[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=00aeef][i][b]Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=00aeef]Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03[/color][/b][/i] [color=00aeef][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 24 / 24 [color=00aeef][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 15 [color=00aeef][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Neil & Bobs Public House [color=00aeef][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Arcana Check on The Ring: 1 [color=00aeef][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/k1vHhU0.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] So…there had been another member of their group who had simply left them suddenly? That didn't bode well at all. And the more Marita explained their current situation the more questions BlackBerry had. How many people had gone missing? How long had this been going on for? Why weren't the local guards doing anything? Although, after a moment's thought, the issue of the Constable taking protection money might explain that last question. Catching himself about to voice his own questions, he snapped his mouth close, thinking better of it. He had humbled into this situation and wasn't in much position to be asking questions the others no doubt already had had the answers to. Still… At Maritas prompting to speak BlackBerry raised his eyebrows, almost surprised he was addressed, and replied. [color=00aeef] "Hm? Oh yes of course. I suppose I may as well."[/color] He coughed a little to clear his throat, and to give him an extra moment to think of what to actually tell the group before him. Settling back down into his chair he began. [color=00aeef]"Well, first and foremost I am from the Hiltoszin Monastery. Over on the Celadon Coast, if any of you know of it?."[/color] A moment's pause to see if any in the group recognised the area. It was a large stretch of coast far off on the Eastern End of the continent, with only several fishing villages, small towns, wind battered hamlets, scenic bays and his own Monastery as its noteworthy features. [color=00aeef]"It is a rather lovely spot, if I do say so myself. But, unfortunately, there has been some…trouble brewing, has been for quite some time actually. And my hope is to try and find someone who might be able to lend a hand, or at the very least give some direction. It's why I've been travelling out and around, lending a hand here, clearing out a group of bandits there, that sort of thing."[/color] A buffering of rain crashed against the window, like a dark chuckle from the storm itself, made him pause. BlackBerry settled his gaze firmly on his hand resting on the table, now taping a half remembered tune softly on the stained wooden surface. He took some comfort in it whilst he took another moment to pull his thoughts together and to focus on his next breath in…and breath out. The storm would pass as all things do. [color=00aeef]"Frustratingly though almost a year into my travels and half a continent away. I am unfortunately no closer to my goal than when I had first started."[/color] His temper flashed and slapped his hand on the table with a small bang, and his eyes returned to hopping around the party. [color=00aeef] "Every lead has been fruitless for one reason or another; no longer working, too far to travel, not enough information, wanting a frankly extortionate amount of gold both upfront and after, or has simply died in the meantime."[/color] BlackBerry drew in a breath, sucking on his teeth, when he caught himself getting a bit too riled up with his own frustration, mixing in with embarrassment from before and the terrible unease all brewing in his stomach like the wind outside. He took another breath to steady himself. [color=00aeef]"It was a few days ago I stumbled upon another such lead. Tales being spun in an open house and the like when someone mentioned…"[/color] For a moment he paused again. This time with a look to Marita and to consider what her own phrasing had suggested. Maybe she didn't want others to hear about them working with the Sheriff? He settled on his next words.[color=00aeef]"Your employer. Apparently he had been quite an adventure in his younger years and I had hoped to meet him to ask for help."[/color] Again Blackberrys brow furrowed deeply and pressed his lips into a thin line, clearly annoyed at the situation he had found himself in. Somewhat calmer now, he continued. [color=00aeef]"But, alas, I may have been unwittingly led astray; being told he was in Avonshire I made my way here without knowing he was actually the next town over. No doubt you can see the source of my confusion."[/color] Motioning to Marita and Victoria he then added. [color=00aeef]"It was then that I heard Victoria mention your employer's name just after the incident. And well, now here I am."[/color] [color=00aeef][i]And may the Gods please bring me some luck.[/i][/color] The arrival of the barmaid broke him out of his self loathing for a moment to add in his own order. [color=00aeef]"Might I also request just a bit of soup for myself please? It sounds absolutely delightful."[/color] He asked politely. The offer of a quick job that followed caught his interest. 5 gold pieces to do a pickup. Such an amount in BlackBerry's experience carried the weight of some importance, and coupled with the generous offer of a free meal left only to accept as the one clear option in his mind. [color=00aeef]"I'd be more than happy to lend a hand with the task as well?"[/color] he asked with a hopefully charming smile. It was a very cheeky thing to ask but there were five coins and including himself there were five people in the group. [color=00aeef]"Oh"[/color] BlackBerry looked, surprised, from Katheryn to the others. [color=00aeef]"So did you all meet when you were asked to do this job then? And to answer your question, no I'm afraid not, I'm not familiar with Goblin Tongue."[/color] He apologised. BlackBerry cocked his head to the side slightly towards whoever then spoke. In the meanwhile he reached back out and plucked the ring off of the table to examine it further hoping to spot any markings or runes that may suggest why the SilverSmith had apparently been so adamant they do the strange test. Tilting it this way and that, it was a handsome thing, and while BlackBerry had no experience in making such things even he could see in the way the light reflected across its smooth finish that no small amount of skill and effort had gone into making it despite how plain it looked. If he were one to wear such things, BlackBerry mused, it might have looked quite nice against his own blue scales. But even combing through remembered books and second hand tales he couldn't see anything obvious that would suggest an enchantment or spell of some kind. After giving the ring a quick and thorough wipe on his robes, he plopped it onto his tongue to await whatever happened next. He gave it a few seconds. And then a few more. Almost a minute went by with nothing appearing to happen, he looked to the others waiting to see a reaction before he took out the ring. [color=00aeef]"Is something supposed to happen?"[/color] He wiped the ring on his robes and then returned it to the table. Listening to Victoria and Kosara tell their tales was heartwarming, for the most part; the former looking for adventure and to help with such enthusiasm that Blackbery couldn't help but grin as well, and the latter looking for answers for a loved one. BlackBerry felt a pang in his heart for Victoria who had lost her cousin. [color=00aeef] "Well I do hope for the best and that you find him, Victoria. Or, at least some answers."[/color] He gave her a sympathetic smile.