Seo-yeon leans out of the building to see if the two boys are still around. If the guards are there, she'd ask, "Do you know where we might find a Ladhlia?"
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As the group leaves the workshop, a quick questioning of Eiab and Zanhannal and the two immediately respond with knowing nods. Eiab starts, "Ah, Ladhlia! Ladhlia the Mercane? She's jsut a few blocks away, if you go..."
He gets cut off by Zanhannal, "She creeps me out. Standing 9 feet tall, all blue-like and all those eyes looking at you! *shudder* She even looks broad enough to take on half the watch. I don't trust her..."
He gets cut off by Eiab with a swift smack to the back of the head and a, "OI! Now don't go stereotyping the woman! She's a great, upstanding merchant and provides us with most of our adamantine washes. And you should know mercanes are more likely to run or bribe than fight! Geez." Turning back to the group, he apologizes for his partner's actions. "Sorry youhad to see that. Zanhannal's still a little new to town and hasn't quite gotten used to all the different peoples here. Now Ladhlia's shop is..."
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Following the directions that the guards provided you brings everyone to a free standing, single story building, done up in a tasteful arrangement of white with blue accents done up in the local Quantium style with a few extraplaner touches here and there.
The shop’s interior is cool and shaded, a welcome change from the bold sunlight on the streets. Though the building seemed large enough from the outside, the space within seems small, perhaps due to a mazelike tangle of shelves filling all but a narrow walkway through the center. Each shelf bears a trove of trinkets, tomes, bottles, and boxes and a boggling array of bits and bobs. A few customers quietly browse the shelves.
Only a few steps into the shop, a high glass-lined countertop offers a break from the tall shelves everywhere else. Behind the counter an astonishingly large woman with sky-blue skin sits, holding a magnifying eyepiece over one eye while examining a dark, gleaming gemstone the size of a human’s palm.
At the jingle of a small bell or, what Earevel suspects was probably a special alarm spell, the woman calls out in a booming, but surprisingly melodic voice, She finishes examining the gem and takes a quick note on a piece of paper before she looks up. With a smile, she takes off the eyepiece and stands, towering in a surprisingly nonthreatening manner.
"Quite the collection you have..." She lets the more social members talk first.
"Well, Ms Ladhlia.." starts out the half elven Lemon.
"As it happens we were just in the shop of an aquantence of yours..."
He explains the situation.
"And then we found this information that led us to you. And we were hoping you might be able to shed some light on the situation."
Earevel smiles as he recognizes the alarm spell. The mercane also triggers his curiosity "Interesting stuff you have here! Do you have anything to prepare good traps?"
The large woman's face splits into even more of a smile as Annilda compliments her collection, rather happy to be complimented on her wares.
She listens to Lemon's explanation of the situation, before nodding. she bemoans. She then plows right on, deftly turning aside Lemon's request for more information, instead pulling out a rod with a metal tip on it.
The large woman then turns to Earevel and for the first time her smile falters.
Karvek takes a look at the sunrod, and asks her a few questions to get her talking more. "A nice bit of alchemical work there. So many devices nowadays literally suck the energy right out of a wielder, it's nice to see something more old fashioned that just works like it's supposed to."
Seo-yeon looks around, a bit surprised by the rather, ah... large personality they've encountered. She's not entirely sure her ears were going to recover from that initial shock.
Still, it seemed to be a straightforward enough business and the woman seemed to be earnest in both her disappointment.
"Oooh, will you tell me a bit more about your materials? I've never really worked with traps before - can you walk me through some of the simple traps you normally sell? I know you said you're out of stock at the moment, but I don't mind waiting to make some purchases!" Seo-yeon smiles broadly. "Honestly, I'm something of a songstress and I've been meaning to brush up on this side of things - it's always disappointing when I have to skip over details when people encounter traps! Learning more about them might really help me with better lyrics!"
Ladhlia nods knowing along with Karvek's observations. Her grin broadens and some of the more business like tones slowly ebb from her voice.
The woman then turns to the female bard in the group and claps her hands together happily. Ladhlia then starts to parade out all sorts of different traps and snares, showing the bard how they work and gladly answering any questions.
The large woman then reaches behind the counter and pulls out a small package that Fumbus recognizes as the same thing that Eiab rubbed on the longsword the goblin received.
She moves a part a self and a large compartment with a good number of packs in them opens up.
a consumable alchemical item of light bulk that requires two hands to use. Activating the packet requires 2 Operate Activation actions (no cost) to snap an internal reagent and shake the packet to mix the contents, after which the packet must be smeared across a single melee or thrown weapon or 10 pieces of ammunition within 1 minute. For the next hour, any physical damage the weapon deals is adamantine; this temporarily replaces any damage type from the weapon’s actual special materials (such as cold iron).
"Soo.." starts Lemon.
"Kefanes was a regular customer of yours was he? What sort of things did he normally purchase?" he pauses for a moment to give the exotic shopkeeper a chance to answer.
"Have any of your other customers met untimely ends recently? Or if not... do you know anyone who would have wished him ill?"
Earevel nods as Lem speaks up "Yes, any hint you can give us, even if just someone that hated him, might be paramount on resolving this investigation"
Double teamed by the two blond haired members of the team tag team the woman, he smile drops slightly. She pauses for a second seeming to recall the moment.
Before anyone can ask further questions, she raises her hand and cuts you off. [bigger] she says, pulling out a small magic item from a pocket it should not have been able to fit in and turning it on to show a woman's face. [bigger]"is a Mwangi woman who specializes in transmutation magic and has some kind of investment in the infamous fleshforges of Ecanus, where a significant portion of Nex’s golem production takes place—when the facilities are operating properly."
She snaps her fingers and the picture changes to show a different man,
After you get a good look at both faces, she silently puts the item away, before adding,
"Mmmm... thanks for the information" the elf turns to the group "I think we should start by visiting Prakhavu. This seems like a solid lead"
"Did he say those two wanted to take something from him? Or just commented some other thing about them?"
"Thank you for your assistance..." Annilda bows. "Prakhavu seems fine."
Lemon gives the blue outsider a broad smile. "Thank you for your assistance. We'll do what we can to keep you and your customers safe... and get to the bottom of this."
Turning to the others he notes "That is the second golem connection...I think that as such Ngasi is the more likely suspect at the moment. Not that it says much. I've no objection to seeing Prakhavu first though."
He turns to ask the woman "Could you provide directions to their homes or work places... where they have had stuff delivered? Which is closer?"
The woman thinks a little over Lem's question.
She glances at a small magical device nest to her workspace that magically shows the sun and moon in relation to their current position, she then looks back at the group.
She then pulls out a small book from her person and copies out an address for you. She then smoothly move from behind the desk and starts to show you towards the door, a couple of the other 'customers' move in as if to screen her from you, but she waves them away with a hand. She sees you to the door, and waves you off.
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Arriving at Prakhavu's place you immediately see he has guards for hire and a good 10 foot wall between his house and the road. Approaching the gates, one of the guards moves to intercept you, flatly asking. "Do you have an appointment?"
"Oh! I didn't realize we needed one!" Seo-yeon said apologetically. Then, debating her options, she asked, "Are you in charge of the schedule? How would we go about getting one?"
Lemon steps in with an open purse.
"Pardon my blunt companion. Your time is valuable, and ... why it is close on lunch time. Perhaps we could buy you lunch and an ale and you could tell us about who is in charge of the appointment diary - and maybe put in a good work for us? We have some information about the Arch-wizard that we think your master may want to hear about.."
"What these two are TRYING to say is ... um.. well something"
"I need no appointment. My presence is more than enough. Don't you agree?" Annilda grins and casts Charm, Page 209 at one of the guards. "A simple cantrip my mother taught me. It was the family way of saying hello."
The guard gives Seo-Yeon a flat deadpan face. “You were expecting to see an Arclord without an appointment. Prakhavu is very busy, and no I don’t control his schedule, though it generally gets booked out months in advance. You can find his secretary at…”
Before he can give you the information he sees Lemon opening his coin purse. He stops and scornfully scoffs at the man. “Are you thinking of bribing me… With lunch you say? HA! I’m going to be here for the next 6 hours or I’m not going to have a job. And I doubt you could provide something better than the lunch the chef here prepares!”
He moves and grabs the blond human and as he reaches to grab Seo-Yeon, he responds to Karvek, “It’s quite clear what your companions are trying to say, and Prakhavu doesn’t want any of what you are selling. Now move along or find out why we are the guards of an Arclord!”
The first guard grabs a hold of the two bards, but pauses for a second as he sways from Annilda's magic. He snaps out of it in a moment. He calls out for the other guards, before glaring at Annilda. "We generally do not appriciate people casing magic wit out warning here, even if it is just a cantrip! You don't have an appointment, you try bribing me, and you cast a spell on me? That is enough. We will ask you to leave, and force you if you don't." He finishes as about 12 other guards fill out of the gate, a few of them clearly haveing just woken up, but all of them armed and ready to fight.
Annilda gives him an angry glare before the reinforcements arrive. "Have a good day, sir." She curtly declares before leaving.
"Sounds like we won't find out much from Prakhavu. Ngasi is active at sunset. Let's head there."
Lemon makes a face. "That sounds like the best bet to me to. I feel like a drink after that run-in. I'm sure there will be an inn on the way. Anyone else?"
"Oh sorry! My friends are just nervous because all that stuff about the assassination. Take it easy, this was just an error. When can we get an appointment?" Earevel smiles while he attempts to move the others behind him "If not possible right now, we will look for an invitation then we will come back!"
Fumbus looks interested.
"What sort of lunch does the chef here provide? Does he/she do commissions / take-aways? I bet they have access to some really rare and tasty ingredients..."
"Let's go, you guys," Seo-yeon says, a bit concerned. "I don't think they much appreciate us asking any more questions. We should leave."
The guards stare you down as you leave the place. Making sure you get out of their sight. One of them gives Fumbus an incredulous look as he has the gall to ask about their cook. He does give him some very brief answers, "The best. NO! Of course. Now GO!"
As Earevel, of all of the crew, slowly ushers everyone away, the guards hard glares slowly soften. "Fine, if you can get an appointment that is."
unsure of where to go next, Lemon's idea of hitting up a place for a drink prevails and leads them to a small inn. A drink or two later, and a few choice questions turns up the information that Prakhavu tends to book appointments out months in advance. And generally for some kind of summoning or conjuration that costs in the hundreds of gold pieces.
As you leave the tavern, though, Earevel and Lemon see on one of the roof tops nearby an ifrit and some of the teens you'd asked earlier to show you around, though not the one who'd actaully shown you to the golem. The teens point you out and the ifrit tosses them a bag of gold, before stepping forward and projecting her voice at you. "Finally found you! You've been sticking your noses into places they shouldn't be! Well, we're here to make sure you keep them out. Permanently!"
She gives a looud whistle and from all around you fire elementals start to converge on your location. The ifrit gives a laugh and calls, "Get them, my dears!"
Taking a knee she then looks over the group, pointing at one of you then shaking her head, she finally settles her sights on Fumbus, before smiling. "You! You'll be my first victim! I've never really liked goblins anyways!" She picks up her crossbow and takes aim at the small goblin, lining up her shot before loosing a crossbow bolt at him. It speeds through the air and then embeds itself in the goblin with a resounding thud.
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Earevel does not lose more time, he advances himself and shots at the first elemental he spots in a clear line "Let's not remain gathered! But focus on one of them!"
"Let us make our way to the woman, then." Annilda strides twice, running past the Fire Elemental (this may provoke if it has an AoO.)
"You! Woman! You are uglier than burning refuse! No I take that back, that's an insult to refuse!"
Annilda's voice is lost to the wind...
Annilda draws her whip.
Moving forward, she draws her rapier and calls out, "Fire, water, earth, and air, none of which are truly fair -- water smothers, earth absorbs, both of which are friends of ours!" She sings to inspire courage in her allies, adding a few extra lines to encourage them.
Karvek draws his larger pick, moves to one of the elementals (orange), and attacks it.
Fumbus curses, draws his dogslicer, and moves over to hide behind the building.
Earevel moves up and starts casting a short cantrip. He takes aim at the fire elemental burnign a solid red just around the corner of the building. His ray of ice hits the direct center of the elemental and freezes a good portion of its torso, doing more damage thanyou’d expect, but the well placed shot doesn’t seem to phase them.
Annilda strides forward at a good pace, rapidly closing the distance between her and the ifrit. She starts to shout something belligerent to Keeamah, but the wind blows her words away. The Ifrit knits her brows together and asks in a mocking voice, ”Huh, Did you say something?”
Seo-Yeon’s voice however rings loud and true in the square, her music echoing around the place with resonant tones as the woman readies her weapon and gets into a good position to prevent Earevel from taking an angry chilled elemental fist to the face.
Karvek decides to take the fight to the elementals, drawing his weapon and getting in nice and close, before taking a swing at the thing. However, he doesn’t take into account the effects of the heat haze around their bodies and whiffs through the outer edges of the flames missing the body of the thing entirely.
Fumbus curses loudly as the crossbow bolt buries itself into his body and draws his weapon as he runs for cover behind the building, hoping to avoid getting hit by further bolts.
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Lemon, slow to the fight looks around in astonishment. He draws his sword as he move through the crowded marketplace to take a position to assist Karvek.
"Help is at hand!"
He calls out as he steps up behind the elemental.
Lemon draw out his sword and runs around the backside of the elemental Karvek is targeting.
This of course proves to be an opportunity for the elementals. The one burning a ruddy brown glides across the sands leaving a trail of glass behind it and comes right into position behind the bard, catching his rear flank. The elemental then lashes out with a tendril of flame at the bard. Despite being in an ideal posisition, the elemental proves too slow for the half-elf and misses him completely.
The orange elemental trapped between Lemon and Karvek gouts two flames out at Kavek. The first whips across the man's exposed face, burning the skin and raising blisters as it passes. It even starts the man's clothes to start smouldering. Reeling from the pain, Karvek is able to avoid the second flame. It then takes the opporunity to glide out from between the two, taking a better posistion up next to a wall.
The yellow elemental rushes across the sands after the rest of the group and sets its sights on Fumbus, closing the distance and then flicking a curl fire at the alchemist. The flames wash over the goblin, adding some burn wounds that are sure to be terrible scars and starting the goblin's clothes alight as well.
Red, angered by Earevel trying to freeze his essence, flits across the ground coming to rest right next to the man, and then swinging two flames oddly shaped like feet at the elf. THe first jsut barely catches him across the leg, but lighting the dry clothes alight and causing soem serious burns in the process. The second just crackles through empty air, though.
Keeamah gives Annilda the dress and fistwraps an odd look for a second, before commenting ”You, you’ll have to do. Dang goblin hiding behind the building! Prepare to die quiet one, not that I’ll really hear your screams anyways.”
She deftly draws and then loads a crossbow bolt clearly an old hand at this and takes a quick shot at Annilda.
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While affected by persistent damage, at the end of your turn you take the specified amount and type of damage, after which you can attempt a DC 20 flat check to remove the persistent damage. You roll the damage dice anew each time you take the persistent damage. Immunities, resistances, and weaknesses all apply to persistent damage. If an effect deals damage immediately and also deals persistent damage, you don’t take the persistent damage if you negate the other damage.
For example, an attack that deals slashing damage and persistent bleed damage wouldn’t deal the persistent bleed damage if you blocked all of the slashing damage. You can be simultaneously affected by multiple persistent damage conditions so long as they have different
damage types. If you would gain more than one persistent damage condition with the same damage type, the higher amount of damage overrides the lower amount. All types of persistent damage occur at once, so if something triggers when you take damage, it triggers only one time. Persistent damage can have the bleed type, meaning it affects only living creatures that need blood to survive. Bleeding automatically ends if you’re healed to your maximum Hit Points.
You or an ally can spend actions to help you recover from persistent damage, such as casting healing spells or using Medicine to Administer First Aid against bleeding, dousing a flame, or washing off acid; successfully doing so reduces the DC of that condition’s flat check to 15 and usually lets you immediately attempt an extra flat check to end that persistent damage. The reduction to the DC lasts until you remove the persistent damage or gain another persistent damage condition with the same damage type.
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Earevel shouts in pain as her tunic catches fire. The elf finds the strength to conjure another ray of frost at the attacking elemental.
Just before leaping into the pool of watter in an attempt to quickly dose the flames on his tunic.
Karvek does take an Attack Of Opportunity, since he's a fighter he can actually do it!
On his turn, he steps closer to the yellow one and double slices.
He then smoulders a little.
Lemon turns on his antagonist.
"Hit a man from behind will you? Well, lets see how you like the taste of cold steel!"
The bard breaks out into a quick song before lashing out at the elemental twice in quick succession.
"Clumsy." Annilda pulls the bolt out of her chest, knowing that's going to hurt later. "I will enjoy tearing you apart later."
Realizing the climb is much too dangerous to attempt, Annilda retreats behind a tree to heal herself.
The barb wound mostly heals itself. Annilda draws her whip.
Fumbus screeches, and frantically tries to put out the flames.
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Earevel proves that he can stand the heat, casting his cantrip again and targeting the elemental in his face with another ray of cold that temporarily cools a large part of the burning flames. The elemental roars in pain and readies to lash out at the elf, but he’s already 10 feet in the pond, dousing the flames on his body.
Karvek, despite just having taken a fist full of blistering flames to the face, imemediately sees the chance to strike back and takes it. Feeling emboldened by Seo-yeon’s song still echoing about, and luckily timing it with the elemental’s final check that Lemon won’t stab him in the back, Karvek is just barely able to land the hit.
The fighter then further shows his mettle by moving up next to the elemental banging on Fumbus and connects a one-two swing, striking the thing deeply in the sides.
Lem tosses a spell on himself, moving at a much faster speed than before, before rounding on the elemental behind him and striking the thing twice. His first strike connects with something deep in the flames, but heating his weapon to the point that it’s painful to hold and throwing his next strike’s aim off.
Annilda, realizing that charging directly at the ranger is a bad idea, instead hides behind a tree and, with a small prayer, heals herself of most of her wounds.
First, are you still having fun playing Fumbus? It seems like you aren’t really enjoying how he’s been built. I’d be okay with you changing out for a different pregen if you want.
Second, It’d be very helpful to me if you told me what actions you are taking. Oh and running and jumping into the pond would not be a bad idea might I recommend trying to throw some liquid ices? They’d target a weakness.
Next, if you don’t go for the water, can you give me a 1d4 and then a single d20 roll for the DC 20 flat check to not keep burning?
Finally, unless you really only want to take one (?) of your three actions, I’m going to have you go again.
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Fumbus continues to shriek, but still manages to swing his dogslicer around madly at the elemental targeting him.
Fumbus screams and flails about trying to put out the fire on his clothes while miraculously bringing his horsechopper around and slicing right through the elemental next to him.
His random flailing proves useful however, and the fires are soon put out.
Seo-yeon gestures about with her rapier, using it as a very poor tuning fork before starting another song. As she finishes her brief song she tosses a few pebbles into the air and they immediately zoom about the place.
The elementals start to move again all of them hissing slightly from the damage they’ve taken. Brown goes first, lashing out at Lemon in front of him twice, not happy he lost his advantage. However his luck proves to have turned for the better, with both lashes connecting and burning the man, catching his clothes alight.
Then seeing an opportunity, Orange slides back into position behind the bard and tag teams with Brown giving Lemon another two flickers of flame to deal with. The first runs right across the man's exposed skin leaving a horrendous smell of burning flesh in the air, but the second falls just short.
Yellow decides to give up on the goblin in front of it and target the much bigger, literally and figuratively, threat that Karvek represents. It takes two whips at the fighter, hoping to strike him down. the first strike lands across the man's leg, but fails to catch anything alight on the man that's not already burning. The second misses him entirely.
Red turns it’s attentions away from the nuisance that Earevel is, unable or unwilling to give chase in the deadly water. It instead focuses on Seo-Yeon who is right next to it, taking a leisurely one-two punch at the woman, hitting readily with the first strike, but only catching air on the second.
Keeamah gives a grumble as her target of choice hides behind the trees and seems to heal herself with magic. "Of course the quiet one is gonna be aa healer. All the reason to take her out first I guess!" She starts to reload her crossbow and then starts to take very careful aim at the woman through the trees before losing the bolt. "Come ta momma!"
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Current Map
Karvek Tankgles some more with the elemental in front of him, remembering that he's inspired this time!
Then he pops his shield spell for 1 more AC. If he happens to kill yellow he'll instead jump in the water .
If he doesn't get wet, he cooks some more.
Karvek hits Yellow for two more strikes, and the elemental stops in place for a second before all of the flames making up it's body explode outwards in an explosive death. They wash over Karvek and Fumbus,
The fighter then runs for the water and soon is soothing his burns and smothering the fires all over his body.
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Current Map
"Whomever wishes us dead hired quite the marksman." Annilda pulls out another bolt. "Can anyone provide us cloud cover or ranged attacks?"
She heals herself.
"Lem! Get over here, quickly!" She lashes her whip out twice at the elemental, trying to deal lethal damage. It's unwieldy.
She then tries to Take Cover behind the trees.