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Mara shakes her head. "It's a mess, Zen'Zot. I wish it weren't. Sounds like the boy with the blood disease wandered off looking for adventure. I hope he doesn't die. If we get a lead about where he is, then let's see what we can do. It's not a bad way to earn a little coin." After the shop closes that evening, Mara walks the streets for a few hours asking people if they've seen anyone matching Ruben's description and where he was heading.
Mara shakes her head sympathetically. "I am sorry, sir. But we have no idea where he went. All he asked us was to let him know if we were going on an adventure he could join us on. Do you have any idea where he went? If so, we'd be happy to go searching for him, even if there were significant danger in doing so."
Mara also asks "Yes sir, what is wrong with him? We may be able to help."
Mara bows and smiles solemnly at Ricardo and his companion. "Pardon Master Zen'Zot, my associate. He is highly specialized in crafting and arcane matters but pays little heed to local politics or his personal matter. My deepest apologies."
She continues "As to your son, he pled with us to take him adventuring. I did not flatly refuse but I also did not commit our group to anything so risky. Especially since we knew little about him. So while we did not take him anywhere or particularly encourage any risk-taking on his part, we would be willing to look into the matter on your behalf."
Mara hears the disturbance and starts finishing up with the customer she was helping.
Great! I'm here and ready for the New Year.
Just FYI that I'm traveling for the holidays and will be spotty on my posting until January 2nd.
Sounds great, to both GM and Uwe. Hopefully, it's very easy to roll your downtime using my sheet I posted in discussion a few posts back, as I am doing. Pro tip: It's better to never take 10 when generating gp. However when generating capital like goods, magic, etc., it's better to take 10 when your bonus has a 4 or less in the one's place and better not to take 10 when you have a 5 or more on the one's place. This is due to the rounding down that occurs for generating capital. Xerxes the eidolon spends his time using stealth to snoop around and see which suppliers or raw crafting goods are most willing to give discounts. Then Mara goes to butter them up with diplomacy. Mara generates 23 goods for 230 gp in cost while Xerxes generates 30 goods for 300 gp in cost. I'll update the tracker spreadsheet with what we've got soon. I'll pay the GP costs out of Mara's gold to help the shop get awesomer and awesomer.
Speaking of which, do we have some downtime days now GM? I'd love to use my new roller to generate some stuff for and by the shop.
Here's the brief downtime guide I wrote and here's a copy of the Downtime Roller and Tracker I made that helps out. Let me know if you guys want to use my sheet and I can throw our current rooms, capital, etc. into it. The current rooms, capital, etc listed are showing what the party has in my other game that uses the downtime system. On a side note, Gardens seem to be the champion among all rooms and teams in terms of return on investment. They pay for themselves the fastest, pushing you into pure profits territory at high speed. XD
Mara nods. "Ok. We will let you know if anything suitable comes along." She smiles in a friendly manner and uses a warm tone of voice but is careful not to commit the group to anything definite. She certainly had some ideas about what to discuss the minute this odd young fellow was out of their shop.
Ok I'm putting it on my to do list to share the spreadsheet copy tonight.
Ok so we've got 5000 gp to split up. How about 2000 gp into the shop and 1000 gp into each of our pockets? The money put into the shop will pay us back with ongoing interest, eventually, but it will take a while. The best return on investment room or team (garden) pays for itself in 450 days. So hopefully we'll be skipping along at about a month of downtime at once soon here. I did build a spreadsheet that makes it much, much easier to make a big batch of downtime rolls. I'll make us a copy.
Mara keeps a very, very sharp eye on the box as it is only locked with a simple lock and helps Uwe get it to safely. She is just done seeing it squirreled away safely when she comes back to the shop front and see the fellow Zen'zot is speaking to. "Oh hello there! I am Mara Thorngage, one of the proprietors of this establishment. It seems you've already met my colleague Zen'zot. And how can we help you today?" Her customer service charm is on full blast.
Mara takes the opportunity to mention "When you go, remember that our shop has the newest and freshest selections around!"
I remember Uwe taking the ring and amulet as well.
Mara nods at the idea that the sum is acceptable.
As agreed, Mara starts pulling things out of the sack to show their employer. "Yes and it was very dangerous indeed to retrieve these rare beauties!" She tries to emphasize both the hazard of their work and the value of their find.
Mara nods to their employer. "Indeed, we found the tower and it was extremely magical, as described. Inside, we encountered seriously hostile creatures including spiders and serpentfolk, some with magical abilities."
Ok so it sounds like you know them a little bit but not that much? I mean, it doesn't hurt to try them!
Mara shrugs. "Yes, fair points. But I say we tell our employer what we know and let them figure it out." She is ready to head to the employer if the others are.
I'm open to a fourth player, if they're reliable. Zen'zot, do they seem like the kind of player who will stay consistently engaged, pay some attention to spreadsheets, that kind of thing?
Mara nods thoughtfully. "Good questions. I think I can handle it. There wasn't anything particularly sensitive but I might leave out the lizardfolk. No point them getting in trouble. Lots of people have poor views of lizardfolk and them resettling just now could stir some xenophobes up."
Mara raises an eyebrow and nods. "I understand. I suffered a serious injury recently as well." She sighs and explains "I didn't tell you all before but I lost my memory a few months ago. I don't remember what my career was before I got involved in Bartleby's but my eidolon, Xerxes, he does. But he doesn't want to tell me about it. I worry that it might have been something unsavory. But I also feel like half a person without my memories." She pats Karita on the shoulder. "All that to say, you take your time. We're a team."
Mara relaxes and nods. "Very good. Let's inform our employer tomorrow then get back to business."
Mara wants to head back to the shop straight away and make sure everything is ok there.
Mara looks around, hands on hips in a business-like fashion. "Well, it seems we are set here. Shall we rest and then head back to Absalom in the morning?"
Mara takes the ring and hands the vial of purple liquid to Zen'Zot. "Can you make out what this is?" She helps Uwe with the burial preparations and follows when he checks out the other house.
Mara points out the ring. "I suppose it's up to us whether we rob corpses or not. I'm in favor, personally. They don't need it anymore and we could give them a proper burial in exchange." She also spots the leather strap and asks the aether elemental to telekinetically pull it up out of the pile as she casts detect magic.
Mara looks around in the cellar and detects for magic while she pokes around for anything important, informative, or valuable.
Mara nods "Alright. Maybe we do head back down there. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for fresh food. That might do the trick of suppressing or ending that hungry haunt."
Severa pauses in concern and whispers "This is a haunt! It has relentless hunger! It either needs to be suppressed with positive energy or resolved, maybe through something with fresh food?"
Mara has the elemental report when it returns. She whispers the information to the others. "What do you see Uwe?"
Mara looks suspiciously at the rickety ladder down into a nasty dark area. She whispers to the elemental to sneakily fly down. Invisibly, it descends while scanning for danger with its powerful vision.
Severa and her aether elemental follow along inside to watch the developments but she leaves the door to Uwe.
Mara asks the elemental to stop flying, open the door, and walk in. If everything proceeds safely, she follows it to get a better look at this door.
Mara nods and shrugs. "Maybe we'll prepare it next time we go out." When the elemental gets back and reports in Auran, Mara translates into common for her comrades. Then she comments "It sounds like it's been empty a while. Should we check it for anything useful or just leave it alone?"
Mara wonders if the cabin is really empty. She summons an invisible aether elemental and orders it to go see if it can get inside without opening any windows or doors. If it can't, it should telekinetically open the front door and slip inside then return and report.
Mara nods in thanks and resolves out loud "Alright! Overland it is. Let's keep walking. I don't suppose you can summon mounts for us, Zen'Zot?" She had heard of a Mount spell that would be very useful right now.
Mara shakes her head when she hears how far away they've gotten. "I see. We have gotten quite out of the way by a magical mishap. Would you be willing to describe the best route to us? And is there anywhere we could catch a boat or something faster?"
Mara wonders what the bear trap is likely to be used for.
Mara greets the centaur. "Hello there! We got a little turned around but are trying to make our way back into Absalom."
Mara is startled at first by the idea that they had somehow fallen into the Mwangi expanse then relaxes when daylight shows they are at least in the Immenwood, on the Isle of Kortos. She also tries to comfort Karita. "I'm very sorry about that. I have no idea how that happened... You'll be ok though, I'm sure!" When it comes time to try to find their way in the woods, Mara does what she can to help Zen'Zot navigate.
As the energy bursts uncontrollably from the wand, Mara drops it in shock. Karita's body crumples and Mara gasps "No! No! NOOOO!" She shakes her hands in frustration, fear, and anger. "Let's get her out of here, quick! Maybe we can heal her!" She starts trying to drag her comrades body through the door.
Mara casts a cantrip on herself then fiddles with the rod, trying to see what it's meant to do.
Retries if there is no dangerous mishap, highest I got before a nat 1 was 27:
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