was Grandma Beryl that told us the story of how she and Grandfather met."
"Grandma was a thief and a nomad. She originally came from Isger, where she'd lost all her family to the wars with the goblin tribes there. She said that at the time she had a hole in her heart that could be filled - if only temporarily - with treasure. Eventually, she made her way to the prosperous city of Cloudspire, where Mbe'ke dwarves and kobolds have joined their clans as one. The entire mountain has been cored like an apple, its center carved away to form an enormous hollow thousands of feet across. It stands open to the sky above and plummets down into the depths of an abyssal pool. Carved into the hollow's sides waits the dwarven city, its broad boulevards spiraling downward, while shops, residences, and temples burrow more deeply into the mountain. Sophisticated elevators use counterweights and pulleys, and where the Aeries high above house both visiting and resident cloud dragons."
Bitty sighs for a moment, feeling a sudden pang of homesickness for her beautiful home town. "Now, Grandma Beryl could have made a great haul just stealing from local merchants and getting out of there. But she didn't. She traveled everywhere, chatting with locals, hanging out in Cloudspire's taverns and civic halls, learning about the place. Eventually, she heard about Ifekube's hoard, and the 1001 traps built by local kobold artisans to guard it."
"Yes, 1001 traps." Bitty's tail curls around herself. "Most thieves would have run far from Cloudspire at that point, but Grandma was different from most thieves. She had that hollow spot in her heart that made her sometimes wish herself dead, combined with an ambitious streak. She wanted to be the best thief in the world, or die trying. She did try to get some of the kobold trapsmiths to boast to her over a pint about some of the work they had done, but none of them would. But one of them casually dropped the information that Ifekube was traveling to a distant aerie, and would be gone a fortnight."
"Was this a trap? Of course it was. Ifekube was, among other things, a local magistrate who loved reducing Cloudspire's crime rate by catching criminals and sometimes eating them." Bitty shrugs. "But Grandma had a death wish, and so she went. She had evaded, bypassed or disabled nearly one hundred traps when a piteous call for help caught her ears. There she saw a dark-skinned gnome caught upside down by the foot in one of the traps, being swung back and forth like a punching bag as automated kobolds sprung up in random directions to punch him. She didn't hesitate to disable the trap, and then provided the nearly-dead gnome with medical care and supplies from her own rations. 'What are you doing here?' she demanded. 'Do you have a death wish? Didn't you hear the stories about this place?'"
"'Death wish? No. But I'm trying to stave off the bleaching, and I knew that I would be challenged here.'" Bitty grinned. "Now, Grandma did not want to lose her progress, but she did offer to escort the other gnome back to the entrance. But the other gnome countered, 'Let's travel together. We can watch each other's backs as we finish the gauntlet.' Grandma Beryl didn't know why she agreed, but she did. The other gnome was helpful, though clumsy enough to get caught another two times on their journey. He told her his name was Mwongo, which grandma did not know yet meant, 'Liar' in Mwangi. They shared life stories and Grandma made him laugh multiple times with the tales of her travels to that point, or with her cleverness."
"That said, there were holes in Mwongo's stories, and things that Mwongo did that did not seem gnome-like, and Grandma Beryl grew suspicious about whom she was traveling with. She turned towards Mwongo with narrowed eyes, and said, 'Why do you think Ifekube set all this up? Do you think he's the sort of dragon who likes to play with his food?'" Bitty narrows her own eyes, and puts her hands on her hips to demonstrate Grandma Beryl's annoyance. "'I think I know who you are.'"
"At this point, Grandpa Ifekube threw his hands up in the air, and transformed. Grandma Beryl's eyes widened as she faced an enormous dragon, coiling around her. 'What should I do with you?' he asked. 'It is true you came to rob me, but I think you were never really after my treasure, and you have a kind and generous heart. If nothing else, you've shown me the holes in my security, and given me the most memorable three days that I've ever had. I cannot let you go -- what message would that send to other thieves -- but I can assign you community service. How would you like to be in charge of improving my security?"
Bitty smiled. "Grandma knew that she was getting an exceptional deal, and so she accepted. Slowly over the next year of Ifekube's company, she felt the hole in her heart start to fill, not with treasure, but with family and community. When Ifekube told her that her term of service was up, she agreed to stay on, and from that day to this, the two have always been together."
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Dar Lek punches Blue and sends the elf staggering. Pink concentrates and shoots a stream of water back at Dar Lek.
The high-pressure water strikes Dar Lek and knocks him back into a nearby table.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
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Those with ** may go
Dar Lek - AC 17, 3/17
Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink (-8)
**Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
Blue (-4)
White
Thull Ashun - AC 14, 14/14
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Last Catch
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Bitty punches out a few of the rowdies in the crowd. The crowd is taken aback by the gnome's ferocity and scatters.
Blue growls from Dar Lek's punch, but focuses his energy on someone else. Wiggling his fingers, he points at Cath and Bitty Blue, sending a jolt of electricity at them.
Blue then pulls out his knife.
Another angry fisherman, one wearing a white tunic (well, whiter than the rest), wiggles his fingers and sends another jolt of electricity at Bee and Ashun.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Areas Pacified: 1/6
Before your Turn:
DC 15 Basic Reflex vs 2 Electricity Damage: Cath, Bitty Blue, Bee, Ashun
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Those with ** may go
Dar Lek - AC 17, 3/17
Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink (-8)
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
Blue (-4)
White
**Thull Ashun - AC 14, 14/14
**Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Last Catch
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CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
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DC 20 Diplomacy to nicely ask the crowd to disperse
DC 17 Intimidation to scare the crowd into dispersing
Punch them out! Make an attack roll
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Bee looks a bit shocked as one of the fishers blasts Dar Lek with water. Then he is even more shocked as he takes a burst of electricity damage.
"Hey, you are supposed to be throwing food - not magic."
"What's our plan? Do we take out these bozos and run, or just run?"
"Let's just go if we can. No need to really hurt them. Do you know where our ride out of here is?"
Bee heads over to where Bitty is and shouts at the crowd there, "Time to go, we've got people throwing magic around up here."
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Bee heads north and manages to convince the crowd that there's nothing to see here.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Areas Pacified: 2/6
Before your Turn:
DC 15 Basic Reflex vs 2 Electricity Damage: Cath, Ashun
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Those with ** may go
Dar Lek - AC 17, 3/17
Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink (-8)
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
Blue (-4)
White
**Thull Ashun - AC 14, 14/14
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Last Catch
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CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
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DC 20 Diplomacy to nicely ask the crowd to disperse
DC 17 Intimidation to scare the crowd into dispersing
Punch them out! Make an attack roll
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Taken aback by how quikcly things turned sour, Ashun is a bit slow to act but seeing his construct friend being pushed back by a jet of water, he draws a healing sigil that covers the dent in Dar's plating and slowly pushes it outward.
Seeing that it doesn't work as well, "I am not used to treating metal bodies, I am sorry.", as he walks forwards, putting himself between the law enforcer and the others, taking a plank board from under his cape and bracing.
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Ashun heals Dar Lek, though the damage healed is cosmetic. He does, however, put himself between the angry fishers and Dar Lek.
Blue glares back. "Ya didn't work to get all this good food. So doncha be givin' me that look!"
Red steps north and unleashes a water jet at Cath.
The water jet connects with Cath and knocks her back into another table, sending the furniture flying.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Areas Pacified: 2/6
Before your Turn:
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Those with ** may go
Dar Lek - AC 17, 4/17
Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink (-8)
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
Blue (-4)
White
Thull Ashun - AC 14, 12/14 (AC 16)
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
**Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 8/19
Last Catch
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CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
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DC 20 Diplomacy to nicely ask the crowd to disperse
DC 17 Intimidation to scare the crowd into dispersing
Punch them out! Make an attack roll
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Cath whacks Blue and knocks him clean out with her shield.
As the chaos swirls, casks break and the sea also adds to the mayhem. The area around Ashun, Dar Lek and Cath become slippery.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Areas Pacified: 2/6
Before your Turn:
DC 15 Basic Reflex or fall prone: Cath, Ashun, Dar Lek
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Those with ** may go
**Dar Lek - AC 17, 4/17
**Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink (-8)
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
White
Thull Ashun - AC 14, 12/14 (AC 16)
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 8/19
Last Catch
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CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
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DC 20 Diplomacy to nicely ask the crowd to disperse
DC 17 Intimidation to scare the crowd into dispersing
Punch them out! Make an attack roll
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Dar Lek and Cath manage to keep their footing. Ashun, however, loses his balance and falls flat on his face.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Areas Pacified: 2/6
Before your Turn:
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Those with ** may go
**Dar Lek - AC 17, 4/17
**Rinshu - AC 16, 15/15
Pink (-8)
Bitty Blue - AC 17, 17/17
White
Thull Ashun - AC 14, 12/14 (Prone, FF)
Corabee - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 19/19
Red
Cath - AC 18 (20 w/shield), 8/19
Last Catch
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CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
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DC 20 Diplomacy to nicely ask the crowd to disperse
DC 17 Intimidation to scare the crowd into dispersing
Punch them out! Make an attack roll
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Bee looks over at the brawl still going on at their table and sighs. :Ashun, you aren't supposed to be the last one to leave a fight:
He nods his head at the sailors and comments to Bitty, "Some people just don't know how to have any fun. I suppose we are going to have to go rescue the rest of our group."