[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 05[/color][/b][/i] [color=00aeef][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 31 / 40 [color=00aeef][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 16 [color=00aeef][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Meeting spot [color=00aeef][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Grapple (6) [color=00aeef][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] Insight (3) [color=00aeef][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Ki:[/b][/i][/color] 5/5 [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/j0Vz324.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] It had been with every step towards the figure as the details came into focus under the evening light, that his stomach had sank with sickening fear. He was then at the last step, rooted to the spot staring at the horrifying remains of the man likely known as Toombes. Before him stood something even worse than very worst possibility he had imagined. The figure lunged and he couldn't help but wonder if the monster even meant to actually attack him or if it was just trying to scare him. The whole scene seemed too horrifying to be true, and even less so still beneath the comforting blanket of wine upon his mind. The figure, the desecrated corpse had moved with surprising speed and horrifying grace. With a maniacal laugh it was upon him in an instant. Blackberry gasped when it collided with him and the pungent stench of decay filled his lungs. Pain shot through him from his right hand side as the corpse continued to cackle into his ear. He'd been stabbed! Now with his earlier question answered, he grabbed at the monster hoping to hold it close for his own retaliation. Still it laughed in his ear but underneath that was the noise of a sharp 'snap' and another bolt of paint from his side. BlackBerry only let out a grunt. He felt his grip slide past exposed, slippery ribs, before landing upon flesh. His grip tighten but still it managed easily move away from him with the sound like leather being torn. BlackBerry looked down at the chunk of tattered flesh in his hand. In the moment of equal horror and disgust his mind raced in effort to connect all the dots and clues before him. It appeared their Time Limit might be drawing closer than they had hoped, or possibly this thing was acting alone? Again too many questions and not enough answers. But BlackBerry hazarded a guest as to who 'they' was, now to see if he could get a few more details which could help them. A sly plan started to form. [color=00aeef]"I see why the rush. Held together by nought but reckless abandon. No wonder they chose us."[/color] He flicked the tattered flesh as disgracefully as he could to the side, it landed with a dull splat in the snow, and aimed at sidewards glance towards the monsters hollow eye sockets. [color=00aeef]"I wager you feel you could settle the task better?"[/color] BlackBerry collected his thoughts as settled into his usual fighting stance. Whatever the creature before him was it was clearly not whomever it had been before. Something sharp shifted within his wound, drawing a quite pained hiss from his lips. He was out here all alone, in the snow against a clearly aggressive adversary. No matter which way he cut it, BlackBerry was in a dicey position. --- In another much calmer part of the world in the main tasting room, Jon found himself in an equally fraught position. The mans eyes darted from beneath furrowed eyebrows at each of the gathered adventurers he had suddenly found himself with. He had had for a singular moment been emboldened by the wine to put up a token verbal fight of; "Oi, what are you doing?" When Annick had started messing with the lock. But the look Jon had received from the woman had quickly put him back in his place with an unsaid promise of finding out how many rumours around her were true, should he say anything. So Jon stood with the glass of wine in one hand, and a bottle in the other (the entire reason he had missed the tour with Rens leaving), and looking very confused about the entire situation he had just witnessed. He was the Stable Master. He knew horses, their temperaments, breeds, illnesses, training, and general care. Whatever as happening now was far, far outside of his comfort zone. But still he couldn't just let the situation go after witnessing one of his employers guests' guest so boldy vandalise said employers property. "So...Miss Lizbeth" Jon looked first to the door the Medician had left, half expecting her to come flying in again. He then put down his drink and bottle before he began in the type of tone of someone who wanted to say a lot more but keenly aware the final decision was not theirs to make. "Just what is this all about? And I can't say your Aunt would be happy with this; breaking into your grandfathers study." Jon wisely stayed on the opposite side of the table as his scowl momentarily flickered to the adventurers present.