Trying to continue with 3 probably would go... poorly. Even if we've got most roles covered between the three of us, way too easy for combat to go wrong.
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"Well, at the moment, our best bet for finding the information we're looking for would be to help our friend here. Shopkeep like yourself must know a lot, so we'll do a trade for a trade. We get you back your name and you can tell us what you know about the Cult of the Worm!" Clapping her hands and acting like he had already agreed to the deal, she'd turned to march off into the city proper. She had no idea where she was going but she figured they'd find it easily enough once they were in there.
"... Wait, if he stole your name, wouldn't that mean your name is Garphinollo then?" Jaxi piped up from around Zothan's back, looking over the assortment of items that he had. Humming and hawing as she inspected everything. Her mind had already gone back to how dangerous that previous fight was, and how quickly it could have gone downhill... "A cold iron blanche and some elixir of life would be good. I shouldn't carry the elixir, though, someone else should as an emergency in case I get knocked out. How much are you charging for those, if you have them?" Jaxi gave the ysoki the best smile she could manage. "We'll, of course, look into getting your name back as well."
Jaxi just sits there looking a miserable with her wound as she waits for Dyrm to handle it. Still feeling awful even after the healing, she'd grab her Staff of Healing and focus on it. Positive energy would bloom out and roll over the party with a muttered incantation.
Seeing the Redcap on the ground and injured, Jaxi tried to set up a killing blow for one of the others. She'd raise one of her staves and cast Frostbite on it, before flailing it in their general direction while looking at Zothan. "Get him while he's down! Quickly!"
"This is bad, very bad, I don't like this! Why do these things suck so much?" Jaxi would shout out from her hiding spot, giving a worried look from Zothan to Halanestra to Dyrm. She had healing, she could heal their wounds, but... she was going to trust Zothan here. "Why did the Redcap fly?" She'd make a small pinching motion with one hand on her other, before flinging it out quickly. A burst of dust flew out at the closer Redcap, covering him before she finished the other spell. "Because he had to fly south for the Winter!"
Jaxi will perform a repeat, casting Frostbite onto the Bloodseeker of R3. Rather than aid though, she'll duck back behind the cover she had, hoping to at least protect herself from whatever retaliation might come from her actions.
Jaxi squints at the Redcap closing in, and raises a hand. Muttering under her breath she quickly cast Frostbite on the Bloodseeker the Redcap was riding, hoping to set up a good blow for Dyrm. "Shoot it out of the sky!"
Popping up out of cover, she'd chant quietly before flinging her hand out at the Redcap leading the way. A small bead of light would shoot out from her hand, shooting out into the darkness of the chasm. It'd reach its limit in front of the redcap and its mount, bursting into a chromatic mess of dazzling colors. She'd flick her wrist and conjure a shield of force on her arm.
Jaxi, with no great plan she could do, took the best option she could think of. Hiding before they got here and hoping they'd pass! As she'd dart to something to hide behind, she'd call out in a whisper-shout. "Get into cover!"
"Well, let's hope we can avoid any of those patrols. Redcaps on bats sound rather dangerous! However, if we kill or disable the bats, they'd just plummet probably... We'll figure it out if we wind up fighting them! I don't think there's anything else to do but get going, so, let's get going!" Jaxi gives everyone a grin before turning to a right angle and staring at the path ahead. She wasn't stupid enough to walk before everyone else decided they could go, but she was ready to just start walking!
Merry Christmas!
Oh I'm fine to go forward at any point, didn't realize you were waiting for me.
"Way too close in my opinion... At least we can keep going to our goal. How close are we to our goal anyway?" She'd glance around at the group as she whispered back. This had been a long trek, and she was curious as to how close to the objective they were.
"... This is going to go poorly." Jaxi had only one option available to her. She tried to keep her eyes peeled for easy ways to move. Otherwise, she was trying her best.
Realizing exactly what she was dealing with, she listened, and she picked out the innumerable voices, all chittering and chattering away. This was something only she could do. Stepping forward, she coughed into her hand to get their attention... and began chittering right back! "Excuse me, my little friends, we're in a rush, and have important business! I'll give you some of my extra food if you're willing to let us by unharmed?"
Jaxi has Animal Eloctunist (used to be Burrow Eloctunist), would that let Jaxi talk to the beetles?
It worked last time, so don't fix it. Following Halanestra's example, she begins trying to sneak her way through the area. Being as gentle and as purposeful with her movements as she hopefully could manage.
She follows Halanestra's lead of trying to be as quiet as possible, sneaking after her on her tip toes. Inside of her head she thinks of a sneaky bit of music to try and help her with her sneaking.
[b]"... Well in for a penny in for a pound! Onwards to glory? Honor? Whatever we're looking forward!" She'd point her finger forward and try to blaze a trail through the fungal garden. She didn't know anything about anything that might help here but there was one thing she could do! She could walk first and make sure no one else got a face full of spores!
Jaxi went out and handled her purchases, packing her bag full of the five days of rations needed... alongside an additional two days she had from beforehand. Outside of that, she couldn't necessarily think of anything else to do... Well, there was one thing. It probably wasn't something she'd be capable of, but some part of her felt like she had to try. Until the others were ready to head out, she'd try to work with Jirelga to help her regain some semblance of sanity. There was something left of the woman she once was in there, she just needed some more help getting it out.
And again, nothing's stopping Jaxi from acting as a primary healer. Even picked up a Staff of Healing to help on that front!
Oh I never mentioned I updated Jaxi a fair bit ago!
... I forgot that Jaxi had claimed the Spore Shepherd's Staff. Protector Tree would have been useful in that fight. Oh well, just chiming in to say, she's going to be buying a Lesser Healer's Staff for 90 GP and saving the remaining 10 for supplies, alongside whatever extra she'd have to pay out of pocket. We need more healing and Jaxi does have Heal, so she's gonna be the party healer going forward I guess!
I will admit, Jiraxi probably went to the wrong place. Generally, everyone wound up going to the wrong sorts of places, and by the time one of us was on the right track, we all just converged on one spot.
... Should I try to cast Charm on the Warden? Like, seriously, it has to work eventually, right?
"We're not your men and we're not Ygrin, but we are friends." Even as she spoke, she wove magic into her voice, attempting to cast Charm on Tuom. It didn't work the first time, but perhaps this second time, she'd get lucky. At this point, she was really curious about what all of this was about. It was obvious she was putting a lot of time and effort into her craft, why exactly would she then curse it? "People have started to notice the production of cursed items, and have traced it back to you."
Jaxi pats herself all over, expecting to find a wound somewhere. Only finding holes in her clothes from the nails. That sucked but she could fix it later. Raising a hand she'd wave Korox farewell before hurrying around the room, inspecting everything. Grabbing one of the adventure novels, she'd stare at it for a few moments before slowly putting it into one of her bags. "Don't think there's anything in here, we gotta head deeper in!"
Seeing that this battle was almost over, Jaxi would jab her finger out at Ygrin and cast her favorite spell one more time. Trying to freeze him to his core.
"Dammit Ygrin either surrender or die already!" She'd curse and jab a finger at him again, casting another instance of Frostbite to try and freeze him over. She was really getting tired of dealing with this guy, he was tougher than anything else they'd fought so far!
"That's easier said than done you know!" Jaxi would scream at Dyrm as he made his request, staring down the rather dangerous-looking Ygrin who had run past her. Was he trying to escape? Or was he planning on trying to murder her? Either way, this was a problem, one that could only be solved with a liberal application of magic. She raised a hand and just tried to blast Ygrin in the face with a Ray of Frost.
Jaxi heard the shouting from Zothan and winced, reaching out to open the door while hoping that Ygrin couldn't get to her. It'd hurt a lot, but... maybe she should take some hits to spare the others? Oh, this was going to suck. "Hey, Ygrin, why are you laughing? The only joke here is you!"
If Halanestra wants a new flank, Jaxi has left a spot open for her to flank Ygrin. Also my plan worked perfectly!
Jaxi lets out a squeak of pain as the antlers slam into her shoulder, blood welling up from the wounds. She didn't stop sustaining the spell though, keeping Ygrin laughing like a madman as she proceeded to do the most heroic thing she could think of. She darted back through the door she came through and slammed it shut, putting her back to it to try and keep safe.
Jaxi winces at the fist that strikes Zothan, before panicking as the statue comes to life beside her. Desperately backing away from it, she'd let out an anxious giggle and throw her hand towards Ygrin. In reality, it was a spell. The spell HIDEOUS LAUGHTER!
"Ygrin... Why?" As Jaxi speaks, she subtly weaves a spell into her words. Attempting to Charm Ygrin, and gather more information. "What would be worth this? Who did this to you? Why are you here?"
"Got it Zothan, incapacitate. I've never actually used that spell I don't think... Maybe once? Didn't really do anything if I did. Hopefully, it'll work this time." She'd give Zothan a big thumbs up as she followed after the others, hoping she didn't get shot. Or stabbed. Or injured in any way. It'd get on her scarf!
Yeah, we can just say that Jaxi bought the disguise kit and while she was planning those out, the group came back together.
"Definitely! And why would I get rid of your beard? When was the last time you saw a dwarf without a beard? At most, I'd be dying your beard. I'll need to go buy a kit for this though. Figured I'd mostly be working with my scarf." Giving the two dwarves a smile, she'd wave for them to follow on the way to market to get her hands on a 'cosmetic' kit.
"... If we're willing to not be as... honest about this. I have a magic item that lets me disguise myself as other people." She'd hold up her scarf and wiggle it a little to emphasize the point. Good thing no one else was around. "Pretend to be an official to get into the Prison, or pretend to be Jirelga and get some answers from the Blackmoon. It's an option either way, you know if we've got nothing else we can think to do?"
Tell the truth about not buying them, say we came into their acquisition through our own investigation into a related matter, and we were hoping that they could provide us with some information?
"Why don't we just... go ask Clan Molgrade themselves about it? I've brought up going to them a couple different times. Halanestra brought it up. They might be able to point us to who these were supposed to be forged by. Surely they've got a way to identify individual Smith's works, right?" Jaxi had been quiet for a while because she just couldn't think of anything to do. The situation was outside of her wheelhouse, and her magic wasn't suited for this sort of thing. All she could do was give what limited advice or ideas she could think up. Which, wasn't much. "It's not like we've got anything to lose."
I will say, Jaxi did point out that the group could investigate the tools that Jirelga had. They were high-quality tools made by a local clan, and there was the option of going to talk to them about when they were made, if they knew what they were being used for, etc etc.
"... Welp, nothing else to do!" She'd just walk up and knock on the front door of the bakery. If there was no response, after a minute or so, she'd just try the handle to see if she could go in. It probably wasn't going to be an option, but it was better safe than sorry in her opinion!
"We don't have to stick together. Some of us could go check out the bakery, some of us can see if they can get into the Broch, and some of us could see if we can find who made these tools. Clan Molgrade probably has to have some records of it, right? I volunteer to check out the bakery!" Things weren't moving, and Jaxi was eager to get out there and keep doing things. If they just sat there talking forever, they were never going to get anywhere!
"... So, maybe we should try and check out that bakery? Unless we can get into the Broch to talk to her directly, it's our second best option probably." Jaxi wasn't happy to have found basically no information at the taverns. Still, this was all something to go off. The woman they wanted was in prison and there was a business card in her possession for a bakery. Either they went to the bakery or the prison. If that didn't work out, it meant going back to the drawing board.
Jaxi gives Halanestra a nod and a smile, choosing to just follow along with her. Hitting taverns would be a good idea for this, and she was sure she probably could get something. She was a favorite in taverns. Probably something to do with her constantly getting on tables to sing and dance. "Lead the way!"
Just going to point out that Dwarven Clan Daggers do have Parry. So you're not actually giving that up by using it, Halanestra.
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