[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] 32 / 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] Taproom [color=00aeef][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Reading [color=00aeef][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] Serving tea [color=00aeef][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Ki:[/b][/i][/color] 2/5 [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/j0Vz324.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [color=00aeef]"Ah, my apologies Master Mosswater. I do admit that I have the memory of a bucket with holes in it today. Ah! Thank you Kosara, worry not though I shall sort out the tea once the water is boiled." [/color] With Kosara having filled the kettle and put it onto heat, BlackBerry quickly shuffled into the kitchen to claim a few more cups and utensils for serving the tea. Plus some honey for his own. He called out to the taproom, [color=00aeef]"Forgive me once more for my head is full of nothing useful today, and I do not believe I was present when this was all arranged."[/color] BlackBerry returned with cups, saucers, spoons and honey deftly balanced on a tray. While the kettle slowly came to a boil BlackBerry struggled his way through the books of the late Master L'Rose's writings. His struggles were equal parts trying to follow the dead man's writings that shifted from calm collected recollections to scrawls of desperate rage, and BlackBerry's two fold headache of a cold and being kicked in the face. The dull throbbing of his skull made it hard to concentrate and he ended up rereading a few lines multiple times, the dull throbbing of his skull made it hard to concentrate and he ended up reading a few lines multiple times, and the dull throbbing of his skull made it hard to concentrate and he ended up rereading a few lines multiple times. BlackBerry put down the book. He needed a moment to gather his thoughts (and unblock his sinuses). Most of what the old tome contained was a bit beyond him lying in the realms are Arcanic symbols and Runic equations which he didn't quite have the heads pace for at the moment, but what had been in his reach had confirmed a number of troubling thoughts. [color=00aeef]"I admit I had had forgotten about the shoes but I do remember a strike also."[/color] He winced at the memory. The rattle preceding the kettles cry pulled him from his thoughts and back to the room at large. He wondered what exactly Barbal had referred to at the mention of 'Sharing what we know.' There he was trying to keep things somewhat quiet for Madame L'Rose's sake, and yet here they all were having tea with the neighbours around a collection of magical objects, incriminating documents and quite possibly several more headaches than they already had had. The kettle had properly began its song by the time BlackBerry managed to pull himself out of his chair. [color=00aeef]"A lesson in knowing when one should step back and retreat from a battle may be of use in addition to fighting."[/color] BlackBerry patted Young Lizbeth on the head as he passed. His anger from earlier had passed and left only the worry behind. [color=00aeef]"Now then, who would like some tea? Oh, before I do forget. Victoria, there are a number of things in the book that may be of interest to yourself or Kosara; I have folded the corners to mark the pages if you will forgive my manners."[/color] He was asking for a lot of forgiveness today. BlackBerry of course obliged to anyone who wished for a cup of tea, [color=00aeef]"Sugar? Or honey perhaps? No, oh very well. Milk? Ah, Master Mosswater, what blend is this? It does smell delightful"[/color]. Only once everyone else who had asked for a cup had been served did BlackBerry serve himself using the last dregs of water from the kettle and two heaped spoonfuls of honey. BlackBerry sipped his tea thoughtfully as Lizbeth began to read the letter aloud, and then watched in horror as the crystal drank her blood. [color=00aeef]"Young Lizbeth."[/color] Blackberry put down the teacup. He moved towards the table making sure to arm himself with a tea cloth in case he needed to smother damn rock. [color=00aeef]"Are you quite well? What happened?"[/color] [hider="Pages in the booked marked of interest"] Mostly Magical related notes and things BB hasn't made a check for, but below are snippets in Common that he felt might be of interest. "...I was promised magic and wealth if I remained quiet. I had to do was turn a blind eye when strange things happened. I was promised safety..." "...The Prince whispered truths and half-truths to me. Sometimes there were dreams. They showed me terrible things. It was months later that I realized he was showing me things that actually happened upon this land..." "...spellcraft I could not understand, arcane tools I could not use, and he said this fulfilled his promise to gift me magic. He promised me riches and plentiful harvests, but I strongly suspect that the bounty yielded from the earth is due to our knowledge and the hard work of decent men. I know now I have been used..." "...the sharp eyes and tawny skin of only the eldest persons of the villages always left me with questions, when most others were fair of hair and face. Now I see those eyes in my dreams, wielding the curved swords of the Southern Deserts..." "...they don't seem to hurt me, so I must learn everything I can about them and the magic of their people. May the gods of goodly folk forgive me for my work. I fear for my soul as I experiment with what remains..." "...sometimes I find myself smiling. I am beginning to truly enjoy many of the things I met originally with horror and revulsion. I fear for my soul, but I cannot just stop..." "...my granddaughter has been gifted by the land. Or by the Prince. They might be one and the same now; I do not know. She was born here, drew breath from the land, ate of its fruits from her beginning. I found myself wishing to put my experiments to her, but sanity found me in time..." "...no one is to touch her. She cannot leave the grounds. To disobey is to invite wrath. I am not strong enough to stop him..." "WHY IS SHE GIVEN THE GIFT AND I AM LEFT WITH NOTHING?" "...I can barely hold on. I know the Prince has plans for Lizbeth. I only hope he doesn't realize I have my own. She won't be helpless, even if I am..." "...don't let the dead lie on this land overnight..." [/hider]