"Sod this for a game of soldiers." Poison coursing through his veins, Angvar sinks into unconsciousness for the third time in 24 hours.
"This grows tiresome," Mordecai mutters, again, ignoring any vipers near him and walking over to Angvar to cast first Guidance, and then use a Heal check to possibly replace his next Fortitude save.
Sensing that he's not doing much against the level of venom present, he prays again for Guidance, continuing to ignore any serpents present, this time to directly enhance Angvar's resistance to the poison.
Barring an influx of new snakes, he'll continue praying for Guidance, as he suspects that Angvar will have several doses of venom to fight off...
Gierixa manages to finish off the last of the snakes while Mordecai applies some much needed First Aid to himself and Angvar.
"Ugh! Let's just get the mushrooms we need, and get out of here! I hate this place!"
Gierixa begins to collect some of the blue toadstools, placing them in a worn and dirty sack.
Mordecai shrugs off the effects of the poison, muttering another invocation to Urgathoa to allow him to feast upon the venom as with any other thing.
He tells Gierixa curtly, "If you have no healing magic, we'll have to carry him out of here..." pointing at Angvar. "Otherwise, we can all help carry mushrooms for you."
"I told you before! I'm not touching your pet! It's disgusting! You can carry him out of here. I've got these mushrooms to carry, anyway."
As you are arguing about how you are going to rescue Angvar, you hear a pained moan come from the man. It would seem that he's coming back to consciousness, though he is still in a great deal of pain. After a moment, he'll find that he's ok to walk, albeit slowly.
With infinite caution, Angvar wanders out of range and contemplates his possibly short future.
"Who knew hunting for Iskish would be so debilitating?"
Mordecai holds up the recently departed vipers, which he's collected for dinner. "It's uncanny that we've managed to find so many *other* serpents in the course of our search..."
"It has ironic charm of a kind."
"Right then, she's got her thrice-damned mushrooms and we've got even more venom in us than normal. Let's get the hell out of this place..." Mordecai says decisely, and tucks the unconscious Goblin Snake back in it's hovel, before heading out of the mire with deliberate speed.
"thats right these mushrooms should pay to heal your slave anyway so be thankful we found them."
Bex greets Sam. "Congratulations on the job," he tells her. "And you too," he adds as an afterthought to the other girl. "Why don't you see if you can find us something to eat?" he asks the two women. "I'm starved."[/b]
Bexilarius pours his own pint of ale and joins Larur and Beyar. "A few days, huh? I thought we were going to start making some money. Has Saul hired anyone else yet, or just these two?"
Ozbadin "Lief" stares at the two arrivals putting their faces and names into his memory. "It is indeed a pleasure to make your acquaintances ladies". he purrs in his most charming voice. "We were just about to have an ale, would you care to join us"?
Mel awakens in the early light of dawn after a seriously bad night...
The Boneyard;
When Mordecai stuffs the lifeless Goblin Snake's body back into it's hut, he notices a relatively large hole inside. The thing had probably dug itself a little burrow. Not only that, but there are a significant number of mushrooms inside the hut. As you begin to gather these ones, your eyes adjust to the dim light afforded by their phosphorescence, and you can make out a number of coins scattered around them. A decently sized gem also makes it's home here. The light plays on the gem and the coins, which are quite clean in spite of the muck. You surmise that the strange creature probably enjoyed watching it's fortune illuminated by toadstool light.
It's quite late, and you are all wounded. You could go back to Hyram now, or back to the Goblin, or out for a drink, or... What's your plan?
Mel;
The Gold Goblin is quiet this early in the morning. As you stumble out of bed and put yourself together, you can make out no other movements this early. The bodies around you, with their chests rhythmically rising and falling, obviously indicate that most of the others had a busier night than you. The kitchen is freely open, and you're welcome to make yourself some breakfast before you start your day.
What's your plan for the morning? You overheard those drunks in the bar talking about something interesting happening at Zincher's, but that's not until tonight.
The Gold Goblin;
Sam rolls her eyes at Bexilarius. "Hey, I got hired on as a waitress, not a cook." she quips. "I'll rustle up something, but that's only because I'm hungry too."
She takes Marzielle by the hand again into the kitchen, and there is some giggling after a while. She responds to Lief's suggestion to join them from the other room; "Sure! We'll grab something to drink while we're back here!"
"Do what you want with the fungi and the snakes. I need a drink and some serious sleep. In order for me to do that Master, I'll need some money."
The Gold Goblin;
Larur shakes his head. "That one's got some fire in her for sure. And I'm not just talking about her hair. I can already tell that's she'll do well. If she can work the customers like she works you..." Larur chuckles and offers his drink up for a toast.
"As for other new-hires, it's coming slow but steady. Most of the muscle was easy enough to hire. Plenty o' people looking for that kind of work. Those positions were mostly filled. Most of 'em have already gone out somewhere for a drink tonight. I don't expect 'em back until later. If you all hear a ruckus later upstairs, you'll know they be headin' to bed. Hopefully tomorrow the dealers'll be hired, and the cooks too. Not much else after that, save a few more people to work the floor. Word travels fast in this city, and I'm sure people are talkin' about it all over. We'll have more than enough applicants tomorra', and it's just a matter of trainin' em all. We've gotta find the right people, too. We can't just let anyone handle the money or the customers."
The Gold Goblin;
As Larur continues chatting, plates piled with a number of things begin floating out toward you. One particular plate of bread and stinky cheese floats, dancing almost, under Bexilarius's nose.
With a bust of laughter coming from the kitchen, the plate drops on table, somewhat noisily, though intact.
A few more plates with food come floating out, dancing around the four of you. Larur simply shakes his head, but Beyar cheers when he sees that four more tankards of ale come floating out on a tray as well.
Samaritha smiles coolly as she follows them, her one hand directing them, and her other holding a large glass of red wine.
"Dinner is served, gents. And another round of cheers to the Gold Goblin from here on out. I know we can make it work, let's just try to have a little less violence on the game-floor! I don't know if I can stomach any more severed limbs."
Sam moves beside Lief and Bex, addressing both of them more closely.
"I'm so relieved that I could get some work here. I was almost ready to pack up and head back to Magnimar. I could be waiting to get into the Cypherlodge for the next thirty years the way they process things there. I find it hard to believe that a woman of my talents can not find an apprenticeship there. I hate to say it, but some of those mages could probably be apprenticed to me, if the tables were turned." She practically finishes her wine over the course of a few generous sips.
The Gold Goblin;
Marzielle comes back from the kitchen, wiping the curved dagger on her skirt before replacing it on her belt. You get the feeling you'd rather not ask what she used it for.
Her hands look tiny as they wrap around the tankard of ale, but she guzzles the thing down greedily, only pausing to eat the food in front of her. You wonder when she last got a decent meal, or any meal for that matter.
She says little, but listens intently to everything that has to be said. She especially can't keep her eyes off of Bexilarius.
Before too long she announces; "Well I'm gonna hit the hay. This has been...a long day for me. This mornin' I didn't have a job or a home, this afternoon I was beat halfway ta death, and now, tonight, I got a warm place to sleep. I got lots ta think about, so I'll see you all tomorrow."
And she heads upstairs.
Mordecai spends some time arranging the Goblin Snake in it's little hidey-hole (and scarfing up the coinage and gem inside, which he certainly isn't about to mention to anyone).
He'll gather up a handful of the mushrooms from inside the hut to use as an excuse for why he took so long, and give them to Gierixa before heading back to the Goblin with Angvar.
He doesn't reply to Angvar's comment about money, but hands him six gold pieces, at some point when Gierixa is either ahead of or behind them and less likely to notice it.
"We'll eat when we get to the Goblin. One of these damned things bit me," he says, hoisting one of the four vipers, "and I'm going to bite it back. I'm not food for anything."
Looking at the bedraggled creatures dubiously, "After magically purifying them, that is..."
Mordecai and Angvar at The Gold Goblin;
The night is calm and quiet, and you all made enough noise to scare off most of the lesser vermin infesting the swamp around you. With Mordecai's help, Angvar is able to hobble his way back to town proper more or less easily and without incident.
It's quite late, and only a handful of oil lamps provide illumination inside the casino. The kitchen is free for you to use, though it's quite messy. Some people already helped themselves earlier, and left a mess. Empty tankards and the smell of spilled ale permeate the space, but with some work, and some magic, you can turn the snakes into something edible.
Mordecai happily cooks up some strips of snake (after cutting off their heads far enough up to avoid the poison sacs...), purifying the meat with magic and then flame. Adding that to remaining scraps of whatever lying around the kitchen, he fries them all together in a kind of leftover casserole (making one plate without snake, for Angvar).
While the food is frying, he'll clean up the kitchen a little bit, using Hand of the Acolyte to move stuff around, since he's too tired from slogging through the muck to actually move away from the cooking hearth to put things away.
He'll drop off a (snake-free) plate for Angvar, who is probably resting in the 'last room on the left,' and wanders out with his own plate to go upstairs to the common quarters, to see if any of the stuff left behind from the defeated thugs has been left unclaimed.
Gierixa stops in at Hyram's on the way back to the goblin. She only intends to reveal an appropriate amount of mushrooms, keeping excess secret.
As she approaches the bluffs, she calls out to the collector. "Hyram its me Gierixa ive got your mushrooms you wanted so come out an meet me."
Mordecai; All of the gear has been claimed by the others, or distributed to the new guards by now. You'll have to purchase some in the morning.
Gierixa; You call out to the half-orc hermit, but no response is sent back. After waiting for some time, you get the feeling that he's not around.
Thinking to herself that nobody else comes up here, Gierixa places the hermit's mushrooms in a pile out in the open. Satisisfied, she heads back to her garden, counting on her darkvision to protect her in the dark.
She will attempt to cultivate some mushrooms of her own.
Once her new crop is taken care of (or not) she heads back to the Gold Goblin in case Saul or Mordecai needs anything.
Angvar notes the arrival of the coins in his hand without comment and will accompany Mordecai to the kitchen.
"Waste not, want not. Poison isn't that easy to come by."
"I seem to be living on death's loving lips at the moment. Who knows when a poisoned blade might be useful."
He will retrieve the heads and extract the poison sacs (with extreme care). If he can, he'll preserve the poison for later use on the dagger Mordecai lent him.
"I'm sure you approve of using the enemy's weapons against them. Isn't that what we do? Tomorrow we should head for the arena. My own serpent friend still calls me. I might add that Iskish would have better manners than to bite the hand that fed him. Wouldn't it be lovely if the hands that hold him hasn't fed him? Our lives would be a great deal simpler."
Then he heads very carefully back to the room and sleeps the sleep of those recovering hp in a hurry.
Once he's determined that there aren't any free weapons lying around, Mordecai will finish up his meal and will arrange some poultices to help bring down the inflammation in Angvar's bitten leg.
He then wanders back up into the group room and crashes there, since it looks like Angvar gets the bed again, and he's not sleeping on the floor tonight.
Gierixa;
You manage to get some of the mushrooms cultivated. They're easy enough to propagate, as long as there's sufficient organic material to grow upon. Ironically, the compost you got from Hyram works wonders for this sort of thing. It may take a few weeks, but as long as they are sheltered well enough, you'll be able to harvest them in the future.
It's quite late, and when you return to the Gold Goblin, the others are asleep.
Angvar;
In order to harvest the poison, you'll have to have something to collect the venom in. You can use the kitchen easily enough as a workspace.
Angvar raids the kitchen again for something to put the poison sacs in. In the morning, he'll convince Mordecai that it would be worth spending money on having a ready supply of venom at their disposal.
Swift contemplation of his own mortality rate suggests that going it alone is not the best plan.
Mel slips through the early morning streets towards the Golden Goblin hoping to catch breakfast there. She keeps a wary eye out for anyone who might want to accost her
Mordecai takes a moment alone to attempt to Appraise the mystery gem found in the Goblin Snake's hovel.
With some staring at it over candlelight, he determines that...
It's a rock. Appraise check, 5
And so he brings it to Angvar in the morning, along with some breakfast and a pair of Cure Light Wounds.
Mordecai/Angvar;
Through your magical assistance, yet again, Angvar's wounds are mostly looked after. He still looks terrible, as if the poison has done some serious damage, but that should clear up with a few more days rest.
You spend some time looking at the gem, and you figure that around here you could probably get about 40 gold from this rough gem. Citrine is pretty common, and this is not a very good specimen, but it's big enough. A jeweller could work with it and refine it further, of course. You just need to find a buyer.
Bexilarius/Ozbadin;
The conversation continues for a bit longer, and Larur and Beyar get considerably drunker. Sam eventually resigns for the night and heads home. The two of you also head to bed, as it's quite late. (Perhaps Ozbadin goes to his father's home instead).
Mel;
Gierixa;
You wake up from your sleep, presumably on the ground outside the Goblin, and enter the casino, looking around for familiar faces.
Everyone;
The Gold Goblin is pretty quiet this morning. The lingering smell of cooked serpent hangs around the kitchen, but you are otherwise not assaulted in any sensory way. For those of you with hangovers, the silence is appreciated.
Mordecai and Angvar busy themselves near the kitchen, with the remains of some poisonous snakes they found the night before.
"If you can bring yourself to talk to Gierixia, she might know where to find a poison crafter."
This is in an undertone to Mordecai as they rummage in the kitchen after the now ritualistic restoration of Angvar to life.
"A new day. How exciting. What, I wonder will kill me today? Barracuda and serpents have checked in. Probably it's a mammal's turn to finish me off."
After curing duty is done, Mordecai will head into the common area and kitchens to rustle up some breakfast. Something in the 'eggs and skillet-fried potatoes' ouevre sounds appealing, is appropriate fixin's are available.
As people wander in, he'll continue making more for them, as he long ago figured out that the cook gets to eat first, during *and* after.
As always, he'll voice some words to Urgathoa in Osirioni, to purify the various foodstuffs, since the quality of food in this entire town is pretty sketchy, by his standards...
"I can take care of that for you," Bexilarius cheerfully tells Angvar as he enters the kitchen. "One quick snap of the neck. No fuss, no muss." He makes a wringing motion with his hands, then laughs. "What's for breakfast?" he asks the room.
"Now, now, seuhtahk, he said 'mammal,' not whatever you are." Mordecai says dryly. "And as for breakfast, whatever this stuff is I found in the pantry is what we're having, although I've killed it and cooked it for you."
Tilting his head to Angvar, he adds, "Third time's the charm, so it'll probably be another scaly reptilian thing. One that flies, since you've already been attacked by land and by sea. So I'd watch out for dragons..."
"I can take care of that for you," Bexilarius cheerfully tells Angvar as he enters the kitchen. "One quick snap of the neck. No fuss, no muss." He makes a wringing motion with his hands, then laughs. "What's for breakfast?" he asks the room.
"I'll save being killed by you as a birthday treat. It would be an experience to savour, I'm sure. If my master approves of course."
"Oh, where are my manners." Mordecai says suddenly. "Angvar, this is Bexilarius, the hellblood who wrapped you in darkness and beat you up. Bexilarius, this is Angvar, the reason we have this job in the first place."
"I'd love to be able to say that I hired him to 'rob' the place so that we could be the big heroes and save the day stopping him, but I actually didn't think of that until just now..."
Angvar shrugs his shoulders. "What can I say? Somebody hired me. He seems to have disappeared."
Taking in Bex's impressive musculature, he adds, "Since you already had the fun of nearly killing me, let's spread the goodness around. Alternatively, we could just remove the charming owner and run the place ourselves. My master is strangely averse to this suggestion. Do try the snake kedgeree."
"what in the name of Gozreh is that awful stench!?"
Gierixa stomps into the Goblin, not caring that her feet leave dirt all over the floor. "oh your cooking meat..." she pauses as she notices what meat, "YOUR EATING THAT!?"
She gapes at her comrades breakfast as she moves around the kitchen looking for some fresh fruit. "what was that about poison its not a very nice way to kill people too impersonal its better than people deserve."
Mordecai laughs at Gierixa's reaction to the dish containing the serpent parts trimmed off for possible poison extraction.
"Oh, no, that's just leftover heads and skins. I ate all of the serpent's meat last night. Eggs and potatoes are what's for breakfast. Chicken eggs, that is. No snakes anywhere in the dish."
"Nor any poison, for that matter," he adds, taking another bite.
Mel follows the sound of voices to the kitchen and spears a piece of fruit with a dagger point
"Morning everyone...are we all ready for another busy day at the Goblin?"
"Good morning Melvin," Mordecai says cheerfully, rubbing his apparently quite-full stomach, "Help yourself to breakfast, I made extra."
Looking at the bowl that he and Angvar set aside, with a furrowed brow, he gives Mel a measuring look. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about poisons, would you? Some vipers fell afoul of us last night, and Angvar was wondering if their venom could be extracted and made useful."
"oh well potatoes are okay i guess."
She stands beside the table, grabbing a handful of breakfast and dumping it on the table. She begins picking at her food, popping it in her mouth with her fingers.
"It's Meldren..."
Mel wrinkles his nose at the wild womans lack of table manners then slides 5 silvers across the table to Mordecai.
"I hear you work at the boneyard...there'll be a corpse today, single stab wound through the heart...say a special prayer for the idiot will you..his name was jhenk or jhek or something like that"
"Certainly, Meldrak," Mordecai says evenly. "Was he a friend, or just some fool who landed on the wrong end of your blade?"
Ozbadin awakes in his familiar bed in his fathers house with a roaring headache. "I knew I should have went straight home last night he says". The room reeks with the scent of whatever he was smoking last night, and his nightclothes are tangled in a sweaty knot around his legs. As he props himself up on one elbow, he wonders whose foot that is sticking up from the covers near his face. With a groan he rises and goes to his basin to splash some water on his stubbly face. As he moves a cascade of Raven hair with the ends died a bright yellow falls out from under the sheets at the end of the bed. "hmm don't remember that". he says as he appraises his red eyed stare in the mirror above the pitcher and basin.
He grabs the half finished ale from beside the bed and carefully removes the bug floating upside down on the top of it, and quaffs it in one motion. Feeling the warm, flat alcohol flow down his throat brings him back a bit to normal. He then finds a clean, or at least not reeking, robe from the floor of his suite, and starts towards the door. Need to check with the laundry and see if his newly ordered sailors garb has been delivered and is ready for the day.
After a quick bath and shave, Ozbadin changes into his outfit, and heads towards the Gold Goblin. Might as well spend some time there before the fight tonight. Emerging into the daylight sets him back a bit into his recovery, but at least it is still morning when he makes his way to the door of his new hangout. As he approaches the building he hears voices from inside and steels himself to be cordial.
"Good morning all" he proclaims as he makes his way towards his new companions.
"Certainly, Meldrak," Mordecai says evenly. "Was he a friend, or just some fool who landed on the wrong end of your blade?"
"The latter..I didn't want to kill him..but the idiot seemed quite insistent on impaling himself on my blade"
Mel shrugs...somewhere in those dreams last night his heart hardened a little.
"So, now that the 'partners' are all present, did anyone manage to recruit anyone over the last day?" Mordecai asks, still snacking on bits of fried potato, despite having eaten at least one full breakfast worth of food by this point.
"Any new faces we should look out for? Before Mel goes and accidentally kills them?"