Bunions and Flagons Part 2

Posted on Mon Jun 1st, 2020 @ 8:56am by Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Fordyce Kirschler PhD & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jinx Jorasco & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Liha t'Ehhelih

Mission: Mission 11 - Prospecting
Location: SS Mary Rose - Ward Room
Timeline: -MD03 20:00
2138 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

"All right, adventurers! We begin with your collective arrival in the great city of Westruun, in the heartlands of the continent of Tal'Dorei. It is a cold winter season, but spirits are high because it is the time of the great festival of Winter's Crest. Traders, entertainers, people of all kinds have flocked towards civilization to join in the celebrations. Your company is no different - and arrives as part of a caravan of wagons. Some of you know one another well. Others not so much. But what none of you realise is that fate has drawn you all together for the coming days..." Jake grinned and looked around the table. "So here you are, in the main street of the city as various sounds and smells assail your senses. What are you doing?" he challenged.

Jinx blinked. “Um...I don’t know. What am I doing?” she asked, staring at Jake. Was she supposed to roll the funny dice? She picked up one and rolled it. “Three?”

Jake blinked, his mouth falling open for a moment. "That's not--" He shook his head. "Okay. The way this works is you tell me what you do, and I tell you when to roll the dice and what the result is. So you think about what your character would do in that situation and you tell the rest of the group."

"Well, because the veil between the planes is thinnest during Winter's Crest, it is an ideal time for conducting magical rituals, experiments, and other spells, for good or bad. My sorceress is searching out herbs for a ritual," Cassie spoke up with her eyes close as she tried to imagine it.

Jake grinned, a little pride swelling as he recognised her effort. "Anyone else want to help her out with that?" he asked, glancing around the table.

"Aye," Burnie said., getting into character. "Thorbran, the dwarvish cleric of Fire, also seeks the elements for his Winter Crest rituals."

Ford looked around then pointed a thumb in Burnie's direction.

"Uh, reckon I'll pitch in with ol' stunty here. Figure a paladin oughta be helpin' out lookin' for ritual herbs and whatnot. Plus," he said, winking at Cassie, "we theatrical types gotta stick together."

"Great. You guys can go ahead and roll the twenty-sider there for an investigation check. You add your modifier there on your sheet," Jake motioned.

Cassie looked at her sheet, clearly confused. Now, this is where the confusion was going to set in for her. "I have no idea what you just said," Cassie admitted, smiling at Fake Ford at his wink.

Eden grinned. She didn't either, but she was absolutely fascinated with it. And Jake seemed pretty happy doing this, so she just watched the others. "We've never done this," she reminded him. "Baby steps."

"He means this," Burnie said, holding up a twenty-sided die and rolling it in front of him. It came up showing a seventeen and he grinned. "See, high number means Thorbran is good for finding things this time. I don't have any modifiers, which are add or subtract points based on abilities, magical items, lucky charms, what-have-you."

Ford rolled his and came up with an eleven. "Dabo?"

“Oh. I see!” Jinx said. She studied her sheet. She had some magic, but not like the others. She looked up at Jake. “So...this is a big party, right?” she said. She looked to Eden and grinned. “We should get drunk and have fun.”

"It's not that kind of party," Ryder pointed out, "Not yet, anyways. He's talking about the group. Speaking of, I, Vavish, the half-elf arcane fighter, am watching them from the sidelines. There are plenty who are in the party who have better methods than I to determine the location of ritual goods. I will keep an eye on our backsides, just in case anyone gets any funny ideas."

"I've always got funny ideas, Ryder," Cassie pointed out brightly as she took a sip of her wine, trying to keep up. She had a Ph.D. in genetics. How was it so hard to understand?

"Now what?" Eden said. "I'm already lost."

Jinx giggled. “Our characters haven’t gone anywhere and they’re lost!” she said. “So they want herbs to talk to spirits,” she said. “Passing the pipe, like we do back home. Do I see an herb shop? Is there a looking around roll?” she asked, studying her sheet. “Or maybe smelling, because the good spirit weed is pretty pungent.”

Scratching his head, Jake looked around the table. With such a mix of experience and personalities, this was proving a little harder than he'd expected. He pointed at the other Ford. "Okay, well, a roll of eleven over there was all right. It takes you a few minutes, but you do find a series of different vendors. Some of them do smell like they've got various herbs and potions already." He looked at Jinx. "You get the feeling it's not that sort of smell, though."

Cassie frowned. She was not getting it at all, but she would try her hardest to learn. Everyone seemed so excited. "Okay, so I roll the dice," Cassie said aloud, picking up the purple dice rolling it, coming up with thirteen. She looked at Jake, hopeful that she got it right.

Jake took a breath. "Thirteen is fine. You can tell that you're probably in the right sort of area to find what you're looking for." He paused, leaning over. "At this point, you can see the market stall is run by a grizzled dwarf, who looks at you with a crooked eye." He screwed up his face to give her an idea of what she was presented with. "And what does a lovely little one like you want, eh?"

Jinx looked up with surprise and delight as Jake’s voice changed. She flipped through the book she had been given to remind herself what a dwarf was.

Cassie paled as everyone looked at her. Amazing what she could talk about in her field, but now there in front of people she was blank. It made her remember her research that sorcerers did not need to prepare specific spells in advance, but each sorcerer acquired a much smaller number of spells. They did not worry about carrying spell books and having them stolen. It was ironic here she was thinking about copying what she read. "Asarabacca and White Bryony," she stumbled through.

"Them's be rare in these parts, pretty miss. Cost you a tidy sum of that gold you have there," Jake continued, in character.

"I have the gold if you have the items," Cassie assured, her accent more pronounced than normal. It would surprise people, but she was getting into this role play. It was like the drama shows she saw the crew put on back when she was in Starfleet.

Jake waved his hand a little, gesturing. "You see him hold up a little leather pouch, and open it a little. Looks like the things you wanted." He hunched back into character again. "That'll be three hundred of them gold pieces, milady."

Jinx gave a whistle. “That sounds steep, Cas--uh...Greebella,” she said, assessing the price based on the goods listed in the book. “I bet we could find it cheaper at the other place in town.” There had to be another place, right? It was a pretty sizeable city?

"If not cheaper," Ryder suggested, before giving a smile. "Vavish steps forward, eyes on the shopkeep. ‘Perhaps we could arrange a trade of services instead? We are adventurers, after all. Surely someone such as yourself has use of us in some manner?’"

Burnie sat back, suppressing a chuckle. Did no one understand the concept of haggling? Still, he'd wait for Jake's response. If this got them moving out on the adventure, it was all good.

Eden was grinning, so impressed that Cassie had just thrown caution to the wind and embraced the game. She'd been through so much lately, it did Eden good to see her friend having fun.

"Trade of services?" Cassie wondered, looking at Ryder confused before getting back into character. "Would you be willing to do that?" she asked, glancing at Eden as she watched her. It was hard to believe that the half Vulcan was actually having a little bit of fun.

"Hmmm..." Jake made a bit of a point of showing that the NPC was thinking. "Well, there's this one favour ye could do me. The dwarf leans in closer to tell you. There's some bad news coming out of the old orphanage. A sweet lady friend of mine runs the place. Seems like they've been having some trouble with shipments. Sounds like a lot of the wee ones might miss out on their presents this Winter’s Crest...unless your band here can help?"

"Stealing from children?" Liha frowned and looked from Burnie to Jake. "I didn't see Ferengi in the list of races for this game."

Cassie looked at her companions for this venture and shrugged. It seemed like it was the only opportunity they were going to get any time soon to save some credits or whatever they were using there. "Seems like something we can do."

"Indeed," Burnie said in a gravelly dwarf voice. "But if we're off to take out scoundrels, I'll need a few items as well: sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal."

"I want to help! But what can I do?" Eden piped up, she'd been sort of entranced by what Cassie had done so far and intently interested in seeing what happened.

“Should we find where the orphanage is?” Jinx told Eden. “The dwarf can probably tell us, and we can talk to the lady in charge, find out what’s going on.”

"Sure, the orphans will love my character, she's cute and fuzzy!" Eden said enthusiastically.

"Let us go then," Cassie proclaimed, and hit her staff on the floor, as it was real. She grinned a little. "So let's bring the others in? Who isn't involved yet?" she wondered, trying to keep track.

"We're all here," Ryder quietly stated, eyes already on the others gathered around him. Then his eyes rested on Ford. "Paladin, shall we join the party in their quest to thwart the evils plaguing this orphanage?"

Ford blinked. "Well, I ain't never heard logistics problems referred to as 'evils plaguing' anything, but sure. I reckon." He looked around quietly, then remembered he was meant to be someone else. He cleared his throat, and with a surprisingly good take on an Andorian peacekeeper, said, "Indeed, we shall bring to bear the full force and might of this party to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable among us. What manner of evil plagues them? Banditry? Misappropriated goods? Poor bookkeeping? I care not! Whatever it might be, we shall find it and smite it in the name of..." He seemed to falter for a moment. "...do-goodery."

"Do-goodery?" Liha lifted an eyebrow. "Bah. Whoever is stealing stuff is probably stealing from more than a bunch of poor orphans. I say we find them, gut them, and take their hoard. If the orphan loot pays for these magicky things, small loss to hand that over."

Burnie stared at her a moment, then smiled. "See? I told you you'd get into character once we got going."

Liha frowned. "What do you mean 'get into character'?"

Eden grinned, but turned her head away from the conversation between Bernie and Liha. "Stealing from orphans is really terrible, but maybe they have a good reason." She shrugged.

"Ye should go and speak to old Martha. She'll have more knowledge of these supposed brigands," Jake added, in-character.

“To old Martha!” Jinx proclaimed loudly, pulling one of her curved blades. “Slay the thieves!”

Cassie shrugged at Eden and nodded. "Maybe discussion is needed first," she murmured. "Someone else's turn now?" she asked, looking around hopefully, wanting to be out of the limelight for a moment.

Ryder was fairly patient, awaiting his moment before he cleared his throat. "Vavish steps forward, addressing the shopkeep once more. 'Our party greatly appreciates the tip. May I ask where Martha is likely to be found for such a discussion?'"

"Oh aye, over yonder. The old orphanage is just past the square, there."

OFF::

Eden Bowers
Chief Helmsmen
SS Mary Rose

Jinx Jorasco
Chief Science Officer
SS Mary Rose

Jake Ford
Chief Armoury Officer
SS Mary Rose

Michael Burnstein
Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Liha t'Ehhelih
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Burnstein)

Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson
Biologist
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Fordyce Kirschler
Chief Operations
SS Mary Rose